Yahoo!

This has been a great week for lots of reasons, but the highlight was making a crazy decision to fly to Vancouver for the May long weekend to see Buck 65 in concert. Yahoo!! We'll be visiting some friends and family, and eating as much Thai food and sushi as we have time for.

Actually, this was another highlight of the week- check out the best seat on the planet:

We are becoming a bit more jaded towards Cookie and Smiley running away from us when we take them out on hikes- this week we've been asking each other, "Want to go lose the dogs for an hour?". They have come back intact every time (although usually smelling like horse manure), so we are trying to take it in stride and call it their 'spring fever'. 

Tomorrow I am headed up to Mendenhall, a community in between Whitehorse and Haines Junction, for my Firefighter Basic test. Wish me luck!

Happy weekend!

Love Lauren and Colin

Nevermind...

Back to winter with a snow this morning!

Happy Thursday,
Love Lauren and Colin

Sunny Wednesday and a the scent of pineapple in the air

Holy Raven (we don't have crows here), this place is beautiful.

We have been enjoying a few days of sunny, warm weather in Whitehorse and Mt. Lorne this last week or so, and although we are still covered by a few feet of snow in most places, there are hints of spring in the air. For example, this week marked the first time since October we have been able to see a few square feet of bare wood on our snow-covered backyard deck. Also, the evening sun is starting to creep into our getting-ready-for-bed time. The sky is that beautiful dark blue colour a little after 9pm, and will be moving later and later for another 3 months - which is a bit wild to think about. I think our days are getting to be about 5 minutes longer each day. Maybe next week Lauren will need to get her sunglasses on for the 7:30am drive into work; yesterday morning the sun was getting close to cresting the mountain as we carpooled in with a neighbour.

This week has also marked by the addition of a new member of our family, and it has been a long time coming - we picked up our third-hand and very experienced canoe! This canoe has already done a few of the trips that we want to take, including the paddle downstream from Whitehorse to Dawson City - we are getting goose bumps thinking about the possibility of getting some Yukon River experience this summer. There is a little bit of work to do on the canoe before that, but it is all preventative, and will hopefully extend the life of the newest O'Barrett. We are expecting to be able to put it through a bit of abuse and rough treatment as we are perfecting our white water skills.

What else is going on up here? Oh yes the Bluegrass Brunch event was a huge success. I was asked to do a radio interview on our local CBC channel which aired on Thursday, which was lucky because we sold out on Friday. There were 70 seats set up in the hall at the Lorne Mountain Community Centre, and the meal that we made with Agnes was very well received. Then when the band started playing, everyone was on the edge of their seats. The band did a super job and I think they played 3 encores. Here is the song that was played on CBC after the interview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URevDCJVi3w.

Tonight we are headed out for dinner in town with Kim at a great little place called Burnt Toast (they do a weekend breakfast that is worth waking up for, even if you drank a little too much the night before). After the meal, we are headed to the Yukon Arts Centre to see Royal Wood. However, before the show in the main hall of the Arts Centre, there is a martini bar including live piano music. Royal Wood has a trademark clean-cut image and is always wearing a tie. I'm guessing, to celebrate his sense of style and his trip up to Yukon, the Arts Centre folks have been placing ties all over town, on street lights, on notice boards, over door handles. It is a funny sight.

Oh shoot it is closing time (I'm writing during my shift at the Yukon Made Store). Got to go.

Miss you Ontario, and all you wonderful people.

PS.  It was on our way home when while we were talking about our days and enjoying the glow of a great concert that I realized that I did not explain the pineapple scent in the air. On days when the winds are coming from the south, old timer sourdoughs will tell you they can smell the "Pineapple Express". It is on these days that the warm winds are coming off the pacific from Hawaii, and if you are a true Yukoner, you can smell pineapples in the air. Good night all.

Lots to say

"Lauren, you should be studying for your firefighter test tomorrow"

"I knooowww, but i just hafta write a quick blog post..."

Because there is lots to write about! We bought a canoe today! A beautiful white second/third hand canoe that we saw an ad for on the library bulletin board (and coffee shop, and newspaper...).

She's a 16'8" Clipper Cascade, and came from a French couple that bought it after it was a rental at Kanoe People (a local outfitter) for a year. They took one trip with her down the Yukon River, and had to sell her because they are moving. Our own canoe! I'm even more excited about this than when we bought our car. She came with an awesome pair of extremely old-school life jackets, those dingy orange ones that smell like a hot boathouse, plus a pair of good paddles and a throw rope. Colin's going to do a bit of fibreglass reinforcing this spring, but she'll be ready to take out on Yukon lakes and rivers as soon as they thaw. I can't wait to see what husky dogs think of canoes. My coworker said he never tried to get his own ex-sled dogs huskies into his canoe, they just ran along the shore as he paddled along!

And in more excellent news, the O'Neills have booked a flight for their visit to the Yukon! They are arriving August 15 and staying for just under a month. Lots of time for adventures and good quality family time!

