-56F Windchill and Goodbye to the mortgage

Brutal day up here as the windchill is in the -50 region, locally blowing snow horizontally, and the blizzard forecast overnight had the Churchill scouts' overnighter called off as no one knew if the roads would be open. Just another day in sub-arctic paradise.

We had geared up all day for the scouts with Laura the cook on her feet literally all day and we got the cancel call only 30 minutes before we expected them to arrive. The worm and dirt cake is now in the freezer as an experiment to see if when it thaws out next week it will be edible and whether we'll be able to insert the worms.

On the positive side my cribbage buddy Roger "starman" arrived bearing a box of Tim Horton donuts and new decks of cards plus a new game Crib Wars, a cribbage game with penalties, shortcuts, etc. Looks interesting.

Aurora forecast for tonight is good but we need the clouds to cooperate by going elsewhere. The week-long photography group arrived today and are quite anxious to photo the auroras and get out to the landscapes. Maybe fortunately their bus did not start after lunch and the hood would not open - going out in -50 windchill is not conducive to anything, it's hard to get your mind to focus when you are thinking frostbite and "how long will it take for me to die if the bus won't start again?"

It must be "bring your daughter to work" week as both Nick the Polar Bear expert and "starman" have their daughters coming up. Nick's will probably get to fly in the helicopter out to the mama and cub bears, lucky girl!

Linda got to spend the night in town Monday so was able to get some kitty love. We do miss our cat Bailey.

Let's see....what do I have for new pictures?

Aurora along southern tree line, unusual location for us

 The auroras are usually overhead or to the north of us. First time I had seen them this far south. And it turned into quite a lively display later in the night. The Earthwatchers were almost delirious! I'll try to post a timelapse and a few more pics in the next post.

Next two pics are of day or two old tracks (at the time a week or so ago) of a mom and two cubs crossing the road on their way to the Bay. Note the two sets of tracks on the right.

Mother polar bear and two cubs trekking towards Hudson Bay recently

Why did the polar bears cross the road? To get to Hudson Bay

So, the thing to remember is that there are always bears around. This time of year it is the mother with the newborn cubs. And she is hungry not having eaten since December or so. And you would look quite tasty. Mike, the CNSC director, told me a story of following such tracks into a wooded area which is unusual for mother bear and cubs and he kept just getting closer on the skimobile when he decided to get the heck out of there. Circumnavigating the tree island he determined that the bears were still in it so he made the right decision!

Valentine's night full moon rise through low clouds

 With a Valentine moon setting the stage like this, you know the night was right for ....

Just another ho-hum aurora pic over the old launch facility blockhouses

 Taken the same night on the southern side.

The Earthwatch group was hot to build and sleep in an igloo and did. Construction took longer than expected. Note the mailbox and the barely visible Shell logo on top of the igloo. Many of the Earthwatchers that come up in the winter are sponsored by Shell.

 

The igloo built by the Earthwatch group

Inside of igloo with 8mm lens

Donna our other volunteer with near full moon and aurora

Oh, and what was that about the mortgage? Yup, we paid the final installment today. Long haul what with college, cabin foundation and other repairs, a wedding, and more. But all well worth it.

Mortgage going up in flames

Bonus post - 4 second moonrise with aurora video

Playing with the camera doing a time lapse of the full moon + 1 day (full moon was Feb 14) which from the outdoor observation deck overlooks a frozen pond usually swept to bare ice by the winds. So I shot 122 pics at 10 second intervals - 1220 seconds = 20 minutes approx. Then using Timelapse Assembler, a free Mac program, the 122 pics were made into a 4 second video.

What was neat was that there was an aurora on the right hand side going on which I couldn't see but the camera did!

So here are the videos, one a MOV which is of better quality than the MP4. If you don't have a Mac and your Windows machine doesn't place MOV videos, I suggest you get VLC which is a gold standard for viewing all formats of videos and audios plus it is free. Here is the link - just make sure you are downloading for Windows or Mac as the case may be.

