R and R

The last week of February was an opportunity to spend some time with Heather's cousin Rebecca and family and to participate in teacher workshops. It was -22 when we departed Fort McPherson and -3 on arrival in Edmonton. We last visited them in 2006 when Rachel was a baby. Now Rachel is 4 and she has a little brother named Noah who both hit it off with Ruth. Rebecca graciously took care of Ruth while Heather and I did school visits and attended the teacher's conference. Rebecca is a great cook! Although Chris was away for work most of the week we did have a chance to connect near the end of our visit; he's as witty as ever! Also while in Edmonton, Ruth and I visited the Aviation Museum, which may be soon shut down due to a condo developer.

The Fruit Man

Bill aka "The Fruit Man" has transported fresh produce from Vancouver to the Arctic for more than 20 years. Since he sells product close to "southern" prices, people buy with reckless abandon and don't bother to look at prices. Bill has been the subject of at least one T.V. documentary. Legend has it that the first time Bill took his product to Tuk, nobody bought the cauliflower. He was confused at first because people there told him the cauliflower must be rotten because it was white and didn't have black spots all over it. Then it dawned on him the people of Tuk never saw fresh cauliflower and had mistaken bad cauliflower for good. Another story: the police once pulled him over and stumbled upon huge wads of cash. They didn't believe a fruit business could be so lucrative and quickly began an investigation on the assumption he was shipping drugs. However, after cracking open pineapples and coconuts for hours they only found fruit inside of fruit.

Relocation

Current temperature at 1:30pm mountain time: -38 degrees Celsius

Dawn is around 10:20 am and it's completely dark at about 5:45 pm.

We moved to the church apartment last Saturday! It's the seventh time we've moved since August and hopefully the last until June.

As seen in the pictures we are haven't unpacked everything. We've learned to be patient and not get bent out of shape as we learn to live among the boxes and as we frequently rely on each other for help to find the things we need.

Our toilet is not yet installed so we use the public bathroom in the church. Since the toilet is not yet connected, a certain septic aroma rises up from the toilet drain that's been temporarily plugged with rags. The goal today is to install the toilet.

A vent was not installed for the dryer during the building construction so the Hanthorn's have graciously offered us the use of their laundry facilities. John, a missionary from Australia and an electrician in his previous career will cut the required 4 inch hole in the floor to vent the humid warm air under the building. This project has been put on hold since we're awaiting the materials to arrive from Whitehorse. In the spring, additional pipe will be added to extend the vent out the side of the building.

There's been two mini-floods since we moved in; both occurred at about the same time around 7am during the past week as we were getting ready for work. Fortunately, we've been using the public washrooms and as a result stumbled upon the leaks. The plastic water supply line to the sink popped off on it's own at a connection point from the wall, so I shut off the valve and looked for a mop. Since there was no mop in the building and there's not yet a phone line , I proceeded to go over to the Hanthorn's to alert them to the situation. Paul and several of his children came over with a mop and lots of towels to expedite the clean-up. If the water was left on the floor for an extended period, it could have eventually seeped under the floorboard, frozen, expanded and caused havoc on the floor structor. Housed in the floor is the in-floor heating system -a network of glycol pipes. The floor also contains electrical wires and water pipes. The temperature at the time of the first water leak was -48 degrees at the time.

There's a rummage sale going on in the main sanctuary this weekend. When nobody's supervising, people knock on our door to pay for their purchases.

For the past two weeks a local, skilled contractor from Inuvik has taken the church's "to do list" to near completion.

Christmas

We've been fortunate to spend this Christmas with two families, the Hanthorns and the Halls. We returned to live with the Hanthorns on December18th after a brief hiatus housesitting. The Halls, friends of the Hanthorns and now our good friends as well, arrived this past Tuesday to celebrate Christmas. In attendance this Christmas: Ben and Barbara with their four teenagers, the Hanthorns with their 8 children + 3 foster children and our family of 3. To more easily identify the Halls: one picture has Ben adjusting the collar on his son's coat. Another photo has Ben sitting with his wife; the other 3 teenagers are not shown because they were not keen on having their picture taken.

The Halls are from Fort Nelson, B.C. and Ben is a residential and commercial builder; good news since he's been a driving force to help complete some priority items for the church building. Soon we'll vacate our 200 sq ft quarters (as seen in these posted pictures) for the church apartment.

Copland

The Sgt of the local RCMP and his family left for Mexico a week ago and we've been house sitting ever since. The family will return on December 18 and we have a lofty goal of relocating to our own accomodations by then. This may be an ambitious goal since the apartment still needs: 3 coats of paint, light fixtures connected, carpet and tile installed, unpack all the boxes and assemble all the Ikea furniture. I've lost count on the number of times we've moved but on the positive side, it's always been a move a short distance away:)
The RCMP quarters are subsidized and maintained by the Federal government. The house is large at approximately 3500 sq ft with 4 bedrooms and a large family room in the basement filled with toys. The dwelling rests inside an RCMP compound and it is comprised of 3 houses for members and the RCMP building itself. The perimeter of the compound is secured by a metal fence.

Although there are many advantages of living here, there is one challenge - the dogs. They're both high maintenance mutts. Jack is younger and has a good temperment; however, Sady is an old, eccentric dog set in her ways. Sady needs eardrops twice per day for an infections she's currently fighting. Initially, it took both of us to administer the drops but I can now do it on my own. They need to be fed twice per day, let outside 3 times per day and walked at least once per day. I know this sounds like typical care most animals receive, but there's an added layer of complexity when man's best friend absolutley refuses to eat unless moist dogfood is carefully mixed into the dry food. Letting the dogs out always lets in cold -20 degree air and the only way to execute this taks is by luring them both outside with a special doggy treat. Walking dogs in these temperatures is even less desirable.
Although we were warned that Sady bites, we have all been bitten. My altercation with Sady occured when I found her trying to rip open the second bag of garbage. She miticulously spread the trash bag so evenly that not much of the floor was left exposed. I mistakenly grabbed her by the scruff of the neck when her head quickly spun around to sink her teeth into my forarm - yes it did hurt and skin was broken. At first glance it would appear adorable how Sady follows me everywhere I go but this also means I constantly the putrid odour of her ear infection in my nostrils. Finally, we discovered that Sady loves to relieve herself in two rooms of the house so we need to be diligent in shutting the bedroom door and always keep a watchful eye when she's in the dinning room. All that said, I'm not complaining, just explaining, because we truly are blessed living here in the interim.

Rangers

As I walked to the church yesterday morning morning around 10 am to continue drywalling, several ski-doos passed by. I noticed they were congregating in the church parking lot. Then I remembered Paul had rented the church to the Rangers. There must have been 20 people with their "sleds"(term youth use for a snow machine). As I approached the scene, I was met by Sgt. Bill Budd, pictured in the bela clava. The Sgt. said he was an active member of the Canadian Military and based out of Yellowknife. He was alone in his efforts to train local volunteers from this community in search and rescue missions.

The church was the rendez-vous point prior to leaving for the 3 day, 2 night training exercise "on the land" (term used to describe any area outside of the community). More specifically, this crew of volunteers and their military leader will exchange trade secrets while weathering the elements.
The Sgt. will instruct the volunteers on how to search and locate a missing person(s) as well as health and safety. The citizens of Fort McPherson will show Bill strategies and techniques on how to keep warm, set up shelters and navigate the many lakes and creeks that exist here in the Delta. The Rangers have always played a vital role and are a valuable resource in types of dangerous missions.