A South African in Yellowknife

Fort Simpson Fire Dogs

2010-11-17T11:14:00.004-07:00

All the fire hydrants in Fort Simpson are painted as dogs, I really like them! Josh says he's seen them painted up as other animals in some other communities.

Sunset on the Mackenzie

2010-11-16T09:32:00.003-07:00

Air Tindi overnights a Caravan in Fort Simpson, (that's the link to Wikipedia but there's tons more info if you Google it.) I like to go for a walk after work, there's a road that goes along the cliff above the river, and there was a Coast Guard ship there one evening. If you go the other direction to where the ship was, you get to the Papal site. The Pope was supposed to visit in 1984, but couldn't get there because of the weather and eventually came in 1989, I guess the weather doesn't care who is supposed to be coming! I should point that out to our passengers next time they complain about being stuck! The first picture is where we stay at the Deh Cho suites, it's a pretty cushy suite with a kitchen and everything. Our room is on the back corner and overlooks the Fort Simpson Island airport, but we use the Goverment airport up the hill from town.

I took these pictures a while ago, now it's already dark before we even leave Yellowknife.

The Nieces

2010-11-14T11:55:00.003-07:00

These are my nieces that we went to visit in France - Elisabeth, Alexandra and Mary. It turns out that these are the same names in the same order as Queen Elizabeth II, as far as I know that was pure coincidence. Elisabeth and Alexandra kindly shared Elisabeth's room so that we could sleep in Alexandra's. They have really nice rooms on the third floor, although Alexandra's windows open right next to the church bell that starts ringing at 7am! I think they're really lucky to live in that house.

I love the picture of the pyramid, I must have been napping when they did it because I never saw it - stupid jet lag!

Catch up mode - again.

2010-11-14T10:54:00.003-07:00

I'm not very consistent at this blogging thing, which I find strange considering the amount of time I spend on my laptop. My excuse is that it takes photos a while to load, so I get easily sidetracked

while I'm waiting...

So now I'm going to try and post all the things I have saved up, in no particular order...

Caravan Captain

2010-10-08T10:56:00.005-06:00

Take away three engines and about 35,000 lbs and you have my new ride at work. Even though it's a smaller plane, this is an upgrade because it's single pilot so I get to run the show. Sometimes that's a good thing and sometimes it's not! The Caravans are used mainly for sked flights and also charters, they are quite busy and my logbook is filling up quickly. It's getting dark earlier now and as soon as I get some night flights I'll meet all the requirements for an Airline license.

This is Training Captain Monica (you may remember her from a previous episode about our road trip) and I in Gameti during my line indoc, and then a picture of me starting up for my first flight in a looooong time all by myself! At some point Monica's ear seal leaked gel goop all down her neck, so she improvised with my empty peanut butter sandwich baggie. 'n Boer maak 'n plan! (Anybody got a good English equivalent for that?)

Inside the house

2010-09-27T11:32:00.005-06:00

It was around 30 degrees most of the time we were there, but inside the house stayed nice and cool. Apparently it's important to leave the house as open as you can during the summer so the thick walls absorb heat and then they'll retain it so that during the winter you're just maintaining heat instead of trying to heat three feet thick stone walls. My favourite feature was the spiral wooden staircase with it's uneven steps, and also that there's a fireplace in every room, and the ceiling beams. Okay, maybe just the whole place!

France trip

2010-08-31T22:11:00.009-06:00

In June we went to visit my sister and her family in their new house in the French countryside. I use the term "new" loosely, the house dates back to the 16th century, they even have a fossil in their paving stones! Their village is called Duex-Evailles, is in the Mayenne region and has just a few houses, a tiny school and the church (whose bell starts ringing at seven in the morning). The house sits on about 8 acres of land, some of which is walled off for a back yard that is full of fruit trees including a huge cherry tree, which is where we ate most of our meals. For the most part we stayed around the house as the girls were still in school.

Roadtrip!

2010-08-08T14:21:00.005-06:00

We had to go and get Big Blue from the dealership in Hay River (part of the deal we got) but Josh was working when it was delivered, so Monica came with. We got to ride with Buffalo Joe himself in the DC3. We landed just before 6, found the truck in the parking lot, stopped to get some padkos (food for the road) and made it back to Yellowknife sometime after 11 I think.

In other news

2010-08-05T11:43:00.004-06:00

Josh and I are the proud owners of a shiny new truck. Monica snapped this picture outside the hangar of Big Blue with a gleam in her eye, and Li'l Pink hiding in the shadows!

Alert Cont

2010-08-02T20:59:00.006-06:00

Just some more pictures, mainly of the Danish doggies. Also I forgot to add the link to Wiki for Alert, so here it is.

Alert

2010-07-31T19:29:00.009-06:00

The following morning we flew to Alert and held for the day. After lunch I went and watched the Ranger parade, it was a whole bunch of snowmobiles pulling komatiks (trailer thingies on skis for those who don't know) full of their supplies. It was fun to watch, some have their names and where they're from written on the side, others had giant furry gloves made from various types of fur (someone once called them Chewbacca mitts!) One guy wasn't watching what he was doing and ran into the guy in front of him that had stopped, so of course his komatik bashed into the back of him, and then it's rope was all tangled around his snowmobile track when he had to get going again, right in front of all the VIPs! They had some Search and Rescue technicians jump out of the Herc as well. All very patriotic, brought a tear to my newly Canadian eye! After that the people went up the hill to see the Rangers and Search and Rescue people set up their little camps and sat phone bases etc etc. We had to wait around for them to "inspect the troops" and have photo ops with the General guy and the other VIPs. After that we flew back to Resolute Bay for the night and then back home to Yellowknife.

Conveniently the Yellowknife and South Africa signs were close to each other on the same pole. The map is showing us it's a good thing we stopped when we did, otherwise we would've fallen of the edge of the earth. I'm sitting on the foot of one of the beds in the Danish tent, with their little kitchen in the middle (it didn't smell very good in there!) The very last picture is of Greenland under the wing.

Journey to almost the top of the world

2010-06-18T22:23:00.007-06:00

In April the Canadian military had a sovereignty exercise, Operation Nunalivut, in the High Arctic, that also involved Danish sled dogs. (I just accidentally found this post.) We took some media types up for the day. For the first night we were supposed to overnight in Resolute Bay, but due to weather ended up staying in Eureka on Ellesmere Island. From what I read, it's a very interesting area geologically and apparently very nice in the summer. I would like to go there one day and have enough time to hike around, there are tent rings and also a fossil forest close by.

Pictures really don't do Ellesmere Island justice, but here are some anyway...Eureka has it's own Post Office, me on the wing fuelling, northernmost Steinway piano, some equipment for Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory (PEARL), the veggie patch? And the view from the top of the wing down the fjord.

The Big Catchup

2010-06-18T21:30:00.006-06:00

Well, it's only been a little while...I've been meaning to put something on here ever since I went to Alert, oh about three months ago! Those who know me should have figured out by now that I'm not a very good corresponderer (yes that is a word) so this is my attempt to somewhat make up for that. Also, just so you all know, that doesn't mean that I don't share in everyone's joys and successes (and sorrows) through all your blogs, emails, Facebook profiles etc etc.

So here goes...

Checking in

2008-04-20T13:15:00.006-06:00

Once again, it's been a while. I'm going to blame my lack of posting on Facebook...the main reason I started the blog was to be able to post pictures for far away family to see, and it's a bit easier on Facebook.

Anyway, my big news for now is that I am going to be flying the Dash 7. I'm still really enjoying flying the Twin Otter, and will most likely still spend the summer on it, but we're going to Dash school in May. I am really excited and the timing is exactly what I was hoping for.

Coppermine adventure

2007-12-16T12:19:00.000-07:00

At the end of September I was sent with Russ Hepburn to Coppermine/Kugluktuk (pronounced koo-look-took) for three weeks, to fly for Fred and Martin Webb. After we got there, we flew the guides and camp gear to Ross Point, Lady Franklin Point and Hope Lake so they could set up. After that we basically only flew every fours days or so to switch out the hunters. We walked around the place a lot, also rented a quad for a day and went out to the Bloody Falls.

Thanks to Russ for all the great pictures, here's the public link to some more on Facebook if you are interested.

Oh wow

2007-11-20T03:55:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I last posted, I wonder if anyone still reads this!

Summer went by in a blur, I logged 250 hours of float time and thoroughly enjoyed doing it, and am sad it's over. I'm never going to be able to post about everything that happened, so I'll just start again with my Coppermine trip.

Reid Lake

2007-07-15T22:04:00.000-06:00

I felt like it was time to put up a new post but haven't really got anything current (besides more plane/work pictures) so I'm posting some of camping at Reid Lake last month. It was still a little chilly but that kept the bugs down, so I didn't mind.

The first pic isn't of bacon, it's to show my new little stove. It folds up small and can run on any type of fuel, so it'll be good to keep in with my flying stuff in the plane in case we get stuck somewhere again! We had this Fire Opal thing, it's a small sealed package that you stick in the fire and it makes the flames change colour, it was kind of fun to watch. Not a very good picture but you get the idea. And the rest are just of scenery. I wasn't wearing a watch, so I don't know what time the sun went down, but we didn't need a lamp at all, it stayed light enough to see where you were going.

