Yukon bush life

People often ask me, are there lots of mad people in the bush? I don’t know if there are more than anywhere else , but I know this- if you are mentally unwell, living alone in a tiny cabin and seeing no-one for months on end will send you a whole lot fucking madder. Snowy day on the beach We’ve just lost a very dear friend. As far we know they haven’t died, but they left a very odd note in our PO box last month, and have refused all contact by email since. Though they are one of our closest friends, I’ve never written about this person. They are intensely private. When I say private, what I really mean is, delusionally paranoid. This person can be great company and has been very kind to us, both with advice and possessions. But we knew every interaction we had was mulled over and picked apart in the depths of an unwell mind. We knew that one day we would say or do something that would weave us into the web of conspiracy that our friend saw all a...

(Lou, Yukon) At last, we have a few inches of dusty snow. We’ve got the snow shoes down from the cabin wall and trundled the snowmachine off its logs. There’s not enough snow to run the machine far, but we were able to test out our new ramps on to the property. First trip down the new ramp And more importantly, up There’s a big improvement in the plumbing system. No more Jack and Jill up the hill from the creek with heavy pales of water. Ramp at waterhole bolstered with frozen in logs and snow Buckets can be dumped in the back of the machine and whizzed home with a roar and a cloud of filthy 2-stroke engine fumes. Almost as easy as getting it from a tap. Still trailing along We’ve been out on snow shoes brushing out an old trail we found. We hope to bypass some of the jumbled river ice by cutting across the apron of land next to us. Open lead in the river downstream from us It’s about 3 miles long and hard work with chainsaw, loppers and brush axe, b...