LeBleu Pack: Getting Caught Up

It's been over a month since my last blog posting so today is catch up day. July was busy at work as we started our annual Arctic char harvest. The first load was brought in July 9th and the last load was July 13. In this short amount of time the total weight was 12,540.5lbs. of dressed Arctic char. Our next harvest will start mid August where 3 river systems will be harvested and last for about three weeks. Here are some pics from this year's Surrey River harvest.

Annie & Alice sampling the char for Department of Fisheries & Oceans

Alice looking for the otolith

Every year I get a pic of Donna holding a char -

here's this years pic

Fine looking char!

Quitting Time

We had some elders working during harvest this year:

Annie, Annie, Mary and Margaret

Nunatsiaq News requested a pic of children enjoying their summer vacation so since we have a playground across the street I strolled over with camera in hand. The neighbourhood kids are good kids and play well together and if someone gets hurt at the playground they are all there to help wipe a tear or two. Here are some pics of the kids playing and a couple of our staff's girls.

Top row - Lindsay Marie Klengenberg, Sierra Hugluk, Zayden Klengenberg

and in the middle Paige Udlaoyak

This is the pic that Nunatsiaq News used

Cutie Pie Layla

Elaine is my buddy

This year the vets from Alberta came in July instead of August. It was right when the Surrey River harvest was happening so I couldn't volunteer as much as I would of liked. It was another successful year and Miss Molly had a suspicious looking lump removed from her left year and the good news is that is was just that...a lump. YAY!

Dr.Nessa doing surgery

If they wanted to, the owners were allowed to watch

Having some cuddle time with Kim

Some of the owners volunteered their time in the recovery department

This past Friday was the 4th Annual Polar Bear Dip and BBQ here in Cambridge Bay. The grand total raised from the BBQ and donations for recreation programming was $2,858.01. There was a total of 29 brave people taking the plunge, it is the highest turn out ever for this event. The day was a beautiful sunny day with air temperature at +17'c, water temperature +2.78'c (as per Ocean Networks Canada website) but most likely warmer by the shore, either way chilly!

Here are the crazy, I mean brave people before the dip

Brrrrr

High fives all around for the doctor and nurses

Christine after the dip...still smiling!

Lifeguard on duty

Cambridge Bay doesn't have many historic buildings, a few Northwest Company buildings around but the one that stands out across the bay where the town once was is the Old Stone Church. I have done many posting on the church but to recap it was built by Father Steinmann in 1954 and when it's doors opened it had 9 parishioners attending. In 2006 the wooden roof was destroyed by a deliberate fire. It remained without a roof until last year when a new roof was constructed and the stone siding was stabilized. The original stonework was constructed using seal oil and sand as the mortar and you can't tell where they repaired it. This year a steel roof was put on and when looking at old photos the green is pretty much the same colour as the original. Below are three pics of what the church looked like upon my arrival to CamBay and what it looks like now.

Roof missing and some stone had fallen

Last year's picture with the stone work completed and

the beginnings of a roof

New roof this year.

Last weekend Marg and I spent the day together and did some quadding around. We ended up zigging instead of zagging and I am happy that we did. We came across this old building along the shore and Marg thought it was an old medical centre for the Rangers. After I posted the pics on Facebook and put the question out there, this cabin belonged to the late Alan Ayak. Even though it is locked you can still look in the windows and one room has a bed still made in it and the other has some furnishings. I think it's a great little cabin and find.

The late Alan Ayak's cabin

The outhouse

Stone crosses on the property

This one was to the left of the cabin and on the way to the outhouse

Fishing is on the top of everyone's list during the summer months and we are making the best of it. Whether it's heading to the bottom of Mount Pelly to catch some lakers with Jim & Cathy or a short drive across the bay for some cod fishing we enjoy the fishing and spending time with friends. Adrian has a paddle board up here and he took Craig and Les to the floating dock by the Maud where the cod was plenty. We feasted on fish, both lake trout and cod the following night. There is nothing and I mean nothing like fresh fish to eat.

A little colour selection and playing around with editing this photo of

Adrian coming in on his paddle board

Off goes Craig with Adrian to the floating dock

and Les also

Craig caught a monster cod from the floating dock

Craig, Les and Adrian fishing by the Maud.

As you can see they are preparing the Maud to be lifted this year.

Brent caught an ugly sculpin

See you on the other side of the bay Adrian!

Our sun is finally setting with the sunrise about 3am and setting around 11pm. We have also been having some amazing weather about +17'c temps for a few days - not bad as our normal for this time of year is +11'c. The ice melt is late this year but what can you expect when the freeze was about a month early last year and hardly any snow this past winter. Along with the nice weather we had some amazing days of fog and one evening a rare Arctic thunderstorm which lasted and lasted.

This pic of Molly was taken in a favorite stream before the thunderstorm

Same stream, just the following day after the storm

Foggy on the bay

Even in the thick fog he found a caribou antler

and out of the fog came a huge seal

Zuleika & Hoopa's boys out on the ice floats fishing

Coming back to shore

Besides fishing on our free time we also have to take care of the well being of our dogs. What better way to make a water/bird dog happy...well you take them to the water. Here's some fun photos.