Discovery Day Long Weekend

We are (finally) celebrating our August long weekend. Here it is called Discovery Day and is held on the third Monday of the month. On our calender had it written down as the fourth weekend of the month, which caused a little confusion as we thought that this was just a regular weekend and that we would have a long weekend for when Lauren Knowles and JP arrive - not the case. Countdown is just 7 days til their visit!



So with no plans to speak of (we were given a few great invitations, but again, we didn't realize this was the long weekend) we are getting to enjoy some great Toronto-inspired meals (tastes of the Danforth and home-baked goods), some fun times with the dogs- experimenting with them coming into the house, getting into some heated games on our newly acquired Foosball table, and in the evening, watching some movies from under the covers on the sofa. We've also been admiring our view of the full moon- the combination of the big east-facing picture window and the dark night sky makes for a perfect backdrop of the moon rising above the spruce trees.

The weather has been all over the map the last few days. We have had beautiful sunny parts where we have hiked through the woods and listened to birds who have started to head south. Last night we had supper and a Scrabble game outside, without being bothered by the bugs too much, and only requiring a light sweater (until a few hours after the sun dropped below the treeline). Those where the nice bits of weather, but we have also rain. On Thursday at the market it rained all evening (non stop), and it kept raining all night and didn't stop until mid morning on Friday. We did have a nice window for some fun dog hikes, and when Lauren got home from work we took the dogs for a great bikejor. The pups love to run more then anything else, we think, and even though some strange doofus of a dog decided to join us for our run and got underfoot for our dogs, they still listened to our calls and directions (to a reasonable point).

They respond really well to these ones:
"On bye!" (Ignore the other interesting things around you, like wild strawberries, and keep running!)
"Whoa" (Stop! We have to get off the Robinson Road so that the one car of the day can pass us)
"Yahoooo" (This is so fun from the human perspective! Let's keep going!)

And pretty well to these ones:
"Gee" (Turn to the right. I mean left! Wait! Which one is gee?)
"Haw" (Turn to the left. No! Other left!)
"Easy" (Slow down) This one does not work at all while hiking down mountains- nothing on earth can slow them down.

On Sunday evening, we went to a homestead north of town, and checked out the Dog Powered Sport Association of Yukon's Hot Hounds event. A bit more practice and some extra safety gear, and Lauren and Smiley are competing in the next event! They will be in the one-mile, sled-dog event. Here's what it looks like, from an article in the Yukon News (http://yukon-news.com/sports/12857/):

On a sad note, we're saying goodbye to the fireweed now- there are only a few blooms left on the plants as they go to seed. From brighter times:

Bye for now,
Love Colin and Lauren