VISITING WALTER

      I have written several times about Walter. Walter was my neighbor, a retired college professor and a character.

      It was always interesting to stop and visit Walter or to go for a walk with him. He never wanted to turn around and go back home.

     Walter was a talker. His interests and knowledge were broad. He was bright and curious. He held nothing against you if you disagreed. He would respectfully listen to your point and go on.

     In my last post on Walter I told how he was removed from the home because his dementia had caused great insecurity for his wife. Walter stayed in the local hospital for a month and then a place was found for him in a senior's facility that took dementia patients.

     I went to visit Walter yesterday and I was appalled at the deterioration I found in him. Walter hasn't known me for a year but he would always tell people that I was a "good guy." He had always described me as a "good guy" and I will always remember that complement.

    I have seen dementia patients but I wasn't prepared for what I saw yesterday. I got there at a bad time as he was to go for supper in 5 minutes. I tried to explain that I would visit for five minutes as he had to go for supper. He replied that he was going to have a sleep. I pointed to the clock. That meant nothing to him. The water was  running in his sink. I pointed it out and he went in and was talking to the guy in the mirror. He had a jigsaw puzzle on a table. He told me not to touch it that it was somebody else's jig saw and he would be mad if I touched it.

    I just wasn't prepared to see somebody like Walter in total chaos. He has no sense of time. His wife told me he cannot read the clock or understand time. The staff came to get him for supper so I thought I walk with him to the dining room. He completely forgot that I was the person who came to visit him.

    What an awful way to end your life!

     I wasn't even a "good guy " yesterday.

BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS

      There are two species of waxwings in North America: bohemian and cedar.  Most cedar waxwings spend their summer in Canada and winters in the southern United States. Bohemian waxwings spread out and spend their summers in the boreal forest. Bohemian waxwings winter in south western  Canada where they tend to form large flocks.   Both species of waxwings are very beautiful birds with smooth feathers and small bright yellow or red on wings or tail. You can get quite close to them as they are feeding.

    I've always liked watching the large flock of bohemian waxwings when they spend the winter with us.

   Flocks start appearing in late November and grow larger all winter. Bohemian waxwings like mountain ash berries but actually eat quite a number of different berries.

   The large flocks seem to be joyful as they explode as one and fly around the district.

    Bohemian waxwings have one problem here: the merlin.

    Merlins are a small  falcon and are excellent hunters of birds so they dine on waxwings most days. I see the merlin chase the waxwings many times.

    The other day there was a large flock of waxwings in my neighborhood. They were in a tree in my front yard and of course in many other nearby trees, I got a few photos. Then I looked for another photo. All of a sudden the flock exploded into flight as if they were one. They formed  dense ball and began to climb. All of a sudden I noticed another bird. I thought maybe one waxwing was late to the party. No! It was the merlin. The merlin will get under the flock of waxwings. The waxwings will fly higher to get away from the merlin. All of a sudden a weak or sick bird will fall out of the group. The merlin hones in on the falling bird and like a speeding bullet

 catches it.

    I've seen this many times and it's always fascinating to watch.
  

    

JUICE MAKING DAY

     We have a routine for making juice and it's a long drawn out procedure.

     Starting from the beginning. we have a few small berry bushes that we pick every year. We clean off the berries and put them in the deep freeze. Every two or three years or when the deep freeze gets full we juice the berries. The juice is put in bottles and then back in the deep freeze it goes. 

    We have Nanking cherries, black currant, red currant and somebody always gives us crab apples.

    Then over the two or three years we take out  a bottle of juice and cook it up and make either a syrup or jelly. You can't beat it.

   Now the pioneer way of juicing berries was to cook up the berries and put them in a cloth sack and let the juice drain into a container. This method isn't very efficient as you don't get a lot of juice. 

    So a long time ago we bought a steam  juicer. This gizmo consists of three parts.The bottom part is just  pot with water the produces the steam. The middle section is like a big funnel that catches the juice. The top part is a basket which contains the berries. As the steam goes through the berries juice is released . Each basket of different berries has a prescribed steaming time. Once the 50 minutes or whatever time is required we drain the hot juice out of the middle section and catch it in bottles.

