That's not a harbor,

This is a harbour.

All these were taken from my little sister’s new office, or the recreation room of same. I asked how much work gets done now days, no response to date.
Better not say any more, sis works in the legal dept of a government. The s word you know.

Hyper baby.

Looks like I have sorted out the hyper link thingy, it was staring me in the face all this time, you just got’a know what there for eh? Still, I’m not doing too badly for a bloke who up until 10 years ago was not going any where near those bloody things.
Thanks to dogbait down under for piquing my interest, and to Paul who held my hand and guided me to the right place. Paul maintains the OKS page.

This story is starting to garner interest on the island, yet to get any eyes open up this way. I talked to two store managers and two government types yesterday, only one government type had heard the news as of then. One store manager will be following up.
My concern is how this is going to effect consumers on the coast. Atlantic/Lewisport Wholesalers were a big player for the retail segment up here. They will be still able to deal with them out of St.John’s it seems, but that is extra miles by road. I think it may have impacts of a fare reaching aspect than meets the eye too, but will have to work on that more before comment.
Update link to Rideout response.

So after hearing that Al Gore spends 30 grand a year on heating/cooling/lighting his mansion, the arse drops out of the worlds stock, we then get this. Pass the potine n gravey please.

The crew that did the express mini trip to Labrador have some pictures and stats up. Average of 53.5 mph in that short a time does not make for much sight seeing, but guess that was not purpose of trip. The pics of the A&W and ‘Tony filming’ are some of the ones around Goose Bay and North West River.

Weather is still mauzy, planes flying but it has been mainly white skies, light flurries with some sun breaking through for a time yesterday. It sure is pristine and so clean though, has a clean un polluted smell about it too.
So I might have friends strolling the hills of Crete, people calling VOCM from Tortola BVI, but we have what we have.

Monday morning blues.

The man from Melbourne did not get the job done in Arizona. It was an interesting see saw battle all day, both players having 2 up leads at various times. Unfortunately O’Hears usual lazar like touch around and on the greens disappeared at a critical time, he lost on the 35 hole.
Not a wasted day, O’Hearn gets 800 grand, and I got to stay inside away from the light snow, blowing snow and flat white conditions.

On looking at Google Maps of Arizona one cant but notice the proliferation of gold courses all over. I wonder if anyone has tallied up the annual $ cost of fertilizer and water to keep those courses so green. Probably don’t want to know I’d say.

Speaking of closed minds; I hope many people have read the articles by Rob Antel. Very reveling indeed. It should put aside any doubt as to what most MHA’s have been all about these many years. I guess one could come up with a Thesaurus on names to describe the participants in this saga, everything from ignominious to acquisitive.
The best thing for all would be for any and all of the incumbents who have been at the sauce boat be given their leave. Then some sort of constituent assembly be formed to try and put some credibility back into the democratic process.

I heard on CBC HV-GB late last week a piece on the high cost of parcel post into and out of Labrador. Some clips of women telling of the absurd costs to get mail in and out of the area.
Torngat Mountains MHA Wally Andersen took time from his schedule to give voice on the issue. His points sounded familiar, “been working on this file for years, can’t understand why costs so high, will be continuing the battle”. Wally used an example of a parcel of given size and weight within Labrador and to point outside Labrador. The example he gave piqued my interest. It was word for word of some of the research I did that was presented at the recent Combined Councils meeting. Probably just a coincidence-right?

Night owls and golf in the desert.

These two stories by Rob Antel in yesterdays Telegram are essential reading for all in this Province, and beyond for that matter.

http://tinyurl.com/2qafkv http://tinyurl.com/2ltj7q

What a sorry state we are and have been in with our government representation. Many blogs have linked to the stories and added comments. I have yet to come across any feed back in defense of the indefensible. May have more to say on this later.

For now we have local and golf news.

Our neighborhood has been relatively quite of late, but I/we are always expecting things to hotten up late nights early morning.

Well the hood was in action early this AM.

The duplex across the road was the scene, not sure if it was the party place, but lots of people ended up going in and out of one unit, and back and forth to the rear of another unit.

Some noisy half crazed bloke woke me about 3. I looked out, he only had pants and shoes on, was knocking frantically on the door of one place. The door opened and he was allowed in, next thing several other people come from behind next door and start knocking on the door as well, all were allowed in after being vetted. Later shirt less and a young women are outside, he trying to make up in an intoxicated way, she in better shape and trying to put his clothes back on. She did succeed with that and calming him down, arse hole.

A bit later another bloke comes out of the place with only shorts on, like it is -14 wind chill, not bad really I guess. He is also trying to appease a young woman who was out a bit away from the house. Another woman comes from behind, gives the first woman an hug and what looked like some encouragement, seemed to work as she took off down the road, wise choice.

