f4tty-blog

Soooooo been a while eh?

My bad..

Well, I’m back up in Churchill, but its summer at the moment, something quite different to my last experience here.

Ive been back for almost 4 months and after living in a tiny semi-hotel room for a while I’m finally settled in Tundra Block.

Tundra block? I hear you say..

Well, most of the living up here is in Manitoba Housing, Manitoba being the province, Housing being where you live. It’s meant to be housing for people that can’t afford to live elsewhere, however up here it’s general housing for anyone as there aren’t many options. There are a few blocks (Tundra, Seal, Fox, Nanook, Caribou etc) each with a lot of rooms, shared laundry facilities but otherwise self contained. We pay $540 a month incl everything, and that’s max rent as it changes with your income. We earn enough to pay the maximum amount, so that makes that easy.

I’m back working with the dogs, and the Polar Bears are back in town. And by in town, I really mean IN TOWN. It’s back to walking about carefully at night, and with a shotgun when out of the town limits. Already there have been multiple encounters in town with Polar Bears and I woke up a few mornings ago to the sound of gunfire out my window. Six explosions at a time as the cracker shells were going off, so they were obviously trying to scare a bear out of town. By the way, seeing Polar Bears surrounded by grass and flowers is an odd sight.. but little did I know that it’s also their natural environment as much as the Ice is.

I’ve also planted a vege garden, which is on our Patio. I never knew it was so bloody easy to grow things or I’d have been doing it long before now. I’ve got Tomatoes, Peas, Lettuces, Carrots and various herbs all sitting in planters growing suprisinglly well, probably due to the fact that for most of the summer it doesn’t get dark, so there is a lot of sunlight.

And THAT is CRAZY.

I don’t think it’s something I could get used to, but I love it. It’s getting dark earlier now, but for a while the sun never fully went down. You’d maybe get a dusk period, but that was about it. Sunrises and sunsets were almost the same thing and you could go out any time of day.. I love it.

Also, I’ve invested in a couple of identical Trikes.. 1985 Honda 125m ATC’s..so much fun! I bought the two of them for $1100CAN and have spent a bit of time doing them up, had to rebuild both carburetors, replace bearings all around but now they’re both in pretty good condition. Quads/trikes are the way to get around over the summer, and snow mobiles during winter, although I’m anticipating riding these until a leave anyway, if I can get them started in the -30’s.

On another note, I got bitten by a dog about two weeks ago. So I have a hole in the back of my leg which has packing inside it to keep the wound open while it heals. It’s not a huge wound, but it’s pretty deep, and they don’t stitch dog bites but instead keep the hole open so it heals from the bottom up, otherwise the top would heal over and you would be at risk from infection, bacteria etc on the inside. So everyday I go back to the hospital and they pull out packing, clean it all out with a syringe and shove a bunch more inside.. quite an odd and painful feeling.

I’ll randomly add a bunch of photos at the bottom of this and you can try and put the photos to the story. Quickly though, the one of me on the Trike with the sun over the bay was taken on Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year. It was amazing down there, the sun is coming up over the Ice Bergs breaking apart in the bay.. strange being warm enough to sit out there looking at Ice Bergs.

One more thing, during the summer the Beluga Whales come through, and they are an amazing sight. You can sit down by the river (basically in town) and watch as thousands of them migrate through. They are a brilliant white in colour some days the bay s covered with the backs of whales as they break the surface. Truly magic..

Also, the snow geese are coming back through (it’s hunting season in 6 days and goose is my favourite bird..) the foxes are out, the Canada geese and their young are getting their feathers and will soon be in there air, the Whales are almost through and the Polar Bears are just arriving. I’ve never seen seasons change like up here, from +30 in the summer to -60 and colder in the winter, what an incredible little place.

Christmas, ahh.

Between my birthday and christmas not a lot happened. I perhaps had death threats, almost got kicked out of town, and was punched in the face by an overweight native woman. But other than that it was pretty uneventful.

And anyway, that’s a story for another time.

