Well I suppose it's about time that I (Nicole) give you a bit of an update as to what has been going on lately here in Pang. First off as many of you know, we've been growing our own veggies in a green house. The plants suffered a little throughout the summer but we managed to pull a few to the land of the living. Just the other day Mike and I were able to share one tiny little cherry tomato:

Yesterday I took my grade nines on a class trip to the very end of town to learn about the mountains, rock formations, glaciers, etc. It turned out quite well, we don't however have the pics uploaded yet so that will be for the next post.

Last night we also enjoyed a great dinner at one of the new teachers houses and got to learn a little more about our fellow newfoundlanders.

Unfortunately for now that's about it that's been going on.

We hope all the rest of you are enjoying your week and will have some new pics for you in a couple of days.

ttyl
M&N

This weekend was one that i won't soon forget. Early in the morning i was lucky enough to get on a boat and go out on the ocean in search of ice and seals. I'm pleased to report that i wasn't disappointed in either regard. Nicole opted to stay home as she was not all that thrilled about being cold for 8 hours.

Almost as soon as we left the fjord in the distance we came upon some ice.

I know it is hard to really see the scale of these things. So i did my best to give you an idea. Some seemed to tower over us...like floating apartment buildings.

Every where we turned there seemed to be a new berg that we had missed before. I wish you all could have been there to see this. My jaw was on the floor the entire day.

As you may have guess i took a fair amount of pictures (somewhere around 800 or so). Here is a small sample of the ice that we came across throughout the day.

This berg was still a good distance away from the boat. Massive!!!!

I had Claus pose for me when we got in close. Again we are still a good way away. I'm sure you know, but with Ice bergs the majority of the ice is actually under water. Keeping our distance is a very important thing as Ice bergs are prone to rolling over...try to imagine a 3 storey building falling over...if the ice itself didn't crush you than the waves themselves would flip the boat in a blink. Needless to say i was glad that we stayed pretty far away.

While we searched for bergs we were also searching for seals. While i was up standing as a lookout i turned around to take a shot of the others in the boat. The ladies we ended up dropping off on shore for berry picking...i should mention that when we picked them up they had virtually no berries.

With the berry pickers gone there was just Becky, Claus and I left in the boat with Repoisey our captain. I think in this shot Claus had gone into the "cabin" of the boat for some lunch.

At one point Repoisey decided to start up the Coleman stove for some tea and asked me to take the boat. I was thrilled!!! my instructions were to find us ring seal. I drove around for nearly a half hour while Repoisey made tea then he stood beside watching for seal while i drove. I couldn't help think that 5 years ago i never would have imagined that i would be driving a boat on the ocean near the arctic circle with a Inuit standing beside me, both of us hunting seals. It was very surreal, And a memory that i won't soon forget.

All of the water out there had the most remarkable colour. This shot has not been touched up in any way, this really is the colour if the water.

We didn't only see ice while we were out. The were various bird species.

A rear view of the ice...

And of course we did come across a few seals.

We finished off the day with a great sun set...and suddenly a berg moved into the perfect position.

What a great day...FANTASTIC!!!

TTYL
M&N

Current temp here is 3c. The snow didn't stay once the sun came up but it was on the ground when we woke up.
YEAH for snowmobile season!!!! well almost anyway

TTYL
M&N

Sorry for the delay...we have been so busy in the last few weeks. All is good with Nic and I and the year looks as though it will be better than the last.
We we're very sad to see some friends leave last year, moving on to new adventures. GOOD LUCK TO YOU!!!

On to Pang this year.
Due to slight technical difficults i have been having involving a roofing nail and my foot, i haven't been able to get out to many times yet. All is good and healed as of late..so here's what i have been able to get.

I wish you all could be here in person and see the colours that are on the land. Literally a rainbows in weeds and grasses.

The weather has been a tad iffy, lots of rain and fog...but it does make for a few interesting shots.

I just like this shot. It's is up the river where Claus and I always go for walks we call it "Polar Bead Alley". Once Claus stumbled across a few bears up there. Without a camera i should add.

