Just Because

I really do not have much new to tell you since yesterday except that I did my duty and voted today. I did get some photos that I wanted to share with you. Some of the sunrise this morning and some of the sunset.  Lovin' these Arctic skies this time of year.

 

I was heading to work and had to stop and take a few pictures of the sunrise this morning

This is the first gravesite at the old cemetery - all crosses are made of wood

This is cool - an ice sculpture made from the ice that blew onto the shore this past weekend

Some more ice along the shore at sunset

Now you wouldn't catch me on the ice at this time of year. 

The RCMP actually had a talk with this guy when we come to shore.

 

One of the sad realities of living here are the danger that Arctic foxes can pose on people and their pets.  I seen the by-law officer shoot a couple of these beautiful animals today because someone left a full seal carcass along the shoreline and the foxes came in to feed.  I have such mixed feelings as I understand the danger of transmitting rabies but they are the ones that die because of human error.  I seen many Arctic foxes today, either on the ice of the bay or at the dump.  Here are a couple of the pictures taken today.

 

This guy was at the dump looking for some food

This one came out of one of the wrecks at the metal dump and was curious of me.

 

I leave you with a couple more pictures of a canine that has a much better life then the foxes.  Blitz, when tired will find a pillow or cushion and curl up on it, not beside it but on it.

Talk soon!

Weekend of Firsts

This weekend had a few firsts for me.  I made 52 jars of air freshener gels for the first time, why 52 jars you say?  I will be selling them at the Annual Christmas Bazaar along with some of my pictures, books and greeting cards.  My friend Ruth who is a school teacher had a box full of empty baby food jars in her classroom that needed to find a new home and I just happen to be looking for them. I purchased some essential oils online and with a little bit of magic these little jars will now fill your room with wonderful smells of lemon grass, woodlands, bamboo & teak, scotch pine, etc. for 4 - 6 weeks.

 

An example of my air freshener gels

 

Yesterday morning I held the first dog obedience class in Cambridge Bay and most likely in Nunavut.  I was a bit nervous before the class begun but once there and after meeting these great dogs I just did what comes naturally for me.  I must admit I was pleasantly surprise with the amount of people that were interested in bring their dog to class.  I was missing one of the students and her dog so no pictures this week but I promise the next time I post I will show you everyone.  Before class I did a couple of vaccines and nail trims for $20.00 each and along with that money and some of the money for registration I donated it Diamonds in the Ruff.  Nunatsiaq News Online wants me to send her a picture of everyone with their dogs and after the election (which is up here tomorrow) she would like to do a phone interview with me so I am very excited about that. 

 

After class I took the dogs out for a drive while I shot a couple of pictures of the sun dogs that were out.  For those of you that don't know the sun dogs come out when the temperatures are brisk and by brisk I mean it was -27'c wind chill.  I know Sandy wants to hear about our weather so here it is: today the winds are picking up to 60kms and with that our temps will feel like -29'c. Good news is that the sun is shining and the skies are blue.  Tuesday the clouds are supposed to roll in and that means that the temperatures should rise.  Our sun rose today about 9:00am and is now setting at 4:30pm.

My co-pilot Molly was a bit intense today

Sundogs

This cross is on the top of the hill at one of our graveyards

This is the view from the top of the hill

 

The last first for me came last night when Craig & I attended his dart league Halloween Dance.  Since we were madly in love with the show Breaking Bad, Craig decided that we need to go as Walter and Jesse. It was a great turn out and just about everyone dressed up.  There were prizes for the best costumes and by 2am we were home in our beds.  Here's a few pictures of some of the costumes people had on.

 

Cuteness at it's best

John dressed as Aunt Jemima - so funny!

Michelle had the best costume last night in my opinion - I didn't even recognize her

Your door greeters - Cathy & Jim

Love at first bite

Jordan won a prize for the scariest

Here we are as Breaking Bad

Talk soon!

