We took in the public meeting with NL Hydro last evening, good turn out of about 30 odd locals and a collection of non locals visitors.

Personally I appreciate the NL Hydro coming in and taking the meeting seriously (on the surface at least) with four staff in attendance.

Rick Kennedy, the manager of Labrador operations is new at the position, and it showed. That was outweighed by his pleasant personality and having the ability to stay calm under fire.
An older gentleman from the island operations dealt with most of the technical and processes and regulatory issues.

I came away with my conviction that the generating unit for Nain is underpowered in tact, even though Hydro has all sorts of graphs and projections to the contrary.

Trouble with all the projections and graphs is that Hydro admits that that is all they are, graphs that may not be correct and projections that are always incorrect  by the very nature of the business.

So we have two operating units, plus one broken down unit that will be replaced with a rebuilt unit using some of the parts of the broken down unit. Hydro calls this re built unit a new unit. So at least we know now that when Hydro says new it does not necessarily mean new.

This should be completed by mid to late February.

There is a totally new fourth unit in the works which is scheduled to be operational by very late 2014.No one other than Hydro believes that this time frame will be met.

This unit will be a small 750 KW job. People asked why not put in a larger unit when everybody know the load projections are rising every year.

This is where it gets weird, Hydro is held to having to justify any new units to the PUB. If PUB denies them then Hydro has to go through a complicated appeals process. So I think this is one reason Hydro low balls usage projections.

Another troubling bit of information garnered is the fact that Hydro knows what brands of engines are the best for the job at hand.

Unfortunately Hydro is bound by the public tendering act. So invariably we dont get the best engine for the job but the low bid which can turn out to be an inferior engine. Which obviously is the case with two of the engines in the Nain plant. So you shrug your shoulders and carry in it seems.

Lots of other discussion and some suggestions that Hydro said they will take under advisement and see what can be done.

Meantime further south there was a meeting of Innu in Sheshatshiu last evening on the caribou hunting ban.
Bet it was more exciting (but no more important) than our meeting. Any updates and reports will be posted when available.

We are under a weather watch with snow falls up to 15 cm projected by Friday, some winds also.

Nice light meal of chicken turkey vegetable legumes soup accompanied by potato leek pan cakes with tzaziki.

Nice sky this morning, something on the way though. 

I'm listening to Randy Simms on VOCM this morning, catching up on the hulla balloo from yesterday.

He said apologize and unequivocal, whatever that means these days.

The unfortunate thing is that now the Innu will use this incident to its fullest political extent, or at least   Tshakapesh will.

Later: as nature told us, something was on the way.

Following up on yesterdays caribou hunt ban, some news stories on same.

Justice minister Darrin King said *Anyone found in violation of the hunting ban will face fines and will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, says Justice Minister Darin King. The ban will be reassessed after two years*

Being ever the skeptic I wonder what is realy going on here, or is it a genuine attempt to protect a species at risk. 

Three ministers to announce something like this has to be an anomaly.

Does the province have the will plus resources both in people and equipment, not to mention fiscal, to follow up on the threat to prosecute all and sundry.

Another issue, a very serious one, is the groups over in Quebec, what will happen over there. There are some sub group herds in the western part of Quebec, but for generations parts of the George River herd has sauntered through some of the communities on a yearly basis. Maybe that has changed with the decline, but we still need to hear from the Inuit, the Innu the Cree and the Quebec Government one would think.

Here is a link to some press releases issued by the NL Government over the past 9 years, Stop or we will say Stop again. 
Not very encouraging is it?

Update: I guess the highlight of the CBC Labrador mornings news was news briefs of the chief of Natuashish  saying he is not going to stop hunting. A link to a story here but nothing of length available yet.

SimeonTshakapesh said that he is not going to stop hunting as it is their right. He went on to allude (paraphrased) to mining and exploration being the main factor in the decline of the herd. He said if there is a moratorium on minning and exploration for five years then he will not hunt for five years. 

Wow, that would put a hole in the quarterly cash payouts to individual Innu plus what goes to the bands under IBAs.

The fine folk of the business communty in Goose Bay must be shoveling down the Alka-Seltzer after hearing that declaration.

