Yukon Yahoos

Evil teachers = frozen children

2012-01-22T01:31:00.001-08:00

We are having a LOVELY cold snap right now, temperatures are hovering around -35C and it is just FANTASTIC!! Oh yes, we all love it and brag to our friends/relatives in Florida (or other warm places) and tell them just how much they're missing out. Y'know, like what the heck do you people do with no snow? Make sandmen? And with no ice fog? See clearly while driving? No frost on the windshields? Also see clearly while driving? No "square" tires? Drive a smooth, non-bumpy ride to work? How boring.

I kid. We are complaining like the earth is going to become a frozen solid block at any moment. We whine. We complain. And then we complain some more. And we buy hot chocolate and drink tea and wear onesie pj's from the moment we get home until the moment we go to bed. And then we say, WHY are we living in the frozen north? None of us has an answer. So we stay.

The cold reminds me of a moment in my childhood which I'm pretty sure I'm not exaggerating in my memory. The teachers would do anything to throw us outside and have a moments peace.

I remember it like it was yesterday. Let me start from the beginning.

One fine, mid-winter morning, I was a happy child. I was all ready to go to school and learn and see my friends and not get into trouble for distracting the class. My mom made my brother and I a nice breakfast as we got along smashingly all the time:

After we were content with a belly full of food, we were ready to go do some learning!

Eager beavers that we were, I met up with my BFF Krystal (Best Friend Forever, except for those 2-4 yrs we hated each other) down the street.

We always walked to school, which was normally a 10-minute walk. But that was when you weren't blinded by a blizzard and slowed down by the 90 km/hr wind gusts.

We were bundled up because the wind was so nasty and all we could see was each others eyeballs.

We walked and walked and tried to get there as fast as we could. Every once in awhile we'd peer over our clothing to make sure the other was still there. That's true friendship.

We eventually made it to school. Frosty eyelashes and semi-frozen eyeballs, but we made it.

It was a massive relief to get into the school! Nice and toasty warm, we took off our boots and parkas and snowpants and gloves and hats and fleece jackets and scarves and wool socks over regular socks, and were ready for the day.

I recall discussing how much fun recess was going to be - as I just assumed we'd be spending it inside, given the -47C windchill factor. We LOVED indoor recess! Teachers hid in their "special teacher's lounge" so we could run around the school, hide in closets and throw toilet paper at each other. It was going to be fun!

And warm.

So imagine our horror when 10:15 rolled around and our teacher said:

"Oh, don't be so dramatic you guys. It's not that cold out. Now go get dressed, you have 2 minutes... GO!"

As we cried our way to the coat racks, we questioned how the teachers would explain our frozen 10 year old bodies to our parents.

The teachers quickly ushered us out the side door and didn't just close the door behind, they LOCKED IT!!! I am not kidding, they totally locked us out.

So there we were, all huddled up in the small protected area just outside the school doors. We banged on the door for what seemed like hours, with no teachers in sight.

We acted like a herd of adolescent musk-ox - crying, whining, pushing each other and finally gathering in a large circle with the smallest kids on the inside. Our little brains instinctively knew that this circular formation gave us the best chance of survival.

The banging on the door didn't help, feigning injury didn't help, screaming "we're seriously FREEEEZING!!!" didn't help and the pseudo-mob/musk-ox formation definitely didn't help the teachers hear (or care about) our plea.

We were screwed and we knew it.

And all we could do was picture our teachers, in the nice warm building. They were probably eating donuts, drinking lattes and watching Dr. Phil by the fire on their big screen tv in the "special teachers lounge" - the secret room we were NEVER allowed to go in.

I was so traumatized during that recess, that I don't even remember the rest of the day. I'm pretty sure I froze some brain cells. That poor generation, we all could have been much smarter had our teachers not been so evil.

Why they felt the need to get away from us so badly, I'll never know!

Saturday night entertainment

2012-01-20T14:27:00.000-08:00

People ask, "Stacie, what do you do for fun on a Saturday night at 30 below?"

And although there can be multiple answers to this - like, watching Hockey Night in Canada, lying on the couch with 10 dogs strewn about the cabin, obsessing over getting past a level in Angry Birds (thanks cheater sites!), to the rare occassion of going to town and socializing with other humans... this BY FAR is my most favourite thing to do on a Saturday night:

One dark night...

2012-01-16T19:41:00.000-08:00

One dark and well, DARK night (it is January in the Yukon, after all!), I was laying down on the couch watching my new favourite show American Horror Story.

For those of you who haven't seen it, it is a relatively freaky show about spirits and ghosts and murder and general evil-ness taking place in an old house. I was on a AHS bender, having just discovered it so I thought it was a GREAT idea to watch ALL the episodes in record time. While this led to a few entertaining evenings, it also led to an increase in the freaked-outness factor.

As the nights went on, the demon babies, the dead (or not dead?) ex-lovers, the twin-murderers (why are twins always on a murderous rampage??) all were starting to get to me. It all really started to freak me out. I was having dreams and flashbacks of a real ghost/spirit that I've seen in the past, which I won't go into, 'cause it'll freak me out more.

Anyways! I was hearing noises, I was seeing things outside in the dark, I was having freaky dreams, and I pretty much didn't want to go outside into the dark. Here I am on one of the last nights, watching the show, with all the dogs inside.

As you can see, I am getting a little tense on the couch. Doesn't even help that George is lying on top of me. She's not protecting me though, she's just a couch-hog. You may notice that there are only 7 dogs downstairs, three are upstairs for those observant readers out there. Here I am, lying on the couch surrounded by dogs when I realize, "CRAP! I have to go and plug my car in. WHY does it have to be cold out!"

Oh yeah, the Yukon. Right. Stupid -30 winter.

So I enlist the help of my furry buddies. I mean, I don't want to go outside alone, who knows what is out there. Plus, I am ALWAYS doing things for the dogs - such as feeding them, petting them, walking them, etc. They totally owe me.

I start with my most devoted dog, the big dude, Kuna. He's always following me around, he LOVES me. Hel'll protect me? He'll do anything for me, right?

Hm.

Now Gracie is *sometimes* useful. She looooves me. Well, she looooves me petting her and being her general slave. Will she help me out?

No. Apparently sleeping upside down with your legs splayed everywhere is more important.

Ok, Pooh Bear has GOT to be interested! I can't keep that little maniac away from me if I tried. Let's see what she has to say:

*SIGH*

I give up.

In the end, I had to go out and plug the car in ALL BY MYSELF. This process took about 3 seconds but I swear something tried to grab me as I ran back into the cabin...

Now I'm going to only watch happy comedy shows!

Baby Wolf Howl

2012-01-14T22:57:00.003-08:00

This is the cutest thing ever! A baby wolf trying out his howl for the first time.

Dog Beer!

2012-01-09T22:53:00.002-08:00

Doggie Brew! It really freakin' exists. At least it's not really made out of alcohol, just malt, hops and MEAT!!! PB started screeching at the thought of a tasty, meaty beery-drink. Then she thought about it and told me under NO CIRCUMSTANCES am I now allowed to go to the pub without her. Before I would say "oh, sorry, no dogs allowed - nothing to drink for you... really. So sorry... I mean it. If ONLY they had dog beer, you'd be in like Flynn! But alas, they don't. So suck it... I mean, what a bummer eh!!?? Really, I wish you could be attached to me ALL DAY instead of just MOST of the day..."

Trying to explore with the pack...

2012-01-08T23:13:00.000-08:00

The lovely weather here lately has been great! We could use more snow out there on my(our) river trail, but it's doable for now. Took all 10 maniacs out for a little free run the other day and then we did some bushwhacking and wandering about. Because that is what it's all about, wandering about for absolutely no reason... welcome to my world!

Guess who was annoying as always??

I really do try to get pictures of the rest of the crew, but PB makes it nearly impossible by never venturing farther than 20ft away from me.

Harris and Woody and Gracie

And here's George and Lucy, my wonderful "problem children" trio of those 2 and Gracie are soon...what's that? Agh! PB, get out of the photo!!!!!!!!!!

Were you calling MEEE? Just in case, here I am!!! Oh! You're taking photos, let me photobomb the picture of Lucy and George, because you know a photo without a Pooh Bear is not a photo at all!

What I was try to say... is that George, Gracie and Lucy are all turning 12 next week. Holy crap. How have we all survived so long together? I am exhausted just thinking of how much trouble they used to cause me! But now they're much more calm and sweet - for the most part anyways.

Gracie checks out the otter smells

Finally! A photo of some of the other dogs. Here they were checking out the "special otter nest" or whatever it is otters do at the base of trees... (this is where we spotted the elusive otter tracks not long ago)

Oh c'mon... seriously???

Hiiiiii Stacie... I haven't jumped on you or ran into you for at LEAST 90 seconds... and hey! I see you still have the camera and perhaps the blog readers would like to see down my throat??

No! They want to see something other than your tonsils. Here's some more dogs:

heehee

My favourite photo - almost captured everyone! Only big Kuna is awol, probably behind us, catching up!

There he is, plodding along in the back.

Lucy and Gracie find something uber-interesting in the snowbank/river's edge. They always stop in this spot to re-smell it. Because they might have missed something last time y'know.

Here's a video of part of the wandering about and everyone is pretty mellow because they have already ran at least 3 miles (not counting all the zig-zagging thru the trees!)

Uh oh!

2012-01-07T13:57:00.000-08:00

Pooh Bear managed to sneak onto the laptop and set up her own Twitter account! No doubt she will try to use it to her own advantage, in hopes of receiving toys and treats from afar! But don't buy into it! You can follow "@pbthedog" on Twitter or just look over to the right and see her Twitter feed that she magically embedded into the blog!

Damn I really need to keep a closer eye on them...

Go away Woody! I need to update my Twitter account and no, people aren't interested in YOUR Twitter account. It's all about meeeeee!!!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T23:29:00.003-08:00

Here's to a fantastic and prosperous 2012 for all of you (4) faithful Yukon Yahoos visitors! We had a blast on NY Eve, got to spend it with 2 of my favourite things - friends and dogs! Head on over to Yukon Adventure Magazine to see a bit about what we did that day, some more fun skijoring.

Since they were so awesome on our last run, I decided to take Woody and Pooh Bear out for the NY Eve run.

Guess which one of the two is slightly traumatized by being stuffed in the car? Woody (lying down paralyzed below) was certain he was being "shipped off to the farm" and not the kind of farm that has goats and pigs and cows. The kind of farm that parents tell their kids they're sending the dog to... but the dogs mysteriously disappear and are never heard from again. PB on the other hand thinks everything is AWESOME!!!

Woody said we're probably going to the farm. YAY!!! I FREAKIN' LOVE FARMS!!! I think.

So we got to the trails and harnessed up the dogs, and got all ready to go...

Ok, where's the farm? Just break it to me already.

And then we went skijoring and he was relieved. Woody and Pooh Bear are turning out to be my SUPA-STARS!!!! Went out with some friends this time and those two were awesome, they are a total riot to ski with. Woody was even quickly becoming the "more serious" of the two, I didn't think that was possible. Well, it does prove that PB is the most focused on FUN and not being serious. At all. Ever.

What? I gotta lighten the load so we can run faster!

But for the most part, they were a perfect little running duo - their gaits matched perfectly, they ran the same speed and worked really great together. PB lacked focus near the end but Woody and I were not surprised.

Post-run Woody, seems to still be a little unsure. He probably thinks the farm visit is AFTER the skijor.

Please... I've been good. PB is the bad one, I think you should send HER to the farm.

Happy 2012 everyone! :)

Who knew?

2011-12-29T18:50:00.006-08:00

That the Woody/Pooh Bear duo would make such a FANTASTIC skijoring pair!!? I certainly didn't. And I was really second guessing myself after I put Woody's harness on and saw him immediately spinning and biting at it, wondering what that annoying thing was stuck on his back. Here's a quick example of that, after he got slightly used to the harness:

This is not them in the pen, this is ME behind bars. PB always manages to run out ahead of me then jumps up on the gate to slam it in my face. Thanks!

Here is PB screeching, chasing Esther, running in circles, basically, not knowing what to do with her excitement. WHY is she excited? She has no clue. Welcome to the daily life of Pooh Bear.

Then I attached the kooky duo to me and we were off like the wind. I thought I was taping the first part of the run, but in between my shock, my excitement and my jaw dropping open, I guess I missed it. Which is a total bummer because Esther was hilarious!! She literally barked and turned around the whole way, but managed to stay slightly ahead like you see below.

And it didn't faze PB or Woody once. If Esther got too close, they would just go around her or ignore her. Supastars!!!

Esther figured her job was to 1)always run in front, 2)turn around and bark every 100ft or so, 3)spin in circles and then dart ahead. While I called it somewhat annoying, she called it "training" - and insisted PB & Woody needed it.

One downside of running these two, um... "short attention span" dogs is that they get tangled in a millisecond when we stop. It's pretty remarkable actually. This is after a 10 second stop. They both got wound around the tree and then Woody managed to take it a step further and wind himself up in the line. He then panicked, screeched and flailed around like he's being tortured and is about to die a horrible, painful death. When really, if he just calmed down, I could help untangle him in seconds.... agh, he's so dramatic!!

Finally I got some video of them pulling and showing off all of our exceptional Gee and Haw abilities! Ok, it's really a bit of a mess, but give us a break, it's our first time running altogether! :)

I hope the New Year brings us many more fun runs like this and we wish all of you the best in 2012!! PB promises we will blog more next year. She is learning to type on her new iPad 2!

*this is not PB, only what she aspires to be

Identify these tracks (possibly zombies)

2011-12-18T14:51:00.003-08:00

I came across this set of tracks the other day while out with the dogs - any clues??

First I saw this:

Then this. Harris and the other dogs were pretty interested in it, wonder if they were fresh? The tracks in the slush/ice were iced over so must have at least been there a day or so.

Was something being dragged? Was it an animal with a bum leg that was dragging it? Was it a zombie, dragging its foot as it stumbled towards my cabin??

It was in the trees for a bit too...

And descended down from the little treed area back to the river. There was no blood around so I doubt it was a kill. So weird!

kick me in the a**

2011-12-14T18:27:00.004-08:00

Go ahead, you can do it! I know you want to.... I have left this little blog on it's own for far too long, sorry to those 3 followers who have probably given up on me by now. I will pick up the pace. If only I didn't leave my camera cord in Alaska last month, ugh! Instead I will just describe the entertainment around here lately.

Of particular note, is a Pooh Bear story(big surprise). She has a knack for a few things: running reallllllly fast; jumping on me repeatedly because she thinks the beer in my hand is a ball (somebody TRAIN this dog); wagging her tail a million miles/hr when I walk near her; annoying other dogs; annoying me; and.... running in front of me as I'm tossing logs onto the deck. This happened not once, oh no... that would be a fluke. Pooh Bear managed to run in front of me the EXACT moment I tossed a piece of firewood onto the deck and got clocked in the head... TWICE. In TWO days!!! You'd think she'd learn? You'd think I'D learn.... but nope. I don't think she's brain damaged. Though it'd be hard to tell. She hasn't stopped moving so I take that as a good sign.

We got a crapload of snow too. Then it almost all melted. Then it was super warm, then it was -30 then it was +2, the weather has been totally erratic. I have been creating the most interesting things - a water hauling toboggan (thanks to Dave & Heather!), a snow plow (too cheap to pay for it this year) and they're all working pretty good. Pictures will bring so much to the story, as Dave referred to the water hauling unit as a "little bit ghetto"... and that just made me pee my pants laughing. It's so true. You should see the plow! It makes the water setup look fancy!

I am regularly using my bathtub and running water lately, I feel so freakin' civilized. It's funny to see the dogs wander into the bathroom and hang out with me. No door on the bathroom and what do I expect? PB is scared of the tub, Woody practically joins me and Kuna lays obediently at my side no matter where I go. Except when there is food in the kitchen - caught him stealing butter and a can of refried beans the other day. The older he gets, the less he seems to care if he might get caught. But I proved I was smarter, I blockaded the kitchen with my road bike the other night! He will probably eat that to get to the food soon...

