The Bird That Was Delicious

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

This is the WASHA learning centre.

This was pretty much the LONGEST week of my life! Monday I was signed up to be a full-time Teacher's assistant (for a least a month) at Chris' school. There are only 3 teachers and a principal at the school, so when the principal went to Thunder Bay for a conference, the school was short-staffed. They put me in charge of the kindergarten kids! Imagine that. It was awesome, especially since there are only 4 of them. Four little ankle-bitters. We had fun on Monday - learning our ABCs, 123s, colours and shapes. However, I told Karen at the learning centre that I would look after the place while she went to Winnipeg (or wherever) for personal business. I was at the learning centre Monday night, Tuesday (ALLLL DAY), Wednesday (ALLLL DAY) and Thursday (ALLLLLLLLL DAY). Honest to Jebus - 2 people came into the centre, one used the computer for 15 minutes, the other sat and talked with me, told me ghost stories, scared the poop out of me, and left. Oh right, and then Chris came in too, with about 5 kids. They wanted to play games on the computer. But that wasn't going to happen.

Anyways, after about 30 hours of silence, I got to go back to kindergarten on Friday. It was especially awesome because I took the kiddies outside to gather material for an art project. We collected leaves and grass and all sorts of vegetation. Then we glued it to the paper. I let the kids take their art home, but felt bad because then I learned that the art would most likely not make it home in one piece, or not at all. Damn kids. Joking.

So Friday afternoon (the kindergartners are only half days, so I assist in the afternoon) was the bi-monthly movie day. The movie this time was Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief - a modern day movie based on the lives of human-greek god offspring and their crazy adventures. It actually wasn't too bad. But the other 2 teachers (besides Chris) decided to head to their families off rez early for the holidays. This means that Chris and I were put in charge of the WHOLE school and ALL the kids for about 2 hours. Whoa! Aside from a view grumpy grumps, the afternoon went pretty well.

And finally - Thanksgiving weekend! Let's just say that I started it off by taking a very long nap on Friday night. Then on Saturday we cleaned house and vegged out. Sunday was THE day! I let Chris sleep and sleep and sleep. Then he got grumpy at me for letting him sleep too long. Geez. Anyways, we seasoned the big, ol' 9 pound turkey and got it in the oven by 1ish. For sides we had cranberry sauce, mashed taters, turnips, sweet potatoes, stuffing and gravy (yes, gravy is a side dish). We even had pump-a-kin pie for dessert. I am proud to say - especially to those in my family who witnessed my last turkey dinner about FOUR YEARS AGO - everything turned out perfectly cooked and delicious...check it out!

This is the man who went online and watched a video of "how to sharpen a knife" so we'd have perfect cuts ... see the result of his cutting below. But it was a perfectly moist, delicious bird.

The spread - mmmm mmmmm good - notice the ketchup haha

pump-a-kin pie

the mangled bird

 Chris and I had a very nice Thanksgiving dinner. We even had a discussion on why our Turkey dinner was better just the two of us. We made some good points about the craziness of our respective families, but we still missed them very much and hope they had a good Thanksgiving too. That's it for now - xoxo Christine 

Plato's impression of how Chris and I felt after dinner. SO FULL!

Cat Scratch Fever!

The time since the last blog post has been very emotional. Those who know Chris and I also know that we refer to our cats, Newton and Plato, as our children. And yes, we call our moms and dad the "grandparents". I'm pretty sure even they refer to the cats as their grandchildren. It's sad, but I like it. So when Newton starting acting strange, as in less active (even more lazy than usual), straining to pee, and trying to pee in weird places, I knew something was wrong.

I really enjoy living out in Slate Falls, but discovering that your beloved pet is suffering through bladder/kidney stones and urinary track infection when you're 3 hours away from the closest vet AND! you have a full time job everyday AND! you know that if you don't get him to the vet he will most likely die a very painful death, it's a nightmare. When Newton got to the point of crying out in pain with every step he took, I just knew I had to take some time off work. I made Chris take a personal day too (not that he really had to be forced, since that's what they are for). We took Newton to the vet on Thursday after an episode of bloody pee and pain on Wednesday night.

