My Cat's a Poufta

My cat Jack has finally found the all wool pouf that I made. He has decided that all wool is awesome.

Walking the dog, Skagway Style

We really enjoy visiting Skagway, especially in the winter when it is quiet. Main Street (actually Broadway) becomes an excellent frisbee location for the dog.

This is the local museum the next morning after a spring snowfall.

Sea ...Otters?

We like to tarry in Skagway to really enjoy the break and ensure we are out of Canada for 24 hours so we can qualify for our duty free allowance. This year we were walking along the river where it empties into the ocean at high tide and saw an amazing abundance of wild life. There were definitely harbour seals and almost certianly a sea otter hanging out among the scoters, seagulls and sundry birds. Unfortunately the snow made it very difficult to photograph what mesmerized us for almost half an hour. The seals snorted and farted at us, or perhaps at the dog, hard to say.

Buckwheat Ski Race

We love the Buckwheat Ski race. We've gone every year for the last four years now and just keep having fun. Happily we are not 'racers' so we are content to start late and spend extra time enjoying hanging out at the snow fort. This year's fort was a pirate boat - as long time readers will know, I've always had a hankering to be a pirate Queen...

The event gathers its own cadre of costumes, as always there are the 'cougars' or 'pussys', the hippies, vintage equipment and sundry freaks. I'm a firm believer in the fun part of the event, but this year didn't get myself organized enough to come up with a costume. The best I could do was my fabulous lynx hat.

We were so behind this year that our friend Lenore who started on time skied back to the snow fort to find us; and we are happy she did.

At the finish Christopher came through with flying colours, but no bib visible...

Next year, I think I'll go for the "Norwegian sweater team", look. Practical, breathable and fun.

Skagway Summit Glory

 The Buckwheat Ski Race was this past weekend. The race itself is held at Log Cabin, a location at the top of the Chilkoot Trail in B.C. The organizers are all from Skagway Alaska - there is a certain international flare. We stayed in Skagway the night before the race, which meant we had to pass back through Canadian customs to get to the race. We didn't give our selves enough time to get to the race start because of a slow down at Canada customs. The upside was that the dog got to entertain everyone waiting in line as she fetched frisbee after frisbee.

Socks in Progress

My Dad has asked for some socks. He doesn't ask for much, so I'm on it. Now, the thing you have to understand is that he has long, large feet, and he like his socks to reach mid calf. By my calculations that is around 4feet of knitting. I know he is resigned to the wait, but what I really need are more meetings! Today I had a 2 hour meeting and got many inches of knitting done. I'm working on two pairs at once. One pair of fine mill spun wool, the other thicker hand spun wool. I suspect the thicker ones will be done first just because the knitting is so much faster.

Look What I Made!

I got the idea and parts of the pattern from Stitch Winter 2012. Their version was larger and squatter. Thank-god for Google which helped me with the calculations to shrink the circle down to the size that would work with the width of the fabric. Remember grade 5 diameter, circumference and radius? Yeah, me neither. Google is your friend. The funny part was trying to stuff it. I bought recycled foam chips at Walmart because they were Canadian and seemed like a 'green' option. Holy Hell! We live in a very dry climate and those little bits of puffed up petroleum just stuck to everything and spread every where. I gave up after attempting a small amount and reverted to using some uncarded wool fleece I had on hand. The upside is that the poof is super warm. The downside is that the cat thinks this is the best thing next to catnip...

7 Months in Europe

Starting April 1, 2015 i have 7 paid months off work. I am thrilled to bits that I've got this big chunk of time coming up. I'm even more thrilled that I'll have a salary. Usually when you have time you don't have money, when you have money you've got no time. I've had lots of what I think are fun ideas about what to do with 7 whole months. All of them focus on Europe.

First I wanted to lease a canal boat and travel around Great Britain. Then it was live in a town in France and learn French. Now it is buy a travel trailer and camp around the EU, spending August in the North, October in Italy. Suddenly with all the news coming from Rome with the abdication of the old pope and election of the latest all i can think about is how wonderful Rome is in spring...

What would you do with 7 months off and a salary to live on?

Action at the Alway's

With the cold weather, we've literally burned through our wood pile. This dire state of affairs had to be remedied. So, the pile of wood that's been in the drive most of the winter is being cut to length by our friend
Eric and Chris bought a cord from a local wood cutter as well. You know, just in case.

Yukon Spring

Sun shine on the hills

Gone to the birds

For the past few months we've been putting out food for the birds, while it was too cold for the cats to get at them. In the past week it has taken a turn for the really cold and the birds are going through the food at an amazing rate. In a month they've gone through half of a 50 lb bag of seeds. Mostly the birds we see are red polls - which we find so amusing with their scrappy attitudes and red punk feathers.

Forgein Booze

A friend returned from a recent trip to China with a gift of some very funky liquor. I asked for special instructions; should it be heated? served cold? on ice? Mostly room temperature, mostly used for cooking or adding to pickles and fermented foods. It has a very earthy, slightly fruity flavour along with a powerful punch of 45% alcohol/volume - possibly what affected the fella depicted on the front of the bottle. I think it would be fabulous in a vegetable stir fry, or, on a more adventurous note, some type of fruity desert... The neatest part is that the bottle is sealed with a clay stopper of a sort and it comes with a small key to break the seal so you can get at the booze.