More from the bakery/deli. Some nice cheese and chicken and roast beef and mustard and tomato on a still warm rye/whole-wheat/buckwheat roll. Just saying.

Some weird effects photo editing too.

Mainly nice day yesterday but the wind came up later lowering the wind chills to the -30 range.

A bunch of folk, including the nephew headed north to Okak Bay and Hebron yesterday.

The main mission it to try find caribou but the nephew’s mission is to get back to the land for a few days.

It does sound strange when you think about it. Someone who spends a good part of their time hunting and wooding miles from town then is hankering to get back to the land.

But that is the Inuit mind set, no matter how the white guy attempts [with increasing success] to assimilate people here there will always be people like the nephew [there are many others] who resist in their own ways.

Which reminds me of my favorite phrase: “Just because you have silenced me does not mean you have converted me”.

So the weather is projected to be nice and sunny and cold for the 3 to 4 days the folks are scheduled to be gone.

Some people involved in the upcoming ski doo race Cain's Quest were in town Sunday/Monday. They had stopped over in Hopedale prior to getting here. 

Plus a report on Noah Nochasak confirms most of what I was speculating in earlier posts.

Good oh CKOK comes through at times when outside  media are busy with other stuff.

Noah's assertion that getting up through the Pearly Gates was "not that bad" is the height of understatement I would guess.
One hell of a climb through a gorge and snow and ice depending on the weather of the time.

 

Breathtakingly beautiful out there.

When I say breathtaking I don’t mean the beauty, I mean the freaking cold wind.

The trail groomer did a couple of cuts by the side of the ball field, what is usually soft’ish deep snow is now like walking on hollow concrete.

Some nice red berry muffins that went down well last week, one a day with mid morning coffee. It's been awhile but I think they are better than Tim's.

The open sandwich, well when I posted it on Facebook it garnered lots of thumbs up and comments. If I was entrepreneurial I would start up a delivery deli service. Sandwich was left over prime rib/avocado tomato relish on lettuce atop multi grain bread.

Clear crisp morning -25 mean with light winds. Good traveling day I would think. Nephew Andrew is heading up north with 3 friends, to Okak Bay area to be precise for several days, we are to dog site for him. Herman is one saucy lovable cracky, Fran not overly keen but we should manage.

If any one has a spare moment take a look at  this presentation to the Northern Gateway pipeline joint review panel by the son of an oil executive.
Very profound stuff, in my encapsulated jargon it would come out; there is little correlation between intelligence and common sense in this world.

Feels like -32 out there, don’t look like it though.

Weekend was nice, very picture postcardish. Fine light snow fell with calm to light winds for the most part. Temperatures up to -10

Yesterday the wind came up a bit taking the edge of the postcardish look but still nice nonetheless.

The voting continues on the JHMS, no not that JHMS this one entry in the MyParksPass video contest, all be it at a slower pace.

JHMS votes are still at a higher rate than all other entries. Total votes cast over the weekend for the #1 entry totaled 126 [2960 total] compared to the #2 entries 25 [714 total].

No word or Spot me updates from Noah Nochasak/Jerry Kobalenkos walk to George River in Northern Quebec.

Prior to Noah leaving he told his Facebook friends the spot me was set and he would sent updates to Facebook. 

I have no doubt they are OK, Noah's father would be keeping an eagle eye on things.  It is just my gut feeling the lack of updates are more to do with Noah's walking partner that Noah himself.

Their personalities are quite different and their reasons for doing these challenging exploits are exact opposites also IMO.

Update: Noah and Co are OK, they are in the area of Long Pond up in the height of land [ball park 80 K from Nain], about 100 more K to the George River then they turn right.
There is word that the spot me was not working and they have a replacement, we shall wait and see.

Some light snow this AM breaking a run of nice, mainly sunny, days.

Harking back to the Parks Canada contest, MyParksPass:

JHMS of Nain is way ahead in the voting, as of this morning they have accumulated 2,489 votes. The second place school is yet to break 1,000.

Early days yet but JHMS is out voting all other schools expediently.

