Melinda & Timothy Brown

2011-12-26T12:01:00.000-08:00

one last bit of leftovers...at midnite.

boom! killshot!

you wascawwy wabbit!

charliebrown made brownies like little mushrooms

brownies are done, waiting for cookies

both kids got nintendo DSxi's for xmas

2011-11-03T19:26:00.000-07:00

i tried to rotate the pics but stoopid cumpooter won't do it make hulk annngggryy!! any hoo couple of pics i was gonna do the whole big dealio but i think i'll just wait til the missus sorts out the pics.

2011-10-06T19:44:00.000-07:00

my friend Matt Bromley died in the crash the other day. Matt's day actually started in my office that day(he flew the sched flight in to simpson the night before), and we were talking about all the accidents that have happened lately, the weather, the usual stuff. he was a good kid.

2011-10-04T18:41:00.000-07:00

Air tindi lost a plane today outside of Lutsle Ke. thats on great slave lake east of yellowknife. as you may recall it's one of the places I travel to for work. Two people died in the crash today. I don't know if one of them is the pilot or not yet. But I'm sure I knew someone on board.

2011-09-23T20:42:00.000-07:00

A couple of bad days for northern aviation. Yesterday an Arctic Sunwest charters twin otter crashed in yellowknife, killing both pilots aboard. I knew the gal flying right seat. this morning at about 9:00 local a cessna 206 departed fort simpson headed to a remote hunting camp up the root river(they land on a gravel bar in the river) about an hour later the Joint Rescue Co-ordinating Center in trenton phoned me looking for info on a possible downed aircraft in the mountains west of simpson and south of Wrigley. even though this crash was waaay off in the boonies, it might as well have been right at my airport. Wrigley airport was closed, so I was busy all day dealing with it and in this case there was good news as the pilot was rescued and only suffered minor injuries. frickin' stressful though. when I took my training they told me in school that you go a whole career and never have to deal with a crash-kinda like a cop who goes a whole career and never draws his gun. today was my sixth crash. I'm exhausted.

2011-07-12T18:57:00.000-07:00

it's a bird! it's a plane! it's not superman that's a local fella with his death machine. I don't think that's the name they market them under, but just the same...it's a snowmobile motor hooked to a propellor that you wear on your back hmmm

2011-07-08T19:26:00.000-07:00

went fishing with the family the other day-charlie brown got her first catch of the year. coleman did too but his was on a hookless lure, so eventually the fish got away. miranda caught a nice pickeral but it was post-spawn mangy so she released it. one more time the empire strikes back! frickin' jackfish lunged at me and got my arm. it's actually a picture of a poster, not an actual flightdeck, and the poster is a print of a painting, but it still made a nice shot.

2011-07-04T20:21:00.000-07:00

coleman just couldn't stay awake another second! too funny.

yeah cathy, I see the ice pilots on a fairly regular basis, the cameras weren't there in fort good hope. (we can tell when the plane is on final approach if the camera crews are aboard-with binocs you can see the little camera mounted high on the tail) I should say that those guys are pretty much the same on camera and off and pretty decent folks to boot.

2011-07-02T08:08:00.000-07:00

always a frickin' bear...every airport has a bear...how cliche'. that's in YVQ, it's a small griz.

what else we got- view from the tower in YVQ this is a kick ass all digital touch screen futuristic bunch of coolness, way different than my museum of aviation. buffalo airways on the ramp in YGH- doing the run-up the big DC4 was generating some nice little dust devils.

I have to say when I'm flying over the mountains in a Twin Otter on my way to a remote little place, and i'm looking out at the mountains going by, river in the distance it's like wow man and I'm getting paid for this shit! if life is a game-no more calls-we have a winner!

2011-06-26T20:24:00.000-07:00

well on my way again tomorrow- i'm off to CYGH for a week. never been there before(those of you who watch ice pilots will remember them from the show where the only store and post office burned down at christmas) but i digress. mike, i can't say anything about that bcuz i'm not sure about the statute of limitations on that. but lets just say that everytime i tell that story people laugh their ass off. I still got some pics from our trip(it was actually four days and just over 500km byGPS) i'll put them up when i get back. when we left the big river boat launch in fort prov it was like seven friday night. miranda asked me when i would be back and i told her monday about 4 o clock. we didn't have a watch and no real plan other than roughly where we were gonna camp each night. even so, i hit the boat launch at 4:06 monday afternoon. the boys were amazed at my accurate estimated time of arrival.
frank you are correct sir that is indeed the domulus chromulus if my latin is correct.

