Sea Cans & G-Cans

Most of the summer toys are under Snow and Ice

Everywhere you look, if you really look close, you will find evidence of a coastal culture. 

Under the snow and amongst

All set ready to go...it will be a while yet!

the drifts are some very fine boats...no sailboats so far, just speed boats...those with wide hulls, big motors. The kind you would take out in Lake Erie on a rougher day...but they are not enclosed. There all open hulled.

The main reason is transport, fishing, and whaling. These boats allow the family to visit relatives up the coast. They allow for fishing out on the big bay called HUDSON...and the hunting of walrus and whales, both beluga and narwhales. Of course, Narwhales, are controlled these days and require permits... sometime a community will get the permit for a whale and everybody becomes involved.

The main feature in town you will notice, appears to be discarded containers from the shipping companies. These are sold and bought like any commodity. You do require a hamlet permit, like any permanent structure, and are subject to some rules and regs.  People use them to store summer goods. Christmas decorations or any other item that may be seasonal. 

Frozen in place...what hides inside?

"Quads",  BBQ's, tools are stored and anything else that we might put in our basement for storage are placed inside....they have no basements here! If you sell your Sea-can, and it has to be moved to a new location, you simply call the front end loader over and the man with the CAT comes by and drives it to the new spot. Right now there won't be much movement and they are frozen solid to the ground and surrounded by a little bit of snow.

SEA Cans...found all over town

The new Garbage Collection Truck...in action

The G-cans have a few uses and come in a variety of sizes, shapes and colours. Primarily they are used for garbage, and dot the landscape...but closer examination on these during and after the big blizzard led me to a couple of other conclusions. Yes, they get packed with garbage and there is probably a schedule to the collection process. Often, travelling through the hamlet, is a very large garbage truck. It looks brand new, a year or two at the most, and obviously from its size had to come into this town by sealift as do most commercial vehicles, trucks, buses and the heavy equipment that we've seen used over and over. You got to have the tools to do the job.

Hiding out of the wind, but in the sun. An hour later, the wind swung and they were gone

One of the most prominent beasts in town is curiously absent these days. After the big blizzard they seemed to disappear. I have yet to find one or confirm it. I have seen the ravens in town, tearing the garbage bags and spreading a mess along the way, much like our seagulls do. They are wiley...they avoid the coldest weather by maintaining the presence on the lee side of the buildings, well out of the wind. During a coffee break last week, I was asked if I noticed that the ravens were absent, then was  told that they have started to nest for the season. Now the weather today is -28 and the news is that ravens are nesting.

This brought forward the conversation about the collection of eggs, goose and duck. The Inuit use them in their diet since living chickens are not found in this area. I then made the mistake of asking if they used the raven's eggs...You could have heard an ULU drop..."they're garbage eaters" was the first response..."we don't eat garbage eggs" was the second. Of all the crazy questions or statements that I've made since I arrived, this one seemed to hurt. I apologized but then I was asking questions. There may be reasons for the short fuse with the recent publicity about garbage and some citizens using the dump to find food. It was a hot topic in the news and lead to the deputy mayor's resignation.

The garbage cans mark the streets in "Old Town"

After the big storm, I noticed that you couldn't find the roads,or streets, just because the volume of snow and the resultant drifts in certain parts of town. You could imagine where the roads might have been...but here in Rankin Inlet, you could see the tracking of the streets. The people clearing the snow, post storm, also knew where the streets were. It was simplistic...the was a row of barrels along the side of the street, sometime both sides.

It's where the residents place their garbage for pickup...and the barrels provide a landing strip effect allowing the plowing teams to get the clearing done, when necessary. There are other bins around town in the larger buildings, including our health centre, with lids, but no one in winter uses the lids and the ravens and been seen ripping the green plastic to shreds and getting to the contents.

All ready for the new truck

The ravens are smart...One story that surfaced was about a dog in summer, whose owner had put food in the bowl, withing reach of the dog's chain. The story teller said the raven landed and moved around the spike until the dog became entangled in the chain as became shorter. As the chain became shorter the dog could not longer reach the bowl of food and the raven was free to enjoy the meal.

My education had continued as did those stories....an old computer adage came to mind..."Garbage in....well you already know the rest!"