Planes n boats n whales.

Our oldest granddaughter left for flying school today. An exciting time, at the same time a little sad.
We had what turned out to be a hugging circle at the plane, except for the youngest grandson who did his usual shy shtick, but he was run down and had to kiss his sister.
Who knows, in a couple of years instead of hugging her we will be handing her our luggage, part of the right of passage for second officers up this way.

Maya waving.
While waiting for the plane the Aurora Magnetica set sail for Iqaluit. She had been docked here since Tuesday. We were asked aboard for a cupa Tuesday evening.
Pascale said they are going non stop to Iqaluit, about three days sailing.
If Towniebarstard sees a red craft sitting on the mud flats he might like go and have a chat to the crew. They spent a bit of time in St. John’s and around the Island before heading north.


Henry.

Pascale, Pierre and guests.
Galley with engine room wall at left.

The vessel is very nicely laid out; galley while narrow is well equipped. They have two heating systems on board plus an oil cook stove with oven that has not been used yet, soon will though.

Wetish Wednesday.

Yesterday started out nice, turned wet in the afternoon and evening, light to moderate rain.
The Northern Ranger was about an hour late arriving, many down the dock getting impatient.
Noticed that the anti graffiti crew had been at work here too, could be a bit less free with the paint though.


This junior ‘old man of the sea’ did not give a hoot one way or the other, like many other other kids just doing what kids do in the last days of summer holidays.

Whale of a day.

Yesterday started off on the dodgy side but ended up a beautiful day, up to 22 at the house, nice breeze at times making it good berry picking weather. I checked the blue berries, not quite sweet enough for me yet.
Noticed a couple of Minki whales in the harbor in the morning, seems they stuck around all day.

We strolled down to the dock after supper; people were on the end of the dock looking out over
the water. Fran asked “what are you looking at?”


“Whales” they said in unison.


I missed the best shot though, three time one whale had it’s body ¾ way out of the water, rolled over showing it’s grey/white belly, great sight with everybody oooing and arhing. We were told that earlier the whales came close to the dock doing the same thing, feeding on capelin most likely.

Politics 0. RDF 1.

Four federal Liberal MP’s were scheduled to visit Nain yesterday afternoon on their way to the National Liberal Caucus meeting in St.John’s on the 27-30 August.
A tour of town, and an appearance at the Music Festival was planed.
Weather had other ideas, fog and drizzle decided that Nain was not ready for this political opportunism photo op. Not sure if the planed mornings stop, Hopedale, was successful.
Why the cynicism one may ask, well given the topography I am a not overly convinced that the “issues” that face the area would be absorbed, or conveyed adequately for that matter, in such a short whistle stop visit.
Others may say that we should appreciate that the effort was made, or intended as it turned out.

Also political; Max Blake of Rigolet and Danny Dumaresque of Forteau are the only two candidates for the Liberal Nomination for the seat of Torngat Mountains. The seat will become vacant next month when the sitting member resigns.
No word yet of any declared candidates for the PC or NDP party’s, some rumors around, nothing concrete.

The Music festival was a big success by most accounts. Good attendance, lot’s of local talent, a big shipment of Mary Browns chicken was flown in on Saturday and sold to raise funds.

Dem ol cotton balls.

Sure some quite around town so far today [early afternoon]. Except for the occasional vehicle on roads and helicopters overhead you’d thunk some sort of viral plague had hit the place, many curtains still drawn at midday is a little unusual.

On an unrelated topic, there is a music festival being held this week. Bands and individuals from town and down the coast are performing from Friday night to Sunday afternoon.
The performances are in the recreation centre and at the Hotel.

Couple of pictures of the romp in the cotton balls yesterday, plus kids cooling off in the old dam.

Balmy Friday.

Nothing like a romp in the woods on a nice sunny day. A dash along a clear crystal brook does not go astray either.



On the way back from the brook we came across these Inukshuks, built by kids by the look of them, Siutik managed to knock some over in her investigations.






It has gotten up to 22c so far today, not as high as the 26 yesterday but not many people complaining one would think.

