Building an Igloo

I had the opportunity and privilege to travel to Cape Dorset for work from March 19th - 22nd. While I was there there was a winter festival going on for the school children. One of the learning stations was the building of an igloo.
Two local elders made the igloo, which apparently is authentic igloo contruction if one gets stuck out on the land during inclement weather. These igloos are much smaller than the traditional "family" igloos and their purpose is to keep a hunter or traveller warm should they run into a blizzard or poor weather when out on the land.
They can be contructed in about 1/2 hour. The radius is about 6 feet and the height about 4 feet. A small entrance whole is cut on the down wind side and the cutout is kept as the door.
I wanted to thank the school children, teachers and elders who let me ask a number of questions and participate in the igloo making.

Our Februay Trip South

If there was one thing that Jacquie and I were looking forward to, it was our trip South in February. We were scheduled to leave Iqaluit on February 24th and return on March 11th.
Approaching February 24th, we watched the weather like hawks, hoping that the weather was going to be OK for the flight out. As it turns out, the weather in Iqaluit was fine. We hadn't even thought about the weather in Ottawa. When we got to the Iqaluit airport, we were advised that the landing in Ottawa was subject to weather and iffy at best. The alternate landing site was Toronto. As a matter of interest, making that declaration by the airline, relieves them of any liability should the plane not land in Ottawa and all passagers are on their own for accomodation in Toronto and probably travel back to Ottawa.

As it turned out, we landed in Ottawa, although it was in the middle of a snow fall. Randy Shearer came to pick us up at the airport and the usual one hour drive to Ottawa from Brockville took over 2 hours. We managed to get back to Brockville and had a lovely dinner at Randy and Liczy's with a few friends that they had invited.


The next morning we went to the bank to get Jacquie's engagement ring out of the safety deposit box. (it was actually my moms and looks great on Jacquie) We took it in to the Jewelbox in Brockville to get sized and purchased our wedding rings at the same time. Then off to the Royal Brock for a game of squash.

Saturday night we were in Guelph. It was Nadine's 26th birthday and Kelvin, Nicole, Jacquie, the birthday girl and I went out to the Borealis Restaurant in Guelph to celebrate (Since we had just spent a month of seeing the beautiful northern lights first hand, we thought the restaurant name was appropo.)

Sunday and Monday night we spent in London. We stayed with Jacquie's mom and Robin and had an opportunity to see her Dad, and Bette and her brother Muir, sister and law Kendal, and niece and newphew Adrienne and Quinton.
We had a wonderful time in London and a fair amount of it was spent on making wedding plans, visiting the venue, purchasing a suit, confirming the wedding dress selection and sitting down and chatting with the minister that will be presiding over the ceremony.
It is always a wonderful time visiting London and catching up with family. Thanks for your hospitality!

On Tuesday afternoon we left London for Toronto and stayed in a hotel near the airport. We were heading to Cuba the next morning for a fun filled week with Dean / Bonnie and John / Darlene at an all inclusive resort on the Northwest Coast. The adventures there will be the topic of another blog.
We returned home from Cuba on Wednesday March 7th and headed straight to Brockville.
I have neglected to let everyone know our mode of transportation. We had our KIA Rio5 for sale at Brockville Kia for a few months. Unfortunately, or should I say, fortunately, it didn't sell. So we decided to keep it and when we go south we will have wheels. So now we keep it at a storage facility and have it at our disposal when we go south. (Great idea Jacquie!!)
Anyway, back to Brockville to spend spend some time with our friends. We got back on Wednesday evening and stayed a couple of nights at Joe, Veena's and little Joe's. Thanks to little Joseph for giving up his room so Jacquie and I could be comfortable and thanks to Joe and Veena for your wonderful hospitality.
There was a flurry of activity on Thursday and Friday. We had to go shopping for supplies for the north, get to the dentist, write our FAC exam, play squash, go to our locker and definitely Jacquie and my favorite, meeting and spending valuable time with our friends.
A special thanks to Veena's mom and dad for a wonderful meal at their house on Thursday evening and Randy and Liczy for a fabulous meal at their place on Friday night. We really have such wonderful friends in Brockville and thanks to you all for your kindness and support.
On Saturday night we went out to dinner and Joe, Randy and I stayed out a little longer than the girls and went to the Dragon and then the Keystorm. We saw Sueling and Teresa at the bar and had a wonderful time catching up. Joe and Randy kept me up a little longer than I should have been up and when we got home, we realized that the clocks needed to be turned ahead. We lost an hours sleep. The flight back to Iqaluit was early the next morning, which meant we were on the road a 6:00am. Randy, bless his heart drove us to Ottawa and we managed to make the flight. Admittedly, I was a little under the weather until they served breakfast, then life took on a whole new positive outlook.
Our gracious thanks to Randy and Liczy, Joe and Veena for their hospitality. Also, to all of our friends that we saw and the ones that we didn't see this trip, thank you. See you again in May