Which for me raises some questions as to; why was the original vote cancelled and the vote count reset to 0.

Reasons given by Parks are; unusual voting patterns, trouble with the server and, someone seemed to have hacked into the site with multiple voting on any single day. In other words- goosing the poles.

The old rules stipulated that people could vote on any entrant once a day for the duration of the voting period.

Given the enthusiasm that fans of the JHMS entrant under the new rules are showing one could reason that that same enthusiasm was in play under the old rules. 

But that is just me and my lack of knowledge of the technical aspects of running a contest such as this. This is just below the knowledge of some Parks people it would seem.

As a commenter mentioned.  The rules state that:

Travel dates: May 28 – 31, 2012. Travel dates are firm and no deviations are permitted. There are no blackout periods.
· Round-trip flights to and from the winning classroom’s nearest major airport  to Calgary will be provided by Air Canada, courtesy of Banff Lake Louise Tourism; regular economy class.

This would create a little problem if JHMS were to win. Return flights to Goose Bay [assuming GB qualifies as a major airport] are over $800:00.

Then you would have accommodations for at least one night on the way out in GB.
The $ are starting to add up.

Another note of caution; The rules also state; The top 10 videos with the most votes will be short-listed and judged by a panel of judges.

We wont speculate the outcome if the judges decided on a winner other that the one with the most votes.

 Some pictures I took A compendium of photographs of Carters visit to the house on Tuesday evening. It was his first visit since starting to walk.
Fran thought she had all the electronics buttons protected but Carter had other ideas on that.

Siutik was very patient and held back for the most part until Carter became more comfortable.
While eating a cooky Siutik sauntered up and gently took it out of Carters hand witch flummoxed Carter a bit.

Amazing really that parents now days can whip out  I Pads so their children can watch their favorite TV shows at the table. Not sure what I think of that, whatever works I guess and who knows what amazing things are in store for Carters generation. For sure it is better to not be denied the electronic wonders.

Photos taken by Galaxy Tab.

I mini controversy has erupted for the grade 8 students at Jens Haven Memorial. {the audio is worth a listen to}
A controversy of Parks Canada's doing to my mind. Seems like due diligence was not applied when setting up the voting criteria and selecting a secure voting protocol, or whatever the techno terminology is.

Now by trying to be fair to all the schools in the contest they have marginalized the smaller schools like JHMS and made it next to impossible to win the contest, or has it?

I for one new the contest was under way but paied little heed to it, I am no fan of Parks Canada and it's modus operandi, especially in this area.

Any way when this change in voting and setting back the votes to zero happened then bells and whistle started zinging and I got to work on social media alerting as many as I could of the unfairness of this decision.

I even went to the trouble of registering 5 times and voting 5 times in a short time frame. Nice to have all those dormant e mails sitting there at times like this.

Not sure how it will work out, but I do know that Parks Canada's name is tarnished in this area, or it should be. Knowing them it is nothing that throwing more dollars at cant fix.

And by the looks of things I am not the only one with a bug up the arse about this, as I write JHMS is way ahead {again} of the two second place schools with over 1,200 votes.

Help in the cause by taking a little time and going to the MyParksPass site and vote for Jens Haven Memorial School..

While on the walking theme.

I small group [five] of Innu arrived in Nain Monday night creating much speculation among many citizens.
Not to worry, the spirits of kindness and giving were in the wind.


The Innu were here to start a walk back to Natuashish to honor the life of Burton Winters. Also in support of the "Burton Winters Rescue Center in Labrador" Facebook site.

For those not familiar, this Facebook site was set up to support changes to Search and Rescue operations in the province focusing on a full search and rescue squadron based in Labrador.

The site has almost 33, 500 signed up and people are organizing vigils and protests and letter writing campaigns and petitions.

It is obvious to all that improvements in the present SAR system, as well as a review of the protocols used are in dire need of upgrades. Not just the air born federal SAR system but the Provincial Ground Search and Rescue [GSAR] and how the two interact.

While there is great excitement on the Facebook site with many good intentioned folk, I would be hesitant to expect change any time soon.

