Last evening at the KPI.

Today is my last town day. I can't post any pictures because I've spent the day driving to Whitehorse and back. I picked up Dylan at the airport. He's back from his days off. We did a bunch of running around and grocery shopping. Now we've just stopped here quickly to send e-mail and make a few phone calls. We're tired though, so we won't be staying much longer. We did a peanut butter add this week and woke up really early (4:30 am) for morning loc's on nests and stayed up late for feeding loc's. I don't know how the summer crew is going to get through this. I'll have a lot for you next weekend, though. I'm spending a few days in Whitehorse before heading south.

Montreal is on the big screen, but I don't think I can watch this first game against Pittsburgh. They're quite an obstacle.

In other news, my workshop was accepted for Hillside this year. I'm going to do a weaving project for a change from bracelet making.

I'll talk to you all soon, Cass

Come on, Montreal Canadians.

I didn't think I was going to have many pictures from the past few days, but things started happening when I arrived back at Squirrel Camp. It poured rain for the night and a lot of our snow is gone. The next day, we had this fabulous sunrise over the Ruby Range. Lindsey and I accidentally got up at 4:30 am because our alarm clock is ridiculous. It has 5 buttons on the back and they are the most sensitive buttons you could ever make. If the alarm clock gets bumped by anything it will do something crazy like change time zones.


Also, a lot of the lichen is out now. The snow is all washed off the dead stumps and really interesting things have popped up. I search for these everywhere on Chitty.



I think they look particularly interesting beside the snow.





And an exciting thing happened while I was out trapping this week. I caught the first ground squirrel of the year. Apparently, Chitty has the largest population of these squirrels. They are remnants of the Ice Age. Ground squirrels go into the deepest hibernation of any animal. They have to double their body weight over the course of the summer. This is a juvenile squirrel trap and this little guy won't even be able to turn around in there come September.


At first I thought he was a red squirrel, but his tail is different and his ears are tiny, so then I had no idea what he was. Then they told me about ground squirrels.


Also, here are the socks I started knitting in Whitehorse. Almost finished. I've determined it takes me about 5 hours per sock at this gauge.


This morning, for a day off activity we went up to Sheep Mountain or Tachal Dhal, in the local native language. This is where the Dall Sheep live. They are also a remnant of the Ice Age. We have determined that they live on this particular mountain because it melt so early. It is the only mountain around that looks brown. There is probably a lot of lichen growing up there. We watched them though our binoculars, and I took some pictures, but the sheep look very very small. That's okay. I'm really glad we went up there because it was one thing that I really wanted to see before I leave and the drive was definitely worth it.


The crew looking at the sheep.


We also stopped by the Arctic Research Institute. It's on Kluane Lake. The lake is still mostly frozen over, but it's opened a little around the edge. Today is an absolutely beautiful day and we didn't have to bundle up. We just sort of ran around to stay warm. I did sit and knit for a bit though.


We played a rock throwing game where we tried to throw a rock into a tiny rock-sized hole that's way out there. I hit the hole first. It's very satisfying to plunk a rock into the ice and watch it disappear.



This is one of the ice caves we found in the ice heaves along the shore.


More ice melt.



Dried flowers from last season on the beach. Maybe an aster?


Now we're at the KPI. I didn't have soup. I thought they might not have any because we arrived here late after our hike, so I bought a sandwich at Madley's. It was pretty good. There is one minute left in the Montreal game and Ovechkin just picked up the puck! And Montreal held it together!!!!! On to game 6. Amy has downloaded an NHL info application for her phone because she can pick up a signal at camp. Also the CBC keeps us up to date! Let's go, Habs! (Amy has Ovechkin in a pool and is cheering for Washington. I tell her that he just has more games to score points in now).

I received my picture with the Stanley Cup from Scotiabank this week. Unfortunately, it's in pdf format and I can't post it here right now. I'll try to figure it out this week and post it next Friday. It turned out really well.

Also, today I received a package from one of my knitter friends. It's an Alice in Wonderland themed package full of wool and a necklace and hedgehog patterns! I'll have to take some pictures of all the nice things you've sent and put them up here in a giant virtual thank-you note one of these days.

Till next Friday, Cass

I was going to say, "Go Habs!", but now it's more like, "Montreal, pull it together!"

Tonight I'm at the KPI watching the game with the locals. Unfortunately, Montreal is about to lose 5-1. This is not good.

Here is the last bit of my Whitehorse trip.

As you know, I made it to the Wade Davis presentation. It was excellent. He is the Explorer In-residence for National Geographic and the slide show was amazing. Just a series of National Geographic quality shots. The talk was a condensed version of his newest book, the Wayfinders. I bought a copy and he signed it for me.


The next day I went to the Beringia Interpretive Centre with two of the girls I met at the hostel. It is a really well done museum all about the Ice Age in this area. The displays are all very simple and quite beautiful, really. They have all sorts of these giant quotes from local elders talking about their stories. This quote refers to the story about finding the first ancient mammal preserved under the ice.


These little guys were my favourite Ice Age mammal. They are related to antelope and have giant nose sacs to warm the air before it enters their bodies and capture moisture as the air leaves their bodies. These guys actually still exist, in Siberia, I think, but the last two groups are endangered.


This is a fossil of a giant land sloth. There were herbivores. And huge.


I really liked them too, so I took a couple pictures. I started reading Life of Pi the other day and the story starts by explaining a lot of sloth behaviour and it's really interesting.


And, of course, the woolly mammoth.


The Centre also has an ancient horse hide that was conserved at the Canadian Conservation Institute in Ottawa. Some of you may already know about this. I couldn't take pictures as it is light sensitive.

The week after I leave there will be a display about the local clothing and dolls. These mukluks were a little display to promote that upcoming event. I would have liked to see that.


This morning one of the girls and I walked all around a part of the Yukon River. It runs right through Whitehorse. The ice is just breaking up and it was a really nice hike with a lot of things to look at.


This boat, the S.S. Klondike, is a local historical site. It's not open right now, of course, but it just received a fresh paint job and looks very nice. The German girl told me that the same boat is also in Dawson City and only half of this boat is the actual boat and the rest is restored. The other half is in Dawson, restored to the same state.


The giant orange paddle wheel.


And we found this along the walk. I'm wearing my Manitoulin Sweater, now known as my Town Sweater, since I only wear it when we go into town on Fridays.



This is the Whitehorse Utilities building. It's nice because it's so blue.


They also make their power with this dam and turbines.


I'm about to head back to Squirrel Camp. Short week, only three days till I'm back in town. Wish me luck, Cass

Woah.

Can someone please buy this for me, please?

It's a pencil crayon subscription. Each month for 20 months this company will send you 25 colours. By the end of that 25 months you will have collected 500 different coloured pencil crayons and spent a tonne of cash. And you will be able to colour absolutely anything in the perfect shade.

And you will be really happy because they all have names like these:

I'm off to do something in Whitehorse that doesn't involve my computer and the free internet.

More soon, Cass

Life's too short to knit boring work socks.

Haven't really done much knitting up here, but wanted to show this off:


This is a sock made from the blue wool I purchased when I was last in Ottawa. I found an ancient knitting book and was inspired to design this chevron sock at Squirrel Camp. Number one is finished except for the kitchener stitch at the toe, and two is already casted on.

I spent some time today looking for my northern souvenir. I was really hoping to take some mukluks home, but the price for local handcrafts is prohibitive on a Squirreler's wage. Also, I think I would enjoy making myself some one day.

So instead I went to the local knitting store and bought some new sock wool. Turns out I'm turning into a sock knitter. These were all in the 25% off bin....even that Noro. I've been wanting to buy that colourway for years now (literally, since they first brought it to Canada), but I just wasn't a sock knitter before. Now that I am, I snatched it up at sale price.


I also picked up these handcarved buttons. I'm a sucker for handcarved buttons. These are made of, from top to bottom, deer, moose, and caribou antlers.


