Yukon Lifestyle

Living The Yukon Lifestyle is the Life! Pristine Wilderness at our back door, rich culture & history, the arts and a connection to community.

fish strew and ingredients

The Unexpected Joys of Fishing

I never thought that I would like fishing. In fact, as with many things our minds convince us of, I went through the better part of my life certain that I was very happy having nothing to do with piscine pursuits. I didn’t particularly like eating fish and I felt no need to try to catch one. And then I fell in love with a man who loves fishing.

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two black labs sitting

Puppy Mayhem, Puppy Love

About 18 months ago, my husband and I were having a peaceful morning coffee together, chatting about various household issues. Our then eight-year-old black Lab (Sula) was asleep on one end of the sofa—her preferred napping spot. Suddenly my husband said, “If I die before you and you are left on your own, would you like to have a dog for company? I know that I would.” When I said “Yes” (tentatively), he immediately embarked on a search to find a black Lab puppy whose life would overlap with Sula’s.

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A watermelon

The Durable (Water)Melon

The origin of watermelons date back as far as 5,000 years ago, in the deserts of South Africa. This melon had the ability to grow in drought-ridden conditions and to store water within the fruit; hence the name watermelon. It was a great food source for some ancient African tribes to have as they ventured across deserts. However, the taste was much more on the bitter side. Around 2000 BCE, the watermelon also made appearances in the burial chambers of ancient Egyptian royalty. In some of the hieroglyphics written on the walls of the burial chambers, the watermelon is depicted.

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A mother and child smiling into the camera

Toddler-Friendly Skies

The time had come. We had waited two years to be able to introduce our toddler to his extended family and now, at last, it was finally going to happen. However, in order to do that we first had to become the parents I have always looked at with a mix of trepidation and sympathy. We had to become FWAT parents. You know the ones: the “flying with a toddler” parents.

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A woman sitting on a bed of pine cones

Coming Back To The Yukon (Part 2)

“I cannot cross the river,” I told my friends as they were about to move on. (The truth was I didn’t want to cross the river.) We were a group of seven people hiking … two of us were staying behind on the beautiful sandy beach at Kusawa Lake, as the others went farther. I felt like sitting back and relaxing. My other friend was feeling the same. We are queens, we said. We don’t like to cross rivers.

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A plate with Spinach-Cheese Pies (Spanakotiropita), With Lamb’s Quarters Greens

Go Wild With Greens

There are few wild greens easier to enjoy than lamb’s quarters (Chenopodium album) also known as white goosefoot and, sometimes, pigweed. A member of the populous Amaranthaceae family, which includes amaranth, quinoa, beets and spinach, among thousands of other plants, the leaves can be eaten fresh or cooked and have a flavour somewhere between spinach and kale.

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Welcome to Vaucluse and to Olive Oil, Wine and Sun-kissed Hills in the South of France

Mont Ventoux (literally Mount Windy). Not quite as impressive as the peaks of Kluane National Park and Reserve, at 1,909 m (6,263 ft), it is the highest mountain of the region. The “Giant of Provence” is also well-known to be the iconic climb during the cycling race, Tour de France.

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She Shreds

Michelle Friesen is part of the next wave of amazing Yukon women aiming to make mountain biking accessible and inclusive. And she’s clearly happy to be leading the way.

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Dress Local

Audrey Levesque is the creator and maker of Made by Auds. She designs, cuts and sews her small garment collection from a room in a Gold rush-era hotel in Dawson City.

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Adaptive strategies

During this bizarre year of COVID constraints, home cooks have had to develop adaptive culinary behaviours to increase our success in the kitchen. Sometimes key ingredients for a recipe simply weren’t available, so we acquired new competencies. We became masters of substitution.

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Western New Mexico

From Mogollon Cliff Dwellers to Geronimo and Billy the Kid to this author, we have all made our mark on western New Mexico. Well, maybe I haven’t made a mark on western New Mexico. But western New Mexico has certainly left its mark on me. 

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What builds our youth?

January is Mentorship Month; a month to highlight the importance of engagement from our community to support and help develop our youth.
We need to see more positive engagement from the adults in our community, as well as an understanding of how we all impact our youth and, ultimately, their development.

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Gardening in the blood?

As leaves start to fall and I swaddle my garden in rows of spun plastic to protect it from night frosts, I am exploring my family connection to gardening. Perhaps it’s because I feel a little alone sometimes, a spur way out on the family tree with little connection to roots that lie in other countries and cultures.

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Earshot

A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest” One of the advantages of being both hard-of-hearing and slightly daffy is the

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Break it up!

The Special Olympics Yukon Team, who have since been working from home, continue to voluntarily create weekly virtual content to help keep athletes and the community engaged in fun and healthy ways. 

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Pho-fix

Making sure Yukoners can still get their pho-fix is not the only way Lan Tang, owner of Pho 5 Star Restaurant, is contributing during the pandemic.

