On the base2.

The two high schools sit boarded up and the day I took the photos the playground across the road was ominously devoid of happy playing children. There were kids there other days I must add.

Ironically there is a housing shortage in the rest of town with a 2 bedroom apartment renting for 600 or more a month.

On the base.

Some of the empty accommodations at 5 Wing CFB GB.





The older buildings are the lighter colors, except the officer’s homes that are a cedar color. There are 7 of these homes and only 2 are occupied.
The other detached, semi detached, 6 -8 unit buildings are too numerous to count, and I do not know the percentage of occupancy, it would be low for sure.
Newer buildings are dark blue with the German, Dutch, Italian, English all having some, the large bulk of these are all empty now.

Back to the grind.

I used the walking trails in HV-GB a lot this trip, more than usual. The pain and stiffness in the old back made it somewhat of a necessity, and I was trying to loosen up things in between getting Chiropractic treatment.

Actually I think it would be a good idea for me to purchase a bicycle and leave it with friends for my use when there. I bit of a turn around on what many people from coast do, like have a motorized vehicle there for visits.

Any way the trails are very extensive and in good condition once the snow is gone. They go all over the American side of base, down to Hamilton River Rd, turn left and right there. Right takes you to the trail that runs mainly through woods down to Tims [Tim Horton’s] and the hospital, then left down into the Valley.

Some rather large homes back up or are close to the trail in the woods, one new ‘estate’ was not there the last time I did the full walk about 3-4 years ago, progress eh?
The Mealy Mountain Collegiate has been there for some years, but it is still a nice peaceful stroll, unless some arse holes decide to zoom up the side on their trail bikes, progress again eh?

The strike by about 120 workers at Voisey's Bay mine/mill is in its fifth week. Support workers for two contractors are finding out what it’s like to deal with the corporate world and their minions, lying politicians.
Here is a striker’s web site to see what’s up at the moment.

Nice day here, just creeping above 0 now, breeze picking up though. South of here had some crappy weather for the long weekend, storm damage on the Norther Peninsular and GB had some snow and stuff.

Forecasters not always right.

My flight home from Goose Bay yesterday was in perfect conditions; apart from the overheated plane [it is better than a non heated plane though] there was bright sun, very little wind. We had a perfect view of the inland and coastal scene. Still a lot of snow on the ground, the rivers and ponds still not ice free and the sea ice is tied to the shore and very little sign of any leads, especially further north. There were some open holes and the ice did look very blue in parts, but the reports on the ground are that the ice is very hard, up to 21/2 feet thick in places out near the sina [ice edge].

The forecast for Sunday did not look all that good and given the previous 5 days I was a little concerned about getting home. Friday in GB it was up to 20c, I was staying at a friends home on the base, sitting out back sunning, warm wind picked up to a mini gale in the evening, almost tropical like making BBQing very smoky. The forecast for Saturday was for snow beginning at noon and temperatures dropping to -1. Low n behold they were spot on, quite a lot of adjustment, especially for those walking around in shorts.

So here are two shots of same scene at +20 and -1 with some snow the next day.

The day previous the dogs were digging, the cats playing and us sunning.

The Churchill [Goose] River is ice free in parts, this shot from near the senior officers homes on the base.

On the Goose

Goose Bay is fun???!!!!!!!!!!*%%%
Blowing sand to blowing snow to bloody cold for this time of year. Supposed to namalize from today for a few days.
Lot of itinerant air traffic, Germans, Americans, other, all stopping off for a night or two and heading out after food fuel fun. Well maybe not the fun.
A section of the main runway here is being torn up and re done, traffic is diverted to secondary runway. It is also diverting some traffic for re fuel to other airports because the one being torn up is the only IRF or whatever it's called. But still a lot of air traffic, lot of action on the home building front too, some one has confidence.

Any way will be home soon back willing.

I'm having a few days break, clear the lungs and head so to speak.
Later.

After the Goose.

Laying out the decoys.
Hunkered down for the wait.








Kind ‘a cold wind boy!


Photos by Aimee McIntosh.

The wind was at it all night and is still today. Gusts up to 91 last night, fairly consistent from 50 to 70. Nice and sunny though.

Breezy saturday.