Busy at the chopper pad end of town.

The yellow huey is taking drill rigs stuff west into the Kingurutik area I would presume. Just as it left this Canadian Helicopters chopper brought in some lumber. It came in from the west side of Nain Hill, dropped the load and headed straight out over the harbor to south of town.
That is the responsible way, not fly over the community because it may be the shortest route, kudos to the pilot.

Okalakatiget Society has a news brief on the increased chopper traffic in the Nain and Postville areas, to wit.

If you live in Postville or Nain you will have definitely noticed increased helicopter traffic.
That’s because of the increased mineral exploration in the two areas.
Keith Decker is AngajukKâk of the Postville Inuit Community Government.
He says there were concerns about where the helicopters were landing and refueling in Postville.
The landing and fueling was taking place near the gas station just up further from the Power plant.
Decker says for safety reasons the Town raised the issue with Aurora Energy resources, Nunatsiavut Government, LIDC and Woodward’s Oil.
The ICG identified an area where helicopter fuel could be stashed, the location being at some point of the Postville lumber road.
Decker says helicopters landed there anyway to pick up core boxes.
And Woodward’s Oil has agreed to the location because the tanker can unload its supply to the area.
The Dept. of Land and Resources of Nunatsiavut Government has to approve a permit for a landing pad to be built there.
And the employees of Postville lumber will be responsible for getting the tanks into the location.

In Nain I heard there was one person who wrote a letter to the Community Government asking for them to see what they could do to curtail the unnecessary and potentially dangerous over flying of the town, and there was one other person who phoned Transport Canada office in Moncton NB [1 506 851 7249, ask for Paul] and brought the issue to their attention.


Update:

There is still one chopper who insists on doing a run within 200 yds of the homes along the bottom of Nain Hill, both inward and outward. I have not ID it properly yet, but it is mainly a silver color with perhaps some blue, naughty naughty pilot.

Further more, dont write the elders off just yet.

Nice puppy.

So you think the City of Delta postal workers have doggy issues. Given the contempt Canada Post holds for their more northern customers, imagine what would happen if there were letter carries up this way.
Not that it would be the letter carries fault, but as the flow goes the front line workers usually carry the brunt of the discontent.

Meatareaders would be spared, for now any way, Hydro just dropped the rates on our usage.

What a great day, 19.4 as a high at the house, nice breeze, scattered cloud. Took the dog for a walk this morning, very hard to control on the way out. She has the typical sled dog gait, pulls quite hard for a pup.
The homeward leg she was more subdued and easier to handle.

Did another little walk later down to the dock and over to the ball field. Was going to take some photos of the BBQ shed, volley ball and basket ball courts. Too early yet, they are still pouring the concrete.
So I took a couple of the work the summer youth program did, organized by the Recreation department.
The oil tank was an ugly industrial red, so in an effort to spruce up the place and to discourage graffiti this is how it ended up, great idea and should be more of it. They also painted up some garbage tins and put them around town.
The Logo on the tank is in honor of hockey players who have passed away and those living.

The Community Government has put up two welcome signs, this one as you come off the dock and another one as you are leaving the airstrip. Other things are on the go too, so things are moving along.

There was a vise president from Aurora Energy on CBC HV-GB this morning talking about the possibility of a Uranium Mine starting up 35 clicks south of Postville in three years. Lots of work to do yet like environmental, approvals from Nunatsiavut, Province, Feds. But he sounded up beat, when asked how the product would be shipped out he answered either by sea or by road, but preferably any approvals would include a road.

News items fromFurther north just highlight what will most likely happen to any retention of language and traditional culture around these parts. We may not see the Russian flag, but many other flags of expedience and corporate will certainly be prominent.



One of my many short comings and regrets is my inability to learn languages. I have tried to learn a couple over the years, not successful in any.

Shame or Complacency?

