I have applied for a job in Churchill, MB (the Polar Bear capital). I would like to know what your experiences are in northern communities.
Thanks…
Take some extra blankets.
I lived in Iceland for two years in the mid-80’s and just escaped from Anchorage, AK a few months ago, after a 10 year stay. Not sure what kind of weather you’re used to now but be prepared for extremes. Fairbanks, AK (about 400 miles north of Anchorage, dead center of the state) can reach 100F in the summer and -50F during the winter.
Most people new to the far north are expecting the cold but are most shocked by the sunlight/darkness factor. Get ready for 20+ hours of daylight during the summer and 20+ hours of darkness in the winter. The light is pretty easy to adjust to, if you have trouble sleeping just get heavy curtians or put tinfoil over your windows. The darkness can be a lot more difficult to handle. It can be very depressing to drive to work when it’s dark, and drive home again when it’s dark, having been stuck at your desk during all of the sun’s brief appearance. After ten winters in the far north I had had too much, which is why I left.
Anyway, life in the far north is a big topic, I could spend all day writing about it. If you have any specific questions about what to expect post a followup and I’ll see if I can answer them.
What SpaceCowboy said. Only I haven’t escaped yet.
Sheesh Cowboy, and you moved to TX to, lol, that’s where I want to go, how do you like it?
Yeah pretty extreme huh? It’s not bad, of course I spent half my childhood on the gulf coast of Florida so it’s kind of been like going home. I’m really digging having weather this warm so early in the year, though I still confused when I go outside at night, it’s too warm out to be getting dark so early! 
Though I have to admit I really do miss mountains a lot, I’ll probably end up migrating again in a few years to a place with actual geography, and cleaner air, maybe Washington or Oregon.
So where in the far north are you CanvasShoes?
I’m just in Anchorage, though I’ve spent time on the Kenai, Squarebanks and the Valley.
Most of my time I’ve lived in “Los Anchorage” though, hehe.
My experience is the reverse of Spacecowboy’s . I would have said that the long nights are no big, but the long days can make people crazy – months of little or no sleep, people walking around in the middle of the night, the disorienting experience of walking out of a bar half in the bag and the sun still being high in the sky.
In general, everything is more complicated, and acquiring simple luxuries can require a quite a bit of ingenuity. It’s possible to make some good friends though …although it’s also possible to make real enemies, and you’ll see both a lot , since the communities are so small.
People can thrive, or they can crash and burn. Mostly though, I think people who’ve reached the point in their lives where moving to the Far North seems like the right thing to do should do it.
i love churchill. it is a great little town. i would move there in a flash! i would open a photo/book store.
of course i was there visiting polar bears. the town does get a bit crowded then. i believe there is a summer natural event as well. tourism drives the town.
that being said, there is a long dark time of cold; if you can handle that. the main pest insect is some sort of biting fly. there is a lot of things you wouldn’t expect there because it was a main airbase during the “cold war.” the school system seemed really good. trains, boats, and planes go in and out.
everyone does know everyone else.
what sort of job? not pig farming i hope!!
Hell you don’t have to go way up north for that, it happens here in Ireland all the time 
The job is with Parks Canada, and the weather extremes are not a HUGE difference, I already live in Winnipeg so at least I’m not used to balmy winter temps.
Everyone I’ve spoken to from there loves it, but it’s very transient, most people move there for a while, to make some cash then move on. I’ll keep everyone posted if I get it.
BTW Rocking Chair the summer attractions are the beluga whales.
I didnt, but a good friend of mine was raised on the northern border of Saskechewan (north of Uranium city) and he said there was nothing to do up there but hunt, fish, and you can guess what else. His parents owned a hunting/fishing lodge.
When I asked him what they do up there in the summer, he said they: “go swimming that day”.
Wow Rube, you must live WAY up north. Where Barrow? Nome?
As to “acquiring” luxuries, I live in Anchorage, so I haven’t had the same problems as you REAL Far North folks, but sometimes the same can be said of the midwest or south re: acquiring “luxuries” hehe.
My dad lives in Missouri, and my sister and I go visit him about once a year or more if we can. It never ceases to amaze me, that that whole part of the country, the Ozarks, has no clue what the word “cheese” means.
You can go to a MEXICAN freaking restaurant for crying out loud, and they put American cheese on the food. If you ask for cheddar, they’ll tell you “that IS cheddar, it came right of the block in little slices”.
I thought it was just the small towns, but I even had it happen in Kansas City.
Also, my sister and I took off to go antique-ing one day, and started searching for an espresso stand. In vain. We finally pulled into a “quick stop” and asked the clerk if he knew where there were any espresso stands.
He said “uh whUUt?”. LOL
CanvasShoes, I was in the Canadian Arctic – four years in Yellowknife, three in Iqaluit, plus I’d get trips out where I’d see what it was like in the real Arctic, which those two places ain’t.
And after reading your post about the horrors of the midwest, I take back the “luxury” thing – I could always get a cup of espresso when I had a mind too, even in Iqaluit, which makes Yellowknife look like Paris. To get to the kind of depravation you’re describing, you’d have to go to a place like Gjoa Haven.
Poysyn, I used to live up north – closer to CanvasShoes neck of the woods than Manitoba – and it was a fabulous experience. People up north are different than they are in more southern, “civilized” areas. Folks seemed more open, giving and welcoming.
I now live in a 'burb of Toronto, and find it somewhat backward culturally by comparison – Had a similar opinion of the southeast U.S.
Just my 2 cents (CDN).
sounds like a great job! i’m glad it isn’t in the pig farming field. there are still polar bears that visit the site of the “great luau” hoping that the farmer has returned with more tasty treats for them.
yeah, the whales, now i remember. the whales are very cool looking with the white against the water. the town is rather lucky that they have 2 major enviro. tourist events. they are cracking down on the tundra trails.
as with most small towns there is a nucleus of people and then there are people who are on the way to somewhere else. our bus driver up there was mid twenties and his family has been there for generations. he had about 3-4 seasonal jobs, that would piggy back each other and he was a volunteer fireman. he said he would never live anywhere else.
with the train, plane, boat transport, getting goods is a bit easier than places further up north.
polarbear alive has quite a bit of info about the town and bears.
[picking nits]
Churchill is not “north, way, way up north”. I live further North than that, but I can understand that the Gulf stream makes it somewhat more pleasant here than there.
[/picking nits]
BTW The long, light evenings in summer is what makes it worth living through the dark winters.