I love taking pictures of the Northern Lights this time of year. It was only 5c way better than the -40c that i will be out in in a few months.

Yesterday i was quite pleased to be able to go out for a boat ride in search of ice bergs. But...the watre got far to rough to get to far out. No bergs but it was still a pretty good day.

And that has been our time so far. I still plan on posting every other day this year... so make sure you keep checking back in.

Oh and I'm not sure if i have said yet or not...but if there is any art orders that any one is interested in please let me know early so i can get you on the list before things fill up.

Lastly i am doing a series of Professional Nunavut greeting cards with pictures from my adventures in the north and selling them. I haven't got the prices yet, but if your interested please let me know and i will get back to you with the amount. When they arrive here at the house i will do a blog about them so you can all have a look. The Email i use right now is michael_h_davies@hotmail.com.

Take care
TTYL
M&N

At long last this will be the last post of summer memories. Unless of course Nic has something to add (not likely )
Some of you out there know of our love of canoeing. At some point in the last couple years our interest has moved towards kayaking, and being that we live in the north where the kayak (qayaq) was born it was time to go out and buy a few. As it turns out the model of kayak that we wanted was well over $2500...ya right like we have that kind of dough. So foolishly i said "i bet i could make them for way cheaper" and then it was agreed...i would make two. Incidentally in building supplies i think that each boat cost somewhere in the region of $300.00.

As most of you have probably figured out by now i tend to do things the hard way. I decided to build 2 traditional Inuit Kayaks. Following rough the Greenlandic style. Meaning that i would stay as close to traditional building methods as possible...No nails...no plywood...all joints would be wooden pegged and or tied together. Now i did use alot of glue, but that was merely a precautionary measure.

First i started out with a 16 foot piece of freshly sawed 1x10 pine...from the Tyrone Mill. I cut the gunnels to length and size. Then sized and marked all the major parts, and cut mortises for the ribs, pulled out the hand plane and cut the bevels and contours. Quite the pile of shavings soon appeared.

Also i added forms to give the boat its aprox. final shape.

Here is the end of the gunnels cut to a slight angle to make a close to perfect fit.

Most of the deck supports have been added here, letting me pull out the building forms.

Here you can see the first completed Kayak frame beside the new one that i was working on. It helped with motivation seeing one done!!

Ok here i have steamed and bent all the ribs and installed them in the mortises that i cut earlier. Very very tricky not to break them in the bending process. Before i figured it out i broke over 50!!! on the first boat. The second i broke only 3.

Now to finish the deck adding the carved piece called a masik

I'm a step ahead here but i thought that i'd show you the finished deck next.

After i installed all of the deck, and ribs...it was time for the keel ad the chines. In the second shot you can see the way i tied the keel on (with the help of a bit of glue) the formed pieces between the keel and the ribs create the rocker...( the roundness length wise in the bottom of the boat)

The finished frame.

I thought you may want to see some of the joins a bit closer up.

I have left out a pile of steps in the photos here.but i wanted to keep this entry within a reasonable length.

After the frame was finished it was time to varathane. If this step was missed it would not be long until the frame would rot.

The first boat had a coat of stain applied...then varathaned. have a look.

After all was dry it was time to skin the boat. Now i'm sure your are wondering...what did i use??? well after a lot of research i discovered my skin. Military grade ballistic Nylon... what is this you ask? it's basically grenade proof cloth. The exact same stuff that is used for bullet proof vests. If only customs understood, i received a call with a question "what do you need 36 feet of ballistic cloth for" i answered "kayaks". A slight conversation then followed and before you know it my skin arrived.

All sewn up...

I applied a coating of urethane and then the test. It floats !!!

What my feet would see if they had eyes

Both boats finished and ready to go.

I couldn't build 2 hand made boats without making custom paddles to go with them.

Loaded for the first trip. Almost a perfect fit.

Life is good!!! Very stable and fast in the water.

They really did preform way better than i could have imagined

a look down the deck. i should mention i also made all the toggles and slides.

