After mentioning the lack of any consistent weather patterns we seem to be in for some consistency the coming week. Not sure its what I would have ordered if I had my druthers, but that's life.

We have enough snow on the ground around town now, came a bit late though as I noticed a water line break under one house yesterday, plus there was a main line break over the new year break that caused quite a watery icy mess.

I am slowly clearing the snow around the house, a few years back I would have reveled in this work, not so much anymore. Aches n pains abound.

A friend sent this via e mail, I am not that bent up yet but the plow sure would come in handy, low fuel, low maintenance, qualifies for green energy rebate.

Back into the deep freeze it is, -34 wind chills yesterday, -38 this morning. We have a good bit of snow around house that I need to shovel, when the winds subside that is.

Had a mixed meal last evening, partridge with rice and dough boys for Fran, cod and paella for me.

Busy airspace this morning, clear cold with brisk winds from west giving -34 to walk into.

Planes are playing catch up after couple days down time. The charter that was bringing folks from GB and picking up folks from here for the caribou meeting in Kujjuaq left early this morning.

Seems the provincial Government is not attending, they would be busy studying and accessing the situation, just like they have been doing the past decade or so. Talk about fiddling while Rome burns.

Twas a nice clear crisp morning yesterday, a thin layer of soft snow on the surface giving a good upper thigh work out but still crunchy non the less.

Walking down the shops mid morning Fran commented that we dont have any consistency in the weather patterns any more, there was a light pinky blue hue in the sky.

Later in the afternoon light snow started, then to heavier snow. Later last evening and this morning winds got up to 100 clicks.

Schools are closed in all coastal communities.

One blessing is that it sticks around (the snow that does not get blown away) unlike down St Johns way were after several feet of snow falls there is green grass two days later.

Pie time sort of a day yesterday. Lemon meringue with extra lemon.

Outside it was all pure white with light snow falling most of the day, much the same this morning, temperatures are up around the -6 area, nice.

 Just heard on CBC that there is a special weather statement issues for parts of Labrador for Monday. A system moving in and they are not sure of its intensity yet, nor what parts will be hit hard. Nain looks like missing it again.

Cloudy with very light snow most of yesterday, the chill and frost in the air was gone and getting up to -12 was heaven, as most commented on in passing.

Alas a was feeling a little down in the dumps, a left over of the Hydro issues maybe, plus the deplorable state of the stores stocks. I don’t know why but it bothers me so, it is after all 2013, not 1983.

It has been a couple of weeks since the last shipment of perishables, weather and holidays playing a roll.
So I took the initiative and found out that the truck with the produce had arrived in Goose Bay that morning, a day late, and that the shipments for Nain would arrive early afternoon.

Made my way down the stores, as it turned out I should not have bothered. Not very good quality on most items, the cherry tomatoes had liquid in the bottom of the plastic containers for one. The tomatoes looked OK but for some reason the liquid was sloshing around the bottom.
Some of the green peppers and all of the zucchini were pitted and bruised as well. Some one needs to do a re check on how the goods are shipped into Goose Bay. I left the stores before all the supplies were out on the shelves.

Price of what I did buy seems reasonable: Celery for $2:99. Zucchini-small for 0.55.  Leeks for $2:29. Red pepper for $12:49 a Kg, bit high but they always are.

The end of the day was brightened up by a can of Hop City Barking Squirrel Lager, and a bowl of partridge soup. Great was to blow the blues away.

Pity I had just the one can, an Xmas present. The deep color and hop flavor is so good. So good in fact that part of the hop taste stayed it the system when downing a can of Molson Dry.

Beautiful clear evening last night, bright sparkling stars, highlighted when the power went out at 6pm. Came back up 25 minutes later.

I am not sure when it will go out again (the power that is), the lights dim ever so slightly every now and then, and the heart flickers each time.

The New Years fireworks finely got the go ahead last evening too, weather and other things held them up. Personally I think the fireworks should have been sold off and the monies raised donated to NL Hydro to be put toward a modern, efficient electricity generating unit.

Sticking with that theme, there seems to be two trains of thought on power conservation. Some of the libertarian bent say screw NL Hydro and their asking people to conserve energy by restricting the use of Christmas lights. They argue that most modern lights are of the LED type (but not all) that use very little power.
While I agree with the LED low power concept I have trouble reconciling that with every household having all their lights on all the time.

I think the main reason for the call to conserve has a community spirit aspect (maybe not NL Hydro's intent) but it has that effect.

Many did take the call to heart and limited outdoor lights use, and I believe it extended further than that, it made people aware of other over uses of appliances and such indoors.

Why Fran has even reverted turning lights off, using candles and to almost no use of our washer over this time frame, choosing to soak items in the laundry tub and then doing them by hand.

