Before I forget

We left the Yukon yesterday, and there’s a bunch of stuff I want to get down on my blog before I forget.

Like, the birthday party we were invited to where one of the dishes was freshly killed and boiled caribou meat. It’s very tasty – like beef, only tastier, but much tougher. The hostess’s husband was late sending it that day from Old Crow, so it didn’t get boiled enough to be tender.  There was also dried caribou meat.  Apparently you hunt a caribou, then you give it to a woman who knows how to smoke meat.  In return, she will take half the meat, and you get the other half smoked.  I  tried the smoked meat but didn’t like it.  Something about the texture made me gag.

You can only get to Old Crow by plane.  There are a few communities like that in the Yukon.

Lots of First Nations people, culture and land around. Reminds me of NZ, feels like the way things should be. Canada is the third colonized country I’ve lived in and I’ve noticed the same thing in all three – that colonization has been bad for indigenous people. There are similar issues with alcoholism, destruction of traditional life, etc.  It’s just a fact.

One person’s favourite food was moose heart.

I finally watched Atonement and when I saw Keira Knightley’s skinny, naked back on the way to her sex scene with James McAvoy all I could think about was how if that was me, there’d be a six-prong bra strap in the way.

We saw a mother bear and 2 cubs on the way to Atlin, BC

Atlin is half ghost town, half holiday house village. It feels like a lot of the North – beautiful, historic, gold-rushy but clearly everyone got out of there a long time ago.

Yukon art is cheap.

I can understand why people making films have affairs.

Jonathan Rhys Meyers is creepy in The Tudors.

I might add to this later.  I dunno.  Maybe.

Confused Souvenirs

I needed to find some souvenirs.  That was one of my jobs while the Other Half worked…souvenir tracking.

I hit a couple of souvenir shops along Main Street in Whitehorse, searching through shelf after shelf of animals, t-shirts, coasters, pens, etc.    Nearly everything I picked up, apart from way out of my price -range moccasins, had MADE in CHINA or MADE IN INDIA on the bottom of it.  Sometimes it was on a little white tag, like a tiny surrender flag.  Other times it was on a sticker.  I kept turning things over, hoping that finally THIS one was made locally, like a cute moose I wanted for my nephew.   Nope.   I made a decision.

If something is made in China, it’s not from the Yukon.

Even if it’s a moose that sings  “Yukon, I’m from the Yukon” in falsetto while dancing on its antlers.

NOT.  FROM.  THE YUKON.

You know what’s weird?  I had the same problem last year in Scotland & Ireland.  It was difficult to find a souvenir that was actually made there.  To me, this defeats the purpose of a souvenir.   Aren’t souvenirs supposed to be MADE IN THE PLACE THEY”RE A SOUVENIR FOR??????

If I wanted a souvenir made in China, I would go to China.  Thank you.

The other thing is I feel ripped off by the prices.  I work in retail, I know about mark up.  Some of these things were maybe a dollar each wholesale, if that.  But they’re being sold for 30 or more dollars.  Boooooo.

I found another store on Main Street called Arts Underground and instead I got these:

www.matechuk.etsy.com

She lives and works in Whitehorse.  Her tiles were $10 unframed and $20 framed and they’re gorge.

or this hand-printed and hand-dyed fabric, $16 for a quilting square:

www.fireweedfabrics.com/index.php?option=com_easyfaq&task=view&id=36&Itemid=29

UPDATE

I should update this, eh? Yes?

Jedi Burka Fashionista

I was lurking on the ‘net the other day, admiring muslim chicks in pretty headscarves  and at the same time wondering what I’d have to get to be warm in -40 degrees if, say, a giant wall fell down from space and we never got to go back to Vancouver.   And then I found myself remembering that what the Jedi Warriors wore in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones was kinda sexy and wishing I could get a man I know into that outfit.

And then it hit me.  CHICKS IN PRETTY HEADSCARVES.  JEDI WARRIORS.  -40 DEGREES.

OMG.  It’s like PERFECT.  THE PERFECT YUKON OUTFIT.

Burkas don’t have to just be for Muslims!.  Jedi Warrior outfits don’t just have to be for men!   No!  They could be for people who don’t want to be cold either!   AND the oufit could have a large pink purse, for all my gear!

Inside my purse, I’d have some US Army MREs, just in case my car broke down!  But because they were hidden in my purse, they wouldn’t effect my fashion statement AT ALL!!!!!

I’d have some flares to help the helicopter find me in the side pockets!  Actually I think these flares are pretty cute!

Next, coat, pants and boots.   With the coat I was thinking white would be a reflection of the snowy white surroundings of the Yukon in winter, and how clean and beautiful it is, even though we’re all freezing.  It would be a positive statement,  with the pink bag as not only a nice punch of colour but a representation of the hope everyone was holding onto that they would be in Mexico soon.

However, the best bit is  the  skinny jeans.  The skinny jeans could not only look good on me, but they could represent  the Klondike river that runs through Whitehorse because they’re blue!   They could do two things AT THE SAME TIME!  I love that.

It’s  Art.  Wearable Art.

Tell me you wouldn’t wear that to Superstore.  -40 degrees?  Who cares?