As I have mentioned before, I don’t want to interfere in people lives, but this sort of goings on interferes with out lives. Noise carries on still nights, all the homes and units are close to each other, except ours because I bucked the system and purchased the next door lot years ago. That said the roads are not very wide, so we all suffer from these arse holes activity.

So the jury is out on whether this trend will continue, as is its wont some times. Or is it just an anomaly after a funky weather week, letting of some tension and the like, lets hope it’s the later because some one usually ends up for the worse, and it’s usually women.

Another tension filled day on the golf scene. Nick O’Hean who beat Tiger put up another good show yesterday, but he had a real bad break and his opponent Stenson of Sweden had a bloody amazingly good break on the 18th. So the Ozzie lost 1 down.

So we still have another Oz in the final, the defending champion Geoff Ogilvy, one cool dude.

Stenson has already defeated an American, a Korean, a South African and two Ozzies. I will note that only one American made it to the semi final, so we can expect a subdued commentary and crown down there in the desert.
One commentator, Johnny Miller, I have time for. Miller gives mainly an unbiased view of play and players, does not go on with all this bull shit analyzing every time some one plays a bad or good shot, plus he knows the mechanics of the game as well or better than most, and he sure is not caught up with the Tiger mania razzmatazz.

Ps now that the sun has risen the night owls have hit the sheets. I’m thinking of getting a dirty great big drum and going around banging on it.

Canceled…Brought to you by the weather.

One of the annual hockey tournaments here had to be postponed this weekend. Two of the teams could not get in [weather] and the five local teams neglected to practice skating on water.
While the rink is enclosed in a building it is a natural ice rink. So when it gets up to temperatures like we have had, slush puppies. Hay-that’s a good name for a team eh?
Way things are going maybe a priority is a rink with man made ice. It is in the works I believe, money and human frailties are playing a roll in its slow development.
Some other tournaments have had to be put off in other communities, the details escape me.

I have just heard some planes are on the way or due to head this way. Its still light precipitation but there is breaks in the clouds.

I have a little confession to make, very embarrassing too. On Thursday I was coming back from the stores, as I approached the house I decided, without much deep thought, to do a couple of circles of the house with the Polaris. As soon as I got a couple of feet in at the side of house I knew it was a big mistake, but I gunned her any way. It’s what is called locally as Dumbuked.

Blamm, came to a big holt a little further in in Maujak [deep snow]. Wet deep snow it was. Had a bloody great wall in front of me and a smaller one behind me.
Before my back trouble this would have been no big deal, alas not being able to lift with any force now it is a big deal if I was to get it out myself.
So I set about shoveling around and behind the machine, then I did lift a couple of time, felt the bad joints on the spin protest, so gave it up for the day.
Next morning I go out, dig more at rear, lift the machine with the jack [using the old noggin now] shovel snow under the track and reversed as far as it would go. Did this three times to get a run up.
Then I donned the snow shoes and tramped the snow down in front, made a trail up the hill until it leveled out.
After all this work the Polaris came out of there like a lizard up a gum tree.

Had an emotional roller coaster ride watching the golf last evening. Nick O’Hearn of Australia was playing a third round match in the World Match Play Championship against Tiger Woods. We always cheer for anybody but the Americans, being an Oz just makes it more personal.
So O’Hearn goes 4 up after 7 holes, the bloody commentators and the crowd are stunned. Woods does the expected come back; the commentators are peeing in their jeans with glee. Woods gets to even. They go to extra holes, Woods misses an almost gimmy on the first extra hole, O’Hearn slams a par put in from medium distance on the next to win. O’Hearn had beaten Woods in this tournament before, do you think the commentators would give him any credit for being able to handle the pressure from the #1, no bloody way.

Travel-weather pemiting.

I was going to say something smarmy about Environment Canada and their weather forecast, but looking out there now I’ll put that on hold.
While we did not get the winds and snow predicted, more like rain I think, we are now getting some consistent wet white stuff. Not sure if its snow or rain or what. The temperatures have not been below -1 for two days, some may say so what?
What these conditions do at this time of year is put travel into the country on an unsafe level at worse and bloody hard work at best. You go into the woods at your own risk; these new larger snowmobiles are not easy to move when stuck down to the top of their hoods.
As far as traveling on the ice; with the unusual warm winter it makes it very unsafe in flat white conditions, like now. Unless you have tracked any open areas then it is best to play safe. Add to that the cut in the ice south of here [made by the ice breaking ore carrier] having not re frozen, the areas to travel to get wood, hunt etc are restricted for sure.
Then there is the hold up in air travel; no flights since Tuesday. Stephanie phone from Goose Bay at 5.45 this morning, her first words were “hi, what’s the weather like?” “Can’t see out cause its” dark was my reply. I did go to the front door to check best I could, no good news to report. People get antsy waiting to get home. You have to be near a phone all the time in case there is a ‘break in the weather’. The odd time the call does come you throw everything in your luggage, rush up to the airport never knowing if the flight will leave or not. Then if you do get away you are anxious all the way hoping you don’t have to turn back.
But then not as bad as living in Darfur or some place like that.

