Northern Lights January 20th 2014

The only upside to 1:00am medevacs is that if the northern lights are out, that’s the time they’re the brightest/most active. So last night I had a medevac around 1:00 and the lights were amazing. They’re usually the best between midnight and 2am. So unfortunately I just caught the tail end of them when they were winding down. But I got a few good shots! … still figuring out my camera, and the autofocus is broken as all hell so some are kind of blurry. Gotta take my camera in next time I’m down south and get’r fixed!

Enjoy!

   moon with a tiny hint of northern lights around it, it’s super rare to see both at the same time since the light of the moon usually cancels out the lights.

  oops I shook the tripod… nevermind the town lights lol

 space.   northern lights & the jambo stupid non-focusing camera! also, hell yeah I’m on the ice road

 

Hugs & Kisses from afar!

xoxo

Laura

How a call goes..

Here’s a post to show all y’all how calls usually go for me, since most of my medic friends have been asking. Woohoo! story told with pictures! Here we go! This puppy goes off *beep beep beep beep beep*  “Inuvik ambulance” then the caller tells me the emergency and location. Or the airline tells me when the medevac is scheduled to land. (So I’m basically a dispatcher too lol)

So i throw on this bad boy of an outfit. (Hat changes all the time, obviously)Booyah read my back bitches. Paramedic whaaaatEither I’ll hop in the rig and meet my boss (who is also my partner/the driver) at the scene. Or…I sit in the passenger seat and wait for him to come to my place and we go together…Like this! … Bam!!

**Arrive on scene, be awesome, head to hospital…**

The Inuvik Regional Hospital!Our bay. Drop patient off, give report and we be’s gone!And here’s what our forms look like, they’re modeled after Ontario’s ACRs (thank god!)

The second page of our forms.

 

 

So there’s how a call usually goes for me! Once I finish up my paperwork I hand the white page into the hospital and then the other copies stay in the truck and the boss man collects them at the end of the month. Then I head back home and get right back in bed or go back to watching TV! I love my job 🙂

 

Hugs & Kisses from afar

xoxo

Laura

BBQ & Bonfire

This Sunday there was a BBQ, bonfire and swimming down at Shell Lake at the North Write Airways property. I was on call the whole time so I couldn’t enjoy a refreshing brew under the hot arctic sun but everyone was really great and went out of their way to bring me non-alcoholic beverages all night :)! The people I’ve met here are great! We had a massive bonfire, burning shipping pallets, chairs, mattresses, basically anything we threw in. It was great once the sun set the tiny bit that it does this time of year and it got slightly chillier. The North Wright Airways property has a dock that was great to swim off of, so I grabbed a bathing suit, kept my radio close on shore and jumped in! Quite chilly but so fun! The water’s not the clearest and you don’t really wanna look down at your legs when you’re in the water (you can’t really see them =S) but it was still tons of fun! 🙂 So now I can cross off “swim in Shell Lake” off my list of things to do here!

Justin!

Smashing a lightbulb before it explodes (see at the bottom of the fire)

No more light bulb!

More pallets!!

Swim time!

Max & The mega knife vs a lime

mattress burning time

and that’s how house fires go crazy!

no more mattress

everyone!

classic “hover hand”

Max & nathan

Nathan enjoying the fire

Nathan the beloved Cat decoration

Howdy nathan

More logs!

Trying desperately to blow up that balloon

Kerosene on the fire

The balloon that wouldn’t explode

Bye balloon?

It was a really fun night at the lake, and I only got one call (a man called about a fish hook in his thumb) but didn’t end up responding because he decided to drive himself in. So an easy night spent with friends, food, and fire!!

Hugs & Kisses from afar

xoxo

Laura

Watermelon Cake

My friend Katie and I saw this post on pinterest and decided that’s what we’d do with our day. It’s quite simply a watermelon covered in whipped cream & fruit! Yum!

 

carved up watermelon ready for whipped cream!

 

Yum! Watermelon in the arctic! These little puppies cost us about $8 each, a big normal size watermelon was gonna cost over $30!!

After we pat it down with paper towel to dry it a little we coated it in whipped cream, yumm!! 

Mine had a face!

And strawberries!And rice krispies for crunch!

 

Delicious!! I ate my whole cake in just a couple days! Nice and cool on the HOT arctic summer days (weird, huh?)

 

Hugs & Kisses from afar!

xoxo

Laura

 

 

Groceries!