Things are getting down and dirty on the inter tubes.  I garnered from Twitter that Randy Simms of VOCM call in show called Simeon Tshakapesh an arse hole and hung up on him. 

Meantime of Facebook many are outraged at the Innu approach to the caribou. 

Here are a couple of updated stories on the goings on.  

And an another view from Labrador. 

What a magical day out there, -16, sunny and calm, looks like being that way for a few days.

Media have picked up on the caribou hunt story, no comment from the Province yet nor the Innu. The province may comment later this week, stay tuned as it is the guy who used to be WST minister who now has that portfolio. 

Update: Who da thought that it would be this quick and this asertive.

Province just announced 5 year caribou hunting ban for everyone in Labrador. Includes all aboriginal group.

G Grandson Terrence receiving some hot tips on goalie tactics from his dad.

Then some shots on goal from bigger kids.

Another light snow white day for the most part Friday. Lifted later in day, planes managed to get in under iffy conditions.

Just listening the the news, the plane that was missing in the Antarctic has been located. News briefs had people putting a positive bent to the high hopes of finding the crew of three alive.

Alas that does not seem to be the case. A chopper located the crashed plane at high altertude and no sign of survivors. Sad if that is in fact correct.

Twin otters operating in harsh frigid environments always resonate with people of the north.

Without any public announcements of any kind some how a good crowd gathered at the school gym for a special presentation Friday afternoon.

Three local people were presented with the Queens Jubilee medal, better late than never they say.

The well compensated person who supposedly represents Labrador in Ottawa (more commonly known as an MP) presented the medals to retired chief elder David Harris, man of many hats and past president of Nunatsiavut Jim Lyall and last but not least Susan Frances Williams ONL, past president of LIA and many other hats.

                                                                 Sean Lyall photo; edit by me.


Fran can add this one to the Queens Golden Jubilee medal of 2002, the Confederation medal of 1992 and of course the Order of Newfoundland of 2012.

I would be remiss if I did not mention another balls up in communications for this event. Or rather lack of any announcements that the event would or could take place weather permitting.

Someone on federal level knew, persons within the community new, as the MP had lined up meetings after the presentation. Still nothing of an official pronouncement of it taking place.

This not not an anomaly, it is rather the way things go in this community. I dont know if it is different other places, but one would think in the year 2013 with all modern technologies available that a communications strategy could be worked out, one where ample time and community wide notice could be given for all sorts of events and goings on.

If not for Facebook and members of the families of some of the recipients hardly anyone would have know about yesterdays event.
Many were surprised to hear of the event after the fact, the vast majority of the town that is.

Word is that another bunch of caribou (around 30 ) have been taken by the Innu. it is not illegal to hunt deer, but surely it must be bordering on the immoral and irresponsible.

I will touch on the state of the caribou heard again this morning.

It is very troubling to me and what appears to be many others that very little conversation (that is in public domain) seems to be taking place. Matter of fact if the herd is in as bad a shape as claimed why has there not been pro active action been introduced already.

Highlighted after the meeting in Kuujjuaq recently is the anecdotal evidence of how the small heard was harvested this weekend.
The delegation of Innu from Natuashish flew back home on a charter (as did other groups). But the Innu did a reconnaissance fly over of know caribou migration routes. A small group of 50 to 60 animals were spotted.
The day after arriving home a group of Innu left for the area and harvested 46 animals.

Which begs many serious questions that need public answers. Firstly was the Innu harvest a community effort or a bunch of individuals. Not that it should make that much difference, but if communal then it would touch on a traditional hunt, unlike the mode used in spotting them in the first place.

I would point out that much of what I am saying is taken from others who are as concerned, or more so than I.

The province is silent along with scientists and groups like Torngats Wildlife Secretariat. There has been word from these people in the past but now is the time for more dialogue as the main hunting season approaches.
Will the province wait until hundreds of caribou are hunted and then do their yearly press release of empty rhetoric.

Some ideas of what could be done:

Nunatsiavut Government could implement  something under their much ballyhooed EPA.

Perhaps NG could introduce a moratorium, they could use their Conservation Officers, with back up, to enforce the moratorium. No one will be thrown in the caboose, but animals could be seized, the names of the perps made public, and the animals distributed to the elderly and the many poor people in the communities.

