Yam and leek soup 2201.

I have been wanting to try cooking spaghetti carbonara for some time; I gave it a try last night.

Maybe it was the lack of good quality cheese, lack of white wine, lack of fresh cream or perhaps the whole wheat pasta I used, whatever, the taste did not excite that much and Fran gave it the big screwed up face and fused over it until I said “Siutik will eat it”, and she did.

The left over yam and leek soup and fresh made bread saved the day. The collage shows the various steps in making this easy to make very tasty soup.

With Northern getting a regular supply of both items the only other things you need is a small onion, butter, lots of fresh ground pepper and 8 to 10 cups chicken stock.

Early afternoon the sky gods were no cooperating with wet snow to sleet to rain falling.

It was like a scene of 20 years ago and pre containerization when all the freight came in palletized.

I am sure the Provincial Governments Northern Strategic Plan is working well some where; it is not evident up here in Nain though.

I am sure glad I am not the receiver of some of the furniture, the ones with the soaked cardboard packaging. Tarps were in use but with minimum staff and constant pick ups what can one person do?

Added to the freight from the Bond was exasperated around three when the Northern Ranger was due in with an additional couple of hundred pallets.

This 60 foot mobile home came off the Bond as well, nice time of year for that, plus it was not on wheels, that is a very different shipping concept.

There was another three loads of wood that arrived as well, that added to the traffic load with its offloading.



So it turned out the mobile home did have wheels, very low to the ground but wheels non the less.
Here it sis doing the hardest of the turns [Z] on its way to the new subdivision.

Times up, it is PBAB day. Plastic bags are banned.

It was an interesting day at the dock and for people moving and receiving freight from the Bond yesterday.
The sky gods were kind in the morning with just overcast.
The ice had a heavy layer of sand on it but still the four forklifts had some trouble with tracksion.
You will note that we seem to be the depository of all the condemned containers and trailers from around the world.

Continued in next post.

Had some good news [for the community] arrive in the inbox over the weekend. The Nain church has been recognized as a heritage building by the provincial Heritage Foundation.
Click on 'select' on the right for a more detailed description.


This allows access to some restoration funds.

Also arrived in the inbox was a reminder of Chris Brooks’ latest documentary to be aired on CBC program Ideas tonight and tomorrow night.
Here is the blurb for the show:

A new feature documentary from Battery Radio can be heard on CBC Radio IDEAS Monday Nov 30th and Tuesday Dec. 1st at 9.35pm


ABRAHAM'S DIARY traces the tragic story of 2 Labrador Inuit families who travelled to Europe in 1880 to be exhibited in zoos.


The late 19th century saw the rise of scientific racism in Europe, and those who flocked to the zoo exhibit expected to gape at "exotics" from some "primitive race". What they found instead were Labradorimiut who spoke 3 languages, played German hymn tunes on violin, and who were keeping their own ethnographic notes on the "uncivilised" Europeans. Tragically, both families died of smallpox, but not before Abraham Ulrikab wrote his impressions of the trip in a remarkable diary.


The 2-hour special features the voices of Solomon Simeak, Robin McGrath, Tom Gordon, Rainer Baehre, Hans Rollman, Mary Simon, Aaju Peter, Aiden Flynn and others. Part One will be heard on Monday night, with Part Two the following evening.


You can find information and online audio at www.batteryradio.com/Pages/Abraham.html

Advent2

These were taken down the dock jut after midday. Not much chance any boats will dock today with he wind expected to get stronger.
A plow is at the roads but a lot of work to be done yet, me thinks tomorrow before any unloading will take place.

Update: The Bond is docked, the sky is clearing and the plow is down an embankment.

Early Advent morning, one shot of the tree through a very wet window and the first of the kids getting out to collect their stockings.

Two more sleeps till the plastic bag ban is implemented. We have noticed an increase in people shopping with re usable bags, seems the Nain Inuit Community Governments hand out of free bags [some sponsored by local business] is resonating.

Still some do not do resonating all that well. There will still be some stunned looks come Tuesday.

I ordered three jars of hand made English minced meat from a US company, they arrived last week. I resisted for about two days but then gave in. None of the stores had those handy dandy little frozen tart shells, so I was forced into home made tartlets [I hate making them], eight from one jar of minced meat. It has the real suet that melts when baked.

I had this one with a slice of old cheddar with port, [that’s port in the cheese] very good but not as good as with cream or ice cream.

