Let's Paint the House...It Will Be Fun!

For the past couple of years we have been debating on to either paint the outside of our house or get new siding.  After looking over the pros and cons it was more cost effective to paint the house but now the dilemma is what colour as our roof is red tin.  We decided or should I say I decided on Wedgewinkle from General Paint, a blue grey colour. We are nearly complete but we still need to touch up the trim and paint the back fence.  Thankfully during this time the weather cooperated and some nights were started painting at 6pm and finished after midnight...there are more pros to Midnight Sun that one would think. It took us about 2 weeks to complete the project as there are not only slats on the top and bottom of the house but there are smaller ones in between. We had to cut in so much but in the end we are pleased with the results and so are many of our neighbours. Here's some pictures of the house.

Painting the back of the house

You can see the difference in the colour

Craig painting the final section of the garage

Painted the back gate white and getting ready to paint the landing

where we get water

Front stairs are also painted white

House & garage are completed!

The weather had been extremely hot up here and we had set some records.  +24'C up here feels so much warmer than further south due to the fact we are closer to the sun and our sun does not set so the house doesn't cool off at night. Our porch thermometer was reaching above 30'C on many occasions and the inside of our house was even higher, hate to see our electricity bill as we had 4 fans going all day and night.  Just about every day after work we brought the dogs out for a swim in one of the ponds as they too were hot. With the warm weather came the mosquitos and came they did but on the positive side it also brought out the tundra flowers.  The ground was alive with colour and this week the nuna (land) is purple with the Arctic Fireweed. 

Look closely and you can see the mosquitos

Lots of geese and ducks to point at, even if it is 

your back leg

We had a scare with Molly a few weeks ago, she swam

out chasing some geese, got disorientated and 

had a difficult time swimming back.  

I ordered a life jacket for her and now we have some peace of mind 

and she has the freedom again to swim

That's not dust on my lens but mosquitos

The Arctic Poppy

Fireweed everywhere even on the side of this cliff

I find that there are more cotton grass than last year

This pic was taken a couple of weeks ago when the 

mountain avens covered the ground

Took this a couple of days ago and as you can see

the ground is purple from the fireweed

The Arctic Fireweed up close

The vet team from Alberta was up again and saw about 125 pets.  Here is Dr. Audrey performing a spay on a dog.  It was another success and it was good to see many pet owners return with their pets for check ups and new owners bring in their pet for surgery.   Sadly Bernie and Al who had ran the vet clinic and Diamonds in the Ruff, (the rescue group) have left the community.  They will be sadly missed by all including Craig and I as we had become friends a few years back.  

Waiting patiently to see the vet 

Gorgeous Riley also waiting to see the vet for her check up

KIA - Kitikmeot Inuit Association celebrated their 40th anniversary and they couldn't of asked for a better weekend.  They combined the celebration with Nunavut Day, July 9th and the weekend was full of entertainment and great food.  People from all over the Kitikmeot Region, Nunavut and Northwest Territories come in for the celebations.

Local band EMMO played some good ole fashion country music

for the crowd.

Jessie was making bannock over an open fire, for a good portion of the day

Did I mention it was free and delicious

My beautiful friend Amy

It was good to see her out enjoying herself

I don't know how Karen and the rest of the drum dancers performed

in their fur outfits. What a great performance they put on

The gorgeous and talented Trisha performing

The weather was so hot that Kim and I decided to head to our local "car wash" to clean off some of the dirt off the Commanders.  Of course we did not use any soap - just good old fashion scrubbing with rags and a bucket.  

I think Kim got more wet than her buggy

Our friend Adrian had his family up here so a bunch of us got together for a quad ride or two.  His son and friend have never seen the beach (Long Point) so a bunch of us decided to go for a ride and enjoy a great evening of laughs and hot weather.  So hot that 5 out of 8 of us decided to go into the ice cold water and hop on a small ice float...crazy boys but it made for some great pictures. 

On top of old smokey...I mean Augustus Hills

Funny how I didn't realize that I was the only girl until 

after I looked at this pic. 

left to right: Clyde, Adrian, his son Eric, Toby

Jamie, Jim and Craig

Toby and Eric trying not to freeze their butts on a small ice float

Toby and Adrian 'surfing' the Northwest Passage

The calmness of the water, the reflections, the ice in the background,

the many colours of blue - love everything about this photo

Hmmm did Adrian make it?

Here's another evening of quadding to Mount Pelly

Kim and Doug also joined us to go fishing and guess who caught 

the only fish...

Kissing her prize

For the past 3 years I have been visiting an Arctic fox den and this year there are two pups that came out for a visit.  This den is huge and has many entrances and exists.  The pups were curious of me and the Nikon but also very skittish which is a good thing.  It started to rain and it became cold this so we didn't visit too long, would love to bring a chair and sit and wait for that perfect shot.

Miss Molly had been a bit off this past week so no pics of her in the fireweed but to end this blog entry here are a couple, one of Blitz and then one with me and my boy.  It was pretty windy that day and the mosquitos were out in full force, I had spray on but Craig did not and was getting eaten alive by the little buggers.  I couldn't resist a pic of me and Blitz with the fireweed as it is covering the land this year.

Talk soon!