Hi from Nunavut

4 C / 38 F currently at mid day -- the weather is really nice and sunny -- I am about to step outside now I have edited this to perfection!!!

... and dusk/dawn from 1am - 3am

I have been spending more and more of my time in the arctic where my son works and also recently bought the only physical mobile phone store in the north

... and less time in the Gatineau mountains ... yes: a long name with three consonants in Canada means it is probably located in Quebec ...

where I am offline and where my metis best-friend-forever stays (and has never flown or taken a train and does not intend to -- and you can't drive to Nunavut --
... and he "doesn't English "
so that doesn't help his lack of desire to travel -- and doesn't like traveling beyond an hour radius of his birthplace)

I want to drag him to the French region west of New Orleans, LaPlace, and see how we like that: baby steps
Then keep going west and see how he feel about Spanish ( I have an app for Spanish a Cuban showed me, and this inquiring mind wants to learn Spanish and Inuktitut)

We are going offgrid like a joey: keep popping back in the pouch like a kid afraid to leave home
Mainly to use the 120V tools we will soon be eliminating.

I have a very small 4-season on the grid with no DSL, so no internet / tv etc., and we are readying a fleet of fixer-upper 70s Dodge and GM motorhomes, ready for fall/winter 2025 when I sell the abode and go "homeless" as my son is calling driving your home,

such experiences drive home, pun intended, the fact that postings offering boondocking need to specify access to water, as well as possible grey water facilities and black water disposal although we have a compost toilet in a jacked up hut, that can be easily trailered and the trailer will be my next project, trying out the used torches we scored to replace the ones that were stolen -- it isn't overkill when your  best-friend-forever chain smokes and so he can go somewhere warm and anyway the bi-bits in the toilet need it warm in order to eat your poo

I love that word: poo
See: I am an unabashed puppy

we worry about things being warm enough up here, eh

PS I sooo loved the post from the Canadian in the triangle in the Niagara - Detroit region about desperately seeking a sasquatch small-rant: they have all left in disgust very witty!
all the best and go take a college night class on oxy acetylene, that might help, eh
Sasquatch-lover: you read this posting, my giant runt breeder lives near you, although I don't know if he is single, and don't know his toileting habits, but I would love to visit you for short a chin wag next time I am down that way

small rant: I also just got on facebook but not for long -- the community here doesn't use your typical marketplace etc., and if you want to know what is going on registration is a must -- which I fiercely resisted before now and am not a fan of removing event postings for those fighting companies forcing genetic modification on farmers and suing those whose fields get contaminated with the stuff (instead of the other way around) -- here in Canada that wasn't met with success  

People call those who are comfortable with their own company shy
Maybe I am because I have been invited over to the home of newly made friends and was afraid to accept

Generally, I am afraid to get close to people being that I hoard -- but useful and clean stuff -- including at least 6 months of food and don't have much living space left
This will cease to be a problem once I have sold the shack

for company, I have my best-friend-forever, plus a lot of meat pigeons -- and Constable Tonto my 90 lb faithful companion -- who is the only one with a full time job

I am going to make a post about raising pigeons because inquiring minds want to know
about my version of food security in the mountains -- heads up you will not make money,
but if things go south, (not meaning they warm up unless that was the overdue solar flare, but I was going to anacronym, yes, I turn nouns into verbs like the quebecois),
... so your dog can eat and so can you
-- plus you will have much better soil

... and will most likely post more on pigeons after that once questions pop up from members who don't mind run-on sentences from a wordy person that doesn't know how to write concisely -- I really don't -- one reason I mostly keep to myself so I don't annoy people

I think I shall start with something not requiring photos

a brief explanation on the lean-to "cabanne moineaux" (inside joke) attached to a shipping container, but a followup pic when I can add one
and the "pigeonmobile" also a pic

and then some on composting lasagna style if there isn't anything out there on large scale composting and cover cropping windrows without having to build raised beds, more pics

so, promise: I will start with a post before I leave this Sunday for the bush
subject:
small-scale mass pigeon butchering: how to salvage murdered pigeons

-- and freeze the meat for the dog food you make, because cooking for your dog requires less food storage and bonus: is much cheaper and healthier for your dog

... (when you lose 35 of them in one fowl swoop, pun intended, to a weasel),
... and you save the rest in your basement in the two hours before dusk,
... but how you prepared for such a disaster with refurbished damaged plastic dog cages

I am down from 200 to 100 pigeons but I was planning on culling a few anyway unfortunately I lost a lot of great home raised breeders that I would have kept, but at least I didn't have to decide which to call

"Always look on the bright,   si-ide of life , di doo, di doo, di doo di doo"

...not bothering with double nesting breeding pairs and why
or even providing any kind of nest

so anyway I am pigeon obsessed, sorry, which usually happens when you have a lot of them

I am currently online which is rare and with a computer for the first time in almost 20 years instead of a smart phone accessing cellular from very slow and intermittent cellular
.. which is okay for texting and reading web pages, or rather downloading them for future reading, downloading in general on unlimited usage, but not for phone calls and streaming
A considerable journey to a library wifi and back but the same distance to get gas

I have been intermittently lurking for about 10 years learning a lot of stuff on here but recently subscribed in order to get access to stuff

I love this site because all the members are so helpful and the more I learn the more I realize I need to learn so much more
The rocket heater stuff alas is over my little brain's capacity to follow directions

I also love this site because the web maintainers use my lingo
Perhaps because before I dropped out of the rat race I lunched with coworkers who were BSD driver developers and I could speak with the "natives"

Hmmm anyway my takeaway lesson on 20 years away from humanity has been:
yes I would repeat what I did: I would still rather buy a cheap house for cash, and be around to do my best to raise my son,
forgetting house insurance and now it is half paid for on insurance I never paid,
... in a frontier where people know better than to come on your land in a beautiful area of forest and a chance to become fluent in my fourth language .

Being afraid to fix something became a non issue, as there is no one competent around to hire, or they are too busy with their own place,
and if the water and power are off, any of my efforts are an improvement, and usually ditto for vehicles and I only have one with fuel injection

like Paul, I love run-on sentences

my neighbors paved paradise and put up a parking lot

me: when I sell the house, I will return the virgin forest next to it that we use for our trial off-grid boondocking experience and guest house, to our local rez
sorry: is there a better non insulting word ?

Please excuse the run-on sentences: I can't seem to stop them -- I think spent too many years being paid to sing and play wind instruments,
and I am a walking video recorder anyway, with spontaneous recall, interrupting my thoughts, and I just think that way...

Ra
(which is not Ray-mond - but short for Rachel, but not Rachelle - achoo)

Lived in AK twice. Chalkyitsik and Craig (on the Prince of Wales Island.) Went from the island to NYC (1 year, which was 2 years too long). Very familiar with how the weather can be. Long days give you a nice growing season. Tunneling may help.

Hi, Ra.

There have been a lot of efforts to create mostly-year-round greenhouses in these northern areas. The goal is to provide actual humans with actual healthy food, and encourage actual health. As opposed to the overpriced slop and processed Doritos that are flown in. The first nations who live there are not wired for that processed junk -- it's an especially deadly poison for them.

When you get around, and talk to people, if you're willing, please ask questions about this. How can we make this happen at a local level? What do you see for resources?

I beg pardon, I don't mean to hand out an assignment. I just think this is a way to make reconciliation happen in a practical way, on the ground. If it's not too much trouble, I would appreciate your on-the-ground perspective. Thanks!

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Hi, Ra.

There have been a lot of efforts to create mostly-year-round greenhouses in these northern areas.

When you get around, and talk to people, if you're willing, please ask questions about this. How can we make this happen at a local level? What do you see for resources?

... an assignment... a way to make reconciliation happen in a practical way, on the ground.

We have a greenhouse that is operated by volunteers
Blueberries grow where too -- there is a surprising amount of stuff that grows here

I am going to try mealworms on plastic because Iqaluit isn't recycling let alone composting although the brewery now has a place to give their spent hops too: a site needing remediation from the cold war years

Assignments : I love homework

Honestly the people are really warm and generous. As far as reconciliation goes my premise is to figure out how to give back all federal and provincial crown land to status and non status peoples and fall it a good start

The Catholic pope made a great start: he came here and apologized in person in a closed meeting.

