Spring in Old Crow

It's not every day that you learn to pluck, singe and gut a duck. Today I learned to pluck and singe a duck with my class. An elder in town had shot two white-winged scoder ducks a few days ago and the educational support worker at the school taught the lesson. We plucked and singed the duck outside (in the sunshine and without coats on!) this afternoon. Plucking involves pulling out the feathers, first from the belly side and then from the top. There is quite a technique to this, (which one of my students taught me) that involves using your thumb to pull out as many feathers at once as possible. Then you remove the tail feathers and the duck is ready to be singed.

The duck is still whole at this point, head and all. It is just featherless. A fire was made in front of the school. Lots of flames are needed to burn the feathers off (I got a few for a pair of earrings before the duck was brought to the fire). The ducks were placed directly on top of the sticks and left there until all the feathers were burnt off. Burning feathers smell a lot like burnt hair. The singing part was my favourite part of the process.

Gutting the duck was next, or else the duck would rot between the time we singed it and the time we make soup from it. Gutting is pretty self explanatory, so I won't go into detail. Our ducks are in the fridge and we will eat them as soup (with the elder who shot them) tomorrow afternoon. I can't wait! It was a really neat process to watch and learn.

Ayla on the Porcupine River before our trip to the School Cabin 12km upriver

I have never experienced light returning so quickly. It is absolutely amazing and puts everyone in good spirits and has given me much more energy. It is now light as midday when I go to sleep and when I wake up.

The river is starting to melt and the places I used to walk and ski aren't accessible anymore. Kind of sad, but really exciting too.

Patches of earth are starting to appear. Ayla my pup is incredibly intrigued by the ground and all the smells and doggy treasures (pieces of dead animals--yes she found a small rodent skull and a scapula of an unknown animal) that appear when the snow melts.

Ayla and I walking home from Easter festivities at community hall

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The air strip late at night

The school cabin, 12km upriver at a place called Caribou Crossing, or Thoh

I spent this past weekend in Dawson. I was there for a fiddle residency that was put on by Robert Service School and instructed by an amazing fiddle instructor from Victoria, B.C. The purpose of my trip was to brush up on my violin skills and learn teaching techniques that will let me start up a fiddle club here in Old Crow. I will post more about this later.

Fiddling is a big part of the culture here in Old Crow. Up until this weekend I thought that fiddle music would have been brought to the North by fur traders. Not the case though. This weekend I learned it was whalers who brought the fiddle to Northern Canada and that it began in Northern Quebec. Fiddle music and jigging were a very fun part of Easter weekend in Old Crow

Ayla on the river (before it began thawing)

Thanks for reading my blog. I apologize for the lack of posts and photos. I have borrowed a card reader, so more photos to come. Hope you are all well.

Warm Regards from Old Crow,

Haley

Easter Weekend in Old Crow

Easter weekend in Old Crow was so much fun! From Friday to Monday there was nonstop activities, games, feasts, food and fun community events. There was a talent show with fiddle playing and singing and juggling. There were jigging competitions with live fiddle music.

Someone shot a caribou on the Saturday and it was cooked up on the Sunday to be eaten. My piece still had some hair on it, but was really tasty anyways. The ultimate fresh I guess.

I can't remember the last time I played musical chairs until this weekend. So fun! There were tape-unwrapping dice games (don't know the real name of this one). I got second place in a sled pull, where I was pulled on a sled and then pulled someone.

There was an old fashioned tug-of-war and egg tossing and egg-spoon races that were really fun to participate in. Maybe the most fun of the activities was the log push. The log push is two teams of two people each (on opposite ends of a large log) who are trying to push the other team outside of a circle. My team got pushed out of the circle in about 3 seconds, but it was fun to watch the rest of the events.

Yesterday I skied 11km upriver to a cabin that the school has for school trips. It was warm (-15 at coldest) and beautifully sunny all day. The trail was hard packed from people skidooing on it. At the school cabin we ate grilled cheese, (with sprouts that I grew in a glass jar on my kitchen table :) )  tomato soup and drank coffee. This was Ayla's longest adventure yet, and she did really well! At the school cabin she slept, zipped up in my down jacket. So cute! The 11km back was fun and still super sunny.

