No poofters.

I still get a good chuckle out of this skit; actually I still use many lines from it, Bruce, Woolloomooloo University, not so much the no poofter line. Most people don’t have a clue as to what I am speaking about, and that is beauty of it all.

The temperatures are still above the norms but are getting down in the mid to high minus teens, that is good for thickening the ice, but one should still take care.

Word is that our MP was in town yesterday, hugging seniors, giving them rides home from the resource center and stuff like that, as usual nothing substantial.

Not so much a correction than an update: I noticed this morning a notice up on the bulletin board in the post office advising of a round table or some such at the Atsanik Lodge for the evening of the 14th put on by our MP.
The notice was dated the 13th out of the MP’s Ottawa office. It was date stamped the 14th by the post office for posting on the board.
Not very good notice but par for the course up here by politicians and bureaucrats of all stripes. No matter how many times it is pointed out by all and sundry to these people that more notice is needed nothing changes.

Todd is still glad handing it this morning I noticed.


Next week is shaping up to be a busy one; court will be in town, then more politicos.

Word is that 3 to 4 ministers of the provincial crown will be on hand at a public meet and greet. How does the spiel go again? Oh yes, “it will give the new minister [Transport for one] a chance to get a good feel for the place and the people”. Load of hogwash that is.
I would prefer an open public forum where people could speak their minds and for the politicos to sit and listen. Fat chance of that though.

Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism has finely come up with an add depicting Labrador, Torngat National Park to be precise, nice.

During the communications hiatus we consoled ourselves with this great batch of salt beef pea soup, vegetables and dough boys.

The first ski doo has gone through the ice [yesterday] just 300 yards off the northern tip of the airstrip. No one harmed but buddy must be a little embarrassed.

The two on Gypsy Life must be getting short on supplies and patience. I am sure they never expected these weather conditions, nor anyone else for that matter.

Also yesterday afternoon several investigation units of RCMP arrived in Nain to investigate the ‘suspicious’ of a 20 year old female.

The woman was found deceased in a home on Tuesday afternoon.

Some shots taken around town over the last ten days. Not a lot of sunshine to be seen for sure, good thing we take vitamin C and D daily.


Also there are some photos of the downed tower that caused all the communications troubles, quite the site?

Despite some grumblings to the contrary I think Aiant’s crews did a bang up job in getting temporary fixes to the phones and internet services, especially considering the location and the weather these past several weeks.
Aliant also made sure that sat phones were distributed to each community for emergency use.

That’s not to say that there does not need to be a review of what technologies can be put in place in case of any future similar event, but I think the time for that is when everything is back up and running, not in the middle of the crisis.

Northern in Nain also did a great community service by allowing people on EI to file there claim on their intranet service. Northern has their own dish and satellite uplink, some how it was configured into the regular internet. CKOK also took advantage of that service to download the weather forecast for their broadcasts, so great job there Boyd and Northern.
Now about those prices!

If you are reading this then the North Coast of Labrador is back from its enforced sabbatical from internet and long distance service.

This will be the longest post I have put on Blogger to date, it will be in chronological order and its length dependent on when Aliant gets to repair damaged microwave towers and any ancillary damage to their coastal network and Blogger formatting.

Dear Diary, 6^th January 2010: Sixth day of crapped out weather, only one passenger plane in that time, no mail or freight planes since Thursday.

Now this morning the long distance phones and internet are down. According to CBC Labrador Morning these services are down from Cartwright to Nain, plus Goose Bay are without cell phone service, oh my, poor old Goose Bayimuts.

So we are reduced to listening to the soothing voice of Tony Dawson to keep us all relatively sane, then there is Satellite Television if you have it.

If and when we are back on line I will post these photographs from around town taken on Tuesday.

No ceiling at all from the airstrip.

The new trail groomer [road groomer] was doing runs around the community to level out the bumps. Unfortunately with the soft mushy snow it is rather futile IMO.

In my years here I can not remember not being able to go along the shore harbor ice as a means of commuting from one end of town to the other in January.

Something is afoot for sure, but society will continue to spew all sorts of pollution and chemicals and carcinogens into the atmosphere, must have those jobs so we can all perish in relative material comfort you know.

The upside is Environment Canada’s prediction of up to 20 cm of snow last night did not eventuate, perhaps the precip was in the form of rain cause it is awful wet looking out on those roads.

Dear Diary, 7^th January 2010: Seventh day of crapped out weather, only one passenger plane in that time, no mail or freight planes since last Thursday.

Second day of no long distance or internet service. This means no banking for people who do on line and telephone banking, no banking at the local bank branch either one would assume as all transactions are done over the internet.

