Category: Uncategorized

October 18-19th, 2018

Still no snow! (At least none that is staying yet!) This weekend I travelled the 2 1/2 hours east toward Prince George to attend the provincial Home Economics conference. I passed the CN engine at Fort Fraser, the semi trucks and wood piles at Vanderhoof, to Mr PG marking Prince George. The draw for this conference was the connection tying tactile projects and food preparation with Aboriginal influence and customs. I was curious how similar/different the FN customs and crafts were here in mid northern BC to my experiences with coastal FN customs.

The key note speaker was articulate and his ideas were thought provoking. I took workshops which were practical and able to transfer immediately to my current positions in a Burns Lake. I missed my Sd85 and fellow BC teacher-librarian colleagues. I only knew 1 person at this provincial conference… but it was an interesting day at the biggest high school in Prince George!

October 14th 2018

Curious about the South Side and Grassy Plains, I decided to head out on an exploration adventure. Recent forest fires around the Lakes District were devastating and Grassy Plains school opened a few days late this year. The school district even contemplated having the students and staff come to one of the schools I work at to commence the school year. But luckily, the fires were able to be safely contained and are now mostly extinguished. It was time to go and see the scene for myself.  After driving to the Francois Lake Ferry terminal, I was lucky enough to have a short wait. The ferry crosses every 50 minutes and is FREE! Although the name is Francois Lake, locals tend to call it Frances Lake.

Once you arrive in South side you drive straight up the hill and soon find yourself surrounded by pasture and farm land. There is a strong Mennonite presence here including a school, a cafe, and churches. As I entered Grassy Plains I was in awe at the beauty. Across from the Grassy Plains public school was rolling hills, cattle, a beautiful little lake, and snow capped mountains in the distance!  (Tweedsmuir Park). It is so peaceful and rural here.

I stopped several times to admire the views and take photos. I followed the road past Grassy Plains ending up at Takysie Lake. There are recreational camping areas here overlooking lovely Takysie Lake.

I had seen some evidence of the fires to this point, but was quite shocked as I approached Takysie Lake Resort. The owners of this “resort” would not evacuate and the fire devastated the property across the street and even burned through their fence and sign! The owners stayed and said they fed the fire fighters every day and only slept from midnight until 4:00 a.m. most of the summer. The cabins, camping spots, cafe, store, and gas pumps all are still standing while much of the woods and land around them was lost to fires. I took some photos of the pink popular trees on the edge of the lake. The trees were covered with pink fire retardant.

I walked around the Takysie Lake “resort” then went inside to explore the unique store and have lunch at the cafe (with many of the locals). The owners and locals were super friendly and chatted with me.  It turns out the previous night was a community heroes gala in Burns Lake. The owners won an award and the husband attended but the wife stayed at the resort to cook dinner! This is a wonderful area to explore…The people are so friendly and you can definitely step back from the chaos of urban or hectic life. I will definitely be back!

October 13th, 2018

Yes. It’s Saturday! SD91 Nechako Lakes district is invested in Literacy Intervention using Joyful Literacy Interventions program created by Dr. Janet Mort. I chose to become involved as part of the Literacy team for both William Konkin Elem. and Decker Elementary schools. I participated with the WKE team for the day’s events as I actually teach there 60% of my time and 40% at Decker. It was a foggy morning as we car pooled to Fraser Lake. Usual sites included the lengthy CN trains and ATV’s in trucks. (It is hunting season up here!). This school district encompasses a vast physical area and Fraser Lake is kind of a central location.

FYI: SD91 Superintendent is from Fort St. James. (I met Manu at the Inservice). Our Assistant Superintendent is from Burns Lake (I was hired by Mike). Our Director of Instruction is also from Fort St. James. (I met Claire today too). The school board office is at Vanderhoof. Many of the other S.B.O. personnel live and work out of Vanderhoof. There is a second location (SBO at Burns Lake).  Sd91 includes: Fort St. James, Vanderhoof, Fort Fraser, Fraser Lake, Burns Lake, Francois Lake, Grassy Plains, Decker Lake, and Gran Isle. This was my first experience at Fraser Lake high school. My principal drove me around the village after the conference and showed me the favorite sites here–including: the Mexican cafe, and Mouse Mountain school. Bucket list–To climb Mouse Mountain! I’m expecting it should take about 1/2 hour? Mouse Mountain is located behind the elementary school in the lower right photo! There are so many beautiful lakes and areas to explore here!

October 9th, 2018

My dear friend and colleague Kathleen MacArthur was an innovative and enthusiastic art teacher, yoga instructor, house renovator, and fiery individual with a zest for life and optimistic attitude. In spite of her shocking diagnosis of bone cancer, Kathleen fought and continued to be optimistic. Although her house was in Port McNeill and her chemo was in Campbell River and Nanaimo,  we were texting regularly… Her last text to me was on Sept. 25th “We are hopeful and OK”. I attended a workshop led by Kathleen several years ago about Zentangle patterns. She loved them! I told her I had the grade 5–7 students at both schools creating zentangle patterns on paint stir sticks to be used as shelf markers in the Library/Learning Commons areas. They made zentangle designs on the front of the sticks and wrote a positive message on the back.  I sent her photos in progress, but unfortunately….Kathleen’s cancer beat her and we lost her on October 9th. 🙁 My world slowed down for awhile. We completed the very popular shelf markers and they are used daily at both schools.

In my mind….These are dedicated to my dear friend Kathleen. With love always.

Early October

This was a tough week as Mark and I passed our 10 years together anniversary in separate locations. Our hearts are united, but our locations aren’t at the moment! Soon… It was also my first Thanksgiving that I can ever recall, without any family around . My brother was busy hunting with his girlfriend. My son is in Thailand. Mom and Mark were together in Port Hardy. (Which I was very happy about!) My nieces and nephews live way over in Ontario!

