Garbage? No Longer!

Today my class participated in the Great Canadian Shore Line Cleanup and it went pretty well. I wasn't sure how many kids would show, but it was great to see so many. My class filled so many bags I had to go to the house to get more. Sadly, I wasn't able to participate as my ankle is still healing but I was able to stand and give moral support (and supervision). It is nice to see those who really care trying to keep Cape Dorset clean. It is very sad how much litter and trash are around.

The weather is starting to turn cold up here. There is getting to be a nice bite to the wind and there is snow predicted next week. I am looking forward to the cold but am very, very sad I have not gotten out fishing yet. My hope is maybe Lily and I can go do some casting into the bay on Saturday and see what we can catch. I am not getting my hopes up on that though. It would be much better to hike away from town and try but that's not a possibility right now. I was also really keen on goose hunting but I may miss that as well. However, I am able to walk short distances without my cane which is super sweet so... maybe soon.

Things at the school are coming along. We are supposed to be getting our phones and PA system in by next week which should make school much safer, but we still can't drink the water. So, one step forward, one step back.

We got our food mail last week that we put an order in with Kathy. It was a total of 10 boxes and almost $800.00!!! So nice to have some meat in the freezer and our choice of veggies. We have now bought fresh peas and a box of cereal from a store in town here that has tasted like paint fumes on different dates. They are great about taking it back, but it's a real bummer to open something up to eat that you're really excited about and taste, well, a big mouth full of YUCK! It must get shipped with stuff that breaks open on occasion. The nice thing about food mail is the veggies are generally high quality this time of year. It has been recommended not to buy in the winter though as things sit on the tarmac and can freeze.

We also received a care package from my folks of some things we asked them to pick up. We now have 2 boxes of drapes for the whole house, various tools for me to learn to carve with, some things for Lily and some soil and seeds to start an indoor garden that I am super excited about. I love the idea of Lily helping make stuff grow. She loved my dad's garden in southern BC this last year so much that it would be cool to have a few things in our kitchen here that she can help tend and watch grow. I want to start a couple of worm bins to supplement the "soil" that we have up here, but have had trouble finding a distributor in Ottawa. If anyone has any suggestions I would be very appreciative. The idea of a worm bin is that you have a largish tupperware with holes in it that you place some of your veggie scraps. The worms eat and digest them then poop out good soil which is full of stuff plants like. I did find one guy who sells them but he was unwilling to ship them as they may take up to 7 days to arrive. I have read conflicting info on how long they will last and would really like to try before the weather gets to cold to try shipping them.

We have an update on our sealift. Now the ship won't be getting here until October 22!!! So now we have to buy a months worth of dog food. I can't even imagine what that is going to cost.

I managed to unpack my guitars tonight and was playing a bit after dinner while we were playing with Lily. It has been a couple months since I have played for Lily and she went crazy for it. She was strumming and singing and dancing. It was a good time. Sorry, no pictures tonight.

Well, that's about it from me. Take care all and I hope all is well and wonderful in your lives. Please leave some feedback as we all love to hear from you.

-Richard

Just to add a little detail about food mail... we have to place the order by 1:00 on Sunday for an order to arrive Thursday/Friday.  This order we just received was placed two Sundays ago.  It was supposed to be here last Thursday but we have been fogged in since Sunday.  Our order was somewhere in the world.  The fog finally lifted Monday and planes started arriving again.  Our order arrived Tuesday.  We were all very apprehensive but things were in excellent shape.  It must have been stuck in Iqaluit which does have cooler and freezer facilities.  So even though it was 5 days late we have beautiful food to eat and fresh coffee creme!

-Margot