The predicted storm has hit, mild temperatures but NE winds up to 63 clicks and blowing snow. If the Bond gets in as scheduled this morning then it is going to be one bloody crazy time down at the dock, especially if, as per last Bond trip, much of the freight is palletized.

It is Advent today, we have some stockings to be picked up, Fran insisted on some lights on the little tree out front and some in the window.

At least she did not insist I go tree hunting, it is tradition here for many to have an advent tree. Smart move by me transplanting that tree many years ago if I do say so myself.

Update: This about says it all re weather. At least it will give council crew some time to get roads clear, if the snow stops falling that is.

Some more shots of the artifacts [looks more like a mess I know] before moving and cataloging. The majority of these were taken in complete darkness; later a generator and lights were hung.

On exiting the darkness I came across Laura Croft and the loft raiders. I did not have time to adjust the camera settings from the shots inside hence the wash out.

The globe hanging from the ceiling is cloth covered; I have never seen a world globe like that before.

The ceramic stove is in a back room for storage having been relocated from its original spot in the front room kitchen some 20 years ago.

Over the last several months the Nain Heritage Committee has been working on getting status and funding for the preservation of the Nain church, and possibly other outbuildings.

Yesterday I helped several of the committee members pack up and start moving some artifacts and other items from the old mission house.
The items had been stored in less than ideal conditions for unknown years.

The montage shows a kayak and paddles and a sled after removal and ready for transportation to its new temporary home.

There are many other items I photographed, I will post some at a later date.

Once a permanent home is built in Nunatsiavut then these items will be sorted and along with other artifacts, stored at the Rooms in St. John’s, will go on permanent display. But that would be a few years down the road one would guess.

I do not know the heritage or what use was made of the sled; most likely it was used by one of the missionaries.

It is said the kayak was built in the early 1970’s by a local man, Julius Ikkusek. It is covered in canvas and painted to make it water proof. In an adjoining building there is an Umiak of the same material, heritage of that is unknown to me.

Also in the photograph is a folding brownie camera, two way radio and an AM Collins transmitter. I sent my buddy a photo of it; he is salivating wanting to get his hands of it to see if it can be repaired. Not sure that will happen this year though.

The move continues today, weather permitting, there is a small build up of light freezing drizzle out there, you did not know drizzle could build up did you?
The forecast for the next week is not looking that good with Saturday looking like lots of snow and wind.
The snow is OK, the wind is the pits.

Starry starry eyes!

OK you will have to take my word for it.

Quite a few seals have been taken this [long] fall. Most are for food both human and Canis lupus familiaris.

You cans see them around town in people’s yards or on the side of the road like these guys; I would guess these are destined for dog food.

The shipping season is not quite over and yet we have increased air freight traffic already. Lots of freight that looks like it should have been shipped by boat.

Guess what? Most of it should have. Seems someone somewhere who should know better did not ensure the freight was delivered to the transshipment ports before the cut off date.

Now we have things like pampers, engine oil, food items and even ski doos being flown it while the boats still run.

Who pays for this incompetence one may ask. Why what a silly question one may answer. This arseholery is just getting way out of order. I think I just invented new word.

One of the latest polls shows Canadians are not too bright in the local lore department, especially pertaining to the great white north. Read it and weep.

Which reminds me of a phone in yesterday CBC Radio Noon had on what people thought of the Innu hunting in closed zones? Peter Penashue, deputy gran chief of the Innu nation was the guest.
Most of the calls were from Labrador, an anomaly for phone in shows, most were in support of the Innu from differing perspectives.

One caller and supporter was a keen hunter from Labrador West. He articulated his point very well, but confused Innu with Inuit. Penashue and the host pointed out the difference after the bloke hung up.

Now I ask you how a long term resident of Labrador could not know that Innu and Inuit are of a different race.

Education does matter.

We were watching CBC Here & Now last evening [it’s an exciting life we lead], of course they had coverage of the latest in H1N1 [it’s like the Eveready battery] story. The segment was on the vaccination center at MUN and there was video of a nice big building that seemed to house all those getting the shot for both for and after.

Everybody in shirt sleeves all smiles and happy and saying that it did not take long yadda yadda.
Absent was video of long lines outdoors in the wind and rain and sleet and shit. Of people taking numbers and told to come back this arvo or tomorrow.