Christmas I left town for a few weeks and headed back out east to Ontario to catch up with Gill and her family. I flew from here to Thompson, spend a night in an old folks home, then drove down from there to Winnipeg with Penny, Betty and her husband in Pennys truck. With no brakes. That’s 8 hours on snow and ice with no brakes, as one of the rear brake hoses had been severed in transit and there were no replacement hoses anywhere in Thompson.

Once in Winnipeg I booked into the HI again, caught up with Erika for the night, then the next morning flew out east to Toronto where Gill picked me up at the airport, eventually. Wrong terminals, almost dead cellphone.. etc

She has a car now, it’s pretty sweet. So the two of us drove up to Orillia, just her, me and the christmas toad.

We spent a couple of days at her grand parents house with them before the rest of the family arrived, made a golf course on the lake (just 4 holes, was pretty sweet though..) went on a few walks, generally goofed around. It was beautiful there, some amazing snowfalls.. huge flakes of snow all caught together on the way down, and everything was so white.

I chopped a pile of wood for the cabin and we stayed out there with the wood stove keeping us warm. There wasn’t much room in the house with everyone there.

Christmas was awesome, I brought down an Arctic Char and two geese, so we cooked up the Char the night before Christmas and had Rick come down for dinner. Christmas eve the Night Before Christmas was read out by Gill, and christmas morning we had a HUGE amount of presents to open. My Mum had sent some over from NZ as well.

Turkey that night, and the next, then I cooked up the two geese the night after that. Sooo much food.

It was a pretty awesome first white Christmas, I was happy. Nice and chilled out, played some games, drank a bit, and was just generally nice to hang out with everyone again.

After Christmas I left back for Winnipeg on the 28th, booked back into the HI and cauight up with Kim, Yvonne and Erika eventually.

Winnipeg was alright, a lot of shopping and drinking, pool with a random Tag along Yvonne had, who turned out to be from Nunavut and supposedly was a millionaire. Yo.

New years we went down to the forks to watch the fireworks, then after getting turned away from the bar because Yvonne had lost her I.D. (which later turned up in Kims pocket, drunken thief) we ended up in the Pool hall for the countdown. Not the most exciting of New Years, but it was ok.

We spent a few nights at Kims mums house as well, all of us dead broke at this stage so couldn’t really afford to do much but eat and drink at home.

I also had my first Ukranian Christmas, which from memory is on the 5th of January, don’t ask me why. More food..

Kim left a few days before us, so we went back to the Hostel and eventually caught the train back to Churchill, me, Yvonne and Erika.

The train was as uneventful as ever, met an Australian chick on there, Johanna, who was heading up to Churchill for a few days. She came out with me and Brian for some of it to see the dogs and things.

Back up here things are getting back to normal as much as possible. There has been a lot of drama lately, most of it my fault and related to the things up top of this post, and I think it’s maybe sorting itself out now. Heh. Ahh well. It’s all about the experience eh?

Since being back I’ve slotted back into work, Brian has been out of town the last 5 days so I’ve been in charge. It’s been nice having the truck and staying in a proper house for a bit. We had a big blizzard come through though, temperatures dropped to below -50 and we lost a couple of puppies due to sickness. After the storm blew over me and Chris had to shovel our way into Mile 5 to get to the dogs, but now everyone is taken care of and happy and warm, the puppies are all restrawed and housed and all the dogs are as healthy as ever.

Unfortunately the truck has been dying on me though, the battery is dead due to the cold, even though it’s been plugged in every night (yes we plug our vehicles in).

Talking about dying a man died in here the other day as well (The Arctic Trading Co). He collapsed outside and was brought in here to get out of the cold while the ambulance came. He didn’t make it. He was apparently here with his wife, 80 years old, had a bad heart and wanted to see the north before he died.

Well, he did.. and it killed him. But at least he got here and it’s a pretty cool place to die if you are just going to fall over and be done with it.

So, now I’m waiting on a call about another truck and then heading out to feed some puppies. Brian is back tomorrow and I will lost my wheels, but not to worry, it’s not like this place is very big anyway.

As always there are photos to be put up, but since I have no camera of my own anymore I’m at the mercy of other people giving me their photos.

