Return to the Yukon

Well, I have tons to talk about, and no computer at home, so these few pics with brief descriptions will have to do for now...when I get a chance and my head stops swimming, I shall post a long and interesting entry. (Blogger is also being difficult today and uploading has been a challenge)

Below are some photographs of the avalanche warning signs, and a rather small avalanche.

Just before I got back to the Alaska Highway from the Stewart-Cassiar Highway, I left BC and entered the Yukon, as signed below. The Alaska Highway winds in and out of BC again on the way to Whitehorse from the east.

and now this is just an interesting sign and where I stopped to get something out of the trunk...I didn't spot any llamas though...

Northward Bound

Back on the road again tomorrow for the 1380km trip. I expect to get as far as Watson Lake tomorrow night and then head off early morning towards Whitehorse with a stop in Marsh Lake to see the swans at my friend R.'s place.

I'm gonna miss these little tykes, but not the noise. If anything, I have gotten to know their personalities better, and I hope they will remember me from visit to visit, particularly since I'm the only Billard relative they will probably see with any regularity. They are all so very individual, and if I hadn't have been as sick as I was, I would have truly enjoyed them. I like snuggling but who wants to curl up next to a coughing hack, so I didn't impose myself on them too much. A. is the cuddler with me, while S. is a little more standoffish. C. is just getting to know me as he isn't quite 2 years old and the last time I saw him he was only 3 months.

My sister and I spent some quality time together, which is always nice. Tonight we hung out, I kicked her ass in cards and we watched Walk The Line (again). I wanted to watch another movie after that, but the lightweight that she is, couldn't stay awake for it...heh heh...

I'm hoping for clear weather and to take lots of photos tomorrow during the drive. With any luck there won't be any snow on the roads this time either. However, if anything, it kept me from nodding off as it forced my full attention to the road! I may have lost all of my photos on that damned broken laptop, so want to recoup the losses tomorrow with a fresh batch.

Let's hope for no flat tires, and some wildlife on the road (not that I want to hit it, but I do want to see some!). Shall update y'all on Monday...

Vacation Hump Day

Well, I've been here since Saturday, and will be leaving wee early on Saturday, so figure this is my hump day. It has been a good vacation so far, except for breaking my computer ($700 damage), and getting even more sick than when I left (now on antibiotics). The boys have certainly grown(my nephews) and for the most part (between the kicking, ear piercing screams and eye gouging) are pleasant to be around. We all sat down and watched The Garfield Movie last night while their parents were out (sis at meeting, BIL at work) and they were as good as gold, I hardly heard a peep out of them. They are busy little boys though, and if anything, spending time with them takes care of any notions I might have had about parenting again...I do not have the energy!

My sis and I spent a fun day in Smithers this afternoon, shopping in the snobby downtown area. One sales lady even made a point of telling my sister on her way into the dressing room that the pants she had with her to try on weren't THAT big...my sister was a little offended. I simply smelled snobbery...Smithers is known to ooze it. Snobs or not, they still got my money at several stores. I bought some beautiful Balinese tie-dye fabric to make capri pants for both my sister and I. It was pricey, but was very good quality cotton, hand-dyed fabric. I'll get at them later tonight. My sis is going to Mexico next week on an annual mission trip with her church and needed a few things to wear as shorts are not acceptable where she is going. We finished off the trip with supper at Boston Pizza. The food was good, but the waitress brought our food and was never to be heard from again...her tip got smaller and smaller until it was barely there...

The weather here has been gorgeous...was +22C yesterday in the sun/lund. I have been in shirtsleeves most of the time. It shall be difficult to return to the Yukon's frosty weather, but nice to know I have really been "down south". They call it that up there...going anywhere south of the Yukon is considered "down south", and typically means Vancouver. Being from the east could mean you are from Calgary...yeah, right.

