The fire season of 2012 in Labrador seems to be the worst for many a year. Or could it be that more fires are being reported now? Airlines are updating information on new outbreaks almost daily, twitter is playing a large role in reporting the fires and photographs are posted as well as satellite images. One of these shown below. It shows the fires between Rigolet and Potville.

Now the latest news is the communities of North West River and Sheshatshiu are being evacuated. Dour times indeed.

Our marginal weather is a blessing it would seem. Apart from the 5 day run of hot dry weather we have been in a run of foggy wet mornings followed by a nice day with fog rolling in in the evening.

 Here is another sat image of the fires around the lake Melville area. Images taken from twitter of @mclabradore.  

Another image of fires in Labrador from Google earth.

Nice oh cool day all day yesterday, after those 5 hot days one realizes how much we appreciate marginal weather (airline speak) up here.
Planes were delayed mainly due to more than marginal weather in other communities, and the boats were anchored most of the day due to the ice being blown into the shore. Looking at the updates they seem to be on the move again now.
Cloudy and  +4 this morning

Today sees the start of yet another Nain Animal Wellness Clinic. It will continue up until mid next week.

Three vets, four Veterinary students and one assistant flew in yesterday for the very intensive work week.

One vet and assistant are from Quebec (regular visitors here), one vet from Goose Bay (second visit0 and one vet and the students from PEI (first timers here0.

They are eying Siutik off for possible under the knife action, will think deep and hard about that.

Cloudy, bit of fog and 7 degrees this morning.

As one who grew up spending hours on end in the surf, 30 degree Christmas days and shunned ever going within 100 miles of snow I find today’s conditions very welcoming.

Five days in the high twenties bummed me right out I tell you. Partly due to the aging process and more likely due to acclimatization I tell myself.

Sarah Leo was sworn in as the second elected president for the Nunatsiavut Government last evening.
The ceremony was held in the board room at the administration building.

We did not attend as we were entertaining Fran’s son Ian who came up from Hopedale in speed boat for a short two day visit.

While on the one hand I applaud the parties involved with this research planed for base line studies on the environmental and health effects of the planed development of hydro power on the Lower Churchill (Mistashipu) river I have questions as to why it is up to Nunatsiavut Government to be involved.

My first question would be: why has not some other entity already started the baseline study. Second question would be: Does NG really have a mandate to be involved in what seems like a large body of work (thank you Premier Dunderdale) with many skilled people doing untold amounts of hours research.

Some would answer the second question by pointing out that there are over 2,000 beneficiaries of the Nunatsiavut government living in the Lake Melville area. 2,000 people are a large lobby base (on a Labrador scale), more or less the whole population base of the actual Land Claims area.
But that answer would not satisfy many.

A third question (and not mentioned in the interview) is, who is funding this large body of work. Arctic
Net presumably but still raises the question of what funding and resources will be forthcoming from NG.

Anyway I think it is a good interview and the goals of the intended research are sound and much needed. As you can tell I am of two minds on this.


Who would have thought back when the Mulroney government left the scene under such a cloud of corruption we would be now looking at the Mulroney era with some pride.

Update:

Weather is deteriorating with fog moving in, no problem there I say. 

The two coastal boats are anchored between Hopedale and Natuashish due to ice pushed inshore.

And some interesting insights on Aboriginal Day, which is today for those that don't know.

With a little reflection I have formed the opinion that there is most likely a role for NG to be involved with the base line study in the Lake Melville region.  This is based on the fact a goodly part of the LISA and LIL lands are at the southern end of the lake and the area around Rigolet.

But there are some niggling questions which involve the area a little north around Makkovik and Postville, the lands where there is exploration for uranium with some actual finds and dreams of mining the stuff.
Are the two related? dunno yet.

The gong show (more commonly known as marine shipping to the north coast) is under way finely.
The Northern Ranger is limping its way up Lake Melville towards Rigolet and the Astron is supposed to be on its way north from Lewisport.

For a good laugh ya gota listen to the interview Minister Hedderson gave with Tony Dawson of CBC HV-GB yesterday.
I know, its is no laughing matter but better to laugh than cry I say.

After all the BS that Hedderson spewed over the last months, and years for that matter, about having a new vessel on the books (could have been built by now) we are now back to the Astron for a three year contract and a cancellation of the previous 15 year CFP and re opening the CFP for another new or second hand vessel for an undetermined amount of time.

All this would be mute if they had gone ahead and built the new vessel (government) 6 years ago, and it would have been a hell of a lot cheaper that whatever they come up with in the next 5 to 10 years.

Hedderson claimed that they had 5 bids for the 15 year CFP, what he did not say until yesterday was that the 5 were from the same company, Labrador Marine (LM).
All were deemed inadequate according the Hedderson, so he threw them out and issued LM a three year short term contract for the Astron.

One wonders where was CAI_Nunatsiavut, the new kid on the block, in the  CFP? 

CAI still has the contract to operate the Ranger as well as the Bond when needed. Some may remember CAI operated freight, passenger and wharfinger services last year for the first time.

What has not been asked, therefore not answered is- who will be doing the wharfinger contract in GB as well as the coast.

The CAI-Nunatsiavut sign is not on the shed at the dock in Nain anymore.