I was hoping to see a caribou, as the school cabin is at atop a hill called 'Caribou Lookout.' No such luck, but I had an amazing bum-toboggan down to the river from the cabin.

I am totally loving Old Crow and the Yukon. The return of the light is absolutely amazing. Everyone is in high spirits and I find I need so much less sleep. I am wide awake in the morning and almost have to force myself to go to sleep at night. In not too long it will be 24 hour of light.

I was up at 3am to let the dog out to go to the washroom and saw some of the most amazing Northern lights I have seen here.

Hope everyone had a good Easter weekend. Saw some beautiful daffodil photos near Chilliwack (Thanks A-M!) and it looks like spring is in full force everywhere.

My camera cord still is not working, so I will have to post photos later. For now I will post something I saw and really liked. Take care, everyone.

Warm Regards from Old Crow,

Haley

Loved this

Skidooing on the Porcupine River



Old Crow from the air

Yesterday I went on a skidoo adventure up the Porcupine River.   Picture untouched powder, sun, open and vast land as far as they eye. It was beautifully sunny. I went with four friends from Old Crow and we were trying to make it to a cabin that was 61 miles up the Porcupine River.

 It was incredible to be on the land that I look at from the plane and to see the steep cliffs on the shore of the river flying by. I'm not much of a skidoo person, and this was my longest trip by skidoo byfar. I have to say that contrary to what I thought before today, skidooing is much more physical than I thought.

Oxbow River tha isn't the porcupine but that gives an impression of the land I was skidooing on yesterday.

I was surprised to be so sore today. Good old Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness (human kinetics degree taught me something :p) probably from holding onto the skidoo and from all the suuuuuuper fun bumps that we went off on the river. My friend let me drive her skidoo and driving fast was insanely fun. The rest of the time I was a passenger which was also a blast.

Our trip was cut short when we got to a spot where a creek enters the river. The lead skidoo didn't see the overflow and flipped his sled. We stopped at another cabin instead and had a nice lunch. Everyone had smokies (hot dogs) and I had hobo-style soup out of the can, heated on the stove. The trip back to town was uneventful except for stopping to talk to a few other skidooers out (mostly out to cut wood).
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Northern Store which has groceries, post office and bank.

Ayla, my new husky pup

The photos I have uploaded aren't taken yesterday. My camera cord isn't working as of now, so the photos from yesterday aren't up.

I am really loving Old Crow and the Yukon. Although the Yukon's population is way smaller than other provinces, the people who do live here make up for it in character, adventurousness and sense of humour. There are few people I have met in Old Crow who don't like to laugh, play practical jokes and who don't have a sensationally good sense of humour.

Thanks for reading! Enjoy spring everyone. Those of you on the Island, smell a blossom for me and those in Ontario harvest some fiddleheads and eat them for me when they come up.

Warm Regards from Old Crow,

Haley

Muskrat Trapping and Grey Owls

Muskrat trapping and skinning was one of my highlights from Culture Camp. Because of the wind (and being shut in the kitchen tent for three full days) our trapping and snaring time was shortened. I will describe a bit about muskrat trapping and rabbit snaring here.

The view from the muskrat trapping lakes

To trap a muskrat you first need to locate the muskrat push up on the lake you are trapping on. The muskrat push up is where the muskrats keep their food. They keep it open and work very hard to not let it freeze over completely. The trap is set under the muskrat push up, knowing that the muskrat comes there to feed.

The traps are checked the day after they are set. Of the two initial traps we set, we trapped two muskrats. One was dead, but the second was alive. It was writhing around like crazy, and biting at the person removing the trap. I had to look away for the next thing that happened.

Pulling out the trapped muskrat

The muskrats are skinned by first cutting off the legs and skinning it from the bottom up. After the legs are cut off, the muskrat is hung from the ceiling to make the skinning process easier (cutting downwards, using gravity to help). The muskrats were boiled to eat and the skins can be used to make mitts or hats.

Skinned muskrat ready to be boiled, and fur ready to be turned into mitts or a hat

We didn't catch any rabbits in our snares. I did an acrylic painting of a rabbit hoping it would help, but it didn't. While checking traps, however, we did see a grey owl, which was another highlight of Culture Camp. The grey owl was on the look out for rabbits too. I trust that he had better luck than us. We were able to observe him for some time and below are a few photos of him hunting from a tree and flying away.