I have been sick since I got here, coughing and hacking my way, day and night, but hope to wake up one morning soon, feeling better. I had to pay $50 to see the doctor here becuase their computer system won't accept Yukon or NWT Health cards...what a crock of shit! I got a receipt so will get my fifty bucks back however I am pissed that they couldn't take it. So much for national health care...I shall make much noise about it in my typical style when I stop by the Yukon health office too...

The snow is mostly gone here, and the kids all have their bikes out..ahhh...spring!

Now I am off to settle in for the evening with my sis...

Its Quitting Time

editor's note - I broke my laptop before I got the images off it, so if I am able to recover my hard drive, I shall insert the pics later...until then, text will have to suffice...apologies!

It’s Quitting Time!!!

3:30pm was slowly approaching and so was the beginning of my first vacation since my arrival last fall. Work was busy, but my head wasn’t in it, it was thinking about the long trek ahead of me. More than 1300kms were to be covered by tomorrow night.
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3:30pm came and I left, got the car washed so I could see out the windows again, filled up on gas and hit the road. There’s something to be said about heading off into new territory (new to me) for a week’s vacation. I had no real idea of what lay ahead, what the roads would be like, if I would break down, land in a ditch, or sail right through.
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Thankfully the skies were fairly clear and I was able to get a good look at some of the mountains along the Alaska Highway. There were 454 kms to cover today, and I was determined to take what photos I could. Below is a photo I took of some stunning mountains as they came into view.
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Then I came across the Teslin River Bridge. That was interesting. I had never been across an all-metal bridge. The only thing close was the short swing bridges in Cape Breton, you know the kind, with the steel grating for driving on…rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…anyhow it was trippy, that’s for sure, and long!
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Following the Teslin River was a whole lot of empty highway. There are no towns between Teslin and Watson Lake, leaving a driver to nothing but wilderness and it was exhilarating! One more mountain view shot below…
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Then I arrived at Watson Lake and drove by the Sign Forest. I had mentioned wanting to see this to a co-worker who is from Watson Lake and he dared me to not notice it. I got what he meant when I saw it…it’s huge and while it was dark when I arrived in Watson Lake, I took this photo the following morning around 6:30am.
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From Watson Lake I backtracked just 22 kms to the Highway 37 Junction where I began the trek south on the Stewart-Cassiar Highway. The first part of the road wasn’t too bad, somewhat snowy, heavily sanded and several turns. It was also quite deserted. In the first couple of hundred kilometres, I saw one truck, and that was just as I started and then didn’t see another vehicle for several kilometres.
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I wasn’t on the 37 highway just a few minutes when I entered BC…There was also a spot along the Alaska Highway were it entered BC briefly and back out again. The highway takes a little southward dip.


