Living Green in the Great White North –Recycling

Last spring as we prepared for our move north, we talked about what life was probably going to be like here. For ManNorth, this wasn’t going to be new, having lived in northern areas of Canada for much of his life. For me, having grown up in a suburb of a big city and moving away from another one, I knew that there would be quite a few novelties.

Among other things unique to living in a remote area and in a small town, I knew to expect our grocery bill to rise significantly (and one of these days, I really will finally blog about that) but I hadn’t anticipated encountering a challenge to my daily routine involving living greenly, as it seems to be put by the media these days. I wrote earlier about using cloth shopping bags in place of disposable plastic bags to reduce my use of petroleum products and the number of bags I send to the local landfill and I mentioned how ManNorth and I seem to be the only non-plastic bag shoppers in Northern Town. The idea of course, is that a simple way of reducing the amount of trash being sent to our landfills and incinerators and also ideally reducing the amount of energy needed to create new products, is by removing what can be reused or recycled from our waste, and this of course, involves much more than simply using cloth shopping bags. Recycling programs exist in most Canadian communities, but what type of recycling they offer will vary from place to place.

In Prairie Town, I was an avid recycler, keeping all products that could be recycled out of our trash and even going so far as to rip the little plastic windows out of mailing envelopes so that I could put the envelopes in with my paper recycling. Prairie Town had a decent system for recycling cardboard, paper and aluminum and glass food containers, usually by placing a few huge storage bins for each type of recycling in the corner of a mall or grocery story parking lot and leaving it to the city residents to collect and drop off their recyclables. We could even be paid back the deposit fees incurred when we first purchased specific products if we returned the correct items to a recycling station. Deposit returns were offered for most beverage containers, such as aluminum pop and beer cans, juice and alcohol bottles as well as some plastic containers at provincially run stations that also provide employment for persons with disabilities. In addition, these stations also take some other plastics such as milk jugs as well as old paints and computer and electrical equipment for recycling although without any rebate to the person dropping them off.

For those wishing to be paid back for their empties or who simply believe in the benefits of recycling (or who just don’t want to see those items being buried in a landfill), this system isn’t perfect, but it allows them to recycle most items that can be recycled. For a fee, some independent companies in Prairie Town offer to pick up these types of recycling items at the roadside once a week, saving their customers the hassle of dropping it off themselves at the various stations and bins. Some of these companies also recycle more types of plastic than the provincially run stations, which can be an added benefit, given that customers must pay for the pick-up service. The convenience factor of roadside pickup was certainly was attractive but so was the monetary rebate from doing it myself and I so I usually waited until our recycling bins and boxes were full to overflowing before I hauled them all out for one big and slightly sticky and smelly errand run.

In Hometown back east, recycling was more commonplace and also expected of citizens as curb-side home pickup of recyclables by the town was the norm although no one but the town received payment for recycling anything, unless bringing in aluminum pop cans directly to a recycling depot. (Some enterprising souls have occasionally decided to steal cans from these curb-side bins, thus ensuring that the cans were still recycled but preventing the town from benefiting financially from the recycling rebate. I believe that a few of these people have since faced charges of theft for these actions.)

"To the point, to the point", you say. (I'm getting there!)

I was curious about what kind of recycling (if any) occurs in Northern Town. I did notice that some of the metal waste bins placed along sidewalks in a few parts of town do have special slots for aluminum cans and glass bottles so that passers-by can choose to recycle their beverage containers instead of throwing them out, but there aren't many of these and they are designed solely as a convenience for people walking by. There is neither recycling pickup or bins available at our apartment and although the town newsletter routinely reminds citizens to break down their cardboard, no mention is ever made of where to recycle it or even where to bring recycleables in town.

Who empties the bins, where do the bottles and cans end up and what the average home owner does with their recyclables wasn't initially clear when we first arrived. I searched online for recycling in Northern Town and could only come up with links to a dysfunct Recycling Society that folded when overworked volunteers gave up trying to create a recycling station in town after a grant application was denied. I had driven past a building marked Northern Town Bottle Depot however, and after a visit I learned that they collect the bottles and cans from the waste bins around town and are open to receive them from people willing to drop them off. Hurrah, I thought. Now I would have a place to bring my recycling.

Of, course, the words BOTTLE Depot, hadn't really sunk in.