My crazy plant

2007-07-06T10:18:00.000-06:00

Kim found this curly grass type thing while we were buying our annuals. It's really cool and weird, and it's survived my care so far!

An fun day

2007-06-29T22:53:00.000-06:00

A few days ago I was on a trip to Lac de Gras roadcamp strip, and had to hold while a guy went to another camp and did some things before going back to Yellowknife. So instead of waiting at the strip I got to go for a helicopter ride into camp and back.

After that we went to Bathurst Inlet with some tourists, my safety briefing got translated into Japanese as I was giving it. We took a bit of a scenic route up and saw some caribou calving grounds, some muskox and Wilberforce Falls, the tallest falls in the Arctic. We also showed them Ekati diamond mine and part of the ice road that's still there. I was quite surprised to see three pairs of swans just before we got to Bathurst, I had no idea they went that far north.

What I flew today

2007-06-15T23:12:00.000-06:00

Okay, so I didn't do an actual trip, but I flew with Wes (chief pilot) this morning and MAS was ready to go from the airport to the floatbase when we were done, so he took me to do some splash and goes. Weeeee!

I got some pictures of the maintenance guys putting it in the water and then we had to wait a short time so they could take the beaching gear off. I missed getting a photo of the apprentices with their "don't-run-me-over" vests and their little stop signs, they have to bring the plane across the highway to get to Long Lake, so they have to stop the traffic.

The other picture is from when we did a trip to Burnt River and tried out the big wheels.

Yellowknife anniversary

2007-06-01T00:01:00.001-06:00

I just realised that I've been living in Yellowknife for three years now. I don't really know what else to say other than it's been fun so far and I felt like mentioning it!

Seven wonders of Canada

2007-05-17T10:29:00.000-06:00

I was talking to Quodlibet the other day and she mentioned that CBC was picking the seven wonders of Canada, so I went and had a look at the CBC website to see what it was about. She has posted her votes on her blog, so I also went to go and vote. But it's toooo hard, there are so many interesting things. I really think that they should have seven natural and seven man-made, even that wouldn't make it too much easier. They had tens of thousands of things nominated, and have now narrowed it down to 52. Quite a few nominations are Northern places/structures. I'll have to think about it for a bit, there are some things that I know and love, some that I've only heard of but never seen, and some that I didn't even know about. We were chatting about this during one of our "safety meetings" at Tim Hortons the other day, I said that it's impossible to choose just seven, and someone mentioned that it's probably really just the process that's important, not really what gets picked in the end.

Anyway, I don't know when they'll be announcing it, but I do know that I'm going to have to get travelling and see some more of Canada!

Someone's toy

2007-05-14T11:48:00.000-06:00

On Saturday we were in Coppermine/Kugluktuk, spotted this little yellow machine. It looks like fun with floats and tiny little wheel-skis.

Uh-oh

2007-05-11T21:05:00.000-06:00

Well, the ice road has been closed for quite some time now, but the ferry isn't in the water yet, so Yellowknife is in it's twice yearly you-can-only-get-here-by-air time. The stores in town get around this by bringing lots of trucks up before the ice goes out and parking them in their parking lots, and Extra foods had boxes and boxes stacked way high on top of their shelves, it was like being in a warehouse.

Last year I remember Co-op almost running out of petrol, and now this year we are running out of jet fuel. We've been apparently limited to a certain amount every day, enough for medevacs and skeds. The Twins have been using fuel from the Tindi tank at the floatbase that was brought up to the airport. As for the thirsty Dashes, Diavik has been sending them down to Hay River to get fuel, and then come back to town, pick up the people and then fly them to site. Tomorrow there is a flight booked that we used the customer's fuel to fill the plane. Filling a Dash from drums isn't something you see everyday!

Last week there was a big military search and rescue exercise here, so there were three Hercules flying here for about a week, so it must have been them that used up all the fuel. Someone didn't think that through!

Anyway, I don't know if anyone thinks this is interesting or not, but it made the CBC website...

Air Tindi Ice Golf Clasic

2007-05-07T16:22:00.000-06:00

Every year after the skis come off the planes, the company holds an ice golf tournament. The Arychuks cook up their specialties, including roast pig and caribou chili - yum. Usually everyone gets to pick a prize at the end of the night, t-shirts, hats and that sort of thing. This year was done a little differently in that they had a draw to enter, and a hole for Dan where you paid to putt to win prizes, I think just 0ver $3000 was raised for the Pagotto family. The usual drink holes were set up, but this year I don't think anyone took the golfing part too seriously! It was a great time, I liked the fireworks at the end.

If anyone else has the Facebook addiction, there are also lots of albums on there by various people too.

The MacQuisten wedding

2007-05-07T15:15:00.000-06:00

I have no idea how you make these pictures stay where you put them when you compose a post! Anyway, these are a few pictures out of about a million of the wedding! For those of you that don't know, Joe Reid and I got to fly a Twin Otter while Steve and Michelle got married on board. We flew out to and around Cameron Falls, and then back to the airport where there was a table set up in the King Air hangar where they signed the paperwork. After that was wedding cupcakes and champagne and sparkling apple juice, for those who were either on call (Adam) or pregnant (Michelle) So double congratulations Steve and Michelle, I hope you had as much fun as I did!

Michelle's Bridal shower dinner

2007-05-07T14:59:00.000-06:00

To make a long story short, Steve and Michelle decided to get married here in town, instead of getting married in Mexico. We found out on Wednesday that they were going to tie the knot on Saturday, so Thursday night poker turned into a Stag party for Steve. Then we took Michelle to dinner on Friday night, it was a good meal at Diamante's.

My first Twin Otter flight/s

2007-05-01T11:10:00.000-06:00

For my first day/trip/anything on the Twotter, I got crewed on a Water Survey trip. It's something that Tindi does quite often, you can click on the link for more details, but basically these guys go out three or four times a year and measure water levels, flows, ice thicknesses etc. They also have gauges set up everywhere that they download data from, and some cabins that they use in the summer. We were doing the eastern loop which meant that we were overnighting in Baker Lake for four nights. My captain was Joe Reid, who flew for the RCMP for 25 years, and has been flying for Tindi since he retired. Our first stop was Ennadai Lake, where there is a gauge. Things didn't go so well for the water survey guys, they were trying to fix their gauge and ended up toasting their computer, which resulted in us coming home a day early.

Anyway, this picture is at the next stop, Sealhole Lake where the Thlewiaza River comes in, and then we flew a short hop to a different spot on the lake where they have a cabin and a fuel cache of 15 drums. Supposedly. We never found it. Joe taxiied (taxied? I don't know!) up next to some drums that were barely sticking out of the snow that turned out to be empties, they were supposed to be there too, so now we just had to find the full ones. We started randomly poking around and digging holes were we thought the drums might be, some drifts were so hard that they resorted to using the ice auger. After about four hours of this we realised that we might be staying the night because we didn't have enough fuel to get anywhere else that was better, so the cabin was opened up and the heating stove turned on. By now Alex (one of the Water Survey guys) had called his office in town (yay for sat phones) to try and find out something, and also arrange for another plane to bring some fuel the next day. For dinner we had some emergency dehydrated rations, washed down with Gibsons or beer. There was a big can of chili in the cabin, but no one was quite willing to take a chance on it! By bed time the cabin was quite toasty warm, in fact rather hot, it's actually an old walk-in freezer, so it's very well insulated. I got a top bunk, right up near the roof where it was even hotter. I couldn't sleep and eventually ran out of layers to shed, and was even still too hot, so had to stand outside to cool down. (It was such a beautiful night, so clear with a crescent moon.) After I went back inside, it was only a few minutes before I was too hot again, then I realised the irony of the situation. My Mom worries about me possibly freezing to death on the tundra, and here I am about to expire from overheating in an old walk-in freezer! Eventually everyone else woke up too and we propped the door open a bit, which cooled it down enough that we had to burrow into our bags, and after that I slept great.

The plane that was supposed to be coming from Baker Lake still hadn't shown up by midday the next day, and we still couldn't find the drums, so there was talk of getting fishing in case we had to stay another night, there was tons of spaghetti in the cabin, but we figured fish would be better than the sketchy can of chili. But in the end the plane arrived, so we pumped the fuel on, packed up and blasted off for Baker Lake. So that was the end to my first adventure on the Twin, "surviving" for a night. Here's a picture of "the rescue".

The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful. At one spot we fished and I caught a big lake trout. Joe stuck him in the nose of the plane, and we let him freeze overnight. I didn't get the classic fish picture, but here he is ready to be cooked up, it was delicious. The other pictures are of some muskox we saw, and the Kazan Falls that Joe kindly showed me. Also some cool ice we landed on. Joe chopped some up and we took a supply for our drinks later. The photo of the ice really doesn't do it justice, the water is so clear, when the sun shines on it you can see the five or six feet of ice and then down into the water.

