Fun way to spend a Saturday...

So, this afternoon I did go outside even though the sun was awfully deceiving and the bitter Arctic wind was howling at us from the North. Mark and Nancy wanted to get out for some fresh air too, so I tagged along as they ran the dogs.

Anyone who really knows me, knows that I am NOT a dog person. They smell, they always stick there nose where you don't want them to, they drool and are noisy... But I do find it so exciting to watch the intense strength and drive of the dogs when they pull. I have been trying for a few days to get some good picture of the dogs, since Mark rarely has a chance to get pictures himself, since he is working his butt of running them.


Scary to be on a sled without breaks, but Mark does it like a pro!


Getting fish from Nancy...


Look at those dogs pull!


Nancy watching the dogs catch up.


Climbing a hill, near home, so I am sure they wish we lived on the Prairies!


Eekalik (I don't know how to spell her name, but it means glasses or something like that in Inuktitut, because she has black fur like sunglasses), the lead dog. She had puppies at Christmas but seems to be getting back on track for being a good puller.




Then when the got home, they had a well deserved rest!

Long weekend day trips, skidoo rides and camping fun...

The plane arriving on Friday afternoon. April was excited since Trevor was coming home after being away a week.



This shot is looking south on the George River just out of the mouth of the harbour/beach end of town. As you can see the river doesn't completely freeze up!



Playing around with the mirror shot, I also discovered that while wearing my BV2S helmet i can listen to iPod much more easily while driving around. Kind of look funny as I bob my head while driving, think the people in town must think I was kind of crazy as I drove past them! Ha ha ha!



Sunny day on the George... (However, FREEZING= minus 30 windchill that day!)

Daniel's tent pictured first and Mark and Nancy's tent pictured second. My camping homes from this winter.



I stayed at the tent for a bit while the others went fishing and setting nets. I was respoinsible for babysitting, and instead of getting Imaapik to go down for his nap, I was making him so hyper taking silly pictures and tickling him. This one was SOOOOOO cute though, I love it!!!(Imaapik is Mark and Nancy's youngest and only son, he was born in July JUST before I came up north so I always ask his age to find out how many years I lived up here.)



We left on Sunday from town, slept on very warm night in Daniel's tent and then drove home on an incredibly mild day Monday. This was Krystal's first time at Short Lake and camping up North. The second shot was a VERY tricky one to get... I should've been wearing snowshoes, as I walked in behind a tree to take this picture without her seeing, so it could look very natural- drinking tea and enjoying the beauty... BUT I fell through a weak layer of the snow and was buried up to my waist. I hadn't been wearing my mitts because I was coming back from the loo... I think the shot was worth the trouble though...



Packing up to go home, here is Mark and Heather by the Yamaha VK Pro.



I climbed the hill behind school on Saturday afternoon on my skidoo. I like the vantage point you get on the town, however you can see the bad weather coming in... I didn't really notice it until I saw these pictures... Oh well, it was a beauty day for most of it!



This is my current home sweet home!

Pictures from the past week or so...

Most of these pictures were taken this week on the first EXTREMELY sunny day. It was so gorgeous that instead of staying inside catching up on my work, I donned the snowpants and goggles and went for a two hour ride with (L to R) Marie, April and Krystal. We had no destination or plan, but just drove, took pictures, and chatted.

The following day I was driving by my principal's house and he was outside working so I stopped to chat with him for a few minutes. One of the things we discussed was the fact that up here one of the nicest things is the sense of freedom you get when you go out of town by skidoo. NOTHING like skidooing down south where there are a thousand and one laws and licenses you need to do it...

I have certainly been spending my fair share of time outdoors!!! Another day, afterschool (now that the sun is still up when we leave after work, unlike before the clocks changed) we (Krystal, Nancy, April and I) went for a short ride to meet up with Mark and the dog team. I tried to get some good shots since Mark can never take shots of himself, while he is mushing!

GEO Week at School

So, I want to do a VERY short update on the activities at school this week that have kept me very drained and tired, but also happy since it has been a very fun week.

Basic premise is that each class chose a country to do a presentation on. Then there was a (very complicated, I can saw that since I was one of the three who created it) schedule made up for 15 minute visits, for each country. We have either three or four classes presenting each day and otherwise it is regular instruction. On Tuesday, my class presented. Presentation day is the long one since you have to do presentations for every class, no breaks other than recess and lunch, over and over with the same material, all day!

My students were a bit shy at first but everyone seemed to enjoy the stuff we were sharing so it was all good!

Below are a few pictures I took to give you a feel... I am too tired to elaborate tonight, but feel free to ask any questions... Good Night!!!