It has been 20 years since the 'Ocean Ranger ' sinking and a couple of years since the Cougar crash, all with multiple loss of life.

There have been two inquiries stemming from those disasters with many recommendations for improving SAR in the region.

It could be argued that instead of improvements the SAR coverage and equipment have been left dormant or even downgraded in the intervening years. The people of Labrador sure think so.

The photos I took from Okalakatiget Society Facebook, I did some editing for clarity but may have overcompensated with the bottom one.

Meanwhile much excitement in the hacienda last evening with Carter, his Mom and Uncle up for some fresh char [thank you Jim] and red berry muffins.

Carter was very wary of Siutik at first with Siutik being very gentle and patient. Carter did come around towards the end but I think Siutik was pushing the envelop a bit when she took Carters cookie out of his hands.

Noah Nockasak

and Jerry Kobelenko are off and running on their trek to George River.Well not literally running, more like a very slow jaunt.

The first hill on the way out of town they both took one sled to the top then went back for the second sled. Makes sense to share the heavy going and conserve energy.

Before civilization is left behind things will be a little chaotic as people stop to say Hi or shake their hands.

The road [trail] should be nice and hard [being packed down by ski doo travel] for some kilometers. Then the hard work begins. .

We don't do processed food that often. The way I was raised, and the place I was raised I guess, and if Fran had her way we would be eating country food 24 seven. Or so she says but I know different.

This little number contained a small piece of medium rare t/bone, pork medallions braided in beer and the vegetables you see, portobello and button mushrooms. The spuds were crunchy and crisp on the outside and white and fluffy and soft inside.
Fran had another portion of the t/bone with some left over, humungous they are.

Another great day yesterday, winds a little strong from the NW, -10 means with chills up to -18. Kind of strange to say but the wind chills have a warm feel to them, very puzzling.

While Siutik and I took a walk Fran attended another research project strategy meeting in a community advisory role.
This time something to do with unions, self government, IBA's and Voisey's Bay mine.There was a public meeting last evening on the same topic.
Despite the silence all is not that rosy posy over at the mine. Like I always say "You have not converted a person because you have silenced them".

Seems Noah Nochasak and Co did not get away yesterday, latest departure date is today. 

Big oh surprise yesterday.

Long story short; Siutik and I were walking back from Northern Point towards the turn off to the airstrip when Stephanie drove down in the hotel truck.

She parked the truck outside the airport building so we wandered down to see what was on the go.
Steph was there to pickup some hotel guests, while we chatted Air Labrador came into sight and landed.
Stephanie said that Carters dad [Sheldon] was the first officer.

It’s always good to see family so we wandered down to the plane. It’s the first officer’s role to unload baggage and fright so when Sheldon jumped up into the cargo hold I moved forward to help put the luggage and freight on the ground.

Sheldon looked behind me and said “hi Carter”.
I think, that seems weird, and looked over my shoulder, low and behold there is Carter in the arms of grandma Steph with mom Aimee and big grin behind them.

Aimee loves to do these surprise visits; this one was pulled off very well. By the time I arrived home Fran had the call and was out the door in a matter of minutes to go visit the little man.

Photo is of Greek yogurt, red berries, banana drenched in honey. No olive tree honey these parts so Canada #1 will suffice.

With warming temperatures the urge to walk seems to be in the air:

Noah Nochasak and his buddy head out today for Northern Quebec [to the best of my knowledge].

Giant Andrew will begin another of his walks promoting healthy and traditional life styles on Wednesday. Giant and about 40 others will finish their walk in Nain this year.

And another Innu, a doctor, is also doing a walk with similar objectives.

Wow what a day out there:  Any way thought I would share this with you as I know how you all are very keen on hearing anything about Nutrition North Canada and it's ineptitude.

Interesting the article mentions representatives from Newfoundland and Labrador were co signers.

That is a puzzle, could be insufficient research done or something else. Strange that Nunatsiavut Government did not warrant a mention seeing as all the communities served by the NNC program in Labrador are within Nunatsiavut land.and NG has a representative on the advisory board of NNC.