Yesterday it rained or drizzled all day turning to light snow in the evening. Not great weather to be out being chased by Nalljuks. It was the last day of the Christmas festivities here; we can take the tree down now.

The up side is heating bills are way down. With the temperatures hovering around 0 to plus two for four days the furnace does not kick in that often.

Looks dark out so guess it is cloudy again, no precip yet, see what the day brings.

Some hours later, when daylight broke, we were socked in with low cloud and light to moderate snow.

A spokesperson for Aliant mentioned that telephone service to the north coast will be restored dependent on weather conditions and a crew being able to access the Tower at Double Mer near Rigolet. She mentioned that all internet was now restored. That my dear Watson is a little white lie; we do not have it back in Nain at the time of the interview, or for hours after for that matter.

Dear Diary, 8^th January 2010: Eighth day of crapped out weather, only one passenger plane in that time, no mail or freight planes since last Thursday of last week.

Third day of no internet or long distance:

There was clearing and lifting of the cloud mid afternoon on Thursday. People are coping well, no threats on storming Confederation Building or separation from Newfoundland. I am sure if that happened there would not be too many tears shed, except maybe for our MHA, but I digress.

CBC On the Go had a report of an Aliant crew hovering in a helicopter over the tower at Double Mer yesterday afternoon. They were unable to land due to weather, if they could not get down the crew would return to Goose Bay and try again Friday.

I do not know if that is over dramatizing the situation, a bad choice of words, or perhaps they were hovering above the clouds looking for a hole. Whatever, we still have no change in the communication situation.

CBC’s erstwhile weather man Ryan Snodden’s modeling has another nasty weather front circling in from the Atlantic that may hit Rigolet south to Cartwright today.

All these crappy fronts are coming up from the south, hitting a huge cold water patch out in the North Atlantic and circling back on us. By us I mean the Island and Labrador. This is not the norm for this time of year, for Nain the flows and wind direction come from the West North West.

Over in Brittan and Northern Europe they are getting hit with storms the like that have never been experienced before. Mid and Southern US is getting snow and below 0 temperatures.

Move on folks, northing to see here, go about your business spewing industrial crap into the atmosphere.

Dear Diary, 9^th January 2010: Ninth day of crapped out weather [with a rider]. Weather did not clear Friday but the ceiling lifted enough for at least six planes plus one Air Inuit from Northern Quebec, one bag of first class mail by mid afternoon, not sure what else after that, the first movement since Thursday of last week.

Forth day of no long distance or internet: According to an Aliant spokesperson these services have be restored for Rigolet but not to communities [5 plus VB mine site] north of Rigolet. They went on to say the damage to the tower at Double Mer seems to be severe but technicians will not land there until the weather improves.

The good news is there looks to be some sun in the forecast for the next several days.

Temperatures dropped slowly Friday down to about -10 this morning. There were a couple of people out on the ice yesterday, though with a flat for safety. Still many open patches and the Air Inuit pilot said there was still a lot of open water in the bays to the north west of us.

Some lessons learnt these past four days: If Fran had her druthers she could do without the internet but not without long distance. I would not like to be the people who took away her right to snail mail.

If I had my druthers I most definitely could not do without the internet and could get by without long distance.

Stamps go up again Monday, the annual ritual, postage goes up every year at this time whether they need to or not. While in the post office yesterday we received a heads up on the increase and a chance to save a few cents, after Fran thanked the heads upper she was told that “that was OK, you send lots of letters”.

I don’t think I have mentioned this before, people who rely on Cable Television for there news and entertainment have been without that service since around mid December. For some reason, weather being one, a technician has not been able to get in to fix the problem.

These people have been left with just the two free to air channels, CBC and APTN, both of which the Cable Company piggy backs off the CBC free to air transmission in town.

Boy, the memories of days past when we had cable TV, those many protracted, bordering on the nasty, battles I had with the then cable provider and the CRTC, who by the way are there to protect the industry and not the consumer as they would like people to think. .

So all in all not a great month or so for modern communications services, it sure shows how much we have become reliant on these services. For me the internet is the most important, if used smartly and correctly it can counteract the overabundant flow of south north communications and proper gander.

Dear Diary, 10^th January 2010: Still have nor seen any sun but the clouds lifted to high overcast, lots of planes for a Saturday, helicopters arriving and buzzing around.

Fifth day of no long distance or internet service: Saturday morning we noticed a chopper arrive and go straight up to the Aliant tower up back of us. It hovered for a short time then left and landed over at the Hydro plant.