Also check out a still photo at Spaceweather using this link. I think it will work.

And here are the timelapses:

A post a day....just a pipe dream

Well, all my good intentions of posting on a regular or daily basis are as ethereal as the auroras. But, with renewed resolve and a tipple of Southern Comfort, I will try again. I'll also try to include a feature of Past Events of Note and Not So Noteworthy.

Let's start off in the wee hour of 0200 (that's 2 AM, learn your 24 hour time everyone) when 14 hours ago the knock came at the door from the Earthwatch aurora watcher that the lights were on. Now this was supposed to be a possible big Valentine's aurora so up we got, Linda to the dome and me to my camera to go outside. Linda, being the saner of us two, quickly surmised it wasn't worth loosing sleep over and went back to bed. I, however, ventured outdoors only to discover the same thing but was jolted wide awake by the cold which wasn't really too bad as there was no wind. There was also no aurora. Minutes and seconds can count in aurora hunting. But, others were up, had actually seen some weak green streaks, so I with hope decided to stay up for awhile (0200 to 0400 can be a good time usually), help people with their cameras, and did get a few shots  although nothing to write home about although apparently I am doing just that. I'll update this later with a pic or two.


Tonight, VD +1, there is an expectation that there will be a nice show and it is still clear so I took a good nap in preparation and to make sure I didn't fall asleep doing dishes at dinner from last night's deprivation. See tomorrow's report on how that went. Update: rats, just read this on Spaceweather.com: STORM WARNING: As expected a "cannibal CME" hit Earth's magnetic field on Feb. 15th at 1300 UT. However, the impact did not spark a geomagnetic storm. Storming could still happen, though, as another CME is en route, due to arrive on Feb. 15-16. High-latitude sky watchers should remain alert for auroras.  We'll have to see tonight!

Igloos - today the Earthwatch team set out to build their igloo with gusto and a lot of hand warmers. They plan to sleep in it in teams of three over the course of the next week. Linda and I, having done it last year, plan to provide our lessons learned: take a large 1 gallon wide mouth mayo jar and don't be bashful as you don't want to get dressed just to go outside to pee.

Note Miss Delicica in foreground who I found in RustyBear geocache nearby

mining the blocks with handsaw

Muqpauraq dogs for lunch. Muqpauraq, better known to us as bannock, being a staple of early explorer's basic food is an unleavened baked bread. Wrapped around a hot dog with mustard it is quite good.

Past Events of Note and Not So Noteworthy: Valentine's Day (oh, no, you won't hear the best part of that day) was a nice day for a walk so I took my two women in Inuit fashion and we headed out to take pics and go to the RustyBear geocache. Finding the cache is easy as I've been there before but no one had been to it since Oct 30 2013 while under armed guard during bear season, Picked up another woman while I was there name of Miss Delicica but see above igloo pic so you don't think I had the best Valentine Day ever. It was Donna's first time....finding a geocache. And we bumped into mischievous snow people.

Linda and Donna

Donna's first time at a geocache

Snow creature, one of many

unknown track

Linda get's her brows frosted

Well, that's it for today, promise made good (this one's for you, Fred), and we'll see how it goes.

Settling in

Hoping you forgive me for the ramble in the previous post, I'll try to keep things a little more concise and up to date going forward.

Arriving Tuesday about 1000 we were met by an ear-freezing windchill in the -40F range. Luckily, Heidi put my ear flaps down just before they fell off - my ears, that is. A quick stop at the Northern, the grocery store in town, for necessities: potato chips, diet Coke, and candy bars. Then over to Heidi's to drop off the three large containers of cat food we brought up on the train for her which meant she couldn't say no to our request to stop at the liquor store: $171 Canadian but only $159 US which made Linda feel ever so slightly better; Heidi, of course, was quite happy as we use her air miles card to get her points - I think we got her a trip to Florida last year. Seriously. Then off to our adopted winter home! Just some awesome views of the frozen bay and stark rock-filled landscapes. Makes you really respect the folks who can live up here.

