ᐊᓯᖓᑦᑕᐅᖅ - asingattauq - and another thing

A little update on us: 

After three weeks of being home sick with mono, Josh is feeling much better. Thanks for praying for him. Along with that good news comes more good news! He is starting his flight training this week. Yay! He'll be going to Yellowknife on Friday to do the training on the Dornier. He says it's going to be a lot of hard work, but is really looking forward to getting in the air! 

As for me, I'll stay in Iqaluit while he's away. The staffing situation at the hospital is horrendous. (Read: We have NO staff)......and so there is no way I can get time off. That being said, if you're a registered nurse and want lots of work, then come to Nunavut! Interestingly enough, the two weeks while he is gone happen to be my two busiest weeks of work so far this summer. That will help the time apart pass by quickly. 

Since Josh is taking the computer to Yellowknife, I won't be blogging until he's back. But I had a bunch of pictures to share, so here they are......a brief collection of what our world looks like up here, right now. 

Sandy sea shore

Dead seal...in the spring, the hunters return uneaten prey back to the land for wild animals to feed on

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Ravens eating the remains of a kill....not sure what was killed though.

Fishing boat waiting to be back in the ocean

The ice waves continue to melt

Tundra behind Iqaluit

Josh is feeling better!

Driving on the Road to Nowhere

Cool clouds in the distance

Love the bright colors of spring plants

Grumpy sled dog who wishes it was winter. (Note the baby seal on the right side of the pic)

Fishermen are getting their boats ready

ᑰᒃ - kuuk - river

Joshua and I hiked around the Sylvia Grinnell River last weekend. It was an overcast, kind of rainy day, but we still enjoyed ourselves. It is amazing how different the land looks without snow! The cool wind continues to blow, but it is complimented by an ever shining warm sun. Although it is only +5, it feels hot! The river is flowing into the ocean, taking chunks of ice with it. The water is a murky light green, similar to that green color they used to paint operating rooms with. We think this color is caused by the amount of copper in the water. As big chunks of ice break apart, they pile up and create raging rapids. The rocky shore reveals hundreds of colors and shapes of rocks, green, pink, black, grey, brown, coral. Small patches of green moss and little clusters of flowers reveal that the brown meadows are on the verge of bursting into life. These tiny plants look so delicate, and yet they are very tough to survive in this terrain. 

Josh overlooking the river

Copper green river flowing around, through, over and under the ice

 

I love water, but I sure won't be swimming in this river

Thankful to be together in Nunavut

River shore

Mini ice chunk on top, large ice chunk under the water.

Everywhere we walked, we could hear water dripping

If you look real close, you'll see wild blueberries. Yum!

Purple saxifrage - Nunavut's territorial flower

 

 

 The Nunavummuit call this plant aupilaktunnguat, which means something like bold spots or blood spots in Inuktitut. In Inuit culture, the purple saxifrage has a number of important uses. First, the sweet tasting flowers are a favorite treat. But, like candy, eating too many too fast can produce a belly ache. The plant can produce both a green and a gold dye. The dried stems and leaves had two common uses: to make tea, and as a supplement to store-bought tobacco. Purple saxifrage also provides an important time-keeping function: when the plant blooms, the Inuit know that the caribou herds are calving out on the land. Source

ᒪᕐᕋᖅ - marraq - mud

The roads are dry here. The rivers of muddy sidewalks have disappeared. Kids are wearing shorts and t-shirts. Even saw a pair of stiletto sandals the other day...worn with thick black socks. But they still count as sandals! It looks like spring has done its job and melted all the snow up the hill. The view from our apartment building overlooks the whole bay. Instead of seeing a blinding white reflection of ice and snow, we now see the dry, sandy town; a very muddy and churned up ocean shore, and white frozen ocean bay. All this surrounded by snow covered rolling hills. The view still looks like outer space, like we're at the top of the world. 


The amount of garbage the melting snow has left behind is unbelievable. The town is having a garbage pick up day soon, where all GN employees get the afternoon off to clean up the great outdoors. And with good reason. This place is a mess. It is interesting to walk along the shore and see all the boating equipment that has been uncovered by the warm sun. Big ocean faring fishing boats precariously perched on wooden blocks sit next to snowmobiles and qamituks. 


The sea ice that we have been fascinated with has churned up against the ocean floor in its thaw and is a frozen muddy wasteland. It is interesting to walk on, because it is still 3 to five feet thick and yet there are huge cracks running through it that reveal a river of rushing water underneath. The hunters and fishermen are still going out on the bay with their snowmobiles and equipment. I wonder how long that will last. Apparently this has been a warm spring in Iqaluit and normally May and June are peak snowmobiling season. But this year, the snow is almost completely melted off the land. 