Canada’s largest successful class action suit is drawing to and end. I do not know how many Canadians feel comforted that the 2.2 billion dollars will close this chapter of history.
One woman who was the victim of some of the worst abuse will receive $34.000.00. She said it will buy a new tractor for their farm and perhaps help to repair their car. I cant help wonder what vintage tractor they will get for those dollars.

Personally I am not comforted by these continuing reports out of Australia.
Click on the video for some poignant pictures and audio.

Siutik took me for our first walk around town yesterday, went better than I had expected. Still lots of pulling and checking out every little thing as puppies want to do.
I let her have a basic free rain, plenty of time yet for the “heal Siutik” stick. Headed down to the dock, busy place with heavily stuff coming off the Astron, she did not baulk once.
Some tourists were off loading their gear off a long liner, been up north hiking by the look of it. Siutik charmed them, lots of oohs and arrs and what a cute dog.
On way home met some humans, she always wants to go play with them did, well with the few dogs we came across, acted like a real alpha female should.

Did the same rout today, less pulling, charmed some CBC technicians.

Photos are after we got home yesterday.

After several days of increasingly fall like weather the temperature is on the up tick today, 17 out back at moment, supposed to get up to 20 during the week, I can take that. Long as there is a breeze.

Busy boy!

Nain airstrip must be close to being the busiest in the province at the moment. In fine to reasonable weather there are almost non stop landings and take offs of fixed wing and rotary planes.

Back in the heady days of the post Voisey’s Bay discovery it was most certainly the busiest. It has not reached those volumes [yet] but things sure or constant.
Both commercial airlines are moving a lot of people and freight associated with mining exploration. As well a lot of people are coming and going associated with the Torngat National Park.

The helicopter traffic is mostly associated with the exploration, plus the usual traffic.

One thing of note [others have noted the same thing] is that the choppers are infringing closer and closer to the community, especially inward flights, and especially to the east along the water front.
During the frenzy period there were restrictions imposed keeping the flights a good distance from the community except in certain circumstances, these seem to be relaxed or being ignored now.

This one flew over homes and along the airstrip on approach to the northern point chopper pad on Friday; it is associated with the never ending search for El Dorado.

While waiting to depart Nain on or holiday a chopper with a heavy load slung under flew the same flight path except it came directly over us on the ground. People moved and made disapproving looks.

But we better not mention it to the authorities, some one might think we are ungrateful or something. No sire re, we will wait until there is a near or actual incident then berate the authorities for not being more diligent, yes sir re.

There were a number of near incidents during the frenzy, more than once did a chopper cross the approach path of a twin otter flight. Not to mention some really crazy thoughtless pilot behavior on the ground.

See ya mates!

Executive class lounge.
Pre Boarding.

Boarding.
Boarded.

After a 3 week visit my little sister and her bloke head back to Oz, with stop overs in whesht coast, centre of the universe, Europe, Asia.

Been great seeing them again, with all the stars aligning we will get to see them next year too, though under different climatic conditions.

Credit where credit due.

Just happened to drop into one of the stores around 1.45 pm on my way back from another assignment.
Fresh food produce shelves brimming full of guess what? Fresh produce. Good variety of the usual products, in good shape too most of it.

Checking around I find that the other larger store has their produce too.

I’m told the food by mail items arrived in Nain last evening. Checking around before that, I was told that the shipments were up at the air freight shed in GB before midday yesterday.
The smaller store handling produce received their stock Tuesday evening.


So that means it can work when all the signs align.

As a foot note: I’m not sure I fully understand why people in the public and private [who are being paid quite good bucks] sector get their noses out of joint when some one points out that their are continuing deficiencies in whatever they are getting those bucks to do.

There are some nice sums of public money involved in this very handy [for the consumer] food by mail program, as it is with the provincial food airlift program.

If more openness and accountability was engaged in then perhaps there would be more kudos thrown around. I know in the past I have informed INAC that things were going well.

For the amount of time and energy I put into some of these short comings in different areas of the system, for 0 dollars, then I should be the one getting upset with the lack of support, or kudos.

There is still work to do, years of experience has taught one that.

Let them eat frozen.