A perfect fit...YEAH ME!!!

Great day for a paddle

Not to shabby eh?

I forgot to mention the time it took. (thanks Adey) in total it was about 5 weeks. 4 for the first one and 1 for the second. It sure went faster when i knew what i was doing.

Also in case you're wondering...i didn't make harpoons. Those are push rods so that when we have to push off of rocks or shore the blades of the paddles don't get destroyed

In the next few days We will start our blog on the third year in the north. lots of stories and adventures to come.
TTYL
M&N

So as promised The summer continues. Rest assured that The North is treating us fine and dandy. Once we finish with the summer re-cap. I will start once again with the sites and stories from our tiny town up in Canada's high Arctic.

The Canoe trip to Long Lake.

Every summer Nic and I try and get out at least once for a camp. This year was no different., After a slight issues with who was coming along and who was not... we were off. Nic, myself and Ian. Loaded up his pickup and started the drive out to Apsley Ontario for a weekend of canoe camping.

An hour or so later we reached our portage. Nic immediately decided she was far to hot with that heavy sweater

Priority one apon arriving at the camping site is....Rest

I want to mention that the site that we camp at " the Point" as we call it. Was a disaster. It seems that the years of campers who have no regard for others has taken it's toll. The site was littered with garbage of all kinds, no to mention the glass that was everywhere. Very sad to see a place that has some many fond memories being wrecked by idiots that just don't care. It took a while to clean up what we could...but there really was just to much. Nic and i then decided that this would be the last time we come to this site. On a day trip we went and portaged one more lake in, and were very pleased to see that the "weekend warrior" canoers weren't willing to carry their beer further than the second lake. As we found the third lake as perfect as it is meant to be. This will be our new site.

This is the path to the new lake

Moving on!
Still a good view

the weather was a tad iffy but still worth the paddle out

Nic and Ian even got into the lake and did some swimming

Nice shoes Nic

I was thrilled to see that their was plenty of wildlife

As to be expected Nic and I got out for some good old fishing fun...To bad only bass were caught.

Ian approaching ramming speed

Fully loaded and heading home
What a great trip...too bad it's only once a year

More of the summer to come

TTYL
M&N

This summer went so quick!!! After a quick look at the pictures i took i have realized there is just to many to put in one post...so... i'm going to split it up a bit and maybe do two or three posts from the summer.

With the next couple post there will be no particular order in events...I'm just going to show you the pictures and share the stories in the way the ended up on the computer.

We hope your summer was as good as ours, and hopefully not as busy

Ok...so I'll just start right off with a few pictures i took within the first couple days of being home.

While in the car on the way home from the Airport i was lucky enough to spot a canoe on a lake. Made Nic and i both glad to be back and excited to go boating for ourselves.

Before one of the many storms that happened through our summer visit i came across this dragonfly that refused to move. I think he was waitng out the weather like the rest of us

At some point in the summer Nic, my parents and myself went to my Uncles cottage for summer fishing and some laughs. Many laughs were had, to bad the fish wern't quite as prolific.

The last beaver left on Kosh lake...lol JK

A pretty wild reflection

Who is bigger??? you decide

Here's the only Muskie we saw this year...As far as me and my dad are concerned the only fish worth fishing for.
oh, and the bucktail spinner that the fish was caught on i tied. so i guess in a way ...I caught the fish

Thats all for now
More to come

TTYL
M&N

I just wanted to say hello to all the readers out there...we have made it back for one more year in the north. The summer was fantastic ...but a tad to short... In the next week I'll take the time and share a few of our adventures.

Thanks for coming back to our Northern Blog...and remember every other day we will try and have a new somethin or other for your reading pleasure.

TTYL
M&N

Another year in the north ends.

I'm warning you now this sucker is going to be huge. We would like to go through some of the most memorable moments, some of our favorite shots. As well as things that weren't included over the year.