Speaking of air travel. An English airline is launching a year-round service between St. John's and the United Kingdom. Astraeus Airlines will fly from St. John's to Gatwick each Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. To lure passengers Astreaus is offering a one way fare of $199.00. Not sure how long that will last.
Air Canada, after pulling out of direct St.John’s Heathrow flights last year, will re introduce them in April. Not sure of the scheduling or fares.
Bit strange when Canada's airline is out staged by an airline owed in Ice land and operated out of Great Britain.
The cheap fares look inviting, except for us who have to come up with the 900 plus bucks one way just to get to the cheapo fare.
Not sure of the connections to other parts Europe out of Gatwick. Maybe have to get to Heathrow for most. So while it looks good at first blush it may depend on where you are going and where you live to determine if it’s such a great deal.

In the interest of equal coverage.

Seeing that the CBC does not meet its mandate to rural Canada, and the commercial media do not have an interest in same {unless of course its alcohol related, I wonder if the weather gods get pissed?} I bring you some weather photos.

First two are from last evening, about 5pm,we had weather warnings out, snow up to 15 cm and strong winds on the way. Needless to say I was all pumped up in anticipation of having to dig my way out the door this morning.



Well it was not that bad, but more is on the way; see the second two taken at 8am.


We have had wet snow from the east for an hour or so, it has eased off for now. Don’t like that wet snow, sticks to things like hydro lines, telephone lines and poles. Hope the predicted wind to 80k does not eventuate, could be the above 0 tempuratures will melt it before the wind hits.

Between a rock and the garbage.

In the interest of full disclosure [always wanted to say that].

I have long had an interest in the world environment and what humans are doing to it.
We have had CFL bulbs in our house long before it became ‘the thing to do’. I even lobbied the local stores to stock them, long story.
We recycle to the extent one can up here. We compost all that we can. We very rarely use plastic bags when shopping. We use the minimum possible of petroleum products, if there was an available alternative to diesel generated hydro we would pay more for it. We are not idealistic lefty pinkos, just useing our bloody brains and care about future generations.
To the task at hand.

An anonymous person commented on the garbage issue, see post "just a couple of thoughts".

I have had a little time to think on it and less time to do deep research, for what it’s worth here are my thoughts.
What ever is done it won’t please every one, and it will have some sort of impact on the environment.

At the moment Nain collects the garbage and uses low tech technology. That is digging trenches, dumping the house hold waste, setting it on fire, then burying what is left. Nain has a recycle program funded by the province, drink containers only.

If we are to carry on with that method several things can happen. One you run out of land, I do not think here is enough usable land around Upashi for two hundred years use. Second is the gas problem. The un burnt garbage that is buried creates gas that leaches into the atmosphere. You also have the problem of possible leaching through the ground into the bay.
Possible up sides of this is the land in use now could be rejuvenated and landscaped and used for something. Down sides are mentioned above and what do you use it for next to a land fill?

Another site could be found; again available land is a problem. It would have to be a ways from town; you have the infrastructure cost, extra travel time to and fro, increased spillage from the transportation, which is a problem at the moment too.

On the $1.6 million Blast Burner: It’s a lot of money; work is in progress at the local government office on the economics of it all. How much will the operating costs be? Like fuel for the burner, operator cost, up keep etc. Environmentally you have emissions from the burner, the emissions from the burnt waste and proper handling of the ash at end of the process.

The process is a double burn at very high temperatures I’m told, but emissions are still a problem. I am told that about three burns a week are contemplated at today’s collection rate.
Also to be considered is security of the unit. I am told they are looking at the unit being enclosed, with maybe a fence around that.
Up side is it would reduce household waste volume therefore reduce the space needed for burial.

So, as to keeping the status quo or going with the 1.6 million buck furnace the jury is still out IMO. Needs more discussion, and information, to come to a reasonable educated opinion.

To do a complete overhaul and to minimize the damage to the ecology and the environment this is what should happen: First of all consumers, retailers, community leaders should do all in their power to eliminate the use of plastic shopping bags. Only bio degradable garbage bags should be used, and to a minimum.

All house holds to sort waste into designated colored containers, recyclables, compost able, paper/cardboard etc. A fee may have to be implemented per household for the service.

Community has an enclosed sorter combining mechanization and human labor. This would have compactors and a large composter. The resulting compost would be used in ether private or preferably public garden.

Any burnable waste would be used to heat the building.

