The ExploreNorth BlogThe ExploreNorth BlogThe writer is a resident of Canada's Yukon Territory with a passion for Exploring the North. This blog is one of the vehicles used to share that passion through words and images. 
Articles
Adding Life to Your World - Just Add Birdseed
2008-01-16 05:38:00 Feeding birds through the winter was one of the things I loved about the cabin. On a particularly cold day I’d have several dozen birds feeding at once, on a platform feeder and on the ground. As hard as I tried, I was never able to attract more than the occasional bird to the Granger ... More About: Life , Nature , Photos , World
Technology to Keep Teens Safe
2008-01-16 04:24:00 There are lots of methods of using technology to keep kids safe, from very visible monitors of various kinds to the “secret” ones such as software that lets you find out what your kid (or spouse) is doing online. GPS fleet tracking has been around for a few years now, and that technology is now being ... More About: Technology , Teens , Commerce , Safe
Grow Your Skyline - Just Add Water
2008-01-12 18:10:00 Some of you may be like me - when you’re downtown you’re focussed on projects and probably miss the details around you (hopefully not details like red lights or icy roads, but some people in Whitehorse are missing even those really important details lately). One of the details I’d missed the past couple of weeks ... More About: Sports , Travel , Photos , Water , Commerce
Frost Causing Power Outages??
2008-01-11 20:05:00 I’ve heard that hoar frost on power lines can cause power outages, but never paid much attention to whether or not it’s true. Since we moved to Mary Lake, though, we get split-second outages at least once a day, so this morning it was time to check out what could be an Urban Legend (Rural ... More About: Power , Nature , Photos , Commerce , Arctic
Property Maintenance - the Fun and the Not-So-Much
2008-01-11 03:58:00 With 4 properties to manage now, there’s always something to do - if I had a “real job” we’d be in trouble. This morning I was up to Carcross to clean the snow off the cabin roof for the first time this winter. While local snow enthusiasts might be bummed about having little snow, you’ll ... More About: Property , Commerce , Maintenance , Pert , Rope
Snow Decor
2008-01-09 15:59:00 I love vintage posters, and was surfing this morning to see what’s out there. The answer, not surprsingly, is “almost anything you can imagine”. One shop in particular was fun - I found these 2 posters at Mountain Chalet. Okay, the boarding one isn’t vintage, but it would still look great on my wall. More About: Sports , Snow , Commerce , Decor
Bandit Boarders
2008-01-05 16:08:00 A corporate/social power struggle has just reached a unique zenith in the States. It could be called a battle between conservatives and radicals, and it’s led by Burton, makers of a line of snowboards and related equipment, including the Vapor seen to the right, called by many the best snowboard in the world ... More About: Sports , Commerce
Getting Warm and Looking Good
2008-01-04 18:39:00 This time of year, a lot of you no doubt spend a fair bit of time the way I do - thinking about ways to stay warm, indoors and out. Not only do I want to stay warm in the house, I want to have heat that won’t bankrupt me, and adding a warm ambience to a ... More About: Commerce , Good
Garage Planning Continues
2008-01-04 17:41:00 The garage in our city house that I showed you a few weeks ago is mostly empty now, allowing lots of room to bring a car in (what a concept - putting a car in a garage!). It has a wooden floor, though (apparently because it was intended to be a workshop, not a car ... More About: Garage , Planning
The Wolves Have Arrived
2008-01-04 14:07:00 Here I sit at the computer at 04:15 a.m., after laying in bed stewing about wolves for the past hour or so. A dozen or so domestic dogs have been killed by wolves within a few miles of here the past couple of winters, and wolves came by last night while Kayla and Monty were in the ... More About: Nature , Wolves
The Current ?Active? Bookshelf
2008-01-04 02:49:00 I’m slowly getting things organized in the new house. There’s still a lot to do, but my office and library are pretty much set up so I’m fully functional. Beside my desk are a couple of glass shelves for books that I use regularly or am working on in some form. These shelves currently hold: Flying ... More About: Current , Active , Bookshelf
From B&W to Technicolor - a Winter Drive
2008-01-03 02:16:00 This morning started out cold and colourless - very much a black-and-white world - and I expected few or no photo ops on my trip to Carcross and back. As you’ll see below, though, the camera did come out of the bag. The first shot was taken just north of Emerald Lake at 11:40 a.m., ... More About: Nature , Travel , Photos , Winter , Drive
To Skagway - for Scenery and Shopping
2007-12-29 16:36:00 On Boxing Day, Cathy and I went out looking for deals in Whitehorse. The only deal we found was at Staples, where you could get Norton Antivirus for $10 - there was an unstated catch that you could only buy 1, though, so I didn’t even get that deal as it turned out. How’s a ... More About: Shopping , Travel , Photos , Scenery , Commerce
Christmas Dinner at the Zoo
2007-12-26 16:13:00 We had a wonderful Christmas Day - a superb brunch with Sharon, Laura and Randy and then dinner at our place with Steve and Rachel. We had a huge turkey dinner and the fur-kids (4 dogs and 3 cats) were great - very patient even when Rachel starting handing out the turkey tidbits! More About: Photos , Dinner
Merry Christmas From the Yukon
2007-12-25 17:14:00 It’s just before 8:00, over 2 hours until sunrise, but there’s just the teeniest bit of light in the sky from the almost-full moon that’s partly hidden by clouds. There isn’t a sound here - it’s as peaceful as it is beautiful. It doesn’t really feel like Christmas Day for us - I suppose that with ... More About: Merry Christmas , Yukon , Merry
Travel Articles - Try a Little Harder to Get it Right!
