Kinda pleased as punch

I have to admit I'm pretty pleased.

Last week was a pretty tough week. On the HR front, I've been fighting history ever since I got to the Preserve.

Overcoming history, overcoming HR issues, improving morale and creating momentum, that's what I do. But this is kicking my ass. The difference? No improvement, no success, no changes seem to make any difference with the staff in question. Nothing seems enough to move attitudes from the negative to the, if not positive, at least benefit of the doubt-ish.

But alas, the real point of this entry is, because, I'm actually really excited about all that is happening (and am largely frustrated only because there is so much good stuff, why can't we just celebrate that for 5 minutes before finding something else to complain about?)

There is SO MUCH GOOD STUFF going on, thanks to the amazing work of some amazing people, I have to brag just a bit. Overall, my staff rock!

In the past month, we've been on CBC radio, tv and internet; we've been featured on APTN and the Whitehorse Daily Star. We've launched a new Wild Life regular feature in What's Up Yukon.

We hosted our open house with probably 200 more people than last year, and such great organization that volunteers were actually bored (ok, not a great situation but hard to predict exactly when our 1000+ visitors might arrive). I have received emails and phone calls and personal messages about how much people enjoyed it and how soon they'll be back. Yay!

We've hosted our first special event (the Canadian Wildlife Federation National AGM dinner - 120 people) and we're about to host our first multi-day meeting (First Nations Programs and Partnership Council).

We've doubled our membership to more than 600 people and have created so many fun and exciting partnerships. Like our new Wild Life blend of coffee! We're working with Environment Canada on our weather programs and maybe having a weather station on site. We have volunteers wanting to run cross country tracks for us this winter, volunteers wanting to do tours and volunteers that are going to build a fence. And we're doing some interesting cross-promotions with various partners.

We've exceeded our school programs from previous years and are already taking bookings for fall (which we've never done before) because demand was so high and we couldn't meet it. We're having a hard time balancing bookings and regular tours because we're busy, busy, busy! This week, on a crappy grey day, we had nearly 100 people come out. On a Wednesday!

The driveway and roadways are done, the perimeter is clear, the feeding station roof is about to be started, the lynx enclosure is within reach, the perimeter fence project is underway, there are rescue and Preserve-born babies everywhere!

Stuff is moving forward with Environment, yay! And there are so many amazing people out there helping us - helping to get our ducks in order for funding, helping us by providing expertise, making donations, etc., etc., etc. I just can't stop smiling. Ok, not every day, but most days. I'm so lucky!

"house" work

At my economic development forum today, one of the things that became epically clear is that people move to Whitehorse because they want to be here.  Whitehorse offers a city with all of the amenities minutes from unlimited wilderness.  People move to Whitehorse because of the lifestyle and because of the balance that life here affords.  They believe in their communities, and they are incredibly involved in both family and community.  

I haven't noticed that this commitment to lifestyle changes very much how people work - except that perhaps more people do something they love.  Actually, that is true, they still work hard, but they generally do something that they love. 

An interesting observation is that between family, community, work and enjoying life, there isn't a lot of emphasis put on having a clean house or a perfectly manicured yard.  For anyone that knows me, this is a great thing! 

Having a clean house is, well, not my forte. Add to that the constant flow of dirt and dust in and out of our apartment and I am glad that there is no pretense attached to a clean home. 

Gardening, landscaping and manicured lawns are few and far between here. Again, this seems to be directly related to someone's enjoyment. People who love to garden have beautiful lawns and beautiful gardens (many are enviable vegetable gardens), but those who don't don't - and that is a-ok.  It's kinda nice to have none of the "keeping up with" sentiments to live up to. 'Cause I've got a lot of other things to do! 

Blah.

Blah. I had forgotten what a rainy day looked like. It is cool, grey and cloudy, and the mountains are covered in mist (ok, that part looks pretty cool!).  But it is rainy today, will be all day.  Blah.

My second complaint? Mike left this morning for Sault Ste. Marie. Now it is true, he's the one that should be complaining - aaaalllll day on the plane to go to the Sault? But its been so incredibly crazy since he arrived, I'm sad he's gone.  So's Maui.  