What could be shipped out is, what is left is buried. No need for a blast furnace or large tracks of land.

Hazardous waist and larger items like vehicles and large house hold items are either contained and stripped and sent to a central depot in the south for dealing with.

Fees should be implemented in certain areas, like for dumping the larger and hazardous items.

This route would create jobs while at the same time protect the environment.

It is doable only if attitudes change and people are willing. This will need lots of education and persuasion. To do nothing will only result in this type of thing being forced on people in the not too distant future.

This implies to the entire province, which has an abhorrent record in dealing with environmental and waste deposable issues at the moment.

This is not the complete to do list, just a start. Any input is welcome.

Work undone.

All the good work Matthew and I did last weekend is filling up some fast. I was out there now for an hour, front and back, still lot to move and lots more to come. For the second time in a week I removed about 2 feet of snow off the green house roof. I’m not complaining, just say’n.
Any way Matthew has been out in Goose Bay since Monday with his mom and dad, I hear lots of Burger King, Hong Kong restaurant and the like; he will need some work on his return.
They were due back today, not in this weather, maybe not tomorrow either. The storm that hit the Avalon went out, up and around, now it is heading down the Labrador coast, hope St. John’s gets things cleared before it gets back to them.

One area’s misfortune-

was my savoir.

Being only one for dinner I was in a funk as to what to have, it’s not like one can duck into the local greasy spoon for a quick bite. As fortune would have it good old radio came to the rescue [in a round about way].
All day there were weather warnings and closure and postponement announcements for the eastern regions of Newfoundland [must be that bad ol Ottawa at them again]. Many of the announcements were for postponements or cancellations of pancake breakfasts or pancake and sausage dinners.
So I hade an epiphany on the way to the freezer; I would have pancakes and sausages, not that it is a regular in this house hold, even for breakfast

So I did up this nice little repast, the crepes/pancakes were a little different, nice light non sweet.
I whipped up 1 egg with about ¾ cup beer with dash of water. Added 1 cup 12 grain flour with pinch of baking powder. Left it in fridge for several hours.
I had visions of crepes of the quality available in Quebec City, did not reach that height but they ended up more good than bad.
When the snags were cooked I heated up the crepe pan, added a little butter, barely covered bottom of pan with the pancake mixture, cooked couple minutes and turned for couple more minutes.
Poured maple syrup over, nice Coopers bitter on the side.

The east coast did get hit hard, worst storm this year. It seems from here the city of St.John’s is just not designed and equipped for, and financially up for, dealing with the intensity of storms they are getting of late.

Bits n that.

Labrador had been the host to five Mini Coopers s and one Subaru this past weekend.

Twelve people drove the six cars from New Hampshire, up through Quebec and on to the end of the TLH in North West River. They then did a big u-e and headed right back again.
Interviewed in Lab. City on their way home by CBC Radio [no link], one driver said "they do a trip like this every winter. Last year it was to Newfoundland, the year before up to Hudson Bay". He added that “the Coopers handled the roads well being low slung, but you do feel the bumps a little bit”, no kidding?
"This trip only had one incident where the Subaru had to pull one of the Coopers out after it ran off the road into a snow bank".
CBC’s Tony Dawson had some video of the cars zooming and zipping around Happy Valley-Goose Bay. The clips were shown on Here & Now last night [no link].

What ever turns you on eh? Must have looked some strange in the land of big 4x4 vehicles.

The province has given the go ahead for winter drilling into a lake outside Makkovik.
http://tinyurl.com/preview.php?num=yvrj3n Not good news IMO.
Nunatsiavut Government had come out against the drilling on the frozen lake. The land is inside the Labrador Inuit settlement Area, but their protestations were not listened to. No surprise their.

It’s way past time for an open discussion about this potential mine/mines. Like it is uranium folks. It does not go away after it is mined and processed. It just gets more deadly as the decades go by.
So, as people who have such a close spiritual and cultural relationship with the land, it would not be amiss if the nice folks of Nunatsiavut lead the way in some progressive thinking on this issue.
It is not a sin to be against jobs and for the protection of the environment, especially when uranium is the end product.

Views from the bottom of the world.

Super ships choke city - Travel - smh.com.au

Bottoms up to all.

http://tinyurl.com/preview.php?num=2elxr8

Poisson et frites.

After a big day on the banjo I knocked up a good feed of fish and chips Labrador style. Look at these fillets. Fish were caught couple days ago through the ice; this was the smallest one of three given to us. Nice to have friends who think of you.

I like to render down some pork fat to create scrunchins, dredge the fish in flour and corn meal, add to pan, cook several minutes both side adding finely chopped onion on the turn.

I was going to make a joke about freedom fries, but that is passé, in it?