Check this out, it's making the rounds on Facebook and Twitter. It's not mine but it's really freakin' cool - PERFECT ice in the Yukon and not -30 so people can enjoy it! :)

RUNNING WATER!!!

2011-10-16T17:30:00.006-07:00

WHEW!! After 10-freakin' years without running water, I am back in the semi-civilized world. No real toilet yet, but I don't want to go TOO crazy. My head might just implode. In the meantime, I'm enjoying wayyy too many baths in my kick-ass tub!

Here's a few pics of the awesome tub and awesome sink and awesome running water and the awesome hot water heater and awesome dogs just for kicks! :)

Tankless water heater - it is awesome, saves a ton of space too. Even if it does cost an arm and a leg, it's worth it!

Hole in my logs, agh!

Of all the projects I've done in my lifetime in the Yukon, I've never tried or wanted to try plumbing. And I now know why, I HATE IT!! It's horrible and confusing and there are so many little parts... I did however, learn to make that thing. Which leaked when we tried it out, oops! So I fired myself.

Pooh Bear! Yay, we have water!!! She even lays beside the tub when I'm in it - can't be too far from the human.

The new Ikea sink is now functional.

Sweet glorious running water into a huge, roomy tub. Life is great. :)

YAM

2011-10-05T21:16:00.004-07:00

So I've taken on a new challenge and that is this new website! Yukon Adventure Magazine.

I've been spending a lot of time over there and will be for the next little while. It's become a second job! But it's been fun. I just launched it last weekend and the site is devoted to all types of adventures in this grand Territory of ours!

I'm always looking for people to contribute, so if you have any adventure related stories you want to share, let me know. Comments are a bit glitchy over there right now, but I'm working on it...

Aaaaand, we have a contest running RIGHT NOW! If you have been on, or are soon going on a "Yukon Adventure" - you better write about it and submit it. Because you can WIN a sweet pair of MEC Hut Booties, just like this one. But there will be two of them.

All you need to do is submit an article with a minimum of 500 words. Submit it to admin@yukonadventuremag.com and you are automatically entered in a draw to win these toasty warm booties. PERFECT for the upcoming winter season.

Bathroom!

2011-09-25T23:22:00.004-07:00

Here's an update that might be new to some of you - I've been hard at work on a bathroom. An INDOOR bathroom! And running water. The bathroom is built, have a sink and portable toilet, so it's like living in luxury! All I needed was a tub/shower and since I'm more of a tub person, I thought this would be the perfect fit:

This poor little neglected tub is an almost-100yr old cast iron clawfoot tub from Alaska! This tub has some history, the owners I bought it from got it from the Ruby hotel, on the Yukon River. It apparently came from Denver, CO. I love that it has this history... sure she ain't too pretty, but I had plans for this beauty...

First off, time to grind and sand the crap out of it. You can see someone chose to paint it this lovely LIME GREEN. Oh, and on one side only. Because who really wants a whole lime green bathtub???

Sanding and stripping this tub was not my favourite DIY job, but as with all these jobs - it's the end product that keeps you motivated.

Had to make sure it was a good fit for me. And yes, it's pretty much perfect. The inside of the tub cleaned out nicely with some "Iron Out" - thanks to the Alaskans who sold it, they cleaned out the inside too!

So more sanding, sanding, stripping and more sanding and off came (most) of the decades of paint. A primer made a world of difference.

Then a nice chocolate brown paint to match my bathroom... I've always loved the painted outsides of these tubs.

Oh, notice there is no FEET! The elusive claw feet... did you know that there were hundreds, no THOUSANDS of different types of claw feet made for these tubs? So much that it is difficult to find ones that match, especially if you don't have one of the original feet. I'm still waiting on the feet, apparently the previous owners of the tub had 3 of the. But then those got "lost" as they loaned out their canoe for a friend's hunting trip... yeah, don't follow that story? Me either, but our Alaskan neighbour's ARE a wee bit quirky. So for now, I have the tub propped up on wood. I actually kind of like it...

Here she is, in her new home! We will have some great times together.

My little "thing" about beavers

2011-09-13T23:43:00.000-07:00

I totally have a thing about beaver dams, beaver lodges and all things beaver! Seriously. So imagine my excitement when I found the most kick-ass dam/lodge combo I've ever see while hiking in the woods one day.

GAH!!!! Look at the length of that!! So impressive. Kuna is doing his "model-on-the-beaver-dam-runway" pose and in behind him is the beaver lodge.

Someone was hard at work.

The lodge against the cliff and the dogs check out the pond, They loved it. And since there doesn't seem to be much recent beaver action around here, we've been visiting daily.

The ol' winter trails look SO much different in the fall, it's crazy and overgrown. Here's the creek that nothing is currently stuck in!

Aaaaand just when we thought we got through ONE FREAKIN' summer of no porcupines....

Jack goes down as the quickest learner in the dog yard - ONE quill! That is unheard of around here!

Oh, don't think I got off *that* easily! Harris also got nailed and was a bit more of a problem to de-quill. I was too busy wrestling him for 2hrs to take photos though...

Bring on winter!!!! :)

It's August

2011-08-22T16:54:00.006-07:00

Well hello there!!! Fancy meeting YOU here. It's been awhile, I know. I'm to blame, I haven't been keeping up my side of the communication in our relationship. What can I say?

It's summer.

I've been busy.

I've been building gates.

I've been separating my ribs.

I've been BUILDING A BATHROOM!

I've been visiting with my parents! (and putting them to work)

I've been kayak fishing. Once.

I've been standing-on-shore fishing.

Still haven't caught a damned thing.

I've been working (oh yeah).

I've been kickboxing! (for one month)

I've been riding my bike by bears on the highway (eek!)

I've been playing hockey again, yay! (hence the rib thing, booo!).

I've been drinking. (hey, it's summer!)

I've been playing fetch. With the dogs.

I've been building an ark on account of all this #*&% RAIN. The Yukon has been wet. Wet indeed.

I've been playing with friends and their dogs:

I've been introducing my dogs (Woody) to sexy bitches (Keno). It was love at first sight.

I've been wondering how Woody can be so damned happy all the time. I have no idea.

I will say that if we could all be as happy as a Woody, the world would be a much different place...

I've been walking dogs to scungy ponds and avoiding porcupines (knock on wood)

Remember the scungy pond(s)?? Oh we had some good times there in the past didn't we??!!! The scungiest of the scungy pond is the one below and it's keeping nice and stagnant and especially reeky this year. The rain helps keep it topped up.

Is this not the cutest thing ever?? A rare moment of love between Pooh Bear and Woody. The two brainless wonders have become one!! I shouldn't be so hard on them, what they lack in pure brain power they make up for in ENTHUSIASM for life!!!! ALL. THE. TIME.

Well, except for this day. The enthusiasm comes and goes when it rains EVERY DAY.

1 of the 6-pack, Jack:

Jack rolls up into a ball to squeeze into one of the coveted dog beds, while *someone* looks on. Those look like Gracie ears. She is likely not happy that he is so comfortably looking like a fetus.

That's it. The whole summer in one post. Yay me.

Ok, your turn! What have you been up to??

Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-18T13:21:00.007-07:00

Happy Father's Day to my most wonderful Dad:

I have a sweet little collection of photos I took pictures of not long ago. They're not the greatest quality but it's all I got! I like to think of it as our own version of "awkward family photos."

I love how in this series, I try my hardest to look like a little angel. It's not hard compared to my brother, aka: ol' grumpy-pants. Not sure what his problem was on this day, but let's just say he needed some convincing to PRETEND to be happy!

I'm totally ON this day. No one else is anywhere near ready for this photo. Maybe my brother was upset about that shirt he was forced to wear? The rest of us are decked out to the nines and he gets to sport a t-shirt?? I call unfairness!!

He was definitely NOT one for hiding his emotions...

And then something happened and he was able to find his inner happy kid. So we nailed it! Way to go Team Z!!

From another series, where I had yet another awesome dress (thanks mom).

Here is the part where Dad said "try your best to look like mindless robotrons with no emotions." I think we nailed it.

Dad was always there to make sure we were safe and was there to protect us. Balancing precariously on desks with the family dog was apparently ok...

Too bad he wasn't there when I chose to be dragged on a skateboard by a bike down the alley. THAT didn't go as planned.

But he WAS there to coach our hockey teams, set up a backyard rink, flood the community rink regularly so all of us neighourhood kids could play, he'd tie up my skates (wish he could still do that!) and a million other things not related to hockey. I couldn't have asked for a better Dad!

Happy Father's Day Dad! Love you!! :)

Pups!

2011-06-12T21:17:00.006-07:00

And no, they're not mine. But they ARE looking for good homes. So if you are looking for a energetic husky to add to your home, let me know! They are super social, happy and hilarious puppies. Very cuddly too!

Here's #1: The Female:

AKA: she who flops on her belly any time human approaches, begging for a belly rub.

And happy pups they are! Here she comes roaring down the meadow to me. They wipe out 3/4 of the time when they get going too fast for their little legs, but they're tough little pups. And it is hilarious to watch... heehee.

A little video showing how brilliant she is!

#2: Blue-eyed male:

Here he is on the left, and the other male on the right. Momma is watching me!

#3: Brown-spotty boy:

Hanging off of momma

General all-around cuteness!

At least she's cute...

2011-05-15T23:15:00.003-07:00

Pooh Bear may not be gifted in the intellectual department, but at least she gives me lots to talk about on the blog...

This is what happens when a dog cookie jar is empty and left on the porch:

Um... help?

Even Woody thinks this is the stupidest thing he's seen. And that's saying a lot for a dog who once hogtied himself in his own chain.

Maybe if I run it'll come off?

I said "HELP!" Don't just take pictures and laugh!!

So I finally tried to help her as I thought she might run out of air in there soon, it was a tight fit! And it was not easy to pull the thing off her head I tell ya. But we worked together - teamwork! And voila!

FREE POOH BEAR!!!!

The Royal Wedding

2011-04-29T23:35:00.006-07:00

Pooh Bear made a quick trip to England yesterday. She's been talking about this damned wedding for MONTHS!!! I mean really, who would dare miss the excitement of the Royal Wedding??! (and one bazillion people who could potentially be ball throwers!??)

God I need to get a hobby.

The story of the muskrat and a Pooh Bear

2011-04-28T01:00:00.000-07:00

One lovely day, a loooong time ago... two days ago - I decided to take my wonderful canine friends for a nice, pleasant walk on one of our first sunny spring days. It was a day not unlike this day:

Except it was not so sunny. Or warm. But it's spring in the Yukon, what do you expect??

So I took out a few dogs - the energetic-psychotic Pooh Bear, the always-excited-about-everything-especially-poo Woody, calm-but-slightly-hesitant-wiggly-bum Esther and Mr.-keeps-his-distance-from-humans-mostly Loki.

It started out to be a lovely walk. We walked, they ran. I sat down on a log.

Then it got really quiet. The dogs disappeared up into a higher meadow with an unthawing small pond...

Never trust quiet dogs. And never EVER trust a quiet Pooh Bear. Keep that in mind should you meet one someday.

Anyways... I had a feeling something was up and so did this muskrat. Or maybe he/she didn't, who knows.

Err... who's out there?

(no it's not a Brontosaurus, let's just call my "art" slightly abstract)

As I ran up the hill to see what the dogs were up to, I saw them digging in the grass and out popped Pooh Bear's head WITH a muskrat in her mouth! If there is ONE thing that freakin' flips me out, it's my dogs with dead things. And this was no small dead thing. Oh it was dead. Good n' dead. But it wasn't a one-gulper like a mouse. And I don't think Pooh Bear quite knew what to do with it.

So because I instinctively started screaming (and keep in mind, I was like, 100ft away from her at the time), in her little pea-brain it made sense to came RUNNING TO ME! When in doubt, run to your human right??!

And it made even more sense in PB's brain to jump ON me!

I was not impressed seeing this little white blur screaming towards me with a flopping muskrat hanging out of her mouth. In fact, I panicked. I screamed. And I ran. And I screamed some more. And I ran some more. The more I screamed and faster I ran, the more excited PB got. I could tell she was just loving this - she got as excited as she does when I'm about to wind up during ball time. Like vibrating with excitement excited.

Then she'd stop to try and eat it, but would get distracted by me running away and screaming (yes, this went on FOREVER). It's really hard to outrun a speedy little PB, even with a dead rodent in her mouth. So I'd get ahead for a bit, then she'd stop, pick up the muskrat and come catch me. I seriously ran across that meadow, down the hill (screaming and waving my arms and yelling obscenities at her - none of which worked by the way), then across a bigger meadow... I couldn't lose PB & the muskrat.

After trying in vain to lose them, I had my most rational thought during this whole ordeal - I thought "screw the meadows, I'm running through the trees, maybe I can lose her!"

Yeah, soooo that didn't work.

Turns out I ran the 1.5km's back zig-zagging everywhere to try and lose her, which didn't work. By the time we got close to the homestead, I think PB started thinking "BALL" and dropped what remained of the muskrat to burn home ahead of me. Meanwhile I'm tweaking like a crack addict going through withdrawals from the excitement and heart palpitations. Might as well have ran a freakin' marathon.

Then Woody picked up the muskrat remains... probably 'cause he thought it was poo. And finished it off.

And then I had a big stiff drink and watched hockey playoffs.

The End.

Spring walks are fun and videos in which I realize I need to socialize with humans more

2011-04-21T21:46:00.010-07:00

Well, we're getting the warmest temperatures of spring so far, which means squishy poop and mud and water everywhere. The dogs love it, my floors and dog beds, not so much!

Pooh Bear, however is oblivious to, well... pretty much everything. Except the damned ball.

Where's the ball? I know you have the ball. I can smell it. I *just* saw it. You MUST have it, you always have it! Even when I'm not sure you have it and you try to convince me otherwise, you usually have it! Throw it please, it's my reason for livvvvving!!!!

I call this "Sunlight on Loki in Scungy Pond"

Just when I thought no dog was capable of being more oblivious than PB, enter... Woody! He has brought a whole NEW dynamic to the yard and our walks. PB used to freely run like a tasmanian devil, grab the ball and come back to me. No problems. Well, hello Woody. As this picture illustrates, he loves to mess up the fetch game. Oh, he doesn't want the ball or anything, in fact, nobody (even Woody) knows what he wants. He just flails around like a 3-month old puppy and annoys the hell out of PB (and all of us) when she's doing what she loves. More than one time she's almost ripped his head off for attempting to PLAY (GASP!!!) with her during fetch time. Has he learned anything from PB's tough love? Um, not even close.

Let's take a look at the goofball in action. And yes, I'm totally winding him up by screeching his name in a high-pitched voice repeatedly!

I call this the "Woody triple nose bomb" - at the end of the video, he does three quick nose bombs into the camera and was nice enough to leave his snot on the lens on the last one. Thanks buddy! He's so thoughtful.

Esther prefers to do her own thing. Like go in the cabin and sleep on the dog bed. But if I must force her to go for a walk... she will. Maybe.

This is what I get from the Pooh-Bear-Ball-Monster I've created when we go for walks. She is completely obsessed with the ball and will not venture 2ft away from me because she knows I have it.

What? You don't believe me that it's annoying? Watch this video and tell me what you think. Imagine trying to go for a nice, peaceful, QUIET walk with a few dogs and you are constantly tripping over this thing. If she doesn't get her way, her tactic is to 1)screech; 2) spin in circles 3) and bark. I have to try that sometime. Like when the bank refuses to give me some more money? Spin in circles and screech! They might just give in to shut me up like I do to PB!