After the segment the host asked the question in the ‘voice your opinion’ segment, tell us how the government can improve the vaccination program? [paraphrases].

Fran quipped up, sent everybody to MUN.

Meanwhile over on the left coast of the hiland Table Mountains and his mob were having even less of an issue with the vaccination.
Must be just those sandwiched between higher education and the windy coast who are having problems.

'educated radio pirates’

There is a new radio program on the coast of Labrador called ‘All Indigenous Power Hour’.


No, it is not another power to the lord or Christ or even Jesus or Allah [not that there is anything wrong with that].


If the two host have their way it will be power to the people.

Now that is a novel concept, I am sure it will give the creeps to certain power brokers within the Nunatsiavut Government [my words].

One of the hosts, Tj did an interview on CKOK yesterday and both hosts, Tj and Jea were on CBC Labrador Morning this AM. [I will link to it when it is up]
It is up.
Tj referred to themselves as ‘educated radio pirates’. I can’t comment on the pirates bit but they sure come across as educated.

Both admit to being media neophytes with education backgrounds in Aboriginal studies, psychology and political science.


Being only aired in Makkovik at 4 pm Sundays will limit their audience, but with today’s technology and the two hosts youth, education and enthusiasm I would predict it should not be long before the program will be up on the internet, it least that would be my hope.

At the moment they have a facebook page by the same name, here is a description from that page

Description:

A local radio show about issues regarding Indigenous communities locally, across turtle island and globally.

CIML radio in Makkovik, Nunatsiavut. We encourage all Makkovimmiut to listen in and hear a different perspective on current issues such as violence against women, development, education, language, land rights, treaty rights, health, government and everything in between.

Tune in Sundays at 4 pm. 99.5 FM

Tie me kangaroo down sport.

Well not his one sport. Both man and canine were on the lucky side wouldn’t ya think, the bloke seems to have an appreciating attitude of the whole incident.

Meantime back in the kitchen; I had some left over pastry in the fridge, as is my want I do not like wasting pastry so I knocked up this apricot jam and raisin tart.




Harping back to yesterdays post; a sight like this would not look astray in this environment we have here would it?

Solid walls with a series of small windows would fit nicely with our temperatures, not to mention the pristine clear Sky's.

We can always do better!

I was listening to a radio program from Australia on CBC overnight; one of the pieces was about an award winning design for a recreation hall built in a little rural town called Berry down the south coast of NSW. I’d like 5 bucks for every time I drove through than little ol town, beautiful sleepy little spot it was back then, still is going by Google earth, but I digress.

On the show they interviewed the lead man on the design team, seems pre design he had taken a trip to the town and spent a couple of days.
He said he was overawed by the clear pristine sky, especially at night with the stars shining brightly unencumbered by any big city ambient light.

The project was one funded by the state government and as is governments want had to be built within a very tight budget. In the past this had resulted in a series of like buildings being constructed in a very generic way, most looked like brick and metal boxes.

Luckily for Berry this guy had some vision and gave a shit about what he does. The designers came up with an amazing concept so that the sports building melded into the surrounding area. The 500 odd small windows built into the concrete wall blend in nicely with the night sky.
Even durring the day the sun penetrating the multi colored windows adds to activity inside, young children invent ways to interact with the suns light on the walls and floors.

If you click on the images here they enlarge, bloody amazing really, and all for 1.3 million bucks.

This brings me to the gist of this post. I always wonder why buildings up this way have to be all build in the wooden square box concept. There is no vision, no thinking outside of the box, just wood frames with no thought to renewable energy or trend setting anything.

Even the new NG building is a wooden box with cement block veneer around the bottom floor. The only thing that takes away from the box look is triangular looking appendages on three sides.

When I was involved with the construction of the OK media center I tried my best to introduce some different building techniques [for up here]. I was stymied at every turn, especially by the architect and the design engineers.
Sure cost was a factor, though a minor one in my opinion. It was the status quo that just did not want to do any real work for the money they received.

For the evening meal it was roast chicken and veggies cooked in salt beef, or my version of jigs dinner.
Having never cooked or eaten figgy duff I decided to give it a try instead of stuffing [that’s the result in the white bowl].
I used whole-wheat bread instead of white, and I did not measure any ingredients just eyeballed them. I boiled it for two hours in a cloth bag in with the salt beef.
Sure it looked a bit dodgy and the taste was a mixture of sweet and heavy on the herbs but it passed the test as Fran gave it her seal of approval.