I said I’d be posting grocery bills and such to show you all how much stuff really costs up here. So here’s a few pictures of my groceries and a rough estimate of what they run me!

the first grocery run I did… apples, russet potatoes, 2 onions, 6 cans of tuna, mayo, becel, 3 cans of beef broth, 1L grapefruit juice, dish soap, olive oil, crystal light & a bottle of pepsi cost me about $70

 

This all run me about $60 (the block of cheese was $16.99! [and that was on sale!])

 

 

Today’s quick run! 1lb of blueberries, 1lb of green & red grapes, gnocchi, big head of cauliflower, 1kg of pasta, 1kg chocolate chips, crackers, alfredo sauce, sweet potatoes, crystal light, and a whole lot of rice krispies! Cost around $70

 

Gotta wait until my pay gets squared away and I’ll be able to go buy flour, sugars and other baking needs so I can start baking up a storm!

 

Hugs & kisses from afar!

xoxo

Laura

Great Northern Arts Festival

Today my friend Katie and I went to walk around the Great Northern Arts Festival. Every summer performers, painters, carvers, jewelry makers and many other artists come to inuvik to showcase their talents. There’s a large gallery room where the finished pieces are on display. This stuff was really impressive! Boots, hats, carvings, jackets, paintings, jewelry, knives, everything! I looked like a total tourist walking through taking pictures of everything haha

Ice King on call heading to the festival

Purse + slippers

Boots boots boots

Snazzy jacket

more boots & slippers

pretty

Beautiful paintings

dolls

an “orb” made out of a hog gut

Massive whale  bone carving

another awesome carving

jewelry

freaky, expensive little man

the most awesome things I saw, if I had $300 I would’ve bought one right there

moose!

more cool paintings

basket weaving

nesting bowls

another awesome painting i wish I could’ve bought

polar bear made out of rabbit fur (so soft!!)

freaky little owl things (I think they were made out of seal)

the carving village

 

watching some carvings

 

more carving really cool to watch.

 

It was a fun day at the festival, I have yet to check out any of the performances at night but I’ll definitely do that in the next few days. Here’s the link to the Great Northern Arts Festival’s website if you want to read any more about it. It’s a pretty cool gathering of people & cultures.

http://www.gnaf.org

That’s all for now!!

Hugs & Kisses (on call!)

xoxo

Laura!

Community Greenhouse

The other day Jordan brought me out to check out the Inuvik Community Greenhouse. The most Northern greenhouse in North America!It used to be a hockey arena but instead of tearing it down they converted it into a greenhouse. They changed the roof and put a roof on that lets the sun through (all 24 hours of it) and thanks to this the plants thrive and the plots grow more produce in a shorter time than gardens or greenhouses down south. Each plot is about 4’x10′ there are private plots for residents and some for charity like diabetes association and the youth centre.

Here are a few pictures I snapped while there, sorry they’re crappy quality they were just taken with my iPhone.

The front of the greenhouse, featuring our ambulance

Jordan’s broccoli

A little visitor, so flippin cute.

Jordan made me do it.Inside the greenhouse

 

Here’s a link to the greenhouse’s website!

http://www.inuvikgreenhouse.com/index.html

Enjoy

 

xoxo Laura

 

The excellent adventure up!

Here’s a few photos from Ottawa –> to –> Inuvik! It was totally painless travel, thank god because I don’t think my nerves could have handled any hiccups in that plan! I was kind of on edge or as my family would say “my bitch button was pressed”. But it all went very well and I arrived safely and on time.

Enojy the pics!

 

I’m not one to read horoscopes but this one’s shockingly accurate (libra)!

Bye Bye Ottawa!!

Ice King’s buckled in! (In other words, I had the row to myself)

Air Canada chicken wraps ain’t half bad

Hello, Edmonton!

All the luggage made it to Edmonton! Hurray! Ice King’s not happy about having to lug it all to the storage room though

Time for bed at the Days Inn

Where do I sleep?!?

Got our “I’m new to Inuvik please accept these as a peace offering” timbits! (The Edmonton airport was the last place before Inuvik that you can get timmies without venturing out of the airport)

Damn Edmonton you’s flat!

Oh look! Yellowknife!

little town!

Yellowknife airport

Standing on my future home on the big arctic circle map on the floor of the Yellowknife airport

Sick set up (a big mellie & a little mellie [my siblings will understand that one])

i wasn’t the only one on the timmies train

first air roast beef sandwich! They feed you pretty well on first air (i also got breakfast!)

narsty coloured water in NWT!!