Even more ominous for the coast is Hedderson yapping on about looking at what the future configurations are for transport needs for all of Labrador. Is this just more stall tactics or do they have a plan for a road linking all coastal communities to Goose Bay.

Personally I doubt that a road will be built in the foreseeable future. Some may think a road or rail link to any uranium mine outside Postville may be on the cards. Lets just hope that is wishful thinking, and it is years down the road anyways, and it does not meet all the other communities needs.

We had all these pipe dreams floating around in the early Voiseys Bay negotiations, non came to fruition.




Another warm one on the way by feel of it, 5 days in the low to high 20s, good for growing but we are not acclimatized just yet. By the time we are the arse will fall out of her boy.

This story out of Ottawa is interesting and topical for a number of reasons.

 It highlights the fact that there are still Inuit (though from Nunavut) who still have that sharing spirit and are concerned for their brothers and sisters back home.

I wonder if the same siprit could be on offer here in  Labrador. Beneficiaries of the Nunatsiavut land claim agreement living outside the land claims area could come together and find a way to help out their less fortunate brothers and sisters back in the claims area. Lord knows there are many in need.

I mention this because during the recent presidential election one highlight of the campaigns hit home hard for me. The highlight is of greed and me my I want what you got.

Many people living outside the claims area seem to have a belief that they are be ill done by compared to those inside the claims area. They want what they perceive they in the claims area get.

The only extra benefit I can think of is access to homes at a cheaper monthly rent and no property taxes. But personal tax and water and sewer taxes are charged. And the names on the housing list are many and overcrowding is a serious problem.

Well maybe they should try living inside the claims area before deciding how well off the people are here compared to those living outside the claims area.

Sure some inside the claims area are doing very well, but most I know are living from week to week, and those are the ones with 1, 2 or more jobs in the family.

People who work seasonally, are living on welfare and fixed incomes do not get to live from week to week comfortably, their monies do not last that long.

Everything cost more inside the claims area, therefore pro rata higher HST taxes  are paid. 95% of federal income taxes are paid to the Nunatsiavut government.

0% of taxes paid by beneficiaries outside the claims area go to the Nunatsiavut government.


We have no doctors, roads are gravel and very dusty. No cabs, no restaurants and for the most part no bars just for starters.

So beneficiaries outside are not contributing yet you want all these perceived benefits you are not getting.
Products and services are cheaper. Better roads, better infrastructure in every area of life, Transport outside Labrador is cheaper and more convenient with road and air all year round.

So maybe some reverse thinking is needed, instead of me me me how about getting together and thinking about how you can help the real needy back in the home land, the claims area, the land of Nunatsiavut.

What a day yesterday, up to 24 official and 26 at the house. Speed boats going off and people fishing with rods along the shore.

Temperatures are supposed to stay in the mid to high teens for most of next week, though showers are on the cards.

On arriving home Wednesday the heat was oppressive, over 30 degrees, so Carter, his dad and mom headed for Gosling Lake for a cool breeze.

A little hesitant at first Carter soon took to the water with abandon, his first venture into open water.

There are several rather risque pictures of Carter with little stares strategically placed but I decided, though tempting, to leave those out.

The latest in the comedy that is marine shipping is the Northern Ranger is due to leave St Johns today. Will it, who the bloody hell knows.

I little dicky bird whispered that one of the problems has been the ships plumbing, Stuff like heads and showers not working throughout the ship.

As each year passes the Ranger is in increasing disrepair, its been 10 years now since the plan to have a new vessel built or purchased for the north coast run was presented to Nunatsiavut Government. 
Not a dicky bird on that plan for several years now.

The big bye bye for Carter at airstrip yesterday. He just loves planes, cant take his eyes off them when around them. When the red plane stopped and the door opened he took off for the steps, wrong plane.

Gran parents, uncles, auntie, cousins, siutik all there for the send off.


While there the first boat of the season came into view out of the fog. Only the oil boat but a sign that the ice is almost gone.



















On the way home I took the shot of char hung out to dry. The scarecrow must work to keep birds away, it was there last year too.

On the shipping front, word is that the mv Astron will be back on the coast as the freight boat. No news when the first trip will be, sooner rather than later one would hope as the amount of freight being flown in is increasing, as are the prices of goods.

In the laugh to you cry category. After steadfastly announcing that the Northern Ranger would be on her way to Goose Bay today it is now announced that her departure from St. Johns is on hold.
One could wonder if Transport Canada inspection is holding her up or the work that is supposed to make her sea worthy is.
The Astron is due to leave Lewisport Monday, ports to be announced. 
Excuse me while I go change my underwear. 

Darn it, when you don't want the fog to burn off it does, Cater will get away as planed by looks of it. He has been fitting in well with lots of walks and visits to different places. His uncle Matthews birthday yesterday was the main reason for the trip, now it is off back to dad and Goose Bay with hot oh weather, water shortages and bush fires.
Yep, water restrictions in Goose Bay, after all that snow and being close to the mighty Mistashipu river they still cant get it right.
Makes you wonder what the government was thinking when they appointed the mayor to these boards.  Oh Leo must have some hidden skill sets that have not come to the public's attention to date.