Here in Northern Town, not as many items can be recycled as is common in the south. Most "recycling" (I'll explain the scare quotes at the end) consists of liquor, wine & beer bottles and aluminum pop or beer cans. I was pleased to see a flyer from the Bottle Depot that reminded customers that there are a few other beverage containers that can be recycled and for which a deposit return is offered of a few cents per container:

However, ManNorth and I don’t buy pop, get our juice as frozen concentrate in cardboard cans and although not as a rule, have a dry home as ManNorth doesn’t like alcoholic drinks and although I do, I’ve yet to actually buy or consume any here in Northern Town. This means that none of the products we typically recycle, including cardboard, paper, glass jars and food tins have a place to go, other than to the local landfill.

This is why the office closet on the other side of the room is mostly full of folded cardboard boxes and one box full of paper recycling and why a huge plastic bin and a box are full of used food tins and glass jars in our storage room. I just can’t bear to send them to the landfill and so we’ve decided to store them until we drive them south to be dropped off in a community that will actually recycle them. We won’t make a trip just to drop them off, which would defeat the purpose of saving energy by recycling them, but will bring them if making a trip for another reason. In the meantime, as they continue to pile up, I’ll admit that I’ve thrown out a few cardboard boxes and recently an entire garbage bag full of crumpled newsprint that I used to cover our floor while staining our newly built bookshelf, but I didn’t like it and it didn’t feel right.

The obvious reason that more goods don’t get recycled in Northern Town is that more energy and money would be spent trucking them south than could be recouped from recycling them there, so they are all added to the waste in the landfill. Other communities without road access don’t even have that option and I doubt that anyone would use the space allotted on flights out of their communities for hauling recycling, so no doubt all of their recyclables inevitably end up as trash buried in a landfill.

I don’t know what other people in the community do, nor if they are bothered at throwing out products that could be recycled. I suspect that most people shrug their shoulders and are glad that they don’t have to think about it, since these kinds of recycling aren’t possible here anyhow.

The idea that most people here don’t bother with any sort of recycling has some support as evidenced by a recent discussion by town council in the fall. The issue under debate was whether to continue to allow people to pick through the garbage at the town dump in order to find aluminum cans and liquor bottles which they could then cash in at the bottle depot. A woman who runs the bottle depot in town felt that it was worth it to allow the garbage to be accessed as a significant number of recycling getting to her center was coming from the dump and not from the few small recycling/garbage bins scattered around town.

I spoke with her last week and she said that the town decided to prevent anyone from retrieving recycling from the dump for fear someone would get hurt and the town would be liable.
She shared with me that most people can’t be bothered to even pick out aluminum pop cans from their waste and mentioned the reliance on door to door recycling drives by local community groups to raise cash. (I’ll say that again. The only way to get most of this community to recycle is to pester them at home!)

She also told me that the glass beverage containers collected in the towns recycling bins and by her depot all get dumped into a huge compactor, crushed....and then added to the landfill.

So what do you think? Do you recycle? Do you have any ideas for ManNorth and I regarding our recycling? How important do you feel recycling is and is it worth it for small northern communities to do so? Have at ‘er and let me know!

New aquisition revealed

Some of you were quick to respond to yesterday's post and Lauri nailed it (although I think Mom and Janet both knew what it was as well)!

We've been given a canoe and are now eagerly anticipating spring break-up and a chance to go exploring out in the delta and down other rivers in the valley. ManNorth's predecessor left it behind and as the person who bought it neither claimed it nor paid for it, it's now been officially given to us.

The boat has a crack that needs some repair work but ManNorth is confident that it won't be a problem to fix. We also need to buy some paddles as well as a pfd for me (personal flotation device -not a pdf, which although providing some good reading, wouldn't exactly help keep me afloat).

I'll try to get ManNorth to knock the snow off and take a new photo but for now, this edited photo will have to do. Just imagine the snow all gone and a lovely forest green canoe leaning on its side against the shed on the left.

Also, for those of you not familiar with gallumphing, as mentioned by my mother in the comments to the previous post, it is a beloved sport from my childhood wherein the sole participant carefully stands on the rear gunnels (or the aft seat) and bounces up and down, arms outstretched for balance. The motion propels the canoe forward at surprising speed, somewhat related to the bounce frequency and depth. Directional changes are difficult and take a skilled gallumpher to pivot the canoe mid bounce. Gallumphing usually ends with a large splash and the need to climb back in. We likely won't be doing any gallumphing as the waters here are generally much too cold to risk a dousing. (If I ever do try it out here though, I'll be sure to get photographic evidence for all of you! I think my mother has a photo of me gallumphing at about age 8. If she finds it, I'll post it here.)

