The thaw is on

The thaw is on! Streets are melting, mud and puddles are reappearing, and with all the metal roofs in town, the snow is crashing off like avalanches!

The sunset is after 9pm now and the sky still isn’t dark at 11pm. Makes it nice for walking in the evening, although by that time, everything is freezing up for the night. Wet and frozen wooden sidewalks are treacherous!

The grader is finished plowing the snow and ice up off of all the main streets is town and started on our street today.

After a bunch of trips back and forth, the street is now down to gravel! Woohoo!

My car got blocked in for awhile though.

No fear, I had no where to go! 🙂 The city came by with a backhoe and plowed me out. Nice, eh?

Jeff’s Birthday

Yesterday was Jeff’s birthday, so we celebrated with a big Greek feast by ordering the platter at The Drunken Goat and having enough for a second meal today from the left-overs.

We had ribs, lamb chops, chicken breasts, huge juicy shrimp, rice, pastry appetizers, and a big Greek salad with pita wedges and dip to start.

You can have a free drink at every bar in town on your birthday. While Jeff went for the Yukon Gold beer for his special day, I dove into a sangria 🙂

For a birthday cake this year, Jeff requested a blueberry crisp so I made a delicious one with our frozen local wild blueberries we picked up on the Top of the World highway last summer.

When will the river thaw?

This year Jeff bought a whole book of tickets for the river breakup contest. We just had to guess what day and time we think the river is going to break up! The winner gets half the pot!

I met a friend on my walk last night, and I think we debated for 10 minutes on how the river was going to thaw this year! River breakup is serious business, and quickly becoming one of my favourite events of the year.

The time of the breakup is recorded by a tripod that is out on the ice. It is connected by a long cable to a clock on shore, which stops ticking the moment the tripod collapses and is carried away by the river.

Here’s the positioning of the tripod from a week or so ago:

Last year the river went out on April 23, the earliest breakup ever recorded here in Dawson City. I’m thinking it will be later than that this year, but I’m thinking just by a week. All I know for sure, is it better be before I head off on another work trip in May because it would be terrible to miss the excitement! (and I didn’t guess any dates that late!)