Meanwhile back on the water, for those that took CBC HV-GB report at heart that the Northern Ranger would be arriving Goose Bay 9pm tonight. Well we tricked ya, the ship is still in St.Johns and may arrive a day later.
I think Tony the announcer needs a more reliable private source for info on marine shipping. Having said that I seems obvious there is not a reliable source on marine shipping within the province so I should not be too hard on Tony.

Unofficial results from the presidential election held This past Monday are.

Rigolet, lampe 33 Leo 58.
 
Makkovik, Lampe 35 Leo 75.

Postville, Lampe 10 Leo 53.

Hopedale, Lampe 108 Leo 37.

Nain, Lampe 349 Leo 120.

NWR, Lampe 21 Leo 67.

HV-GB, Lampe 213 Leo 356.

Mail in, Lampe 302 Leo 341. 
Mail ins would include mostly votes from what is referred to as the Canadian Constituency. 

Leo wins by 36 votes over Lampe.  1107 to 1071.

For the statistician there are some interesting stats in the above figures.

Meanwhile back at the diner. Other evening had a great healthy of sorts meal. Beef\caribou burgers on a bed of herb salad topped with ketchup, bacon, tomato, egg, forgot the red onion, with side of sauteed mushrooms.

 

Woke up to fog again, temps are warmer though, +6, I know many would be getting out the long johns.

On the election for president of Nunatsiavut front. I usually rely on Frans numbers as she stays up listening to CKOK for results.

The numbers are all lover the place and are not that clear but it seems Sara has 1,107 to Johannes 1,071.

That is fine until I look at the facebook sites of the two candidates, Sarahs people are congratulating here, then over at Johannes site people are saying the results wont be known until Thursday, total confusion there, or wishful thinking, who knows?

CBC is reporting Sarah the winner by 36 votes, but Thursday seems to be the official day of anointing.

One thing seems clear, the total  votes are marginally down from the first round and the percentages for all the coastal communities are miserable except for Nain with 55% voter turn out.

So this whole process has been very slow and drawn out, time for a re gig of the election process. As one commenter mentioned, maybe time to look at preferential balloting. That way if more than one candidate runs, and that is more the likely, then you just have the one round of balloting and the winner is found by process of elimination.

On the water the Northern Ranger is reported to be arriving in Goose Bay Wednesday at 9PM and departing for Rigolet at midnight arriving 7. 30 Thursday. Not a word about freight boats. 

The new president elect for NG stated on CBC radio just now that the shipping mess is of huge concern to her. Well I wish her luck in trying to sort that mess out, she will need the luck as good management is surly absent. Perhaps Sarah can change that from a NG perspective..

Weekend weather was on the chilly side with in winds. Ice was broken but still quite heavy Saturday but then things thinned out Sunday and the temperatures warmed up about midday.  So I guess Sunday was first day of open water, boats going off without fear of getting stuck in the ice, at least around close to home.

I took a walk to take some photos, on heading home I ran into Cater, his mom, grandfather, great grandmother and Terrence heading to the play ground. 

Siutik was in a frisky mood running all out and giving Terrence what for plus playing with kids and a pup that was hanging around with us while its owner was running around the ball field. 

Monday is voting day for president of Nunatsiavut Government. Its been a long haul for the two remaining candidates and the voters. Best of luck to both candidates.

Some good news for Nain as well, finely some help for seniors who cant get around as well as they could, plus some extra play areas for younger kids.

Carter and Company's arrival disrupted radio bingo for Fran and visiting friend.Not that Fran minded nor the friend who won one of the smaller games.

 

Siutik had a great time at first but got a little uppity when Terrence became a little rough, she gently showed her displeasure.
Carter sure had the time exploring every nook and cranny, we had not Carter proofed the nick knacks, nothing broken. Matthew was along too but he is camera shy still.

Excuse me while a piss myself laughing will ya. The mv Northern Ranger was scheduled to leave Goose Bay today for Southerner ports only with passengers and freight.

Lo and behold CBC HV-GB just announced she is still in dry dock in St.Johns undergoing annual re fit.

 Now how did the venerable minister Heddersen not pick up on that and announce that the Ranger would not be ready?

My usually reliable source predicted this some time back.

Makes one wonder with great apprehension what is in store for the freight boat does it not?

post cards

from the dump.

Well the photos were taken from the dump, not as many people out fishing this morning, does not look like the catch is very good yet.

While it is not quite official open water the ice has broken free from shore in many places. It will all depend on the wind now, and there has not been much of that these last days.

Quite a few people trying their luck with rod and some walking on the ice jigging through cracks in the ice.

Noah Nochasak even had his latest kayak creation out paddling along the shore.

Ironic:  after my dust bandit post yesterday I go out early and there is calcium on the road.

Not to worry though, my mask is not put away. Unsolicited general consensus is that the calcium was not applied in a very uniform and efficient manner. Some sections of road are covered from edge to edge, other sections just one side of road, other sections just the middle. Why it was applied in this manner is a mystery to most, and my days of hitting my head against a brick wall trying to make sense of it are past.

If no oncoming traffic I can zig zag my ATV keeping to the calcium covered parts lessening the dust kick up. In a truck or other vehicle that is not possible.

Noticed a couple of swallow looking birds zipping around the house yesterday, seems to be an abundance of unusual species of bird life this year.

Готовый к вызову пыли.