Strange weather indeed for May. Lot of wind, looks like we will have to get used to that Snow of all varieties and size yesterday, cleared overnight then winds from NW gusting to 99 clicks early to 65 to high 80’s rest of day.
The roads are rutted with ice and gravel all mixed, there is one cut up our road but the roads closer to ‘down town' are fairly clear.
Some geese around, depending where you go seems to depend on if you get any.
Heard that the ponds and rivers are still frozen north of here, with the winter we had most people were expecting things to open up by this. Could be with wind chills in the -18 range they could be freezing again.

The CCPA has a good little tool to see how much people are being gauged at the gas pump. Thing is this has been going on for years and people still buy the stuff, don’t down grade in size of vehicles [not overall] and no one is willing to deal with the issue in a way that it will make a difference.
I have the St. John’s price and the Goose Bay price here. The price in Nain is .04 cents a liter cheaper than GB at the moment, only due to the price freeze over winter. Big old shock when it goes up in a month, it’s usually at least 20 cents more.

I’m no bleeding heart on the sleeve lefty pinko, I do use less gas than most people, but then I like to travel. Can’t see myself dog sledding or kayaking to Goose Bay to get a bus to Montreal, no busses any way. But some hard choices will have to be made soon by government and the proletariat.

Example of how individual choices are not working. Noticed at the Northern store this morning some typed notices lying around from the NG Department of Health and Social Development. The notice was an appeal for people to cut down on the use of plastic bags, suggesting people bring there own cloth bags or back packs. So the staff are putting everything in plastic bags even before you can get to say, NO, I have my own bag. The staff at the check out are only casual so you have to give then a break, but it just goes to show that people have to pay more attention and work at this environmental change thingy. Maybe more time and education, but at moment I thing the big stick approach will move things along quicker, then you can put the big stick away.

IFF.

It’s fighting Friday.

Listened to a very informative Ideas program last evening. Mr. Wrights lecture puts a lot in perspective, have not read the book but must get hold of it. Below is from the Ideas program schedule.

Thursday, May 10AL QAEDA AND THE ROAD TO 9/11 CDLawrence Wright spent five years researching the history of the events leading to the destruction of the World Trade Center Towers in New York City. His book about the subject, The Looming Tower won the 2007 Lionel Gelber Prize, and the 2007 Pulitzer Prize. In this public lecture, Wright analyses the forces that created Al-Qaeda, and adds to our understanding of what we must do to fight them.

One highlight of his presentation was the fact that the combined Arab countries with a total of 300 million population have a combined GDP lower than what Nokia the cell phone company has. Good nesting ground for discontent for sure.

Then there is the obvious fact that while the west is “bringing democracy” to Iraq and Afghanistan most other Arab states are just as oppressive and abuse human rights on a daily basis. These are the same states that are propped up and or supported by the west. And it’s not about the oil eh???

Via Ed I got to this story on the damage done by bottom trawling. The original article is subscription only, but I have one of the images here.

It would be interesting to get some images of trawling inside and outside the Canadian 200 mile limit would it not?

I’m coming across many photos of the tulips out down south. It’s a different pretty here with nice white snow falling covering up the yucky spring dirty snow run off stuff.

Messy situations.

The mess in the Middle East just gets messier by the hour does it not?
The absurdity of the notion that democracy and freedom for all can be forced upon the region, either by force or any other way, is highlighted daily for those who are paying any sort of attention.

One highlight of that for me was watching this sleazoid Iraqi National Security Advisor on the news Hour last evening. He made my skin crawl, mainly for his western trained PR throw away lines like this:

“ MOWAFFAK AL-RUBAIE: My message was to all people in Capitol Hill that, look, we are walking the last mile in here. And this is a marathon. We have reached to the end. And we can see the success. And we can feel it. Don't pull the rug from underneath us. Don't let us -- we need your helping hand. We need the U.S. support for Iraq to get there to the finishing line. And we're almost there. Don't abort. You can't have a baby in three months' time. You need that full nine months to get a mature baby. And so we need your continued support and help to get to the finishing line.”

There is more there like that in the interview. I’m sure I could see Margaret Warner’s skin crawling too, especially after the abort analogy. Read or listen to the whole interview, no way these blokes in power in Iraq intend democracy or anything close to it, it’s about the west keeping them in power for reasons that do not justify the deaths on all sides.

