The Day Of The Not so Nice Dog.

Keon Playing on the Lake. Keon is a good DOG!!

I would go as far to say Keon is the best dog ever!!

Keon is are dog, not the dog from the story below!!!

So today began like many days here in the north, with the sun shinning bright and tricking you into thinking that its nice and warm out. Today I was tricked into getting out of bed and heading outside. This was all pleasant enough, there was a nice steady 35km per hour wind, lots of sun and reasonable temperatures for being active outside. I loaded up stanley (our snow machine) and headed down to the sea ice for some kitting.

My kite session started out nice! I put up are smallest kite as I thought there was a little more wind then there was. After about 10 minutes I was feeling a little underpowered. No big deal, just land wrap up and launch the other kite I brought. As I was launching I looked up to see another kite in the sky!!! What a treat I might have a friend. So off I went to chase down this mystery kiter. Ive been on mission of late to find more people to kite with, including teaching a few people with various results. So to see someone out with there own gear, ripping around was awesome!!!

As I was following this other person, my goggles froze and the sun was blinding me from being able to see my kite. This amounted to a much slower chase then I had hopped for. I finally got close to the mystery man and realized that something was chasing him around. As I got closer I realized it was a dog, and it didnt look like he wanted this dog chasing him. Now heres were things head south a little. Some were in the next minute or two the dog must have notice me, and I guess for what ever reason I was more interesting to him, and before long I was became the pray.

The mystery man and I ended up being with in yelling distance of each other well being chased by this stray sled dog. I found out that this other guy had been trying to get away from this dog for the last 30 minutes or so. Thinking that the dog was going to get tired my plane was that if I just cruised around for a wile the dog would eventually run out of interests and energy. During this time the mystery man took off and headed in, leaving me to be chased by the dog.

At first it was fun being chased around, and I was having a great session. After about half an hour of this I came to a stop, and thats when things changed. The dog that had been chasing me around came at me snarling and growling, with his teeth out. He lunged at me a few times, and circled behind me. He nipped at me a few times before getting a good chomp in on my left calf.

I hade enough of that so still hooked up to my kite I took off, dog in chase. I was still thinking that he would eventually loose interest in me. But I was wrong. Again I stopped and sure enough the dog came at me again, but this time he was met with a ski to his face. Now I really thought that would be the end of it. I dont wont to sound like a dick but I gave he a good hard kick to the face! But the dog wasn't done. He backed off a few feet but was still snarling with his teeth out!! So again I took off thinking that after he had taken my ski to his face he would leave me alone, Again I was wrong.

So now I was starting to feel a little helpless. As long as I was moving the dog just chased me. But as soon as I stopped he would come at me. So digging into my bag of tricks I took to the offensive. Well on the move I felt I had the upper hand the dog was having to run to fast to be able to attack. The dog was running 10 feet besides me on my down wind side. I quickly turn strait at him and ran him strait over!! I hit him strait with enough force to knock him over and off his feet! Again I was thinking that would be it, and he would realize the fight was over. But he just backed off a few feet but kept close. I was running out of ideas and energy. So I did a few more tacks back and forth and came up with my plane for exit.

I couldn't just head into town on my kite, well I could but I would have to slow down allot to safely kite through the rough pack ice and I felt that the dog would easily be able to cache up to me and take a few more chomps at me. So that didnt seem like a good idea. My other option was to pin it to my Stanley.

I was a few hundred feet up wind and about 500m total distance away from my Snow machine stanley so I powered up and headed full speed towards him. Now I can safely say this is the fastest I have gone by kite power! It was fun but also a little scary! I was worried that if I bailed it would be over! I would be on the ground and more more or less defenceless from a dog attack! But I needed to put some distance between me and him so I would have some time to land, get out of my skies and fire Stanley up. I looked over my shoulder and I had managed to put some good distance between myself and the dog. I didnt feel I was going have enough time to land my kite get my skis off and fire up stanley. So I did a full emergency release of my kite and glided the last few feet to stanley. My kite was now getting blown down wind and turning into a big messy ball of nylon and lines!! I quickly got out of my skies and got stanley fired up.