A time later noticed two hydro guys on ski doos go up the pole line towards the Aliant tower and stay for some time. I have no idea if it has any relation to our communication problems.

I was having a chat with a couple of people who were on the early flights that arrived on Friday. The weather did look a bit iffy with low ceiling and gusty winds but apparently a couple of early flights really frightened many on board.

Hopedale approach was a bumpy and a very rough landing but on approach to Nain some thought the landing would be aborted, when it was not they figured it would be their last.

I was starting to think that this 19^th century style communications thing is not such a bad idea. More peace of mind and if worked on a little we could be OK without long distance telephone and internet.

Then reality hit me in the arse big time, there is so much injustice in the world, sure Northern Labrador is just small potatoes in the big picture, non the less there are many wrongs that need to be corrected still, so all the tools available have to be utilized to maintain a level playing field.

Then there are people who have relatives outside and are worried if their loved ones arrived back in Nain safely, and visa versa.

Then there all the levels of government departments that need to communicate with other government departments to operate effectively. We are in a bad enough state at it is with modern communications, imagine what it would be like with none at all for a protracted amount of time.

Just back inside from some outdoor activity [Sunday]. Now that is January weather, around -18 or so, sun shinning, nice little breeze, the harbor ice looks like it may freeze nicely if these temperatures keep up.

Dear Diary, 11^th January 2010: Sixth day of no long distance and internet. It is taking getting used to not having any communication with the outside world; maybe if we all go back to using snail mail Canada Post will drop their cost of stamps. I was listening to a CP spokesperson rationalizing the latest increase, “an increase in the number of customers and a decrease in the volume of mail, plus upgrading aging facilities and sorting machinery”. This from the bloke who once told the people on the North Coast of Labrador to move if it cost to much to live here.

So over all the town is coping very well with this break down in communications. I joined a group formed just recently; it meets several times a week and has a surprisingly high number of members. So many in fact that there is not a building large enough in town so each meeting is attended depending on what section of town you live, upper, middle and lower sections.

The group has a rather long name at present; it’s called ‘Let’s all pray that Aliant’s chickens, turkeys and partridge have wooden legs in perpetuity’.

There are sessions in personal relationships, verbalizing face to face, key board withdrawal counseling. My favorite is at the end of each session where we all sit in a circle and stuck pins in dolls that are wearing tiny Aliant tee shirts.

The latest news on the situation is, no news is not good news. Unconfirmed reports are that Aliant were in town briefly and have left. The main problem is at the Tower at Double Mer near Rigolet as reported by Aliant last week. The unconfirmed part is that the tower has a sever lean or bend to it caused by heavy ice build up around the micro wave dish.

Update: Confirmed reports are that the above mentioned tower has collapsed under about 30 tons of ice build up.

Crews and gear have been brought into the site over the weekend, this will allow for a temporary fix with long distance being the first priority. There is no guess as to how much longer it will be for the temporary repairs to come into affect and no mention at all on high speed internet service being restored. The tower will be replaced permanently come summer.

Later: The bad news is [it always gets worse it seems] is that we are now socked down in a more typical winter storm. Snow and blowing snow from the NW, makes one feel more at home.

The real bad news would be if Double Mer is experiencing the same weather, and from all reports they may well be.

Dear Diary, 12^th January 2010: 7^th day of no long distance and internet. Weather yesterday caused cancellation of planes, which resulted in the postponement of the annual Regional Inuktitut Speak Off that was to be held at the school last evening.

CBC Here & Now had a photograph of the tower at Double Mer that is the cause of all this. The tower was all but horizontal on the ground with the ice build up still evident, hell of a lot of ice for sure.

All aspects of life on the North Labrador Coast are starting to feel the pinch now. No credit or debit cards, no banking, no one can file their EI claims, retailers can not send orders out to replenish their stock.

Most retailers are giving people credit on purchases. Social Services can not file claims as all there fillings are done electronically and the list goes on.

Northern in Nain is allowing people to file EI claims on their intranet system, not sure how that works but it does.

People who need to contact some one up here and who is not in the province must be wondering what the hell is going on.

Some people are wondering allowed why Aliant does not have a back up system, redundancy so to speak. I guess one reason would be cost, then again the cost to Aliant for an extended shut down may cause a re think on that. Maybe another technology could be utilized, especially if the weather patterns change to more wet freezing rain and warmer temperatures in the winter months, just thinking allowed it is I am. Other people are asking why the Company and Government are not taking the situation as serious as if say this happened down on the Avalon Peninsular or anywhere on the Island portion of the province. They speculate that more resources and seeking of assistance would be emphasized.