Then we have this little revelation on Afghanistan, it’s about time some one in NATO had the guts to tell it like it is, the fact it’s the top guy should have some sway????

For local content: Our little messy road pales in comparison for sure.

The council workers are working diligently to clear the roads, ice blockages etc.; the sun is helping too, plenty of that today sure. Our road seems to hold the snow a lot better than other roads around town; it’s always about the last place to clear of snow no matter what efforts are made.

Update: The power of the blogespher, just kidding. Just minutes after I took the photo left the bulldozer did a cut up the road, got rid of those puddles, the first pickup this way is not far behind.

Gone off II.

After a hard but pleasing day on the land there is just the sunset and a quick go at the game boy to enjoy. life is hard eh?

Photos by Aimee McIntosh.

Gone off.

Aimee took Matthew out to the Flowers cabin on the outer part of Paul's island last weekend.

Lots of wildlife was spotted, three wolves, black bear and of course seals. No pictures of the wildlife but have these of the trip out and arrival at the cabin.

Photos courtesy of Aimee McIntosh.

Oh really?

CBC news is saying that; Inco has announced that their Hydro metdemonstration plant is having technical difficulties. It could slow down or even shelve the whole project.

I don’t feel any particular joy in being proven right in my predictions. More like sadness for the bloody idiots who were conned into going along with this whole scam. Not to mention the tens of millions of tax payers money that has been ill used.

Wonder how many more millions of tones of ore will be shipped out to Ontario now?

I also wonder what this news will do to the self confidence rally at 12 noon on the 11th at Confederation hill.

Liars and bulldozers.

Yesterday the council bulldozer knocked down all the snow bumps on the 3/4 of the road and leveled what was left close to the gravel surface; it’s a lot more pleasant to walk around now.

Alas right on cue it started to snow, it’s coming down moderately heavy now. It should not cause too much of a problem with the temperatures about 0, just some more slush for awhile.

In the evening I was channel surfing between Canadian politics shows and American news when something piqued my interest.
It’s about the coverage of the Conrad Black trial down in the states. The coverage is OK I guess, I only have a passing interest in the goings on. But some confusion arose on what penalties this Radler bloke will suffer from his copping a plea bargain. From the CTV story: “Radler pleaded guilty to charges connected to this alleged conspiracy. Under his deal with U.S. federal prosecutors, he will serve 29 months in prison and pay a fine of $250,000 in return for his testimony”.

Most of the media coverage to date, including CBC, has stated that Radler copped a plea and will receive a fine and lock up time as above.

But here comes the confusion; on Mike Duffy Live last evening Mike interviewed the host of some show called The Verdict. The host of this show, on Mikes prompting, said very clearly that Radler had not been sentenced yet after the plea bargain. She added that the rules are different in the states than in Canada [well color me surprised]. In the Radler case he will only be sentenced AFTER he gives his testimony and cross examination at the trial. In Canada he would have been sentenced before the trail.

Mike gave the host of the Verdict a big wrap saying that she was a lawyer as well as an excellent journalist.

So I wonder who the good journalists and who are the not so good journalist are here, because it is confusing me. Getting this fact straight is important not only for those involved in judging the evidence but for the public judgment of what is going on here.

Newfoundland and Labrador:

That’s’ the name of the province we are in.

Newfoundland and Labradorian [or it's plural]. To me that would be the way to refer to the populace of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, right? Wrong, at least for many on the Island portion of the province, especially the premier and the premiers government minions.

They insist on using the term Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. For some the and labradorians is almost an after thought, then there are some who just leave it out altogether.

This seems to me to promote divisiveness rather trying to promote unity and unanimity.

This was highlighted in the premier’s speech last week in the big TO. The emphasis was on ABC [anything but conservative] in the next election, plus he asked for “all Newfoundlanders and Labradorians and Canadians to come together to rid us of the evil Harper government” [paraphrased]. Well I have no argument with that, but to use divisive language in trying to unite just seems fruitless to me. Of course it has occurred to me the premier’s agenda maybe not to unite, time will tell on that.