The road conditions ranged from poor to terrific. I think that without the newly fallen snow, the drive would have been pretty darn good. The highway has a few potholes and frost heaves, but in general, was still an improvement on most Nova Scotia secondary roads. There were three sections of unpaved, however they were not always easy to distinguish as the paved roads were so heavily sanded, it was hard to tell. As well, the unpaved portions were hard packed, with some snow on it.
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This was one of my stops to get a break. The ride was noisy from the rumble of driving on dirt road and heavily sanded road. It was nice to get a break, and so peaceful when I stopped. No cars or people around for miles! I’m not sure what Gnat Lake was named after…unless it was a breeding ground fro them.
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I drove through several avalanche areas, and saw the remains of one small avalanche. I can only imagine how bad they can get though as I passed through and looked up the mountain to see just what was there to come down…
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and then it was over…
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There was a particularly tricky part of the highway as it wound its way around sharp bends and over a mountain pass. They warned me ahead of time to slow down and unlike many speed warning signs, this was one to strictly adhere to. The road was unpaved at this point and due to spring thaw, was a slimy, greasy, thick mess of mud.
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As I cleared this section and was going up and over yet another mountain pass on paved road, I came across a fella stuck in a snowbank. It was an Asian fellow, driving a 4-wheel drive SUV and he had lost control, landing in the snowbank under a cliff on the opposite side of the road. Thankfully for him, he didn’t careen in the other direction, OVER the cliff…most of these roads do not have guardrails so there is nothing to prevent one from becoming airborne. I stopped to see if he was ok, and someone had already just stopped and was gone for help to get him towed out. He was fine and then commented to me about my car…”you are driving just a little car with front wheel drive and all-season tires through this treacherous stretch of road?”. I couldn’t resist…so I said to him “I’m sure you can appreciate the irony of the situation…you’re the one in the snowbank with your four-wheel drive…”. He chuckled and I took my smug look back to my car and was on my merry way again…I wanted to take a photo of his SUV in the snowbank, however rubbing his nose in the situation was just poor taste.
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My little car did not let me down once. It’s not all about the vehicle you know, it is just as much about the driver. After several winters on the east coast driving through blinding snowstorms, I felt more than prepared for an inch or two of snow.
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While towns were few and far between, and even then just a building or two on the side of the highway, there were plenty of rest areas…this is the outhouse from one of them. You can sit down and look out into nature, because no one else is in sight for miles and miles.
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The first of many mountain rivers I passed were beginning to break up. There was no sign of that in the Yukon, but the further I drove south, the more open water I came across. It was easy to stop and take photos from the bridges as there was no one else around. I only ever came across 3 cars on my 700kms+ journey, and they were in the last hour or so of the trek. I did see about 4 tractor trailers…the first coming barrelling towards me as I scrambled up over that greasy mountain road…thankfully we were both paying attention as there was not a lot of road. I did see a number of pick-up trucks, maybe about 30, and I think I saw 3 SUV’s, and a couple of vans. That was about it for all those hours on the road. There were tons of campgrounds, all closed for the season, however I did manage to pass by 3 RV’s, doing some winter camping I reckon.
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Sights like this were common, although I think I missed some of the best scenery during the former part of my journey down the Stewart-Cassiar Highway as it was snowing, raining and generally overcast and foggy around the mountains and it was only during the second half of the trek that the mountains appeared out of the fog.
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I finally came to the end of that portion of the highway and at Kitwanga where it ends, I stopped for some supper. I had only stopped once, in Dease Lake to gas up. I had filled in Watson Lake, and didn’t need to even then in Dease Lake, having only burned a half tank, but I was no fool…you never know where the next station is and if it’s even open this time of year. The meal was ok, roast beef dinner floating in gravy I did not order, so she charged me half price. Then I hit the road on the last part of the trek. More spectacular mountains…
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and a whole lot less snow, and much more traffic. I finally arrived at my sister’s house around 6:15pm. The entire drive took me about 16 hours of driving, about 2.5 tanks (45l tank I think) of gas and it was 1345kms, approximately. My Echo was fabulous and I scored good mileage. And boy was I tired…
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I was disappointed with the wildlife. The only things I saw were squirrels darting off the roads and tons of little birds eating up the sand for grist. They were the stunnedest birds I’d ever seen. Flocks of them would be on the road ahead and you would THINK that they would fly away when I approached. You would be wrong. I hit more of those dumb birds, and one smucked right into my windshield, squishing like a bug, and making a fine mess on my windshield There are feathers stuck all over my window, grill, and hood. I began honking as I approached and they would hear that and scatter, however there was always one stun’d pole that would get struck. Weird suicidal birds…

Sniff, Snort, Hack, Cough, WHINE!

I got lucky when I flew in here back in November. It was the first time in years that I didn't get sick directly after I flew (within a week). And now I am going on vacation tomorrow, and guess what. I have a cold. Great. I have to drive for 1300kms beginning tomorrow when I leave work, and the last thing I need is a crappy cold. So I went to the drugstore today in search of symptom relief and was directed to Cold FX, which I had heard about recently from my sister, so thought, what the hell. It can't hurt and if it actually works, I won't be suffering as much on the long drive to my sisters.

I shall keep y'all posted. sniff, snort...hack.

