So long and Goodby

Wow.  Can't believe this blog is still out here floating among the wastelands of the World Wide Web.  To anyone that still stumbles through here I would like to say we are no longer in Cape Dorset or Nunavut.  We moved back to the Maritimes.  We spent an amazing 16 years in Cape Dorset and got to experience many things that would not have been possible if we had stayed in the South.  Thank you to everyone who had joined us on here during our adventure.  Wish us luck on our next journey. 

If you are interested in what I'm doing in the south check out my Facebook page Ravn Laserworks!

February Lights

It seems a rare occurrence when the skies are clear and the lights are out but tonight it happened.  Unfortunately it seems the part of my tripod that screws into my camera is missing so I had to use my $6 tripod made for a point and shoot camera.  Lets just say it wasn't working very well.  I did manage to get a few photos from around my house and the best of the bunch is below.

 

 

 

Now to find the missing piece to my tripod or look to purchase a new one!

 

Blizzard 2014 - Another Photo

Better look at the parents house in the light of day.  Note the front door is now a snow door and the electrical meter reader is now under snow at the bottom of the electrical mast.

Photos Blizzard 2014

Here are a couple of photos from around the house this morning.  The wind got so bad at around 6:00 AM that it woke us up.  Stuff on the shelves was rattling and it sure sounded like we were going to have windows blown in.  Nothing happened and we are okay.

 

Photo of my parents house.  Taken through the living room window.

My snowmobile.  Looks like I have some digging to do.

usually doesn't drift in this section of road.

My Honda ATV!

Corner by our front door.

Look down our road, the satellite dishes and the hamlet truck.

The Hamlet truck is now a snow sculpture.

Blizzard 2014

First blizzard of the year.  Michele took the video below of the wind and snow tonight.  The blowing snow kept messing with the autofocus.  We will try to take a video in the daytime tomorrow since the blizzard is forecast to stick around until tomorrow night. 

 

Winds in Cape Dorset will be gusting to 110 km/hr overnight.  Winds in Iqaluit are sustained at 110km/hr which is just 9km/hr less than a category 1 hurricane. 

 

 

Another video of the blizzard looking out our dining room window.  Taken at around 21:30.

 

The house is shaking, crackling and vibrating!  Wow just wow.

Sastrugi

I learned today that some photos from a year or so ago that show snow formations actually have a name.

Sastrugi - Parallel wavelike ridges caused by winds on the surface of snow

Cool.

Wiki has a technical description of the phenomenon and it's various stages.  Find it here.  They also have the Inuit names for them but I don't know the dialect used.

 

Here Comes The Snow

We have been pretty lucky and haven't had much snow but the temps are dropping and the snow is starting.  Only had a couple of days of summer this year and it was just mosquito weather when it did happen.

 

That's not a wall of fog.

Only a couple of minutes later.

 

It's almost snowmobiling time!

Up High Video

Video taken this spring from the highest point along the new road going to the water point.  The mountain on the left is Kingait Mtn and the mountain on the right is Nipple Mtn.  The Hamlet of Cape Dorset is between the two at the water in the video. 

High Winds = Sunk Boats

High winds overnight combined with a high tide spelt doom for five boats in the Inlet.

 

Three of the sunk boats are to the left.  The green boat was being hauled out after breaking lose and getting beached.  Doesn't look to have been damaged to bad.

Close up of three of the sunk boats.

 

One more boat sunk close to the Aarluk. 

 

Cruising

Last cruise ship of the year was in yesterday.  There were lots of folks walking around looking like red Michelin tire men.

 

Bruising

Starting to get a bruise from the needle.  I really hate getting a needle.

Goodbye Ice

Even if it did snow last night the Ice in the inlet is finally almost gone.  Just this last piece is resisting the wind and tides.   

 

The Vacation Files - Big Potato

We were on holidays in May and spent our time touring around New Brunswick.  Michele had never had her photo taken with the big potato outside of Fredericton.  As you can see below we had a successful Mission.

 

This is actually a combination of two photos.  If you look close you will see a couple of artifacts from the combination.  We were the only ones there so could only take one photo at a time.  Getting better at the Photoshop tricks. 

 

My Morning Commute - Summer Edtion



A video of my morning commute in the summer.  I tried to keep close to the same route as taken with the snowmobile.  It takes a minute longer on the ATV.

 

I was trying to take more video this evening but had the settings for photo instead of video.  After supper will go out and try again.  Good excuse to tear up the roads again.  Yaaaaa.

Still here.

Still here.  Miss me Yet?   :oP

Plan to have some more videos up over the next couple of weeks.

Blizzard and Optics

We have a blizzard that will be starting overnight.  The wind has already started to throw up some snow and ice crystals making for some nice atmospheric optics around the sun. 

 

Seen below is a 22deg Halo, faint 135deg Halo, Parhelions (sun dog),  Upper Tangent Arc and a Circumzenithal arc 

Kitchen Renovations

The family have been working hard to build and install some custom cabinets in the kitchen.  We still need to install the hardware (pulls, spice rack, etc.) and install the ceramic tile on the wall and hook up the dishwasher.  It will be a couple of weeks before we are done because the hardware is coming in the mail.  So we are about 98% done.  It's been fun going from just sheets of plywood and melamine to what we have now.

 

Our special helper likes the new cabinets.

 

Before and after photos soon!

Broken Smoke Detector

Michele and I noticed the smoke detector in the hallway had a broken case.  Upon closer inspection it is not working.  We must have hit it during our renovations.

 

Looks like a normal direct wired smoke detector.

 

When we looked closer....

 

Damn!



My Morning Commute

So I got one of those GoPro cameras and the first thing recorded is my morning commute.  There are three ways to get to work.  One is walk, two is to use an ATV and three is to use a snowmobile.  Snowmobiling is the funnest way in my opinion.  Have a look at the video or if you like hit this link to go directly to the video on YouTube.

Of course there is a fourth way but I hate having to beg for a ride.  :oP

Iceberg - Last one

The Inlet is freezing here and people are already starting to walk on it.  Today some crazy person was flying across it on a snowmobile.  Crazy!

 

I realized tonight that I never put the last photos of icebergs on the blog.  The best for last.

 

The sun made a brief appearance at the end of the day for this the largest iceberg of the day.

 

Same berg from a different angle.

 

For scale.  That is a boat in front of the iceberg.