Month: May 2010

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Backroads of Dawson

My friend Nathalie is currently in vacation mode with a lot of time off AND she has a 4×4, high clearance vehicle perfect for driving on washboard routes. So, she has been very content over the past two days to show me some of the far reaches of the Dawson area that she discovered over the course of her winter here.

Our adventure started last night, with a bit of a tangent. We went out just before 9 and spent so long trying to decide what we wanted for dinner that our only inexpensive option wound up being the casino. The dining choices in summer-time Dawson are incredible! We didn’t realise just how big the variety is until we started the whole “Greek?” “Nah. Italian?” “Nah. Fish and chips?” routine. We wound up getting pizza at the casino and then sharing a veggie dog from the hot dog cart. 🙂

We left Gerties just before the 10:30 show because we were in a talkative mood. Nathalie suggested we hop on the ferry so she could show me the location of west Dawson and Sunnydale, two neighbours on the other side of the Yukon River where homes are 100% self-sufficient. She and I are sort of interested in buying property in the area and have pretty much narrowed our options to west Dawson, so we also spent some time looking for and at empty lots.

West Dawson feels like a remote suburb–houses are fairly close together but there is quite a bit of tree coverage for privacy. Sunnydale, though, is isolated. Roads are maintained in west Dawson so folks can go to town in their vehicles in the winter via the ice bridge, but Sunnydale residents rely on snowmobiles and dog sleds. There are a few businesses on that side of the river, including a kennel and the Top of the World golf course, but otherwise it’s still almost pristine wilderness.

Let me pause here to get back to the buying property topic since I know that raised a few eyebrows. I’m entertaining the idea of buying a small chunk of property that I won’t need to build on just to have a physical address of my own to firmly establish my ties to Canada and Yukon. I would like for it to be RV accessible so that I could use it as an RV pad. I started to think about this last year, and the idea continues to grow on me. If I choose to buy in Dawson, the time to do so is now as prices are starting to sky rocket. This is still very much a project written in sand.

Today, we were going to go gold panning again, but decided instead to check out the gold fields route. I will come back to this route in greater detail when we go again since today was really a scouting mission with no time for pictures. As a teaser, I will say that this route has you climb up so high above the Dawson valley that rivers were still choked with ice and there was several feet of snow in places even though the mercury was at over 30 degrees!

I can’t get over how big this country is, country in terms of the wilderness expanses. There is just green as far as you can see with a swath of golden road cutting through it. I have to say it–it’s like driving on the yellow brick road through the Emerald City!

We’d been driving for over an hour when I started to get concerned about returning to work on time. The landscape was always the same and we hadn’t seemed to make any progress, so I was happy when Nathalie recognized a landmark and told me we were 45 minutes out, giving us an at home ETA that would give me a half hour to spare.

Throughout our drive, Nathalie shared her tales of life in winter Dawson and told me about a really colourful local character. I may come back to him if I get to meet him and he agrees to give me a formal interview. He officially made life in Dawson feel like a novel. 😀

In other news, the weather is HOT and DRY and SMOKY. The fire season is almost a month early this year and it promises to be a bad one. Anyone heading north better keep on top of road closures. A very bad fire just west of Tok closed the road between Tok and Fairbanks and nearly took out a full community. Meanwhile on the 40km up the Dempster highway a huge fire broke out today and will most likely close down that road within a few days. Interestingly enough, it’s the same customers who complain that we’re in a territory-wide fire ban (What, no fire pits?! You guys suck!) who also complain that there is poor visibility on the Top of the World and Dempster Highways. *shakes head*

It’s been a couple of full days and I can’t believe that we’re about to roar into June!

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The Running Together of Days

Thank goodness for the oh-so-long Dawson summer days!

The days have started to run together with a sameness that makes me feel like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day! 😀

It’s good to be working so much and 100% for myself. I really feel like I am a legitimate business now, especially since I’m in negotiations for a short-term project that will do some good things for my bottom line if it goes through.

Yesterday, we hit 32 in the shade, so I’d hate to know what the temps were in full sun! There was a lot of wind, too, which brought up impressive clouds of dust that chased people indoors. At least, it gets quite cool in the evening, making for comfortable nights. With windows and roof hatches open, I haven’t yet had to turn on the air conditioner.

I’m waiting on my toast and upon breakfasting, I will mosey on over to the office to start my day. We have a Hollywood film crew moving in! Well, the Canadian folks they hired. 🙂 Whenever I go into town, I’ll be keeping an eye out for Jack Black, Owen Wilson, and Steve Martin who are filming their movie ‘The Big Year‘ a short way up the Dempster Highway. You never know, I could get lucky. 🙂

No such thing as a dull day in Dawson!

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What Passes for Entertainment In Dawson City

This afternoon, my friend Nathalie came to me at the front desk and asked the always loaded question: “What are you doing this afternoon?”