Listening to the Aliant PR person this morning it is clear [after reading between the lines] that work is progressing slowly mainly due to the weather conditions.

Dear Diary, 13^th January 2010: Surprise surprise, long distance was restored yesterday afternoon.

CBC On the Go had a news cast stating that service had been restored to some communities; I tried a call to Goose Bay and got through OK. Unconsciously I must have been getting anxious with the communication isolation as my fried said I sounded more excited than usual, and I guess he was correct.

I know Hopedale is back up and presume the other communities are as well.

The not so good news is that internet is still down, let’s hope that will be working in reasonable short order.

Weather down in snow and wind has meant no planes for the last two days, it is becoming a regular occurrence, short windows for planes to get in then longer spats of weather delays.

I also took the opportunity to call me mom down under, no snow storms but mom was suffering with the 39 degree heat of Monday their time.

All in all when it seems things are not going too well for you one is reminded that there are always people a hell of a lot worse off in the world i.e. earthquake in Haiti, or droughts and genocide in some African region.

Long distance back 4.30 PM the 12^th. Internet back 30 minutes ago.

Well apart from around the shoreline there is no pretext of ice in the harbor now. Drizzle and rain all day Monday. The forecast for tonight calls for up to 20cm accumulation of wet snow, or joy!

I do not do much travel by air these days, but the case of the Granddaughters [GD] lost luggage is an intriguing one.

Last Sunday GD boards an Innu Mikun [IM] flight from Nain to Goose Bay direct.
One would think that a 19 seater twin Otter arriving in a tin pot terminal like the one in Goose Bay would not offer up any issues with reclaiming luggage. Not so my dear Watson.

When the GD bag was not on the ‘carousel’ [straight run of 20 feet] after arrival she made inquiries at IM desk. GD told that when bag was located they would get it to her.

GD and her boyfriend on arrival in Goose Bay rushed straight around to the AC counter to check on their forwarding flight. BF then went back to the luggage pick up area where his bags were there but GD bag was not.

Off GD goes, having to wait until Thursday for her next leg back to flight school.

Come Monday mid day and still no sign of bag and no one at IM desk answering the phone GD starts to become more than a little pissed.

Finely GD gets through to IM and told the bag can not be located and GD will have to fill out a claim form. As this blog is family orientated [it’s not but makes for a better story] I will not go into the finer facts of the GD language on leaning that news.

By 1 pm GD manages to get through to her mom who works with a rival airline. Nothing like having some one with an in to the industry when a crises arises, as proves true in this case for sure.

Mom manages to get through to an attendant at IM desk at the Goose Bay airport. Mom explains the situation then is put on hold for a protracted length of time.

Finely the attendant comes back on the line with the news that GD bag has been located in the security office of the airport. If GD comes in she can pick up her bag.

Mom relays this to GD with the added advice to check the bag for anything missing before leaving the airport.

The good news is nothing was missing and that at first blush the system such as it is worked.

The bad news is; the bag was handed to security from behind Air Labradors desk, not IM.

Why did security not inform IM they had the bag, surly it still had the IM destination tag on it.

Why didn’t IM ask security if there was any missing bag when they were supposedly making every effort to locate GD bag.

So it is not known if someone inadvertently picked up GD bag off the carousel, or if it was misplaced some how before the carousel.

How the bag got behind Air Labs counter is a mystery, why security did not inform IM is a mystery, why IM did not make every effort to locate the bag is a mystery.

24 hours of frustrations and being without your luggage could have been avoided with some descent customer care and a higher degree of professionalism on several parts. I wonder if this type of thing happens often in GB airport?

Neither rain nor sleet nor freezing rain nor painful knees will keep us from our walk. Anyway Siutik gets very fussy if she is not out the door by 11.

So we are walking down towards Northern Point enjoying all these passing crappy weather patterns and there are ski doos with people and luggage going by. Wishful thinkers think us.

At the airstrip there is quite a crowd of potential passengers and well wishers to see then off. Wishful thinkers we think again.

Then out of the fog and sleet to the east comes this shape of a plane, once down below 800 feet they can se the runway. Mind you that can be a bit hairy when there are 1000 + foot hills all around you.

We participated in a somewhat tearful farewell for the granddaughter and her boyfriend who are back to flight school and niece Tracy and her family who are moving to Goose Bay for three years.

So as predicted yesterday the granddaughter did not get stuck in Nain, but she may have well have. For she and boyfriend are stuck in Goose bay until Thursday. Their connecting flight to Halifax was delayed a couple of hours, this meant they would miss there connections for points further on.

