Knuckle decided to bite one of Rocker's ears off.

It’s not a good time to be a bear. 1st October was the first day of the polar bear season which lasts until August. A hunter shot two here on the first day, bears that had a close brush with town a couple of weeks ago. Two other hunters went out to help skin the bears. The sharing of the spoils is quite complex. Various body parts are allocated for the different role and task each hunter undertakes. The skins and skulls are worth the bucks. The community as a whole is allowed to shoot 30 bears this year. This number varies yearly. Nothing is wasted.

This bear was one threatening the community this year.

Martin shot two Greenland seals. I helped skin them and was given the blubber for my dogs. Good and thick it is too, about 10 cm.

Looking out my window pack ice still grinds to shore despite the sea beginning to freeze.

Going out in boats halted for a while as we waited for a storm to break up the new ice.

In places the sea ice was soon good enough to walk over and listen for seals breaching.  To test ice I stab ahead with my “toq” a three-metre pole with its chisel end. In Canada I always knew this as a Yukon chisel. Colour isn’t always a good indication ice can be moved over. Rule is if the pole goes through on the first or second stab you’re entering a minefield. New sea ice has a nerve racking elastic quality. It’s like walking over a waterbed. You don’t get this walking over freshwater ice because it freezes brittle.

This time of the year ringed seals keep their breathing holes open. From above what you are looking for is a pinprick breathing hole. With a practised eye they’re easy to spot since they look slightly like shiny white molehills.

The trick is to work in pairs and reach such a hole. One person walks away giving the seal the impression danger has passed. The other hunter stands downwind and waits, motionless. The seal will come. It will blow once, drop and surface a second time. At that point you empty your rifle. If the ice has turned red, you open up the hole with the chisel and hook out the seal.

It was this month I watched a pair of hunters. One of them fell through the ice up to his shoulders in water. His buddy helped him out. He was fine. On this occasion there were four other hunters watching over seal holes. I thought where the hell would you get men in such close proximity to each other with loaded weapons poised to kill; a war zone? No this was Greenland, on a Sunday afternoon.

As ice thickened seal nets were set under the ice. This month 6 narwhales were also shot a few hundred metres from my front door. Hunters returned in their boats. Hulls breaking ice sounded like a lawn mower sharpening stones. Fresh seals were also bought ashore and sliced open for litters of puppies to feed on.

Tracks between houses have blood streaks in the snow, trails left as hunters drag dead seals home. Loose bitches with puppies sniff. These dogs are the only ones by law allowed loose and identified by numbered collar tags. Loose dogs are shot on sight if their owner is not identified.  There are no cats here. It’s illegal to own such an animal, a brilliant law since I really do detest the creatures. 

I wormed all my dogs with Drontal Plus the only wormer capable of ridding dogs from all parasitic worms. 

No storm came to disrupt new ice before the first dog team went out. It wasn’t me. It was about this time I had a nightmare that I was on sea ice that broke away from the shore. Hefty offshore winds tend to do this with new ice.

It took a week to build a traditional Greenlandic sled with master sled maker Augo. That week a polar bear walked up river, under my house and past my dogs. Once my sled was finished I was standing next to Augo and another Greenlander. In Greenlandic the sled was topic of conversation. I heard the word “Titanic” followed by a wink of the eye.

It was about this time we did get a horrid storm. I climbed down and huddled on the shoreline. At that the ice break away from land. The mighty offshore wind took it all out to sea. I thought, just imagine being out on the ice and that happens. The weather was in murder mode. We sometimes communicate with gunshots. Rapid constant firing means the ice is breaking up head for shore immediately.

Back in England a friend had a great conversation with a Royal Mail post office worker. 
It went like this:

- I’d like to send this to Greenland please.
- 1st or 2nd class?
- Neither, I’d like to send it to Greenland.
- Yes, 1st or 2nd class?
- No, Greenland.
- Where?
- Greenland, it’s between Iceland and Canada.
- Well, please write Iceland on the package or the postman won’t know where to deliver it.
- No, Greenland is a country, the biggest in the world.
- I’ve never heard of it.

A colleague to this half-wit butted in and explained that Greenland is in fact a country. I believe progress was eventually made.

I did a lot of walking alone on that new October ice. One day I will never forget. It was a bright, still morning and I could hear narwhales blowing through pack ice holes. I could smell the blow stench too. Later I found the holes frozen over.