Norman Wells airport

Our plane!

View from the Norman Wells terminal

Back on the plane!!

Bye Norman Wells!

So many puddles. huge puddles.

looks like we’ve arrived in Inuvik!

Inuvik airport!driving into town… that’s the hospital! So colourful!

So that’s all the pictures from the journey up! I’m on call for the next 8 days (holy overtime) so I’ll post little things here or there, then when I finally have a day or two off I’ll go take some pictures of the town!! It’s actually pretty cool here. I’ve already met some really awesome people and couldn’t ask for a better partner for work! So far I’m having a blast! My partner (Jordan) has been really great showing me the town, introducing me to people & making me feel right at home. And of course, we went to one of the local watering holes and got shamefully drunk, it was our last night off together for a long time, what else were we supposed to do?!

Well that’s all for tonight!! Time to put the sleep mask on and cuddle by the space heater (my house is freezing today!!)

Hugs & kisses from afar

xoxo

Laura

 

Hello internet!

Yay! I’ve finally got an internet hook up! Unfortunately it’s wired but that’ll do for now, until I move into my permanent home (right next door)! Can’t wait to update the blog and finally post some photos! This will be a quick post since I’m heading over to my partner’s place for some dinner!!

All bundled up today ‘cuz it’s pretty chilly here! This weather is so up and down! Good thing I’ve got lots of knits things from Mom!! ❤

Hugs & kisses from afar

xoxo

Laura

Good bye, home!

I survived the first leg of my journey! Ottawa to Edmonton. Landed in Edmonton last night around 9:30 (Mountain Standard Time) so 11:30 home time. I was drained by the end of the flight.

Leaving home was the hardest thing I’ve had to do. Hugged Mellie for the last time and just LOST IT!! Won’t get to squish my baby for a year!! Damn!! But I knew the waterworks were definitely not done there, planning to meet Liz at the airport, knew that wouldn’t go over well. Had no problems with my massive luggage and actually managed to avoid the excess and overweight baggage fees! Met Liz just outside security, it was like the movies, I was running late and had to go in, but you could’ve lit a fire under my ass and I was NOT moving ’til I said bye to her. She came running down the escalator and we hugged like we’ve never hugged before! Had a good cry, said we loved each other and then I had to go. Said bye to mom, who was teary eyed, Stooph, who was teary eyed, and dad, who was stone faced. Thanks old man!! Walking in the security wall I must’ve looked like a fool, standing alone blubbering like an idiot! And if you know me, crying is not my thing, whatsoever.

The usual “going somewhere” shot.. a little more red-eyed than usual.

Safety first

Best friends bracelet with Liz. Never taking this thing off bro.

Bye Ottawa!!

Ice king liked the $8.00 chicken wrap, don’t be fooled by his ever-angry face.

Hello Edmonton!!

Holy luggage Ice King!!

Flight was alright, pretty bumpy but I find that stuff fun! Watched a movie and some Big Bang Theory to distract myself. Unfortunately my bags weren’t checked all the way through so I had to get all 170lbs of them off the carousel and figure out what to do. Thankfully I found the baggage storage place pretty quickly and was able to store my massive bags there overnight! I was NOT looking forward to having to lug those to and from the hotel. Hopped on the shuttle, checked in, showered and PASSED OUT! Woke up this morning a million times before my alarm went off so I’m a little sleepy right now.

Only issue at the airport this morning was that I had to check one of my carry ons from Ottawa so I have 4 pieces of checked luggage, they can only guarantee that 2 will get there today (ahh!!) hopefully the flight isn’t too full and my other 2 pieces can get on! I’ll be watching them load the luggage closely from the window. I picked 2 random bags to be “priority” so who knows what I’ll have when I get up there (hopefully the one with the jar of peanut butter in it). Got a box of 40 timbits before my flight, apparently it’s good to bring a box of timbits into inuvik since the closest Tim Horton’s is a plane ride away. I’d like to start this year off on a good foot!

So now I sit at the Edmonton airport awaiting my flight… they just gave the 5 minute warning! So I should wrap this up I guess!

Me, Ice King (thanks Steph), and our box of 40 timbits are on our way to Inuvik! First stop today is Yellowknife!

Hugs & kisses from afar! & KCCO

xoxo

Laura