   So the other day we spent the whole day on the juicing project. Today I had some delicious black currant syrup.

     You can see the three sections of the juicer in this photo.

     Two bottles of crab apple juice.

DOES SECURITY HAVE IT IN FOR ME?

     We are a small city of about 100000 people although we think we're pretty big. But then none of us have been to New York!

      We have a courthouse that handles most cases except for Court of Queen's Bench.

     Somehow a few incidents of security happened a few years ago. People involved in court cases became unruly. One poor guy accidentally entered through the back door and security attacked him. He had a breathing tube which they knocked out and the poor guy just about died. Then a security system was set up. The security system has grown larger and larger. In the old days people just walked in and went where they were supposed to. I was called three times for jury selection. I was called at other times for custody disputes. I walked to the rooms I was assigned to.

     So now you have to go through security to enter the Courthouse. A couple of years ago I went to the court house and didn't know there was security. I entered the wrong side of the door . They got a little excited.

    This month I went to the court House. I knew there was security and I thought I was ready. I don't hear well and if it's noisy I have difficulty. So I had to put my coat in a basket  and walk through the scanner while my jacket is being scanned. I got through and was looking for my coat. One of the security guys leans over and asks me to pull my pant legs up. I could have asked , "How high?" but that might have been  big mistake. So here's this old grandpa kind of guy who at times isn't steady on his feet and he has to pull his pant legs up at the same time. It's funny I didn't fall over!

    The pant legs up really got me going. Do they think some 77 year old guy is going to have a knife in his shoe or some other dangerous contra brand?

    I was not amused. I expect security to be able to size people up better than that. As we go about our daily lives our antennae are always up watching for someone who may pose a risk. Why can't security who do this work everyday have a little better sense of who to thoroughly check?

QUESTIONS

    I'm sure there are many questions from the past 6 posts . I will try to answer all questions if there is an answer.

    I like questions as it gives me a good idea of my writing. Am I making things clear? Do I miss things? So no matter if it's just curiosity, fire away and ask questions.

    I enjoyed writing the posts and I will like your questions.

DIMA

     My job as Local Administrator had me doing many different things. It may not have been that time consuming but there was a great variety of things to do.

     I was the government contact for all government business. On the opposite side I contacted the government for all local business. There was lots of ordering and then maintenance for school, shop ,houses and power.

     We had a diesel generator producing power. We had two identical Diesel's. One would run seven days and then be serviced and the second would run for seven days. So Our mechanic would go out for holidays and I would look after the diesels. They had to be checked numerous times a day and then serviced. Guess who got the job? Me!

    One job I really enjoyed was buying soapstone carvings. Several afternoons a week I was open for buying soapstone carvings. The government gave me a monthly $2000.00 to buy carvings. So the learning curve was steep as far as pricing carvings was concerned. Most carvings were in the $10.00 to $20.00 range . There were a few good carvers and their pieces went for much more. I bought one carving for $1200.00. You should have seen the look on her face when I said $1200.00 She could buy 2 skidoos with that money. O emember the Inuit would say something like sikidoos

    Before the ship came in I had to tag and wrap all carvings...big job and not fun. If you wanted to buy the carvings from me the price was doubled.

   I also oversaw soapstone mining. 4 guys would go out in the winter, build an igloo and work for a week. They picked and pried the stone out of the rock. There were big and little pieces and all could be used. The rock was hauled in with sleds and skidoos.

    There were weird problems that came up. The government kept asking about a child and wanted me to identify the child. Families were paid family allowance. The government had been paying for this child but somehow did not identify the child. I would get a letter to check. I would go to the family and ask about this child. They would shake their heads and say they knew nothing about it. After two years they looked at each other and discussed. It was a baby that had been born out on an island and the baby died. Now the government had to get the overpayment back. 

   Any government people who came through stayed at my place. One very interesting person who spent a week with us was Fred Breumer a well known writer on the north. We learned so much from listening to Fred for a week. Another interesting guy was a French dentist who was doing research on teeth. He came every two years. He didn't speak English but we understood his Parisian French almost perfectly. We had difficulty with Quebecois French.

