Etienne phoned the pastor in town to find out where some good trails were. He said that he’d come out with us and show us around the area. We met up with him and his son out at their place around 7:30 this evening He took his quad and his son drove his dirt bike. Things started out great. He took us out to a spot on the river that was awesome. From there we drove out a little farther down the river. We ended up on the shore in some really nice sand. We decided to drive around to feel the quad out and see what is was capable of. Things were going really well. We stopped and Etienne let me drive for a while. Well it wasn’t too long before I got the darn thing stuck! That’s right, and stuck well! After a few minutes the pastor found us and we were able to winch it out, thankfully! It took quite a bit of force to get us unstuck. Just as we were finally getting it out we started to notice quite a bit of smoke coming out….Then the smell hit us…..So we blew a belt. The pastor figured if we drove it in low gear, we’d be able to hobble it back to at least the road where the owners of the UFA live. We only made it a few hundred feet when the belt went completely.  From there he towed us to the point where we had to climb a hill. Then we hooked our Winch up to a tree and slowly pulled ourselves up the hill. From there we got to get towed all the way back to the highway where we stopped at the UFA owners place. Thank goodness for nice people. The couple let us leave our quad at their place for the night until Etienne could get a new belt tomorrow and go back to fix it.

While we were at the UFA owners’ house, the wife told me to go and cut some Sunflowers to take home. I took this opportunity to finally have Etienne give me flowers. Yes, that’s right, he’s never bought/given me flowers. It was great to receive flowers from him, and to see him actually work for it!! I received a wonderful boquet from him.

Unfortunately we didn’t take a camera with us, we didn’t think that there would be anything worthy of taking pictures of. Wow, were we wrong!! Lesson learned, always bring your camera with you. The pastor did take a bunch of pictures/video and I will post them as soon we get them.

So the countdown is on. Both of us have worked our last days in Valleyview. The movers come on Monday. 6 more sleeps till movers arrive and 9 more sleeps until we land in Chesterfield……We’re getting excited…..

Stay tuned for pictures….

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I have to give them credit for the effort, however, I did end up finding out about it. Below is the short version of events (in chronological order) that helped me figure out what was going on:

1. Asked by staff member what weekends Etienne and I were free in August.
2. Asked by (same) staff member if there was anyone within the organziation that I “didn’t like”
3. In order for them to get a hold of Etienne, they had to go through me. So I would get messages such as “I need Etienne to call me to let me know what information he’s found out”
4. I asked Etienne where the party was going to be. He stated “I may or may not have offered our house”!! Yes, we ended up hosting the party!
5. Received email stating that we were going to have a “family” picture taken on August 5th.
6. Approached by a different staff member stating that they are in fact having a party for me and asked me to help create my own guest list.
7. (Accidently) Received email from organizers stating that there was a card in one of the lockers. I replied asking if they wanted me to sign the card? lol
8. (Accidently) Received yet another email with the invitation to my party!

So I don’t know about you, but they really left little to be a surprise!! None the less, it really was a great time! They did a wonderful job planning the party. It’s the thought that counts, and I appreciate all the planning and work they put into it.

It is all really starting to become very real now! This is going to be the hardest move i’ve had to make in life. I have made some wonderful friends here and I will miss them all!!

The Group. Unfortunately a few people had left by this point. At least we got a group photo!

This is half of the cake...I didn't get a picture of the full thing before everyone dug in....It was a pretty cool cake!

I finally got a picture of the entire cake...Thanks Ann-Marie

My Gigantic card they gave me.....Although they took it back at the end of the night....Apparently there's more signatures to come!!

Here are all the photos

[View with PicLens]

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I have to admit there were quite a few bottles/tetrapaks/milk cartons.

22 Milk cartons (there’s not too many because it just started to be returnable)
72 Tetrapaks
253 Cans
128 Beer cans (Most of them graciously offered by my ex-neighbor, he didn’t want to count them before moving in July)
47 plastic bottles
47 Glass bottles

The day before we wanted to bring the bottles, we were at the vet getting Cisco her vaccines and decided to go by the bottle depot to check the hours. It’s opened Wednesday to Saturday 10:00 to 15:00. Saturday comes, we load all the bottles in the truck, drive to the bottle depot just to stare at a big spray painted sign saying “Saturday: Bottle Depot Closed” Couldn’t they have the sign up at least a day in advance??? So we drove back home and unloaded the bottles just to start all over again later in the week…