Cambridge Bay

On January 27th I had the awesome opportunity to travel to Cambridge Bay. Now getting there from Iqaluit is actually a 2 day affair. The first leg of the trip was from Iqaluit to Rankin Inlet and then from Rankin to Yellowknife. Although I left Iqaluit at 5:00PM and its a 4.5 hours flight plus the stop in Rankin, I got into Yellowknife at 8:00PM because there was a 2 hour time difference.
The reason that's significant is that the liquor store and Walmart close at 9:00PM which gave me time to do a little shopping before retiring for the night. How pathetic has my life become when I was actually looking forward to going to "Walmart".

Sculpture at the Airport in Yellowknife

On Saturday (January 28th) I was back at the Yellowknife airport and on my way to Cambridge Bay. The hamlet which is the business centre for the Kitikmeot district of Nunavut has around 1500 residents and is situated 500 miles north of Yellowknife on Victoria Island.
It is known for its Muskox harvest each year. The harvest was to begin the week after I left. The governement is allowing up to 400 muskox to be harvested this year. I went to the Cambridge Bay meat processing facility. There were people vying for position on the harvest. They hire 15 or so hunters and 25 transporters with snowmobiles, since the muskox are killed about 15 miles from town. I purchased a muskox roast that we ate when we got home. It was a little dry and gamy tasting, however that could have been the way it was prepared, not having that much experience cooking muskox.

I worked in Cambridge Bay from Saturday afternoon until Thursday and was to fly out. Thursday the weather was forcasted to be iffy and although it started out Okay, it started to deteriorate by 10:00 am. My flight was at noon. At 11:30, we called the airport and was told that the plane was scheduled to land as usual. We drove out to the airport in very poor weather. The wind was 60 km per hour with gusts to 75km/hr. When we got to the airport, we were told that the pilot was still going to "attempt a landing". Lots of confidence in that statement let me tell you. In the last few moments prior to landing the pilot decided to fly by, therefore, I was stuck in Cambridge Bay for at least one more day. To be honest, I was relieved the plane didn't land since the weather was terrible and I would have been scared skinny on the takeoff.

I managed to fly out the next day at noon and back to Yellowknife. Since no flights go to Iqaluit on Saturday or Sunday from Yellowknife, I ended up being stranded there for the weekend.
Never having spent any time in Yellowknife, it was a wonderful opportunity to explore. Below is a picture of the old part of the city, overlooking Great Slave Lake.

I was able to do a little shopping in Yellowknife and all in all the Cambridge Bay trip was awesome. The next time, I'm hoping Jacquie and I can go together.

The Puppy on The Porch

On the second last day of my trip to Cambridge Bay, the temperature dropped to about -60C with the wind chill. It was a miserable night, not only cold, but the wind was blowing and it was overcast with blowing snow.
At about 8:00PM there was a knock at the door and a local was trying to sell me some Inuit Paintings. I declined on the paintings, however as he was leaving he asked if the puppy on the porch was mine? I looked out and sure enough there was a cute little puppy shivering in the corner.

Let me tell you a little bit about about the motel where I was staying. The Motel is one of two in Cambridge Bay. It has a number of efficiency units with a fridge, stove and 2 bedrooms. In the picture below, the unit I was staying in was the first unit on the right.

The unit itself is modern and in very nice condition. Below are a couple of pictures of the inside of the unit.