As the snow receeds, we are finding meadows of brown grass lie waiting to turn green. Rock fields of silver grey stones scattered across hillsides, giving us stepping stones as we climb to the top. Rough sandy streams burst with spring run off water, sparkling against the snow that remains on their shores. Tiny beet-purple sprouts of arctic flowers peek out from the leeward side of rocks. Kids dressed in bright rubber boots play and laugh for hours in the sunshine and sandy playgrounds. I think the beauty of Nunavut will continue to reveal itself in a rugged, natural way as spring progressess and summer brings the land to life. 

Joc sitting on the ocean floor

The ice waves are melting

Hunters with their snowmobile and qamituk

Our view

Boats scattered everywhere

Looking out onto the frozen ocean

Melting rivers cut through the sea ice

A pile of dead frozen seals, used as dog food for the sled dogs

Sled dog puppies!!!

All the dogs are off the sea ice now

ᐊᖅᑯᑦ - aqqut - street

The Road to Nowhere is an actual road in Iqaluit that heads north out of town and goes nowhere...it just kind of trails off in the tundra. It has gained some notoriety as a popular tourist spot in town. Originally, it was built to lead to a new dump site but then the city planners realized that perhaps having the dump overlook the city wasn't a great idea. And so the road leads ... to nowhere.

The Road to Nowhere does have a street sign that is continually being stolen despite being replaced again and again. Now, the city just doesn't replace the sign. So, Darlene had a great idea to make our own Road to Nowhere sign and take the must have tourist picture with it. A little spray paint, letter stencils and creative cutting lead to our creation. It was a proud moment to add our sign to the signpost.Now that our sign is made and hanging on the signpost, we'll wait and see how long it takes before it is stolen.

Our sign with a photo of the original sign

Darlene's hitchhiking on the Road to Nowhere

So am I

A true tourist shot

The girls from work had to check it out too

Of course, we had to sign our names!

ᐃᖃᓗᒥᓂᖅ - iqaluminiq - fish (dead, for eating)

Last week, I found a little store called "Iqaluit Enterprises Ltd.: Smoked Arctic Char and Northern Seafoods." It's a store that sells seal, Arctic char and whatever other seafood that the fishermen up island catch.They had char steaks and fillets, hunks of seal and whole char. Josh and I thought it would be fun to buy a fish and make something with it! Thanks to the Iqaluit Recipe swap, we found a delicious recipe for Arctic Char Chowder and Oven Baked Bannock. Gutting, deboning and skinning that fish was an adventure in itself, since all the knives we have are dull. It looked like a massacre! But in the end, we had a delicious chowder simmering on the stove while bannock baked in the oven. Yum! Darlene and Tracy (nurses I work with) were brave enough to come over and enjoy it with us. And yes, the meal did start with the disclaimer, "We think we have removed all the bones, but in case we missed one and you choke, we're all medical professionals at this table....and we'll save you."

Fish thawing in the tub ("...all drains lead to the ocean" - Finding Nemo)

This 23 inch char was the smallest one in the freezer, cost $35.88.

Let the massacre begin!

 Char Chowder soup

Bannock

Recipes....

Anna Qaunaq's Char/Chowder Soup

1 arctic char

2 cans of mushroom campbell soup

milk

1 can of drained baby clams

2 medium potatoes

2 carrots* (optional)

2 tsp tobasco sauce

salt and pepper

cut up char into stakes and boil in salted water about 1/2 hour.

in the mean time, peel potatoes *carrots and dice.

take char out and remove skin and bones, put into a separate pot, add mushroom soup, stir to make fish into flakes, add 2 full cans of milk using mushroom soup cans and add 1 1/2 can or 2 cans of water, its at your discretion how thick you want your soup.

add potatoes, *carrots, drained baby clams, 2 tsp tobasco sauce, corn, salt and pepper

cook stove top at medium heat 1/2 to 45 minutes, or until the potatoes/*carrots are done.

Excellent with baked bannok.

Optional: you can add any type of seafood into pot and create your own arctic char seafood stew!  

Ruth Kadlutsiak's Oven Baked Bannock

4 cups flour  2 tbsp. baking powder  1 tsp. salt  1 cup lard, melted  2 1/4 cups milk

1. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl.

2. In a small saucepan, melt lard. Pour 1/2 cup melted lard into a 9" square baking pan.

3. Pour milk into the remaining 1/2 cup lard in the saucepan. It will sizzle a little. Heat just until warm.

4. Pour lard and milk into flour mixture and stir quickly, just until blended.

5. Spread batter gently in the prepared pan. Dip your fingers in the melted lard to prevent the dough from sticking to you.

6. Bake at 450 F (230 C) fro 20-30 minutes. Turn out of pan and cut into squares to serve. Serve warm or cold.