The doctor told us it would be pretty costly to get Newton better - $300 to $400 - and if we had waited too long to get him to the doctor there could have been a chance of fatal kidney damage. Chris and I really wavered between the cost and the chances of recovery (only about a 75% chance of getting better). In the end the doctor told us he'd cap the cost at $300 and we decided we loved Newton too much to put him down when he had a good chance of recovery.

Newton was catheterized, had blood taken (which determined that he had extremely high toxicity levels in his blood since his kidneys weren't working well), was IVed with fluids and spent 3 nights in the hospital. On Sunday we called the doctor and he told us that Newton's kidney function was back to normal, he was peeing on his own, eating and drinking too, and he could go home. HALLELUJAH and all that jazz!

We drove back to Dryden, with a random stranger in tow who was visiting his parents but needed to go back to Sioux Lookout to see his sister in the hospital (so we gave him a ride of course), and picked up our little baby. We also picked up $150 worth of special cat food to stop minerals from forming in his bladder again. What's money right? Chris and I were just so glad we had our little cat back.

The only concern now is that Newton is peeing, a little bit at a time, but MANY times a day. We think that 3 days with a catheter irritated his little winky, making it swollen and sore to pee with. He's on Baytril, an antibiotic, though, so the swelling should come down. Other than that he's eating, drinking, peeing, and thankfully, purring too. I think Plato is glad that Newton is back, because he gets to eat his own food AND the leftovers that Newton leaves in his bowl too.

That's all for now faithful readers!

Elliot Moose is on the Loose!

And he's also being hunted.

This past weekend, starting on Thursday, was a traditional weekend in Slate Falls. It's moose hunting season. 1st prize for a bull moose was a canoe - which is pretty awesome - but I'm still not willing to go out there and do the dirty business myself.

Instead, I'll just reap the benefits - moose meat. I had mentioned to Ann (the 1st and 2nd grade teacher) that I wanted some moose meat. Ask and you shall receive. On Sunday night at close to 8pm we got a knock on the door. It was Edward (the 6-7-8 grade teacher and also Ann's brother) asking if he could borrow our awesome knife set. He then asked if we wanted a "hunk" of moose meat. Of course we said yes, expecting a few pounds of moose steaks or something like that.

20 minutes later this arrived at our front door:

80 lbs. of moose meat. One foot off the counter and one foot above the counter.

It's the whole side of a moose and its ribs. I'll admit that I had a bit of a moment. I mean, I've dissected a bunch of different animals during my time in Guelph, but being from a love-the-animals family, it was pretty hard to look at a chunk of a (used to be) beautiful animal. I just have to remember that these animals are hunted for food and for tradition, not for sport. They are also very healthy for people too since they are so lean and eat only natural veggies in the forest. 

Well, unfortunately for Chris, the premiere of Dexter was on TV, so I left carving up the meat to him. Poor guy. I actually offered to help, but 2 people working on this project just wouldn't have gone well. He was thoroughly disgusted and was muttering and cursing a bit during the hour long process, but he did it. He took the 80 pounds of ribs, trimmed out the ribs, and made about 16 steaks out of the meat. We probably have enough meat to last us the whole winter. 

I was working at the band office again yesterday. I guess word got out that we had no idea how to cook moose meat. By the end of my shift I had recipes for moose roast, moose stir fry, moose lasagna and basically anything moosey. You cook moose just like you would beef. 

And today's random event? We had environmental technicians from the south come to the teacherages looking for mould. I haven't noticed anything besides some normal shower mould near the edge of the tub. The men came and went in a matter of 2 minutes. But you should have seen us super-speed cleaning the house in the 4 minutes we had before the men came. We didn't know if they were going to be going into corners and all that, so we wanted to make sure the house was properly swept and looking presentable. The technicians only came in as far as the bathroom, so the cleaning was for nothing, but at least the house looks nice now. 