Also on uniting the province; [leave alone the country] Craig Westcott was doing a commentary this morning on CBC radio. Mr. Westcott is no friend of the premier, and he does make sense at times. But this morning Westcott was bemoaning the fact that city of St. John’s only received one million dollars in the latest budget for roads works. That would be fine, but he went on to compare the million with the multi millions promised in the budget for roads/infrastructure in Labrador.

I emphasis the word promised here, after all a lot of it is promises, some monies are contingent on matching federal funds, some of the monies was previously announced, some of the monies may be federal monies administered by the province.

So if Mr. Westcott wants to lambaste the government for allegedly short changing the city of St.John’s the that’s fine, but to throw out ill thought out and researched remarks comparing one million for that city to about thirty five million of unknown dollars for Labrador is very divisive indeed. I could get into how Labrador has been largely ignored in many many provincial budgets but wont at the moment.

There are known knows and known unknowns……OK, forgetaboutit. But when it comes to funding issues in Labrador it is best to do some serious digging before giving credit to who is doing what for and to whom.

Update.

Great idea for the big rally on the 11th.

Pink and Green Rose Bouquet with free chocolates.

No FTD is not advertising these, just the pink and cream for Mothers Day.

But I’m surprised some enterprising Newfoundlanders has/have not come up with the idea, or maybe they have/has.

Got that spring look.

In most of Australia people are hoping for rain to fill the dams and moisten the crop fields.
Over in parts of this country they have homes being lost to coastal degradation, floods in urban areas where moving ice rafts and blocks the rush of melting snow.
The worst we have here is a few flooded basements and the rest are hoping that the roads become free of snow and run off so it’s easier to walk, or people can get their tired vehicles on the go.



Funny world.


This picture is of the dam, nice and high with all the run off into it, actually it did not get too low this winter, says a lot about the mildness of it I guess.






Lot of people have taken off to cabins or camping, one of the last chances to get some fish or hunt. Most people are expecting very unsafe ice conditions early, again due to the mildness of the winter.



Here is my first crack at YouTube, basic but got's start some where

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLcK87U2-68

Suns out, yarhoo.

Took a walk, hard slogging, it's like walking on a foot of course salt soaked in vegetable oil.

The results for the chief of the Mushuau Innu are in: Pnote Poker won handily from a past chief Simon Pokue with Jim Nui third.

In totally unrelated here is a montage of the Square in Gaios Paxos from 1979. Not a lot of action, mostly locals or long staying tourists.
The young couple on there own were from San Francisco California, both were 'film' students, nice couple, help me celebrate my birthday for a whole week, now that's a story boy.
The guy in the red shirt with the happy face is Red Chars Stamarty, he is having a laugh at the young doctor extracting sea urchin spikes from the foot of a tourist.

The hotel and the beer outlet have had their licences renewed by the province. The Community Government will call for nominations for three vacant seats on the Alcohol Committee next week.

Just Saying.

The chap over here is doing a great job of informing all and sundry of Newfoundland & Labrador Blogs. I check it out regularly, and use his blog roll on side bar, thanks mate.

But the latest link to a contest has me a little perplexed. Sure people can do what they want with their sites and blogs. But it seems to me, in this age of discontent about equality, and what part of Canada is doing what to whom and what part of the Province is doing what to whom [though that part is fairly clear], including all the province in this contest would just seems logical. And how much more work would it take to tack on & Labrador.
Or am I being too finicky?

Mushuau Innu Election.

The elections for chief and four councilors in Natuashish are today. Note the fact that there are two seats set aside for females.
Natuashish is not that far away from here, relative to Labrador far.

I think it’s not unreasonable to say that the community has had more than its share of tragic incidences and some controversial actions by local leaders and outside agencies.

I think it’s rather tragic that some people have been misled or been exposed to the worst that the dominant society has to offer.
That is not to dissolve the local people from any fault in inappropriate actions, the Innu society is very clannish for sure, but actions by people and agencies beyond their control have played a major role into the situation the Innu find themselves.

Slight divergence.

So I think I will leap ahead to 1979 nostalgia. A good reason for this is that it’s foggy with depositing ice outside, so why not a change of hue.