Maybe I'll actually get some work done today! Maui will probably just sleep.

My first article

My first article. 

http://www.whatsupyukon.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1231&Itemid=205

The Hard Part

My life here is really fascinating. I am feeding moose and moving animals or catching animals often enough that it doesn't really seem worthy of blogging about.  Funny huh?  My day today involved Staples, our bookkeeper, a Board meeting, a couple of moose feedings, planning for our Open House, HR issues, baking cakes (also for our open house - 6 today, about as many yesterday) and a great meeting with some new allies about getting closer to our infrastructure goals. You know, just a typical day. 

Something new, however, is the sense of loss and my inability to make the situation better or to say anything that will make other people feel better.  Death is always difficult, dealing with death at work is something new for me and it isn't easy. Balancing compassion and the emotions I am feeling with strength and practicality is very difficult.  As a staff,  we try to be practical about it, we know it is a fact of life, of wildlife, but the practical and the emotional aren't always in synch. To be frank, our inability to perform miracles is extremely frustrating!

The animals live such great lives at the Preserve, loss is rare. It is, I guess just like humans, a part of birthing. We try not to intervene in the birthing of animals unless the mother is in danger. A baby lost during birth is really, really sad - but not nearly as sad as a baby born and admired for a few days before passing away.  Over the past couple of weeks, I have experienced both. And frankly it sucks. 

Even harder, in some ways, is losing an animal I've been a part of caring for. Last week we received a baby raven who had been pushed out of its nest about 45 feet (sibling rivalry). We checked it out and, aside from a superficial wound, there weren't any obvious injuries. For several days, I was one of a series of people feeding him at least every hour of every day - baby ravens eat OFTEN! Sadly, it turns out, he had internal injuries that we could not have fixed. He had a blood clot around his heart and as he got stronger and healthier, and consequently more active, his heart couldn't handle it and he died.

Don't get the wrong idea, for every sad story there are hundreds of good ones. Despite my sadness for this raven, we are able to save about 90% of all birds brought to us. We've already successfully released a bald eagle and a northern hawk owl this year. Not every baby has survived, but we have 12 so far that have - with more on the way - and a rescue moose and a rescue elk keeping us busy. I think that's it, really. The Preserve is such a magical place to work, there  are so many good news stories, a tiny bit of sadness is that much harder to take.

Caribbean Flavour

Sometimes you just need a Jamaican patty. After walking past Whitehorse's newest eatery Pickapeppa for two days, my curiosity got the better of me today at lunch and I went in for a look. While half the dining room is still under construction, the finished section is bright, colourful and, well, Jamaican.

In a hurry today I passed over the sit down menu and the pre-packaged rice and pasta options and settled on a single, massive beef patty. Although it was $9, let me tell you, it was worth it. Rich meaty filling, crisp and flavourful pastry - fantastic. I can't wait to go back and try some of the other offerings at Whitehorse's only caribbean restaurant. Full review to follow...

The Sun

The way I see it, I should dedicate at least as much time to writing about the sun as I did the snow.  I am sorry, it is just so sunny here all of the time.  How sunny you ask? 

It is June 2nd and I have a well-advanced tan/burn.  

Our school programs today - too hot to hike.

It is 11:42pm and I could go anywhere and do anything without lights.

I was up at 3am on the weekend for moose feeding. It was bright. At 6am? Also bright.

Today, it was so sunny I left work without my real glasses. I wore my sunglasses until some time after 9pm, but it's pretty hard to watch tv that way. Sigh.

Rumour has it it might get partly cloudy on Sunday. I guess we'll see.....

Panic!

What in the world am I thinking? First, blogging. So much pressure knowing there are at least a few people out there who get upset when I don't write, although I expect that number is waning as, perhaps, we get less interesting.  But now, an article - what am I thinking?

It's true. Starting next week, I'll be writing a semi-regular column on behalf of the Yukon Wildlife Preserve in What's Up Yukon a weekly paper. CRAZY. Pressures on now, first deadline? Less than 48 hours....ack! what to write? what to write? 

Even more important - what is my article going to be called, and WHAT photo am I going to use????