So rather than being stuck in Halifax they decided on being stuck in Goose Bay was the better option.

Add to that Innu Mikun lost a piece of the Granddaughters luggage [not sure how you do that on a flight from YDP to YYR, but they can]. I bet you don’t read or hear about any of the above in any media, no sir, it is a matter of course for North Coasters, no bitching and screaming and whining like those in more populated areas.

After all that excitement it was a soggy rather quite and lonely walk back home via Northern for some apples to make apple sauce to go with the roast pork.

Another exciting week ahead judging by the weather forecast so stay tuned.

There be something wrong with these here readings. You all take care down there with those hard freeze warnings here.

Harbor ice as of Saturday 2nd January 2010.
Not fit boy. Lots of watery holes, wont stabilise what with 0 temps and snow forecast up to next weekend. People are getting antsy.


Yesterday morning on the way down to re boot a computer on the magnetometer the walking was very eerie. As my boots broke the inch or two of fresh snow covered in a layer of freezing drizzle it had the feel and sound of walking on fresh laid nylon carpet.

Approaching my destination there was this loud craw cawing that ravens make. I looked up into the surrounding trees but no sign of the offending bird. The noise persisted and became louder as I approached the fence surrounding the CBC transmission site.

Looking up higher there was the noisy barstard, perched atop the 75 ft tower and going hell bent with wings flapping, getting entangled in the rigging but finely standing firm and giving the parabolic TV antenna a good berating.

I kept still for a few minutes taking in this strange ritual, I often wonder what makes the ravens do these strange things.

Having enough of that I approached the gate, the raven took flight heading west all the while with his loud caw cawing.

Fog this morning, looking more and more like the students who were stuck in Goose Bay on their way home will be stuck at home on their way out.

Happy New Year to All.

The fire works were quite the event at midnight, it was a clear crisp evening and the first salvo was right on the dot.
In past years I found them wanting, maybe it was because I have seen some quite elaborate fire woks displays over the years.
Or perhaps it is due to the large bonfires and personal fireworks us kids used to put on for “cracker night”.
Or perhaps it was the lack of coordination or the fact they were centered out in the harbor in past years.

Whatever, last night was different, a new location up on Morhart, and the fireworks elves doing a crack up job with coordination and timing all led to a very nice display.
The finale was for sure the high point with many varieties of fireworks exploding in unison. Made me wish I had set up the camera, but then I would have missed the live display being too busy with the settings, the trade off was worth it I think.

By the way folks, it is neither the end of the decade nor the start of the new. One to ten is 10.

So the harbor sure was different yesterday morning. The wind of Wednesday blew most of the ice over the other side. With the cold temperatures ice started making straight away but by late afternoon there were still many open spots. Interesting to see what today brings, then tomorrow with the thermometer rising. You can just make out the steam rising from the surface in the two pictures.

New Years Eve and we have a sudden drop in temperatures. -21 with wind chill down to -32 overnight.
Clear sky’s now but more snow and temps rising to about 0 by Saturday, talk about a roller coaster ride.

I just checked the Gypsy Life web site. Seems Harald after one excursion by foot the day previous decided to push the envelope and use his ski doo on the sea ice. Not a good move.

Wednesday mid afternoon: The storm outside seems to be abating, hard slog walking to and from the shops. Have done some shoveling to allow egress and ingress both front and back but will wait a little before further snow removal.



So this seems as good a time as any to touch base on the SLM Inc/Ray Whalen slash Bill Prankard Evangelistic Association {BPEA} slash True North Aid {TNA} operations in Nain.

When the Whalen’s came to Nain some years back they decided they needed a place to stay/operate out of. It coincided with the then school principal leaving town so they put in an offer to buy that home and land.
To raise money for the purchase BPEA became involved with a big fundraising drive down south. Lots of stuff was said about Nain, some of it upset locals and they voiced their concerns in regional media. I did not become involved and the concerns raised escape me at the moment.

So the money was raised and the home purchased. It sits in a prime location with the front of the house overlooking the old dam and what is called Environmentally Protected Area {EPA} here in Nain. EPA is land that cannot be developed on, it is green space and for the enjoyment of everyone. The rear of the house fronts Middle Path Road. An oxymoron maybe but there you have it.







A couple of years pass and the next thing is that the Whelan’s have purchased, in another private transaction, the land to the right of them, or in the case from the rear to the left. This land is of triangular shape, being wider at the road end, and also has one side as well as the front butting up to EPA. The only building on this lot was a shed structure.
These properties were initially for the Whalen’s/SLM Inc work and are registered in that name with Ray and his wife as sole directors as far as I can tell.

