Garbage

I know, garbage is a strange thing to write about. I have been struggling lately. Life has been really busy, and much of what is going on - Chloe dying, non-stop sunny 30+ weather - no one wants to hear about!

As I put the garbage out this morning, however, I was amazed at how little we have - and pleased. We are producing very little non-divertable waste. Yay!

Whitehorse has an effective, if detailed system. I love it. Our garbage gets picked up bi-weekly and our compost gets picked up on alternate weeks. Our compost includes all food scraps, napkins, kleenex, dog hair, etc., etc. which is pretty impressive.

We don't have curbside recycling, it just isn't viable in the territory. Instead, we have Raven Recycling (which is not far from the brewer, so Mike likes to go). Raven takes EVERYTHING. Well, at least seemingly. There are bins for paper, mixed paper, box board, corrugated cardboard, clear jars, juice jugs, cans, plastic bags, plastics, etc. etc. It is a nightmare in terms of time to sort everything, but it helps them out, and we all want them to survive!

Raven is a non-profit who takes all the valuables in hopes to pay for the stuff that really isn't worth recycling financially, but is a good thing to do. They operate the program to refund pop cans, water bottles, beer/wine/liquor bottles and all the others things we pay a recycling fee to buy. As I mentioned, they do try to fund their own operation, so they also take metals, etc.

The ONLY challenge to this plan is that while you can drop stuff off 24 hours a day, there is only someone to give you your refund for bottles during working hours. This is also the only time that the free store operates - a place where people can just drop off stuff for anyone interested. Anyone who know Mike can understand my conundrum here - and will not be surprised to know we now own an old-school push lawnmower and two rather 'spectacular' belt buckles...

Parks Day

Mike and I both worked on Saturday for Parks Day. It's a day celebrated by Parks Canada and other agencies every year in July. There are activities at parks and historic sites across Canada, and this year the Whitehorse office of Parks (Canada) decided to host a family event at the S.S. Klondike.

They invited the Wildlife Preserve to participate, along with Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, the local Conservation Society, the Yukon Department of Environment and others. There was great entertainment, a walk, a run, and cake. Like many others, we had colouring pages for kids and brochures - but we also had antlers, horns and furs! There was also sun gazing in honour of this being the Year of Astronomy.

After a bit of a rough start setting up, it turned out to be a good day. The people that visited Juan and I were pretty interested in the Preserve. The highlight, without a doubt, was Mike dressed as Boomer the Parks Canada Beaver. He was AWESOME!! He had a lot of fun and the kids loved him. I still cannot believe he didn't talk for that many hours!!

Becoming a Yukoner

There is an order of operations to becoming a Yukoner. For me, the first step was my driver's license. I handed in my fancy, high-tech Ontario driver's license and got me a Yukon one. It's about the equivalent to my high school student card - two pieces of paper, a little photo and my signature all laminated together. Fun! Oh, and $50 for 5 years.

Then, I got my fishing license. This was a breeze and I think $15.

Next to final, our health cards. For this one, you have to be in the Yukon for just over 2 months - the first day of the third month you're in the territory to be precise. It requires some level of proof who you are and when you arrived, and is free (unless its lost then I think it's about $5). After filling out the paperwork, an envelope arrives and after a few simple steps.....

1. Open the envelope. 2. Remove contents. 3.

Place sticker on blank health card. 4. Sign health card. 5. Put health card in plastic sleeve. Ta da! An easy 5 steps closer to being a Yukoner.

Horse Hide

We attended an exhibit opening at the Beringia Museum last week.

What is Beringia you ask? The area stretching across and between Russia and Alaska/Yukon during the ice age (aka land bridge) was called Beringia. Glaciers never formed in Beringia because the climate was too dry.

Beringia, clothed in the hardy grasses and herbs of the mammoth steppe, was home to the giants of the Ice Age: the mammoth, the giant short-faced bear, the steppe bison, and the scimitar cat. It was also home to some of Mike’s favourite animals – the giant sloth and the giant beaver. At the height of the last great Ice Age, the most successful hunters of all, human beings, entered Beringia from the Siberian steppes, conquering the last frontier for the human species

Beringia vanished with the end of the last Ice Age. But parts of this lost land can still be found in northern and central Yukon, Alaska and Siberia.

