The Blog Bog of the Tundra

Tadaa!!! Haticus Completus

2008-11-16T21:29:00.000-05:00

Okay.. now I can get back to my regularly scheduled life.

Well its not quite done.. it needs 2 i-cords and possibly I"m contemplating blocking it to make it happier.

Lone Pine Hat

2008-11-16T16:52:00.000-05:00

Ear flaps, Cascade 220 wool and my first attempt at a knitted group of 7 tree.... results coming soon.

Life in a 8 store town

2008-11-15T11:57:00.001-05:00

Yes... after living in a 1 store town.... the shopping opportunities here are mind boggling. However, this is where I do um... so far 98 % of my shopping. I finally discovered that in spite of appearances the Saanvik Coop is indeed open. It just doesn't have windows - so it looks closed. They actually have a good selection of household goods there. So - I'm sure I'll be shopping there at some point. Another suprising thing is the number of trucks here. Even when I was in Rankin 8 years ago I recall snow mobiles dominating and I thought the parking lot full of snowmobiles in Repulse Bay was really "north". I guess a lot of folk haven't pulled their snowmobiles out yet owing to the very thin layer of snow.

In other weird and wacky news. Since I put up that link to "Is your cat planning to kill you?, 24% of the key word hits on my site are related to that topic. Are they looking for the website or is the world full of people wondering if their cat's are homicidal plotters? I guess that is one way to improve traffic on your site.

Anywho, the dishes are done, the coffee is made and its time to make up for inadequate amounts of cardio all week....

Jennith

The Scarf :D

2008-11-15T00:05:00.000-05:00

My Scarf Model bailed on me and its actually pretty hard to take a picture of a scarf on yourself. So here it is on the ladder. It doesn't look as warm hanging on the ladder as it does wrapped around my neck... its super warm... and yes Gabe 5.5 ft.. not m :D

Interwoven Sky

2008-11-14T21:55:00.000-05:00

Maybe I've got fiber on my mind. I just finished a beautiful alpaca scarf. :D (Paton's Rumor) Its 5.5 m long and has a fringe. I need a model to photograph before I post a picture.

I had some stuffed squash for supper. I appreciated it muchly. Squash is available, but dear. It was a nice switch. I've been so busy this week that I've mostly been eating stuff I froze a while ago or stuff out of boxes and cans.

So... Its going to be a busy weekend. I have at least 3 classes of notebooks to mark on top of anything else I'd normally do on the weekend. So, I'd better get my space organized and get to.. sooner started, sooner done.

Is your cat planning to kill you

2008-11-13T22:22:00.000-05:00

This link comes from my friend M. - it was too cool not to share. It makes me glad, perhaps, that I don't have a cat. :D

Meanwhile.. the sky is clear and the sun has a nice sunspot, but nothing exciting is predicted for the next month. Tomorrow is the end of my third month here - and I'm not even sure where the time has gone.

Musical Associations

2008-11-13T00:50:00.002-05:00

I switched the playlist on my iPod to an older one entitled "A Wind Driven Snow" - I might have to do a remake once I really know what the term wind-driven snow means. The first song on the playlist is "Coffee Spills" by Stabilo. Its a song I listened to a lot when I went through my Stabilo phase last year. I was suddenly hit by an intense image of driving my car from Guelph to Cataract on Hwy 24 in a snow storm. (I swear it snowed nearly every time I tried to drive up to Orangeville last winter). It was so weird - almost like being there - and so foreign to my current existence - I haven't driven anything in nearly 3 months. In fact, the last time I was behind the wheel was probably coming back from the Swiss Chalet the night before I flew north - unless I went for a second coffee later that night. I've hardly even been a passenger in a car since leaving. I like the fact that I don't have any need for a car - although I miss being able to go on a roadtrip. I enjoyed the drive to Orangeville. I used to come on on Mississauga via Belfountain - some nice topography and scenery. I'm going to miss the Halton Ski Club trips up to Stayner and Mansfield too.

In other random notes on my life -

I went for my first cross country ski yesterday. It was -7 C with a bit of fresh snow - so I took my opportunity and skied partway to the airport and then back to the school. There were a few places that could have used more snow and less grit, but otherwise it was pretty good. We even got another bit of snow to day. Hopefully, we'll get a nice bit soon - although looking at the historic weather - we really don't get much snow past October. Still, our temperature are still above the long term average - so it seems reasonable that there could still be a decent dump of snow to improve the ski conditions.

