Welcome to Autumn

Our first significant snowfall started overnight, just in time for the first day of Autumn!

Winter always makes a quick appearance, leaving me feeling a bit unprepared. We didn’t have frost until the last few nights, and every one was a heavy one. My flower pots are still outside, some still blooming, others not so much.

I was able to harvest the rest of the cherry tomatoes on Sunday. I wonder if they’ll ripen for us! I’ve since spread them out into a bigger container so they aren’t stacked so deep. A couple of the wee little ones were frost damaged so I pitched them.

Jeff went moose hunting with a friend and his friend a couple of weeks ago, and they did well! He was gone for a week and they took 2 moose. Jeff got his when it turned from far across a clearing and charged at them. It didn’t turn until it was almost right on top of them, allowing Jeff to get a shot.

Here’s Jeff packing up to go. We lent my quad to the visiting friend.

Meanwhile, I held down the fort with the pets. I had to turn on the oil monitor heater to keep us warm 🙂

Our Dawson City Museum has all new display cases for their exhibits. It is absolutely stunning now! And I’m not just saying that because I’m on the Museum’s Board of Directors. (I think I’m even the Vice President now?) I took a tour with a couple of friends to share my excitement of how great it all looks.

They seemed to agree with me and loved all the updates!

Speaking of old things (the exhibits, not me and my friends you nut!), I found a bottle in the woods. It isn’t that old (my research says it was manufactured sometime after 1962) but it has a really detailed embossing of some sort of building with arches on it? Does anyone recognize it? It really caught my eye and now it is a mystery I’m trying to solve. It looks like the size of a juice bottle – maybe a milk bottle? Has a modern twist lid. It was rusty and metal and still on it. There was a label attached with glue under the decorative scene.

Let me know if you have any ideas!!

So while Jeff was away hunting, I worked and walked pretty much. I was shocked one night to see scaffolding in front of the Third Avenue complex! This was a hotel over a hundred years ago, and left to demonstrate what permafrost does to a building.

I guess it is getting some repairs!? It was just funny to see modern scaffolding in front of it.

After Jeff returned from his hunting trip, we finally winterized our camping trailer. It is parked in our friend’s yard this winter. Winterizing is much faster now that we’ve done it a couple times. It just means we take out all the bedding to wash and store, make sure all the food has been removed, by-pass the water heater, drain the water heater, and add plumbing antifreeze in the water lines and drains. I find it drips a bit before we use it in the spring so I put a paper towel folded up under each tap too, to prevent the pink staining from the antifreeze.

Jeff’s been busy processing his moose too, that is hanging in the garage in quarters. The weather is perfect, nice and chilly so it can hang for 10 days before he’ll process it with a butcher. In the meantime though, there are plenty of smaller bits to process and prep. We’ll likely get a couple hundred pounds of sausages made, in addition to some ground. This is probably enough meat for a couple of years, easily.

Here’s Jeff’s first steak from the back strap.

Our friend, a First Nations elder, stopped by for the moose nose. She LOVES it, like a delicacy!

What else have we been up to. Oh! I joined a friend for the Terry Fox run/walk on Sunday.

We walked 5km and just chatted away while we walked. The weather was nice and sunny, but cool enough for a jacket.

I don’t think I’m participated in a Terry Fox run since I was a kid in school! Remember when I got to see the van he travelled in? I am surprised I didn’t blog about how emotional it made me looking in that van. I didn’t expect it. Sort of like when I visited his statue near Thunder Bay and someone was playing Amazing Grace on their bagpipes. Really moving.

Here’s another photo of Sally who has taken over the edge of our table, since we never sit there to eat anyway, and the sun bathing is apparently so nice.

The weather started to take a change and look like snow by the end of Sunday. And now on Tuesday morning, everything is white. Here are some photos from a trip up to the Dome on Sunday evening between some drizzle.

And here is our new truck! We’re selling our F-250 short box truck and have purchased this newer F-350 long box, crew cab diesel. Our plans are to sell our pull behind camping trailer and put a truck camper on this truck. We’ll miss our trailer so much, but we really don’t use most of the space and a truck camper will let us access more of the Yukon and Alaska for camping adventures. Looking forward to it!

Meanwhile in town, construction continues along Fifth Avenue. All summer, every summer, it seems.

Here’s the new moose rack (left) compared to Jeff’s last moose a few years ago. The new one is 55 inches across. Ravens are having a great time picking away at it for scraps.

We fired up the wood stove yesterday. Hope we have enough wood. I’m always nervous and want to hoard it. It’s irrational.