Lessons

Whitehorse is a town that has everything. Honest. For a town of its size, it is over-serviced and remarkably easy to live in.  But the lesson must be learned, if there is something you want, you gotta grab it, or do it. 

Ahh... we should have seen Star Trek last weekend. Or any day this week. With only 4 movie screens in town, we now know the big movies come, but they don't stay long. Lesson learned. 

Grocery stores are open late, in the case of the Superstore 10pm every night. Very convenient now that we are living in town. But Sunday nights, Mondays? Don't bother. Until the trucks come in choices in milk, meat and produce are limited. Lesson learned. 

Every day, gas prices range by more than 5 cents! Seriously, I pass about 5 stations on the way to work, and regularly and predictably prices are that far apart. Why would anyone go to the always pricey station? 

Canadian Tire has a national pricing strategy. Combined with no territorial tax, shopping there is a bargain. The liquor store is cheaper than off-sales with a lot more selection, but not as convenient in a pinch. The deli that I love, even though it is never open, carries terrific products at prices very comparable to Westboro, delish! Super A is a lovely store, but prices are MUCH higher than anywhere else and they carry things no one else does. Regular price for 2L of pop anywhere is at least $1.85!! Insurance is 40-50% less, a 5-year license is $50. Wonton soup is often sold only in double portions it is not, as I first thought, just an expensive $7. 

Whitehorse is funny like that. So many things are the same price as back East, so many things exhorbitantly more expensive and some are even significantly cheaper; it is highly unpredictable. The key is in knowing where to shop and when, which often involves being a bit organized -  or accepting the higher price and just being happy there is no sales tax. All in all I think it balances out, but the guessing game is fun!

Oh, and if you find something you like, buy it! It might not be there tomorrow, and it will likely never be in that store again. A very important lesson indeed!

A Bad Do

Yesterday I went for my first haircut in Whitehorse. New in town and trying to be frugal I decided to try the barber shop closest to my office. Fittingly it's called The Barber Shoppe. I never expected such an eye opening experience from such a seemingly benign place. Firstly, Murd, the owner, is a 60-something long-haired biker dude with a pot belly, a goatee and a full grey mullet. Now, to be fair, this look is not that unusual in Whitehorse so I dutifully took my seat in the chair.

After awkwardly stuffing barber's paper down my collar and covering me haphazardly with a cape, Murd asked me how I usually have my hair cut. I gave him the standard "clipped short on the sides, scissor cut longer on top" instructions that any barber in the world should be able to handle. Murd could not handle these instructions. Murd shakily and mercilessly mowed my head like a high school soccer field leaving what little hair I have on top over an inch longer on the left than the right. He decided to skip the front altogether (or forgot) and then proceeded to pull out a hose and vacuum my entire melon with a hidden shop vac tipped with a mangy old bristle brush. I assume the shop vac was meant to remove hair clippings and prevent them from ending up on my clothes and down my neck. It did neither.

Then, the straight razor. Normally I like having my neck finished with a straight razor but Murd's trembling put me in fear for my life. I think he was a bit nervous about his hands too because he took more time with the razor than he did cutting the rest of my head. A few tense minutes later the ordeal was over and I asked him how much I owed.
"Just $28", he said.
"Pardon?", says I, stunned, thinking it must be a joke on the cheechako.
"How much do you pay back in Ottawa", he asked.
"About $12", I said as I forked over the cash.
"Oh, well, see you next time", he said unapologetically.
"Unlikely", I thought to myself.

While butchering my hair, Murd had boasted that there was only one other barber in town, Fred up on 4th Ave. He was old and shaky, implying that I really shouldn't bother going there. Thinking he might be putting me on about the cost and the lack of options, I did a quick tour around the downtown core today and discovered that there are 3 other barber shops and about half a dozen salons. In fairness to Murd, Barber's II charges $24 for a men's cut, so he wasn't totally ripping me off.

I've never paid more than $15 at a barber shop (I once paid $9 in Windsor but that was almost as bad as my $28 cut) and I can't understand why hair cutting, of all things, is so expensive here. Next time, if old Fred at City Barber Shop is under $20 I'll take my chances.

