The Arctic Post

I wish I had something exciting to write here. The truth is, I don’t. We’ve started to settle nicely into a routine. It’s starting to get cold, so there isn’t much to do right now. We’re still waiting for the snow to finally stay around and then we can start going out on the snow machines. Until then we’re at a standstill, unless something exciting happens in the community.

I’ve been sitting here for days trying to decide what my next post is going to be about. Up until now there’s been lots of new and exciting things going on here. Just as everything else, things just don’t seem “new and exciting” anymore. I’ve been reading quite a few northern blogs recently and they have said some really key things. Posts don’t have to be exciting. Something that now seems day to day to us, doesn’t necessarily mean the same thing to our friends and family down south. That was the #1 reason we started this post. Allow loved ones an ability to take a peek into northern life. Don’t get me wrong, we are still loving it here and are learning new things everyday. It’s just hard trying to find something of substance to write about. This post is going to be some of the day to day life we are experiencing up here.

I have to admit that the #1 thing I am enjoying up here is the routine. When we lived down south both Etienne and I worked shift work. We could go a week without seeing each other. Him on nights and me on days we would see each other between the hours of 3am -7am. Up here, i’m not working yet and he works Mon-Fri 9-5. He is home everyday for lunch and home at a decent hour for supper. We have had a lot more opportunity to spend some quality time together. There may come a day that we are screaming for our own space a little more often, but for now it really is a nice treat.

We spent Thanksgiving at our neighbors house. It was a wonderful evening spent with friends. Even though we’ve only been here for a short time, we have had the opportunity to meet some great people. I don’t know if it’s the community or just the type of people i’ve met in the past, but it seems here that you can bring a bunch of strangers into a room and everyone just settles in like they’ve known each other for a long time. There was about 10 of us in total and it was neat to see everyone walk in and introduce themselves to each other, sit down and fall into comfortable conversation. No competition, no rudeness, just people getting together to enjoy great food and great company.

Thanksgiving Monday we decided to have a lazy day. Well it started out that way until we noticed that the dogs paw was bleeding and she had bled on the couch cushion. We decided it was a good opportunity to try out our Bissell Little Green Cleaner. We haven’t used it yet, so we figured we’d try it and see how well it works. As we started to clean the cushion I decided it to take the cushions right off and just throw them all in the wash. Why do I always do that to myself? What starts off as a little project always turns into a big job! Oh well, the couches and cushions are all clean. Since we didn’t pick our furniture I can’t say much, but it does suck to have light colored furniture and a black, shedding dog! Oh the joys.

Starting to take everything apart

All apart and starting to clean

Getting ready to put it in the wash

The mess

Ahh....all done

For all of you that know me, you all know the extremes I go to in order to get my hair done. I don’t spend a lot of money on myself, the one area I do splurge on is my hair. I used to drive over 400km’s just to get my hair done! I know, it’s crazy, but I have been going to the same hairdresser for years. When you find a good hairdresser you don’t dare change. She does an amazing job and even with the cost of gas for me to drive, I still end up paying less than I would in a salon in a big city. Before I moved up here I ensured that I had everything I needed to attempt to color my own hair. My hairdresser made sure I had a cut that would grow out nicely. Since it’s been around 8 weeks since my last color, the time had come. I’ve only ever colored my own hair when I was in my teens, and it was with the wash out color you can buy from a drug store! Well this time I was coloring it with salon strength color. Needless to say  I was scared to death. I started it myself. I was able to do my roots with little difficulty. That was when my ability to do it myself ended. I called in Etienne to help me. Now this is where I wish I had been able/allowed to take a picture. He would kill me if I even thought of putting a picture of him in his underwear applying color to my hair!! Now, if you wish you can use your imagination. It was quite comical!!

Before....It's too bad you can't see the amount of grey!!

Roots done

Now time to wait

Phew....it worked!

Another thing I love about living up here in the slow paced life is the ability to cook and bake! I would cook/bake all day long if I could. Today I ended up making a Chef’s Salad for us for lunch. Then I noticed we had bananas that were on the verge of going bad, so I made some banana muffins. After that I thought i’d start dinner and then all i’d have to do it reheat it when Etienne got home. So I made homemade French Onion Soup. As I was taking out Baguettes from the freezer for the soup, I noticed we were low, so I then made a few baguettes to freeze.  I love having a plentiful supply of food in our freezer. There are still a few things I want to make to freeze for the winter. Shepherd’s pie, chicken pot pies, pizza’s, lasagna, etc. At least I have the time to do it. I just don’t know if I have enough room in the freezer!!  We really enjoy having the option of taking a meal out of the freezer and throwing it in the oven on those lazy days where you just don’t feel like cooking anything. What’s even better, is that you know it’s a home cooked meal!! It will also help for those long winter days when the planes aren’t flying and the store shelves are lacking.

We’re still waiting for our Barge order to arrive with our Polaris RZR on it. We’re starting to get a little impatient. Last we’ve heard it is due to arrive end of October. Our fingers are crossed that it arrives and nothing is frozen.

That’s all I have for now. I hope you enjoyed the read. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. Now on to Halloween Planning……

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