I was feeling "safe" again, but I still had to chase down my kite and get home. The dog took interest in my kite that was blowing away so I took chase to make sure he didn't try and rip it apart. Once he saw me coming towards him he ran off in the other direction. I felt that I won!! I got to my kite and set to wrapping it up. Well doing this I looked up to see the dog running off with my backpack witch had my other kite, gloves, and goggles inside it. I quickly bundled up my kite, and gave chase. The dog had B-lined it back to what I think is the pack of sled dogs that he escaped from. Thankfully my other kite, 1 of gloves and goggles fell out of the bag before he got it all back to the pack. By the time I got there 5 dogs had taken to shredding my bag, and I didn't feel comfortable jumping into the middle of the fray to get it out. One dog had my awesome Black Diamond mitt that Kellie got me for Christmas. He was removed from the main pack that was going to town on my bag. I had one of my skies so I want in swinging it at him, (I didnt hit him) and he drop my glove and backed off. I grabbed my glove and road off leaving my much loved backpack to the dogs.

I rode Stanley back to the rest of my gear, and called a friend to meet me at the edge of the Ice as I no longer had a bag to carry 2 kites, 2 kite bares, and a pair of skies home. Im sure I looked like a real fool trying to ride with all that stuff on my lap, but I made it off the ice, tossed all the gear in Brads truck and made it home.

Once I got home I took a look at my calf and sure enough there was dog bite in it. Its not huge but the skin was broken. Since sled dogs are more or less wild animals I took a quick trip to the hospital to make sure I didnt need to get any shots. Thankfully I didnt. After a quick chat with the enforcement office about what the dog looked like and were it was last scene Kelz and I headed home . Over all things worked out ok considering I was being chased by a very big angry and possibly hungry animal. All the kites and I made it home safe, and the only casualty was my bag.

So let this be a lesson if your out on the ice watch out for dogs some are nice and just want to go for a run, others are looking for there next meal.

Boz out.

Not the Happiest of Weeks,

This last week has been hard to say the least.

On Saturday my Mother called me to tell me that my Grandmother had suffered a major stroke and in a coma in the hospital. The the news was very hard to hear. By mid day sunday my amazing Loving Grandmother Joan Bozman had passed away. I have and always will love my her. She was an amazing lady that taught me many things over the years. I know that I wont be the only one who will miss her dearly.

Kellie and I will be leaving Iqaluit in the next day or so to attend the funeral, Its the first time that Im not looking forward to some time out of the territory.

Monday when we woke up we were greeted by billowing clouds of smoke coming from around the Ventures area (Ventures or Officially Arctic Ventures is one of the 2 grocery and everything stores in town). We latter found out that a hole row of town houses had burned down. The worst news was that 2 people died during the fire. Bellow are some photos i took today of the smouldering mess that once was home to many people.

Im hopping the next pots will be a little more up beat,

Boz out.

Manipulating Guns,

News of the week: Kellie and I are both considered gun safe in Canada!

This weekend Kellie and I took are FAC Fire arms course so that we can go and buy us some none restricted long guns, AKA riffles and shotguns. It was a fun 2 day course. We both passed, but I have to say that im just a little more gun safe then Kelz is, but only just like about 1% more at best.

We hade two great instructors who had some funny stories about guns in the north. Think shipping containers full of TNT funny stories.

So to cap off the course we wandered over to are local arctic survival store and looked at the selection. I think once we get are PAL (Possession and Acquisition Licence ) cards we will be investing in some Polar Bear protection in the form of a Pump action shot gun and a bolt action riffle. But we will have to wait and see.

Boz out.

Thats Sledding,

So since getting are sled whom is now being refereed to as Stanley, Kellie has been very concerned with tipping over, I've been telling her that this not a big deal. Flipping sleds happens but its not a big deal and you just kind of deal with it.

Today kellie got to experience first hand what its like to dump a sled. She was driving Stanley from our old apartment up to our new lovely town house. This was a kind of a big deal as it was going to be Kellie's first real solo trip, and he first time driving the trails around town witch require going up a big hill and are generally rougher then the smooth ice She is used to.

The funny bit of her flipping is were it happened!!!!! She flipped poor Stanley in the middle of a reasonably busy T intersection (busy due to its proximity to the Tim Hortons and that it was right around afternoon coffee time) well coming out of a sled trail onto the road!!! Shes fine Stanley's fine, all is well. Today Kellie was the story for people in Iqaluit to talk about around the dinner table! I dont know many people who can claim they dumped there sled in the middle of an intersection.

I wish I had my camera handy but I was driving the car well she was driving the sled. I got to watch the hole thing unfold about 10 feet in front of me. Myself and 2 other friendly guys came to Kelz rescue righting Stanley and getting him out of the middle of the road (if you guys read this thanks for the help). Kel was a little shaken so I finished moving Stanley up to are new house, before putting him to bed for the night.

Kellie just showed me that She was damaged from all of this, in the form of a small Bruise on here leg. I don't feel amputation is necessary and expect a full recovery.

In other news Kellie got out on her skis with a kite today. It was cold but fun! It was a short session as the wind really kicked up a few minutes after we got Kellies kite in the sky. Im sure she'll be out again in the next few days.

I Know I keep talking about a kite post, its coming. Hopefully this weekend we will get some photos, and I can finish my post. Long story short its fun!

We also moved! are new place is sweet as!!! were about 95% all moved and unpacked. This move may be the best thing that we have done since moving to Iqaluit. Having a nice place to come home to is so nice!! If any one is in the area on sunday, were hosting a Super warming party, (super bowl and house warming) feel free to stop by send me an email and I tell you where were at, it should be low key but fun (were not big football fans so if you are it might not be the party for you)

Boz out.

Tar Inlet.

So this week we got are Skidoo, and like all good sleds she rode great the day we got it, and then wouldn't start for the rest of the week...... Now we can't really blame it on the machine, it was -30c before winds and every vehicle in town was struggling in the mornings.Thankfully it only took a few new spark plugs and a full charge on the battery and she fired up like brand new machine!!!

Yesterday Kellie and I went for a short little ride and then I did a few laps around town. Just bombing around the trails in town is allot of fun! I had a chuckle when the RCMP truck waved for me to go first at a 4 way stop sign!!!

Today after riding are machine over for breakfast at the Nova, we met up with Kellies friend John and headed out for are first real outing. It was a nice treat to be leaving the city limits!!! We really had no idea were to go, so we did the most logical thing and headed out on the the ice. We saw a large group ahead of us and decided to fallow them . We ended up going out past Apex and then to the head of Tar Inlet and onto the land. Once back on the land we just kind of putted around in the valleys for an hour or so before heading back home. It was a great day and are new machine ran with out a hitch! Kellies sledding skills improved through out the day and I think she even broke the 70KM/hr mark. I got up to about the 108km/hr mark!!! so much fun!!

After just one outing Kellie is saying She wants her own machine.....

And now for some photos...

Snow Machine,

This is just a quicky! But I have a few long posts planned coming up shortly. We have been busy this last week, Working, kitting, gyming and really working hard on heating better!

So today I was actually had some nice news from Revenue Canada in the mail. This is rare. 99% of the time its a letter saying we owe them money for this that or the other. Today I got my tax return for the last 3 years. I had been waffling for the last few months about getting a snow machine or not. now armed with a tax return there was no more waffling... We are the proud owners of a 2007 Yamaha Vector Snowmobile!!!!! it

s a solid work horse!!!! but not much of a show pony.

Any way Kel and I went for a little rip. The sled runs well!! and was is lots of fun. Kel got cold, so we rode to the shop and got her a full face helmet!! It also makes her less scared!!!

With smiles that big there is only one conclusion to make! Sleds are FUN!!!

Boz out.

Lunch Hour,

Just some quick clips I shot today during the standard Iqaluit lunch hour. Im starting figuring out HDSLR video, and every time I go out and mess around I'm happier with the results.

Sorry for the Low quality files, are internet is both slow and capped so until I have something I think is worth the bandwidth low quality it is.

Kellie and I are both excited for tomorrow, as its going to warm up to a very manageable -15c and the wind is looking to be a nice steady 20-25Km/hr, perfect for a relaxed day of kitting on the bay. Since this will be are first day out this year I'm thinking the camera will stay in the bag. But I have started putting together a long post about Kitting and are new found addiction to it so stay tuned.

Boz Out.