Getting sick from the dust so took drastic measures.

Had lots of stares ridding around like the masked bandit of Murmansk, but hay, don't need to be eating this grit every evening.

May have to order a ball cap like the image, just need to change one word, could be a big seller.

 

Good thing the tourist season is not fully under way, just Labrador folks and some Nunatsiavut outside employees in town, let em eat dust seems to be the motto.

La bocca che annaffia la torta di pizza.

Thanks to the coast from Hopedale to Black Tickle we have no planes again this morning. Socked down in fog cept for Nain basking in sunshine as has been the want last several days.

I read from time to time articles on the virtues of wood fired brick or clay pizza ovens. One article was about a BBQ extension for baking pizzas. The cost of same seemed excessive for the end result.
For sure brick or clay would be the ideal way to cook pizzas and many other dishes. Totally cost prohibitive for up here, but still I get ideas from reading stuff.

I have a clay pizza pan, a convection oven, a pizza peel and good recipes. So gave one a shot a few days ago.

I made sure the peel was well lubricated with corn meal having made the mistake of not doing that last time, what a messy pizza.

The clay pan was placed low in the oven, raised to temperature to 475 convection. Slid the pizza right on and within 12 minutes the pie was ready to go.

Moving right along with no news on shipping news, CBC had report updat this morning, no surprise there is no new years.

Nice weekend on weather front. Saturday hot [relatively] 18 degrees, Sunday a little cooler. Folks out and about, kids playing ball, vehicles driving around kicking up road dust.

Forecast is for mid teen temps for rest of the week. Itching to get some plants into the green house but must stay focused, still getting 0 temps and frost in mornings.

A black bear is hanging around between the town dump and town, seen near the school yesterday.

Spike is a big male husky that we [Siutik and I] visited periodically on our walks. Big gentle giant of a dog, he loved the attention but had no discipline, and I did not have the time [nor thought it my place] to instill some.

We knew Spike had had a fox in his space but did not know he was actually bitten. We were also under the impression he was quarantined for 15 days, now it seems it's 45 days.

Update on Spike:  The good news is that Spike is back at home, not sure what is going on with the 45 days story, must be another dog. Owners have to keep an eye on Spike for a bit, seems to be a lot of foxes around testing positive for rabies.

On the NO shipping news. Retailers and consumers in increasing numbers up and down the coast are wondering what is happening with marine freight shipping this year.

No news from the WST minister, no news from CBC HV-GB, who have put in requests for news but there is no news to report.

Word is ships are running further south, like into Lake Melville, the ice should start breaking up this way by next week, so should be relatively ice free mid month.

Retailers have to make orders and arrange for them to be delivered to points of demarcation. No news of what the configuration is just delays these things.

Meantime the shelves are getting bare, much food is being flown in [and will be for foreseeable future] upping the price consumers pay.

Some good news is much needed to boost peoples physiological well being after the long winter. Lets hope it is not the sort of over hyped good news of last year that resulted in the worst shipping season in living memory.

OK, on second thought no news is good news.

Teasing fog yesterday, lift a bit then drop a lot. Heard a couple of planes giving it a look see but don't think any landed.

 It is like pea soup out there this morning.

Spring run off not only causes problems with our water quality, it does damage to the ecology in different parts of town.

The most urgent area that has been ignored to date by The Community government is the pole line up Nain Hill. {See latest pictures]. I have mentioned this before and brought it to the Community governments attention. Nothing has been done to mitigate the yearly erosion. Not sure why one would have to bring it to any ones attention as it is in full view for all to see.

Hydro pole lines have a right of way in these parts. Hydro [Nalcor] did the first bit of damage when they straitened the poles a few years back. By using a small machine the damage was minimal.

The major damage was caused by Westower when they put a large excavator up the pole line in hopes of getting a 4 wheel vehical and a tracked vehical up the hill. Westower were putting up an tower for Canadian Coast Guard.

No approvals were sort from Community government to widen and remove vegetation before the work was carried out, or that is what I have been told. .Still this is no excuse for as I have already mentioned, it is in clear view for all to see.

Apathy, stupidity and greed has led to this environmental mess that with each passing year will only get worse.

Earlier in the week we finished off the last of the pork loins. Did it up Greek style and under the broiler. The pasta was a mix of tomato sauce, feta cheese and parmigiano on top.

Thought this combination was interesting. The canoe is way past its prime, the tent still has good days ahead and the huskies were soaking up the rays.

 

This style tent was once very prevalent in the days people still left for the traditional fishing grounds. Char and salmon were the target, you brought the catch back to Nain if you were close, or a ‘collector’ boat would drop off supplies and pick your fish up for delivery to the plant if you were further north.
Families would spend all summer [short is it is] at the fish camps, some times moving some times at the one spot.
Trap boats were prevalent taking the extended families off leaving the town half empty. Now there are no trap boats, no more summers at the fish camps.

 I may be an old nostalgic bozo but for me that life style was one of the reasons that attracted me to the place. Mines, quarries, fast speed boats and big ski doos just don’t have the same allure.
Any ways back to reality. Inside the tent yesterday three young kids were playing cards on a mattress, only difference from day’s yore were the ipods sitting beside each kid.

