Just two of the faces of a (going on two) year old.

Carter does the tantrums thing when not getting his way, goes on for quite awhile his mom says. Mom forgets the hours spent appeasing her at similar age.

And then a little while later things magically are OK again, this time playing with his new potty.

Photos by Carters mom.

In the low 20s again yesterday, did not drop below 16 overnight. Looks like it will be warm, wet and muggy for today.

Twas a warm one sure Sunday, 26 with warm westerly winds (even warm by the shore) that kept the bugs away until it died ion the afternoon.

Noah spent the day at same spot as previous day, could have been the winds, there is fog in the area too.

Updated info on Noah from CKOK. 

Thought I would post a link to this interview between Tony Dawson of CBC HV-GB and a CBC Toronto suite regarding the shut down of CBC analogue TV service come Wednesday.

It will only effect those on the lower edge of income brackets, the aged, the in-firmed and those on social assistance. There is the odd person who chooses not to have all the overpriced alternatives but they are few.

Mr To Suite apologizes like too many times (and does not sound like he means it at all), and I can tell you with a great deal of authority the bit about *not knowing until recently* the impact this would have on people in this region is total bullshit.

Noah is well on the way home, last location at 11:30 last evening had him across the bay from the Torngat Park base camp in St.Johns Harbor.

Now we will see if he paddles all the way back or acquires a lift after arriving at base camp. Either way it is a brave soul who ventures into that bear infested region in a kayak (and I am not prone to hyperbole), he has much to be proud of.

Another nice warm day with nice breeze yesterday. A busy day for planes flying up to the park bringing people and supplies to and fro.
.
The fish plant is working longer hours now, only doing fresh frozen and smoked char and they are to stop taking fish next week.  Needs some marketing re work many think.

According the latest spot me sent from Noah Nochasak he (at least) is heading home. His latest position 10 hours ago is south of Nachvak Fiord, his previous location.

Not sure if the other two are with him, seeing as Noah has the only rifle I would  think it foolish if they are not. Lots of polar bear sightings up that way to date, and ice bergs up the ying yang I am told, great year for the lucky few who get up that way.

So the games have begun by gum: Watched most of the opening ceremonies, except the speeches, very dour dark rendition of a very dour dark English past.


And what about those English team outfits? Bloody hell.


We will just have to suck it up.

Our buddy the mourning dove was back pecking at the food this morning, quite tame too. 

We have noticed many more bird varieties this year, sparrows and grossbeaks and others that Fran tries to ID.

Developing on Noah Nochasak paddle. Noah contacted one of his relatives by sat phone last evening, they talked for a bit before the signal was lost.

The three paddlers have ( I should preface this by saying the paddlers are thinking seriously of turning back, or at least Noah is, more to follow when info available) decided to turn back to Nain. Reasons given were the three kayaks keep getting separated what with the winds and tides and sea.

That in-itself would be no big deal I would think, but when you consider that all their supplies (what there is in such small frail vessels) are split between the three, plus one has Noahs tent and another has the RIFLE things could start to get hairy in very short order with reports of increased polar bear populations in the area.

Noah's latest spot me was sent from the same location as the previous, south side of Nachvak Fiord, and sent 15 hours apart.

Hope all stays well as can be and they make it back safe. Maybe they will make it to the park base camp and bum a lift,or maybe paddle all the way, time will tell.

Noah is motoring right along (figuratively speaking), now on the north side of Nachvak Fiord.

Hope they get up to the tip of Labrador before the ice melt washes them back this ways (figuratively speaking).

Yesterdays news was dominated by what is happening on the global warming front. The ice cap melt and carving of more giant ice burgs will surly effect the earths temperatures and sea levels. It should add to our (Labradors) foggy cooler weather in the summer months.

Nice warm breezy day yesterday, up to 20c. We were at the dock when the Northern Ranger arrived, passengers were a good mix of coastal people and tourists, some on round trip and some stopping off here.

One older couple disembarked with two dogs in arm, the smallest dash-hounds I have ever seen, cute little buggers, and well behaved, both were adult, one being 14 years old..

Noah Nochasak is now across Ramah Bay on the paddle to George River.