Peace out, I’m sure there is a lot I haven’t put up on here that I’ll remember later and write, when I get the chance. It’s not neccesarily that I’m slack, it’s just the polar bears keep eating the wires. Or maybe its the wolves.. I’m not sure.

Or something.

I worked all yesterday, then last night we all (Me, Chris, Erica, Kim, Yvonne, Karlene, Daric, Jesse, Trent, Kyle) took off to Daric’s parents cabin out at Spruce Ridge.

We took three trucks and a skidoo out, Yvonne almost crashed into a pole with a mean slide after telling us how much of an awesome driver she is.. smooth.

You can only drive so far to the cabin then you have to skidoo the rest of the way in. We had a sled as well, tied to the back of the skidoo with people and supplies in it. It took maybe 4 trips to get everyone, all the gear, alcohol and pallets for the bonfire to the cabin.

The cabins pretty sweet, basic inside like a cabin should be. Once the fire was going for a while the heat cranked up and it was nice and warm inside. Outside it was -35, so we built the bonfire up by the outside couch (pretty much just a pile of snow with a couch hidden under it somewhere).

Pretty good night all up, played some guitar with Jesse, drank, cooked marshmallows, sausages and damper on the fire. The lights came out a couple of times, and it was a pretty clear quiet night. Nice to just sit around outside by the fire in the cold. Had the wickedest roman candle fight ever, it ws like being in a war zone. Everyone had them, and we kinda split into two groups. Some people had the big 70 shot ones that fired out like machineguns, and we were all running in amongst the trees, hiding down banks and behind shit lying around outside. It was awesome, these things flying right past your head, or in some peoples case hitting them in the head, coming in from all directions.. That went on for ages.

I got some cool presents, goggles for snow mobiling, sea monkeys, fireworks..

Eventually we crashed out about 0600 and the alarms started going off at 0700 to get everyone up.. most of us had to work this morning and we weren’t sure the trucks were going to start.

Luckily, two of them did and now we’re all back, eaten pancakes with Reeces pieces for breakfast and now I’m just waiting for Brian to turn up. I think I’ll probably pass out for a bit though.

I’ll put some photos up when I get them off people.

Last night was fun..

George asked us if we wanted to run his dogs for the first time this season. How can you say no to that?

Because there were so many of us we needed to borrow a truck, and of course we managed to get the worse truck for the job. One truck (the borrowed one with Me, Cheryl, Chris and Yvonne) was to head out to georges cabin and pick up the snow mobile, while George went and got his dogs, then we were to meet him for the run.

Simple enough.. however the truck couldn’t even back out of the driveway by the apartment. Which is flat.

Gutless as hell..

We can’t see anything out the window as it’s all iced up _inside_, but Cheryl navigates us out there slowly. We get to the cabin and need to back down the driveway to get close enough to the skidoo that we can pick it up and put it on, however this was never going to work well.. the truck gets stuck backing DOWN the driveway.

So there we are, out at Goose Creek, no one else around, stuck truck and no communication. We try for the better part of an hour to get it out, jumping over the back wheels, digging the snow out, laying planks and branches.. nothings working. We want to put the skidoo on the back to get more weight over the wheels (it’s only a 2wd) but can’t get the skidoo started and its too heavy to carry all the way up the driveway. It’s fucking cold outside (-38ish) but finally we see headlights and George has turned up sick of waiting for us.

He gets the skidoo started (it ended up needing a pile of things done to it to get it going that we had no idea about) and we get it on the back, finally get the truck out and get on our way.

The trail we were using runs along the edge of the road, the idea is to run the dogs in one direction, someone drives up in the truck to the other end of the trail to help turn the dogs around and someone else drives them back, etc etc.

First up is Yvonne and Cheryl, Yvonne as passenger Cheryl driving. The dogs get harnessed up, Yvonne gets strapped in, the rope gets released, Cheryl takes her foot off the brake and they’re off! Well.. for a bit at least. We jump in the truck and take off after them. It’s dark out, probably 9.30 by this stage and they are just a shadow against the snow. Maybe a third of the way down the trail the dogs bunch up and they stop. George pulls the truck over and runs out to help them out, and once they are on their way jumps back in and we take off again. There is a lurch as the truck goes, and nobody thinks anything of it..

