Fort Albany, Thursday April 19, 2012

Somebody somewhere must have decided it was getting dull around here again, because there's now a Boil Water Advisory on 'until further notice'.
The water went off for a few hours Tuesday evening and then came back on with a slightly yellow/brown colouration tinging it. We were told Wednesday morning at school that they were turning the water off in all the classrooms and not to use it for drinking, washing hands, dishes, etc. I must say that I find boiling water for dishes at home for myself a slight bit easier than it is for 15 kids twice a day. For some reason the stove in the school kitchen refuses to boil water any faster than half an hour per pot!
One of the pipes broke about halfway through the community so some are okay and others are not, either way, rumors are flying on how long it'll take.

Fort Albany, Tuesday April 17, 2012

Traditional Days are in full swing here in Albany so many of the regular teachers are out or away hunting and whatnot. Several of my kids went to a big pow wow in Timmins over the weekend and are just now returning, regaling us all with tales of the outside world.
The last couple of days have been cold. As always, it's the wind that does it, making it feel more like -15 rather than the -1 it truely is.

With some good news though, aparently this is the last week for helicopters!!! How do they say it; if I never hear another one again, it would be too soon. Sigh. Too true that is.

And although this picture is now a couple of weeks old, I still consider it worthy of sharing. There was a large piece of something interesting laying around in my front yard for a good many days before the dogs were bored enough with it to let me near enough to capture some viable pictures. This is Belinda enjoying her turn to have a chew on the moose's jaw bone.

Fort Albany, Wednesday April 11, 2012

Despite Squatter finding the Easter Bunny to be a very satisfying appetizer, the weekend was
beautiful. Several walks, a few rounds of Merchanidise Bingo, and a run down to Anderson's Point and back were among the more mention-worthy highlights.



The ice in all surrounding rivers has gone down by at least twenty feet and fluctuation is very minimal. I must say, the blocks of ice that have popped up are beautiful and intensly interesting.




There were also bird sightings gallor during many of our travels to Anderson's Point, and as dorky as it may seem to some - I love birds!

There were a pair of wood peckers, one of the birds that looks and sounds like a giant chickadee, a ridiculous number of crows, and just a fair number of geese. 

As it is currently goose hunting season the helicopters have conveniently and annoyingly stuck around to take people out to their camps. Many of the teachers and kids are taking off their 'Traditional Days' from school and going hunting. As a non-Native person I'm forced to sit back and wait to be invited to a goose feast...luckily people here are very generous and I've already had the privilage of enjoying some spring goose just last weekend.


The dogs on the other hand found a somewhat deflated moose carcass with which to chow down on during the walk. It mostly consisted of fur and bones, but they still managed to have a good time.
I think we had six the first couple of days, but by the time we went for the run it was down to Bel and Oji. They kept up pretty well... wasn't too hard!

How many dogs can you spot?

Fort Albany, Sunday April 8, 2012

Happy Easter from Fort Albany!

Fort Albany, Wednesday April 4, 2012

The call for teachers to return to work came Sunday night - so as of Monday that's where I've been. Admittedly, most staff seem quite content to be back at school, though the week's gone by exceedingly slowly.

The Causeway's still flooded and frozen over so no one's easily able to get to the mainland. They've got the helicopter going back and forth constantly though and when I say constantly, I mean all the time.


As the landing base on this side is the school, we've got a helicopter flying past our classroom window every 15 minutes or so. It was an exciting distraction on Monday but by today it was just another reason to roll the eyes.. for me and the kids.


Monday evening there was a sweat lodge ceremony in behind the teachers' units. Due to what seems like an escelation in poor timing throughout the year, it hasn't been possible for me to participate before now. It lasted for just over two hours, though it felt like less than one. Once everything got started, the hut inside the lodge was filled to the max with hot, hot steam and was made pitch black. It really didn't matter most of the time whether my eyes were open or closed. At its most intense I kept them closed and breathed as little as possible so I wouldn't feel the burning to such a degree. They use cedar water to sprinkle over the hot rocks making the steam smell sweet but very refreshing as you might imagine. There were three 'rounds', each getting more intense than the previous one. I wasn't sure if I'd have been able to last through a fourth and was very grateful it stopped when it did.

Unfortunately we chose that night to make a turkey dinner and stuck it in the oven before going to the sweat. The last lady that joined us came it a bit late with the unwelcome information that the power had just gone out. Needless to say, the turkey dinner wasn't ready until about 10:30pm. It tasted all the better for having the extra wait time.

Fort Albany, Saturday March 31, 2012

Apologies for the delay, internet hasn't been worth using for the last couple of days, but - 'Flood Watch' is still on!

There are no recorded changes in the rivers; levels remain the same (too high) and nothing new has broken up. Most of the those around us have frozen back over slightly but there are still huge chunks of ice sticking up everywhere. When the light hits it exactly right a lot of them turn a gorgeous light blue, almost aqua colour.


Word along the grape vine is that we may not see break up until mid April. There's more than one household ready for it. Walking to look at the Causeway and back you can see many people have turned over their boats on their front lawns and are ready for a BIG flood. I wasn't too worried until I saw how many locals were freaked out by this. When in Rome...

There's a fairly consistent open spot in the ice across the smaller causeway from the main island to Anderson's Island, so the band office organized a couple of people to use their boats and ferry people across to get supplies at the Northern store. It's free and I was looking forward to it, but they've only done it once so far. We'll have to wait until next week and see what happens.




Gas prices are up considerably from previous years so they aren't offering the much talked of $40/person helicopter rides. So, unfortunately the only way I'm getting on is if we evacuate. They still have one circling around every 15 minutes or so, monitoring levels around Albany. They're doing a great job.



Via the school web page, teachers were called into school to prepare work packages on Thursday evening for delivery Friday. It was meant to be enough for four days and I expect we'll be called in to do it again next week.
We were just about to do a test in math, so what I gave them so far is simply review. I'm not sure they'd be able to start a new chapter on their own but we may have to try it out...
Oh and we also had our Farmer's Market. We showed up literally two minutes after it began and most of the tables were next to empty; I've never seen the cafeteria so full. I guess not everyone was able to get on the boats.

My friend commissioned one of his younger cousins to drive us via ski-doo across to Northern just yesterday. It was a beautiful and much-needed break from the monotony of early retirement. We went early on in the morning halfway down the dyke road before the ice melted any. Even so there were a couple slush pockets we got splattered in. Later on we heard someone went through and got stuck, but no one hurt and the machine got out too!

 Have a beautiful weekend and enjoy the day everyone :)

Fort Albany, Tuesday March 27, 2012

It's going on our fourth day of "Flood Watch" and our second day off work. They're still keeping everyone updated on water levels, ice blocks, and have a live video feed coming from a circling helicopter. I'm not sure why, but they've made it available on the school web page instead of the facebook page.




We had a couple decently cold days, keeping everything pretty much blocked up, but now that it's warming up people are actually starting to talk about flooding.

Only a few people from the hospital have been taken out early, but the actual evacuation plan is on hold for now.


That's the flooded causeway behind me - we're actually isolated now since the airport, hospital, and Northern Store are on the 'mainland'. You can get across by helicopter if you need groceries or anything, but apparently it's around $40/person.



The dogs have provided no end for entertainment needs, but even so it's really very quiet around here. Someone's having a potluck at their place tonight so now the biggest dilema in my life is whether to make meat balls or cinnamon buns...