Apparently Chris and I were suppose to have a Basketball re-match tonight (see his blog for more details), but I've come down with a pretty heavy head cold (again), so it might be postponed until tomorrow. Other than that we have to go to town this weekend for groceries. I also have a problem where I keep getting paid with cheques, which need to be cashed at my bank (TD of Canada) but the closest TD is 3 hours away in Dryden and it's closed on Saturdays. I know that I could just stick the cheques in a bank envelope and wait for the bank to sort it out, but we don't always want to go 3 hours when we can just go 2 hours for groceries. I think I have to set up a bank account in Sioux Lookout - if they are open on Saturdays and I can some how get the money into my TD account. Banking might be the most frustrating part of northern isolated living. 

That's it for now. Expect another post sometime in the coming week - probably Sunday or Monday. All the best xoxo

A week in the life of Miss Fill-in

Where has the time gone? Oh I know, I passed it being a community fill-in. On Wednesday of last week I hung out with Karen at the learning centre (Karen runs the centre) learning the ropes for the job I was going to do for the coming couple of days. I worked about 4 hours that evening - I even got to sit in on a 'thrilling' conference call. It actually wasn't that bad, because Karen and I could just put our phone on mute and have a little gossip and conversation. Too bad we forgot to put on the mute ... oops.

So Thursday and Friday I filled in for Karen. I started Thursday at 9am. I honestly did not see another soul until a student came in to pick up her marked work. Then I had to wait until 7pm before 2 other students came in to get some work done. I usually like a job with a bit more to do, but money is money.

There are no classes on Friday so I only had to work from 9am until noon. I spent the hours cleaning as much as I could. I didn't want to move too many things around because I didn't know if Karen had a method to her madness, but I still straightened and cleaned surfaces. I even swept and mopped - yeah I know - it must have been a blue moon the night before.

On Saturday Chris and I went to Dryden to hit up the bank (no, that doesn't mean rob it) and go grocery shopping. Unfortunately the bank was closed which really sucks because I need to get Chris on a joint account so he can pay our bills by transferring money into my account. Hmmm...?
We went to Wal-mart and did the "good-car-owner" thing of getting an oil change at Canadian Tire. Our last oil change was only a month and a half ago. Do you think we've done a lot of driving lately?

On the way home from Dryden - on the never-ending dirt road - a magical and mythological event occurred. Your patient and loving Christine viewed, with her very own eyes, the infamous MOOSE!!!! OMG it was amazing. It was only a little guy - meaning it was only 6 FEET TALL!!!! It was so awesome that I literally clapped my hands. Yeah, I did.

Sunday we FINALLY got all the boxes unpacked and found a place for (mostly) everything. We rearranged most of the furniture too. Here are some pictures.

The living room is shifted to accommodate the desk. We couldn't get wireless internet so we have to use our computers next to the phone. That's me sprawled on the couch - typical.

The mega-bed is no more. This is the main bedroom now. We even put the bed on a frame to get it off the ground. Plato finds it comfortable. Can you find the Newton? He likes the bed too.

Monday was time-sheet day. Pretty much everyone who works in some way for the band office goes in every other Monday to fill out the time-sheets. I went with Karen to claim my 16.5 hours I worked last week. There was a lot of hustle-bustle going on. And guess what? I was asked to be the receptionist fill-in for the day. "Why not?" I thought. So I hopped on the phone and started transferring calls. Needless to say I was pretty lost with everyone coming in and asking me questions, and smiling politely at the random girl behind the counter. I eventually learned most of the ropes - I learned how to fax using email too. I think working at the band office was really great too because I learned a lot of people's names and I learned a little bit about how the community functions on an administrative level.

They were having trouble finding the person who was actually suppose to work, so I filled in this morning too. I took the afternoon off though to prepare for my next job - TEACHING!

Tomorrow I will be working with the Grade 6-7-8 teacher, our neighbour, Edward. I will be introducing the unit on biodiversity. I'm totally pumped. I'm planning a whole food chain thing. I'm going to draw cartoons on the board. Then what happens when you take out part of the food chain - i.e. biodiversity decreases? The universe collapses, that's what.

