Day 45: Music

The Sound of Music to be precise. That's right, I'm finally watching the movie that my Dad has rejected my entire life, up here in Churchill, the sing-along version that has the words on the screen during the songs. So songs have become the theme of the night.

First song, singing in the rain.

Thursday is the normal sampling day, so I did my seven lake samples and filtering yesterday. This morning, I went out to get seven additional samples during the rain event. Yep, it's raining again. It rained all day in buckets and breaks. Today was supposed to be the day that I started the second experiment, gathering the sediment and lake water to add the nutrient spike to on Monday. However, because it was raining, and raining so hard, the sediment was extremely disturbed and the water chemistry would have been completely different from the normal days. Which is why I've been sampling the lakes during rain events. So though I couldn't start my experiment today, and plan on starting it on Sunday, I did the during rain water sampling.

I tried to take a picture of the
mosquitos, but I failed. You
can barely see them, though
I know they were there!

So while there was one break in the storm this morning, I ran out with Carley to get the during samples. It didn't rain, but the mosquitos were maybe the second worse they have been since I've been here. The worst so far was on the ATV day when I went out to hunt fox dens with Ryan. I still have some bites from that day that have yet to disappear. Today was bad though, making taking pictures of the lakes a shaky experience every time I raised the camera - slapping at my hands against my thighs every other second. I think it's the humidity that makes them come out.



I'm sampling in the rain,
just sampling in the rain.
What an irritating feeling,
And I'm bitten again...



But that was the morning. I went again right before dinner with LeeAnn. This time there was at least a breeze to keep the mosquitos away. Then I got rained on while sampling the last lake. My good karma didn't last quite long enough to keep us dry.

A moment to break out the nerd in me. There was surface flow! There was surface flow into Puddle and into Strange from the inflow areas that we've been sampling. This was the first time that I've had surface flow since my initial walk around when there was still snowmelt during my first week here!

Song number two: Un Canadien Errant.

I had 156 centrifuge tubes to label for my experiment, 156 scintillation vials, and notebooks, containers, lids and various other assorted items that had to be labeled. I got most of it done while watching Eat, Pray, Love and listening to some podcasts yesterday. Today, I labeled the 156 centrifuge tubes while watching One Week with everyone. Un Canadien Errant was one of the songs in the movie. It was a really good movie and makes me want to travel Canada coast to coast.

Maybe I have travelled to a foreign country by coming up to Churchill. And though I do miss my home, family, and friends, the sad words of the song do not fit my mood today.

I barely knew anyone up here before I arrived, only having met LeeAnn and passed by a few of the other researchers last year and at the CNSC Winnipeg conference. Now, I eat and laugh with, watch movies with and work in the field with, make dioramas and t-shirts with new friends.

I have dove headfirst into the salty, icy waters of Hudson Bay, having never swam in salt water before. I have seen snow and ice in June. I have seen polar bears and caribous, fox and hares, dunlin and godwit chicks. I have seen the season change from winter to summer, from barren brown to a purple carpet, to a white carpet, to a green carpet with touches of pink, white and purple scattered in the green peat.

Day 44: Delegation

I find it difficult to tell other people what to do. I know what has to be done and I have my lists of tasks to get done, but I find it really difficult to tell other people to do them. It's not that I don't trust that they won't do the job right, but I'm afraid that I might tell them to do something that they know is wrong, but they won't say anything because I'm supposed to be in charge. I also don't know how much they can take, so I don't know how much or how little to assign. I suppose that learning how to delegate is important if I'm ever going to be a leader or just run anything. I don't know why I find it so difficult. What am I supposed to do? How do I get better at it without offending anyone? I don't think I have that kind of confidence.

Ema and Jessica arrived yesterday. They will be helping me with my project in exchange for me bear guarding for them and helping them with their projects. So I've been telling them what to do, and will be continuing this when I take get my cores and lake water tomorrow to start the second part of my experiment, and they ask my advice on how to take a lake core or where to sample. I wish I knew more so I could truly help.

Day 43: Internetless

We lost internet last evening and it finally came back this evening. It is amazing how dependent I have become on the internet for my work and research, and just to stay connected to the world. I couldn't write a post yesterday, I couldn't check the forecast for today (which changes every 12 hours, so the last known forecast was already wrong), I couldn't check the barometric pressure to calibrate the YSI probe, I couldn't check email to see if LeeAnn had instructions since it was her day off today... I was completely disconnected from the world outside of the study centre. This isn't a big issue, just a small reflection. Which is good because I spent yesterday sleeping and reading. Except for the storm and going to yoga in town (Erin is back to teach yoga, I am so sore! I've never stretched that far before! I actually was able to grab around my toes and bend my elbows - ouch!), I really didn't have much to report.

