Every Day Life

New Family Member Arrived

2011-07-07T11:44:00.000-07:00

Hello dear readers!

Our new family member has finally arrived! Anya was born on June 8. Meanwhile, she is one month old, and she has settled in very well. Elias, Lance and I love her sweet presence. Elias describes her as a beautiful innocent little heart breaker. Lance has developed a very caring attitude toward the baby and never lets us out of his sight when we leave the house. And I miss her when she takes a nap that lasts longer than two hours!

First family pictures (Lance was not really into it :)

Recycling Compost

2011-04-12T17:14:00.000-07:00

It can be quite challenging to obtain fertile soil from compostable plant-components here:

For one, we are confronted with a short short growing season and a consequently sun-deprived, cool, and arid climate.

In addition, our compost used to have hardly any time to decompose, before Lance came along and ate everything that has any nutritional value (a dog's digestive system is very resilient, it seems!).

And finally, some of our wild neighbours (birds and mice) devour the remains of vegetables and fruit routinely.

Mouse-resident in compost pile

The way I am dealing with the first challenge is by making compost piles on which I grow cucumbers and zucchini: the humidity accelerates decomposition and the resulting warmth benefits the plants.

Lance I have managed to keep (partly) out of the compost by constructing compost frames.
But birds and mice will just have to be endured – a small price to pay for the pleasure of having them around, and, as in the case of mice, outside!

Amongst Wild Neighbours' Offspring

2011-02-18T09:59:00.000-08:00

As Lance told you, we have been hibernating, but what he has not realized yet, although we have been telling him, is that he will have more responsibilities and a playmate starting this spring.

In good company, and around the time when our wild neighbours' offspring will be born, we are expecting a new family member.

I'll leave it at that for now, since I am still figuring out how much of this unique experience I want to share on the blog. Your caring comments and messages following my (or Lance's) last entry have persuaded me though to share the news. Thanks!!!

Hibernation, Adieu!

2011-02-15T08:20:00.000-08:00

By Lance

It has been way too long since they posted on the blog. I told them, but nobody seems to find the time to write. Now I am taking things into my paws!

Life has been quiet, cold, white and busy. Well, my life has been quiet, cold and white. My humans are busy with their daily chores and with their art work, and I spend my time eating, patrolling (my patrols get shorter when it is cold) and sleeping, lots of sleeping!

See, I cannot do it anymore. I cannot sleep any longer!

Now, with the sun slowly coming back to Green Creek, Manuela seems more motivated to pull out her camera. Here are some pictures she took yesterday at minus 40 degrees Celsius, when we were out for a walk.

The snow has several significant effects on me and my life: For one, I am growing long warm fur between my toes. That is very functional as long as I walk in dry snow, since it keeps me warm. If I step in overflow though, ice freezes to my toes and that hurts! The best thing I can do in such a situation is go inside and lick it off!

Lance's winter-paws

Something else that has been bothering me is how difficult it is to find decent sticks under the snow. So I fell back on harvesting what they call 'trail markers' for my jousting activities. They grow right next to the trail and are very easy to get to. That, however, did not go very well with Manuela, who forced me to 'drop them'. Here you can see me, two trail markers down next to me and one still standing.

Lance, the culprit – caught in action!

That's enough for one day. Now I DO need a nap.

Solstice

2010-12-22T09:58:00.000-08:00

The full moon is rising over snow covered mountains

Its cold light is reflecting from sparkling fresh snow

Breathless silence of a cold winter night awaits us

Dog paws are crunching in deep snow

We are gathering around a pile of wood

Anticipating warmth

Stiff fingers are igniting a match

Flames start flickering hesitantly

We move closer

Finally, we feel the warmth

The flames are consuming the wood

Sparking ancient memories, connecting us to people who are seeking the warmth of a fire: now, before and after our time

Life is good

Quiet and motionless: River froze

2010-12-04T09:25:00.000-08:00

The Yukon River at Green Creek froze yesterday, December 3, around 3pm.

After seven months of seeing all that open water in constant motion and hearing the diverse sounds it makes, the quiet white stillness of the newly immobilized ice sheets looks and sounds strange, unusual.

We were excited though, to be at the shore when the ice jam reached and passed Green Creek.

Ice coming to a halt at Green Creek

The motionless silence of the river is characteristic for how we experience winter: except for the grey jay family and the chickadee-flock who visit the bird feeder regularly, as well as our local squirrel-neighbours who seem to be in motion all the time, our surroundings provide little visual diversion. Consequently and because I need some sort of diversion sometimes, I find myself staring at Elias or the dog, as they mosey around the house. Lance does not mind, but Elias is not particularly fond of my keen interest in his activities.

Not much motion, but nice to look at anyway: my boys

The freeze up also gives us a new sort of freedom: we can start travelling on the river again! In a few weeks, we will be able to check or mail, buy fresh eggs and see other people – after more than two months of seclusion.

Minus 30 Celsius / Minus 20 Fahrenheit

2010-12-01T09:31:00.000-08:00

It is is cold and temperatures are supposed to drop even more. Today morning, we measured minus 30 degrees Celsius, which equals about minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit. The river is really loud: more and more ice is coming down. The ice might stop soon, marking the spot in time we refer to as 'freeze up'. I'll keep you posted.

The thermometer that made it through the 2009-flood

Addition -Our perception of the river freeze-up:

Somebody asked about the river freeze-up and how it sounds strange that we are still looking at open water, in December, at minus 30 degrees Celsius.

Here is a - by no means scientific - explanation, that is based on Elias' 30 year experience with the river. The Yukon River is 2,000 kilometres long and does not freeze everywhere at the same time, nor does it start freezing from the mouth, making it's way upriver. It freezes, where the ice sheets, that build up as the temperatures drop, jam up in narrow and shallow spots and at cold temperatures (like right now at minus 30). Once such a jam exists, the oncoming ice comes to a halt too, and slowly the river freezes up – upriver from the jam.

Downriver from such a jam, the river might stay open for a longer time, also because less ice sheets are coming down and with the current still moving the water, it is not easy for the ice to build up on the surface. We believe that the ice jammed up somewhere not far upriver from our place (there is a spot, where a big rock sticks into the middle of the river, forcing it to make a 90-degree-turn – ideal conditions for a jam!), leaving us with an open river, while in places like Dawson City, the river froze weeks ago.

Luckily, a few days ago, the ice jammed up below Raven, about 40 kilometres downriver from here. Now, the river is slowly freezing up from there towards upriver. We hope that it will reach our place any time. Indicators for that to happen soon are a rising water level, the ice is slowing down, and less water vapours are rising from the river.

Outhouse Musings

2010-11-29T09:08:00.000-08:00

An outhouse is an uncomplicated and very convenient facility – most of the time.

Even during the summer time, when mosquitoes are searching for exposed skin, a mosquito-coil on the bench right beside me will keep danger at large.

But today, at minus 20 degrees Celsius with blowing wind, it feels as draughty in that little place as it does in the bird feeder. Beautiful big ice crystals are covering the walls and the toilet paper, and for a brief moment, I considered an outhouse-free day. Then I remembered that I could write about the experience, and I continued my trip as planned.

The moral of the story is: enjoy and appreciate your luxuries, even or especially if you do not find them luxurious all the time.

Addition:
In the winter, the reading material we keep in the outhouse is for display only – see the snow that has blown in from the side and accumulated behind the magazine.

Snow Impressions

2010-11-20T10:35:00.001-08:00

Let me start with an excuse: It is hard to take good pictures when there is hardly any day light to start with, and when the little light the sun is able to send us is obstructed by thick layers of clouds. With that being said, let me share some of the evidence for one of the greatest snow falls I have experienced here so far: Yesterday morning, we woke to 22 centimetres of fresh new white. It covered up everything, including the most fragile twigs. All morning, the three of us were walking around like on clouds (really, the snow did not provide any resistance, even though we were walking in up to our knees!) and with little, dreamy-happy smiles on our faces.

High bush cranberry twigs with thick cover (9 am)

In the course of the day, trees shed their loads and clouds of powder fluttered down. It looked like little explosions on weeping branches, followed by a deep sigh with relief of the associated tree.

Creek side garden (1:45 pm)

River – some ice, very low water level (1:45 pm)

Watching Wildlife on Big Screen

2010-11-01T09:36:00.000-07:00

River... ice

We have been enjoying a reality show with new episodes every day. Whenever we are sitting down for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, our wild neighbours are continuing their own business out there: Weasels bouncing about, grouses eating berries along the trail, grey jays stashing and retrieving food, redpolls flocking all over birches, pine grosbeaks hanging heavily on highbush cranberry bushes, the squirrels doing the squirrel thing (keenly observed by Lance), even a black bear and her cub travelled past our big living room window in the summer. All that takes place in front of the magnificent backdrop of snow covered mountain peaks and a river that carries more and more ice every day.

Food stash (possibly from Grey Jays) in abandoned small-bird nest

Bear track

And that is not all: with the freshly fallen snow, we can read up on what the shyer neighbours have been up to: yesterday, Elias found the tracks of a grizzly bear who was looking for a den, we see rabbit tracks all over the forest, and fox foot prints gave that animal's nightly presence away.

A few days ago, the full moon was rising from behind the mountains, casting a street of light across the water. That is when we realized that through our big living room window, we are looking at an ever changing scenery inhabited by the most wondrous creatures.

Technical details: the boat is out and Elias built a porch (yeah!).

Boat - being pulled out of the water

Lance posing on the new porch

Powdery excitement

2010-10-20T11:01:00.000-07:00

Lance and I went on a first snow walk yesterday. Here are some of the impressions we captured.

Lance and I

View downriver

View upriver

The new addition in the snow

Soft-footed arrival of winter

2010-10-18T10:20:00.000-07:00

...And the next thing I realized was that it is winter.

Cold sand storm on the river

The three weeks since my last entry have been busy: Elias got a moose, we went to Dawson City to pick up our winter supply of fresh vegetables, and we have been cutting, freezing, and organizing our supplies.

The moose

The moose again; the bull was four or five years old

Elias has built a new addition in the north corner of the house. The freezer has been moved in there already.

The new shed

Meanwhile, the temperatures dropped. Hardly do they climb above freezing now, and the snow that falls in regular intervals, slowly covers the dry, brown and grey ground in a fresh, clean white blanket.

One more trip to Raven and we'll be landlocked while the river freezes. Usually in late December we will be able to break a trail to Raven.

Frosty walk along the beach. The sun is low above the horizon. Soon, we'll loose it altogether on our side of the river. For three months, we will be without direct sun light.

Muddy ice crystals

First snow on the mountain peaks

A moose was scratching his antlers on this poplar

Fall Impressions

2010-09-23T09:36:00.000-07:00

After a few weeks of prosaic-late-summer-hibernation we are back with some fall impressions from our corner of the world.

On the river

Quickly, the cold north wind is tearing down the leaves. Within a few days our yellow world will change colours again and soon it will be ... winter! Already, the weather forecast calls for snow in some areas of the Yukon Territory.

In a branch of the Yukon River - calm water reflecting the world around

A lake, dry grass, mountains in the background and the warm sun behind us. We named the lake 'Grouse Lake' after several spruce grouses we encountered on our walk to and from the lake (see below)

Spruce grouse in a spruce

Harvesting

2010-08-18T16:19:00.000-07:00

The fish wheel is stored high up on the bank.

Fish wheel above the high water mark

For us, the harvesting season has started: raspberries (over), garden crops (ongoing), low bush cranberries (ongoing), high bush cranberries (on going).

Low bush cranberries - I have to be quick to beat the mice!

Soon, we will start to look out for a moose. Once every two or three years we go moose hunting. More about that later.