2007-12-21 18:42:00 It really bugs me to find travel articles that have either serious or many errors. The newly-posted article “Taking the Long Road: Exploring Alaska’s Scenic Highways” by Jamie Ehrlich (at http://www.frommers.com/articles/4847.htm l ) is full of errors - not serious ones but ones that could easily have been avoided. Here’s the list I compiled in a few minutes: - “Alaska’s ... More About: Travel , Articles
Embracing the Light
2007-12-21 17:46:00 Despite having little daylight, I find that I still do a fair bit of photography this time of year because of the quality of the light we do get, and I don’t go anywhere without my camera gear (even into Whitehorse to do some shopping). Going to the cabin on Wednesday, the moon was irresistible, ... More About: Nature , Photos , Light
The Shortest Day
2007-12-21 16:42:00 Today is “hump day” in the seasonal sense - the day when we get the least sunlight of the year. Winter Solstice, the exact time when Whitehorse is leaning farthest away from the sun, occurs at 10:08 tonight. The sun will rise above the horizon today (and tomorrow because of the late-hour Solstice) at 10:09, ... More About: Nature
The Sanctuary
2007-12-21 00:37:00 The move is complete. Well, most of it is - I still have a lot of books and files to bring down from the cabin, and it’ll take a few weeks to get everything organized once it does all arrive. Despite the chaos, and the challenges of moving just before Christmas in temperatures of around ...
?Skiing? Next Summer
2007-12-20 23:17:00 While mushers and skiers are busy praying for more snow, I’m spending my energy wishing it away. I used to really enjoy downhill skiing, but one outing to Mount Sima a bunch of years ago convinced me that the only people who can enjoy downhill skiing on Yukon snow are those who have never experienced BC ... More About: Sports , Summer , Skiing
Alaskan Clydesdale
2007-12-19 01:14:00 You might enjoy this email I received this morning: Only in Alaska……. This guy raised an abandoned moose calf with his horses, and believe it or not, he has trained it for lumber removal and other hauling tasks. Given the 2,000 pounds of robust muscle, and the splayed, grippy hooves, he claims it is the best ... More About: Nature , Photos , Dale
The Hazards of Rotating Ads
2007-12-07 18:13:00 On the Anchorage Daily News site this morning, I pulled up the very sad story of 24-year old Stephen Cavanaugh, who survived 300 missions in Iraq and then was killed back home when his Camaro hit a cow moose. At the top of the page, the banner ad was promoting the newspaper’s 2008 moose calendar! If it wasn’t just a random hit in the ad rotation, that might be the worst example of poor-taste advertising I’ve ever seen (click on the image below to see a screen shot of the page I saw). Â Â More About: Rotating
The Murphy?s Laws of Moving
2007-12-01 15:12:00 The image below shows the “14 Day Trend” for Whitehorse at The Weather Network as of this morning. We’re moving tomorrow and Monday, when the high temperatures are forecast to be -21 and -24 respectively. Brrrrrr! What a wimp, eh? More About: Laws , Moving , Murphy
You Can Take the Boy Out of the Country - For a While?.
2007-11-29 18:21:00 How much of who you are is defined by the space you occupy - by your office, your home, your community? How much of the character of those spaces can you define or at least influence? No doubt there are infinite variations in what occurs. The cycle that develops, though, can range from terminally destructive ... More About: Travel , Country , Commerce
The Best Black Friday Shopping Deal
2007-11-23 14:34:00 We’re moving in 10 days so I’m not really into buying anything more, but MY there are some good deals out there today!! The best I’ve seen so far is at Buy.com - they’ll pay you $15.01 to take a Sirius Stratus Satellite Radio Receiver and Car Kit away (after a $50 mail-in rebate). ... More About: Shopping , Black , Friday , Commerce , Deal
Customer Service - Are You Getting It?
2007-11-22 18:21:00 CBC Radio had a spot this morning that leads in interesting directions. CBC recently conducted a survey and tests of telephone call centres to determine the good, the bad and the ugly in the world of phone-based customer service. The results are interesting, and I agree with the results for the few on the list ... More About: Photos , Customer Service , Service , Customer , Commerce
A Heart-Warming Husky Story
2007-11-21 02:27:00 What can you do when one of your working huskies goes blind? Certainly she can’t continue to pull tourists across the tundra around Churchill, Manitoba. Or can she?? When husky cross Isobel went blind 3 years ago, some of Jenafor Ollander’s friends said that she might as well shoot her. Jenafor kept her as a ... More About: Story , Heart , Armin
Northern Housing - No Recession Here!
2007-11-20 19:23:00 The housing situation in the Yukon seldom makes it into the national spotlight, but perhaps it should. While we’re now in the slow season due to the simple fact that few people want to either build or move in the winter, it’s still a hot market, with contractors, sellers and landlords all doing very well. ... More About: Politics , Housing , Commerce , Northern , Recession
Canada Needs the Death Penalty
2007-11-14 20:43:00 Many of you saw this scene on your television screen last night - the funeral of another murdered Mountie. We are far past the time when Canadians have to stand up and say in a concrete way that this cannot happen again. Bringing back the death penalty is that way. If a young cop can get ... More About: Politics , Canada , Death , Death penalty , Arctic
The Simple Pleasures and Home-Based Business
More articles from this author:2007-11-14 01:46:00 Working from home isn’t without its challenges - from uneven cash flow to the occasional difficulty of staying focused. But on days like today when I can add kitten-sittin’ to my Web site duties, “there’s no place like home”. Molly spent much of the afternoon curled up beside my monitor More About: Business , Home Based Business , Home , Commerce , Simple 1, 2, 3, 4 |
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