Today is Chloe day

Today, is Chloe day. For that matter, a lot of this weekend is Chloe weekend.

True, I have to determine if we can get a permit to sell food first, drop off our cheque run, and then confirm some marketing opportunities in What's Up Yukon - and I still have to complete that Katimavik proposal by today.....

But from lunch 'til tonight and then again tomorrow overnight, it's me (and Mike). I'm pretty nervous about that whole thing, but excited too. Maria has showed me how to prepare the bottles and I've already fed her, I'm thinking the 'cleaning up' part will be somewhat more challenging than Maui, but I'm up for the job. Just another day at the office I say.

Maui smells

Maui smells. She smells really bad, and it isn't going to get better. 

Our house essentially backs onto woods, mountains and lakes. It is absolutely stunning. We get to meander through the trees, catch the views and frequently say hi to other dogs and dog owners. It is totally off -leash, and Maui LOVES it! She is so very happy there, she runs, she walks, she sniffs everything, she's really getting to know her way around and frequently tells us where we're going. 

But ever day, no matter how we get there, it ends up nothing more than a variation walk up the hill, down the hill and into the lake. Maui wades, she swims, she drinks 'til her heart's content and then we drag the sand and dirt from the trail back home.  

This seemed harmless (and scentless) when the lake was still frozen, but now that it has started warming up, she smells. We towel her down, make her eat outside, have her lay on a blanket inside all in vain. She's wet, she smells, she's cute and so happy!!

It's really not that bad. By tomorrow afternoon she'll be dry again. Just in time for her walk!

Chloe

A mixed blessing. 

I was at work very late last night. We were hosting Elaine Taylor, Minister of the Environment (and my largest funder) at the Preserve today and I was preparing. My office is also the board room. Anyone who knows me, and has seen me at the office, would understand just how long I might have been in at the office last night before I began stuffing files into the filing cabinet haphazardly, perhaps somewhat desperately. 

Just before 8, I was driving home when the call came. It was Maria, our vet, and she had just found out that we were getting a moose.  After Millie miscarried recently, we identified the need for a new female moose, and were about to embark on a hunt. While one of my Board members commented "moose usually walk themselves here," I can't believe it actually happened (metaphorically, of course). It is, a mixed blessing. We were so excited to get a moose, we kinda were crazy when she arrived and was a 'she!'

Anyway, we believe Chloe was born on Sunday in Haines Junction. She was seen in the townsite with her mom, but they were separated, seemingly by traffic on the Alaska Highway. Conservation Officers brought her to the forest to try and reconnect her to her mom, but they didn't bond.  They waited 24 hours, still no connection, and some grizzlies hovering, so Chloe was brought to the Preserve!

While the Conservation Officer and his wife were driving up (the Preserve is about 1.5 hours from Haines Junction), Mike and I went to Shoppers Drug Mart to buy Pedialyte and baby bottles. 

Lucky for us, Chloe fed from her mom before being separated. This is really important for the transfer of antibodies and for her knowing how to eat. Next, she had to 'imprint' on someone, and there is no better person than Maria. She is, truly, amazing with animals and Chloe like so many others before her is becoming extremely attached.  Maria is staying with her, or rather Chloe has taken over the bedroom off of Maria's office where Mike and I were living until recently.  We are so very lucky to have Maria, as just like a baby, Chloe will eat every 2-3 hours for days. 

Likely dehydrated, having been away from her mom for so long, Chloe was first fed Pedialyte every 3 hours. She moved to weak milk and, by tomorrow, full milk (special powder milk). First from a beer bottle with a large nipple (easiest to learn off of), then from a baby bottle, next a wine bottle with the large nipple - because she will only get hungrier and hungrier! 

Mike and I have both been fortunate enough to feed Chloe and to cuddle with her, however fleetingly. I think I'll be luck enough to have shifts most of this week, and then we'll be hunkering down on Friday night and Saturday to relieve Maria. 

So amazing. 

Riding the Hog

Ok, of all things, Mike's motorcycle can't really be called a "hog." 

