Sunday, August 24, 2014

Busy Little Bay

I apologise for not doing a entry for a couple of weeks but as the old saying goes "time flies when you are having fun".  Diamonds in the Ruff raised enough money to bring in the vet team again this year, the team consisted of 4 vets and a super AHT.  It ran for 3 days and they saw many dogs, cats and even a bunny and some guinea pigs.  We also had a couple of our pets in, Molly for some blood work and Mocha has a large mass removed.  The vets suspect cancer again as it was basically in the same spot as last year's removal.  We will wait for the pathology reports to come back, in the meantime Blitz will make sure she is well looked after. It's great that these caring individuals donate their time to come to remote areas to help out people with their pets as our closest vet is a 2 hour flight away.  It's a service that our community really appreciates and look forward to.  They left on Wednesday so the night before we all got together for a BBQ to toast on a successful clinic again this year.
 
Me waking up little Lexi from her spay

Norma and Joan doing a great job checking in clients

Al holding a dog while Connie prepped him for his neuter

Joan, far right watching her man become less of a man

Dr. Susan even had a chance to check out this young girls
pet poodle (stuffed dog)

Love this: community coming together, vet prepping the pet for surgery
while our MD holds the dog. 

He had to be the cutest patient

Kayuk after his neuter

Blitz looking after Mocha
 
Celebrating a successful vet clinic at Grant & Fiona's cabin

Lovely facilities

How do you chill your white wine?

Perfect view from the deck

Norma and Craig

This boat was on the shore - I took out all colour but blue
 
 
We are in full swing of our fall Arctic char harvest and our 3 fishers from 30 Mile brought in over 9,000lbs. of dressed char in two days.  It is probably a record with the company.  They were so fast that I didn't get a chance to fly to the camp this year.  The Nunavut Arts Festival has been in Cambridge Bay all week but I haven't had a chance to head over and see the artists and their crafts.  Maybe tomorrow I will be able to get away and see everyone's work. 
 
I took some time off and headed out with the dogs on Thursday as the evening weather was calm and beautiful.  Perfect evening for a romp on the tundra.  Both Blitz and I heard a fox near by and after scoping out the land he saw it before I did.  He behaved himself and didn't go across the pond to get closer.  I misbehaved and running the dogs I headed towards the fox with the dogs safely in the truck.  Much to my surprise I came across a large fox den with two Arctic foxes, one went into the den but the other one was very curious of me. 
 
Molly & Blitz

Look what I found!  A caribou antler that was about 90% buried

She knows how to relax

Blitz has never done this before - checking on his cat
who was sleeping below him

Just part of the Arctic fox den

Changing colours from brown to white



 
The Prime Minister was in town again this weekend, arriving on Friday and leaving on Saturday after making some announcements regarding CHARS, Canadian High Arctic Research Station that is being built in Cambridge Bay. He caught Marg and I looking at him and waved us over to get our pictures with him again this year, still waiting for it to be emailed from the PMO.  Marg tried to photo bomb one of the security guys but he saw her and was happy to get his pic with her.  Really nice guy and a good sport.  I opened up the plant last night for the remaining security and RCMP officers that wanted to purchase some Arctic char, everyone that I met were very nice and seemed to be happy to head back home to Ottawa.
 
Steven Harper and his team

Marg with one of the security guys
 
Last night was gorgeous out and some of our friends and us decided to head to the beach with our dogs.  We were just about there and came across Marg and her quad which was majorly over heating.  We waited there with her until Wayne, her husband, came to the rescue.  They told us to go ahead and that they will meet us there.  Sadly out of 9 of us and 5 dogs only 5 of us made it to the beach and 3 dogs.  Bernie and Al also over heated and never made it.  Thankfully everyone made it home safe and sound but we were sad that half of our party didn't make it to the beach. 
 
It was a calm, quiet evening and the tide was very low.  Jim and Cathy had their little dog Ginger with them and she at first told Blitz who was the boss.  He seemed smitten with the little one and I think he has a new blonde girlfriend. 
 

Blitz and Molly sitting pretty on a rock

You can barely see Ginger but she is there and I think she thought
she was a pointer last night. So very cute.

Colours of plants are starting to change to fall

Very low tide at Long Point

A lot of rocks were exposed

More plants changing colour

Blitz enjoying all of the scents of low tide
Photo taken about 10pm
 
Since I was up today about 6:30am (don't ask me why) I decided to call our local tour director for the cruise ships to see if she needed another driver today as there was our first cruise ship coming in.  I have never worked during cruise ship season as I am usually too busy with the char harvest but I was not needed today.  I had a blast being a tour guide and driver today and met people from all over the world including Australia, England, Norway, Germany, USA and of course Canada.  I ended up shuttling 22 people to Old Town and back.  It was a very interesting day and so glad that I did it.  Here's a pic of the ship that came in.
 
 
Talk soon!  

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Spending Time with Friends

If you are from the south living up north you sometimes experience homesickness.  These past couple of weeks were like that for me so I thought the one way to help is to get together with friends and this past Saturday we had our first pizza party.  There were about a dozen of us and we all took turns making pizzas, we had your classic meat lovers, chicken with spinach and feta, bacon cheese burger and our now signature Mt. Pelly Pizza. Matilde whom we met last year is back again this year doing research on our muskox and it just so happens she is from Italy.  Needless to say at one point she kicked Craig out of the kitchen and took over making the dough.   To top off the night the guitars came out and Matilde, JS, Les and Craig took turns entertaining us.  Here is a pic of Matilde and Les admiring Craig and JS.

  
Sunday we did our get together with the Cathy and Jim to do some fishing.  It has been a couple of weeks since our last fishing day trip with them as the weather had been crappy.  It was still a cloudy and windy day but it wasn't raining for a change so off we went. We drove to the end of the DEW Line road and then onto a trail of rocks, marsh and bumpy ground. The ride was rough at the end and I jarred my shoulder so I didn't do any fishing and left it to Cathy to show the boys how it's done.  She did not disappoint and she was the only one that caught a fish, 4 lb. lake trout.
 
Cathy with the catch of the day

Jim, Craig and Cathy (on her lucky rock)

The boy discussing the fine details of fishing

Part of the shoreline

 
Arctic Willow along the shore


This video is a 360' tour of our fishing spot
 
Last Friday the ladies from work and I went around to give our fish heads to some of the elders.  One of the coolest things about living up here is that you just never know what you may stumble upon.  We came across Bessie and her daughter Eva cleaning seal skins with their ulu.
 


 
After I took the dogs out for their tundra romp last night we drove behind the DEW line road to take some picture of the Arctic cotton grass.  They are in full bloom and some places look like snow on the ground as there is so much of the cotton.  Arctic cotton grass grows throughout the northern hemisphere and arctic tundra in acidic bog habitats.  The white fluffy cotton was used for 'down' and is a food source for snow geese and caribou. 
 



Sometimes it's the simplest things that make me smile

One of my favorite spots to sit and watch the world go by

Yup, those are my co-pilots

Lemming hunting at it's best


Catching some Arctic sunshine

My Yin-Yang
 
Talk soon!