I mention FF because I caught one of the originators of the move to ban French fries from the US vocabulary on the PBS news. The senator or congressman was speaking against GWB’s escalation of the Iraq war. He gave the reason for his change of heart to the fact that he had been lied to.

BDF

After considerable thought and long consultations with my legal team I have decided to join the BDF [Blogger Defense Fund].

I have never processed a campaign button, so will link to the poster girl here
amazing.jpg (image)
Check out http://ipfreelynl.blogspot.com/ he gives the rational for the BDF better than I could.

The big dig.

Here’s the lads half way to the back door this AM.
Matthew is a big lad for 7, eats big and plays hard. Still has trouble keeping up with grandpa on the banjo, but in a couple of years that will change.
One thing, Matthew took a better quality photo than grandpa.

The headline link in the SMH site read: Man stabbed in Sydney suburb.
Intuitively I said to self; I bet I know which suburb.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/2wtdo4

Bingo, it was my old home town.

How times have changed, or more to the point, how society has degenerated.

I worry about my mom and dad; they still live not far away from where this incident played out. It is not an anomaly any more this type of stuff, more like the norm. Hopefully a couple in their 80’s and 90’s will not be a threat to these low life’s, not like years passed, father did not take kindly to threats.

Still snowing, yesterday it got up to about 0 with a good dump; surprisingly the snow was not all that heavy shoveling. Have more to move out front, but the bigger job is at back door, I have been putting it off until I see this latest weather pattern move off, but the door is about blocked so have to have at it.

I still have work to do on shrinking my links, will figure it out eventually, thanks dogbait.

Struth and stone the bloody crows!

“Beds are burning” will not have the same resonance ever again.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/why-i-changed-my-mind-on-us-bases-garrett/2007/02/16/1171405436853.html
Why did he have to go into politics? Perhaps to change it from the inside? not bloody likely mate. Like ya could’ a been a used car salesman, or even a lawyer………oh right, you were a lawyer.

This is for them what are in Paradise chowing down on over cooked burgers.

A nice caribou hind leg, upper part, quite a nice size too.
The funny looking cuter is an Ulu, a traditional Inuit cutting and scraping tool.
So you party freeze, or thaw, the meat. Plomp it down on cardboard. Get your Ulu by the handle and slice thin trips of meat [Kuak], and pop in your gob. Another way is to slice the meat in thin wide strips, lightly salt both side, hang up to dry well. Bingo you got dried meat [Nikku].

The fat is called tunnuk, not a lot of tunnuk on caribou around this way; hence it’s very healthy for you. I have had animals from over around Kuujuak, in Quebec. The tunnuk was a couple of inches thick, made for a good roast though.

So if you don’t like it that way you can cook it any imaginable way, all taste bloody great.
Burgers made from ground caribou, with small amount of ground salt pork for moister, are to die for. Last night we had ground caribou with onion, and my secrete herb mixture, my secrete gravy, with pastry [duff] on top.
Add ground caribou, a can of beer to spaghetti sauce, man oh man.

On a different tact, we have been getting papaya and mangos up here lately. Makes a nice change in the fruit salads. Every time you go to the check out with them, and there is a different staff person you get, what’s that? Then there is a big search through the computerized system to find the item and price.

A mate took us to an ‘outback steak house’ down in Burlington Vermont one time, he almost became an ex mate. He he had fun with the customer service rep, with me as the serious half of his digs. I did have fun teasing her about the ‘Kookaburra wings’ and the ‘Joey burgers’.

Belated happy blog-a-versary down there in Paradise.

Just a couple of thoughts.

No wonder the stocks are depleted. Look at the size of this bloody thing http://www.smh.com.au/news/whale-watch/plea-for-help-over-blazing-whaler/2007/02/15/1171405349308.html one of six in that fleet alone, barstards.

If the lady had gone AWOL, or been busted for drugs or DUI, or been a white male she could have been a contender. Instead all her hard work is yanked from her, barstards. http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/sarge-stripped-of-rank/2007/02/15/1171405356229.html

Weather has been not been too bad for January, really nice sunny day yesterday and a nice -11 for a low. There is a front down south hitting the larger urban areas of Ontario and Quebec; it looks to be heading into the Maritimes with same force. Our forecast is for snow and wind by Friday.

Personally Fran and I are feeling a little woebegone with one thing and another, and the community as a whole is some what dispirited as well. We have had a nice break from really sad happenings, alas a young guy of about 17 decided to end his life last week. The funeral was yesterday, very big crowd in church, lot of young people there. The lad was a good hockey player, was very popular with his peers and older people. Most sad indeed.

