Wearing of the "WHITE!"

A Happy St. Patty's Day from the great white north!

It's been a snowy day here in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut. No...let me rephrase and tell it honestly.  The past 48 hours and continuing into the night, we have had a blizzard. Snow is something, but couple that with howling 87 km/hr winds gusting well over 100...and continuing the entire two days AND NIGHTS... now that's a blizzard.

The wind has been blowing from the same direction (from the west--the direction of the airport) the entire time. During the daylight hours yesterday the sun was actually poking through and added some extra depth of visibility but that faded fast. According to Environment Canada we ended at times with two tenths of a kilometer of visibility...most of the time the weather has stated zero visibility.

Environment Canada latest weather monday a.m...and the winds INCREASED!

I have been counting visibility by the number of hydro poles I can see from the bay window. During the storm the best visibility has been four poles, the worst...less that one. The difference from this blizzard and my record winning one from January 2008 is that I can seeout a bay window, have a street to watch, and we have had power the entire time. So, we also have heat and water, although a trickle, continues. Internet has been quite good considering the stress everyone in town must be putting on the resources here.

With digital enhancement our road drift being cleared yesterday

Satellite TV has been intermittent at the times of the heaviest snowfall, as is normal with satellites. The sunspots, this time, are not to blame. The difference, here, is that I have nothing pre-recorded to view when its not working. Thankfully, those times have been few and far between.

With my viewing limited somewhat, I have developed an appreciation of the efforts of the Canadian border security people and their counterparts in Australia.  If you have ever watched the program, people are trying all kinds of ways, to bring illicit and illegal weapons and goods into our country. Then there are those, who can only be classified as "you can't cure stupid". 

An Irish Lunch....Chips, Dip and Guinness

But it's St. Patrick's Day. The weather at home may be greening...but that's only a wish for the future here. Spring may be only days on the calendar but it might as well be a Irish pipe dream away. To celebrate the day of the green, I brought up four cans of Guinness. The final one to be devoured with my supper.As I said on Facebook earlier, three are now a memory and last is but, a dream.

This is a dry town. There has been some movement on having beer and wine available in the grocery stores and that may happen soon. At the moment those commodities and hard liquor must be ordered from the capital across the Bay. I have no idea of the process nor the price, but rest assured it will arrive by plane...and the prices will also reflect that.

The road gets scraped on Sunday

The storm continues. So, for the second day in a row, we have been weathered at home. The storm continues with 70 plus km/hr winds and, although visibility is now two poles, darkness will soon arrive. Yesterday, we had the road crews through to handle the drifts that are throughout the hamlet. In this part of the country they know how to handle snow.

 On Sunday, after the freezing rain, a grader came along and scrapped off the ice coating. Actually, what he did was just scrap down to a new layer of snow, which was much less slippery. The application of gravel is much more common, but used sparingly as it tends to blow on the polished streets. Salt is not applied. Gravel is found locally and does not have to be imported.

As the weather continues, it's time for the Guiness and my Irish stew, but the platter looks more like spaghetti and meatballs. Here in the north you accept substitutions, without question.
In Rankin Inlet, we are celebrating spring this friday, but only on the calendar. Currently, we are experiencing winter at its highest level.

The warmest of mitts

In february, Wiarton Willie had predicted six more weeks of winter...but that ended yesterday! The blizzard weather continues with strength and veracity. The people here would love to have some warmer weather arrive soon. You could see that Sunday morning when the temperatures rose to a high of -2C. The Inuit people have a certain way of dealing with the weather. They tolerate and adapt, but at this point the general feeling, in this town, would be that Wiarton Willie would make a fine pair of mitts.

Basket Cases

North West Company's 'The  Northern' grocery, hardware, clothing & Tim's

Life in the north...it goes without saying that, due to transportation and handling, food prices here are

significantly more expensive, than what we are used to at home. I've held back a bit with this tale since it's common to most and I wanted to be able to view it from more of a local perspective.

Before the blizzard hit on sunday night, I decided it would be prudent to make sure I had sufficient supplies for a few extra days..just in case. So late sunday, once the locals had sufficient time to stock their larders, I decided it was time to see what was left. The shelves were becoming bare, not completely but much more than the normal restocking required after a busy weekend.