So, CBC HV-GB interviewed an official from INAC who manages the food by mail program this morning.
It’s not his fault he said, [he did say that perhaps some aspects of the program need a re look. I seem to have heard that before].

INAC gives the money to Canada Post who administers and monitors the program.
As the spokesperson from Canada Post said yesterday, it’s not their fault; they just administer and monitor the program for INAC, as INAC gives them the money they have to answer for it.
An official from the Airline that takes the money from Canada Post who takes the money from INAC said it’s not his fault.

So the field narrows, who do we have left?

Starting from the bottom of the food chain we have the luckless consumer. Then we have the retailer. Then the wholesaler in HV-GB. Then the ground shipper. Then the wholesaler in Quebec some place. Then the shipper who gets the produce to the wholesaler in Quebec some place. The the transshipment people near the people who grow the produce. Then the people who grow the produce.
Hold on a bit, maybe it’s those illegal aliens that work in the fields of the people who grow the produce. Then that would not work if the produce came from the country that the illegal aliens came from in the first place.

Getting back to reality for a while; some people in jurisdictions outside Northern Labrador are hinting that maybe the retailers here should order larger volumes of the produce, that way there is less chance of them running out.

From a consumer point of view there would be have to be changes in the present shipping arrangements for that to work.

Firstly the produce is already in a precarious state on arrival in Goose Bay.

Then we only have produce shipped in one day a week, some times on different days for different retailers, some times in dribs and drabs, some times all on one plane, so that would have to be addressed.

I don’t think that the produce would be in great shape 6 days after it arrived in Nain.
Added to that is the fact that the produce is only delivered one day a week into HV-GB. Maybe on different days for different wholesaler, so that adds to the logistics.

There is already a lot of wastage, some times due to unsuitable produce on arrival in Nain, sometimes due to it being on the shelf 3 to 4 days. So 6 to 7 days on the shelf would not work from the consumer point of view.

I also think that the 48 hour time frame the airline has to get it to the retailer has to be re visited. Some times it can extend to 72 hours I am told, depending on things like weather, legitimate mechanical issues with planes.

The INAC official mentioned that the 48 hour time is universal all over the north.
One thing comes to mind on that, I think in all other northern jurisdictions, the produce is flown in to the distribution points. In our case it is trucked in to HV-GB. I’m not sure what the average trucking time is, but it sure would be an issue.

Maybe the official at INAC has the ultimate answer. Some time back I was talking to this official, on the phone, on the very same problems that are at issue now.
The official became a bit frustrated at my insistence at trying to get answers, he suggested that perhaps “we should revert to just frozen vegetables, they are just as nutritious as fresh”.

I kid you not; the same official repeated those words at a later date to a retailer who was trying to get similar answers.

With an attitude like that in Ottawa, the obvious parochial self serving attitudes in HV-GB and at Canada Post, the disinterest the politicians are displaying, the same disinterest the vast majority of local consumers are displaying, perhaps it would be better to just scrap the program, along with the provincial program in the winter.

The consumer would pay more but the tax payers would save money.

There would be less freight to bring in, the air carriers would not have to worry about all that hassle, the retailers would have less things to worry about, Canada Post would not have to send some one up to the airport for an hour each week, the truckers would have less freight to worry about, same with the wholesalers.

Add to that the increase in medical care having to be administered to the people who have increased health issues due to the inability for most to acquire a healthy diet.

Except for the luckless consumer a great deal all around. Or would it be??????

Guts to leave the Ruts.

CBC HV-GB had a piece on the ‘food By Mail’ issue yesterday. They picked up on it from my e mails cc’d to them.

There is a very very abbreviated version here. The heading is worth a thousand words though.

My blog is getting lots of referrals from here at the moment. That is very sweet; my preference would be for some ‘other sources’ to show interest in the issue.

Being a reasonable person I will hold off a little longer before pointing out who I think those other sources are.

I just heard that there will be a follow up piece on CBC HV-GB morning show later in the morning.

Given my present mood and the deafening silence from ‘other sources’ this quote is appropriate.

