Leveled up, first town snow and Millie has a twin

An overnight wet snow thwarted my cycling into my Occupational First Aid Level 3 practical exam.  I had been cycling in each morning the three-ish kilometers (uphill) from home and was annoyed I wouldn't be able to do it for the final day.  

Cycling clears my head, the gentle incline into town revs up my heart rate and the twelve minute ride allows me to ponder and prepare for my day ahead.  I courageously cycle on the right hand shoulder of the highway for a couple hundred meters where a recent construction project by the town has destroyed a once-perfectly-usable pedestrian path (in its place is an awkward switchback with deep gravel that even those walking in get bogged down).  

For the past two weeks, I have been at the (allegedly haunted) Northern Lights College completing OFA Level 3.  It's a course I have been encouraging employers to put me through - when I had employers - and decided to do it myself when I had the time.  

Struggling to find work in the environmental field, successfully completing this course will hopefully give me a few more options in town and outside when I move on from the Peace.   

Millie and Mabel photos

There's rumours brewing Mabel (Surerus) is being adopted on Thanksgiving weekend.  I snapped a few photos before we send her on her way to her furever home.

When we received Mabel (our name), she was barely off a bottle and in to wet and dry foods.  Now she's easily doubled in size and Millie has accepted her as a playmate and snuggle buddy.  I think Millie will miss her kitty girlfriend more than Dan and I will.

Dan and Mabel shortly after we agreed to foster her

Millie found Dan's headband

Mabel after morning kitty cuddle time

How to beet it?

Squash are the rabbits/mice/cats of the garden in that they produce like mad!  Most recipients of please-just-take-it squash are grateful for the gift and usually have uses in mind for it - chocolate zucchini loaves, muffins, cookies, spaghetti squash pizza crust or simply covered in fresh pasta sauces, acorn or butternut soups.

If not for my mother giving me my weight in green and yellow zucchini on a recent visit, I would have been relegated to buying it from local farmer's markets (good) or the oddly stocked local stores (bad).  

Zucchini is a vegetable that most people know what to do with it when your coworker/neighbor/family member downloads their overharvest.  

My squash plants this year grew great big leaves, curly cue climbers and had delightful flowers but no vegetables came from them.  I accidentally weeded leeks and garlic.  Carrots did well, spinach bolted and the brassica bug annihilated my late season kale.  Beets also flourished.  

Still in the ground, I don't know what to do with them.  There's only so much glory bowl in which I can grate fresh beets.  Borscht, maybe I'll give that a go.  Someone said roast them.  Another to make beet burgers.  If this autumnal rain stops, I'll slog out to the soil one last time for the last of this year's fresh northern veg.  

Wow weekend!

This past weekend has been one of those rare ones where I see the majority of my friends in Chetwynd, rest up and recharge for the week ahead and have a clean(er) house.

Another girlfriend has left town for a promising work opportunity and she called together her town friends and coworkers from the last two years for one last bash on Friday.  Pub-filling laughter bounced off the wooded walls before we spilled into the Indian summer night and wished each other well with intentions of staying in touch.

Happy and (mildy) hungover the next morning, Dan and I set out on bicycles to meet friends for breakfast at the pub we had left mere hours before.  In small-town style, we saw nearly all our friends that morning.  At the post office, thrift store, library, in their yard, ahh.

Mild house and yard work filled the time until we popped out to friends house outside town for dinner.  A stellar meal was in the making - roast moose and garden spuds, carrots, onion.

We resigned ourselves to a sleepover, made arrangements for a friend to come to the house and feed our foster kitties when another friend dropped in after (unsuccessfully) hunting the same animal we had just eaten.  Conversation flowed, laughter filled the vaulted ceilings and we bummed a ride back into town for the night.

A delightfully leisurely day followed with light walks, board games, BBQs and kitty cuddle time.  

Ride the trail for Elizabeth

Ride the Trail for Elizabeth: Cyclists Ride Together to Create a Safer Trans-Canada Trail

EDMONTON, ALBERTA, August 2013– Cyclists, supporters, family and friends will ride in solidarity to show support for Ride the Trail for Elizabeth, a cross country campaign to raise awareness and promote the completion of a Trans-Canada Trail that will be accessible and safe for cyclists.

Elizabeth Ann Slovis got on her first bike at the age of 50 and immediately fell in love. An avid outdoor enthusiast, Elizabeth, alongside her husband Edmund A. Aunger, would spend their summers cycling the Trail. Though the Trans-Canada Trail was not always smooth or safe, Edmund recalls Elizabeth’s passion for the Trail she loved, “she wanted to devote her retirement to getting the Trail properly developed and completed - ensuring accessibility and safety for all cyclists”. On July 14th, 2012 while Edmund and Elizabeth were biking along the Trail in Prince Edward Island, Elizabeth was struck and killed by a drunk driver. She was 63.

Survived by her husband and her three sons, Edmund S. Aunger, Richard Aunger and Gregory Aunger,Elizabeth’s dream of a safer Trans-Canada Trail lives on. Edmund Aunger has carried on his beloved wife’s vision and started the Ride the Trail for Elizabeth campaign. A campaign that will see Edmund cycle across the country in five stages each summer, beginning the first leg of his journey on July 1st, 2013 in Victoria, British Columbia and finishing in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island on July 2017.

Edmund will be arriving in Edmonton on Sunday August 25, 2013 marking the completion of his first leg. We invite you to join Edmund on the steps of the Alberta Legislature on Sunday afternoon at 3:00pm as we rally in support for a safer Trans-Canada Trail. More importantly, we invite you to celebrate the completion of Edmund’s first leg, the power of a united cycling community and the realization of Elizabeth’s dream. We hope to see you there. Ride on.


Please join Ed on his ride. He will be leaving Devon around 9am, cycling on Highway 19, and then into Edmonton, Trans Canada Trail from Terwilliger to Hawrelak Park. He will be leaving the Hawrelak Park pedestrian bridge about 2pm and continuing to the Alberta Legislature for a 3pm rally, followed by a ride to the Trans-Canada Trail head in Louise McKinney Park.

For more info: http://www.ridethetrail.ca

It's beginning to end

As a Swedish girlfriend (working in Norway) is lamenting summer's end and equally anticipating fall's transition, I too am noticing:

The dawn and dusk chill that comes too soon to the north.  

Days are noticeably shorter and August is not yet out.  

Leaves are turning.  

My vegetable garden is getting harvest-ready.  

It's difficult for me to process that summer is winding down when I feel I've had so little of it.  Cheated out of a "normal bush season" by a lay off and subsequent scramble for employment I have not spent nearly as much time in the woods as I usually do.  

While I have caught some of the seasonal boreal changes on day hikes and dog walks, truly I have missed the full season experience of looking for my favourite boreal gems and tracking their progress from leaf out to flowering to seed/berries! to die back.  

Fall is approaching and so is a time for contemplation, dream time and mentally, physically and emotionally regrouping.  

Industrial spray season, vol II

Six years ago my forestry summer job dried up before it even started.  This year it happened mid season.

Both times, a minor scramble followed to get myself back on someone's, anyone's payroll.  I had to expand my search outside of the community I live(d) in and the forest industry that typically employs me and settle for employment outside the province.

Like last time, I've signed on with Ace Vegetation.  As before, it's just for now, to tide me over, help them finish off their spray season.  I haven't decided if supervising suits me better than spraying but it's certainly more flexible.

It's definitely not a long-term fit for me, but it'll do for now.