At the other end of the trail we stop and wait. It’s quiet, just the truck idling. I’m looking into the darkness to try and find the dogs.. finally out of the night the leaders come running, followed by the rest of the dogs and finally the sled with Yvonne half lying half sitting in it, and Cheryl on the back putting her foot down on the brake.

It’s at this stage I turn and notice the truck.. or more importantly the lack of a snow mobile on the back of it. The lurch.. when we took off it threw the Snow mobile off the back of the truck and it must be lying somewhere in the darkness back down the road!

Flying snow mobile..

Anyway, we turn the dogs around, Kim jumps on the sled and I stand on the back. First time on a sled, straight to the drivers position. Stoked..

“Go!” George yells. I take my foot off the brake and the dogs, already straining against the sled, start to move, then pull harder. The sled jerks off and we’re going, leaving the truck and George, Yvonne and Cheryl behind us.

It’s beautiful out.. it’s cold, crisp. the starlight is bouncing off the snow, and the only noises I can hear is my own breathing, the dogs feet on the snow and the sled sliding along behind them. The lights are faintly out, and I can’t stop grinning. Ear to ear. This is the best night before my birthday I’ve ever had.

Me and Kim talk a bit along the way, but I enjoyed the silence, or near enough silence, to conversation. Eventually the truck passes us and I’ve got a feeling of being out there alone. The dogs pull, silent now, no yapping and barking.. just doing their job, and I balance on the back, shifting weight when I need too to stop us moving around too much.

What do I want for my birthday? A dog team and sled.. I squint my eyes and imagine that there are polar bears all around us, and who knows, there may have been one out there somewhere. I’m imagining what it would have been like when this was the only way to get around, and I fucking love it.

Eventually the trip is over, too fast, and after helping turn the sled around for Chris to have a go I jump in the other truck and have a shot of hot chocolate and peppermint schnapps.

About 40 minutes later we are packing the dogs up and heading back into down, another adventure over.

It’s been a hectic few weeks. I’ve been working all day and most nights at the restaurant as well, and also been working when I get back home for my job back in NZ, so I’ve had very little time to write anything.

Every day is something different here. Sometimes it’s relaxed and laid back with just the odd encounter with a rushing bear, other days it’s full on from as soon as you get out to Mile 5.

A few days ago we had a bus go out on the ice where the dogs are after being told it would be fine. Heh.. well it was for a bit anyway. The bus was loaded up with 24 tourists and the driver, and after me and Brian watched it go out on the lake we did rounds with the dogs to check on them then ended up at the gate facing the opposite direction to where the bus is, then passed out for an hours rest in the truck. (Which generally adds an adventure all of its own as we quite often wake up to find we are surrounded by bears, that is if they aren’t already climbing into the back of the truck to get at the 800 pounds of meat blocks we have in there.. it happens all the time. Windows down, shotgun and cracker shells out the window to scare them off before they start demolishing things.)

Anyway, we wake up to a loud knock on the window, and Tom the bus driver is standing outside with his 303 having just walked a kilometer across ice through 7 - 10 bears to get help. fucking crazy bastard… the bears were everywhere. What had happened was the back wheels had gone through the ice so the bus was stuck, with 24 tourists out on the lake surrounded by polar bears.

We dropped Tom back off at the bus then drove into town to get help.

By the time we got back, the bus had sunk a little more and the bears were moving around. Me and Wally went out there with another bus to try and pull it out, I was there to guard them while they worked.

We moved all the tourists off one bus to the next, broke 3 tow lines trying to get it out then Wally went back into town to get the loader and Tom went to get a chainsaw to start chopping the ice around the back tyres.

It took us all up around 4 hours to get the bus out, we had at least 6 big male bears stalking around and a bunch of smaller ones (smaller being around 800 - 1000 pounds.. so not THAT small) us the whole time and it was getting dark making them almost impossible to see against the ice and snow in the background, but finally with a little luck we got it out and it was still drivable.

So, that was fun.. we also had a girl come from out West (shes actually Swiss though) Batina, she’s been here before and came to visit Brian and Penny and people here, but also work with the dogs again.