I'm not sure what we'll christen our new canoe and it may take some time before we get a feel for her personality and can think of a suitable name. A contest to name her could also be fun however, and with a suitable prize, perhaps I could convince some of you to make some suggestions. I'll let you know come spring as she'll need a name before her first voyage with us.

Huzzah!

ManNorth came home with exciting news today:

We've been given a gift of something that we've really wanted.

Wanna know what it is? I won't be telling without a few of you venturing some guesses.
Perhaps these hints will help:

1. The previous owner also once held ManNorth's position and left it behind when he moved away by air.

2. Its only use in a desert would be to provide shade or shelter of some sort.

3. ManNorth owns one of these already but the cost of moving his here from where it is being stored in Yellowknife is about equivalent to the cost of buying a gently used one.

4. It can only be used for about 3 months of the year in our location.

5. We'll need to buy a few particular implements to make use of our gift properly. Two of those will be worn. Two of those will be tools.

6. It needs some repair work that will involve cutting, sanding and filling and patching with fibreglass.

7. Here's a photo of our gift as the final hint:

Grab a kleenex

When you're ready for a break today, have a look at these two videos. I don't suggest viewing them one after the other as their impact may be best felt without any influence of the other. Come back after a while to see the second one.

This is neat

Something fun for your Sunday: The recent warm temperatures in Northern Town have also warmed the snow, reducing its density and letting it streeeettttttch. I'd intended to post a photo (yet to be taken) showing the accumulated layers in the snow pack that I've left undisturbed on one half of the balcony (to the left of the centre post) all winter. I won't get to show you that photo however, because overnight the warming pile slowly bent over and has slid almost entirely off the balcony rail. It reminds me somehow of a snail or slug, twisting and drooping but yet still stickily hanging on.

Nhah Nhah!

This is new!

Northern Town is experiencing a surprising warm spell that is forecast to last for much of the week before dropping back to seasonal norms in the high (or should I say low?) -20s and -30s. Yesterday afternoon’s temperature of -14 C felt tropical in comparison to last week’s low of -41 C but already this morning, the temperature in

Northern Town is only -4 C (with a wind chill of -9)!

Here’s the kicker. Check out these simultaneous temperatures:

Prairie Town is -22 C (with a wind chill of -32)
(~ 18 degrees latitude to the south)

Home Town is -12C (with a wind chill of -23)
(~ 26 degrees latitude to the south)

It’s not been this warm here since about September. I won’t be at all surprised to see the T-shirts come out on Northern Town residents today, especially if we reach a forecast high of -1 C this afternoon. The ravens were displaying and croaking (in song?) yesterday, perhaps celebrating the warmth or just making fun of all you southerners experiencing a bit of northern cold!

This reminds me to tell you that there will be an upcoming post on staying warm by none other than ManNorth. It may not go up before the cold snap passes down south, but look for it coming soon!

In the meantime, layer up and get out the wool!

Living Green in the Great White North - Cloth Shopping Bags

I've decided to write an occasional post about living "greenly" in the north and unique challenges to this that we encounter. Today's topic: shopping bags!

In a time of increased awareness of the detrimental effects of pollutants and waste created by humans and a growing sense of individual responsibility, small changes to our lifestyles may help to make a difference (although see this article for an introduction to one of many related caveats which I won't be discussing today). Growing in popularity by conservation-minded folks are alternatives to plastic bags to carry one’s purchases. Touted as being “ecofriendly”, reusing shopping bags or other containers makes sense at a time when reducing unnecessary consumption can reduce the amount of waste in our landfills among other benefits. In particular, reducing use of petroleum products, such as plastic bags, can be an environmentally friendly thing to do.