Today in 2011, we were at the Roeland's in Nelson, recovering over a delicious dinner, from a brand new experience of snowshoeing in BC mountain snow. That was a great day that we are happy to reminisce about.  Here is a blast from the past:

Cookie and Smiley are as great as ever, and although they are still doing more independent exploring than we are happy with when we all go on hikes, they always come back before too long. We were reminded of the reality of our situation, of training ex-sled dog huskies, when a neighbour recently commented, "You could teach a Lab to speak English before you could teach a husky to come back". And he's a dog musher! Maybe Cookie and Smiley know that the snow will be gone before too long, and want to enjoy the feeling of bounding through the untouched snow in the forest as long as they can. Whatever the reason, it's not hard to justify their behaviour, as long as they come back eventually :) This may or may not be good practice for children. 

Here is a link to a great slideshow about a recent dogsled race with some cute pups and people we know: http://www.yukon-news.com/multimedia/slideshow/27808/

And speaking of cute pups, we are over at Deb's twice a day this week, feeding the now 4-month old puppies and the few dogs that she has not taken up to Dawson with her, for the Percy DeWolfe Mail Race. Colin will take some puppy photos tomorrow- you'll never believe how big they are!

Good night,
Love Lauren

Monday Monday

The weekend has come and gone, and all over the Yukon, people are looking wistfully out their windows and wishing they were free during the day to enjoy the incredible blue skies and bright sun. I had a great time learning the techniques of Indian Head Massage at Alpine Ayurveda in town, and Colin felt like the firefighter testing went well. He passed the six practical stations, and is waiting to hear the results from the written part (which he was well-prepared for).

Thankfully, we avoided the round-up of potential jurors that happend in town on Friday. This article on the CBC website was good notice to stay away for downtown Whitehorse, or risk jury duty!



http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/story/2012/03/16/north-jury-asp-sheriffs-main-street-looking-for-jurors.html

If you take a look at the article on the CBC website, check out this video of the lights from space: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/story/2012/03/18/aurora-borealis-nasa.html

We are really looking forward to the Mt Lorne Bluegrass Brunch that is happening this coming Sunday at the community centre. After coming up with the idea from one of our favourite Toronto events, Colin and I are helping Agnes with the food prep. Here is the menu:

- hash browns

- southern-style scrambled eggs

- baked beans with salsa

- goat cheese biscuits and toast

- breakfast sausages

- potato gratin

- fruit salad

- cinnamon buns

- cranberry white chocolate muffins

- tomato mozzarella salad

- Bean North's Mt Lorne roast coffee

We're hoping that it's lots of fun and has the same great atmosphere that we loved at the Dakota:

Bye for now,
Love Lauren

Quick hello

Hello all,

Thanks a lot for staying in touch with us by checking out the blog, and for the nice comments you write. Colin and I really liked what Heather G wrote the other day about us finding our bliss here- it was a perfect way to  describe the feeling. The only negative thing about the Yukon is that all of our loved ones in Ontario don't live here, and we are super extremely excited to have visits with Mom and Dad Barrett, Steve and Cailey, Mom and Dad O'Neill and maybe even Krista and the baby bump this summer. There is lots of room for more, too! Well, not literally room in our house, but we are quite happy to camp out in the yard to make space. And Jenn's hammock needs to be my outdoor bed soon! Before the mosquitoes return.

Most people we know here have lots of amazing talents. Our friend and neighbour Ruth came over to our place on Wednesday and did a healing touch session, and really helped with some tension I've been carrying around. And Kim is great for lots of reasons, and also takes some nice photos. Here are a few she shared with us recently (thanks Kim!):

Mt Lorne sunrise at the neighbour's 



From our last Mt Lorne hike, looking over to the Gray Mountains 




Family photo (the ones who would stay still)




Cloudy sunset



Kim called this one 'epic Lauren' :) 

We have lots of plans this weekend, and will hopefully be able to share some good news about the firefighting test and the head massage course by Sunday evening. Hope you all have a happy weekend!

Love Lauren

One year later

Moving away from your family and friends to live in the forest in the Yukon is the perfect definition of bittersweet. There are such conflicting feelings of separation from all of our loved ones, and waking up daily, filled with joy that comes from living in a beautiful, wild place.

At the one year anniversary of leaving Ontario, thinking back to the early days of being our own hurts a bit still, and the passage of time hasn't made us miss you any less. But as the days of March go by, we can remember where we were this time last year, on our cross-Canada adventure. Here are the fun times we will be reminiscing about over the next few weeks:

March 12- Thunder Bay and Kakabeka Falls
March 13- Sioux Lookout and Kenora
March 15- Driving through Ontario, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan
March 16- Waking up in Saskatoon, sleeping in Edmonton
March 17- The Day We Saw The Rockies
March 18- The Day We Skiied The Rockies
March 19- Banff
March 20- Calgary
March 21- Nelson and its lovely people and snow
March 23- Vancouver
March 25- Kamloops
March 27- Mackenzie, BC and onto the Alaska Hwy
March 28- Fort Nelson, near the top of BC
March 29- Into the Yukon!
March 30- First sleep in our new Whitehorse home

Miss you all,
Love Lauren and Colin

Photo by Nicholas Dory
http://nicholasdory.com

Happy Saturday

We're enjoying a beautiful, sunny Saturday morning at home today. A recurrence of winter storms hit us this week, and there is about 11 inches of fresh fluffy snow on top of the already above-the-knee snow depths. Yesterday, before the winds came in, all the trees were covered in a thick blanket of snow and the visuals alone were blowing our socks off; but there was too much to do and so much going on to just sit around looking at our winter wonderland surroundings.

