Local life

Hello all,

This Sunday afternoon is a mostly sunny one in Whitehorse, with a little chill in the air and some on-and-off flurries. We spent the morning at the Yukon Wildlife Preserve and met some of the local mammals. Not many of the human kind, though- we only saw a few others at the Preserve, even though it was such a great day to be outside. No, we spent 4 hours with Elk, Wood Bison, Dall's Sheep, Stone Sheep, Mule Deer, Alaska Yukon Moose (the big kind!), Mountain Goat, Woodland Caribou, Muskox, Canada Lynx, Arctic Fox and Arctic Ground Squirrel.

These elks were our first pals at the Preserve

Our second pal, the Arctic Ground Squirrel (called 'sik sik' by some because of their calls to each other). Males emerge from hibernation as early as April

There are lots of antlers around to play dress-up with. Colin is playing Mr. Elk

A sweet little mule deer enjoying the noon sun

Colin introducing himself to the Stone Sheep.We were about to solve one of our animal mysteries from the drive through Jasper AB right here. This is now the second time we have seen stone sheep

Here comes a storm from the southwest, it never really hit us, but it was neat to watch it get closer and closer

Checking out the furniture

Arctic Fox have white coats in the winter and brown-grey coats in the summer, and they live in their families' dens each generation- some known for over 300 years

The coolest dudes, the Mountain Goats. The males are extremely solitary, and only meet up with the ladies to mate in November/December. They are not even actually goats- they are more closely related to antelope!

The dudes are called billies, and the ladies are called nannies

This Caribou antler was too heavy for playing dress-up.

Woodland caribou. The oldest known caribou fossil is 1.6 million years old!

Every once in a while, we would each stop and listen intently, and appreciate being in a place where the only sounds to hear were of mountain goats licking the snow and redpolls chirping in the trees. And only a 25 min drive from town! (that's one of the nicest things to say, 'town') The rolling hills/mountains in this area really isolate places in the valleys, and ever since we arrived, one of our main exclamations has been 'wow, it's so quiet!'

We met a few really nice people this weekend- Evelyn's family friend, Deb the musher, on Saturday morning, and on Saturday evening, friends of a work colleague, David and Cyd. Our visit to their cool house which they are building themselves (near zero fossil fuel dependence, and lots of efficiency features including a soapstone stove - very impressive) ended with Cyd giving us some of her freshly baked bread to take home, which made for a delicious Sunday breakfast this morning. Colin will be meeting up with Deb and her dogs tomorrow (if she doesn't have to supply teach), and will hopefully have some photos and stories to share soon. On the dog front, we have heard from more than a couple of people that there are lots of retired sled dogs (and even some sled dog puppies!) that are available for adoption around Whitehorse, which is something we hope to work on soon.

Our Friday evening plans were lots of fun- the Chocolate Claim cafe that Jennifer picked out for us to try with a housewarming gift certificate was amazing (Lauren's highlights included the artichokes in the turkey panini, and the monster-sized slice of chocolate chocolate chocolate cake!). There's a special bakery in town called the Alpine, and it has a second-floor gathering space that is used almost daily by local groups to show movies, have yoga classes, etc. The film we saw there on Friday was really inspiring in terms of supporting local economies and producers, and we met some people that are working on organizing some interesting opportunities for people in the Whitehorse area, including something called a Potluck Co-op, which definitely deserves some investigating...

In summary, after almost 2 weeks in Yukon, we are still having our minds blown every day, and Lauren is still not completely convinced that she is awake and that this is real life. We miss every single one of our friends and family in Ontario and elsewhere, and find ourselves thinking often, "Wow, wouldn't Bill love to come here and take photos?!", "This will be a great day hike to take Samantha and Tricia on", "oh I think Jarvis would like to play with these guys", and so on. We'll be looking for a more permanent home over the next few weeks and months, and will make sure it has lots of room for visitors!

Hope you have a great week,
Lauren and Colin