I’ll admit straight off that nothing is cost free. We are consumers by nature and by consuming anything there is always going to be a negative cost somewhere to someone or something. By opting to use cloth bags, one is a part of the financial and environmental costs of using land and growing the plants used to make the fabric, actual manufacturing of the fabric and in creating the bag and shipping it to the seller. The idea of course, is that by reusing the bag (or other container) the relevant environmental costs are incurred less frequently and thus overall to a lesser degree, than those incurred by getting a new bag every time one goes shopping and for each product type purchased. By choosing a cloth container (or other readily biodegradable material) over a petroleum product, one is also reducing (not eliminating, mind you) dependency on fossil fuels and the environmental costs incurred through their use. I’m a fan of this strategy and cringe whenever I see products touted by advertisers as being attractive particularly because of their easy disposal.

The “use it once and throw it away” sort of products make me cringe and make me angry. I’m not talking facial tissues and toilet paper here either, which for sanitary reasons and the high environmental costs of laundering, I’m all for using and then throwing out, although I certainly don't require them to be bleached white in order for me to purchase them.) I am talking about such things as using aluminum foil instead of a pot, or a disposable plastic bag for steaming your food in a microwave or a disposable tissue to wipe your floor when a broom will do the trick. Occasional use of these products I understand, but reliance on these sorts of products is wasteful and in my mind, irresponsible. Plastic grocery bags are one of these kinds of products. They are too thin to ever be used more than once and usually only serve to move the food from the store to the consumer’s vehicle and from the vehicle inside their home. One use and then they are trash.

Ah, but they can be recycled, I can hear you saying.

Yes, that’s true. In my experience in both Prairie Town and Home Town, some grocery stores offer to recycle plastic grocery bags and in Prairie Town, one grocery store even charges their customers who opt to use the store’s branded plastic grocery bags. (I’m not sure that this is at all related to attempts to be environmentally friendly so much as it is simply an attempt to recoup the costs of producing the grocery bags. Nevertheless, it can be an incentive to the consumer to bring their own bags or boxes or to buy the newly marketed tiny green cloth “ecobags” for sale in the store.)

They can also be reused to contain household garbage or, a favourite of mine while dog-sitting, for scooping up doggy doo while out exercising the dog. Admittedly, those aren't altogether terrible uses for them, but far far more don't get reused or recycled and far too many end up simply as waste.

In Prairie Town ManNorth and I did our best to carry our groceries in cloth bags and only resorted to plastics bags after forgetting our cloth ones. Usually no one batted an eye at the cloth bags and we never had to worry about plastic handles tearing and spilling our groceries in the parking lot. (The ones with long handles are great as they can be carried over the shoulder, making it much easier to carry a full load. But I digress.)

When I go shopping, I carry the cloth bags rolled up and stuffed into my satchel (those who know me would never call it a purse!) and I happily pull them out at hardware stores, grocery stores, or wherever I buy anything that could remotely be carried in a cloth bag. In Prairie Town, usually no one was surprised if I declined their plastic bags and pulled out my own to bag my own groceries but I have gotten the occasional odd glances at places like Canadian Tire or in bookstores for instance, where presumably the trend to bring your own bags hasn’t quite caught on. I DID get astonished looks in Prairie Town when needing more groceries than I could carry in my cloth bags and thus using my camping backpack and loading it up full to ride home on my bike.

So how well do the cloth bags go over here in Northern Town? I’ll give you one guess!

Yep, I ALWAYS get funny looks when I decline plastic bags in any store in town, no matter if it is a grocery store or not. Strangely enough, the clerks at one of the three grocery stores in town always look put out when I smile and say “No bags please. I have my own.” I even save them the trouble of packing them, which gets me through the till faster as they can ring up my purchases while I bag but they don’t seem to appreciate it much and generally just stare sourly at me. At the second store, I get a smile and cheery conversation while I bag and they scan and at the third store, they barely notice I’m even there, bags or no bags, until I hand them my payment.

At the two hardware stores in town, I’m actually becoming recognized because of the bags even though I'm an infrequent customer there! “Oh yes, you’re the one that doesn’t want bags” a clerk recently declared, smiling at me after I declined the proffered plastic bag for the paint brushes and stain we’d purchased.

Doesn’t anybody else here do this?

This past summer I would occasionally see people walking home with bags and bags of groceries, stopping to repack them as handles broke or looking genuinely pained as the thin plastic handles bit into their palms. I’d confidently march by with my bag (or two or three) comfortably slung over my shoulder and holding about as much as they were carrying, thinking of them sympathetically, but also thinking that they should pay attention to a good idea! (Or use a backpack!)