And finally, because I rocked the receptionist job on Monday and today, the health clinic has asked me to fill in for their receptionist on Friday. Who wants me to sneak them some Xanax?

That's all for now - xoxo

p.s. A certain wife of Chris's brother, Neil (who shall remain nameless *obviously*) has been showing off the beautiful sunsets from the tropical paradise where she now lives. I took some sunset pictures on our drive home from Dryden to show off that the North is beautiful too...

Take that Grenada and Niki ...

I'm Not Useless Anymore!! :)

I have a job now!!!

I'm working at the Wahsa Distance Education Centre as a tutor. I'll be helping people in the community work on courses they are taking through distance education while trying to achieve their high school diploma. As a tutor I get to work about 4-ish hours a week (not a lot of time, but the pay makes it worth it). I also will be filling in for the woman who runs the centre when she has other obligations. So on Thursday I'll be working 10 hours!!!

I worked last night from 7pm to 9pm. The classes are taught over the radio; a teacher broadcasts from a central location somewhere (I think in Sioux Lookout) and students can either listen over the radio at their homes, or at the centre, or they can "conference call" into the teacher and ask questions. They have work books with assignments and examples of the work. When the students are having a tough time and they don't want to bug the teacher, they can come to me and I'll help talk them through the work and get them started.

As I saw last night the centre is kind of a social gathering/hang out sometimes. About 3 ladies came in and chatted, gossiped and checked their facebook. But then they either left to do the work at their house, or, in the case of one student, got some help from me.

I'm very excited to have something to do in the community and to get out of the house for awhile. I also heard about an exercise program that the band office is running, so I'll look into that soon. I feel happy that I can help people get their high school degree. 

Natural Healing - Good for some*

*but not for Christine

While Chris and I were out for our nightly stroll last night, a van approached us. The driver was the community's healer (a.k.a. the shaman). He told us that he had brought Skunk Oil to Slate Falls and Chris was the only teacher who hadn't done it yet. So Chris and I wandered over to the band office to give it a go.

Skunk Oil - literally the liquid that is contained in the "stink glands" of skunks. You trap them, remove the glands and PRESTO! Skunk Oil. The medicinal value of the oil is similar to the modern flu shot. It is said to clear out the sinuses, prevent fevers and stop colds. I was really excited to try it, while Chris was a little hesitant.

Before we took the skunk oil, however, the healer and his sister (I think that was their relationship) sat down with us and discussed some of the issues in the community regarding the quality of the water, the sewage issue and the dump contamination issues. Fortunately I went to school for these type of issues, so hopefully I can help one day if they need a technician to run tests. We also talked about issues in the home such as the chemical pollutants we bring into the home with all our Febreeze, Lysol, Javax and other cleaners the make our air toxic. Basically I'll be buying and cleaning with vinegar whenever possible from now on I think.

Chris and I also got some natural medicines for things like asthma (cure - marshmallow root), kidney/bladder cleansing (cure - peppermint) and a general cleanse before starting our diet (cure - 7 barks from the forest).

Anyways, back to the skunk oil. We took the capsule full of the REALLY SMELLY oil at 8pm. They warned us that we would burp a lot over the next 4 hours and it would smell like skunk. Chris was burping, but I only let out a few. Slowly I started feeling slightly "off", I was getting queasy and my head started hurting. By 9 o'clock I had lost my entire dinner, and the skunk oil, in the toilet. I was sicker than a dog. Chris was the sweetest though, holding my hair and rubbing my back. He gave me some Gravol and sent me to bed.

But I'll always love Pépé le Pew!

Obviously me and skunks just don't get along.

The Wildlife

I was hoping to not write this particular post until I had finally seen THE creature of the North - a moose. Unfortunately since moving to the near North in early June (yes, more than 3 months later) I still haven't seen any stupid moose.

But I have seen tons of really cool animals that I didn't get to see back home. Of course I didn't have my camera handy when I actually saw them, but here are some stock photos...