I ran into a nurse at the store who has been to Kash in recent years. Its funny how small a world it is. I still often wonder how my Gr. 8's are doing. I also hope well - but I know that things have been tough with all the evacuations and upheavals the last few years. She says the Northern in Kash is really nice. They built it the year after I left. When I was there, the rumour was that they used yellow rope to keep the building from falling apart. I'm not sure if that was true - but that was the going tale.

Knitting

2008-11-11T11:38:00.000-05:00

Not the best photos.. but here are the scarf and socks that I'm currently working on.

And they rode a Kamatik into the sunset

2008-11-10T00:52:00.000-05:00

Okay... misleading caption. I took a picture of a random kamatik witht the sunset behind it and I'm tired and I don't want to organize myself to take pictures of my current UFOs. I turned the heel on my jaya's prism socks last night. So I'm hoping to have them done next weekend. Today, I decided what I really needed was some serious me-time - so I indulged in knitting and watching multiple episodes of Due South - thank you kindly :D. I wandered onto the For Better or Worse Website and ended up reading about Elizabeth Patterson's life.. and really my mom does have something there - her life definately has some strong echoes of mine.

As for knitting, aside from continuing to work on my socks. I started a nice scarf out of Paton's Rumour Alpaca wool..... nothing fancy - just kpkpkpkp with a side selvage - 32 stitches wide on a pair of 7.5 needles. Its a sort of horizontal garter stitch I guess. I'd meant to do another in seed stitch, but in the end I'm actually very happy with my error (need an odd number of stitches for the seed stitch). The wool is various shades of red twistd together.... its alpaca.. so I'm covered in bits of hair and it'll probably be a pain to wear until I've washed it a bit. However, its soft and squishy and wonderful to touch. I think I'm going to finish it with tassles.

I think I'm going to switch over to hats once these projects are done. There is a norwegian ear flap hat I have a pattern for that I think will turn out nice in the Cascade wool. I think I'm going to make myself knit at least 30 minutes a day - see if I can't get a bit more finished. A nice pair of trillium sockes in reds and greens is also on the list and maybe some dishclothes. I'll have to get some pictures taken and up date my ravelry stuff soon. Once I get home I'll have to get that shawl finished up and the thumb on my mitts that have been sitting aroudn for a few years... A thumb should only take a 30 mintues with finishing stuff up..... my hands aren't very big.

Night

Fishing at the fishing hole

2008-11-09T14:27:00.000-05:00

This was the best of the lot for catching the crazy sky.

Winter and Spring

2008-11-09T14:24:00.000-05:00

Winter may be settling on the land here, but down south a new face has joined us in the world. Wishing the best to another friend who has just become a new mom and her baby.

In other news, I just about took out my ankle a second ago, stumbling over a stray hand weight which suggests to me that I should blog short and spend the spare moments tidying my room before I really do myself injury. All the icy fog has decorated every twig and blade of grass in Baker Lake with ice crystals making for some very cool looking plants.

Okay.. time to do some early winter cleaning.

Jennith

Parkavision

2008-11-08T19:38:00.000-05:00

To my surprise today, I recieved many compliments on my Parka. It is not a fancy Canada Goose one. It was manufactured by Sears at least 27 years ago ; making it nearly, but not quite, older than me. Its a hand-me-down from my Aunt Andrea from when she lived in Thunder Bay. I wore it up to Repulse Bay when I was there 7 years ago and I used it when I lived in Kashechewan too. So, I know its warm although I'm not 100 percent sure that'll be good enough once it gets colder. So far though, no problems.... well there is one problem and it is one of features that is both good and bad. It has a wonderfully warm, deep hood, but between my glasses either being fogged up or removed and the degree to which my hood restricts my vision... I have to hope that anyone zipping by on a skidoo can see me because I can barely hear them and can only see them when they fall within the narrow field of view that I have with my hood zipped up. So who knows.

I do however need to do something about my mitts. I do have some okay ones here, but my hands get icy cold so easily that even on this calm, relatively warm day I was wishing I could figure out how to pull my hands deeper into my parka or better still tuck them into my armpits to warm up.