Grey owl flying away, off to hunt rabbits

Grey owl hunting from atop a tree

I'm really enjoying life in Old Crow. The Yukon has some kind of magic and magnetic appeal that is difficult to describe. My puppy, Ayla is keeping me busy, and she is turning out to be a wonderful ski buddy for my mostly daily skate ski on the river.

I am preparing to go to Dawson City again in a few weeks for a violin residency that will hopefully help me and a friend here start a fiddle program for students to learn how to play the fiddle.

The daylight is coming back faster than I ever could have imagined. It gets light at 6am now, and doesn't get dark until 10pm. It 9pm right now, and it is as light outside as it is in the afternoon. It is amazing how light affects the human body. I find that I don't get tired at the same time at night that I normally do. I also feel much more awake in the mornings. In not too long, it will be light all the time. People tin foil their windows to keep it dark...should be interesting.

Hope you all are well.

Warm Regards from Old Crow,

Haley

Culture Camp

As mentioned, Culture Camp is a 7 day winter camping trip and is a chance for students to learn and practise traditional skills like hunting, trapping, snaring and arts. It was an incredible experience which I feel quite honoured to have been a part of. This post will be a very brief explanation of Culture Camp. The photos were taken after our 3-day shut in (not going further than the kitchen tent or the sleeping tents for 3 days because of intense wind). So these photos don't give a totally accurate explanation of the wind we experienced for 3 days.

Culture Camp set up

The camp itself is much more elaborate than I pictured. There are about 6 permanent tent frames, with non-permanent canvas that just goes over when they are being used. Each tent has a wood stove in it and is equipped with bunks or cots.

Sleeping tents at Culture Camp

The lake itself is a 20 minute skidoo ride from Old Crow and as mentioned, is on White Fish Lake. All our muskrat trapping was done on a lake about a kilometre away (which we walked to) and the rabbit snaring was done on a creek about the same distance away.

Caribou meat

The students do indoor lessons that relate to the curriculum but that also help them learn about and connect to their culture in some way. They also spend a lot of time learning trapping and snaring skills out on the land. The students were very skilled at what they do, and they impressed me continually throughout the week.

Some of the lessons were:

-Skidoo Maintenance
-Dog Care and dogsledding
- Muscrat skinning
-Beading
-How the Gwitch'in used the tthal (caribou fence) to trap and kill caribou
-Food Safe
-Meat drying
-Rabbit Snaring
-Muskrat trapping

The Vuntut Gwitch'in People are known for their beautiful and intricate beading

A few of my highlights from Culture camp was seeing the best Northern lights I have ever witnessed, learning how to set muskrat traps, learning dog care and handling and seeing a beautiful grey owl and observing it for some time.

Recently trapped muskrat

This is a very short overview of Culture Camp, and is meant just to give a brief look at Culture Camp. I will put more detailed posts and more photos in the next few days. Mahsi Cho (big thank you) for reading!

Warm Regards from Old Crow,

Haley

Wind Chill

Wind over the Crow River

 Hello Family and Friends! I got back from Culture Camp this afternoon and had a wonderful week out on the land with my class, some locals, Elders, community members and the 7,8,9 teacher from last year who was coordinating the trip. Culture Camp is an experiential learning project supported by the Vuntut Gwitch'in First Nation and the Yukon Government. It is land-based learning, where students learn traditional skills that directly connect to the curriculum for their grade.

More about Culture Camp in tomorrow's post, but today's post will be about wind chill. These photos were taken last Sunday, the day we were supposed to leave for Culture Camp. The trip was postponed due to a wind chill in the -40s. I went out for a ski and took these photos on the Crow River.

Diamond-like ice

On sunny days and in some places, you can see the river bottom through the ice

Almost skateable ice on the Crow River

Wind chill, or the wind chill factor is the felt air temperature on exposed skin due to wind. It is always lower than the air temperature. The day we were to leave for Culture Camp, the air temperature was only -28, but the wind chill was in the -40s.

My neck warmer has been my saving grace for wind chill, and it is probably one of my most utilized pieces of clothing in Old Crow.

