logcabinlog: March 2005

Log cabin-it

This Easter weekend we travelled north to Dawson.

I saw lots of log cabins.

Yukon politics.

Northern Beast

I remember a friend drove her car down south after spending a year in the Yukon. It looked different and it sounded different. I think it's happening to my Bev.

My beloved Volvo has had no problems adjusting to the Yukon roads, in fact she's in her element. No traffic lights, no stopping and starting. With the help of four Toyo Observes (some kind of walnut shell tire technology) Bev has taken us in and out of the driveway when we seriously had our doubts. The only time she didn't go was that week it was minus 40 and I didn't want to go that time anyway.

Salty and dirty roads have taken their toll though. You can see through her in some parts and other parts are no longer blue, just a permanent dirt colour. She's dripping a bit of green, but she sits boldly at the top of the drive, waiting to go.

She hasn't failed us yet...I'm knocking on wood, it's become a convenient habit in the log cabin.

Northern Bev.

Shelter

Things have been happening faster around the log cabin lately. We realised yesterday that we only have 4 more months in the dear log cabin. We're not ready to leave, we feel like we're just settling in, we want to stay longer.

So begins the hunt for our very own log cabin or Yukon type structure. We're looking for something we can exercise our creative muscles on. Somewhere where "built to code" has its own definition. Somewhere without drywall. Maybe I'm dreaming just a little bit...

I'm learning a lot about real estate. FAST.

There are a few cabins around this log cabin that we fansy. These cabins have been deprived the warmth of fire and laughter all winter...these cabins just might have owners wanting to sell! We've picked out the cabins surrounded by untouched snow and are going to start making offers. I've just hung up from the first call...

"The owner is on a bison hunt right now, she should be back Friday."

Have you ever seen the book "Shelter"? You can see a bit of it here... http://www.shelterpub.com/_shelter/shelter_book.html This is what I'm talking about.

Rendevous

Traditionally a gathering of bush people in Whitehorse to celebrate the longer days, Rendevous is now a weeklong excuse to drink and participate in weird activities.

We went into town on Friday and spent the night at a fellow logcabineer's north of town. It was a strange night full of strange activities and good entertainment. We wandered around the 8 bars of Whitehorse and took in Can Can dancers, a bag pipe band, females competing in a hairiest leg competition and males in womens clothing striping down to their underwear (the long red kind). We got trapped in the talking path of a "Sourdough Sam", which from what I can gather is some sort of representative of a bar whose responsibility is to perform the craziest stunts so their bar is "best" known. We saw street hockey and ice sculpture building, fiddling and accordian playing and caught a northern lights show as we walked from one bar to another.

The next day we went for a healing ski and a dip in the Takini hot springs followed by some fair trade goodies at the Bean North coffee house. I felt a little pressured to hurry into town to catch the Rendevous festivities that were taking place and we finished up and headed in.

I was a little disappointed when I discovered what we had left our cozy fair trade coffee house for. Two activities were taking place when we got into town, the chainsaw throw and the flour haul.

The flour haul is supposed to demonstrate the copious amounts of flour a human being can carry on ones back. Perhaps in the day when men were toughened by surving in the rugged Yukon bush, they were able to haul considerable amounts of flour. Now, years of softening urban lifestyle have left the contestents with no where near the fitness level required to have 500 pounds of flour lowered onto their backs and walk 50 feet. It was horrible. One man attempted to have the flour lowered, and relowered, and lowered again onto his back only to have his legs crumble underneath him. Two others suffered the same fate and I'm sure one of these is now walking with aid of a cane.

As we watched men self inflict pain on their backs and pride, we heard a disappointing "Ooooh!" come from the audience behind. The audience watching the chainsaw throw. The thrower stood stunned looking into a part of the audience that were crowded around one unfortunate spectator. The moderator of the event picked up the mic and requested everyone "move behind the yellow line please, behind the yellow line." Wishing I was back in the hotsprings we moved well behind the yellow line and headed back out to our log cabin into the safety of the woods.

The ice scuptures were remarkable though...