I want to start off by showing you some of the little things that were missed throughout the year

Starting off with a few of our newly acquired souvenirs.
When the whole bridge thing was getting more and more serious i made many trips down to see the progress on the situation well in my may trips i seemed to always run into the same man doing the same things i was doing (gawking). We soon became friends and after a few lengthy discussions I mentioned that i was hoping to find a small set of Caribou antlers. He quickly replied " i have some you can have" I walked down with him back to his house and was shocked that the ones he had were far from small. I of course still said " looks good to me" and off i went down the road with a pair of enormous antlers on my shoulders ( easiest way to care these beasts). Not long after i started my walk back i had a few hunters stop me. "Nice big rack, to bad the meat looks spoiled" followed by laughter...after a second or two or me trying to figure out what the heck they were talking about i soon found the humor in the situation, and agreed that i Probably wouldn't taste to good.

Another little story sadly not as good.
We went out for dinner with the town JP and his wife, and in passing Nic and I commented on the giant bear skin they had hanging on their wall. I reached over and thumbed the claws and was shocked at how sharp they really were. Of course i made mention of my discovery. Then Meeka got up and disappeared in her house for a while coming back she produced a small polar bear claw for my closer inspection. After a bit i figured "couldn't hurt to ask" so i came out with a phrase that is often heard in the north "How much?" she snapped back "not for sale" oh ok no problem. I handed the claw to Nicole for a look. When Nic tried to give it back Meeka said "it's still not for sale, it's for you to keep" I smiled and told her that i have to give her something for the claw. She was puzzled... I gave her a hug and her smiled wrapped clear around her head. People up here are the most amazing people on this planet.

No story here just something i should have posted months ago.
As most of you out there know i have started what seems to be a small parka making business ...A few months ago I made Nicoles new parka, I held off on mine waiting for the right trim to come by. After a rather fruitful loonie toonie (town auction) we acquired the right fur and i immediately started on my new duds.

As i said i wanted to get these few missed items in as i don't want to forget the stories that go along with them.

Now on to the year.

Last year when i did the final post of the year i made sure i posted one of the first shots i took upon arriving in the north. This year will be no different.

This was taking in the first week back after summer last year when a group of us went up Mount Duval and down the other side. I really like it up there...to bad there isn't a elevator

Another one of our favorite memories was the trip to Kekerten Island (the abandoned whaling station). Even though we got a bit wet, and cold it was still a trip that We wont soon forget...so much history and quite the chore to get there and back in the boat with huge waves making us think we were going to sink us the whole way. But as Nic an I aren't very experienced in ocean travel we were assured we were worried about nothing.
Sitting behind a Bowhead whale skull. Man they make things big up here.

Sadly half way through the year some friends of ours had to leave. Nic still talks about the time Hedi and her found the only decent sand beach in Pang. Small but adequate

Clam digging on the lowest tide of the year with the school yielded what seemed to be more star fish then clams

The addition of the slight fixer upper. When we bought this machine we knew that it need a bit of work. I surveyed the situation and decided that i could fix it. After replacing the entire rear end i had the thing in pretty good working order.
It really changed our northern experience, giving us the ability to go out on the land and see things that were just to far away to walk to in a day. The luxury to go out for lunches on the fiord , or a quick run to the store made us really appreciated our purchase.

After discovering that when working on a sled outside wind rain and snow tend to make things a bit more difficult i came up with a solution to the problem...I gathered up as much wood as i could find (even going to the length of scrounging a burnt up house) and built us a shed. Which soon was referred to by the locals as "the ugly shed" hey as far as i'm concerned it does the job. It sure ain't pretty that's for sure.

The first time we tried to pull something behind a sled didn't quite work out the way we had planned. Fun none the less.

One day that will never leave my mind is Halloween this year. Nicole and I decided to do it up right. She went all out with her acting, and i took the better part of 2 days making up a mummy costume for her, complete with prosthetic wounds. She told me all day that little kids would walk up to her point at her face and say "ooowwweee" cute kids!!!