The answer was, of course, working on my contract, but I asked her what she had in mind.

“Wanna go gold panning?”

And that’s how we found ourselves trundling down to Claim No. Six, a free claim, where anyone can go play in Bonanza Creek. For me, it was mostly an excuse to go soak my feet and toast myself under the sun. 😀

Nathalie is originally from France, but has been in Canada for several years. She arrived in Dawson last fall, just as I was leaving, and spent the winter. She’s therefore a ‘true’ Dawsonite, and she has a lot to teach me about how things work around here! She also met a miner over the cold season and he told her all about gold panning, so we put her lessons to work. We had fun but didn’t find anything (of course 😀 ).

if you're carrying a shovel to bury a body, grab a gold pan and no one will notice you

if you’re carrying a shovel to bury a body, grab a gold pan and no one will notice you

the miner taught Nathalie to pan dirt that's away from the creek bed; someone knew this also

the miner taught Nathalie to pan dirt that’s away from the creek bed; someone knew this also

Nathalie getting dirt for our pans

Nathalie getting dirt for our pans

that's sand!!!

that’s sand!!!

me studiously listening to Nathalie's instructions

me studiously listening to Nathalie’s instructions

she's a funny gal :)

she’s a funny gal 🙂

Nathalie trying her luck

Nathalie trying her luck

demonstrating the technique for swirling the water

demonstrating the technique for swirling the water

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Food, Food, Food, Food, and More Food

Today started off slooooooowly. I needed to go in at noon, rather than my usual eleven, so, of course, I woke up quite early by my standards: quarter past nine. I then made up for that by spending more than an hour in bed with the cats reading, checking my email and getting work done on my iPod Touch (I wish I was kidding. Or maybe not!).

Our fishmonger left today and I thanked him once again for a gift he gave me yesterday: a big bag of frozen shrimp!!!  I’m going to have them on the grill soon as I take the time  to get it set up.

The morning was pretty sedate, but active, since I needed to do some work on the property, including sweeping which really feels like a futile endeavour. The best way I can describe what the property looks like is to imagine the set of the show M*A*S*H, only with RVs instead of tents. There are a lot of similarities in the layout (including mountains in the background) and that ever present coating of dust that turns to mud soon as it’s wet out. Whenever I’m put to beautification detail, I think of the episode where the colonel had the camped spruced up for a general’s visit, which culminated in a fountain being made with bed pans. I suggested we make a fountain with gold pans, but that didn’t go over so well. Hmph! 😀

Just before I went on my afternoon break, I was treated to a slice of watermelon. It was a tad pasty, but by Dawson standards it was excellent and I savoured every morsel. I’m almost at the time of year when my junk food cravings are going to give way to an insatiable appetite for fruit and salad and the watermelon was a nice way to inaugurate the season.

Unfortunately, we’re also at that time of year when the sun is really bad during my time off (3 to 5), so running to the post office and back was quite a chore. I was glad to return to Miranda’s cool interior and get some work done on my contract. As a side note, I received an email a couple of days ago that the contract had been canceled. I was understandably devastated! But some inconsistencies in the correspondence I got made me ask a few questions and I was able to learn that only part of the contract has been terminated. So, I can still count on some hours a week, just not as many. This served to show me that I really can’t rely on that contract for any sort of income this winter which led me down another alley for the winter. It’s much too soon to start on that subject, however.

When I came back to work, late afternoon, I snagged an apple (Golden Delicious!) from the manager and then attempted to show her how to transfer ebooks to her iPod. I believe I may have added ‘ebook transferer’ to my job description. 😀 We were interrupted when a caravan rolled in and I had fun watching the RV ballet. Once everyone was squared away, the organizer came in with treats for everyone–a huge container of cashews and a cinnamon bun the size of my head! It came from the Braeburn Lodge… known for their huge cinnamon buns. A couple of us tore into the bun right away, but we left more than half for the morning folks (ain’t we nice?). I had thought of making shrimp for dinner, but between the cashews and cinnamon bun slice, I think I’m done for the night. 😀

So, needless to say I was thinking breakfast, not dessert, when one of my colleagues (who was a neighbour in Oliver!) handed me two beautiful carrot cake muffins with cream cheese icing when I handed her the night phone. They are going to be soooo yummy with my coffee in the morning!

Been a good day; slightly crazy, which is what passes for normal around here. 🙂

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Test Post From the iPod

Tiny keyboards annoy me. I have big, clumsy fingers with little dexterity. Ease of controls is foremost when I buy a device like a camera. So when I first saw the tiny touch screen keyboard of the iPod Touch I gritted my teeth and resigned myself to frustration. Instead, I am amazed at how smart the keyboard is and how my fingers feel almost nimble. Sure one fingered typing is slower, but this post is writing itself at a reasonable pace, and on a WordPress app to boot. I am convinced that there truly is an app for everything. Pity they have to be bought through the app store. 🙂