I want to hear from all of you. Do you use plastic grocery bags? (If so, what do you do with them all? Do you crochet clothing, mats or bags out of them? Do you feel badly about using them or are you fine with it?) Do you use boxes or plastic bins? Do you already use cloth bags? How do clerks or other customers respond if you bring your own container? Would you consider using cloth bags or another alternative to carry your groceries and other purchases? If not, why not? Do tell!

-----------------------

5:30 PM Update:

Okay, now this is odd. The very day that I get around to blogging about cloth shopping bags and how no one in Northern Town seems to use them, what do I find in my postal box this afternoon but two of these:

They were each part of two 81/2 x 11 inch flyers describing a few ecofriendly products for sale at NorthMart. With every $50 purchase and a coupon, customers can get a free reusable shopping bag. I don't know if these are cloth or plastic but am mildly impressed although I think the flyer was unnecessary waste. A few large signs in the store could do the trick along with coupons ready at the till.

Guess which of the three grocery stores described above is giving away the bags:

Heh. The one with the clerks that would get put out when I used my own cloth bags, which, admittedly aren't nearly as spiffy as the one their store is now giving away. I find this funny.

I'll let you know if their reaction changes the next time I shop there and I'll also keep a watch for other customers using them there and at the other two grocery stores. I wonder if those stores will follow suit?

New Year's Trip Day 1. Part II

We pressed on from Big City through the late afternoon and into the evening as we headed northwest, hoping to make it to our next provincial border before stopping to sleep but a close encounter with a moose, who we hoped made it across the highway unscathed, general tiredness and multiple loaded logging trucks travelling at 100km/hr on dark narrow and snowy roads when we felt comfortable travelling only at 70 km/hr meant that we stopped early at a small town a few hundred kilometres shy of the border.

We drove around the town looking for a dark parking lot to use, as we planned to sleep in our truck, but all were either too busy or lit too brightly so we headed down the highway to a dark and empty rest stop and pulled in. Luggage was moved into the cab and our mattress pads laid out on the truck bed. We snuggled into our sleeping bags and read together for a little while by flashlight until we were sleepy enough to turn in. The darkness and quiet were broken just as we were ready to fall asleep by a transport truck who pulled in directly behind us, shining its headlights into our truck and rumbling loudly.

Darn!

Eventually the driver turned off the headlights but his/her running lights and running engine disturbed our sleep throughout the night. We might have gotten used to the sound of the engine if it didn’t shift in pitch every few minutes! Rumble rumble rumble RUUUUUUUMMMMBLE rumble rumble rumble....

Okay, okay. You’re wondering about how we managed to sleep comfortably and stay warm? Well, we had our camping mattresses (mine described earlier in this post) as well as our winter sleeping bags. Although I'd brought appropriate sleeping attire (mostly lycra and fleece) I couldn't be bothered to change into it and so I just climbed in with the clothes I had on, using my down vest as a pillow and leaving my coat inside the cab. I also wore my down slippers over a pair of wool socks as my feet tend to get colder than ManNorth's in the same conditions. I'm not sure what ManNorth wore in his sleeping bag. He tends to overheat easily and so usually just strips down.

Here’s a photo of our sleeping bags laid out during our holiday for our niece to inspect. Guess which one she’s actually in!

This one!


(I should say though, that we took multiple photos and she tried out both so perhaps she was in the blue one for the first photo. The drawstring around the head area is pulled tight in the first photo..) The point is that the bags have about a foot of loft such that even with someone in them, it’s hard to tell if they’re occupied. They have lots of down and large baffles, making them very insulating and warm. I’ve comfortably slept in mine in -38 to about -40C and ManNorth has used his during his arctic adventures in much colder temperatures. (Yes Mom, we were just fine. Really!)

Northern News flash

This just in:

Over 3,000 reindeer are missing from an island about 150 km from Northern Town.

Herders who are responsible for maintaining the herd arrived at the island to check in on them and to ensure that the herd hadn't crossed the ice to the mainland.

They arrived too late, the herd having left the island to go gossip with the mainland caribou. If tongue wagging is all they're up to, the herders and wildlife biologists will get over it because caribou never believe what reindeer have to say but if they get up to any carousing or passing of disease from the domestic reindeer herd to the caribou they'll be suspended from school and made to attend lectures on abstinence and safe se...

Er. It will be bad.