During the great Klondike Gold Rush word got out that there was more than just gold in "them there hills"...there were strange things too! Soon scientists from around the world were coming to the Yukon to record and collect spectacular ice age fossils. However, these discoveries were not news to the Yukon First Nations who already knew about the underground world of bones. It was not long before they would have a chance to tell their stories. In the 1960s and 1970s another wave of scientists arrived in the Yukon to document fossils and artifacts from the Old Crow area, including the famous Bluefish Caves. What they found set the scientific world on its head and challenged entrenched ideas about the peopling of the New World.

Ok, so the Beringia period is really, really cool, and we quite enjoy the museum. Last week, they launched a new exhibit around the Yukon Horse, and it is pretty spectacular.

In September 1993, placer miners working a claim in the Klondike found a fossil that has been radiocarbon dated and identified as a 26,000-year-old Yukon horse that once roamed the plains of Eastern Beringia. Discovered by Sam and Lee Olynyk and Ron Toews, the Yukon horse is the best preserved specimen of a mummified, extinct large mammal ever found in Canada. Following scientific analysis on the carcass and hide restoration, the Yukon horse has become the newest member in an impressive collection of exhibits belonging to the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre.

The hide is remarkably intact with hair still present, obvious bite marks (from a wolf possibly) and flesh was still present. Part of the intestine was still intact – including dung and remnants from its environment (poppies, sedges, grasses, buttercups, roses, etc) - . Even fossil insects were present! Such a cool find, and so important to understanding our history – this find is like one of 8 in the world that still had flesh, etc. present. Go Yukon!

Local Food

For anyone that knows me, I am a HUGE proponent of local food. I have weaknesses, for sure, but by and large, I don't want my food to travel more than I do. I am the traveller in this relationship!

Moving to the Yukon, I knew we would be starting from scratch. Finding new farmers, learning new skills (hunting, fishing, gathering) and learning how to garden all over again. We also moved at, perhaps the worst time, getting to bring almost none of the fabulous food I had stored for winter and spring.

Two months in, we are only just starting to get started on the local thing. Fish is pretty easy, even Loblaws carries local arctic charr, haddock, rainbow trout and now salmon. Some meat is also pretty easy - but absolutely the best way to get local protein is to hunt or fish it yourself!

Veggies and fruit are just starting to become available too, which is exciting. We have a pick-your-own membership at a farm near the Preserve. Even with the farmers doing most of the work (we just have to do 10 hours of labour and, well, pick our stuff), it is weird learning all over again what will be ready when - and how things are a bit different than at home.

My staff have given us bag loads of unbelievable spinach. Strawberries started last week, and it felt really good being out in the field (although my butt thought otherwise the next day) - and the strawberry shortcake ice cream I made over the weekend is fabulous! This week, I hear, there are more strawberries (they will be ready for picking through to September), as well as radishes, herbs, spinach, arugula and who knows what else! VERY exciting!

In the woods we walk in, soapberries are ripening, and there is no end to sage, wild chives and roses. I have a lot to learn before mushroom and true berry season, but we've started, and that makes me happy!

Faro

We went to Faro this past weekend. 

Faro has intrigued me every since we moved to Whitehorse. It is a town about 4 hours north-east. They were established in the 1960s as a mining town, except that now the mine is closed. The community is trying revive itself through tourism and inviting artists, etc. to live there, which I greatly admire, and I really wanted to see what it is like. 

Truth is, I remain fascinated. There is no denying that that the people who live in Faro are committed to it, and it really feels like a tremendous community to live in. It is, nevertheless, a bit of a ghost 

town. Their website boasts a community of 400, which I find hard to believe, with infrastructure for 1500 - which I do believe. The downtown is so sad and run down and vacant, but the people were lovely and, as I mentioned, very proud, committed citizens. 