Hows that Mr. Mayor who choose to keep his outdoor Christmas lights on, and has no home phone so no one can contact him in case of emergencies. 

So I think some community spirit out trumps selfish short sighted, we will show them Hydro folks something  bullshit.

Speaking of selfish short sighted Mayors. The man hi-self came out of hibernation to give an interview on how things are not progressing all that well for the town.

Seems the plan is to sit back with a hymn and a prayer and hope the nice sweet words of assurances from the PR department of NL Hyro work out.

From all that light flickering I some how doubt it. Better post this before it is too late.

All these power stresses, stores that are stocked like it is the 1980s all mean bugger all when one hears news like this, power to nature and the killer wales.

Not so windy today, got up to 105 clicks over last few days.

I was interviewed by CBC Labrador morning this morning. Subject of course being the electricity situation.

Well that was sure a weekend from hell.

First the long power outage Saturday, thankfully repaired by crew before the wind and low temps hit Sunday. Lot of tension and stress on folks as the winds hit 85 clicks and the temperatures dropped to -25 giving -45 wind chills.

Then light snow fell giving whiteout conditions.

Then the temperature rose to -13 overnight, boy what a difference.

Now we have been warned (via the MHA for Torngat Mountains) that a scheduled outage is pending when weather and temperatures permit. The outage is to do a more permanent repair on the temporary repair on the faulty engine.

I must add that our town council has been absent during this power situation, very poor form indeed, but alas true to form.

The severe chills did not stop the nalujuk (old Christmas day) from getting out, though the main event was in the school gym, a family event as apposed to people roaming around getting chased and hit by nalujuk.

Photo by Mary Tuglavina of Nain.

Have had a hankering for food with raisins in it, could be to do with my failed xmas cake, or I did not make any mince meat pies, whatever the hankering was there.

I love raisin bread but have not had great success making it, for some reason others raisin bread always tastes better (except that store bought stuff). 

Frans mom used to make the best ever raisin bread and cinnamon twists. Verona made voluminous amounts of these sweet treats, the intent was to have them for sale to make a coupla bucks.

Alas as soon as the word got out that the batches were about to exit the oven Verona's large extended family descended on the house reducing the extra bucks in the pocket. But Verona never complained. 

But I digress, Last week I gave it another shot, I dont like to make a specific batch for raisin bread but had come across and little trick that may suffice, and it did.
I took half a batch of plain white bread dough and applied the trick. Came out not bad either.

No photos but this morning I had french toast using a thick slice of raisin bread, boy was it good, as a rule I do not do french bread.

As the sun rises more pressure will be put on the Hydro plant engines, -24.7 at the house with -41 wind chills.
Sure hope people use some common sense and restrict to a minimum there electricity usage.

Well that was a kool day so to speak. Started off normal with rather a nice day with -21 to-15 temps, light winds made it even more comfortable.

Then around 9:45am the power went out. Power came back on some minutes later but only for a very brief time.

Power restored fully (after several blips) at 6:25pm. Almost 9 hours with no power in -24 wind chills creates a lot of stress on many people.

The lowest inside temp at our house was +13, that would have been hard to maintain had the outage gone on any longer.
Plus there is a storm alert issued for the whole of the coast, it is -39 wind chill this morning.

Why it took a repair crew 6 hours to get in from Goose Bay by chopper is a puzzle.Why part of the town was restored in minutes after chopper touch down is a puzzle (especially considering there was a crew in town at the time).
Why the power was not rotated to other parts of the town is a puzzle. (especially considering that that is a stated possibility if the one dodgy unit fails again according to a NLH press release).

The issue with our power supply is that all this aggro and lack of reliable generating capacity was all avoidable, if only NL Hydro practiced due diligence and higher quality maintenance and repair practices we would not be in the pickle that we find ourselves in.

One unit broken down and unrepairable, one unit in dodgy state (the one causing all the tripping) and one unit in good repair but for how long considering the situation.

I would hope the town burgers (or whoever it is in charge of the towns well being) would ask of NL Hydro some very serious questions and demand some serous replies.

One demand should be that the public has a right to be informed in an honest and timely manner, this is not the case to date.
Another demand should be that a public meeting is in order to inform and be informed, we need hydro management in attendance with the facts and what has been put in place to mitigate and improve what is clearly and inferior electricity generating facility.

Not a lot of active stuff going on here at moment, takes time to get ramped up after the holiday season.

We did have a house fire the other evening, totaled inside and no one was hurt. I know there are house fires all over, but they hit particularly hard in remote communities. When you consider about six houses are built every year we can hardly afford the loss of one, and some times more, a year.

The sea ice is not that safe yet what with the warmer temps, snow and wind not giving it a chance to strengthen.

We missed the snow storms of south, Hopedale and south seemed to have been hit hard. I know a lot of volunteer work was done in Hopedale shoveling peoples homes and offices out. It was so deep even skid doos were getting stuck and needing to be towed out.