This would only cover NG lands, but it could embarrass other groups to take the initiative and make the move.

At the moment the NG assembly has decided to still rely on their recommendation not to hunt. This wont wash as many people are of the mind of * well if those other guys are going to hunt, then we will too*

If the caribou are in in such peril maybe they can be put on the species at risk list. This would encompass everybody, leaving aside the traditional hunt argument, which sounds empty these days with some groups using spotter planes and even flying in ski doos to the hunting areas.

The next passage is a cut and past from a local Facebook page, I hope they dont mind.

Is it just me or does it seem like no one gives a rats ass about the state of the caribou population? God you see people with caribou, talking about how good their meal was or that they are going soon! Do they know that the herd is at a steep decline in numbers and that all the aboriginal groups, here and Quebec, are trying to save them? For a while there, I didn't even care either, but after careful thought, maybe I should care. I don't want to wake up someday and reminisce about the days when we "used" to go caribou hunting. What, do they think they will rebound back with today's technology? Or are they trying to all get some before they're gone? God I hope the goverment does something like a moratorium so that the wildlife people's could start enforcing it and hopefully save one of our most precious natural resources.

Poignant words indeed and should be taken very seriously by the leaders of all stripes and cultures. 

While we are on the subject, the Labrador North Chamber of Commerce held a big shin dig in St.Johns this week to promote Central Labrador as a place to do business. 

 LNCC Twittered that their end end of shin dig gala featured caribou and arctic char with the accompanied picture.

A Goose Bay based reporter asked the question *where's the caribou from?* Good question, one that warrants an answer, but we wont hang by the short and curlies.

I'm getting e mails from friends in Toronto to New Hampshire about them being colder than we are, well yes, but what can I say but grin and bear it. NH had -20 and -35 chills.

Seems the big city folk have to go through the same pains we do, lowing thermostats, not using large appliances etc. On the plus side for us is- we are used to it for the most part, and we dont have to worry about public transport, snow plows blocking our drive ways with piles of snow and the like.

Harking back to the story on caribou and those reported animals near Border Beacon. Well there are at least 31 less live animals now.
A group from Natuashish traveled in and harvested 31 I am told.

No surprise to anyone around this area.

There is an urgency for some action by Government, but we wont hang by the short and curlies waiting.

Saying it was a productive meeting and all agree that something needs to be done and agree to meet again in couple months does not seem to cut the mustard.
Not that the Aboriginal groups have any power of legislation and enforcement, but harsher words of reality may have been another way of dealing with it.

Nice day yesterday, back to a mini white out this morning though with -16 temp and -25 chill no biggy.

The unsettled weather and anomalous storm patterns did not get passed President Obama in his configuration speech either.

Iqaluit has been getting hit too with closures for couple days, St.Johns hit again too.

St.Johns and area now find themselves in similar position as we are with their supply of electricity threatened by a down generator.

Back to Iqaluit; there is a Food Security meeting going on there this week. Some familiar names from the Feeding My Family Facebook site presenting.

Meanwhile down this way we will continue to stumble and bumble our way back to the 1980 s and beyond.

Last week 50 people gathered in Kuujjuaq around a round table ( I wonder if it was really round or diagonal) to agree to have a future meeting in April.

Seems like some groups did not have there ducks lined up. Like its not like the decline of the caribou heard has not been known for some years.

Two groups arrived at the table with a plan, another group said it had to take it back to their members, other groups have been silent.

No NL provincial attendance, strange that, after all it is the province who holds all the cards when it comes to policy, legislation and enforcement in this province.

Totally unrelated: There have been sightings (from the air) of caribou in the Border Beacon area. Size of sightings vary from 50 to many hundreds.

Ha, told you it was not a round table.

 Photo via of Nunatsiaq News.

Wind yesterday (again), along with light snow it produced an eclectic and unpredictable day. School was open and rightly so. At eleven K to 3 was close for the afternoon, right choice at the time as it looked like getting realy nasty. Then lo n behold it turned out not all that bad.

Being one and a half hours as the crow fly's from the nearest liqueur store I dont get many opportunities to brows wine sections so I dont know how unusual my experience is.