When The Cat Is On The Woodstove

you know that spring has sprung. I didn't have to rush to light the woodstove tonight, the weather is so balmy! I also did not wear my coat on the way home, not to mention I wore a light cotton top, skirt and bare legs. The question is, will this last or are we going back to -30C in a week? Stay tuned...

editor's note: and then my stupid cat jumped on it an hour after I lit it and burned her paws. Talk about a cat on a hot tin roof iron stove...

Imagine My Surprise

When I finally got to work today (sick time in the AM) and found this little gift on my desk. Our acting manager and supervisor did up little packages for us all, including a personal note in the card. Thanks J., that was a swell gesture. This week is National Social Work Week, (Yukon style as the actual week is early March) and they have printed balloons up all over, and I missed a muffin breakfast this morning. There may be more...shall keep you posted.

Also today, another case assigned to me from M. She is the worker who was in a car accident (not her fault) just about a week after I got her. She came back for a couple of weeks half days, but couldn't do it and is off for good now, and terminated her contract. So they are reassigning all of her files, and I got one today. For a change, I wasn't shown the door and the mom was grateful of any help we could give her. Nice. I think I'll go back tomorrow.

Hmmmm, How About That

I watched a movie today entitled "Protection" and for the first time, I saw an honest depiction of a social worker in action. Nothing glorified about it, the script didn't seem phony, and it didn't have a happy ending, just an ending. And it was nearly the same as many of the days I spend in my job. The long and short of it is that child protection social workers suffer from vicarious trauma again and again. But then I am left to wonder that if I don't do my job and choose to get out of child protection to pursue something different, who is going to do it? There is absolutely no glory in it. Only in the north are you paid anything you can live on and still pay off student loans. The community often bands together to point the finger at child protection agencies, on a quest for a scapegoat to exlplain all the reasons their client couldn't get it together to parent their own child.

I am settling down more into my job, but am not entirely convinced I shall stay in this field. It will do for now, and there's work to be done.

Now I'm off to watch The March of The Penguins...wheeeee!

Airborne

Meet the newest member of the family...
My Bionaire air cleaner. I am hoping to get a handle on the ridiculous amount of dust in the house, likely from the wood stove and oil monitor heater. And the kitty fur, of course. And I didn't pinch my fingers this time, imagine.

The Gift That Keeps on Giving

my electric blanket. I don't use it all the time, but when I do, it is REALLY NICE. I stayed in town this evening, did some shopping, went for supper and then had a date with Matthew. I just can't understand what they were thinking in casting Sarah man-face opposite...she is fugly. But Matthew was wonderful, as usual. Although he beginning to look his years, aging gracefully of course. Sarah just looks like she swallowed a footall, it's downright creepy.

Anyhow, I digress...because I stayed in town until later on, I came home and didn't bother lighting the fire, so got a bit of a chill, however, knowing I would, I came up earlier on and turned on my electric blanket. My parents gave it to me for Christmas some years ago. I had one before that also from my parents, but second hand. Zipper, our dog at the time, chewed the cord off the other little bastard so I was without for a while.

Of course, I also have my furry heating pads...Via snuggled next to my neck (makes you cringe, doesn't it, G. you despiser of felines...) and Stormy, aka little bastard down by my feet. Sometimes he even crawls in behind my back, keeping draughts at bay...

It's mighty chilly again tonight, about -29C when I last checked. No wind now, but forecast for tomorrow, putting the windchill they predict at about -40C. Frosty, I'd say. Got the car plugged in, of course.

Glad my wood is all cleaved up, thanks again, Timmy.

I see the moon...

and the moon sees me.

Timmy The Cleaver

Thanks to my good friend and co-worker, Tim, the half cord of wood I had delivered recently is all chopped up and stacked. I did the stacking and Timmy did the chopping. He also gave me some tips for chopping and lo and behold, it worked! I was doing it all wrong, that was the problem and not letting physics into the equation. He is just a slip of a young man, but I was impressed at how he could make that axe sing...then he taught me his technique and I could also split it, although not as well, but better than when I hacked my leg with the axe last week...