Herders searching by snow mobile have so far found only a few hundred animals. If I see any strolling down the river to warmer climes or in cahoots with the local caribou, I'll be sure to let you all know and to have them ask where Santa hid the rest of the holiday gifts I'd wished for.

In the meantime, perhaps their wagging tongues might be a hint as to where to find them...

Or was that wagging tails?

New Year's Trip. Day 1. Part I

Before I begin the description of our trip, forgive me for this brief aside as I'm not sure when I'll have occasion to mention this particular topic again: If any of you are ever passing through Prairie Town, be sure to drive through some of the oldest areas of town and in particular through the residential area on the western side, near the government buildings by the lake. The homes are beautiful and many have their original leaded windows which have a curious and tell-tale glint from their uneven panes that adds to the homes' charm. Tall elm trees lining the streets are lovely to drive under, shading the thoroughfares and giving the neighbourhoods a wonderful green lushness in the summer. Of course, if you are a home owner of one of those lovely homes, as are an aunt and uncle of mine, you have a bone or two to pick with those trees who also drop branches frequently, rain a fine mist of sap down on your home and vehicles in the spring and are frequent targets of insects whose worm-like larvae descend on fine silk-like strands in the hundreds and thousands onto everything, to be walked into, stepped on and squished and to munch munch munch away on the greenery. That said, and as a non-home owner, I still love those trees!

My aunt and uncle were good enough to put us up during our brief stay in Prairie Town when we came to get our truck and we bid them a warm farewell after coffee and breakfast, sad to say goodbye but eager to get on the road and to home. We’ll be back again one day, and hopefully they’ll also be able to pay us a visit here.

About a block or two away, I remembered that I wanted to record the trip’s mileage and so took a snapshot of the odometer at the first red light we stopped at. Note the truck already has a few miles on her but we were sure she was up to the task. I'll post our final odometer reading in the last blog post about the trip for comparison. This also reminds me to tell you that with only a few exceptions, the trip photos were all taken from inside the truck while we were driving so the quality is a bit grainy, there is occasional blurring from the motion of the vehicle and odd splotches in strange places due to dirt or snow on the windshield and windows. Of course, you all wanted to imagine what the trip was like from our perspective, so perhaps this isn't too bad a way to show it to you. If the photos are exceptionally blurry, like the one below, you can just imagine that you're tired and in need of more coffee, as we likely found ourselves at the time.



A few hours later, the sun was just about to rise and light up the prairies. Prairie Town was one of the sunniest places I’ve ever lived in and I always did enjoy the bright winter days. Here is a picture of a prairie field along our route at daybreak just before the sun rose above the horizon.


Hours later we were crossing our first provincial border, which curiously, runs through the middle of the city so that each half is governed by two different provinces, one of which has no sales tax. I can't imagine that stores in the other province/half of town are able to compete very well with the stores on the western side. We took a photo of the small sign indicating the provincial border as we passed over it and through an intersection. (The wee green sign in the top right of the photo.)



We also discovered that if you want a clean Canadian loo, this town (or at least one half of it) is the place to, erm, go.


The landscape changed again as we travelled north into aspen parkland. Now the agricultural fields were regularly (and increasingly) interspersed with woodlots and aspen forests, full of usually small, knobby aspen trees, unlike the tall stately aspens that are logged in the transition zones of the boreal forest and which we would see cut and loaded on logging trucks for a few of the following days.


As we chugged our way into one of Canada’s major cities (photo below)


we were dismayed to discover that there were no gas stations lining the highway, which we had expected. A tiny sign indicated a gas station nearby and so joined by a few other vehicles, we ventured off the highway and down a narrow country road to fill up at a small gas station a few kilometres away. An old man in a tiny grey car who had joined the caravan played frogger with the transport trucks and zipped across the highway, his life preserved only by his car obeying exactly his command to accelerate. Knowing Red to be slow but steady, we bided our time and crossed when it was safe, hoping not to encounter a crumpled grey car farther down the road.

As we passed through the city, I was sure that I had spotted an old acquaintance of mine from home in the east. It’s a funny thing that when I travel, I am always prepared to run into people I know, even though I’ve no reason to expect to see them and never do. Perhaps it is just that while travelling (and particularly through airports), one passes so many people, that one is bound to see familiar faces that look similar to people we actually know. Perhaps that was it but knowing that this person had actually moved to this city recently, gave this encounter at least a chance of more than zero on the probability scale!

