Sun is splitting the rocks

but I’m in a funky uncomfortable mood. The back is killing me, whole upper body is all tense. I was hoping to put off a visit to the chiropractor until our trip in July, but all my efforts caved yesterday. I was doing a few things around the outside of the house, mainly needed things that spring brings, climbing ladders etc [darh].
Soon after I was on the phone and booked the chiro, plane, place to stay. Having to pay over 700 bucks, plus incidentals, just to get there is a bummer, but has to be done.

Some things that are not making my mood any better are; with all the things that go on in the North Coast communities CBC HV-GB covered this one, pisses me off no end. If they covered other issues to the same consistency I would not be so riled, but they don’t.
Then there is the fact three or four people arbitrarily making these proposed rule changes, it is not the way to deal with the problem. You have to get to the core if it and spend time, money, compassion, understanding, hard love, what ever. Just pounding away thinking that cutting back on hours at the bar, or access at the retail outlet will solve this large problem seems absurd to me. It is a legal substance, not like some of the other illegal substances that are freely available in town, nor like the bootlegging that goes on, no big outcry about that, makes one wonder why?

Then there is this story. The ex commissioner is either the Mother Theresa of ex commissioners or he is lying through his straight ridged teeth. At first I did not have much compassion for the officers who were blowing the whistle; it seemed that it was all over the pension fund corruption, it looked like all were self serving. But as time goes by things look different, it is a deep rooted discontent that needs to bubble to the surface and be heard.
In time maybe my confidence in the RCMP will return, I hope so.

Then there is this horrible mass shooting down in gun owner’s heaven, but I guess it is not as horrible as the millions who have been/are massacred in Darfur.

There, I feel a little better already, by Friday I should be floating on air.

Amazing spring day yesterday, people out and about all over. Even out on the harbor ice many people were in ‘summer cloths’. Well almost all summer cloth’s, still have to have the ski doo boots on. No photos of the ski doo races or the target shooting, nothing much happening while I was there, just people eating hot dogs and burgers.

So we went for a short ride while waiting for the freight plane to arrive, had some freight to pick up plus Aimee was getting on the return leg for her last week of College. [Tamalik Air is operated by Air Labrador].


Got this picture of Matthew arriving at airstrip with his big sister. Lucky to get it as he spotted me with camera, always a big battle of wits getting photos of Matthew.


This little ditty is appropriate considering all the rate bad stuff going on in federal and provincial politics. Can only get worse since the houses are out on breaks.

Five Canadian Surgeons are discussing who makes the best patients to operate on. The first, an Ontario surgeon says, "I like to see accountants on my operating table, because when you open them up, everything inside is numbered." The second, a Quebec surgeon responds, "Yeah, but you should try electricians! Everything inside them is color coded." The third a B.C. surgeon says, "No, I really think librarians are the best; everything inside them is in alphabetical order." The fourth, an Alberta surgeon chimes in: "You know, I like construction workers...those guys always understand when you have a few parts left over. But the fifth, a Newfoundland surgeon shut them all up when he observed:"You're all wrong. Politicians are the easiest to operate on. There's no guts, no heart, no balls, no brains and no spine, and the head and the ass are interchangeable.



Finely, this is an old work mate of mine, he does not get around in the country any more, “not good in side” he always says as he rubs his stomach. He pulled up as the plane was landing, just checking out the scene.
The thought in my head as I took the picture was imagining what was in Paul’s head as he sat there on this really fine day. I imagined him thinking along the lines of “wish this was a scene up in the Torngats”, or some such place.

Sun, nostalga, sausage rolls.

I guess we all get a little nostalgic over things from our past, things like food, drink, candies for instance.
I won’t go into all of them, but one I sometimes hunger over is the old pie and sausage rolls.
Seeing as I can’t drop into the local pie in the sky, or even the super market for a 12 pack I have to resort to making my own, and that’s OK as I enjoy tooling around with food.
For some reason sausage rolls was on my mind, so I came up with this recipe yesterday:
750 grams minced caribou. 500 grams minced pork. Sautéed it to get most of the fat out, added 1 leek, 1 garlic clove and 1 stalk celery finely minced. Took off heat and added some pepper, pinch marjoram, herbs do province, 500 grams fine bread crumbs, 1 egg and mixed it all well. Put it in fridge for several hours.
Made up my favorite easy pastry, Robin Hood flakey pastry mix and cooled it in fridge couple hours.