Landed Safely

We landed back in Cambridge Bay last Tuesday but not without some excitement.  We were about 10 minutes out of Yellowknife and I was just dozing off to get some shut eye and all of a sudden there was a huge bang and then silence a couple of seconds later.  No one screamed or panicked and the flight attendants never said anything. Craig and I noticed that the plane was not going any higher and was turning around and within no time the pilot was on the intercom.  He stated very calmly that they had to shut down engine #2 and that we were heading back to Yellowknife.  Landing was a bit touchy as you can imagine landing with only one engine but the pilot and co-pilot did a great job with landing as smoothly as they could.  We were met by a couple of fire engines and after the firemen checked the plane we taxied back to the airport. 

The management of First Air met the 6 of us at the gate to make sure we were all OK.  At this point no one was sure if we were going to switch planes or stay in Yellowknife for the night and get on a plane the following day.  First Air did a great job in making sure we were all taken care of with vouchers for food and to apply to our next flight.  I was a bit worried about our dogs and they made sure that once it was safe the crew arranged for all three to come into the terminal.  Lucky for us First Air arranged for us to leave a few hours later and I can't say enough how well the team at First Air looked after their two and four legged passengers.

Here are a couple of pictures of the escort that we received on the runway - not great pictures as it was taken with my Blackberry.

Here come the rescue trucks

Plane stopped and waited for the firemen to make sure everything is clear

Landed safely in Yellowknife

We left Manitoba with temperatures sitting at or close to +20'c to a high about -5'c here in Cambridge Bay.  Even though I felt the colder temperatures we are still above normal for this time of year, temperatures usually sit on average of -11'c. Besides the temperatures I really noticed the daylight hours are becoming less and less.  The sun rose today at 8:38am and the sun set was at 54:52pm and soon we will experience 24 darkness for about 6 weeks.  The bay is starting to freeze but there is still open water on it and on the Northwest Passage.

Ice starting to form on the Bay

Only a small open area left on Freshwater Creek

More ice forming on the Bay

The old Northern dock

Large waves brought the ice to the shore yesterday

Sunset on the bay yesterday

The community received confirmation from our mayor that the Loran Tower will be demolished this year.  Here is her message to the community:

"Nav Canada explained that the Loran Tower is structurally unsound and it is unsafe in its current state, therefore, they are going to demolish the tower by the end of October 2013. They fear is that if there is a heavy snow fall or high winds the tower may collapse and cause considerable damage or injury to people or property nearby. They estimates that it would cost in excess of one million dollars to make the old tower structurally sound.

A replacement tower will be erected in the exact same spot and that should be completed by the end of November 2014. The new tower will be 160 feet high, with a flashing beacon on top which will be visible from a considerable distance and will serve as a navigational aid for people travelling on the land."

The Loran Tower is 620 feet tall and was built as a free standing lattice tower in 1947/48 for the Loran transmissions.  It will be sad to see it demolished but for the safety of the community it has to be destroyed. 

Loran Tower at Cambridge Bay

With temperatures dropping the Shorthairs are becoming more and more cuddly.  There isn't a moment where you wake up during the night and not have either Molly or Blitz or both snuggled beside you.  I'm seriously thinking that a king sized bed should be in our future.  Since Hannah has been on her new medication for her focal seizures I can count on one hand how many she has had in the past couple of weeks.  She is drinking more and today she had an accident in the hallway....thankfully we have a steam cleaner (another reason why I hate carpet). Her Hock Socks are back on as she is stumbling more these days and was doing a bit of damage to her hocks.  These were another great investment.

This is what they looked like after breakfast and potty break this morning.

Talk soon!

Thanksgiving Weekend 2013

We left Lac du Bonnet  on Wednesday to head to Carman with a stop in Winnipeg for a couple more vet appointments.  Before we left Lac du Bonnet we received a gorgeous view of the sunrise and the morning mist on the lake.

