Embracing abundance and challenge

At the moment I'm up about 50 miles south of Yellowknife on the edge of Great Slave Lake. I came here for 6 weeks to cook for a diamond exploration camp. For many years I'd struggled financially as a singer and as a seasonal carriage driver in Stanley Park and although the music and horses are still my first love, when the chance to do this came up, I jumped at it.

I do that with adventurous things though. I jumped at the chance to go to Taiwan and play bluegrass music in '98 and jumped at the chance to learn to drive a team of Clydesdales. Everything we choose to do - good, bad or in between is a lesson in the making - a challenge to be embraced and  integrated.

I'm excited about the possibilities this affords me. Have to admit that living in the wilderness - the only woman for 50 miles around has had its ups and downs. Rising at 4:30 AM to get the breakfast done by 6, Baking bread, cakes, cookies, making massive vats of  homemade soup, cooking many roast beasts... Dealing with the joys of outdoor privies and funky lake water to shower in, frozen pipes, cooking with propane on a stove that you just guess at for temperatures - and being surrounded by a LOT of testosterone. Massive young men who operate really big machines, blow up things and get really really grubby. The air is blue with the four letter words, they're just a teensy bit rough around the edges. You can only get them to eat veg if there's cheese sauce with em.. not so great for salads. But hey they'll eat Caesar any day of the week... gotta have that cheese.  I get a kick out of them. It's a bit like having a couple of dozen of my son coming in and out all day and some of them have taken to calling me Mom. 

There is a real sense of creative satisfaction when they come through the door of the kitchen and their faces light up and there is a huge sigh of ecstasy when they see that table laden with all sorts of good stuff to eat... lasagna, spaghetti, big meat pies, roasts of turkey, lamb, beef, pork - huge hams - tonight Norwegian Meatballs and Sweet and sour Meatballs and I set four loaves of bread to rise too.

Wrestling the dragon in the  stove is a bit of a challenge, dealing with a wood stove in the cabin and alternately freezing and roasting.. there seems to be no middle ground. Do I really want to get up and walk to the biffy in the middle of he night when it's 10 to 15 degrees below zero? So yes I really have to go and then the Northern Lights dance me all the way there and back. They say if the generator was off I would hear them dancing -  sort of crackling  like ice fire. 

There is a bear in  the area. His tracks were seen by the driller's shack. They are trying to bait it - got that macho thing going - wanna shoot something.  A scrawny ragtag bear half asleep doesn't seem  like a fair challenge. I spend the morning sending woo loo loo messages to the bear and creating a 'go 'way' energy field around the area..."Go far away. There's danger here. I know it smells good and you're hungry but death waits for you. Go. Go." I don't know if he hears. I hope so.  His presence seems farther away by afternoon. 

I tell the men he won't be coming round because I asked him to stay away. They look at me as though I've sprouted horns.  *grin* If nothing else maybe their energy will change. It's all about choice really. The bear will choose whether he goes for easy food, we will choose whether we challenge him or simply encourage him not to be here... I'm pouring bleach into the sump so the food smell is changed to something he won't like. But the thing is - he isn't in our territory. We're in his. I very much hope we can have a situation of mutual respect and avoidance rather than challenge and warfare.  Hmmm... maybe that energy would be good outside the North too!

I wish I had the dogs here. They would warn him away too. Next time I come up I will bring them They will love it.  

Archie comes by from time to time. He is a Denae tribesman who takes care of the iceroad - 75 years old, brown and weathered and silent - til he starts telling stories. I always try to feed him but he was icebound one time for 40 days and he don't eat much now. He tells Hank (the crew boss) that I'm a good woman. "She don't talk too much." he says. I am inordinately pleased for some reason. If Archie thinks I'm a good woman then I must be alright.

 One day Archie comes by and I've made buttermilk biscuits. His eyes light up. "Dom bannocks" he asks. "Could I have summa those?" I  send him home with a  bagful  of them and make them every day now in case he comes by. And he is inordinately pleased! 

The ice is nearly done now. It will candle any day now. it's black in the sun and the ice road is almost impassable. Even though the temp dips below zero every night, it's warm in the day, the dawn is pearling at 4:30AM and the sun doesn't go down til 9 at night.

This is the north. Stark, knife edged, exquisitely harsh but beautiful in its emptiness. I love it here. I will come back.

I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. I arrived on the 18th of March and all of a sudden am counting the last few days before I return home. It's just flown. And the bear notwithstanding...it's been simply wonderful