The days have been on the cool side, not getting over the mid single digits for several days.Thick fog and calm out there early, looks like it will be like that until Saturday.

Sunny -7 early but warmed up expeditiously to +.05 by 8:15. Bit of frost early, good thing I brought in my lovely little petunias in their onion patch.

Other communities are reporting fog.

While not as catastrophic as last spring the towns water is a little earthy at the moment. Council is flushing lines and even distributing some left over bottled water to residents.

We are told that things could be back to more like normal today. Lets hope so as 7 liters of bottled water wont go far in this house of two, lordy knows in a house full.

Which brings one to ask the question, when will the money be released to complete the new dam construction? After all it is the road and line construction of the new dam that has caused all this heavy silting of the old dam.

Well the weekend was not so great weather wise; blustery winds up in the 79 clicks area. Made it cool walking up wind, cloudy and passing flurries added to the malaise.

Good weather for cooking, made pizza Friday night, one for us and one for a fundraiser effort.

Along with the pizza I made some peanut butter and choc chip cookies for the eclectic food available at the fundraiser. Amazing how many younger people are getting treated for cancer these days.

Did a BBQ of ribs and chicken yesterday. Warm spud salad and coleslaw with it.

Not much eclectic about the vegetables available in the stores these days, no imagination put into the buying.

So one has to use their own imagination to add some variety into the menus.

It hit 18 c in Nain yesterday, nice day and everybody out in summer gear.

Down side was that the snow melt came down with vengeance causing many wash a ways of roads and flooding of peoples yards, especially in the center part of town.  

With all the civil works that has gone on over the years a way to divert this annual event successfully has not been found.

Plus the tap water is much browner and gritty looking this morning. Have to go find a clear running brook but think run off too fast at moment.

One would think with all the snow that fell on Goose Bay this past winter forest fires in May would be the last worry.

Well one would be thinking wrong. A fire started out near the base [north side] yesterday morning.

Three choppers and dozens of ground crew fought the blaze initially. One water bomber arrived mid afternoon followed by another late afternoon.

                                              Photo shows view of fire in early stages from Aimee's yard. 

Fire brought under reasonable control late evening. Spruce Park, where Carter and co. live, was on evacuation alert. That was downgraded also late afternoon.

                                       This morning Twitter says flames coming up again.

Social media came into its own; Aimee was back and forth between twitter, face book and looking out the window. We were back and forth keeping track of text and photos of the goings on, very handy indeed.

Ironically; today was the day that the water bombers were due to arrive on station at Goose Bay for the summer season.

Oh, and the temperature reached 33 degrees at one stage at Goose Bay.

Bear with me as I feel like thinking out loud, on paper, what do they call that I wonder?

The shipping season is fast approaching, any time in the next month ice conditions permitting.

Still no news from the Minister of Transport as to any ships readiness, when freight could be expected to be accepted for ports in southern regions and the like.

Be nice to know the status of the Northern Ranger, how is the seasonal refit proceeding, will she be mechanically  fit and surveyed ready to go without the past years hic ups.

On last update the minister mentioned that 5 vessels were being looked at for the freight service to replace last years the Dutch.Runner. With only weeks remaining to start of season would think you would have to have a vessel chosen by now.

But still no word.

Who is looking for the freight vessel, NL government or the guys with the contract CAI-Nunatsiavut? 

I ask this for the simple reason things did not end all that well for CAI-Nunatsiavut operations with the Dutch Runner last season. She was pulled from service abruptly and some words exchanged between government and the operations manager of CAI-Nunatsiavut and the owners of the Dutch Runner.

Be nice to know if things have been sorted out [we know the Dutch Runner is out of equation] and if so what should the fine folks of the North coast expect in the way of marine services.

Each of the past number of years we have seen a deterioration in service, be it incompetent filling of containers, incompetent loading of containers on ship, inexperienced captains leading to captains a crew walking off the vessel. Ships scheduling being made up on the fly, freight destined for the coast being turned away in Lewisport yadda yadda yadda.

All these incompetence’s and lack of due diligence lead to frustrations and extra expense for retailers and consumers.

So what is going on and who is asking?

That’s it for thinking aloud.

Lots of robins this year, little buggers are everywhere doing the nesting and mating thing, not seen these numbers for years.

Spotted some sort of warbler yesterday, very briefly so could not get positive ID. 

Nephew past on that a red-poll [they have been around all winter] crashed into a window of his house knocking itself out.

Nephew brought it inside and kept it warm until bird came around, shock its head and made some noises, he then released the bird back out the window.

Just a couple of links as follow up to same posts of recent past.

One on an interview with our MHA on food insecurity.

Another on the town water situation.

Had a nice slow cooked braised caribou the other night, last night as well.

Taking pictures has a variety of elements, one of them is timing and another is luck. Looks like Aimee got those two going when she took this picture of Carter earlier this week. Talk about a proud arse.

Proud with his new summer kit on. Mom and dad n Carter took a road trip over to Labrador City for the long weekend. Bit of visiting and shopping, there is a Walmar.

Carter had a couple of small hissy fits on the way over, not used to long travel, but on the way back he was no trouble.

The town water was getting cloudy so camera in tow took a ride up towards the dam and new road.

Town had excavator at work diverting any muddy brown run off from the high side of the new road, and muddy it was.

Looks to be just general snow melt that cant be helped getting in the catchment area causing the cloudiness, usual every spring, not like last year for sure. 

So took a ride down to airstrip, agent told me I had  freight [they are called boxes] arriving on Air Lab freighter.
Friday is box day at the airstrip. Usually in the afternoon multiple numbers of boxes with the Newfoundland Liqueur Corp tape on them arrive, mainly on Innu Mikun.

I usually try and beat the rush when making my box order.

While waiting for the plane I headed down northern point, very windy but managed to take some pics of the ice, which is very watery, while there two planes arrived one after the other.

For every negative story there is a positive story.

Alas the media, particularly CBC when it comes to covering Labrador, do not cover all that many stories that do not have alcohol, indigenous peoples, abuse and the like and put them up on the evening news.

Not that these stories should not be covered, they should, but perhaps with a little less zeal and what could be perceived as relish by the head honchos in Sin Jawns.

And CBC does cover positive stories, but again with less zeal and province wide coverage.

The negative went province wide yesterday, a story that had its birth on Facebook, brewed up from a Labrador story that ended up on Here&Now and regional radio news.

I find it abhorrent when animals are abused and battered, it happens too frequently in many communities, particularly in larger centers where it is too easy to get lost in all else that goes on in busy cities. Out in the boonies it is easier to get to the front pages, we wont go into why, it just does.

I feel if Ms Hill had omitted just one word from her initial Facebook threat then things may not have blown out of proportion. Then the radio interview with Ms Learning disturbed me a little. She sounded very aggravated and rightly so, but she also sounded combative and defensive at the same time, a bit like the premier when she is questioned about Muskrat Falls.

 Having said that I most likely would have sounded the same way if two truck loads of thugs had arrived at my place of work and threatened a junior employee as well as the rest of the board and staff of the shelter in absence.

There is always a bunch of people ready and willing to play the race card, if they are upset with attitudes towards then in general then go face the folks responsible, not some young volunteer at an animal shelter.

Any way enough of that, the real reason for this post is Blizzard, a rescue dog from Nain who has it pretty good these days down in St. John's. His new owners have it pretty good too by the look of him.

Not unlike Siutik, he could be mistaken for her son but he is not.

I first came across Blizzard the early days of his rescue, he was in the yard of his rescuers, and in the arms of one. We met just a couple of times but even at that young age he displayed the qualities of a bright smart dog.

The rescuers planned to send him out to St. John's to one of their parents, which they eventually did.

I have since found out that Blizzard is now owned by a chap [a friend of the rescuer] who has a dog training background. That is the new owners son in the photo with Blizzard at 5 months old. 

Blizzard is now 7 months old and get this, he goes visits schools and aged care facilities and interacts with children and seniors. Not sure to what capacity, should try find that out, but what a great story for CBC and any other MSM to follow up on.

There are many good uplifting stories of dogs being rescued off the streets in Nain and other communities in Labrador.

It is a small but dedicated group of individuals who take it upon themselves to do this. Kudos to them for taking it on, and without any government financial help I might add, unlike the thugs in the pick-ups at the animal shelter.

There is also an individual here who has taken it upon them-self to learn many aspects of veterinary treatment. Many people take animals to this person for treatment  for a wide variety of ills and sometimes injuries from abuse.

So when I hear of these animal abuse stories I don't dismiss them, but I do find heart knowing there is another side, the unsung heroes out there doing there best for defenseless animals.

Did some weeding and tilling of soil with the raised beds yesterday.

As you can see the seasons are a tad behind those in the south. Even the perennials, rhubarb, chives are still just dark stumps in the ground.

Folks are still venturing off on the ice goose hunting and ice fishing. Getting a little on the unsafe side now, but that does not seem to stop some.
Lots of fish hanging up to dry around town and our grandson Book dropped a goose off [plucked] last evening, very kind of him.

Out the kitchen widow on this Sunday morn.

Rain to sleet to big globs of white snow to sleet to?

Not surprised as council spent last few days filling all the pot holes.  Fill em in again next week.

Photo taken on my tablet.

On seeing this little guy's photo on Facebook I just had to seek permission to show it off. The photo was taken May 2011 here in Nain and posted by Keith's mom.

For all those health nuts out there, Keith is sucking the eye balls out of the heads of char as his mom assists by pushes them out with here fingers.

Wish I had been brought up with that, it would negate taking all those vitamins each day. As it is I just cant bring myself to sucking fish eyes.

Then we have two updated spring photos of Carter.

Cute arse little bugger with that "when I get my way smile".

Publishers note: The Carter photos are incorrectly credited, it should read Aimee McIntosh.

Thunder and lightning and heavy rain last evening, most unusual for this time of year. People who were on their way home from goose hunting must have been a little wet on return.

Mixed results with the geese, some come back disappointed; some get the one or two, people announcing on Facebook their first goose ever, young kids and women.

After all the tensions of late regards air search and rescue we have a positive result, all be it a bit by chance, and it did not involve the provincial or federal co ordination centers.

It does highlight that maybe there is a need for the province to take a good look at its service and protocols in relation to Labrador, it would be very revealing indeed in its inadequacy compared to others jurisdictions.

One person goes out without any safety precautions, another does take precautions. That is they way it is up here.