If you happen upon this blog, Rex, were you driving a white or silver car with the first three digits of your license plate RJB at 4:30 pm on January 3, 2008 in Edmonton? We were in a big old reddish maroon truck. You and I locked eyes for a second and then I watched you merge from the north, briefly join us on #16 and then zip across a few lanes of traffic to exit at a left turn to head south, somewhere just east of 170 St. If it wasn’t you, you have a twin more used to city driving than ManNorth or me!!

Need I say more?

Actually, yes, I do!

There was a beautiful ice fog covering the town and the surrounding land today. ManNorth was working outside today and took some photos. This is what it looks like in high humidity and low temperatures around here! (Photos coming soon -he's on his way home.)

I'll speak for him and repeat one of his platitudes (to which I hold) to head off at least one of your likely inquires in reply to this post, possibly asking us about finding this temperature cold. (Which of course it is, but one can prepare):

"There's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing." -ManNorth, time interminable

When (and Where) solar energy is not an option

People in southern climes wishing to wean themselves from a dependancy on fossil fuel powered vehicles may dream of solar power to fuel their cars year round, but this far north, short winter daylength and long periods of darkness mean that this could only be possible in the summer when the sun stays up for almost two months straight. This can certainly be capitalized on in the summer (and is by at least one company in town) but for much of the winter, we're rather out of luck. Although the sun has finally returned from its month long hiatus from the north and the days are slowly growing longer, solar power won't help our town much in its new dilemma at the moment . Why ever not, you ask?

For the simple reason that our town is running out of gas. Literally.

Apparently the company charged with shipping up enough gas to the town only sent about half of what was needed before the rivers began freezing up and the barges that carry the shipments couldn't run. Owners of gas stations are accusing the company of keeping things secret until now, although they would have known by ice-up (back in the fall) that not enough diesel and regular gasoline were sent.

This means that gas is being rationed and will also likely be jumping dramatically in price. ManNorth biked to work yesterday and had always intended to keep cycling/walking/snow shoeing to work but this will be added incentive to minimize use of Big Red. We're also glad that we filled two large jerry cans as an emergency supply while enroute from the south where the price was cheaper and those have now been used to top up Red's supply.

Gas station owners have the option of paying to have fuel trucked north but this will obviously increase the cost as the expense is passed along to the consumers. I'll be interested to see if this changes any of the town residents' fuel consumption and driving habits. ManNorth and I are continually boggled at the fact that so many residents drive what is only a 5-10 minute walk to their workplaces or for shopping on our main street. (Many of them also drive back home for their lunch, creating a wee rush hour at the town's sole traffic light beginning and ending at noon and one pm. Perhaps as fuel prices increase (or should fuel become unavailable) a few people may consider packing a lunch or (horrors!) walking to and from work occasionally.

The town also has a suburb of sorts out in the delta where some local residents maintain cabins and access them by snow mobile in the winter and by boat in the summer. Thinking of them, I wonder how the fuel will be rationed: will such residents get priority over mainland residents? Will there be a fixed limit per address or per employer vehicle? I don't know yet, but will post again when I find out.

Where to begin?

It’s been a while since I’ve last blogged and I’ve so many different stories to tell that I’ll have to break up events of the past few weeks into multiple short blog posts. Today’s post will simply set the stage so that you understand my recent neglect of my blog and hopefully want to check in again to read more:
Since I last wrote, ManNorth and I headed waaay down south (and east) to my hometown to visit with my family, made a side trip across the border into the US to see more relatives and then flew to Prairie Town to pick up our pickup (sorry, I couldn’t resist) that we had had to leave behind when we moved to Northern Town by air last June. After a dinner with family and a day’s flurry of errands in Prairie Town, we were off on our next adventure, driving our truck over 4,000km home to Northern Town with hopes of ManNorth making it back to work on time. (This was a concern, given that we were driving through the mountains in winter and a few mountain passes we’d be travelling through are often closed in the winter due to poor weather and road conditions.)
Suffice to say, all went well. Big Red (our truck) behaved herself and we arrived home with a few days to sleep and relax by building and staining a 8 X 4 X 1 ft bookshelf from inexpensive lumber we purchased in Prairie Town (Northern Town doesn’t sell fencing lumber as no one seems to need or want fences.)
Stay tuned for more details of the trip and news from Northern Town.