Yukon bush life

How do you explain the rules of capitalism to a dog? That’s the question we were pondering the day the river stopped. We’ve been watching it for weeks. With the recent cold spell, the passing ice pans turned to chunks, and by Saturday there were sheets as big as tennis courts drifting past. In the afternoon, the ice shelf began to rise as water oozed beneath it. We guessed the river had jammed somewhere below us and the water was backing up. We took a quick ski down to take a look but Neil bust a ski through into the seeping green slush and so we scooted back, faster and faster, the ice popping and buckling beneath us. By dark, we could hear a continuous rumble as the moving ice sheets ground against the edges. We ran out in parkas, pyjamas and headlamps to peer at the slow, rumbling mass of jagged ice. At 30 below our breathing formed a fog of ice crystals in the beams, so we held our breath and listened. I wish I’d recorded the sound. Imagine a freight tra...

(Lou, Yukon) Temperatures have dropped at last. Not far, to -25C, but we are delighted.  I don’t know why, as wearing a neck-ring over your mouth and nose that’s frozen with snot and rubs like a cheese grater is not pleasant, nor is having your fingers ache with cold inside your mitts. But the pay-off is that strange, stiff winter beauty.  Layer upon layer of hoar frost feathers every surface, the sky is a deeper, crisper blue and the stars seem to blink themselves awake in the brittle night air.  Hoar frost at an opening in the creek On our first day of cold, the river suddenly gorged itself with ice. The pans clung together, and began to join the ice shelf advancing sideways into the flowing water from the bank.  By afternoon the crackling of ice flows turned to groaning and popping. We got to the bank in time to see water flood under the ice shelf and straight towards us.  The shelf lifted, then ground, thumped and shattered itself i...

(Lou, Yukon) We went to +5C this week (average temps should be around -20). A warm wind soared up the river and took the snow from our roof and yard. Yet again, the ice pans in the river shrank and softened.  No change for weeks The Yukon river usually freezes by mid-November. Not this year.  Snow melted on porch table If the river does not freeze safely enough for us to travel on it we are completely cut off from the world until, maybe May when the river is ice-free again and we can get the boat back in.  Snow melting off roof We decided we will do an inventory of our food and supplies on 1st December, if the river has not stopped, and work out what we might need to ration. It may be a lonely winter. Oh well, time to do all the bottom of the list things like, learn to bake cakes (til we run out of ingredients), write that novel, learn to meditate and…well I don’t know, but I refuse to take up embroidery. It was Neil’s birthday so we took ...