There have been some accidents [unreported] out on the ice also, that is just the way it is up here.

Great grandma has been at me to post Caters first card to us, it was for mother’s day. At 17 months I see potential.

It turned out that the dog that was thought to have rabies came back negative. Dog had symptoms similar to rabies, this can be caused by other issues like blood clot on brain, spinal injury etc.
The dog had been sick and had been treated for different things with mixed success before the rabies call was made, alas a miss call.

I think I will scoop the local media again: Goose Bay airport had a busy February with 2,488 movements. That is take off and landings not bowel. 

Though the story is a bit puzzling as Goose Bay does have an operational control tower.

Not very nice weekend on weather front, gray/white/wet and very still, still the same this morning.

People have it worse.

“They can go and get stuffed”, have not used that Oz colloquialism for some time. Have used “get stuffed ya barstard” now and again but most would not get the meaning, so why bother.

Any way I thought the bloke who used this colorful expression was right on as it pertains to this story of a brave little penguin.

Another day another moose story out of Newfoundland. This one a little more bizarre than most. I offer no further comment except to say one lucky lady and to point out the number of comments.

 

What a refreshing idea, open honest commentary about the Goose Bay air base from someone in the military.

No not that military, the Luftwaffe from Germany.

Highlights, the Germans loved the base, the laid back people and loved the flying and training area.

On relocating to other training areas the head honchos realized what a great place they had abandoned. It was the cost effectiveness that drove them away, and that would include local suppliers at the base.

Get a gander at this video, cock pit view of Labrador, not sure about the live ammo firing though, thought it was only dummy runs, but then it is the military.

Fran at the Heritage Forum show and tell, JCEM school in Makkovik.

\ Weather gray and intermittent precipitation last two days, not cold not warm.

With nasty weather forecast for today the heritage forum folk in Makkovik were extracted late last evening, Fran arrived home after 8pm. From the look of it out side we have not received any nasty stuff as predicted, looks like south of us again.

I took the two pictures from social media, one from Facebook the other from Twitter. Appropriate in these ever increasing food price times.  

They show people protesting high cost of foods at two stores in the north, one a Co-Op in Coral Habour and another at Northern store in the same community.

Buddy with bald head and camera is the Manager of the Northern store.

A link to a brief story is here. 

Update: Seems the right choice was taken, all flights [at least Air Nutatsiavut] to north coast are on hold, Wx not good south of here.

Uperty date:  Change again, flights are getting into Nain with a possibility into Natuashish. 

As of yesterday:

While all you folk down south are tending your crocuses and tulips and wondering how to green up that lawn without pesky pesticides we still have plenty of ice, dirty as it is.
I have started sowing some seeds, but this time to try growing some stuff indoors, small batches just to try things out.

The plot still continues to thicken in the aftermath of the Burton Winters tragedy. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary the provincial leadership still insists that everything happened as it should, except the part the Feds played.
It seems clear that everything did not play out as it should on the provincial level, so the agencies involved are playing political ping pong and the blame game. Its all too ridicules for words.

 I am no expert but here is how I see how search and rescue works in Labrador from the ground up. I may miss an agency or have the ascendance out of whack, so forgive me in advance.

First responders are local GSAR with RCMP as leads.
Canadian Rangers come into play also but I am not sure when and under what protocols are in play. Rangers and GSAR can also be the same people in many cases.
 Local RCMP then report to provincial RCMP command who are the operational leads in search and rescue in the province.

Then there is the Fire and Emergency Services Newfoundland (FES-NL) followed by EMO, but in what order I am not sure.
 FES-NL has the authority to call in contracted air services.

From there it seems to go federal to assets of the Canadian Armed services and the Coast guard.

Available but not used in the province are assets by a volunteer group called CASARA. Why the province and CASARA have not come to an agreement after 20 years of trying is a mystery.

So with all these groups involved and lacking some sort of coordination and accepted protocols, at least in the Burton case, would it not be prudent and in the public's interest to call an inquiry to attempt to fix something that is clearly broken.

 

Oh yeah, just aired this morning on CBC HV-GB. Plot thickens, waters muddy, pick your own analogy.

That fixed wing contract that Aurora Energy awarded to InnuMikun not long back.

 Wellllllll, it has now been taken from Innu Mikun and given to Air Labrador, an Inuit part owned airline.

No audio link up yet but make sure you listen to it when it is, mind boggling.

So here is the audio of two interviews, one with Aurora rep and another with NG first minister.

Lots of catch phrases like, propriety information, doing what is best for Nunatsiavut, Looking after the social and economic well being of the people of Nunatsiavut.

Be good to know what is really going on, since the story broke there have been figures thrown about from the 1 million dollar mark to 200 thousand to the now claimed 400 thousand value of the contract.
On the surface it looks like an Abbot and Costello comedy skit, 'whose on first".

But the underlying thing from my point is the double standard that NG is taking. Ask them to intervene or help in dealing with the food subsidy issue and the high cost of foods and all you get is, "oh we cant intervene in the affairs of private business" . But it is OK to intervene when you have a 51% stake in a private business.

This is looking more and more like a rabies year for sure. 14 confirmed cases in Labrador, two of those on the northcoast with one pending in a domestic dog.

