Reflection

What an unbelievable week. I knew we would be busy and I knew this would be hard, but this has been a extremely overwhelming - even for me! 

Our lovely trip to Windsor was followed by a great few days in Cuba - fabulous friends, fabulous wedding, very interesting experiences! And then a whirlwind tour of Ottawa which, sadly, was largely enveloped by packing chaos, but still encompassed a few great visits.  Amidst the great visits and experiences, my reflections of the week are overtaken by melancholy and memories of extreme anxiety and stress.  

Our carefully planned and organized move on Friday and Saturday really went sideways before slowly falling into place.  Saying good bye was terrible. It was emotionally draining and heart-wrenching and far too many times I was brought to tears knowing what amazing family and friends we are moving further from. Tragically, a huge number of factors led us to canceling a night with friends in Ottawa. It was a horrible decision to have to make, but if I look back on the decision honestly, I don't know if either of us could have handled more good-byes and survived to tell the tale. None of this was helped by Mike getting very sick. 

My story of the last few days could not be told without a HUGE shout out to the amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing friends who have gone above and beyond (and above and beyond) to help out over the past couple of months. Knowing that Mike was being well fed and entertained while I've been away has been very comforting to me, and I am continually amazed by how many invitations continued to come (despite his unchecked behaviour!). Clearly, packing up our home (and finding great new homes for our stuff), could never have happened without your help! So many people volunteered their time to help us pack over the last couple of months, and to patiently take my direction via Skype without any judgement on my irrational attachment to sundried tomatoes, canned peaches and olive oil! The army that moved us from near-breakdown yesterday to confidence we might actually make it out of Ottawa was amazing and unbelievable. And from what I understand, that die-hard commitment to get us out of Ottawa and to help get the house ready for our tenants, has continued unabated.

Thank you.

Gone Outside

What a lovely couple of days we have had! 

After a remarkably smooth Whitehorse-Vancouver-Toronto-Windsor flight - in which I even found 2 minutes to grab a sandwich to go!! (much better than my last flight when there was so little time between connections all I ate was cup of soup - twice in 9 hours), I was back in remarkably warm Essex  County. 

It was a weekend of highlights! In a terrific 48 hours, I was able to spend quality time with my brother, which rarely happens since we're typically very engaged by the niece and nephews, and of course a very nice time with all of my family. I LOVE play time with Emma and Kael! They are soooo awesome and every bit of time I get to spend with them makes me very, very happy! They grow so much between visits and get to be a lot more fun every day. 

And I got to meet Owen!!!  I loved cuddling with him (who wouldn't?), and the sounds that he makes while sleeping - and his frequent farting, makes for much fascination.  

I have to admit that a highlight of the weekend was getting to spend a couple of days with Mike and Maui. It has been weeks since I have seen Mike and more than 6 weeks since we were all together as a family.  It was great, and it nearly killed me to leave Maui behind this morning - the looks she was giving me once she realized she wasn't coming......

Saturday was a fabulous day, and I was so thrilled to have aunts, uncles, cousins, friends and family friends all come out to visit. It was an unbelievable day (around 74 degrees) and as small groups of people came, went and came and went, it was just so incredibly nice to visit and catch up! Thanks very much to my parents who provided a delicious feast too! I think Mike ate for 3 straight hours - and then it was time for dinner!  A very relaxing day all around, and a very touching one. 

Sunday was equally great. More quality time with Emma (and Aaron M), a delicious breakfast(Yay! Jules' Diner) with fantastic (surprising) company (thanks again, Uncle Ray!) and then a great visit with Chris, Angela and Carter.  As I sit here very full (I LOVE the Danforth), I am not looking forward to our 4:30 am departure for Pearson Airport, but I am looking forward to Phase Two of our trip. Viva Cuba! Viva Amanda and Kelly!!

Torn

It is late, and I am leaving very, very early! I have finally packed (I think) and got myself (mostly) organized.

It is with mixed emotion that I leave Whitehorse. I am very, very excited to see my family and friends. I am thrilled to have a new nephew to meet and I will probably cry when I see Maui again. I CANNOT wait for a few days in Cuba. 

Having said that, in a lot of ways it feels like I am just getting started here. On the cusp of the summer season, we are hiring, contracting, preparing for babies, marketing, planning events and so much more. I am anxious to leave, but only because I know how much I will miss this view very morning and how much I will miss my staff. They will more than manage in my absence, but I am less sure that I will do so well. 

A delicious Easter

I just had a most delicious Easter dinner! 

Today was not a holiday for us, but since most of the rest of Whitehorse seemed to be off, I got an inordinate amount done! 