Wow and Wow: Things move fast when you get people who give a shit.

In answer to my query sent to author of the post on NNC linked above, I not only had a direct message but also a reply in the comments section, and in a matter of minutes. God darn.

Further to Wow and Wow: CBC now has the story up, On the Go radio just had Randy Edmund's MHA for Torngat mountains in an interview on why he signed the letter to the Feds.

Not surprisingly no word or interview with officials from the Nunatsiavut Government nor the Provincial Government.

Now the province could scramble up a half arsed almost credible excuse that it is not their bailiwick.

Not so NG officials, there is just no excuse for their non involvement in this file, no at all.

It's not Delissio

but it sure is delic i o.

Thin multi grain crust. Toppings of cauliflower, zucchini, peppers, caramelized onion, peperoni three cheeses on one. The other same plus portable and button mushrooms and smoked sausage on the other.

Accompanied by a nice Argentinian Malbec made for a very present meal indeed.
The wine was in care package given to Fran in GB, along with some fresh Medjool dates and natural peanut butter.

Incidentally the dates went well with some of the Greek yogurt that I purchased at Northern yesterday. From memory that is only the second or third time I have seen Greek yogurt here.

Coincidentally just this week some people from south were twittering about Greek yogurt and their favorites available in large and small cities. I mentioned my memories of Greek yogurt in Greece and the fact I have not had the pleasure for some time.Two days later there it is. Greek yogurt and olive wood honey, should I dare wish.

Fran and I spent almost two hours on the phone yesterday morning with a researcher from NARHO who is doing work on food security in Northern communities.

My focus was on , but not limited to, the small greenhouse and raised bed that produces limited amounts of greens and herbs most years. Not without a lot of work and frustrations with weather and the like, all of which was discussed.
Fran spoke to the traditional country foods and the changes that have taken place in the environment, animal migrations,development, economical evolution and the like.

Of course I took the opportunity to put the knock on NNC and its failure to meet its stated mandate of working with and consulting consumers.

Meanwhile out on the land polar bears are going down like ten pins.

I am just thinking aloud here, wondering how much the economy of the area would benefit from a licensed polar bear sports hunt.

The meat would stay in the communities but the return on the hide and the ancillary expenditures on travel, guiding, accommodations etc would be substantially more than the present hunt. Not sure what the down side would be factoring in that the bears are going to be shot anyway.

The past two nights could not have been more like chalk and cheese.

As mentioned Wednesday night was noisy as hell with dead from the neck ups.

Last night was total quietness, no fast noisy machines, more like it should be in a small remote northern community.

And the weather yesterday, it was amazing. Up to -12 and sunshine sparkling off the snow. Took a walk on the ice for an hour, picked Fran up at airstrip, the rigors of the last several days were playing havoc with the old bod, the nice rest last evening has paid off.

Noah Nochasak is heading out on his latest walking adventure on Monday. Over 550 k to Kangiqsualujjuaq [George River] in Quebec.
This time Noah wont be alone, consummate traveler and self promoter Jerry Kobalenko will be tagging along.

I wish them Bon-voyage and safe travels.

Update: I neglected to mention, and thought perhaps I should; some interesting hits from some interesting places of late. Had a Google  search  hit "Sedna (she down there)" from Roswell New Mexico. Then another with same search criteria from Corner Brook. Eerie or what?

So if I am disappeared I will be having coffee and doughnuts with President Eisenhower.

Unusual for me to be grumpy in the mornings, but grumpy I am today.

I am sure there are others around town feeling the same, you see some very inconsiderate brains in their arse types have been ridding around town all night and early morning on fast noisy snow mobiles [one just sped passed just then].

Plus; I am usually very tolerant with the somewhat dysfunctional family across the road, but when they/or their family/or friends continually pull up on snowmobile and leave the engine running for many minutes and on many occasions during the night then my tolerance evaporates.

One may ask why am I writing about it? Why would it not be better to complain to the appropriate authorities or law/bylaw enforcers?

The answer would be that that has been tried, and on more than one occasion, and by numerous people.

And we are where we are at.

It has been many moons since I had tried minute steak. So while it does not have bones! Fran is away I thought I would give it a shot again. The chard vegetable medley was good, and the minute steak? was OK but as they say, you get what you pay for.

Update: Here are interviews with four of the women who attended
"The Path to the Good Life - Strong Women, Strong Communities through Culture" conference in GB this week.

Taking a break from outdoor activity including banjo playing, getting oil for furnace and even some snow shoveling when I came across this video and thought I would share, saucy oh otters.And great job Parks people.



Most of the snow I moved Monday was blown back yesterday, what a horrible day it was.

Drat and darn. All my good work of yesterday is being covered up again. Getting back to days of old with all this blown snow

Well Fran got away on one of the afternoon flights. It looked iffy all day with snow squalls moving in most of the day. Cleared off for the most part about 2'ish.

I had quite the work out on the banjo, still more twanging to do but the oh back was protesting so rested it up until the next session today.

Siutik had a ball in all that fresh snow. Took these just after coming back from a short run with her [me on ski doo]. Likes to cool down buy rolling and burying in the snow.

Late last week and over the weekend there have been some successful hunts here. A polar bear was taken [one of the legal permits]. A group of people headed up north looking for caribou, some sign but only one kill.

In Hopedale a group of folks went inland but with no luck. They had a hard time with the snow falling and got ski doos stuck in the deep snow, I'm talking buried.

I'd like to say hi to whoever in Tartu Estonia, thanks for dropping buy on regular basis.

Took this with the Galaxy Tab also. Typical of the Sandy Sunday meal at the Atsanik. Turkey, carrots/turnip/potato/cabbage cooked in salt beef.
Stuffing and red berry pudding with gravy. Only thing I left on plate was the stuffing [commercial type] and the fat off the salt beef.

I would be remiss if I did not put up a shot from last evening. Used the Galaxy Tab and e mailed to self.

There be steps under thar some whar.

Even the little leprechaun mascot did not save me from lots of banjo work this morning.
The wind ramped up I guess, we are the only house up here that snow builds up in front when westerly winds blow, those protrusions create vortexes.

The blizzard warning is still in effect. As blizzards go it has been no biggy, not that much accumulation and the wind has not been that bad, up to 65 clicks early this morning.

We had turkey dinner at the Atsanik Lodge last evening. I booked in for the two of us seeing as Fran [weather permitting] would be out of town Tuesday.
A nice bottle of French wine, only the two of us at the front of the dinning room, may not have looked romantic Andrew but we enjoyed the evening. When the hotel guests had left the dinning room we had a good chat and some after dinner drinks with the weekend manager, very enjoyable.
We even enjoyed the walk home in light swirling snow.

As mentioned Fran is due to leave this afternoon for Goose Bay. She is to be one of the guest speakers at an provincial Aboriginal women's conference. The theme is "The Path to the Good Life-Strong Women, Strong Communities through Culture"
Frans presentation will be on Wednesday morning on  “Our Struggle to Retain our Culture and our Language - Inuttitut” 

Struggle indeed. 

The plot thickens, or becomes more confused or some darn thing. CBC has a time line up on the Burton Winters tragedy. This contrast greatly with the internal DND time line that I liked to in and earlier post.

Meanwhile over on Facebook the Burton Winters page is lit up with new members [13,400 and counting] and an avalanche of people saying who they are and where they are from in support.
People are even bombarding Celebrity pages like Oprah and DeGeneres etc.

Carter out and about in his leather bomber jacket, north face cap and fancy leather/ fur mukluks, a lady killer in the making.

A friend sent this interesting little story from Vermont.

While on the subject, is it not curios that the publicly funded police are doing more and more the bidding of the corporate, and in the wee hours of the night at that. Personally I find it very offensive, lets hope when the old bill go to the public for support they are met with the contempt they deserve.

The quickly organized candle light vigil/protest for improved SAR services in Atlantic Canada seems to have been a resounding success last evening.
People came out from St.John's to southern Labrador all the way up to Nain.