No wind to speak of yesterday, so a nice day for a walk around.

Some people are thinking it may be a long fall, which in the local vernacular means mild temperatures resulting in a late freezing of the sea ice.
It also may mean a lack of snow falls of substance resulting in a long period of grayish, yellowish, dirty white hues.

Still it was nice walking around in the near stillness of a Saturday afternoon. Only a few people out, not many kids doing what kids do.
There was indeed lots of action amongst the more affluent imbibers of the community, but they just go from house to house by vehicle and don’t bother too much.

The pertinent question has been asked, wont hang by the short and curlies waiting for the answer.

Sourdough rye.

As requested, my favorite sourdough rye recipe taken from my bible of bread making 'Beard on Bread". No lumps and not rubbery, lucky or not I do not know.

I went back to doing some ‘northern transport’ lobbying yesterday. It takes time to put together an e mail worded correctly along with some of the research done over the years. Then one has to be diplomatic ya know.

This was done in the absence of any feed back [anyone is aware of] emanating from all the correspondence and photographs forwarded to the government of NL, Nunatsiavut Government and our member of the house of assembly this past month pertaining to the marine shipping debacle of this season.

Granted the e mail was only sent to our member Patty Pottle, I do not see the point in sending anything to NG as they just do not reply and I have no knowledge of the of new temporary WST minister and his staff.

I did not receive any response by e mail but within half an hour of hitting the send button Patty called.
We had a good discussion; Patty is aware of most of the issues and is understanding of all the frustrations up here. Alas she is part of the Danny government [my words] and despite Patties points to the contrary WST people on the ground are as incompetent, or at best milquetoast, as all get out.

I took notes of the conversation, I would prefer an e mail response but the situation is what it is. More to follow, in what form is in abeyance.

In the meantime a knocked up a quick cottage pie of no particular recipe, just what came to mind as it was being cooked, not too bad, there is still half leftover, think I will add some cheese to the top for tonight’s meal.

I also did some pricing of camp stoves; one has been requested as a Christmas gift. The best buys are in the states, but then shipping, duties and exchange rate knock the savings all to hell there.

On the local front; there is a ‘world-famous’ brand, two burner giving 20, 000 btu’s available in three stores here.

Price range is from $135.99 [correction $155.99] at Northern to $113.98 at BigLand to $105.00 at Haynes general store.

Odd that; the largest store with the largest buying power is 30 bucks [correction 50 bucks] more than the little locally owned store.

On a personal note: we do get 10% seniors discount at the two larger stores but I am leaning to paying the $5 more at Haynes than what it would cost at BigLand with the discount.

The winner was; Haynes.

There is not much that gives one a more comforting feeling than the aroma of home cooked meals. This is especially true when entering a home where cooking is taking place or even passing a home while out walking.

I particularly noticed this yesterday. On taking a batch of bread out of the oven we promptly left for the shops and a walk. [We have to stick to a tight schedule, Siutik gets antsy and people notice the timing of our meanderings it seems]. Just kidding.

Any way back to the aromas, on re entering the house the smell of fresh baked bread was overpowering, so overpowering I just had to hack of some and smother it with butter, real butter that is.

I sure hope Tom in NS has had breakfast before he reads this post.

The forecasted ‘wind bomb’ did not eventuate yesterday. It topped out at 71 clicks, way short of the 90 predicted.

The occasional time I make fish cakes, or salmon cakes, or fish patties or whatever, I have always added the egg as a binder in with the ingredients when mixing.
Yesterday I came across a different way to cook them. After mixing all the ingredients you chill it for a couple of hours in the refrigerator, then after forming the patties you dip them in the egg then bread crumbs and fry about 4 minutes each side.

Doing them this way makes the outside crunchy and the inside is not soggy but soft and nice and tasty.

I served these with tinned peas [this is the north] and pureed [mashed] turnip and parsnip.

I admit to being a little sceptical about the patties not holding together without the binder in the ingredients. If you make sure the patties are well formed, once you dip them in the egg it helps keep things tight, after dipping in the brad crumbs things hold together really well, I did not have any break up while cooking

In the category of the weird and bizzaro:

I had an e email early in the AM notifying me of an incident late last evening.

I had not noticed it, but some time yesterday afternoon the council had placed a new communal garbage box across from us. Nice new plywood painted spruce green.
Now I have no issue with these boxes, except if they look like the one it replaced and are creating an environmental and health issue.

