MacGyver of the North

Today I engineered a ingenious solution to a pesky problem...I haven't tried it out yet - that comes on Friday night...but I am hopeful. On the long weekend I ended up sleeping in my car due to heavy rain and mumma bear nosing in my hammock...I would like to have cracked the window for some fresh air, but the pesky mosquitoes would have eaten me alive. So instead I had to wake up to steamed up windows that took forever to dry off, and left big streak marks inside where they dripped. What to do...

Then I thought about banner magnets for cars...and screen, and magnetic sticky strips...hmmm....a plan was hatched. I grabbed a piece of screen I had from the kitchen window (having ripped it down in an attempt to break into my trailer after locking myself out last winter in -20C while in my pyjamas) and a few dollar store rolls of the magnetic sticky strips, and a trusty pair of scissors. Off to the car...I cut a piece of screen just a bit bigger than my back seat door window, and stuck the sticky strips to the back. I can then open the window, stick the screen to the outside of the car, and sleep in fresh air without the pesky mosquitoes...and OH THEY ARE BASTARDS TONIGHT while I was out there crafting this...even with my fly dope on.

T'was my MacGyver moment...and then I came back into the house and sat down to write this post...hearing a rrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiippppppppp....

It wasn't the screen. It was my shorts - ripped the arse clean out of them. No shame for them I reckon...they are my University of Waterloo shorts I bought my first year on campus...nearly 10 years ago. Sad to see them go now...but hell, I'm MacGyver of the North!

Great Eastern Adventure Begins On Friday

I haven't posted since the weekend - it's been busy, busy, busy...I am heading east on Friday to visit with my parents in Newfoundland, stopping by Nova Scotia for some very much anticipated visits with friends. It's quite a cumbersome journey to make my way to the tiny outport community where my parents live - I leave here on Friday at 5pm from work and arrive at my parents home by about 6pm on Monday. Yes, Monday. All manner of transportation is involved and several legs to the trek. I don't mind (at least that's what I am saying now...ask me on Monday) as I have always enjoyed travelling and it is part of the adventure, along with visiting folks along the way. For anyone interested, the Eastern Adventure looks something like this...

Depart NT at 5pm Friday...begin driving south to Grande Prairie, driving through the night (they don't get dark now) and sleeping in my car as needed. My flight then departs Grande Prairie mid-afternoon for Edmonton, where I have a 6 hour stopover...sounds horrible, right? Not at all...my wonderful neice and her family live there and I am hoping they can make it out to visit, and we could possibly go for supper. Then I catch my evening flight (kind of a red-eye) to Halifax, arriving there 6:30am, where my friend K. picks me up at the airport and we are stopping at the Irving Big Stop (YAYYY!) for a hearty breakfast before heading to Cape Breton. Once we arrive, I hope to meet up with a group of good friends for the afternoon, before another friend G. spirits me away to North Sydney to meet up with M. who I'll then visit with while waiting to cross the gulf on the ferry. The ferry departs close to midnight, and arrives in Newfoundland the following morning, early - where my parents will be meeting me and we'll do some visiting, shopping and go for lunch before heading down to catch the ferry at Rose Blanche to Grand Bruit.

Yeah, I think I'll be tired...but this is what I am travelling to...it is totally worth it...one photo is of the the water below my parents cabin, and the other is of Grand Bruit. I will be back home by the 20th of June...nice little visit...

Busy As A Beavers

Here is a beaver I saw swimming across a little roadside pond...sharing the pond was some species of duck. The big river is Buffalo River. I took these this morning on my way to Hay River. On the return drive, I stopped at Little Buffalo River where some of the locals have cabins and visited. The kids were busy throwing rocks into a pound, and then the owners were "discussing" how to make the dock...

Sunset on the Lake

I went down in search of swans but alas, they have departed...so I hung about and watched the sun depart and the moon was already high in the sky. There is a groovy shot of the sun just down over the Arbor

Buffalo Herd

Rambling Bear - Roadside Viewing

Shopping For a New Sleep Mask

While I. and I were out hiking the South Loop in Wood Buffalo Park, we had some visitors at our campsite. Since I am such a creature of habit, I do notice when things are different (most of the time). We got back to our campsite about suppertime, and being experienced campers, left absolutely no food out, but the bears were apparently just nosey. This sleep mask was left in my hammock, with the tarp hanging over the hammock. Either mumma bear or one of her cubs rooted around in my hammock and pulled it out, chewed on it for a bit and then dropped it on the ground. They also had a little nibble on our water container. Note the tooth marks in that too. The park staff came and informed us of the mumma bear and two cubs they spotted in the park earlier in the day while we were out.

I slept in the car that night...two reason - pissing rain with howling wind...and the bear was nosing around in my hammock while empty...what would she do if I was in it and smelled like my supper? I wasn't giving her the opportunity...mumma with cubs would not be reasonable if my large figure popped out from under the tarp if she was sniffling around again in the night.

So today I went shopping online for a new sleep mask...we're already at 20+ hours of daylight and I sleep with it on every night. The longest day is yet to come, and we'll be at about 23 hours of daylight by then I reckon, with no black night.

Wood Buffalo Park - Holiday Camping

Here are several photos from the camping weekend...I will try to provide mini-descriptors in a list as they will surely not show up next to the actual photo:

1. the blackened forest - not sure if a fire did this or an insect...they are all skinny and very black.
2. black bear on the Fort Smith highway...they are close to the road, and usually don't even acknowledge cars who pull up next to them unless they have cubs. This one didn't.
3. Loki (in focus) my friend I.'s little dog
4. Ollie (in focus) her other dog
5. limestone anticline - supposed to have lots of fossils, but the water was too darn cold to cross the creek to check them out this time
6. a lone buffalo along the Fort Smith highway
7. Pelicans - next three photos
8. an eagle coming in for a landing
9. me, on the bridge crossing the salt plains. The hike was 9kms long and felt like 20...I did it all without complaint...the forest was stinking hot, and there was no fresh water to cool off in or drink (I brought some) and was very proud of my out-of-shape body to make it without collapse
10. old buffalo prints, and fresh animal - possibly wolf or a plain old dog prints in the salt plain
11. the salt plains, with the spring run-off drying up
12. salt plains again - note all the rocks that drive down with the ice during spring runoff
13. black bear, along the Pine Lake road
14. sunset at Pine Lake, where we camped...it was gorgeous!
15. delicate harebells aka hairbells
16. more of the salt plains
17. Buffalo in the next 3 shots - note the tiny light brown calf poking its nose out around mumma's tail
18. Ptarmigan in the tree - he thinks I can't see him but I CAN!
19. a collapse sinkhole near Angus Firetower on the Fort Smith highway
20. Buffalo on the Fort Smith Highway
21. a lone bear snacking on top of an old beaver den
22. buffalo herd on the Pine Lake road

I know there are a lot of photos, but they were all so interesting to me! I snapped 250 this weekend (loving digital photography) so this is but a mere handful of them. We were eventually rained out, but the bugs weren't bad, the temps were cooler, and I slept one night in my hammock, and last night in my car (rainy night and we had a bear visit earlier with a cub who chewed up my sleep mask and water containter - I wasn't tempting fate by sleeping in my hammock where she found my sleep mask...)