Structures in the sand - I love it!

Mud meets silt*

2010-08-07T13:59:00.000-07:00

Mud meets silt - the day after

Muddy creek at its highest

It has been a wet summer so far. Yesterday, for the second time in three weeks, we experienced torrential rain for more than 24 hours. Within hours, the creek rose rapidly. The river followed soon thereafter. Our second bridge across the creek was destroyed by the water. Again, we had to evacuate the beach. A vast number of land slides can be found along the river between here and Raven.

My water hole - flooded

Today morning it cleared up. Still, lots of driftwood is coming down the river, along with the occasional treasure (we harvested an empty jerrycan, a piece of plywood and a broken plastic container).

Amongst useful things, we also find quite a bit of garbage along the river

When I went up the creek today morning, Lance caught up with me just as I had reached the creek where the bridge had been. In his usual manner, he was bolting past me. Too late he realized that the bridge was gone, and in the blink of an eye he made up his mind (I could hear his thoughts: have to stop – no, cannot stop – oh no – have to jump) and tried to jump across the creek – he landed in the middle of it. Luckily, the creek had already slowed down; had Lance attempted his stunt yesterday, he might have been swept away.

Here is Lance on the other side of the creek – still wet but in good spirits.

Clearing up

*While the creek is usually clear, the river carries lots of glacial silt until late in the fall. With all that rain, the creek picked up rocks, sand, trees and dirt.

Double rainbow over Green Creek

2010-08-05T13:14:00.000-07:00

After a night spiked with glaring lightning, rolling thunder and pouring rain, we went to check the fish wheel at six in the morning: It was still drizzling; tattered stormy clouds were scattered across the sky and another wall of grey rain was approaching from downriver. The world around us was wreathed in orange mist.

When we arrived at the wheel, we looked back over to the house: the sun had just come over the horizon behind us dipping the tops of the hills around green creek in orange light, and a double rainbow framed the scene.

Fishwheel and rainbow

Comment on comments

2010-08-02T11:35:00.000-07:00

Thank you all for your comments! We do appreciate each one of them: I read them to Elias, we discuss them and they inspire what we write about. So, thanks and keep them coming!

Fishwheel spinning

2010-08-01T11:09:00.000-07:00

The fish wheel is spinning, salmon are migrating, sea gulls and eagles are watching, and I am struggling with the lack of beauty sleep.

Hope

2010-07-25T16:25:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, when we were sampling fish (are we doing anything else these days?) I had a vision:

My grandchildren were asking me how it was like when there was still King Salmon in the Yukon River. After I had told them all I knew about those exceptional beings, one of the kids asked me, why I did not do anything to protect them from disappearing. They were too young to understand the complicated connections of our society and economy. And you, we, hear them all the time. It is always the same kind of story, and we grow tired of hearing it and we give up.

Sunset - sunrise

So, we

- for we are all connected with the industrial fishing companies in the Pacific Ocean that harvest King Salmon, with the oil companies that drill for oil in their habitat and with the ever growing human population that feeds on those fish -

keep exploiting our natural resources, damaging the environment that sustains us.

How much longer?

What can I do to change the way our societies are treating the world?

Is it too late or is there still hope?

I like to thing that there is hope. There is always hope for us to learn and grow – not in economic terms but in terms of accepting responsibility for our world.

Fishwheel operating

2010-07-24T16:41:00.000-07:00

Fishwheel operating

4 times daily we check, if fish are in the water filled holding boxes on both sides of the wheel:

At 6:00, 12:00, 18:00 and 24:00.

Disturbed sleeping pattern? Yes.

Largest fish so far: male, 111 cm. Elias could barely hold on to him.

111 cm, no kidding!

The wooden sampling box in front of Elias is filled with water, so the animals are not out of the water for too long. A measuring tape is stapled to the side of the sampling box.

It takes about 1 minute per fish, to collect all the necessary data - then we release the animal back into the river, where they continue their journey upriver to their spawning grounds.

Chickadee

2010-07-12T15:13:00.001-07:00

I just found a photo on Elias' camera that he had taken last March. Isn't that little fluffed up chickadee gorgeous?

Our fishwheel is growing quickly. I'll post photos soon.

Visitor

2010-07-08T11:26:00.000-07:00

Just arrived from Austria: Sabine! She is going to be here for the next two weeks. :) and welcome!

Sabine above Dawson!

On midnight dome, above Dawson: Lance and I

Fishwheel: An Introduction

2010-07-08T10:45:00.000-07:00

We are building a fishwheel on behalf of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. The intention is to find out more about the migrating salmon, so catch quotas and conservations measures can be determined. Our part in this endeavour is to build a fishwheel and to operate it for the duration of the migration of King salmon. We will catch the fish in life pens, sample them (measure different attributes) and then release them back into the river. Within the following days and weeks they will finish their mission, spawn in the small tributaries of the Yukon river and then die, which closes the circle of salmon life.

Pontoon parts on the beach - hauling and assembling them was time consuming

Lumber delivery

Almost done loading

On the river

So far, we have picked up fishwheel parts, lumber and hardware in Dawson City, assembled the pontoons and hauled everything down the river to Green Creek: Elias had attached the 'barge' to the starboard side of the boat. It took more than 8 hours, but with Elias' knowledge of the river the trip went really smoothly.

Still on the river at midnight. Wonderful colours!

Into the setting sun - at midnight!

I am Canadian

2010-07-08T09:16:00.000-07:00

On July 1, Canada Day, I became a Canadian citizen. I have been thinking of the implications of this new status: If Austria is like my cultural mother, Canada is like the love of my life. Austria holds my past, my roots, while Canada represents my present and my future, the potential that lays ahead of me. I feel very fortunate to be here!

Patriotism in Canada seems clearly distinguished from nationalism, and allows individual cultural identities to coexist peacefully and constructively. (In my country of origin I experienced that immigrants were openly discriminated against). At the end of the citizenship ceremony, the new citizens' nations of origin were called out and everybody received a round of applause. What a great gesture of multicultural inclusion!

France Televisions: Visitors from Europe

2010-06-13T10:02:00.000-07:00

On Thursday evening, Elias received an email request from a French TV crew seeking to interview him on Saturday. Friday passed and on Saturday morning three people arrived by boat.

Filming the bushman and the dog on their way to the house

Elias answered questions about what brought him to the Yukon, how he ended up in Green Creek and why he has been living here for 30 years. The interview was conducted in French, and while Elias was talking about his philosophy of life in general, I gave in to my exhaustion from trying to comprehend what was being said, and the ongoing conversation was blending into a softly rolling chatter. French is such a beautiful language; if only I could understand more of it!

Cutting edge technology meets Green Creek

After the departure of those nice people from the old world in the afternoon, Green Creek went back to its old self and – once again - calmness spread out amongst all who live here. Surrounded by the ambient noise of softly drizzling rain, distant bird calls and the murmuring creek we thought about our unusual encounter.

New house goes TV - Lance cannot be bothered :)

The documentary about several frankophone Dawson City residents will air on August 27, at 8.30 pm in France. The TV station's web page can be found at http://www.france3.fr/

Learning to fly: grey jays

2010-06-11T11:17:00.000-07:00

We have been waiting for our young neighbours' arrival, but for the longest time our patience was only rewarded with the said offspring's distant chatter. Finally, yesterday evening the youngsters came closer to the house. We observed them, as they were hop-flying from branch to branch on spruce trees. The scene was accompanied by their loud chatter and their parents' calls.

Young grey jay

Life is flowing gently, like the river in early summer. Elias is in his carving studio all day and I am talking to the plants in the garden when I am not working on some leather project. The fresh vegetables, eggs and cheese we bought a few weeks ago are almost used up. We are still waiting for our summer contracting job to be finalized, before we go on a shopping trip to Dawson City. As for now, we enjoy the wild plants nature provides us with: on top of the list is fireweed. I use it in salads and stir fry.

Fireweed

Moose calf moves to Wildlife Preserve

2010-05-29T09:21:00.000-07:00

Young moose calf with strong will to live found a permanent home!

Artie moved to the Yukon Wildlife Preserve yesterday. We are glad that we could help him survive the first 35 hours away from his mother, and that now he has a home where he gets what he needs (lots of good nutritious milk for a start!) in a habitat that's suitable for his nature.

We contacted the Wildlife preserve and a conservation officer. I am amazed, how much compassion and enthusiasm there is to help a little moose! Somewhere along that way I thought that there is still hope for humanity (if I have ever sounded like I thought there was none, I apologize!).

Moose calf drinking before the long trip to his new home

Thank you for all your thoughts and feedback on the topic!

Orphaned moose calf

2010-05-27T09:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning we left for Raven. On the way there, we spotted a moose cow with twin calves. They were standing on the beach in front of a rock wall. On the way back, about six hours later, one of the calves was still there in the hot sun with no shade and no wind. The mother was not around any more and the calf had stopped calling for her. He was curled up and did not even lift his head when we approached. We took the little guy home.

First contact between dog and moose

With an improvised baby bottle (plastic bottle with cap from a rubber glove) I offered him watery cow milk. For the first five hours he would only take it when I forced him (I sprinkled milk into his mouth and held his head up high until he swallowed). I heard his stomach digesting and a while later he peed (on his blanket). Shortly before we went to bed, he was ready to drink from the bottle. I got up every two hours to feed him. When he started to walk around in the living room around midnight, he found Lance. Lance did not like the sniffing (Artie was looking for food!), so Lance started walking around with Artie on his heels. When I ordered Lance to stay at his spot, Artie finally settled down next to Lance and they spent the next two hours sleeping together. I think Artie needed the fur to fur contact and the warmth.

Foster dad Lance

Today morning Artie was still alive and got his name. I took him outside for a walk where he followed Lance and me around. In the river front garden he nibbled on fresh high bush cranberry leaves and in the back garden he ate willow and aspen leaves. I hope he knows what he is doing!

Herbivore

Try the top!

We are wondering, how much he has to eat to survive and to grow, and what we can feed him. The milk we have is fat free. Any kind of advise is VERY welcome! Thanks!

Now I have to go and feed the moose...

Days like warm honey

2010-05-24T12:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday by the river

We are in between seasons right now. It is hot like in the summer, but we have no mosquitoes and no smoke from wildfires yet. The last few days have been a gift: clear sky, a few clouds here and there, amazing sweet smells from blooming poplars and birches, a soft breeze, and literally two mosquitoes (they were successfully repelled by my threats to kill them upon a second encounter with my skin). I have been wearing shorts and a T-shirt all afternoon!

My gardens are fully operational. I hope for some green soon.

Back Garden: Twin beds and rhubarb bed: herbs, cabbages, peas,beans, beets; compost-hill: cucumbers and zucchini; greenhouse: tomatoes, herbs and cucumber

Creek side garden: peas, carrots, radishes, kale, salad, parsley, chives

River view garden: potatoes and cabbages

Flying acrobats back in the neighbourhood

2010-05-23T14:47:00.001-07:00

It has been about ten months since they moved away to warmer areas. Last night I heard rumours that they were back and today morning I saw them myself as they were warming up for another day of skillful insect hunting* in the air above and around Green Creek. They like the unobstructed river view and the ease of access, so they are nesting in the cut bank by the river. River swallows.

Bank swallows, hiding from the camera :)

*This contributes to my excitement about their return!

Big Game

2010-05-18T10:36:00.001-07:00

Raining cloud

Black bear on the beach

We are out of most store bought fresh food that keeps well, like potatoes, onions, garlic, cabbage, eggs, and apples. All we have left for fresh food are some carrots, supplemented with fireweed and yarrow shoots from the yard. Cooking becomes challenging if all you have are canned and pickled things and dry food. To take a 5 hour trip into town (the last time I bought food was in late March) just for food is not easy to justify either, and since we are waiting for some things to get sorted out, we are staying home. Not that it is boring! Quite on the contrary, I feel like in a big game park.

