Well, yesterday, Chester finally had their first ship. I know it seems silly to be so excited about a ship, but it is really cool to see something so big so close to town. We could see it from our back door. I took advantage of low tide and went out with the dog and took a few pictures of the ship while it was here. This ship came from Montreal and was mostly bringing supplies to the Northern Store.

We have heard rumor that the barge with our stuff on it should be here close to mid-August. I look forward to that getting here. I’m very thankful that it shouldn’t hit below freezing at that time, so our pop hopefully won’t freeze and explode all over our bathroom again! I really don’t want to relive that experience a second time!! If you would like to relive that experience, you can read it here.

You can see the two Tugs

Getting ready to start unloading

Coming into shore

Share on Facebook

I wasn’t too worried as we were walking in water that was a bit deep. I figured it was just water that splashed into my boot making my heel feel a tad damp. After we got back in the house, I took my foot out and sure enough it was wet. We thought that was odd, so we looked at my boot and guess what?? There was a crack in it!!! Needless to say, I was a little disappointed. I love those boots!

Since the boots weren’t cheap, we figured there had to be a warranty on them. Sure enough, there was a 1 year warranty and it was still good for a couple more days. Etienne phoned the store that we bought them from and they said that there was actually a recall on the boots. I won’t bore you with the long story, and all the phone calls we made, and the different stores and people we had to talk to. The final verdict was that yes, the boots had been recalled. They have redesigned the model and currently they don’t have women’s sizes. My feet are too small and they don’t make a man’s boot small enough to fit me! BOOO!! So now I have to find a different brand of boot. I don’t think I’m going to find something that I love as much as my lovely red boots!! Anyone have any suggestions on a heavy duty rubber boot? Has to be warm to -40ºc. We haven’t started our hunt just yet, I’m still going through the grieving process! lol.

So, Good-Bye Red Boots!!

Share on Facebook

This past weekend we were able to head out to first lake and just sit and relax for a bit. Surprisingly enough, there were no mosquitos buzzing around our heads. The dog had a good time swimming and checking things out.

Visiting.....

There seemed to be a lot of planes in the sky

We saw these around first lake

Yes, I even let Christy have a turn at driving our Honda

First Lake

We also drove around and showed her the “sights”. The pictures below are a few of the things we stopped to look at.

Stopped at this Inukshuk for a few pictures

Hanging out apparently....

Just a little snow left....This was the only place that I have seen snow still around.

On our drive we stopped to wait for Etienne and Cisco to catch up. While we were waiting I noticed all the flowers that were on the side of the road. Over that last little while a lot of flowers have started growing more and more. On todays drive the purple flowers were lining the side of the road. It made the drive really pretty. There are so many different types of flowers around. I have no idea what most of them are called, I just know they are pretty.

All of them

On sunday we decided to pack a few things up and drive out to first lake again to do a little fishing. We were unpleasantly surprised when we showed up and the mosquitos were swarming the area. We figured we could tough it out and just ignore them. Etienne got a chance to do a little fishing while Christy and I played fetch with Cisco. Eventually we had enough of the mosquitos and packed it in. It was still nice to be able to get out of the house.

Playtime

Playing fetch

Fishing....

We stayed in one evening and played a game that she brought for us. Even though we had a “cheater” in our group, it was still a lot of fun. Who’s ever heard of a “rare disease” called “sockitis”???? lol. (Glen/Ana, you know anything about that?).

The game we played....

My turn....

Christy's turn

Even Cisco got to play a little

A friend of ours gave us an Arctic Char a little while ago. I froze it and kept it for when Christy was here. She really enjoys fish and has never had Char before. We found a really good recipe for Papillote of Arctic Char. It was full of yummy goodness….tomatoes, spinach, onions, garlic, lime, oregano…etc…..Etienne did a really good job of filleting it for us. We had two good size fillets to cook up. It was more than enough for the three of us. I forgot to take a picture of the fillets. Sorry.

The fish pre-filleting

Finished product....Sorry the picture isn't very good

Today I took Christy out to a few place so she could get a few more pictures. Leave it to us to wait until the last minute to go and get back into town driving on fumes and 15 minutes left until we had to take her to the airport. Oh well, we made it in plenty of time.

Thanks again for making the long trip up to visit us Christy! We loved having you here and hope you enjoyed yourself!

Share on Facebook

Share on Facebook

Here are a few pictures of the Arctic fox, as well as a few pictures we took while driving around.

The first Fox that we saw

One of the little guys....