Added to that a lady who lived near by passed away yesterday. Mrs.Ikkusek was one incredible lady. Hard as nails, I used to be amazed at her. Well into her 60’s Mrs.Ikkusek would be out chopping wood in the coldest of days, always had a cigarette hanging out of her mouth, one of the old school of Inuit.
Then a few years ago she had an accident out at her cabin, broke her hip. It was several days before people could get out to bring her in due to weather.
Mrs.Ikkusek was never the same after that incident, had to use a wheel chair to get around, one of her family had to give her constant care. A couple of strokes did not help either. Then last Sunday another stroke left her unconscious. Mrs. Ikkusek passed away in the Goose Bay hospital.
Fran will miss the odd drop in to talk in Inuktitut to her; Mrs. Ikkusek always made people laugh.

Hickey v Grimes.

Hickey v Grimes.

So the speaker of the house of the NL assembly, in his wisdom, has decided that tax payers should be hit up for any legal cost that the minister for transport, John Hickey, occurs in his legal battle with the former liberal premier Roger Grimes. Grimes made some statements, just like many many others did, on Hickeys double billing problems. Hickey asked for an apology from Grimes, rightly Grimes declined to apologize, stupid is what stupid does.

I think the apologies should come from the speaker, the premier, John Hickey and all the other MHA’s who are embroiled in the double billing, over spending and secret bonus approvals and receivers of same.

Here is the extent of Hickey’s double billing.
http://www.ag.gov.nl.ca/ag/2006Special/JHickey/JHickey.htm

Hickey, with the Premiers backing, has absolved himself from any respocibilty with these; Hickey and the premier have laid blame at the feet of staff in the house of assembly and in Hickey’s constituency office.

While they are apologizing, perhaps some one could explain why Hickey has used constituency allowance funds for return air fares Goose Bay to St. John’s, car rental in St. John’s, a per diem to me Hickey. Then there is the troubling habit many MHA’s had of dolling out constituency funds to service clubs, charities and other needy well deserving causes.
Then perhaps some intelligential could explain the rational of paying $216 a month rental on a lap top computer.

Warning to the terminally fatuitous.

To those who want to play games with my private property under the protection of darkness and the wee hours of the day.

I am more than willing to play games with the person or persons. If you have the intestinal fortitude, come and see me. I have several games in mind. Most will result in my feelings being some what hurt, and first aid needed for the others.

OK, I realize you most likely can’t read and you think fatuitous is what happens when you eat too much junk food, but on the off chance you fraternize with someone who does read and they value your well being, then they could relay this message to you.

There, I feel better already, imagine how much better I’ll feel after the games.

My rational for above, if there is one. Over the last several nights I have had my snow mobile tampered with, looked like it was in the process of being lifted but the perps had change of heart, or were interrupted in their dastardly deed.
Then last night some yoyo shit for brains on a fast snow mobile did a you-e on my property and interfered with my all-terrain vehicle while passing it.
Looks like crazy season is ramping up again.

Roller coaster weather man. Gone from -29c on Saturday to -6 yesterday to -3 this morning. Strong N winds up to 70+ with blowing snow.

Caribou are about in several directions, mainly outside, east to south east.

The mv Ummiak has made it iffy to the south east, it came into Edwards Cove yesterday for another million $ or so of oxide to be shipped out.
In this weather it would be a bit risky looking for the ice bridges to cross the cut in the ice.

So we had a couple legs of caribou given us. Cut them up and wrapped away in freezer, except this lot.

Rendered down some pork fat, sautéed the meat added some onions, garlic, simmered for couple hours, thicken and added some mushrooms. Only way to eat fresh deer meat is cooked in pork fat. Everything in moderation eh? Even the home brewed bitter to wash it down.

Don’t think Denny’s or Mamas Fish House serve up red meat as delicious as this?

Fare go indeed.

I think it’s reasonable to say ‘Fare go’ is not in the Canadian airline industry vocabulary.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/fare-go-flights-for-less-than-10/2007/02/09/1170524303937.html

I understand that these cheap fares are a gimmick to attract customers and do harm to competitors. I am also some what reluctant to criticize Air Labrador and Innu Mikun, they do give groups and people in crises situations fare breaks and some times free flights.
But boy, it would be a break for the ordinary Joe and Jane Doe if they could some times offer $500.00 return fares to Goose Bay, leave alone the $10.00 fare mentioned in the article.

The couple hundred plus bucks saving could put you up in a hotel for couple nights.

AM history.

This is the Okalakatiget Society CKOK AM transmitter #2, the back up. I was packing her up to ship to Goose Bay, so thought I’d take a picture. It’s some old job for sure, circa over the bloody hills.
Everything seems to be working in her but still no signal strength, could be a loose wire some place. All the tubes etc are in place except the crystal. The multi colored alligator clips go to the Antenna, it is hung on 80 foot high cedar poles.
Both CKOK and CBC use AM in Nain, it gets the signals out to the outlying cabins.
CKOK also has an AM transmitter in HV-GB, almost as old as this one.
CKOK uses FM signals via the community radio stations in the four other Inuit communities.

Hopefully money can be raised to buy a new transmitter when the replacement Media centre is built. Parts are becoming very scarce for these old ones.

I have added a new link, Lloyd’s pics. Lloyd claims to be an amateur in photography, but IMO the NL department of tourism could use some advice from Lloyd.

Like Lloyd I have an om2, purchased it in London England back in 1979, has been a great work horse, only problem I had with it was my own doing. Took it on a long run up into the barrens on a caribou hunt. Had it well wrapped and in a case, but made the mistake of lashing it on top of the load of the komatik on way home. The shaking about did some internal damage, but after a repair at an Olympus agent in Ottawa it was as good as new.
I would use the om2 more now if developing was not such a pain it the arse. Good developing of the neg is essential, just no great ones this side of Ottawa, or maybe Halifax and St.John's. What ever, it takes for ever to get the results back.
My Olympus c-5050 digital does a good job for posting on the internet and for small reprints, but would love the power of the 35mm format, maybe one day.

Musk ox revisited.

Fran had a call from a local conservation officer last night. He reported sighting the musk ox on the same island it was first spotted last spring. The old guy/girl seems to have settled down there well, lots of food and lack of predators I suppose, just a bit lonely, maybe banished from the herd in Northern Quebec.
The head in foreground is not of the same species.
Pictures by S Bernier.



The local ground search and rescue [GSAR] was a little busy over the weekend. Had occasion to go out looking for people at least three times. One was a guy out wooding and ran out of gas.
Another was a young guy and his sister who were on the way home from Voisey’s Bay with a load of wood. They had a piston blow on their ski doo near Kauk Brook. They were picked up walking near southern point. Would have been a nice night for a walk except for having to beat into a blizzard.
The third incident was a guy who had his komatik load of wood got stuck in snow banks. He un hitched and proceeded on his machine until it got stuck in a snow bank. He was picked up walking also. Not a nice weekend for breaking down, or for even going wooding for that matter, but some just have to.

Technical problem with link.

Not sure why the link at right does not work for Okalakatiget Society, it is entered correctly,
so here it is here http://www.oksociety.com/

Thanks to eagle eye Pleaman the link is fixed.

Black mood Monday.

Well the wind was not long turning to a westerly direction, kept me awake good part of the night, our bedroom is on the west side. It got up to 84 clicks, lot of blowing snow, all the good blown snow is now bad blowing snow building up around the house. Some light snow falling this morning, not that you can distinguish the blowing snow from the precipitation.

I’m pleased to see this has happened do not know if the guys guilty, but it should have happed at the get go. http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/palm-island-cop-charged/2007/02/05/1170524008271.html

I also do not know if the NL MHA’s that are under investigation for overspending their constituency allowance are guilty of any on the books criminal offence. I do know it is taking too long to find out. That, along with what has been revealed since, like inappropriate and double billing by several members, and then the self approval of 28 hundred dollars under secrecy by all but two of the MHA’s has led to the house of assembly not having the moral authority to govern.

I now think we have a good idea of why Loyola Sullivan left politics when he did. Loyola was up to his arm pits with all the decisions made, either in opposition or in government. He knew more revelations were coming, so he gets an appointment [none compete] to a plum ‘no need’ job paying 160 grand plus perks.

Their addicted, even our low profile MHA for Torngat Mountains is addicted to power and perks, no one wants to talk about that publicly though. Where is the personal ethics, the personal self respect of a lot of these individuals? The half arsed attempts to defend all these actions by saying that ‘no rules were broken’ just does not wash.

So lacking any moral authority, with a leader with dictatorial tendencies, the rest of the cabinet behaving like eunuchs, the rest of the caucus being of similar bent, or money grubbing cry babies. With the opposition [bar one] in similar situation, we are in a pretty pickle democratically speaking.
Even taking into account the influx of new blood with the upcoming by-elections, we still have the vast majority of the MHA’s tarred with all this sleaze, corruption and self served-ness.
And on the leader of the government, if we are to have a dictator then I think we should have vote on it. Just had to put that in, shows the absurdity of the whole sorry mess.
Why the only last week the premier referred to the Confederation Building as “my building”, before correcting himself and saying “our building”. Like the rest of his hyperbolism, the cat is out of the bag already, the horse has bolted, Elvis has left the building.

So who is responsible for allowing this to develop to the state it has. Ultimately we all are, Joe and Jan Q public. In brief it amounts to the three monkeys syndrome.

I’m not really in a black mood, just very very very angry, as is 90% of what is left of the voting public of NL.

