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