Grizzly tracks

Two moose crossing

It seems that whenever we step outside we see some big mammal or tracks thereof: A big black bear is visiting our back yard, I go for a walk and run into him, I walk the other way and there are fresh moose tracks, we go on a boat ride and see a small black bear on an island. Minutes later, a caribou bounces along the shoreline (not on the same island!), we stop the boat and go for a walk and there are grizzly tracks! On the way home we see two moose and another black bear.

Not all encounters could be documented, but I have an animated memory of the caribou bouncing: his antlers were freshly growing, covered in smooth velvet. He ran with a bit of a kick in every step, carrying his tail up, showing the white patch underneath (do they always do that?). Less the red nose, he looked like Rudolf proudly pulling the sled!

Good and Bad?

2010-05-09T09:57:00.001-07:00

Does it exist? Is there good and bad in nature? Life and death, can we line them up against each other, or are the part of the same thing, part of the circle of life? I am undecided about it, or maybe not.

Here is the story: Yesterday morning, Elias went for a walk. He assumed there might be a carcass upriver, since he had observed raven, gulls and eagles circling in the air. When he came back he reported a caribou carcass just upriver from our trail entrance. It probably died during breakup (and we thought it was a smooth breakup!). Maybe it had been pushed under the ice while crossing an open section, maybe it tried to cross the river and broke through the ice, maybe it got caught on a drifting ice sheet. We do not know; all we know is the end of the story. The caribou is now food for other animals: raven for example are feeding their young with the meat. And life goes on. Still, it is hard to see beyond death.

In the afternoon, I was still dwelling on the caribou's destiny while I was working in the back garden, when the grey jays dropped in. I sat down and watched them. They were all fluffed up. Do you remember the picture of a fluffed up grosbeak at minus 50 degrees? That was nothing compared to those gray jays as they were bathing in the sun. Such pleasure, such enjoyment, such devotion! They are the most beautiful creatures (I told them so), and I am still smiling as I write this.

Grey jays (perisoreus canadensis) sun bathing

Later that day, everything started to make sense for me, and I found comfort in the fact that life and death need each other; they are always so close together. We either accept them both, or we don't. In the latter case we'd lose much zest for life, I believe.

Rocking robins on top of swaying trees

2010-05-07T09:42:00.000-07:00

I am having a hard time staying focused while writing a story. My eyes have a mind of their own, preferring to look out the windows. There is always something to look at, something is always moving. Even the trees seem to be in motion – their leaves are growing so fast, I notice a difference from one time to the next. All kinds of birds are singing; most noticeably there has been a number of robins on top of the trees around the cabin - evidently they are chirping from 5 am to 10.30 pm, at the least.

Singing robin

Indoors, my garden plants are growing rapidly. When we are not busy with chores and tidying up around the buildings, we work on our art projects: Elias is carving and I am working on leather projects.

Elias carving

New summer moccasins

From the river bank - hardly any ice coming down; junks of ice melting on the beach

Under the remaining ice

The first flowers - crocuses

River Update: Ice Broke!

2010-04-29T09:15:00.000-07:00

April 26: Only some overflow and a few open spots on the Yukon River

April 26: Mouth of Green Creek - more and more water

It took two days, before the river was open and flowing again. What a gentle breakup it was, compared to last year! Two days ago, it was late in the afternoon and I was watering plants, when Elias pointed out that something was going on with the river. I looked out the window, and the ice on our side of the river was moving; in big sheets it was slowly drifting by. We could even see old snowmobile-tracks on it! Do you know the feeling when you are sitting in a train in a station and there is another train right next to you. Suddenly one of them starts moving, and for a second you do not know if it is your train or the other one that is moving? Well, that is how I felt about the river ice.

April 27 - evening: First Channel opening up

April 28 - morning: chunks of ice stuck at the mouth of the creek

For about 24 hours, we had an open channel with smooth water in front of our place, but we could see solid ice upriver and downriver (downriver, ice had piled up on top of the still anchored ice-cover).

Then, yesterday evening, something happened again: I had stepped outside to serve dinner to Lance, when I heard a deep rumbling, somehow resembling a distant rumbling thunder, accompanied by a vibration that I could feel in my core. Lance was startled too, and we both headed to the river to witness when the ice from the far side of the river slowly started to move. Ever since then, ice has been floating by and the water is open as far as we can see. Elias is adding that “there is more ice to come”.

April 28: Yukon River open again!

April 28: Watching the ice float by

April 29: View from our living room window

17 Caribou crossing

2010-04-23T11:11:00.000-07:00

The scenery - our front yard

The animals - 400 metres away

It was around mid-day, when I walked to the river bank to look out for Elias and Lance who had left earlier in the morning for a walk downriver. My eyes wandered over the landscape, when I caught sight of a group of animals on the sandbar in front of Green Creek. It is hard to describe my excitement in words: I have never seen more than two caribous at a time around Green Creek, and there were 10 animals slowly walking along, looking out for a way to cross the river. Quickly, I took a few pictures, before I realized that this time, my pocket camera would not be sufficient for the job at hand. I raced back to the house and hauled Elias' Nikon-on-a-tripod back to the river bank.

Walking slowly

I stood in awe, while those 10 animals were migrating slowly from their winter feeding grounds to their spring calving grounds. The females will give birth soon. Last year's calves were still nursing – or trying to, I could not tell. They survived a long cold winter, the constant presence of predators, scarcity of food supplies, maggots in their skin, and crossing ice cold rivers. What really got to me though was the realization that none of these natural aspects of their habitat could do as much harm to them as my species has been doing to theirs: Over the last 150 years, humans have reduced the size of local caribou herds to a fraction of their original size. Yesterday, we saw 17 animals, but 70 years ago sternwheeler boats had to stop to give way to thousands of animals crossing the river. Even Elias, in this 30 years here has witnessed hundreds of caribous walking through the property!

From the caribous' perspective, the day was probably relatively unspectacular:

Did not sleep much last night (as usual); others kept watch. Not much food around for breakfast, so we decided to cross the river. The first part was easy and we reached the sandbar without getting our hooves wet. Then we crossed an open water channel; young ones struggled to get back out onto the ice. Two lead animals tried to cross the second channel, but could not get out on the other side (water was too fast), so they turned around and we camped on the ice for a few hours. Rest was much needed. Young ones got hungry, so we moved on in the late afternoon. Food has yet to be found.

Crossing channel #1:

Channel #2 - could not be crossed:

Resting

When those 10 animals settled down to rest, we (Elias had come home in the meantime) spotted another group of 7 caribou as they were crossing the river further away. They were successful and disappeared into the forest.

We left our observation point and had late lunch. After that we went back in regular intervals to check on the campers. At one point they were gone. As I checked the area for caribou, I detected a coyote on the far side of the river. Had he startled the caribou? We do not know.

And what are We doing?

2010-04-22T09:38:00.000-07:00

Elias declared the wood-cutting season to be over; now he is summerizing the snowmobiles. Yesterday, with an acoustic background of birds chirping and water dripping and under the sun's warming rays, Elias did some laundry outside.

Elias doing laundry

In the meantime, I built a compost, which is intended to keep the dog away from the vegetables that are supposed to decompose. I do not remember if I told you that Lance eats everything that has any nutritional value!

New compost

Creek picking up flavours

2010-04-22T08:46:00.000-07:00

Every morning I walk to the creek and haul water back. During the last few days, the colour of our water changed from crystal clear to light brown. The taste evolved from lively clear to cool with and earthly undertone. The temperatures have been well above freezing for a while. In addition, it rained last night. The creek was asleep for half a year. Now it is awake and eager to move on: the water has carved an impressive, 40-centimetre-wide channel in the 2-metre-thick ice:

Ice channel

At the mouth of the creek, the water is overflowing. The water level of the Yukon River is rising quickly. The first ducks are landing along the open water:

Ducks resting by the open water

Along the shores we spotted caribou tracks. As far as we could tell, the animals crossed the river:

Caribou tracks

River news: break-up season started

2010-04-19T09:23:00.000-07:00

Morning scene by the river

Last night a small section of the river channel opened up below Green Creek. Fast running water and overflowing water below the open spot let us know that the end of our winter is approaching. Soon, the river will be free of ice, marking the beginning of summer. Sometime between the end of April and mid May we will experience a few glorious days of spring: every plant will awake at the same time, the calls of countless migratory birds will fill the air, and... - but I am getting ahead of things.

Open section on the channel

Bare ice

The river ice is bare of snow. Because of the darker water underneath, the clear ice absorbs more sunlight which increases the speed the ice is melting at. Big puddles of water and soggy snow along the shores of the river make it impossible to use the snowmobile. We are landlocked until river travel by boat will be possible again mid May.

Searching for Signs of Spring

2010-04-13T10:00:00.000-07:00

It has been a long winter, and it seems to me as if plants, animals and humans alike are holding their breaths, expectantly searching for signs of the approaching spring.

I took a closer look at birches, poplars, and high bush cranberry bushes and found that their buds are still small but shiny, colourful, and ready to explode into fresh green leaves as soon as the temperatures will warm up.

Poplar-buds

Our squirrel neighbours must have emptied their food caches, for they have been feeding on rose hips for the past week. They look skinny as they hop around on the hard snow and climb the bendable rose bushes.

Elias climbing the river bank by the creek

As for the human inhabitants, I have been starting my garden plants. The new house offers plenty of light window sills for the project. I am looking forward to the first greens out in the wild - fireweed and yarrow sprouts - but it will be a few more weeks before I can expect to pick them. Right now, the snow cover on the property is still up to 40 centimetres thick.

New house - view from the South

Looking at the old cabin (outhouse on the right side)

Elias is the one who uses what the season provides him with: enough snow to drive the snowmobile on. He has been hauling logs for firewood and lumber early in the day, when the snow is still hard enough to drive on.

Going for another load

Bonus-picture:

March 31: On the way from Dawson to Sam & James (in their car)

Croissants and Pork Sausage*

2010-04-07T10:42:00.000-07:00

I am back! Actually, I have been back for several days, but I had to slow down, clear my head and settle back in, before I could write again. After a world tour to Austria I always feel like my soul is limping behind. I think it is travelling by land.

It was a busy time in Austria, with lots of loving family visits, good food and a touch of spring, but most importantly, I met my new niece Corvina. She was born in December 2009 and is (no exaggeration!) a very smart, beautiful and rapidly growing young lady!

Corvina Sophie :)

On my way back, in Whitehorse, I wrote my citizenship test, and from Dawson I caught a ride with our neighbours Sam and James. I stayed with them for two nights, before Elias picked me up on Friday. The trail was bumpy. A few days earlier, unseasonal rain had softened the trail and several dog team sleds had left deep gouges in the formerly packed snow.

Much has changed in Green Creek while I was gone: the days are much longer, snow has been melting (the snow cover is still pretty solid), the first willows are blooming, Elias started carving in the studio, and next winter's firewood pile is growing. Lance is the same 'soft-noser' and was overjoyed to see me.

On Sunday, we had an Easter picnic up the river. At a log jam with great view of the mountains, we started a fire, set up our picnic chairs (what a picture!) and had our sandwiches with a bottle of wine from my parents' vineyard. We enjoyed the warmth of the sun, the hooting of owls and the sight of a graceful bald eagle. Lance, the athlete of our family, enjoyed the 30-kilometre-run, but spent the rest of the afternoon napping.

