Home Tour!

I'm safe and sound in Slate Falls First Nations! It was an adventure (to say the least) getting here - see my boyfriend's blog at www.platoandnewton.blogspot.com for more information - but we made it and unloaded the car.

The house is still a frigging disaster after 1.5 days of unpacking and cleaning. We're missing some essential cleaning things like a broom and a mop - we have a vacuum though - but considering all the floors are tile, it's not getting us far. I spent all of today cleaning out the kitchen of all the leftover food the previous tenant decided he didn't want to take with him (thanks man), and cleaning all the cupboard from food splash stains and the like. Overall though the kitchen is in pretty good condition; the appliances are new and they work well.

The house from the outside - doesn't look like much - wait until spring when I can plant something :)

So, as you'll see in the photos we have a front entrance way for hanging coats and getting snow in (when it comes), a full bathroom, 2 bedrooms - one which we'll turn into an office and the other for a super "emperors" bed - 2 double beds put together. We have a living room with a comfy couch, satellite and internet. I've mentioned the kitchen and we also have a dining room. Anyone who has seen the places Chris and I have lived in together (the basement apartment in Guelph and the one-room cottage in Kirkland Lake) will know that this is a PALACE; its huge to us.

I'm thinking that if we decide to live here for more than just one year that I'll paint the place - its totally white right now and there's writing on the wall for some reason (call Tam 283-7316 for a good time). But overall I'm pretty happy here - will need a job soon to not go crazy from cleaning all day - but happy. I'll be ever more happy when I figure out how to use the phone since my cell phone doesn't work here. I really wish my family would come on Skype *hint hint* BE ON AT 7pm YOUR time**

The plan tomorrow is to drive into town for all the things we still need - cleaning supplied - a desk - laundry baskets - curtains. I WANT to go to Wal-mart but that means I would have to drive 3 hours there and 3 hours back (frigging northern Ontario), so instead I'll make it to the Random-R-Us store in Sioux Lookout (only 2 hours there and 2 back). Okay, well, that's about it so far. Stay tuned for more adventures (they say there are thunderstorms with baseball sized hail coming - yeah!).

Hallway

Bathroom shower and toilet

Bathroom sink

2nd bedroom - soon to be office

Chris's closet - with teacher clothes

Bedroom with the super bed!

hall way to back of house

Laundry room

Dining room

Kitchen

Living room

On The Road

The move from Kirkland Lake to Sioux Lookout took us 3 days and about 16 hours of travel (minus pit-stops).

Day 1: We left Kirkland Lake around 1:30pm and drove until dinner - stopping in Kapuskasing. My grade 6 teacher (Mme. Grezla) was from this town - she once made us run around the field at Westminster Public School until we had run the distance between Brockville and Kapuskasing - it was "fun".

Day 2: We drove from Kapuskasing to Thunder Bay - about a 6 hour trip. Unfortunately we had an incident with our trailer in a small town called Beardmore. As we went over a particularly harsh set of train tracks our trailer came off its hitch and started dragging along the ground. Turns out we bought a too skinny "pin" to fit the trailer hitch and the constant bumping and banging caused too much heat from friction - eventually snapping the metal and breaking the connection between the trailer and the hitch. See the picture below.

Fortunately we only dragged the trailer about 50 feet - no damage was done - and a very nice couple of men named Jerry and Richard helped us find a new part and they even brought their own tools and helped us install the new (properly fitting) pin and ball. Two hours later we were safe and sound in Thunder Bay.

Day Three: Well obviously I had to go shopping, Thunder Bay is the closest "metropolitan" area until, like, Winnipeg. I hit up American Eagle, Bluenotes and La Senza - spent $100 - and got out of the mall all within 30 minutes. A record for anyone who's gone shopping with me (I'm thinking of you Ang). We checked out of the hotel and headed for Sioux Lookout.

It took us about 4ish hours to get to Sioux Lookout. I started phoning hotels about 60km from the town, and guess what? EVERY hotel in town was fully booked. Which is totally weird since the population in Sioux Lookout is 5,500 and they have like 5 major hotels. It must be a popular spot. Luckily we found a lodge normally reserved for a fishing outpost for American tourists to come and fish their hearts out. It was a beautiful spot - right on a lake - with exposed logs and 12 foot ceilings. I slept super-duper well.

And now what? We're in the Forest Inn and Conference Centre where Chris is attending his Professional Development conference and learning about Slate Falls and meeting all his new co-workers. I'm just hanging out. I'm also freaking out since Plato has tapeworms from eating too many wild animals over the summer - and there are exactly zero pet supply stores (except one which is closed until Monday). Looks like I'm going to Dryden (about an hour away) tomorrow or Saturday to cure my little boy.