Upertydate 1230 hours:

CBC just had a report saying the Liberal candidates in the upcoming by-elections have formed a coalition calling on the government [Danny Williams] to convene an inquiry in to the spending scandals in the house of Assembly.
Well others [like majority of voters] and certain media outlets have been calling for that since almost day one.
Will it happen? Only if some seats look vulnerable. And is it too late? You bet ya. Will it make a difference if it is? Most likely not.

Here are two views of the Hopedale church and mission buildings. First one via Arkiske Billeder, circa 1921. Second circa 2006 by yours truly.

The wharf in the second used to be used for float plane
[after their introduction] docking until the airstrip was built; the structure is in bad state of repair at moment.

The church and mission complex has been repaired and restored over the last decade, it is an historical site or building.


Nain has several buildings that could/should be on the list of historical buildings, not much to nothing has been done to protect and restore them.

It was a beautiful day yesterday, started off at -19, and then light fluffy snow fell for most of the day with temperatures rising to -5. Then the bloody wind started, got up to 81 clicks from the north last evening.
Looking out this morning I see I don’t have all that much snow to move, blowing from the north it all but blew some place else. Now if had been from the NW it would have been a different [snow bank to move] story.
With more snow on the way with winds it will be several days before I worry about any big clearing job.

Them days, these days.

Looking at this picture taken at Hebron in 1921 [from Artisko Billeder] reminded me of one I took in Hopedale in 2007.

I have some other comparisons of the Hebron church and Hopedale church, plus of Hopedale 1921 and 2007, will try to get those up at a later date.

The green building in background is the school.

Memories.

This story link brings back memories.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2007/02/02/uranium-ice.html

Back in the post Voisey’s Bay discovery exploration frenzy days we had occasion to challenge conventional political decisions as well.

The we were a diverse group of concerned citizens living in Nain. The protagonists were a junior mining company, the Government of NL and the Labrador Inuit Association [now Nunatsiavut Government].
The junior mining company sought, and was given approval by two NLG departments, to drill for nickel inside Municipal Boundaries.

Long story short; the concerned citizens discovered that NLG had broken its own regulations, we sought help from LIA, they were too busy acquiescing to all and sundry. We sought help from the Town Council, they were more on top of the issue and asked the Government Legal Dept to look into the issue.
The legal department ordered the other two departments to overturn their approvals and instructed them that it was the Town Council of Nains roll to decide who does what inside municipal lands.

The drilling went ahead, but under strict environmental controls, local hiring and a substantial payment to the council coffers.
LIA did come to the party eventually, but only after the proletariat showed some guts and stood up for their rights and demanded correctional actions and protection of the environment.

So you have my support down there in Makkovik, stick to your guns and demand that the RIGHT thing is done.

I have a couple of new links at right. One is of some great pictures of Hebron and other locals circa 1921. Thanks to Bubba and the Danish whatever for that link.
The other link is to a guy who reads meters down in Victoria Oz. He also writes very well, his sight is very professional, check it out.

Questionable precipitation.

According to the official site we had 32.8 mm of precipitation yesterday.

http://www.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/city/pages/nf-40_metric_e.html

Looking at the mm v cm measurement explanation we had roughly 32 of snow.
You would think we would have had to shovel this morning, but no, just hard packed snow all over town.
Maybe the operators spilt something or other in the measuring cup, I could speculate as to what, but wont.
I will add, to err is human, we all do it.

Temperature rising.

It may be -25 outside but my blood is boiling.
These two links should put to bed any ones notion of giving these clowns any empathy, sympathy, benefit of the doubt.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2007/02/01/secret-raise.html

http://www.thetelegram.com/index.cfm?sid=1190&sc=3

Maybe there could be some lee way given to Ms Marshall and the premier but as the editorial says, where is the stand up when these people new of what was afoot.
Especially the premier, given his grandiose self promotional media performances.

Take cover Nanuk.

Today is the opening of the Polar bear hunt in Nunatsiavut. It is operated on a quota system, six bears in total, 1 each for the four southern towns, 2 for Nain. Ya put you name in and takes ya chances.
The area of the hunt is from Sandwich Bay in the south to Cap Chiddley in the north. A hunter with a license has a certain time frame to get their bear. No bear then the license is passed to next hunter on the list.
If a hunter gets a bear that hunter is exempt from applying again for 5 years.

Photo was taken couple of springs ago. Photos by G. Ford. It was Ingutuk Matthews’s first sighting of Nanuk.



Noticed unusual amount of activity around the stores yesterday, it was out of the ordinary for the time of day and the amount of people and ski doos. Took me a few minutes to gel to why [it was the stunning cold -27c]; the payout had been made.
Later at home, lots of furniture loaded on komatiks sped past the window. Good to see money spent wisely, well some what wisely as better value for money spent could be had if people waited and purchased south. But as Fran said, “people have been without so long”.