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.