The incident; well an axe wielding female apparently has her own issues with garbage boxes, or maybe just this particular garbage box.
Said female was noticed hacking into the box with great gusto, about 14 to 15 hits were rendered before becoming exhausted.

The close up shot shows that the 14 to 15 hits maybe just about correct.

The noise was heard in our house, I guess we are so used to strange noises emanating from the neighborhood at night that we don’t bother to investigate as a rule.

So we did not get the ‘snow bomb’ as some describe snow storms these days. In keeping with the trend of the last several years these storms seem to track south of Nain and even south of Natuashish.

Some one is Sweden is reading the blog in Swedish, makes sense if your Swedish I guess, but then who’d a thunk it.

An anonymous commenter wrote ...not to mention the $$$$'s spent on their repairmen and operators!.....on the Nov 14 post.
Actually I did briefly mention the “many man hours and many dollars have been spent” but it is a good point and one that has not been discussed in any detail, or virtually at all.

The reason for the fire was released as being “fuel line wearing on a part of the engine above the manifold”. To my knowledge no one has pursued this further, at least not in the public domain.

I keep thinking back pre fire to when the new plant was announced and the following construction. At the same time there were big staff cut backs and lay offs announced by NL hydro province wide.

I am not certain of the exact numbers but Nain lost at least one operator with reduced hours for the staff left. Plus the mechanic who was stationed here was transferred to Goose Bay. The NLH rational was the new plant was computerized and it could be monitored from St. John’s.

During a public meeting post fire the regional manager for NLH promised a permanent lineman would be stationed in Nain during the re build, to my knowledge that was carried out. Many at the meeting asked the question “why was there not a lineman stationed in Nain on permanent basis”.
Seeing as many of the power outages stemmed from distribution problems, this seemed a legitimate question.

Then during the re build there were the extra operators who were brought in on a rotation basis. Then the engineers who choppered in on a regular basis. The crews of NLH and contractors who were rebuilding and repairing all the damage, the ones working on installing the new unit, the cost of getting replacement units in and then removing them and on and on and on.

The cost of overtime must have been horrendous, not top mention the cost of accommodations, food and transport for the ever changing crews.

All this keeps me wondering if the pre fire cut backs comes under the ‘penny wise pound foolish’ category.

I wonder if we will ever see an accounting of the costs for all this?

Had some bones for Fran; slow cooked chicken n ribs, very tasty. Served them with zucchini and potato pancakes and a salad.

Seems snow is working its way up the coast, Goose Bay is being hit and it is into the Postville area now.

I could live with some snow [as long as it does not blow away] because the roads and other areas are quite treacherous for walking at moment. No ones fault, just the way it is.

Council has a new ‘gravel spreader’ that is towed behind a pickup truck. This is good to a point for vehicles but I find I am more wary than usual when walking, I do not fancy falling on my back and getting imprints of the quite large pieces of gravel imprinted in my spine.

CBC GB did a piece on the Labrador PharmaChioce closure this morning. It confirms much and more of what I had to say on the topic last week.

14th November 09.

It sure was spring like yesterday, up to +7, though the wind did make it feel a lot less higher up.

The photos for this montage was taken up near the hydro plant, I just had to check out if the new generator was up and running. I did not go inside but the middle exhaust chimney was exhausting much burnt fossil fuel indicating that is was working.
The larger of the three back up units was shipped out on the Astron yesterday [hope they have it tied down tight] and the other two were not operating yesterday indicating that things inside the plant are returning to normal ops, though that is just speculation on my part.

Many man hours and many dollars have been spent on returning the plant to pre fire ops, it was said by a Hydro official that a whole new plant could have been built for what the repairs and replacement generator cost.

I am not being prophetic or even critical, but since the announcement by the Paul’s to spend the winter in the ice in their boat ‘Gypsy Life’ my thoughts occasionally wander back a couple of decades. Back to the time that the ‘Gertrude and Ronald’ was over wintered in the ice, twice.

I/we dug through old photographs and come up with several of the time. I have put a couple up on the masthead of the blog, together with those a couple more are shown here.

The ‘Gertrude and Ronald’ was purchased off a local chap by another local chap/family. Much too many peoples surprise the new owners over wintered the vessel over at Kauk Harbor, about 5 K south west of Nain.

