It’s been a while!
I left Arviat in February 2007 for Toronto, where I currently reside. I’ve decided to restore the blog in case it can be used to help people gain some insight into moving/living in Nunavut. I definitely appreciate my time spent there and the friendships I formed. If you’re going north, enjoy it. It’s an awesome experience.
Got notice yesterday that my rent is increasing Feb 1, 2007 to such an astronomical amount that it makes me want to puke. I can’t believe the cost of housing up here. I guess the GN is trying to get out of staff housing and their solution is to increase rent over the next few years to bring it up to market levels to try to encourage home ownership. My first question would be, what the heck market level are they trying to match? Because all this year I have been paying the same amount of rent per month that I had been paying in Vancouver (and THAT is saying something) for a new, large, gorgeous 2 bedroom condo with 2 full bathrooms, fireplace, patio, in a good/trendy neighbourhood, complete with underground parking and security system. My new rent as of Feb 1 would allow me to rent out at least half a house in Vancouver, or a full house depending on where I decided to live, in Vancouver. Is it the north’s goal to match Vancouver housing levels? And even if I wanted to buy a house up here, it isn’t like there is a market for that - I’ve maybe seen one house go up for sale in the 9 months I’ve been here. My options? Move in with roomies or take a roommate.
The shed is at a standstill. I need to put the door on and seal up the roof. I’m too chicken to get up on the roof though because it’s so steep and I’m afraid I’ll fall off and break everything. haha. And the door - the stupid door - it doesn’t fit. So I haven’t tried to fit it because it means I have to use a handsaw to cut about 6feet worth of, well, sawing. Procrastinating its finishment (is that a word?) but can’t do that much longer if I want to get it done before it really starts snowing.
Perhaps some of the most exciting news I have is a good stretch of time in Iqaluit in November for meetings/work. I’m actually excited about seeing another part of Nunavut, even if it is Iqaluit… 
I know I’ve been a bad blogger, sorry about that to anyone still checking this space out. I’ve been pretty consumed with work - way too much work. That and I was away for two weeks and just got back this week and am now trying to get things sorted out and cleaned up and all that stuff you do when you come back from a trip. I spent most of the time in Cuba with a friend and some days in Vancouver, but my days in Vanland were mostly working days. bleah. Not GN work, my other freelance design work I do (because I don’t have enough work already). Can you sense a theme? When I left, Arviat still didn’t know if winter was coming or going. I left without a jacket, planning on buying one when I was in Van, and did manage that successfully (along with a bunch of other clothes, I like shopping too much) so it wasn’t so much a shock (well okay it was) when I came back to this:
It’s hard to tell how much snow there was, but it’s a good thing I took that photo because the days after I came back, it totally poured and made Arviat a big mud pit. It’s still a mud pit. We’ve had more rain than snow in the past week and I’m really, really, really, ready for it to freeze and snow already. My quad is taking on a new brown colour and the jacket I wear these days is slowly turning from black to grey/mud. If I was into the spa thing I might find it refreshing, but otherwise I just have to laugh at my reflection in the mirror when I come back from the store/work/whereever and see mud spots all over my face/glasses. Fun times, let me tell you.
The quad, when it was actually ‘clean’
This is basically the extent to how much ’snow’ we’ve received since the day I came back. Not much.
The weather has been gorgeous the past couple days. When it swings to being cold I swear that it could snow, but then we seem to get surprised with warm days (no jacket needed, just a hoodie) and bright sun/blue skies.
Over the past weekend I enlisted the help of a local guy to raise the roof on the shed, so it is looking more and more official now - I have a shed! I’ll put some photos at the end of this post. Since the photos were last taken I have finished painting it the superman (supershed) blue, reinforced parts of it that still needed some work, and started collecting/salvaging materials for the roof. We had troubles with the peak and it doesn’t exactly match up, so I need to find something durable enough to act as a covering or whatever so the snow/water doesnt get in. Still need to figure that out although I have enough thin metal roof stuff that I might be okay with it. I do have quite a few more finishing touches to put on it, like the final door and reinforced siding trim stuff… but it’s coming. I wanted to paint the trim white for decorative purposes but am balking at the $45 a gallon for paint. This whole shed has broken the budget overall but hey, it’s a supershed and it’s for the quad. I feel like I should sleep in it one night or something.
