This is what my walk to work looked like this morning. Unseasonably warm, it is only -2 C. Time to break out the barbeque.
As an added bonus here are three pictures of the House, taken today in the sun.
The Sky this morning
This is what my walk to work looked like this morning. Unseasonably warm, it is only -2 C. Time to break out the barbeque.As an added bonus here are three…
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11 responses
I looked at those photos of the house, Clare, and I could almost feel the clarity and crispness of the air. I’m restless now; here, it’s the first day of autumn and I think I know what migratory birds understand.
Okay, two questions:
Why is the house elevated from the ground? Can you not build directly on the ground, or am I missing something?
Second question: how often can you see the Northern Lights?
Hi Pete,
Actually it felt, well, warm. The snow is sticky, my truck starts. This is actually supposed to be the coldest time of the year. The temperature started rising a couple of days ago, which generally means bad weather here. We did have a mini-blizzard yesterday but today was warm, sunny, and calm.
Hi Pablo,
House’s are built off the ground here because of the permafrost. Those piles are our foundation. Basically there are three types of foundations you see here, piles like ours, blocks of woods that are levelled with wedges, or screw jacks. You can’t dig basements or put in cement pads here, and you don’t want to build the house directly on the ground because the escaping heat will melt the permafrost and cause the house to shift. Supposedly there is less shifting with piling, and our piles are into bedrock. The other two systems are adjustable somewhat. There are also space frames, which initially we planned to use. Think giant tinkertoy foundation, the idea behind them is that if there is any shifting the entire thing shifts as a unit.
That’s the simple version.
As far as Northern Lights go, like I said in the previous comments, we don’t see them here that often. We are too close to the magnetic pole. Gary mentioned that he saw a real nice display about three weeks ago. In about a months time we won’t have enough darkness to see even good displays.
Mostly our displays are just smudges of light near the horizon, but there have been better displays this winter and last. Nothing like most of the other places I’ve lived though, Fort Providence, La Ronge, & Thompson had fantastic displays, and Roblin, Saskatoon, Rosevalley all had decent displays, just not as often.
Here not so good, but who knows as the MNP is moving farther away things might be brightening up
Oh yeah,
The House being off the ground will serve us well when the Groenland Ice Cap and Antarctic melt and we’ll have beach front property.
Great pics, Clare … the House looks so organic, like a piece of the landscape – very nice!
Your house is beautiful, Clare!
Beautiful house against a spectacular sky. That blue is like a light on the top of the world. Lovely sunrise photograph too.
Clare, I was thinking about you yesterday when I heard that the temperature was going above 0C in Iqaluit. Strange days! But the house is looking beautiful.
On northern lights–I saw a spectacular show a few years ago down here in southern Ontario. But in Edmonton I saw them often, and some pretty sensational displays too.
Clare, the house looks great and with the rising temperatures it will soon be time to botanize.
Fantastic house, I love it. The windows are wonderful (facing the morning sun or the evening?)
The windows face East, to the morning sun, although “Morning sun” is really a meaningless term up here. The front of the house basically runs north south about 7 degrees off north. There are windows on all four sides, only a small one on the north side.