Anyway, getting back to the puppy. The first thing I did after talking to the vender was go back inside and call the front desk. Unfortunately there was no answer, which actually was the case most of the time I called the front desk. Perhaps the only little complaint I had about staying in the Green Row Inn in Cambridge Bay. The next thing I did was call Jacquie since she is the most knowledgable person I know about puppy dogs. She said I should bring the little puppy inside out of the weather. So, I put on all of my outside gear and went out to get the little guy and carried him into the unit. Each unit has a heated front porch equipped with an independent thermostat. It was my plan to turn the heat way down to make it comfortable for the puppy and then let the dog stay in the front porch for the night. I really hadn't thought much past that since I was supposed to leave the next night, however felt it was the best thing to do given the circumstances.
I went and picked up the little fellow, he was the loveliest little ball of fur that I had ever felt. I carried him into the porch, set him down and while I turned around to shut the door, he ran out before I could stop him. I went out to get him but he was gone. Hopefully he ran home.
See pictures of the little guy below - he's so cute!!!!

The High School in Cambridge Bay

One of the tourist attractions in Cambridge Bay is the High School which has a wonderful cultural centre in the library.

While I was there I was encouraged to look around and was given strict instruction not to photograph any of the children. The centre had some interactive displays, a small theatre that spoke about the history of Cambridge Bay and the Inuit culture.

The High School houses about 200 students from grade 7 to 12. Although the design seemed somewhat unique with the circular exterior and an open concept inside, it was not different than any other - students playing basketball in the gym and studying in the library.

I toured the facility for an hour and so enjoyed the experience.

The DEW Line

While visiting Cambridge Bay, I had the opportunity to visit one of the remaining operational DEW line sites. I was told that it was run for the most part by non-military personnel and made up of about 60% American and 40% Canadian. There were approx. 30 people on location at any one time and only a few of them were military. The facility is completely self-contained with residences, dining facilities, gym, workout room and even stores. My understanding is that people working go in for 3 month rotations and would work one of 2 shifts. I was also told that the function of the facility is to track movement of aircraft, satellites and anything else moving around in the atmosphere. The person that was giving me a tour of the town was a former employee of the facility, otherwise I may not have been allowed to take a look at this very interesting DEW line site. Below I have included a brief history of the DEW line from the internet.

The DEW Line - short for Distant Early Warning Line - was an integrated chain of 63 radar and communication systems stretching 3,000 miles from the northwest coast of Alaska to the eastern shore of Baffin Island opposite Greenland. It is within the Arctic Circle over ts entire length and for much of the distance crosses country hitherto unexplored.

The DEW Line grew out of a detailed study made by a group of the nation's scientists in 1952 - the Summer Study Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The subject of their study was the vulnerability of the US and Canada to air attack, and their recommendation was that a Distant Early Warning line be built across our Arctic border as rapidly as possible,

The Secretary of Defense asked the President of AT&T if the Bell System would undertake the job of building the line. The assignment was accepted, and the responsibility for the overall management of the design and construction of the line was given to Western Electric. Immediately, Western started recruiting a team to do the job from the Bell Telephone Companies, the long lines Department of AT&T, Bell Laboratories and from Western Electric's own divisions. Before the job was completed, men with the necessary knowledge, skills and experience were drawn from Bell telephone companies in every state in the US. Much of the responsibility was delegated under close supervision to a vast number of subcontractors, suppliers and US military units. It has been estimated that by the time the DEWLine was completed, some 25,000 people had been engaged directly in planning and building it.

The Muskox

Nunavut Muskox
Muskox (Ovibos moschatus) have inhabited the Canadian Arctic for thousands of years. A survivor of the last ice age, these magnificent animals are perfectly adapted to survive the winter conditions of Canada’s North

The Inuit refer to them as the “Umingmak”, meaning bearded one. They have been an integral part of the Inuit lifestyle for centuries as one animal that can provide a great amount of meat, a warm versatile hide and soft insulating fur.

The muskox have endured great fluctuation in their numbers over the last few hundred years, mainly due to predators, harsh winters and over harvesting by early explorers. However, today their population numbers are plentiful and thriving, allowing local residents to once again rely on these valuable creatures.

While I was in Cambridge Bay, which is located approximately 500 miles north of Yellowknife, I had the opportunity to visit a meat packing plant. About 2 weeks after I was there, on February 17th, the annual Muskox harvest was going to take place. The manager of the plant told me that the government has authorized up to 400 Muskox to be taken for harvest this year. They will all be taken to this plant for processing. During the harvest season, the plant has hired 14 hunters, 25 transporters (they transport the shot muskox from the site that they are shot to the plant) and 30 people to help with butchering, processing and packaging in the plant. I purhcased a muskox roast, which Jacquie and I are planning to eat next weekend.