Thats Brian, Batina and one of the Dogs.

She stayed for about 4 days, it was nice having someone coming out with the two of us for a few days.

Now there are so many bears around where we are, we have to be so careful even getting out of the truck. There is a chain link gate at the top of the land to keep people out, but now the bears all hang around there. So even getting onto the land can be a trick.

That is literally right next to the gate, the bear is climbing over the stone wall Brian built right next to our truck. So its sometimes a mad dash to the lock and back to the truck again while the bears watch. I was watching them spar the other day, it’s amazing how quick they are.

Anyway, I’ll try and get some proper sized photos up on the gallery soon, I have to go and chop some more food for the dogs.

That is a polar bear.. in front of a shipwreck. Thats one of the first things I saw in this place.

I arrived here by train (you can ONLY get here by train, plane or boat) after 46 hours and a discussion with some locals on the train about the guy I was going to be working with in which I was told he was a bit crazy. We pulled up and I see a guy standing outside with a leather headband on, crazy white hair, overalls, butcher type gloves and gumboots. That must be my man.

A bit about Churchill.

Churchill is a tiny town, under 1000 people live here. Its often dubbed the “End of the civilized world.” It’s the end of the line, you can only go further by boat or plane again I believe. It’s right on Hudson Bay, which is huge, and freezes during winter, which is why the polar bears are here. They come to Churchill to wait for the bay to freeze so they can cross it.

The town is made up of a lot of blocks of housing, standalone houses, a couple of bars and restaurants, and a major town complex. The complex houses a gym, pool, the school, hospital, movie theatre etc. When the town loses power, which happens during winter with the big ice storms cutting it off from the rest of the world, phone, power etc, everyone goes to the complex where they have backup generators as heating will stop in the houses and screw being in you house in without heating in -40.

Now about the bears and dogs. I got here, was met by Brian off the train and thrown straight into the deep end. I’m here to help him look after his Canadian Eskimo Dogs. These dogs are amazing.. Probably the toughest domestic animal you could have, and I’m not kidding. These things share a lot of physical attributes with the wolves here, high ridged head, oversized jaw muscles etc. Each dog can pull 1000 pounds of weight on sleigh. Where the Huskies are used for speed on sleds, these guys are used to actually survive. The huskies need to be fed every night after pulling a sled, need rest and water etc. The Canadian Eskimo Dogs will pull you day after day after day with no food, little rest, and still have all of their strength. They are arch enemies of polar bears and will bring them down in packs. But, they are also beautiful.

So anyway, I was straight off the train and out to the dogs. We have dogs in three different places, and the most remote is where the bears are. This area, 5 mile, is way out of town. We have 70ish dogs there.

The relationships between the dogs and bears is quite complex. At the moment we have 1 resident polar bear out there with the dogs, Brian assures me there will be another 4 or so soon once the snow really starts to come and the temperature drops to a steady -10 and less. Most of the dogs are tied up, but there are 4 or 5 down there that act as patrol dogs. Now, these dogs aren’t like your dogs at home. They are pack animals and these aren’t exactly domesticated, they are near extinction and Brian is breeding them to stay as true as possible to what they really are. So the patrol dogs have territories they look after and will make sure all the dogs are ok, but their main purpose is to keep the bears out. I get there on my first day, straight off the train, and am feeding these dogs hunks of meat with a polar bear less than 50m away, (the one in that photo). this thing is huge too, 1200+ pounds, 12ft at least when standing up. They can run faster than a man, and their diet consists of meat.. I’ve heard stories here of people being eaten in town, in fact Brian watched one person get eaten through the scope of his rifle while trying to get a shot off. That was at the restaurant across the street. So we have to be careful here in town, you have to check the streets when you go outside and make sure there are no bears. Only a few nights ago we were having some drinks in the restaurant after closing and someone yelled out “Bear!” And sure enough a bear was charging around the corner outside, we all ran to the windows and watched him scream past the restaurant and down the road followed by the Bear patrol (their job is to get the bears out of town). At the time two of the restaurant staff were out on the back porch having a smoke, it was going for them when one of them screamed and the truck came around the corner making it change direction. Needless to say they were pretty freaked out..