That being: I received about 6 bottles of grapa of various styles and brands for Xmas. Two bottles were from same source and where of same make and type according to the label. Golden Kaan 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon.
The bottles were green so it was not until after we took the tree down and putting gifts away that I noticed something odd. One bottle had red contents and the other had white contents.

I checked the labels thoroughly, there was no doubt the labels were identical for the Cabernet style. I had visions of tampering and such, after all how could this escape all the checks and balances at all the levels this bottle had gone through.

So we drank the red first, not bad at all. Then this Sunday I took the plunge and opened and did a taste sip of the white contents, after all one does not dispense of such things lightly..
Not sure the style but according to Golden Kaan web site I would guess  Chenin Blanc, but then I am no expert.

Fran liked it as it was not sweet, went with with the roast chicken.

Yesterday we had a heads up of a pending letter to all households in Nain from the Manager, Transmission and Rural Operations – Labrador Region of NL Hydro.

To wit:

Dear customer:
I want to provide you with an update on the status of the power supply in Nain this winter. We
acknowledge your concerns and want to assure you that Hydro is committed to meeting the
electricity needs in your community.
The diesel plant in Nain has three generating units. In mid-December 2012, the engine in one of
the two smaller generating units experienced a mechanical failure. Hydro plans to meet
customer electricity needs in communities serviced by diesel plants by ensuring that all of its
diesel plants are able to meet the demand from the community even with the loss of its largest
generating unit in any one plant. Sufficient generation remains at the Nain Diesel Plant to
provide power to all customers by operating the largest unit and one of the smaller units.
After a thorough assessment, it was determined that the best solution was to replace the
damaged engine with a new engine. A new engine has been ordered and crews are currently
disassembling the old engine in preparation of the new equipment. The third generating unit is
expected to be restored by mid-February 2013.
While the plant has only two units available, although there is sufficient generation for the
community, we always encourage and promote energy conservation and asked customers to be
conscience of their electricity use. Efforts by customers to limit their electricity use will lessen
the generation demand on the available generating units and help to avoid possible outages.
Customers can conserve energy by using minimum electricity for heating and lighting, and avoid
using non-essential household appliances. When repairs are complete to the engine in the third
unit, spare generation capacity will be restored, however until then some short duration
planned interruptions will be needed to perform routine maintenance, such as oil changes on
the two available engines.
We also acknowledge that customers in Nain experienced several unplanned outages since the
diesel plant has been operating with two units. Some of these outages were caused by
mechanical and automatic control issues on the largest generating unit. Hydro has made
permanent repairs to this unit and crews continue to carefully maintain both operating units.
There were also some short outages related to distribution issues affecting power to the
community, unrelated to any issues at the diesel plant, as well as some scheduled outages to
complete routine maintenance.
As you have experienced first hand, outages can happen unexpectedly and it can often be time
consuming to restore service. For this reason, we encourage all our customers in all our
communities to be prepared for emergency situations such as extended power outages. Hydro
has put measures in place to ensure the diesel plant is staffed full time until the repairs are
complete to the third unit’s engine and we have plans in place to respond to an emergency
situation.
Representatives from Hydro are holding a public meeting in Nain on Wednesday, January 30 at
7:00 – 9:00 p.m. at the Nunatsiavut Government Boardroom. This meeting will provide an
opportunity for us to provide a further update and answer your questions.
Hydro is committed to meeting the electricity needs of all the communities we serve, and
providing you with a safe and reliable power supply. I thank you for your cooperation and
patience during the power situation this winter. If you have any questions or comments before
the public meeting, please call our Customer Contact Centre directly at 1-888-737-1296. We do
appreciate your feedback.
Sincerely,
Rick Kennedy

As if to hammer those points home there was a power outage last evening, short but to the point.

Well frig the wind I says, and so does most others in town.

We had a nice respite from wind and wind chills yesterday, nice -20 with chills to -24. Thankful too as we had a scheduled power outage from 1 to 3.

We took a walk during the outage, over around ball field, out on ice to airstrip then back. It was surprisingly warm on the ice, no wind at all but wind when we got back on land and into the community.

A few people had wood stoves going but for the most part the wood stove chimneys were devoid of smoke.

