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.

Laura's sewing

While I was busy seal hunting this week, Laura was at the school sewing for her Professional Improvement Week. Laura and her friend Patricia hired two locals to teach them how to sew parkas and amautis.


This is the lining for Laura's amauti. The amauti is the traditional way of carrying your baby around town. The giant hood covers the mom and the baby and keeps them warm in the winter.


The girls did an amazing job with the trim on the amauti. All of the trim that you see is a combination of several different trims. Most of the materia was bought in the capital city Iqaluit and then brought back to Igloolik. A lot of the communities have their own unique style of amautis.


Laura sewed my parka. This is my lining all sewn together. The point on the hood is the traditional style for Igloolik men.


A picture of my finished parka. It is hard to see where the fur ends and where my beard begins. I still need to choose some trim for the bottom of the parka but it is very difficult because many of the trim patterns are very girly.


Laura also had a chance to make a couple of small parkas for when the baby gets older. This fabric is the same colour as my parka. We are going to add fur when we find something that isn't as overwhelming as my fur.


The second parka. This parka was made for about a 2-3 year old. It is so small that it only took 1 metre of material to make. The trim colour is the same colour as Laura's amauti.


Patricia hired this elder Marie. She helped both Laura and Patricia a lot and was very knowledgeable.


Linda Sheena is the girl that Laura hired. She is a grade 10 student and made Laura's amauti all by herself. She is a very good kid and spent all week at the school working. When Laura paid her, she was very excited to go and buy material so she could make her own parka.


This has nothing to do with sewing but it is pretty cute. Dan and Kim's dogs Toby and Kajuq have been climbing and staring into our window quite often. Gizmo and Steeler are quite interested and they spend quite a bit of time staring at each other. The cats will meow but I don't think that the dogs are very scared.

Seal hunting at the floe edge

This week is Professional Improvement Week. We have the week without kids and we get to do some fun individual and cultural activities. I decided to go seal hunting with a guy from my hockey team.

This guy is using a harpoon to check the ice. As they walk near the edge, they poke the stick into the ice to make sure it is thick enough. They also scratch the harpoon on the ice to attract the curious seal.


A hunter waiting on the floe edge. All of the floe edge (where ice meets water) is thin ice that constantly breaks off and comes back. When the ice shifts in, it breaks up and rolls into the hills of ice that you see at the edge.


Here is Alvin in his kayak. After you shoot the seal, you have to go out in a boat or a kayak to find it before it sinks. The entire floe edge is full of mist because the "warmer" water comes into contact with the cold air. The blue hazy mist can be seen for kilometres.


Alvin is getting ready to get back onto the ice. If you look closely, you can see the seal tied to the side of his kayak.


Johnny is pulling the seal across the ice. The texture of the seal is a lot like jello. I was told that this one was "a good eating seal".


Because it was a good eating seal, Alvin cut it up right away.


I learned today that a lot of the blubber gets left on the sea ice. Traditionally, they would use the blubber for oil lamps. But since we now have electricity, they leave the blubber on the ice. The polar bears come and eat the blubber and in return they get fatter bears to hunt. Of course, we all have a chance to eat some of the meat immediately. I had some more liver dipped in fresh, warm blood.


Here is one of the many cracks that forms because of the shifting ice at the edge. While we were there, the ice was cracking and shifting.


A picture of me at the floe edge. The water was so close. One more step towards the water and I would have been in.

Some randoms from late 2008

Since everyone complained at Christmas that I wasn't updating the blog enough, I though I would throw on some random pics for you to see.

We had a surprise birthday party for Marty in early December. This is a picture of the shot spear....and this is the last time it will ever be used!


World's Biggest Suck.


Some random people from Marty's party.


Dad's steaks from Paesano's. Mom's wimpy filet is in the middle somewhere.


The moon that never seemed to leave the sky in November and December.


And finally, the mustache I wore for a solid two weeks until Laura had enough and I had to shave it. I still think I was the best looking Mexican in Igloolik!

Return of the Sun 2009

Well, I finally found the time to start the blog again. The Sun is back!!! The return of the sun festival is happening this week with some different events each day. Today, we had the afternoon off today so that the kids could go play some games.


They build an igloo village with about 5 or 6 igloos. There are some elders who have been sleeping in them all week. If you want, you could put your name on a list and sleep in one of the igloos overnight.


The typical parking lot at any Arctic Event: snowmachines and qomatiqs.


Lots of people arrived with their traditional caribou skin clothing.


A dog team of puppies was giving kids rides during the afternoon. They were very cute!


Laura and Ellen enjoying some of the festivities. Ellen is the one in black who refuses to expose even 1 inch of skin.


Steve and Laura inside one of the igloos.


This was one of the igloos. It looks like two from the outside but they are joined together. They had a coleman stove heating the inside and it was very warm.


A girl sitting in the igloo beside the qulliq (traditional stove used to heat the igloo).


Laura and I inside the igloo. It was very cold outside but inside it was very nice but not quite warm enough to avoid seeing your breath when you breathe.