Going Home?!

I. Can't. Believe. It.

It just sort of happened.

One day (after the machine Chase was working in broke for the bazillionth time), the boys mentioned that that part of his work was done. Couple that with the fact that a cold front was coming in which not only meant more wood (don't get him started!) for two families, but that it would rain for what seemed like an eternity.

Our original plan was to start heading home around the first of September. It's a long way back and we wanted to stop in Calgary a few days and visit with The Pitchers and Katie and Mike. Then we'd head back to California for Khol's wedding and then to Utah for Veronica's.
Little Man's ready to go!

After we saw the weather report, we knew we might be in trouble. When the rain comes, it doesn't let up and we'd need to make it out by a certain time to make it to the weddings. So imagine our surprise last Sunday when there was a break in the clouds and sunshine! It only lasted about a day and a half and we knew if we were going to get out, we'd have to do it fast (remember we're living in canvas wall tents. Rain means mold if you don't keep on top of it and if you leave it, say in a trailer for about a week; about the time it'd take us to get home, it'll ruin). We weren't about to let our canvas tents be ruined, so we (Chase and I) began to pack up.

It was bittersweet packing. I wondered what next year would bring. I wondered if we'd be able to pack it all in time. I wondered if, with the lake so low we'd actually be able to barge across.

By Monday evening we had everything except for the wall tents packed up (we took the cook tent to so when Dax and Jillian follow closely behind us, they won't have to pack so much in their truck). That meant no stove, no beds, no food. We figured we'd survive because we were barging.


Wrong! The water was too low so we went into town instead. We had one more "last meal" at our Mama Z's (thanks again Zora! We love you), filled up the gas tank and headed back to the dock to tuck in and sleep in the truck.

It's not as bad as it sounds. The back of the new truck folds down completely, and though it's advertised as "Queen sized", it's more cozy than that. We had blankets, our own temperature control and each other to keep warm. All we needed was a mattress (blow up or other) and we'd be sleeping at the 4 seasons (or at least comparable to a hotel in town).

The next day Chase went in to finish packing up the wall tents, moving the trailer and working on barging us across. It had started to rain again (of course) and I knew we wouldn't have much of a place to hang out back at camp. That meant another day of no naps for the little guy. I just couldn't take that again. I volunteered to hang out in the truck (again, controlling my own temperature, adequate space for the newly-crawling rug rat to move around in, and the clincher; satellite radio). I figured I'd be fine in there for 3 or 4 hours or so.


And I was fine for 3 or 4 hours. But, by hour 5 I had quickly ran out of crackers for the baby and I (luckily I had kept some more baby food jars in there for traveling) and water for myself. By hour 6 I was tired and hungry, but not enough to be upset. By hour 7 I was beginning to lose patience and got very unhappy when the satellite radio lost signal. Then, by hour 8 I was hungry enough to eat the dog and bored enough (I had my computer but no charger and of course with my luck, my battery had ran out early on in the morning) to go crazy. I truly never knew how much patience I had until I lost it.

Finally my knight in shinning honor came and rescued me and he and I, along with Andrew (Swenson) headed into town one more time for truly our "Last Meal" at Mama Z's.

It was hard for her to say goodbye to the baby one time, now we tortured her again by bringing him back the next day. She gave him some really yummy potato soup and us a large cinnamon roll for the trip. What good food and even better service! We'll miss you Zora.
After that, we headed back over to say our goodbyes (harder to do than I thought!) and I thought about all of the things I'll actually miss.

Things I won't miss:
THE DIRT.
Literally one day's amount of dirt to be swept.

The bugs (especially the ones who somehow make it into my food)
The heat
The cold
The quiet
Feeding the fire 5x a night
Paying for showers
Wearing flip flops in the paid for showers (you never know who's been there before!)
Staying light at all the wrong times of the night
The boys spending all day and so many hours cutting wood just to last one night

Things I will miss:

Raspberries

They're all over. The baby and I'd pick them on our way to the lake, by our tent, or when out for walks. So yummy! The strawberries are scrumptious too, but harder to find.

Mama Z's
Moose, bears, eagles
The quiet
The lake
Rides with Dad and The Boy
Spending time with Jillian and Phi
Experimenting with cooking
Our friend Bill
Boat rides on hot, sunny days
Late night boat rides
The scenery
The views
Game night with the Swensons
Church on Sunday
Pot luck with our families, the Swensons, and Bill

and of course,
The Swensons

All in all, it was a good three months.

Three months that felt like three years at times, but it was good for me and good for my family.

The best part is.....

We left a family of three and we'll be returning a family of 3....and 1/2.
Surprise!

Can't wait to get back in touch with everyone. Keep in mind while I was busy living my life in the bush, my cell phone contract ended so if you try to call, you may want to call my husband's cell or email first. That'll be the easiest way.

