April 18th

This lovely day we borrowed a snowmobile from D-, quana! Locals call them "machines". Which is accurate if vague. We drove out of town and it was beautiful.

From this self portrait you'd think I wasn't having a good time, but I merely was squinting in the bright snowy glare. :) If only I had snow goggles!

Ice fishing. Seriously Northern.

We bought snow goggles that day, so I had to try them on. :)

Fore!

We walked out to the Kugluktuk Coronation Golf Club on April 20th. The ice road on the ocean was in good shape despite the warm weather. I took tons of photos, but I shot with HDR blending in mind, and they sit unblended. Bad Steven. Here are a few single exposure captures for your viewing pleasure in the meantime.

April 17th

We're dialing the wayback machine to April 17th!

I'm not sure what my fascination is with doors. Not The Doors, though I like them too. Doors, perhaps it's not knowing what is on the other side.

This photo is here to let you know we had a heat wave in Kugluktuk this April, very few days were at the seasonal -10C, in fact quite a few went above zero!

Zoom, zoom. :D

17.6 hours of daylight!

I found this neat website today that shows you the daylight hours for your latitude.

Punch in the 67.49 for Kugluktuk and you get:

http://astro.unl.edu/classaction/animations/coordsmotion/daylighthoursexplorer.html

17.6 hours of daylight today! Getting warmer here too, was above zero yesterday and there was major slush and melting going on. The forecast for today is that it'll only go up to -1C, so we might not be as slushy today.

Until next time!

Edit:

One error above, I had dialed in May 2 as the date not April 20! So that's what we'll get then, was a bit less the week before obviously! :)

-30C won't stop us from walking out on the ice road.

Ice road truckin, Kugluktuk style! Paula stood on the median for this photograph, with the other half of the highway on her right.

Sittin on the bank of snow ...

I love photographing rusted metal.

Hides. Probably Musk Ox.

Kamatik and husky. We haven't seen one pulled by dogs, only by snowmobiles. :)

The Latest From Kugluktuk

Yup, it's true! Although Steven and I have enjoyed our time in Kugluktuk we are heading home. Unfortunately my leave request from Halifax Regional School Board has been denied. Steven and I have decided to return to Nova Scotia the first week of August. I have already started packing although we will not be bringing back most things. We'll have a huge yard sale to save on moving costs. Now we will be able to have our western road trip early. We leave Kugluktuk in early July and will travel to the Yukon, Alaska, Alberta and British Columbia for a month. We are looking forward to seeing and doing new things while we travel. Most of all we are looking forward to campfires over looking Tucker Lake and reconnecting with family and friends.

Walk to the graveyard

Look ma no parka! Paula suns herself on the Kugluktuk dock after a walk across the river to the graveyard and back. Today's high was -10C! Tropical!

Everyone is taking advantage of the holiday and nice weather. Caused a bit of a lineup at the only gas station in town.

Northern lights.

No northern lights in this one, but the light spilling from town lit this up.

After eight months in Kugluktuk with only one sighting of very faint northern lights we started to let friends know that we were on the hunt. Call us we said, no matter what time it is if you see spectacular northern lights! Last night was the night. :) We walked away from town to reduce the light pollution when we heard they were on display. It was chilly, but fun. Now I can say that I've seen the northern lights!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

Vote for your favourite egg in the comments! :D

Food mail!

This is the most requested post ever! Well, perhaps the only post ever requested ... but no need to get technical. This is (drum roll) the food mail post! In which Paula goes and gets food mail from FirstAir, and brings it home on our sled! The drama! The excitement! The danger!

Usually there's more than one box!

So, food mail (as we call it) is a government subsidized program that reduces the shipping on fresh food. The two grocery stores here in Kugluktuk don't have the best selection in the world, understandably, and sometimes the freshness is not to the level we would desire, so we order food from Yellowknife and it gets flown in. There can also be a considerable price savings on things as milk here is about $15 for 4l and it's about $6 in Yellowknife + the small shipping surcharge. So what you see above happens every week or two after we've emailed in our orders to either the Yellowknife Co-op or Extra Foods.

p.s. I admit it's not very dangerous after all ... sorry.

Ever warm!

Today's high was around -10C! Woo hoo! Parka and snowpants were left at home in favour of a "regular" winter coat and light gloves. :) Quite nice that the first of April ushered in some typical April weather for Kugluktuk.