The picture is a shot of one of the Hopedale teachers residences, lots of people turned up to help dig put.

Makkovik was hit hard too all but shutting the town down for some days.

The temperatures are supposed to drop this week so the ice should firm up, but who knows for how long these days.

Hydro plant uperty date: For what it is worth the spokesperson for Hydro now says there is a new unit to be choppered in some time soon. Be interesting to fined out the size of the new unit, then the size of the chopper. Also is it a new new unit of a refurbished new unit, its all in the words in it?

The last of the Mohicans, gone the way of the dodo, Bioethics, walrus, cod, yada yada yada, all gone or near extinction.

Now with the last of the caribou taken out of the freezer and consumed the question is; when will we be able to enjoy another meal of the healthy fat free meat.  

Turned out not bad either, simple, elegant presentation.

Seared it before roasting, served with garlic mash, mushroom gravy and sweet cabbage.

Nothing earth shatteringly exciting happened to bring in the new year in our house. Happy New years one and all.

I have made a resolution though, first one ever, Fran seems happy with it. 

The weather has all been south of us again, we have a wind and blowing snow warning issued now but I dont see us getting hit too hard.
Temps are mild sitting at -5 for some time now.

I did manage to sit through a whole game of hockey, Canada Russia, could never do that with NHL.

Here is a photo of the last rime I will wear my favorite lined shirt. 

Out it goes today, Fran is happy, cant comprehend the aggro about this, it only has frayed collars, couple small rips on the sleeves and a large rip one side at the bottom.

Took an early morning walk and let Siutik run for a bit yesterday. She took her time getting in the mood, she is not that keen on crusty surface snow but soon got into the mood.

There is some snow in the forecast for this coming week, not a lot and temperatures not below -8 in evenings.
Nice temperatures but a bit on the oped side for this time of year.

Still trying to off the left over Xmas ham, this time on a baguette with lettuce, tomato and red onion with sweet potato fries on the side.

We had a shortish (40 min) power outage yesterday afternoon. Not long some would say, but when you know the truth about the state of the power plant it is not very comforting.

Another nice day on the books yesterday, clear and light winds. Some very light snow falling this morning, we wont get any of the snow that seems to be falling by the truck load down south.

The harbor ice is firming up but still caution in needed.

News came from Hopedale that an older gentleman went through the ice and perished yesterday. He was walking, so with his experience and still having difficulty just shows that great care is needed when out on new ice.

A correction on the Hopedale incident, man was on snowmobile. 

Well the yucky weather did not deter the late shoppers and those wishing to win any of the Xmas draws in the stores on Xmas eve.

Wet snow and light rain fell most of the day, it stopped precipitating long enough in the afternoon for a couple of planes to get in. Temperature of +1 all day.

Still just above 0 this morning. Hope Santa and his deer had rubbers (wellington boots) on,

Have a great day everyone.

Compliments of the season to ye one and all.


Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah.

It was a grand day indeed yesterday. Winter solstice and the sun sure took its time getting up over the mountains. Top photo taken at 8:10 official sunrise.
Then mid morning we took a stroll down to airship to see Carters dad come in and give him some goodies.

By 9:45 the sun was just barely peeking sober the lowest of the hills and reflecting off the ice.

Meantime at the strip busy times, four planes on ground at one time with Carters dads plane expected soon.

Lots of people and freight being moved this time of year, our grandson Brian even had a ski doo come in on one of the planes.















With clear sky, no wind  the snow capped mountains and the clear glassy ice it sure was a picture perfect scene.

Now it is time for snow, not enough to get around town without wearing out the skis and tracks of snowmobiles, not to mention the insulation value. But we dont need the aggro of the storms that seem to hit southern parts with increasing regularity and fearsomeness.

The harbor ice looked beautiful yesterday evening, all sorts of pinky blue hues reflecting along with the white capped mountains.
There have been folks out walking on it, always someone has to be the first.

The warm front we have in forecast wont help in strengthening the ice.

The H of A is still sitting this morning, the filibusterer continues, it is revealing the stark truth about who is going to be paying for this Muskrat Falls folly in black and white. It will be the ordinary folk of the province who will bear the brunt, with no possible recourse or review of rates for the life of the pay back.

As Pat Martin said; rat faced whores indeed.

The NL Hydro's appeal for conservation did not go over that well with folks in town. Rat faced whore would count as a polite response to NL Hydro compared to other comments on social media.

Made up some light wholewheat bread and some brushetta baguettes yesterday. Then had a hankering for something different,  Italian meat balls halved, tomato on one side of baguette, feta cheese and wilted spinach on the other side, marry them together, presto something different.

Would make a nice luncheon addition to the dinning room at the Atsanik Lodge.

Days will only get longer now.