The Tim's kiosk At the Northern during a slow time...Open since June 2013

There was lots of the staples like milk, eggs, butter, and margarine...but bread was starting to get sparse. Snacks had been cleared...there was lots of meat but vegetables were starting to thin as well. There were a few families just picking last minute things like myself, and the Tim's kiosk in the Northern was empty...save for one table of teens. Spring break for the locals schools was last week so they probably were plotting what they would do on their extended march break if the blizzard did indeed arrive.

Before we get to the prices, an observation of the family ahead of me in line. Cases of pop are expensive. He had two on the bottom shelf of the basket and a number of pre-made sandwiches and lunch treats, apples and snacks for the kids lunches. One full shopping cart....the basket fully loaded...and my mouth dropped as the cash register totalled $499.67. He calmly reached for his debit and loaded the kids, the boxes of groceries into the huge white pickup and drove away.

So lets talk prices. Bread is around $3.45 for a loaf of wonder bread which I bought at 50% reduction since they had lots one day and were probably expecting another shipment...haven't seen that since. The 12 grain loaves, I usually buy, go for $4.19 and they were on sale one week at 30 cents off. Becel Margarine 454 gm $6.35...a dozen large eggs were reasonable at $2.49....a half gallon of Orange juice was $7.95....a gallon of 2% milk was $7.59...while the International Delight Irish Cream coffee creamer was $5.29 for 473 ml.

Condiments are another thing. A 475 ml jar of Miracle Whip was $6.59....French's mustard 225 ml was $3.19 while Bick's relish was $5.49 for 375 ml. Soft drinks are expensive due to weight...I'm paying $2.39 a can for 7-Up....you'd think I was eating at a sports venue.

Brace yourself for the meat department. ..500 grams of no name Bacon is $4.39...A package of Schneiders Red Hots were $7.29....two small boneless pork loin chops were $5.17...and a pound of lean ground beef was $9.50. Chicken, well the chickens here are very small. Pre-cooked meats are available friday and saturday in the heated display, just before the checkouts, but they were $14.99 for a whole chicken. I bought 5 chicken drums, very nicely prepped, for $6.24.

For my lunch, I've been buying apples...the Gala apples are $4.30 a kilo so I'm in for $2.55 for three. The other produce was a small cooking oinion at 1.79 /kg, and mine was a steal at 22 cents. One of the staff told me a story about they had paid $7 for this wonderful looking tomato...put it in their knapsack for the journey home..about three blocks. When putting it into the fridge, she noticed a small blemish on its side. The next day the tomato had completely rotted from the quick freeze on the way home..She now takes a taxi home when she buys produce.

Fresh good looking vegetables are hard to come by. Last week at the flea market the Arctic Buying company had brought in assorted bags of produce from Winnipeg and were selling two reusable grocery bags, like those big green ones at Sobey's, the price was $45 for two and they were flying off the table. They contained celery, asparagus, lettuce, carrots, blueberries, and a myriad of other greens that I couldn't visualize easily.

Of course, the Sushi table there, was also very active.

So, you can see how the price of groceries can add up quite quickly here...add a couple of teenagers, and before you know it, you could be spending $500 very easily. There is a promotion here in Rankin Inlet, since March is Nutrition Month. Banners in the Grocery Store and the Health Centre encourage healthy diets...a mixture of 'store-bought” and 'Country' foods.

The term 'country' food pertains to wild game, fish or beast, taken from the land. They hunt and fish but use what they catch. Their food bank program here involves a freezer bank program, where successful hunters and fishers donate to the freezers so that elders and those without, may not suffer the agony of starvation in this climate. That is a part of the history here, that is still fresh in the minds of the elders, but can't possibly be understood by their grandchildren, and great grandchildren when access to food is so easy. Currently, in Rankin Inlet, food is readily available, just be prepared for the sticker shock.

Half Kilo of lean ground beef, Wonder white bread on sale and Knorr Onion soup 4 pack totalled $17.20