Mike really, really, really wanted to go for a ride today, and it was such a beautiful day, who was I to argue?  It was that or housework. Guess what we decided. 

I don't think I had been on the Ducati more than twice last year, and certainly not for more than 20 minutes or so. Today's ride was significantly longer and my butt, thighs and back were a bit surprised by it all. 

The thing of it is, it was easy to ride for a really long time. Unlike Ottawa, where we mainly drove from Point A to Point B, typically along Hwy 417, the Alaska Highway is spectacular.  The sun, the mountains, the river valley - spectacular!!  And not to forget the local colour! 

Our drive started with our neighbourhood fox - the same fox that I'd seen running up our street with dinner in his mouth just last week. Mile after mile of beautiful scenery, and then a random drunk guy hitchhiking.  Not so surprising near town, but this was really far out. I'm thinking with all of the forwards/backwards/sideways action he was taking with each step, it must have taken him hours to get to where he was!  And then there were the 2 guys hunting from their pick up - VERY illegal, and the random horses at the side of the road not contained in any way. Not much further after that, we headed back through the crazy gusting wind.   

All around a very nice day! 

The Spree (or When the Bell Tolls)

Sometimes a bell is just a bell.  In the case of Friday night a bell means jugs of beer appear unbidden at your table.  Multiply that by three and you've got the makings of a classic old time Klondike spree.

According to Pierre Berton, in the heyday of the gold rush a prospector returning from the gold fields would lavishly spend his poke (gold find) in a five alarm booze-up, trashing bar after bar all the while buying rounds for everyone in the house.  To refuse the generosity of the spree or to leave a drink unfinished was considered a heinous insult to the buyer.

So, on Friday night, for reasons still unknown to us, a local patron invoked a fine gold rush tradition and vigourously rang the bell above the bar, sending a steady stream of Yukon Gold our way.  Loath to break with tradition, we toasted the man of the hour and floated away on a river of draft.

And thus, our dated night double feature of Wolverine and Star Trek was derailed (not due to a lack of interest as some have suggested).  Krista and I limped home in the eerie glow of the midnight sun, wallowing in the pain and satisfaction of having participated in a remnant of unique Klondike ritual.

Night on the Town

Whitehorse never ceases to amaze me how hard bars and restaurants try to upscale their interior, while looking like dives on the outside. Tonight, we went to 2 bars after work, before heading home fairly tipsy. Weird, weird heading home in complete sunlight, drunk, at 11:30. Whatever, we'd been out since after work.

Funny thing is figuring out bars here. The bar is a la Carleton Tavern, but the band is jazz/blues. The clientele is, ummmm, varied and the food is amazing. The beer is fine, but when someone buys a round THREE times within an hour, it gets a bit much. AkA Spree. Strangest experience, save the time with friends. Mike would tell you more, but let's face it, he's drunk. 

Photos of Mike and a local tomorrow. Let's hope my new intern from France isn't too traumatized. 

Night!

Black Arctic Ground Squirrels

I expected my world to change in Yukon, and I would certainly be disappointed if it didn't. Working at the Preserve, as I have written, my day jumps from fundraising to marketing to government relations to bill paying to crisis management (usually related to staff not animals) to goat catching and elk herding to greeting visitors to event planning - all within minutes. This kind of change, this kind of diversity is exactly what I love in my day and it makes me very excited to get to work every morning.

I have gotten used to being surprised all the time, but even I remain surprised by how much of my days have been dedicated lately to black arctic ground squirrels. Let's be completely honest - until 2 weeks ago, I didn't even know there WAS such a thing as black ground squirrels. But they exist, and they are rare, and they are very cute and I am trying desperately to help the population expand.

So this is how my life goes these days. A couple of weeks ago, a man about an hour south of Whitehorse declared he had too many black ground squirrels on his property and he wanted to get rid of them. CBC North carried the story, interviewing the Wildlife Viewing Biologist (our friend Bruce) for Yukon about it, and he recommended moving squirrels to the Preserve. A full 24 or more hours later, I called Bruce on another topic and found this out.

