Spring has Sprung

Spring has sprung.

Well that's the saying anyway.  With the exception of the sun, nothing has sprung here yet.

Signs of Spring are beginning to appear.   Graders on the bay, camo tents and hides hanging on houses.  So far the hide count is 1 polar bear, 1 muskox and 2 wolverines.  That's what I've seen, there could have been more but that is my official count.

I've been needing a little kick start to get myself going again and today we had a little excitement and I think I'm back in the grove.

It's likely a little strange that it took a few wolves chasing four good friends to get me motivated.  Regardless of the reason for this burst of energy and creativity, I figure I'll take advantage of it while it's here.

We had an eventful Easter week.

 

 

 

 Try to tell me this isn't the cutest picture ever!

 

 

 

 Easter Supper with friends

 

 

 

Sun dogs

Rainbows around the sun

 

 

Millie

 

 

 

Is the coolest lady I have met here in town.  She is a fisherwoman extraordinaire, a great guide out on the land, and and she helped me finish N's parka that I have been working on since September.  I finished it just in time for Spring (it's a winter parka) and N will not wear it.  He actually freaks out when I try to put it on him. Wonderful.  Regardless, the dang parka is finished. 

 

This is tent for goose hunting. 

 

 It's still early, but soon enough thousands and thousands of Snow Geese, Yellow Leg Geese and Canadian Geese will be flying overhead and filling up freezers throughout town.

 

 

 

 I noticed a few fresh hides on our neighbours house.  The big one is a muskox hide.

The little one hanging over the railing is a wolverine hide.

 

 

 

Other than my couch, these might be the best seats to the one of Mother Natures greatest shows. 

Last year the ice left the bay mid June - it might be wishful thinking but I'm hoping it is going to be earlier this year....by a month ; )  Perhaps a little unrealistic considering that it is still consistently below 20 every. single. day.

 

I might have a warmer view of the bay from my couch, but this is certainly a prettier picture than one of my couch.

 

 

 

Sunsets are getting later and later.  Right now it is light from around 6am to 11pm.  Getting N to bed is a little trickier because I used to use the line "It's dark out, it's time to go to bed."  Now he looks out the window and says "It's not dark, not bedtime." 

 

Sunsets might be later and soon to be non existent for a few months, but when they happen, they are splendid.

 



 

 

 

Three year old gnocchi chef.

 

We told him to make a snake with it and then he cut it up himself. 

He loved making his own supper and devoured it in record time.

 

 

 

Blizzard

 

 

 

Last year we had 3 or 4 good blizzards all before the end of February.  This year we had one at Christmas and then it was quiet, until April.

 

We are making up for it now.  On a clear day you see across the bay with no problem.  On a blizzard day you cannot even see that boat let alone the houses.  It gets a little crazy, but now that we are use to it and certain that our roof will not blow off at any given moment, blizzard days are just like a snow day back home.  There is no school and everyone bunkers down.

 

I actually like a good ol' blizzard now.

 

 



 

This picture cracks me up.  If you look on the table you can see what I gave him to eat.  A big, boring bowl of raisin bran.  Yummy.  Guess who didn't give him that giant marshmallow.....

 

As you can tell he is beyond thrilled with his treat - thanks Dad.

 

 

Skating

 

 

Waiting for R to pick N and I up on the skidoo I put my load off to the side of the road. 

 

Anyone who has ever taken a little one skating knows why I had this bucket and why no matter how difficult it was going to be to haul that on the skidoo - it was coming with us.

 

 

 

 

 Voila - the bucket worked perfectly!!!

 

 

 

Our group of friends are slowly starting to move away - onto to their next adventures.  It is never fun to say "good-bye" or "see you later" to friends, but I am excited for everyone because I know there are great things ahead for them all.

 

We have become really close with our group of friends here in town.  Weekly pot lucks, game nights, movie nights, skating parties, trivia nights, Sunday morning tea time, Birthday parties, two Christmas's, Easter's, fishing trips, quading adventures, hunting for Northern Lights, bon fires on the shores of the Arctic Ocean, and now - going away parties.

 



 

 We have shared crazy adventures together.  Our friends are moving away - but the memories that we have made are forever.  We have shared many crazy adventures together in a place that most of the world does not even now exists.  I know we are lucky to have been able to meet the group of people we have, where we have, when we did - friends are important, especially when family is so far away.

 

Thank You Friends!

 

 

 

ps.  I had quite the exciting story to share with you all about how just after we left skating yesterday a group of friends that stayed behind were chased home by wolves.  Well, during the day today (yes, it takes a whole day to write this, well actually it takes forever to load the pictures) we found out that the wolves were actually dogs.  It was a much better story when they were wolves.  But whatever they were - at the time, our friends were really scarred and it did give me a kick to update this really out of date blog.

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Lost Months...part 2

Back home in Paulatuk.

I am going to begin and end this entry with two pictures that I did not take. These pictures were taken by a very talented friend  who has captured some of the most beautiful shots I have seen of our wonderful little town. I often find my self in awe of the shots she posts and wonder "Why don't my pictures look like that?" I'll try to work on my photography skills, but until then she said that I could share her photo's with you to enjoy. So Miss Kendra Knaggs - Thank You for letting me share your spectacular pictures.

 

See what I"m talking about! It's fantastic isn't it!!!

This was taken out on the bay in front of town. I recently took the plunge and decided to buy a good camera. One that I can take pictures of the Northern Lights with. I must say that I do LOVE my new camera but it does intimidate me. I'm not sure how to do much with it and I'll be the first to admit my track record with camera's is not the best. Having said that - it does take really nice photo's and it makes me excited to know that one day I might be able to catch moments like this. I am not much of an artsy person but I have noticed that I am beginning to spot some great photo moments and I feel like maybe I've found something that might awaken the artsy side of me.

When I first thought about the months I missed, November, December and January, I thought "Oh gosh they were all the same, what am I going to write about?"   I started sorting through the pictures and realised that although many days were similar to the one before and after there were certainly highlights tucked in there too.

So here we go - our life in pictures for the past 3 months.

We were welcomed back home with a new sight out on the bay.  A boat.  The story is it blew across the frozen bay one day and now it is destined to spend the winter right there. As I write this I can see it sitting out there full of snow.  This is how you winterise your boat right? 

 

Here's N sporting the moccasins I made him last year.  As you can see they were getting all bunched up.  I thought it was liking because of my sewing skills, or lack of sewing skills.  Turns out it was an easy fix.  The duffel liner was getting twisted around.  So after a little more sewing he's all fixed up now. 

 

 

N and R cooking up a storm.  R was making gnocchi and N was helping roll it out.  I told him to make a snake with it like he does with play dough.  He rolled it, R cut it and then we cooked his separate so he kind of made his own supper.  He was pretty pleased with himself.

 

 

 

 

A few weeks after we came home we went to Yellowknife for 4 days.  R was selected to receive an award for work so we packed our bags back up and headed down.  The morning we were set to leave the weather was clear.  Come noon the weather was changing.  Sometimes we could see across the bay and the next moment everything was white.  The plane that picked us up was a few hours behind schedule so we figured by that time everything would be white. 

 

The pilot must have found just the right moment to land.  We were happy to hear the plane, but even after it landed, we couldn't see it down the runway until it was really close to us.  He opened the door and R had to hold it while we loaded up so that it wouldn't blow and bang into the plane.

 

The person who came into to replace R looked more than a little nervous as he hunched forward to try to power walk across the tarmac into the wind.

 

Once we were flying everything was clear.  Not only was it clear but we had quite the view of the sunset.