Easter Picnic

Yesterday, on a walk to the neighbouring creek we heard boreal owls hooting. They are late this year, which makes Elias predict a late spring.

Family pictures - making of

*Croissants and pork sausage were THE thing I had missed most about Austrian cuisine. One has to try them to understand!

The Adventure Continues

2010-02-26T05:11:00.000-08:00

Sunset behind the hill

Snowmobile with load - still in working condition

On Sunday, we went on a daytrip to our neighbours, 40 kilometres upriver. It was a gorgeous day, sunny, calm and not cold, when we left Green Creek around lunch time. Since we wanted to stake the trail for an upcoming sled dog race in March, we went on one snowmobile. We enjoyed a nice visit with Sam and James, before we went back home, the sled was loaded with long stove pipes. The trip back started equally pleasing as the trip there had been, but an abrupt end to the driving part, 8 miles from home, made last section of the way a very memorable one. Just as the sun was about to set behind the hills ahead of us, Elias stopped the machine and told me that we better start walking. Very quickly I realized that he was NOT kidding and a few minutes after that, I started to overheat in my minus-40-snowmobile equipment. We walked home. The moon was out, and eventually all the stars appeared. Orion was passing me on the left during my three-hour-walk. Elias got ahead of me (he did not stop on his 15-kilometre-walk home), and by the time I was at Raven's rock, 20 minutes from home, he came back with the second snowmobile and we rescued the machine that had broken down.

Following Elias' tracks in the snow

This story concludes my Green Creek adventures up until the beginning of my trip. I will be back in early April.

Lastly, one of my dear readers has expressed interest in the final paper I wrote for my online course. If you want to read it, let me know and I'll email it (it is a 12-pager).

We are IN!

2010-02-20T10:01:00.000-08:00

We spent our first night in the new house! (Did you notice, we spared you all the details: the cleaning, painting, and moving of things?!) We had turkey for dinner, and afterwards we watched “A river runs through it”, reminding us that it was the (Yukon) River that decided that we better finish the new house.

Here are some pictures; please excuse the lack of organization – we are still moving things around:

View from the kitchen: TV-corner (right side), dining table (on the left)

Kitchen

First dinner: see how relaxed we look? :)

I will go on a trip to Austria in a few days. Reluctantly I am leaving the new home and the guys behind, but I am also looking forward to seeing my family, including my first niece!

You might not hear much from Green Creek in the next month, but we'll be back with our stories in April.

What the BLEEP is that?*

2010-02-12T09:30:00.000-08:00

*Title inspired by Lance

Panorama with dog on trail

The Yukon Quest, an annual sled dog race between Fairbanks, Alaska and Whitehorse, Yukon is taking place right now and we get to enjoy (yeah, right!) the associated air traffic from Eagle to Dawson City. It is really amazing: for a few days it felt like living next to an airport with small engine planes passing us every half hour.

Yesterday, Lance and I went on an after-lunch sunshine walk across the river. When we were about halfway into the river, I heard the humming of engines. A plane was cutting across the swamps on the far side of the river, a few kilometres from me. Just as the noise started to fade away, another plane appeared in the North. This one was following the river at a very low altitude. I was in the middle of the river on a – now snow-covered – sandbar and the flying machine was coming straight at me; it appeared as if it was about to land. I remembered that Elias had told me that small planes landed on that sandbar before, and I was glad there was a tree sticking out of the snow right behind me: the pilot HAD to see it and would not be able to land right there, on top of me! For a second I considered taking a picture, but I do not like the tourist-stare-picture behaviour, so I did not. (Once the plane was gone, I regretted not having taken a picture, of course!)

Lance was spell bound by the approaching noise maker: he was sitting down in the snow, alternately looking at me and peeking at the plane with an uncomprehending look on his face; big question-marks seemed to pop out of his eyes. As the plane was passing over us, I waved and three pink faces were staring at me, noses flat against the small windows of the flying white object.

After that outer-worldly experience, I took a few pictures of the -now- quiet world around me.

Long shadows

Sun behind frost covered trees

Welcome back! Sun!

2010-02-10T09:23:00.001-08:00

Sun at the mouth of the creek

For the first time since early November, the sun was back in Green Creek yesterday, February 9. Peeking over the hills in the south, she wrapped in her golden light. Once more, everything seemed to come back to life! We can already envision bumble bees and southern birds, the sound of dripping water and the smell of earth. Happy Sunshine-season!

View downriver

View across the river

Studio and sun - eying each other

Pine Grosbeak

2010-02-06T14:18:00.000-08:00

Eating the seeds, dropping the pulp

At lunchtime, Elias was looking outside and he spied a female pine grosbeak hanging on one of the high bush cranberry bushes. Those birds crack the frozen berries and eat their seeds. It was such a delightful surprise; at minus 35 degrees Celsius the bird’s plumage was so fluffed up, she looked like a sphere with a beak! I apologize for the low quality of the pictures – there are definitely limits to the capability of my pocket camera.

House Update: Handrails finished!

2010-02-04T09:30:00.001-08:00

The handrails are finished. Here they are:

I have been really busy with academic work, house work, guest hosting (we had two sleepovers and one day guest) and crafting. Since the final paper for my online course will be about “subsistence life”, even my creative writing energy is tied up. Sorry, dear readers!

The sun is almost back here on the property – just a few more days and we'll need sunglasses!

Waterhole Visuals

2010-01-22T10:34:00.000-08:00

The ice at our waterhole is growing thicker and thicker: two days ago I measured more than a metre. What is a small creek in the summer looks more like an ice-covered pond now, with trees growing in it. Getting water becomes so much more unpredictable and exciting when the natural setting changes daily!

Our "pond" (waterhole on the right side)

Zooming out

Down the creek - only 3 metres away and 1.5 meters lower!

House Update: Stairs Finished!

2010-01-20T10:24:00.000-08:00

Well, the stairs are finished and everybody loves them!

First he had to cut the beam at the head of the stairs

Then: create a model

.. and cut the original stringers

... then: position them

More to figure out

When he first discovered that he could climb the stairs, Lance ran up and down several times, just because he could!

Solemnization of the stairs

Elias and the stairs

View from the balcony

Elias’ next deed is the handrails. To put construction work in a local context you have to know that the land and everything that we left outside is covered in 60 centimetres of snow now. When he needs lumber, the carpenter has to dig deep. Since improvisation is such a big aspect of any building efforts -we cannot just go to the local hardware store and pick up some lumber or the right screws- it does not make sense to cut specific pieces of building material before you need them. We decided on 5-inch (15 centimetres) corner-polls for the handrails along the catwalk and the down the stairs. Elias located the appropriate logs, loaded them onto the snowmobile-sled and hauled them to the saw mill.

The Art of Waterhole-Maintenance

2010-01-13T09:10:00.000-08:00

I have not mastered it yet!

It seems normal this time of the year in early January that the temperatures drop to the minus 40s. The creek freezes solid, starting from the mouth, and the water that pushes down from upstream starts to overflow, escaping its frozen under-ice ways through cracks and openings like my waterhole. First, the water level rises and the current slows down. Eventually the water starts to overflow and the hole freezes from the sides and from the top. To prolong the life of my waterhole I am building up walls around the opening. At first, I used the packed snow I had insulated the plywood with (the plywood had covered the hole). The past four days though the overflow level has been rising 30 centimetres per day and I am leaving the hole uncovered, because the plywood would only freeze solid into the ice. Every morning I chop the ice crust which, after a night at minus 40 degrees, is about 10 centimetres thick and I use the ice chunks to build up a wall around the hole. Then I scoop up the slush and fill the cracks. At these temperatures my liquid mortar freezes quickly. So far I am staying ahead (barely, I admit) of the rising overflow-ice and water-levels. Compared to a week ago the ice is now half a metre thicker than it was!

Expecting the water level to rise

Water hole covered with snow

Now it's rising - overflow ice around it; water level right on the top!

Elias came over and inspected my efforts yesterday.

Later I asked him what he considers the most important thing in the art of waterhole maintenance. “Persistence”, he proclaimed, “you have to attend to your waterhole every day, as long as you possibly can, to postpone the inevitable, because eventually it will freeze. Then you have to move up the creek, looking for a new water hole”.

Another Day in the Bush

2010-01-08T09:26:00.000-08:00

Our winter routines are well established by now. Not much negotiating is necessary as we go about our own activities:

After his breakfast duties Elias usually starts his outdoor-days with a walk into the quiet winter world around us. Then he does his firewood chores (cutting at the dry-wood pile, hauling firewood and stacking it inside the cabin where it can thaw), before he disappears inside the new house. Most recently he built two doors: an entrance door and an emergency exit door for upstairs.

Lance and his friend, the stove

Lance is busy eating, sleeping and playing. He loves the big stove in the new house. We are concerned that he might roast himself or catch on fire, since he gets so close to the radiant heat source. Also, Lance leaves his sticks all over the place, preferably on the trails. That is a story he wants to tell you himself, especially since I do not seem to be able to conceive the magic of sticks.

I am working on a course at a distance university. The date for my final exam is coming up and I have papers to write and subject matter to learn. Aside from that I am doing my share of everyday tasks and work on crafting projects.

House Update: Doors

2010-01-08T09:21:00.000-08:00

The doors are in, the stove in going, the place is warm. Stairs are next. Bear with us!

Making the door: frame, insulation, cover

From the inside

From the outside

Lance & the Magic of Sticks

2010-01-08T09:16:00.000-08:00

By Lance

I have no idea what the words “past” and “future” mean, but I do know what “now” is: it’s everything! And I know the power of imagination!

My name is Lance, or Lance Alot, but I prefer to be called SIR Lancelot. I am an expert at jousting spears at mischievous rivals, and I always win! The remnants of my adventures (not the defeated rivals!) can be found all over my lands. The funny thing is that nobody but me can see my rivals. Sometimes the humans play sticks with me, but they never really get it right. Honestly, I prefer my magical rivals: growling, pulling, pushing, tail wagging, you name it – they are in! A stick fight, pardon me, jousting match, can easily go on for 20 minutes or more. The only serious threats to a good stick fight are squirrels and rabbits. When I smell or hear them, I have to withdraw –duty comes before fun, after all!

Pineapple

2010-01-03T10:28:00.000-08:00

Sweet enchanting scent
From another world
Big, firm fruit
Exotic shape, colors of the sun
Quietly telling a story of warmth, of humid air, filled with sound
Inevitably proofing a long journey into the Unknown
Here you are - delighting with your scent
Promise of fresh, sweet, juicy taste

How it came to us? Our friends James and Same came to visit. The pineapple mysteriously appeared from inside their cooler.

Background information: The only fresh fruit we have had for more than two months was the occasional apple. Aside from that we have a limited supply of dried, frozen and canned fruit. A pineapple is such an unexpected, incredibly delicious treat!

(No picture; pineapple has already been savoured)

New Year

2010-01-01T10:44:00.000-08:00

I wish you a Happy New Year! Lots of contentment, health, silence and love!

First Snowmobile Trip of the Season

2009-12-29T10:01:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we went on our first trip to Raven. Elias had been downriver the day before to break a trail. It was amazing how easy the travelling is this year compared to last winter! Overflow along the shores has created a smooth strip of ice that is now covered in a thin layer of snow. We had to cross the river twice, which was a bit bumpy, but nothing that required any ice-chopping.

Overflow before it froze in early December (yesterday I did not take any pictures)

Once in Raven, we picked up our mail and stopped at the grocery store for some cheese. I was instantly overwhelmed by the warm light-filled room and by the colourfulness of the stocked shelves. After all that time in our dimly lit cabin all these new impressions overloaded my sensory system. I understand the chuckle that has probably overcome you by now! Just come out here for two months, live like we do and then go back to the other world and you will see what I mean!

