Yukon

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Indefinite Closure of the Top of the World Highway

The continuing rains and washouts have threatened bridge integrity, so the Top of the World Highway connecting Dawson City, YT, and Chicken, AK, is closed indefinitely, with folks stranded along it and at least one person missing.

This is going to severely impact Dawson tourism. The prediction is that a season that was off to a roaring start has screeched to a halt.

I’m pretty bummed about this. I’d hoped to use one of my precious afternoons off to make a jaunt to Chicken and back, just to get out of town. There aren’t really any places to ‘go’ from Dawson within a reasonable day’s drive round trip and there’s no point in going back up the Dempster for a few hundred clicks since I’ll be doing it in its entirety in August.

But, at least I’m not stranded on a dirt track or lost in the muddy waters of the Yukon River.

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Somewhere Over the Rainbow

There isn’t much to report these days beyond the closing of the Top of the World Highway due to washed out sections between the border and Chicken. I saw pictures of some of the damage and it looks like the apocalypse, with the road stopping at the end of a wide chasm. The road on that stretch is very sandy and unstable, so add in the unseasonably rainy weather we’ve had and you have a recipe for a lot of spoiled vacations. Some folks are extending their stays in Dawson, others are avoiding the town all together. We’re busy as ever, but as we head into the biggest weekend of the season, we have to wonder if it’ll be a bust.

As for me, I am working my tail off, having taken on another contract. There is a lot going on behind the scenes, but it is much, much too soon to be making announcements. All I can confirm is that there is a pot at the end of the rainbow. The next few months will tell me if it is filled with gold or pyrite. 😀

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Watching the Clouds Come In

Today was sticky. I wound up turning on the AC for the first time this year! I thought that it was late compared to last year, but nope. Right now, there is a wonderful cool breeze and I can see some storm clouds rolling in so it’ll probably be a comfortable night.

It’s definitely been a wetter summer, but nothing like what I experienced in Vancouver or Campbell River. The nice thing about the flash storms is that they keep down the dust and forest fires. The not-so-nice thing about the flash storms is that they turn Dawson’s streets to rivers of mud. I’ve discovered that an ankle-length skirt, my uniform of choice, is not sensible fashion here on wet days!

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Still Waiting for Tomatoes

I should have called my last post on the subject GREEN Spheres of deliciousness! 😀

Using advice from the farmer who gave me the plants, I repotted the saddest looking one, have been feeding all three blood and bone meal (yuck!), and watering them consistently. The result: healthy looking (I think) plants loaded down with lots of lovely green fruit. I’m told that I may get red ones in the nearish future. I sure hope so! 😀

These were taken with the ‘flower’ setting on my new camera:

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Prepping the Paint Prep

I bought some paint in Whitehorse:

They are very close to some of the paint colours I had in mind back in Campbell River. They are also the exact type of paint I wanted–kitchen and bath with a mildew agent added. They were found in the ‘oops’ section at the Home Hardware for four bucks each!!!

There will be enough of the blue and lavender, but I’m pretty sure the pink and green will run out. What I will do with those is take them to the Home Hardware here in Dawson and have them match the colours as best as possible, then mix the two batches together. The lavender is going into the toilet room, the pink into the dressing room, the blue into the loft, and the green into the study. What a find!!!

The front room needs rethinking. I had thought of doing the kitchen in yellow and the library in orange, but one of my wonderful readers sent me on a tangent and now I need to rethink what I’m doing for that room, wall colour-wise. I’m starting to have a lot of different colours with little relation between them, so it’s time to pause and start focusing on fabrics.