With regards to diet, there is a subsidized food program that makes things like carrots relatively cheap but chips cost about $7 for a bag! I think it is a great idea because I am inclined to a sweet tooth for swiss and german chocolate but even a cheap snack bar costs $5 and that is Iqaluit not the smaller communities

Country food (traditional hunted and fished foods) are given special status

Fisheries: need for more deep ports
Probable 2nd deep water port in the whole vast region of Nunavut:

https://www.nunavutnews.com/business/construction-nunavuts-next-port-in-qikiqtarjuaq-still-subject-to-negotiation/

Now, I am a poor source for politics -- no TV no radio and non internet when I am back south near mont saint-marie QC no signal etc off grid much of the time and too busy puttering with homesteading to check what is happening with others

I just wanted to say hi back to a fellow Canadian. I spent a year and a half in the Yukon and loved so much about it. The long days are so incredible! I also spent a year in Fort Vermilion, which is about 90 minutes from the NWT border. I love the North and would love to hear about your adventures.

I broke things again!

I tried to post some pics and the forum thingy looked like it wanted to
change what Douglas Alpenstock wrote when I tried to quote myself to correct
"We have a greenhouse"

what I meant was "here in Iqaluit there is a greenhouse"
but I consider myself to be
neo-Nunavummit
So "we" oui oui

Douglas: I sacrificed my uploads because I was really scared I might ruin your reply

Shari: Thank you for your reply

I have social phobia
As you can see I talk too much

Probably its has to do with thinking in video not words
and having aspie-ness rampant in the family

I compensate by spending most of my life in virtual isolation
So I don't verbally overload others too often

When I am not down south near Mont Sainte-Marie
In the bush
In a murderous and thieving little area of antisocial and asocial types
(no covid)
Sign at the gate for the free range dog aka Biter / Constable Tonto / "C'Mere" meaning come here which works almost as well as Bacon said in a low secretive tone which proves he has selective hearing

Smarter sellers of the local produce did the same: "no visitors"

I have kept my sign -- they haven't

During covid I hunkered-down there in the Gatineau mountains at 650'
Yes they call them mountains
But they do block cell signals so they are good enough

... with 3 years of rice and peas, 3 freezers, 2 fridges,
4 months in total isolation

No guns only slingshots so I don't consider myself a prepper: life expectancy limited to when the neighbours get hungry

I was at the Woodstock (Ontario) fur and feathers 5am when I arrived with Nunavut plate
and found out about covid Mar 15, 2020
... from the Ontario police  
Who found out we had our annual opening free Spring swap meet
run by the local Homer club
So they let things slide being it is an outdoor event
And people were arriving soon

So I initiated to the contingency plan and hunkered in place

I had my feathered friends as backup for meat: make sure your dog has enough food too
I make all his food because with no stores for 45 minutes drive,
I require less food supplies to store and my dog and I often share the same food:

Organ meat at $60 for 40lbs
Liver is full of B12, folic acid and dietary cholesterol is not bad for you

And it is cheap
And I fell off the rat race 19 years ago so not much money

I eat tons of eggs and liver and heart as well as those choice
tail, cheek, lips, and tongue meat and
the dog gets the kidneys and the tough parts plus the heads to keep his teeth ready for his job

I have low cholesterol and borderline low blood pressure but that is also due to
prayer/ gratefulness meditation

Or maybe the digging snow and dirt... "Full body workout"

As y'all may be aware Nunavut was closed down,
partying away on new years eve 2020-2021

During covid I didn't drive to check internet for 4 months

I went from 70 pigeons to 200 -- even when the markets were open,
I didn't want to go near others

Then I went back to Iqaluit and caught covid like right now!

Drippy nose then a nasty headache for a few hours
Probably during v the headache: I had my previous eye exam Dec 2020

Now my optical nerve in one eye is destroyed

the ancient opthalmologist simply remarked I am lucky I can see it all and gave me drops
And didn't believe the paper I showed him of my previous exam
Got his license in 1977

Well I didn't get sick so I am lucky to be alive I figure

I am flying south tomorrow to meet the Canada geese

No DSL
No cell signal
No TV
Don't bother with radio
Too busy playing with the meat pigeons,
gardening and composting
-- and working on getting moved out

I tried to upload a pic of my pine tree guild while I have reasonable bandwidth
I still find it funny that I get internet in Nunavut but not down south

I can amuse myself endlessly hahaha

If I don't answer your in a while I am not dead: I have more than 9 lives

While I still have bandwidth: