Tundra Golf

Yes we get summer.

2007-12-25T08:37:00.000-08:00

I am often asked if the snow ever melts in Iqaluit. Yes! We get summer just like the rest of the northern hemiphere. The days are long. It never really gets dark out in June and July. 20 hours of daylight and 4 hours of twilight. The temperatures can reach to over 20 degrees Celcius but an average summer day is 12C or around 55F. Above you can see a popular camp site along a tidal beach. The tides can be up to 12 meters. The beach sits at the end of a small inlet that fills and empties with the tides.

Merry Christmas

2007-12-24T20:49:00.000-08:00

Everyone comfy?

2007-01-01T18:54:00.000-08:00

Everyone is comfortable in the igloo as we wait for the new year to begin.

Mmmmmm char steaks

2007-01-01T16:41:00.000-08:00

Pan fried arctic char steaks on a pot belly stove. The wood in the fire had to be imported as we are far above the treeline.
The char is from local waters and are plentiful. They are delicious too. Char are much like salmon but tastier in my opinion.

2006-12-24T11:29:00.000-08:00

Time to put out my Christmas Stockings.
Each one can hold 30 lbs. of candy with room to spare.

2006-12-22T18:49:00.000-08:00

It's a wolf. Honest. Can you find him in the picture below?
I had a hard time finding this wolf in a set of 8 pics. I knew he was in there.

2006-12-22T18:43:00.000-08:00

Here is a photograph of Sylvia Grinnell river on Baffin Island near Iqaluit. I had taken a panoramic series of pictures in an effort to make one large mosaic picture. After taking the pictures, I noticed an arctic wolf wandering over the frozen river. I downloaded the shots and looked through them to see if I captured a big bad wolf. Indeed I had! It is in the picture above. Honest. I scoured every pixel to find him but he is in there. The enlarged picture is below. It will give you a hint.
TIme to get a better camera. The resolution here is a result of a 2 megapixal camera. 10 megapixals would have been so much better. There isn't much daylight at 11:00 AM on Baffin Island. The windchill at the time of this shot was minus 41C. That would be minus 41.8F for non metric thinkers.

Kimmirut

2006-12-22T17:23:00.000-08:00

2006-11-26T11:34:00.000-08:00

Niaqunnguusiariaq Road.

Say that ten times fast.

2006-11-26T11:25:00.000-08:00

This pic is very poor. First of all it is cold outside. Secondly, I should have taken the picture well before 2 PM as the sun was setting and it was not very good lighting for such a shot.
The name of this road has caused many tourists to tie thier tongues in knots. The locals do not even use the street names but rather locate things by a unique house number. Get in a cab and say "Take me to 3238" or "Take me to 164B". No street just a number.

2006-11-26T09:52:00.000-08:00

You just have to love the street names in Iqaluit. I got this pic off of a blog. I could just go down the street and photograph it myself, I suppose. I have to say that the reason I am posting this pic is because there is another blogger in Iqaluit. I don't know who this blogger is but here is a note to said blogger. Ha! I post the pics around here buddy boy! Yep...stole this right off of your site! It is the only pic that you have on your cover page. I even made it better with my software. Now that I have gotten that off of my chest, I bet that I could get lots of pics posted with our crazy street signages. In fact, I think that I will go out right now and take some pics. I'm going to post them today!

arctic bloggers

2006-11-26T09:08:00.000-08:00

I ran into a blog that I could really relate to. The post is called "The Plane" and you can view it at http://www.nunablog.ca.
I had to leave a comment on the post. I have been to Igloolik many times. The plane trip to Igloolik from Hall beach is only about a 30 minute flight. Landing is always subject to weather in these far flung northern communities. Here is the comment that I had left on the site. It awaits moderation from the owner of the blog but you can read it here first!

The plane? I was on it. We went from Hall Beach to Igloolik but on the way there it got foggy. So we turned back to go to Hall Beach. The pilot announced 15 minutes later that the fog had lifted in Igloolik. We turned back to Igloolik. When we got there, it was foggy. We circled for 11/2 hr. The pilot decided to head back to Hall Beach again. When we got there, it was foggy. We were then told the wind picked up in Igloolik clearing the fog. We turned around and headed for Igloolik.When we got there, it was too windy to land and the snow was blowing.We headed back to Hall Beach. I don’t know what happened after that as I decided to take a nap. I finally was awakened and found myself somewhere in Nunavut. It was Igloolik. Two inuksuit at the front door told me so.

I encourage you to read "The Plane" at http://www.nunablog.ca
Has the plane come in yet?
I'm going to the airport. See ya.

2006-11-17T19:31:00.000-08:00

This is a very old snow knife. It is made of whale bone. It was used to carve blocks of snow for the building of an igloo. It is on display in the dining room of the South Camp Inn in Resolute Bay. I had spent several days in Resolute last week. The dark season has set in. The people will not see the sun again until mid February. There were many polar bears just outside of Resolute. The bears were feasting on a whale carcass that lay on the beach. The ice still hasn't formed yet. It is late again this year. The bears tend to hang around the beach waiting for the ice. If they cannot get to the seals at the floe edge then it is feared that they may start to wander into town. Climate change is having a profound effect upon the polar bears.