Still waiting for the blizzard to hit, supposed to be this morning now. In the absence of the blizzard yesterday we basking in wind chills from -41 to a high of -27. High of -27 sounds a bit oxymoronish.


I am still anguishing [I guess that's the right word] over the DND internal response to the Burton Winters tragedy.

Reading the report the timelines are helpful but I can also understand why people are saying it is passing the buck to other authorities.
Seems like too many levels to go through and the protocols are a mishmass before it gets to the responsible authority.  Something like four provincial then at least two federal.

People on the ground closer to the event are also not buying into the weather limitations listed in the report.

Most definitely changes are needed and fast. It is troubling that between the full SAR unit in Gander and the auxiliary unit in Goose Bay only two choppers out of a possible five were available during the incident time frame. I say a possible five choppers because the report says 444 had one chopper down long term and one chopper needed maintenance after pre-flight check. Yet the 444 page states that 444 has three choppers. This just adds to the confusion.

It seems apparent that the public needs to see a provincial incident report as well as the DND report. After all most of the authoritative channels that need negotiating are at the provincial level.

The Burton Winters Facebook site membership is approaching 11.500 members. They are from all over the world.
The site co coordinators are doing a great job in managing the site, trying to keep the focus on the aim of initiating changes and modernization to the SAR efforts in Atlantic Canada.

Great, something to look forward to for the weekend, Blizzard warning in effect. And you thought -28 mean and -41 wind chill at moment was harsh enough.

Are there changes in way things are done in the offing? Is there hope for democracy and equality?

I wont count my chickens but what has happened over the last several days in the wake of the Burton Winters tragedy gives one a little ray of hope.
People have come together in protests/vigils, comments to media stories, social media, any way they can.

The premier looked a little uncertain when joining in with the outrage and putting all the blame on the Feds. Seems convenient to ignore the fact that the province has the lead on ground search and rescue co ordination.


Peter Penashue looked really numb struck when addressing protesters in Goose Bay. He waffled and finagled and just succeeded in showing how little a puppet he is in the grand scheme of PC politics.

Then there is a Facebook site up called The Burton Winters' Rescue Center IN Labrador

In a very short time there are 3,385 members, if that don't put the Willy's up the political class I don't know what would.

I hope Pee Vee does not mind, I would like to post the aims of the groups creators.  

The goal of this group is not to express our political beliefs other than to advocate for change; so this never happens again. Our goal is to get a SAR Center in Labrador, the focus can be shifted from that quite easily and the intent of the group lost, if we digress from this. This is not being done to incite anger against one another or use this as a forum to persuade others that one side or the other of a political opinion is right or wrong. Please understand, that we are honoring Burton and his memory, out of respect for that, this commentary will be removed, please understand this is not being done to censor your freedom of speech in expressing your political opinion; you are welcome to do that else where on a forum set up for that purpose. We want to be taken seriously, we want our goal met! Support can be given to meet this goal without expressing which "side" we are on. WE are uniting here, the one place we can meet where all of our differences melt away and we can stand together in a purpose that unites us. This will be done to keep the goal clear and unhindered; and not to provide a forum for debate. We welcome all posts that reflect the goal of this group to get a SAR Center in Labrador. We would not want to discourage anybody from joining our group because they feel differently than someone else who has their political views posted. Thank you for your support. Posts that are derogatory in nature will be removed.

Things are heating up in Makkovik [one O dear Vice Admiral] it seems. The public are being asked to meet on this ice this evening and to bring a candle. Little Peter Cowan from CBC is in town so maybe some video later.

Thought I would share this. The parents of Burton Winters posted the following on Facebook in response to the response from the Government of Canada:

Rod and I need your help. The more help the better. We need our voices heard (we meaning the people of Newfoundland and Labrador, but more specifically the coast of Labrador). Nunatsiavut is our beautiful land with our beautiful people. We cannot allow this treatment to go on further.