Unsettled weather last few days, 23 Monday down to 8 and rain yesterday, cloudy and heading up into high teens today.

 Blauer Beere-Kuchen mit kuchen auf der Spitze.  Not your average Tim's for sure.

So we seemed to have confirmed that there are scallops to be had in the bays around Nain, so why is it that the boat that was supposed to harvest the little buggers was unsuccessful in doing so.

This is only the view from a local perspective but it is good enough for me. The harvesting boat and crew did not know what they were doing. The owner of the boat was new to the area. The guy on board who had the harvesting permit was new to the area. Add that in with a could not care less we know best attitude and you get no scallops.

Why bring in an inexperienced boat and crew? Best I can assertion is that no one locally was interested in getting involved with the fishery, nor were either of the two local boats interested, they have other interests.

There was some expressions of interest from boats from other north coast towns who had scalloped here before, these were turned down for one reason or another. In one case the Capt is a known tippler of the bottle.
I can remember back when the scallop fishery attracted 7 to 8 boats, one day one of the crew off one boat was in the beer store (this is mid day) asking for a two four *as they were going out fishing for the night*. Not a good mix booze and commercial fishing.

So we had the scallops fried up with scrunchions and some shrimp (from the store) with spicy rice and noodle something or other.

 The Wanderbird arrived in town yesterday morning. Good to see Karen and Rick and the two dogs, Pitsik is from here,.  An eclectic guest list of eleven, including two Aussies who insisted on buying us a beer last evening.

And wouldn't this sight frighten the bejasus out of you, dolphins are one thing, these big babies is entirely another. 

Proof positive

that there are scallops out around the bays.

 An unexpected drop off late veining Saturday, thank you Mary and Tony, much appreciated.

 Why the boat tasked with harvesting scallop for the fish plant was unsuccessful in finding any continues to be a mystery. I will try and unravel the mystery in the next days.

Scallops you buy in the stores in Canada have that little yellow/orange tail removed, in Australia and some locals here leave it on or eat it separately.

Sure was some nice temperatures over the weekend, yesterday was near perfect with a nice sea breeze along the waters edge.

An unexpected visitor (for all) hove to in the harbor yesterday afternoon.

 The mv Akademik Loffe was on a trip up the coast of Labrador and on to Iqaluit. She had stopped in Hopedale and then at the base camp in the Torngats park.

It was then discovered that the ice in Davis Straight would prevent them form getting to Iqaluit to offload the passengers. She turned around and was heading for Goose Bay to off load.

A hurried stop over to Nain was organized by some Nunatsiavut Government folk. Not the best time for an unexpected visit to Nain, a Saturday afternoon on an unusually warm day with half the town gone off in boat. . I guess the NG people did the best they could under the circumstances.

What a sad and familiar story this is. Very similar to the famed Gondwanaland artist Albert Namatjira.

What a surprisingly nice sunny warm day yesterday. I wonder if the earth has tipped on its axis. Up to 21 at the house, quite the jump from the previous days of single digits.

I received word that Air Labradors newest tail logo was making its first run up the coast, could not miss the opportunity to take some pictures including Siutik. 

Here she is waiting (over an hour) for the plane to arrive. Meantime lots of other planes arrived but the breeze kept flies to a minimum.

Out on the water just below the airstrip this canoe paddled passed. I was told that the two occupants are heading for George River.

Don't think they will catch up to Noah and his buddies, they are just north of Saglek Bay last check in.

You can see the airstrip (switch to satellite mod) at Saglek on the peninsular at bottom right. The Torngat Park base camp is at the bottom of that finger bay just to the left of the airstrip. 

The rest of the photos speak for them-self.

Gawd, strewth and stone the crows, the sky is pure blue and not a cloud in sight. Its been 30 days at least since we have seen something like this, am I still in Nain, have I been transported to some exotic island in the pacific.

Ang on, there is some cloud forming to the east, so we are still in Nain, will hold off on the handstands.

Well I am royally pissed now, no the fog has not rolled in (yet), the fishers who were contracted to drag for scallop have high tailed it out of town without nary a scallop processed. What a bummer and pisser.
Not only for aficionados of the tiny tasty  bivalve mollusks but for the hard to come by income for those who work in the fish plant.