 Enough by early afternoon to take a walk in what was truly a

 gorgeous spring day. But I did go back to work, honest :-)

After work, I was lucky enough to walk to Randy and Maria's for a most delicious dinner. It was like having family around, and it made me very happy. I work with both - Randy is my Operations Manager and Maria my Veterinarian and I always have a lot of fun with their two daughters Camilla and Victoria! Also at dinner was Maria's sister, who lives with them, and Danny, the original owner of the Preserve, who spends a lot of the year living with them.

Most delicious turkey, stuffing, potatoes, gravy, veggies, appetizers, cherry pie and delicious leftovers to bring home. Great company, great fun and even some crafts. Tonight, Whitehorse felt like home. 

Mule Deer

I feel that I have not paid nearly enough attention to the mule deer.  Perhaps it is because they bolt whenever I am within 2 km of their paddock and no camera can capture how magical it looks when they run. The mule deer are pretty tiny (compared to most other northern animals), and when they run, they alternate between running and leaping across the meadow or through the trees. 

The mule deer are relatively new to Yukon, having only become common in the last 50 years or so. They have been getting a bit of a bad rap lately, as it is suspected they brought the winter tick north with them, which has been hard on the elk population (in particu

lar). (global warming! invasive species!) 

I was fortunate earlier this week to go for a walk at the end of the work day. It was a rare day in which I had just finished 6 straight hours of meetings and I was exhausted (apparently, I am already unaccustomed). It was mild and sunny ('cause its always sunny here!), and I went for a walk.  I have learned, that if one is very, very careful and a little bit lucky, there are times when the mule deer will allow you to get a tiny bit closer - a tiny bit. 

They spend most of their day hiding in the forest, ruminating, and if you can be quiet and almost none-moving, they too, will wait a few minutes before bolting again. I was quiet, I was still and I got a couple of photos. Then I sat on the corner of the picnic table that has emerged from its winter cover and watched as they herded themselves into a line 

and ran for cover. 

The Magical Melt

I have promised not to write any more about the white (stuff). 

The season is done, the opportunity past, but I had to share this photo, it should be the last!

A roller coaster day

Today, was a roller coaster day. 

My morning started with a nice call from my mom, followed by a very exciting call from my sister. I have a new nephew (yay!) named Owen, and I can't wait to meet him in just over a week.

Then, my day continued to be great when I got to accompany Maria to feed the animals. Highlights included PETTING a MOOSE and a "teenage" muskox and learning a lot of things I have been wanting to know.  

Then I had interviews for summer interpreters which, unfortunately, were nothing to write about. But there is one good candidate. And lots more work editing Department documents.

My day got great again when Jeronima (I apologize, I think that is how it is spelled) became my new neighbour. Jeronima is a 'baby' mountain goat that we have recently acquired from Smithers, British Columbia. Poor guy had been attacked by dogs and was rescued, but the rehabilitation facility there is not set up for goats.  We were selected over the Calgary Zoo to be his new home because he's going to get a great new cliff to call his own and to start a family on. He passed all of his testing, waited out quarantine, and today 

was the first day he has been able to spend any significant time outside in months!! (Apparently they tried to leave him outside in Smithers but he kept clearing the fence!) He'll be my neighbour until spring is here and his cliff is ready. It was so great to watch him explore and, in my mind, devise a plan to jump out of his pen!

Unfortunately, the excitement of Jeronima was marred by my on-going discovery of things that had not been done before I came, things that were left to fall by the way-side, or just weren't bothered with -  and that is very, very frustrating. Added to that, is the ongoing saga of not finding a home. I found out today that one I had been holding out hope for was taken and I am having all of a time getting anyone to call me back. Sigh. 

Talking to Mike and discussing the thousands of dollars in property taxes we owe (the bill just came out - we're not behind!) and the roof repairs we need did not improve my mood. It would be one thing if I was in the house, but instead someone else gets my beautiful house and I return, yet again, to the mattress on the bathroom floor.  

Don't get me wrong, this is not regret. I love the Preserve, and there will be NOTHING better than waking up tomorrow morning to Jesse, Jeronima, the pretty stone sheep (who greeted me this morning with snuggles on the rock face) and my ever-interesting adult muskox - but seriously, I just want a house. Who ever would have thought it would be this difficult to find something that a) was within a 30km corridor, b) had running water, c) accepted a dog and d) didn't cost $2000/month. I just want somewhere to live. Period. Sigh.

Enjoy the photos of Jeronima, the adorable stone sheep and the red fox denning at the base of one of our cliffs. I'm going to my mattress.

