Weather Has Declared War on Tagish

Here it is, the end of November and almost all my time has been  spent fighting weather. Either it’s to cold or it’s snowing . . . all of November. How much painting am I going to get done this winter? I’m a slave to my house.

December has an added discomfort thrown in . . . last December 19th was the time my wonderful wife, Aggie, died. A day never goes by without missing her. But this December I think will be worse. Aggie’s birthday was in November, my birthday is in December, Christmas is in December, New Year’s Eve is in December, and our wedding anniversary is in December. These were always times of celebration for us.

Aggie . . . I miss you.

 

Another Residential School Tragedy

It is still very cold at -42 C (-44 F) so I decided to write another story for Aggie’s Gallery on my website. You can read it here, but you might want some tissue with you.

Now I have to go outside and split some more wood for the stove. It’s cold outside but wood splits easily when it’s this cold.

Aklavik Residential School

It’s still too cold and dark to paint. Here is another story that I wrote and placed in Aggie’s Gallery today, about her first year at the Aklavik Anglican Residential School.

Christmas in Fort McPherson

It’s still minus 40 degrees outside . . . so here is another story from Aggie. You can read it here.

A Residential School Tragedy

The temperature this morning was -40 degress and it looks like it will be even colder tonight. What better time than this to sit in a warm room and write a story; one of many related to me by my late wonderful wife of 39 years. I started a new section in my website for her stories. You can see the first one here.

2006: No Summer, 2 Winters

Happiness is having enough oil and wood to keep warm, enough food to not have to go shopping, and enough water to not have to haul more. That’s the situation today. But, the temperature tonight will be -32 degrees C. with a wind chill of -43 degrees C. and snow flurries; tomorrow the high will be -27 degrees C. with a wind chill of -44 degrees C. and more snow flurries. But Yukoners are used to this . . . right?

Here is a picture of my house this morning. More happiness . . . the snow has been cleared.  For now.

Hard Labour

It’s done! After 8 hours of shoveling snow by hand over the past 3 days, all the snow removal is done. What torture, what hard work, what misery! Today I even spent an hour splitting firewood and and brought enough firewood into the house to last tonight and tomorrow. Splitting firewood is easy compared to shoveling snow. If you hear an ear splitting, blood curdling scream coming from the Yukon, in the direction of Tagish, it will be me. And it will be because it has started snowing again. I really hope you don’t hear it.

I am seriously thinking about selling the house but I haven’t got the slightest idea where I would go. But it is still in my mind.

Right now I smell like a logger out in the wilderness . . . bath time.

It’s Not Fun Any More

Before Aggie died it didn’t matter to us what the weather was, how much it snowed, or rained, or how cold it was, or how hot it was, or how many bugs bothered us . . . it didn’t matter what work had to be done in the house, around the house, in the yard. . .  clearing  brush, cutting wood, building a wood shed, washing the truck, washing the travel trailer, cleaning, painting . . . whatever work had to be done was fun. We enjoyed it, we enjoyed each other, we did everything together, we never complained. When we worked or when we played, or when we travelled . . . it was *fun*. Life was great!

Well, it’s not fun any more.

It’s Still Snowing!

The good news is . . . the temperature warmed up to minus 14 degrees celsius.  The bad news is . . . it’s snowing harder. I spent 2 hours shoveling snow by hand to make room near the door so Cisco didn’t have to porpoise thru the snow to do his routine; and to make a path to the woodshed; and to make a path to the oil tank. I was too tired to make a path to the tool shed where the very important chain saw is kept and to make a path to the water tank that must be  used to haul water soon, and forget the driveway . . . that’s just too much! Believe me, there are many other things I would rather be doing. The exercise is good good for me I’m sure so there is some benefit to all this torture.

Here is a picture of one of the decks on the house that still has a patio table on it, followed by a picture of my driveway, some of the snow on the trees (beautiful) , and a picture of the all important wood shed.

A Cormorant in Tagish?

Yesterday afternoon I saw what looked like a huge large black swan flying gracefully by at about 50 feet above the ground. It was not a swan (we see many swans in Tagish every year) its neck was much thicker and it was very large, and it flew what seemed to be effortlessly and in a very straight line . . . beautiful!

Yesterday and today I did some research on what type of bird it could be and I came to the conclusion that it was a Cormorant. How did it find itself in Tagish? Was it blown off course from the coast? I wonder if anybody else sees Cormorants near Tagish. This was the first time I have seen a Cormorant anywhere so it was certainly a surprise for me to see it here.  Unfortunately I didn’t have a camera with me and I was driving at the time.

 The temperature has been colder than minus 20 degrees Celsius all week.