"Contentment is for cows; a challenging purpose is for people." -- Denis Waitley

I snagged the quote from over here. I think the the words under the blog are poignant.

'Guts to leave the ruts', Fran will love that one.

Heading the way of the Dodo??????????????

This may sound morbid and negative, but how do you put a happy face goody two shoes spin on it, please let me know if you can.

Tomorrow is the last day the Nain fish plant will accept fish [char] from fishers. Only two fishers have been bringing fish in the last few days, down from about a dozen at the height.
A small amount of scallop was processed back in July before the scallop fishers decided the price was not high enough and hightailed it back south.

All round I would say that this year is the worst [as in product landed and processed] year the Nain plant has experienced in the 27 years I have been here.

The hardest hit are the plant workers, many who’s only income is the summer work supplemented by EI or social programs. Not being able to work this summer will affect the EI, so some could be in for a bleak winter.

All in all a sad bleak empty scene at the dock all summer.

The plant has gone through many changes both in product landed, processing and structural since my first arrival back in 1978.The building was a ram shackle hodge podge of additions. Those days the char and salmon was mostly cleaned, split and salted.

Back then many families had trap boats, in late July early August the town half emptied with people going out to there traditional fishing berths, some outside of Nain, many north as fare as Okak Bay and a few further north than that.
The government run [back then] plant would supply a collector boat. This vessel was the life line to the remote fishing camps taking supplies on its outward run and bringing the catch pack to the plant on return.

The old plant was replaced with a larger more modern building. Blast freezers were installed. Then came the instillation of a smoke house, value added helped with employment increases. Flash frozen fillets also help in this regard.
A holding/weighing building was erected on the other side of the wharf, many additions, enlargements, improvements to the dock has taken place over the years also.

For a few years Turbot and Grenadier were landed and cleaned and frozen then shipped out.

That was also the time frame of a big protest at the dock. A collector boat from down south was coming in to the dock and off loading the catch to a larger vessel that took the Turbot south for processing. With people here clamoring for some work a protest was organized, most of the town was at or on the dock with signs and and loud voices.
They blockaded the collector boat preventing the crew from disembarking or the boat leaving. After some protracted negotiations it was agreed that the fish would be partly processed here.

After a few years memories faded and a way was found to send the Turbot south for processing.

Then the scallop fishery took off, for a few years there were up to a dozen small scallop draggers here at any one time. This fluctuated for a few years until it leveled out at about 4 to 6 boats.
These were the best years for plant workers, hard work standing up and shucking all day, but it was much needed work for many.

During all this the government wanted out of the plant, so a deal was struck with the Torngat Fish Producers Co Op to take over the operation.
It has been difficult years, as it has been in all sections of the fishing industry.
An influx of farmed fish has not helped matters in the char and salmon fishery. Now there seems to be a glut of scallops from overseas in the markets.

It would be a big blow if the Plant has to close, another step backward in the senseless march towards……………. What?

It’s cutie pie time!!!

Siutik looks like this most times, people just melt when they see her.
Truth is she is just like most little puppies, maybe a little worse.
At different times over the weekend she was more like the princess of destruction. Even managed to knock a gallon container of oil over and get the screw cap off…….. any one here that maddening scream about 5 last evening?But we battle on in our learning curve, jury still out on who will learn the most.

Possible breakthrough.

After a short burst of “attach dog” style e mails I have been offered a spruce twig peace offering.
Actually it’s more like an offer of getting to the facts on how the movement of fresh produce is conducted under the food by mail program and the food lift subsidy.

I have accepted this offer, it’s short on details at the moment but things should become clearer over the next week.
I won’t be able to reveal much about what is going on for awhile, hopefully it will bring an end to any miss information, resulting in some bad blood between some folks.

Why the hell something like this has not been done before boggles the mind, perhaps it was intentional to dived and conquer, or perhaps it is just plain stupidity.

Next up on the list is who is actually benefiting under these programs. Is it the consumer as the programs were designed for, and if not why not. How many bloody headaches in that lot I wonder.


I think this is a great idea. The sooner this Province, better yet this town, implements legislation banning plastic bags the better off we will all be.
I think I mentioned in a previous post how many people in Montreal carry back packs as they go about their every day lives.

Here in the middle of the pristine wilderness [at least for now] we have plastic bags up the ying yang.
It bugs me no end to see people walk out of a store with things as small as a box of aspirin in a plastic bag.
Admittedly some people use cardboard boxes for larger grocery buys, but inevitably the goods are put in plastic bags before being put in the cardboard box.

Rocking the boat.

Seems I have gotten up the nose of a few people, unfortunately I am not one of those people who act like mushrooms and lie still while having heaps of manure pored over them.

Briefly this is what happened:

Last Wednesday I received a small amount of freight on the Northern Ranger, plus witnessed some antiquated freight handling by the crew. I sent off photos and a description of my complaint to civil servants, politicians and company reps. Received no response on that to date.

On Thursday and Friday I, along with many others, were continually going to the stores looking for a fresh shipment of produce. It was warmish weather, ideal for a salad, cream cheese on your bagel, fresh fruit for desert; you know those rare [for us] little delights that put a little sunshine into the diet.
No such little delights were on the shelves by 2PM yesterday. Weather was fine, planes coming and going all week.

So I take some photos of the shelves in 2 stores and attach them to an e mail and send it off to the same civil servants, Politicians, plus to the media.

Whoa baby, did that get a response post hast. One from a representative of the airline [who received my e mail from an industry colleague] that brings the food by mail.
Seems all the freight issues are some one else’s problems, even indicating it may be people on the receiving end.
A little later I get an e mail from the politically appointed provincial civil servant handling the file. The usual condescending tone along with the usual commitment that “we are all in this together and we are working to solve the issues”. [This has been going on for 3 + years, no discernable changes to date].
I may have ignored this rant but he added that the airline was “doing a great job and the problem must lie somewhere else, we will work together to find the evil doer’s” [paraphrased].

So I have sent off responses to both and cc to all the usual suspects, so to speak.

Do I expect any big changes? Well no, but I have principals and like to sleep well at night.

These are just 2 of the 5 pictures I sent. Northern1 shows where the fresh produce would be. There are some freshly arrived spuds, turnip carrot to the fare right shelves.
The Big Land3 shows part of the produce section, shown is old stock, wilted, mildewed, and wrinkled. No salad stuff, fresh fruit, sour cream.

So who has the bigger issue here folks? Who is being done over royally?

Update:

Just back from the shops on a dreary drizzly day. Not really salad weather for the next number of days according to the weather forecast.

BigLand had all the old stale stuff cleared of their shelves and replaced by fresh produce that arrived at the Nain airstrip at 8.30 in the PM of yesterday evening.
Majority of the items in good to reasonable shape, we purchased some corn on the cob, green onions, cucumber.
Strawberries were the exception; they were on sale for .99 cents a punnet. Mildew over many of the berries and strawberry juice was evident in the large container. While we were there we witnessed one lady buy one, juice was dripping all over the place.

Down at Northern things were a bit slower; the produce was still being unpacked in their produce ready area. We purchased some tomatoes and a broccoli, both in good shape, bananas were in good shape, rest of stuff not unpacked.
Again the problem was the strawberries; these did not need to be unpacked to see the problem. The box containing them was leaking red juice on the floor. The Northern staffer who handles the produce had to go home to change his cloths; they had strawberries juice all over them.

In the interest of fairness to BigLand, here are some photos taken today at 1.30 PM. The old stock has been removed and replaced with the fresh produce. Unlike assertions by some, the extras are stored in upright coolers in the sales section, quite in the open, no walls hiding things.

I did not take pictures at Northrn again, not all that much produce there now. No strawberries are out on the shelves, will follow up on those.

Por Beagle

Some pictures of the Porbeagle shark caught in a char net last week. Quite the nice size, it sure does look like a relative of the Mako and Great White.

Photos by Andrew Andersen.

Footie anyone?

