I print things, in case you wondered, which, come to think of it, you probably didn’t, but there it is anyway. I put ink on paper. I always hope the customer and I are on the same page before the ink is, because reprints are costly and waste time, ink, and paper. But where was…

And so begins the great, and unexpected, January thaw. Except I believe it’s actually ending. Or melting its last, at any rate. The last couple days have been much too warm for a northern January. Like +10°C warm. And that’s off the tail of some unrighteously cold days of -50°C, or thereabouts. Not only do…

Snow has finally cashed in its rain-cheque and arrived in town. Our world is gently dusted in the soft flakes of fresh, new snow — a real powdered sugar vibe, only much less sweet. It’s time for snow; we’ve had frozen weather for almost a month already, and when you live this far north, winter…

Fire Season in Alberta usually starts in spring when the weather warms and nothing has greened out yet. Dead, dry matter burns well. Who knew? Fire Season is typically over and out by the end of August. But not this year, in case you hadn’t caught that from previous posts. Fire Season is still ongoing…

Today is beautiful. Warm (26°C/79°F), with clear sunny skies, until you look to the west/southwest, that is. Then your eyes behold a beautiful big cloud front, which upon closer inspection you realize is actually a smoke front. That’s right—another post that talks about smoke and fire. But not dust and ash. Today a source-who-must-not-be-named mentioned…

Why does life sometimes speed up to such a frantic pace? If my life was a heart it’d likely need a pacemaker to even it out. The last few weeks Yellowknife has been allowing residents to slowly trickle back home. The essential people went first to get all the public services running and prepared for…

This morning was lovely. A great day to be alive, until, that is, I looked out the window and could barely see my backyard. I wondered first if the window was fogged up from showering, but it’s not winter so it shouldn’t be fogging from a small amount of warm, humid air. I looked out…

1:11am. I was rudely jolted awake in the midst of my peaceful slumbers by our dog, Bwenzi, barking and growling like fury in the backyard. I grabbed my superbright military grade fully anodized aluminum flashlight and shone it out to where I could see him. Something small and dark was zipping around and darting at…

We operate a bed and breakfast. Our house is mostly quite suitable for it. A few minor renovations are planned to make it even more suitable. Last Wednesday the city of Yellowknife, NWT, issued a mandatory evacuation for the residents. They wanted everyone out of the city by Friday afternoon. That’s ~23,000 humans, plus pets…

This summer has not lacked for excitement. The sheer amount of fires in our county and surrounding area have ensured that. Today our town announced that there would be a large increase in vehicle traffic coming through town as more of the Northwest Territories residents are being evacuated. Earlier this summer a large Indigenous Peoples…