It’s quite hard to explain what it’s like here, but it really is cut off from the world. This place is so beautiful, I’m waiting for a clear night to see the Northern Lights. My day consists of working in -10 weather, soon to be down to -40, outside with 150 of these amazing dogs, surrounded by polar bears. (Later on when more bears turn up we have to be extremely careful, you can’t see them and they sneak as well). It’s just the two of us and it’s not like some fenced off farm or anything, we’re in the Bears territory, not ours.

Right, that’s quick update, I have to go.. I’ll try and get back on here again soon.

It’s Indie Rock week in Toronto at the moment and the hostel has been having bands come in and play.

Two nights ago was the opening, and to be honest, the whole thing can be summed up with one photo.

I’m only putting a thumbnail on, you can click for a bigger one..

That was pretty much the highlight of that night, however last night was way better music wise. We had an awesome Ska band come in, definitely my favorite so far. Although the photo doesn’t show it, it was pretty packed in there.

So, I got the job I was waiting to hear about… Next week I head to Churchill, Manitoba, Population 923. I’ll be working on a husky farm. I.e. helping out raising/training 150+ ( apparently) Husky Sled dogs. It’s in the middle of Polar Bear country, so this time of year there are wild polar bears wandering around everywhere, so I’ll be being taught how to deal with Polar Bears etc as well. I’m looking at being there for a couple of months at this stage and see how it goes. The weather up there gets down to -40 or lower Brian (the guy that runs the farm) told me today, so I’ve just gone out and bought some Arctic military gear and a new warm coat. If ever there was a true Canadian experience I think this will be it..

Oh, I got a new hat too.

I’m trying to book to leave on Wednesday so I can still play here at the Hostel Tuesday night.. apparently Cat is having some well connected people coming so it would be a shame to miss out (she’s going for a Sony deal at the moment).

Last night was the Pirates party.. and although not too many people actually bothered to dress up it was still fun. We had a little table going with about 8 of us, a couple of guitars, a shaker and a lot of people thinking they can sing or play the drums. Haha, was a good night.

Cat, a scot who is here, played a few of her originals last night. She’s got a wicked voice and is trying to get a deal with Sony here at the moment. The manager here came over and asked if we wanted to be booked in to play on Tuesdays at the bar too which is cool.

Right, stuff I missed out on the last post.. Mine and Gills amazing fort wars we had on the beach on Wolfe Island, her natives took it out though..

Me and some of the hostel crew went to the Toronto Islands as well, which were pretty cool. Not a hell of a lot to do there but walk around, but it’s pretty beautiful, and we found these -

The little yellow tag on that said “WARNING - This post is securing the island to the lake floor. Removing or loosening of fastener will dislodge the island.”

Classic. They were all around the edge on one side.

Anyway, it’s breakfast time, so I’m out of here.

Ok ok.. so I’ve been a slack bastard, it’s true.

This is my 4th week in Canada I think, time has a tendency to melt away and if you were to ask me what day it was I doubt I could tell you.

At the moment I’m in a backpackers, Global Village Backpackers to be precise, in Toronto. I’ve been here for just over a week now, but first, let me backtrack.

I got to Canada about 3 and a half weeks ago, arrived in Toronto after taking 35+ hours travel due to delayed flights, delayed flights, then cancelled flights etc. So a lot of sitting around at airports. I slept most of the way, so was pretty ok once I arrived here anyway.

Gill picked me up from the airport and we drove back to Kingston after a slight detour into the wilderness (the scenic route supposedly). Heh, good way to see a bit of the countryside anyway.

Once in Kingston, we unloaded my gear at her apartment in town, I had a shower etc, got some food, then eventually she had to go to work over on the island.

Anyway, I stayed in Kingston for about 2 weeks, in that time I got to see a lot of the place (I was walking at least 4 or 5 hours everyday around the town). Kingston is a very historic little town, and even after all that time I still haven’t done everything I could have there. I went on bus tours, stopped in at historic places all over town, explored every park I could find by foot either night or day.

