November Ice Fishing

Roasting a smokie on a fire.

Gearing up to head back home.

It's official... it is now cold enough that all the lakes are frozen and the road is open.  Last week we went ice fishing at Sam Arey Creek and caught absolutely nothing.  On the up side... I am not the proud owner of an ice auger. 

We went with some  band members from Winnipeg that have been playing at the Trapper.  The fire department was gracious as always and loaned us skidoos and winter gear.  This is our apres ice fishing pop at the fire hall.

Jay, Jason, Andrea, Leah, Corine and Noel. 

Rememberance Day

 

Annually the Fire Department gathers on Rememberance for the cenetaph ceremony.  This year it was an honour as the president of the Inuvik Volunteer Fire Fightes Association to lay a wreath.  The military fire fighters joined us at both big fires this past week, and it was great to have them join in the department photo.

Hallowe'en in Inuvik

I would like to start by saying that Hallowe'en in this town is a big deal.  It doesn't matter if you are two years old, or thirty two years old (as you can see).  My whole weekend was spent participating in the festivities, as well as working day shifts at the hospital.  Saturday night we headed out on the town and ended up at the Mad Trapper which is one of the only bars in town.  I'm very proud to say that we won first prize ($300) for best costume.  If you've never played tetris, I highly recommend giving it a try... this photo will make much more sense once you have.  I hope everyone had a great "holiday".  We only got 25 kids this year, and I don't remember seeing a single costume (eveyone was in snow pants and a parka). 

Leah is the orange tetris block (and laying inside her costume to make it all fit together),  Meegan's in blue, Bart is yellow (one of our medivac paramedics), Andrea (that would be me) is green, and Andrew's in red (the other flight paramedic) all went out for Hallowe'en.

In other news, the sun is quickly dissapearing... it now doesn't come up until around 11am.  Skidoo season is upon us and the road to Inuvik is now closed for freeze up.  All the produce prices have been jacked accordingly since access is hard.  If anyone wants to send me care packages (ah-hem), they get here quickly as everything is flown in as opposed to trucked up the highway. 

It is late, and I still have one more day shift to get through.  I miss everyone that reads this, assuming that I know you.

Bye for now.
Andrea

C17 in Inuvik!

 These photos are a bit old, but I thought they were pretty neat so I decided to add them.

The military sent up a few new firetrucks for the airport and did so in a C17.  It is hard to see how big it is because there is nothing relative to show it's size.  This is the biggest plane that can land in Inuvik, and it came pretty darn close to the end of the runway.  Lucky for us we have friends who tipped us off of its arrival.

 I thought a few photos of our last fishing trip would be good to add also.  The boat is officiall wrapped up for the winter, although there is still open water on the river.  Most of the lakes in the area have a crust of ice on them, and skidoos are already skpping over them.  Not mine of course, she has trouble making it out of my driveway sometimes.

Didn't catch any fish on this particular day, it was freezing outside.

And this last photo is just to show you that winter is officially here.  Snow is everywhere.  I have my winter tires on (thanks Mike and Kim) and the skidoo is warming up in the back yard. 

"Winter" Fishing

The snow is here to stay, the boat has been winterized for the season, and I actually heard snowmachines out on Boot Lake today. 

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Fall

Fall is here... well actually it is almost gone.  The leaves are all done with their colours and now just yellowing and falling of.  I love the temperature, great for hiking and being outside.  Rukus is healing back to normal... his incision has stopped leaking and his hair is slowly growing back.  He's got another month before it gets chilly, so it better grow back fast.

Boot Lake Trail

Boot Lake Trail

In other news, my fire pager went off  a few nights ago at 3am and we got to put out a nice little shed fire. It was a good little adrenalin rush to keep me up for the rest of the night. 

I'm still waiting for my vehicle's back window to be shipped from Whitehorse (see last blog's photo), so for now I have my back hatch window wrapped in clear palate wrap which looks horribly like Saran wrap.  It very ghetto looking and I'm finding it hard to drive around town with pride.  Perhaps for entertainments sake, I will take a photo to post for you.

Otherwise, all is well.

My new Blog site (I hope)

Halfway up the Dempster Highway.
What's wrong with this picture?