I had such a blast on this trip, and learnt a lot of stuff, including how much there still is to learn! Landing off strip was SO COOL! I really am very glad that I held out to fly this plane, and in such an interesting part of the world. I'm pretty sure there will be more good stories to share...

Okay I'm back

2007-05-01T11:09:00.000-06:00

I'm so far behind, there's a TON of stuff I want to post on my blog, so here goes...

Happy Earth Day

2007-04-22T10:25:00.000-06:00

Today was Earth Day, there's a website with lots of pictures of people holding up signs with ideas, some are pretty funny and creative. I'm not really a super green activist type person, but I do believe we can all do our part to look after where we live, so I think it's good to have an Earth day. I recycle whatever I can, something that's fairly easy in Yellowknife. I'm also going to start a compost heap this summer. I also want to Adopt a Street, there are some pretty messy areas where we walk that would be much nicer if they were cleaned up.

I've mentioned before that I think there are enough ideas and smart people out there to invent things that are better for the environment than lots of things we use now, I just don't know why there aren't more things like my little Solio.

On this day in 1961

2007-04-12T10:27:00.000-06:00

Today is the anniversary of Yuri Gagarin becoming the first man in space (on board Vostok 1), he was also the first person to orbit Earth. Incidentally, I also just learned that the sixth cosmonaut to go into space was also the first woman, Valentina Tereshkova.

I put this event on my blog because it reminds me of a childhood memory I have of a guest my parents had. The man was one of the scientists that had helped to develop Yuri Gagarin's spacesuit, which I thought was really cool. He also made me a paper aeroplane that I seem to remember making circles around our living room and just staying in the air forever!

Turkey coma

2007-04-10T22:31:00.000-06:00

Thanks Monica and Adam for the delicious Easter turkey feast!

This post is slightly old now, but I couldn't get the photos to work until now.

What's wrong?

2007-04-09T23:02:00.001-06:00

Anyone else having problems posting pictures?

The penguins are sprouting

2007-04-05T19:48:00.000-06:00

It's supposed to be spring I guess, we've had a few nice days, but it's not that great out. I think it's supposed to be +8 on Monday though, so we'll see what happens. Mom brought me a little beaded penguin family from SA when they were here at Christmas. She arranged them in our planters outside, where they promptly got snowed on and disappeared. Anyway, I think it's funny how they are reappearing, one is poking his head out as if checking on things and the other has a little snow cave that he's hanging out in. And they say there's only penguins in the Southern Hemisphere...

The people I fly with...

2007-03-31T21:53:00.000-06:00

We got together for a picture of all the people who are Dash 7 crew. There's only one flight attendant missing, and a Dash rampie is on vacation, everyone else made it. We also invited the Maintenance guys, but they picked that time to do engine runs, so we couldn't wait anymore.

An article about Yellowknife

2007-03-30T20:29:00.000-06:00

I just came across this, it sounds pretty funny, maybe a bit gross, but it's totally true! A classic Yellowknife pastime, there's even a guy that writes an article about the dump in the paper (it's not even just once in a while, he writes it in every issue!) The city recently introduced a $5 fee to go into the dump, but salvagers are allowed in for free.

My favourite thing from the dump:
Adam found an old light box thing, like you read the menu on at fast food joints. He had a bunch of photos printed out onto tranparency paper and then put them into the box, it looks really great!

Now you know what life in the North is really all about! I don't have any pictures of the dump though, sorry.

Tibbit to Contwoyto Winter road

2007-03-30T19:15:00.000-06:00

Actually, winter road season is almost over now, but I'll tell you about it anyway! Every year there's an ice road built that serves the mines, among other things. They rely on the road to truck in equipment that can't get there by air, and also use this time to refill their fuel tanks to get them through to the next season. Last year we had a record warm winter, so the ice road closed early, which meant a lot of things didn't make it. Diavik had it's Ice Road Recovery Plan which included bringing in a big plane and helicopter from overseas, and measures to conserve fuel. Anyway, this year the road is doing just fine, it starts at Tibbit Lake and goes all the way to Contwoyto Lake in Nunavut. The trucks go in groups of four, and the speed limit is very slow (like 30 km/h, I think) to help conserve the ice.

The pictures are of the dispatch place in town where the trucks leave from, the end at Jericho mine, and some places in between.

I should add that this isn't the only winter road that gets built, there are lots of communities that become accessible by road in winter. You even have to cross an ice bridge to get to Yellowknife from the south (in summer they run a ferry)

Snow Inuksuks

2007-03-29T20:21:00.000-06:00

I have lots of things to post on here, but not now, so I'll just show what our neighbours two doors down did. Their kids are always playing in the snow. They also built some last year, the one slowly leaned further and further over as it got warmer until it had almost folded itself in half, like it was trying to touch it's toes!

Happy St. Paddy's day

2007-03-17T23:11:00.000-06:00

We had some of the usual suspects over for coffee this afternoon, that turned into some green beer as well.

Happy Anniversary to the Millers, we missed you guys but figure you couldn't do much better than being in Halifax for today!

Molly's in town for a bit, so she had some green milk with us, and William and Connor were hanging out too.

Welcome

2007-03-17T23:08:00.000-06:00

Congratulations to Grace and Pavel on the birth of their daughter, Amy Claire, 5 lbs, 13oz!

I can't think what to call this post!

2007-03-09T13:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we did a flight from Rae-Edzo to Ekati and back, lots of the men on the flight had some really nice gloves, the traditional beaded kind that I think are cool. On the way home we only had eight people on board, so I took a pic of two pairs to put on here. They aren't great pictures, but I was feeling like a bit of a dork, so just took them quickly!

Other than that, we've been a little busier at work than I would've expected for this time of year, there are lots of things I want to put on here, but I really need to go and hit the books. I haven't done any studying in the last few days and groundschool is next week.

Thanks Jack and Kim for the great visit and pancakes this morning, I had to tear myself away from there! I hope you guys have a really great trip, (they are going to be in Halifax for the next ten or so days.)

Thanks also for the help about Youtube, I will look into that at some point, but this is going to be my last post for a little while, as I keep getting stuck on the computer and there are more pressing things that need doing right now!

Help! Dumb question alert

2007-03-02T14:39:00.000-07:00

Can someone please tell me how to post videos, I can't find anything in the help section.

Whoa, that last post turned out way longer than I was expecting, no wonder it took me so long!

Ramblings from a frozen mind

2007-03-02T09:53:00.000-07:00

First I would just like to mention that after all these years I still am mildly surprised at how good I am at procrastinating. I've managed to be quite consistent about getting out of bed before about 11 on my non-flying days, but any extra time that gave me this morning was just taken up by Youtube! It was fun, but not exactly the most productive activity.

It's still cold out, really really cold! It's even below my cold weather limit for snowmobiling, I guess that's not a bad thing because I won't be tempted to go out instead of studying. We watched the episode of Northern Exposure where everyone is doing crazy things because it's the end of winter, but they all instantly go back to normal as soon as the ice breaks. I couldn't help thinking of that when I read Phil's post comparing living in Inuvik to being on the Enterprise, it was a good post, he even got a proposal out of it!

This week I was crewed on the hold. Every Wednesday, one of the Dash 7s leaves Yellowknife at 7am with a load of people that need to go to Diavik just for the day, and we hold there until about 4. That means that we have to make sure the plane is kept warm enough that it'll start again to come home, which means putting on engine tents. (There's a picture of them on the plane in my post about the cold) This isn't so hard when we're on our own ramp because we go on top of the wing to put them on. But we're not allowed up there at Diavik, so we have to stand on top (the very top!) of slightly too short ladders, which was made even more interesting by the 22kt winds that day. Those things are like giant sails... I was dressed for this, but our First Officer started getting frostbite on his cheeks within the first fifteen minutes we were out, so we sent him inside, then on his second time around his nose went all white. He was convinced his ass was frostbitten too, but there was no way I was checking that for him.

So anyway, I was reminded of our Frozen cheek (aka Canagal) and thought how well her and Sean would get along with Mr Frozen cheek/nose(aka Jason). Then I started to think about Hawaii and wondered what the temperature there was, and how hard it would be to go home to the snow in Calgary, how are you making out Pingcat? Finally, there was envy for Flyin Dutchman, with his little one engine tent that you can put on while standing on solid ground. I was telling the rest of the guys at work about his comment on my blog. "Hmm, +15 in Pheonix, I wonder if we need to tent?" was one reply! Who do you fly for, by the way?

Otherwise, studying is going quite well, I'm getting quite excited about flying now. Last Friday Jack invited me along on a flight to Caribou lake, I got to fly out there, so it was a good teaser for what's to come.

My solution for the world's problems (okay, well, maybe just mine) didn't work out too well. My share of the Millionare Life lottery was the grand sum of.... $40, and the ticket cost $20. Oh well, that's good for a few rounds at the curling club tonight. Life can't be that bad when you don't win a million a year for 25 years, and all there is to complain about is the cold, and even that's just half hearted complaining about your glasses fogging up every time you go inside.

