The Sun Returns!

After waiting over a month to see the actual sun again, I was thrilled to see the beautiful sunrise this morning around 11:30am. I ran out of the house and down to the bay to capture the sunrise and right at the same moment I saw a woman taking her three huskies out for a run on the frozen bay. Everybody is very excited to see the sun again this week!

Water and Sewage Tanks

We had an interesting learning experience today that involved the water and sewage tanks at the house. All the houses in the community have fuel, water and sewage tanks attached to the houses and there are municipal service trucks that come around and fill/vacuum out the tanks.

Water truck delivery

Now, how exactly one knows they are getting close to emptying these tanks, I don't know but I ended up learning the hard way today. I noticed that when I turned the tap on or flushed the toilet there was a strange noise the water was making as it was coming out and I thought to myself, god I hope this doesn't mean we're getting low on water. Sure enough, not 20 minutes later I see the warning light on the water tank turn on- NO!!!! Suddenly all the things I still needed to do with water over the weekend started flashing through my head: this is not good! I saw all the trucks making their rounds in the neighbourhood and I prayed they'd stop at my house, but I think maybe because I am new in town they didn't remember to fill up my tank. Thankfully, though, I called the dispatch number and I was able to get the truck to come back and I tell you I've never been so happy to see a water truck in my life- now I can go and have a shower!

Typical house 

The other interesting thing about water and sewage tanks is that there seems to be some connection that when the sewage truck comes by and takes away your sewage, the house suddenly becomes permeated with the smell of sewage! Not a pleasant odour! The trick I've been told to handle this issue is that as soon as you hear the sewage truck coming through you run to turn on your taps and flush your toilet and this helps to alleviate the smell of sewage in the house.

Oh and then add to this the fact that the water itself at a given time of year smells like fish! Apparently the lake where they draw the water from isn't always aerated, so the water can take on a fishy smell. This happened the other day when having finished a load of laundry I went to put it into the dryer and noticed that all my clothes smelled like fish! You just have to laugh!

Christmas in Cambridge Bay

We spent our first Christmas in Cambridge Bay this year and while we didn't have many presents (most were in the moving boxes that haven't yet arrived), we still managed to get in the Christmas spirit and we had a nice dinner (although not on Christmas Day as I hadn't realized that a turkey needed to thaw for a few days BEFORE cooking)! lol..

Christmas dinner- Nicolas waiting for his turkey!

Carving of the turkey

We spent the next few days walking around town and visiting friends that had stayed in town over the break. Nicolas especially had fun visiting and making a gigantic mess of lego in our friend's house. We then went to watch the fireworks on New Year's Eve on the frozen bay- they were impressive!

Walking with Daddy

All bundled up

New Years Eve Fireworks on the Bay

Iqaluit, Nunavut

I went out to Iqaluit for work and it was quite an enjoyable trip as it was more like a small city (they even had a Tim Hortons in Inuktitut)! The landscape has more hills than Cambridge Bay and there was an excellent view of the community from the top of the hill. Just as in Cambridge Bay, people get around in cars and on snowmobiles, although here they seem to take great pleasure in trying to run down people on the icy streets (pedestrians don't seem to have the right of way).

Iqaluit

Coffee!!

No snowmobile & ATV parking allowed…

I also managed to visit St. Jude's Church which is in the shape of an igloo and the museum in town which has a number of gorgeous carvings. 

St Jude's Church, Iqaluit

Iqaluit Museum

Iqaluit Carving (Fisherwoman)

The view from the plane between Yellowknife and Iqaluit was really quite impressive as we saw the different types of land we were crossing. We even got a good glimpse of the sun!

Community

As we began to settle in we started to explore the community a bit more and enjoyed seeing the different types of houses and especially the 'arctic twilight' view over the bay.

As we got closer to Christmas there were several houses that were even decorated with Christmas lights. One particular house was decked out from top to bottom with even the dog houses and car decorated.

We even saw a bunch of kids playing hockey outside on the street one day when it was well below -40 with the windchill and we couldn't even understand how they managed to keep playing in such cold weather (but I guess when you're running around it helps to keep you warm).  Even Tetue has adapted to the weather and doesn't mind going out for short walks now. I suppose we too will begin to adapt and won't mind the cold so much anymore (although I do have to admit that touching cold metal doorknobs with bare hands is still extremely painful)!

Boiling Water in Freezing Air

Of course we had to try the experiment of throwing boiling water into the cold air (this particular day was around -35C) to see if the water would freeze. As you can see in the video below it did indeed freeze into ice particles and came down in showers of thin ice..lol..

First Week

New family portrait

The first few days in the community were full of discovering new things and finding out how to break out of our frozen door! The temperature has been quite cold (-30C and with the windchill more like -40s) and so we have been becoming accustomed to wearing all our winter clothes, even ski masks & goggles. Nicolas of course has a fit every time we bring out his boots, snowpants and jacket. It was only after about the first week that we felt comfortable taking Nicolas out without his bundled up stroller which was so warm that he fell asleep in it each time we went out.

Nicolas all snug & cosy for a walk

It was during the first week that we also found out that a nice smooth knife was the best manner to break the ice that creeps THROUGH the door overnight! It took a lot of chipping away at this ice frozen into the doorframe to get the door open each morning..lol.

Ice coming through the door

We also found out really how expensive fruits & veggies are: $21 for asparagus and $10 for one Costa Rican pineapple!! After we made that find Randall said he wasn't the only Costa Rican in town, but probably the cheapest! lol.. The community is pretty small with only 2 main stores (mostly selling food), one bank, an elementary & high school and health centre being some of the main attractions. Good thing is that it is fairly easy to walk from one end of the town to the other; however, walking in -40C+ temperatures makes a short 15 minute walk into an almost unbearable feat when your hands and feet start to freeze while you're walking with all your groceries. One valuable solution we've discovered to carrying groceries is to use sleds! Instead of trying to carry everything with awkward gloves, you just pile everything up on a sled and drag the sled behind you.

Omingmak St, Cambridge Bay