Side note: I did see another caribou, which makes three so far! I'm going to have to have a caribou counter as well as a polar bear counter! So the first one I saw was in the fen with Krista, the second was at that morning sunrise to see Fiona and Valerie off, and the third was on the way back from yoga, running along Launch road, just a car length in front of us! And of course, I didn't have a camera!

Day 42: 42 cannons

Today, I woke up early to go to the Prince of Wales Fort to help LeeAnn fix some of the data loggers that didn't seem to be collecting any data any more. I had two things to bring, my laptop and a USB to serial wire. I forgot the wire, making the laptop useless for connecting to the loggers. I have to be more careful about making sure I bring what I need. Luckily, LeeAnn had a backup method, but I felt pretty foolish.

So what is the Prince of Wales Fort? 

Aerial view of the fort at Eskimo Point. Construction began in
1731 and lasted 40 years! It was commissioned to protect Britain's
interests in the north for the Hudson Bay Company when the British
and the French began to lose their friendly relations. It has the
famous four bastion layout to provide 360 defense of the mouth
of the Churchill River. 

Samuel Hearne's rendition of the fort. Hearne is a famous
English explorer, novelist, fur trader, naturalist, you know
the stereotyped Englishman of the early 1700s. He was also
the Governor of the fort during the great battle of 1782...

Can you read the inscription above the entrance way? It's
in English, if that helps. I'll give you a hint, click on the picture
to open it and see it big. In fact, you can do that with any of
the pictures on my blog!

So this is the fort today. Since 1930, it has undergone restoration
projects that will finally come to an end at the end of the summer.
To do this, students studying to be masons are up here with their
instructors along with archeologists who make sure everything is
historically accurate and the real bits are preserved.

So what happened to the fort? Why the restoration? Well, in
1782, Churchill was invaded by the French who had three
warships. Though the fort had 42 cannons, only 22 men were
there to defend the mouth of the Churchill River. Jean-Francois
de Galaup, comte de Laperouse, a famous French explorer
 came up to the fort in three warships, outnumbering the firepower
of the fort itself. So Hearnes, the English Govenor - remember him,
surrendered. The French partially destroyed the fort and shoved stuff
into the cannons so they couldn't fire again. Thus the purpose of the
fort failed. But we now have a La Perouse Bay near the fort in honour
of the Frenchman - because Canadians are like that.

Having walked through this fort with big stone walls, I have no idea how they survived the winter. 

"As one post governor reported in 1741, the fort's living quarters were '... very cold, freezing everything in the cabin, though a fire kept in from five in the morning till nine at night; and when the fire is out, a red hot shot, twenty-four pounds weight (a cannon ball) hung up at the window to thaw it; on the outside there are shutters to every window, six inches thick; four large fires made in the stoves every day - a cartload of wood for each; yet all this will not keep things from freezing within doors.'" (From Parks Canada)

The treeline on the same side of the river as the fort is greatly depressed in comparison to the other side of the river. Why? Well, to feed those "four large fires made in the stoves everyday - a cartload of wood for each." That's a lot of wood anywhere, but especially in a place that gets to -50/-60 C regularly in the winter. This is yet another fine example of how people do not take advantage of the environment around them. Put another way, this is another fine example of how Europeans tried to implement something that might work back in Europe where it is comparably warm in a new environment where the resources aren't there and you simply can't live the same way.

What did the inuit do to survive the cold? They built snowhouses, igluvijaq, that used the snow as insulation. The design used the resources available in the immediate environment so well that just by sitting in one, you could raise the temperature in a house between -7 C to 15 C when it is -50 C outside, just with body heat.

Innovations like this, built off of the environment itself, using the physics and traditions of a culture, make sustainability. Sustainability is unique to every region. From the structure of buildings to eating food that is is found in the region, such as caribou and other bushmeat up here. When will we learn this lesson?

Side note, there was also a polar bear about 200 m from the fort, far enough away not to bother us, but the bear monitor kept a close eye on him. That makes 7 polar bears. That's enough that I no longer feel the urge to take a picture of a little white dot on rocks. So I'm sorry, but no picture of a polar bear today.