I'm feeling a bit behind the times with this blog thing, I saw some cool things on other blogs. I like the map that shows where people are from who looked at your blog, and there's a thing that tells what phase the moon is at on Open Head Space, and a calendar. Oh yeah, he's also got good pictures. So I will have to learn how to get those sometime, but not now.

Lastly, congratulations Nathan! He's a friend back in SA who's been working very hard to finish up his ATPL (Airline Transport Pilot license) exams, his sister emailed me to tell me that he passed the last one. I think the Canadian system is way more user friendly. Here you have to write two exams, in SA you write one whole test for each subject, which means there are seven in total. Anyway, that's quite an accomplishment in any country, and that also means there aren't anymore exams you can write. Sonya has hers done too, but I already congratulated her in person.

That's about it for now. There isn't really any rhyme or reason to this post, just things that I felt like typing.

Here are some pictures from the day I went flying with Jack and Darcy, it was a beautiful day, and also my first trip anywhere on a ski-plane. And yep, Tindi is having a hard time finding enough pilots, we're just having to hire 'em younger and younger!

Stitch 'n Bitch!

2007-02-25T22:55:00.000-07:00

On Saturday Samm had the girls over for a stitch 'n bitch, Monica made some home made Baileys - delicious, and there were some other tasty snacks too. I don't have any stitching thing on the go, so I just fixed a hole in the blanket from Mike's Grandma, and I stuffed the bear that my Granny sent me at Christmas. We had a good time, but also didn't get a whole lot of planning for our snowmobile trip done, so maybe we'll just have to do it again!

Baby it's cold outside

2007-02-23T09:18:00.000-07:00

This is what we woke up to yesterday....

Our little weather station at home was showing -34C with -40C windchill, and the airport reporting -37C. I was just really happy that my plane slept in the warm hangar overnight!

At least today is damn near tropical in comparison, only -22. When I lived in Calgary, I used to think that it didn't matter how much colder than about -15 it got, it all felt the same. Well, I changed my mind!

Anyway, that's the obgligatory post about the weather, now I have to go and study.

Snow removal

2007-02-21T12:50:00.000-07:00

Once every winter the city comes and clears the streets of snow. They start at 1am and were still busy when I came home from breakfast this morning. I guess I'll have to knock the Continental shelf (as Kim dubbed it!) down before I can get back in my spot, Mike said he had to use 4 wheel drive to park with his big tires, so my little truck definitely won't make it!

Flaps up, climb power, after take-off check!

2007-02-21T11:42:00.000-07:00

Look what I got! We don't know when groundschool is yet, our Chief Pilot is out of town, but think it will be in March.

Happy Year of the Pig!

2007-02-18T20:54:00.000-07:00

Yum-o!

2007-02-17T23:09:00.000-07:00

Tonight we had dinner at the Trader's Grill, which is the restaurant in the Explorer Hotel. We've been there quite a few times for brunch, but this is the first time we had supper there. It was a very good meal, definitely can recommend that to anyone looking for a delicious steak. They had some funny quotes on their wine list:

"Wine makes daily living easier, less hurried, with fewer tensions and more tolerance." - Benjamin Franklin

"What contemptible scoundrel stole the cork from my lunch?" - W.C. Fields

"Champagne. In victory you deserve it, in defeat you need it." - Napoleon

And lastly "Wine improves with age, the older I get, the more I like it!"

You may have read Jack's Northern Exposure blog, where he said they were all over here for coffee last Sunday, it was lots of fun, here are some pics. He also mentioned that he gave me two seasons of Northern Exposure to watch. We have a few more episodes left, but I've really been enjoying them, it was a good show.

Frozen north

2007-02-06T23:14:00.000-07:00

I took this pic out the window of the Dash on the way to Diavik when Mom and Dad came for a ride. I'm only getting around to moving the pics from my camera to my computer now, and it just struck me how white and flat the tundra is.

Too hard to choose

2007-02-05T21:59:00.000-07:00

New Seven Wonders

I stumbled across this a while ago and then the other day I read about how the Egyptians are all offended because they don't think it should even be up for voting that the pyramids are a wonder! I guess they have a point, since they are the only remaining one of the original 7 Wonders of the World. Who got to pick those first ones anyway? I thought this was a pretty interesting selection, I wouldn't have thought to include some of the more modern buildings if it was me picking them. Been to the Eiffel tower, where you go for a long, crowded elevator ride, and some other people in there were joking about the cable snapping! Also been on the Statten Island ferry and saw the Statue of Liberty from afar. I took a short bus tour in England to Bath and stopped at Stonehenge on the way there, got to check that off my list, but you can't really get that close to it either these days. Anyway, it'll be interesting to see which ones win, lots of these sites were already on my list of places to go.

Pop quiz: Can anyone list the original Seven Wonders of the World (without using Google!) and did you know there are also Seven Natural Wonders of the World?

Stupid travel bug, I don't have any money for things like that! Maybe I can see the one in Japan when we finally go to visit my sister.

Sigh...

2007-01-31T23:24:00.000-07:00

I just went through a whole pile of pictures that Dad copied onto my computer when they were here, of all their travels and things since I last saw them. So not only am I feeling quite homesick, now I need a gajillion dollars to travel with (and never work unless it's for fun!) I also rediscovered some pics of when I first came to YK, I had such a blast that summer, so that reminded me of why I love it here too. What do you do if there's more than one place that you love, I want to live in all of them!

Anyway, I just picked two pictures from when they went to Namibia, I think in 2004. The donkey cart one makes me laugh!

Okay okay...

2007-01-30T23:17:00.000-07:00

I guess that last post was going the same way as the curling stone, sorry! Besides, it doesn't feel like more than a few days have gone by since I did that one.

For those of you that didn't already look, I added links to two blogs by my Japan sister, one of which features my new brother-in-law, and other is written by her and a friend. Jessica's blog is by my friend from school in South Africa.

There's actually not much to really say though, which is probably why I haven't put anything new on. It's a bit strange to not have anything I'm supposed to be studying for, my instructor rating is done, and I did my flight attendant renewal training the weekend after I got back home. So I'm all renewed up on everything!

There are quite a lot of people leaving Tindi, so there has been quite a bit of movement, I've managed to make it to number 3 in line for flying the Twin Otter, so if things continue in this way, I will be flying by summer at the latest. I can't wait, I think it's going to be a blast. There have now been three people behind me get positions flying the King Air, so that's a bit hard to take, but I think mostly I'm still happy with holding out. (Apologies to any non-flying people, but this is what we talk about alot!)

So really I should be studying IFR and get some Twin books and look at those I guess, then this will be me soon!

This is a soppy/feely post

2007-01-20T01:09:00.000-07:00

You've been warned...

Something happened at work just before I went to Calgary that made me quite upset, even though I knew better. In the grand scheme of things, this was really very minor and got blown way out of proportion, I think. Anyway, in the "aftermath" after I got back, I realised again how many exceptional people I have in my life. So I got to spend some quality time with people who are good friends in Calgary and then come home to more of the same.

I really am very lucky and appreciate everyone's words/hugs/invitations to dinner etc! - you know who you are, here and "Down South"

Did I mention that I'm also exceedingly proud of the fact that Lisa is now Captain Lisa...

Okay, back to our regularly scheduled programming so I can go and fix my mascara!!

The rest of my trip...

2007-01-18T10:01:00.000-07:00

After flying on Sunday, Athenia and I met up with Jason and Lisa for lunch, we tried really hard not to talk about flying, but I think we still managed to scare Jason away! Then I spent the rest of the day studying (the backs of my eyelids!) Monday was another stunning clear day with two flights, one with Athenia and one without. Lisa and I had stayed up really late chatting the night before, so it was time for more "studying" and then off to Rob's house for supper. Note to self: next time Rob asks you what you want him to cook, think of something, otherwise he'll cook everything! It was a fantastic meal, a dinner party where you don't need any other entertainment because you spend the whole evening eating. I was having a good time and didn't want to leave, but such is life, I had to be sort of rested for my ride with Transport Canada the next morning. The ride was pretty non-eventful, so I am a newly renewed flight instructor. Sandy (Mike's mom) was on her way out to Vancouver island, so she stopped by to visit at the flying club. After lunch we headed home, there was just enough time left to have some coffee with Denis, who still seems to think that I'm moving back to Calgary soon. Then there was the airport, which is always the hard part, and now I'm home.

It was a super fun trip, I had such a good time seeing everyone and visiting my former self as a Calgarian. I also realised again that Calgary for now will be a great place to visit, but I like coming home too! Actually, it would be best if somehow this me and the me that lived in Calgary could somehow combine and I'd be able to see everyone all the time. If that makes any sense!

Thanks everyone who came out to see me. Pingcat, we'll have to try again on the next trip to have a coffee. Thanks Lisa and Jason for their hospitality and sleeping on the couch, and to Rob for cooking! I had a blast, and now it's your turn to come and visit me, but I don't mind if you all want to wait til it gets warmer!

There aren't any pictures to go with this post, I have to wait until I get some from Rob. And now I have to go back to studying, we are getting our flight attendant training renewed this weekend and Transport is going to be here too. But I think I hear Tim's calling my name...