Over all, it was a very good day for wool. I'm going back to the store on Monday because the owner wants to see my Hiya Hiya interchangeable needles. I also want to take some pictures of her store because it is truly lovely. She also carries the elusive muskox fibre, quiviuk. Unfortunately, it is extremely labour-intensive to collect this rare fibre. The women in the collective that supply her store follow the muskox herd around and pick up the little bits of their underbelly coat that falls off. Then they have to sort out all of the grass, lichen, and guard hairs by hand. This is the warmest and lightest animal fibre anywhere. It costs $80 for 25g. I could not even justify that as a souvenir. They make these kits with one of the neatest mitten patterns I have ever seen. It has a muskox graphic on the back of a very straight mitten with classic Norwegian shaping. I tried one on and that was dangerous. The kit cost $210.00. They were by far the nicest mittens I have ever put on, but there was no way I could buy the kit. She did a really good job at trying to talk me into it, however. I resisted. It was tough. I'm pretty sure she actually wants me to come back on Monday so she can try to sell it to me again. I'm not going to buy it. Really, I'm not. I promise everyone in blogland that I will not buy that kit. I'll just have to come back to the Yukon someday when I'm a rich and famous ecologist and buy it then.

Yukon Fireweed.

two summers past
the fierce Minto fire
rolls over to show its pink belly

kjmunro

Whitehorse town.

Today I got to meet the Stanley Cup at the Scotiabank in Whitehorse. I was one of the first 500 people in line, so they took a professional picture of me with it and will e-mail it to me in a few days. I also met a really nice family in line and they took another picture of me with The Cup in the background. They were rushing everyone through so much and the line wasn't even that long. I think they expected the event to be busier than it actually was.


After that I just strolled around town and ran some errands. As we rarely come into the city, some of my coworkers wanted me to pick up special items for them. I also had a list of touristy things to see. I’ve been taking pictures of downtown Whitehorse architecture. It’s an interesting place because there are a lot of historical cabins and false-front buildings right in the middle of the city. They are all very well maintained and painted in really nice colours. I particularly enjoy this blue one and the purple log cabin below.



This little building's claim to fame is that it is the oldest operating building in the Yukon. It's the Klondike BBQ serving northern BBQ cuisine. I think it would be a great place to eat, but it isn't open right now. Hence, it is no longer the oldest operating building. There is something going on with its completely dug-up front lawn, so I'm guessing that it's under renovation.


Right next door to the Klondike is the Cupcakery. It's pretty cute and fabulous. I ordered these little guys for a treat. The front one is a blackforest cupcake with a cherry on top and the one in the back is a lemon cupcake with lemon curd centre and a blueberry and lemon zest on top. Yum.


There’s also this giant piece of copper. The sign says it is most likely the largest piece ever found in Canada. It took them 10 days to retrieve this piece and haul it back into town over two mountain passes, the Yukon River, and countless other dangerous obstacles. But, now they have a nice possibly-record setting Big Thing for one of their corners. This is right out front of the Yukon Museum, which is also not currently in operation. These people keep strict winter hours until May. Then the town really starts to open up. I'll have a couple days to see the things I couldn't see when I come back to head down south.


After my walk downtown I drove up the hill to the Canada Games Centre to the Environmental Fair. It was really neat and I talked to so many interesting people. Everyone wants me to come live here and work. I collected a lot of business cards. I want to work in Ontario, though. I suppose that's the problem for most people. While I was at the Fair, I ran into a woman I had met the previous night at the hostel. She works for the local Native Council and I mentioned that I couldn't get a ticket to the Wade Davis talk tonight because they were all booked up. She showed me the ticket booth for people picking up tickets. They had started a waiting list. They hadn't mentioned that to me the day before when I called, and for some reason they didn't want to add me today, but I was persistent. I had to come back at 2:00 pm to see if I could have a ticket. I came back at 2:00 pm and even though I was the second last person they had allowed on the list, I got one of the tickets! I'm really excited to go to the talk. One of the other girls at the hostel here is going with me. She is currently staying at the hostel and writing her Masters about people's connections to their places and land. And she knits. We have a lot in common, so it should be a fun night!


Tomorrow I'm going out to the Beringia Interpretive Centre and the local hot springs with one of the other women who is staying here. This has been a great day off so far!

Bucket Babies, Babies, Babies!