Until then take a look at some road pictures. Northern Ontario towns love to have giant monuments so we tried to take pictures of all the ones we saw on the trip. For those who like nature - check out the beautiful views of jack pine, black and white spruce and trembling aspen forests. Also, we drugged our cats with tranquilizers for the trip since Newton in particular hates to travel - so there's some awesome drugged-out cat pictures too.

Moonbeam, ON. Space themed town - seriously.

I think this was Kapuskasing - they also had a giant wolf but we weren't quick with the camera.

An awesome giant moose and wolf battle in Hearst, ON.

Giant fishing snowman with top hat and sunglasses in Beardmore - right before the trailer incident.

View of the Lake Superior mountains on the way to Thunder Bay, ON.

Drugged up Newton - very drugged

Long road ahead

Grumpy Plato - also drugged

Our beast "LaQuanda" packed to exploding.

Kirkland Lake

When I received my honours degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Guelph this past April I was extremely excited and nervous to (finally) get out of school and start work. However, never did I ever think that my first job out of school would be supervising a youth program for the Ministry of Natural Resources in the Kirkland Lake district. The Ontario Stewardship Rangers, a fantastic youth program aimed at educating a team of four 16/17 year olds on natural resources, the environment and work ethic while working on community work projects, was the job for me - and I was the Team Leader.

Where and what the heck is Kirkland Lake? That was my first question when I heard that I had the job. Turns out that Kayelle (sound it out = K.L.) is 8 hours north of my hometown of Brockville, ON, right near the border between the Boreal forest and the Great Lakes St. Lawrence forest. A little town that lies and says it's 10,000 people large. The town runs on mining, logging and Tim Hortons.

I spent my first 3 weeks in K.L. setting up my living arrangements (a one room cottage at Wilderness Calling Cottages on Round Lake), finding new partners in the community and begging them for work projects for my team this summer, and attending OSR training for team leaders in Sudbury (a week long adventure). I also, for the first time, got to interview and hire my very own staff. My picks landed on 4 characters named Ashton, Corey, Brooke and Stephanie. I couldn't of asked for better company.

My team of highschoolers worked 8:30 to 4:15 everyday on projects ranging from awesome (polar bear habitat) to down right uggggh (moving tires with stagnant water in them during a thunderstorm). The best part about my summer was that I got to see so much of the Kirkland Lake district, got to tour some awesome facilities (like the poop factory, saw mill, fish hatchery and I mentioned the polar bear habitat) and got to work with really amazing people.

My boyfriend, Mr. Christopher Poulsen, joined me in Kirkland Lake about 3.5 weeks into my 11 week contract. He tried to find a job, but then I told him he should just start getting used to having summers off since he's a teacher now (he just graduated in April as well). Instead of work he kept my little cottage neat and tidy (mostly - it's hard to keep up with our little hairball cats), kept me well fed with delicious meals and took a course online for teaching grade 11 and 12. He was a kept man ;)

And what now you ask? We're on our way even more towards the near north - and a lot more west. We're heading to a First Nations Reserve called Slate Falls in North-western Ontario (about 2.5 hours North-ish of Sioux Lookout or 7 hours North-ish of Thunder Bay). Chris has received his first teaching position teaching grade 3-4-5 there. I finished work on August 20th and we were packed and on the road by August 22nd. Stay tuned for more on the road adventures as we head to Slate Falls.

In the meantime - enjoy these photos from my summer:

The Ontario Stewardship Rangers 2010: (left to right) Brooke, Corey, Me (in a weird-ass stance), Ashton & Stephanie. At the Eby Pothole black spruce seed orchard where we trimmed root growth on over 1000 trees, tagged dead trees and removed unwanted competing vegetation.

 

 The team at the poop factory (the sewage treatment plant). It was the most beautiful poop factory EVER - cedar trimming, vaulted ceilings, but we had to wear gloves because poop was EVERYWHERE!

The team at the Kirkland Lake fire department - the tour had nothing to do with natural resources but Corey's dad (second on the left) works there. We're all Junior Fire Rangers now. 

The OSRs stand beside a wood pile they helped move away from a home on the Matachewan First Nations reserve in accordance with the FireSmart program - a fire program aimed at helping communities become safer in the event of a forest fire.

Nanook the polar bear - We worked at the Polar Bear Habitat and Heritage Village in Cochrane, ON clearing out a section of forest for a shaded picnic area. For our efforts we got to meet Nanook and learn about his species.

Standing by some plywood at the Elk Lake Planing Mill in Elk Lake, ON

Showing off a job well done setting up a cougar monitoring area on a local trap line. We wrapped barbed wire around trees to collect DNA when they rub against it. We set up an infrared camera to capture the cougars on film and eventually attracting scents will be applied in the area to attract the beast.

Stephanie showcases her art a la Art Attack (remember Neil B.??) OSR made out of our safety vests. Its a BIG ART ATTACK!