Team NWT has awesome hats made out of arctic fox

In case we have not left enough hints along the way, we are in love with our community centre and the people who make it a happening place. One of the aspects that we maybe haven't talked much about is its 18 hole golf course. For all the golfers out there, it is a par 66, 4 098 yard golf course that is like no other golf course out there. It has links-style fairways and sand greens, although some greens are planned to be converted into crushed glass to help the recycling people to use up all the crushed glass Whitehorse has stored up.

But all this last week, the Annie Lake Golf Course has been converted into the Arctic Winter Games Dog Mushing venue. There were 14 athletes (mushers) and their team of dogs racing for gold, silver and bronze medals. The races were sprints- the longest was 13 kms and it was no surprise that the kids and their dogs were competitively fast. Home snow advantage was prevalent as Team Yukon and Team Alaska won may medals but the other two regions participating in this event (Northwest Territories and Nunavut) kept a tight race. It was hilarious to hear the kids from Nunavut stating that their dogs are too furry for this warm weather (the average daily temperatures this week was around -7 or so). Being a staff person with the community centre, Colin had responsibilities to help with the rental of the facilities to the Arctic Winter Games people, but he also volunteered in preparing and running the medal presentations. The medals for this games were fashioned after the ulu which is a traditional scraping tool used by the Inuit people.

Rachel Kinvig Team Yukon won three Gold Ulus 

Medal presentations with the NWT and Nunuvt Commissioners.

Mt. Lorne in the background

Most of the events in the Arctic Winter Games are finished now, and the gold-medal hockey games (Yukon vs Alaska and Yukon vs NWT!) and closing ceremonies are today. It was really a huge event, and while one of us lived it all day, all week at the community centre for the dog mushing events, it was still big news at the hospital. The Games participants are for people 14-18 years old, and lots of hospital staff have kids that were involved. Apparently there were also a few athletes that had to visit the hospital- a soccer player with a broken collarbone, and a bunch of people with a gastrointestinal bug. 

We were planning on doing the Firefighter Basic testing today, but the dates were changed at the last minute, and now we've got two days of no plans and fresh fluffy snow outside. Yep, you guessed it- we're going skijoring! We are packing up a lunch of salad rolls and peanut sauce, and headed out on the 10-mile dogsled course a the community centre, out to McConnell Lake for a picnic! We will have to pack up some chicken heads or fish guts for Cookie and Smiley to partake in the picnic too.


Next weekend, Lauren has signed up to take a massage course being offered at an Ayurvedic Wellness Clinic in town, to learn Indian Head Massage. It's a two day course, and Lauren is really excited to learn something new. Colin has generously offered to offer his head up for practice.

Along with cheap WestJet flights starting in May, we're hoping the opportunity to have a good head rub convinces a few more people to come visit :)


We are also looking forward to some more concerts, one in town at the Yukon Arts Centre, and the other at a Home Routes show at a neighbour's home in Robinson.

Happy Saturday,
Love Lauren and Colin

PS- this is a photo from the skijor we went on this afternoon,. more about it later. (click on it. the stick is kinda  good)

Oh wow, Whitehorse

On Friday night we went to a performance at the Yukon Arts Centre by a poet and an amazing musician. It's tough to describe how great of an experience it was, but I'm sure I will never forget it. It was even preceeded by a delicious meal at the Burnt Toast cafe on 2nd Ave, of calamari, tuna tartare, tomato and bocconcini salad and Thai salad, plus peanut butter pie. This is a must-go kind of place to eat in Whitehorse! Dad, get ready for the jambalaya when you visit in June.

The poetry by Zaccheus Jackon was incredible:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLkbQnh4KJ4

There is a great article in the Yukon News is an interesting read about CR Avery, which describes him as a rock n' roll beatbox poet-cum-singer: http://www.yukon-news.com/arts/27451/
I strongly recommend checking this site once in a while to see if he's performing where you are!

http://www.cravery.com/index.php/site/tourdates/

I just noticed the other day that we have been writing his blog for a year now, and had a bit of perspective on what life is like these days. The incredible beauty here continues to stun me, and looking around our place and seeing the dog harnesses and skis, the firefighting training manual, the yoga mat, the wild teas on our shelf, our warm clothes for the outdoors, all the new experiences stir up in me a real feeling of gratitude for the opportunities we have. What a dream come true this is.

Bye for now,

Love Lauren