Fort Albany, Monday June 25, 2012

It has been a hectic but satisfying month, as any teacher might tell you at the end of a school year. Each week seemed to have been dominated by one project or another.

Track and Field day took place June 1st and it was a perfect day. Compared to the previous Friday, the weather couldn't have been ordered better if we'd tried. Nearly everyone had a glow to them by the end of the day and the organizing gym teacher was able to scrounge up enough ribbons for almost everyone.

Since then, report cards have gone out, the clasrooms have been cleared, the house cleaned, and most teachers dispersed. My own flight leaves at 2:30pm today. The dogs are packed but have no clue what's about to happen. I wish I'd had the forsight to find Belinda a harness before bringing her South. She's gotten a lot stronger since August.

I've destroyed hundreds of biting bugs with a surpising amount of satisfaction this month. Mosquitoes are the itchiest bites, black flies the bloodiest, and horse flies the most intimidating. On a still day with nothing to blow them clear of a person, you can see, hear, and feel the tornado of them circling you. Through frustrated and constant observations, I've noticed that depending on the time of day, amount of sunlight, and humidity, the predominant fly of that moment seems to change. Following a rain the air clears of everything though, and it's the most refreshing moment.

A friend in town has a cabin away into the bush and we were fortunate enough to be invited out this weekend. Although the bugs continued their above described interactions, the place was truely magical. It's a log cabin outfitted with everything from a wood stove to a live-in red squirrel. They recently put in a sky-light which was really put on display during a magnificent lightning storm Saturday night. At one end of the lake, there's quite a sizeable beaver dam where we all went swimming one afternoon. There were four dogs altogether and although they had their qualms at the start of the walk in, they were best of friends by the end of it.

An explanation must be given in place of an apology for the utter lack of recent photography; the camera landed in a puddle at the beaver dam. If I'm able to get them off of the memory card, I'll post them then. It was one of those places that make it impossible to take a poor picture.

Fort Albany, Sunday May 27, 2012

We got off work early on Friday due to fairly continuous power outages and no running water in the school. There were strong winds, plenty of rain, and yes even a few intermittent periods of globby snow. I doubt it was any worse than actual winter winds throwing snow in the face, but I think my face has softened or something, because it really stung on the walk back to school.

Now that the weather’s balanced out a bit, everyone's been enjoying the weekend. I’m dog sitting for two other people again and luckily they all get along swimmingly. We’ve set up an abandoned dog house in the back area behind the teacher houses and screwed in a post so Belinda can hang out there instead of out front. My poor lawn looks like it’s been shaved baled from all the dogs constantly trampling over it. As of yesterday, all the holes have at least been filled in.  

Fort Albany, Wednesday May 23, 2012

Another weekend gone by in Blind River, just as spectacular as the last. The weather was in the twenties and despite, or possibly because of, the startling brightness of my legs I got a bit of a tan!

We went golfing one day and had the chance to experience a small dose of black flies. It’s lovely losing so much blood during a pleasant game between friends. Honestly, it was a good time and I’ve made the discovery of the joys of golf carts; such a fun excuse not to walk!

The only close call was on our way back to Timmins from Sudbury early Monday morning. Because of all the forest fires, the highway we used was shut down less than half an hour after we got through. It was a smoky drive for the last hour but we never actually saw any fires, thanks goodness.

We made it back safely and in pleantly of time for work on Tuesday.

Fort Albany, Saturday May 12, 2012

It got up to over 20 degrees today so everyone was in a very social mood. Tonight there are a couple different get-togethers organized by the teachers. It seems to be generally divided by gender, with the men watching 'the game' at one end and the ladies enjoying a bon fire at the other end.
Excitement levels have stayed pretty much on par this week. An actual Professional Developement day was held for all primary teachers on Monday, job offers for next year were delivered the same afternoon, and the Mother's Day assembly was held Friday afternoon.

There does however seem to be a growing problem of intentional fires in town. The worst side effects I've seen so far is a very singed-looking dog running around.

This weekend I finally worked out the final details of a picture I've been working on for quite a while. If anyone has any suggestions, please tell me!

I'm also just over half way through making the pair of moccasins begun in February during the Great Moon Gathering. There won't be any gorgeous beading like on the pair I was given at the start of term, but as I'm making them - they're a much closer fit.

Fort Albany, Saturday May 5, 2012

For the first time since Christmas, I went out of the community and it was awesome! We went to Blind River, a beautiful little nook between Sudbury and Sue Saint Marie. The weather was perfect for it.









The first day I was able to drive to Sudbury and spend nearly two hours in a Walmart stocking up on everything big and small. It was HUGE! The Dollar Store, Tim Hortons, and McDonalds were also on the list of much-craved for stops.







The next day I travelled in the oposite direction to a gorgeous little place called St. Joseph's Island. On the return trip I stopped by a horse and buggy booth parked at the side of the road.  The bearded gentleman was selling fresh bread and an assortment of maple syrup. I opted for some of the mason jar packaged syrup.






The weekend was lovely and I returned to Albany refreshed and recharged for the six weeks left of school and counting.







This picture's simply a tribute to a Corner Gas episode. It really was a ridiculously big pile of wood.

Fort Albany, Thursday May 3, 2012

A gentle reminder was given by my sister this evening, informing me that I have become increasingly negligent in maintaining these blogs; my apologies.

Early last week my friend and I ventured down to the lower dike road which, due to water levels and the weather, has been nearly impassible for months now. The road started out nearly dry, turned enjoyably muddy, and then suddenly disappeared altogether under huge slabs of ice; remnants of the stalemate held by the bloated river and the confused Seasons.

Many of the sights that day were exceptionally beautiful, from the natural ice sculptures to the delicate intricacies of the frost-bitten water. The colours were without a doubt one of the hightlights for me. They were unexpectedly pure and several degrees more clear then I would have imagined. We found all manner of things in the ice, for lack of a better word. There was nothing unusual about the grasses and bits of trees spotting our ice cubes, but when we nearly slipped on a seemingly misplaced crawfish, the fun really began. One of the dogs quickly cracked through it's shell and enjoyed the on-ice availability of 'seafood'. 

Oh, and the 'Boil Water Advisory' continues. They seemed to lift it for a day at the start of the week, but then suddenly told us to boil again. I'll let you know if I start growing a third arm or develope any other oddities...

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.