LeBleu Pack

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Mt. Pelly or Bust!

Today was the day we decided to head out to Mt. Pelly for a quad ride with our neighbours and friends Kim & Doug and their dog Sammy and with Marg and Wayne. It was a hot day here in The Bay with temperatures at 16'c a far cry from our normal of 7'c. Not at all complaining about the warm temperatures and I noticed how quickly the snow had melted in a week. Just before we were heading out I received a text from another friend and I quote "Ga there's a grizzly bear at the river". So this is the second sighting this spring that I know of so what do we do? Call Marg & Wayne and we all head out by truck to see if we could see it. We didn't see it so we headed back home and invited our neighbours to come with us for a quad ride instead. So the six of us or should I say seven if we are counting Sammy, Kim & Doug's dog, headed towards Mt. Pelly and the grizzly, 'cause you know the quads are much more safer than a truck. haha

Marg, Wayne and Craig with Mt. Pelly in the background

Myself and Kim, Doug and Sammy in the back

We arrived at our destination to find some of the Arctic flowers already blooming and soon the tundra will be covered in a blanket of purple. We stopped at the base of Mt. Pelly for Sammy to have a drink and for us to admire the beauty of this vast land we call home.

Ice is melting fast on the lakes

You can see some of the purple starting to show

A man and his dog (looking for treats)

Craig checking for grizzlies

While the rest of the gang admired the view

Everything is starting to bloom

Even the spiders have emerged

From this view point we headed around the corner and Kim, Marg, Doug and Craig hiked up the side of Mt. Pelly - not all the way mind you. Wayne and I decided to hang back, me mostly because of my ankle and Wayne kept me company.

Marg where ya going?

Wayne and Marg

Craig and Kim, can't leave these two alone for 2 seconds. haha

Doug, Kim and Sammy

It was a wonderful day spent with some good friends and we are hoping to do it all again next Sunday to Long Point. The last few pics are of the ride back home and of the river that flows into Cambridge Bay.

Great views heading back home

Except when the quad in front of you hits the dusty areas

Inuksuk by the river

The river bank

Fresh Water Creek flowing freely now

Talk soon!

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Slip Slide and Away

Weather turned from descent this past week to really ugly on the weekend and what I mean by ugly is freezing rain with up to 80kms winds. With winds like that the rain hits your face like tiny bullets, can you say OUCH!? Only one side of our house and vehicles were covered in ice this morning and the deck was a skating rink. My poor Hannah had a big wipe out on the deck and was having a few mini seizures this afternoon, not sure if was because of the fall or what triggered them. If they become more frequent we will be adding new medication to her already full bin.

Tonight the weather gods turned the switch back to blue sunny skies, wish we had this when Marg and I were standing in our garage conducting the garage sale and photography show. My plan was to have the garage door wide open with the warm sun beating on us. Yeah, no. Instead we were back in our winter gear drinking hot beverages. On the plus side the weather kept a lot of people in town instead of heading out to their cabins and the sale was supposed to last until today but we sold out of all most everything and decided to cancel for today. The bit of remaining items we will bring to the Wellness Centre this week.

Friday word was out in our community that not one but three grizzles were close to town. When I say close I mean just across the river by the tower. Last year a momma and cub were at our garbage dump and by the float dock - must of been the smell of our fish coming in. It's one of my concerns every time we head out with the dogs, not only grizzles but wolves and foxes and... I always have my Spidey Senses on full alert.

Saturday night was Craig's birthday celebration and we had a few friends over for an evening of laughs, drinks and food...lots of food. It is always good to be around our friends up here as all of them are pretty easy going. Jim and Craig finally got to play guitar together and at one point everyone was singing along. All in all a great night/early morning.

I leave you tonight with pictures of the ice storm and of the birthday boy.

Talk soon!

I bought this birthday boy ribbon and he wore it all night

Jim and Craig entertaining us

This could be one reason why we had no internet

Icy truck

Under our house

Our bedroom window

The two pipes are where our water comes into the house tank

Maybe the ice will stop the hydro metre...I can only hope.

Our front yard ice grass

Play time

Nap time

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Springtime in The Arctic

I love springtime any where but especially in the Arctic, after 8 - 9 months of snow on the ground it's my pleasure to say good-bye to the white stuff. Before the flowers bloom and the grasses blow we have to go through a muddy time. Hate the mud but I will put up with it as I know in less than a month we are in full summer mode and soon it will be our annual Arctic char harvest.

The staff was done work early one day this week and we had a load of fish scrap and fish heads so we loaded up the F150 and went door to door handing out fish heads to some elders in the community and giving out fish scraps to some of the dogs. The staff told me which elder would appreciate the fish heads and we always received a huge wave and a koana (thank you) from them. As for the dogs they started to eat the frozen block of fish scraps as soon as we gave it to them. We all felt good after that and I decided to reward the 4 staff members with a drive to Freshwater Creek and then to the Gravel Pit where we seen many birds and a few seals on the ice. All in all a great day spent with the best staff Cambridge Bay has to offer.

Yesterday was Craig's birthday and I treated him to lunch and brought home a Big Crunch sandwich from KFC (yes we have a KFC/Pizza Hut up here). I asked him what he wanted for his birthday dinner and we ended up satisfying his craving for BBQ hamburgers - loaded of course. We invited Marg and Cat over and Marg made a very good, mouth watering birthday cake for him. After dinner they played a round of pod racing and monster rampaging on the Xbox. He told me it was a perfect birthday.

The weather this past week has been above normal temperatures and there isn't that much snow to be found in town or on the tundra. The temperatures are going back to seasonal this weekend with highs of +4'c during the day but on Monday they are forecasting highs of +11'c again. Those temperatures feel so much warmer up here than down south and most days we have the windows open and are free of any jackets. All the birds are arriving to nest and raise their young and I have put out the bird feeders for the snow buntings and for Blitz to point at.

This week we are getting ready for a Denise LeBleu Images photography show and sale plus garage sale that we are having this Saturday and Sunday. Things are priced and ready to go and it feels good to rid of things that have been sitting here for the past couple years not being used. Last week we cleaned out our closets and brought the clothes to work before bringing the bags to the Wellness Centre but much to my surprise the staff took everything and it saved me a trip to the Centre. Marg is going to join in on the fun as she has stuff that needs to go also. Saturday evening friends are coming over to help Craig celebrate his birthday.

Since I missed the physiotherapist that came up here last month, she was on the plane coming in and I was getting on that same plane going out, I am heading down to Yellowknife next week for treatment on my ankle. The doctor that seen me up here is thinking that physio may help with the lump that has formed at the surgical site. I will leave behind the husband, dogs and cat and will do a little serious grocery shopping when there. Will even try to fit in a haircut while there.

Talk soon!