First days in Baker Lake

We arrived in Baker Lake mid afternoon on Oct 31st, 2006. We got off the rickety old Calm Air prop plane and walked into the tiny BL airport. We then met our boss Allan Hart. Al was very nice - from Glace Bay, CB originally. Al had worked in the north for almost 30 years. Once our luggage arrived we headed out to our new apartment. First thoughts of Baker Lake: it was a clear but very cold day when we arrived. The houses were bunched together and some were nicer than others. The lake was quite beautiful - it was sparkling in the sun and looked more like the ocean than a lake. We arrived at the fourplex and I was impressed - it was much nicer than I had expected. Our apartment was fully furnished and clean. This was such a huge treat compared to what Ken and I had endured in the past months. We finally had a couch and chair and a bed that was on a frame not just a mattress on the floor. We dropped our bags off then headed out with Al to the Northern. We picked up a bunch of groceries - we were shocked at the prices of things. $24.00 for a case of pop, $14-16.00 for 4L of milk, $15.00 for a McCain frozen pizza. Eventually we would get over the shock of food prices but it took us awhile. That night we handed out candy to the millions *it seemed* of kids that were in town. I joked that there must be something in the water up here because there were so many kids... little did I know a year later I would have my own!

Re-cap of 2006/2007

I am starting this blog so I can record special moments I have had with my new baby Nicholas Ryan Cross. I will start this blog by going back one year. Ken and I were living in shitty north end Dartmouth NS. I had lost my job at Minacs and he was working at TeleTech (call centre). Basically we were stuck living in poverty and this was not good enough for us. Ken heard about a job fair the NorthWest company was putting on at the Holiday Inn in Dartmouth. Ken went to this job fair and learned a bit about the company and we decided to give it a go. Ken put his resume in around the end of Sept beginning of Oct and I put mine in shortly after. We were desperate to get the 'hell outta Crackton' - we hadn't paid rent in months and were living off of $5.00 at a time. After an agonizing wait we found out that Ken had been accepted into the company as a General Merchandise Dept. Manager. We would be re-located to a town called Baker Lake, Nunavut. We accepted this offer straight away and began packing as we were leaving in 3 weeks. We were leaving Nova Scotia on October 29, 2006. This move was a chance for us to start new and fresh. We had both been judged and looked down upon long enough it was time for us to concentrate on good things. We left on a beautiful Sunday morning - it was 14 degrees and windy. We had a crazy landing in Toronto where half the plane started praying due to the turbulence. I thought to myself is this some sort of sign or are we leaving behind all the shit and this was just one more 'bump' in the road until we get there. From Toronto we flew to Winnipeg. This was my first time in Winnipeg and it was blood cold there! We stayed at a beautiful hotel called the Fort Garry. After living in shitty places for so long and sleeping on the shittiest of beds this place seemed like a palace and seemed a sign of good things to come. I'll never forget the down feathered bed - I wanted to sleep for days! The following day Monday, Oct 30th Ken and I met with Kyleigh our HR person and that afternoon we left for The Great White North! We got only as far as Churchill and had engine problems and had to stay the night. We left the next morning for Baker Lake and arrived mid afternoon.