The power was restored 25 minutes early, a good thing.
Not so lucky were people down the south coast of Labrador and Fogo Island. Twitter was telling me the Hydro crews had trouble locating the cause of outages at both locations. Then when repairs made the power had trouble staying on due to high demand during ramp up.

NL Hydro was asking customers to CONSERVE power until power was fully restored and the system stabilized. Sort of reminds me of a little blog post back earlier this month.

So today we have North winds to 68 clicks and blowing light snow. Planes on hold and schools closed fro Makkovik and Rigolet. Mean temp of 11 is giving =25 wind chills, which is not bad on the grand scheme of things.

Tis a wee bit on the chilly side this AM. -31 with -48 wind chill with clear sky.

Shopping the other day I noticed something unusual in the cooler. Small pieces of corn beef brisket in vacuum packs. When I say small I mean enough for maybe a meal for 4. The price, well lets just say *what the hell* and buy it.

 We had it last evening cooked like me mom used to cook corn beef, with mashed potatoes, vegetables with a white onion sauce over.

It brought back fond memories of days between age 5 and 12 when we lived behind Liverpool's main butcher shop. They had seven butchers, sawdust on the floor, big giant solid wood chopping blocks.

The meat was brought in fresh everyday from the Sydney abattoirs, sides of beef and whole pigs and lamb, cut down in the back rooms and cut to customers direction out in the shop front.

They made all there own ground beef, sausages and corned brisket, or corned beef as it was called then.








Long Dick is left dangling again. Me thinks it could be the name of the sausage emporium that has some people in a tizzy.

After mentioning the lack of any consistent weather patterns we seem to be in for some consistency the coming week. Not sure its what I would have ordered if I had my druthers, but that's life.

We have enough snow on the ground around town now, came a bit late though as I noticed a water line break under one house yesterday, plus there was a main line break over the new year break that caused quite a watery icy mess.

I am slowly clearing the snow around the house, a few years back I would have reveled in this work, not so much anymore. Aches n pains abound.

A friend sent this via e mail, I am not that bent up yet but the plow sure would come in handy, low fuel, low maintenance, qualifies for green energy rebate.

Back into the deep freeze it is, -34 wind chills yesterday, -38 this morning. We have a good bit of snow around house that I need to shovel, when the winds subside that is.

Had a mixed meal last evening, partridge with rice and dough boys for Fran, cod and paella for me.

Busy airspace this morning, clear cold with brisk winds from west giving -34 to walk into.

Planes are playing catch up after couple days down time. The charter that was bringing folks from GB and picking up folks from here for the caribou meeting in Kujjuaq left early this morning.

Seems the provincial Government is not attending, they would be busy studying and accessing the situation, just like they have been doing the past decade or so. Talk about fiddling while Rome burns.

Twas a nice clear crisp morning yesterday, a thin layer of soft snow on the surface giving a good upper thigh work out but still crunchy non the less.

Walking down the shops mid morning Fran commented that we dont have any consistency in the weather patterns any more, there was a light pinky blue hue in the sky.

Later in the afternoon light snow started, then to heavier snow. Later last evening and this morning winds got up to 100 clicks.

Schools are closed in all coastal communities.

One blessing is that it sticks around (the snow that does not get blown away) unlike down St Johns way were after several feet of snow falls there is green grass two days later.

Pie time sort of a day yesterday. Lemon meringue with extra lemon.

Outside it was all pure white with light snow falling most of the day, much the same this morning, temperatures are up around the -6 area, nice.

 Just heard on CBC that there is a special weather statement issues for parts of Labrador for Monday. A system moving in and they are not sure of its intensity yet, nor what parts will be hit hard. Nain looks like missing it again.

Cloudy with very light snow most of yesterday, the chill and frost in the air was gone and getting up to -12 was heaven, as most commented on in passing.

Alas a was feeling a little down in the dumps, a left over of the Hydro issues maybe, plus the deplorable state of the stores stocks. I don’t know why but it bothers me so, it is after all 2013, not 1983.

It has been a couple of weeks since the last shipment of perishables, weather and holidays playing a roll.
So I took the initiative and found out that the truck with the produce had arrived in Goose Bay that morning, a day late, and that the shipments for Nain would arrive early afternoon.

