Pages

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Sealift

For those of us from the south going to the grocery store and getting food or any products is easy the store orders them a truck brings them to the store and we go in and buy it.

It is not the case here in the north. All of our food and other necessities are flown in. Well most of the time. Sealift is an easy way to get a number of heavier items or bulk orders of items to the North in a cost effective manner.

Around March and April books start to appear in Northern stores across the North. These books have lists of shelf stable foods and long lasting products such as cleaning supplies and such.  The store it self makes a big order and individuals are able to as well. So you place the order in March or April and in July a ship comes floating up the Atlantic Ocean into the Arctic ocean and on to your community to deliver goods.

I knew a bit about sealift from my information session with the North West Company but to experience the first one was nothing short of an adrenalin rush!

We were anticipating our sealift on July 14thish We got notification that due to Ice in Frobisher Bay into Iqaluit the ship would be hitting Kimmirut first. So we posted our signs looking for additional staff for sealift re stacked our old sealift pop and waited. Well we got another update stating that the boat was going to Cape Dorset due to ice in our harbour. After Cape Dorset we thought that we were next ... nope the boat went on to Coral Harbour.

I had developed tendinitis about a week and a half  before sealift so I was hoping I would be better but that was not the case. I decided that I would still do my best and Sheryl said that heavy lifting would aggravate it so I was not going to be doing that.

Sunday July 15th was our confirmed date of sealift from the Captain of the ship. Sunday Morning I was awake early ( I didn't need to be awake for work until 11am) I called Sheryl to find out what our plan was going to be for the day... She had been out earlier that morning and found that the ship was docked way out around some inlets... We couldn't even see it from town which sucked because we could see the fuel tanker so clearly !

Sheryl let Me now that the barges would not be coming in until 630pm! Wow all day at work I had to answer questions " Is your boat in?" Once we closed the store Sheryl came in and asked if I wanted to go for a cruise to see where the barge was . It sucked because I  didn't have my camera to take a pic of the SHIP! We could see it from the top of the satellite hill.

Once we confirmed where the barge was Sheryl and I returned to the store I asked what my plan of attack would be for the night. She let me know I could go eat for an hour or so or if I could be back in 20 mins I could go with her to the boat launch to meet the barge. .... I will let you guess which option I picked .... That is right twenty mins later I showed up with a hoodie on , hat and bug net and my camera!

 There it the barge coming in from the ship


Its coming!

                                                               
                                                                       Almost here!


 It is here! The three blue things are sea cans it turned out that two of them were ours and they forklift them from here down to the store.

This is Gord our Grocery supervisor stacking some of the 1800 cases of Coke we got on sealift.


Seacans waiting to be unloaded


New Honda ATV's out back of my house .... I wish one of those was mine!

Sealift for me was over at 10pm.. I had to open the store and although I wasn't an active participant ( I was the gofer and made coffee) I still had fun.

Monday, July 16, 2012

If You Wait for The Weather You will Be Always Be Inside

My store manager told me the other day that if I kept waiting for the weather to be nice to go out and do things I would be inside always. We have been getting alot of icky weather here. Nothing super bad just foggy , drizzly and rainy. I know that to alot of you down"south" would be praying for some of that .( You guys can keep the humidity)

 I was off on Wednesday and decided to take Sheryl's advice and get out. My version of getting out had been walking  and I decided to walk a bit further. So I packed my bag with water ,munchies ,camera and off I set with no real plan in mind.

I am lucky that Sheryl knows what area I go exploring in in case something should happen to me she would know where to send them!

Here is where I started


This is looking out on the spot where I usually stop my walk due to the sled dogs that are out there. However they seemed not to be there today.. I did find a deceased dog  out there which was sad since it was just lying there.

After crossing over the small stream I decided that I would go up this hill and see what was up there

First Hill done. I was proud of myself  as you can see the fog is out and it semi darkish out , no rain at that time but it looked like it the whole time.

Here is the next hill ... the top is covered in fog!



Once you go up you must go down! Here is a view from the top of the hill.. You can kind of see the ATV trails, that is what I was walking on!




So far the only non carving Inuksuk I have seen semi close up  in the second picture the red hill in the upper right hand is the hill I climbed up to and then down.



Looking down on town from the top of the hill my house is the one with the white roof on the left

Half way down the very steep long hill the adrenalin was pumping I am petrified of heights!


The end of my hill.... Thank God!


So I wasn't very bloggy this week we have been very busy the past week gearing up for sealift... So guess what the next blog will be about . that is right SEALIFT!


Thursday, July 5, 2012

A Big Update and Lots of Pictures!

Ok so I failed a bit at blogging this past week. It was not because I didn't have anything interesting to blog about because I did ... I just didn't feel like blogging. We have had some great weather here and then some not so great weather. Both lead to feelings of not wanting to blog and both for very different reasons!

Last Saturday I took the day off work for my older sisters wedding.... No I did not make a trip back to New Brunswick. Through the technology guru of my sister Whitney and Skype I was able to see the entire wedding and most of the important parts of the reception!

So what does being Skyped into a wedding look like? Well when I get the pics I will show you!
It was kind of sad not being there but at the same time I was glad to miss out on the heat and humidity!

After the excitement of the wedding I went for a walk on the harbour floor while the tide was out. I wanted to take some pictures of the huge "icebergs" since we are now into WATER not ice!

Here are some of my cool shots:






I also go to take part in the Hamlet's Canada Day celebrations on July 2nd. Our original celebrations were set for the first however on June 30th they found the body of our former mayor. He had been missing since late November after not returning from a hunting trip. I am glad that his family has closure .


I took a bunch of pictures of Elders ,adults and kids alike playing games however my camera decided to eat them! I tied for 1st place in one game and got a cool set of three baskets ! Currently they are sitting on my table until I find some cool uses for them ( I am thinking sewing gear is going to be in them!)

The past three days have been very icky weather wise, cold rainy and overcast! We have not had a plane since Thursday.... However today we got a plane!!! Woot 

We also have come into Sealift season! Twice a year here in Kimmirut we get Sealifts which are barges that bring in containers of non perishable foodstufs, vehicles (ATVs and such) and anything that is shelf stable. Tonight when I came home from work I found that there was a sea barge in the harbour. It was not ours .. I don't think so anyhow I believe it is the Co-ops but still cool to take pics!

This is what sea barges look like: