February Flies By

It has been a pretty fast moving month.  The daylight has returned with a gusto which has made the walk to school that much better.  The sun is rising around 7am and we have civil twilight when we leave the school around 5pm.  Pretty soon I'm going to have to break out the sunglasses full time.

Just because the sun is back does not mean it has gotten any warmer.  In fact we've had a cold spell the last couple of weeks that has kept the temperature in the mid to late -50s.  We had a quasi snow storm a few weeks ago where the wind was so bad that all of my effort was spent on walking home and none of my effort was spent on readjusting my knee warmer which resulted in some good old fashioned frost bite on my knee :s  As you can see, there is a marked difference between where my knee warmer was and where is definitely wasn't.  

 Don't worry, kids! It didn't turn black, nor did my leg fall off.  It is still slightly discoloured, however... hopefully that will auto correct before bathingsuit season...

My friend Kelly (a coworker from Qikiqtarjuaq) asked me to snipe some specific food prices for a slide show that she was putting together.  I found some pretty good ones and figured I'd post them because my food prices blog has had the most views therefore implying that people get a kick out of it. So enjoy!

February 18th-22nd was Professional Improvement Week.  Kelli (my coworker and housemate) and I paid a couple of elders to teach us how to make kamiks (traditional footwear).  I opted to make mine out of tanned caribou/reindeer.  The pictures are out of order and I don't feel like fighting with the formatting.  I still have to embroider one of the liners but that would mean that I'd have to take them off long enough to do that... which I don't see happening anytime soon.  Stay tuned for pictures of Kelli's kamiks... she went with redfox which make hers look incredible!

Carvings and alterations!

I've been asked to post some pictures of my most recent carving acquisitions so here are the large polar bear and the large muskox.  I put a toonie next to them so you have an idea of their relative size.  Both carvings are by the same artist,  Leo Kamookak. This is the first time I've seen him carve a bear in the black stone.  There are hints of green throughout.   

 Now that the extreme cold has arrived here in Gjoa, I've had to make an alteration to my super parka.  I love Canada Goose.  Up here, it's practically the uniform.  They make quality products and charge prices that match.  My Mystique parka was perfect...until I had to walk into the wind at -50... Then, my parka hood was almost useless. As purchased, my parka's hood came with wire in the ruff.  The wire works to control how close the hood fits around your face.  HOWEVER, the wire is useless when walking into the wind and IT SUCKS when walking into the FREEZING COLD wind.  I had to take a skate lace, cut it in half and hand sew it onto my hood using sinew in order to fasten it under my chin. TA DA! Cheap fix on an expensive purchase.  Knowing me, I'm sure you've already guessed that I wrote Canada Goose a letter suggesting that they make these alterations.  I will let you know what the result of the letter is :)  If this whole teaching thing doesn't pan out, I should just freelance writing letters of complaint...
I'm still fighting with the formatting on this blog...maybe that can be my next letter...

Darkness really isn't so bad... Nigel's boots have reflectors

As I was putting Nigel's boots on I realized that I didn't post a picture!  He doesn't love them but he doesn't actively protest against them. His hind paws seem to be most sensitive to the cold so every so often I only put the boots on his back paws just to demonstrate to him how useful the booties can be.  It's hilarious to watch because in the house he flops his feet around like someone walking in flippers but as soon as we get outside he scampers around like a puppy; completely oblivious to the boots.

The northern lights were faint tonight and the picture that follows was taken with a much better camera on Qikiqtarjuaq.  But we've seen wonderful lights like these here in Gjoa Haven.  It's exciting because the sun is at its high point in the 11 year cycle which means bigger, better, more awesome lights than have been seen in this last decade... too bad I don't have the SLR or skill to take more pictures.

Polar Bears don't eat berries

I spent a few days in Yellowknife on my way back to Gjoa.  It was strangely easy travelling without 6 extra large bags and a dog crate. So easy I almost missed my flight in Edmonton because I was so not worried that I got sucked into the book I was reading and stopped listening to the announcements :s

Tammy met me at the airport and was equally frustrated in my defense for the lack of food provided on the Air  Canada flight.  Lack of food was actually the title of chapter 4 in my complaint letter.

 Yellowknife was actually quite warm hovering under -20 and I walked down to the main street from Rat Lake.  New Years day, the only thing open was Shoppers Drug Mart (of course!) so I took off my coat (because I was sweating) and spent an hour wandering around the makeup department. The only things I picked up were a box of Kleenex, a bridal mag (yay Melanie!) and some huge raisin oatmeal breakfast cookies (yay me! hahaha).   

I treated Tammy to dinner at The Explorer Hotel.  That's where we met my new friend, Big P.  I got a bit of cut-eye from the desk staff while we were taking these photos but once they realized I wasn't going to climb the bear all was right with the world once more.
Gail, Heather, Tammy and I closed the restaurant with hilarious stories and dessert.  Thanks for the great night ladies! I highly recommend the elk steak medium rare. 

Here comes the dark...

Fall behind made the darkness all that more real.  It now gets dark here in Gjoa Haven by 3pm.  It's pretty incredible how it doesn't phase the kids in the least.  It's only strange to me and the other southern people.  We lose about 10 minutes of sunshine a day building up to total darkness on December 21st.  
 

And from there we start gaining 10 minutes of sunlight a day until June 21st.  I'm not having any trouble waking up (yet) and sleeping for me has never really been a problem. The only thing that gets me is that in my mind darkness=late so I have to continually convince myself that I didn't lose 6 hours and yes, in fact it is only 3pm.

Nigel's dog socks make him sassy!

The past few weeks we've been well below the friendly negative temperature numbers here in Gjoa Haven. Instead we've landed smack dab in the -20s and -30s.  Today it was -38 which with my super parka, I'm well equipped for BUT poor Nigel, my international man of mystery, struggles in.  On very cold mornings it is only a few minutes out in the snow before he starts to limp and look at me pitifully.  It breaks my whole heart even thinking about him suffering.  So, to combat this issue, I made him a dog coat.

I cut a few buttons off a spring coat and used them as fasteners for the neck and belly strap.  The materials itself is faux lamb inside and a microfiber swede outside.  You can't see it in this pic but I even sewed a turned out collar.  

The major issue currently, though, is his cold feet.  Until his doggy booty Muttluks get here in the mail (thanks mom!) the socks will have to do.  I've switched from mismatched white socks because in preliminary trials the lost socks were impossible to find in the snow... Special thanks go out to Melanie E for the cupcake socks that practically glow in the dark because they have made sock retrieval ever better.  So far so good!

Now, Nigel the dog may look defeated in this picture but not five minutes later he frolicked outside without a limp or a whimper and I think that's fantastic.

Carvings :)

Here are my two carvings :) I have feelers out among the carvers and they know to bring me their latest and greatest carvings.

Seal Hunter

Muskox (soap stone with bone horns)