Made my way down the stores, as it turned out I should not have bothered. Not very good quality on most items, the cherry tomatoes had liquid in the bottom of the plastic containers for one. The tomatoes looked OK but for some reason the liquid was sloshing around the bottom.
Some of the green peppers and all of the zucchini were pitted and bruised as well. Some one needs to do a re check on how the goods are shipped into Goose Bay. I left the stores before all the supplies were out on the shelves.

Price of what I did buy seems reasonable: Celery for $2:99. Zucchini-small for 0.55.  Leeks for $2:29. Red pepper for $12:49 a Kg, bit high but they always are.

The end of the day was brightened up by a can of Hop City Barking Squirrel Lager, and a bowl of partridge soup. Great was to blow the blues away.

Pity I had just the one can, an Xmas present. The deep color and hop flavor is so good. So good in fact that part of the hop taste stayed it the system when downing a can of Molson Dry.

Beautiful clear evening last night, bright sparkling stars, highlighted when the power went out at 6pm. Came back up 25 minutes later.

I am not sure when it will go out again (the power that is), the lights dim ever so slightly every now and then, and the heart flickers each time.

The New Years fireworks finely got the go ahead last evening too, weather and other things held them up. Personally I think the fireworks should have been sold off and the monies raised donated to NL Hydro to be put toward a modern, efficient electricity generating unit.

Sticking with that theme, there seems to be two trains of thought on power conservation. Some of the libertarian bent say screw NL Hydro and their asking people to conserve energy by restricting the use of Christmas lights. They argue that most modern lights are of the LED type (but not all) that use very little power.
While I agree with the LED low power concept I have trouble reconciling that with every household having all their lights on all the time.

I think the main reason for the call to conserve has a community spirit aspect (maybe not NL Hydro's intent) but it has that effect.

Many did take the call to heart and limited outdoor lights use, and I believe it extended further than that, it made people aware of other over uses of appliances and such indoors.

Why Fran has even reverted turning lights off, using candles and to almost no use of our washer over this time frame, choosing to soak items in the laundry tub and then doing them by hand.

Hows that Mr. Mayor who choose to keep his outdoor Christmas lights on, and has no home phone so no one can contact him in case of emergencies. 

So I think some community spirit out trumps selfish short sighted, we will show them Hydro folks something  bullshit.

Speaking of selfish short sighted Mayors. The man hi-self came out of hibernation to give an interview on how things are not progressing all that well for the town.

Seems the plan is to sit back with a hymn and a prayer and hope the nice sweet words of assurances from the PR department of NL Hyro work out.

From all that light flickering I some how doubt it. Better post this before it is too late.

All these power stresses, stores that are stocked like it is the 1980s all mean bugger all when one hears news like this, power to nature and the killer wales.

Not so windy today, got up to 105 clicks over last few days.

I was interviewed by CBC Labrador morning this morning. Subject of course being the electricity situation.

Well that was sure a weekend from hell.

First the long power outage Saturday, thankfully repaired by crew before the wind and low temps hit Sunday. Lot of tension and stress on folks as the winds hit 85 clicks and the temperatures dropped to -25 giving -45 wind chills.

Then light snow fell giving whiteout conditions.

Then the temperature rose to -13 overnight, boy what a difference.

Now we have been warned (via the MHA for Torngat Mountains) that a scheduled outage is pending when weather and temperatures permit. The outage is to do a more permanent repair on the temporary repair on the faulty engine.

I must add that our town council has been absent during this power situation, very poor form indeed, but alas true to form.

The severe chills did not stop the nalujuk (old Christmas day) from getting out, though the main event was in the school gym, a family event as apposed to people roaming around getting chased and hit by nalujuk.

Photo by Mary Tuglavina of Nain.

Have had a hankering for food with raisins in it, could be to do with my failed xmas cake, or I did not make any mince meat pies, whatever the hankering was there.

I love raisin bread but have not had great success making it, for some reason others raisin bread always tastes better (except that store bought stuff). 

Frans mom used to make the best ever raisin bread and cinnamon twists. Verona made voluminous amounts of these sweet treats, the intent was to have them for sale to make a coupla bucks.

Alas as soon as the word got out that the batches were about to exit the oven Verona's large extended family descended on the house reducing the extra bucks in the pocket. But Verona never complained. 