Thank you to all of my wonderful friends and family, whether back home or new ones in the Yukon, you made these last three months bearable and at times even fun. Your emails and comments and love has got me through many dark and cold days.

Love you all!
J'me

Happy Birthday to Me!

What a terrible- turned wonderful birthday!

It was strange, way out here in the wilderness. My husband treated me to lunch in town (thank you Mama Z for the yummy food!), a hot shower (also in town, $7 and worth every penny), and he even picked up ice cream ($12 for a small box) to go with the cobbler he made for that night.

When we got home from town, I went right to work making chili. It was such a cold day and earlier while getting in the boat I had done my best NOT to step in the water quickly seeping in through the hold in the boat. To no avail, we turned a corner and my foot slipped (sadly I was wearing my comfy tent slippers and not water friendly shoes). That meant for the rest of the cold, rainy day my one foot was completely wet and terribly cold.

That one little incident about threw me over the edge. I was cold, tired and now wet. I wanted to cry. I had almost forgotten that this dreaded day was also my birthday until I looked over at my husband (trying hard to make me laugh) now standing in our little fishing boat, with an oar in one hand and singing at the top of his lungs in his best Italian accent using our boat like a gondola and waking up the neighbors (or at least scaring the fish away) singing.

I enjoyed the trip in town, enjoyed making (and especially eating) the chili and to top it all off, Chase had invited the Swenson family and our friend Bill over to our tent that evening for cobbler and ice cream.

He made a large pan of strawberry, peach cobbler. It was all the fruit we had in the pantry and we ended up with not enough topping, but boy was it yummy when paired with cold ice cream!
The Swenson family (minus our Zina girl) came over to share in the festivities. How I love them! The entire family just lights up the room and are clever, bright and amusing.

The girls presented me with an award that I will not soon forget:
I laughed as I read the reference in the scriptures later that night and the reference to Sariah (Lehi's wife) while they were living in tents (sound familiar) and tarrying in the wilderness. When I came to the part where she complained to her husband (in my own words) saying, "You brought us here. You made us leave our home to live in a tent. This is your fault." I just laughed to myself.

Just as Sariah was, I too have been rebuked at times for my sour attitude about living in these unfavorable conditions and every once in a while it's good to be reminded of that.

They also drew a beautiful card (their family is creative and crafty) and gave me a superb jar of rhubarb and orange jam. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Swenson family!
Along with those goodies I also got a jar of pickles and olives from Jillian. Some of you may wonder about her intentions, but I'll tell you right now, that girl knows me well! Many times during the last three months Jillian and I have been stuck in the waiting game waiting for all sorts of things. It's funny that during many of those times we were starving and to our rescue came green olives. Plus, I haven't been feeling too good lately and sometimes the weirdest things sound good to me. Case in point- I once ate an entire jar of pickles (the good, cold, crunchy kind) in one sitting. Thank you Sis for the thoughtful gift. Trust me when I say, it will not go to waste!

What was also so great on my birthday was that while in town we dropped by one of the local gift shoppes to use the internet. What great fun it was to see so many people (many from Facebook) leaving birthday wishes. It almost made me cry! I was feeling so far from home and missing friends and family terribly when I saw over 100 messages in my inbox. People I haven't talked to in years taking the time to say happy birthday. I'm not very good at that. I don't get on facebook sometimes as much as I like and I admire those people who keep up with that stuff and send greetings and simple hellos. You will never know how much that meant to me!

Also while in town that day, I got to call my mom. How great it was to hear her voice! We've always been close and with the exception of my mission have talked on the phone many times a week. These last three months have been torture not to call her and tell her the funny thing the baby started doing or to bring him over and hang out. How grateful I am to live close to my mom and sister. Again, something I am so lucky to get to do.

I had a short conversation on my birthday with the baby. Since we returned from Calgary, his dad and I have been working tirelessly on crawling with him, now that we had (somewhat makeshift) floors. I told him I didn't need much on my birthday but that if he could start to crawl (at least before we head home) that would be a great gift to me!

Well, ta-duh! Guess what he decided to do the day after? It was really thanks to Chase. I was in the cook tent tending to dishes for the umpteenth time and I could hear the baby kind of grumping off and on. I guess Chase was not taking any rolling from him and every time he'd go to roll instead of crawl, Chase would place him back on his hands and knees. The good news is his persistence paid off!

Click here for the video of the baby crawling the day after my birthday.

He has also decided that with crawling, he should be standing too. He pulls himself up on everything he can find. Some things stable, and some not so stable (he's had a few minor falls but nothing serious). Once he finds a good, steady set of hands, he's up! I can't even put him in his kennel (pack and play) without him immediately standing up and wanting back out again.
Oh boy. Here we go.

I'm Bored

Sometimes the quiet gets to me.

Sometimes the birds and insects make so much noise I think I'll go insane.

