Earth 1/2 Hour.

Well our house was in the dark for an hour from 8 last night, had a TV and a radio on , kept the furnace on, like it's not all our fault is it.
Update: Oh yeah, Fran played on line scrabble using a cigarette lighter to see the key board!



I think it may have been an unscheduled outage [wink wink], but the whole town plunged into darkness at 1:05 until 1:35 this morning. Every bit helps even if non intentional.

Any way it was a real beauty of a day yesterday, we took a walk in the afternoon, headed out to the harbor where some games were going on.

On the way we stopped to watch some younger folk having some fun on a make up rink.

At the events area there was some ski doo time trials going on, we had a hot dog and a bit of a chat with several before carrying on with the walk.

Fran decided to thank the sun spirits for the great day and some bloke tried to do a runner with me dog.

Earth Hour??

I have been somewhat pre occupied of late so I may have missed any localized efforts to publicize Earth Hour that is to be held today.

First I really noticed was while browsing one of the daily papers. I guess there are differing views on whether it makes much difference, or if it is worthwhile depending on where your electricity comes from.
My thoughts are that any little helps and if a few people keep at these things then eventually it rubs off and grows and expands. You do not need to wait for the so called leaders to give the OK, be way too late to save the earth if we did that.

People in remote communities using diesel generation should pay particular attention to these sorts of efforts, alas we do not always get the relevant information in a timely manner.

So if my memory does not let me down in the meantime we will turn most things off for an hour at 8, and Fran agrees so that is two deteriorating minds working together.

So what's up with that?

I had a teleconference with the folks at the Consulting Engineers [CE] of the media building this afternoon.
I am still trying to make some sense out of what appears to be a design flaw and also a lack of consultation issue with the doors to the two sound proof radio rooms. "No one made a mistake" is the mantra, so why do we have this noisy door and vibrating wall when it closes and opens says I?

We have the head guy of CE on the case to so hope springs eternal.

Made a several videos of the doors closing, opening, vibrating the walls, sent one along to CE before our conversation, I dunno what ya gotta do!!

Check out You Tube- Media Center, Nain 1 and then 2, bit of the old humor in the first one.

Nice day out

light snow and up to -4 at moment.

Ullusiutsiamak Kutit!

Substantial completion x 2.

Certificate of substantial performance has been issued on the Okalakatiget Society media centre.





Pending OK acceptance then moving could start tomorrow.



The other completion was another Ski Doo caught fire, this one was in Hopedale. Seems a teacher and some friends decided to go for a ride, being a nice day and school break and all.



Five minutes out of town the owner smelt and noticed smoke coming out of the front cowling of his machine, a new Expedition 660.

Stopping and lifting the cowling the owner related that flames flared up, so he fearing an explosion took off to a safe distance. Some one in the group had a camera and a series of photograph were taken of the flames. Flames eventually engulfed the ski doo and burnt it to the ice, even leaving a small crater in the ice, as heat will do.



Owner contacted the manufacture, a spokesperson is alleged to have said that even thought the ski doo was still under warranty that this incident was not covered under the warranty. Seeing that there was very little of the machine left it is going to be one of those he said he said affairs me thinks.

There was insurance on the machine but that is of little use this time of year, lots of good snowmobiling will be lost for sure.



I would hazard a guess that we have not heard the last of this incident.

Great day, but then the holidays are over.

It’s a great day out there, [-14 and rising, or in this case the lower the number the better] good one for the continuation of the Easter Games that are held both indoors and out on the harbor ice. They run usually the week after Easter while school is on their Easter break, After Easter Games sort of.

Good thing the school is out as the high school JHMS has another water line problem, this time a frozen line into the building, will we see another student walk out next week??
Also the Atsanik Lodge is without the use of over half its rooms due to a frozen water line.
Still a number of homes with frozen supply lines, my dire prediction of on going problems has turned out true, rather I was wrong though.

I keep wanting to go out and check the puppies, but I don’t have to do that any more, the last two were snapped up yesterday. Not sure if Siutik is celebrating of what but her behavior is more reminiscent of her pre pregnant days, sort of making up for the lost youth thingy maybe.

Well crap!

First Leonard Cohen is appearing in St.John's and we cant go. Now Bob Dylan is appearing @ Mile1 stadium in May sometime, and we cant go. Even if we could the price tag for us is just not justifiable, or is it.

Around town you can see the effects of all that blown snow, craggy moon scape like effects in some places and bare ice in other places.
Not a lot of snow to shovel around the house and it has warmed up to -13 with wind chill of -28, not very spring like.