Even the banks of the river are wind swept

I have so much to tell about Culture Camp and all that I learned and experienced there and how incredible it is to see my students learning and practicing traditional skills. That will be my post tomorrow.

Thank you for reading, and hoping you are enjoying the first days of spring wherever you may be.

Warm Regards from Old Crow,

Haley

Dawson City

The Robert Service Cabin

The Yukon might be best known for the Klondike gold rush. And for good reason. The Klondike gold rush was a monumental time period in history and is an epic story of adventure, greed, danger and daring people from the past.

In 1896 gold was discovered in Rabbit Creek (now known as Bonanza Creek). When previously poor men began arriving in California cities by boat with suitcases bursting with gold, news spread quickly and many people began heading north in search of fortune and adventure.

The Yukon River  and Bonanza Creek (setting for the Klondike gold rush) behind us

An estimated 100 000 people were part of the Klondike gold rush. Some took ships from the United States and others made the trek by land. Many didn't survive, perishing on the Chilkoot Pass, the White Pass or on the Yukon River.

Beginning our descent from 'The Dome' hike. The Yukon River and Bonanza Creek in the background.

Dawson City was born and became a booming town of 30 000 people, making it bigger than Vancouver and Victoria. Can you believe that a village of 1500 people was once the largest city north of Seattle and west of Winnipeg? Brothels, gambling halls and restaurants popped up all over. The town has been preserved and strict building codes have managed to keep it looking very authentic and very much like it once did. The entire town is a National Historic Site and Dawson City has been called a "Living Museum.'

A world famous gambling hall that has been around since the gold rush days. Before leaving for Dawson, my Dad send me a photo of himself in 1977 standing in front of this looking like a Yukon Eric Foreman. Pretty awesome.

I walked to Robert Service's cabin with a blues musician I met while in Dawson. We walked around the outside of the cabin, happy to be the only ones (unlike summer when it would have been crawling with tourists). Robert Service is a famous poet, originally from England but who spent his life bouncing around California, Mexico and eventually Canada. He farmed on Vancouver Island, lived in Vancouver and spent the years between 1909 and 1912 living and writing in his cabin in Dawson City. I adore Robert Service's work and he has been called the "Canadian Kipling," (likening him to Rudyard Kipling, another famous poet and writer).

One of the many preserved hills in Dawson. 'The Dome' slide in the background.

I hiked the dome with my wonderful hosts and explored the town as much as I could in my short time there. In my last post I mentioned the off-grid house I visited and (90% local) dinner I had there. The hospitality, kindness and welcoming nature of people in Dawson was incredible.

Ice statue on the Yukon River.

A sense of adventure, excitement and wealth (gold is still being mined) still exists in Dawson today. It is a town that values art, music, adventure and excitement and a town that seems like it would accept almost any type of person. I was sad for my trip to Dawson to end, but happy to head back to Old Crow, where my warm house and my puppy awaited me.

My host in West Dawson's bus that they road tripped in to Newfoundland and back. Yukoners are adventurous folk.

View on my flight back to Old Crow. The way the flights work had me flying from Dawson City to Inuvik (NWT) and then from Inuvik to Old Crow. Stunning views of the land.

In other news, I got frostbite for the first time last night. I neglected to cover my nose enough with my neckwarmer while skiing an 8km loop with my neighbours. Luckily they noticed and I covered it before it got any worse. It didn't go past the early stages and thankfully didn't hurt when it thawed out.

Tomorrow I leave for 8 days and won't be posting during that time. I am going to Culture Camp with my class. Culture Camp is a land-based experiential education learning experience for all students at the school I work at. It is a time for students to learn and practice traditional skills like hunting, trapping, skinning, cooking and arts. They also practice Gwitch'in, their traditional language. We started filling out our Culture Camp manuals yesterday and I will share my two goals below:

1) Learn to skin rabbit and muscat

2) Learn at least 5 common Gwitch'in phrases. So far my knowledege is words, and I would like to learn more phrases.

Thanks for reading my blog. I trust spring has arrived in the places most of you are reading this. Enjoy the return of the light and the warmth and Mahsi Cho (thank you) for reading my blog!

Warm Regards from Old Crow,

Haley