Why and what happened would only be conjecture on my part. What is known is that there are scallops out in the bays around Nain. Locals say so as do the fisheries scientist.

Clear and present evidence. 

Another one of those days Wednesday. Shallow fog led to fog right flat until about 3. Still no planes all day.

Now today our ceiling is OK but other communities are not, so planes on hold again.

No real complaints though, most are coping with the fog due to absence of flies, and it sure keeps the road dust to a minimum.

There was excitement for some in town. A woman who left Hopedale 50 years ago and ended up in Las Vegas was on the Northern Ranger (round trip) with her daughter. It was 18 years since her last visit so lots of quick catching up for some family and friends.

The boat was all booked up on departure what with tourists, people on round trips, several families heading for Makkovik for a wedding. Quite a few people could not get on even in lounge passage.

Char is coming in slow at the fish plant, and crab landings in Makkovik are low also. I think about 8 char fisherman on the go here now, things should start to pick up once the fish start heading back in.

Collage of pics from yesterday morning. Little bit of sun after the fog cleared but mostly cloudy, nice temp early but cooled off later in day.


The chance of tasting some local scallops diminishes daily.

The boat hired came back again with nil, zilch, nada. Not sure what the problem is, there are scallops out there. The crew is new to the area, why no one familiar is not on board is a question someone needs to answer.

Another troubling development is that official word is that the plant does not need much char, either fresh or smoked as there is no market.

Very puzzling that is. Is there no market or rather the plant cant compete with lower priced lower quality product.
 Is it time to rethink marketing strategy, outside the box stuff.

Anyone who has tasted the product from the Nain plant raves about it, just three weeks ago I gave a meal of baked char (not from the plant but local) to a guest, we found out after the fact that the person was not a fish eater, but after that meal they had changed their mind and could not get enough.

In the absence of scallop I did up a nice crusty spinach, caramelized onion, feta and mozzarella cheese pizza. Had it with a smoked char macaroni salad.

There is a blurb here about Noah Nochasak and his companions. Its brief and to read the rest you have to subscribe. Still that brief blurb is more information that any local regional media has written.

Fog cleared off around noon Monday leaving just cloud and occasional drizzle. First plane got in around noon also.

Noah Nochasak and the two other kayakers have reached Hebron, the twice abandoned community.

Nain fish plant opened yesterday, besides char there is much excitement in town about the scallop fishery that is to take place.

The boat to do scallop arrived and promptly left for the scallop grounds. It promptly returned without scallop and some gear issues to be sorted out. New people at it seems.
The boat left again for the scallop grounds, today we will see the results I guess.

Only one fisher-person dropped off char to the plant, Eight fish averaging 4Lb, good size ones.

Really nice sunrise yesterday, too lazy to get up and take a picture though.

So two days of much sun and nice sunrises, who needs that anyway, back to fog and rain this morning and for the foreseeable future according the the forecast. 

After sharing some HopCity Barking Squirrel Larger (yes the buggers do bark) and a wee dram in the greenhouse Saturday evening I was looking for a sleep-in Sunday.
Siutik always has other ideas when I try this, always persists that I let her out, even if she does not need to go out, and even if Fran is in the kitchen closer to the back door.

 Must say we enjoy some of the Moravian traditions immensely, some traditions are worth hanging on to, even if we aren’t regular church goers and even if the Inuit arguably ‘adopted‘ European traditions.

We were invited to a 50th birthday party yesterday evening.

As is the tradition the Canadian flag flew outside the home, due to the nature of the homes and the number of guests the guests arrive in shifts.

Helpers were in the kitchen cooking and helping serve. Good old food was served, this time a cold plate of fowl and red meat (caribou meat cake) and smoked char with several salads. Lots of cake, tea etc.

The highlight on our shift was that another guest also had her birthday,76 I think, plus some members of the church choir were on hand to sing traditional hymns in Inuktitut.

Besides the blues and the beach boys and Irish music nothing moves me more than hymns sung in Inuktitut for some reason.