Top right shows the house overlooking the old dam with the extra lot next door.
Second and third left show the road end of house as well as the lot next door.




Rays lot for personal home below.

A couple of more years pass, the town opens up more land in the new subdivision.

Ray applies for and is granted two further lots. These are in Rays name; one is in the residential section and is yet to be developed. The other is in the industrial section and has a 40 x 60 foot warehouse that was constructed this year.

According to this interview Ray did with CKOK Ray intends building a home for his personal use on the undeveloped lot and intends to use the warehouse as a business venture. This conflicts with what his original intentions were for this building, that being to store all the goods that would be brought in for all these give a way’s to the public.

In roughly the same time frame as the above two lots were acquired Ray/SLM Inc applies informally to council to build a 5,000 sq foot “Community Center” on the triangular land next to his home which is in a residential zone. {The one that is now his home but will be an unknown use entity when Ray builds his new personal home up in the new subdivision}.

This structure is too large to meet the local building regulations for that size lot, so Ray applies for re zoning of the land. This would entail Ray/SLM INC having to acquire 10 feet x the front width of the lot of the EPA land.

I am not privy to all the finer points, but it seems council asked Ray to submit detailed plans and a formal application for the “Community Center” so that council can go through the formalities of re zoning EPA land which I understand requires input from outside engineers/consultants and to hold public hearings and requires the applicant to pay all costs.

There seems to be a hold up in Ray responding to this request.

Rays warehouse below.

Applying for and going through the process of re zoning EPA land does not guarantee the applicant will be granted the land or the permission to build the “Community Center” in that location.

EPA lands are there for a reason, they need to be protected within reasonable bounds.
If my memory serves there has been a president set already in Nain.
A citizen applied for re zoning to increase the size of their lot into a EPA land in another section of town. This was turned down by council without getting to the hearing stages.

Ray/SLM Inc had another choice for his “Community Center”. That is the lot where he built the warehouse. Or he could have put in an application for a building that better suited the lot dimensions without wanting to despoil our EPA lands.

Once one gets approved it would be doubly hard to stop further applications for re zoning into EPA lands being sort, and triply hard in rejecting them.

In going through the writings and videos of the BPEA site there seems to be no reference to SLM Inc in Nain. Rather Ray and his wife are referenced at regular intervals. I have not given it a thorough search so maybe there is nothing to it.



Later:



Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggh. I new going through the BPEA site would be detrimental to my sanity.



If these people are not the epitome of sleaze then then I do not know who are. Get a gander at this video, no problem desecrating the memory of the deceased, their loved ones, the culture that these low life's have not one iota of deference for. It is a fundraiser video produced by True North Aid with no thought nor caring into where they are or who they offend.



Apart from the seriousness of the above, note the reference to the ARCTIC again in the accompanying videos. The little doughwacker is just up the hill within sight of the community fer shit sake.

Scene of the harbor Tuesday from the Hydro plant. Lot of open water and slop ice.

The scene will be changed today due to the snow and winds to 84 clicks causing blowing snow. Temperatures lower at -8 with -20 wind chill.

Sunday was sunny and temps in the minus teens. Ice was trying to form around the harbor with a decidedly different look than Saturday.



While on our walk we caught Air Labrador coming in, not much traffic on her.

We had started our walk home when Air Inuit arrived about 10 minutes early. They had come over to pick up about 12 passengers who had been over here from Kangiqsualujjuaq visiting family and friends over Christmas.
Every year Air Inuit puts on these special charters so that people can re connect. Many people who were relocated from Hebron and Killiniq to communities in Labrador have relatives in Northern Quebec, some who were relocated there instead of Labrador.

What ice we have in the harbor should take a beating as there is a warmimg trend for the next couple of days, that along with some snow and then winds to 50 clicks should do a job on it.

December 26th 2009, Boxing Day, water still predominates in the harbor. These two flats have been out jigging for several days now.
One guy gets out at times and stands on the ice but does not wonder far.

The ponds and brooks have been frozen, almost thawed, and refrozen for some time. People are getting partridge and now fish.

The conditions are good for walking around town with firm crunchy snow, though in sections you have to be careful of corny snow on top of ice, all in all it is enjoyable, more people should try it. Clear sky -12 official -16 at the house this morning.

The meal and company was very enjoyable yesterday. One little glitch was I forgot the ham in the fridge, but that did not stop some from having some near the end of the meal.