House Update: Windows done!

2009-12-29T09:51:00.000-08:00

With the lack of sunlight I do not feel very compelled to take pictures. I apologize for my negligence!

Elias finished the last window of the new house a few days ago. He also covered up the doors that lead to the rooms we do not use this winter. Now he is going to build an entrance door, and then we’ll be fully operational as far as the heating system is concerned. That big heavy iron monster of a stove better heat up the place well! After all I jeopardized my health carrying it!

Windows from inside and outside

Winter Solstice

2009-12-23T08:44:00.000-08:00

It is dark outside, cold and silent. But the twenty first day (or so) of December marked a turning point: The days are getting longer, lighter, warmer and some day Nature’s sounds will reawaken. The wheel of life never stops spinning; everything we know changes all the time. Out here I experience those changes much more than I ever did before.

Happy Solstice-Winter-Holidays!

Shortest day of the year – only the mountain tops see the sun

Human Toes need Cover!

2009-12-17T09:20:00.000-08:00

He has been suffering from cold toes in his Birkenstock slippers for months. Because we are landlocked and because even if we were not landlocked there would not be a store in reach that we could go to and buy a pair of cold-proof slippers for Elias, I made him a pair of insulated moccasins.

Finally! Warm toes!

Elias had inherited an old sheep fur coat from his grandmother. He has already cut the arms off and used part of the fur for other projects. I converted the rest of the fur into liners. (I just hope the sheep skin is strong enough to walk on without ripping any time soon!) The outside layer of the moccasins is Moose leather.

More Bird Carvings

2009-12-16T09:26:00.000-08:00

Raven

As per the request of several of our readers, I am posting more images of Elias’ birds; they were carved last winter. If you would like to know more about the creative process, look up the article “Carving Birds” (posted last March).

Hairy woodpecker, boreal owl, black-capped chickadee

Western tanager, wood duck, varied thrush

Applying Colour

2009-12-15T09:41:00.000-08:00

Elias took a break from the construction project and spent time on some of his carvings. The birds have been waiting since spring to receive some more layers of paint, before they can leave for their new homes. Usually Elias starts carving as soon as the harvesting tasks are taken care of in fall. With the housing project taking priority, he had been postponing his artistic activities until now. Another challenge he is struggling with is shortage of space: in our 20-square-metre-cabin there is just not enough space to engage in projects undisturbed. Once we move into the new house he plans to turn our current living quarters, the Studio, into his carving shop.

Kingfisher

Winter Laundry

2009-12-10T09:48:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I did our laundry. Since the load included bed sheets, I decided to heat the water on the fire pit, instead of on the cabin stove. Our little washing machine cannot be operated at these cold temperatures, since the water in the drainage pipes would freeze. The venture was quite unique:

Fire pit with sauna in the background

First I had to shovel the snow off the fire pit, collect dry twigs as fire starters, assemble some dry split wood and light the fire. Then I went to carry buckets of water from the waterhole at the creek to the fire site. I filled the tub and added the laundry. The wet sheets that were on top of the water quickly froze! At minus 20 degrees Celsius the water vapours were so thick that I could not see my laundry as I was stirring the tub. My bronchia were jubilating! When the water was warm enough, Elias helped me to take the tub off the fire and I washed and wringed, and then, in a second cycle, rinsed and wringed the laundry, before I started a fire in the sauna stove to dry things. The humidity in that little room was soon very high. Entering the sauna felt like being transported to the tropics. Within a few hours my laundry was dry and we had fresh sheets for the night!

House update: Windows

2009-12-09T09:27:00.000-08:00

8x8'' frames around all the openings

Upstairs doors

The days are short in December. From 11 am to 4 pm there is enough daylight to work outside. Elias finished the upstairs windows and doorframes. He is now finishing up the downstairs windows. Once that is done, the door openings to the rooms that are not finished yet will be covered up and insulated. We hope to be able to move into the new house before the end of the year.

Cutting the window by the main entrance door

Furry Paws

2009-12-09T08:57:00.000-08:00

By Lance

When the temperatures drop and my winter fur starts to grow, the hair between my toes becomes plentiful and long. I like it! It’s like walking on clouds! Most of the time I am simply bouncing about! It’s not so bad outside right now, and the food is good, too! Also, I got a new dog bed – very fine, thick foam! As for the humans, they are mostly minding their own business. Once a day or so, I take them for a walk down the trail. And if I try real hart - man, do I ever have to work on that! - Manuela plays ‘sticks’ with me. She is not much into the stick-wrestling, though. Sometimes I get the impression that they both work too hard. I mean, they are old, after all! Elias sprained his ankle, and Manuela lifted something that was too heavy. I forget what it is that she has. Sometimes they look at me when I am napping (only I am not napping, but watching!) and they tell each other how good my life is. That is when I get all puzzled, and I wonder why they don’t do what I do. What’s so hard about chilling out and enjoying life, and playing, eating and sleeping??

Winter Colours

2009-12-03T09:05:00.000-08:00

Looking upriver. November 30, 11.00 am

With the sunlight coming in at such a low degree – from early November to early February we do not even have direct sunlight at Green Creek – the spectrum of visible colours changes. The world looks pastel on clear days, when the sun lit mountains are reflecting pale pink light. On cloudy days the world looks blue. It is very interesting, how a (green) coniferous tree can look blue!

The full moon adds magic to the nights and evenings and mornings!

Boreal Chickadee: Supplementary Feeding

2009-11-23T09:33:00.000-08:00

I read about chickadees that it is easy to get them to take food out of your hand, and, with some training, even from between your lips.

The flock of boreal chickadees that calls the Green Creek area their feeding range come to our birdfeeder on a regular basis during the winter months*. A few days back I crumbled up some birdfeed in my palm and planted myself on the trail close to where the friendly chicka-dee-dee was coming from. Seconds later I heard the brrt-brrt of wings behind me. Tiny claws were grabbing the jacket on my shoulder. It did not take that little bird long to make up his mind, and his next jump was right into my palm. We did that for a few rounds: Chickadee coming, getting a beak-full, carrying it to some tree, stashing it and coming back for more. I counted five birds, but I am almost certain that there were more flock members. I was picturing myself as a big whale being groomed by those tiny birds.

Fluffed feathers; photo by Elias

Since those feathered puff-balls (chickadees fluff up their feathers when it gets cold to increase the insulating effect of their plumage) were so comfortable with my palm, I decided to try the lip-thing: With a piece of pancake (Elias bakes them without sugar, just flour, whey powder and eggs) between my lips I tilted my head back to create a horizontal surface for them to land on, and I waited. They came! A precise landing manoeuvre onto my forehead was followed by cold-clawed pitter-patter along my cheek right to the feed. The first bird got away with a square centimetre of pancake. Despite its small size he had no problem carrying his find. The next time I held on to the pancake with my teeth and it took two birds to harvest the whole piece.

What an uplifting experience that was! Those tiny creatures face such an abundance of challenges – the bitter cold, predators, scarcity of food supplies – and still they maintain that cheerful, trusting attitude toward the world in general, and us big humans in particular!

*I also found scientific data that feeding chickadees does not make them dependant on us for food – just as they take it, they can live without it. What a relief!

Still

2009-11-22T13:03:00.000-08:00

By Elias

As a child I had a reoccurring dream: Frankenstein is chasing me (dragging foot and all) and eventually I am standing on the edge of a cliff, scared. I have two choices: I let him take hold of me or I jump. What do I have to lose? So I leap into the air arms out, expecting to fall like a rock but instead I am slowly falling, floating like a feather and gently touching ground. I turn around, look up at my monster and laugh my head off as I walk away.

That’s more or less how I felt 30 some years ago, when I quit my jobs and relationship, gave my car away, threw my belongings in my boat and left town on my way downriver and never looked back. It was either that or go insane.

That first winter in the woods was the most memorable, magical experience in my life. And the following spring was like being born again.

Whether it’s a week, a year, or a lifetime; I highly recommend it.

Once you mastered your restlessness and quiet down, you start to pay attention to details, to the relationship of each living thing you encounter. And when the duality you live in disappears (sooner or later it has to) you realize that you are IT.

Appreciation and gratitude follows - that simple.

For the longest time, I always thought that the only way to achieve this understanding was being in a monastery in the Himalayas, but I was wrong (although the setting is more inducing): It can be done anywhere. It IS all around you - to each his own.

We are guided daily with songs, books, art, or a friend to make us understand, but once you do, it is just the beginning.

I had another reoccurring dream, involving a flying carpet, but that’s another story.

Stay Healthy.
Good Night.

House Update: Stove

2009-11-21T09:06:00.000-08:00

Building with force! And fun!

After finishing the floor we enjoyed a rare turkey-dinner (it has been half a year since we had poultry) and cake. Actually that bird will feed us for many more days to come in the form of soup and stir fry meat.

The next day I put up a wind barrier between the ground and the house floor. The house is resting on treated cedar posts, elevating the floor half a meter to a meter above ground. Elias has recycled the underground part of old telephone poles.

Wind barrier around the outside, between the ground and the floor

Next, I filled the gaps between the plywood floor and the log walls with insulation material.

Insulation between floor and walls

While I was doing that, Elias was getting the stove ready for transportation from the old cabin to the new house. Accompanied by a lot of huffing and puffing (that thing weighs an estimated 150 kilograms!) we moved the iron giant to its new location.

The wood stove moved in!

The stove pipe is in place now and we are ready to fire up the stove in the new house!

7 meters long stove pipe

One of those days

2009-11-19T09:22:00.000-08:00

By Elias

The north wind is blowing. It’s nasty out there.

For most people living in the woods is a very romantic concept. But once you do it, reality hits. When I first moved here, 85 miles out of town, and nobody else around, it felt like the dark side of the moon. That was 30 years ago. During my first winters I walked to Dawson (120 kilometres) and Raven (30 kilometres), because I did not have any means of transportation. But it gets old. Eventually you just want to go a little faster or bring more food back with you. You can only carry or drag so much. Instead of cutting your wood with a bucksaw you get a chainsaw. Instead of burning kerosene for lights you get propane lights. And it goes on and on. Even if you have very efficient machines, you are burning less, but still, you are just postponing the inevitable.

Living in the woods' sounds nice and cozy, but it’s basically a struggle for survival. I know a lot of people who wanted to live in the woods. They tried it for a few days, weeks or months, but they all moved back into town. They had thought about it for a long time, but once they did it they discovered the harsh reality, and they realized that that was not what they wanted; they wanted to be in a town.

Even if you had a dog team: Is it more environmentally friendly to catch a few thousand fish, and shoot caribou to feed them. (You need about 150 fish per dog per year). Soon you won’t be allowed to do that anymore, and even if the government does not do anything about it, nature will make the changes.

Meanwhile, let’s put more satellites in the orbit, so we get a better idea what destructions we are doing, and keep track of our slow death. It will come to an end, one way or the other. That’s reality. The way we are going we are destroying the earth, and there is no denying it. I just resent getting dragged into that black hole like everybody else. Meanwhile, enjoy life and do what your heart tells you to do.

The battle good versus evil – it has been going on for thousands of years. That’s progress. You use technology to make life easier. Then you get bored. What I am saying is: What is it about? Why are we doing this? We all know what we have to do, but we are not doing it. We put the blame on the government and whatever else. Until we realize that we, the individual, are responsible for everything, nothing is going to change. That is the only way things can change - no matter where on the planet an event, a disaster takes place, it is the ‘me’ who is responsible. What are we doing about it? Until then, good luck and good night!

