Wednesday, March 13, 2024

A NORTHERN PRAIRIE SPRING

      We've had a week of bright , warm, sunny weather. We are calling it spring.

      Spring here is a little different than warmer areas because of our winter. I've told you often enough about our cold and that residents here don't really mind the cold. What happens with the constant cold is that the ground freezes. That causes some difference in our spring. Sometimes the ground will freeze down to a depth of 8 ft. Frozen ground is rock hard. Before the days of heavy equipment very little excavation was done in the winter. In the country at one time, graves were dug by hand. One thing they did was to light a coal fire and this would thaw the ground. 

      Okay, because the ground is frozen the water from melting snow and ice has no here to go. The frozen soil can't absorb moisture. So as a result my street is a slow moving  mess of  water , slush and ice. We talk about spring run off when water from melting snow and ice drains into small creeks. 

     We also have a problem with dirt and gravel roads in the spring "when the frost is coming out". There are soft spots and hard spots because of the uneven thawing of the ground. So holes form in the road and then when rain comes these holes fill with water. We have road bans which keep heavy equipment off the roads for a few weeks. Most activity in the oil industry ceases in the spring because the heavy equipment is not allowed on roads. 

    So my spring has pleasantly sprung. But do you know what is in my forecast three days from now? 5 to 10 cm of snow!

Sunday, March 10, 2024

DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME

      Well, good old daylight savings time has rolled around once again. If daylight savings time was in a popularity contest it would get close to zero. 

      At one time the change in time did not bother me. I just didn't sense the one hour change ahead or in the fall when we went back to standard time. 

      However, now the time change does bother me. It takes a few days to get used to it. 

     Changing clocks doesn't bother me as the micro Manager changes everything but one and that's because she doesn't know how to do it. 

     Today most of us have a time device which is accurate up to the second. The old wind up clocks would stop and then you were in trouble. You might go a few days with out the time. Once we got phones we could call the central office and get the time.

      Dad always had a grandfather clock. Not the tall one but one that sat on the shelf. One of my brothers is the keeper of grandfather clocks. 

     It was funny going to the old churches as people arrived at times after the service started and sometimes long before the service started. 

    I now hope that we do away with daylight savings time but I don't think it will happen in my life time. 

    Right now I'm trying to fool myself about the time I should go to bed

Friday, March 8, 2024

ELEANOR COLLINS

     This morning I was listening to my favorite radio station. CBC, and they were talking about Eleanor Collins, Canada's first lady in jazz. I could not call up any clear memories of this lady. Eleanor Collin was the topic as she had just died at age 104.

    There was more chatter and then they played some of her music. That brought it back instantly. I remembered. It goes back to the days of radio when there were programs instead of wall to wall music or talk. So in the 40's and early fifties Eleanor sang on the radio. So in those days of radio you were exposed to the great performers and once you hear her you will remember the music even if you don't remember the singer.

    They played music from a concert when she was 95. It was still the great voice. 

    At that time there was lots of racism. Eleanor moved her family to Vancouver and the residents didn't want a black family in the neighborhood. She persisted. she taught music in the schools and showed how talented she was and the kids were exposed to a great singer. 

    So tonight I will go to you tube and look for some Eleanor Collis.

    I recommend that all of you take a few minutes to find Eleanor Collins and listen to her. 

    

Thursday, March 7, 2024

BLUE SKIES

       After a week of cold, nasty, dull weather things changed yesterday Mar. 6. 

       We had clear, bright, blue skies. However, it was still cold. We have one more day before it warms up. 

     So  I have some photos from the yard which really don't show how bright things are. With the new snow it's very bright so sunglasses are a must. 






Tuesday, March 5, 2024

WINTER WEATHER.

      Now I like winter. I don't mind the cold. I like snow. I like wind and prairie blizzards. 

     Now having said all that, I'm about to do a 180.

    This winter has been very different from our usual winter. Generally it's been a mild winter with above average temperatures. We've had long stretches of above average winter.

    This photo was taken from a window in my house. It was very dull. 



   However , I don't like constant change to the extremes. This week we've had lows of minus 28 C and highs of around minus 20 C. This is the first week of March! We should not be getting these temperatures, although they do happen. The week before we had similar very frigid weather. Then it was mild and thawed so that we had ice. We've had icy conditions all winter. I like to walk but I stay away from ice now. I watch kids who look for the longest  patch of very slippery ice and then slide. If they fall,  no harm is done. If I fall, I could remain broken for the rest of my life. 

    This winter with the mild spells we have lots of ice. 

    So I would like a winter that starts with snow and cool temperatures at the beginning of Nov. Then it can gradually get colder with snow piling up. Then in Mar. and April it can warm up and snow and ice slowly melt.

   However, the world doesn't work like this. We have a great variety as weather change all the time. 

   Maybe it's time to buy a gym membership and walk inside. We have a city facility with a 400 m walking and running track. 