Friday was a strange weather day, stranger than the usual. High dark clouds, occasional glimpses of sun, warmer temperatures and breezy. More reminiscent to tropics than mid arctic.
 Any way the breeze kept the flies at bay, all we need is some bloody sun, I transplanted lots of lettuce yesterday, need sun.

 Another yacht hove to in the harbor.

Another yacht hoping to get to Baffin Island. Another yacht waiting for a crew member to arrive Monday. That’s just the one yacht by the way.

 Cant quite make out the name, Franks B is the best at moment. Ran into the skipper who had lots of questions about what is available in town. He said they were out of Georgia, and by his accent I was thinking Georgia of the former Soviet Union. But no, it was Georgia of the US of A, his accent is Polish.

The fish plant is to finely open Monday, taking char and some time during the week a crew is to arrive to harvest scallop.
Its been five years since scallop was processed here, itching for some of those boy, and some crab brought up from the Makkovik plant.

Noah Nochasak and his two companions are motoring (figuratively) along in their kayaks quite nicely.

They are north of Cod Island and Mugford Tickle and deep in Polar Bear Country. Although judging by the amount of cabin windows being broken as fare south as Nain area Polar Bear country is expanding.


Corruption is at the fore again, and this is only the tip of what is really going on with 'joint venture' companies. How about going after the non aboriginal public and private sector for at least complicity.

I find it strange that a board member of the Innu Nation states that he cant find out where all the money has gone, yet he and the board fired two of the top guys once the scam was discovered. And a look at the 30 grand the chiefs of the two band councils received as board members of the development arm needs looking at.
No wonder all the Innu leaders got on Peters wagon in the last election.

Well there is no surprise revelations in this story. you just have to look around town, and further afield in the other north coast communities to realize the farce of the education process within aboriginal communities.

Year round a high percentage of young people with nothing to do. Those that do find work the higher percentage is in low to moderate skill set jobs.

Summer sees a more stark realization. Outside contractors bringing in 99% of their workers.

In the higher education area the place seems overrun with young university people from away in summer jobs, both within Nunatsiavut government, Memorial University's Labrador institute and other universities.

No offense intended to these people, just pointing out and confirming what the article  points out.

Oh well, and what the hell; while on the subject.

Over the years there have been university graduate beneficiaries of Nunatsiavut who have not been able to obtain work back in the land claims area. i.e. have not been able to find work within the Nunatsiavut Government public service.

Reasons vary but it is very puzzling, especially when job postings (or in some cases no job postings) go to outside people.
I know experience and degrees play a role, but many of the people rejected or ignored have the appropriate degrees and related work experience.

It still goes on today: Recently a beneficiary who graduated with honors in their discipline and with several years work experience submitted their resume and applied for a specific job to a department of NG.

They did not get that specific job. But their interest in working here and resume is on the table.

Then another position that this person was qualified for opened up with no interview for this person but the position was then given (not sure if it was posted) to a non beneficiary. Makes you wonder eh?

Hay hay hay, sunshine sunshine sunshine. Little bit shallow fog, little bit scattered cloud but the rest is clear blue. Note to self: reduce order of vitamin D.

I have not done a pic of food for awhile, thought this one worthy.

Pork schnitzel with warm potato salad and sweet and sour brussel sprouts.

 Its the first time not just boiling the sprouts, came out rather tasty.

Wind has picked up, no fog to be seen and cloud ceiling over 1800 feet. Still, the forecast does not have many yellow balls in it so wont get overly excited. Note to self: Must order some more vitamin D.

Noah has progressed quite the way since his last spot me. Looks like they camped in the abandoned Nutak harbor.

 Brandon Pardy usually has thought provoking columns in the Independent Newspaper, his latest is no exception.

Co ops should have been the direction taken on the coast years ago, I wont delve into why they did not, just to say much short sightedness and protectionism played a role, and not just from the Provincial Government.

There is still that chance of going Co Op, but much education and changes of attitudes are needed.

As to Brandon’s view of using ice free ports as a node for freight from the mainland. That is fine for ice free communities, and there are not many. But that still leaves all the communities on the north coast all iced up so to speak, with the possible exception of Rigolet.

So in the short to medium term that is a no go, perhaps in the long long term things could work that way.