2011-06-21T15:52:00.000-07:00

a little over one pound of hamburger in this bad boy!

after a couple days camping, a bath was needed-brrrr!

the boat all un-loaded at second camp

serial killer carl with his largest victim(the fish was released)

second camp

that's a 28 inch cooler, so not too bad

mesieus Lee and Enfield made a damn fine .303

first night camp

well, I'm back from my annual trip. It was awesome! it ranked right up there with one of my trips with steven. Derek and serial killer Carl from work came with me. We had miranda drive us over to fort Providence

and drop us off and came back to simpson in my boat. about 300km by boat in four days. we fished every river and creek between here and fort prov. we caught lots of fish got hammered and had a great time. maybe i can right off the cost on my taxes, call it professional developement and team building!

2011-05-23T18:45:00.001-07:00

I'm batching it for a week because miranda is off to the east coast for a early chilhood educators conference. the ice pilots were in last week and i think i'm going to be on again next season(might be a speaking role this time) I had a chance to get to know devon brooks a little bit this time they were in, he's a nice guy but i get the impression he'd rather not be on tv. the pics are pretty much what ya see...

2011-05-06T20:10:00.000-07:00

the pics are pretty much what ya see is what ya get. busy time at work, the ice should be breaking anytime now. once again it's heli-milk for a month. happy birthday to sis, hope you have a great day. I'm starting to get my summer brain in gear and think about some trips.

anyhoo that's all for now charles wants some pizza

2011-04-12T19:56:00.000-07:00

yeah, i tried that but for some reason it turns them back sideways when i publish.

2011-04-10T14:34:00.000-07:00

just as video killed the radio star, facebook with it's up to the minute(every minute) updates, almost makes blogging seem like yesterdays news. like frank, I just finished getting my bike ready for the summer. Of course an hour after i finished we had an ice pellet shower with 25 knot wind (i went for a ride anyways). the sideways pic is miranda doing first bbq of the season about 2 weeks ago. she had to shovel the bbq out of about 3 feet of snow first. all for now but more stuff soon; as the weather is warming up.

2011-03-04T19:26:00.000-08:00

here we have a rare picture of the brown family(they are almost never seen in the wild) just as they emerge from hibernation, and prepare to venture outside for recreation.

mom gathers some building materials

coleman looks like a baby seal, floppin' around

me cutting a piece

mom and coleman check it out

back to hibernating

2011-02-09T14:38:00.000-08:00

these guys are pretty cool they are on You Tube- search, "one night in october one guitar". I don't usually prattle on about stuff on the internet but these guys are cool as it gets. catchiest tune I've heard maybe ever.

you are correct sir!

2011-01-31T11:16:00.000-08:00

technically, though, i think we are dormant as opposed to hibernating.

finally warming up

2011-01-16T19:36:00.001-08:00

well, useing the expression pretty loosely I guess. it got up to -27 for about an hour today but other than that it's been -38 to minus -44. We had a wind chill of -51 the other morning. So pretty much hibernating til the alcohol rises in the little glass tube(mercury freezes at -39c)
Anyhoo, got to go plug in the truck. I have to drive to Wrigley tomorrow, woo hoo! just a day trip, maybe I'll shoot some chickens on the way. Shoot a chicken and it's frozen before it hits the ground!

merry christmas!

2010-12-25T22:40:00.000-08:00

hope everyone had a great christmas, we had an awesome day, and an even better supper mmmmturkey. The pics are all self explanatory. We didn't have harley or beckers here with us this year and so it was a little strange, but a lot quieter. we were worried about coleman claiming all the toys but he was pretty good about letting his sister have her toys and even let her play with his too.

