Just a few pics of Mathias doing what Mathias does…..everything. Welding huge pieces of metal together and fixing the tracks on the dozer.

These pics were taken early in the summer on a trail ride one night after work during the almost midnight sun. We went for hours just up on the trails jumping off the bike to hike around if we saw something interesting like HUGE bear poo full of raspberries, grouse with their babies and beavers in the rivers. This is the romantic part of living in a remote bush camp….I won’t tell you about the less romantic parts..lol.

We are back in the bush now….and in style! lol These guys flew up from Smithers B.C. to haul some stuff for us. The sky van can carry 4,500 and the inside is huge! I hope everyone can really get a feel for it from the pictures, it’s like flying in a bus. When you see it coming you can’t believe something that looks like that can fly! It was a cool experience, and the pilots were really nice guys.

We finally finished our mining season and got back on the road, our first destination being Vancouver where niether of us have ever been. We took the desolate yet scenic Stewart-Cassier hwy and first made a slight detour to the tiny Alaskan town of Hyder, which is on a peninsula, completely un-attached to the rest of the state. This area is known for its snowfall, and          according to one local, its common to get up to 40 feet in one winter. We visited the Salmon glacier which is massive – ice as far as you can see – and then got back on the road south.

Burnt in the fire

Just a few pictures of Mathias and I taken the last week or so that we spent in the mine.

We have spent the last few days relaxing in Whitehorse and now we are pumped to head down into the B.C. mountains!

Geoff’s northern reception was held late last night after a hard day of work. We chose Justin Hines ‘While you were out there’ because we figure……we are out there. I wore a beautiful sleek black pair of bib coveralls by Carhartt and Mathias was also stylish in his tan full coveralls by Carhartt. The party was a blast!

Background Info: For those confused by this post a very good friend of ours just got married and we could not attend the wedding. Therefore, we had our own party of sorts here in the mine….it was very swanky.

driving back to camp mathias on the four wheeler

stopping to eat some raspberries

if life gives you lemons….roast marshmellows!!!

The summer had barely started when a thick blanket of smoke rolled in from distant forest fires. We worked in it every day and became quite used to it, but it was about to get much worse.

One day while sluicing about 10 km from camp, a small  fire that had been burning about 12 miles away suddenly flared up and a huge black pillar of smoke erupted in the sky, and within a few hours, our valley was an inferno.

We just kept on working not knowing that the fire had become so huge and dangerous. Micheala braved the fire to come and get us from the work site. We drove back and made it just before the fire took over the road and entire valley. Driving back was the really crazy. It was hot and the smoke made it so dark it was like night and the sun turned a deep red.

 We spent the next few days just trying to protect camp and machinery. Although it was a pretty harrowing experience, to make a long story short we came out of it unscathed.

A few days ago we went up one of the mountains around the mine for a sausage roast and beer and a good look around. It was good fun and a nice evening off from working. The view was spectacular, the Yukon really is huge and untaimed! Being up there makes you feel SO small!

Enjoy the pictures!

My first attempt at gardening north of 60 has gone very well. We have been eating spinach and radishes already! The sun has been HOT here and I have to keep the greenhouse door open so as not to ‘burn’ the plants. During the day it can get well over 30 degrees in the greenhouse. Everything is getting very green here in general outside. I think we will have rhubarb within a week and the raspberry plants seem to be coming along too. The late start to the growing season here is compensated for by the extreme amount of sunlight the plants get. There is no rest for those plants up here the sun is telling them to grow all day and all night long!

dig into the greenhouse

The greenhouse before

water

markers for my seed beds

Gardening north of 60 definatly involves a green house and a heater at this time of year. When we arrived their was LOTS of snow but the sun was so hot everyday. Even though I would have to shovel myself a path to the green house I was sure that it was hot enough in there to grow some salad. yum Salad….fresh vegetable….so not existent in my life right now. We have some apples but that’s about it right now. When I finally got myself into the greenhouse I was right. With the help of a heater at night it was warm enough for greens. I prepared the soil first but realized that water was going to be a problem. Because we had none to speak of…..just lots of snow. So I used a shoved to put snow up on the soil to create my own winter runoff. It worked great! The next day I was ready to plant. I planted lettuce, spinach, snow peas, radishes and green onions to start. The next day I planted tomatoes, watermelon, cilantro, thyme, dill and some flowers. For the first few days I had to melt snow on the wood stove to get enough water to water the plants with. But now we have running water in the camp because it is not as cold and the pipes aren’t frozen anymore….or not usually anyway. I was shocked but I had sprouts in less than a week. I think it is probably because we have at least 17 hours of sun light here right now. That’s lots of growing time for those little guys! Every time I go down into the greenhouse my mouth waters with the thoughts of my little sprouts becoming salad. This post is actually about three weeks old so salad is coming soon!!! I’ll post some new pics of the little viggies!