Short visit home.

The GD put up a bit of a fuss so she finangled a trip home from Ontario for the weekend. Cant blame her, very lonesome away from home on holiday weekends.

Boil up pics by others.

So the only good day the family took off for a boil up, these pictures depict what a traditional Labrador boil up is all about.

The three backs are of GD and GS and GD's boyfriend leaving after picking up their Easter bunny baskets, one is never too old for a basket of chocolate eggs.

So the weather spirits did not dissapoint, the one nice clear day Saturday followed by some snow Sunday and bloody wind last night and this Monday morning [up to 82 klicks] blowing all the snow away.

Laid back Easter weekend.

Weather is on the unsettled side but the temperatures are enjoyable, up to +3 or so.

Saturday was a near perfect day; it even had many people out and about town in the morning, an anomaly as it is usually fairly quite.
There was hockey play offs at the Husky Centre and a scheduled giant bingo at 1.30 at the school gym. Alas the cards for the bingo didn’t not arrive in time so that was postponed.

We took the remaining two pups for a walk around town in the afternoon. Being responsible dog owners I made up some temporary collars and leads. No thanks said the pups, dug their bums in and were not going to budge. Took the leads off and walked down the road a bit, the female started off after us first, the male is on the shy side but eventually came along. After a short evaluation that all was copacetic they followed along quite well, just a couple of little diversions wanting to follow other people.


Today it is snowing lightly, tried again to get the pups out, not really interested in it this morning, kept going back into their little house and yard. These pictures are of mom and the kids out the side of the house, you can see the two personalities in the pups already. Mom plays a bit rough too so that may have deterred them.

Update:

Anyone wanting one of these cute little buggers let us know. Getting animals flown into the northern communities from Nain is turning out more difficult than people envisioned. Have one pull out and expect another, having trouble finding carriers.

Some things never change.

Of course it’s snowing this being Good Friday.

Not complaining just saying some things never change. Even though Easter is early this year it was always on the cards that we would get some sort of weather pattern change containing varying amounts of moister and hardness content.

It’s about -3 with a light freezing drizzle falling in a NNW 33 wind at moment. It’s welcome for sure as long as it does not overdo the amount and moister content, lots of people off at their cabins and camping out. Light freezing drizzle at these temperatures [-12 wind chill] is like billions of little needles hitting your face.

I received my latest Delicious magazine this week. My sister subscribes to it as part of our Christmas present.
Usually we just oooh and argh at the pictures and recipes but occasionally one will stand out as being simple and most of the ingredients being at hand.

Last night I made up a pot of pappa al pomodoro. Yeah I know, but it is just tomato and bread soup, very easy to make and very tasty too. Of course I had to substitute dried basil for fresh and I just used home made white bread instead of sourdough or ciabatta [whatever that is].

Amazing how something so good is so simple and uses very few ingredients. Maybe that’s why Inuit did not bother to cook their food and did not carry around an herb and spice rack.

So with my taste buds opened up and this being Good Friday and me not making up any hot cross buns I decided on something different from the usual breakfast fair.

I did up a batch of crepe's, or thin pancakes if you like. I rolled them up in some home made red berry [partridge berry] jam and topped them off with the last of our home made bake apple [cloud berry] jelly [not shown in picture].

Hope the Easter Egg Bunny is kind to all; I know she will be to us as I have some eggs from down under in a box some place. Australasian Easter Bunnies seem to produce a different tasting egg than her northern cousins.

Not all doom and gloom.

I would be remiss if I did not point out it is not all negative at the NMC.

Overall the workmanship is good quality, the majority of major deficiencies are more with design or little oversights or mistakes outside the pervue of the on site workers.

Yesterday morning the majority of the staff had a walk through the building with the consulting engineers representative. he gave them an overview of the construction, how things work etc.
Things like; there is climate control in each room so one has to remember to adjust the thermostat if it is too cold or too hot. No more blaming the people upstairs or down stairs with your dissatisfaction with the temperature.

The building will be pleasing to work in with good color coordination overall. The new type of fluorescent lighting is alleged to be easier on the eyes than the older type. The air ventilation should help keep it a healthier environment too.
Given the amount of insulation both in exterior walls and interior walls it should not be overly expensive to heat. That is discounting the fact fuel oil rose another 7 cents a litre this morning in the rest of the province.