(Sorry, I think I woke up in a bad mood. I still have only had two coffees yet. And I have to do the dishes. I gotta go.)

The Magic of Water

2009-11-17T09:50:00.000-08:00

Our waterhole is freezing, of course. Every day before I dip the bucket into the precious liquid, I have to use the axe and reluctantly destroy those wonderful ice crystals that have grown the night before. Yesterday I brought my camera along and took a few pictures before I swung the axe.

Elias says we have to destroy nature’s artistic creations, in order to sustain our lives. Without it we would be dead within days. That puts things into perspective for me...

Silence: River Stopped Flowing!

2009-11-15T10:24:00.000-08:00

Last night the ice on the Yukon River ceased to flow. We hope that it stays cold, so the ice cover solidifies and won’t move any more. Last winter a series of events during freeze up contributed to a very unfortunate ice break up in May.

River stopped flowing: November 15

Homemade Leather Boots and other Matters of Feminine Appearance

2009-11-14T10:43:00.000-08:00

Do you like to walk bare feet? I do. As a matter of fact, I founded the “All-Feet-Are-Born-Free-And-Should-Remain-Free”-Society. Since I first wore mukluks (traditional North-American leather boots) at minus 30 degrees, I am an enthusiastic proponent: Walking in leather boots without a rubber sole feels like walking bare feet in snow! The only condition for those boots to keep you warm is that you have to keep moving; otherwise your feet will cool off from the bottom. Even inside I am wearing a pair of ankle-high leather boots, since the floor in the studio is not insulated yet. I wear all my leather boots with thick duffle liners and felt insoles.

My first homemade pair of Mukluks

My appearance north of the feet does not look feminine either: When working outside I wear insulated bibs and even indoors I wear long underwear and hooded shirts – not that it is cold inside but one does have to make the odd trip outside and I do not want to have to dress up every time.

I do not even want to start with my fingernails or my hair-do. The untamed looks of both Elias’ and my hair are matters of constant amusement for Green Creek inhabitants, male and female alike. Have a fun weekend!

House Update: Floor

2009-11-14T10:09:00.000-08:00

After the bottom cover of the floor was finished yesterday (as reported in “Exhausted”), we were working on the top today: First we put insulation material in place (six inches of fibre glass material). After covering the floor with a plastic vapour barrier we started to lay down the plywood. That took a while since some of the plywood had been chewed on by porcupines (who seem to be attracted to the smell of the glue in plywood) and we had to sort through the sheets. Also, angles and grooves in a chainsaw made house (which contributes to the charm of the building, but can create challenges for building efforts) are not perfect, and Elias had to draw from his bag of improvisation, adaptation and modification 'tricks'.

Putting insulation material in place

Stapling down the vapour barrier

All in all we were satisfied with the progress of today’s work and so I took a turkey out of the freezer. After several days in relative warmth under our kitchen counter it will be thawed and we can have our floor warming party!

Exhausted

2009-11-13T09:58:00.000-08:00

After three months of continuous planning for and working on the new house Elias is experiencing signs of physical and mental exhaustion: aches and pains have become his constant companions on the site. Sometimes he gets impatient with the weather gods and other forces of nature. Today, for example, when a snow storm was depositing layers of fine fresh snow into the new house, and he had to spend his morning covering up all the remaining openings with plastic, he expressed his frustration over a cup of coffee.

“Why hadn’t he seen it coming?” you might wonder. “There were other things to do – there always are. Besides,” he admits with a twinkle in his eyes, “it’s not supposed to snow!”

Under the house with a nail gun

After the house was snow tight, we spent the afternoon putting up the bottom cover of the floor in the new house. As I type, Elias is planning the next move. Details will be disclosed later.

Cabin Cooking: Snow Ice Cream and Perogies

2009-11-12T09:52:00.000-08:00

In my cooking I have learned to be creative and opportunistic. Using whatever is at hand can be a lot of fun! A few days ago I prepared an apple pie when I felt the longing for some vanilla ice cream to go with it. My past ice cream endeavours have all ended with me scratching sweet milk-sugar mixture off solid ice blocks. As I was cutting apples it hit me that snow would make and keep my ice cream soft. At once I started the experiment. While Elias cannot warm up to the idea of ice cream at minus 20, I am on a creative journey! Here are my first two recipes:

Vanilla Ice Cream (Coffee Ice Cream)
¼ cup Maple Syrup
¼ cup condensed Milk (whipping cream, if available)
2 Tablespoons Vanilla Extract (or two Teaspoons Instant Coffee)
2 Handfuls of Clean Snow
Mix, Eat

Aside from deserts I have also discovered perogies in my cooking. The dough is very simple, the choices for fillings are unlimited, and the perogies do not fall apart when I cook them (unlike my dumplings). Here is the recipe I use:

Perogies
2 ½ cups flour (1 ½ cups white flour, 1 cup whole wheat flour)
1 tablespoon salt
1/6 cup oil
¾ cups warm water

Mix the ingredients into a mass that is just not sticky any more, sprinkle flour on a clean surface and roll the dough pie-thin. Cut circles with a drinking glass (about 9 centimetres in diameter), put 1 teaspoon of filling in and seal the pockets. Boil for five minutes or until the perogies swim. Fry onions/mushrooms/corn/bacon and put over top. Serve with sour cream, if you have it.

For the filling I use any kind of meat, spice it up (ground coriander and ground ginger, with just a dash of salt, for example), fry it with some onions, let it cool off and put it into the perogies. Another filling consists of mashed potatoes and lots of garlic.

Silence Around Us

2009-11-07T09:17:00.000-08:00

The days are getting shorter. The sun left for the South, packing the red and orange components of her light spectrum, leaving us with the cool colors of winter.

The creek is freezing, trapping its happy rippling sounds under the ice.

Last Water Hole

The river is whispering tiredly, while junks of ice are crushing along the shoreline, slowly building up a rim of ice. More and more ice is moving slower and slower. One day soon, everything will come to a halt, and then the river will be silent, too.

The remaining sounds are muffled by a layer of soft snow. Most birds are gone. Occasionally the carefree chirps of a grosbeak cut through the silence. The grey jays forage for food with less playfulness and more urgency: It is about surviving, finding food, staying warm.

We are blessed with a warm cabin. At 8 in the morning it is still dark outside. A snowstorm is blowing, making the minus 12 degrees Celsius feel much colder. A trip to the ‘bathroom’ becomes a race against time.

Elias cooking breakfast

Our projects are diverse and take our minds off the November twilight. Elias is building door frames, while I am working on the floor. After a few hours outside I retreat to my indoor project, a pair of insulated leather gloves with a split index finger. Early in the afternoon I have to light a candle to help me see behind my old singer sewing machine. The sewing machine runs on human power and is equipped with treadle.

Flooring project

Elias is preparing breakfast. The day is dawning. Life is good!

Winter Winter

2009-10-27T08:38:00.000-07:00

It is white out there. I am still getting used to the fact, that it’s winter now.

River bank – October 24

We went 40 kilometres upriver yesterday, looking for Moose, but not a single track came to our attention. A snowstorm accompanied us the whole five hours. It was beautiful though: snow covered trees and no signs of (other) human activity, just us and the world!

Green Creek –October 26

White New World

2009-10-24T08:40:00.000-07:00

By Lance

When I went outside to take my breakfast, I could not believe my eyes: The world had changed overnight! Everything was white, cold, and fluffy. The most astonishing thing was all the tracks - mouse, mostly, but also squirrel and the occasional snowshoe hare. After a while I felt intoxicated with oxygen from all the sniffing. I didn’t actually get to see any of the critters, though. Later, I took Manuela on a little photo shooting patrol.

Tracks under my nose - literally!

For a walk with my people

Other than those kinds of excitement, my life is dandy. Good food, an abundance of sticks, a warm spot to sleep, courteous door openers – what else could one wish for!

The guest cabin - nestled into the snow covered trees

Old Moose antlers on the roof of the old cabin - out of my reach!

The river right out front

Are we Stuck in Ice?

2009-10-22T08:55:00.000-07:00

We were planning to go on our last trip of the boating season to Raven on Monday morning. On Saturday we had seen the first ice floating down the river. By Sunday, the water surface was covered in ice and slush. On Monday morning things looked dire, but manageable. It took Elias a while to warm up the motors and get the water pumps going. Then I untied the boat, pushed it off the shore while I jumped in. Elias put one motor fully into the icy water, and brought it up to speed, but the prop was cavitating. There was not enough water coming toward it, since the ice that had built up on the bottom of the boat was creating some sort of vacuum or disturbance. Consequently, the boat could not gain much speed and it took about 10 minutes to come back 500 meters against the current.

Boat out

My hopes to go to Raven one last time before freeze-up, and pick up some cheese and the mail fell. We would have to spend two months without cheese, not to mention that we did not have much Moose meat left. We had planned to get some of the frozen meat we store in a friend's freezer.

Elias pulled the boat out of the water and took the ice off. The temperature was just below freezing. When it is colder, the ice binds much better with the aluminum, but as it was, it came of quite easily, when Elias hit the boat with a rubber hammer.

Five centimetre ice layer; look also underneath the boat!

Banging it

On Tuesday, things looked much better, with hardly any ice floating down the river. Apparently it had been very cold in the southern Yukon a week prior, then it warmed up and the ice that had formed loosened up and was transported downriver. That is what we saw: a lot of ice coming down for a period of three days, and then, nothing.

We went to Raven on Tuesday morning. The cheese was not in my grocery packages. Some clerk had decided that cheese could not be mailed. Nobody had bothered telling me. Fortunately I had picked up a package of cheese at the store in Raven. Cheese will be a treat for us this winter.

Potpourri: Hunting, Ice, Construction, and Trail Work

2009-10-19T08:14:00.000-07:00

Too much has been going on. There has been no time to take pictures, let alone write stories. Here is a short potpourri of things that happened during the past days:

Moose Hunt – Drill
I was just hauling some firewood to the guest cabin when Elias spotted several moose on the island out front. He called me and we jogged to the boat. Ten minutes later Elias dropped Lance and me off at the island. While he ‘parked’ the boat at the tip of the island, Lance and I walked in the woods, with the sun in our eyes, making noise, hoping that the big mammals would leave the forest where Elias could see them. At one point we heard the do-donk-do-donk of hooves in the sand. Actually, I felt the vibration as much as I heard the sound. A few minutes after that Elias broke off the operation. He had seen the animals, two young females. While he had remained motionless at a distance of several hundred metres, they had casually crossed the river in front of him. We went home, happy for the chance to do that drill, but knowing that we were still without meat for the winter.

Other than that we are monitoring the area along the river. Two days ago Elias saw a female caribou (!) on the tip of the island out front. Not much moose activity, though.

Slush on the River
Ice has been building up at the mouth of the creek for days, and two days ago, on October 17, we spotted the first slush and ice coming down the river. It makes crunching sounds when it is rubbing against the boat, and slowly, ice builds up on the outside of the boat. Soon it will be time to pull the boats out. The Tango is on dry ground now, since we did not push her in as the water level kept falling.

Slush and ice

Roof Finished!
After weeks of hard work Elias finished the roof work. How do you take pictures of the roof of a two storey house, when the scaffolding is gone? Believe me, it looks great!

Ice Candle
One morning I opened the water bucket, and I hit ice! I chopped a little bit with the pitcher, but since the pitcher would not fit into the bucket, I pulled the ice out. Here is a picture of the buckets ice-lining.

Ice candle

Trail Work
I cleared some of our wood trail downriver the past two days. The flood had left most of the trees in the area in a horizontal position. The area was not accessible in the summer because the ground was too wet. Now that it has been freezing for several days, the trails are accessible for us, and I was in a rush to finish the trail work before the first snow covers everything up.