Steven of the burnt legs is home from the army, but i haven't had a chance to see him much yet. Miranda went to Yk for some shopping, and decided to get the truck serviced while she was there. the service guy found three dead mice in the air filter. The guy was a wuss and Miranda had to shame him and tipped him 20 bucks for getting them out, i guess they all had a good laugh too. anyhoo merry christmas everyone, one more trip to the fridge and then off to bed.

Hi from lutsel'ke via iPod touch little keyboard big pain

2010-11-20T17:29:00.000-08:00

2010-11-17T20:51:00.000-08:00

well I am hitting the road...hitting the sky rather, I'm flying out in the morning to Lutsle'ke NWT an apparently scenic little community on the shore of Great Slave lake. I've never been there, and once again my boss is in a pinch, so fort simpson saves the day, once again off I go.
the guy josh had originally planned to go in there, had an engine failure on his Buffalo airways flight to yellowknife and got scared and then wouldn't get on the next plane(Air Tindi) to Lutsle'ke. I know! what a chicken! He ended up getting some one to drive from hay river to YK to pick him up. I mean doesn't Buffalo Joe lose an engine on every flight? especially after ice pilots, people feel ripped off if they have a good flight. anyhoo gotta pack- I hope my plane doesn't lose an engine...it only has the one.

2010-11-12T12:06:00.000-08:00

if anyone asks if there are polar bears in my neck of the woods you can tell them , yes, there is one. this one at the yellowknife airport(it's a bit of a joke with the locals) although the best taxidermy display I think I've ever seen.

the bear spots his prey!, and makes his move!

the lucky seal lives for another day.

recieving an award from my boss

another award

It was a good trip. really good to see some folks that I only get to see every few years. Shout out to my boss josh and Lisa from ottawa you guys put on a great trip. everyone had a good time.

and to Cam Mason, ouch! I wouldn't want to see the bill for this shindig, but money well spent.

and frank, yeah I am indeed a very lucky dude!

2010-11-08T20:19:00.000-08:00

well I'm off to yellowknife tomorrow and fort smith the day after that. Over the last couple of mornings at work I've been adding up all the hours I've worked in the ten years I've been with ATS. I have all the pay sheets since it switched over to ATS from the feds-so I counted them up...twenty two thousand three hundred eighty-eight hours as of today. I have more clocked hours than ANYONE else in the company...including the founder and owner, Cam Mason.
when he hired me he asked me how long i figured I'd stay with the company and I asked him how long you gonna be in business? he's still in business, an' im still there.

2010-11-01T19:51:00.000-07:00

Coleman was scared of charlie brown in her mask

miranda won $130 for most imaginative costume at the bar,
hard to believe that she was the only facebook page there.

happy all hallows eve

2010-10-29T19:46:00.000-07:00

I know it's a bit early but miranda and charlene made a jacko'lantern and I took this pic, they thot it looked cool so..here it is.

2010-10-24T18:57:00.000-07:00

The appropriately named table mountain

View of the Mackenzie under a low stratus cieling

The Wrigley airport has a small office; but a nice view.

2010-10-20T10:00:00.000-07:00

Image uploads are apparently disabled until later today, so, sorry frank I can't show you our winter wonderland. Work is busy. I have been tasked with opening one of our stations at Wrigley, it's been closed for several months. So I have to take Carl and Duane over to train and certify them to work there. Carl and I tried to go over on the 14th-in a blizzard. we didn't make it. It took us almost 6 hours to travel 78km and back. there was 12 to 16 inches of snow on the road. Duane and I went over on the 18th, we made it to Wrigley with only a bit of white knuckle driving. We got the airport open. There was no heat in the hotel. we had no choice but spend the night as the ferry stops running at 8pm. yesterday, still no heat in the hotel. I am too old for too much of that shit, so we came back home last night. Of course Duane put the company truck in the ditch just as we were ready to leave Wrigley, luckily I had my truck there and it was ez to yank him out. We got Duane trained and cert. so not a total loss. tomorrow Carl and I will go back(if they got the heat fixed) I'm sick right now too, so not having a lot of fun.
My boss told me the other day that my station(fort simpson) has won station of the year! Woo Hoo! we beat around 20 other airports for this honor. Ahh hell I'm gonna toot my own horn, I'm very good at what I do and it's not the first time the industry has taken notice. So they are flying me to fort smith next month to accept the award there, as ATS(the company I work for) will be having a to-do there celebrating mine and ATS's ten year anniversary. ten years, time, and airplanes, fly when yer having fun!