The joys of moving…. I’m grateful that Carly did that while I was working

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Not really the title I was going for, but I kinda lost that battle! lol

So as you can see from the title, we have officially sold our house. The papers were signed today. The moving company also came today to do an estimate on the weight we are moving. It is all starting to happen so fast! The movers will be here on the 24th to pack. They will load on the 25th. The 26th we will do some cleaning and we will drive to Edmonton that afternoon. On the morning of the 27th, we will fly from Edmonton to Winnipeg. On the 28th, after what will be a very short nights sleep, we will fly out of Winnipeg at 0720. This means we will probably need to be at the airport at 0400!! We will need a few hours to get ourselves checked in with our oversize luggage, dog/kennel, etc.

Our flight from Winnipeg to Chesterfield Inlet is the farthest thing from a direct flight. Our itinerary is as follows:

0720 – Winnipeg to Churchill

1045 – Churchill to Arviat

1150 – Arviat to Rankin Inlet

1300 – Rankin Inlet to Baker Lake

1430 – Baker Lake to Chesterfield Inlet

We will land in Chesterfield Inlet at 1515! Wow, what a long day.

I’m hoping the weather will be nice and that we will be able to get some really nice pictures of the communities we will be stopping in on our way to Chesterfield.

We have never flown with the dog before. This could turn into a very interesting adventure. Currently she doesn’t travel well in a vehicle. We usually end up giving her gravol so our vehicle doesn’t get completely full of slober. We bought a new kennel for her, and she seems to like it. So hopefully she does well with flying! Although she doesn’t really have a choice as she will be doing it for the next two years.

The countdown is officially on…..Less than 3 weeks to go!!

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We are very excited to get this up north and to take it for a test drive in it’s new home!!

Etienne is looking to “Name” it….. any suggestions?? So far he’s got…… “The Wheel Mobile” “The Icemobile” “The Arcticmobile” As you can see from his ideas, he’s not very creative  … We are looking for something a little more exciting.  If you have any suggestions, leave a comment….. Etienne says the winner will receive a sample of our very first snow fall in the far far north!!!

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We have finally got the “go ahead” to move through the process.  We have our consultation next week. This is when we will find out exactly what we need to do. What we are entitled to during the move and what we aren’t. After this happens, we will have our house assessed then we can sell. Once we sell, things will move very quickly. Approximately two weeks after the sale is official, the movers will come. Now, normally I would say this is the easiest part of the move. Technically we don’t lift a finger. The movers come, pack, load and transport our belongings to point “B”. Because we are moving up north and can’t take everything with us, we have to divide our stuff in 3 piles:

1. Storage
2. Move up North
3. What will fly with us

Once our belongings leave here, they will be driven to Winnipeg, Manitoba. From there, they will load a plane and fly to us. I have just recently found out from the Corporal up there that their belongings took 90 days to reach them!! That’s right, I have to live 3 months with almost NOTHING!!! We will pack enough in our suitcases to live until then. This includes: linens, food, pot/pan, a few dishes, etc. OH MY GOD!! I keep telling myself that this is ALL part of the adventure of living in the far north. I’m sure we will survive. We aren’t the first people to go through this, and we definitely won’t be the last. I will be sure to take lots of books and cross-stitching with me.

I have almost finished our barge order. I am scared to see the grand total! Download our Barge Order and let us know what you think and if you notice any deficiencies, let us know.

I found a blog created by a couple that moved up North. Their story sounds very similar to ours. Young couple with a dog. He’s an RCMP member and they moved from a large center to a small community up north. I have been totally addicted to reading three years worth of blogs from them. Sometimes I think it was a good idea to find out a little bit more of exactly what we are getting ourselves into, and sometimes I’m scared to death to think we are going to probably go through very similar experiences as them. Such examples are:

• Running out of water: The water and sewer will be trucked to and from our house. So when the town is out of water, so are we!
• Bad weather conditions: Days can go by where planes cannot fly. This means no-one gets food orders. People can’t get in or out of the community for days at a time.

We have officially purchased a Polaris RZR. We also purchased a few accessories as well. Who said you can’t travel in style while up there? We bought a full cab enclosure and heater. Yes, this means we will be able to tour the land protected and warm! I can’t wait! This will replace our current vehicles. I will be sure to get a picture or two of me “driving in style” to and from work.

That’s it for now….