I spent most of my time in Kingston going out by myself, or hanging out with Megan, SteveO and Amanda (Gills sister) along with the house pet Monster Truck the Rabbit. I found a pub down the road from the apartment that had live music a lot so was there most of the time.

I also managed to get some diving in, me and Gill went out on a couple of shore dives on an old wreck now covered in silt and zebra mussels. It was nice being in the water again, and the first time I’ve dived freshwater. The second of those dives was a lot of fun, as actually diving the wreck again wouldn’t have been that interesting, so we spent the second dive singing, dancing, having tyre races, finding lost treasure and generally goofing off underwater. A lot of fun.

We also went out and dived the Wolfe Island II, an old ferry that was used to go between the mainland and Wolfe Island. It was purpose sunk for diving and has accumulated a variety of extras on board over the years, like a motorbike that mysteriously appeared in the deck (it’s an odd feeling sitting on a motorbike 18m underwater), various gnomes hidden around the ship and bowling balls somewhere I didn’t manage to find, that you can play with on deck. Some photos of the wreck here - http://www.pbase.com/kiml/wolfe (Not mine..)

We also did a bit of sailing, I hired a Laser for a day and took Gill out on the lake, she’d never sailed anything like that before so we had a lot of fun. We went all around the place and after a few hours decided to find a beach to head to to warm up for a bit.. unfortunately whilst heading inland we capsized, then after righting her capsized again, and although it was a lot of fun and laughs after getting her underway again found that 3 of the rivets holding the boom on had popped out and it was looking pretty dodgy, so we called it a day and headed back. It wasn’t until later on when I got a phone call from the dude that owned the boat that I found out that we’d somewhere also broken the mount the mast slides into. Luckily I came up with a solution for him to fix it without costing much and we came to the conclusion that it was just wear and tear, so no money out of my pocket.

I ducked across the border for a day into the states by ferry and stayed at this amazing lodge just out of Cape Vincent. I arrived at the dock in america, cleared customs and went straight to the bar there. After a few beers and a quick chat to the barmaid, she offered me her bike out back which I thought was pretty awesome of her, and I went for a good ride around town. Which isn’t really saying much. Cape Vincent is pretty small, but it’s a really relaxed place, I went down to check out a small aquarium they have with all the fish of the lake, then had to bike 6km’s with my bag and guitar out to the lodge I was staying at, which is an old Lighthouse. The lighthouse is now automated, and the old keepers buildings have been converted into accommodation. I just spent a night there, a great place. The hostel is more like a bach than anything else. There were 6 of us there that night and we spent the whole night just talking about all sorts from Metal Working ( a couple there own a metal shop ) to politics, travelling, commercial diving, all sorts.. it was a really random bunch of people.

Anyway, eventually I left Kingston and headed to Toronto where I am now. I don’t really like this place that much. I mean, I’ve met a lot of great people here and had a lot of fun, but at the end of the day it’s just a city with too many people rushing around the streets in suits, too many beggers and a lot of smog.

The backpackers is great, it’s the only one in Toronto with a bar built in, so most nights end up downstairs on the patio playing the guitar a drinking. Tonight is actually a pirate party I’m meant to be playing at later.

This weekend just gone was Thanksgiving, and I went up to Orillia to spend it with Gill and her family. It was an awesome weekend of eating, sleeping, fishing, canoing, baseball (which out team won!) swimming, gambling, waterfights (me in the canoe totally outnumbered against Allie, Gill, Sam and Abby in the paddleboat.. I ended up getting boarded by the scurvy pirates and tipped over.)

I’m really glad I got to spend a thanksgiving with a family like that, was the best thanksgiving experience I could have asked for. Don and Elinor (Gills grandparents) own the cottage there right on the lake (and I mean RIGHT on the lake) and they put on an amazing feast, both mornings and nights, amazing people.

Now I’m waiting to hear about a possible job a little way North West of here in Manitoba, but I’ll wait to hear before I tell you all about it, but suffice to say it involves 150+ husky dogs, -40 temperatures and polar bears..

Well there’s more to tell but it will have to wait, $10 pitchers tonight and I feel the pirate call from downstairs so I must be off to start drinkin’ and pillagin’!

Peace out.