Black Bear

The Black Bear:

I saw my first black bear about 2 weeks into living in Kirkland Lake. He was crossing the road as I was driving to work one morning. I only caught his big ol' bear rump though, so technically I only saw half a bear.

Next I saw a HUGE bear at the dump one day at work. We were there dropping off a load of tires we were moving from one dump to another. Of course I named him "Charlie" because every bear needs a name.

I saw a small little cub crossing the road once again at work. I can't remember what I named him, but I think it was Barry.

When Chris and I moved to Sioux Lookout Chris caught sight of his very first bear, but it was road kill bear, so I didn't name him since he was dead.

Fortunately Chris got to see his very first live bear this Sunday on our way home from the grocery store. We had only been on the long dirt road for about 20 minutes, had just passed a bunch of people fishing off of a bridge, when I look over the side of a very deep ditch (we're talking 20 feet down either side) and saw a big ol' bear face. I said "bear! bear!" and Chris stopped the car. Before I could even say "Chris, don't go out there yet" Chris was out of the car. You could imagine my panic. I got out of the car and while Chris was Oooh-ing and Aahh-ing over the bear (which was walking away probably 15ft down the ditch and 30 feet away from us) I was looking around for other bears. The bear was large, but not so large that the momma bear couldn't be far away. When I asked Chris what he was thinking, he said "I saw a bear". Ug. Well, I named that one Gunter - said with the German accent.

Bald Eagle

Next animal - Bald Eagle!

My first time driving into town (about an hour into my drive)  a bald eagle took off from some nearby bushes and flew right in front of my car. He was beautiful! We have bald eagles back home, but this one was cool enough to mention.

So when Chris and I were moving to Slate Falls, with the infamous trailer, we came across this random, long-legged, big winged bird. This bird was dumb. It stood about 4ish feet off the ground and decided to run away WITH the car, as in alongside the car, instead of moving off into the bushes. It ran with our car for about 50 feet, then just stopped. But this is what I saw (finally had my camera).

Canadian Sandhill Crane

After some research, including hitting my mom up in case she knew, I have determined that this is a Canadian Sandhill Crane. It looks like this >>>

As you can see by this stock photo off the internet - they are typically stupid because they stand in the middle of the road.

Ruffled Grouse

But no bird of the north is as stupid as (drumrollllll!) the Grouse! Everyone just calls them partridges though. This silly little bird was my first personal roadkill up north. When I was coming upon it in my Ford F-150 work truck (named Johnny, yes I name everything) I thought that it was just a normal, somewhat intelligent bird, and it would just fly away before my truck got close. Little did I know that this bird loves to run out in the road and loves to get killed. It reminds me of my friend Lauren's theory on the suicidal chipmunks that live near her street back home in Brockville. So I hit that little bird, and while I was all sad and everything, Ashton (one of my student at work) said "don't worry, I saw him walk away, you missed him" while Corey flat out told me "he's dead, really dead". Thanks Corey ;) I found out though, thanks to Mike from the Temiskaming Stewardship Council, that partridges/grouses are so stupid because their primary diet consists of berries from bushes. And what happens to berries when they sit on the bush too long? They ferment and turn into alcohol inside. So basically this stupid bird is so stupid because he's DRUNK!

Blue Winged Crow

And finally, the wildlife with the most annoying personality in the North - the crow! I arrived in Kirkland Lake just in time for mating season. They are the loudest and most brutal birds EVER! and worst of all, they are literally everywhere. They plague people's attics and keep them up all night long, they wake simple cottage dwellers like me at 6am on a Saturday. Rude, just rude.

Common Loon

I would have made a special section for the "Bird of the North" - but we have loons back home (and we have crows and grouse too, but the northern ones have more spunk and/or less brains).

Moose - taunting me!

I'm also hoping to catch sight of a wolf one day, according to my old neighbour in KL who worked with wolves in Algonquin Park, they are completely docile but very secretive. And of course I want to see a caribou when (and that's still up in the air) the Caribou project starts in Slate Falls. But most of all, I want to see a BLEEP BLEEP BLEEPING moose. Thank you very much.