It was a very awesome day for taking pictures. The sun was obscured by a bank of icy fog and while it was -15C at least, it was dead calm - so we hardly had to worry about getting cold. I went ice fishing with a bunch of other fold not far from town. But it was my first time outside after the Lake froze - so I was so glad that I opted to play rather than work even if it means lots of working tomorrow. I learned a bit about ice fishing and one of the teachers caught a beautiful Lake Trout. Photo credit goes to B. since I'm the emparkaed lass in the front and centre of the photo....at least I'm somewhere under all those clothes... I spent more time taking pictures and reminiscing about Thunder Bay with some other ex-Lakehead Folk.... I think we form the second largest group of outsiders after the folk from Newfoundland. I did briefly try my hand at ice-fishing, but I quickly came to the conclusion that I'm probably not going to become a hard core ice fisher. Aside from getting cold quickly when I stand still... I don't think I have the patients to stick with it for the time required to catch anything. But I did enjoy being there.

It was a good day... actually.. its been a good few months.

The Moonbeam Shineth Overhead Singing Hey-ho, my dearie

2008-11-08T18:57:00.000-05:00

The title is my favourite song that we ever did with the choir back home.... I think it is called the Orkney Lullaby. As for the moon, its half full and bright on the snow.

More aurora of the grainy variety

2008-11-08T11:31:00.000-05:00

I've been watching the aurora forcasts on a variety of pages. and the last few days had potential for geomatgnetic storming. I did see some nice lights, but so far the solar wind is in the 550-590 range - so even with a high proton density and some nice southward Bz values the kP hasn't gone above 4 - which means that we wouldn't see them back home yet. But the good news is that we've had 4 solar cycle 24 sunspots in October, which sure beats the summer filled with no sunspots. The last sunspot that just rotated out of view to the far side of the sun - stuck around for a while and even produced 2 C class flares and quite a few B class flares... so.. here is hoping that with longer hours of darkness and more sunspots and solar activity in general that the northern lights are going to come around soon and give us some better and better shows as we start the upward climb to the solar maximum.

Get a Tripod

2008-11-08T11:24:00.000-05:00

I have a tripod and a faster lens... but I was cold and tired - so I did the best with what I had on hand and then went to sleep. We did actually see some tinges of red and a quick splash of purple, but mostly it was green. But there was some excellent dancing going on and some nice spooky shapes.

Wonderful Wallhanging

2008-11-08T11:10:00.001-05:00

This awesome wall hanging graces the front entrance way of our school. It is huge. The people on it are actually people sized - give or take. I don't know anything about its history or what it is meant to symbolize... but now that I've thought about it I'm seriously interested in finding out more.... I'll have to ask someone on Monday. It is really neat though.

The School at Dawn

2008-11-08T11:05:00.000-05:00

We've been having very nice sunsets and sunrises. Here is Jonah Amitnaaq Secondary School at dawn. I'll have to consult with Gabe about how to take a picture of the school like he did of the Rivergrove Community Centre.

Beached for the Season

2008-11-05T00:20:00.000-05:00

The sled dogs are howling outside - they've been baying mournfully all evening. I wonder what is bothering them. There is a rumour that the caribou have made it to town though.

Here are a couple of cool links I stumbled across in my travels:

http://www.aquatic.uoguelph.ca/
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/01/index.html
http://nature.ca/notebooks/english/mon2.htm
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/vertebrates/flight/evolve.html
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/dinobuzz.html
http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/home.php

:D The internet can be a cool place

Snow-clad Twigs

2008-11-02T14:49:00.000-05:00

We are still waiting for our first blizzard. There is too much cold for the Hondas and not quite enough snow for the snow mobiles - which doesn't actually effect me much since all I have is feet and skis... and there is my problem. There isn't quite enough snow for skiing yet.

Its been a nice quiet and relaxing weekend. I've been eating healthy food and just recharging. I haven't been outside much - it was quite nice yesterday, but I just was in the mood for quiet.

Leaf-bare snow-clad twigs
Poking through fresh snow - seeming
A bit like antlers

One ring to bring them all and in the darkeness bind them

2008-11-01T18:21:00.000-04:00

Hmmm... The eye of Sauron seems to have made a brief appearance in Baker Lake Yesterday for Halloween.

