Sunday, October 29, 2006

End of Honda Season

Winter is here! Well it has sort of been here for a while, but over the last few days it snowed a lot and we had great wind! There were some drifts around town that were over 4 feet high! Today was the first sunny day in quite a while. So we went out on the last ride of the Honda for the season. The temperature tonight is -19C with the windchill at -30C. Definitely time to break out the skidoos!

I have to say that I really dislike daylight savings. I grew up in Dawson Creek, BC and we did not change time there! I know, odd, but it was great! But now I am inept at changing clocks. I like this time of year because I feel like I am getting ready to hibernate, but it is so hard to say goodbye to the sun! Time to break out the happy light.

Enjoy today's pictures!



Winter ready willow:


My poor Honda! It will spend the winter under the house hibernating.

The ice is starting to form. Weird though, last year in the third week of October I was out icefishing. And now the Coronation Gulf is still open.

The boats are slowly being put away for the winter.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Has your husband ever said this to you....

So my husband comes home from work the other day, runs into the house and says this line as he grabs his quad key:

"Honey, I am going to the dump to get you a present!"

Then he runs out the door, hops on the Honda (well Polaris Honda) and I watch him through the windows head to the dump with the wagon in tow.

I am left sitting at home with fond memories of going to the dump with my dad. We would come home with great stuff and always had a chance to poke at a dead bear, cow, etc while there. Mom would always be a little upset that we came home with more than we went with! I loved growing up in the boonies of Northern BC.

So about 20 minutes later I see him coming home, wagon full. Well I really lucked out! The Coop store decided to throw out these great storage doohickies that hold embroidery floss. There were two, but with the bit of damage from the dump, I only ended up with one good unit. But another bonus- in the bottom of one unit were these mini-yarns, about 20 of them, and still in great condition! So I shall now sell them in my store- I am very opportunistic!

Matt got the heads up about the priceless dump goodies from a great friend! The dump here is actually referred to as Canadian Tire. It is splendid!

So thank you husband for my great "present from the dump"!

Life up here is such a hoot. When people from the South ask us how we do it, I just smile and say it is easy. :)

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Kara's Sewing Supplies

So two months ago I started my little business on the side selling sewing and craft supplies out of my porch. I spent a whopping $12 000 getting myself set up. I bought a little bit of everything. Until yesterday I had sold about $3500 worth of supplies. Not bad for two months.

But yesterday blew me away. I put about 1/3 of my supplies into rubbermaids and filled my quad trailer, my quad and my husbands quad and went down to the Complex for what was posted as a flea market. It was $20 a table to set up. I went down thinking that if I sold $300-$500 worth of supplies I would be happy.

So I set up my tables and was instantly busy! This wasn't even a big sale, it hadn't been very well advertised and not a lot of people came. In November the community starts having Christmas Bazaars and those are packed! Well I was blown away by the amount that I sold. I was set up for 3 and a half hours and I sold almost $1400 worth of supplies!! And I really got my name out there. People were pretty excited when I told them I had way more stuff in my house!

So far I have been able to sell my supplies cheaper than the Northern Store and the Coop. I still have a ways to go before I turn a profit, but I am learning quickly what people want. I am going to have to order more supplies throughout the year, which will cost me a bit more since it will have to be brought in on the plane. But I should be able to put together a really good barge order for next year.

I also had a lot of Elders purchase items from me at the complex. It so so cute to see the old women excited about the fabric!

So thank you Kugluktuk in making my little store so successful in only two months!

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Got one for you Jaime!

Alright, I finally figured out my blog! Thank you Jaime for your help! I just could not seem to make that map work to follow my blog! Ah well.

So thank you Jaime for your help- I finally got the map off.

Now I got another one for you Jaime! So you won $500....

WELL I WON $1000!! Well it is a Canada Savings Bond... but that still counts! And I really did win it just recently!

I entered a contest in my Macleans magazine. The fine print said that there would be a one winner in EACH province and territory! So I figured I could be a shoe-in! How many people in Nunavut would enter. I made Matt enter so I would have some competition- and I kicked his butt! So I had to write a little letter saying how a $1000 Canada Savings Bond would help me live my dreams. Well I wrote the sappiest thing I could think of! I don't think I will be giving Clare a run for his money on his great writing, but $1000 isn't too bad of a start!

ps. Clare- I got to visit with your boat last weekend- it sure is pretty! I will try and get a picture for you!

Here is my story along with other winners:
http://www.csbstories.ca/winners.asp look under my name: Kara Went

I must warn you- I am not that sappy in real life. I am a professional bullshitter. I am sure that my BSc that I earned over 5 years at UNBC really stands for Bull Shit Certificate.


By the way- winter arrived here a couple of weeks ago. We have enough snow that the skidoos are out. I am going to give it a bit longer before I put away my quad. Today the temperature was -12, but the windchill was -21C. Matt finally made me put my sandals away. Although I have to admit my little toes were getting chilly even with woolies!

I will try to get some more pictures put up soon. Have a great day everyone!

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Well it has been a while!! But the house looks amazing! My mother was up for two weeks and we worked her hard!

So we worked our butts off for two weeks and got a lot done. We put up new kitchen cabinets, new countertop, tile backsplash, wood wainscoting, installed a new dishwasher, stove fan, finished the floor in the kitchen, living room, hallway and master bedroom, built a new bed frame and rearranged my sewing supply store! Man oh man! What a tonne of work! And in between my mom cooked cookies, meat pies, cinnamon buns, homemade sausages and other goodies. I love my mom!

I do believe the value of our home has just gone up! Check out all of the pictures! We are still working on a bunch of little stuff and when I have the house put away I will post pictures of my clean, finished house!

Old kitchen, fridge view:

Old kitchen full on:



The start of the new kitchen. I didn't get any pictures of us taking out our old cupboards. They were the metal ones and had faux wood doors. They were rusty and had a lot of perma-dirt/grease that even a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser couldn't take off. The new cupboards are just the pressboard kind, but they have a nice maple laminate on the front. That is my mom in there with Matt. People here in town loved her! They kept commenting on how much we look alike, how young she looks and how handy she is!



Here is mom hard at work with the jigsaw.


My mom and I working on the wainscoting in the living room.


Matt and mom in the kitchen again working on the sink. We had some technical difficulties with the plumbing- but it all came together and it even all works!

Mom working on the tile backsplash. I am sure she is cursing at me here for taking her picture! doesn't the tile look amazing!


Matt working on our new bedframe. 6 rubbermaids on wheels slide in underneath it for even more storage. Notice our little helper cat? That is Freak and she was pretty upset that we took the bed apart!