Saturday, March 2, 2024

SOME WHYS

     George, my first cousin once removed, can ask some questions that are far out of the box. George reads my blog but does not comment but makes contact by messenger. These are great questions and make one go back and take a good look at what was said. I always think faster than I type. Neither one of them is very fast. 

    George wanted to know on what basis I said that the skills and loss of will were lost . I should have said much of it was lost. They still celebrate traditions but do not depend on hunting for food. 

     First , I didn't stress enough that this was in 1967 -69. It was a much different age and time. I made a statement that the Inuit lost hunting skills and a will to hunt. Maybe I should have said most. 

    The economy in the Arctic was changing rapidly. There was much employment for wages. There were various DEW lines constructed in the 50's. Many men were employed. They had lots of money.  However, this was largely part time. They did not have any dogs and this was before skidoos. So it was difficult to hunt. 

   There were many sad reasons as to why there was  next to no hunting. 

   Inuit were nomads. They followed the game. Once they moved into villages they were much less mobile. A hunter now went out with other men on skidoos. Women who were a part of the hunting did not go. Women did the butchering. Women prepared the skins for trade or use in making clothing. All clothing I saw in 67 to 69 was made of cloth. There was fur trim. So their hunting pattern was severely disrupted. Once you get used to a heated wood house it's hard to go back to staying in a snow house. 

    Where I was, the hunters would go out in the fall for a week or ten days hunting caribou. They would come back with about 20 animals. This wouldn't go far to feed 200 people. They always gave me some meat. They also went fishing for Arctic char for a week or ten days. They also included me and gave me fish. Arctic char is the best fish I ever ate. Locally they hunted seals. They may have got  3 or 4 seals in one day and then may have not gone sealing for another  week. One little seal can be eaten very quickly by a dozen people. They gave me seal liver which was the best liver I ever ate. However seal meat was awful. I tried to cook it. It is better frozen and raw or heated a bit. 

    Where I was there were 4 or 5 good hunters and the rest went out rarely and didn't get much as they didn't know where to find the animals. Sitting at a seal breathing hole waiting for a seal takes great patience and it's incredibly cold.

    They were subsistence hunters. In other words they hunted to survive. 

    George, at one time our dads farmed with horses. Neither one of us are farmers or would want to be farmers. There are too many other opportunities. I wonder if either one of us could work with horses. Most of all we could not make a living. We have found more lucrative and challenging ways of making a living.

    A similar thing has happened to the Inuit. they have found better ways to make a living. Dr Joey Carpenter from Banks Island was a surgeon at the hospital in Brandon Man, He practiced for close to 40 years. At one time the Carpenter family was the only family living on Banks Island. 

   Yes, today some people do a lot of hunting. Much of it is for sport. 

   It's a complicated issue and a brief over view is not enough to understand the situation. 

    This is in the western Arctic. I didn't catch any fish that day


Tuesday, February 27, 2024

DETAILS

     In my last post there were details missing that could help to make more sense of the situations. 

     The isolated settlement I went to had 188 Inuit and 12 white guys. I was hired as Local administrator , principal of a two room school and teacher. The administration was a tremendous amount of work but very interesting. For the local Administration I had a one hour open office right after school. With this job I issued welfare money. I would give them gas so that they could go hunting  with canoes or skidoos. I bought soapstone carvings everyday for the government. I had a $2000.00 monthly budget to buy carvings.  I supervised the mechanic who didn't need supervision. I had to check off supplies that came in on the ship. I looked after visiting administrators. Since there were no facilities to look after travelers I looked after them and as a result met some very interesting people. Fred Breumer a noted photographer and author stayed with us for a week. In other words administration at times was a full time job.  However, it was very, very interesting. For all this work I received $1000.00 per year. This was in 1967. 

    The Inuit did not speak English. There were a few younger people who could interpret. The people looked after their own affairs as in if someone died, they looked after all of it. Al and I were worried about the lack of communication. However, they knew this situation was different and did not interfere. 

    I had written to the Quebec Dept. of health describing Alisi but received a blah, blah letter which said they would do nothing. My predecessor had also written. 

    So in less than a year Alisi came back on the  plane with clean clothes and tailor made cigarettes. None of us had any idea that she was coming back. She was not charged but was probably assessed and given medication. I don't know how any assessment could be made as she didn't understand French and they didn't understand Eskimo. I don't know how she would get more medication as we were 300 miles from a pharmacist. 

    One day one of the elders asked me where Alisi's baby was. So the child was taken out so decisions could be made. So none of us had thought about the closure needed for the loss of this child. This was a serious mistake in handling the body.

    However, I've always said that this whole northern experience changed my life forever. 

    In most ways these Inuit were very independent. However, since they were encouraged to live in a village and send their kids to school, they very quickly lost hunting skills or the will to hunt.