First thing Saturday

The coffee's ready, the dogs are fed, CBC radio is on; the weekend has started in all the usual ways, except... there's no sign of the sun! Here is what today will look like, in our part of the country and yours:

Date: October 29
Sunrise: 9:18am (Whitehorse), 7:49am (Toronto), 7:15am (Nassau)
Sunset: 6:10pm (Whitehorse), 6:13pm (Toronto), 6:31pm (Nassau)
Length of day: 8h 52m (Whitehorse), 10h 23m (Toronto), 11h 16m (Nassau)

It's a bit disorienting, having a regular work schedule to keep, but feeling like you've made a mistake and left the house at the wrong time of the day because the pitch black, the stars in the sky, the quiet forests, everything indicates that it's night time! If we could take a photo of our drives into town in the mornings these days, it would look like this (with a bit more snow at the side of the road):

Jack's back with his pack

A night with an empty stomach gave Jack the incentive he needed to climb into the trailer this morning, and we brought him back to his farm and his pals just after lunch. The ram was pretty happy to see Jack and his food bucket- as soon as we opened up the trailer to let him out, the ram was eating up the food scraps that Jack had left, without even welcoming him home. He's back to his old life for a little while... then he's on the list for harvesting. Colin will be going over to help and learn, but will hopefully not be making any videos this time.

Here are some links to the farm that Jack came from:

Extreme Farming in the Yukon

Wheaton River Garden

We had a great time at the alpaca farm fair afterwards, and came home with a pair of alpaca wool socks, and a bag of wool for felting. Oh, and Colin came home with some alpaca spit on his sunglasses- one of the girls took a disliking to him, and made it known quickly!

First go at moving Jack Pig

Today we woke up with the goal of getting Jack Pig into the trailer and back to his farm. Colin took first shift, and built a fire to keep warm in the early-morning frosty weather

Jack pig

One look into our side yard, and it's pretty obvious that Jack's time with us is coming to an end. He's uprooted the first few feet of soil across the whole rectangle, eaten through some roots the size of a forearm, and now he seems to be aiming to dig straight down to China. Well, straight down to Russia, from where we are, I guess. There are big craters that we will probably have to back-fill when he leaves, but there is one spot in the middle that he uses as a nest that has escaped the clearing. We might keep it that way when it becomes a garden, and maybe put a work table or a few chairs there :)

All over the place

It's Friday evening, the pig is fed, the dogs are well fed (more on that later), and we are winding down after a busy week, with a bottle of wine, a tasty stir fry, and some great jazz courtesy of the CBC.

Colin's been juggling a few jobs lately, and added a new one today- working at a fish farm! He spend the day learning the ropes of farming and processing Arctic Char, and came home with an enormous frozen block the size of a sofa cushion. The dogs could tell what it was way before I could... fish bits! The fish farm sells the leftover fish parts that humans don't want, and local mushers pick them up for dog food. It's a perk of this job to bring the blocks or bits home for free, so on the way home we picked up a 5.5 cubic foot freezer- a dedicated freezer for dog food! No more chicken heads or fish spines staring out at us as we open our fridge freezer to get the edamame or cranberries. Woo hoo! Colin axed the block up into single servings, and we got the new freezer up and running outside on our back deck. I never thought of having an appliance outdoors before coming here, but apparently it's a normal thing to do, and pretty soon the freezing temperatures will allow us to unplug the unit and enjoy the extra food storage space without the electricity usage!

Photo notes

I sustained a stinging cut on my finger knuckle the other morning, so instead of typing much, here's an update via photos. But of course I can get this out: Happy Birthday, Bill!

Jack has some really cute moments

Holiday photos

Smiley's so excited to go for a hike, she can't keep her eyes open!

It's a Thanksgiving Miracle!

We woke up this morning to our first snow of the winter!

Pig weekend

Jack worked faithfully last night, very methodically... creating himself a nest in the middle of the pen! He snuggled down into the grassy bed, and ignored all our songs and stories about how he would be much happier in his trailer over night. We checked with his owners, and after a reminder about how there was no way to make him do anything other than what he had planned, we left him to sleep in his new spot, set our alarms for Jack check-ins overnight, and took turns making sure he remained unmolested by the Mt Lorne grizzlies.

WELCOME JACK PIG to our Mountain Home

The day has arrived! Our neighbours (of about 30kms down Annie Lake Road) and friends from the market Shiela and Poul have sent over their prized pig to help us dig our new garden. Jack's job on their farm is to dig up and eat roots of unworked ground. He is incredibly strong, and has a lot of mass to push with (he weighs about 450 pounds) and has great tusks under his smile that are perfect for scraping up turf and pulling up root systems. After about a week or 10 days, Jack will have turned over the soil many times looking for more roots to eat, the soil will have been well mixed, and there will be pig poop all over, to boot. This makes an ideal condition for building a garden in, because without existing roots to interfere with the vegetables that you have planted, you will enjoy decreased competition for nutrients and soil space .

Famous for Fresh Air

Check out this article from the Yukon News... best air quality in the world! Way to go, Whitehorse!

http://www.yukon-news.com/news/25176/

Fun weekend

Happy October, everyone! We are enjoying warm(ish), sunny weather in Mt Lorne, and feeling thankful after a weekend of good times.