The next week was relatively quiet, although I met with both the Department of the Environment and my Board to see if this was even possible, and with my own staff to determine where we could house them, how we would keep them from breeding with the brown ground squirrels that live everywhere on the Preserve, and if we could set it up so people can watch them burrowing. And then....

I was walking in to TD Bank to arrange signing authority when CBC called. The reporter who had originally followed the story wanted to get my position on taking the squirrels, to find out what we were doing to that affect and then, just when I thought my taped interview was going ok, pulled out - "rumour has it they have all been killed, are you aware of this? what is your next step?" Ack!

Some hours later, I contacted the man to learn that 10 (of maybe 20) had, in fact, been trapped (for a coat) and he wasn't particularly interested in giving up anymore right now but he'd take my name for future reference - our only hope being that there are enough adults left to care for at least some babies that have likely been born and are growing underground.

Since then, crazy, crazy! A Conservation Officer (COs) went to meet the man on Tuesday and to explore our options of live trapping some - but I haven't heard anything since. Although we have also heard the rumour that his 2 neighbours also have some squirrels on their property - one of which does not like them, one of which does. Good news knowing there are a few more alive, but how to do our part for species conservation? My vet has been talking with other COs trying to explore our options - but they can't even decide if ground squirrels fall under the wildlife act or if they are rodents and, consequently, free game. (excuse the expression). And still, CBC continues to call for news....I just wish I had something to say! Perhaps tomorrow when I perch in the offices of the COs until we get an answer that I like!

Squirrels. Who knew.

Farmer's Market

I like the Whitehorse farmer's market.  Today was the first day of the season, so it was pretty small, but on a stunning, sunny day, it was a nice stop en route from work.  I bought bread and feta cheese, both of which smell fabulous. Unfortunately, I missed the butcher by 3 minutes, so I arrived home with great accoutrements, but quite literally nothing to serve with it. Sigh. 

Lucky for us, we are only 5 minutes from the market, so after walking Maui, we returned and had fresh halibut fish and chips with tempura veggies. Yum!  What a great way to spend a Thursday night - how will it compare to the double feature I hear is on tomorrow's agenda? That's right, Wolverine and Star Trek - cute guys and popcorn. Not a bad life, even if it does include Star Trek!

Time

I have no concept of time.

I started out fine. Crisscrossing back and forth across the country made me tired, perhaps, but I adjusted smoothly to time changes with limited challenge.

I started Spring just fine, too. I watched with great excitement as the days got longer and longer. As my family knows, every phone call started with "how is the weather?" followed by "have you found a house yet?" followed by "what's new?" What's new ALWAYS included 'it's bright for 12 hours now, for 13 hours now, for 14 hours now...I am sure they don't care that much, at times my dad has sounded as perplexed as he was when I pierced my belly button at 18 (it's gone), but for a cheechako - even one that has seen the midnight sun - it still holds a lot of intrigue.

Suddenly, however, the bright has become light and I now have no concept of time. For weeks, I have been caught at my desk working well - WELL - past 6 believing whole-heartedly it couldn't have been much later than 4 or so. Maui seems to be lucky if she is walked by 7, dinner sometimes happens around 9, and unpacking continues well past midnight - and if it wasn't for the odd glance at a clock, I would never know.

From what I hear, we ain't seen nothing yet and it is only going to get brighter (for longer) - which is bound to make for a very interesting summer. To clarify, I have absolutely no trouble sleeping because of the light, in fact I sleep like a baby (metaphorically, not like either of my nephews) every night. What is fascinating me is my waking hours. The sun really does provide energy - it wakes you up earlier, it keeps you going all day long, and in the case of our lives, well into the night. Now to get Mike to say something other than: 'S@&T, how the h$*& did it get to be X o'clock???

Our new home 2

Sarah, our landlady, is really lovely. Her daughters seem great, and their dog is pretty sweet.  They have been really warm, welcoming and helpful. They live beside and above us. 

Our new neighbourhood seems pretty nice, too. As anyone that knows us can attest, we are anti-suburbia, but I am not sure that Riverdale counts...Hmmm....