I realize I have quite the short attention span as the horse poo easily distracts me at the end of the video. That or I'm easily entertained. What can I say, upon waking up this morning, I had a pillow fight with 2 of the dogs. I totally won. Sure, they may say "hey, we have no opposable thumbs, not fair!" to which I say that's no excuse. Suck it up princesses!!!

Ahhh, this is the life.

Dogs in need of homes

2011-04-18T23:45:00.003-07:00

Pass it on!! There are some sled dogs in Hinton, Alberta who need to find homes. Their owners have health problems and had 15 dogs to place. Many have been placed (yay!), but there are still a few who need homes - check them out here if you know of someone, or would like to make a homeless husky very happy!! Some are "special needs" - so be sure to contact the folks placing them to find out all about them. Before I do!!!! :)

Check them out HERE!

And you can find the group on Facebook under "H.E.A.R.T - Husky Emergency Adoption, Rescue and Transport."

Woody says "C'mon, help some fellow huskies out!!" Plleeeeease!!! Plus "want to touch my nose? " and "how about I stick my tongue in your mouth? Don't worry about alllll the poo I eat, it's organic!! Kisses!!"

The Dogs!

2011-04-17T23:07:00.000-07:00

Yep, we're fully into spring, the snow is melting (not fast enough dammit!), the poop is mushy, some still half-frozen(you all expected a poo update right?) but we can still zoom around on the skidoo! It makes for great after-work exercise for the dogs, not so much me. But now the roads are dry, so biking is in full swing!! I couldn't walk out in that slushy mess very easily, so the skidoo does the job. The dogs chase me and keep up and hopefully the porcupines (knock on wood) have moved faaar farrrrrrr away!!!!!

And a mere few days before we headed off on our Anchorage trip, Dave, Heather and I finally got out for a group skijor on the river. The conditions were great, only a teeny bit of overflow and some ice, but pretty good otherwise. This is the best time of year for running with the dogs - it's warm, light out FOREVER and all around fantastic.

Dave preps the crew

Going down the EVIL Gorge - the place I've repeatedly come careening down 100miles/hr unable to slow down, ran over dogs, flew into the bushes and much more I've tried to bury in the deep recesses of my brain. I tried to dig that stupid spot wider in the summer and it kind of worked, but then my efforts were quashed by the spirit of the Gorge that I'm sure made me fall off the 4-wheeler and burn the crap out of my ankle. So I have nothing good to say about that spot. Heather was smart not to stand up and give in to the whim of the Gorge.

But I digress!

Heather hangs on and does the life-saving extreme snowplow!

Jack looks back as we wait for the other guys. Look how non-excitable they are here! I love it! No being dragged on my butt anymore. Now I just have to teach Pooh Bear! this trick!

Now I have Sadie (of Dave/Heather land) but she is hidden by giganto-Harris. Dave harnesses up gangly Santa's Little Helper-like dog, Lucky!

Look at the lovely trails! Two days later I went down and didn't get further than .5km, it was already all overflow! Whew. We just made it. No more fun river runs till next winter... :(

And here's a wee video of Dave going through overflow. I tried to get Heather too, but we can blame SADIE for lunging forward and almost knocking me off my feet. Ah well, at least she's enthusiastic!

Spring!

2011-04-11T22:39:00.001-07:00

Long time, no postings blog friends! What can I say, it's been a crazy busy winter, and now SPRING is here!!! I've been too busy doing backflips about spring to blog. The melting snow, the thawing poopsicles, the mud, DRY roads and trails for biking, the end of hockey season (sort of) all mean spring is here!

Some of you may have heard I've become hockey-obsessed this winter. After not playing the game regularly (other than some pond hockey here and there), for like, 20yrs (or more?), I joined the Whitehorse Women's Hockey League. The league is taking off and has over 50 players and went up to 5 teams this year. There are all skill levels in the league and everyone is welcome. It's a blast! If you are local and are thinking of joining, all I can say is DO IT!!!! Best. Time. Ever. There's jamborees, tournaments and parties and totally awesome women.

The league has opened so many doors lately - the most recent of which was two teams heading off to a women's tournament called Fools on Ice in Anchorage, Alaska! About 20 of us headed west to take on a new hockey adventure/challenge. We were excited in that we were the only Canadian teams going, so it ramped up the excitement - y'know, the ol' USA vs. Canada thing. We were there for our country dammit. And hockey is OUR sport. We had something to prove. Ok, no really - we were just there for some hockey, beer, entertainment and shopping! Costco, wheeee!!!!

Heading off to Anchorage!

We were a wee bit excited. My new little car - did I mention I have a new little car? It's a speedy little Subaru that I LOVE to drive. No more truck for me, which makes hauling plywood, dog food and fish a lot more complicated.

Our awesome Captain Vero arranged for team hats! We were "The Eh Team" - it took some of the Americans awhile to get it, but they eventually did. Some needed more help than others.

We figured, if we didn't kick some ass, at least we'd look good!!! And yes, those are bullet holes through the maple leafs!

And personalized, matching freakin jerseys!! Sponsored by Back Country Construction, thanks to them we looked awesome on the ice.

Mountainy goodness somewhere along the trip.

Winter-time Tok-Thai-Food-On-Wheels... erm... thanks but I'll pass!

Oh Alaska, you are just like the Yukon, where it's not unlikely to see an outhouse being towed somewhere.

Glacier. Somewhere outside of Anchorage. A tour guide, I am not.

There were many great things about this trip and this was one of them:

The big beautiful bathtub! I used it every day!!! And showered too. Wow, was I clean. In fact, I chose bathing over going out to party some nights... (aka: how to tell when you're getting old).

Virtual bartender... dangerous technology!

The hillbillies from the Yukon hit the massive, warehouse of a liquor store and discover the "virtual bartender"

Wandering through the mall, I think Heather is trying to claw at the bear. She is so menacing!

Some of the other teams say we were "intimidating" - really?!?! Do those snazzy matching uniforms and snarls scare you??? haha. (apologies to Heather for the butt end of my stick completely covering her face in this otherwise awesome photo!)

The team, ready to go for one of the games - we were ALWAYS ready!! We were super pumped up for all the games, thanks to our team cheerleader and Captain Vero!

We were in the "beginner" category and played against 3 other teams in our category. The 4th game was for the championship! Which we took home in a 2-0 win. It was a super exciting and fun game. As much as I bug them, the Alaskans were awesome and so nice and welcoming. They thanked us a million times for making the trip. And we definitely want to go back!

We were proud of our team, most of us had only started in the league this past September, and our league has done a lot to help - from camps and clinics, plus playing in a league with all skill levels really helps you improve your game. We're always playing against advanced players, so being in a game consisting of ALL beginners, was really fun and a huge confidence booster. We could deke all the way down the ice! Wow! Around multiple players!! We could shoot and score repeatedly! I learned I could play defense! And I kind of liked it when I could actually catch people! We had only one goal against us the whole tournament. Our goalie, Amy, got THREE shutouts! We couldn't ask for a better time.

CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD 2011!! (or, at least of the Beginner category at the Fools on Ice Women's Hockey Tournament!)

It was also our goalie, Amy's, birthday! So we had a bit of a celebration after winning the final game. What a totally awesome weekend all around.

Both teams were awesome at supporting each other. Here we are at one of the games (the 3rd I think?) for Yukon's other team, in the tough, Competitive category!

Yukon Team #2 - Gold Diggers, warming up.

Gold Diggers and on-bench support from our team - Natasha and Stephanie.

And they're off!

Sue in goal. They walloped the first team - 6-0 or something by the end of it. But after a VERY exciting championship game, the Gold Diggers ended up getting second in the tournament. Not too shabby for a team of our most advanced players who are *stuck* playing with players of lesser skill levels all year. We hold them back, haha! Playing with them actually really helps us, so thanks for taking one for the team guys. :)

Unfortunately the seating on this rink was almost non-existent so we had to line up on the 2nd floor watching from above. I had the "pleasure" of standing beside the father of one of the opposing players. He was nice before the game started, but man, once the game was on, it was all business. And his business was all about WINNING. He gloated and whoofed like an flippin' orangutan the whole game. I am not even kidding about those noises. They were ridiculous and annoyed me to my core. I had visions of turfing him over the ledge we were leaning on, but I really didn't want to interrupt the game... or go to American jail.

Vero was cold. And she kind of reminds me of Gollum from Lord of the Rings here. The rink was freezing, but the saving grace was the "Blue Line Pub" up above, overlooking both rinks. We need one of those in our rinks here.

What happens when four women playing hockey share one hotel room? Lots of stanky gear! Thank goodness for windows.

You gotta dry sweaty clothes wherever you can!

Ever try a "laser wash"??? We haven't... until now! Eek!! Giddy with excitement. For a mere $8-14, you too can sit on your butt watching machines wash your beloved car.

For the ultimate experience:

Chicken & Waffles! Who can resist? I can. My first visit to Ihop. Eh, it was ok. We were curious about these "grits" things too... they seemed to be everywhere.

The winners at a much deserved DEEELISH post-tournament meal! I look drunk, but I'm not. I think that's contentment and sadness that the tournament is over. That is, until... next year!!! :)

11 dog free run!

2011-02-20T18:09:00.005-08:00

Lately the whole pack has been spending a LOT of time together, pretty much inside a lot during the cold nights, and they've been mixing together surprisingly well. So I decided to mix it up and take EVERYONE on a free run. Taking everyone out means we can go longer and further since I don't have to run 2 packs.

The energy that came with letting 11 dogs run free together for the first time was insane! Those at the front of the pack just ran and ran and ran... I had a hard time keeping an eye on them, let alone keeping up with them. Kuna even did the whole 5-mile run with us, loping on the way back! Which is awesome for a 90lb 13-yr old!

Here we are getting ready... some of them are already heading down the trail. Loki wasn't sure what to make of it - it's new! And eek! Anything new is freaky!!! But he settled and within minutes was chasing everyone.

It was such a sunny, beautiful day out! The days are getting longer, we've got light until after 6pm now, which is freakin' AWESOME!!!!

And I realized it is pretty much IMPOSSIBLE to take a picture of 11 free-running dogs. They were never in one spot at the same time, some were ahead, some were behind, some were taking shortcuts through the trees, it was madness! And Esther is freaked out by the skidoo so she never comes near it. She either runs wayyyy up ahead or behind me, eyeing me and the skidoo up suspiciously the whole time.

Here's a whack of them chasing on the way back. It's a miracle that I can take my former "goons" (Gracie/George/Lucy) out with THREE other females! It only took them 11 yrs to tolerate other females. Oh well, better late than never!!

I love having the river as our own private highway!!

This is at the turnaround where I tried to take a bit of a break but they were too wired to stop long. Missing dogs in this picture are Kuna, Lucy and Woody. Kuna is often behind us, Woody and Lucy were scoping things out in the trees.

And I managed to get a video of some the free-runners behind me on the way back. Even got myself in it, not bad for driving the skidoo at the same time eh?!? :)

Coldest Canadian Contest

2011-02-15T15:32:00.000-08:00

Here's the vid, follow the link at the end to VOTE!!!

The Coldest Canadian Contest!

2011-02-14T13:44:00.001-08:00

Those of you who are regular readers here know about the cold up here, how I've put up with the cold living in shanty little cabins, mice in my roof, living briefly in a damned WALL TENT, and now, thankfully my toasty warm cabin keeps me warm INDOORS. :)

That said, I'm outside a lot. I haul water. For me and 11 dogs. I pee outside. I want a break from it!

With this new contest called "The Coldest Canadian" you can help send me to New Zealand by voting every day and commenting as well!! Click HERE to go to my video and vote! Should I become the chosen one, you can bet I'll blog all about it, perhaps even find a few dogs to bikejor with over in sunny New Zealand! :)

THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whitehorse shines for Hockey Day in Canada!

2011-02-13T21:12:00.006-08:00

Wow what a weekend!!! In case you haven't heard, Whitehorse was hosting SCOTIABANK Hockey Day in Canada! From concerts with Dave Bidini, Kim Barlow, Sara Harmer (and more!) to meeting and PLAYING HOCKEY with Lanny McDonald, Trevor Linden, Danielle Goyette (and more!), to watching the HNIC broadcast from behind Ron McLean & Don Cherry's desk, it was a day that can't be beaten! Here's a few pics and video till I get the rest sorted out!

There was a free women's clinic which had about 50 players - stations where hockey pros and the NHL'ers and Women's Olympic Team members worked on some skills with us. At the end we had a HUGE scrimmage. It was awesome. Lanny was in goal. How freakin' cool. Trevor Linden was teaching me some skating drills. I got a smack on the shin pad and a "great job" from him, haha! I don't normally get "starstruck" but for hockey "stars" I can make an exception.

Heather and Vero pose purposely in front of Trevor "all the ladies love him" Linden!

Ex NHL'er Brad May was at the shooting station and gave me some slapshot tips. Twice as long as most people got with him - I was sneaky and skipped Lanny's station to get more um, "tips" from Brad. I'm not gonna lie, he was dreamy. Plus I want to kill it with the slapshot one day!!! Sorry Lanny.

The Governor General was on the ice with us too! How cool. Don't worry, they made sure he had a helmet. He can skate too!

The giganto scrimmage game! Heather is right in the thick of things.

A bit of video of that:

Then it was the WHL game and the eagerly anticipated arrival of Don Cherry. My god, this guy is ridiculously popular! The game was between Kamloops and Vancouver. These young guys are so fast and holy crap do they have energy!!!

Heather and I chase down Lanny!

What a day!!!

Skijoring with a friend day!

2011-02-01T17:13:00.000-08:00

Heather came out with a couple of dogs to give skijoring a try on the river. The dogs get a nice warm up on a free-run to the river as we ride the skidoo. It's much easier than taking the hills on the way back, it's pretty much all uphill. Plus we avoid going down the steep, narrow unable-to-slow-down-on valley of death with dogs who don't WANT to slow down going downhill. Everyone is much happier as the humans make it to the river in one piece!

Heather, Lucky and Rico - not in that order.

Harris, Ivy and Jack. This is what they look like if you are have poor vision or forgot your contacts.

Heather started out with one dog. The river is SUPER windy, like a corner every 100ft or so, it's so much fun! You have to pay attention, because I also like to leave "obstacles" (for the humans) up - like low-hanging trees and branches on the ground, wicked corners around fallen trees, "jumps" over fallen branches, etc. Gotta keep your head up! I don't want to get bored out there. Heather mentioned she was falling on some corners, so I stood waiting around a particularly sharp one. Here's what happened:

Yes, I do believe she called me a "bastard" for catching it on video. hahahaha!! And I only like watching people fall because I tend to do it myself quite a bit.

I finally ~~coerced~~... ah, convinced Heather to hook up both her dogs. She was hesitant (rightly so, they're crazy little, fast, houndy, young things), but gave it a try anyways. What a sport! And she liked it. She was hooked. She'll never go back to one dog....mwhaahahaha.

Look at that pro! What a team.

Not only can I take photos, video, delete photos/video, all while skijoring, I can also take a pic of me in motion. Such talent, ha!

Those pesky low-hanging branches. That one, I noticed on the way back, had a sharp little twig poking out STRAIGHT DOWN!! Oops! That's known as a head impaler or a backpack grabber. It must go, as I like my friend's heads intact.

And one of the distractions you don't want the dogs to get excited about - squirrels in the trees!! I love how Jack and Harris' tails are all waggy with excitement!!! I mean, MY GOD IT'S A SQUIRREL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, and I'm not sure why I sound like a character from "Fargo" here, but it is what it is...

This isn't a wipeout, just a... rest break! :)

After skijoring, it was time for shooting practice! Notice my home-made "shooter tutor" - it's awesome. Heather is working on perfecting her soon-to-be-amazingly-intimidating slapshot! Watch out other teams!!!

Yes, we are addicted to skijoring, dogs and hockey. Fantastic combo on a beautiful day!!!

Whew, good to know.

2011-01-30T18:24:00.000-08:00

We Love Winter!

2011-01-28T22:47:00.002-08:00

A wee video to show everyone how much we love winter. For the record, we feel sorry for anyone who has to suffer living without SNOW!!!!! And ice! A frozen river is so much freakin' fun. :)

Wise words

2011-01-23T22:58:00.001-08:00

...from a wee little twerp! We had such a fun, WARM weekend in the snow!! Many pics, videos and stories to follow! Wheeeee!!!!!!!!!!

Hockey Day In Canada

2011-01-19T11:18:00.003-08:00

Mark this on your calendar Hockey fans - Hockey DAY in Canada comes to Whitehorse on Feb. 12. There's tons happening that day (and week) so keep your eyes peeled. And those outside of the territory, watch CBC to see Whitehorse exposed... to Don Cherry. haha.

The WHL game is sold out, but our favourite airline, Air North is having a contest to give away 2 tickets - Discover The Yukon Contest.

There will be shinny games downtown, concerts, NHL alumni and women hockey heros, family skates and clinics for all players at the Games Centre.

It can't get here soon enough though, locals seem to be hitting the "is winter OVER YET?!?! doldrums. February brings so much fun and activities and the LIGHT starts to come back in a noticeable way which means spring is just around the corner - I can't wait! I don't need spring though, I just LOVE the extra daylight. The warmth helps too and March/April are my favourite times for dog sports.

Feb. will bring: Rendezvous, Yukon Quest, DPSAY race, TWO Women's hockey tournaments (YAYYY!!!!)... for a short month, there's a lot to do.

And hopefully we don't get to this point before the fun starts!

Even though mentally, some of us are starting to feel that way.

But not... POOH BEAR!!!! Who says you can't have a frozen game of fetch at 40 below?!?!

This also marks the first time Woody stole the ball - and brought it back! He's pretty good at stealing it, but this day he was nice enough to return it - to PB's delight!

Spot the Loki!

2011-01-18T00:16:00.005-08:00

Loki pulls his best ET impression amongst the CLEAN laundry I was attempting to put away.

If she can't see me, she can't kick me off... if she can't see me, she can't kick me off...

He is obsessed with the couch! Not even a mountain of laundry will stop him from accomplishing his lifelong dream of laying on the couch every possible minute that he can.

The cold weather does weird things to my dogs.

Now he knows he's spotted so he tries to come up with something quick to save his spot on the beloved couch.

How about you join me instead of putting this cozy, clean laundry away?? :)

Ok, twist my arm, let's sit amongst the laundry and reminisce about how warm it used to be in July....

And yes, there is a quilt on my wall - blocking the DRAFT from the freakin' window. Hello 40 below, so splendid to see/feel you again.

Poop Post #1 of 2011: Crapping machines

2011-01-10T19:56:00.009-08:00

And for once, I'm not talking about the dogs! Or myself...

Either way I seem to be talking or thinking a lot about poop lately. Weird. Did you know that Woody and PB are poo-eating machines?? My poo, your poo, horse poo, dog poo, bear poo, coyote poo, baby poo, elk poo (THE BEST, or so they say) they want it all. Ok, admittedly, they haven't tried my poo or YOUR poo, but they would be more than happy to they tell me!! (*wink wink nudge nudge*)

And then there's the rest of the dogs who just LOVE LOVE LOVE frozen horse poo!! Many a time have they come running after I've called them with a mouthful of frozen horse turds. Even better is when they return from those 3am "potty" trips outside (which are really just a cover for Operation: There's horse poo out there calling our names and we must have it NOW!), bringing a lovely almost-melting, slobbery chunk of poo into the cabin.

Ooh, and then when the half-melted poo freezes on their fuzzy faces - totally awesome, especially when they come in close to your face to kiss you! *gag*

The poo production team.

Speaking of poo, I'm in the process of deciding what kind of poop retention system (PRS) to put in here. That's cabin-I've-been-living-so-long-without-a-toilet-I-don't-even-know-what-it's-called-anymore lingo. First I was thinking of septic, but it's so freakin' expensive, I decided to seek a cheaper alternative. And going more eco-friendly is definitely a bonus. Less water usage, recycling waste, blah, blah, blah - it couldn't hurt to find a less expensive, less electricity-using system... could it?

Then I thought of the composting toilet - it SEEMS like a brilliant idea and the awesome videos of your poo magically turning into beautiful dirt and the toilet remaining a lovely white, pristine environment with no smell... almost sold me. Until I talked to people who have them, or browsed some websites and reviews of people who have them. It was Susan's comment to me that originally sealed the deal for me to avoid the composting toilet at all costs. She said something to me that stuck in my head... something to the effect of: "I've been up to my armpits in feces so many times trying to fix the thing, it doesn't even faze me anymore" - GAH!!! Thanks Susan, I never want to get to the point where having feces up to my armpits is a normal thing.

Looks shwanky and pretty but it's really just full o' poo.

So then there's the sawdust toilet - which sounds ok, but it's really just a bucket with a box around it. Like an indoor outhouse really. In theory. But it's simple and you do the hard work (removing said poo to compost pile) instead of relying on the quasi-technology of the system itself. I need to do more research on what people really think. But now you're hauling poo. I could have a massive poo composting pile, but Oh. My. God. If Pooh Bear and Woody got loose into that... I could just imagine coming home to two brown dogs with big *poo-eating grins on their faces. Pun totally intended.

One does have to question how the whole composting system works in, oh, the WINTER - which is like forever up here. But I found a fantastic quote from an Alaskan about using his "lovable loo" for over a year:

"When the 6-gal bucket gets 3/4 full we put it outside for an hour or so to freeze up a little so it's easier to carry out to our compost heap through the snow. Then just tip the bucket up and the poopsicle just slides out."

Poopsicle! Fan-freakin'-tastic. I've often referred to the frozen dog poo as 'poopsicles' but this puts a whole new spin on it. This would be one gigantic perfectly cylindrical poopsicle! Who would wish for anything more from their poo??

Pretty scenery & poop machines.

So I'm at the "ah, screw it, I'll stick to the outhouse" stage again. Anyhoo, I guess I just wanted to talk about poo tonight! Thanks for letting me "get it out of my system"!!! Oh I know exactly what you're thinking mom - "Oh goodness, Stacie is really losing it, a whole post about POO!?! You really needs to get out and socialize with humans more often!" - yes, it's true, but sometimes I would just rather hang out with poo-eating dogs, is that so wrong?!?! :-)

*Word edited so this blog may retain it's PG rating.

2011!

2011-01-09T22:30:00.001-08:00

Pooh Bear and Esther had quite the New Years! Recovery time...

Hope your New Year is off to a great start! :)

Rowdie dogs don't let the freezing cold temps get them down!

2010-12-05T14:24:00.003-08:00

Here's another little video - Harris, Ivy and Jack playfighting on a chilly -30C day! Well, more like Harris & Jack playfighting, and Ivy trying to join in. Check out Harris at the 9-second mark who is just minding his own business, not bothering anyone when his loving brother JACK comes out of nowhere and attacks his head. Kind of underhanded, but hey, that's doggie siblings for you. :)

Record snowfall!

2010-12-03T22:16:00.005-08:00

Wow what a November!!! Record snowfall and fairly mild temps up until the last few days. We received about 70% of our annual snowfall by the end of Nov, crazy!!!

Home sweet home on a -30C day!

Jack

Harris, Ivy and Jack playfighting. They love the big snow hills they think were created just for them! Yes, I pay lots of money to have my driveway plowed (twice already!) just so you guys can play on mountains of snow!

Harris and Jack, these two kill me. They are sooooo much fun. We were frolicking in the driveway 'cause it was too cold to go anywhere further. We are wimpy these days, yes it's true.

Lucy brings a little bit of snow inside, better than mud I suppose. I can gauge the temperature in the cabin by how fast/slow the snow on her head melts. Then I adjust the wood stove accordingly. It's dogyard science at it's best!

Kuna - 12yrs old yet still loving the little stuffed husky and carrying it everywhere!

The Pooh Bear! and Esther bed - behind the wood stove, awesome. They all race to it when they come inside - the fastest, most determined dog prevails! Usually Esther. She LOOOOOVES that bed and will kill herself getting to it first.

It's Woody!! Woody came from another yard as he wasn't the most serious sled dog out there... so what better place to fit in? He was seriusly meant to be a house dog, he knew exactly how to act in the cabin from day 1. Sure, he's stolen butter off the counter(a couple times), dove into the dog food buckets a few times, tried to eat my dinner off my lap... but he's learning! He hasn't tried to pee inside once AND he even lets me know when he needs to go outside.

Woody has fit in here like a glove, right from the minute he stepped his paws out of the truck. It's amazing how well he fits in with the PB pack. They didn't even bat an eye at the new attention-seeker in their yard and in the cabin. In fact, because he is a great escape artist, he fits in with everyone. The other pack had no choice but to adjust to the Woodster because he escapes on weekends if he's not tied up and ends up inside or even in the other pen. Weirdo!

Here is Woody and PB! They are so alike, it's kind of scary. Neither can get enough attention! This is how it goes when these two are in together - I now have TWO constant seekers-of-attention! But look how mellow they are! It was -31C outside this night, so they were pretty content inside. I love how neither minds the other one in his/her face! :)

Women's hockey jamboree

2010-11-16T20:48:00.011-08:00

Hockey has been a freakin' blast!! Don't worry I still have the dogs and they still get loads of attention, and there will be a dog update soon. We have had minimal snow... until yesterday! It came down like crazy for over 24 hrs. Can't wait to get back on the river with my beloved maniacs. Pooh Bear! is not happy that ball season is winding down (the snow makes it difficult to fetch!) but she has sharpened her skills in finding loose balls. The dog who often seems to have no brain will go zooming around the meadow and sniffing on the "Go find the ball!" command. Genuis! (or rather: p/t genius)

So I wanted to give an update on the Whitehorse Women's Hockey Jamboree - what a great time it was. So much hockey in 2 days, it was crazy non-stop hockey action. It was pretty wild also, to play against your own teammates (from the regular league) and having your opponents on your own team for the weekend. It IS a great way to get to know the other players (and their playing styles... mwahhahaha) for future reference. Plus it's so awesome to be with a bunch of people who are as obsessed with hockey as you are!

This tournament got me up at 6am to hit the rink to timekeep for the first game by 8am! On a Saturday! Only true love (or work) will do that. Here's what we were all fighting for:

The coveted trophy!

Action from the stands, thanks Sue! We were missing our awesome goalie so had to use the "shooter tutor" - not nearly as fun as whacking pucks at a goalie! :)

I like how no one took this whole tournament *too* seriously. Fun was the #1 goal!

Our team in action in the final game (in black).

Heather and I getting all hepped up on Red Bull before game #5! We had some reservations about playing 4+ games in 2 days but adrenalin and excitement (and red bull) goes a long way!

Crazy teammates!

Stanky locker room! No wait, women don't stink. I forgot. (yeah... tell that to my nostrils after 3 sweaty games in the same hockey equipment...LOL)

Here's Sue and Heather rocking out to "Sweet Home Alabama" before the final game.

I thought I was taking a photo but didn't realize I was taping... common occurrence.

My team! Totally awesome bunch o' ladies!

We managed to go undefeated for the whole tournament so.... we won! The teams also sang O Canada for the last game. What a proud moment... *sniff*

And yes, that is a combination of French and English you're hearing. Sorry for the first two lines, I quickly stopped signing after I realized this was probably going on FB/Youtube/etc and I didn't want to make anyone's ears bleed so I stopped.

The game was a close one, 3-2 and I even managed to score a goal! I'm not sure how and I was on my face at the time but I'll take it. The funniest part was when my teammate had to tell me we scored and I said "awesome! Who scored??"" and she said "You did!!" LOL

Here's a couple of fantastic photos from the Whitehorse Star - on the upper left is our little superstar, Chantele with the puck and the right is during goal #2 and that #13... me on the bottom. Oh yeah!

Celebrating post-game with the beer-skate!

Team Chaos wins the tournament! Woohoo!

That's the hockey news, and OH! I have one more little bit of news...

Meet...

Woody!!!!!

More on him later... :)

Remember...

2010-11-11T10:55:00.005-08:00

A big shout out and THANKS to all of those who have sacrificed (and those who continue to sacrifice to this day) so much to make this country fan-freakin-tastic.

I came across a series of posters from the Glenbow Museum in Calgary that are poignant and thought-provoking.

Loki also shouts out thanks!(internally, really!)

He's just happy to rest on the couch and not have a care in the world! Now is that the face of contentment or what?? :)

And then there's this crazy maniac. HAPPPY HAPPY HAPPY 24/7!

"Thanks for fighting to give me the freedom to be the HAPPIEST DOG EVER and allowing me to run in the bush and sit on the couch all night and most importantly - play fetch alllll day every day... now if only Stacie would agree to that, life would be PERFECT!! Wheeee!" :)

Women's hockey!

2010-11-07T14:40:00.004-08:00

Still obsessed with this hockey thing, because it's SOOOO damned fun! Being the dork I am, I took photos during our very first game a few weeks ago:

We're White team, playing against Red. It's so blurry because I was literally shaking with excitement/adrenalin/etc. Heather and I have been wanting to play hockey for so long, we're finally doing it and a wee bit excited about it.

It felt a bit chaotic as we were all thrown together and had mostly not played for awhile or even together at all. The funniest part was all the offsides both teams were getting at the beginning of the season. And I thought we might be in trouble when one of the players, on the bench turned to me during the first game and asked "what's offside again?" And I had to think about it for a second to explain! So we're "practicing" as a team on the fly. But so is everyone, so it's all good!

Luckily, it only took a couple games, and the offside issue was resolved. Yay team! And everyone seems to be having an absolute blast, which is really all that matters! Plus, who needs to go to the gym when you're playing 1.5hrs of hockey a couple nights/week? It's the best workout ever that doesn't even feel like a "workout"!

Heather peaces out on the bench. She look excited to you??

For those locals - next weekend there is a Women's Hockey Jamboree at the Takhini arena! There are 5 teams and we will be playing a minimum of 4 games. How I'm going to pull that off after only playing two games so far is beyond me. The games are freakin' exhausting!!! But it's going to be fun and I will ride the fun high for the weekend. So if you want to see some awesome, exciting hockey, c'mon out! Even though there is a varitey of skill levels, the games have been pretty fast-paced and exciting. Some so close, they've resulted in the ever-exciting and tense shoot out!

There is also a banquet on Saturday night where there will be food n' dancing and all that good stuff. Providing I can walk after multiple games that day!

So remember:

!!!!!!

(last pic borrowed from this awesome blog)

More snow, what is this, the Yukon or something??!

2010-10-12T23:17:00.008-07:00

Ok, so if this is a sign of things to come, we are going to have a CRAZY winter with loads of snow. It is puking down right now and if the temps stay cool, it'll stick. Eek! I still have summer work to do, but I might just have to give up on those fence posts, dammit.

Even though it's kind of early and the driving will suck, I can't help but get uber-excited about snow.

Kuna's back. It's light and fluffy and wet!! And yes, that is a bookshelf on my porch in case you were wondering.

George the hooligan who keeps escaping from the pen, only to sit against the GATE on the other side of the pen!!??

Then there's Ripper. Ripper's voracious appetite which is along the lines of "It-doesn't-matter-if-it's-edible, eat-it-anyways!!" has landed him for an overnighter at the local clinic. He'd been pretty much off food for a few days, yet he still seemed like he might be able to shake it on his own. Then he stopped drinking and dehydration set in... yadda yadda, fast forward to today and hello vet clinic first thing in the morning!

Luckily the vet clinic is AWESOME. They've been there, done that with this guy before (remember the great sock incident of 2006?), so no time was really wasted in getting in there and getting whatever it was this time out. Guess what it was this time? Cardboard!! People - don't let your dogs eat cardboard! Or are mine the only ones who do?? Apparently the cardboard rolled up and got lodged in his colon. Oh his poor colon!! Anyways, it sounds like the cardboard vaguely resembles a beer box (6-pack, bottles), so the ONLY culprit I can think of is neighbourhood hooligans, um... leaving beer boxes around my yard... yeah, that's it.

I love this - this is him the NIGHT I brought him home in 2006. This is after being really sick, in the clinic for like 4 days, he could barely move when I took him in, he was in bad shape. It was pretty freaky when you're used to a maniac who never stops moving.

...and 5 minutes after he got home, he started getting into crap again. Thanks for keeping me entertained and busy Ripper!

Back to winter:

Time to put the lawnchairs away?

Old Man Rupert squinting from all the FREAKIN' SNOW!!!!!!!! And, 'cause he's old. But that age thing hasn't passed into his brain yet, he thinks he can still motor around even though his back legs are getting weak. The little bugger still tries to run away from me!

Never a dull moment around here... :)

Playdate!

2010-10-09T23:21:00.001-07:00

Us dog people with no kids have doggie playdates! Regular readers here know about PB's obsession with all things ball-related. Apparently, Dave & Heather have a PB-equivalent in their yard, otherwise known as Lucky. She is also totally obsessed with the ball and very fast! Built like a greyhound and twice as tall as mini-PB, we thought it would be interesting to see them play fetch together. We wanted to see how they would compare with each other. Then of course, we had to pit them head-to-head in a "friendly" competition!

Lucky is eager! PB is never NOT eager!

Well, I think it was a pretty close competition... PB's enthusiasm is definitely hard to beat - she is psychotic about fetch time. And her stamina!! Holy cow, it goes on forever. She did have Lucky beat in that area, but she does this on a daily basis and WON'T STOP until I drag her off the fetching field. PLUS, she did have the home meadow advantage...

But one thing that PB lacks that Lucky has, is a brain. PB didn't really figure out too quickly that yes! Someone ELSE can throw the ball other than Stacie. Also, if PB figured out that getting a wee bit of a head start instead of bouncing around 2 inches from me, then spinning in circles as I throw(and 90% of the time she spins into me, thus throwing off both of our balances!)... she'd be much more challenging to her competitors.

Here she is, under Dave's feet. Figured out HE throws the ball too, but still needs to work on respecting the human's bubble.

In other news, I'm working hard on my bathroom!!

Walls are primed and I must say, I'm totally getting the hang of this drywall thing. I'm actually LOVING mudding and taping, what is wrong with me. Oh I know, I have no life.

Primer on! And no lumpy humps like in my first drywalling attempt upstairs. I even did my first corner here. If you think it's lumpy, it's NOT! I hadn't painted the corner with primer before this photo was taken. Just sayin' - not like I'm all sensitive about it or anything... :)

I freakin' love the smell of primer.

And my water tank finally arrived from Edmonton, yippee!!! It's a 250-gallon cylindrical bad-boy that I know I'm going to love.

Welcome to your new home! I hope you enjoy it here as much as we enjoy you! (my back especially!)

Snow and Skagway AND Skijoring in September!

2010-09-25T17:25:00.009-07:00

So, in case you haven't heard, I'm kind of into this hockey thing lately. This new obsession required me to travel to Skagway to pick up some gear I had delivered there for hockey. Heather and I joined the local women's hockey league and it starts soon! I needed my stuff ASPA so there was no delaying the trip even though the conditions were freakin' HORRID!

Women's hockey love via the Northern California Women's Hockey League.

Hello winter in September!

My meadow after the first snowfall of the season! September 24th, are you kidding? This is easily a month early!

Snowy driveway

Stephanie joined me on the trip and got nominated (by moi) to head out into blizzard-like conditions to get a picture of just how crappy the blizzard-like conditions were. Which we really didn't realize the magnitude of until she got out there!!! It was FREEZING!!!!!!!

The Sarah Palin STORE!!! Yes, it is a real store with real Sarah Palin-y goodness inside. If you're into that sort of thing, that is. Magnets, books, keychains, and anything else you can think of is probably in there.

"You betcha!" *wink*

Rough night for someone. I need that something similar for a meadow ornament.

More crap roads. This is heading home after it had snowed for oh, FIVE hours or so. Nasty!

Pure crap conditions on the way back! We didn't see any plows until we got to the Alaska Highway, crazy.

What happens after wayyyyy too long on icy, crazy roads and border crossings. One tends to go a little batty.

Bove Island. Steph got some great shots as she was avoiding watching the harrowing drive!

We made it home after a 10+hr trip, much longer than we expected but Skagway also has some awesome deals at this time of year so we hit a few stores, and had to buy some Alaskan brew to bring home! (as well as some "Flamin' Hots" for you-know-who!)

And... the snow didn't stop there! It kept coming all night so I had to pull out my skis from the shed and go for a skijor. This rarely happens in September! I am soooo not ready for winter, but will embrace it, haha.

Ivy atacking one of the boys (Jack or Harris, I have no idea who), she LOVES the heck outta them.

Wanna go skijoring?!? I harnessed up J&H and let Ivy run along loose.

This is the response I get when I ask who wants to go skijoring:

They're excited, yet they run off without me!!???? Freaks.

So I was able to nab my trusty sidekick and skijorer lover, Harris. He was pretty excited and willing to lead the way!

"Stopping already?!?!" This was deep, wet snow! It was like skijoring through slush.

Jack and Harris work hard as Ivy and George frolic up ahead. George, true to form, snuck out of the pen and joined us halfway through the run. I love it when they sneak up on me from behind!!

It's supposed to go up to +9C tomorrow so this all may be gone soon. It IS snowing again now though!!! Haha, I laugh, until I have to make my next journey into town...

It's official - SNOW!!!

2010-09-22T23:06:00.002-07:00

Sept. 22, wow. That's an early snowfall. Not that it'll stick, but welcome back WHITE STUFF!!! (ok, for those who are kicking and screaming as we head into WINTER, um...sorry??)

It's not a lot, but it's heeeeere!! Now it's: time to find the skis, time to buy straw for the dogs, time to wax said skis, time to find my GLOVES (immediately, 'cause damn it's cool in the mornings) and all my winter gear, time to move the summer stuff out to the shed, etc, etc, etc!!

Now if it could just get really cold and freeze the river, that'd be sweet! I'm not a big fan of these long transitions in between seasons... :)

And we're off!!! (thanks for bugging me to get the next post up Amanda-J!)

2010-09-19T23:56:00.000-07:00

So! When you were last here, we arrived in Inuvik. The Dempster Highway trip was a long one, but one that is completely unforgettable. It is a must see if you are in the "neighbourhood!" It was a huge relief to finally make it into Inuvik and have a few hours to sleep until we were supposed to hop on the plane. Our flight was due to leave around noon, and we had some shopping to do (Stephanie never quite thought we had enough food! haha!!) and we wanted to see a bit of Inuvik.

Inuvik is 2 degrees above the Arctic Circle so when they say "Land of the Midnight Sun" - this is the real deal. As darkness had set in Whitehorse around 10:30pm in mid-August, in Inuvik it was still twilight all night. SO awesome, but it really messes with you. On Herschel, which is even further north, our internal clocks were completely wacky. We often went to bed at 3am, had dinner at 10pm, went out beachcombing at midnight... heck, one time we even had breakfast at 5pm!! I have to say, it was pretty great to have zero schedule.

So Inuvik! This was my first time in this 3000 person town, and the weather was beautiful. Herschel Island flights are notorious for delays due to crazy weather so we were quite elated and optimistic to see sun. However, that meant nothing because the weather on the island could be completely different... so we just hoped for the best!

Starting off on the day planned to fly out - my trusty traveling companions were up wayyyy too early for my liking after we went to bed at 3:00am, but hey, excitement will do that to you (I still could have slept another hour you bastards!!)

Normal people have coffee with their bagel for breakfast. Heather prefers bagels and... Red Bull! And boy, does it work. It's a wonder drug I tell ya. I should switch from coffee one of these days... if only it didn't smell like floor cleaner...

We hit the streets of Inuvik

and observed the water/sewage Utilidor system in Inuvik. Permafrost is a bitch!

Roman Catholic Church, aka: the Igloo Church - apparently there are tours here, but we had shopping to do!

Gwich'in Road!

We headed to the Parks Office, where we were rendezvousing and would hear from the air charter company, Aklak Air on whether we would be heading out at noon or not. Turns out, the weather on Herschel was crap so we were to wait for a couple hours.

OMG we're headed right THERE!!! Eek! (needless to say we were very freakin' excited at this point!)

Some exciting artifacts from Herschel in the Parks office.

Soon after - the word came in: Get to the airport, like... NOW! We had to move so damned fast, Heather forgot her brand new totally unused thermos mug she bought in Carmacks(because she forgot her own, haha!). Doh!

We motored over to the airport (luckily it was only 10mins away or so) and loaded up our stuff onto the giant scale to be weighed for the flight. We were hoping our food n' booze wouldn't put us over the limit!

Nah, we didn't even come close to the 3,000lb limit!

Our crap = an even 400lbs! Who knew??

Waiting and watching as they haul our stuff to the plane - the wine and champagne bottles for our birthday celebrations were of utmost importance!

Off it goes! Luckily these guys have this moving thing down.

So I was looking at this sweet fancy plane, thinking "ooh! Is that our ride???"

Um, nope. This was our ride.

It's quite a lovely looking Twin Otter.

However, the interior could have used a bit of work, ha! And it certainly did not have your usual in-flight service , you'll see why momentarily... but we could have been lifted off on a freakin' balloon ride to the island and we would have rolled with it - "just get us there!!!"

It's not everyday you can say you were part of the cargo load! The pink insulation had the best seats. No room for flight attendants to walk the aisles with giganto carts in this plane.

Steph is tasked with writing names of passengers should the plane... y'know... go down or something.

Steph and Heather await for final boarding call...

And we get it!

Heather got to be co-pilot! Ok, or just our "communication expert" as she conversed with the pilots during the flight. She took on this job with much excitement! I think it shows in her facial expression... perhaps she's missing her calling in life??

Um... what a view. Thank god for windows.

Here is our take off. As you can tell by the audio, I'm quite fascinated by the fact that we got off the ground so quick!

Yes, this hillbilly hadn't been on a Twin Otter before... so what!! :)

The Mackenzie Delta - freakin' beautiful, amazing, raw nature, etc, etc! I was in awe for the whole flight.

First, a stop off at the tiny 600 person hamlet of Aklavik

Aklavik is also the home of the remains of the Mad Trapper.

Pilots Jim n' Tim, making room for another passenger and gear. As you will see in my future post on the flight home, these guys did something that makes them the best two pilots EVER. But you'll have to wait for that one! :)

We pick up one more person and away we go! Here, we say goodbye to the mainland as we see nothing but sea and blue sky ahead, woohoo!

Hello Beaufort Sea!!!

We were the silly tourists at one point when we squealed "ooh, belugas!!" then there was another, then another, the a whole bunch more... turns out belugas and whitecaps look alike from thousands of feet above the water! Well, to us boneheads anyways.

Then the evil fog rolled in and we dropped to almost sea level to get under that fog. Oh my goodness we were low. We all thought the island was coming up but.... nope. We were getting worried about whether we'd be able to land or not. I kept looking back to Heather to see what the pilots were talking about and if we'd land... she gave us the thumbs up, sorta. I didn't really know what was going on. She seemed to think we'd make it to the island though It all looked good. We hoped.

15-20mins of this and then...

More fog!

Ok, yep this ain't a float plane. Let's get to land now eh?? I mean, this was fun and all... but I'm pretty ready to land at this point. Seriously. Ok, it was fun. :)

Here is a great video Heather shot to show just how low we were:

Then.... Herschel Island!!!! Woo FREAKIN' HOO!!!!!

Heather got some great pics of the island - this is one as we're about to land. We're right over the runway here. The landing was nice and smooth and VERYshort! The "runway" is pretty much the beach that is also rapidly washing away into the ocean. But for now, we made it.

I did ask the pilot as we were unloading if that was common, flying that damned low... to which he replied "Only when necessary!" Awesome.

We step off the plane and say "yay!!! we made it, only a few hours late!" You can see the "locals" came to greet the plane. There is one family from Alaska who returns to Herschel in the summers, but until pretty recently spent time here year round. I tell ya, after being there for a mere few days, it WAS exciting when the planes came in. This is really "being away from it all" - no internet or tv, only satellite phones, it was a nice break!

Heather finds a buddy immediately after stepping off the plane! Blinker couldn't look more... enthused... haha. He didn't get too excited about much!

Even amazon.ca delivers to the far north!

The runway...

Might have been nice to read this "this beach is not a designated airstrip" sign BEFORE we landed... :)

And here's a video by Heather of the plane taking off into that fog we just came through. Heather didn't quite capture it, but as it rose into the fog, it was cool to see the plane disappear.

And so with that we finally arrived! We had to get moving quick - we had 3(but found out it was actually FOUR) birthdays to celebrate over the next few days, and island to explore, animals to see, history to learn about... gah! So much to do, so little time.

But, then something weird started to happen to us... something we would later refer to as the "Herschel Island High" kicked in. Here's a few pics that illustrate that:

More on that strange phenomenon next time...

Herschel Pt 2: Eagle Plains - Inuvik

2010-09-12T13:20:00.000-07:00

The second half of the Dempster was a bit of a blur - we were in a RUSH to make the ferries before they stopped running for the night. The Dempster highway has 2 river crossings, the Peel River and the Mackenzie. Ferries are there to take people and vehicles back and forth in the summer when the ice roads hibernate for the summer. They reappear in the winter though. ;)

We were rushing to make the LAST ferry which we knew was around midnight. If we caught the one ferry, but missed the second, we were kind of stuck in "no man's land" from midnight to 9:00am, when the ferries started running again. Four of us. In a truck. No thanks!! So we motored up the highway to make the ferry!! It was a close call, and we even had to cut short a viewing of a black wolf to keep moving.

Caribou!!! We spotted these guys on the trip back. The Porcupine Caribou herd is starting it's migration - there will soon be thousands of these guys all over the Dempster.

Yukon + Caribou

Gigantic culvert. Someone might find this interesting...

Big ol' bear butt

Grizzly #2

A not-very-exciting video of him grazing... that's just what they do!

The Dempster is definitely grizzly country!

Not too happy we're invading his space, but we really had no choice as he was crossing the hwy right in front of us!

Gave us a bit of a snarl. I'm just glad I'm in the truck!

Same guy.

The Arctic Circle - we made it this far, yay!

The Arctic Circle, land o' the midnight sun!

How freakin' cute is that little guy???

Great outhouse view - I love how they're "tied" together - the winds up here can be brutal.

NWT! (shot from the truck as we went speeding by, we had a ferry to catch!)

Midway

Midway Lake is the site of the annual Midway Lake music festival in August.

We made it to the first ferry! One more to go. It was about 11:15pm here. This crosses the Peel river.

The Peel river cable ferry

And we finally make it to the Mackenzie River ferry crossing!! Woohoo! This ferry crossing is at the confluence of the Mackenzie River and the Arctic Red River - the latter is a Canadian Heritage River.

The last ferry, yes! We made it. With 15 minutes to spare... whew! This is taken at 12:15am.

Lovely sky!!

Forcing Heather to pose in front of the ship's bathroom:

Peeking in

Why, yes, it's a ship's bathroom!!

She understands my weird obsession with bathrooms/outhouses. True friends don't question your quirkiness, they just accept it!

Inside the bathroom, not a lot of elbow room.

So what!? I'm fascinated by bathrooms. It had a huge heavy door AND a porthole, tell me that ain't totally cool.

Potty porthole

The cap'n of the ship, he was so cute and friendly! He gave us a play-by-play on his river navigation skills and how he was able to dock without some of his systems (um, can't remember his exact words here) working. What a pro!

The tiny community of Tsiigehtchic

The controls, one of which I accidentally bumped and hoped I didn't drop the anchor or hit "full throttle!"

Heather and Steph descend from the wheelhouse.

After this we were free and clear and on our way. We eventually made it to Inuvik at 2am or so! Woohoo!!

Next up: catching the plane to Herschel Island... do we make it on the planned flight or are we delayed, as flight's often are to this remote island...???!?

Goodbye... summer!!!!!

2010-09-06T22:48:00.006-07:00

Wow, you blink and it's over! Just like that. See ya summer, hello fall. So of course at this time of year there's a bazillion things to finish up, because you spent too much "down" time over the summer, taking advantage of those rare, nice sunny days when they occurred by kayaking or fishing or both or sitting and reading on the deck.... ahhh, summer! Nice to see ya, but with all this rain lately, I'm happy to see you go. At least at -20 there is no mud.

I'm working on my next Herschel trip post, but it isn't going too fast! Too much to do around the homestead to focus on thinking and posting about the trip. So instead here's a totally non-planned, spontaneous post. :)

The push is on to prep for winter and there's some exciting plans around these parts, the most exciting thing being - indoor plumbing!! Eek! Say it ain't so Stacie... after 10yrs of NO running water, plumbing, you are going to move into the modern world?? Heck yeah! I'm FINALLY sick of hauling water in buckets. Hm, not bad, 10yrs is a good go. But I'm done with that nonsense. I have a full plumbing post planned + the history of plumbing worldwide. Isn't that something everyone is interested in?!?!

In the meantime, I'm excited to say that a giganto(for me) water tank is on it's way, as is a huge soaker tub in my newly constructed bathroom. Sweet!

Things were actually moving along ok this summer, I was even working on widening the dog trail in the steep gully of doom when this happened:

Oh, just a wee burn. I somehow managed to burn my left leg on the RIGHT exhaust... don't even ask how. Let's just say stupid things happen to me that are completely NOT my fault.

The blister started forming within an hour. Ok, this ain't your regular burn. At this point it didn't hurt at all! I was a bit worried thinking I burned the nerves or something, even though the burn didn't seem that deep.

Oh, then the blister popped and it became super tender. I had it covered and at one point ran out of dressing at work an drove home. By the time I got home my sock was stuck to it, aghhh!!! Let's just say there was some screaming in the cabin that day.

Now I'm on day 8 or so and it still hurts and looks even more disgusting. I'm warning you now... it's pretty gross so scroll fast or just leave altogether if you're squeamish!!

Complete grossness... you've been warned!!! I know some of you freaks out there love this stuff, haha.

Ok, this is disgusting. And no, that's not pus, it's just the Polysporin I was told to put on it. And yes! I am dirty, but the wound was covered as I rolled around in the dirt working on plumbing today! Hey, it's been raining! :)

Gah, I think a visit to the Dr. is finally necessary. I need to get these feet in hockey skates in THREE weeks!!!

In other not-so-painful news:

I am reguarly being harassed by wildlife.

So I decide to give Pooh Bear! a talking to!! It's a stand-off.

She is damned stubborn. Even my stern looks do nothing. Darnit.

So remember when your mom told you not to play hockey in the house? I do...

(you can see PB! and D/H's dog, Lucky watching us. They wanted to chase the "puck" but were a little wary of the sticks and our screaming!! HAHA)

So I got my own house (cabin) with a crappy plywood floor and voila!! Cabin hockey!

Sturdy appliances are key. A fridge that can take a rubber hockey puck is a necessity (that's Dave working on his wrist shot, me getting out of the way because I HATE being in goal, and Heather is playing hockey photographer).

Hellooooo fall!!! :)

Herschel Part 1: Dempster Hwy - Eagle Plains

2010-08-27T18:00:00.000-07:00

So let's just start from the beginning! I going to document this trip in detail, having these kind of things documented is so great and I always look back on my old blog posts - they're actually quite informative. Like the time I couldn't remember how I wrenched my shoulder? Looking back I found it was one of the first damned skijoring races I was in. Overdid it and screwed myself up. Sweet! :)

The truck is getting full. This was before we even put in Heather's stuff!

Ever look back on your pictures and wonder WHY you continue to "smile" like an idiot? Yeah, me too.

I love how Heather got in that shot in the back! You can always count on her to be there to ham for the camera! Or... maybe she's concerned and screaming at me for driving and taking a photo...

Ruh-Roh. Bridge construction outside of Carmacks.

No worries, a small delay and we were soon on our way!

Why that's some mighty fine bridge construction I must say!

Yay, bridge work! (we were happy about absolutely EVERYTHING!!)

The drive up to the Dempster corner was pretty uneventful. Except for the time where I drove over fresh paint from the line-painting dudes. Whupps!! Sorry!

The love of Heather's life!! Mother-freakin-load of Red Bull.

A welcome sight on an epic journey! Um, which we were only 500km into...

Ok, we were all excited about Red Bull. How else to stay awake on the 18hr road trip??

I think this is when "stupid hour" (a phenomenon that arises from driving long distances) occurs for the first time!

"Is this enough Red Bull to get us to Eagle Plains?!?" (they say after leaving the Dempster corner)

Yay! We're officially on the Dempster!!

The Dempster Highway! The hwy is named after Inspector William John Duncan Dempster of the RCMP. In his younger days as a corporal he was known as ‘The Iron Man of the Trail’ for his legendary dogsled journeys from Dawson City to Fort McPherson. He routinely patrolled the 475-mile (670km) area in the winters by dogseld.

The highway roughly follows the route of Dempster’s trail. He learned it from the Gwitch'in First Nation People of the region, and they learned it from their ancestors. It was their main transportation link between the Yukon and Peel river systems. The Gwitch'in floated triangular rafts down these rivers, carrying goods to barter and trade with Loucheux First Nation, and later with white traders.

The highway didn’t look like your average road then, and it doesn’t now. That’s because it’s unique in highway design and construction. It sits on top of a gravel berm to insulate the permafrost in the soil underneath. The thickness of the gravel pad ranges from 1.2 metres up to 2.4 metres in some places (four feet to eight feet!!). Without the pad, the permafrost would melt and the road would sink into the ground.

Hm, maybe they should try that method on the Alaska hwy from Burwash - Beaver Creek!

The hwy was started in 1959 and eventually finished after a few delays in 1979.

It's really hard to take a crappy picture with this scenery - Tombstone Territorial Park

I want to live here.

The ever-informative interpretive panels are everywhere.

I want to live here too.

The new Tombstone Interpretive Centre.

Tombstone definitely ROCKS!! We are definitely all making plans next summer to head up there camping and hiking.

A topic near and dear to my heart... :)

What is BERINGIA!??? The Dempster passes through mostly what was Beringia - an ice-free area during the last glaciation. The southern 70km though follow a valley containing moraines that were fed by glaciers lodged in the high peaks of the Ogilvie Mountains. The next 35 km are the Blackstone uplands which were also home to side-valley glaciers.

This is the new Tombstone Interpretive Centre. It's beautiful!

Outhouse to the right and staff cabins further down. What a nice view to wake up to eh?

Dog teams and the Lost Patrol

Northern Ogilvie Mountains

Viewing & Research area

Wildlife sightings - very cool! I am glad we didn't run into the "porcupine(big one)" on Aug. 8. But then again, with no dogs on the trip, who cares!

If you ever head up here, there is no shortage of things to do in this area - lots of hikes and other interpretive programs - check it out!

Ogilvie River - arctic grayling, northern pike and dolly varden are common in this river.

The river is named after William Ogilvie - a prominent Canadian land surveyor.

The ever-observant Stephanie: "Look! Horsies!!"

Ok, I kid, I kid. She was actually our human spotting scope for the most part - picking caribou out on the hillside from miles away!

Look at the gigantic road!!! The road was actually great - it was dry which was a bonus.

Limestone outcrops are 400 million years old and were once on the bottom of a sea. Fossil corals are evident... look but don't touch!

Giganto road

Heather soon learns nothing is sacred and everything can be recorded, even "private" privy time!!

Ok, I stopped there. Let's just say keeping hydrated on the Dempster requires a few extra pit stops.

Towers of rock protrude from the slopes, these towers are known as "Tors" - and are the product of frost shattering.

Water seeps into joints and cracks in the bedrock, then freezes and expands, forcing the rock apart. Tors are only found in unglaciated terrain.

Tor art!

Elephant rock, as seen through my camera as seen through binoculars. Old eagle-eye Steph picked it out in the distance. A reminder of the furry beasts that use to roam this area.

Nasty slide/slumping area. According to our "tour guide" there are homes around here that were wiped out by slides.

The girls at the Ogilvie lookout. I would totally live here.

According to Environment Yukon's awesome Dempster Travelogue - this is the best panoramic view on the northern fringe of the Ogilvie Mountains. The valley continues eastward for 180km's

The views - amazing!!!! Heading toward Eagle Plain is a 200-km wide area of gently rolling hills, incised here and there by the tributaries of the Ogilvie and Eagle Rivers.

More beauty, eh!?!

The obligatory outhouse view. What? Not everyone takes these???

More silliness. We were happy to be EVERYWHERE!!! Any spot we stopped was so totally exciting thus proving that yes! We all need to get out more!

Woohoo! Eagle Plains hotel!!!!

Whew!

We're almost half way there!

For my gun-loving dad

2010-08-22T22:18:00.006-07:00

It's not his birthday, or Christmas, but boy oh boy has he been bugging me about getting out and shooting my gun. Insisting my gun skills are proficient is a must when you live in the boonies and the porcupines & squirrels may threaten to take over one day. It's what any good ol' redneck Albertan dad would do! So today was the day. Dave and Heather had an itching for some shootin' too, so we headed out to our "target range" to try out a few guns.

What did we learn today? Um... that we need more practice!

The arsenal: Dave's .402, Heather's .308, my .308, Dave's .22. My shoulder hurts from all of them except the .22 which I think is my new favourite gun because it does not hurt me.

Dave is a GREAT teacher. Just look how focused Heather is!

"This is a gun."

Dave with the .22. That thing was fun! And the best part - didn't blow out your eardrums with the noise.

Sniper move. Remember mom? When I was 16yrs old and wanted to be a sniper? You may not remember - it was a short-lived career aspiration, in between wanting to be a podiatrist and Chuck Norris. Ah, the good ol' days. What 16yr old girl dreams of anything less?

Sniper man meets grass.

Heather is almost camouflaged while sniper shooting. That board on the tree never knew what was coming. And when the bullets all zoomed past without touching it, it didn't know what was going by either! haha (I can say that because neither of us hit a thing shooting this way)

Guns. Beer. The woods = Perfect Sunday afternoon in the Yukon.

There goes Dave cocking his gun again! Show off!!!

Dave is doing this Fonzie "Ayyyy" thing and Heather is perfecting her gun-dancing routine. A one, a two... a one-two-three, kick the leg out and twirl your guns! Wheee!

Totally awesome redneck family portrait. This NEEDS to go on their living room wall.

Next time, hopefully we'll actually hit something other than beer cans 50ft away. But did we ever show those beer cans who was boss. They are totally not going to give us trouble anymore.

Herschel Island Birthday Trip

2010-08-18T18:23:00.008-07:00

Stephanie, Heather and I were LUCKY enough to make it up to Herschel Island, YT for our yearly birthday celebration! Because there's a bunch of us who have our birthdays together in mid-August, we always do some kind of biggish bday bash. But this trip popped up as the opportunity of a lifetime at the last minute AND just in time for the bday celebrations. Great timing.

And, what an amazing trip it was!!!

Amazing views along the Dempster highway. They never end.

Most people head south to warm climates but not us. No, we decided to head to the Arctic Ocean, where the annual summer temperature is 5-7C and the water is so cold, "swimming" in it in the summer is like a polar bear swim - run in, dunk, run out - FAST! And then hit the sauna. Woohoo! All I can say is that it was worth it. The history of the island goes back a loooong way, from the First Nations living on the land, the arrival of the whalers, the missionaries and the RCMP, this was a bustling little area. It's a really special place and I'm glad I got to visit. We also lucked out with some amazing weather and here are a few highlights until I can do a full trip report. I need to wade through some 1300 photos from the trip first...

Steph, me and Heather at the Ogilvie River lookout, on the Dempster Highway. This highway is notorious for trashing tires. We did ok on the way up, but had TWO flats at the same time on the way down. Yikes. But the views are worth every flat tire!

Somebody was cranky. He ran across the road ahead of us and gave us a snarl. Turns out that his (her?) stress may have been caused by a much BIGGER grizzly a bit further down the road.

We were heading to that tiny dot off the mainland! Our total distance from Whitehorse - Inuvik - Herschel and back was almost 3000km!

Flying out on the Twin Otter with awesome pilots Jim & Tim!

The Mackenzie Delta

Flying what seemed to be about 20ft above the Arctic Ocean, due to fog. We flew like this for about 15 minutes then landed on the tiny beach on Herschel.

Heather about ready to use my head as a ball on the beach! We were riding the "Herschel Island High" for days! I think this phenomenon was due to the salt water, the wind, the cold, or the spirits that surround the place, but we were giddy and goofy for our whole trip. Or... maybe we just need to get out more!

The view of the Beaufort Sea out our front "door" of the tent.

Richard in the ice house. Permafrost comes in handy for keeping your beer frosty cold in the "heat" of the summer!

Another best moment ever! Arctic fox pups hanging out at their den.

Ready for the day hike. In behind us is our fine living establishment.

Rest break near the end of our 6hr hike.

The hike was amazing, warm, slightly windy which was great because it kept the bugs away. We saw caribou and a whack of snowy owls. It was interesting and different to see owls sitting on the ground. But where else are they gonna go? No trees!

Birthday dinner! Freshly caught Arctic Char, rice, salad and champagne! Yum.

Being this far north in mid-August was great! As the sun is now setting in Whitehorse well before midnight, and we're experiencing true darkness again, Herschel Island was basking in daylight for most of the day/night. This was about 1am, we were beachcombing almost every night at this time for some reason. This was also taken into the sun so seems much darker than it actually was.

More later! :)

Dogyard celebration

2010-08-09T02:31:00.003-07:00

We recently made it out of the yard, after MONTHS of doggie lockdown, due to the tremendous amount of prickly little (and not-so-little) porcupines everywhere. The dogs were a bit pent up... I have to admit, I was too! Here's their reaction to my decision to get them out free running and having a bit more freedom.

The video is 4:26... but well worth the wait if you are on slower speed internet like most of my hillbilly friends (and me!). :)

Lucky # 47!

2010-08-03T21:31:00.002-07:00

Happy Anniversary to my parents!

47 freakin' years!! Wow! I wish you guys 47 more happy & healthy years!! (or, at least a bunch more of those). Love you both, see you soon! This xmas, my cabin! :)

Building a bathroom DIY-style

2010-08-01T11:56:00.000-07:00

So last week I decided I wanted a bathroom. I'm not really much of a "planner" so when an idea pops into my head, it usually comes out of nowhere and surprises even me. And taking on constructing a bathroom is no small task. But I've had the corner of my cabin (about 8x8) the designated "future bathroom" for 2yrs now. It's time to make that a reality!

As a result, I'm obsessed with my new bathroom now. I think it's the possibility of having RUNNING WATER after almost a decade of not having it. Running HOT water. Baths. Drinking water. Dog water. Washing up dishes water! Washing hands and soaking dog food without heating up water first. Showers. Yep, go big or go home. I want it all.

Even a toilet. Probably a composting toilet, but a toilet nonetheless!

Yep, it's all been a big dream... until now.

Here is the start of the indoor construction. I've never really built a wall before. I can say my lack of attention to detail really comes to the forefront for projects like this. I am forced to look at those little nitpicky details I hate... like planning and drawing and measuring... blah.

First wall. Is it just me, or does everyone looooove the smell of cut wood?!?!?! 2x4's how I love you.

Luckily the walls aren't *too* big - I can build and move them by myself. With a bit of help from my scuffed up floor as I scuff it up even more by dragging the walls to the bathroom.

Putting up the wall!

A necessary break. FYI - I love Sleeman's almost as much as my new bathroom. My birthday's coming up soon, so I'm just saying...

Ok, all this building, and working and sweating(I think I picked the hottest weekend of the summer for this fun, indoor project!), is tiring. Time for a break. Hey! It's been an hour.

Doggie play break! Gracie, Jack and Kuna happy to be free, but really want to be on the hunt for porcupines.

That's the dog water they're all diving into. Later on, Lucy was so hot, she put her front legs in and half-stood in it! Wish I had the camera to catch that, the three monsters are notorious for stepping in the water bowls to cool off. Drives me nuts as it dirties the water! Must be their 4 -inch thick coats AND layer of blubber that keeps them so hot.

Ok, get back to work!!!

Next up, putting up drywall on the outside of the wall.

Must be cut first! Drywall is easy to cut, just use a knife to slice on the outside of the drywall, then split. It snaps off pretty easily, but you have to cut the paper off the back first. It may seem obvious but when you have completely NO idea how to cut drywall or even which side goes on the outside, these things are important! (speaking as someone who was in that spot before I ever drywalled...)

Screw the drywall in... easier to do the bottom first when you're alone. Then the upper drywall can rest on the bottom drywall. It's simply genius. And saves your poor back. That said - keep plenty of Motrin on hand.

One side done!

George says "play time again?!?! C'mon you've been doing that wall allll day! I don't know why you just don't poop in the dog yard like we do."

This is where I "forgot" to make the door frame in this wall, see the top left. The door is going beside the wall at the end of the stairs. Whupps!

Ah, okay. Now I have the frame of the door. Only took redoing the wall, slightly.

The problem with not really planning ahead in the cabin building - the baseboard heater was too big to keep in this spot after the wall was put up.

So, I did have an idea - and I realize now more than ever that I must proceed with caution when having those. I thought I could simply move the wiring over, thus being able to move the heater over so it would fit. Well, this meant taking the whole thing apart, pulling the wiring out of the casing and out of the upstairs wall and moving it over. The problem - my upstairs wall was already finished...

I had trouble just pulling the wire, so I ended up ripping out a corner section of finished, painted wall!! *sigh*

Good thing I know how to drywall now. :)

The semi-finished wall, as seen from the kitchen!

Inside wall, as seen from the stairs.

I have no pics, but the inside is now drywalled as well (WITH a lovely pale-green moisture-resistant drywall, *gag*) and all is ready for plumbing! Water tank to follow soon. It's getting closer and I can barely contain my excitement! I will be more than happy to have big giant bonfire with all my water buckets one day after I stop hauling water in them. But I realize that is not too environmentally friendly - so I will just save them and use them for something useful. Perhaps for dog poop. It's always good to end a post with "dog poop" so I will finish there. Dog poop. :)

Frog Mountain Music Festival!

2010-07-25T21:16:00.002-07:00

Well, there was an exciting new festival nearby that Steph and I just had to go and check out. In case you haven't heard it was at the Circle D Ranch, west of Whitehorse and a mere hop, skip and a jump away from me. Or as comedian Mitch Hedberg says - "Hop, skip and a jump away? Well... that's not how I'm getting there. How about directions for someone who is... walking?"

It's about a 35 minute drive from me. :)

Anyways, Yukon festivals have been dwindling over the past few years, I have to admit I kind of miss all the weekends full of music, fine beverages and debauchery.
This was the most well thought out parking lot EVER. Look at those rows of cars, easy to get in, easy to get out. Simply awesome. The organizers thought of it everything. Those camping were parked in a different section.

And if you don't believe the photo - here's a video of Stripey Stephanie and the parking lot:

And THANKFULLY, after a lot of crap weather and rain and wind this summer, the day turned out pretty darned nice. Sun and a bit of wind, but that's ok - no rain! And holy crap did it ever get cold after the sun went behind some clouds. Everyone was walking around shivering then gathered at the campfires saying "um, this IS July right??"

Some of the musicians even commented on how cold they were on stage at night. Normally sweaty, hot stages had a bit of a Yukon chill. This place is definitely not for those who LOVE heat!

The camping area - huuuuuge field! We are definitely camping overnight next year. There didn't seem to be a ton of people, but still a great atmosphere the whole night.

MMmmmmm.... glorious meat! This home of the elk farm, so how could you not eat up some elk tastiness?

Food tent.

The music tent. What an awesome spot! This place was so roomy and open with 360 degree views of the Takhini River vally, the Ibex, a great place for a festival!

Brandon Isaak - the Whitehorse All Stars Band. The gospel tune rocked! I felt like I was in church.... but like a really cool, fun church.

Johnny Pogue and the Colleens. Good rolicking Irish-y Pogues-type tunes. Here's a taste of their tuneage:

Brand spanking NEW outhouses. Nothing gets me more excited than an outhouse. A NEW outhouse, even more so. This would have been a wonderful experience except for the novice outhouse-users who went before me kind of ruined the good outhouse juju. People! Learn to PEE IN THE HOLE!!!! Not around the hole and on the freakin' seat! I had to move on till I found a pee-less seat.

That's a pretty sweet meat tent behind you.

Stephanie looking at her photos and exclaiming "my, you look fantastic!" Or more like - "oh my god, we look ridiculous!"

Every good party has a bonfire ready to go!

It was getting a bit darker, much colder so we headed one of the two massive bonfires!

Starting to get dark out these days... this was around 11:30pm. The darkness is now setting in around here, it's always weird when it gets dark out again. It's the slow slide into the winter of darkness.... but it's too soon to talk about that! Right now, we'll enjoy what we have left of summer! :)

Fishing with the Big Johnson

2010-07-19T20:50:00.004-07:00

The gang headed out to Dezadeash Lake last weekend in an effort to hit a new lake with the fishing and kayaks and this time... a boat! In case you haven't heard of this lake, let's discuss:

According to Yukon Heritage:

Compared to other big lakes of the southern Yukon, Dezadeash is a large shallow bathtub averaging four metres deep. The surface temperature can climb to 18° Celsius and higher in summer.

Lake trout prefer water temperature that ranges between 8º and 12˚C and cannot survive in water warmer than 23.5º C. During hot summer days, Dezadeash lake trout find themselves under much more stress than their counterparts who swim the frigid depths of nearby Kathleen Lake where surface water is rarely warmer than 11°C.

Um... yeah. So let me say, visiting the lake in mid-July, it was definitely NOT warm. Not even "warm-ish!" However, if there's one thing I've learned and accepted in the Yukon, is that swimming outdoors in lakes (IN COMFORT) is a rare thing. So even though we had grand plans to go swimming when we got out there, hey the sun was out... by the time we got out on the water and the wind picked up, clouds appeared... and it got cold. I think Dave read the water temp at about 58F. Gah!

I started out on the kayak, but as the wind picked up and storm swelled...ok, not exactly a storm, but it was a bit windy. Along cam that big ol' boat with a motor, food, good friends, and most importantly - and cooler of beer!

Darryl and Amil pull up and it looks like I've hooked the boat with my fishing hook. It was calm here actually.

Looking back at the boat launch

Dave and Heather tire the dogs out. Even though there was a bear alert in the area, no tenting allowed - the bears stayed away. Thanks bears.

This was the life. Waiting for my fellow kayakers, basking in the sun, floating around.

View from the boat

The girls got skunked but Darryl(below) and Dave caught some fish. Lucky!

Darryl pulls up his monster. Annnd, then throws it back.

This is what happens when the girls get bored after catching NO FISH. He's kinda cute eh?

Aklak!

Keno was Ms. Mellow on the boat. Um yeah, we're on a boat. First time ever. So what. Must bury my head deeper into the bowels of the boat.

Keno: damned humans, always goofin' around! Geez, is it too much to ask for a NICE picture of us all??
Aklak: no kidding, please pass me the grey poupon.

Mountain biking hazards of the Yukon

2010-07-18T13:34:00.000-07:00

Heather and I headed out for a mtn biking adventure after work one night, gotta love all this daylight! With the stupid-crazy weather we've had - sun, rain, then sun... more rain! Cloud, wind, more rain, sun, etc. Crazy summer in the Yukon thus far.

There goes innocent little Heather down the trail...

who surprisingly out-of-nowhere flips me the bird! And people think she's so sweet and innocent...ha! Think again.

Me showing off my superior inner biking skills of an 8-yr old.

Sheer. Focus. And. Determination.

We didn't go too far, but Heather had a knack for finding the biggest hills in the neighbourhood. As much as I love road biking, mountain biking can't be beat. The lack of RV's and semis zooming by within inches of you immediately make this mtn biking stuff way more fun.

There is a down side though... trail hazards!

The tree lunges out of nowhere and drags Heather down to the trail. I barely managed to escape the carnage of the evil tree but Heather's bike and limbs were in my way. It's not easy to run over your friend, her bike AND a tree without wiping out yourself. You know, in case you were wondering.

She may be paralyzed but the photo op was too good to check on her first.

The one rare photo where she isn't laughing under that tree!

We did manage to survive though.

This is where I say "stop laughing! It won't look believable that way!!"

And you all thought we were bored around here in summer with less dog stuff on the go eh? Or maybe this is the sign of boredom? Perhaps its the sign pointing towards the therapy room?

Either way, gotta love friends who are game for all your stupid ideas. :)

Happy mid-July peeps!!

New website!

2010-07-16T00:11:00.004-07:00

Not mine though, I'm rather enjoying making sites for other people. Here's Dave & Heather's new-ish business - Bombproof Outdoor Gear. Check it out!

And if you have any sewing or gear needs - Dave is the man to talk to! He's made me sled bags, collars, winch covers, Pooh Bear straight-jackets, he can do it all! He does great work, he can sew sled bags and repair harnesses like there's no tomorrow. He can pull off any type of custom gear you dream up (ie: dog-containment systems - see above), he loves showing off his bags and has some cool merchandise.

His gear is guaranteed not to fail - a VERY IMPORTANT part of mushing and skijoring!

So don't hold out, give Dave a shout!
Need custom gear but don't want your bank account to drain? Talk to Dave and pick his brain!
Want some great custom gear? Go for Bombproof and never fear!

Ok, that was just lame.

Regardless of the lamest sales pitch in the history of advertising - Dave really does makes some awesome custom stuff!!

But really, I just want you to check out the site so we can up our visitor stats, ha!

(am I putting the SHAM-WOW guy to shame yet?)

We tried to get Dave at Bombproof to sew for our fantabulous company - SHAM-WOW but he turned us down. The nerve! Look at us now, who doesn't freakin' love SHAMWOW!?!?!?

Hate you sham-wow.

This'll wake you up

2010-07-07T13:07:00.009-07:00

I freakin' hate early morning visitors who don't call first.

God, there she is stumbling around her deck in her pajamas again... with the camera... always with the damned camera...usually we just watch and laugh from the bushes, hahaHA!

Yikes! What was that?!? Thought I heard something... whew! It was just a mouse. But damn! Being a prey species just SUCKS sometimes.

Yoo hooo....you totally can't see me behind this willow bush. Heeheehee....
-Elk with Attitude

When the excitement of the elk died down I decided to head out for a bike ride. The wind is relentless lately, and it's been colder than it should be at this time of year. But you gotta just suck it up sometimes and head out!!

Riding is when I do my best thinking too, I rode for about 22km before I realized "Crap! I have to ride back into that headwind!" I was cruising along, thinking about life, while scanning for rogue grizzlies or elk or ground squirrels or beavers to jump out and attack me. I literally solve the world's problems when I ride. Too bad I forget all the answers by the time my butt leaves the seat.

Ahhh, the open road.... the rutted road, the potholes, the long stretches of gravel... and chipseal how I love (hate) you!!!!

The over-the-shoulder-while-riding-shot. Disappointing... I can usually do much better than that.

Pretty hills, keeping my eye out for grizzlies who might come running down for a piece of tasty Stacie-candy. Where's my bear spray again?? Oh well at least I have my camera.

The annual trek of U-Hauls and RV's heading to (and from) Alaska.

It's quite green out there, with a few spots of snow on the mtns. Good to know winter is never far away....haha.

Beavers are working hard.

I know, let's put a dam right HERE near the culvert... maybe we can flood the highway, haha!

Forkin' Fun with Sled Dogs and Wasp Nests and Balls and Fun Police!

2010-07-05T20:39:00.000-07:00

Portrait Day: Harris

Portrait Day: Ivy

Lucy-cherry-picker-who-waits-wayyyy-out-in-the-field snags the ball. Shocker.

George tries to sneak in to steal the ball, Lucy ain't having none of it.

Please, can I rip her head off if she tries to steal my ball??

MMMmmmmm... ball.... love...

Gracie hovers

I know that eventually, that stupid big red ball will fall out of your mouth when you start to get careless with your silly rolling and chewing... and just when you least expect it, I WILL be there to snatch it. And then bury it so no one else can enjoy the pleasures of the big red ball...mwhahahahaha....
-Fun Police Sgt. Gracie

Wheeeeeee

Action shot! George leads the way but Jack has the ball! Gracie is just there to jump on his head but sometimes he's a little too fast for her.

Throw. Ball. Now! says Happy Jack

So this is my summer project, clearing out and organizing the shed/tent. It's a bit of a disaster and I made about 10 minutes of progess on it yesterday by hauling things out. That's when I lifted up a box with a... wasp nest in it!!! The box contained a few packages of plastic forks(ahem, for previous/future parties - one can never have too many plastic forks y'know), and all of a sudden I was swarmed by very unhappy & angry wasps. I proceeded to high-tail it out of the tent, and ran down the path to the cabin flailing my arms and throwing plastic fork packages at the wasps. While screaming my head off the whole time.

Harris, Ivy and Jack were looking at me like I was a lunatic. Actually, they ran away from me.

Now I have to go clean up the freakin' plastic forks littered all over the place. HAHA

What a forkin' mess.

Oh the fun wasn't over then!! Next up was playtime with the ball-obsessed duo, Esther and Pooh Bear!

Hey, what's this "sled dog" thing? Can I park here?

Esther and Ripper, trying to see who can look the most insane.

A rare moment when Ripper isn't ripping something to shreds that he's found.

Trying to get a photo of PB's face while holding the ball...

is next to impossible!!

Nice back of your head shot.

half a face

and the ever popular "dangling tongue"

Ooh! Almost!!! :)

And here is a good 6 second illustration of what it's like to be in Pooh Bear's world (I thought that was more than enough for you!)

If only we all could have that much energy all the time eh??

Meadow visitors

2010-07-03T18:06:00.005-07:00

Ok, so far this summer I've had countless visits from wild critters. Last week it was a mother grizzly and two (HUGE) cubs. Sorry, no photos, as I was too preoccupied with making sure they moved through here REALLY fast. And that they did. Hopefully they're long gone. Then it was coyotes, who come back reguarly but a shot from the gun seems to have scared them off today. They came a bit too close for my liking. The porcupines haven't been seen but I'm not taking chances - we're still hunkering down around the homestead.

Then these three made a return visit. I love the horse visits. They seem to show up every couple weeks or so.

I even went to go say hi to them, and they looked up at me but were really moving. They were on a mission!

They're they go...

And here's a video showing how determined they were just to pass through. As if my grass wasn't good enough! I like how they're in single file, just doing their own thing...

Horses in the Meadow from Stacie on Vimeo.

Happy Canada Day!

2010-07-01T23:55:00.005-07:00

Whew! Just under the wire... barely midnight Yukon time. Busy day today left little time for actual personal celebration. Once I catch up in life, I will fur-paint the dogs with Canadian flags.

So, in the meantime here's some awesome *chicken cartoons depicting our quirky Canadian-ness.

*courtesy of Savage Chickens - check out the hilariousness!

Sweaty pets

2010-06-27T23:20:00.000-07:00

Pretty flowers all over my meadow... love them!

Just the other morning at 5:30 am a momma grizzly bear and two cubs(big cubs though!) walked through the meadow. What a sight to see! They mosied on through, didn't hang around for more than 5 minutes, which was good. One cub was looking kind of playful too as it seemed to bounce up to momma bear and then run away....it was quite entertaining even though it was 5:30am!

Here I am implementing "Operation: Keep Dogs In Meadow!!" (due to bears and porcupines and elk... it's a busy summer around here for wildlife!)

Lucy the biggest porcupine lover in my yard is occupied with something less spikey.

Luckily she is super easy to distract! :)

Frolicking... but not too far! Get back here Gracie-in-the-meadow!

Cherry-picker Lucy hangs out far away. That's how her little legs get her to the ball fastest! George is back there, but her main goal is to jump on Harris' head and bite him (lovingly) to show him who's boss.

The ball is under my foot here . They can really focus when they want to. There were 6 heads in total surrounding me, haha.

Playing ball does the trick. These little maniacs are totally addicted. Sleds? Skis? Snow? Eh, whatever! Let's move to Mexico so we can play ball all year!

Mohawk boy Harris. I wonder why my cabin is so hairy?

Yep, that's pretty hairy. And I've *tried* to brush him but these guys don't seem to like to sit still for a few minutes for a brushing. And since it's not MY favourite activity, I let them get away with it.

And my new (stolen) idea for a new business:

Lots of this stuff around here in the summer. Care to buy a bottle? :)

Yeah, kayak fishing

2010-06-24T18:00:00.001-07:00

My first kayak fishing adventure:

Oh man what a BEAUTIFUL day we had! Dave, Heather and I did the "lazy fisherman's" fishing, in fact we could probably write the book on that after our day of fishing last week. It involves arriving at their place around 10am (or later), finishing packing up (lots of gear needed!), going for breakfast in town, grabbing some food/drink at the grocery store for the day because some of us (ME) suck at getting prepared for things, heading to Canadian Tire to buy a PFD because some people (ME) don't own one, losing Dave in the store, annnnnd finally! Heading out of town.

Annnnnd then, getting to the lake, unloading the kayaks, taking care of pet dogs who snuck in the truck(ok, not really) to join us on the trip, and packing up the kayaks, getting Stacie set up in her kayak, even though she brought absolutely NO fishing gear (doh!), and lastly... making sure you have enough sour wine gums in your pockets and water to survive on should you capsize and have to spend the next 30 days fending for yourself in the wilds of the Yukon.

(excuse the overexposed photo, I was so excited to hop in the kayak, I didn't check the camera settings! Wheeee!)

Doesn't take much to get me excited these days.

So! We got on the water at 3:00pm. Ha! Now that's my kind of fishing. Thank goodness it's light out... well, all night!

Me paddling away from Dave & Heather... c'mon, LET'S GO FISH!!!!!

Behold! The magical, beautiful, awesome fishing kayak.

Behold! My set up. I have, um... crocs and water. And sour wine gums... just in case.

Ahhh, peace and serenity on the beautiful lake... and Dave stealing all my fish.

This is what happens when you catch a fish and have no pliers or net or any way to set it free from the hook. You end up placing the rod in the kayak and holding it with your FEET, while taking picutres, AND paddling over to Dave, who is set up to the hilt - yelling "DAAAAVE!!!! Hey DAAAVE!! Frick, why can't he hear me, he's like just around the corner!!! Argh!!!! DAAAVE!!! Damned you wind!!!! DAAAVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

There's my little precious. A pike who Dave released... probably because the fish was too big of a monster and Dave didn't want ME to get the biggest, baddest fish. Actually this was probably more of the friendliest, most non-confrontational fish. He came along for the boat ride without much of a fuss.

How comfy does that boat look??

Speaking of weird photos!

I call this "Crocs n' boat via acid trip"

I think by this time the sun was starting to go down. Which means it's still deceptively bright out but getting a bit cooler.

When we got off the water, some SEVEN hours later (it's addicting I tell ya), we sprinted to the truck to put on more clothes and didn't realize how freakin' cold we all were. I knew it was cold when I put my frozen bare feet in the lake when I stepped out of the boat and it felt WARM! Yukon lakes rarely feel warm.

Yep, it's definitely darker out. Dave and Heather paddle towards me to get to the last bit of fishing grounds before we have to head home.

True hermit-dom!

2010-06-14T12:44:00.003-07:00

So due to all the freakin' PORCUPINES, we are all on lockdown at the homestead. I'm seriously thinking of fencing off the whole lot o' land just to keep the critters out and so we can have our freeeeedom! I'm going nuts, so are the dogs.

Is it winter yet? *sigh*

Yesterday Jack was out for like, FIVE minutes, and was withing range for me to see him for about 4.5 of those minutes. I called him when I didn't see him and he came back with quills on his back, in his face, under his chin... they were mostly broken and not really "IN" him. I think he came across a porky carcass. Still annoying though, he fights like a possessed demon when he sees pliers anywhere near him! They're totally out to get us, those quilly buggers. Not that I'm paranoid or anything, but I know they're peering in the cabin at night... the whole herd of porcupines, hoping to poke yet another dog... or five. Or a human.

Then I'm at work and find a quill sticking out of my pants today. It's totally a porcupine conspiracy!!!

On the plus side, there's hardly ANY bugs out? What is with that? I'm half expecting the apocalypse.

In other news... ooh, I did run across a BABY elk the other day on the highway! I didn't actually "run across" it, that would be bad. I was on my bike, and momma elk and baby were up a hundred feet ahead of me on the shoulder of the hwy. Not a great spot to be for this wee baby who was the size of a medium dog, soooo tiny! So I waited as to not freak them out riding up close to them and they darted off into the woods, then back out across the hwy... which they made it safely across despite the plethora of RV's zooming by. Saturday was highway patrol day for me. I then had the pleasure of herding the trio of horses away from the shoulder of the road too. All of this within 2kms!

That beats the day I went for bike ride the week before. I went about .5km and ended up coming home with a random husky-mutt. His mini-doberman buddy followed for a bit too, but didn't come right back to the homestead. I had to bush-whack back to my place so they didn't follow me on the road, came back scratched and bitten and sweaty... not the bike ride I had intended on having.

Why can't I just go out for ONE uneventful activity?!?!?!

And my laptop is being problematic again, argh. That's the reason for the lack of my online presence right now. You'd think it would enable me to get more done around the cabin, and that's sort of true due to our long days, but now I also waste significant time reading books like "Eclipse" (damn you entertaining vampires!) and watching numerous movies via satellite and staining my deck and stacking wood and yanking snow fencing out of the trees. Ok, I've been pretty productive. Next weekend is drywall weekend Part 2! The excitement literally never ends.

I have many blog updates, lots of photos, new websites to unveil (hopefully this decade) and lots more for your reading pleasure, but it'll have to wait! Maybe I can start selling porcupine quills for laptop fund-raising??!! :)

De-quilling services needed? Contact my team of professionals!

2010-05-30T08:25:00.003-07:00

Well, after one summer of being totally porcupine free... let's just say that streak has ended. Thanks to five of my yahoos running into one in the woods the other night, I (and two of my very best friends, lucky aren't they!?!) got to unexpectedly bond over beer n' pulling quills for a couple hours! I have to say - one porcupine, five dogs, hundreds of quills in TWO hours - we rock!

Gracie

She had the thickest porcupine quills ever right near her eye. How these things have gotten so close, but missed their eyes after all these years of porcupine incidents is nothing short of amazing!

Lucy, after the first attempt at de-quilling. She is in pain, bloody, but still happy! (or oblivious)

Hi there! Hey, one question... any idea why my face and mouth kind of hurts??

So, off we went, the six of us in the truck headed to town. I can only imagine what the oncoming vehicles thought as they saw the dogs quill-heads sticking out the windows.

George, on the other hand is NOT a happy camper. She got the worst of it - couldn't close her mouth or swallow, she was drooling everywhere. Some would say "poor thing...", I say "suck it up!" If only they would learn from their mistakes, but nooooooo.

Jack & Harris

Quite possibly the HAPPIEST dogs ever with quills in their faces and mouths. Although it's a close one with Lucy. They have an excuse to be so happy, they *think* they're going on a road trip. After attempting to pull quills on Lucy (got most of them by myself) and Gracie, I quickly realized I needed to rally the troops! You know you have GREAT friends when you can descend on them unannounced with a truck full of quill-infested dogs and get help! (and beer!)

Not only that, they (Steph, Heather and Dave) came to rescue an escapee while I was away on vacation. The cavalry arrived within an hour after my request from 8000km away! They rounded up a skittish Ivy in record time!! What would we do without awesome friends like that?!?! HUGE thanks to you guys! You can collect your Newfoundland Screech anytime... :)

Why you need really good, springy small pliers for pulling quills. The big ol' fat pliers give you blisters! Ooh, my dogs never better say I don't suffer for them.

Everyone is all de-quilled now and the dogs are on LOCKDOWN! That means no frolicking in the woods... until snow hits the ground! Or until I fortify the property with concrete walls.

Meanwhile, just when you think things have settled down and your problems are over:

Ripper decided it would be fun to chew on a package of bullets! This is quite possibly the stupidest item he has ever chewed on.

But, then I guess that's what I get for leaving my bullets on the porch!!!

Found some dogs

2010-05-20T18:26:00.004-07:00

I found a dog!

This is Jake, the wiry-haired little cutie who spends his days hanging out at "The Doghouse" in St. John's.

Things are very casual around here, the woman running the store that day ran out to plug her metre and asked us to "run the store while she's gone" then told us we were hired when she returned some 5 minutes later. What a riot.

Me getting some Jake loving. It felt SOOOO good to smell a dog after a week. I've missed that!!

More dogs I found downtown. The official dogs of Newfoundland and Labrador:

The Newfie!

And Zombie-Cujo dog, aka: the Labrador. How creepy is that thing?

...and he's even anatomically correct!

Things we can learn from dogs:

We should ALL live by these few simple rules!

Cape Spear

2010-05-19T18:14:00.002-07:00

What an amazing trip out to Cape Spear! I'd suggest everyone make this trip at least once in their lives. The history, the scenery, the windy roads and unforgiving winds will be something you'll never forget.

Hello Atlantic Ocean! All I have to say is: holy crap you are one raging sea!

I really really really wanted to dip my toe in the Atlantic, but with all the signs about being "swept out to sea due to crashing, unpredictable waves" and "you will die if you come any closer, we really mean it" type warnings... I decided against it.

Having never been to the Maritimes, or East of Ottawa for that matter, I wasn't really sure what to expect, but I tell ya, I have a newfound respect for Newfoundlanders because of the weather they endure. Freakin' cold and rainy and snowy and Oh. My. Goodness. The wind. The relentless wind. That's just spring. I've heard stories of Newfoundland winters, and well, it would be a whole other "experience" to be here in winter I'm sure. I can handle the -40(briefly), regular -20's of the Yukon, but the freezing rain and wet snow and icy streets on these killer hills they have around St. John's... yikes! Not surprising then that St. John's is referred to as "Canada's Weather Champion" - because of all the major cities in Canada - it is the cloudiest, snowiest, windiest and has the most wet days per year!

We headed to the easternmost point in North America... just because we HAD to! It seems to be windy everywhere around St. John's so we figured, how much windier can it get out at Cape Spear?

Well, really freakin' windy is the answer. But, the trip was still worth it!

Me n' mum at the entrance to Cape Spear.

Here's a video of the wind and my mom waving to Laura across the sea in Scotland. A mere 2000km away:

The bunker. It's amazing trying to imagine what life was like here when this was in use.

Because of its proximity to convoy routes during WWII, a gun battery was installed to defend the entrance to St. John's harbour. Barracks and underground passages leading to the bunkers were built for the use of troops stationed here.

The big gun!

More bunker goodness

For those of you interested - a detailed description (and pretty pictures) on the guns used.

Looking out to sea

The Thinker. Is she thinking about how to solve the world's hunger issue? Pondering possible solutions to all of the unnecessary wars? Evaluating how to live in a sustainable, renewable world instead of depleting the oil sands?

Nah, more likely that she's thinking of what kind of local beer to try that night.

The Lighthouse! Lighthouses are very exciting y'know!

This is the newer lighthouse on Cape Spear.

This looks down from the old lighthouse to the newer one.

The old lighthouse, built in 1836. It's since been restored and is now a visitor centre. Mom and dad were waiting while I was frolicking around the lighthouses so I had no time to visit the visitor centre, oh well!

Yippee!!

It looks like she found a bunker full of hot, muscular soldiers with that look of excitement! No such luck, although they did seem to be infiltrating the hotel later on... hummm.... :)

And just for fun! A awesome video I found on Youtube of whales hanging out with a few kayakers at Bay Bulls, NL(south of Cape Spear). The commentary is priceless:

It's Official!

2010-05-18T08:06:00.003-07:00

9 out of 11 of you would rather kiss a dead fish than kiss a dead toe. Hm, I would have thought there'd be more toe fans out there...

But maybe you googled it, 'cause looking at that black, wrinkled rotting extremity, I wouldn't go anywhere near it, even if it IS soaked in alcohol!

More sightseeing!

2010-05-14T18:26:00.008-07:00

There's a lot to see here! Having the hotel close to the Signal Hill road is great, I can head up there quickly - it's a wicked steep hike though! I think there's a reason you don't see a lot of bikes around here... or maybe it's because of the weather and SNOW we experienced today!

More colourful houses

This town totally has character.

Cabot Tower on Signal Hill

Built in 1897 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of John Cabot's discovery of Newfoundland. Signal Hill is Canada's 2nd largest historic park. More on that later when we get closer to it!

Newfie dogs in Newfoundland!

The canon! In summer, when it's not SNOWING, here the "Signal Hill Tattoo" portrays the duties of the Newfoundland Regiment of the 1790's. Complete with canon, mortars and musket fire, and the stirring sounds of the Fife and Pipe band, I bet it's an awesome sight!

They say it's often windy on Signal Hill

I concur!

Regardless of the wind, what a view of the harbour!

Interesting fact: when my prairie land-locked brain hears the ships horns blow, it automatically thinks... "Train!" Um, no.

The Johnson GeoCentre is a amazing building, built underground, with the natural rocks of Signal Hill protruding through the Centre(you can see them on the left in the photo below). On rainy (and snowy!) days, melt water actually flows down the rocks, inside the Centre.

This is a very cool representation of the comparison of (right to left) timelines of the earth, dinosaurs, ice ages and humans. All represented by grains of sand. The earth column went from floor to ceiling but the true representation would have it 200ft over the top of the building!! We humans really are just a wee blip on the map.

The GeoCentre received some exhibits and games from a science centre that closed down... thus the science-y games. They were fun. And loud.

The Laetoli Footprints: 3.6 million year old footprints.

Even though they're replicas, it's still pretty cool! I've never seen these in a museum before.

Luuuuuucy!! The famous hominid my dog is named after. Seriously. She is of the species Australopithecus afarensis, and although not my favourite of the Australopithecines (that honour goes to the robustus species because of their cool big-assed heads), she is still pretty cool.

Ooh, science-y stuff!

Maritime spear points

Hello lobster dinners!!!

Now that was a GREAT dinner!!!!

Hitting the streets of St. John's! That was a fun night.

Me and my gigantic $10 glass of Stella! Yikes! And look at those shot glasses...hmm... not mine!

My parents have now arrived and I shall have plenty of entertaining photos of them soon too! We are just hiding from the SNOW today, hoping tomorrow brings less precipitation. Regardless, we'll get out and see the sights for our last few days in St. John's - the city with the craziest streets for driving!