Content by joanne
Mosquitoes. It is not as if they are around all the time.
When we are climbing in to the van in the morning, as an example, there is very
little concern over the pesky critters. When the wind is blowing, they must be all
back in their little mosquito-homes playing poker, and do not go out searching
for fresh targets. We even have one window in the house with no screen, and
although we were very careful to keep it closed in the first two days (‘don’t
let the bugs in’), it is now open pretty-much all the time.
However, when the wind is gone (like today), and there is no rain (like today), and there is a load of fresh meat all in one place (like us) close to the slightly-moist Arctic tundra (like where we were), they have a party – a mosquito party. They were in the crawl space, under the house where we were still putting up insulation, and the cutting area for whatever reason was ‘mosquito alley’.
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| Mosquito on a Spike: 'He Gave His Life for the Cause' |
And it is not as if they really bite that much – although
everyone has some bites, and the bites are not particularly itchy, but there
are just so many of them buzzing around, and they are large! Once when I stopped to count how
many were buzzing within a foot around me, I stopped at 40. I felt like that
character in Peanuts with the dust all around him (although my ‘dust’ wanted to
bite me), or the commercial for Deep Woods Off where the guy puts his hand in a
container filled with them. Joanna’s
friend told me the other day that it is really nice when summer finally arrives
in Iqaluit, but it is also really nice when it leaves as well – because of the
mosquitoes.
So we loaded up with Muskol, Deep Woods Off, and out popped the
bug-hats and bug-jackets. Somewhat hard to drink water through a net, but we
felt better.  |
| The Mesh Sisters on a Lunch-Break |
Work in the crawl space slowed down today – much to the delight of the knees of the people who worked inside. Work on the insulation was still there, though, and the siding was pretty-much completed for now. New tasks today included putting up some drywall inside in areas where there was no electric or plumbing implications, and creation of a ‘berm’.
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| "Drill" Sergeant Jill |
What is a berm? Well – we asked that question also, and were
informed that a berm (in this case) was a wooden structure that would be used
to hold the water tank and septic tank. It would be lined with waterproof
material, so that if the tanks leaked, the water would not destroy the pink
insulation. Sounds good – we don’t want to do that insulation task again! So we
cut 10 pieces of 6-inch 2X4, and use them to separate (at 16 inch intervals)
two 12-foot pieces of 2X4. Forty long nails on each side. Now repeat that 7
times (four 12-foot sections and four 10-foot sections). Very enjoyable – even
though we were in Mosquito Alley.
After our requisite internet-fix at the library, we were
treated to an impressive turkey supper with all the fixin’s. Jill cooked a
turkey at home, sliced it up and froze it for travel – it was delicious!
Dessert was ‘Cow Chips’ from Cow’s in PEI
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| Emergency Call for More 2X4 Wood - Hand Delivered! |
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| Alex and Johanna - 16, 32, 48, 64, 82? |
In the evening we went to look for more carvings but this
itinerant group of artisans ended up being very elusive. We went to the
Frobisher Inn and were told they just left – but to try the Arctic Hotel. We
went to the Arctic Hotel and were told they just left and to try the Legion. OK
– we tried the Legion and they just left… Oh well – maybe tomorrow. Alex,
however, made her purchase before supper from a guy who came looking for us.
Funny how that works….
