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.  

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!!