Helenenorth

 Good morning all Another true north adventure this week.  We had a 48 hour blizzard with winds of over 137 k an hour, and 13 cm of snow!!  It blew so hard, I thought my house would blow away.  It shuddered and shook.  As you know, our homes are manufactured, and they are set up on stilts because of the perma frost.  So, the wind got underneath and really gave us a good shake up.  And was it noisy--I couldn't quite figure out the note--but it was like a deep growl that never stopped. I was worried that the power poles would blow over, or that the many big dishes would smash-but nothing like that happened.  Only the power lines blew off.  On the hill here, we did not lose power, so we were ok. The other side of the village was not so lucky.  They lost power early on. Today is bright and sunny, small wind, but about minus 29 with a wind chill of minus 42.  Our road is totally closed with drifts as high as a house.  Parts of the v...

 Hello friends Living in the north requires strength, understanding, acceptance and many other unwritten personal qualities.  Qualities that can't me measured or quantified.  But they are necessary for survival. Last week, a very young, talented and beautiful young lady, who just happened to share my birthdate, went home, and took her life.  She had just returned from another community, triumphant, from a girls volleyball tournament, and was busy planning for the immediate cross country ski trip, and the spring graduation.  A total shock to everyone, including her dearest and closest friends who lived in the same 4 plex. The school has been operating, half days, with the support of grief councillors from around the north, and the local Truth and Reconciliation folks.  Yesterday, John Hill, from Kelowna, the best know grief councillor in Canada,  arrived, and will be here indefinitely. Last Saturday morning, in an un related incident, a local Inuit man,...