Some things I did in Calgary so far

2007-01-14T19:52:00.000-07:00

After I landed we went out for supper, then pretty much came home and went to bed. I didn't have any flights booked for Saturday, so I just went out to the Flying Club and picked up some paper work. I popped in to visit the Wills, the hour that I had there wasn't nearly enough time to catch up on everything, but they already had plans and then Barb is off to London tonight, so I probably won't see them again on this trip. The kids are really growing up, they gave me a hockey card of Ken, with stats on the back and everything. After I visited them, I went for dinner with Sean and Canagal, Rob, Lisa and Jason. After that everyone came back to Lisa and Jason's and we watched Jackass 2. It was actually pretty funny, but there was a serious gag factor to a couple of the stunts.

This morning I went for a flight with Athenia, it was really beautiful out, it was a nice drive to the airport with the sun rising behind me. On my first landing I flared really high, oh right, not sitting in the jumpseat of the Dash... Otherwise things didn't go too badly, but there is a little rust that needs knocking off!

Here are some pictures. Jenna was eating one of those candy necklaces, which is why she has white whiskers.

A big visitor

2007-01-09T17:58:00.000-07:00

The pictures aren't that good because it was already dark, but we had a United Airlines 747 land here tonight right at the beginning of the evening rush, it had some sort of medical emergency. The airport doesn't have stairs tall enough to reach their door, so they used the ladder on one of the fire trucks to get the person. I've flown on a 747 quite a few times, even in the bubble once (I wish they still had discos up there!) They don't look that big beside all the other 747s, but this one tonight sure made our airport and the other planes on the ramp look small.

I am procrastinating

2007-01-06T14:37:00.000-07:00

I'm trying really hard not to acknowledge the fact that the holidays are over, Mom and Dad are gone and things are back to normal. For that reason I hate taking the Christmas tree down, besides it was a really good one this year! As far as I know, there's only one other person who still might have her tree up, unless J made her take it down already. I think I will reward myslef with a snowmobile ride once it's done.

What happened, where am I?

2007-01-04T11:41:00.000-07:00

Well, the last few weeks have been a blur, it's already four days into 2007. I guess everyone is tired of seeing the curling rock at the top of my blog, but pictures will have to just wait a little longer until I gather myself towards myself! Mom and Dad left early this morning and are hopefully getting on a plane right now to get from Edmonton to Calgary and then on to Heathrow this evening. I decided not to take any time off work while they were here so that I could save up days off to visit them rather, and besides, we aren't supposed to be busy at this time of year, yeah right. Anyway, they got to come along on a flight and see what I do so that was good, (thanks Andrew and Sonya!) I think we did everything that they and I wanted to see/do, except for the museum, which was closed when we went. Also didn't really get to see the aurora much, it seemed to always be overcast. It was a good trip and really nice to have them here for Christmas.

Here are some C-mas pics quickly, I think my nieces only own pink clothes, so cute!

Curling was fun

2006-12-15T22:42:00.000-07:00

Mike didn't play tonight, he's busy putting the new floor down, so we played three on three (it's supposed to be four on four for those of you in warmer climates!) against a team that works at Ekati. The game was really close, even though we lost, and I can't even tell you what the score was because no one counted the last end, but at the second last end it was 5-4. In any case, we did well seeing as we haven't curled for the past two weeks. The other Tindi team didn't play because Trevor and Wes got called on a medivac and Beef had to go to a Christmas party, Jack decided to stay home instead of playing with us. No more curling now until the new year.

World traveller, er, sort of...

2006-12-08T11:13:00.000-07:00

Last week Andrew, Sonya, Darryl and I were in Inuvik again, flying for the Mackenzie Gas Project. We flew up empty on Sunday, picked up all the sound equipment and dropped it off in Tuktoyaktuk, then came back to Inuvik, had supper, watched a movie, then bed. In the morning it was back to Tuk, with the National Energy Board as our passengers. The place we had day rooms in Tuk had a tv that was so old it had those knobs instead of buttons and we couldn't use our DVD player, but apparently Courtney Love had used that room. I was quite skeptical until I found out yesterday that there was some sort of rock concert on the ice, and Metallica was also there! Anyway, we entertained ourselves by seeing the sights, which included a boat, a church with antlers and the northernmost Trans Canada Trail Pavilion, where we all got our pictures taken. Andrew bought a crib board, and the rest of the day was taken up playing cards. The next day the hearings were in Fort McPherson, we had much nicer day rooms this time, I kind of missed the brown shag carpet though. Besides the usual visit to the Northern store, we stopped in at the tent factory, I didn't buy a tent though, just a map holder. We also stopped to look at this maze thing that these people had made that took up their entire front yard, which is where the picture of the funny snowmen is. At the end of that day, we took the people back to Inuvik, fuelled up and came home again.

I was all prepared for really cold, windy weather, which actually never happened. The worst day was in Tuk because it was windy, but otherwise I think the coldest temp we saw was about -17. Except when we came back to -32, welcome home! We also just missed being there for no sun, so it did get a bit light eventually, but it was weird tenting the engines in the dark at 11am.

Yesterday we got to go south for a change of scenery, to Gillam, Manitoba. Nothing really much to say about that trip, it was just a bunch of gear for a camp. Except we met the twin brother of a Tindi pilot, which was a bit weird.

That's all for now, I have to go and get some groceries, and then off to work.

I like this picture too

2006-12-01T14:53:00.000-07:00

I guess these two posts are more for me than anyone else!

World AIDS Day

2006-12-01T10:37:00.000-07:00

I feel like I need to acknowledge World Aids Day, even though I don't have it, or know anyone that does. Nelson Mandela allows his prisoner number from Robben Island (46664) to be used to raise money, I think he is a very great man. So, er, Happy World Aids day!

Top Pix contest

2006-12-01T10:26:00.000-07:00

The City of Yellowknife is having another photo contest, the top prize in each category is a Polar Ice diamond. We didn't get around to entering any last year, and missed the deadlines for some other magazine contests, so this time I'm trying to be a bit more organised. Winners will be announced on Dec 18, hold thumbs!

Happy birthday to me

2006-11-22T13:20:00.000-07:00

Woke up this morning to -27. Okay, so maybe Mike got up to that and I stayed in bed, I just happened to get today off. Didn't do too much during the day at all, but Mike took me for a very nice dinner at Diamante, where he had flowers waiting on the table. The waitress wrote Happy Anniversary on the bill!

Thanks to everyone for their well wishes via phone, email, post and blog, it was very nice to hear from you all. It's days like that that remind you how loved and thought of you are. Hmm, warm fuzzy, feeling happening again!

Here's the lovely song that I got from Elisabeth, my niece who just turned seven.

dear noelene and mikle
happy birthday noelene.
i wrote a song it goes
in sweety land is a big pudding-
pie yummy yummy in my tummy
i like pudding pie. pudding pie
you are mine yes you are.
it is my party on friday so
you could send me a email then.
love elisabeth and mummy anddaddy and alexandra adn mary
xxx

Sundogs and other things

2006-11-22T12:38:00.000-07:00

On Sunday night it was really windy, and we had to put engine covers on the plane we were leaving outside overnight. To make a long story short, it was not a very fun experience, and when we were done I wished I didn't work on a plane that has four engines! Why does your nose run so much when it's cold and windy like that? Anyway, I will dress better next time and then it won't be so bad.

On Monday we were supposed to go to Diavik and then Snap Lake, but they had a whiteout the whole day, so it was a bonus day off and I got to go back to bed. Yesterday we were supposed to leave for Diavik at 7am but didn't leave until 10:30 because we had to wait for them to dig themselves to the airport and then clear the strip. When we got there, I took some pictures of these sundogs.

When I get homesick

2006-11-15T12:46:00.000-07:00

I can watch this and hear the birds or the crickets chirping (Mike just said what a racket!) We discovered it last year and got hooked, then they stopped it for the summer (which is winter there and there aren't any animals) and now they're back with a new camera. You just have to remember that Botswana is nine hours ahead of us right now, so I think the best time is before bed, when it's dawn at the pond.

I feel the need to post these pics now, of when I was in SA last! We went to an elephant orphanage place and got to take the ellies for a walk. The pics are kind of dark, but that one is holding my hand with his trunk!

Some interesting blogs...

2006-11-12T12:59:00.000-07:00

Some of you saw a little while ago that a journalist from Inuvik (his blog is good too) contacted me about an article he was writing, I didn't manage to get back to him in time, but the other blogs he mentioned are worth a look if you're interested. One is by Arctic Mark, who is a teacher in Ulukhaktok(Holman) and the other is by someone who lives in Tuktoyaktuk. My friend Jack also started one called Northern Exposure, so now anyone who wants to know what living in the North is like will be able to have a pretty good idea from a bunch of different viewpoints!
Just to switch things up a bit, a friend of a friend just got flying with Kenn Borek Air and went to the Maldives with her husband. It sounds really nice, I think a short "tour of duty" there wouldn't be a bad thing at all!

