Let's catch up

The land of ice and snow has turned into the land of sun and sand.

9 months is a long time to wait for summer - but I dare to say it is worth it. 

I will admit that during the first week of June when I was still looking out my front window to see ice on the Bay I was getting a little concerned.  I knew that it would eventually go away but it sure did seem to be taking it's dear 'ol time.

Turns out the ice leaves as quickly as it forms.  I remember back in October watching it form on the bay during 1 day.  Well, it left in one day as well.

This was my view during the first part of JUNE!!!!

Oh dear - that sight was getting a tad old.

It didn't seem like it was going anywhere, so we decided to make the best of it.  We spent one entire week-end fishing.  Ice fishing.

As you can see the hills are mostly clear of snow - just some of the deeper crevasses held onto the last of it.

As most people going out ice fishing I expected to be fishing on a lake of solid ice.  To say I was hesitant going onto this lake is an understatement.  I thought I might throw up.  Back on the East Coast it would not even cross my mind to venture on a lake that looked like this.

As you can see we were the last of the 4 quads to go on the lake.  Our friends in front of us gave me a little pep talk about how the people we were with had been doing this for their entire lives and that they knew what they were doing.  I sucked it up and agreed to go on.  I was nervous until we were stopped on the lake and looking down the holes so that I could see exactly how thick the ice was.  It was easily 3' deep. 

Here we are checking out one of the prime fishing spots.  We didn't make any of our own holes.  We fished in natural holes in the lake like the one below and old fishing holes from past fishing trips.

This was the first catch of the day.  An Arctic Char.  We were all pretty excited.  R, N and I didn't catch anything....I had one bite but I freaked out and lost it.  He did tease us though - we watched him circling the hook for the next 15 minutes but he just wouldn't bite again.

Our fearless leader

This was day 2.  We got smarter and brought chairs with us.  Check out our fancy fishing sticks.  Yes sticks with fishing line hooked onto it.  I should have gone around the lake and took pictures of all the fishing "sticks" we had.  There was a wide array including a wrench with fish line and an old swifter handle with line tied to it.

Who knew?  We have a fancy fire truck.  N and I were both quite impressed. N even got a little tour and pulled on the horn, how fun!

One of afternoon adventures lead us out to our old sledding hill.  I wanted to see if there was still ice down on the lake.  There was.  While we were there we spotted some flowers so we checked those out for awhile and while we were there the sched plane came in.  N loves planes so he was quite thrilled to see it.  After this we jetted of to the airport to get a better look.

We may not have fancy playground equipment....but we make do.

The next few pictures are shots of the day the ice left the bay.  It was really windy one Saturday and during the course of the day the bay went from full of ice to empty.  Pretty crazy how quickly it happened.  Check it out.

Remember - it is still not getting dark here so these pictures are from around 8:00 am to 11:00 pm.  Still - quite remarkable.  I wrote it on the calender so next year when I start freaking out about looking at ice in June I'll remember.  This year the ice left June 16.....and also written on the calender is 1st mosquito bite - June 13.  More on that later.

Having gone to sleep with the bay free of ice I was a little surprised to see some of came back.

I thought it might a cruel joke but for the next few days depending how the wind blew the ice came and left.  Mid June and bay mostly free of ice means it's time to go boating.  Still to early for me, but clearly some people just were not waiting any longer.

I have many pictures of all the flowers blooming up in the hills.  The hills are alive with all different colours, it is spectacular!

This is down on the sandy beach.  I ice formed here last and is also the last to leave.  Regardless - the sand was warm, the scenery was amazing as normal and there were NO mosquitoes....JACKPOT

Aboriginal Day.  I took so many great pictures from this day but this is my favourite.  It is my favourite because it shows 4 truly Northern things all in one picture. 

- the quad - our main mode of transportation during the summer

- the bug jacket - not an unusual site

- drums - well N has a plate, but the men have drums and later their was singing and drum dancing

- packing - this is how  almost every child under 2 gets around. 

LOVE THIS PICTURE 

       

Here are a few more pictures from different trips to the river.  Every trip down we had a whole new view.  The hills were a different shade of green with trip.  It doesn't matter how often we go there, it never gets old.

You cannot really see it well here but if you look close you can see the Arctic Turn (bird) that is flying towards N.  On this particular day they didn't bother us too much.  During a repeat visit we were dive bombed by those stink'n birds.  I can tell you they look a whole lot bigger and meaner when they are mere inches from your head.  We took the hint and bailed quickly.

The huge herd of caribou (150 - 200) were spotted out towards the river near the end of June.  We didn't find out until around 8:30 at night so it was too late for us.  It didn't seem right to wake N up to go on a caribou hunt.  I was almost giddy the whole night.  I was so excited to get there and see them.  We had seen a few off in the distance on our fishing trip, but I could only imagine how cool it would be to see hundreds up close.

There was a bit of community commotion the next day so we weren't able to head out on our search until later in the day.  We went out with a few other people who were just as excited as I was to see them.  We couldn't find them....   We did find where they had been.  We spotted 6 carcass's and lots of tracks.  They were far away but with binoculars we off in the distance we spotted the heard.  We each took turns checking them out and then decided to continue down to the river.