I'm hoping this will last me the rest of the winter and then over the course of the summer I'll get a couple of more cords and be ready for winter this time. Moving into the cabin in late November didn't quite leave me ready for the winter.

Man, the heat from a woodstove is nice when you've got a chill...mmmmmm

Where To Spend It All

I got my refund from the province of Nova Scotia on my driver's license. I had applied a couple of weeks ago. Big money, I'm not sure where I can even spend it all. $6.45. Nice. Thanks a bunch, Rodney MacDonald. Now I have to send my license plate back for that refund. I won't get too excited yet.

Hump Day Photos

These are photos of the snow falling softly nearby, where the temp is about -5C, the warmest in ages at night.

The woodpile. T. from work bagged on me tonight to watch a movie with his friends loser so is coming this weekend instead. I let him off the hook though, as it is supposed to be colder this weekend and thus easier to split the wood (when it's damp like now, it won't crack open like it does when it's -25C or colder). Even though it would have been somewhat entertaining to watch his frustration. Ah, T.











That goddamn axe. My leg is still swollen and sore.









My car, gathering snow. I have decided to buy it and not bother with a new one. I just love that car! The new Yaris sedan is out though and I will go take one for a test drive, just to be sure. We shall see if I can maintain that sentiment then, ha ha.

I'm Surrounded By Idiots

Student Loans. Those two words can cause a major eruption in living rooms across Canada as past and present borrowers shout obscenities about their issues with any financial institution funding student loans.

I have a few for them myself.

And today they choose to aggravate me once again. Last week on March 1st I contacted CIBC Student Loan Centre to get the amount of interest I paid so I could finish my taxes, and to increase the amount I pay. After all, that's why I moved here so I can pay off my student loans faster and get them the hell out of my life. Today missy called and began with a series of questions, and I stopped her and asked her why she was calling, and refused to tell me why she was calling until after she got the answers to her "security questions". Then I told her that I was not comfortable giving her any information because I know that there is no reason for them to call me because I JUST spoke to them last week and updated everything for them, I know that my payment went through because I saw it come out of my bank account online two weeks ago, and the increase was to be for the 15th of this month, which is OBVIOUSLY not here yet, so WHY ARE YOU CALLING? I have no other product with you, and if you think you can talk me into another credit card, you can fuck off. (I didn't actually say those last few words, but the rest I did). She still refused to budge, and continued with the questions. Fine. Ask me the damn security questions, which are typically my current phone number and address, and my birthdate. Then she continues on with questions like am I currently working, what is my work number, etc and she finally got to the reason she was calling. She proceeds to tell me that I am overdue for my last payment of $$$ amount, which was the new amount I had just increased it to. And she tells me it was overdue from February 28th. Um, no hun. Look, how can I be overdue on an amount that was not put into effect until the day after you already took out the correct amount, of which I have proof on my bank statement that it went through. Take my word for it, you are calling in error. For one, you can't take more money out of my account without my permission, so obviously I know when the amount increased and to how much. So she checked her system for when I called in last and saw that I had called on March 1st and STILL didn't believe me. Put me on hold. bitch.

She came back and got a few words out, "Sorry to keep you waiting, now I" and she put me on hold again, for even longer! bitch.

Then she finally came back and informed me that my payment was not actually overdue, and proceeded to tell me why. Um, you stupid bitch. I just told you that. (I didn't really call her a bitch), but I did tell her that she should have simply taken my word for it in the first place, since it was obvious that I had made the change to my account, not them, since they can't. And then I asked her why she couldn't just tell me what she was calling about in the first place before she got into all the stupid verification questions. I can understand the security ones, but to ask me if I am currently working is not exactly a security question, dumbass. (again, I didn't call her names, I don't do that) and I told her that if she could have told me why she was calling in the first place and cut the shit, I could have hung up on her earlier because I have better things to do than defend myself to you.

