Active Sunday morning.

My Ball, then a few Pele moves.

Then a bit of slidding to top off the morning.

Weather n chicken.

Yesterday morning the men were out a working, the kids were out a running [sports meet].










Not so today, more people out a driving than even a walking let alone a running, and no one a working on the media centre.











The Hopedale team did not do so well in the running event, but the team did win the table tennis gold medal, with Ben Abel/ Winters [who is staying with us] not losing a match.


To expand on Danny D’s some what shallow expressions of concern for the dear people of Torngat Mountains district. I took a little notice of prices of ‘value added’ chicken packages this morning. I will not name the brands, but we did purchase some buffalo wings, 13 pieces for $13.99. Not much else for choice at that store.

At another store the same quantity ranges from $13.29 for no name brand to $16.99 for national brand and to $19.99 for 22 pieces of a national brand.

And just to prove my apolitical ness, I gave the PC candidate short shift when she tried to give me her poster and propaganda this morning. I was not rude, just said I do not want them. Sutiuk was more accommodating and wanted to go out the door with her, fickle women eh?

“I was driving from one meeting to another when I just happened to turn VOCM Back Talk on”.

The above quote would be more likely to come from some provincial politician, or wanna bee, than me.

Actually I was listening to Back Talk on the internet yesterday when near the end of the show Danny Dumaresque, the liberal candidate for this riding, phoned in.

Danny D wanted to express to the host, and the people of this province, his shock and horror at the high cost of living up here. Seems Danny D has been traveling the riding and has discovered that it cost $280.00 for a drum of stove oil [his words]. One woman pointed out to Danny D that a packet of processed chicken cost $18.00. He expressed concern that some people on old age security have to choose between heating their homes of having some finger lick’n good in the winter months [paraphrased].

Well gee Danny D, what will you be able/willing to do about it if elected?
My answer; sweet bugger all.

Liberals were in power for years, PC’s for last 4 years, nothing has ever been done about the high cost of living, the higher proportional taxes we pay, no indexation for the higher cost of living differential, no break on taxes applied to heating or hydro bills, no breaks or specials on getting from here to Goose Bay by air. No action taken to address the absurdly high cost of parcel post.

People living in the north do get a meager Northern Residence tax Deduction, but the people in Lake Melville get the same break as people further north where costs are much higher. Plus, at the moment people on diesel generated electricity get a meager deduction on our hydro bills, this does not go far when the other ever increasing costs are factored in.

This week I received two calls from provincial pollsters. A short sweet four question pole on the provincial election. Did both of them, both of them did not include the candidate from the Labrador Party. So yesterday when I was asked which candidate I favored out of three [the NDP was added in the second] I mentioned that one was missing. Pollster said that “the Labrador Party candidate must have just been nominated and not in time for the pole”. ‘Not so” said I, “his name was on list from the start, you guys just don’t pay attention”. Matter of fact the NDP candidate was only nominated mid week but his name was there.

Very unfair IMO, very mid/south Labrador navel gazing, very typical.

Man o man, the Okalakatiget Society can’t cop a break on the construction of the New Media Centre. First soil conditions [legitimate hold up] then a disinterested contractor [arse holes doing other work], now when things get under way again the weather steps in to put the project further behind schedule. Trouble is that weather will be a major factor dictating how things progress from now on. Rain to wet snow at the moment and footings and concrete still have to be put down. Then again it could be Burma or Darfur or some such place, be thankful for where we are, eh?

Man of the people.

Yeah right. He was in Nain for about 36 minutes, at the school, not sure if the kids were given a chance to ask questions. Even Super Dan could not learn much in that time, and it sure did not give anyone a chance to talk turkey.

The election poster wars was on between the libs and pc candidates for awhile. I say was because the two sides had posters either on single poles, or in the instance where two poles were side by side [the hydro upgrade] one on each pole. Any way most if not all posters up our way have been torn off, some are laying on the ground. I wonder if the parties can be charged for aiding and abetting littering?

While we are on man of the people subject, me thinks money would be better used in health than investing our money, without share holders approval, in the offshore oil or fiber optic deals.

My readership is way lower than this guys, but he did say it could be used, so I am. The letter in question is quite long but Worth the effort.

Fall briefs uno.

There is a school fall sports meet being held in Nain, 16 to 29. Schools from Lake Melville to Nain are taking part; Natuashish is taking part for the first time.

Six male and six female make up each team, our grandson is the captain of the Nain boy’s team.

We have three team members from Hopedale staying with us; Guess which team and which individual Fran will be barracking for?

So what to feed three youth who I don’t really know? Pizza says Fran.

So I made up some pizza and lots of white bread. The picture of the plated pizza is a vegetarian for us; the other two are the more traditional 3 meat, tomato sauce, cheese for the others.

Vegetarian is just for variety, I used cauliflower, broccoli, green opinion, fresh herbs, olives, anchovies, cottage and mozzarella cheese, very very good if I do say so myself.

After the Marine Shipping operating reasonably smoothly in first part of the season things seem to be in retrograde mode again. I have not followed it that closely to date; other fish to fry, but my casual observations are that the freight to the communities is playing second fiddle to the “exploration frenzy” in the Postville /Makkovik area.

Add to this several incidents like a container on the Astron being dropped onto another container with damage to goods inside.

The non containerization of many many pallets of pop and beer and other heavy goods coming out of Goose Bay to the coast. Instead of containerizing these heavy/high pallets and bringing them up on the Astron they are being loaded onto the Northern Ranger. In the rough seas, that we some times get, this resulted in pallets tipping over this last trip resulting in damage to much of the freight.
Also last trip one store had ice cream come off the NR partly thawed out; manager pointed this put to crew, crew adamant that this could not be so as the freezer was working. Sounds like a temperature check due.
Also same store had a good bit of non perishable vegetables left at the dock in GB. Manager now has to fly the stuff in at a cost of 1600 bucks compared to something under 100 bucks on the boat. Here we go again, same old same old as soon as you nod off.

There are other issues but as I said, other fish to fry at the moment.

The sun shines again today.

Early last month I had occasion to send along concerns [accompanied by photographs] on how the Food by Mail [fbm] program was working to Government officials and other concerned players. Later that week I posted some of those concerns and reactions to them.
One of the positive movements from that, was an offer by the air freight carrier, to participate in a little monitoring program, this I agreed to.

So the monitoring time is up, I must say that since that time the fbm has been arriving in Nain in a very timely manner, some times on the evening before the usual delivery day calls for. This means that the freight was delivered to the freight shed and sent out to the coast the same day. This did not go unnoticed by store managers here for sure.

The unknown is; what led up to the ever increasing late delivery that prompted me to put forward the complaint in the first place, and not for the first time.

There are however some indications as to where some of the problems may have been.
I have learnt from two sources that Canada Post may not have been forthcoming with up to date information.
It now seems that CP is going to hire a full time person to monitor and inspect the fbm shipments on arrival at the airline freight shed. To date, and contrary to CP statements, the CP inspector has only had one to two hours per week to dedicate to inspections. This is to serve two airlines that deliver the freight to six communities.
This seems to fly in the face of the contract it has with INAC that states CP is to monitor for eligibility and quality. This clearly has not been done satisfactorily for the last couple of years, and not just in Labrador it would seem.

So we can only hope that things will operate similar to the last 5 weeks on “a go forward bases” [learnt that term last night in the election debate], like what the heel does it really mean at all?

We have had these improvements before after complaints were sent in, but things regress after awhile. It’s sort of like having a young baby, or even a young husky pup, as soon as you nod off all sorts of mischief can be gotten up to.

On more sunny news, it is out again. After more days than we need of unsettled weather we have bright sun and nice crispy temperatures. Planes and boats are on the go without the discomfort or delays of days past.

Yesterday started off not too bad weather wise, changed to rain and sleet and windy in the afternoon.

Fortunately this did not stop a crew from the Resource Centre for the Arts finely getting in. It was the second attempt this week to put on the play ‘Borrowed Black’. They were supposed to visit each North Coast community but weather put a damper on this goal.
Fran attended the play, even though it was advertised as a children’s play, and said afterwards "it was the best thing that has been brought to Nain for some time".



I hear that some disappointed people are searching high and low for the Labrador Party candidates in this election. Talk about all talk and no bloody action, makes one very cynical, or should I say more cynical if that’s possible, of the whole political business.



For some years now the supporters and operators of the Labrador Party have been speaking out against the status quo that is headquartered in St. John’s. Then when they get a chance to stand as one and send a very strong message where are they all? Some are supporting the PC Party, some the Liberals, some even running as liberal candidates, talk about a bunch of mealy mouthed self serving gutless wonders. Excepted are the ones staying true to their ideals.

S0 where is the Rhinoceros Party? The Flying Yoga party? The Vote For Yourself Party? The Monster Raving Loony Party? The Personality and Rational Thinking? Yes! Party?
At least these would stick by their values and principals.

I just don’t get how voting, or running for one of the two main parties, will send any kind of message of the discontent these people have been espousing over the years.

So what if the Liberals win in Lake Melville and Labrador West, bloody hell the Liberals have been short changing as much or more than the PC’s over the years.
And lets not forget that the Politics in this province is a vengeful get even affair, perhaps that was on the minds of these yobbos when they bailed out when the going got a little rough.

I would recommend all politicians taking in Borrowed Black, or at least read the book, the theme of the book is to show how courage can overcome greed.

Anyway, it's a good thing I'm in a good mood or I might really put down how I feel about this disappointing development.

Utopia revisited.

After that short little rant on reality we return to some pictures of mushrooms.
Sure wish we new which ones were edible.
Fran borrowed a book of mushrooms [Field guide to North American Mushrooms], but we always forget to take it with us. Any way I would rather be sure than sorry and not eat them from pictures and description in a book. Best way to learn in this instant would be for some one knowledgeable to be with you, show you first hand. Alas we are short on knowledgeable people in that field.

Utopia interuptes.

Maybe Danny means he is the Spirit of the Torngait incarnate....so that's why the sun shone on the airstrip while he was here.

But for now we are in the riding of Torngat Mountains.

Add to this: The Labrador Party has run out of ideology so soon, just as I suspected of them.

Its mind blowing

how much beauty there can be in just a small patch of this earth.

While Fran picked berries Siutik and I explored the area with heads down [but for different reasons]. There is just so much potential for close ups and vista photography that one has trouble choosing.














While up there I could not help but think how much more comfortable and calm Siutik is when running free. Same goes for all animals really, same goes for humans too.
Sadly [for here] she knows where the next free feed is coming from and does not wonder too far from me [lucky me], even when she knows I have the leash in my pocket.

Here endeth today’s lesson.

The sky opened up.

Danny Williams came to Nain today.

One day the sun will shine and the have nots will be no more.











As coincidence have it I took these two photos today. With the power out at Fran's office we took the opportunity to go berry picking, missed the big event with the Danny. All was not a loss, we came home with some nice red berries and some good photographs, actually I think we came out ahead.

Weather interuption.

Man was yesterday wild and woolly. Rain and light wind in morning to rain, freezing rain, wet snow and winds to 72k in afternoon.
Put a damper on many things, including an unexpected visit from this vessel. Not sure why she came in, it did not stay long, too rough for getting guests ashore in zodiacs any way.

Plans evolving.

I reprint the below item from Brandon Pardy.
I have no idea of its accuracy, I trust Brandon knows what he is about. Brandon ran for the Labrador Party in Lake Melville last provincial election, he came within 300 votes of winning.
I do not know Mr. Pardy personally, I just thought that seeing that he sent his views to a number of media outlets, and I have no idea if any re printed them, that I would put it out there for anyone’s viewing.

I do know that there is not much trust in these plans that are put out in incomplete form. It took quite some time for the government to do both the Northern Strategic Plan and the Energy Plan, and then they are “evolving documents”. Evolving into what I would like to know.


Dear Editor,

I would like to discuss the issue of fiscal imbalance. No, not the fiscal imbalance debate of Quebec, Alberta, nor that of Ontario.

I speak of the fiscal imbalance experienced in Labrador. I’ve always had an interest, as have many Labradorians, in the amount of resource revenue that heads to St. John’s versus the amount of money spent here in Labrador. The reason I write about this now, just before an election, is that the “Energy Plan” coupled with the “Northern Strategic Plan” seem to be “election plans”. The $250 million bucks piqued my interest.

I, like many Labradorians, have said time and again that billions of dollars of Labrador resources are gobbled up every year, and after the greasy jowls have been wiped the bones are tossed back to Labrador. Well, I decided to use the Dept of Finance website to track the actual, major resource dollars Labrador pours into the provincial coffers:

Total mining revenue for province (06/07) = $270M/year:
(Unclear if this includes the $98M for the 98% exploration revenue in Labrador)
Labrador west = 50% (of prov. revenue) X 270M = $135M/year
Voisey Bay = 48% (of prov. Revenue) X 270M = $129.6M/year
“Upper Churchill” recall power sale $230M/5years = $46M/year
“Upper Churchill” revenue ~ $20M/year
5 Wing Goose Bay revenue (one reference) ~ $36M/year

Total : 366.6 Million dollars/year
This of course ignores smaller mining, fishing, forestry, tourism, and agricultural operations as well as general taxes (gas, sales, income, liquor, tobacco etc). But the general provincial taxes are roughly 2.171 billion multiplied by Labrador’s 5.47% of the population and that’s about 118.7 million more Labrador can be assumed to pay in tax, fair enough).

So what comes out of Labrador is $485,270,000.00 a year in revenue to the coffers. They “cough-er” up $50M a year ($250 million NSP / 5 years) and no distribution of “lower Churchill power”. Side note: a large chunk of that NSP money is recycled federal programs/dollars!

Another way of looking at it is this: from the PROVINCIAL revenue portion of the budget (3.932B of 5.244B) each Labradorian “pays” $17,415.60 and each Islander “pays” $7154.57. YET we get $50M/year NSP divided by 27, 864 Labradorians = $1794.43 per Labradorian per year. I’m not against sharing, not at all but where’s the “Labrador First?”

That’s all, I just wanted to put that out there. I hope Labradorians will demand more from the “warehouse of resources” that we seem to be. The election is not that many days away – Try defending that “Labrador first” agenda!

Thank you,
Brandon Pardy
currently residing at:
412 Lewis St Ottawa, On K2P0S9

Thursday ramblings.

The GD’s MacBook has arrived, This about say’s it all;

Hey, Just thought I would let you know I got my mac! I'm on it right now and it's awesome!

GD also did two take offs in the 172 this week, first one assisted then yesterday with no assistance, awesome!

On more mundane topics: The Media Centre footing wall pour was completed in quick time yesterday, good thing too as heavy rain is forecast for today. The addition of a plasticizer allowed the concrete to flow into the forms a lot faster, with minimum tampering needed.
Several days for curing and we have crossed fingers that progress will progress at a much faster rate.

Politico types still in town, apart from my very brief encounter with the MP for Labrador I have not heard hide nor hair of any one of them. Speaking of hide, I hear that the immediate past member for Torngat is in town.

I just love this cartoon on the baby bonus bogus bullshit

On the go, again

Nice day here, cloudy to clearing, and up to 8c already, for that we are thankful.

After a delay of a week, mostly not due to weather, the pour of the footing wall of the Media Centre got underway early this morning.

Some Liberals were in town yesterday, heard that the Liberal candidate for Torngat Mountains was here, I ran into Todd Russel the MP for Labrador, he was going to ignore me but I approached him with some chit chat, what's wrong with that? Very strange behavior for a politician.

Voter Labrador Party and vote often.

Politics and Blogs.

Last evening the phone rang just as I was about to serve up supper. “Bloody call centers again” was my first thought. I picked up the phone any way with the intentions of hanging up as soon as I heard the foreign voice with a spiel about BMO or some such.
This time there was a distinct Newfoundland twang to the ladies voice, so I asked “what’s up”. It was a poll being taken on who I liked for the Provincial election, who can resist that right.
So I did the pole, very short, who I liked as the potential leader of the province, who I fancied as best for Torngat Mountains, that sort of stuff. This is where it got weird; there was no mention of the Labrador Party or their Candidate Jimmy Tuttauk in our ridding. I mentioned this to the lady, she responded by saying that there was no Labrador Party Candidate as yet. I did not argue, matter of fact there is no NDP candidate but they were in the questionnaire.
Any way I got my licks in, I suspect the way the questions were put that it was a PC poll, hope my answers don’t end up on the editing room floor.

It gets weirder in the rest of Labrador.
Heard this morning that the Liberal candidate in Lake Melville district is asking people who supported the Labrador Party last time to vote strategically and vote for him this time. What’s that about? Vote strategically to put the party back in who all but ignored Labrador for previous 12 years just to defeat the party who has all but ignored Labrador for these past 4 years. Talk about personal expediency and self serving ness.

The people of Labrador have an opportunity to put their principals where there mouths are in this election. It surly can’t do much collective harm to vote for the Labrador Party just to show there is some collective intestinal fortitude left in the world, think outside the box for a change.

Last night on ‘The News Hour’ there was an interview with this guy Andrew Keen, have not and wont read his book, I did read some of this review/critique that makes some sense.
Couple of things that did resonate with me last night, Keen said that Anonymity on the Internet is killing civil discourse and contributing to anti social behavior.
Bottom line, if you have something to say put your name to it.

Mister frosty.

Yesterday the hills were alive with happy berry pickers of all shapes, sizes, ages. People went off on shanks pony, ridding, driving, half the town and their dogs must have been out.

Great day for it too, got up to mid teens with a warming westish wind.

But; with no heating on in the house you could tell when the temperature outside dropped overnight. Woke to frost covered roofs, temperature about -1.5 at house.
That will sweeten up the red berries, or as some say, partridge berries.

Speaking of weather. There is a lot been written on the global warming effects on the North of late, mostly quotes of scientists pro and con who/what is responsible for same. This one is from an on the ground first hand expert.
It also collaborates what older people around here have been saying for some years, that is they can’t predict the weather as accurately any more by looking at the cloud patterns.

The community Willie was relocated from is one of several re located to other communities in the 1950’s, most in Labrador, leaving Nain the northern most community on the Labrador Coast.

Seeing as the Provincial election is being called today I can’t resist this. Let’s not forget the non partisan feeding at the trough folks.

On the same lines, there is an overwhelming negative reaction from labradorians on the Provinces Energy plan released last week. CBC talk back line is running hot, and that is an anomaly.
Now we sit back and see if this translates into a back lash resistance to the traditional parties.

Sunday Sundries.

Friday the whole town was shut down in the afternoon for 3 hours. N&L Hydro is doing some extensive upgrading of the electrical distribution system.
Quite a number of new poles were installed earlier in the summer; now a large crew of workers accompanied by various vehicles is in to hang the new lines, transformers and the like. Parts of the town will have power outages until the job is done.

So the dog and I did a walk over to the sports field area, took this picture of two of the smaller kids enjoying there extra play time.

On the walk back I took this shot of the newest subdivision. If you don’t already have a block of land this area is the only game in town at the moment.
What struck me, for no particular reason, is the higher areas of the sub division used to be prime berry areas, and close to home.
We had many pleasurable hours up there; it had a great uninterrupted view of the entire town and exposed to winds from most directions.
We even took a small tent up there and had boil ups on occasion. Nostalgia eh?


Yesterday we took a walk down around the Northern point area, climbed up and picked a few berries. It’s steeper and more rugged than most of our picking areas, blue berry bushes are sparse, but when found the berry’s are large and lots in each bush. Lots of red and black there, so I will be back.

Took a snap of the “Welcome to Nain” sign that is displayed as you leave the air strip, that’s the blue and white thing on the ground, hard to read that way. Not sure if it was an idiot driver or vandals.




Update: reliable sources tell me the sign was blown down by the wind the other evening. By the size of the upright post that sounds like a reasonable scenario. My deepest apologies to all the idiot drivers and Vandals.








I have not had any progress photos of the new Media Centre for some days. That’s because there has been no progress, there are some unhappy campers in the Okalakatiget Society for sure, the new week will determine what happens.

Oh yeah, almost forgot. WAM on CBC radio had a nice [reasonably long] interview with the president of Okalakatiget Society [Carol Gear] yesterday morning.
It stuck out because WAM is very island centric as a rule, but two pieces on Labrador yesterday, it gets ones attention, know what I’m say’n?

Any way the interview was very informative on the history and what is in the future for the Society, mainly centered on the new building and what was lost in the infamous fire of 05. way to go WAM.
Not sure if the interview will be achieved, but thought I'd give some credit when credit is due.

Apples plus Dust to Dust.

We had little hints from our granddaughter [GD] that a new lap top would maybe help in her post secondary endeavors, or words to that effect. GD has a Dell laptop that has had two fried hard drives in short order. GD is “fed up with this” and wants an Apple MacBook “that don’t get fried hard drives”, or words to that effect.
Times being what they are no one group of her extended family could really afford another computer at this time. So we offered to chip in [actually grandma would have anteed up the lot], mom and dad came to the party.

So then what to buy.

I shopped around on line, some really good deals on Toshibas at the moment, and I like them. But, GD was really set on a MacBook.

So I go into the Apple store Canada site, plus check out other offers. Apple store has an education discount plus a promo of a free Nano, so I go with them.

Strike a bit of a problem with me paying, GD in another province plus doing the education discount on line. So bugger this, I call the 800 number, very cool, try it some time.

After just two numbers entered I get cool dude2 who is helpful and knowledgeable beyond the norm [at least from my experience].
In what seemed like no time at all I have the MacBook ordered, minimum add ons, education discount, information on how to claim promo offer, no bullshit “would you like the 20 year warranty for xxx hundreds of dollars”, just plain simple courteous helpful service, way cool.

Only hick up was cool dude2 entered my e mail incorrectly, no problem, call them back next day, cool dude3 changes the info and all is copasetic.

The Nano was on its way the same day as ordering, the MacBook 2 days later.

So if FedEx is as efficient as Apple store Canada GD should be back on line early next week.


I’m having trouble eating and keeping my food down, some of these barstards have a lot of explaining to do to the people who put trust in them [ present company excepted] and be darn with law suites. This goes beyond the law, it’s about years of deceit and misleading people. But then some people are more susceptible to being misled than others [read self serving].


A couple of little riddles to end with:

How many Australians does it take to beat England?
Answer; 2

How many Springboks does it take to beat England?
Answer; 15

Praise Yahweh; help us in our hour of need.

The Minister for Natural Resources has been [unsuccessfully] trying to appease the discontent in Labrador about the Governments Energy Plan.

Ms Dunderdale confused Ted Blades of On the Go.
Just a sample;

Blades: I’ll get back to that subsidy in a minute, but let me just pursue the cost of the line a little bit further, you said roughly a hundred million dollars to put a spur out to the south coast when the line comes across to the island, what would it cost to go out to the northeast coast above Groswater Bay?
Dunderdale: Well, I would have to get those numbers for you Ted, I don’t have them right in front of me, but it would cost in the hundreds of millions of dollars, would drive rates up significantly for ratepayers in Labrador and on the island.
Blades: Alright, well given that it’s going to cost billions of dollars torun the line down to the island, so does that mean that our rates aregoing to go up here on the island to pay for that?
Dunderdale: No, what it means is that’s part of the overall project, we’ll need to get financing for the project, we will have to leverage the money that we earn out of our non-renewable projects to help fund the $6- to $9-billion that are going to be required to build the Lower Churchill. What happens with the transmission link is we are able to sell power from the Lower Churchill to Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro to replace Holyrood, so the transmission link, right in the first instance, gives us the first opportunity to have a power purchase agreement with Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro for around 500 MW of power, which will be part of the financing deal, will allow us to leverage financing to develop that project.

I hope CBC gets the whole interview up on their site, I need to listen again.

So when the Minister again tried to appease on Labrador Morning I listened intently. Still very confused I am.

Now I understand about projects making economic sense, it seems that it would cost $100,000.00 per customer to run lines into the North and south coast. But there was no real explanation of how much of a return would be realized from the line from Labrador to Newfoundland, just generalities and repeated pleas to trust us, like, we are the most open accountable Government yuz av ever ad.

So, I’m thinking if it is too costly to run lines from the Lower Churchill to the coast perhaps there would be more of a plan to install alternative energy in the remote communities, or perhaps alternative energy in Labrador. There is a private proposal on the table, but I did not see/hear any mention of it.
After all we keep being told the price of oil is going to go up and up, and we [Danny Government] have a strong interest in reducing greenhouse gases.
But there is no plan to install alternative energy projects, just generalities again and promises to do studies.
Added to the confusion was when the minister was asked this morning about the unfairness to Labrador this all seemed, Ms Dunderdale tried to appease by saying, “well once the line is run into Newfoundland from Labrador and all the profits from selling the hydro power come rolling in, then we will able to develop wind power and sent it into Labrador, it will be a two way line. Then we could look at developing electricity from gas and run that back into Labrador, a two way line”. [I’m paraphrasing].

Looks more like a one way street more than a two way line to me.

Wild n wooly weather boy!

Wet windy night, near 2 inches of rain with E to NE winds up to 82 clicks official. Still at it this morning, so no work again on the New Media Centre I would guess, though weather was not the problem yesterday.

The coast Guard ships are a regular sight in the harbor this time of year. She could be in for crew change, working in the area, weather, other reasons.

One time, in the fall, weather used to drive shrimp draggers in, invariably people from town could avail of boxes of shrimp at reasonable prices. Officialdom stepped in and stopped that practice, darn.
The NL Governments “energy plane” is not receiving rage reviews in Labrador sure. I have not come across one positive comment as yet, except of course the Minister from the region. In his previous roles there would have been hell to play with threats of stopping the world if Labrador did not get a fairer shake. My pet name for him back then was “wind sock” [no reference to alternative energy], still like it




In one of Siutik’s rare motionless moments. I was taking some pics of the harbor, turned around and there she was, still, not for long though.

The Internet is as slow as a wet week this morning. Hope it's not my computer, just the weather impact on the micro wave towers.

News from the foggy boonies.

Somebody has been a naughty boy then. Seems this company has been denied any more permits to work inside Nunatsiavut Lands by the NG. In press release and radio interviews officials from NG said that this company had carried out exploration work before submitting work plans to NG. This is a no no and NG wants to send a stern message to all companies.
It’s not known to me why NG would not name the company, CBC had no qualms about outing the alleged company, no one from the company has responded to date.
Note: CBC has nothing up on site yet, could be later, depends on how much news on Newfoundland they can fit in.

Most of the credit for exposing these indiscretions should go to Terry Rice from Makkovik, he was doing due diligence in keeping track of what is going on in that region vis a vis uranium exploration.

On the nomination for party candidate’s front; two are nominated for the Labrador Party, Jimmy Tuttauk and Lucy Jararuse.
For the PC, seems Patti Pottle is committed with one other maybe. Nominations close at noon today for the Pc’s as well as for the Labrador Party.

See all the news here.

Fogged in at moment, more rain later today and heavier this evening in forecast.

The New Media Centre

is coming along slowly but surely. The guys are doing a good job as far as I can tell, that’s the main thing.

After all the form work is up it is braced, concrete poured and let set for seven days.

Then the fill is added to the top of form work, compacted as she goes.

Next footings are dug out in the centre of building, plus for the archives room and lift well. Re bar and mesh is added, concrete poured, presto we are ready for the construction phase.
Showing the inside of the form work.


I was expecting the NG to be putting on a power point presentation [whatever the hell a PPP is] as a follow up of the hearings held last year on Alcohol and Drug Abuse in the region.
On the 4th of this month it was announced that this PPP would be held in the board room of NG. I called NG yesterday to see what time it would be, I was told that the PPP has been postponed, most likely to some time later this month.
No word, that I came across, in the public air waves about the changes. The more things change the more they stay the same, eh? Or is that get worse? debatable IMO.

Berry good Sunday.

What a great day for picking berries yesterday, about 10c with brisk WNW winds to 55k official, no flies!
While up there a number of planes came and went, they were doing it hard on take off, I’m sure winds were stronger than 55, I almost got blown over several times.
Picked all blue again, but the red are plentiful with still some time before they are ready for me. Black are as usual plentiful, I tried some and they tasted sweeter than I remember so I may go and pick a bunch soon.

Siutik was getting in the road a lot; she has learnt how to get the berries now, though this picture indicates she may have scooped up some red ones. She will come and either sit where you are picking or start gobbling them up herself.
Then she tried to dig out whatever was under this rock, mouse most likely.

The bad news is that it is in the minus this morning, only -1c, but that is a start of the plunge.

Rainy day musings.

Heavy rains, from memory we have not had anything like this for quite some time.

So we only took in one store this morning, the rain you know. Purchased most of what we wanted, the fresh produce must have come in last evening, what was there was in good shape.

But, there is almost always a but in there? Some one in the store pointed out some snags in plain plastic bags in the freezer. No brand, ingredients, weight, price per Kg, just a white sticker with $11.84 hand written.

$11.84 for four freak’n sausages, small sausages at that. Just for the craic I took them up to the manager and asked if this was correct. “Yes Sir” was the reply, “I checked the price out as it looked a bit dodgy, they are a popular brand, Italian, and it must be the size too”, size my arse.

At the same store last week some people had an issue with out of date cookies. The cookies tasted stale and only had a code on the packet. After calling the phone number displayed on the packet the people were told that the packet had a best before date of some time in 2005.

The cookies were returned to the store and money refunded.

There is more to this cookie story but I want to get more of the facts before going on. I know this type of thing is not an anomaly and confined to one store, I have written on these things before. I have also gone to the NG top people but am still waiting to see if anyone will pick up the cookie cutter.

In the Irish Slang link there is the word Culchie. Can anyone give me a more descriptive meaning of that word? It’s one of my favorites from my time in the Emerald isle.

Unlike this morning [rain] yesterday was a perfect day, some clouds, and nice breeze early with temperatures up near 16c.
Was a great day for walking in the hills and picking de berries, unfortunately other things had to be attended to.
The OK site was on the slow side, waiting for concrete to harden up a bit, but still some essentials being carried out.
Then the bread and sweets larder was on the low side so Ihad to replenish that.



Pictured: some whole wheat bread and buns and some of my favorite lemon and raspberry squares.

Then I put together some turkey and chicken burgers. Very simple and tasty. I ground the meats, added some cilantro, dill and a Chinese peppery thing from the garden plus some mayo and fine diced onion, cooked em on the grill.
Added them to top of the fresh cooked bun, lettuce [from the garden] onion and tomato.










On more mundane topics. Not surprising that Ottawa has a toxic leak issue is it; guess they do not monitor the air quality, parliament being delayed in opening it would have been a good time to do a base line study.

Then down under there are these pack of drongos, Christ almighty mate everybody knows that a pair of stubbies and a Chesty Bonds is the males choice of attire. Well Ok there is the odd female, but Chesty Bonds come in various sizes, and as they say "if you want to join the club".

The election for the Liberal candidate for the Torngat Mountains district was held yesterday; at writing I do not know the outcome, nor am I very interested.

The PC’s have still not announced any candidates for the seat, nor am I very interested.

There is word around that the Labrador Party will have a candidate running for the seat, now that is interesting.
The person mentioned is not well known to me. I know the surname and the place of this person’s employment, both things combined could add a bit of spice to what is looming province wide as a bloody big yawn fest.
If the poles are correct [77% for PC’s] then perhaps all those funny little jokes about Newfoundlanders are a bit closer to the bone then one expected.
I have wonder if anybody remembers what happened in New Brunswick the election after the Liberals had a clean sweep.

Update: It's pissing down rain out there, and Danny Dumaresque won the Liberal Nomination race for the district of Torngat Mountains.

UpdateII: and it's Grandparents Day tomorrow.

Under way II.

Pouring of the footings. A four foot wall will go up on top of that.

Counted eleven Nainimuks and three “others” on the job. Granted the majority of locals are there for the hard yakka. Since things started in earnest there have been three locals and three “others” on the job.














I only mention Nainimuks [locals] and “others” for the fact some people make an issue of how many local people get hired for some of these jobs.
Most of the larger projects here are done by outside contractors, they invariably bring some of their own people in and hire locals in a support role, or as mentioned the hard yakka.
There are varied reasons why this is, some valid some questionable, but I wont go into them now, truth be told I don’t know all the reasons.