We ended up meeting up with one lost caribou.  She must have gotten seperated from the heard.  She was down the big hill and instead of running away from us she ran up the hill infront of us and then eventually ran off on here own.  If you look close in this picture you can see here (close to the right side).  She looks like she is far away, she might have been in this picture but was much closer to us many times I just could did my camera out in time.

 

Depending on the size of you screen you might be able to see what is written above the door of this camp.  It's cute.   Welcome to my Inuvaliut RV.  Cracks me up everytime I see.  These camps are totally mobile.  When they want to move them they just drap it off to it's new home.  Remember the camp that was out on the bay.  It has found it's new home up the road a ways.  We were back out this way yesterday and everything around here is as green as green can be.

Canada Day

 Like many places throughout the country we had a celebration up here.  There was music, a bbq and canoe races.  With 24 hr daylight we missed out on fireworks but New Years more than makes up for that.

We tried to hold out for the canoe races but the bugs got the best of us.  It was ridiculous.  You can see them in this picture.  Nasty.

Last weekend we went over to Crowts.  I'm not sure that's how you spell it but that's how it sounds so I'll go with that.  Holy pretty.  We were on bear alert but it was still awesome.

Caribou tracks

R checking in on the radio

Could there be any better way to start the day? 

I think not.

1st float plane of the year

I like to dress the guys alike ; )

Kidding - it was a fluke, but pretty cute.

This is over at the point, where the birds attacked us.  It is on the Arctic Ocean so use your imagination and imagine it's as cold as it could possibly be without having ice on it.  2 year old boys don't care.  He just wouldn't stay out it and was having so much fun.  He started off fully clothed and in an attempt to keep some of his cloths dry for the quad ride home he ended up wearing....zip.

What a guy.

The next few pictures were taken at Second Lake.  It's the local swimming hole.  The water is much warmer but there is also the constant buzzing sound of mosquitoes just waiting to get ya.

A fish - in the middle.

For anyone wondering (Dad) it was a land locked char.

And there we have it.  A month in review.  I think June is my favourite month so far - so much happens in June.  Not only with all the community activities but the landscape completely changes from white to green with specks of yellow, white and purple.  Loved it. 

July has been great so far to.  We have put some serious miles on the quad and we are loving every single moment of it. It is hard to believe this has been our home for almost an entire year and this time next year it will likely be almost time to say good-bye. 

Mixed bag of Spring

Here we are at the end of the first week of June.

- snow
-ice

and FOG.

Holy Fog!!!  I've been doing a lot of reading and research on San Diego and other California destinations for our upcoming October trip.  And I've read about the dreaded June Gloom.  Well I guess California and Paulatuk share a few thing in common.  Who knew?  Beaches, Ocean Front, Fishing, and FOG.  If only it was 20 degrees warmer....Paulatuk might just be confused with some isolated area of California.  Yeah - maybe a far stretch but with all this fog it you can't really see where you are anyway.  I have a feeling nobody is wearing mitts and hats in Cali though......

It's not all doom and gloom.  There have been a few really nice days tucked in with the fog day during the past few weeks, and we took full advantage.  We travelled down to the river - twice.  We've gone on walks that lasted all afternoon, we've gone quading around town, just because we can and we have our fishing sticks all reading to go catch "the big one".  Fishing sticks wasn't a typo - we really have sticks with line attached.......that's the way we roll in up here. 


June 5 - anybody else seeing this out their window?
There are three snow machines out there - two of towing toboggans filled up with I'm guessing geese.  Coming back from hunting.  Love how I"m making up this story as I go.  An educated guess.   Geese hunting is a big deal here.  Families rely on them as one of their main food staples and it is a once a year thing - so when geese arrive, people get excited.

Obviously there is ice under the water that they are snowmobiling on.  They made it across safely.  I watched.  Buuuuuut - there are 2 snowmobiles in the bay waiting to be recovered and there have been a few more go in that have been dragged out already.  People don't really seem to worked up about it.  Just another sign of Spring I suppose. 

What's another sign of Spring?

Well flying kites of course.  Garbage bags count as kites don't they?

Well they do in the eye's of a very pleased and entertained 2 yr old. 

We do have a real kite for him.  The Easter bunny brought it.  I"m waiting for summer to dig out the big guns. 

Here is a picture of the fog I was talking about earlier.  June Gloom.

You can see the other side of town here - which you can sometimes, but not all.  Sometimes I can't even see the bay. 

Here's Bossy.  This is the same dog that came to the boat with us.  He is cute!  He has the chair turned the other way now so he lays on the back.  Smart dog - there is more room for him that way.  I think it looks cuter this way, but he does look a little cramped.

The next few pictures are some I"ve taken around town. 

I've started my own version of "Where's Waldo".  Only I try to spot whatever is new around town.  I've spotted some great things the past few weeks.

This is the seal skin that I told you I spotted awhile ago.  Well it's still out.  It's stretching alot!!!  