Took pastry out of fridge a little before making time, rolled it out and formed the sausage rolls [not very neat I know], baked for about 40 minutes, tasted not too bad, a little nostalgic taste came into play, but mainly unique.
Served them up with mashed spuds, peas, sweet potato, and did not forget the tomato sauce. Have some rolls left over for today, be better again.














Another clear sunny day today, about 6 in a row, but one does not count as Thursday we had winds up to 100 KPH.
It’s the last day of the Easter Carnival too, [goes almost as long as the Sydney Easter Show, more nostalgia] ski doo races and such out on the harbor, then a trophy presentation tonight.

Versatile caribou.

This past Sunday I cooked up a nice medium size piece of Tuktu. It was from the hind leg, top section and included the bone.
After searing all sides I placed it in a roman pot, added some garlic and red wine [Australian] and slow cooked it for about 3 hours at low temperature. The last hour I added some medium size chunks of sweet potato.
After cooking I strained the juice and reduced it down for the gravy. Served with mashed potato, carrots, broccoli, man it turned out rather good.

There was a lot left over so Monday we had cold meat with potato salad and coleslaw. Tuesday cold meat added to a sweet curry and last night the meat in a hot sandwich with chips n gravy [everything in moderation right?]
There is still a small piece left too, I’m going to chop it up for the gray jays lunch.

The tuktu link goes to a Quebec based outfit with a camp right on the border. If you Google map them it shows the camp slightly north and west of Nain at the end of the Fraser Canyon. Food for thought since they are advertising adventures in Labrador, wink wink nudge nudge.

Update on E Bunny catastrophe.

So it seems like a surrogate was found for the unfortunate E Bunny. By the looks of this he has connections to the big candy corporate.

And this happy looking guy could explain why yours truly did not get any easter bunny eggs. Must have been an older wabbit for the older chocolate lovers.

Surprise surprise? Sun today.

Well it’s no surprise really, rather predictable these holidays and bad weather. First two days was not too bad with cloud and such, and then the second two were really lousy with snow and strong winds. Not as bad as south of here though, Lake Melville had around 35 mm of snow, Yuk.

Speaking of wind.

IMO producing hydro from wind energy in NL is way overdue. Used in conjunction with diesel [for now] it has to be implemented sooner rather than later.

So this story is encouraging, I just hope that the smaller markets of NLH are on their radar screen.

It is claimed that the NL government through NLH already subsidise electricity to rural and remote communities, so why not subsidise a renewable energy source, at the same time cutting back on nasty omissions and saving on an ever decreasing and expense fuel source...eh?

So it is most likely going to more good than harm if the Community Governments in conjunction with the Nunatsiavut Government gets involved, either with encouragement or of some $’s for research such as wind monitors in each of their communities.

From experience I know that local involvement, but especially from an official level, can only push these issues up to the top of the wind tunnel so to speak.

As can be seen on the two maps both Nain and Hopedale gave plenty of scope for wind energy generation topographic wise. Plenty of high plateaus and empty space close to town. Both locations have plenty of rocky outcrops, especially Hopedale, eh

Shaping the hard stuff.

As dannytoro alluded in the comments section; there are some craftsman [artists] working with anorthosite, and some with labradorite in Labrador. These three pieces are from Nain. The Kullik I had made as a replacement for the one we sent to NZ [see earlier post], it does not have the same character as the soap stone one, but quite a bit of work went into it non the less. It is 'blue eyes' rock unpolished.




The stylised partridge is of the feldspar rock with larger more spectacular deposits of Labradorite inlaid.







The three bears are an anomaly when it come to carvings. Cut out of huge blocks of the 'blue eyes' rock they were shipped on completion to a customer in Nova Scotia. Having seen the customers house [from a distance] it is possible he has a coffee table big enough to hold them.