DND's 'answers' have been a slap in the face while trying make sense of this and while trying to grieve over Burton.
We need something to take place, maybe a protest or something that will have our community's people together as one to speak up and say this is not acceptable and we will not allow it to continue.

Rod and I will not let this happen to anyone else.
We need help in making something happen. Is there a way to get together to speak out to the media?

 

Natalie and Rod

Big muver of a pork chop lightly smoked and finished off in oven with a nice coleslaw and some sort of sweet & sour baked spuds.

We are into some cooling weather pattern with more to come in next week. Down around the -28 to -30's it seems, without the wind.

For what it is worth: Yesterday DND had the results of their review of the response times of their SAR ops in the tragic event in Makkovik last week.

A rather quick review and the results should not surprise anyone. It's not like they were going to say we screwed this one up boys.

But reading and listening to the three people who gave the press interview they actually did say major [all be it unintentionally] screw ups had taken place.

Two Griffons in Goose Bay out of service. Three Cormorants in Gander did not get a mention. High tech equipped SAR airplanes that have to have more than marginal weather to fly.

It is not the fault of the people who crew and dispatch these aircraft, it is the fault of cut backs in dollars and personal and lack of  first grade equipment.

These cut backs and repositioning's have been relaid to all and sundry over the last couple of years, yet people don't seem to listen.

When a tragedy happens people react, in many cases rightly so. But in the meantime whomever the movers and shakers are do nothing to put the adequate equipment and personal in place, that is where the responsibility lays.

I am for the most part apolitical [just saying] but I find this post at Bond Papers resonates with me on the topic of Search And Rescue services [or lack of] and the Makkovik debacle in particular.

I also draw attention the MHA for the area, Randy is the only politician in Labrador who uses social media to get points across and to deal with issues that are important to his constituents.

Sure the member in Ottawa uses Twitter, but just to point out all the perceived important people he shakes hands with and the free luncheons etc he attends.


A big presence in the big land.

Maybe, they sure have some catching up to do after years of neglect. And I cant wait for the day all this research translate into programs and services and social and health programs that meet the needs of the people.

Fair moon arising, full moon that is, nice out last evening.

Daddy and his son having the time, pity about daddy's shirt though.

I butterflied a few raw prawns and fried them up with some cod tongues. Served with fries and some snow crab, nice.

For anyone looking to learn a little bit Inuktitut this site seems like a likely place. Quite comprehensive to my untrained eye.

The downside is if you wanted to learn the Labrador dialect, afraid you would have to look elsewhere, maybe some CD-ROMs from the Rosetta people at the Torngnasok Cultural Center, stranger things have happened.

I have been looking for a press release from NG regards the announcement last week of the Air Labrador/ NGC buy in, buy out or whatever.

As usual NG are slow on the uptake updating there site. I did find something here though that about covers it and lots more.

Carter's great grandma Fran and Carters first officer dad Sheldon besides one of the new Labrador Inuit owned aircraft.  
Great day today, sun, calm, -15 or so.

For obvious reasons I have not posted anything on the search and subsequent recovery of the body of Burton Winters of Makkovik.

Alas the statements by this Rear Admiral Dave Gardam have raised my hackles, and that of most of Canada I would think.

The family of the lad have spoken out expressing their feelings, too bad that they feel compelled to do this at this time, but I feel they are doing do so that others may not suffer the same fate as Burton.

My thoughts parallel those of Makk08 @ 1:50 AM ET in the comments section so I won’t belabor those points.

I sure hope that the D&D probe into the incident comes up with some real answers and not just gobbley gook mumbo jumbo of the like the admiral stated.

Search and rescue is a very touchy subject at the moment what with the S & R coordination center closing in St. John’s. Is this tragedy another example of what will happen in the future with this closure?

If not then where was the screw up in communications in this case?

SAR ground crews say they were ready and waiting for the call. Why where civilian choppers relied on when they are not equipped or have the sufficient crew training of crew numbers to carry out SAR missions.

If indeed it is now Canadian Government policy to rely on civilian aircraft as first responders or [primary responders] then why has this not been communicated in a forceful and pro active way?

