Pretty Lights

I made it out last night to snap a couple of photos of the northern lights. I didn't get out soon enough and only got a few shots of the disappearing lights. We still have clear skies today so hopefully the lights will be back tonight and I will get better photos. According to Space Weather there should still be some tonight.

Water, Water, Water .....

Over the weekend I found out both water trucks in the community were broken down.  Thankfully I found out before laundry had been done.  Have been trying to conserve as much water as possible but we haven't had a delivery since last Thursday.  One truck is now running and is working 24-7 to try keeping up with the demand.  The photo below shows our tank in the house.  If you look towards the bottom were the strap is you should just see a line above it that shows how much water is left in the tank.  I figure there is a shower and a few flushes left before I'm out.

The two dark marks on the tank at the top left shows how much water is used when a load of laundry is done.  I think the two blue marks at the bottom shows the lowest level the water can be in order to suck it out of the tank.  I don't know for sure because the water has never been that low. 

Here's hoping for water delivery in the next 24 hours.

Sun Transit

Here is a uniquely northern occurrence.

Twice yearly the sun in the northern skies will line up with the orbiting satellites and the signal from the satellites are drowned out by the solar particles. This will affect all satellite communications for up to 15 minutes a day from October 9th – 17th including television, cell phone and internet.

The schedules below come from Telesat Canada.

Iqaluit, Nunavut - Qikiqtaaluk Region

Date - Start Time - Duration
Oct. 9   – 19:19:49 – 5.2 min
Oct. 10 – 19:17:09 – 10 min
Oct. 11 – 19:15:53 – 12 min
Oct. 12 – 19:15:03 – 13.2 min
Oct. 13 – 19:14:36 – 13.6 min
Oct. 14 – 19:14:22 – 13.6 min
Oct. 15 – 19:14:45 – 12.4 min
Oct. 16 – 19:15:20 – 10.8 min
Oct. 17 – 19:16:56 – 7.2 min

Rankin Inlet, Nunavut - Kivalliq Region

Date - Start Time - Duration
Oct. 9 – 19:15:27 – 3.2 min
Oct. 10 – 19:12:11 – 9.2 min
Oct. 11 – 19:10:43 – 11.6 min
Oct. 12 – 19:09:41 – 13.2 min
Oct. 13 – 19:09:14 – 13.6 min
Oct. 14 – 19:09:00 – 13.6 min
Oct. 15 – 19:09:11 – 12.8 min
Oct. 16 – 19:09:46 – 11.2 min
Oct. 17 – 19:10:58 – 8.4 min

Cambridge Bay, Nunavut - Kitikmeot Region

Date - Start Time - Duration
Oct. 9 – 19:10:02 – 5.2 min
Oct. 10 – 19:07:22 – 10 min
Oct. 11 – 19:06:08 – 12 min
Oct. 12 – 19:05:17 – 13.2 min
Oct. 13 – 19:04:51 – 13.6 min
Oct. 14 – 19:04:38 – 13.6 min
Oct. 15 – 19:05:01 – 12.4 min
Oct. 16 – 19:05:37 – 10.8 min
Oct. 17 – 19:07:02 – 7.6 min

A Birds Eye View

My house is just to the left of center with the brown roof.  My parents purchased the building with the red roof to the left of mine.  My boss lives in the bigger house to the right of center with the grey roof.

Google earth is fun.

 

Pareidolia

How about that for a title?

Wikipedia says Pareidolia is a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus being perceived as significant.  Common examples include seeing images of animals or faces in the clouds, the man in the moon, and hearing hidden messages on records played in reverse.

Below is an example of Pareidolia I found in the rocks.  Do you see it?

Reminded me of Easter Island.

The Whales and News

The Nunatsiaq News published one of my photos on their website.  Don't know if that means it will be in the actual paper but still cool.  First time one of my photos made it to a paper.  Of course it's only the first time I've sent photos in to a paper.  Go check it out.

Apparently it isn't up at the moment.  All you can see is a description of the photo and my name but it was up earlier so it should be up again later.   Or you can just go down the blog to an earlier post and the same photo is there.

Below are some photos taken Sunday from the beach.  Not much left of the whale now.

The skull is being cleaned so the Hamlet can display it.  The skull is laying on its side and the upper jaw is attached.

Half of the lower jaw.

The area is getting smelly.  Reminded me of the ranch house when my parents had foxes.  I was at the site today and the carcass is down to just bone.  The hunters were still carving this portion on Sunday.

A hunter cleaning a piece of the baleen.

Cape Dorset Whale Hunt

After a two week hunt in Cape Dorset the local hunters finally got a Bowhead Whale.  It was caught at noon on Tuesday and was at the beach by 9:30 pm the same day.  Butchering started immediately because even with a couple of loaders and a dozer they couldn't drag the 50 ton animal to the high water mark.  Once the tide came in butchering was abandoned until low tide the next day.  The photos below are from Wednesday.

My first look at the whale.

Most of the Muktuk has been stripped of the whale.

The tale is huge and a delicacy.

View of the head.  The hairy stuff is the baleen.  The white you see inside the mouth is the tongue.

Ummm, ahhhhh.  You figure it out.

The fin is coming off.  The black part is all head.

Kids playing in the mouth.

The whale is a big event in the community.  Here is a bus unloading kids to see the whale.

My favourite shot.

Life Changes

My apologies for not blogging in a while.  I am currently dealing with a personal problem and have not felt like blogging.  To those "in the know" the blog will be continuing with just some cosmetic changes.  I'm sure I will be back to blogging about Cape Dorset life in the next couple of weeks.

More New Nunavut Blogs

Wow what's going on this year. There are tons of new Nunavut Blogs this year to make up for the ones we are losing. Sure is sad to Nathan and Jen moving south again and we will be keeping up with them once Jen has a new blog up and running. Still a lot of bloggers from the Cape Dorset area. Take a moment to go check out these new Nunavut Blogs.

Northernbound Nurse - She is just starting the process of moving to Nunavut to work as a nurse and you can follow the adventure at her blog site. Hope she likes kids because there is lots of them in Arviat.

Newbie in the Arctic - Another blogger in Pangnirtung who has been blogging since February.

Christa in Gjoa Haven - Another maritimer who has relocated to Nunavut. As you can see by the title she is residing in Gjoe Haven.

Arctic-ulate - This blogger has lived in the north for the past three years but just started her first northern blog. She is a resident of Rankin Inlet. Hey I was just there a month ago.

I will have some photos from Ottawa up soon and will be back to northern related post soon. I got home this weekend but I'm leaving Monday on duty travel for the week.

999

A little of topic for a northern blog but today is 09/09/09. It won't be until 01/01/2101 that we will see a date with repeating single digit dates.

Should have some more photos posted soon, if not later today, from Ottawa. I will be back in Cape Dorset on Friday.