About a week ago, Chase's computer charger broke. Days later his iPod stopped working. Sadly, we had procrastinated putting all of the movies and music onto my computer. I realized this as I now had literally NOTHING to listen to or watch.

Don't get me wrong. The quiet is nice for a few days. But day after day? I grew up in the wonderful world of technology and man am I going through withdraws!

So, here are a few things I like to do when I get bored sitting in a canvas tent all day, chasing a (rolling; not yet crawling) little Monster:

Rides with dad.
It's a mixed feeling when Chase isn't working. Usually something has gone wrong with the excavators and while they're getting the part fixed, Chase is around. I love having him around. We go on drives, play games, talk and laugh. But then a secret ugly thought creeps in to my mind and says, "This feels like a vacation. I'm not here for a vacation. It's hard enough being here when I know my husband is working hard and it'll all be worth it. It's even harder when he's not and I wonder if this is really what my ideal vacation would be."

It seems the only remedy for that is to do something fun, like go and visit the little forest around us, go hunting for moose (found them!), looking at the eagles or just visiting with the locals.


It's times like these that my ugly little voice gets silent and I once again feel like maybe it just could be a vacation.

When Chase is working and the quiet is too much, The Boy and I go on our picnic at the lake. There we watch the eagles fly, see all sorts of interesting bugs and eat our lunch with the fish. It's here that I can actually appreciate the piercing quiet and focus on what's most important...this handsome devil.


Even Chauncho gets bored and must be inventing new ways to entertain himself. I call this the "Planter Pup". He sits (sometimes lays) in our empty planter and just watches the time tick away.
My favorite past time though (and don't tell his dad), is to play with the baby's wild, unruly hair.

In just a few weeks this boy's hair has gone from straight with a little baby curl, to full on Gene Wilder 80's perm. It's worse when it's hot outside and the poor little guy is just all sweaty. He wakes up from naps and I can't help but laugh at his crazy, curly, unruly do.

Here are some of my favorite hairstyles on him:
The punk rocker. I originally tried a mohawk, but with all of those curls it turned out a little differently.
This is the Dwight K. Shrute (Did you know Dwight's middle name on the show is Kurt?). It's even better when he's playing in his excercauser and he' s learned how to spin in the seat real fast. For you office fans, you can appreciate the Dwight hairdo as he does the "Spin Move" real fast. All he needs now is wire rimmed glasses and a mustard yellow shirt.

Next is the Skater. Kind of a variation on the rocker. I was trying to do his hair like his favorite Skater Dude cousin Layton but again, his hair has a mind of it's own apparently.

Next, the Zac Effron. You know the style where the boys comb their hair forward? Well, his stays like that for about 2 seconds and then it curls right up again. This style won't be staying long for this poodle headed boy.

Burnning Fires

Today we made a trip into Watson to do laundry and take showers.

Our usual 3 hour trip turned into 8 and an overnight stay, due to the forest fire burning in that area.

We knew they were letting traffic through only a little at a time. The wait was about 45 minutes until the next pilot car came through. What we didn't expect though, was to also be stopped in the middle of the highway so that the firemen in the helicopter could land there.

The baby was a little scared, but once he saw that we were all ok, he began to like the chopper. Here it is landing on the road in front of the van in front of us.
It was so sad to see our beautiful green forest turn black and smoldering. It made me so sad. A sight that I hope to never have to see again.


When we got to Watson we had to take a small detour west to a little place called, "Nugget City". There we had lunch (the baby was adored by the waitress and staff. So much so that our cute little waitress/owner made him a little baby napkin rose),
Played with the birds,


and found an even better place to do laundry and take showers. Before heading back to town, we were informed that they had to close the road to do a controlled burn and would not be opening it again until 9 the next morning.

Kind of a bummer, but a blessing in disguise. Hot showers, laundry done, AND a comfortable bed? Oh darn.

Salmon Fishing- Part Deux

Last time I posted something about Chase and his adventures with Hyrum salmon fishing.

Here are Hyrum's photos and video of their experience.

Yes, the bears are real. Yes, they were a little miffed that the boys were encroaching on their salmon teritory, and yes, they're lucky to be alive. Crazy boys.

It sure was worth it though, we have eaten a lot of yummy salmon, and we're not even done yet!






Click here for a video of the boys chasing off the Mama bear and her cubs

A Day in the Life of Dredging

Many of you have asked for pictures of the boys dredging.

Though I would love to oblige, my camera is not an underwater camera. I did, however, get some good shots the other day when the baby and I dropped Chase off at the dredge site. You can kind of get the gist of it.
Getting ear plugs in.
The view
The dredge
Suiting up

Who is that guy? He looks familiar.
Dad swimming to the dredge
Getting air
Little Man watching
Googles on
In the water. The black blob in the back is Dax underwater already dredging.
Bye Dad!

The boys hard at work