It is interesting when a town is dying (or on its way back) what infrastructure stays open and what closes. The two ski hills that once existed in town are closed, the rec centre with pool seem pretty nice and a 9-hole golf course runs right through town. The church seems to have closed (even after going multi-denominational), but a chapel of sorts still exists. There is no grocery store in town, although the hardware store does sell some groceries, and there is no gas station, but there is a pretty great liquor store/ government services office. 

The most tremendous asset the town has is its location. There is spectacular wildlife viewing, hiking, etc. available in the area. I hope for their sake they can over come the chicken and egg aspect of demand and services - what comes first?

Perhaps having grown up so close to Detroit, I wasn't nearly as disturbed by the condition of the town as the rest of my group. Yeah, it looks

abandoned in places, but I can see how hard people are working and how committed they are.  I hope it works for them, they definitely have my support!

Camping

We're going camping and I can hardly wait!!  It has been so long since we've gone I can barely contain my excitement!  I think, this weekend, will be mostly car camping with a bit of hiking. We are not bringing the giant tent, so we'll see how Maui does, but we have bought her her own sleeping bag! Lol!

We're going to Faro, where I have never been. Faro is a mining town about 4 hours from Whitehorse - that no longer has a mine. But this weekend is their 40th anniversary and the mine is open for tours and there are a lot of community activities going on - so off we go! Yay!

Anti-Productivity

Today started out so good. I felt so productive. I got a great start on a big project I had to finish, and despite a major, heart attack call from the architect (to tell me the building size and subsequently price had tripled), I pretty much finished it. Then, I got through a long to do list. Yay! I love crossing stuff of a to do list!

But then, it was missing. The insurance forms I had been carrying around for a month, dutifully arguing to keep our level of insurance, getting everyone's signature, everything I was supposed to do. And now, now when it is due, completely MIA. Last week, I had rented my office, so the forms were in Clare's office, which she has recently cleaned. Today, I went through everything 3 times, I have turned my house upside down, my office upside down....where could they be?? I need them.

My stomach hurts. I don't mind losing stuff, but not this kind of stuff.  Boo!

My Next Article

My second What's Up Yukon story. (including random capitalization that was not there when I submitted and reviewed my article. I shake my fist. Who edits in mistakes?)

Welcome!

We have been very, very lucky since arriving! People in Whitehorse are, perhaps, the most welcoming people I have ever met.  

Whitehorse, like so many other places in Canada, is filled with people from somewhere else.  Few people come to Whitehorse intent on staying, although clearly many do. But almost everyone, comes from somewhere and there is a flow of people coming in and out of the territory. 

What I find completely Yukon, is the instant welcome, the immediate invitations, the melding of ages and backgrounds and careers into one big

 community. This past weekend we attended a delicious dinner at the home of my lead government liaison (the wife) and a colleague of Mike's (the husband) with a fascinating assortment of people around the table with fascinating backgrounds and careers and stories to tell. Dinner was great, conversation interesting and it was all around a fabulous evening.  When someone rightfully pointed out how few people were a) from Yukon or b) long-time residents, the hostess quickly pointed out that people are always from away in Yukon so its best to make friends fast. I love that! 

And it has certainly been our experience. The Friday before that dinner we had a terrific night on the town, probably much more fun than even we had been anticipating.  The next day, a delicious dinner field trip that was also really, really great.  

Today, as if to top it all off, was Canada Day.  We started our day downtown with a pancake breakfast and general festivities. I was so much fun to see how 

many people were there ( a lot) and how many we knew (also, a lot!).  It was great! Then we went to a barbeque where I hardly knew anyone, but had a terrific time, and felt very, very welcomed by everyone. Not the least of which were the hosts - we had never met before, and they were incredibly warm and friendly and, it turns out that the barbeque was also a surprise (to the guests, not the hosts) renewal of their wedding vows. Turns out today was their 20th wedding anniversary and they invited us all.  How cool is that?