Happy Birthday Connor!

2006-11-10T10:35:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday it was Connor's first birthday, so Steve and Michelle had us over to celebrate. We had some delicious finger food and cake, of course! We had a good time, and I think Connor did too! For some reason he wasn't very happy when we sang Happy Birthday, but then he found out about eating the cake, so it was all better. William and Michelle helped Connor open his presents, and we all helped him try out the new toys.

And right now

2006-11-08T10:42:00.000-07:00

It's been snowing, still is coming down, YYYIIIIIPPPPPEEEEEEEE!!

Some random pictures

2006-11-08T10:35:00.000-07:00

I took these pictures the other night, just a sunset on our street.

There's only a little bit of snow on the ground, not enough for riding our snowmobiles yet, have to wait for just a little more.

Saturday night

2006-11-02T13:40:00.000-07:00

We didn't do anything special for Halloween weekend, on Saturday we went over to Jack and Kim's house to play Scene it and also to congratulate Steve and Michelle on getting engaged. Monica baked a cake that looks like a litter box, and Jack found a wig. You can see The Ring in the pic of Michelle holding Liam.

On actual trick or treating day we were delayed at work all day because of the weather, I didn't get home until 08:30, so didn't get to hand out any candy.

Thanksgiving

2006-10-30T10:46:00.000-07:00

These are some pictures of Thanksgiving from Jack, I didn't take any myself. They're all of the kids, no one got a picture of the turkey!

Our other road trip

2006-10-18T11:52:00.000-06:00

We got home from our Inuvik trip on Sunday evening, while I was helping to reconfigure a plane the next afternoon, one of our captains came into the hangar and told me to pack for two or three days because we were leaving for Ontario in an hour and a half. No problem, I just went home and exchanged clean underwear and socks from the suitcase I didn't even get a chance to unpack yet! Of course we didn't actually come home for eight days. We spent that night in Winnipeg, and the next morning went to one of the Native communities that needed evacuating, which was why we were there. Just about the whole of northwestern Ontario was on fire and consequently blanketed in smoke. We evacuated people from North Spirit Lake, Keewaywin, Deer Lake and Sandy Lake, took them all to Geraldton, and then the smoke there also got really bad, so we took some people from there to Sudbury. We couldn't stay in Geraldton because there were no rooms available, so each night we flew to Thunder Bay. We never really knew what we would be doing from day to day, so we had to lug our suitcases around the whole time. Towards the end of that week we knew we would probably be staying long enough to take everyone back home again, we managed to get a short shopping trip in, and also stock up on supplies for the plane. On the one morning during breakfast we got a call that the RCMP wanted us to go and pick up a SWAT team, so we flew two and a half hours to Lake Simcoe Regional, couldn't find anyone when we got there and then found out that the "situation had been resolved" and they didn't need the team anymore, so we flew back again empty, a nice little sightseeing tour of Ontario for nothing! The people we had on the plane were mostly people with kids, or health problems that they wanted to get out of the smoke, so it made for some interesting flights, usually the kids outnumbered the adults. At one point we had 58 people on our 46 seater (perfectly legally!) because there were so many kids that were small enough to sit on laps. The first picture is to show you these traditional lace up things that they put the babies in, and any of them that were bundled up like that never made a sound. Then you can see some of the fires, we counted over thirty on one flight. Another morning we were on weather hold to take people home, so you can see all the planes that were there to do all the work. There was our Dash 7, Dash 8s from Regional One, Arctic Sunwest and Air Inuit, a Calm air Hawker 748, Beech 1900 from Wasaya, as well as all the water bombers sitting around. Lots of pilots per sqaure room on that day! It was also kind of weird being around the "real" flight attendants from Regional One and Calm Air, they were shocked to hear that me and the Arctic Sunwest girl have to groom our own planes, also that I get to wear sneakers instead of heels! Some day I might learn how to do my hair like that too!

Anyway, all in all it was a fun trip, even though we had to steam clean the interior of the plane when we got home.

Arctic tour

2006-10-13T12:37:00.000-06:00

Sorry for the strange layout here, I haven't really got that part figured out yet. Anyway, I thought I would tell about my recent trips for work and I'll start with the one to the Canadian Arctic. We were flying the people that are holding hearings for the Mackenzie Valley Gas Project, so we spend the day in whichever community the hearings are in, go back to Inuvik every night, and then on to the next community in the morning. We were in Paulatuk, Holman (Ulukhaktok) and Sachs Harbour. Here's a map of the NWT so you can see where they are. We're supposed to have day rooms where ever we go, but usually any rooms are taken up by the people that are there for the hearings, so mostly we ended up spending the day in people's houses. Usually have a nap first and then go for a walk around and see what there is to see, then cook up some lunch and watch movies or whatever to pass the rest of the day. There aren't restaurants in these communities, and groceries are very expensive and sometimes not even available, so we stocked up in Yellowknife before we left and ended up having enough food to share with our hosts too. M&M cookies are a staple food now!

It's quite an interesting landscape, stark, harsh, but also beautiful in a way. It was extremely windy for the days we were there, that must be pretty hard in the winter. I also have new respect for the people that live/lived off that land, there aren't any trees for firewood or shelter. I have been reading Pierre Berton's "Arctic Grail: The Quest for the Northwest Passage and the North Pole", it makes it feel much more real to me now that I've been in some of those places and on Banks and Victoria Islands that weren't explored until fairly recently. Also makes you realise what those people lived through and wonder how on earth they did it!

The pictures show how small each community is, just sort of sitting on the shore of the ocean, I have no idea why people settled in any of those particular spots, I guess maybe it had something to do with game or what there was to eat way back when. Also can see a muskox skull, there were tons of these on the beach, but you can't just take them because they belong to people and are left there to be cleaned of flesh/fur and then bleached. There are lots of dogs in those communities, I wanted to bring that little guy home with me, some kids told me his name was Fathead! There was also a funny looking Dash 7 parked in Inuvik, they have all these mods they did for ice patrol, so we had to check that out. And lastly, I took the pic of the Canadian flag, which I always am suprised to see up there becuase it feels and looks like you're in some other place than Canada.

It was a good trip, we brought home some stories that will go down in Tindi history, and I have marked off some more places on my list. One thing I couldn't wrap my head around is why there is so much garbage lying around, we walked along beaches and over hills where there was everything from tools to fishing nets to trailers, and yet the people are so adamant about protecting their land and keeping it for their children. Anyway, litter is one of my pet peeves so it was really making me mad!

Cranberry picking

2006-10-04T11:53:00.000-06:00

We went berry picking again last night, Super Steve from work came and brought his daughter and her friend. We couldn't stay out for very long because it's getting dark quite early now, but we built a fire and cooked some tin foil packets for supper. It was a really beautiful autumn evening.

Tagged...

2006-10-04T10:39:00.000-06:00

I can think of more than three for most of these, so I'll just put the ones I think of first...

3 smells I love:
1. The smell after a turbine engine flashes up
2. Two stroke smell from my snowmobile (did it snow yet?)
3. Early morning smell when you're camping

3 smells I hate:
1. When we have to service the washroom on the Dash
2. Paving road smell
3. Rotten onion!

3 jobs I have had:
1. School bus driver
2. Aircraft refueller
3. Flight instructor

3 movies I could watch over and over:
1. Top Gun
2. Snatch
3. The Fifth Element

3 fond memories:
1. Christmas 2004 with my family in South Africa
2. Barbecues at Lisa's house
3. Driving to go on vacation when my sister and I were still kids

3 jobs I'd love to have:
1. The crew that gets new planes from the factory and delivers them to the company
2. Investor, if I knew how
3. A Lonely Planet traveller person

3 places I've lived:
1. Johannesburg, South Africa
2. Calgary, Canada
3. Yellowknife, Canada

3 things I like to do:
1. READ READ READ
2. Fly just for pure fun
3. Pick berries (I'll post about that later, er, try anyway!)

3 favourite foods:
I don't know how you're supposed to pick just three, food is my favourite!
1. Biltong, it's the S. African version of jerky
2. Shore lunch, when you cook the fish someone just caught
3. New York cheesecake

3 places I'd like to be right now:
1. On vacation in Hawaii or Jamaica, I'd like to go there just once
2. On vacation in Cape Town
3. I'd like to be in a place where everyone else that I'm related to or friends with are in the same place so that we can visit or go for coffee whenever we wanted. Can someone please invent some sort of instant travelling machine - Japan for dinner? Sure, I'll be right there.

3 websites I visit daily:
1. Hotmail
2. Environment Canada for the weather
3. This blogger website

3 things that make me cry:
1. Apartheid
2. Sad books or movies
3. Number three in places I'd like to be right now!

I'm adding this too just because -
3 good books I've read lately:
1. The Arctic Grail - Pierre Berton
2. The No. 1 Ladies detective agency series - Alexander McCall Smith
3. The Power of One - Bryce Courtenay

I can't tag anyone because the only people I know have already been tagged!