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While we are waiting for the entire process of selling our house to truly start, we have been slowly starting to organize our lives.

First off, we have a weight restriction on the amount of items we can move up north with us. I do believe it is something around 4500 lbs. We do not need to bring big furniture items such as; couches, beds, dressers, appliances, etc. We do need to move all kitchen items. This includes all dishes, pots, pans, small appliances (blender, toaster, kettle, coffee pot), baking sheets, etc. This also includes all entertainment items such as; TV’s, computers, Nintendo Wii, etc. We have started going through the house and trying to sort what we want to move with us, store for 2 years, throw away and/or sell. How do you go through all your belongings and decide what you are going to need for the next two years, and what you can put into storage until we move out of the north? It has definitely been a challenge. We still have a long way to go before we are anywhere close to being finished.

Next item on our list is preparing for our Barge order.  We will order our food for a year and then it will arrive by boat this fall. There are two grocery stores (Co-Op, Northern Store) but food/items are very expensive up there. The barge order will only contain all of our non-perishable items such as; cans of soup, crackers, spices, condiments, rice, pasta, cereal, etc. We have currently taken an inventory of all the items we currently have in our house and will go through the recipes we use all the time and will hopefully have a complete grocery order. We also need to order enough food/supplies for our dog. On this barge order we can have virtually anything and everything we want shipped up there. Currently we have also planned to order a few other items on our barge order. These include large items that would not be easily moved up there via plane. We will need a “dog run” for our dog. It’s not necessarily to prevent her from running away, but protect her from other animals up there. There are quite a few sled dogs in the small communities up north and they are not friendly, socialized dogs. There also has been history of Polar bears wondering into town. We are hoping to find something that is a decent size for her to be able to walk around a bit and do her business. We are also going to purchase a treadmill and have it sent up with our Barge order. We will probably order a computer desk as well. We will need a mode of transportation for me to go to and from work (when I find a job). We have decided that an ATV type of machine will be the best for us up there. There is no need to have a vehicle up there, so this will become our primary mode of transportation for the next two years! I am totally excited to be up there and receive our barge order. It will be like Christmas x 100!

I’m sure you’re all wondering what about all of our “fresh” food? Winnipeg is our closest point of departure. We will probably have an overnight layover in Winnipeg on our way up there. We will purchase a couple of coolers and will buy our meat there. Once we are up there we will be able to order “food mail”. This comes by Canada post and we can order regularly. It is still cheaper to order this way than it is to buy local. Worst case scenario, we will be able to purchase items locally. When Etienne was in Grise Fiord a couple of years ago, he was told that what they usually do is subsidize the “healthy” food and increase the price on “junk” food. This allows the essentials (milk, fruit, vegetables) to be a little more reasonable. According to the Corporals’ wife, who is currently living in Chseterfield Inlet, told us that a twelve pack of pop is $30. What we have also planned to do is purchase a couple of “Aerogardens” This will allow us to grow some lettuce, tomatoes and herbs in our house.

And the adventure continues… !

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Believe it or not, we really didn’t discuss it for long before we knew that we wanted to do it. We looked at it as an opportunity of a lifetime and wanted to take advantage of it. Of course, the fact that after we spent the next 2 years up there, we are 99.9% guaranteed to transfer the posting of our choice, helped a little in the decision making. So in a nutshell, it is a small term pain for long term gain.

Once he returned the email with his acceptance, he requested a list of the communities that were currently vacant. We agreed that if there were no communities on that list he wanted to work in, we would not go. There were two communities available and out of the two, we decided we would move to Chesterfield Inlet.

During our trip to Montreal in April/May, Etienne received an email with the “official offer of transfer” paperwork. This was very exciting and scary all at the same time. With this offer came conditions. These included a dental, medical and psychological portion. We both had to have a dental assessment to ensure that we had no outstanding issues. I was required to have my family doctor sign off a medical clearance form stating that I was medically well enough to live in an isolated community. Etienne was required to do a more in-depth medical with the RCMPs physician. We then went together to the RCMP Psychologist to ensure we were emotionally/psychologically stable enough to live in such an isolated environment. Obviously we passed all with flying colors!

In the beginning of June we received the “Official transfer” paperwork. We are currently waiting at this stage. Once we get the “go ahead” we will be able to list/sell our house. Then come the movers to pack and load our belongings. We will then officially say Good-Bye to Valleyview and Hello to Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut.

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