Today... Sick Saturday...

So, I caught the flu that many other teachers had this week. I slept and rested yesterday morning, and today I felt that maybe a skidoo ride and fresh air might help clear out my lungs. I woke up fairly early, and was feeling quite a bit better. So, at noon I decided I would go and try to meet up with the people who were going for a day trip to Qarlit Tasinga (which is half way to Short Lake, about 20 miles, or an hour).

I really enjoyed my drive, I had bundled up VERY VERY well, even put in the ear plugs to make sure my ears wouldn't get cold. My nose started to clear up a lot, and the cough was gone, until I turned to come back home. I think that was ACTUALLY when the tylenol cold burst liquid wore out, and the coughing, sore throat started again full tilt! BOO!

I did take a few pictures on the way home, since it was such a beautiful day. Now for the rest of this day comes a bowl of soup, reading my book and bed.

Enjoy the pictures!

Spring like Weekend!

Well, I busted my butt on Friday after school, even though I was soooooooo exhausted I could hardly move. Got my things packed in time to go with Mark, Isabelle, Heather, Andrea and one of their friends, on Friday night. We left around 6:30 pm, and wound up at Short Lake and the tent at 8:45 or so. There were a few minor obstacles on the trail, but clearly many people had the same idea as us, so the "road" was well packed down from lots of traffic before we left town.

The weather was unseasonably nice, it was sunny the whole weekend and warm enough to warrant taking off the parka in lieu of fleece. I had been having lots of trouble getting to sleep all week, hence the utter exhaustion on Friday night before we left, but I certainly had a brilliant sleep on Friday night, enough so that I slept in until 10:15 which is usually unheard of when camping since it gets light so early, but was possible for me since I had slept with my head inside my sleeping bag since it had been rather chilly during the night. With my head in the sleeping bag, it was still pitch black until I popped my head out after 10. Everyone else had been up, ate breakfast and gone fishing before I was stirring about! BUT that was exactly what I was hoping for this weekend. I felt very well rested and caught up from the week!

I spent a while in the morning helping Mark set his nets. I like helping with those activities since it's a great muscle workout. I had the job of pulling the nets under the ice. It's a pretty cool process, maybe I'll post another time to help explain it. But needless to say, I decided to use only shoulder and arm muscles to haul the nets, and I am still feeling it tonight. Then in the afternoon, I worked my legs snowshoeing through the fresh soft snow that coated my trail from two weeks ago. I was out with Isabelle to get more fresh green boughs to help level and re-insulate the floor of the tent. The greenery we had down has slowly bee packed down so much that ice and snow are showing through the gaps where the needles have been smushed and scuffed off. I love the feeling of hiking about, and I still feel those muscles are tight tonight too.

Funny how such an active weekend in a sense can be so rejuvenating. Maybe it was the toasty warm bath I soaked in upon arriving home, or the yummy fresh Arctic Charr I ate for supper but I feel great!

On the ride home today I made a revelation- I WISH that someone could invent a way for our eyes to take pictures. Not just mental pictures since I have taken many of them, but ones that could be downloaded and printed or put on a blog, since it happens often that the most incredibly beautiful things that are witnessed, are sudden, and do not give you enough time to dig out the camera. If we had a built in camera in our heads, and a USB port hidden behind our ears or something... If any of my scientifically minded readers could possibly invent this I would volunteer to be a guinea pig for SURE!

Here is a list of pictures I WOULD have taken the weekend, had I had a built in "Eye" camera:

1- The lunar eclipse last night, where the moon was a STUNNING red and hanging low on the horizon above the mountain across from our tents at Short Lake.

2- The Whiskeyjack (bird) that landed around 2 feet away from me, when Isabelle was dumping out frying pan residue on the snow. These birds are carnivorous and scavenge constantly from fish and animals guts left from meals. This brazen birdy actually landed as she was still scraping the pan out, that was one HUNGRY bird!

3- The conifereous trees dusted with snow along the trail home. The sun was lighting the up and making the background mountain with it's frozen blue ice waterfall an unbelievably perfect Christmas card cover.

4- The look on Heather Rose's face when the hunter and his wife met us on the lake last night and told us they saw caribou and a polar bear which was coming our way...

(Ok, I threw the last one in, since it freaked the crap out of me too! I had slept alone in another tent the first night, then stayed with the others in a VERY crowded tent the second night, just so I would feel safer if the big white bear would actually show up. Lucky for us, we saw no signs of him anywhere on our lake! PHEW!)

One week until Geography Week at school and I have SOOOO much to do with my class, off for a busy week I think!!!