Aug. 28-2020

Wes Bird died today. Mom and Dad and the kids are gone up to the Straits to get some stuff for the house.

Sept. 02-2020

I found out this evening, Penney Flight, a girl I used to share an apartment with in St. John's along with my friend Curt and his girlfriend, passed over a year ago. I was talking to Curt on Messenger and he said that she was murdered. I couldn't stop thinking about it. How can someone do something like that?

Sept. 06-2020

Both the budgies died. One yesterday and one this morning before I got up. Julie was upset.

Mom and Dad and the kids are over to North River for the weekend.

August 25-2020

 Got to wear masks or face coverings now in indoor public spaces. The kids got to wear them in school in the hallways but not in class. Julie starts in person classes Sept 1st. She is 

working at Dairy Queen now, a new place in Goose Bay. She loves it so far, her new job.

Got a lot of mushrooms yesterday evening and this morning. Four bags full 15-20 pounds. Most I ever see I think. Some places there are great big clusters of them.

Got back from an unplanned night at Batteau a couple days ago. Me, Joce and Scott went up to bury Loni's ashes at Sand Banks. It was rough, wet and foggy going up and there was a big sea on. Julie couldn't come because she just started a new job. Good thing she didn't too because she would have been scared. Scott got bad sea sick from Devil's Lookout to Indian Tickle. We stopped in to Indian Tickle to get Faith, Junior, Darryl and Krista. Then we all went to Sand Banks to bury Loni, stopping at Black Tickle to get Jamie.

Good thing I had my GPS because I would have got lost.

Dougie Morris and Suse was with us in their boat. So was Wanda Cabot and Rodney Webber in their boat, which was good to travel in company. Dougie lost his bearings and turned around  in the opposite direction at Devil's Lookout. I had to catch up to him and show him the right way. He had a GPS but it wasn't working properly or something.

It was a long rough ride but it was much better coming back. We stayed at Clyde Morris' cabin at Batteau. We had lots of room, 3 single beds and 2 queen size beds. Him and Willie and Jamie are staying there while they are fishing. Clyde and Willie are fishing for Cod and Jamie works for the Shrimp Company at the wharf in Black Tickle.

 August 14-2020

Got back from Goose Bay yesterday afternoon after a week. Had a lot of anxiety at first but after the first ride it was good. I had a good time, definitely memorable. It was hot. The temperature was up around 30 celsius for days. The thermometer inside the vehicle was reading 34 degrees one day, the highest I ever seen it. It was good on atv though.

We spent one night in building 306 or 305 the moved to building to building 315 which had air conditioning. The thermometer in my room before we moved only goes up to 30 and the needle was gone way past.

Meals at the mess hall were good. Had pizza from El Greco with Joce and Julie at Joce's place for supper.

Really hot where Julie was staying. Turns out the heat was on and she didn't know it. Got her a window air conditioner for $100.

The first day we went down to Mud Lake Road. We had trouble with two machines and it was incredibly dusty. We were filthy by the time we got back. And we got separated from the front of the group. Second day we went on Goose River Resource Road and down to Wilburn Bay. It was really nice down there. Third day we went to North West River on the road. On the way back we were stopped by the police. They were waiting for us. Someone didn't like us on the roads and must have called. Really hot. Fourth day we went up on Dome Mountain.

Our leader was Lieutenant Adams. He was a cool dude and a good leader. Sergeant Miles was at building 295, the Ranger training facility, also. He was our instructor when we were down a couple weeks ago for GSK and shooting practice. Sergeant Hunt came with us on our last trip up Dome Mountain. Our CO, Colonel I don't remember his name, and Captain I don't remember his name also, was there for an award ceremony for a former instructor.

I met a lot of people, most of whom I don't remember their names because I am really bad with names. But they were just like family.

Got a flat just as we were getting back into town. A lot of construction going on on the road but still no pavement.

Operation Noramex

After further research I have determined that there were two exercises named Operation Noramex, Noramex I and Noramex II. Noramex I occurred in 1949 and Noramex II occurred in the early 50's. Haven't got a date on the latter yet. Both occurred when NATO was in its infancy and starting to flex it's muscle. The purpose of both were to test cold weather amphibious exercises and were part of larger fleet exercises conducted by NATO. Noramex I was conducted at and around Cape Porcupine, a point of land jutting out from Porcupine Strand, also called the Wonderstrands. Noramex II was conducted further north at the mouth of Hamilton Inlet which is just a little past the north end of "The Strand". Both exercises involved a large number of troops and ships. Although I do not yet know exactly how many troops were landed on the beaches I do know it involved a Batallion of Marines. Canada was only able to contribute one ship, HMCS Haida at the time. After World War II Canada vastly cut its naval forces.

More than one resident of Cartwright witnessed these exercises including the late Malcolm Pardy. During an interview with him he described being on top of "the base", which is the term we use to describe the hill where the Americans had a radar station at one time, and watching planes flying towards Cape Porcupine.

Just recently a family from the community of Rigolet were out berry picking and came across some unexploded ordnance 40 kilometres south of Rigolet which is about around where Noramex II occurred.

Climate change is here, but it's not what you think.

Many people think climate change means warming temperatures and rising seas. That's true but those effects are gradual. The more immediate effect is extremes in weather, for example more storms more often. A good example happened just recently. A couple days ago(Tuesday May 24) it was sunny and 26 degrees celsius, everyone was going around in t-shirts and shorts. The next day I had to wear a jacket and warm cap. It was only 3 degrees celsius. This morning it is snowing. I don't think I have seen such an extreme temperature swing.

Many years ago, twenty or more, the weather used to be more stable. Temperatures would warm or cool gradually depending on the season and time of year along with the weather. Of course later on in the Fall the weather would  typically be stormy and you would even get the occasional storm in the summer. That was normal. Now you often get long stretches of cold wet weather lasting a week or more followed by a stretch of stable weather, any time of the year. And last summer was the coldest I can ever remember. Even the elders say it was one of the coldest they ever seen.

Taken late June  94

I do remember one time, however, back in the 80's I think,when it was snowing in mid June or late June. I know because I have a picture of the snow man I built in front of our house. There is also a reference in Captain George Cartwright's journal when he was sailing up the south coast late June or early July, and got stuck at Batteau for several days because there was too much ice. That's unusual for there to be so much ice around that time of year.

Cartwright Hotel Destroyed By Fire

AT 6am this morning the Cartwright Hotel and adjoining lounge caught fire and by dinner time were completely destroyed. The hotel was in business for about 25 years. Nearby residents and the clinic was evacuated because of the risk of an explosion from the propane tanks located at the hotel. The local volunteer fire department could do very little as they had only a small tank on their truck and apparently there was no fire hydrant nearby.

Update on the stomach bug

Julie is very sick as of 5am yesterday morning. This is the second time she has had the stomach bug now and this one is way worse than the first one we had before Christmas. She had a fever for almost 24 hours and was throwing up for almost 24 hours straight. Jazmin had it a second time also and only got better a few days ago. This particular bug is a different strain and is much nastier. I heard in the news that the HSC in St. John's was overwhelmed with influenza cases and gastrointestinal cases. Apparently it is widespread.

On a more positive note we purchased a snowmobile for James a few days ago. We can't wait to see the look on his face. He was wanting one for a long time.

The weather is warmed up finally after some extreme cold temperatures in the minus thirties. Labrador City reportedly had temperatures in the minus forties, this without the wind chill.