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.

The Community

It's been a full week since moving to Slate Falls and life has been a balance between very busy and hard working to down-right lazy. I was somewhat hesitant to head out into the community by myself - some white girl walking around taking pictures might not inspire friendly relationships but FINALLY today Chris and I took a drive around and this is what we saw...

This is the bridge you cross to get to most of the residential housing. There is a GIANT hole on the right if you can see - scary!

The view from the bridge

A big event is happening today - a wedding!

This is the wedding location - they have a giant tent for the event

The view from most people's backyards

This is the teacherage where we live. Chris' principal, Rachel, and her husband (another teacher) Ed, live on the left, we live in the middle and Ed's sister, Ann (ANOTHER teacher) lives on the right.

This is the daycare. It's probably going to close and be moved into the school at some point.

This is the police station

The fire hall

The warehouse

Chris and I at the airport. This is the main boat launch and where the water planes arrive with groceries or general mail deliveries.

This is the hockey rink - it gets a lot of use during the winter time.

This is the Mennonite church. At least one Mennonite family lives here in Slate Falls, but I've only met one woman, her daughter and 2 visiting cousins from the United States. 

This is the band office - the hub of the community.

We can get fresh water from this special water filtration system. It's not always reliable though, so it's recommended you only use the water for cooking.

but it looks pretty clean to me.

This is the school bus that used to take all the children to and from school - until the driver quit.

The sign for Bimaychikamah school where Chris works.

So those are the main things in the community - great views, child care, safety services and fresh water. The band office also has the health centre where another husband-wife team provide medical care. There is a dump about 60km from here, but the locals tell me there's a closer one. That's the next challenge!

Visitors

I just got a knock on the door, and when I opened it up, there were 7 children at my door with 2 dogs (Lucky and Butterfly). They just wanted to know who was new in town. I told them I was going to go look for a cat to show them, and then they all came into the house. They peeked into the laundry room, bounced on the bed a little (they were grade 1s to grade 5s) and called out for the cats. I know I wasn't allowed to really have them in the house though, so when I asked them to pile out I was relieved when they politely did. They are great kids, very sweet, but I had to keep my eye on the one with the bow and arrow. haha. That just made my day.

When the Cat's Away The Mouse Will Play

So it's been a few days since my last post - I consider that I've been pretty busy, for the most part.

On Monday I left at 9am to head into town. After 2 hours on the dirt road into town I was thinking "This has gone on long enough" and I considered just shopping in Sioux Lookout. I then thought of all the conveniences that the shops in Dryden would offer - mainly a Dollar Store and Wal*Mart - so I straightened up and drove the additional hour. I stopped at M&M meat shop for some bulk chicken and meatballs. I found the "Downtown Dollar" store, it wasn't as great as a Dollarama, but I found what I needed. I headed to Wal*Mart and easily spent over $200. My final stop was to the grocery store where I stocked up and again easily spent $200. Money goes fast! So my shopping trip took 3 hours.

On the way home I stopped again in Sioux Lookout to pick up some fresh water since we can't drink the water here. I stretched my legs for the last time and headed towards home. Right as I was hitting the dirt road the skies opened up and gallons poured down on me. My wiper blades could not go fast enough to keep up. The tire tracks that kept the road easily drivable filled up with water causing me to hydroplane OR drive on the rocky areas. FUN! Fortunately the clouds passed about half an hour into the road. The dirt road is about 130km long and as I watched the clock, I figure that I can drive about 1km a minute. So basically, NEVER AGAIN!

On Tuesday I kissed Chris goodbye and sent him to school while I ate some breakfast and got to work. I built Chris's desk - all by myself! :) - and set up that area. I cleaned and tidied the laundry room. I did some more laundry and tried my best to put things away. Chris came home for lunch (yes I did all that before lunch) and told me that he met the woman who holds the portfolio to a very interesting project, told me I should come with him to the school and check things out. So I did...

I checked out Chris's class (he is as we speak taking pictures of it for his blog), attended a meeting describing the teaching philosophy and potential difficulties Chris might encounter, and then Chris's principal, Rachel, took us to the hub of the community - the band office. Close to the band office is the police station, fire hall, warehouse, boat launch where the plane arrives as well and the water filtration place where you can get semi-clean water for cooking. The band office is where the councilors work, the councilors are elected women (they don't have to be women, but right now they all are) who make the important decisions in the community and provide the guidance to shape the community. This is where I met Kathy (I really hope that was her name, we met A LOT of people yesterday). Kathy holds the portfolio (i.e. the money) to the land use projects where basically you decide how the land should be use in association with the neighbouring logging company land. She also holds the portfolio to a new Species At Risk project identifying the presence and then tracking ... wait for it.... CARIBOU!!! I told her my credentials and she said she'd bring up my potential to other partners in the Cat Lake first nation community and the liaisons in the Ministry of Natural Resources. I'm very excited to get on board in any way, not only because SAR projects are my favourite, but also because I'll have something to do. Anyways, I have no idea when this project will get underway - they are still wrapping up some issues with the land use planning - but I'm very excited.

So today - Wednesday - I slept in, woke up, got frustrated with my boyfriend who doesn't do housework (dishes Chris, dishes), got frustrated at the mess in general, turned on the Food Network (my best friend) and zoned out. I will be, however, helped put together a BBQ after lunch. Today is student registration day so a BBQ is a must. So that's it. And I'm going back to TV now. Bye!