I, and many others, would agree we have to shed the yoke that is holding us down, that is the Island centricities that everything must go through some Island entity for their cut of the pie.

I know in the past that Nunatsiavut Government has thought about, and maybe even looked at, direct shipping from Quebec to the north coast. Even thinking about there own shipping line to carry this out.

But it is not as simple as that. Again attitudes have to change.

Retailers with long associations with Island suppliers have to break the yoke. Then they have to establish new relationships with suppliers in Quebec or even Ontario.

Being a small market with only summer shipping would not help these negotiations, unless a buying co op or cabal was formed, you could include other areas of Labrador in that cabal, that would be no easy task but doable if the will was there.

For the short to medium term a sea and road route from Quebec cutting out the Island and using Goose Bay as a hub would work best for Central and Northern Labrador.

I say this not because I am a fan of  the Goose Bay business community, but because it seems to be the way that makes the most economical sense for us on the coast.

So all we need now is a shipping, retail, wholesale expert with a Gandhi  persona to come forward and take up the awesome challenge.

Mondays early light rain, fog cleared off to just cloudy and temperatures up to 19. Planes got in with a flurry, mostly people leaving town.

Today we are back to light rain, fog and time will tell if and when it clears.

It has been two weeks now since we have seen any sun of consequence. Brief burst of blue through holes in the clouds don't count.

There are several subjects I would love to comment on but cant get things straightened away on one subject when another one pops up. Having trouble prioritizing and organizing my thoughts. Nothing new there says some.

 Later:

One thing I will never understand is the constant urge to bugger up the planet in the never ending quest to make a dollar.

This on going effort to take a couple hundred thousand tones of sand from a remote beach in Northern Labrador is just abhorrent to me. And all for some abrasive and cutting material, how sick is that.

The president of Freeport Resources was on CBC the other day. She is a polished and accomplished bull shiter I will give her that.
But she failed to give a straight answer when asked how many local jobs there would be this year. What leader of a company does not know these things.
Plus the assertion that the locals just love going up that way is paternalistic at best.

And no one mentioned the barge that sank off the beach during another attempt to take samples some years back.


So many unanswered questions and no one asking those questions.

For one there is the overseer of the environment if the plan to extract goes ahead. With the area so remote who will watch over this, and who will watch the watchers. Why the ecology cant be protected here in Nain so how the hell will that work way up there.

If you enlarge the image you can see how remote the intended extraction is, its about 380 K from Nain which is just right of Kingurutik on the bottom right.

20,000 tomes a year leaves a mighty big hole. A 20 year extraction on just one beach leaves a much bigger hole. How will that be left in a pristine state when there is no overburden.

Why not leave it in its pristine state now, let the polar bears romp and roam without being hassled by bear bangers and guns.

There is both light and a black hole at the end of the tunnel looking at the Report of the commissioner for the Labrador Inuit Settlement area regional Land use plan.

The commissioner recommends changing areas like the beaches to ‘discretionary use’ from totally protected.
Others recommend that this area as well as caribou calving areas be left as is, without mineral exploration or mineral development.

One thing that is essential is for the Nunatsiavut Government be more pro active in giving people information both pro and con on these potential developments. To date this has not happened with NG just relying on proponents of projects to hold information sessions and open houses.

The above is a bit hodge podge but my mind is foggy at moment, just like outside, its after noon and no sign of fog and drizzle letting up yet.

Ditto on the weather front. With perhaps the exception of light to moderate rain instead of just drizzle.


Grandson Matthew tried for the second day in row to get back home from Goose Bay. Weather and then lack of staffing at Air Labrador seem to be the issue. What is the point of introducing a Saturday flight if there are not enough pilots to handle the work load. I would bet the crown jewels that if it was a charter to the Torngat park there would be enough pilots to go around.

Air Labrador still has work to do in servicing the needs of the traveling public, especially in the customer service field at the Goose Bay ticket office, rudeness and grumpiness has no place at the first line of contact with the public.

Still the upside is he Matthew to spend more time with Carter and Aimee.


Noah Nochasak and his two paddling companions were camped in a safe place yesterday, next leg is out into the open ocean for a bit.

