Where did the time go?

My, how time flies.

Hamlet Week: Dog Races

Last week was hamlet week in Baker, and there were plenty of scheduled games and activities for the community. One of the big events was a 3-day dog race out on the lake towards a point about 30 minutes away from town. To win, the team with the best combined time over the 3 days got first place. I believe the time difference between the 1st and 2nd teams were a mere six seconds!

I went down with a friend and her kids, and we had fun watching them take off. Teams left at two minute intervals and it was neat to see the different kinds of dogs running.

It was a beautiful evening when we got to the lake, and plenty of people were already there to see the teams set up.

The lake was actually pretty slushy since it's been warm-ish, which made it hard to run, I imagine. But the dogs seemed to be in good spirits and they were eager to get going!

Listen closely to the kids talking in the background. The little one keeps insisting they are reindeer racing, and her brother is trying to explain that they are doggies. My goodness, the cuteness while surrounded by children and puppies...it was almost too much to handle!

Jeff: On the Land

Earlier this week, I received a pleasant surprise - an invitation to go on a land trip! I realize that may sound a little strange to some of you, so let me explain.

Road to Nowhere

It seems as though every community in Nunavut has a road to nowhere - basically where the last of the roads end before they stopped making more road. In Baker, our road to nowhere is about a 30 minute drive from the house, and it ends at the Bridge to Nowhere. Someone told me what the bridge was built for, but I honestly can't remember right now. It literally is a bridge that leads to...nowhere. The road ends on the side of it, so it's simply a bridge over a river that doesn't let you go anywhere.

Fire!

I was struggling to come up with an idea for today's blog post, but luckily for me, one just fell in my lap. I was sitting on the couch with Pepper when he started barking furiously at the ruckus outside our window; I thought it was another parade for one reason or another since I heard a lot of vehicles and sirens. Then I started to smell smoke and thought, "that's different." Still didn't think anything of it until Pepper's incessant barking made me realize that the noises weren't going anywhere, and they seemed to have stopped.

I looked out the front window and noticed that there was a lot of commotion across the street - the fire truck was there (hooked up to the water truck), the RCMP was there, and at least a dozen trucks, ATV's and people stopped at the end of the street. Side note: I never thought about it before, but I suppose a water truck is just as important here as a fire truck since they need access to the water. Things you don't really think about!

You can see in the picture the firefighters are standing on top of a green truck. There was a fire started in the front cab/under the hood of it, and they were standing on top of it trying to extinguish the flames. (That doesn't seem like the safest way to do it, does it?) Rumour has it a little boy started the fire and his mom came and took him away shortly before I snapped these pictures.

Jeff took Pepper out for a walk after work and got close to the truck to see the inside of it too - that little boy caused quite a bit of damage to that truck. Sure, it was meant for scrap/garbage, but there is a lot of stuff surrounding it that could have caught on fire if someone wasn't fast at calling the fire department. I hope he got into big trouble for this and learned a good lesson that playing with fire is dangerous!

 

What surprised me was how close people got just to watch it...I guess when there are no barriers up, people will want to get as close as they can. Anyway, that's our Tuesday night excitement for you. Never a dull moment here!

-L

Baker Lake Cardboard Boat Race

Have you ever heard of a cardboard boat race? I had no idea events like these existed, but apparently it's a "thing" because I'm the only person who's never heard of it. I must live under a rock! Either way, I was able to witness my first one recently - and I have to say, it was highly entertaining!

The rules were pretty simple: your boat had to be 6 feet by 2 feet and made of nothing but cardboard and duct tape. Participants had to be wearing life jackets and could not be younger than 16. That's it! The design and the rest of it was up to your imagination. It was held at the "graveyard lake" which is a small-ish lake up past the snow fence. The first day they tried to hold it, it was too windy so they had to postpone it to another day. It was still pretty windy on actual race-day, but they still went ahead with it!

Graveyard Lake

One Year

Today marks our one year anniversary of moving to Nunavut. Actually, it marks our one year anniversary of leaving to move to Nunavut, but we didn't actually make it to the territory until August 1 due to a plane delay. I thought it would be fun to do a his/her post on to mark the monumental occasion, so we're both going to share some of our reflections of the past year with you today. Thanks for sticking it out with us as we figured our way out in our new surroundings and following us on our adventure! We hope you continue on our journey with us as we keep chillin' in Nunavut!

The Beach

Last year, a few co-workers stumbled upon a "beach" that they kept talking about, so a couple of weekends ago, we packed up the car, leashed up the dog, packed a picnic, and headed out to find it again. After some bumpy terrain, we found it...and it was amazing.

IQ Day - Ice Fishing

One of the benefits of my job is experiencing IQ Days - a couple of days a year where we get to go out on the land and learn about the Inuit culture/traditions. Short for Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, translated as "that which are long known by Inuit", it allows us an opportunity to step away from the office and enjoy the land.