My question is, how is it that she had the information that my payment amount had been changed, but not when it changed?

Yes, I do have to speed up paying off my loans because I don't see those idiot calls ending anytime soon...

It's Warming Up!

The temperature made it to 0C today, it was so mild!

Unfortunately I spent most of it steaming in my office, but I can't even talk about it anymore. I'm so sick of listening to me so I won't inflict it on anyone else. Let's just say I am enjoying working in child protection, and don't ever want to do it again.

The Rick Mercer Report tonight was mostly about the Yukon. He came to the Sourdough Rendezvous last week, and went camping with the Northern Rangers. I got a few chuckles, that's for sure. He has a way with words, 'bye.

My co-worker has agreed to come out tomorrow night and chop up my wood...yeeehaaaw! I also got invited(by the co-worker) to go rock climbing last night, but had a sore back, however I think we're going next Monday. The climbing is free as long as you help a child while you're there, I can't remember what they call it, but I would basically be the anchor who lets out a bit of rope at a time to the child on the wall.

Ok, time to go watch more funny...

Scenes on a Sunday

Was out visiting with a friend and her family this weekend. It was a brilliant drive, and I took many photos. The dog in the pic is hers as well, and he stole a pair of underpants from the dryer and was running around with them, frozen solid in his mouth, it was hilarious!

And She Wore...

moccasins from northern Ontario, circa 1972. My parents bought them from the local first nations crafters when we lived on the airbase at Armstrong. They each wore a pair for a bit but then we moved again, and they got packed away and forgotten. So I had my ma ship them up to me and I'm now wearing my dad's and just love them. They aren't ideal in slushy mild weather like we got on the east coast, but up here in the frosty north, they are just perfect on the weekends. I wear them all day, in and out of the house to the wood pile, they keep my feet warm and dry. I've worn them to work sometimes too.

take that Lady McCartney. REAL FUR too.

OK, I Give Up

I got lucky when I first got my load of wood. It was mostly small stuff that would fit in the stove. Now I am down to the last bits of wood and they are too big for the stove, so I need to split them with my handy new axe. However....it did not go well. Every once in a while I go out and give it a shot, but have yet to split a piece. It shouldn't be that HARD! Is my axe not sharp enough? Is it my upper body strength (which is shit)? Or is it the wood? Either way, I am not going to attempt it again until I figure it out. My friend T. from work had once offered...I think it's time to take him up on it. After all, there isn't much to chop. What happened yesterday was that I had the axe sunk into the top of the wood and raised both up in the air to come slam it down onto the chopping block again and the wood fell off and the axe swung past the block and slammed into my leg. For whatever reason though, it wasn't the blade that hit me, but the other end, and it got me on the ankle bone and the shin. First there was some screaming, then some cursing. Then the whimpering began. It fucking hurt like a son of a bitch. When I finally stopped crying out, I grabbed minimal wood and limped off back into the wood to collect myself and curse some more.

I ordered more wood for this afternoon and asked for more small stuff if I could get it, either that or I am going to have to rent a splitter along with it. So now I have to get up and limp outside and prepare an area to have the wood delivered. I have been chucking out the bigger pieces of wood after trying to stuff them into the stove, and they are scattered all over the back yard as I give them the heave ho off into the snow. They get partially burnt as I'm try to get it into the stove, so have to throw it into the snow to extinguise the smoldering cinders.

Ok, now it's time to get up and get moving today...and I am not about to slam the axe into my leg again...it hurts too much, particularly when I knock it again by accident...I almost want to throw up...

$145.36

That is the amount of the refund I got from my auto insurance company when I cancelled my Nova Scotia Policy and took out one in the Yukon. My car insurance went from costing me over $99/month to $55/month. There is definitely something nice about that...a refund I didn't expect (and while I just got the letter of notification from them today about the refund, it was in my bank tonight when I checked) and lower auto insurance rates! Thank-you Meloche Monnex and Yukon Territory!