Having spent the earlier part of the year in London town [plenty of fog there too, ever walked down Wapping high street pre gentrification on a foggy night, scary boy] I headed for Greece late February.
After brief sojourns in Athens and Corfu a jumped on a ferry for Gaios on Paxos. I left Paxos about eight months later [with many invitations to return, never have though].

It was a hard slog all those months, long forced marches into the olive tree clad hills. 1
Sustenance deprivation. 2
Long lonely hours on guard duty. 3

Risking life n limb in treacherous seas.

Yes sir, it had a strong physical and physiological effect sure.

Reminisce’ cont.

My visit in 1978 was an amazing learning experience, something new everyday [it seemed] popped up that was totally 'awesome' or out of the ordinary.
Some of the experiences occurred on a camping trip to Big Bay [I think that’s its name] south of Nain. We camped in towards the bottom of the bay, on the other side of the bay was a waterfall that we could hear all the while there, a low calming rumbling.
On the way in we came across a Canada geese; it was boiled up over the Colman stove that evening, just onions and rice added, man was that the most amazing meal.
I had noticed after the tent was set up that we were right along side a well worn narrow track. Next morning I took a bit of a stroll along the track and the shore as far as I could, a short walk because of the topography. Later back at the camp, and after some unsuccessful fishing attempts, I ask about the track, “who would have used it out here”. The answer was “black bears”. My instant thought was “what the f’ing hell were we doing camping by a black bear trail”.
Just one of the many learning experiences.




This bay [see map] is not far from the VBNC nickel mine mill. Well now it’s not far, back then it was a gazillion miles away. The tailing's pond for the mill is even closer.

I have been up into that bay and area many times since that first trip, both winter and summer.
One early spring trip we took a couple of friends camping for 2/3 days. Well it was supposed to be for 2/3 days. The fist day was nice and we did some looking around, checking out the frozen waterfall, picking out a camping spot.

The wind had come up a bit so I picked out what looked like a good spot out of it. Early evening the wind shifted and picked up quite a bit. Later it picked up a bloody side more into almost a gale.
We had two tents up but the other couple spent most of the night in ours, it being a lot sturdy and bigger than theirs. None of us got much sleep having to go out and make sure the tent was secure several times. Fran did not get any sleep because she was waiting for a bear [polar] to barge into us.

Next morning we took a vote [unanimous] to pack up and head home. It was a bit of a hairy trip with very strong winds and occasional white outs, but we made it after a few stops and checks for land marks. We finished off the food and drinks in the comfort of the friends living room and had a few laughs about the awful night.

Boiling mad boy.

I’m becoming more disturbed [pissed off] the more I learn about this slaughter of protected caribou in the Labrador Quebec border area.

The regional ecologist for the NL government was very descriptive and also disturbed in his radio interview on CBC HV-GB this morning. He said they are distributing the story along with photographs in the area and into the communities in Quebec in the hope the Q media will pick up on the story. Also that this tactic may prompt some one who knows people involved will get the guts [my words] to do something about it. He went on to say that there is good reason to believe that the perps are using a plane to spot the caribou, then radio in for the shooters to come in on snow mobile.

One of the sub herds had a deer with a satellite collar, the collar was found amongst the carcasses.

I’m just surmising here, but it could be that this is a big operation, so perhaps the meat is going outside the area, only choice cuts from the hind legs and rump are taken.

I have only heard of this type of thing once up this way. Some years back some white trash shot deer after flying in, they took the choice cuts just like these latest incidents.

It may be asking too much, but I wonder why the three MHA’s in the region whose districts cover that area, plus the MP for Labrador have not been jumping up and down no end. Then the mayors in the area, and the ministers for those jurisdictions, hunter groups, Aboriginal groups etc should all be condemning, getting involved as well as demanding immediate action.

The Quebec government had no trouble jumping in to defend a golf course development. The NL government had no trouble sending in SWAT teams to defend mineral exploration. So why no action to defend three threatened caribou herds.
Oh right, no royalties, no mining taxes, no pay roll taxes, no political gain.

On a none less controversial topic: I do not know Jim Nui, nor are my intentions to interfere in Innu politics. But I just have to put the this link up for no other reasons that I love the song, [one of my all time favorites] and I think it very innovative for a Northern Labrador political event.