Bye Bye Birdie...er...Baker

12 hours.

Looking back at Baker form the lake

New Beginnings

It is with mixed emotions that we write this post because it feels like it is too soon in coming. It seems like just a short while ago that we arrived in Baker Lake with all the time in the world ahead of us. Alas, we have been here for just about 2 years and with that, our time here has come to an end.

When we decided to come north, we were so excited at the adventure that lay ahead of us...and Baker did not disappoint. We have made some amazing friendships and have grown a northern family that will forever be in our lives. We were welcomed into this small but overwhelmingly friendly community with open arms and open hearts - something that we will never forget. We had adventures, we made memories - and more importantly, we shared our lives, and lives were shared with us.

The next couple of posts will be us wrapping things up, reminiscing and saying our goodbyes. What will become of this blog, you ask? Well, we will leave it up for comments and questions - and will monitor the email address (nunavutchillers at gmail dot com) because we feel it is important to help others moving to the north as much as they need. We know it was difficult to find current/"live" blogs when we were researching, and we want to keep that line of communication open for whoever needs it.

As the sun sets on this chapter of our lives and we await the rising of the moon for our next adventure, we want to say thank you for joining us on this journey and for being as supportive of us as we navigated these (frozen) waters. We hope you enjoyed our time together - because we certainly did! Who knows, maybe our next adventure will lead to more tales...the world is our oyster!

Full moon over a semi-frozen Baker Lake - June 13,2014

Love,
Lily, Jeff & Pepper

The Bachelor Life

At the end of our last post, Lily mentioned our posting schedule was going to be intermittent. This is a nice way of saying she was going to the Iqaluit office for a week, and the likelihood that I would remember to post every few days was low. Well, here it is a week later, and I'm finally getting around to it, so good call, honey. 

With Lily away on business, Pepper and I have been relish...sorry, suffering the freedom that only males can fully appreciate. In all honesty, Pepper seems happy enough, but at night, he watches out the window, expecting Lily to come home, and finally gives up each night with a sigh and comes to bed. Other than the part about looking out the window, my routine is pretty similar. We keep in touch by phone usually once a day or so, but it's not the same. 

I'm proud to say that there are no dishes stacked in the sink, and the laundry is folded and put away. This may seem fairly trivial to some of you, but believe me, these are bigger steps than you can appreciate. They shouldn't be, but they are, for now. ;-p

Lily and I recently committed to only eating what we had in our pantry or fridge/freezer, and only buying perishables like dairy and vegetables. On account of this, Pepper and I have been suffering through steak for a few days (the horror!). He seems not to mind as much, because he's a trooper. I just looked over at him for confirmation, and he yawned, which is dog-speak for many things, including "That's right, Jeff!". 

This week has been a lot of cleaning, organizing, and job-hunting (now that school's out, I'm unemployed), and planning ways to make my wife happy (the penguin, walrus, sea lion, monkey, and pony are all on order). Seriously, we can't watch any more films with animals in them, because if they're cute, she wants one. It looks like I'll be better off just buying Marineland and African Lion Safari, and it would certainly be easier than trying to find space for those animals in our house. 

Lily will be back in a few days, and both Pepper and I will be better for it. Come home soon and safely honey. We miss you. 

-J & P

Further to that....

Lily mentioned in our last post that Spring in Baker Lake isn't all fun.
Allow me to add my 2 cents on the subject.

We have regaled everyone with numerous tales of Mother Nature's fury up here, blizzards, whiteouts, etc. You would think then, that as extreme as winter is in Baker Lake, everyone is breathing sighs of relief now that spring is finally here. Not so.

To give you some perspective, I spent a year living in Uganda back in 2000. When I arrived, it was the wet season. It sucked. I prayed for the dry season to arrive. When it finally did....I prayed for the wet season to return. Now, Uganda's climate is a little harsher than Nunavut's, and at the almost opposite end of the temperature spectrum. Still, I understand why winter is so popular here. First, it's the longest season by a wide margin. Ergo, if you don't want to be angry all the time, you need to, if not openly embrace, then at least tolerate 8-9 months of often mind-numbingly, we-are-crazy-to-have-moved-to-such-an-inhospitable-place cold weather.

Also, as Lily mentioned, there are bugs in the summer. Seriously, we get maybe a month of summer, and most of it is plagued with a cloud of stinging insects. It's like Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, in insect form. I've camped in Northern Ontario in the summer, and that was pretty bad - almost a four on the Baker Lake scale.

Lastly, as Lily also mentioned: MUD. There are no paved roads here, the grading is inconsistent, and April didn't bring us showers, but nothing flower-like rhymes with "deluge". Last night it felt like a giant big bad wolf was trying to blow our house down (luckily, we used brick), and this morning, the roads were like rivers.

Despite all of this, it's nice to break out the windbreaker, and pack the thermal underwear away for another few months, until winter slaps us in the face again, likely by the end of September. Crazy.

-J

PS - our posting schedule is going to be a little less regular for the next while, but we promise to check in at least once a week. Thanks for your understanding!