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Tuesday October 13 2015 5 COLUMNS 15 Years Ago... Chief Paulette bidding farewell to SLFN Jerry Paulette is stepping aside as chief of Smiths Landing First Nation and will not run again in the band election on Oct. 27. Paulette has been chief for the past 13 years and says his time is up as leader of the band. Paulette was rst elected chief in 1987 when the band was still called the FitzSmith Dene Band. Issue October 11 2000 20 Years Ago... UNW shakeup The Union of Northern Workers UNW removed three of its executive ofcers early last week leaving two regions without a regional vice-president and the union itself minus one vice-president. UNW rst vice- president Jim Wilson Fort Smith regional vice-presi- dent Keith Dowling and Inuvik regional vice-president Angus Crane were all relieved of their duties. Issue October 11 1995 30 Years Ago... Dene appointed to language task force Three Dene have been appointed to the territorial governments task force on aboriginal languages. Susan Look a Locheux from Fort McPherson Fibbi Tatti a Slavey from Fort Franklin and Elizabeth Sabet Biscaye a Chipewyan from Fort Resolution make up the Dene team appointed by government leader Richard Nerysoo. Issue October 10 1985 ARCHIVES Northern Journal 2015 Join us online Like Northern Journal on Facebook and get the weekly news delivered to your feed FACEBOOK FEEDBACK The new Stanton Territorial Hospital will stand apart from the existing building will be privately built and maintained and is to cost 751 million over the next 34 years including the 300-million construc- tion price tag. Privately built 300-million hospital to be twice as large By DAWN KOSTELNIK Mom mom we hear in a weak little voice Mom I think I was dead. Hysterical laughter breaks out as we all reach out our hands to touch him.Gentlegentlemymom sayswehavetogethiminside andseehowbadheschewed. His tiny body is laid on the couch my mom lifts off his parkie with careful hands his face is milk-white and he shakes in shock. Dawn go andgetablanketandapillow. His little arms are pulled out of his parkie in a perfect cir- cumferencelikeathickpurple band we see where the dogs jaws have clamped down and covered the whole of his arm. His back has nasty big red and black bruising bites. The woundsaredeepintothetissue andmuscleknotsofdamaged esh but nowhere is the skin broken. My mom bends arms andlegsfeelingribschecking forbreakagemiraculouslyhe isintacthewillbeverysorefor weeksandaffectedforeverbut hehassurvived.Heisalive.My momsngermightbebroken fromthefallwithherngerin the gun trigger. How are you Kurtie We all ask. I was dead for sure he says. Hes only ve years old.Whenheschewingonme I pull my hands in my parkie and cover my head so he cant stick his teeth in my eyes. He didnt even chew my hands see He proudly displays his roughlittlenail-bittenngers for inspection he is amazed that they are still there we can see this he is so happy to haveallofhisparts.Weareso veryhappythatheisstillalive. White Girl Biting the hand that feeds you Acetheleaddogwegotfrom the R.M.C.P. is still alive as well. My dad takes him to the nursingstationforanX-rayon his front leg. If the leg is bro- ken he will be shot. The leg is notbrokenheisbandagedup andtakenbacktothedogline to be chained up. Ace came to usasafull-growndoghehad one eye that bulged dramati- cally from his head this was milky white and he was blind in that eye. What Aces life had been like previously we did not know it appears that damage had been done. How do you x that My dad did not shoot Ace for attacking Kurtis. If Ace had been loose and attacked anybody my dad would have killed him in an instant. No one was allowed near the dog run. In the real world when the rules are broken you pay theconsequences. Youareul- timately responsible for your own life even if you are only ve years old and totally dis- tractedbyyourfavouritestick. P.S. I have a wariness of dogs after years of living with many of them and having ex- perienced this attack on my little brother. People who tie their dogs at entries to pub- lic places and then assure me that Fido would not hurt a eashouldknowthattheirdog sensesfearfromme.Icannot controlit.Pleasedonotputme inthisposition.Well-meaning ladies who weigh 110 lbs with their120-lbrescuedogonataut leashpleasedonotassureme that the teeth-baring is only a result of past abuse and that they have now been rehabili- tated.AndnowofcourseFido wouldnthurtakitten.Itisnot OK to allow your dog inches frommyfacesothattheycan be re-socialized. Please dont put me in this position. This human thanks you for your consideration. www.thewhitegirl.ca By LONE SORENSEN All in all the past growing season was a pretty good one and now that the harvest is stored for use over the win- ter it is time to think about how to make next years crop even better. Thebestwaytoensuregood resultsnextsummeristopre- pare your soil so that it is bal- anced.Youcanprepareitnow to make that happen. Ihadsomeproblemswiththe pH in a couple of my gardens where some of my soil tested at 7.5 this summer from hav- ing used some compost that was way too alkaline which I realized too late. I will al- ways from now on check the pH of any amendment to the soilthatIadd-lessonlearned. Beforeusingthiscompostmy soil was pH 6.3 which is very close to optimal for vegetable productioneventhoughpota- toes grow better and have less scabinmoreacidicconditions. KnowingthepHinsoilsand correctingittosuitfoodplants iskeytohavinghealthyplants. The nutrients in the soil are more available to the plants whenthepHisclosertoneutral 7.Ifsoilistooacidicunder5.5 forinstanceitcanbeamended with dolomite lime stone. If it istooalkalineabove7.5regu- lar garden sulfur can be used. Fixing pH in soil takes many months so it is a good idea to workonitinthefallnowand again in the spring. Simple pH testers can be bought at places like Canadian Tire or from any seed catalogue. It is a good idea to always have a pH tester in your garden doctors medicine bag. Taking a full soil sample and getting it analyzed is well worth it and should be done in the spring before planting assuming you live in a place whereyoucaneasilygetahold ofvariousamendments.Taiga Labs in Yellowknife is a good placeforsoilanalysis.Ifyoulive in a remote community with only an ice road in the winter itwillbeagoodpractisetoas- sessyoursoilfullyinthefallso youknowwhatkindofamend- ments you want to bring in on the ice road. The very best thing is to make your own compost which many people now do. Actuallythebestwaytomake compost is to have chick- ens. Although I know keep- ing chickens is not possible for everyone they provide excellent manure perfect for increasing soil health. Whatever you do it is never too early to plan for an even better garden and increased production next year. Over the winter months when it is dark and cold is a great time to sit and read and learn more about gardening from soil to plants and all the manygrowingtechniquesthat arebeingdevelopedthesedays. There is always more to learn about growing food. Living so far north I look for stuff writ- ten with the North in mind. Many gardening books writ- tenintheUSAwillrefertothe Northwestbuttheydontmean high latitude 60 and above. Authors of gardening books unless they have lived above 60 may not know all the vari- ous aspects of what will work andnotworkinourgardens.I prefer to nd publications by the University of Alaska and I willbedelvingintotheseover the winter. NowasIsitdownforawell- deservedrestbythereinthe wood stove I utter a relieved aaaah as I sip a cup of mint tea. What a wonderful grow- ing season it was Lone Sorensen is the founder of Northern Roots andhaslivedandgrownfood in Yellowknife for 27 years. Gardening with Lone Bringing balance to your life and soil Jason Lepine Certainly a mammoth project by NWT standards. And unlike other 200 million dollar projects this one seeminly came out of nowhere ... we havent heard much from the GNWT about the need for a new Stanton Hos- pital. A few things trouble me and most you have touched on in this exchange... 1. Need - Stanton is 27 years old and with a mid-life ret- rot should have many more decades of life left. Exactly what is the urgency that requires complete replacement. 2. Consultation - Like I said out in the regions this issue seemingly came out of nowhere. It would be nice if the GNWT at least came out and talked to us about the issue so we can voice our opinion as to its priority in the long wish list of infrastructure our territory needs. 3. Competition Process - Sounds as if this project went out as a competition for a retrot which result- ed in an unsolicited submission for complete replace- ment. Why would the retrot competition be tossed aside after what I hope was a complete review of all submissions...what was the justication and is the change in keeping with standard GNWT purchasing supply mgmt rules and practices. 4. Timing and Optics - The last minute before your term runs out approach to signing on the dotted line is either an oversight or just a cunning tactic to bypass public consultation and push any backlash that may arise for such a sloppy process to the next assembly. Like it or not the next goverenment is going to have to push ahead with the deal or pay a penalty for cancellation...either way not a good start for a new government. This en- tire project and process is worthy of having the pause button pushed...if at the very least to let the rest of the territory catch up to those chosen few privileged Cabinet Minister who have taken it upon themselves to ram job this project through before the coming election.