I have been keeping a tighter vigil on Siutik when she is tethered out back, seeing as she is usually not a barker it is hard to know when anything unusual is hanging around.

I found an article in Nunatsiaq News  very revealing. Some years back I mentioned the small invasion of scientist and researchers scrambling up here during the International Polar Year.

As predicted most have come and gone never to be seen again, unless someone opens up the purse strings again. I see many references to food insecurity, children's health, mental health yadd yadda. Everybody knows the issues but more money goes into more research than getting down and doing some thing about it. Pisses me off no end frustrating to say the least.

Some are still hanging around, mainly folks from MUN, there is a different focus towards Inuit and Labrador at MUN now, but we still have to see positive on the ground results come out of all the research.

 A fine sunshiny spring day yesterday. Took these shots while down at the airstrip seeing Fran off.

A busy full week for Fran, on the weekend she attended workshops sponsored by NG and Status of Women Canada, "Embracing the Leader in you:Inuit women's leadership workshop".

My opinion is; not sure why Fran attends these types of workshops, she has more leadership in her big toe than most of the people who give the workshops [who are invariably young go getter's from the south].
Though she does have fun and keeping her mind busy is good.

There were about 15 participants, all younger ladies. The moderator of the workshop told Fran that she should do the next workshop.

This week it is a Heritage Fair in Makkovik. Another NG sponsored workshop embracing all things structurally heritage. Preserving buildings is important, though from an Inuit perspective not so much.Again all the presenters are from the south.
There is going to be a show and tell section to be held in the school, Fran may have a surprise, more in line with Inuit thinking.

Ground caribou with duff [pastry] on top, Frans favorite, or rather favorite dish without bones. Served it up with yam/turnip mash and wilted baby spinach and mushrooms.

Weekend weather was mixed, not a bad day Saturday but Sunday was a mess with snow, wet snow, fog and drizzle into mid day clearing to quite nice. Planes got in mid afternoon.

The Burton Winters tragedy has legs, the tenacity of CBC and the MHA for Torngat Mountains and the many other people involved in the battle to have an independence inquiry has taken a dramatic turn. 

Boy the number of fish plant closures is ramping up and on a daily basis. The closure of the Burin plant is the latest. It was revealed that the raw frozen product can be brought over from China and processed at the plant cheaper than buying local raw product.

Two crab plant closures in southern Labrador bring the issue closer to home. All these recent closures are in communities with one industry, the fish plant that just closed.

Is the coinciding of this increase in closures co-incidental or what?

Thanks for the ideological re framing of Canada yous 39.6 imbeciles percentile.

The lay offs and cut backs from the Feds increases every day too. Government by Ideology is revealing its ugly head; no one can say yous weren’t warned.

Interesting comparisons of what is happening in Canada can be read in this new book “It’s even worse that it looks”.  I caught the authors in an interview on PBS news hour.

Scary stuff indeed. One particularly American trait is this bill C38, the budget bill that contains the revamping of Canada as we know it. 

At least the weather has been great since the weekend, nice sunny days, lots of people going off ice fishing, boil ups and some even scoring the odd caribou if they travel the distance. 

Nunatsiavut and outside areas are heading to the polls again. As mentioned in last post no one received the required 51%+1.

So Susan Nockasak drops out and Johannes Lamp and Sarah Leo run off, date to be decided. 

Break down of results are here.

Here are the preliminary numbers from yesterdays election for NG president.

Johannes Lamp      821
Sarah Leo              742
Susan Nochasak    569

Sub Total             2132
Spoilt                      15

Total                    2147         

CBC HV-GB is reporting that seeing as the one with the most votes did not achieve the 50% +1 total for clear victory there will have to be a run off between the top two.

The Labradorian newspaper is reporting that Johannes is the winner and will replace the outgoing president.

I'm going with CBC.

There was about a 43% voter turnout overall. Nain had the highest voter turnout with 57%. Hopedale was second with just over 50%.

I have the votes cast number for the Canadian Constituency at 431 but do not have the eligible list.

Beside dancing round the May pole today is voting day for the leadership of the Nunatsiavut Government.

Poles will be open in Nunatsiavut, Upper lake Melville and St. John's. If your confused by that then you are not alone, even beneficiaries of Nunatsiavut are confused.

Some did not know there was an election, some know but have no idea who is running, some know who is running but have not had a visit from any candidate. Still others want their perceived benefits and don't really give a hoot about being Inuit, they just think they are entitled to their entitlements.

If you don't take an interest in NG affairs and are not on Facebook, listen to CBC HV-GB or CKOK radio then there is little to indicate and election has been under way for a month.
I have not checked the whole town but I have only seen one poster in one house window. No posters around town, no noticeable poster advertising the election nor any of the candidates.

Twitter is reporting only 40 voted at advanced pole, that is .8% of 5,000 eligible voters. No numbers on the mail in ballot's from the Canadian Constituency. See, it is confusing.

After a snowy morning things cleared off nice yesterday, well it would wouldn't it, the weekend was over. It does not take much sun now to turn the snow into mush. You have to adapt to the one step forward on back, slip slide, use the slope to your advantage.

Sighted were lots of visitors walking around. They have a different approach to dealing with the conditions, more like a surf lifesaving gait, straight back, high knee lift.