Old Man Winter Is On His Way

Since moving to Cambridge Bay six years ago this little town has been in a construction explosion.  We have a new hamlet building which is along the shores and there are plans to move all the older buildings in town in front of it to make a historical area.  A new Kitikmeot Inuit Association building also went up which has been fully occupied and the CHARS (Canadian High Arctic Research Station) will be completed by July 1st, 2017.  Along with these large buildings there has been an increase in housing, from single family homes to 10 plexes and of course new roads for these houses.

Below are a some pictures of the CHARS building that is still under construction.

View that is close to our house

The CHARS site also has their own housing

The front of the building - not quite finished

Another exciting thing that has happened recently is that the Norwegians have fully lifted The Maud and it's massive.  I never realized how large she is as she never looked that big when you only saw a piece of her sticking above the water.  The team removed a lot of mud that had accumulated in the rooms since she sank in 1930 and cleared out some broken wood pieces and fuel tanks.   The ship will stay above water for the winter to hopefully dry out before she is moved to her permanent home in Norway. 

This was all you saw of the Maud before they lifted her

How look at her!

You can see the metal supports on the hull for breaking ice

This cairn was built a few years back by the Norwegians

Speaking of big ships, the Sir Wilfrid Laurier is usually the 

first ship to arrive in the Bay and the last to leave.

Here she is with the helicopter heading to the airport for a shift change

Even though we are experiencing above normal temperatures you can be sure that Old Man Winter is on his way to the High Arctic.  These past few days have been cool, raining, snowing and last night the entire town had no electricity for about an hour.  Now the problem I have with cloudy skies is that the Aurora Borealis activity has been high and I can't get any pictures of them dancing in the skies.  Hopefully when the skies clear the activity will still be high.  Our sun is rising about 7:00am and setting at 6:30 and daylight has been decreasing about 2 minutes a day and soon we will be in our 24 darkness.

Blitz out for a sunset run along the beach

These two have become so close these past couple of years

and you will often find them cuddling up to each other

Enjoying a gorgeous evening on the tundra

Cool rainy days don't stop us from heading out

You know winter is on it's way when the Arctic hares 

and foxes turn white

We had some foggy days here this past week

We also had some amazing sunsets

On Sunday my little Princess Warrior and I will be flying out of Cambridge Bay and will be in Manitoba to spend some time with my mom (Granny) as she goes through her hip replacement surgery.  Craig and Blitz will join us at a later date, from there we can drive to our southern home in Arizona. I'm sure Blitz will be very lonely without his sister as he has never been alone and I am sure there will be a very happy reunion when they arrive.  At first we were going to take the fastest route to get to AZ but have decided on driving to Wyoming to spend the first night there and then to Page, AZ where we will spend an extra day exploring Monument Valley, UT.  I'm so excited to drive through the valley to take some pictures and of course to arrive in Arizona. 

Talk soon!