Carcross, Fraser, Skagway

A couple of weekends ago I went to Skagway.

By myself.

This post is mainly photos, which I think speak for themselves.

Carcross, YT

More old, abandoned buildings:

Fraser, BC

From the train in Alaska

Pretty Skagway

Forgotten Skagway

And then my camera died.

Skanky tour with bad 80’s music.

I’m sitting here drinking my icy cold beer and thinking about Whitehorse.  It’s a pretty town, yes.  The Yukon is gorge.  But you’ve seen one tree, one pristine lake, one moose, you’ve seen them all, and let’s face it, that’s just the dressing on top of the salad. If you google image “whitehorse”  you will get beaucoup de pics of touristy, pretty Whitehorse, but f-all about the Whitehorse that real people actually work in.    For me, I like to know EVERYTHING.  I like to know about the shit,  too.

So, I’m taking you on another tour today.  The kind of tour you are never going to get from Yukon Tourism or City of Whitehorse Information Centre.

A crappy tour.

The Kate of the Yukon what it would be like if you really worked here and had to take transit working class skanky bus tour.

You’ll meet me at 7:55am sharp at the bus stop.  I’m the driver and I feel like listening to Peter Cetera and it’s blaring through the door.  You are about to go on a trip for 45 minutes that takes 7 minutes in a car.

First stop: where you’ll be living.

You’re living paycheque to paycheque.  So you’re not going to own a house like this…

you’re going to be renting the basement suite for $1100 per month for 2 bedrooms that took you 3 months to find.   Just FYI

Or in this condo building, with no landscaping

Paddle Steamer means we’re leaving the ‘burbs and into downtown. Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

We’re at the cellphone tower, which took 15 minutes.  2 women get off here.  Half way now to the bus loop.

Bus loop.

canadian tire carcass

10 mins here for a photo opportunity.  Wait, let’s do a distance shot so we can see how this building integrates with the landscape.

Hurry up and get breakfast or the bus is gonna leave.

RV Park

$30=60k range.  I’m not from north america so I find trailer parks FASCINATING.  This one is depressing, with all the trailers wedged in together like kids in a mosh pit.

Mountain View Place.  Nice park.  Around the $100k – $200k range

random grassy knoll

Here the bus turns and starts back down the hill, where we get a pretty view of the industrial area of Whitehorse.

is that vinyl?

Not bad, eh?  As long as they keep the little dwarfey trees on those hills, like a dyke against the ugliness, Whitehorse will be okay.

Oh, and it’s time for you to get off.  I need a tea break.

Smoked in

Quick update.  It’s very smokey and hazy in Whitehorse the past 24 hours due to forest fires.   I haven’t seen anyone on the street or in their yards all day.  It stinks of smoke.  The smoke is the weather (check out environment canada).  I’m stuck indoors  with the bitey little dog and  5 year old.  I’m going to have to take them out tomorrow, hoping the smoke will have cleared a bit by then.

UPDATE: Smoke hasn’t cleared, but am going to have to take the wildlife out this morning anyway.  Thought about taking a photo of the haze but I think it’s going to be one of those photos where you’re all “look at the smoke” and the person you’re showing it too is all “yeaaaah….” and squinting because it just looks like a grainy photo.

Red Coat Justice

Here is the set build for the church used by the Russian immigrants.  Pretty, ain’t it?

the skeleton

I did have a post here which I deleted.  But I think this picture sums it up better.  We’re really here, and we’re really (well, not so much me, but the other half) making a movie.

Dog Shit and Beatrix Potter

One of the things I do to break up my days here in the ‘Horse is pick up my dog’s shit from the yard.

Because he is a small dog, his poos are small and compact. They can be quite tricky to find. Sometimes they’re hidden under leaves, like little Beatrix Potter bunnies. Sometimes it looks like one is trying to run away from the others.   Other times it looks like they’re clinging together in fear. My fave was the small one clinging to a piece of grass, as if trying to climb it and see over.  I found myself imagining little stories about them as I collected them, and that made me wonder if that’s how Beatrix Potter started.   I could just see myself in a 19th century bonnet and button boots, sitting down to write in a lace dress.  “today”, I’d write in copperplate, “little poo tried to run away from Mama Poo”.  And then I’d do a little ink drawing.

Yes, these are the things I’m thinking about in Whitehorse.

The dog has turned out to be a truly mixed blessing.  On one hand, he’s cute and small.  On the other hand, he keeps snorting up stuff from the grass like a coke addict and then spends the rest of the afternoon trying to get it out.  He’s been eating things.  I’m not sure what kinds of things, but whatever he ate yesterday led to poo-plosions and 2 huge puddles of saliva with intense orange bits in them.   After he finished evacuating himself he sat and looked at me pathetically, as if to say, “make it all better, Mummy”.  I looked at him and said “don’t come crying to me if you don’t stick to your kibble”.

And then there’s camping.  Will he be useful, or prey?  He’s good at barking and smelling danger.  On the other hand, he’s the ideal size for a snack.  Decisions, decisions.

YUKON BREWING COMPANY

I love your lager.

light yet crisp yet full of alcohol

Regards,

Happy Kate