As usual, this week was a crazy one and flew by in record time. We had all sorts of nests to process, lovely weather, and now I’m starting my four day break in Whitehorse. You’ll probably hear from me again before the weekend is over. I’m staying at a hostel in town and the internet is free. Around here you still need to draw in the tourists with free offers, as opposed to charging for every little thing like they do downunder.

Dylan and I headed out to Agnes this week to collect the first set of babies. This is Dylan with all the squirrel tracking gear. This is sort of a dorky picture. (Dylan says and I agree). We trap the mother squirrels once we know the babies have been born. We put little collars on them that transmit a signal to our antennas. This type of tracking is called telemetry. I learned how to do this when I was working with the numbats in Australia. The closer you hold the antenna to the collared squirrel, the louder the beep becomes. Sometimes (a lot of the time) it’s tricky to hear the difference between the beeps. But, we always find the squirrel before we go home for dinner.


This day, Dylan loc’d (located…a little Squirreler lingo for you) to a big white spruce. No surprise there. There are only white spruce and very small willows on grid. We couldn’t really see a nest, but we did see this guy. Dylan thought it looked like a good nest, but it was really a porcupine with a cool mohawk. The squirrel we were looking for was in the next tree over in a grass nest in a witch’s broom. Dylan retrieved the babies and we processed them.


This is one of the littles who lived in the nest. Before they have fur, the baby squirrels are tiny, pink aliens, with eyes that don’t open. Somehow, however, they are so freakishly cute. While they are out of the nest they stay in tiny fleece bags that we keep in the front of our jackets. We don’t keep them out of their nests for long. I really like protecting them in the little bag and keeping them warm, though. There are 4 to 7 babies in each nest. You can pick them all up in one handful.



We determine the sex of each baby, weigh them, then snip a little notch in their tiny ear to sample the DNA. We will come back in 25 days to check on them and weigh them again. The first time we process the nest we use a system of ear notches so that we can identify the individuals. The first female has her left ear notched, the first male his left, the second female her right, then we continue on with double notches. Snipping the ear is really quite easy to do. Unfortunately, it hurts a little bit and the babies always cry. They also nuzzle into the crook of your thumb which is very cute.


The next day, Lindsey and I went to check on two nests. Both of the nests were in the buckets where we put the peanut butter. I’ve been hoping to see bucket babies the whole time I’ve been here! So this was very exciting. You can see the lowered bucket, all our nest kit gear, and Lindsey snipping a teensy tiny ear. After we raised the bucket up, we waited for the mother to come back and move the babies to a new nest. The mothers move their babies frequently, definitely every time the nest is disturbed and they carry them one at a time in their mouth. It’s really neat to watch them. They tuck all of the little arms and legs in and carry them pink side out. This mother took a while getting back into the bucket and we were worried that she couldn’t find them, but she made it back in.


Little babies back in the bucket nest.


On Thursday I had an even better baby surprise. We went out to find some Nest 2’s. At Nest 2, the babies are 25 days old and have fur. I hadn’t been on a successful Nest 2 outing and we weren’t that hopeful for these ones. Sometimes it’s very difficult to trap the mother and put a collar on, so we try to do behaviour locs to figure out which nest she is keeping the babies in. They have a whole series of nests on their midden, so this can be quite difficult to determine. This particular day, we didn’t even really have a nest loc at all (the squirrels are active during the early day, then they go to bed around 4:30 pm, so we come back for break then head back out with nest kits to process the babies). We just went to check things out. This squirrel had so many nests. We usually shake the trees and watch for the mothers to leave, but the PhD student that is visiting right now prefers the snowball attack method for getting squirrels out of nests. I don’t really like throwing snowballs at them, but I gently tossed a snowball at one nest and the mother popped right out. Then we found these little guys. And tagged their little ears. I picked the colours. This is G*/G*. He is cute.


Here is his cute little tail end. Their hind paws are so out of proportion at this point in their life.

I really hope I get to see more Nest 2 babies before I leave!
And a special bonus picture for all my twitcher friends out there ;)

A ruffed grouse I flushed out of the bush and managed to snap some pictures of. He's well camouflaged.