Also for grandma and auntie the meal was disrupted, gust before sitting down the younger of the guests bit the finger of the second youngest of the guest resulting in a protracted crying spree. All sorts of things tried to calm the situation, in the end he wore himself out and went to sleep. All part of the fun of being grandmas and aunties.

Another disappointment for all was the grandson did not make it up for a visit. Not his fault, it is what it is.

Photo top left shows the young goose ready for stuffing and trussing, very nice and tender it was too.
Left shows the desert selection, cheese cake was the # 1 choice, and then there is mini bakeapple cheese cake and mince meat.

Merry Christmas to all.

Have had my traditional 25th December breakfast of ham and tomato on toast with a cup of tea and am feeling good despite the threatening message left on the answering machine late last night. [Not related to any recent postings]

Get down to the cooking part later, I am reasonably organised I think, always something comes up though, as long as I do not have to go out and defend my honor at 40 paces I should be able to handle it.

Down in my birth place things are a little unsettled with the remnants of a cyclone running across the country from the North West. Lots of rain and humid but cooler temperatures down in Sydney, better than 40 in the shade for sure.

We are at -7 and I can see stars so mainly clear. There is enough snow still on the ground to give it the seasonal feeling, though there is nothing better that snow fall on Christmas day.

Later: Sounds like the Paul's on Gypsy Life are OK. Pastor Charlie based in Nain was talking to them on their Sat phone today. They are able to get to shore to replenish their wood and water supply.

A few pictures of around town: First on left was taken on Tuesday before the clearing commenced. This is a sure way to get ‘Christmas tree carpel tunnel syndrome’. Riding a ski doo with the girl friend on the back holding a tree with the left and operating the machine with the right hand adds quite a bit of stress to certain parts of the body by golly. They seemed to be enjoying it though and had stopped for a rest when I took this.

Next picture is of the Aliant micro wave tower up on Nain hill. From down here it looks all decked out for the season, just as long as the round thingy stays is clear of ice.

Finely one of the harbor making ice. After all that warm weather and one night of sub zero it has frozen over quite fast. That is the new ice in the background with the slush and older ice that did not melt in foreground.

I guess with the day fast approaching I will have to partake in one of my least favorite things. And going by this article I will have to rely on luck rather than good management and math skills in cracking the cracker.
Truth be told I have never looked on cracking the cracker as a competition, more like a chore that shows that we are in the festive mood, with everybody having their own cracker the biggest challenge is to get the darn things to crack.

As expected with this unseasonable weather the Paul’s are doing it tough in the Gypsy Life.

Hope this colder trend sorts things out for them and Harald can get ashore for wood and water. I would presume they would phone for assistance if needed.


There is so much more to say about this Ray Whalen SLM Inc and his benefactor Bill Prankard, with Christmas so close I will do a brief wrap for now.

It does not take much effort to research these folk, though there is not much to be found on Whalen’s SLM Inc.
It is clear that without Bill Ray would not have accumulated his material little empire here in Nain.

Bill is the man with the words and good PR skills. They came in handy as there must be a very high overhead with all the travel they all do plus the structures that are up and planed for the Nain outreach.

Alas the words and text are designed to create emotions in people who do not know any different. Just look at this video. To me it clearly says that without Bill and Ray the folks of Nain would not have a very nice Christmas.

That is just not true. Folks in Nain got by just fine pre Bill and Ray.

For decades people worked hard in forming what is now Nunatsiavut and the Nunatsiavut Government. It was supposed to instill self government and self determination.
It is now a reality, so where is the determination and the pride in protecting the Inuit Culture and language.

All Bill and Ray have to offer is more of the same paternalistic, colonialist, we know what is best for you attitude.

There are so many people doing a lot of things to assist the needy and older folks, sure more can be done but the people are doing it themselves, mistakes are made and the successes are many.

Nearly every “program’ SLM Inc ministry offers is already being offered by NG, or the community government or the provincial or federal government staffed by local people.

Local people are involved in volunteering in many areas. There are programs for children, youth, and elders offered all the time. Why just this week the needy and elders received a big box of groceries and a turkey and a small gift for each.
This was done locally with support from local and regional businesses and individuals.

Over the last two weeks elders had the opportunity to take in four Christmas meals at the community hall sponsored by groups like the staff at the health center, recreation department, community government and others.

Elders can go play merchandise bingo every Wednesday and partake in a meal and talk in their own language put on by the NG department of health.

Thursdays they can go to the resource center and have a healthy snack and play games and just sit around talking in their own language.
Does Bill and Ray offer that? They don’t even mention the unique culture of the Inuit or their language.

