Ahhh A Day Off!

Well after 13 days of working some long hours I finally had a day off today.  Peter is the manager at the abattoir and he decided to take the day off from the harvest and I wasn't going to complain.  The harvest could be better but the muskox are far from town, we are up to 100 animals so far.  It would be nice to get to 200 even though our quota is 400 we would be happy with half that.  Tomorrow is again an early start for me at 7:30am where I meet the boys at the abattoir and then fill them up with gasoline.

For those of you who know me I really don't sleep in and I was up by 8:00 this morning doing stuff around the house as Craig slept.  We headed out onto the ice road which opened up about a week ago.  I wanted to take some pictures of the igloos that where made at the end of the road.  It was a beautiful sunny day here in the Bay but the temperature was cold and I see that this week will be the same.  We did bring the dogs with us and before we went on the ice road we took them for a bit of a run.  Needless to say all three of them have been fast asleep since we got home, just got up to eat and back down again.  

Not much to tell you this evening, just wanted to post some pictures of the boys and our day on the ice road.

Talk soon!

Me and the boys

Howard and Shawn waiting for gasoline

The line up for gasoline every morning

Colin our lead hunter

I think this is Shawn heading out

And they're off towards the sun

Darcy and George, a couple of our haulers

Colin and Stephen fixing a komatik

The always smiling Roy

Kyle another hauler

This sail boat is not going anywhere

Neither is this one

Many boats docked this winter

The largest boat at our main dock

Cool snow formations heading out on the ice road

The largest igloo made this past couple of weeks

Of course Craig had to explore

Another one

This one was a little different than the rest

A snow inukshuk

Fishing anyone?

The view from the igloos

One of our largest snow banks in town, this one is located on Okpik Street










A couple of trucks snowbound



Muskox Harvest 2012 is underway

Our annual muskox harvest was supposed to begin on the 17th but due to poor weather it was delayed by two days.  The next couple of days went well but again today the harvest wasn't a go due to poor visibility. I have been busy running around getting supplies for our hunters, haulers, our abattoir plus doing my normal duties at the plant...putting in 12 hour days, give or take.  My day starts at about 7:30am to fill the hunters/hauler's snowmachines with gasoline, then head to the abattoir to check with them to make sure they are ready to receive the muskox, then back to the plant, then back to the abattoir when the hunters return, then...well you get the idea.  I love harvest time, whether it be muskox or Arctic char, call me insane but I love the craziness of harvest time.

We started processing yesterday and the dogs had a treat tonight when I brought home muskox meat scraps for them.  I had their full attention as I cut and boiled the meat, they are not used to eating raw so their systems can not handle it but they sure can handle the cooked meat.  I even had the cat's attention.  In the end I ended up with 1/2 dozen large freezer bags and I will continue with this until the end of harvest.  We store the bags outside in an action packer - the best freezer ever!

Today I have included pictures from the harvest, starting with how the skies (sun) looked like the first day the guys went out on the land.

Talk soon!

Getting ready to head out

Shawn ready to go

Collin our lead hunter

Kevin checking his komatik

Kevin heading out

Coming back from the hunt

Cassandra watching them bring in the muskox

Another komatik full

 Shawn and Ronnie, a couple of our haulers

Abattoir workers

Busy abattoir

CFIA inspector doing the final check

Happy Shorthairs with a belly full of muskox

Good Weekend

We started the weekend festivities a bit early as Blitz celebrated his 3rd birthday on the 9th.  Craig and I made some Carrot & Cheese Muffins for the dogs and they smelled good enough to eat.  I think Blitz partied too much as the following day he was hungover. ha ha

The temperatures turned for the better this weekend and I could finally get the dogs out for more than half and hour on Saturday.  The temperature was sitting around -18'c and the sun was out.  I took them to the golf course and the dogs had tons of fun running and hunting and we probably spent a good hour and a half there.  I came across some tracks while out and was thinking they were too big to be a dog's as they were twice as big as our dog's prints.  Our hunters mentioned this week that there is a pack of wolves close to town so it had me curious as to whether these were wolf tracks.  

Would of loved to spend more time outside but we were having Marg & Wayne and Sheila & Jim over for dinner. Everyone arrived around 5:30pm and we had a great evening with friends.  I actually thought a Valentine's dinner was in order so the night before we made, for the first time a red velvet cake.  Red velvet cake was our wedding cake and one of my favorites and it wasn't that hard to make.

Today I had a wonderful surprise, I received flowers from Craig.  Not just any flowers but fresh flowers.  See we do not have a florist up here so if you want flowers you have to get them flown in.  It's a great treat to have flowers in the house. 

Talk soon!

Blitz helping make his birthday muffins

The end result - dogs loved them

Blitz enjoying a good run

My 'bunny-hopping' yellow lab Hannah

Once a Shorthair Pointer always a Shorthair Pointer (noticed the point even when sitting)

I wished I had a tape measure for this paw print - likely a wolf print

Again doing a pointer thing - pointing at some raw hides

The table dressed for dinner and everyone got their own little Valentine treat

My Valentine's flowers from my Sweetie

Blizzard Gods are Dancing

We had another blizzard which started yesterday and has ended while I write this blog entry.  I didn't go into work today as the town was shut down but may go in this afternoon.  By the sound of it many of Nunavut communities got hit by this system as our head office in Rankin Inlet was closed yesterday and most likely today.

I booked an appointment to get another tattoo while we have a short stopover in Winnipeg.  I am going to the same studio that did my back piece, different artist but same place.  Ivy is a fantastic artist and I am so excited to get a tattoo from her.  You can check out her work at http://www.ivygowen.com  As most of you know my back piece is of 'The Girls' paw prints so now it's Blitz's turn to get his paw on me.  I am planning on getting it on my right wrist with his name 'Ballroom Blitz' around it.  Today I am searching through the font website that Ivy sent me, picking out 3 of my favorite fonts. 

Today's pics are our view from one of our windows this morning and what the dogs do while we experience a blizzard.

Our view during the blizzard

This is what the Shorthairs do during the storm

And this is what Hannah does