Ramble alert: Oh, btw, we road up in the train with Gerald from Blue Sky Dogsledding. He trains and runs his dogs and takes groups out for runs which we will be doing tomorrow (Friday). He was just getting back from a Canadian Rangers military exercise which involved lots of snowmobiling, sleeping in tents, and all this during some extremely cold weather. He seemed to love it. More later.

Now, on the way up we got friendly with three Mennonite couples who were going to Churchill to sign at the hospital. They were quite interested in the Centre so I invited them out if they could find transportation. They called Wednesday and asked if they could come to dinner as well as visit as they had heard that the Centre would often feed people. I ran it by Heidi and our cook who both agreed especially since we had no other guests yet. Lots of credit to Laura who only had a few hours notice but put together a great pork chop dinner with roasted veggies, potatoes, salads, corn bread a la Laura, cranberry sauce supreme, and butter tarts. Alan the astronomer and Sarah the intern also joined us. Had a great time eating and talking, giving them a tour (they loved the viewing dome), and they put on a little a cappella concert for us. They all had some interesting stories and it was quite an evening.

This Thursday about 1000 the first group arrived. Excited as usual. But Linda and I and Laura were pretty straight out getting lunch ready as well as supper and washing dishes and it was a pretty exhausting day. But an exhilarating moment when Linda spied an arctic fox - our first in three years - out the window next to the building. Out came our cameras and out the door we went in our short sleeves. Then we got a few more pics once back inside. Wish I had had my 50x Canon at the ready but only had my 10x compact. Tiny black tip on the tail which you can't see in this pic. And, yes, he does have four legs - the tracks and his gait indicated he had a limp so he might have been injured.

Tonight we had a lecture - welcoming introduction by Mike the Director and then Alan Dyer gave an intro to northern lights. Quite good, very professional. I hope he'll give us a copy of his presentation.

But, alas, it is cloudy again. Oh, well, a full night's sleep for us but a worrisome sleep for the group who is hoping to see the lights soon. Tomorrow it all starts over again like Groundhogs Day the movie LOL.

Brian vs The TSA, Elk Steak, Slow Train to Churchill and other stories (sorry for the long ramble to follow)

Prairie 360 restaurant

Friday- Monday, January 24-27, 2014 -

The trip got off to a great start after arriving via Curtis Shuttle Service (highly recommended) at Hartford airport. Incredibly, we got TSA Prechk which meant a special line where you did not have to take off your shoes, belt, open your computer, or swear allegiance to anything. All went quickly and well. Well, until they found two knives in my carry-on. Off came the shoes. Then the frisk, nothing too personal, however. But that probably was going to happen anyways because of my bionic knee. Surprisingly, no one panicked, airport wasn’t shut down, and the knives I lost were cheap. But I doubt they’ll put me in that line again! Linda filed that one away, for sure!

Rest of the flights were uneventful and we landed in Winnipeg at noon CST where the temperature was a balmy +28F - we were overdressed! Starman (aka Roger who does the aurora courses at CNSC) kindly picked us up and took us to the Fort Garry. Then he turned around, drove back an hour to pick up his wife, and brought her in to have dinner with us at the revolving restaurant Prairie 360.

Elk steak

Had a great dinner with them, very leisurely (2 ½ hours) with beef carpaccio, elk steak, venison scallopini, walleye, and pork Wellington. Too full for dessert so missed their Fried Bannock Napolean. Great views of Winnipeg, we went around at least three times.