   We had surprise visitors when planes landed because of bad weather. Two twin otters landed one day. They had floats but there was no open water so they landed in the snow which was an amazing thing to watch. We were expecting to witness a crash. They made  an excellent landing and then took off the next day.

    There was something different every day that made things interesting.

     Now the Inuit would tell you something and say "Dima." Dima meant "I'm finished", "I have nothing more to say."

     So with this post I'm finished. It's been fun to reminisce with you.

    I will set up a question post in a couple of days.

ANGIASHOUTIQ AND EeHUNGA

      The Micro manager knew more what she wanted than I did as far as northern experience. She was excited to go north.


      Jean is a nurse and wanted to nurse in an isolated settlement with very little equipment. She wanted to work with the people on their terms. She wanted to be in a minority. She got what she wanted and more.

     First, there was no position for a nurse. Health had been looked after by the local priest but he didn't have any medical training at all. After requests and negotiations Jean finally got an allowance of $50.00 per month. 

     So off she went with her $50.00 a month. There was a nursing cabin with some medication and equipment. First, she planned to open the cabin every week day for one hour and anybody who wanted anything could come at that time. This didn't work at all. The cabin was too cold and people didn't get sick from 1:00PM to 2:00PM. People were coming to the house at all hours of the day night or week. It's not as bad as you might think. There were less than 200 people so there were days and weeks when she didn't see anybody. Then there were times when all hell broke loose.

    Jean liked the job and the people and looks back at it as one of the best times of her life. The people loved her and she loved them. The called her Angiashoutiq which means little nurse. 

    Nobody died on her watch except for the murder victim. However, there were close calls. One little boy had spinal meningitis. With guidance from the doctor 3 hundred miles way she gave the best antibiotics but finally said to the parents that the only thing left was prayer and the priest was called . Jean came home for a few hours and then went back to see the kid. The kid was up and playing and laughing. They continued and the kid survived. You can bet these parents were happy. 

    Another time a young woman was having a baby and things didn't go right. Jean was terribly worried. After more than 24 hours the baby was born. Next problem, a retained placenta. Try as hard as she could Jean could not get the retained placenta. Now in the traditional birth the woman knelt on a seal skin. Somebody held her from the back supported and squeezed.  Now it was normal for quite a few people to come and go during the event. So one of the old fellows who was the local midwife said, "I think I know how to get it." So Jean scrubbed his dirty hands and applied alcohol. He went in and got the placenta and everybody survived. Jean never forgot that one and will remember this old fellow forever.

    During the 30 hours Jean did not get home. I would get a message from some kid that Angiashoutiq wanted  a sandwich and some tea so I made a lunch and took it down. I would stay and visit. Jean was glad to get home and bath and change clothes and sleep. 

   That was the last delivery in the settlement.

    Jean did not have an interpreter so over the two years became quite good with the language. 

    If Jean was writing this it would probably make a good book.

    Jean was sad to leave and the people were very sad to see her go as it was the best medical care they had ever had.

    Now the people had names for all the white guys. My name was Eehunga. I asked the kids what it meant. They made a motion on their face and said crooked mouth. Wow! Where did that come from? However, one side of my mouth was lower than the other. I had never noticed it but I went home and looked and sure enough my mouth was slightly slanted. I was always called Eehunga. When the kids spoke Eskimo I would know when they were talking about me. It was not something that was hidden.

    Those were the days. So you see we both worked hard.

     Oh yeah! One time Jean was starting a batch of bread when somebody came to the house and asked for her. She told me what to do with the bread and said , "I'LL be right back. " So I was to put in a little flour and stir. So I followed the directions. The problem was Jean didn't return when she thought so there I was stirring and stirring and afraid to quit if it would spoil the bread. We still laugh about that one. She said it was the best bread she ever made.

    The photo of us as a couple was a couple of months after we left Kangisujuaq. If you enlarge this one, take a good look at my mouth!

 
      Yes, she really was a nurse. No Uniforms in the north.