I’ve learned from my friend Amber that the Cassiar Fire is now 15km away from Nugget City and that fire prevention crews are on site preparing for the worst.
My thoughts go out to the Goodwin family and all the other wonderful staff at my secondary Yukon home.
After cruelly taunting us for months, summer has arrived in full force! It wasn’t even noon today that I raced back home to shut the windows and roof hatches and put the AC on auto. When I came back a few hours later my grateful cats were lying under the air vents.
It’s so hot that the thermostat is at its maximum and the AC is running continuously. It’s generating water that is being collected in the gutters and dripping to the ground, a most peculiar sight in such arid conditions!
Check out tonight’s dinner’s main event! It’s all Yukon-grown!
First, let me point out that beautiful tomato, which is my first of the season! I gobbled it up after taking the picture and it was succulent!
As for the big green thing, I got to the cash at the grocery store yesterday when a friend working the register told me to go check out all the local produce. Fresh produce up here tends to suck because it has shipped so far and it’s not always easy to distinguish between what’s local and what isn’t. She sold me on that green thing by telling me “It’s so delicious!” and I completely forgot to ask her what it is!
So, I Googled ‘mutant hybrid child of broccoli and cauliflower‘ that gave me a link with a description of something called ‘romanesco’ that fit the description of the veggie I had on hand. I Googled romanesco, and that’s exactly what I have. It’s considered a broccoli, but tastes a lot more like a cauliflower. I can’t believe I’ve never had, much less seen, it before! I grew up in a household with a very progressive view of vegetables and in which we had all kinds of wonderful things none of my peers had ever seen.
Dinner ended up being chicken cooked in pesto over egg noodles boiled in the water I used for steaming, and the veggies which were the impossibly sweet carrots and the romanesco. With unadorned tomato and cucumber as an appetizer.
Simple, rather rustic, and oh-so-delicious.
It took a couple of attempts to get satisfactory proof of Canadian citizenship, but I have health insurance! And I’m officially a Yukoner!!! Yup, I finally got my health card!
While I was still technically insured in Quebec, my sun card would have been useless out here seeing as Quebec does not participate in the reciprocal agreement with the other provinces. In other words, I would have had to pay out of pocket had I needed to go to the ER last fall and then attempted to get reimbursed by Quebec with no guarantee of being paid back.
In related news, I received my vehicle registration papers today and burst out laughing. I owe the Yukon government $120. Compare that to the $900 I used to pay in Quebec. Plus $100 for my driver’s licence. I need to pay Yukon $50 four years from now for my licence.
My change of residency is complete and I am not looking back.
After much option considering, I have decided to spend the fall and possibly part of the winter back in the Okanagan, in Osoyoos and I’m optimistic that this fall will be different. One of the motivating factors for going was that I will be joining my friend Donna. I miss you! Osoyoos is definitely more appealing than was Oliver, being a slightly bigger community with better stores and restaurants.
I have a firm booking starting October 1st, so I am thinking of heading out of Dawson early this year so as to be able to take a partially new route. I’ll be in better shape financially than I was last fall, I’m better at mountain driving, and I’ve worked my tail off this summer. So, I’d like to take two weeks to get back south and see new things.
The cold season is going to shape itself as it goes along because of something I’m not ready to divulge yet, so I don’t know yet if I’ll be looking for work in Osoyoos. I’ll focus on getting there then regroup.
It feels like I only arrived in Dawson yesterday and now I’m already making plans to leave. Where did the summer go? It’s August tomorrow!!!