Here's a story i know i haven't told...The day the sled really broke badly. Andrew calls me up (the other kite guy) and asked if i wanted to go out hunting with him. Now that i had a machine i said "sure". Off we went up the back hill and over the snow. A good 2 or 3 hours into the drive i was following some tracks (very slowly i might add) and i heard CRUNCH, i instantly knew what happened my trailing arm on the sled had snapped...i had hit a very small rock and it took care of the bar. Now this was a bad thing as i was well away from town, and to make matters worse the day before i had replaced that very bar as it came slightly bent and i wanted the sled to be as safe as i could make it. Andrew noticed my situation and we started to creep home. I'm not sure if you are aware but when driving with a bent trailing arm the sled tends to me very tippy, and deep snow is definitely not your friend...We were on top of a large hill that had to be driven down to get back to the main trail. Well as i said VERY TIPPY...me and the sled started to drive down, which soon turned into more of a sideways rolling motion as the sled and i became on large snow ball. Thankfully i was more than fine (angry but, fine). The good thing about the snowball action as that the bar had straightened a bit which made driving much easier. The bad thing was that the rolling did damage a few other parts. Which naturally i fixed after many choice words and many hours in the shed in -40. That sled and i know each other quite well. It has given me a few scares but thankfully has never let me down when i really need it to perform.

While i'm talking about the sled i figure i would think back fondly on the first time nic drove it. She was very scared but after a minutes driving it i thought that she was going to break the sound barrier.

How could i talk about our year without remembering the snow storms....WOW it sure can blow

Other great moment was when we realized that people that we went to high school with years ago down south would be moving to our little town. It sure was great to see someone from down south that we could joke about Kinmount with those two certainly made the north just that much better.

Soon after they arrived i found myself short on seats on the sled. The "Ghetto Box was born" the crappiest komatick in town made from parts i scrounged from the dump, and an old sea lift crate. But again it does the job. Unfortunately Amy only rode in it once and it was used more for hauling kites around more than people. But really....i felt better having things that couldn't bleed in the back if it exploded due to age and poor craftsmanship.

Andrew and Erin have the coolest baby in town....i think thats nuff said.

On this day Nicole was told that Her and I make quite a good Inuk couple as, Nic was told she is a natural at preping seal skin. She was so proud, and i was quite proud of her as well.

A trip out to the mouth of the park with friends was just what the doctor ordered after a crazier than normal week. Marsha and Nicole mad sure to take some time to bask in the balmy -35 weather and soak in some rays. Although as nic told me later the ride back on the sled was the coldest she has ever been. I'll tell ya one thing she's tough as nails. I heard no a peep until that night when she told me her hands were starting to lose feeling because of the cold.

One of my favs from the year...also the most photographed inuksuit in my collection

How could i write about highlights without mentioning The igloos ? that had to be one of my favorite events this year. It was so amazing to see it built and to be able to see the northern lights dancing around it.

The Seal veal hunt was another one of those moments that will be seated firmly in my mind. Unlike anything i have ever done. 8 hours of driving for one seal that we couldnt even keep...worth every minute.

Ha now this shot brings back some memories. I stop to shot the tracks at the flow edge while the rest of the group moves on down the ice. To find that my sled as seized and will not start, choice words were spoken and after a bit of time the group i was traveling with came back and got the machine running again. Long story short, the sled had not seized, it had just been a tad hot due to a very faulty spark plug. Good thing i had people who knew what the problem was right away. I had visions of the bear that made the tracks coming back and seeing if i taste good or not.

As the melt started the river started to flow. Know one ever thought that the river would eventually take out both bridges...still....it made for a nice shot. This is in my pile of favs from the year.

What a discovery this cave was. Adventures in the north can be found around almost every bend, and sometimes what you find is larger than life. Never will i forget this cave and the sounds it made as water roared through it and it creaked and groaned under its own weight.

Then i discovered HDR photography. This changed my way of thinking when it come to photos, and it has lended it very nicely to the way i shoot.