Processing Vegetables

2009-10-10T09:23:00.000-07:00

Processing Vegetables – Day 0

$2,700 worth of food was moved from the boat, onto the sled, up the bank, into the wheelbarrow, and 500 metres into the cottage, where I had started a fire to keep things from freezing. Here are the shopping lists I had prepared all summer.

Organic food

Groceries

Produce

Miscellaneous

More $$ exchanged for hands-on stuff: A few more things, including our favourite coffee, are still in the mail

Putting it in perspective: I buy as much organic and bulk food as I can. Still, there is lots of food that comes a long way. Checking the boxes for their origin, I wonder, if and how I can avoid those long hauls?

Processing Vegetables – Day 1
Putting it in perspective: The vegetables I am cutting, bagging and freezing, or canning, will feed us for seven months.

The bananas went into the freezer, box and all. Next to the bananas I put the two frozen turkeys from Manitoba, Canada. Then, I took on the green peppers, two boxes, or 44 pounds. Some of them had soft spots already, but most of them had made the long trip from Fresno, California, undamaged and were still crunchy. I cut about half the peppers and put them in Ziploc bags. Another 25 percent of them went into vacuum sealed bags – we will keep them into spring, when things start thawing. The rest of the peppers is still awaiting immediate consumption or pickling with other crunchy vegetables. In the evening, I wrapped the 50-pound-bag of onions into blankets, to keep them safe from potential frost.

Processing Vegetables – Day 2
Before my first cup of coffee I fed the sourdough starter. Several hours later I kneaded the bread, covered it with a thin layer of vegetable fat, and put in the bread pans. Sourdough bread takes a long time to rise. It spent the better part of the day in the warm surroundings of the wood stove.

Next, I brought the three boxes of broccoli over to the studio. 60 pounds of broccoli crowns from Salinas, California, awaited processing. Three hours later, I had these vegetable chopped and packed into 28 big Ziploc bags.

The broccoli went into the freezer and I went to the cottage to sort through the box of Gala apples (from Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada). Most of them looked very good, some had started to rot from the inside; Elias requested an apple pie.

Processing Vegetables – Day 3
Celery was my target vegetable on day 3. The more I get used to my chopping routines, the more efficient I get. My celery operation looked quite sophisticated, I dare say. However, it still took me three hours to fill the 19 4-litre-bags. In the afternoon I baked an apple pie and cut some firewood for the cottage. It feels nice to work with the chainsaw again!

Looking Ahead
24 cauliflowers, 25 pounds of carrots and 80 pounds of cabbage remain to be dealt with, but I need a break. Also, those vegetables are fine for now, and the freezer is working overtime already, transforming all the vegetable therein into a frozen state. I will work on the bridge today, and clean up around the new house, before the snow covers all the wood scraps that we left behind during the past weeks.

Addition

The vegetables and fruits that we do not want to freeze should be in a root cellar. There will be one under the new house - next year. We will need to dig deep into the gravel, and then insulate the bottom and the walls really well. The heat emerging from the heated kitchen will keep the root cellar frost free. Otherwise, everything that is left without a heating source will freeze during the winter. This winter, the onions and their friends who should not freeze (garlic, cabbages, carrots, potatoes, and apples) will have to live with us. The cabin keeps shrinking, it seems.

Buying Winter Supplies in Dawson

2009-10-09T09:02:00.000-07:00

Just before take-0ff in Dawson: fully loaded boat and happy crew

Last night at 11 pm we arrived home from our last trip to Dawson. We left town as the light of a sunny late fall day was fading and the half moon was rising from the East. The water looked like oil, reflecting the dim light of a day transforming into night. The moon accompanied us with his pale yellow light; spruce trees along the river were casting longs shadows that reached into the river like fingers reaching from the past into the future.

It was a long three hours on the river, and Elias spent every minute in total concentration. Today I picked his brain and here is what he had to say:

“You have to constantly know where you are going. (...) It’s not relaxing, that’s for sure!”

How do you read the river at night? “You don’t; you just know. You know where the sandbars are. You hope that there is no Moose swimming in the river or any debris coming down. You never know, but usually there is nothing this time of the year.”

What do you like about night travel on the river? “It’s nice with the moon. A little bit of snow on the banks helps to brighten it up so you have a better depth perception”.

After a good night’s sleep without any noises we spent today unloading the boat, and storing things away. Halfway through the venture a snowstorm blew in and blessed us with the first thin layer of fluffy white!

Hauling things up the 10-meter high bank:

Loading the sled

Hooking the sled up to the winch

There comes the cargo

The pulling system

The winch

Once it was up top of the bank, we moved everything into the wheelbarrow and I hauled it to the cottage and the studio. The next few days will be spent chopping up and freezing more than 10 big boxes of vegetables. That is a whole story by itself – coming soon!

Moose Hunt – An Introduction

2009-10-03T09:52:00.000-07:00

Between the onset of night frost in early October, and mid October, when ice starts to build up on the boat and we have to pull it out of the water, we go Moose hunting. Minutes ago Elias went on his first Moose spotting trip. It is 7:45 in the morning. Dawn has just started and a gentle white light with a trace of pink outlines the mountains against the grey sky. As it turns out he will not see a Moose today, and the coffee thermos will not work well, either.

Just the tracks, for now

More Fall Impressions

2009-09-26T11:20:00.000-07:00

I harvested the last of my garden vegetables after the first severe night frost on Tuesday.

Last broccoli, cauliflower, and kohlrabi

Lance has been enjoying fall to its fullest, always looking for a warm spot to have a nap in.

Fall dog on fall moss

Winter left his Business Card

2009-09-26T10:06:00.000-07:00

We are on the boat, heading downriver. Rain is drizzling. As the boat accelerates, the rain starts to pierce my face. I sit down, protecting my face from the wind. A small flock of ducks is passing at my eye level, followed by a snowflake! Then, another one, a flurry! I stand up, greeting winter. A smile emerges from inside me, plants itself on my face, and won’t leave. I face the wind, the snow, winter. I lean into the wind, let it hold me at an angle much smaller than 90 degrees. The clouds are hanging low. We cannot see far ahead. White water crowns the ripples on the river. We come around a bend, gusts of wind rattle the boat, when we see it: A boat, silver looking stranded on a sandbank in the middle of nowhere. It’s spooky. There are no people around. We move closer. Is the boat tied up? We cannot tell. When we are really close, the motors’ lower units are almost touching ground, and we see that that boat is not tied up, it’s just sitting there. “A birthday gift from the river”, I think, and joy is bubbling from my chest. I have been looking for a boat just like that for a year! 12 foot long, welded aluminum, perfect! I’ll find a used 20 horsepower motor, and I’ll be mobile on the river, learning to navigate on it. My thoughts are spinning, making up adventures I’ll get myself into with that boat.

Well, hours passed before we landed on that sandbank. We went to Raven first. On our way back I worried about the boat: What if somebody else got her? She was still sitting there, waiting. Elias tied her to the end of his boat and pulled her off the sandbank. That proofed to be tricky, since the water was very shallow by that sandbank.

Pulling Tango

When we pulled her, I thought about a name for her. She was dancing behind us and I thought “Tango, that’s her name”. So, if we can keep her, she is Tango. I hope that we can keep her!

We will keep our ears open if somebody is missing her. The river keeps taking things, and he gives things back, seemingly at random. We lost barrels of fuel and lumber to the flood this spring and to high water last summer.

Minor Unevennesses

2009-09-23T11:38:00.000-07:00

As I am becoming more and more involved in our life out here, I tend to lose the ability to write about them. I just wrap myself into my little issues and ponder over them. Some days though, a trace of humor overtakes me and I see things with different eyes, which proofs to be a good opportunity to write about them.

The issue at hand: our mattress. The good thing has been in Elias’ possession for decades, I dare say. It is a good brand (its likes can still be found in renowned warehouses), latex, and it is perfectly comfortable for ONE person sleeping on it. Over the years it has taken on Elias’ shape, right in the middle of itself: A permanent lengthwise indent, several centimetres in depth, proofs my point. What is comfortable for one becomes an issue for two, since both will converge toward the indent, which proofs to be a source of nightly disputes. Too many sharp elbows in each other’s ribs finally tipped the scales and I changed the mattress. I do not know how good this ‘new’ futon is (we inherited it) and how long it will last. A new latex mattress, king size, is on my shopping list for next spring. It is not that easy though: What’s a basic commodity for people in more populated areas does not come easy out here. It is not easy to find a warehouse that ships big things like mattresses to remote locations, an even if they do, we have to expect high shipping rates. After long hours of shopping and a painful financial transaction we might have it in Dawson, but then we still have to transport a big thing that must not get wet on the boat. In this spirit: consider yourself lucky, if you have a good mattress!

A Voice in the Dark

2009-09-23T10:59:00.000-07:00

A loud voice woke us last night at quarter to 3 am. We figure it was a coyote, howling only metres from our cabin. He went on and on, until Elias remarked laconically: “We might have to ask him to move somewhere else”. When I got up to record him, the squeaking of the door must have startled him, for he stopped howling. Minutes later we heard the voice again, this time at a greater distance.

Forest Fires, Floods and Earthquakes

2009-09-18T08:08:00.000-07:00

During breakfast Elias asked me, if I had felt the second tremor, too. I confirmed his impression, and he remarked casually: “Yeah, we get it all; wild fires, floods and earth quakes“*.

We felt a series of small tremors last night. Something in the kitchen rattled, and Lance gave a bark. To me the earthquake felt like dizziness, and hadn’t it been for the rattling in the kitchen, that is what I would have taken it for.

*The last forest fire stroke Green Creek in summer 2004 – the fire stopped by our second bridge, about 300 metres from the house. The last flood rose to an estimated 400-year-high in spring 2009 – and to the roof of our old cabin.

I don’t have a picture of the earthquake, but let me try to make the leap to the picture of a squirrel with a pine cone on a fall-coloured poplar: It’s all part of our natural surroundings. The circle of life keeps spinning: a bit of fire, water or quaking cannot change that. As for right now we are all getting ready for another winter.

Squirrel on a poplar; Whitehorse September 14, 2009

Shedding Leaves

2009-09-13T08:05:00.000-07:00

The forest is in motion. No longer is it quiet. Leaves are rustling, quivering. A breeze, a gust of wind shakes their connection with the tree one more time, before they fall. Gracefully they sail through the air, golden leaves, red leaves, all sailing down, touching my face gently, breaking up the warm rays of sunlight. When I walk, the leaves underneath my shoes are crunching, when I stop, I hear the leaves rustling and quivering. It is like a new spirit has entered the forest.

Birch

Moose Crossing

2009-09-08T09:16:00.000-07:00

"Black dot" in the center of the picture

We went a few kilometres upriver to go for a fall walk. Minutes after we had started our boat ride we spotted a big dark dot on the bank of an island. Elias slowed down, the animal stopped. At that point we were still 500 metres from the Moose. Seconds later the Moose made up its mind and started to cross the river. I was amazed to see how quickly that bull covered the distance of about 300 metres. In no more than three minutes he was on the other bank and gracefully walked away into the woods.

Moose crossing

Almost there

Touched bottom

Off he goes

Tracks telling a story

View in a slough

Sauna / Bathhouse Ready!

2009-09-08T08:47:00.000-07:00

After the flood Elias moved the sauna building closer to the new house. A few days ago I finished the interior. The sauna measures about 8 x 8 feet, so I had a hard time capturing the whole room on one picture. Here are a few images of the new interior:

Entrance area: I put an improvised door in; Elias is going to build a permanent door.