 

 

The first one was for Miss Molly for acupuncture with Dr. Hamilton then off to Birchwood Animal Hospital to see Dr. Preston to discuss putting Hannah on anti-seizure medication.  I am pleased to report that Hannah has had no real seizures to speak of since taking the medication.  She is still stumbling but that is due to her crappy spine.  She literally fell out of the truck today and landed on her chin - she is ok but has a scrap on her chin and her right front ankle is a bit sore.  Blitz didn't want to be left out so we headed to Selkirk on Thursday for him to donate blood.  This is his 5th donation and he received a bronze pin and charm for his collar.

 

My mom had to put down her 15 year old cat about a month ago and a week ago she adopted a 2 year old tabby with white female named Paige from Pembina Valley Human Society.  She is tiny and very cute and of course Blitz tried his hardest to make friends with her.  She wasn't scared of the dogs and came closer to them when they were sleeping to get a sniff.  My mom's neighbour had a 650lb pumpkin so I thought it would be a good photo opportunity to get a picture of the dogs beside it.

 

Hannah beside the maple tree

Blitz, Miss Molly and the pumpkin

 

Paige - Mom's new addition

One of mom's loaded apple trees

Maple leaves

 

Our Thanksgiving weekend started off with a visit with my childhood friend Angie and her partner John in Carman.  We spent a few hours at her home and of course many laughs were shared.  Saturday Craig, my mom and I all headed back to Winnipeg to Craig's sister for a good ole fashion LeBleu Thanksgiving dinner.  Craig's brother Ken, his wife Andrea and their daughter Jade are also in from Florida so the whole family was together.  Mom's side of the family were also there along with Todd's parents.  It was good to see everyone and to top off a great dinner, Craig's cousin Aynsley and her wife Tara announced that they were going to have a baby.  I can't believe how tall all of our niece and nephews are and it was sad to leave them all behind. Here are a few highlights of the LeBleu dinner.

 

Our moms

Craig and Andrea

Uncle Craig trying to braid Jade's hair

Andrea, Spencer, Jade, me and Todd

 

Today was an early day, waking up at 6am and then on the road by 8am.  We arrived in Edmonton safely tonight, fed the dogs, ordered room service and just relaxed. Tomorrow we will meet my brother Mike and hang out for a few hours and then off to bed early as we have an early flight the following day back home to Cambridge Bay.

 

 

Talk soon!

Another Beautiful Manitoba Fall Day

It was a slow moving morning here in Lac du Bonnet today and Dad made us his famous pancakes to help us get moving.  We had plans to head to Pinawa to take some pictures of the scenery and to try to get a 'family' pic for our annual Christmas card.  The weather has been unbelievable for the 8th of October with temperatures hitting +19'C today.

 

After an afternoon of hiking and taking pictures we decided to head to the Pinawa Golf Clubhouse for dinner.  It was still nice enough outside that we sat on the patio to eat. Who knew at this time of year in Manitoba that we would be eating outside on a patio.

 

I'm happy that we decided to head to Manitoba as fall is my favorite time of year.  This is our last night in Lac du Bonnet with Craig's parents, tomorrow we will head back to Winnipeg for lunch with friends and then to a couple of vet appointment. The first one is for Molly with Dr. Hamilton for some acupuncture and then to see Dr. Preston to discuss putting Hannah on anti seizure medications.  We are hoping to meet up with the Finch boys for dinner and then back to my mom's for a couple of days. Craig's brother and family from Florida will be arriving here on Friday and we will all meet up at his sister's home on Saturday for an early Thanksgiving dinner.  We then leave Manitoba early Sunday morning for the long drive back to Edmonton for a couple of days before we fly back home to the snow.

 

The pictures today are from our hike at Pinawa and the beautiful fall colours.

 

 

 

We were suppose to cross this suspension bridge but Hannah had nothing to do with it

A lonely maple leaf

Part of our path

Craig's parents with the old girls - Hannah and Molly

 

The view this evening from Mom & Dad's dock

 View from the neighbour's

 

Good night from Lac du Bonnet

 

Talk soon!