The News

Whitehorse has 2 community papers - the Whitehorse Daily Star, which is daily, and the Yukon News, which is published on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We also have What's Up Yukon, which is published every week with the goings on around town and a business and health version which is offered periodically by the same publisher.

The most expensive paper is Saturday's Daily Star, which I believe is about $1.05 with tax.

I reckon any of the papers is about the size of a single section of the Windsor Star or the Ottawa Citizen - even the Saturday paper. I do, however, feel somewhat more informed than I have every been with either paper.  For small papers, both have remarkable international, national and local coverage.  In the past week, I have gotten stories on McGuinty's intended taxation changes, changes to delivery/publications at the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News and regular updates on Obama. I have been updated about Zimbabwe, Italy, India and Sarah Palin is a regular subject, as is Ottawa politics and how this economic crisis is actually affecting the world! Professional and amateur sport, as well as things like biodiversity month are covered, and regardless of the size of the paper, the ice-guessing contest gets a page. What is the ice-guessing contest you ask? I quote:

"A river goes out neither late nor early. A river goes out precisely when it intends to. And, because rivers are nortoriously secretive and don't talk much about their intentions, the trick for us is figuring out when that will occur. The day that happens is the most important date on the spring calendar.

...Ever since 1896, the ice going out in Dawson has signalled the arrival of spring.  Back then, people would make bets on when the garbage on the ice - because the river was not only used as the city outhouse it was also the town dump - would start to move. There has been an ice pool run every year since - 113 years of people trying to figure out when the river ice intends to leave.

...a wooden tripod. The time of the ice going out is recorded when the tripod moves sufficiently to stretch a wire that runs from it to a clock on the shore. When the wire gets tight enough, it stops the clock, and that's when we finally know what the river has known and intended all along. When someone notices the river is moving, they call the fire department, which then alerts the entire town with the fire siren - no matter the time of day or night. Almost everyone, including the kids in school, heads down to the riverbank to watch the ice go out."

Mike and I have both put our bets in - date, hour, minute.  How could you not when someone walks up in the coffee shop and asks if you have money.  When the answer to the question 'what for?' is I need $2, one must review the results of the past 113 years and comply. 

While the ice breaking is one of my favourite articles, I will sign off with the following article found in the Yukon News on April 1.  Anthony, this one is for you!

Yukon Government launches Walking Dead Action Plan.

The Yukon will be "undead ready" by 2012, according to a new $6-million Walking Dead Action Plan announced last week by the Yukon government. "This plan provides key opportunities for Yukoners to remain safe from the threat of re-animated corpses," said health and Social Services Minister Glenn Hart in an official release this week.

The centrepiece of the plan is a $2.3 million package to promote "zombie-proof" housing in Whitehorse communities. Home builders will receive subsidies of up to 50 per cent for the installation of acid sprinkler systems, fortified window shutters and roof-mounted flamethrowers.

Opposition members hailed the new legislation as an "important step forward" in making Yukon an important commercial and industrial centre for the post-zombie-apocalypse. "The North is uniquely positioned to become a world leader in undead management," said Hart.

The Yukon is the first region in Canada to institute zombie legislation. "We're finding more and more that provincial and territorial governments are woefully unprepared for even the most minor living-dead apocalypse," said Tim Korman, a living-dead specialist at the University of Victoria.

The plan also sets aside $630,000 for law enforcement training in zombie control.

In 2002, a zombie epidemic struck Alaska's Kiska Island. Police, unaware that the walking dead can only be felled by a shot to the head, uselessly aimed their pistols at the torsos of the undead.

Snow - My Final Comments

I have been a TERRIBLE blogger lately. Admittedly, work and house-hunting have been all consuming - if not in hours in stress, so my creative juices have not been flowing.  I will try to make it up to you. 

In an ode to my friends and relatives back East, who I understand are experiencing snow today, while we are basking in glorious, snow-melting sunshine that makes every coat I have up here too warm to wear, I will make what I hope is my final comment about snow (for this season).

As I continue to mention, the snow here is much different than at home. It binds different - allowing the blocks to be made for igloos, and it melts different.  Yesterday while ice fishing, I watched kids create walls of snow, a la an igloo, to protect them from the wind with nothing more than a small shovel. It was efficient and effective and fascinating to watch!

I have also been in awe over just how much snow melts each day when the temperature truly is just about zero (out of the wind). 

What allows both of these to occur is how the snow binds and flakes together (and apart).  I am not a scientist and I cannot explain it, but I have taken a few photos in an effort to demonstrate. Here is my photographic thousand words.