Heidi has moved back to BC and is starting work in an area around where she was for the summer. It’s just Rosie and I now. We’re doing alright though.
I am taking a trip out in October for a decent stretch of time and going to Vancouver and then somewhere tropical. Woohoo for beaches and sun… and alcohol (this place is dry!). Have a work-related trip in November to Iqaluit that I am looking forward to as well, which is neat. Excited about seeing other parts of the territory. Going for a decent stretch of time so I am pretty stoked about that.
Here’s some supershed photos:
The weather for almost the past week was gorgeous - warm and sunny. Like seriously warm. Warm enough to make you wonder what the heck was going on with the weather. It was great for working on the shed… until it took a nose dive the past couple days and it’s been raining.
Here’s some photos from Sunday eve:
Things have been a little busy. We had visitors - Heidi’s dad George and his wife Sarah - for two weeks, which was great. They got to go on quite a few amazing adventures up here. Work has been really busy for me this past month. Won’t write much, but will leave you with pictures from the shed that George started building and I get to finish:
Today was a totally gorgeous day, for once the weekend was nice and the weekday was shite. Woke up early for a weekend (9ish) and tossed the dogs outside to discover it was really nice out, and quiet, because most everyone else was sleeping. Threw on a pot of coffee, got some breakfast together, and went out to the beach-y area with the dogs. Weiner dug trenches as usual and Rosie was obsessed with fetching. It was totally warm out, even at 10am, and I so wanted to just pass out and sleep more on the sand but Rosie wouldn’t leave me alone.
So that was great… came home… did random things… and then around 3pm when I thought I would start cleaning (Heidi comes back tomorrow) I realized the day was still young, and it was still very gorgeous out, and I hopped on Uma (the quad) for some more movie joy-riding (I love youtube). Had fun driving like a maniac out the main long road, passed a wedding at a cabin that looked really nice, and then about an hour and a half later I did the thing you aren’t supposed to do- I had gone out alone, not told anyone where I was going, went further than most people do unless they are going to a specific location, and then went off the beaten path and ended up getting stuck in a major mud pit that I couldn’t get out of. Oops. The front right tire wasn’t even spinning, it was totally locked in the mud/bog area and the other 3 were just spinning like mad. I gave up trying after 10 mins (realizing I was making the situation worse and sinking) and walked up to the main path in search of anything I could use to either dig myself out or get some kind of traction on the wheels. A few caribou bones and large slabs of stone later, I managed to find a decent sized plank of wood and then my saviours came along - a small family (2 adults and maybe a 2 year old) returning from fishing on their quad. They had rope and were kind enough to help me out. It took us about 30 minutes at least to get me out of the mud, crap what a workout! I was covered in mud up to my knees and my shoes are trashed. The quad got a workout trying to reverse but it finally got free and we managed to get back up no problem. It’s a good thing they came along because on the entire ride back into town, I didn’t pass anyone going out where I was, and no one drove past us while we were working the quad out. Yeah, don’t go out alone next time! It probably would have taken me hours to walk back into town and I would have probably had to rescue the quad the next day.
Otherwise it was a good day… lots of pictures and more videos. Videos are becoming my new favourite thing!
Rosie being way too awake at 10am:
All those lines/trenches in the sand have been dug by Weiner at some point over the summer:
My new happy place:
The mud I got stuck in:
Afterwards, even tho I had run it through water:
Although all of yesterday was pretty much crappy and rainy, right after work it got nice (as in sunny but very windy) so I took a quick drive. Here’s some photos to share… oh the novelty after about a week of rain!
My return trip from Vancouver, flying over/into Arviat:
Leaving my gorgeous Vancouver:
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