This one was a little more difficult to spot.

Do you see it?

There is a Polar Bear hide attached to the house.  Fur side in.  I walked by it a few days before I figured out what was going on.  I always figure somebody is watching from their window so I try no to stare at anything for too long.  Fur side in threw me off. 

A few days later it was hanging off the railing.  Spotted that right away.

These ones were neat.  I could see them right from the kitchen window.

Do you know what they are?

Two Wolverine hides and a Wolf in the middle.  Cool.  I have to say that either that is a small wolf or wolverines are much larger than I thought.

Goose eggs!  Delivered right to our door.  We were instructed to boil them because they are the best that way.  People here love them.  I"ve boiled them.....haven't figured out if I'm brave enough or not to try them.  

Egg salad sandwich?

Purple flowers are covering the tundra by the River.

Love It!

This past week-end we took the quads down to the river for the second trip of the year. We ended up down at the tent right beside the river. We tucked inside for a visit. We made the 8th, 9th and 10th person in the tent. It was neat. It was pretty big inside, had a bed, bench, table and chairs, wood stove, camping stove, radio and a caribou hide mat. I loved it in there. It was toasty warm, we sat around chatting while having tea and a few people played cards on the bed. It reminded me a rainy day at our cottage growing up.

When I first went in the tent I glance up at the ceiling....is that the right word for a canvas tent. I'm not sure. So anyway, my eyes were drawn to an area at the top that when I glanced quickly looked like a skylight. I almost made myself sound like a fool by making a comment about how the tent even had a skylight. Anyway, my brain intervened and saved me from sounding foolish but I took note and realised that it was a patched area on the tent. The owner of the tent must have spotted me looking at the ceiling because he told us the first of many tent stories.

So this tent looks like it is all canvas from the outside but on the inside there are half walls from the ground up.  There is a real floor in it, and as you can see a real door.  So this patched roof was on the other side of the tent - I checked, you can't tell it was patched from the outside or I would have taken a picture to show you.

So our first tent story went something like this. 

"You see that hole in the roof?'

Me - "yeah, what happened?" 

"A bear came through there"

The story became much more detailed than that but the gist of it is that a bear came into the tent 3 different times while nobody was there.  Remember that grizzly I told you about a few weeks ago in an earlier post.  The first grizzly of the year hanging up in town - that was this bear.

I have to say - bears freak me out.  They are so big, fast and really will eat you.  I just don't want to come across one by mistake.  I know my little bear banger pen is not going to do anything.  I felt a little braver last year before I saw the other RCMP member try to scare one away from town with a rifle shooting some sort of noise bullet.  That bear didn't care AT all.  If he didn't care about I know how much he'd care about my little pen.  The standard bear tip is to play dead - I think that might come easy to me because I'd pass out on the spot.

So back to the tent.

So this bear was known to the couple that stay in the tent.  It was a three year old.  The first time they saw it, it was up around the tent with his mom and another cub.  Then they saw it last year by himself.  They had gone fishing and when they came back the bear was outside the tent.  Their dog chased it away.  This year it tried to bust in the tent 3 times.  The first time it tried to use the door (nice house guest ; )  )   The second time it bust in threw the roof right onto the bed.  Didn't trash the tent like I guess is normal bear practise - but gave the tent a new skylight.   The roof was patched up.  Then Mr. Grizzly came back a third time.  Threw the roof again.  I can say from the size of the hole in the roof - Mr. 3 year old Grizzly was big.  Again - he was a good house guest and didn't trash the tent.   Fourth trip - Mr. Grizzly was caught for intruding. 

Sad day for Mr. Grizzly but these people spend the entire summer and fall in that tent.  They live there and use it as their base for fishing and hunting.  They can't have Mr. Grizzly as a regular visitor.  Can you imagine sleeping away and waking up to a Grizzly jumping into your tent.  Oh gosh - I'm getting freaked out now.  Dang those bears are big!  Anyway - no thanks.

This is leaving the river - that little blue dot is the top of the tent.

This loader is in the middle of nowhere.  Literally on the road to nowhere.  If you look close you'll spot the ptarmigan.  He's white with brown head right now.  I guess this is the best hiding place he can find until he finishes changing colours.

This little hut has been parked out there on the ice for over a week now.  It is kind of on it's own little island now.  I'm sure somebody will be by to pick it up eventually.  Either that or it's going to turn into a submarine.

TADA

The first glimpse of our camp fire site. 

 Looks like we have a little brook beside us this year.

On one of our walks we met up with one of N's friends.  They had a great time running around town, chasing birds, hunting out sik sik's and throwing rocks over the banks.  We ended up at the swing set where they both thought they needed to swing in the baby swings.  Let's just say getting them into the swing was much easier than getting them out.  

So I have been told that Spring is almost over.  I have my doubts.....ice, snow, hats and mitts being the main reason for these doubts.  But no no - Spring is almost over because the geese are now sitting on their eggs, and that my friends, means Spring is almost over.

Bring on Summer!!!