Fort Garry from above at Prairie 360

A good night’s sleep at the Fort Garry and awoke to temps below 0 - now that was more like it. Have to get acclimated for Churchill. But no wind so after a very nice breakfast with Laura, the cook at CNSC who would be traveling up on the train with us, we went over to The Forks which is Winnipeg’s version of Nathaniel Hall. People were skating up and down the frozen Red and Assiniboine rivers,

warming hut of pool noodles

Hot chocolate at restaurant on ice

building warming huts of very diverse designs, and having lunch in a temporary restaurant built on the ice. We stopped in to have hot chocolate and take a few pics. At night the restaurant - Raw Almond - is all lit up, faux polar bear skins set on stumps for seats,  everyone still in their coats, communal seating, funky music and waiters, and $100/person. Hot chocolate was only $2. This was the second year the restaurant did this, it goes on for about three weeks, is sold out, and features very interesting dishes created by chefs from around the city. Did I say it cost $100/person?

Started talking to a sales girl inside one of The Fork’s businesses and, lo and behold, we both knew the same person from Churchill, Jessica, who had been one of The Girls With Guns during our polar bear trip. Small world. Linda went back the hotel shortly after that and I went and had all my hair cut off at Urbanitehair.

That night (Saturday) went out to our favorite Thai restaurant, Thadia’s on Donald Street - the one you can walk to from the Garry without freezing - and had a great ginger stir-fry and stuffed chicken wings. They did not skimp on the ginger! It was so good we got a takeout order which, as I write this, the train staff is warming up for us in the microwave for Sunday night’s dinner.

Sunday breakfast at the Fort Garry was wonderful again - waffles, eggs Benedict, fresh fruits, pastries, peameal bacon, the list goes on. And our great server made us up a bag of snacks for the train. And the Garry's lounge/dining room is quite spectacular, too.

Now the sad tale of the train. What with the cold setting back in on Sunday and blowing snow causing near whiteout conditions we were delayed 4 hours. Then came the frozen switches and snow drifts on the tracks. Consequently all our well laid plans of stopping in Thompson to do some last minute shopping and get some food have disappeared like a ptarmigan into a snowbank. Sunday night was no problem as we had the ginger stir-fry but after that all I could think about was food, food, food. It’s not like we are starving as we have a box of Ritz, fruit, some nuts and more, and the train does serve microwave meals of a sort but I had my stomach set on that deli in Thompson. Everything else is going well, though. Linda and I have the sleeper area and bathrooms/shower all to ourselves so we left our two beds down during the day for napping and still had two comfortable seats. But I’m still thinking about that A&W drive-in back in The Pas which is open 24 hours but was too far away in the purported -40F for the time we stopped there. Food, wonderful food….May I have some more, Sir?

Looking out the train window Saturday we saw a traffic jam on Canadian Rt 1, the main highway running across Canada, and heard that it was shut down due to the blowing snow. Even our train had to contend with it has it plowed it’s way with noticeable oomph's through snowbanks on the tracks. Made us feel a little better that we weren't driving.

The cribbage gods were not kind to me as I lost three games to Laura the Cook by a total of about 12 points after she had me explain the rules to her again. Was I snookered? Can’t wait to start playing with Roger again and get back on the winning track. Or Hughie.

The weather cleared during the night and the stars were out as we lurched along. It was a long dawn before we actually saw the sun sometime before 0900.

Ok, I have to wrap this ramble up and get on to our stay and adventures in Churchill. But first a little foreshadowing: Mennonites that we met on the train, waking to a tundra-like environment Tuesday morning on the train which meant we were getting close to Churchill... no mas!

Once more up to the icy lights

Insanity is said to be repeating the same action over and over again...and expecting a different result. Well, I don't expect it to be any warmer in Churchill in 2014 than it was in 2013. So, as Sheldon says, "I'm not crazy, my mother had me tested." But you might have a different opinion to which you are entitled.

I do know there will be six more weeks of beautiful nighttime auroras, interesting new people to meet and friends to meet anew, tons of dishes to wash, two long train rides of 43 hours each, fun times in Winnipeg staying at the Fort Garry, lots of butter tarts to eat, an 8mm fisheye lens to figure out, cribbage games to be lost but mostly won (thanks, Roger!), and who knows what else. But we will miss Lesya and Andrew as they frolic in sunny New Zealand.