 

 

 

 

We tried to make the most if our short trip to Yellowknife.  N and I went swimming at the pool with some friends, we had supper at a friends house, a play date and we ate some nice meals at a nice restaurant in the hotel and walked around Walmart looking at all the things we couldn't bring back with us because of weight restrictions on the plane.  There were also some less than stellar moments.  The battery on our vehicle kept dying, the temperature in the hotel room was HOT the first night, the pillows were at least a foot high.  We didn't get a whole lot of sleep at the hotel...and I really like to sleep.

 

Coming home we had to leave a suitcase and N's car seat in YK because there were more people on the plane - more people means more weight....and that means even less luggage.  That was ok because the plane was making a few trips up over the next few months and we didn't need those things right away.  We hopped on the plane, and it was the start of a very long trip home.  We first travelled to Fort McPherson, Aklavik and Inuvik to drop other people off.  Then we were on our way to Paulatuk.  We were over town and the pilot couldn't see the runway.  Another storm.  Ugggg.  So off to Yellowknife we were again.  After an entire day spent on a plane we spent another night in a hotel and hopped on the plane early again the next day.

 

The pilot warned us that the weather wasn't looking very good, but he'd fly up and see what it looked like.  He landed.  It was windy, but we were pretty thrilled to be back home.  It was a long few days.

 

This was loading up for the 1st attempt home.

There were less smiles on day two......

 

 

So that was November.  The other major thing that happened in November was the last sunrise.  The sun made it's final appearance on November 20. 

 

 

Which brings us to December.

 

 

N was pretty serious about building his Gingerbread House

 

 

 

 

Even our little town sitting on the edge of the Arctic Ocean, miles above the tree line had a Christmas Tree this year.

 

It wasn't really a tree, it looked like an upside down tomato plant holder, but it worked just fine.  That is until the wind blew it over....a few times.

 

Remember at this point we had been living without the sun for a month so Christmas lights really make a difference and puts you in a more festive mood.  While some people dream of a white Christmas, that was a given for us - we were dreaming of lots and lots of people decorating their houses with as many lights as they could.

 

We also had a Santa parade.  There were about 10 vehicles in it.  The fire truck, the school bus which is a white cargo van, a few 1/2 tonne trucks that were decorated, the RCMP truck, water truck, fuel truck, sewer truck, garbage truck and of course Santa was in his sleigh.....but Santa was missing his beard this year?

 

Which reminds me.  Santa visited the store this year.  Again - Santa was missing his beard so the store managers wife made him one.  She made it out of white fox fur.  It worked perfectly and I bet our store Santa's beard was softer than yours ; )

 

A happy boy

 

 

We spent the Christmas Day and the days on each side of it, bunkered down.  It was the first blizzard of the year.  Which meant that not as much visiting with friends happened as we had planned.  If we could have seen anything other than white we might have made an attempt, but we were fine staying in, rationing our water to try to avoid running out and just waiting out the storm.

 

On New Years Eve we did get together with our friends in town.  We had a big turkey meal exchanged Christmas stories and then close to midnight we bundled up and headed up to where the Christmas tree was to watch the fireworks.  For a town of 300 people - the fireworks were something to see.  Twenty minutes of non stop dazzling fireworks.  N was fascinated and for the next few weeks was asking to go see more nightly.

 

 

And now - onto January.

 

January was long.  It was cold and dark.

 

I know we essentially live in the North Pole and we do have the clothes to make it more manageable but we had weeks of -30 something and then add in the windchill and it became -50.  That's cold.  N and I still made our daily trek up to and back from playschool.  One day I was walking back up to pick up N and the kids had just gotten out of school.  I had to do a double take because they were all walking backwards because the wind was coming straight at us.  

 

 

The rest of these pictures were all taken on my new camera.  I'm a little excited to see if I can tell the difference.

 

 



 

 





Cutie!! 

He looked at this chocolate hedgehog for about 5 minutes

before he decided he could eat it and not hurt him after all.

 

Yes, we bike inside...and look, it's really fun

That is our calender on the wall

N is really getting good with days of the week and numbers up to 30

 

 

During the dusky period.

It's not dark...but it's not really light

It is beautiful

 

Getting a little artsy

At the end of town

 

LOOK WHAT I DID

 

 

After 8 years of living in the North and seeing so many beautiful Northern Lights, wishing I could get a picture of them, I DID IT!!!

 

I took it right out on the bay infront of our house.  That's our  house right above the words "North and seeing"  I got a bunch of pictures but I like this one the best because our house is in it.  Pretty cool.

 

Another lady and I were out there, both with new camera's, trying to figure out what settings we needed to get our camera's on.  It was a little tough in the dark and I kept having to take my seal skin mitts of to play with the different controls.  I actually froze my thumb...but it was worth it.

 

We also had a little visitor while we were out there.  A fox.  We saw him coming, he kept getting closer and closer and that was fine until he was about 10' feet away.  I figured that was close enough and then scared him off, a few times.

 

 

Another one taken by yours truely

 

 

TADA

 

 It's the sun, it's the sun, it's the beautiful SUN!!

January 20 it just peeked over the hills

This was it - the moment

 

The next day...a little higher

 

 

I'll be the first to admit I like things that sparkle

I swear the sky was sparkling

Stunning

 

This is how N rolls.

He's sitting on sheepskin, bundled in his regular outdoor gear

and has a quilt on top.  Somedays I wish we could trade places.

 

 

N says he is The Balloon King

I have to agree with him.

 

 

As soon as N wakes up in the morning he says "hmmmm, which one"  He is talking about balloons.  It is after all a tough deciding which colour balloon to start the day with.  When we get home from pre school he gets another balloon.  Oh yes it true, 2 balloons each and every day.  These balloons were left overs from a Birthday party we hosted.  N was in balloon heaven.  I let the balloon count in the house get to about 6 and then the balloon fairy comes once he is in bed and makes about 5 of them disapper.

 



 Not only is he the Balloon King

He's also a fountain....

 

 

 

 

The school held a Welcome Back The Sun party.  A little Dance Dance Revolution, obstical race and good 'ol freeze tag were in store for the kids.  N had a blast!!

 

 

 

 

N doing a little jig in -30 but no wind = warm day

 

 

Hockey Pool Standings

 

 

You quickly learn up here that sometimes you need to create your own fun.  Last year we had a play off hockey pool.  It was really fun.  Gave us something to do and a few rivalries started up.  I didn't do so well - I think I was 3rd from the bottom.  This year I did research.  I have 4 pages of notes - stats, the whole deal.  Last week I was at the top - this week I'm third and if Claude Giroux and Patrick Marleau decide to start playing again, maybe I'll get to the top again.

 

Draft Day

Serious business going on here....

 

Picasso??

He drew his family - the 3yr old is the biggest ; )

 

 

 

Not only is he the the cutest kid ever - but he also enjoys posing for me.  Well up to a point.  When he's had enough he says "that's enough" and emphasizes it by throwing his arms around.  I took this photo with my new 50mm lens.  I can set the aperture on it to make everything in the background fuzzy.  Love it!!

 

 

As you can see arts and crafts is alive and well at our house.

Hearts seem to be the favourite shape lately and thankfully "make it rain" seems to have come to an end.  Make it rain consisted of him throwing all the scrap paper up in the air.  I can see how it would be fun, but the clean up didn't do much for me, or him.

 

 

 

This is my favourite non N picture.  It's artsy hey.  Maybe I do have it in me after all.

 

 

So there we have it.  I am now all caught up.

 

I must say I am proud of myself.

 

Here is the other picture I wanted to share with you that Kendra took.  It is one of the local men, his dogs, rifle and a fox he got.  There was one (yet to be confirmed two) rabid foxes in town.  Last week was a bad week to be a fox up here..

 

 

 

Now you are all caught up on life in Paulatuk