2006-11-17T19:23:00.000-08:00

Here are a few things you might see if you were driving around Iqaluit. Not much snow for this time of year. The temperatures are +10 degrees C warmer than usual as well. Home sweet home through the windshield.

2006-11-17T19:20:00.000-08:00

some sites along the way....

2006-11-17T19:18:00.000-08:00

drivin' drivin' drivin'

2006-11-17T19:09:00.000-08:00

drivin' around the arctic.

2006-11-14T13:34:00.000-08:00

Polaroid of a Polar Bear.

Testing, testing one two three...

2006-11-05T17:12:00.000-08:00

This is the first pic ever taken with my new digital camera. It is an inexpensive camera with a whopping 2.0 megapixals! That's right! Count them! 2,000,000 pixels. Okay, so maybe 2 megapixals is not up to par with the state of the art equipment, but for $100 or so, it's not bad. I wanted something usable and readily disposable. I have not had much luck with digital camera equipment. Most pieces of high tech end up broken one way or another. The extreme cold is a factor. Digital camera's do not perform well in minus 40 celcius temperatures.
Anyway, here's Patches, the cat. She is a Calico kitty cat born and raised on Baffin Island in Nunavut. Say hello Patch...

High Arctic Travelling

2006-11-05T12:25:00.000-08:00

Once again I find myself travelling to the high arctic. I will be going to Resolute Bay and to Grise Fiord. Grise Fiord is Canada's most northerly community. There are picturesque mountains as well as barren rocky tundra that combine to make panoramic view of beauty and contrasts. I must be wary as this time of year is likely to bring me into contact with polar bears. Polar bears will walk right into town in Resolute Bay. I have seen them fight over a seal carcass on the streets. Look for new pictures to be posted after November 14. Of course if there are any blizzards then I may be returning a bit late. I can't wait to try out my new digital camera!
See you all then!

Summer's almost over.

2006-09-10T18:28:00.001-07:00

I have been busy all summer. There hasn't been much time to blog anything. This summer was full of family activities, BBQ's, campfires, fishing, berry picking and a few frosty beers. The fish didn't come until late July this year. The ice had all melted earlier this year and made fishing in July a bit safer and easier. I hooked a very large char late in July. We threw it on the BBQ soon after I had caught it. This fish fed 8 people and there was plenty left over. I do not know how much the char weighed in at but it was about 29 to 30 inches in length. I would say that all in all a total of 60 fish were caught in July. Most of the char was hung out to dry in the persistent arctic sun. This dried char is a favourite among the local crowd here.
In the first week of August, a deck was built in behind my inlaws house. The deck is about 150 square feet of unfinished 2 x 4 lumber. It juts out over the hillside above the shore of Frobisher Bay. The view is awsome. We hope to enjoy the deck for many years to come. I will get some pics posted as soon as I get a new camera.
The blueberries are ripe and the picking is still good. Baffin Island is covered in blueberries and black berries. The arctic varieties are smaller than the southern counterparts but just as tastey. Blue berry pancakes, blue berry muffins, blue berry pie and blue berry jam make August a special month.
People have been digging up buckets of clams during the lowest tides. Frobisher Bay has up to 12 meter tides. When the tides are in the range of 10 meters high and 1 meter low, this is the time to take a boat out to the clam beds. The arctic clams have to be caught one at a time. The people use garden tools to dig up the clams as they find them at the low tidal pools. The clams are tastey and plentiful. I don't mind them raw but prefer to make a clam chowder at home with them. The digging is hard and cold even in the mid summer. It is wise to take a warm parka with you when you go boating on Frobisher Bay.
Golfing on the tundra is still a favourite with the local men. The "course" was always busy this year and still loads of fun to play. The Canadian Military have been here doing some war games and stuff. They also had a chance to take a shot at my tundra golf course. The verdict? They loved it. HooWa. No fairways, no out of bounds and no trees. I think that they all enoyed the golfing. I know that this year, I had played a few very good rounds. I think that we should build a new course though. It would be nice to have a change in scenery while playing. It'll have to wait though. The snow is on it's way. It is getting dark and cold. Another arctic winter. I wonder what it will bring me this time around?

Summer's almost over.

2006-09-10T18:28:00.000-07:00

2006-05-21T08:02:00.000-07:00

Spring in Iqaluit. The snow is slowly dissapearing. The sea ice is changing colour from bright white to various shades of blue. The sun rises and rounds the sky for a 20 hour day. The winter darkness has left us for the season. God bless my little home in the middle of nowhere.

2006-04-09T18:58:00.000-07:00

One dead polar bear. It is unfortunate that these mighty animals cross paths with humans. This is the usual result. This bear attacked unsuspecting campers near Kimmirut on Baffin Island. Some of the campers had been brutally injured by the bear before it was shot. I warn you that the following photographs are quite graphic. You may not want to see these images.

2006-04-09T18:56:00.000-07:00

Aside from suffering a scalping by a swift polar bear slap, this poor man also had been clawed and mauled by the angry bear.