July - this is what dreams are made of

How is it even possible that it is AUGUST.

I cannot even begin to wrap my head around the fact that July is over.  Really....July is over!?  Is this just an April Fools prank that somebody is playing on me?

If it really is August that means it is almost hat & mitt season again.  I have yet to convince N that he doesn't need to wear his winter hat every time we go outside.  If he doesn't have his winter hat on it is rare that he doesn't have a hood pulled up over his head.  It must have become a comfort crutch of sorts.  I was wearing a really cute little red fleece jacket on him but the hood is ridiculous.  It has a pointed hood on it and it reminds of the Travelocity Gnome.  Every time I put it on him and he pulled the hood up I always thought to myself "someday he is going to hate me for letting him wear this and taking pictures of it".  One day we were at the "playground" and a little boy from play school was there as well and said that N was wearing a Santa hood.  That was the end of that jacket.  It was one thing for me to think it was funny/cute but the second I saw someone else pick up on.....bye bye jacket.  Ah well, it was cute while it lasted.

Once again I have a crazy amount of pictures to share.  We had a blast this month.  We went on many quading adventures, saw lots of wildlife, caught a few fish, took a few dips in the water, flew some kites and took in what will likely be our last full month of July in this lovely town we are lucky to call home.

We also one day of "those days".  July 17....I visited the health centre 3 times in one day. 

First I went, nothing serious but I was there.

Then, in the early afternoon N and I were headed outside to play with some kids.  He missed the last two stairs.  Off to the health centre we go and 1 (should have been 2 but that wasn't happening) stitch later we were away again.

And then that night our English Mastiff Morley started bleeding out from his gums.  Talk about a helpless feeling.  I remember when we decided to move up here one of our major hesitations was the fact that there is not a vet.  We do have three dogs so it was a legitimate concern.  Up until this day we had been doing okay.  No major issues, but when your 6 yr old dog starts bleeding from his gums and becomes lethargic to the point of not even moving his tongue when we were trying to get pictures to send to the vet......well we were worried.

With the help of no less than 4 people we were able to fix him up.  We got a short supply of pills from the health centre and our old vet in YK took a larger supply of pills to the airport to catch the next flight. 

He's been off the pills for 5 days now, and so far so good.  Yes, I did know on wood.

So here is our July in pictures.

It was pretty great!

Who doesn't love to fly a kite

I know I do.

He's a natural!

This little yellow plane was in town for a few weeks.  They were tracking the Caribou.  From what I understand they were hoping to see them all get together and form one big herd, but that didn't happen while they were here.

Mr Seal.

Impromptu quad beach party.  We went out by ourselves and ended up at quite the social gathering.  We were out site seeing, some were out gathering glacial water (that's a little chunk in the pic) and others were heading out to Egg Island.

It's pretty cool quading on the beach beside the Arctic Ocean

Weird Sand/Mud

R's first fish.  Bahaha.  A little flounder.  N said it was a baby.  R already taught him all about fish stories and now if you ask him how big it was he stretches his arms out nice and wide.

Hot dog roast up by the river.  Awesome day with awesome people.

Considering we are kind of in the middle of nowhere I was more than a little surprised when our picnic site...in the middle of nowhere turned into an afternoon social drop in.  A whole crew of people were heading out caribou hunting a few hours out of town.  I'm not exaggerating when I say at least 6 other quads stopped in to say "hi".

A little perk of no trees is that kids can run and run and run.  Really, where are they going to go you can literally see them for miles.

On our way to go blueberry picking

Yup, that's me.  I got stuck.  Sunk right in the mud.  Got winched out.  Is it bad that I thought it was kind of fun?

The blueberry search in on!!!

Another trip over to Crowts.  Sand dunes are fun.  Another one of those spots where kids can just run and run and run.  Hmmmm, there seems to be a theme emerging here.

Now, if you look really close you can see a mama caribou and her little one.  Over towards the left just past the dirt.  By the time I dug my camera out they were getting pretty far away.

A few people from YK came up for R's work.  They brought Tim Hortons treats with them.  N just couldn't decide what he liked the best.  Totally reminded my of my Aunt M and her dang chocolate experiments.  Pot of Gold and M do not mesh well.

Yeah, they are cute, but there are three of these little birds that kept me up for nights on end chirping away.  This was 2 am and there they are just looking at me.  Good thing they are cute.

Big news.  A new boat in town!  It actually just left yesterday but it was here for about 10 days.  I guess they were lucky to make it into town because they were having mechanical issues and they got stuck here while they waited for a part to be flown in.  Not a bad place to get stuck.

We were having a blast one evening down on the sandy beach.  R was working and called on the radio to ask where we were.  We told him...just down the hill from the dump.  He said he was at the dump and to come up....

There was a big ol grizzly bear at the dump.

I'll admit I panicked a little but once we got up there and saw exactly where the bear was I felt okay again.  It's not a nice feeling thinking a grizzly is eyeing you up.

He's the dot past the dirt by the lake.  Not really that far away but it looks it in this picture.  He took off running a few minutes later.

GONE FISHING

It started off as a beautiful sunny morning.

All except one direction.

The direction we were going.

Holy Fog

There was a total of four quads and at times we couldn't see  any of them except the one directly in front of us.  It didn't rain, thank goodness but it was so foggy that we could feel the mist on our faces at different times.

We were headed out to Dennis Lake - a 2 hr quad ride and yes we did have a 2yr old with us and another couple had a 1 yr old with them.  They were super stars and rocked it!

The Enchanted Forest.

When you are above the tree line this is pretty neat to come across.

Erie and really spectacular all at the same time.

Arriving at Dennis Lake.  I asked our leader if you could normally see the other side of the lake or if was really big and you couldn't see anything.  She assured me that when it was clear you could see lots including the other side of the lake.

Talk about a group of people in their glory. 

We had such an amazing day.  It started out crazy with all the fog and ended up being clear and marvellous.

A total catch was 5, 6 -7 lb lake trout and a whole bunch of memories.

N is quite the baker.

Pretty proud of himself. 

There is a new rule in our house:

No baking without Mom and Dad.

We have flour in our sugar and sugar in our flour

and 1 little baker boy

The moon is at it again

It still doesn't get dark here.  This is it. 

Taking a dip in the Arctic Ocean.

It was pretty warm yesterday, I was a little tempted,

But Nah.

Brrrr

Kids just have better insulation.

They didn't mind it at all.

So as I sit here trying to hurry and finish this up because I mistakenly hit "publish" instead of save before I finished up, this is what I see off my deck.  Not a bad view on another spectacular 26 degree day in Paulatuk.

It may seem a bit like I'm rubbing it in, you know, what a wonderful summer we are having. You're right, I am. I only get 1.5 months to do it so I'm getting all the good stuff in while we can. Before I know it we'll be bunkered down for another 9 months of real, hard core winter and I will be reading all your facebook posts about how you are still camping, swimming and enjoying the last bits of summer.

So yes, it's true.  Our summer has been one for the record books and I am rubbing it in.

What will August bring.....

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.