Share on Facebook

Today we discovered that our dog loves climbing. Every ice chunk she saw she wanted to jump on it. A few she was even able to climb up and down. She also spent quite a bit of time swimming and chasing birds. I’m so excited now that I can take her out behind the house and let her run and swim. I’m also looking forward to taking a chair and book out with me and just relax in the afternoon. We took over 300 pictures today….and we were able to narrow it down to just over 20. I tried to narrow it down even more, but just couldn’t do it. So you’re going to get to see the top 21 pictures of today! I also compressed a bunch of photos and converted it into a (very short) movie. It’s of Cisco climbing up and down the icebergs. It’s the last image on this post. I hope you enjoy

The view as we started to head out....

The below picture we took at high tide late this afternoon. As you can see the water is as high as the icebergs. Some of them have appeared to float away. It’ll be interesting to see if they’re around tomorrow our not.

Just a small one, but the dog still loves the ice!!

So pretty!!

Queen of the castle!

Cant. Quite. Reach. Her!

I could hang out here all day!

What a view, I can see everything!

Swimming, trying to catch a bird

Jumping up

So cool!! You can see the land and water in the droplet!

She's learning how to pose for the camera!

Share on Facebook

Share on Facebook

For christmas this year, Etienne bought me the book “Red Serge Wives”.  I started reading it a short while back. To my surprise the story of the RCMP wife was in the book! It was really neat to read about the entire story. I have included an excerpt from the book…..

“….Perhaps the greatest tragedy of all concerning women of the Force was the death of Maggie Clay. No tribute to R.C.M.P. wives would be complete without her story. It is most succintly recorded in the Annual Report of the Commissioner of the R.C.M.P. for the year ending September 30, 1925.

“At Chesterfield Inlet, the principal event of the year was a most tragic one, the death of Mrs. Clay, wife of Staff-Sergeant S. G. Clay, in consequence of an attack by dogs. The circumstances of this misadventure, which emphasizes the dangers attending life in these inhospitable latitudes, were distressing in every particular. Staff-Sargeant Clay, who was in charge of the detachment, had left on a long patrol to the Thelon River.  On September 19, 1924, Mrs. Clay was moving about the settlement which comprised a mission station, our detachment and a trader’s establishment; people who were at a little distance suddenly noticed that the dogs were worrying something. The beasts were driven off and Mrs. Clay was found, shockingly injured. It is conjectured that one of the dogs, snapping at her in play, drew blood and that thereupon, the whole pack set upon her. The injuries inflicted included such severe lacerations of one leg that the few white men in the settlement – a priest, a non-commissioned officer, a constable of the Force and a trader – had to face the dreadful responsibility of deciding, in the absence of her husband, to amputate. This was done with Mrs. Clay’s full consent but she sank under the shock and died on September 21″

“In April, 1925, a special ceremony was held in the R.C.M.P. chapel, Regina, when the unveiling of a tablet in honour of Mrs. Clay took place in view of one hundred officers and constables of the Regina staff. Wife of Sgt.-Major Fowell, Regina, unveiled the brass tablet which tells how Mrs. Clay met her death. St. Paul’s church choir led the singing and the historic little chapel was beautifully decorated with the flowers. Visitors today to Chesterfield Inlet can see there a three piece black granite monument erected on the grave of Maggie Clay with funds subscribed by members of the Force from coast to coast.

Below is a picture of Maggie from the book.

A picture of Mrs. Clay from the book

Since the snow is finally gone, Etienne and I took a drive to the grave site to take a few pictures. Below is what we were able to take.

There are also 2 graves at Cape Fullerton, which was the original location for the RCMP Detachment in this area. We haven’t had a chance to see them. If you want to see more about these sites, or other RCMP gravesite, you can visit this website.

Share on Facebook

Share on Facebook

I promise you that I took this picture this morning just before 11am! If you are wondering, yes, that is ice on the bay! I know that up here it takes longer for the ice to break up, melt and disappear for another season, but really, July and it’s still around? I can’t say that I’m not a little jealous when I read posts like this one – If you look at the date, that was back in June! There is also this one – They already had a fuel ship visit their community. There definitely aren’t any ships coming here in the near future. Oh, I almost forgot about this one – Another fuel ship that arrived back in June. These were from communities that are all farther north than us – Pangnirtung, Cape Dorset and Iqaluit.  Lindsay wrote this post about Kugaaruk and it makes me feel a little bit better – There is still ice around!  Every morning I look out to see if it is still lingering around. I’m anxious to see when it will actually disappear. We’ve heard that the first barge is due to arrive at the end of this month? Will the ice be gone by then? lol. I guess time will tell.

Share on Facebook