Come See us: Arctic Bay in Canada’s High Arctic

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  • Crew Stories 3 – Paul and the Gnome Door

    Going back to the early days of the project, I had so many Paul stories, I’m not sure where to begin. In fact there were so many that I began theorizing what was behind them. I don’t know if any of my theories were at all accurate, although I suspect the administration of a urine…

  • Ikpiarjuk

    In inuktitut Arctic Bay is Ikpiarjuk, which translated means “pocket”. It is an apt description of Arctic Bay. Arctic Bay is in a bowl or a pocket, surrounded by hills.. It is by far one of the most picturesque communities I know. The entire area surrounding Arctic Bay in this part of the north Baffin…

  • Guacamole

    Surprisingly, we have pretty good produce in our stores up here. We are fortunate enough to have jet service twice a week from Ottawa. First Air flies 727’s here on Wednesdays and Saturdays. They leave Ottawa in the morning flying direct to Iqaluit, from Iqaluit they fly to Resolute Bay and then to Nanisivik. They…

  • Chasing Down The Wind

    I’m on a kite kick these days. It started a few days ago, when Travis picked up a kite belonging to one of the neighbours. We flew it for awhile and I think both of us were hooked. Travis really enjoys flying the kite. Well, what he really enjoys is flying the kite for a…

  • Crew Stories 2

    One of the guys on the crew, Jake (do I have to say that it’s not his real name), is a study unto himself. He’s been with us off and on since early in the project, although we haven’t had him working for awhile now.  Now his big saving grace is that he shows up,…

  • Awareness and the $100 can of Paint

    One of the crew, Dave (we are changing the names to protect the guilty again), is an enthusiastic young man, with no real experience in construction. He works hard though and wants to learn. If we could only get him to show up on time and everyday consistently we’d be happier. Gary describes him as…

  • It’s not horseshoes, close doesn’t count

    I got thinking about roof panels after I mentioned it in the last post. Up here pretty much every roof is a metal roof. You don’t see a lot of shingles here. The roof package was part of our main house package that came up on the sealift. The roof, as evidenced in the photos,…

  • Water water everywhere

    Drywall has begun going up inside the house. The water tank room has been drywalled in anticipation of bringing in a mechanical sub again. In Arctic Bay, indeed in much of the north, there are no sewers, or water mains. Water comes to your house in a truck, and the sewage gets taken away in…

  • Plans

    When we started this process, so long ago it seems now, I really didn’t have a clue about the complexity and magnitude of this sort of business venture. I certainly had no idea on just how complex building a house was. And I really didn’t know just how long this would take. We’ve been going…

  • Fire is inspirational

    Stop, drop and roll! I set myself on fire last night. It is amazing, when there is so many things to think about and try and keep organized, how incredibly stupid one can get. After work, I started on supper, and put a pot of turnip on the stove to boil. Gary came in and…