Things I'd like to share

I'm addicted to reading blogs. I'm comfortable enough to admit it, as many others up here are and freely admit it on their blogs. I was reading Jackie's blog and she has inspired me to do a post about where we live. I remember when we first moved here, all the questions we were asked. Jackie did a post about all the specifics of where she lives, and inspired me to do the same.

1.) The town we live in has had 3 names over the past 5 years. It was known as Fort Rae and Rae-Edzo. Edzo is the next community over, which is separated from us by Marion Lake. Marion lake is the lake that is in front of my house and I can see the lights of Edzo at night. The community is know known as the "blanket name" of Behchoko, which is a community name for 5 communities.

2.) The community has a population of approximately 1900, which includes both Fort Rae and Edzo.

3.) There are 2 schools here, one in Rae and one in Edzo. The school in Rae is from P-6, and the "high school" in Edzo is actually from Primary - 12. (Colby goes to the school in Rae).

4.) We live on an island, connected to the mainland by a 1 car bridge. The island has approximately 30 houses on it, 1 gas bar, 1 playground, 1 community centre, and the "old" Northern store.

5.) The mainland has approximately 5 playgrounds, 1 corner store, a gas bar, a restaurant, a hotel, the health centre, a daycare, the post office - recycling depot, an adult learning centre, a friendship centre, a healing centre (local AA) and the cultural centre, along of course the Northern.

6.) There is only 1 place in the community to buy lotto tickets, and although the store is open until 10PM each evening you can only buy tickets from Monday - Saturday from 11 -6. They do not sell scratch tickets on the weekend, and if the manager is not there and you do not show them the button you need to press (really, I lean over and say "just press that button) they will try to tell you that they do not know how to sell lotto.

7.) We have 4 skidoos chained to our front deck.

8.) Rob walks to work everyday and crosses the frozen lake to do so.

9.) The roads here are ice. The roads are "salted" with small gravel to give traction.

10.) Our truck is always plugged in. If I want to drive anywhere, we have to let the truck warm up a minimum of 10 minutes before we can drive it.

11.) I love shopping at the Northern store. This is not something you hear a lot up here, but since we work for the Northern we have the advantage of what I like to call "the magic swipe card". This card takes the place of money in the store for us. There is no other place here to shop, and although I don't like shopping, I do like grocery shopping.

12.) I love the slow pace of life up here. When we were home in November, I couldn't believe how fast everything is. Up here life is quiet, there are no cell phones, no traffic lights, no rush hour traffic. The closest we get to rush hour traffic is when 2 people reach the bridge on opposite sides at the same time and one has to wait.

13.) Yellowknife is only one hour away, but the drive feels like 2. When we decide we are heading in, we pack for a day. Each boy has a bag they bring for snacks and toys to amuse themselves while in the truck, and of course the portable DVD is a necessity. Yellowknife is also a very small city. There is only a Wal-Mart, Canadian Tire, Home Hardware, Co-Op that carries a great line of newfie foods including Birch Beer Pop and Sunrise bologna, Extra Foods (there are 2 of them), Shoppers Drug Mart, McDonalds, KFC with the original bucket outside, Pizza Delight and a few other places. The biggest shocker for me? ONLY 1 TIM HORTON'S.

14.) Colby is now using Dogrib more and more everyday. Masi Cho means thank you, and now when I give him something he automatically says "masi".