Playing catch up

2006-09-27T16:18:00.000-06:00

I just posted the posts I had started writing about BC, they are all out of order because they were saved as drafts and then I put the one about Liam up, so keep going past some you've already seen. Will tell about all other trips as soon as housework is all done!

A road trip

2006-09-01T19:18:00.000-06:00

Wednesday was a bit of a bonus day, I didn't have anything planned as I was supposed to be flying today too. Instead we took our time getting going and took a little drive up the island to Coombs. I don't really think there's much there except this touristy trap place that we wanted to see. It was mostly stores with all kinds of tourist type stuff, like the requisite candy store. But it also had a market that's famous for it's goats on the roof. They had interesting groceries from all over the world, some really cool toys and home decoration things, every flavour of ice cream known to man, as well as an endless bakery with all kinds of delicious things. Can you say brain overload? We spent the afternoon there and then made our back to Nanaimo. We passed this place with all these old London buses lined up. I learned how to drive(sail?) the dinghy too.

More flying

2006-09-01T19:00:00.000-06:00

This day was dedicated to more flying, I had the next day booked too, but decided to try and get it done today and finished with. Getting up early this morning wasn't that great, and crossing the harbour in the dingy in the rain was something I wasn't so keen to try again. So ended up flying for 5 hours with a lunch break in the middle. We did landings on a smaller lake, where we had to land and taxi back, and also on a bigger one and in a harbour where we could land and take off without taxiing back each time. Besides learning about physically flying and landing on floats, it was also a bit different to wheels in some other respects. Generally when you land on a runway, someone tells you which way to land, or you are pretty much limited to two choices, also your environment is quite protected (now I suddenly remember a news article about a King Air having to take evasive action to avoid a cyclist at Hay River!) With float flying you get to pick whichever direction and where ever you want to set her down, taking into account that you have to share with all the boaters with water skiers in tow. I wish that I could go and do some flying now just for fun, but I guess I'll have to wait until I get to fly the Twin Otter, ho hum! From now on if anyone asks my advice about getting started I will tell them to include their float rating as part of their commercial training and build up time.

On the way home we bought a new wheelbarrow for Sandy, it fit in the dinghy quite nicely.

Welcome

2006-09-01T18:30:00.000-06:00

Liam Joseph Miller
6 lbs, 15oz, born at the Stanton Territorial Hospital at 6:05am.
Congratulations Kim and Jack!!

Day Four in BC

2006-08-29T09:35:00.000-06:00

This day was the first day of learning to fly a seaplane, we had to get up quite early and take the dinghy across the harbour, which was fun because there wasn't anyone else around yet and the water was dead calm. Then it was about an hour's drive to Shawnigan Lake, stopping at the first Tim Hortons of course! I flew about 2.5 hours that day, so we were done by noon. Afterwards we drove back up through Nanaimo and went to Rathtrevor Beach. There are huge trees everywhere, I guess I've got used to the little puny ones we have around here. We sat at a picnic table and ate our lunch, then went and picked a spot on the beach. The beach is very flat and when we got there the tide was out so you had to walk a long way to actually get to the water. But when the tide started to come in, the water got to us very quickly, you could literally see it coming in and then the people way way out in the water were only up to their knees. There was a big group of kids that built a giant sprawling sandcastle, and it was very entertaining to watch them defend it against the water, all the parents came to watch too. They were trying so hard to stop it getting washed away that they even all lay down in a human wall! We also flew our kites a bit and then headed back home to have dinner with Sandy. I really enjoyed being on the beach again, just relaxing and having fun. I kind of miss the ocean. It was also quite weird to be getting a suntan and looking across the water to see snow on the mountains in the distance, you can see it on some of the peaks in the picture of Mike.

Picture gremlins are back..

2006-08-27T22:36:00.000-06:00

I couldn't get these to go on the last post again, figures. For those that don't know, just click on a picture to see it bigger if you want to.
These are of Sandy's house and the Dinghy Dock ferry. They have two that they run, a long time ago they used to be lifeboats on the Queen of the North, which is the ferry that sank on the Inside Passage earlier this year. There's also part of the Dinghy Dock pub, and then the "community" dock where everyone keeps their boats or whatever else they use to get to and from the mainland (which isn't really the mainland because it's still Vancouver Island and not the mainland proper) The naked man standing in the bushes is the aforementioned Charlie. The last two are of where we had supper after we landed in Victoria, the place we went to had all sorts of aviation memorabilia all over the walls, I liked this one of the Beaver all packed up, so I took a picture of a picture.

BC trip...Days One, Two and Three

2006-08-27T21:38:00.000-06:00

This is a little after the fact now, but I just wanted to post some pictures etc for the people that want to know what we did!

The first day we caught the first flight out of Yellowknife and arrived nice and early in Edmonton, where we rented a car and drove in to Edmonton proper. I was on a mission to get some certain undergarments from Mountain Equipment Co-op (there's nowhere to get good ones in town!) so poor Mike had to browse for a while, so I could try on all the different styles. Got what we were looking for, and more of course. Then it was Mike's turn to take me to some hobby stores, had some lunch, also found an interesting toy shop where we bought a kite and an Aerobie (it's a ring, flies like a frisbee) and then it was back to the airport to catch Westjet over to Victoria. We were met by Mike's mom and Grandma (Sandy and Gladys), had some supper and drove the hour or so to Nanaimo.

Sandy's house is on Protection Island which sits just offshore from Nanaimo, there is a pub called the Dinghy Dock Pub on the island, it runs a little foot ferry from the city. There's also lots of room to tie up, so people can just sail right up for lunch or dinner. So after arriving in Nanaimo we hopped on the ferry with our bags, and then had to carry/drag them from the dock to Sandy's house. (Note to self: next time try to get suitcase lighter than 74 pounds)

The next two days we spent visiting with Sandy, Gladys and Bev, who is Mike's aunt, as well as an assortment of pets that are quite happy going to and fro in the boat! The house is going to be very nice when it's properly finished, it still didn't have any flooring, interior doors etc yet, but has a beautiful wrap-around deck. It was built to replace the original tiny cabin, which was apparently getting a bit sketchy! Sandy also has a little dingy that we used quite a bit, usually so we didn't have to stick to the schedule of the Dinghy Dock ferry. Some people have cars on the island, others have golfcarts, otherwise bicycles, wheelbarrows or wagons to carry groceries or whatever you happen to bring home.

There was quite a big deal made about Sandy's neighbour across the street called Charlie, after five I was persuaded to go and meet him, amid much snickering with everyone being very cagey about who this was. Turned out to be an eight foot tall carved native guy....

A study in cupcake...

2006-08-27T21:19:00.000-06:00

I don't know what we were thinking but we made some cupcakes, just a few. Who the heck is going to eat them all!

Picture to go with last post...

2006-08-27T21:15:00.000-06:00

Pedal power, solar power, a surprise and the Northern Lights

2006-08-22T15:34:00.000-06:00

I checked my schedule earlier to see who else was supposed to be grooming with me later and it turns out that I have the day off, a nice little surprise. So no cleaning planes for me today, and I don't even know where to begin what I want/need to do. Started out by going for a coffee with Sonya and Kim. I think I'm also going to do a bit of gardening next while it's sunny and nice out, and then hopefully some sorting out and posting of pictures from BC for those that are interested, then there's laundry and housecleaning to be done, so we'll see how far I actually get. At least there is a bit of motivation from Kim, today so far she baked a dozen loaves of bread and I don't even remember how many dozen cookies. She is baking a dozen cookies and a loaf of bread each for the maintenance people that collected money for her for the baby, there's 22 of them! It doesn't help much that I didn't get up until just before noon, but that was justified, more on that later!

When I went to get dressed the morning that we left for vacation I found a package on the bed with a Happy Vacation card (a present for going on holiday? I could get used to this!) It was a little thing called a Solio, so now I don't have to leave my computer on for hours just to charge my iPod. I am really impressed by this little gadget, and I can't help wondering why there haven't been more advances in this kind of renewable, environmentally friendly sort of thing. I also saw a segment on tv about a sort of speed bump that generates electricity, without going into too much detail, it was just a thing in the road that kind of rocked when a car drove over it, which turned a thing inside another thing that turned into power, I think there may have been some magnets somewhere too. Anyway, it was enough to power everything in a normal house, so I don't know why there isn't one in front of every house. It brings to mind all sorts of conspiracy theories involving big energy companies...

On that note, I also really don't know why I don't ride my bike more often. I rode downtown the other day to the post office, it doesn't take any longer than driving, therefore saves on gas, it's much easier to find somewhere to park, the route is much more scenic as it follows the shore of Frame Lake, I got to interact with lots of people who were all friendly, there was even a group calling for help for someone, personally I think he probably just picked that spot in the bushes as a good place to recover, his bike was standing on it's stand so it didn't look like he'd crashed! So my faith in humanity was restored, and I even got some excerise.