Where are the choppers and fixed wing civilian aircraft with the equipment and trained crews? Who will be footing the bill?

After the Cougar crash offshore St. John’s it was stated that civilian choppers, in this case Cougar, were equipped and crewed to carry out S&R in the case military S&R were not available. This is not the case to, my knowledge, anywhere else in the province. It is certainly not the case in Labrador.

That leaves a large geographic area not covered by trained and equipped S&R teams as first responders. That is unacceptable in any civilized society.

OK, so I belabored.

More people need to speak out on Search and rescue operations in Canada, why even the president of Nunatsiavut Government has made a statement at this early date. That is an astounding anomaly.

What a beautiful day yesterday, calm, sunny and up to -15. Looking good for the next several days too.

The bloke in the center of the picture below is one Sean Lyall of the Nain Lyall's. I have no idea who the other blokes are but assume they are in the music loud noise business.

Sean is in Montreal on his dream trip of a lifetime.
 

I can assure everybody that the flag in the picture is not the one that was missing at the opening ceremonies of the NL2012 the other day.wink wink nudge nudge. 


Some rather big announcements at the NL2012 yesterday too.

One will/should impact the people of Nunatsiavut and Labrador more than the other, non the less encouraging stuff.

Both involve airlines, the first is the biggy [audio] from Nunatsiauvut perspective. The second is more regional and international.

Lets hope that in time the good folks of Nunatsiavut can see some benefits from this Air Lab-NG deal and not just airline and business interest.
Some special weekend deals that fly out Friday return Monday sort of thing. Perhaps some integration of freight to the coast from Goose Bay that will help reduce the high cost of goods ordered from outside and within Labrador.

I don't foresee that this deal will go the way the marine deal did this past summer. Air Lab is a private well run business, and the Government of NL is not involved, or I hope not.

My version of Sukiyaki in the making.I used a big ass T bone sliced into thin slices. Fran quipped at the table, "it's a wonder Asians don't starve eating rice all the time".

I am very emotional at the moment what with the two tragedies this past week.

There has not been a peep out of anyone, except for this,  regards the young women's death here last weekend.

Now the tragic ending to the search in Makkovik is all over the media and social networking.
I am not discriminating, just pointing out the obvious contrasts.

The emotions and sorrow the families involved in both instances are feeling I can only imagine.

As well, the searchers and recovery teams in Makkovik have to be going through some very rough times, I hope they can receive a debrief. Fran says they help her immensely as a volunteer with the crises response team here.

Further to the Makkovik tragedy; the fallout has started in regards the response or rather late response from the air search and rescue units in the province, and rightly so.
The call went out Sunday night to the Coast Guard, no units responded until Tuesday afternoon, the boys body was found Wednesday..

It is worth a look at the picture of the abandoned snowmobile on the CBC NL web site, if only to get an idea of the conditions that the boy, and then the ground searchers had to deal with.
I have not seen ice conditions like that around this area for many years, talk about hard on the body when on ski doo.
Also is the fact the ice around Makkovik was not last fast makes it more dangerous, especially in less than ideal light.

Cherry smoked pork loin chop, three veggie mash with warm cabbage slaw.

Then a collage of Carter and his mom and dad having the time out in the snow banks of Goose Bay.


There is a northern trade show on the go in Ottawa at the moment called Northern Lights 2012.

Nunatsiavut has some representation in the form of entertainers, I am not sure of the full extent Nunatsiavut has at the event.

But yesterday afternoon at the minister of healths speech two reporters from Nunavut tweeted that the Nunatsiavut Flag was missing.

At first I took that to mean that is was stolen, but no, it meant that the flag was not present along with the other flags at the opening event.

Further tweets established that the flags of Ontario, Canada, NL, Quebec and Nunavut were on display, but no Nunatsiavut flag.

Sort of curious I thought, seeing as Nunatsiavut has self government, just as Nunavut has. I am wondering if an oversight has occurred or perhaps some protocol is in play, or politics or money issues.

No biggie but sometimes it is the little things that say a lot.