But I digress, Last week I gave it another shot, I dont like to make a specific batch for raisin bread but had come across and little trick that may suffice, and it did.
I took half a batch of plain white bread dough and applied the trick. Came out not bad either.

No photos but this morning I had french toast using a thick slice of raisin bread, boy was it good, as a rule I do not do french bread.

As the sun rises more pressure will be put on the Hydro plant engines, -24.7 at the house with -41 wind chills.
Sure hope people use some common sense and restrict to a minimum there electricity usage.

Well that was a kool day so to speak. Started off normal with rather a nice day with -21 to-15 temps, light winds made it even more comfortable.

Then around 9:45am the power went out. Power came back on some minutes later but only for a very brief time.

Power restored fully (after several blips) at 6:25pm. Almost 9 hours with no power in -24 wind chills creates a lot of stress on many people.

The lowest inside temp at our house was +13, that would have been hard to maintain had the outage gone on any longer.
Plus there is a storm alert issued for the whole of the coast, it is -39 wind chill this morning.

Why it took a repair crew 6 hours to get in from Goose Bay by chopper is a puzzle.Why part of the town was restored in minutes after chopper touch down is a puzzle (especially considering there was a crew in town at the time).
Why the power was not rotated to other parts of the town is a puzzle. (especially considering that that is a stated possibility if the one dodgy unit fails again according to a NLH press release).

The issue with our power supply is that all this aggro and lack of reliable generating capacity was all avoidable, if only NL Hydro practiced due diligence and higher quality maintenance and repair practices we would not be in the pickle that we find ourselves in.

One unit broken down and unrepairable, one unit in dodgy state (the one causing all the tripping) and one unit in good repair but for how long considering the situation.

I would hope the town burgers (or whoever it is in charge of the towns well being) would ask of NL Hydro some very serious questions and demand some serous replies.

One demand should be that the public has a right to be informed in an honest and timely manner, this is not the case to date.
Another demand should be that a public meeting is in order to inform and be informed, we need hydro management in attendance with the facts and what has been put in place to mitigate and improve what is clearly and inferior electricity generating facility.

Not a lot of active stuff going on here at moment, takes time to get ramped up after the holiday season.

We did have a house fire the other evening, totaled inside and no one was hurt. I know there are house fires all over, but they hit particularly hard in remote communities. When you consider about six houses are built every year we can hardly afford the loss of one, and some times more, a year.

The sea ice is not that safe yet what with the warmer temps, snow and wind not giving it a chance to strengthen.

We missed the snow storms of south, Hopedale and south seemed to have been hit hard. I know a lot of volunteer work was done in Hopedale shoveling peoples homes and offices out. It was so deep even skid doos were getting stuck and needing to be towed out.

The picture is a shot of one of the Hopedale teachers residences, lots of people turned up to help dig put.

Makkovik was hit hard too all but shutting the town down for some days.

The temperatures are supposed to drop this week so the ice should firm up, but who knows for how long these days.

Hydro plant uperty date: For what it is worth the spokesperson for Hydro now says there is a new unit to be choppered in some time soon. Be interesting to fined out the size of the new unit, then the size of the chopper. Also is it a new new unit of a refurbished new unit, its all in the words in it?

The last of the Mohicans, gone the way of the dodo, Bioethics, walrus, cod, yada yada yada, all gone or near extinction.

Now with the last of the caribou taken out of the freezer and consumed the question is; when will we be able to enjoy another meal of the healthy fat free meat.  

Turned out not bad either, simple, elegant presentation.

Seared it before roasting, served with garlic mash, mushroom gravy and sweet cabbage.

Nothing earth shatteringly exciting happened to bring in the new year in our house. Happy New years one and all.

I have made a resolution though, first one ever, Fran seems happy with it. 

The weather has all been south of us again, we have a wind and blowing snow warning issued now but I dont see us getting hit too hard.
Temps are mild sitting at -5 for some time now.

I did manage to sit through a whole game of hockey, Canada Russia, could never do that with NHL.

Here is a photo of the last rime I will wear my favorite lined shirt. 

Out it goes today, Fran is happy, cant comprehend the aggro about this, it only has frayed collars, couple small rips on the sleeves and a large rip one side at the bottom.