The bridges in a state that shocked everyone. I'm not going to go on about this as it is still pretty fresh. If your curious read back a few posts to find out more

How cool is it to say you went swimming in a pool 20 km south of the Arctic Circle? let me tell you ....VERY !!!

This spring seemed to bring with it more flowers than i had ever imagined. I tried to photograph every variety i could. This is Labrador Tea, in case you were wondering

Seriously, this is just plan crazy !!!
What a lucky moment i stumbled into.

The sunset on that day wasn't to bad ethier

I have to say this was one of the highlights of the year. Spending a great night with new friends watching the sun rise and set with an hour. I also want to add this was the farthest up the hill Nicole has been. she said to me "wow it wasnt to hard after all, i should have done it months ago" i smiled and said there's always next year!!!

I have left a lot out of this post...it's far to hard to sum up a year in a few paragraphs. If ya really want to see what happened read back through the posts

let me finish off by saying this year has been like no other we have had. Without support from those back home, you readers out there who we haven't met in person and the old friends and new friends we have up here we would have found the year very difficult. Thanks to all who have been there when we needed you, and those who have been there when we didn't.

We would like to just say to all the people up here who are moving on to bigger and better things all the best in the future and we will miss you greatly.

Be sure to check back in Late August. This blog will start all over again next year, there are more adventures in the north to share and you can be sure we will share each and everyone with you all.

TTYL
M&N

p.s just in case your wondering the photo total for the year is a 24,714 shots, thats just shy of 120 gigs of information. And the two year total is just under 40,000 photos. WHOLE CRAP!!!! O.C.D much????
LOL

So Claus heard about a bird nest up the river valley... He phoned and asked if i was interested in going and photographing it. I of course said sure, and off we went. Nearly 2 hours into the hike we discovered that the nest was a bit more difficult to find than we expected. We gave up after being nearly eaten alive by misquotes. Surprisingly there were quite a few, I think because of the warmer than usual weather we have been having as of late the hatch occurred a good month early. They sure are vicious up here.

Despite the lack of bird nests I was still able to get a few shots that I thought you might be interested in.

The colour of the river was simple awesome. Unfortunately even the picture doesn't show how the colour really was.

I carefully made my way put by hopping rocks to get this.

This valley never seems to disappoint

Can you believe how clear the water is ??? Amazing !!!

I have seen this pile of rocks many times., Finally the light was right to do them justice. Funny how the sun can make such a difference in the way things look

I'm happy to say that the flowers are still coming out, and we see different varieties ever time we step out the door.
This is called a Dwarf Fire Weed, and it's by far the largest flower i have seen up here. The size of a toonie

And then out of the corner of my eye i spot a bright colour. I thought it might have been a piece of trash the colour was so bight. As it turned out it was Moss Champion. After a bit of research here's what i found out.

Moss Champion is edible cooked. It is consumed as a vegetable in Iceland and in Arctic and Alpine regions. The raw root skins have been used for food by the Inuit. This report refers to the sub-species S. acaulis ssp. exscapa. However, the plant contains saponins, so larger quantities should probably not be eaten.

Very cool little plant

And for a bit of scale

Claus was telling me that they grow extremely slowly, and that this specific "bush" would have been many years old.

Lastly I'm sad to report That i could not ID this flower. So it must be a brand new species to this earth. The way i see it , if I found it then i can name it. It shall be called the Arctic Sunflower Poser (Grows every wearus no nameus)

And that was the walk.

Tomorrow Nic and i will be putting the final touches on our packing for the summer, as we leave Saturday morning. I plan on taking time out of the day to do our last blog for this year. What a year it's been!!! make sure you check tomorrow later in the day for all of our favorite memories and photos from the last 9 months.
Thanks to all out there who have taking the time to read about our northern lives.

I find it funny how we started this blog nearly 2 years ago as a way for our family to see that we were ok. The blog then evolved into a journal to preserve our memories long after we have left the arctic. Now we have loyal readers from all across the globe, taking a glimpse at northern life.

Thanks again to all who have helped made the hard days easier, and the easy days memorable.

TTYL
M&N