I've got my eyeballs on you

2008-11-01T15:30:00.001-04:00

This is part of my door after the halloween door decorating contest - sadly, the picture I took with our "mutant" attached was one of the unrecorded ones - but my next-classroom neighbour took one too - so hopefully that'll all work out and I'll be able to post it later. Artistic and Creative Credit goes to my Grade 11 Science Students.

This one is for my best friend from highschool......some things never change

Eyeballs hanging from the ceiling
Those who watch, but have not feeling
Do not care that we are dying
Eyeballs with no tears for crying

Foolish, thoughtless, mindless beings
Do not understand their seeings
Just hang there from the ceiling staring
With not hearts or minds for caring

Red Light - its alright

2008-11-01T15:16:00.000-04:00

When I first got here I was confused by the fact that a lot of the houses had these crazy red lights. You see, where I grew up, the story was that if you had a red light on your house it meant that you were welcoming to gentlemen with a bit of cash and desire for a very friendly encounter... Rather than living in the red light district, the lights are there for the water delivery trucks to tell them when a house is empty - if the light is red, you are alright and if its off - you better not flush the toilet. We haven't run out of water too often, but we did manage to run out and then have the propeller in our pump mangle itself completely right in the middle of parent teacher interviews. Its funny, about 3 years ago I wrote a paper for Urban Planning on water and sewage infrastructure in the north - look up the word utilidor for the keeners (we don't have any here though) - :D and here I am living it. At least we aren't one of the places where you have to put your sewage out on the curb (or side of the snow-covered gravel road as appropriate) in a garbage bag.

So there you go... same symbol, different meaning and it sure makes you rethink water and how you use it - especially after taking it for granted back home.

And on to November

2008-11-01T13:15:00.000-04:00

The past few months have whipped by so quickly I don't know where the time has gone. Today has been dedicated so far to cleaning and now to baking a loaf of bread. As soon as I have it set to rise - I'm off to the store (I supposed I should specify the Northern because there is also the convience store and the corner store - but I've never been to either - we also have a building labelled the Sanvik Coop - but even though I walk by it often - I'm not sure where the door is or if it is open) to buy a mop, some milk and some eggs and probably some fruit. I'm going to convert the leftover canned veggie soup I made up for supper into something more impressive soupwise and maybe make something special for dinner - and use up my potatoes. And that is what I have in mind of today... quiet, boring, and useful.

Sunset Halloween-style

2008-11-01T02:13:00.004-04:00

I"ve already washed my face and brushed my teeth and taken a two hour nap - so this will be short. Halloween was cool. I had a lot of fun today - the only tradgedy involved some memory card issues which means that I don't have a good picture of my own door :S and I lost quite a few good pictures and on that note... I'm going back to sleep.

The sign of the song

2008-10-30T23:17:00.000-04:00

Like my political views, my musical tastes morph and wander and come back to where I began.... Okay.. maybe not quite back to a four year olds impression of Fruit-Juice Me Tonight by Olivia Newton John.... um... maybe that wasn't the actual song she sang.

Grade 8 it was Depeche Mode - followed by a grunge/Canadian folk/Canadian Alternative phase - followed by a psuedo hard rock/metal - (cough cough.. mostly Canadian Alternative/Folk) There was a Tori Amos phase, A David Usher phase - well... actually I guess I'm really a Moist fan that has stuck around - A dance pop phase (ick! - except when I'm exercising) and this week its Imogen Heap and David Usher. I still really like his new Album... I think its one of my favourites.. I haven't gotten bored of it yet and I've been listening to it lots since my Ipod disaster where I lost a huge chunk of my music - its not lost lost -its just stuff I had on CD back in the south - and so my choices are somewhat limited currently to recently acquired music... And Imogen Heap... I think the haunting sounds suit the terrain here - she has a wintery voice.

I guess I'll admit I like music with energy, interesting layers, descent guitar and lots of keyboards... other current favourites:
Dala, Dar Williams, The Beautiful Unknown, Niyaz, Yoav, Nightwish, Feist, Fiction 8, Sarah McLaughlin, Isaac and Blewett, Stabillo, and I'm looking forward to David Cook's new Album due out in a few weeks.... so... I guess I'm listening to folky alternative rock with a heavy streak of Canadian talent in the list.

Anywho.. I ramble.... but yeah for music.