It was rather emotional for me I must admit. 🙁  But I was very thankful to be invited to join my host family in their celebration. I also learned that in this neck of the woods it is fairly common not to celebrate Thanksgiving with turkey etc. as it’s hunting season and many people focus on that! So…May we all be thankful for family and acceptance of diversity and new experiences.

I also added some photos of cool autumn art at school and beautiful flowers I received to brighten my week!

September 30th

What a treat! Several of our students in grades 5–7 at both Elementary schools are involved in highland dancing, or taking violin, fiddle, or string lessons. One young lass is in all of the above and her family also teaches various string instrument lessons and performs together! Such creative talents and opportunities here. Hmmmm…I wonder if I should try violin? Maybe cello? Double bass does look fun…

I attended the Burns Lake East Coast Kitchen Party event–as did most of Burns Lake! It was fun, funny, dynamic, diverse, musical, and so up beat! I didn’t realize there were so many Newfies and East coast transplants here too. It felt like I was back in Port Hardy! Lots of young children (and some moms) danced up front as the lively bands performed. There were jokes, skits, and constant entertainment! I took lots of video…but unfortunately this blog platform doesn’t support video 🙁   Well done, Lakes District!

I also added a few photos of Mr. P.G. whom I see each time I leave Prince George and head towards Vanderhoof. The bottom right photo is at Fraser Lake. This was the site of the forest fire tent city most of the summer. It’s so nice to see it back to a field now! The middle photo is me waiting in my vehicle as one of the many, many trains pass by downtown Burns Lake!

September 28th–30th

The colours are so gorgeous around here! There is a mixture of conifers and deciduous trees and the landscape is rich with colour. The weather is also quite glorious… most days are sunny. Sure the temperatures vary between -8 and 12 degrees…But the chilly winds and dampness from the coast aren’t present here. It’s quite stunning and many colleagues enjoy recreational time outdoors. Some are kayaking the endless lakes. Some are mountain biking. Some are fishing. Some are hiking. Some are riding horses. Some are hunting. I enjoy walking and taking photos to share on my blog! 😉🤔

The other big event of this week was orange T-Shirt day. There is a new picture book from Strong Nations which explains the story of orange T-shirt day. The purpose of this day is to remind us about the injustices of government forced removal of aboriginal children to attend Residential schools prior to the late 1970’s.

All lessons were about this topic this week. There were so many questions, opinions, thoughts, visions, and discussions by our amazing young children.

September 24th and 25th 2018

Besides the traffic coming from the main street–semis, logging trucks, etc. and the train that passes by every hour or so, it’s pretty darn quiet in our side of town. 🙂 So we were quiet shocked when we received a phone call asking what was happening across the street. Hmmm? It was an interesting episode of the Voice and we didn’t hear anything. However,  when we opened the curtains… Oh my! It seemed most of the emergency vehicles from Burns Lake were across the street! In the end everybody departed…We still don’t know what happened, but I learned there are lots of emergency vehicles here!

The next day at WKE school we participated in Orca Live. I had been teaching students about coastal Vancouver Island and showing video clips of Orcas at rubbing beaches. We had 3 classes of students in the Learning Commons interacting with this live broadcast.  I can’t show front views of students, but you can see lots of participation!

I even received a message from a colleague at my previous school E.V.E.S. in Port Hardy during the event who saw my tweet on twitter as we were all asking questions. Hello Jill. I miss you!

Late September 2018

When a colleague phoned and asked if I would like to go hiking on a sunny day I jumped at the opportunity! So… I had my second experience at gorgeous Kager Lake.  It’s less than 10 minutes toward Boer Mountain Road from town. As we arrived we met a group of mountain bikers about to start their rides on the many trails in the area. I recognized one of the IT guys in our school district and another fellow teacher. I’m starting to feel more settled and part of this community now.

The day was perfect and we even saw evidence of beaver activity in one area. Thanks Wendy!

Late September

Well….It’s getting close to snow time so the outdoor activities will change then, but we are definitely returning up here next June or so with our kayaks to explore the many, many, many beautiful lakes in this area. Mark enjoyed the biking trails. I prefer to explore more of the hiking/walking trails around here.

After the photos of the banners, you will see my blue Jetta waiting to get its winter tires on. Yes. Before Oct. 1st! They were running late because a loaded logging truck was before me! It’s hunting season around here right now. It’s very common to see people in trucks with ATV’s or Quads in the back dressed in their camouflage clothing sometimes putting their rifles in/out of their trucks!  Even several teachers on our staffs are keen hunters and head out as often as possible. Most are young females!

The photos of the massive semis and trucks passing through the 20 km zone area are taken as I walk along our main street of downtown! Yes. The highway is our main street! We walk beside semis, loaded logging trucks, excavators, recreational vehicles, enormous blades and equipment for mines, etc. The traffic is non stop and quite entertaining. However, you have to be on your toes when you cross the road. Today I was quite shocked when a semi actually stopped on the main road to let me cross! That really caught me off guard!

Then there is the CN train which runs at least every hour….sometimes more often. During the night it is especially loud and feels like a phenomenally lengthy earthquake! It is amazing how much is transported by train across our vast land. If you happen to be driving towards the community park/curling rink area or towards Francois Lake/Southside and you arrive during a train crossing time, be prepared to sit and wait for 10 minutes or more as those trains are long! Behind the post office/fire hall area in the evenings there are multiple empty logging trucks which park along the train line area.

Did you notice the fire danger rating? After extensive and frightening forest fires up here for most of the summer, we have now dropped to a low rating. Who would believe it?