Surrounded by mountain and river, I hear that Riverdale gets pretty gloomy in winter. Grey Mountain makes it, well, particularly grey and causes the yet to be experienced phenomenon of ice mist. This time of year, however, is pretty beautiful. 

The TransCanada Trail loops around Riverdale, and about 4-5 houses away from ours there is green space that leads along the powerlines to probably hundreds of trails from 20 minutes to who knows yet how far.  THIS, Maui loves!  

The hills and trails certainly add a new dimension to our walks. Trees, hills, ground squirrels, tree squirrels and so many smells, Maui just runs and runs!  She is in absolute heaven, running herself to near exhaustion every time. It has certainly given her a lot more energy, and her leg seems to be doing very well. Mike and I are, ummm, adjusting a little bit slower, but are nevertheless determined to get our Chilkoot legs back. 

About 15 minutes away there is a beautiful lake. The fact that it is still half-frozen has not prevented Maui from diving in each time.  It should be an interesting summer, rumour has it, it is also a great place to fish. Now if only we had a canoe. And a

 fishing rod.

So much to write about! I'll start with our home.

Why is it when there are so many things to write about, there isn't any time to write? I will try over the next couple of days to make up for it, to write about everything, and to encourage Mike to write too!

Our world has now, officially, turned upside down. We have officially moved to Whitehorse.

For me, Mike and Maui, our long weekend has been spent unpacking boxes. The process of unpacking, of rediscovering what we randomly determined was valuable - and what we irrationally felt was not, has been humbling. More shelves would have been beneficial, it

would also have helped had we owned a dresser or any normal sized table. Our living room-dining room has a couch, 7 chairs, 3 stools and nothing but a couple of side tables.

I have no idea where we will store all of our now empty luggage and tupperware containers. I expect that anyone who

comes to visit us will share their room with our many tents and tupperwares of camping stuff. My beautiful suits look lovely in

the closet where they will inevitably do little but collect dust with several equally beautiful pairs of shoes. I lost the battle and we now own a brand new microwave

which sits lovingly in our living room.

Slowly, very, very slowly, our stuff has resurfaced. Our couch, our chairs, our salt

and pepper shakers, our dishes - and yet our new home does not resemble our "Ottawa home" in any real way. I think we have decided this is a good thing. We need to not make that comparison if we are going to give it a real shot here.

End of the Beginning

After travelling 5,552 km in 6 days over 5 provinces and 1 territory, I'm glad to have week one under my belt. Krista has kept you up to date with most of the happenings in and around our move so all that remains is for me to do is share a few thoughts and pass on some heartfelt thank-yous.

Whitehorse and the Preserve are both as strange and beautiful as I remembered them and spring truly is a glorious (if dusty) time up here.  It's such a relief to finally be here with Krista and Maui but I often find myself thinking about Ottawa and the great friends we've left behind.  I've travelled all over but never lived anywhere except Ottawa so this is a big change for me.  Leaving has been all the more difficult given how close the 8+ pack has become over the past few years and the other great friendships that have developed more recently.  I sincerely hope we'll have some visitors up here in the near future so we can share some of what attracted us here in the first place.

Talking to my family on the phone today made me begin to appreciate how much I'll miss them too.  For all my bellyaching about petty annoyances, the distance is making me realize how nice it was to have family nearby, regardless of how infrequently I saw them.  In the insanity that surrounds making a move like this, it's sometimes easy to take those relationships for granted.  Happily, my dad is already planning to come up and visit, new hiking boots and all.  Hopefully we can hike at least a section of the Chilkoot Trail, which has been a childhood dream of his.  I can't wait to see his reaction to Dawson City, the town where the gold rush never ended.  I think with some badgering I might also be able to convince my mom to come up and visit.  Who knows, maybe once Allan gets here Vic and Judy will make the trek too.