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Gardening on the cheap

This series, The Radical Gardener, will look at ways in which working class people (or people who just want to save some scratch) can approach creating, caring for and maintaining a food garden —  something which, given the uncertainty of these times, seems like a pretty good idea.

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Japan must-sees

If you ever have the opportunity to get to Japan, I strongly encourage you to take it. It’s safe, easy to navigate and the accommodations were all so nice it has effectively ruined me for backpacking other countries.

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Vision quest

I started to develop cataracts. With all the other eye problems, surgery was the best option. I adjusted to enduring more decline in my eyesight until my spot in line came up, but thanks to a cancellation I got to have the surgery done in both eyes this past month. 

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Paddling in the Peel

In the early 1900s, when she was a teenager, Bobbi Rose Koe’s great-great-grandmother and her friend paddled a moose skin boat through the dangerous stretch of fast-flowing high water at Peel Canyon. More than 100 years later, Koe joined a group of five youth from First Nations in the Yukon and the Northwest Territories on an 18-day canoe trip. Along the way they passed through the treacherous Peel Canyon.

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Small world, eh?

It’s a small world, at least along one of its dimensions – the line between Canada and Spain. There I was in Spain a few months ago walking the Camino de Santiago, a 1200 year old pilgrimage route, and already I’d met an orthodontist from Ottawa and two retirees from Saskatoon who knew friends of mine.

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Here come the mushers

The Yukon Quest has been described as the hardest sled dog race in the world. Luckily the Yukon Quest organizers have created a series of events so the public c­an get involved with this iconic event without the risk of frostbite or sleep deprivation.

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Read the land

As long as I remember, I’ve travelled throughout the Mackenzie Delta and Beaufort Coast with my dad. We travelled all over during different seasons hunting or trapping different animals.

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The pinks are running

Whether you’re into fishing or not, now is a great time to pack up the car and head to Haines to check out the salmon run. At this time of year, the rivers around the small Alaskan town are spotted with a waders-clad population, all hoping to reel in something tasty.

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In the hunt

The average reader may be surprised to learn that disc golf tournaments even exist. Indeed, many people are still unfamiliar with the bastard cousin of traditional ball golf.

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Ink on ink

A tale of two tattoos Raven Mythology #4.5 “It’s not known which came first, the penny or the flag.”  Cam Brewster’s World Famous Tattoo Studio

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In pursuit of the perfect shot

The Porcupine Caribou Herd is thought to have the longest mammal migration on the planet. The image I wanted to capture is hard to describe, but while doing research on the caribou, I saw videos of them in winter, migrating in long lines of thousands. It reminded me of images of the Klondike Gold Rush a hundred years ago, where there was a line of 400 men following a trail straight up the mountain.

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Bridge too far

It began innocently enough. At a gathering shortly after I stopped working, I overheard a friend mentioning that another friend had said she was going to learn bridge in order to have something to do in the nursing home.

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Tai Chi? Why Not?

Many people I have spoken to about Tai Chi have the mistaken impression that it is tortuously slow or that one simply stands around holding weird poses for no apparent reason, or that there are no health benefits. Luckily, I did not have any of these misconceptions.

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Axes

Axes are very useful tools here in the north where campfires, bonfires and wood stoves are a big part of life. Everybody has at least one tucked away somewhere.

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Cuba Impressions

Passion – that’s the word that comes to mind when I reflect on my recent Cuban holiday in January. The passion of our tour guides throughout our travels. Their devotion to sharing their love of Cuba and how Cubans are working to build a more equitable country.

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Celebrating progress

March 8 is International Women’s Day. On this day we take the time to appreciate one another, mark the progress made, call for change, and celebrate the determination of community members to improve the lives of individuals who identify as women.

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Pilates and older adults

For us of the older generation, staying fit is essential, but so many exercises can be hard on our bodies. Pilates offers a great way to stay in shape without stressing your joints, improves balance and actually reduces the risk of injury while it helps you build muscle.

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What do you think?

ResearChats, devised by Northern Studies Instructor Amanda Graham and Chemistry Instructor Ernie Prokopchuk, are weekly opportunities for researchers from all disciplines to share ideas and learn from one another. They happen on Fridays from noon to 1 p.m., and everybody is invited to attend.

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Warrior fit

Fellow gym heroes, this an article for you – or for anyone who wants to take their fitness to the extreme level. 
I am going to go over a circuit obstacle course that’s easy to create, but will challenge you.

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Growth of a movement

It’s that time of year again when the Victoria Faulkner Women’s Centre and Les EssentiElles team up with a number of community groups to deliver a series events in our community that promise to encourage dialogue, to take action and increase awareness to end violence against women and girls.

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Jack ‘n Sack

This is part four of a four-part series. In part three, the writer had been invited to caddy for Jack Nicklaus for the second time in his life, via their mutual friend, Vancouver entrepreneur Caleb Chan.

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