There are on going events and programs for kids and youth, special events for Christmas and traditional holidays all run by local people either in employment or on a volunteer basis.

Sure some people fall through the cracks, there are elders who need better care, people who have issues and are in need of specialist care. Things are no better off in Ottawa, Toronto, St. John’s, matter of fact they are worse.

So much for the brevity eh, these folks rattle my chain.

If some people feel the need for what Bill and Ray have to offer then start doing what the Moravian Church and other traditional religious groups do, start fund raising by having raffles, bake sales, donating your time and your own money to make it happen. Don’t sit back on your lazy arse depending on the dollars and material things rolling on from the actions of these questionable fund raising tactics.

Tuesday the sky cleared long enough for lots of planes with most of the people moved both in and out, Air Inuit got in from Nunavik too.

We were down at the airstrip mid afternoon seeing the GD boyfriend as he passed through. This was his second go at getting home to Hopedale, while there the weather started to come down again but the boyfriend made it back home this time.
Still lots of mail and freight to come in, some people getting antsy for their Xmas packages and cheques.

Back to the plane I mentioned in the previous post. That blue twin otter was the first plane to get down since the previous Tuesday, it was full of Nain people coming home for Christmas so you can imagine the excitement.

So once the ramp cleared the plane sat there waiting, next thing comes the arrival of Bill Prankard and his band of visiting and Nain based prophets, eight in all, plus two komatik boxes full of language.
It turned out that Bill had charted the plane for the return trip, incidentally he charted on the way up too.

So a plane that can carry nineteen plus luggage only took eight people, sort of funny considering the seven days of no planes. Wonder what happened to all that love and caring for the “natives”?
Truth is a family of three also got aboard, special dispensations for connected people.

There is something missing in those two pictures. That’s right; there are no happy smiling grateful natives there to see Bill and co off. Not one, zero, zilch.

Ray Whalen of Shinning Light Ministry Inc and his wife embarked also [included in the eight], could it be possible Ray will not be here to administer to his flock over this season of giving and sharing?

So if we calculate the three thousand dollars [approximate] each way for the charters, then the return trips for six Ottawa to Goose Bay at seven thousand dollars [approximate] and a thousand dollars for accommodation and incidentals you come up with a figure of fourteen grand.

Now if they really wanted to cloth and feed the whole community [Bills words not mine] then fourteen grand would buy a lot of caps and mitts and hot chocolate. And why would it take 6 white folks from Ottawa to do the feeding and clothing when Bill has his underling stationed here, after all the claim is there was no shortage of volunteers to do the deed. It is all very confusing to say the least.

Speaking of confusing get a gander of this video Bill took while here. There are a number of visuals and statements made that are straight out of some weird PR company file.

Firstly there is Bills get up, all the while he was here the temperature did not get below -1, so Bill would be a little overdressed.
There is reference to “being in the Arctic” [may explain Bills get up]. Bill must have been behind the door when geography was taught.

Bills references “we opened up the community center” for the big give away. This could be a little misleading for some. The community center is open 6 to 7 days a week. While old and maybe a little small it is the hub of activity for youth, elders, and special events. It is maintained and operated by the Nain Inuit Community Governments recreation department.

There is reference to “making sure the entire community and every household has what is needed to make Christmas enjoyable” [paraphrased].
Off the top of my head I can think of 15 to 20 households who neither asked nor were given any of Bills largess. Why would households with 80 to 100 [not us] grand incomes be given, or more importantly accept, Bills largess? Would it not be more meaningful if a means test was incurred for this type of “give away”?

The reference to “helping the natives” could be offensive to some. Native is not a word that is used at all in my experience in referring to people in the Inuit communities.

Bill makes reference to being “at the ends of the earth”. WTF does that mean pray tell?
Could it be Bill thinks the world is flat? Has he quoted it in the biblical sense? Is Nain that far removed from Bills life experiences that he has to use that term? I find it offensive, especially in this day and age of modes of travel and communication.

So in brief I am flummoxed by Bill and companies inference that Nain is a backward half starving ill clothed bunch of booze besotted natives at the end of the earth.

I am also flummoxed why there has been no official intervention to correct the misconceptions this bloke and his band of used car salesperson's are spreading in the south.

The truth is quite the opposite; we will get into that later.

Later breaking news: The sun is not up yet BUT I can see the top of the hills, on the eight day we were rid of Bill and the fog and drizzle.

Here comes the granddaughters plane about to land.
There is a story about the plane on the ground but we will leave that for later.

Family and friends all there to greet her, the favorite being her nephew Enrique..