So, last but not least, the thank-yous.  I don't even know where to begin.  Amanda deserves 50 gold stars for giving up so much of her time right before the wedding to try and make sense of the chaos.  Hooch and hauling with Corrie and Amy, dinners and distractions with Sarah and Anthony, panic and packing with Kevin and Melissa, day-long tetris with Chris and the endless loading, stacking, driving and unloading with FFJeff were all so important, even if Capt. Freakout didn't show his appreciation at the time.  A big thanks to Kelly, Kylie, Alexandra, Kris, Meghan, Vic, Judy, Judy, Chris, Angela, and Becca for all your help and hospitality.  I'm sure I missed several people, so if you're one of them (my memory still sucks), sorry, and thanks.  I hope I can return the favour some day down the road.

M.

Excitement, excitement, excitement!

What a weekend this has been so far!  My day started today with a live interview on CBC Radio. I tried to remain calm, and I am told I sounded enthusiastic - yay!!  I don't think I said anything stupid, which is a relief, although I am not sure I as exactly as eloquent as I would have liked to have been.

Since then, my day has been filled with animal-related activities. I think I will miss not living as close to the Preserve as I do currently, it is nice to just hop in a vehicle and help. I can't imagine doing this job without getting dirty and helping as much as I can.  Granted, I expect Randy and Maria are being very patient with me and Mike, but with practise, I'm sure we'll get more natural and hopefully more helpful. 

At the Preserve, we try to leave the animals alone as much as possible, but that doesn't mean there is any shortage of things that need to be done to ensure the safety of the animals or to create a more natural environment for them to live. For instance, we helped encourage our moose Millie today to move from her permanent enclosure into a smaller, more wooded pasture next door. For the tourists, this means they may not see Millie for a few days, but for a moose in the midst of labour, the privacy provided by this new home should go a long way to comfort her. I hope everything goes well and we have a new calf before too long. 

In the past week, I have had the privilege of helping care for a sheep, the muskox, a goat and a moose.  My role has been minimal, at best, but I have learned so much about the Preserve and how it operates. I have learned an incredible amount about the animals - their nature, their behaviour and while I know that I remain awkward and unpracticed in my animal-herding skills, I feel more confident and sure that this is the right job for me. 

Whirlwind!

What a week!! Mike and Jeff (and Maui) arrived on Sunday night (yay!). I still can't believe they made it here in 6 days, but I am glad they did! Not sure what I would have done had they been delayed at the last minute.

Since then, the week has been a whirlwind! I have been away from work so much that I am feeling a bit overwhelmed and a bit behind - but at the same time, I am so excited to see my friend and family, that I can't help but wish to be with them instead. To help find the balance, I made them help me with work :-)

On site, we have herded muskox to bring a lot of the herd back together, we have moved a thin-horned Dall sheep so he is no longer alone, and we have stumbled across a brand spanking new baby muskox that was clearly JUST born. The boys got to get up close and personal with the moose and caribou and great photo ops with pretty much everything on site. Good contributors that Jeff and Mike. 

Off site, they were able to see downtown Whitehorse, shop, check out the Beringia, the brewery and we made a field trip to Skagway, Alaska for site-seeing and

supper. What a week! 

AND..... as if that wasn't enough, we finally found someplace to live! The Prochazka's move into a suite in Riverdale (the community across the river from downtown Whitehorse) on May 15. We have living space on the ground floor and sleeping space partially underground. Our landlady, Sarah, is very, very lovely and she lives upstairs with her two daughters and their dog. We are VERY excited! A very special thanks to Sarah, Maria, Randy, Steve, Clare and of course Jeff, who helped us move our stuff in on Tuesday. Not having to unload and then move again our stuff FANTASTIC. Seriously. We are so lucky that wherever we go there seems to be no shortage of amazing people offering to help us!!  

I love the Preserve, and I am so glad that I have been able to stay here both for practical reasons and for my ability to immerse myself into my new job. I do, however, very much look forward to moving from an extended work trip to creating home.

Remote

With all of the amenities and comforts that Whitehorse offers, it easy to forget that we live somewhere remote.  Sure, there are frequent power outages, we pick up our mail, and from the Preserve there is no such thing as pizza delivery, but by and large, the comforts of any city are at our fingertips. 