I'll spare the gory details of my super long day at work yesterday, but after the usual Diavik and other routine places we went to, I got to tag along up to Kugluktuk, first time I've been there not in winter, wished I could have gone for a walk along the beach, no time for that though, after we got fuel and unloaded our freight there, flew the ten minutes to my favourite Hope Lake, picked up some more stuff and came home. After unloading again and getting the plane ready for today it was about midnight, and I saw the Northern Lights for the first time this season, they were good ones too, so I took the time to get a few pictures, these ones don't really do them justice though. So that's why I slept till noon today! Okay, I just looked at the pics again and you can barely see them, oh well!

Time to get some sun for me and bring about the end to some weeds...

Back home

2006-08-16T12:14:00.000-06:00

Well, we are back home after a wonderful vacation, and I'm a bit behind on blogging. I missed out on the page 123 thing, and also didn't get to blog about the stupid liquid and gel on planes ban. In any case, I'm just getting some other more pressing stuff done, like ANOTHER tax audit, and then I'll be posting some pictures of our holiday. Stay tuned...

What's to do in Yellowknife on a Thursday night?

2006-08-04T01:23:00.000-06:00

How about watch a school burn down...

We heard some sirens going around about seven this evening, joked that it sounded like a car chase. Carried on getting packed, much later on Mike said to come and see the big fire. And it was big, we could see the flames over the top of the buildings between us and there, and a huge plume of black smoke over the city, reminded me a bit of when Hub Oil burned down in Calgary. So anyway, yep, I admit, we went for a drive, turns out that we weren't the only ones with that idea, at least half the city was already there watching. They had two giant ladders trucks going, and some of the airport fire trucks too, very cool to see that machinery in action, normally just get to see it sitting all shiny in the sun when you drive past the firehall.

It's now half past one in the morning, and we have to get up in three and a half hours to catch our flight. So much for going to bed early, of course I've been feeling exhausted and tired all day, and now that it's time to go to bed, I'm wide awake. Someone is going to have to fill us in on the details when we get home!

The Beach

2006-08-01T23:19:00.000-06:00

I had this past weekend off, so we had planned to go canoeing on Sunday. Unfortunately we woke up to rain, which must have snuck in from somewhere because the weather people never said a word about it! Oh well, instead we slept in and had pancakes for breakfast with fresh blueberries, yum. Then we did some things around the house, by which time the weather had cleared and Steve called to say they were going to the beach, so off we went on our bikes. Yes, we have a beach in Yellowknife, with sand and everything. Connor wasn't so happy about getting his feet put in the water, but the rest of us had a swim, and we lay around a bit reading until we'd dried off. On the way home we saw this truck with a bunch of new Skidoos in crates. Later that evening we joined Steve, Michelle, Jack and Kim for dinner. Didn't get the canoe wet, but made the best of the day, I think.

Kim's baby shower

2006-07-29T22:57:00.000-06:00

Today I went to a baby shower for Kim, hosted by Michelle. Everyone brought lots of delicious food and Monica baked a yummy carrot cake decorated to look like a carousel. Michelle put lots of thought and effort into everything, she had all kinds of cute decorations and pink and blue balloons everywhere. We played a game where we all had to cut a piece of string that we thought would be the right size to fit Kim's tummy, another one where we had to guess the price of some baby stuff and who ever got the closest total won.

Think we are going to have to get a pool going for how much the baby is going to weigh, I also think it's a girl.

Need to catch up...

2006-07-29T22:49:00.000-06:00

I figured it would be hard to keep up with blogging, I can't believe it's been so long since my last post! I have so many things I want to post now that I don't know where to start!

Second annual Tindi Girls fishing trip

2006-07-14T12:42:00.000-06:00

Last year Sonya organised for all the girls that work at or are somehow associated with Air Tindi, to go on a fishing trip overnight, turns out that wasn't really long enough. This year certain planets aligned and we were all able to get the whole weekend off, as well as being kindly offered the use of a cabin at Awry Lake. We were booked to go in our shiny new turbine Otter, but it wasn't on floats yet, so we went in a Twin Otter instead, which was great as there wasn't any limit to what we could take. We are, after all, eight girls going on a trip! One of the dockhands commented that did we know it wasn't a Hercules taking us out because they dont come on floats. The weather wasn't as hot as we were expecting, with some showers over the weekend, but not too bad. There is a couple who lives out there for the summer in a "cabin" (more like a small house!) owned by Great Slave Helicopters, who were extremely hospitable. They have a nice big boat out there (carried by a helicopter intact with it's trailer!) and took us fishing, had us over for cocktails and generally made sure we weren't eaten by bears! What a great way to relax and chat about nothing and everything, and sorry to disappoint the fellas, but no man bashing at all! Seven out of the eight ladies are pilots, but the non-flying one may as well be because she lives with one and her parents started a company that eventually became Air Tindi. We also figured out that all eight of us met our men at work! There were the requisite flybys, some Twin Otters, a Dash 7, and a DC 3. When we went for cocktails one of the other cabin owners said that he'd never seen so much air traffic on wheels over his place.

As usual we had to pack up and be ready for the plane waaaay sooner than we wanted to, and were already talking about our next outing, we just have to wait for some snow and ice for the snowmobiles. It seems the general concensus for next year is that fishing is optional and if we have to go while there is still some ice on the water to escape the bugs, then that's what we'll do. I've never seen bugs like that in my life, I had so many blackfly bites on my neck that it hurt like it was bruised. It will be interesting to see what things have changed by next year, who got checked out, married, pregnant, moved on/up etc. There will be at least one new baby anyway!

I had a wonderful weekend, and feel privileged to be able to draw inspiration from the different characters of all these ladies, and do it in such a beautiful setting too! Plus, it's quite amusing to see how awkward the guys all feel standing on the dock and watching as we taxi out. Afterwards Jack said he felt quite foolish, quite a role reversal. But I think they are all proud of us too!

Dang Pictures...

2006-07-12T10:40:00.000-06:00

Here are the pictures to go with the last post. Long story, don't ask!!

A trip to Ontario

2006-07-11T10:47:00.000-06:00

Last Wednesday, we were booked to take some firefighters to Swan Hills in Alberta and come home, and another Dash was booked at the same time to go to Ontario. The weather radar on our plane wasn't working, so we took the working plane and combined both trips, dropped off the firefighters and then continued on to Thunder Bay. Arrived there in the middle of the night, slept for a bit and then started doing shuttles in the afternoon. We were taking people back to their community called Kashechewan, on James Bay, about a two hour flight. We did two trips that day, and one the next, then went to Timmins and flew three trips from there too. Then we went to Pickle Lake for the night, and from there it was a six hour flight home, glad we can stand up and walk around on the Dash! I found a Gameboy on the plane, so that kept me occupied too. It was a nice leisurely flight back, we had a beer or two after we got to the hotel and then just left whenever we woke up, didn't have to set an alarm or anything.
It was a bit of work, the people had soooo much stuff, we tried to fit it all in the plane but couldn't, next time we need to have a Twin Otter follow us around for the baggage, fitted with bigger engines so it can keep up! Also there were tons of kids on every flight, so the plane was just one big mess when we were done, spent three hours cleaning it after we got home - gum and chocolate everywhere, yuk. Some people had the weirdest things, there was a three foot tall Bride of Chucky doll, and another family had the entire Simpsons family in dolls that were bigger than the real kids! We had to sit them on top of a dog we had in a kennel (the Simpsons, not the kids), it was pretty funny looking. Poor dog too, it was so hot for him, he was very well behaved though. Actually, besides the mess in the plane, so were most of the chillens! One poor little girl got stuck in the lav, Darryl rescued her and she walked back to her seat with tears streaming down her face, shame! Later I went to check on her and she flashed me a big front-teeth-missing smile, and then when she left the plane she proudly informed me she had been stuck in the toilet.
The pictures are of the plane in Thunder Bay and Timmins, and the guy sleeping is Darryl, he's one of our Dash maintenance guys, we always take one of them with when we go on long trips. We were so full on all our legs that we both had to sit in the flight attendant jump seats, not in the least bit comfortable at the best of times, least of all when it's smoking hot and right where you get a great whiff of the lav everytime someone goes! The last one is of Aaron, our first occifer in the back of the way cool ride we got to the motel in Pickle.
It was a fun trip, good for my paycheque too, about 7000 miles, plus I got to see some new places. Wonder what the Ontario government will have to fork out for that one?

Canada Day

2006-07-03T22:44:00.000-06:00

Had to work for a bit, only about two hours, so slept in quite late. After work went over to Jack and Kim's place for a bbq. I think Jack must have been expecting all of Tindi to show up or something because he cooked a TON of steaks. There's never enough food at their house! Mike had to work all day to get the new single Otter onto floats, so he joined us a bit later. Michelle and Steve showed their patriotic spirit by putting tattoos on Connor, so cute!

My new blog thingy

2006-06-29T17:03:00.000-06:00

Hmm, a blog. My friend Lisa talked me into this, I don't know how it's going to work out, seeing as how I find it impossible to keep a written diary, but I'll give it a try. She thinks that I do lots of interesting things (I guess I have to agree with her!) so this is a good way to share what goes on in my life with far away friends and family. I'm not very introspective, so this is more about letting people know what living in YK is like, than a how-I-feel-today type of thing. I guess, anyway, I'll just make it up as I go!