1st week of March, an Igloo tour and Feel you Inukness

Hi All

Check out this you tube. It's been the talk of CBC North and is guaranteed to make you smile. Enjoy.

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It's been a few days past a month since the moving van loaded up my stuff in Tofino and this week I learned that my belongings have arrived in Ottawa. This is actually not bad. One of my co-workers waited for 3 months. The most challenging legs lay ahead so I'm not going to get my hopes up. My duffle bags took 2 weeks from Ottawa.

I'm very busy at work learning the intricacies of the purchasing process as fiscal year-end approaches. No field work this week. Theo, the CO here really wanted to get to Hall Beach, 50km away to attend to some work matters. I was hoping to go with him and maybe lay eyes on my new snow machine. It's waiting in storage at the co-op for me. The forecast for the week was in the mid -30s throughout but they are not able to predict windchill more than 1-2 days ahead. Theo said "if it warms up to warmer than -40 maybe we'll go for it". Every day the wind came up and plunged the temps to -45 to -52. The last hope day it wasn't too bad here but hit -60 in Hall Beach so that took care of that week.

The dramatic events of this past week involved a polar bear and a wolf. Arviat is down the coast from us on the western shore of Hudson Bay. In recent years it has proven to be a hotspot for polar bears. For my purchasing, the Arviat COs have requested many times more hazing rounds than anywhere else. The polar bears right now are supposed to be out on the sea ice hunting their preferred prey, seals well away from villages. Unexpectedly a young male showed up in Arviat and didn't leave again. The details will be following shortly. The bear encountered some young children right in town and was shot outside a house.

The other wildlife news has been reports of tracks and one possible sighting of a wolf around Igloolik. I asked Theo when the last time there were wolves around town. He thought for a moment and said it was a while ago. Specifically it was 1979 when a pack arrived in town and started killing dogs. 3 were shot.

Time will tell if there is a wolf around. I hope for it's sake it has continued travelling. Wolf fur is prized for parka trim.

As I write this there is quite a raucus of dogs howling and yipping in the dark. There is a team staked outside of town near our street. The most likely explanation is that their owner has shown up to feed them. I don't know the way the dogs normally bark but apparently they bark differently when wildlife is stirring them up. They've gone quiet now. If it was something odd, I'm sure I'll hear from Theo tomorrow.

Yesterday I went for a ramble for a couple of hours on the tundra close to town. Town itself always seems to be buzzing with activity, even late into the night. There are always snow machines zipping around, kids out playing road hockey, people walking to from the Co-op or Northern Store. As soon as you step out of town though you are suddenly in this immense, stark, open landscape. I wandered around for quite a while with no one else in sight out of town. Finally 2 people showed up. I was up on Cemetary Hill, the view is great up there and they appeared coming in from the direction of the sea ice driving snow machines and towing qamutiiks. Despite fresh arctic fox tracks everywhere, I couldn't spot a one. I glassed for a few minutes but needed to keep moving to stay warm. On my way down the hill I came across a strange looking snow drift which turned out to be an igloo of many colours. Check out the picture.

I've posted the pictures I took this past week as albums 5 and 6. You can see them by clicking on the Flickr Photostream link on the side of the blog page. I checked out 2 other igloos that are beside the High School. The High School is named after Theo's great-grandmother who is known for amongst other things, her survival skills including one tale of successfully fending off a pack of wolves. She was alone in an igloo with a pack trying to dig through the walls. As the opening grew she went after them with her ulu and after injuring several they decide to go elsewhere. He told some other hair raising stories about his great grandmother that I won't go into here but they are part of the lore in this region.

Beside the school are 2 igloos. One is very large and unfortunately when I went by the entrance was sealed off. Reportedly on the inside it is set up just how it would be for a family including sleeping benches covered with skins, a seal oil lamp and other camping equipment. The students and any resident are encouraged to sign up and spend a night in the igloo. I'm going to check into it once my camping gear shows up from Ottawa.

Some of the other pictures are from a night with a full moon, a morning of thick ice fog, a visit to the office by a family of local carvers, an evening where a family went by pushing/pulling a qamutiiq heavily loaded with furniture, some pics of the remains of 2 giant arctic beasts and finally some shots from my living room window.

Twice I've taken the excellent camera I received as a gift out on my walks. The only way I can use the camera is to keep the battery inside my parka and then quickly take off my gloves and pop it in to quickly get some shots before the cold kills the battery. Not the easiest arrangement so I will keep it indoors until warmer weather arrrives. My small camera I can keep inside my oversized skidoo glove which works well.

 That's all for this week. Have a good one and stay warm.

Bob