I was reminded this weekend that this isn't the case for the entire Territory. Now don't get me wrong, there is cell phone and Internet in most every community and one would be hard pressed to not find fresh fruit and veggies amidst coke and pepsi, lays and pringles at practically every rest stop/community.  But nature has a funny way of reminding us that she is in charge.

After a few days in Dawson, one cannot help but be reminded of how mother nature continues to cut us off from the world. Despite year round plane and, by and large, vehicle access, and obviously cell phone/internet/tv connections, Dawson spends a significant part of the year in solitude.  This causes people to embrace life and celebrate it to its fullest, and I would argue there is no better place in the world to party than Dawson. Nowhere. While I have not personally been there in winter, I understand their festivals are like no other. Having been there in summer and now in Spring, I can say without a doubt, Dawson is amazing. Its people are incredible, interesting, welcoming and serious partiers. Be warned, Dawson is no place to rest. 

In a town where everyone knows everyone, you get to meet very interesting people.  While I was there, I met a man who had left a lot of stuff at one of the hotels downtown - his kid's crib, his dogs' dishes, etc.  Fact was, they were staying at the hotel, but the river was breaking up so they literally had to run to get across before it broke (once it broke it takes some time before it is safe to cross in a boat - seriously dangerous, enormous ice blocks).

That, to me, sounds unbelievable. However, I did have my own, smaller experience. On our drive home, we had to cross 6 or so locations where the water had washed the road out. In most cases it just meant crossing the water, but in at least 3 spots large parts of the road had been washed away causing a very dramatic drop off! Thanks to the diligent work of endless road crews and the astuteness of our driver, we got home safe and sound.  Its kind of fun, however, to be reminded that Yukon is different, and we have moved somewhere remote. 

Reflection Take Two

Having arrived in my office around 2:30 am on Monday morning, before departing again at 7:30 am on Thursday morning for Dawson City, I have had limited time to write about anything. For that I apologize, and I will promise to do better moving forward.  

As my Internet connection in Dawson seems to be working at this exact moment, here goes....

I am very happy to report that the emotional turmoil and the questioning gnawing at me as we said our goodbyes dissipated throughout the week I was back in Whitehorse. Despite still not having a home, and there still being snow on the ground, I was quickly reminded of how magical this place is. How easy it is to embrace a balanced quality of life and what incredible people live here. 

Spring has definitely arrived - although no one would guarantee winter is entirely over.  Over this past week, I have been watching the Preserve evolve from its winter glory. Seemingly overnight, the landscape has changed and the behaviour of the animals has changed (most days this week we've held meetings or I've done work while sunning

on the deck). The warm days and quite cold nights have made the melt go incredibly smoothly, and there are only 4 places on the Preserve where the road has crumbled a bit (creating spectacular "ditches" that are a bit fun to drive through). Problem flooding has been, for all intents and purposes, absent. Where we want the Preserve to flood, however, has also been going very well.

You know there are those moments when you just know you have made the right decision? Being able to do my work from the deck this week was one of them.  Watching the elk meander through their flooded paddock, eating away was another.  But neither of those came anywhere close to my Wednesday story.

Late on Wednesday evening, I was frantically trying to finish some work before packing for my early morning departure.  I was exhausted because I have already been affected by the increasing light - waking up early and staying up very late - not because I can't sleep, but rather because I can.  It was still so bright and so beautiful at 10:30 pm, I walked outside to take some photos and was startled by the most unbelievable noise.  It took me several moments to comprehend what it was and where it even came from. 

Both the moose and mule deer pastures are intended to flood each spring. I had heard that they became home to a spectacular assortment of birds, but I did not know what to expect. As I was standing there, a flock of trumpeter swans landed in the two pastures where they hunkered down for the evening. Following that incredible racket, they quietly began eating and resting, trying to make themselves as invisible as possible as I tried to get in closer and closer. Twice, I had driven about an hour south of Whitehorse to see the swans on the river, the first time seeing nothing, the second nor more than a handful several kilometres away.  I had no idea they would arrive in my backyard, and I am so incredible grateful I didn't miss them!

It was a magnificent moment, magical actually, and almost certainly not one that I will ever forget.