The photos of Fran and self sitting on the stern and the other of the boat almost obscured by snow drifts are of that winter. I may add that it was a bitterly cold day those were taken.

The boat survived that winter with a little help from the owners who periodically used a chain saw to cut the ice around the hull to relieve the pressure.

The following winter the new owners, presumably buoyed by the success of the previous year, decided to leave the boat in the ice again, this time just off the beach down near the airstrip.

Second time not so lucky. The ‘Gertrude and Ronald’ suffered hull damage and was hauled up on the beach never to sail the Labrador again.

The boat lay there like a big beached whale with time and scavengers slowly stripping her of any dignity and parts. From memory what was left of the hull was demolished and taken to the dump.

As mentioned I am not predicting any such events for the ‘Gypsy Life’. It is a well built steel hull, the owners have dome much research and taken many preventative measures.
From a previous stint in the ice in Europe [I know, it is not Labrador] it was discovered that after the boats engine was left running for an hour the ice would melt away from the hull to about a foot wide.
They also have a big muver of a chain saw to cut around the ice.

Sure there are many unknowns, but I wish them all the best for the coming season.

Staff of life.

Good ol rye bread, the last batch of baguette's [various varieties] made for the 'Community Welcome' this Sunday

Interesting that the Labrador Pharmachoice in the Valley is closing its doors. When the doors were first opened two years ago I thought it a positive move but with a proviso.

There also was some controversy at first with some Nunatsiavut ‘beneficiaries’ in the Lake Melville area up in arms claiming the NG were forcing them to abandon there long time pharmacies and use Pharmachoice instead.
Of course NG issued denials and publicly things quieted down.

I did have the chance to shop there personally a couple of times, the over the counter items were very competitive with the other two pharmacies in town, though the varieties and quantities were limited.

I made two mail orders from them, the first was sent Canada Post, the second [without asking me] was sent air freight. No more Labrador Pharmachoice for me, especially when I can shop on line and receive free shipping from a place in Ontario.

I guess with the suprsekret NG we will never know the reasons for this folding.

Two different styles [or if you like quality] of reportage, Holiday Inn will be building a full service hotel in Goose Bay and Holiday Inn may be building a hotel in Goose Bay.
Easy to see who put more time and effort into the piece.

To Lab Metis: You have me at a distinct disadvantage, anyone who is interested knows who I am, yet I do not know who you are. Not a very level playing field is it?

The operative word in the sentence you decided to decipher your way is SOME. Meaning not all.

"The same could not be said for some of the alleged saved people around town, the term hypocrites come to mind".

As to my moderating comments, yes I do. I do not post anonymous comments or those posted under a pseudonym.

True in the past I have put up anonymous comments, anonymous to the readers but their true identities were known to me.
It is after all my space so I can express my views and thoughts. I do not expect everybody to agree with me, if people don’t then they can go watch Fox television or some such.

Or they can put their name to any comments that are constructive to the subject at hand, this could result in a better chance that they may get posted.

Note the operative words in that last sentence, could result, better chance and may.

It’s getting down there, -16.9 at the house early in the AM. Short lived as it supposed to get up to + 3 Saturday.

For the uninitiated, the definition of a blog.

For those parochial minds, I never partake of too much beer.

The same could not be said for some of the alleged saved people around town, the term hypocrites come to mind.

As mentioned previous years Remembrance Day plays second fiddle down under, Anzac day is the big day of remembering those who did not return and those who put there lives on the line.

This year has a larger impact on me than usual with the passing of my dad just 23 days ago.

On this day of remembering I would like to direct people to a living hero, one who dedicates her life to her people and her love of the land.

Shrimp Paella, messy plate.

Some more tooling around with the new toy. The 21 functions in the scene mod have my attention at the moment, just pick the function for the shot and the results are quite amazing, and it is all automatic.

Meantime out side it has been snow and wet snow, the above 0 sort of screwed things for snow accumulation.

The turn out for the H1 N1 vaccination was a surprise, CKOK is reporting 1,075 out of a possible 1,200 received the vaccination. Some people were reporting sore arms and some flu like symptoms on a short term basis.

There is a flu like bug going around [more like when is there not] some false alarms but no official alerts on the H1 N1 in the north coast communities as yet.

The day care center was vandalized over the weekend. No official report that I have seen but damage and graffiti done to the main doors and entrance area.

It is one nice building, it is sort of out of the way and the large windows must be a magnet for those with evil on their minds.