Siutik having a good old time pretending she is dismembering a caribou or some such. The ball came with the dog, along with a large bag of food, treats, collar, dog kennel.
We were a bit sceptical at the speed of the exchange, something wrong here or what? but all is turning out copacetic.
Siutik is a people dog to a fault, everybody falls for here, until she starts tearing there shoes or clothes to pieces.

Civic Holiday Monday.

Some young people go for a swim in a pond on a hot weekend day. One decides to light a fire to ‘warm up’ after the dip, 600 people have to evacuate a remote community after the fire gets out of control.

CBC HV-GB had several reports of the situation this morning. Emergency measures were kicked in and the population of the town evacuated to the marine dock. Alerts were put out for possible marine and air evacuation; these were put back on stand by after the fire was dampened by human and weather efforts.
As of late last evening the residents were back in their homes, air and ground fire fighters were still on the scene.

SharksII

The word is that the shark caught in a char net was a porbeagle, strange name for a shark sure.
The stomach contents were sampled by Fisheries Officers, some people took small pieces of the skin hoping for some muktuk, no luck, not very nice I hear.

Very quite around town yesterday, many gone off to their cabins, and who can blame them. Temperatures up to 24 and above yesterday, its about 14 now, another nice day ahead.

We cleaned up a bit at the back of the house, amazing what a little dog will get people doing.
Did a bit of watering and weeding of the garden, things are starting to bloom and grow all of a sudden, or so it seems.

Speaking of little dogs, a big battle of wills ensured too yesterday. Siutik was content to be outside, but when in doors she attempts to take charge, especially with visitors. Not unusual with pup's, it's just been awhile since we had animals inside, last were the cats, different kettle of fish [so to speak].

Shark!!!!!!!!!!!!!s

Lot of excitement down at the dock last evening, a shark had gotten caught up in a food fishery net and bought in to the dock.
I did not go down myself so no accurate info on size and type yet, but it seems to have been about 5 foot long.
Don’t remember a shark being brought in that way [or any other way for that matter] before. Will have to keep an eager eye out on my laps of the harbor from now on ;-}

In other totally unrelated fishy news, one wonders when the electorate will elect political leaders with a sense of propriety above kindergarten mentality.

Looking like a nice sunny day.

End of the week, been back home for 5 days, busy, lots going on, cant seem to get motivated about blogging, like hard to walk and chew gum at same time.

I did attend a meeting with 2 officials of Dept. of Labrador Affairs on Wednesday evening. Disappointing turn out, only 5 from town; 2 from Inuit Community Government, to retailers, me. Officials did meet with 2 from Nunatsiavut next morning, not sure if they got any further or more out of it than us 5.
The up side was that the officials are touring the coast with information and listening [we hope] of issues surrounding the Provincial Air Foodlift Subsidy. We learnt what the subsidy is 26.8 cents a pound on the cost of freight. Also what qualifies and what does not qualify for the subsidy.
The down side, one of the officials was condescending at times [unnecessarily so]. Many of the qualified items are unhealthy processed foods i.e. TV dinners, frozen entrees, pogo sticks, onion rings, processed subs and wraps. Also included are frozen meats.

Some items on the “non-subsidized” list are; rice, dried beans, lintels, dried fruit, pastas. We will have to work on effecting some change there.
One of the rationales for not including the above was that they don’t have a best before date. Well news flash, neither does frozen pogo sticks.

Troubling for me is the fact that none of this subsidy is monitored for quality or process. There is no auditing done to prove that the ‘consumer’ is getting the full benefit. The retailer claims the subsidy; money is handed over, no proof that that subsidy is benefiting the consumer at all.
In one case, fresh milk, it seems that retailers either take a loss or the profit is marginal; in all other cases there is no way to know.



To round up on a happy positive note; the fab five at a Greek BYO eatery in Montreal. The happy my have been induced, but what the heck.

This little lady has been in residence since yesterday, taking up lots of our time. She was rescued off the streets by a neighbor; they had her for couple of days, sort of overloaded with other animals so asked if we wanted her.