This year the same 'artist' completed two more of similar size for the same customer. They were butt ugly in comparison to the bears. One was a caribou, it was difficult to capture the essence and shape I guess. The other was smaller and I think was either an otter or a weasel, it sort of did not look like anything.

This rock is extremely hard and has to be worked using diamond tipped or impregnated tools.

Oh oh!

Look what some big galoot down under went n done.

I hope E Bunny was prolific in the burrow as legend has it, his offspring will have to carry on the egg delivery to the Northern Hemisphere.

Or maybe H Ookalik can carry on in E Bunnies stead.

I feel confident that one way or the other the eggs will be delivered.

It's recreation time!

Weather wise it has been quite amazing these past six days, lots of sun, temps about right for this time of year, don’t want the ice melting too soon do we?

I hear the Avalon Peninsular had lots of sun too, you just could not see it through the fog, snow and sleet n stuff.

Up here many people are going off to cabins and camping, things are in planning stages for the annual Easter games held on the harbor ice and indoor venues.

I took these pictures yesterday on what is called ‘the old dam’. The brook running into the dam area is coring over making fresh ice all the time, it can be quite slippery at times, but yesterday it had a thin film of snow coverage, good to see the people out enjoying the outdoors.

Got this over at dot dot dot who seems to have a fetish [in the non erotic sense] with T shirts.

N I mean this.

RIP Loupy.

Loupy from next door passed away this morning after being ill for some months.

Lou was some nice dog, very calm and friendly, unless you were an interloper.

Lou never barked at me once in 13 years, nor at any one else that I know. Can’t say that about others, who I won’t mention.

Cheaper or Chipper.

Without a great deal of fan fair the regional media threw out a story yesterday that; the federal Government had announced it’s half, $50 million, for the surfacing of the Trans Labrador Highway between Happy Valley and Western Labrador.

This morning a couple of mayors expressed their pleasure at the announcement with not a little trepidation. Given history rightly so.

The Government of NL plans to widen “many sections” up to 3 meters, and to use chip seal on top of the gravel the road is presently surfaced with.

Some local wags refer to this as cheap seal.

Time will tell if it’s cheap or chipper, but most of the literature I have come across, added to the topography and the climate, makes one very cautious as to the viability of proceeding this way.

Another reason the locals are cautious is that the $175 million is for provincial infrastructure over 7 years = $25 million a year for the whole province.
So the first two years are committed to the TLH one would think given that Labrador is an integral part of the province.

It will take many more millions of $ to complete the hard surfacing

Many are sending Minister Hickey of WST kudos for his efforts in procuring the federal funds.

Much of the first $100 million committed by both governments will go to preparing the existing road for hard surfacing, so it may be awhile yet before any great changes will be seen.

J’sus mother of Murphy.

Just listening to CBC radio on the go. They are having a contest for the most original slogan for the newly announced motor vehicle registration plates.
Everything from ‘hail to the chief” to “NewfoundlandLabrador, surrounded by water”.

Bloody original alright, looks like Diefenbaker has not left the building after all. But the most original is that the province of Newfoundland and Labrador is now surrounded by water. Must have been a decree by the chief.
Better tell Google.

Can some one save us from these bloody idiots? Please.

Baguette goes for the moon.

No place to Hide, left.

Pictures by Paul [it's ok he's Irish] Fenton.

Wall of Raven's Moon, right.

Left, baguette and friends buggered at the top.

Wither the Weather.

Some folks may get tired of the oft reference to weather here. Alas, when living in remote a community with still strong relationships with the land it is just not possible for it not to be at the fore of most conversations and thoughts. Plus the fact of not being connected by road to any other community all ads up to having to take notice of what is being sent your way.