Wood stove on the left as you enter the building. I put rocks underneath and fire bricks inside the stove. That little thing works really well!

Shower curtains in the front and the back (to protect the wall). I used wood polls and burl wood sticks from the area as curtain rods.

The shower: We heat the water on the stove, and then pour it into a 5-gallon water jug that goes up on the designated frame.

The white board along the top of the bath tub presented a challenge for my improvisation skills: I had to use the sander to grind off the edge, so water will not get trapped; then I filled the cracks with silicon and painted it 5 times.

A sauna bench

An oil lamp, a towel rod, and a hanger on the right side

This IS Bush Life

2009-09-06T09:43:00.000-07:00

Four-legged philosopher by the river at sunrise

It starts to dawn on me, that, what I am experiencing, what I am LIVING, IS bush life. The spring flood and the summer spent cleaning up and rebuilding is not the exception, but part of a series of events that demand immediate re-action.

Bush life as a series of unforeseeable events that need to be juggled with.

If that’s true, then what is it like to live out here? - Working on multiple projects at the same time, improvising on the job, accepting imperfection, never enough money, being tired and satisfied in the evening, experiencing moments of total freedom and oneness with the world around... and the realization that no other lifestyle would fulfill me the same.

I might be wrong, though. Life is evolving, after all, moving like the river, checkless. The only thing that makes sense is to go with it, and be ready to let it go.

Bird Migration

2009-09-03T09:23:00.000-07:00

As the summer comes to an end, our summer neighbours are heading south, and we are delighted to catch close-up glimpses of timid wildlife: Today morning a juvenile Bald Eagle landed on the top of a spruce tree right in front of our kitchen window.

Juvenile Bald Eagle on top of a tree

Flocks of migratory birds like cranes, geese and ducks are moving south as steadily as the river is moving north. Even our human neighbours who spent their summers in the area are gone. The odd Moose hunter’s boat (the hunting season has started) disturbs the peaceful silence of the river.

One Berry leads to Another

2009-08-27T08:55:00.000-07:00

At first I picked with a plan: to get them all in a certain spot, before I moved on. Then, one afternoon, I went on an ‘exploratory picking trip’, meandering around, stopping only where I found an abundance of berries. The next time I worked on that skill: to follow the lead of the berries, and my instincts.

Unlike high bush cranberries, which are all over the forest clearings and along the waterways, low bush cranberries are rare around here. Finding and picking them is a challenge that I am very motivated to meet. Foraging for and finding those patches of big red cranberries nestled into the moss is exhilarating, almost like gambling!

I am thinking about the philosophical implications of that discovery: Instincts versus analytical planning. It is scary, because if I follow the lead of the berries I can never pick them all, and I never know in advance where I will end up. The bucket generally fills up before all the berries are picked and I have to come back to the studio to empty the bucket; usually with the feeling of having left something precious behind.

Elias says: “You always come back to where you started. The berries are round like the world, and you can never see too far down the road”.

Now it is your turn to think about that topic!

Scattered Notions of Fall

2009-08-25T09:45:00.000-07:00

The world around us is changing, too much is happening, but at the same time it does not seem to be enough to wrap it into a story, not a story with ONE topic anyway. So, let me give you my scattered notions of fall:

Cranberries and their leaves – all red

Right now, at 7 am, I am looking out the window into twilight. I saw the stars again after almost half a year. The sun is rising around 7.30 now; amazing, since only a few weeks ago it rose at 6 am. Leaves are changing color, some are already falling off. The days are rainy; the nights are colder, leaving me worried about my fragile greens, especially the tomatoes that are so slow to ripen. On the other hand the indigenous inhabitants of our plant world are flourishing: high bush cranberries and rosehips are abundant, and we found humongous mushrooms.

Is it edible?

Flocks of sand hill cranes and Canada geese are moving south, calling each other. That sound, together with the humid smells of the forest puts me in a fall mood; I realize that the circle of life is still in motion.

What we did the past days:

Moved the satellite dish
Went to Raven for mail
Harvested herbs, built a drying rack, dried herbs by the stove
Finished outhouse hole
Built window frames

Elias, cutting a slot on top of the frame (to give the logs space to settle)

Picked berries
Canned zucchini, made rosehip jelly and cranberry juice
Cut my hair

Hair, minus 10 centimetres

We have been ordering all kinds of things for the building project and supplies for the winter, such as tools, a 12-volt-ceiling fan and a stovetop fan to move the hot air around in the new house, a vacuum cleaner and food.

The rain keeps delaying the finishing of the roof and some of my sanding projects (I do not even want to explain the intricate connections between projects and how the delay of one causes a chain reaction for a seemingly infinite number of other projects).

What we still have to do:

Plan supply shopping (food, tools, building supplies) and DO it (that includes trips into Dawson and maybe one to Whitehorse)
Set up lights and a bigger stove in the studio
Build new raised bed for the garden, move the greenhouse that has been displaced by the flood and spent the summer amidst dense bush
Pick more berries
Finish the roof of the new house, the windows and the floor, do more sanding,...

New Bush Toilet (a.k.a. ‘Outhouse‘)

2009-08-18T09:53:00.000-07:00

Our creek, the river, the mountains today morning, August 18

We have been enjoying two wonderfully sunny fall days. After heavy rain showers during the night the air is fresh and humid, a thin layer of fog hovers over the trees, the ground smells musty like mushrooms and moss, the first leaves are changing their colours, and the berries are ripening and contribute to the array of fall colours.

Misty morning in front of the studio

My sanding project in the new house is coming to an end. Only the spots that are difficult to reach remain to be done – we have to build more scaffolding. However, Elias is currently occupied building more tables along with an addition for his tool shed. Incessantly he carried lumber to the different building sites for hours. I decided to start digging a hole for our new outhouse.

Nice site, eh?

Despite my complaining elbow, which is not used to all the lifting, the hole was growing quickly: In less than two hours I had dug hip-deep, and 1 by 1 meters wide. My instructions say that the hole has to be shoulder-deep. Consequently I know what I will do today.

So far, so deep.

PS: Yesterday morning I went to the next creek to pick bog cranberries. On the way back I found a dead juvenile peregrine falcon on the beach, hidden partially behind a piece of driftwood. The bird looked perfectly undamaged. Before I touched it, I poked it gently with a stick to make sure it was dead. When I picked it up the feathers rustled; it was such a beautiful bird. Later we mused why it died: Did it break its neck while chasing some other bird or was it chased himself? It’s sad, and it’s hard for me to accept death as part of that circle of life. Elias is planning on carving a peregrine falcon this winter.

New Door, New Window

2009-08-15T09:32:00.000-07:00

Two days ago it was another hole for a window, and yesterday it was a hole for our main entrance; now Elias is done cutting holes into our wooden castle. Here is a documentary of the project:

The first cut

View from the inside

Cutting the second side

All cut!

Now he needs the sledge hammer

Done – the logs are rolling!

... And the last one

Goal accomplished!

The new view

And here a picture of the new window on the upper floor: The room is much brighter now!

The sanding project is coming along, with a bit of a delay, since I went grocery shopping to Dawson this week. I hope to be done with the sanding in a few days.

Current status of the sanding project

We can see clearly again!

2009-08-11T08:40:00.000-07:00

Sunrise at 7am

Finally, after more than a week, during which we could sometimes not see 500 meters to the other side of the river, we enjoyed a wonderfully clear sunrise today. The mountains appeared blue in the morning light, sharply delimited from the light blue sky. The thermometer showed +2 degrees Celsius (my poor garden plants!), and Elias started a fire in the kitchen stove shortly after 6 am.

Broccoli with dew drops

Kale, our most reliable vegetable; also with dew drops

The smoke that we experienced came from different wildfires in a radius of several hundred kilometres. When no human settlements are endangered, the authorities limit their actions to monitoring the fires. That makes sense, since wildfires are a natural part of the life cycle of forests. They also reduce the numbers of insects such as spruce beetles. In areas where wildfires have been controlled for several years, for example in Kluane National Park in the southwest of the territory, spruce beetles are destroying vast areas of forest. Where humans are interfering with natural cycles...

If you are interested, you can find a current map that shows active wildfires, at <ftp://ftp.geomaticsyukon.ca/Fire/PDF/ActiveFires/YTOV_Public.pdf>.

Harvesting-Season opened

2009-08-08T08:21:00.000-07:00

Ever since the radishes sprouted we have been snacking on the fruits of our garden: We savour salad, kale, peas, broccoli, herbs, rhubarb, zucchini, and carrots as side dishes or as garnish on sandwiches.

Sugar peas

About two weeks ago the raspberry season started. First, I snatched a few berries here and there, but during the last few days the ripe fruits have become too abundant to be eaten right there – I tried! When I ended up with three cups of raspberries, I blended them with an equal amount of rhubarb and made preserve. We do not have a fridge or freezer, so we have to take care of ripe fruits and vegetables in different ways, such as canning or drying them. My intention for that preserve was to use it as bread spreads, but it did not jell, so we will eat it as compote on one of those cold winter nights.

Raspberries

Yesterday was also my first cranberry-picking day. I targeted low bush cranberries that were growing along and on our trails around the cabins. They are not fully ripe yet, but if I leave them we will step on and destroy them, or somebody else will harvest them: While worms are my main competitors for raspberries, it is mice who are feeding on low bush cranberries. Low bush cranberries will stay well and ripen in a basket, even if they are left uncooled.

Low bush cranberries

Low bush cranberries close-up

Hardly worth mentioning for quantity reasons, but well worth talking about for their flavour are currents: both red and black currants can be found along the creek. It took me about an hour to pick two cups of them. I ate one cup and now I find myself wondering what I can do with one cup of those precious, aromatic berries. Maybe I will blend them with raspberries and try the jam-making again.

Black currants

Bear Visitation

2009-08-06T09:09:00.000-07:00

The tips of the dense black fur on his back were golden, as if bleached by the sun. His gait was leisurely and deliberate, his hips slowly swaying left-right. His big paws did not make a sound as he was moving over the soft forest ground. His eyes seemed small, black, shiny, and alert, with the gaze slightly out of focus. His ears, round and erect, were moving slightly as they scanned his acoustic surroundings.

We had a black bear visitor last night. Judging by his size he was between two and three years old. He was strolling toward our studio-window when Elias spotted him. I was cooking when he called me over excitedly: “Psst, come over quickly and see!” By then the bear was only ten meters from the window. I had a chance to take a few pictures, before the animal disappeared behind the corner of the cabin.

Curious lip

Not quite in focus, but a claw on his right front foot is clearly visible; very impressive!

When we opened the front door, he turned his head, stopped for a second, and then ran away; not in panic, but as if motivated by a conscious decision: “I give way, because I choose so”. Elias commented “That’s a boy!” and I exclaimed “Good bear”, expressing our mutual relief that brother bear was not interested in our human settlement, but merely traveling through.

Unconventional Fishing Method

2009-08-03T07:20:00.000-07:00

Last night I went to the creek to get water for the garden. I walked down to a spot where the creek makes a bend. The water there is deep as it hits a set of rocks; a perfect spot to get a good part of a 20-liter-bucket in one scoop. This time there was a surprise in the bucket: a 25-centimeter-long Arctic Grayling*.

We were both taken by surprise; the fish was bouncing around in the bucket, and I put the bucket down and rushed back to the cabin to report my catch and get the camera. When I came back to the bucket minutes later the fish had calmed down. Quickly I took a few pictures, before I released the little guy back into the creek.

*Juvenile Grayling – and occasionally salmon fry - are a common sight in Green Creek. During the summer months they find food and shelter in the clear water.