Barge 101

It's that time of year again and no it's not Christmas.  It's barge season!  Due to some unforeseen ice on the ocean this year the barges were late coming to Cambridge Bay.  On Saturday the barge from Hay River, NT came in and we had our new truck for work on it.  We still can't drive it as we need to wait for the insurance from our head office in Rankin Inlet and then we head over to our local licencing office to get a plate.  So for now it sits and waits for us.

 

On Sunday the barge from Montreal came in - our barge - and our 3 crates were delivered to our garage yesterday.  This same barge had all of the Northern Store supplies on it, which included not only grocery items but also some vehicles.  The Northern warehouses are in our neighbourhood so we seen loads of action with large machines bringing in the sea cans full of goodies. 

 

As for us, we place the order in March and we see the items delivered in September.  As the years go by I don't get too worked up about doing the order, I kinda know now how much toilet paper we go through in a year...do you?  haha  It's still fun and a surprise when the crates are opened as it's been about 6 months since I've placed the order and you forget what exactly you ordered.  I couldn't get the dog or cat food up this year due to so many complications in Montreal so for the next year we will have to fly in the dog food and whenever we are south we will load up on cat food.

 

Craig and I had started to unload the crates about 5pm and finished about 9pm and of course we had the dogs' help.  Lots of organizing and unpacking but it's done and we don't have to walk over boxes of items. Below are some pics of the crates and some of the places we store items in the house, we also store in the garage.  We use every space available and then some so store our items and you have to be a bit creative at times.

 

Our 3 crates and our 3 dogs

Molly claimed this one

Blitz really wants to help Craig

One of our 'barge' rooms

Every space it used: from above our closet

To inside our closet

 

It was fun putting things away but I am so glad that we can close this book for another year.

 

Talk soon!

Back to the normal...whatever that is.

From mid August to mid September you can say that I am a bit busy at work.  This year was no exception - actually a little busier than normal. Because of the warm weather mid August the Arctic char run at 30 Mile was late so it over lapped with Ekaluk River and then Ekaluk River over lapped with Jayco Lake.  The weather started to become colder and the float planes were starting to freeze so we ended this year's harvest on September 11th.  Our quota for the four river systems is 93,684lbs of dressed whole Arctic char and we harvested 87,431lbs or 93.13% of our quota.  We are very pleased with this year's harvest and we shipped out a lot of fresh fish all over Canada and to the United States.

 

My fish buddies, Les, Jean Sebastian and Chris have left for another year and my coffee breaks are so much quieter with them gone.  Before they left we had a going away dinner and then a party at our home.  Of course there was music and the ladies had more fun than the men this time around.  I blame it on the Sour Puss and the Chocolate Martinis...or was it the red wine?  Whatever it was, fun was had by everyone and I hope we sent the boys off with some fond memories.

 

I ordered a new pair of booties for Blitz as it is well known how hard he is on his feet and after surgery I didn't want him to rip or slice his feet up again.  They are pretty high tech  and look more like a space boot than anything.  We have tested them out and this is the first pair of boots that actually stay on the boy as he run circles around me on the tundra. 

 

Here's Blitz with his new booties on

Close up view of the new shoes

Miss Molly

Hannah Banana

Blitz before the new boots - wearing old pair

He found an Arctic fox hiding in here

They will pretty much do as I ask

 

I celebrated a couple of things this past week.  Monday was my third year anniversary of living in the Canadian high Arctic.  Some days it feels like I have been here forever, I guess it's because many people have welcomed me into the community.  On Wednesday I celebrated my birthday and Craig told me it's one of the special birthdays that we have. He is a numbers guy and he said that my birthday is special along with these: 25th, 36th, 49th, 64th and 81st.  Wonder how many of you will figure this one out.  Next year I plan on being some where warm and exotic for my birthday - who's coming?

 

The sun finally showed it's face on Wednesday, it has been cloudy here for weeks.  I don't mind the cold weather as long as the sun is shining but we have been experiencing clouds, fog, snow and sleet.  I would rather it be colder during this time of year as when it rains and the temps are warmer we have mud and I can't wait until the temps fall and the mud freezes.  The sun is not getting out of bed as early as it used to, rising at 6:34am today and said good night at 7:13pm.  We have until November 30th before the sun will set for a couple of months.

 

Thin layer of ice on this pond

Snow on the ground, taken from our living room window - nothing has really stayed for good

Shoreline of Cambridge Bay

Freshwater Creek starting to freeze up

Another view of Freshwater Creek

 

Love the bright red fall colours of the Arctic

Not a great close up but this is where the red comes from

Baby Pelly now has snow

Inuksuk on the side of the road

 

The waters are starting to freeze but we still haven't seen our barge order come in.  It is delayed due to some ice on the Arctic Ocean/Northwest Passage.  It is suppose to arrive on Sunday and there is another one from Hay River (ours is from Montreal) coming tomorrow.  There has been the fuel tanker here for about a week giving us our heating and vehicle fuel for the year and I believed it left here on Wednesday.  No sooner it left and we said hello again to CCG Sir Wilfred Laurier.  Today I had the opportunity to shoot the coast guard in action - taking out their garbage.  Below pics show how the CCG takes their garbage out.

 

Takin' out the garbage in style

and away it goes

Careful now

They had 3 crew members at the dump to accept and unload the load - how cool is that?

The fuel tanker/barge that took a week to unload our fuel for the year

Don't know who this crazy looking boat belongs to but it was only here for a day or two.

 

One of my best birthday presents I received was that the two lonely muskox that were hanging around in the summer are now back close to town.  By close I mean you could walk to see them, they have been hanging around the float base for a week now.  After work on Tuesday I shot them at dusk as the moon full and the skies were clear.  Then I headed back after work on Wednesday to get up close and personal with them (well not too close).  I called Marg to come and join the fun and I ended up staying there for over two hours.  These handsome gentlemen don't seem threatened by anyone and I really enjoyed my time spent with them  I don't know if they are gentlemen and I'm not getting close enough to find out.  I just think they are two old bachelors hanging out together.  Hope you enjoy some of the pics - I did take over 250 pics of them so I can't share them all with you but here are a few of my favorites.

The bachelors having a moonlight snack

One eye on me

 

The remaining were taken the following day after work

He walked across the road in front of Marg and I

 

 

Something caught this guy's nose

So relaxed he rested while I was there

 

 

Tonight Craig has gone to set up for a fundraising dinner and dance being held tomorrow night to help raise funds for Diamonds in the Ruff and for our local food bank.  Latitude 69, the band Craig plays with has donated their time and talent again for this event.  It's a county theme evening and we will see how many people will dress for the night.  The closest thing to country I will be wearing is a pair of jeans. haha 

 

Tonight I leave you with a picture of Blitz sleeping on the couch...

 

Talk soon!