Take this week, please take it. No really, it was not that bad here, but the weather did have an impact never the less. There were two groups of people scheduled to arrive and hold meeting or information sessions of one kind or another. None arrived because weather south of here was fairly bad with wind and snow.
One group was stuck in Makkovik, another in Hopedale. Both returned back to GB yesterday. The one meeting that did get underway the past Monday had people from other coastal communities stuck here in Nain until yesterday.
Over the past few months has seen sevaral other postponements and cancellations of meetings and such, seems higher than usual, but that is just my gut feeling.
It must play havoc with organizers, travel people, accommodations, but one has to take it in stride.
Not so for many from outside who experience Labrador for the first time. It’s hard to convince some that because the weather in fine in such and such a place that the plane can’t fly because it’s down flat in another place. Many from away cant around the fact that we don’t have airport control towers with instrument landing and radar facilities. Just not very observant I guess.


I hear than some people have been going up inside Hebron of late to do some ice fishing and hunting. I’m told the partridge are like clouds of snow birds up there.
It’s quite the trip over bay sea ice, steep climbs and long winding brooks. About 12 hours in good going should get you there.

The map shows Hebron’s location in relation to Nain. None of the travel is outside any of the islands, not very safe around some of those capes.

Traveling that distance is now some what safer with many people having satellite phones and even GPS systems that work off their snow machines. Usually one in a group will have one or both. But there still is people who rely on there instincts and experience only.

It is one magnificent awesome terrain up there in both summer and winter. I just hope that some people don’t become overly complacent because it can turn in an instant into one nightmarish and some times deadly place too.

Filched in the Antipodes.

It’s a long shot that anything will come of this but as they say, nothing ventured nothing gained. I’ll try and make it as short as possible.

Late last year we had a series telephone and e mail exchanges with a friend [lets call him NN] down in the states. NN was to attend a series of social and cultural conferences down in New Zealand’s North Island, mainly within the Maori Community.
At the Maori gatherings it is customary to exchange gifts, so NN asked for some input as to availability and appropriateness of gifts. NN learnt that for the gifts to have real meaning they would not be ones that are purchased at places like the airport duty free shop or the like. It was more appropriate if the gifts came from the creator of these gifts, or as close as possible.
So we came up with several small crafts that Fran had made, and one larger craft that had been in our possession for many years, but thought it to be an ideal item for this occasion. This was a soap stone oil lamp [Kullik] made by john Terriak. It was to be from Fran, an Inuit of Labrador to the Maori of NZ.

Due to the short time span that NN had given us it was a frantic time to get the items to him in time for his departure to NZ. Frantic really does not do it justice, but won’t go into that. Suffice to say the gifts made it into NN hands before departure.

So the conference up in the Northern Island Mountains goes swimmingly and the smaller gifts get into the correct hands. Then it’s down to the city and some more meetings/conferences, this is where it goes awry.

Part way through the city do-dad there was supposed to have been an exchange of gifts. The Kullik was in NN hands when some one decides that time is short, so lets put all the gifts on a table in a room, leave it unattended while we all go into another room and give all sorts of speeches.

Mean time [the story is foggy here] the Kullik and other gifts were to have been collected by some one and taken to some ones office or some such safe place.
After the do-dad NN inquired as to what happened to the Kullik, surprise surprise, no one any bloody place who should have known did know.

NN has inquired several times of the people in NZ in the time hence of any sign of the missing Kullik. No sign.

To say I’m pissed is to put a diplomatic spin on how I feel, as I’m sure NN is pissed too.

So if anyone down NZ way, or anyone passing through and sees something like this on someones coffee table, then tell them they have it bloody illegally.

Chunder city.

This story from the business section really gets my goat. Loblaws buys up Atlantic Wholesalers a few years back, closes their operation in Lewisport this year, cuts loose 300 small to medium retailers a few weeks later, but all the while paying out these multi millions to their top people. Makes one want to puke.

Still silence from elected officials up this way, when I think the bar can not get any lower, it does.

Baguette hits the ice walls.

Right;Here is baguette and baguette’s buddy ready to hit the wall.







Left;Baguette has a ‘smoko’ and enjoys the view.





Below;Baguette about to swing into action for run to the top.
















Pictures by Paul Fenton, intrepid baguette lover and adventure guide..

White coats.

Some pictures of young seals on the shores of Western Newfoundland.