Top photo shows some of the group crowded at the Electrical room door. Bottom are some of the younger staff at a general discussion in the Control room.

Snow Job.

Yesterday was an amazingly crystal clear sunny calm day. That was outdoors. Got up to -11 official, -8 at the house, nature’s perfection in all its glory.

Indoors at the NMC was calm but anything but in its glory.

I have included three new photos of the front and back stairs, emphasis on the railings or balustrade.

A consolation prize goes to Anonymous for pointing out the gap between the balustrades looked too wide. They are, and after some insistence it was discovered that an amendum was issued to have these at 90cm centers instead of as per working drawings. Unfortunately the amendum did not find its way to the carpenters on the job, funny that, but not an anomaly on this project.

The main prize of identifying the lack of clearance of the two railings where they intersect goes unclaimed, and the issue goes un-dealt with by the consulting engineers at this time, but dealt with it will be.

By the way; the consolation prize was a trip to Dildo and an overnight stay at the Come By Chance motel, alas I have no idea who the person is or what address to send it to, so tuff, it goes back into the anon unclaimed prize cupboard.

So with the weather so good the Snow Job reference must have other connotations, well it does.

I am still trying to figure out what went down the last two days, I am not alone I’m sure.
With the pre-commissioning and commissioning and hand over of the building all being attempted to take place in such a short time frame I can only assume some one figured that some one else just came down in the last snow storm. Well it’s been a long time since the last snow storm here me hardies, but down St. John’s way they get up to three a week.

The whole process did not get off to a very good start. First off we learn that the back up generator would not work, problem with the fuel pump lifting capacity. This has been resolved but will take some additions and time to install.
Then its discovered that the fresh air ventilation system [a very extensive and much needed unit] has not been tested, matter of fact it does not work due to the fact some one changed the outside venting of the exhaust duct work to go back down to the furnace room below.

Then we are still waiting for the replacement window for the radio sound proof rooms. This was broken at the dock back in November. It was taken out to be shipped by air the day before commissioning [Monday this week , puzzled look on face] The way it stands at the moment we are being told that it can’t fit on the aircraft [puzzled look on face].

Then there is the broken window in the TV meeting room. Broken a month ago and still not ordered.

Then there is the abomination that it the design of the sound proof radio interview/control rooms. Emphasis on the doors and the thickness of the wall studs at the moment.


So these things combined would make any sane person hesitant to do a word of mouth hand over of a multi million dollar building one would think, or am I being too harsh??????

There are the usual deficiencies that can be corrected, and are being, in short time frame. There is a problem with the lift door opening mechanism not operating correctly, I have to see if that is a minor or more serious issue.

So long story short. OKS does not officially have the building and there are some upset people out there with only themselves to blame.

lastly but most definitely not the least, we have some very disappointed Okalakatiget Society staff and board members, but all are willing to get it done right, or as right as it can be.

Amendation, or is that an E.

I asked to be corrected on the amount NG members receives as a constituency allowance. Well I was. I am told that the amount is $5,000.00 annually.
As one wag put it, that’s a lot of photo copying. All members on the coast live no more than several minutes walk to any constituency house hold.

That travel time would but cut substantially in winter if they had a dirty big new 15 grand snow mobile. I’m not saying that is what the allowance may go on, but they should be able to afford one what with them voting themselves a 15 grand pay rise [awhile back] to be spread over five years.

Added to that little bit of self serving ness is the fact that at this last sitting {earlier this month} the honorable members voted them selves a 3% increase to offset pension contributions. I here that front line workers did not receive the same largess, not that they really need it and too many do not earn it.

Another thing that is increasingly talked about, all be not in the right places, is what seems like the increased travel by ministers, members and staff. One could be forgiven in thinking that with the government now formed for some while travel would be coming down, or at least minimized.
There are modern forms of communication now, teleconference, video conference. An audit would be good to identify how many meetings take place in Goose Bay, St. John’s etc that only lasted for several hours or less but necessitating travel time of 2 to 3 days, hotels meals, cabs, all adds up.

Another wag offered up, “now that there is a government body in the area why cant other ministers and civil servants of other governments travel into NG”. Good bloody question wag.

Ooops, the chickens are restless.



Well have to get ready for the second day of pre-commissioning @ the NMC. Turns out it was more NOT READY than all were led to believe. May be able to work something out so the anxious staff of OKS can move in sooner rather than another unknown length delay, should know by this morning.

I find it rather calming when people with degrees and years of specialist background do not have much more of a clue as to what is going on than I do. But I still lean something every day and things I have known for years are re-enforced, one is, to be a good liar you have to have a good memory. Or perhaps in some cases it's; the memory is going and one will not own up to it. Either way it can cause difficulty with one with Irish, Welsh, Scottish blood lines.

Now I am a great fan and supporter of CBC [radio] and public broadcasting, but this sort of thing is flying in the face of what public broadcasting represents IMO.

Correction to a correction. My corrector would like to be corrected on the Constituency Allowance allowance issue.

Assembly members for the North Coast receive $3,400.00 annually. Assembly members from the Lake Melville region receive $5,200.00 and Assembly members for the Canadian constituency receive $52, 000.00 annually.

Eligible expenses: Public meetings. Advertising of public meetings. Translation of public meetings. Mileage.

So we know what the allowance has not been spent on in many cases.

Constituency allowances???

This may or may not put the fox in the hen house, none the less.

The elected assembly members of NG receive [among other allowances] a constituency allowance. I believe it is in the three thousand dollar range but I can be corrected on that.
I’m not sure what the NG had in mind as to how the members would spend the constituency allowance, and what on, but in most jurisdictions I am aware of it is used to travel to and from your district, maybe set up an office and hire an assistant and the like.
I would think the whole idea of that type of allowance was intended to help the members keep public informed of goings on in the government, intended legislation, maybe even seek advice from the public as to what stand to take on certain bills before the house, stuff like that.

So it is a puzzle that the two members for Nain are for all intents and purposes non existent as fare as the constituents are concerned.
Since the inception of the NG not one public meeting has been held by these members. Our house and no others I am aware of have received a friendly knock at the door with the members informing one of the operations of government. No flyers in the mail box with briefings of the goings on of government, or to sit and have a chat about the goings on of government. No information briefings on the local radio station, no phone ins that would allow the constituents public access to the members.

So it would be a fair question to ask would it not? What do these two gentlemen actually do with this constituency allowance?

They have no members office expenses, both have a short couple minutes walk to the NG office [when they are actually in town], no constituency office staff.
It is puzzle and I hope people start asking this question plus many others that are in dire need of asking and answered.

March17.

The dingo drank my green beer.

But that's not why I am a wee bit down, ti's because I asked the question "is spring here yet"?

The answer is NOT QUITE YET.

Allegedly

this is the worlds largest snowman. Sticking up in Bethel, Main Richard the Snowman is 122' 1" high, weights in at 8 million pounds, has ski's for eye lashes, 5' wreaths for eyes and tires for belly buttons.

One thing is for sure though, we would have a hard job scrapping up enough snow to challenge them, even if we were inclined.

Retrospection.

A few post ago I asked if anyone could pick out a deficiency on the NMC stair way’s [it applies to both stair wells]; one anonymous commenter suggested the gap in the vertical rails posed a potential hazard.
While that was the one I had in mind it is a valid point. If a young child was left unattended and was playing around and they tried squeeze through the vertical rails a fall and injury could result.

The deficiency I was thinking of is where the top level hand rail comes down and intersects with the bottom level rail. There is supposed to be a gap of about 5 inches between the rails where they intersect to allow ones hand to move up and down without impediment.

What we have is a gap of about ½” From a casual un-scientific test my fingers got caught in that little gap, actually more like pinched, and one day while descending the stairs I put my hand on the rail out of natural habit, my fingers received a little nip at the point in question. So from my point of view the new owners may have a liability issue on their hands. I wonder what other parties will have to say about it???????

A few post ago I asked if anyone could pick out a deficiency on the NMC stair way’s [it applies to both stair wells]; one anonymous commenter suggested the gap in the vertical rails posed a potential hazard.
While that was the one I had in mind it is a valid point. If a young child was left unattended and was playing around and they tried squeeze through the vertical rails a fall and injury could result.

The deficiency I was thinking of is where the top level hand rail comes down and intersects with the bottom level rail. There is supposed to be a gap of about 5 inches between the rails where they intersect to allow ones hand to move up and down without impediment.

What we have is a gap of about ½” From a casual un-scientific test my fingers got caught in that little gap, actually more like pinched, and one day while descending the stairs I put my hand on the rail out of natural habit, my fingers received a little nip at the point in question. So from my point of view the new owners may have a liability issue on their hands. I wonder what other parties will have to say about it???????

In another post I was speculating what Autonomy would translate like from English Inuktitut and back again to English.
Well the good folk at CKOK have come up with the following; it is fairly straight forward, unlike some other sayings, words and phrases.