The other note I would like to make is that today was 28 C. The hottest it has gotten here today. Being in a bug jacket and long pants in 28 C is torture! I came to Churchill to escape the heat of southern summer. But we fixed that by jumping into Stigge Creek.

Introducing the swimming gang: Brit, Krista, Celia, LeeAnn,
Carley, Trigger and Dez (Carley's dogs), and me

That's me with Trigger! It was really nice to swim without
worrying about fish or crayfish or any other critters sneaking up
to you and nibbling your feet!

Day 41: Intimate Introductions

I have yet to post a blog about the most encountered fauna up here in Churchill, which seems like an oversight that I must fix. So today, I am dedicating this post to the creatures that you are almost (I use almost loosely) guaranteed to see in Churchill if you come here in July. Of course, I am talking about the blood suckers, the big three!

Number 1: The Mosquito. 26 species found in Churchill create the swarm of mosquitos. The chorus of the swarms of mosquitos. The chorus of the swarms of the little vampire mosquitos. I swear, if I did not have a bug net, I would go crazy. They never leave you alone to the point that all you can hear is their chorus coming close to your ears and head and hands and ankles and everywhere. They are adventurous little buggers. If there is the slightest exposed skin or loose clothing or clothing too tight against skin or clothing they can bite through, they will find it and they will feast. Or, the females will find it and feast. The females need the blood meal to nourish their eggs. The males feed on nectar, as do the females when they don't need eggs. Some species don't feed on blood at all, but you will have a much more difficult time finding these for the simple reason that they will not be eating you. The mosquitos have been around for about 3 weeks now.

 Female Aedes campestri, a common mosquito
found in Churchill. Information brought to you by
 Dr. Peter Kevan and Dr. Thomas Woodcock.

"Quite surprisingly though, bug experts refer to Churchill, Manitoba as the worst place in the world for mosquitoes. Here they breed in enormous numbers, estimated at 12.5 million to the hectare. The area's fierce wind and cold are evidently no match for the flies." - the weather network's bug report

Number 2: The Bull dogs. Or the horsefly, or the housefly on steroids that will saw and tear a piece of your skin out. Their bites are extremely painful. And I just can't make myself swat them, they just scare me too much. I mean, they are bigger than the first digit of my thumb! And they are considered to be the biggest true fly in the world. They are so big that when they fly into a window of a parked car, they create an audible thud like someone threw a pebble at the window! These babies come out after the mosquitos come out, but that doesn't mean that you are free of mosquitos, you just have added fun with them as well. The bull dogs came out last week to terrorize.

Tabanus sulcifrons

Number 3: The Black fly. Don't let the small size fool you, these little flies can create huge, painful swellings. Like mosquitos, it is mostly the females who feed on our blood, though the males can as well, but they mostly eat nectar. An interesting note, the insect repellents that use DEET don't work on black flies, but actually attract them instead! That's great, you get rid of the mosquitos, but attract the black flies. Personally, I prefer the mosquitos, the bites aren't nearly as bad. And the mosquitos don't try to crawl up you pant legs or shirt sleeves to bite the more sensitive skin of ankles and wrists, behind the ears, and at the base of the neck at the hairline. Terrible things. The black flies came out mostly today.

Now for a treat...

Day 40: The unexpected truth

Here's a thought: maybe nothing went wrong with my experiment at all. If something doesn't go as expected, the first instinct was to think something went wrong: so I tested the spike solution, I tested the containers, we tested the machine it was analyzed on, I tested the DI... All of the tests baffled us more because they kept eliminating the problems and saying that we did it right. What if there isn't a problem, what if what was observed are the true results?

So we got back the total phosphorus concentrations in the water. Total phosphorus measures a lot more than the soluble reactive phosphorus, the orthophosphate that  are directly taken up by plant cells. Total phosphorus is a measure of the dissolved and the particulate phosphorus. When we got the total phosphorus back, it was there! We really did everything right! The phosphorus just got converted into other forms faster than we thought possible. Definitely really interesting! It means that this pond may regulate the phosphorus geochemically before there is even a chance for the algae to really take it up.

Sometimes it is so hard to believe what is actually happening if it is different from expectations.

Day 39: To you

It is Valerie and Fiona's last day here. So we watched the sun rise over Hudson Bay.

Valerie always knows how to make a good shot.

A 3:40 AM wake up to be by the bay at 4:15 as the sun broke
the horizon on Hudson Bay.

You can see how many of us woke up to watch the sun rise.

This was our farewell to the "unremarkables". I'll miss you!