No golden pictures this morning, fog is 'Wapping High Street' thick, cant see beyond 50 meters. Forecast says it is supposed to burn off later, but then back to the gray wet stuff for another week.

Caught a story about this computer malware virus last evening, checked my computers and they came up green and clear.

No golden sunrise but a dove was pecking around the house earlier. 

 Last evening we had an eclectic menu for super, one dish was pea soup, meat from salt pork riblets with dough boys.
Another dish was smoke char from Hopedale, some good.

Well knock me over with a fog horn, there is actually a sun still up there. Brilliant golden sunrise this marnin, some shallow fog and clouds are bouncing the sunlight magically.

Noah Nochasak as back doing the adventure thing again, no holding that guy back. He is off on a kayak adventure with two other people. Looking at the length and depth of the fiberglass kayaks I shake my head in wonder.

Making good progress since leaving in rain and fog yesterday.

Just to show I was not bull shitting being untruthful here are some pics of the sunrise today. 

We had a little hiccup in the weather yesterday. The fog cleared around 10, earlier than normal. But before we could start doing hand stands the fog and cloud rolled in again earlier than normal.

This is what it looks like @ 7:30 this morning, and the rain is heavy and I'm sure I just heard thunder in the distance.

The temperature has dropped from 10 to 7 and I just heard that Makkovik has 22 degrees, role reversal or what?


   

The yacht Taravana slipped out of town Wednesday, not sure if she is going north to Baffin, there original destination or not. Looking at the ice chart there is still much ice surrounding their destination.

Looks like there will be some work again this year at the Ten Mile Bay anorthosite quarry. Production stopped and much of the equipment sold off or is run down couple years ago. Depending on the drilling results this year we may some some extra seasonal work in the years to come.

Rigolet is following in Nain's footsteps with a ban on plastic shopping bags. Though I must say the .25 cents for plastic bags is not necessary judging by the Nain experience,just stop the distribution of then straight up.

That link to the interview by the Minister of Labrador and Aboriginal affairs yesterday had 5 comments and two talk backs on this mornings show. That is a lot for Labrador.
Not one was in support of the information old Nick provided. 

I was going to give you a break from my rantings today, bad luck, just have to post this unbelievable non interview interview with the minister of Labrador Affairs this morning on CBC.

Why the hell do these yobbos take up 8:35 of air time to say bugger all. 

On a positive note an interview just after on the dog FedEx story.

A nice looking Bayliner 47 docked and took on fuel and then off again, yesterday.  Word is she is out of Lewisport and  her new owners (Inuit) are heading for Rankin Inlet.
No photo but very similar to this, without the refinery, nice looking boat sure.

Summer things are starting up, fish plant gearing up, long liners destined for the Torngats park arriving, park people gearing up, but the weather is still not reminiscent of any decent summer. A brief touch of it starting around mid day to the evening then just fog, with occasional drizzle.

Folk lore has it that people living in St.Johns Newfoundland go off the deep end after so many years of this type of weather. Why some even resort to moving away to the mainland, we are OK then, already on the mainland. .

Fire works + fog = bizzarro, errie.

We are going to wake up to clear sky some time in the next three weeks (or maybe 4 or 5) and we will be totally unsettled.

FedEx your dog?

I did my good rescue a dog dead this morning, a nice little cross pup keeps getting (or let) loose regularly. This is the second time I took him home and tied him up, not sure the adults appreciate it but the young girl seemed to.

I only mention this for two reasons, one the pup stank to high heavens having rolled in rancid seal fat.

The second reason is I was talking to a friend in Goose Bay just now and he mentioned that FedEx was sending a plane in to pick up around 70 dogs from the local SPCA.

Naturally I thought he was yanking my chain. Not so after I Googled it.

Canada Day 2012.

Fog cleared off nicely in time for the parade and goings on at the ball field.

We caught the start of the parade down at the airstrip, quite a few vehicles participated.  After going through town the parade ended up at the ball field where a BBQ and games and such took place. I am told several hundred people were over there, most lined up for T bone steak and salad for 11 bucks.

The highlight of the night is the fireworks, but some mix up with packaging of the fireworks resulted in them being postponed.