Autonomy to Inuktitut translates to Namminik govamaKalinnik, meaning self government. Or Namminik aulatsimik, meaning running our own government or affairs.

We are into another sunny crystal clear relatively pollution free day. Getting up to the mid – teens, a warming trend seems to be setting in, one still worries about what the weather spirits have in store for us vis a vis snowy March, or will it be April.

Only one puppy left for new ownership, the little white female. Have three out there but two are waiting for shipment to new owners.

Heating, Gas and Booze

Having a freeze on petroleum products has its advantages and disadvantages. Or should I say it used to have disadvantages, some time prices did go down, not any more it seems.

Since the freeze came in for our area back November 8th Stove oil has risen 13.91 cents [overall] a liter in other areas of the province.

Regular Unleaded [the only type we get] has risen 7.2 cents.

U.L.S Diesel has risen 17.6 cents a liter.

Any one see a problem there? It used to be that diesel and heating oil was way cheaper and not prone to big increases, it does after all require less processing than all the types of gasoline.

So are we being taken advantage of being in a cold climate, as well and more and more people using diesel motors [not an advantage any more, actually a disadvantage].
Then we have all or most of our goods being trucked into the area especially in winter, so we are really behind the eight ball.

It would seem that governments have given up totally on protecting rights of citizens for the increasing protection of big corporate.

Got hit hard by some bug last night and this morning, aches and fever, my first bugging of the season.

As usual it’s sunny and in the high – teens, don’t feel much like getting out in it though, hope the dog understands.


Seeing as the 17th is only days away I offer up the following. I spent 10 months in Dublin once, had the honor of spending one 17th, not a green beer was in sight back then. I'm sure I ran into the Murphy twins though.

Two men were sitting next to each other at a bar. After a while, one guy looks at the other and says, "I can't help but think,from listening to you, that you're from Ireland " The other guy responds proudly, "Yes, that I am" The first guy says, "So am I. And where about from Ireland might you be?" The other guy answers, "I'm from Dublin , I am." The first guy responds, "Sure and begora, and so am I. And what street didyou live on in Dublin ?" The other guy says, "A lovely little area it was. I lived on McClearyStreet in the old central part of town." The first guy says, "Faith & it's a small world, so did I. So did I. And towhat school would you have been going?" The other guy answers, "Well now, I went to St. Mary's of course." The first guy gets really exc ited and says, "And so did I. Tell me, whatyear did you graduate?" The other guy answers, "Well, now, let's see, I graduated in 1964." The first guy exclaims, "The Good Lord must be smiling down upon us! I canhardly believe our good luck at winding up in the same bar tonight. Can youbelieve it, I graduated from St. Mary's in 1964 my own self." About this time, Vicky walks into the bar, sits down, and orders a beer.Brian, the bartender, walks over to Vicky, shaking his head & mutters, "It'sgoing to be a long night tonight" Vicky asks, "Why do you say that, Brian?" "The Murphy twins are drunk again."

Kick us when were down

why don’t ya.

Yes boy, not very nice of weatherunderground. I have had their URL for Nain Newfoundland bookmarked for some time. Have not used it for awhile but decided to click there today, look what they did!!!!!!!!!

Any way we can take it, we are proud and strong and can go it alone at the drop of a snow storm, or is that the other fellas down there? According to the radio the capital city is hunkering down for yet another storm.

We are approaching mid march, this is the snow month, bugger all to speak of to date, are we to get it all in a few short weeks, or not, looking like or not to me.

Sunny again -17 or so, boring as the GD and her ilk would say.

Just had an e mail for the people in Israel who were attempting to book a trip on the Northern Ranger for July. Joy of joys, they finely managed to book from over there, tenacious or what?

NMC update.

Not long now before the pre commissioning inspection. I took some pictures inside yesterday, it’s coming together quite nicely, still some gray areas but those will be dealt with one way or the other next week.

First picture shows the reception area, this room gives a great first impression IMO, nice lighting too. Then there is the kitchen, it a joins the board room by sliding doors, still odds and ends to do there.
Bottom right is the top of the stairs; centre is the hall way leading to the radio department, left is the radio interview room minus all the furniture and technical stuff.

Can any one identify a glaring deficiency on the stairs? It has been known about for two weeks but nothing has been done about it, work just went ahead with the mistake incorporated.

Down the other side of the globe this story is quite amazing. Some of us humans could take lessons from the dolphin sure.