A Trip to the Big City

Going to the City of Whitehorse today was an all day project. I hate it. As far as cities go Whitehorse is fine . . . but although it is a small city it still has the feel of a large city. It is about 120 kilometers from Tagish so you try to forget as little as possible and you join in the rush to get everything done and then hurry back to the peace and quiet of Tagish. Did I forget anything? Yes, one of my toilets requires a new flapper valve and I forgot to buy one. It was on my list too. So, I’ll clean the one I have. I’ll try to wait a month before making another trip to the big city.  I gassed up the Suburban there; three quarters of a tank for $150. I stocked up on groceries . . . $400 . . . total expenditure for this trip was $750.

On the way back I stopped at the Pioneer RV Campground to visit a friend. She said the number of tourists this year was significantly lower than previous years. Rubber tire tourists seem to be staying closer to home.

Giclee Prints

I’m still painting, almost every day now, I hope, but today has a few chores that also have to be looked after. I took the time to put a new section on my website and a new page on my blog regarding art prints availability. There is only one Litho Print listed; my first. Rather than having more Lithograph prints made at this time, I would like to have some Giclee prints made. I searched for a vendor to do this for me but everything I have found to date is just too expensive for me. If you know where I can go to get artist quality Giclee prints made at low volume, reasonable prices, and can they can ship with the print on a stretcher frame, please let me know.

The Yukon government is great in their support of the arts and has a nice wire bound booklet (in color) that is issued every year called “Art Adventures on Yukon Time”. The subtitle is “Where to see and buy art in the Yukon”. Today I updated my information in this publication for the upcoming 2007 issue.

Back In The Studio

Back to painting today. I’m too busy to say more right now. However I’d like to share a short poem that I found a little while ago while going through Aggie’s stuff. For those that don’t know, Aggie is my wife who passed away last December.

I WONDER

As the years roll by,

I often wonder if we will all be together some day.

Each night I wander through the graveyard darkness and pray.

Aggie Ulasovetz

This Morning Begins With Wolves

Early this morning in my usual morning routine, while taking my Papillon dog Cisco out for his morning routine, in the silence of being outdoors early in the morning, we were greeted with the howling of two wolves not far from the house. My practice of always keeping my little dog on a leash when outdoors was again confirmed as the right thing to do when Cisco strained his leash to go after the wolves. It was cool this morning at 1 degree celcius and part of the morning was going to include splitting some wood for warming up the house this morning and then maybe again during the next few days.

In the early afternoon the sounds of many coyotes were heard, this time in the opposite direction from where the wolves were heard. I think this explains the apparent decrease in the squirrel population during the last few days.

Chores again . . . I removed ashes from one of the wood stoves and then because it was the second time removing ashes since the last chimney cleaning, I went on the roof and cleaned the chimney as well. Once on the roof I noticed that some roof patching was in order berfore winter comes. Following this I vaccuumed the living room and did one load of washing . . . still one or two more loads to do tomorrow. Now . . . it’s too late to paint, and I’m too tired anyway. Tomorrow is another day.

New Website – Yukon Artist

Life goes on. I now have a new website up and running at www.ulasovetz.com.  A link to it will remain on the Blogroll to the right. and other links to it will appear now and then within this web log and, If worthy, links may even appear elsewhere.   I must at this time recommend “Bluehost” as a hosting site.  The cost is reasonable, their hardware is great, the speed is supurb (they obviously have enough bandwidth), their service is great, and the site was up and running in less than 24 hours.

For the radio amateurs in the world, I am now also registered to use “Echolink” to join the world network of radio amateurs using both the spectrum of radio frequencies and VoIP. My call is VY1RU. This probably doesn’t mean much to most non radio amateurs but will to most amateur radio people.

Just a point about living in the Yukon . . . last monday morning I looked out the window and saw what I though was a car going by  the house.  The road is about 100 yards from the house.  While I was wondering why it was going so slow, I realized it was a huge black bear.  It ambled along to my driveway then turned towards the house. One sees many bears in the Yukon but this was the largest one I have ever seen anywhere. I didn’t want it near the house . . . I was cooking bacon and eggs for breakfast . . . so I went out onto the deck outside and loudly clapped my hands.  The bear then slowly turned away and slowly walked out of site into the forest. Unusual?  No, wild animals are often seen here.

Painting in Pause Mode

The Tagish Community Association hosted an Art show on August 11th and 12th where I showed 12 paintings. It was the first of what is going to be an annual event for Yukon Southern Lakes District artists. Since that time I have been busy with other things that precluded any painting. I am getting back into Amateur Radio (my call is VY1RU) and I have spent time making a website for the Tagish Community Association and Tagish Community Library (www.tagishca.ca), and I also spent time learning about blogging.

Now that we are getting close to winter I have to get enough wood to burn for heat during the coming winter. That requires getting, cutting, and stacking about 9 cords of wood before winter.  I do have oil heat available in the house but with the price of oil I try to use the oil furnace as little as possible. The high cost of oil is also driving up the cost of wood because of the supply and demand rule. The short summer also creates other work that can only be done now, like cutting brush, cleaning the yard (over 2 acres), running a small greenhouse . . . which I won’t even get to this year, and other stuff.  There is also the all year requirement of hauling water. 

I will start painting again in the next few days.  I really don’t like being away from it for long.  My wife, Aggie passed away last December and I have gone through the worst year of my life because of that.  I don’t know how long it will take to get over that.  Some people say it takes a lot of time.  We had a wonderful marriage for 39 years. 

I retired from my job last year as IT Manager for the Beaufort Delta Education Council in the Western Arctic where I looked after 8 communities and 9 schools.  I now have the added difficult task of trying to adjust to my new lower income. But money isn’t everything, is it?  There are other things like poverty, hunger, sickness, death, etc. . . . just kidding.  I am very fortunate to be an artist and it is very important to me.  I also love living in the Yukon and have no desire to leave. 

Enough rambling for now.  Thanks to WordPress for their wonderful work.  I am now looking for a place to host my website at a reasonable cost that is within my budget.

Hello world!

Welcome to the first posting on a new Blog by “Ulasovetz – Painter of Yukon LIght”. This is my first Blog, so it will take a little while before I become comfortable with it. Please bear with me.