Baby Shower

Ellen and Marty threw a surprise baby shower for Laura on Sunday. My job was to get Laura out of the house and deliver her to the party. She reluctantly went to the house and was very surprised to see everyone there.


These little kamiks were made by Susan, an elder in town.


This quliq was also made by Susan. She wanted to make us one ever since she came over to our house when Laura's dad was here. Instead of a traditional carved stone, this one is made out of a fry pan that is cut and formed into place.


Caroline, Susan and Mary. Caroline is the SST at the elementary school and has been in Igloolik for 25 years. Mary is a teacher at the high school.


Sitting is Geraldine while Tami, Sibby and Ellen are standing. On the floor are Hillary, Chase (just the head) and Leah.


Mary Kunuk made this baby sack for the future Kennedy.


Ellen and Laura having some fun playing one of the games.


Leah, a grade 4 teacher, playing a game where they had to draw a baby on the top of their head without looking.


A picture of the group at Ellen's house.


The cake that Marty and Ellen made for the party.

24 hours of sun

The 24 hours of sunlight is now here in Igloolik. I couldn't fall asleep so I decided to walk outside and snap a picture. It was bright here all day and the sky was very clear. This picture is behind the government houses. On the left is cemetery hill and you might be able to see a silhouette of a cross or an inukshuk on the top of the hill. As you can see, the sun never goes down anymore. This is as low as it gets as it skates across the horizon for a couple of hours before heading back into the sky.

This picture was taken Sunday, May 24th at midnight.

Long Weekend BBQ

We organized a group of people to go out to Avaajja for a barbecue on the long weekend. We had planned to go Sunday but we had to postpone because of wind and blowing snow. The weather cleared up on Monday and we took our chance.


Bob, Dan, Simon, Larissa and Thomas. Thomas and Simon's are Larissa's brothers and they are visiting with their Dad for the next week.


Bob and Dan enjoying some BBQ. Bob told us this was the first time he has had BBQ since he came to Igloolik in August.


Maren, Laura, Patricia and Jay enjoyed the BBQ. I think Jay will also enjoy the fact that I took this photo mid-bite.


A photo of most of the group. You can see the firepit I made on the right hand side. I went to the dump and took out the inside of an old dryer and used my drill to make a bunch of holes. I tried to get a washer but couldn't find one.


Ellen, Sarah and Laura watching Marty being a goof and jumping in the hole. I sold the snowmachine but Matt, who is out of town, was very nice and lent us his Arctic Cat 570.


I used the auger to dig a hole in the ice. Unfortunately, it got stuck when it was down 6 feet. So, I had to drive back to town and get a chipper. We chipped a hole beside the auger and eventually it became free.


This is the point where the auger got stuck. There is a 3 foot auger and two 18 inch extensions hidden below the ice.


I really wanted Laura to come out and enjoy the day. She has been stuck inside a lot because of the pregnancy and it was nice to see her outside again. I took special care driving the snowmachine and rarely exceeded 20 km/h.


A picture of our street taken today. It's hard to tell from the picture but it was snowing pretty hard. On the way back, our group split into two separate groups. We were in the first group and made it back quickly. The other group decided to visit an old church near Avaajja and got stuck in some thick snow. They needed to use their GPS because they couldn't see town and were getting lost.

Laura at 28 weeks

Here are some belly pics.




Here is the quilt that Laura has been working on for the baby.

Ice picking

The water in the Igloolik reservoir has run dry so the town has been pumping water directly from a lake. The result: the water is a little brown and tastes a lot like a glass of dirt. People have been going to get ice from fresh water lakes and melting it for drinking water. Most houses in town have huge chunks of ice in front and you just melt is as you need it.


This picture was taken at about 9:30 at night. The sun is still up for another 2 hours but it looks a little like it is setting because it is going behind a hill.


Myself, Larissa, Patricia, Matt and Dan (taking the picture) went to get the ice.


A qamuti full of ice. You have to tow this load about 15 kilometres back into town.


Myself, Matt and Dan chipping out the ice. It's easier if you find a crack in the ice and then break the ice along the crack. If you get lucky, it comes out in big pieces.

Class Trip to Avaajja

The grade 7 classes went to Avaajja last week for their annual day on the land. I wanted to include more pictures with the kids but you are not really supposed to publish pictures of students on the web. So, I included some pictures from a far distance.


We hired 6 guides to bring the kids. The kids ride in the qamuti (sled) at the back and are pulled by the snowmachine.


This is the area where we went. You can see our little camp setup with our tent and absolutely nothing else around. Inuit hunters come to this area to shoot ptarmigans, an all white bird that looks a lot like a partridge.


Doing a little ice fishing with Ellen, the other grade 7 teacher.


This is the only place in our area with hills. Kids spent most of the day sliding and snowboarding down the hills. I also took a turn but failed to get any air.


This is where the auger needed to be started. I have a 3 foot auger bit and two 18 inch extensions attached.


This is where the auger finally stopped. Just enough length to get through the ice. I still had another extension but then you need to stand on top of snowmachines to use them.


A kid took a picture of our camp from on top of a hill.


I snuck out about 5 minutes of rest on the snowmachine before I was discovered and ambushed with cameras.

Trip to Avvaaja

A couple of people went for a snowmachine ride on Saturday to the hills of Avvaaja. Laura wasn't able to come because she can't handle the bumps on the snowmachine anymore.


Avvaaja is a popular spot. This was a second group of people we saw while we were out there. People go to hunt ptarmigan (like partridge) and gather fresh water ice because our water is so crappy lately.


The boys like to do rainbows on the sides of the hills. The guy waiting to go at the bottom didn't make it and ended up flipping his machine and breaking a windshield and a couple of side panels.


Larissa and Caleb took Maren's dog team all the way to Avvaaja. It took them about 1 hour to get there while it only took about 10-15 minutes on the machines.


Here are some pictures of our buddy Matt taking some jumps on his machine. Unfortunately, I no longer have a machine and had to sell it this week because we are leaving Igloolik at the end of the school year.


Matt jump pic #2


Matt jump pic #3

Trip to the bowhead whale

Marty, Matt and I went for a snowmachine ride on Saturday to find a frozen whale in the ice. It took some searching but we finally found it. It was impossible to see anything because the whale is buried under a lot of snow and ice.


The arctic garage. This igloo was built in January and is finally falling apart. Matt decided to back up his snowmachine into the igloo and I snapped a couple of pics. Of course, he got stuck and we had to do a little bit of digging.


Matt hammering the throttle and emerging from the igloo.


Some polar bear prints from around the frozen whale. People in town have said that they have seen about 2 or 3 bears around the site.


The whale is buried underneath the snow pile to the left of the snowmachines.


This pic is on the top of the whale. The bears have tunelled a hole down into the whale and have been eating it. It's a bowhead whale and the smell is absolutely terrible. They have carved quite a big hole in the side of the whale.


A pic of a polar bear print up close.

Ultrasound pics

Laura came back from Iqaluit with ultrasound pictures. I'll try and describe them as best I can


You can see the top of the baby's head with a clear picture of an arm and hand.


You can see only the baby's leg. When the measurements were taken, the femur (biggest bone in the leg) was only 3cm long. That is a very small leg.


A side view of the baby. You can see the head and the body.


You can see the front of the baby's face. If you look close, you can see the hands poking up and the feet poking up near the bottom.