2010-10-08T21:13:00.000-07:00

Oh my god! Has it really been that long? yup I'm the big three-oh! got my beard and have just started an Allman brothers tribute band!
we haven't been up to much the last little while, so no blog. i was gonna put one up for coleman's b-day but after Frank's joke me and miranda thot this was appropriate.

2010-07-26T18:51:00.000-07:00

x marks the spot, a neat contrail over fort simpson

Coleman lets fly with a wicked right cross!

he hauls back.....

and BAM! he knocks the S#$% out of that heavy bag!

boom, short right uppercut, there mister punching bag,

I already put my big sister in a wheelchair, don't mess with me

or I'll knock yer hook right out of the ceiling. (he did)

Miranda's auntie Bella bought this for our house at willow

Wave cloud crashing over the mountain, it's just like a cloud waterfall

The infamous HAIREATER I believe I may have mentioned these before. It's a pine bark beetle and nasty bcuz they actually do eat hair.

This is a small one. I know. GROSS! and of course there millions of them. they fly up behind you and velcro themselves in your hair and chow down.

get any better than this?

2010-07-19T20:49:00.000-07:00

Weekends at willow, of course. way up top it's miranda to the rescue, as she had to pull charlie brown from a ditch, she got her quad down in there and couldn't get out. Coleman uses his granma's binoculars. charlene used to call them binoscopes. our cucumbers are doing good. charlene practicing with her bow.

Last weekend miranda and I invited Carl and Derek from work down for some fishing, that's Carl and the ol' lady in the boat. And a whitefish that I caught.

I'm tired as hell so that's all for now!

2010-07-06T15:01:00.000-07:00

Steven of the burnt legs came home for holidays from the army. Harley and Charlene were duly impressed with a real live army man. Steven camo'd their faces and put them thru some PT it was pretty good. Steven also proved that the army can teach anyone to shoot- come on now steve-o you know you couldn't hit the broad side of a barn before! god the excuses! something wrong with the gun, I never used one like this before...i heard em all. NOW on the other hand he picks up a gun that he's never used before and scores on every shot. I was impressed(not easily done) All photo credits go to harley this time cuz my camera battery was dead.

2010-06-25T20:36:00.000-07:00

miranda caught some nice pickerel down at willow on the weekend, about six or seven pounds.

charlie brown and harley built a lean-to, and almost had us convinced to let them sleep in there...almost. instead miranda decided to move one of the log warehouses and fix it up into a little cabin for the kids. we'll probably wait and do that in the fall when it's cooler and no bugs.

I'm taking duane from work and one of the local pilots fishing down there tomorrow.

and sis i detest asparagus but miranda either likes it or just likes to grow it. anyways most of it bit the dust(literally). I snuck up on the kids when charlene was reading to her little brudder.

2010-06-09T20:50:00.000-07:00

Charlie's weekend for sure. She climbed a tree, drove the truck and her corn came up like gangbusters. We start 'em young driving in our family. rebecca learned when she was four and was quite good at it. Charlene did ok too with mom's help. and I didn't catch a thing, although I only fished for about 20 minutes. We re-built the fire pit, but I'm not happy enough with the design yet, so I didn't cement it in. ya gotta find just the right rocks, it could take some time.

we didn't start on the gazebo either, but miranda put up a temporary tee-pee a temp-pee if you will. If a tee-pee is made just right(this one is) they are awesome, no matter how bad the mosquitoes are outside there are none inside, and if one comes in, the thermals from the fire shoot them right out the top. I might make it two years in a row with out using bug dope. I hate that sh#$ worse then the bugs. Our corn, cucmbers and watermelon are doing ok as is the asparagus...asparagus? what was she thinking?

2010-05-31T19:16:00.000-07:00

Another willow weekend in the books. It was very hot, 30c on saturday 29 on sunday. Half the corn survived. oddly all the watermelon made it and asparagus did as well. nothing else made it.

On the off chance that nothing would make it, I started another batch of super-speedy corn, so I can have my corn on'a cob before summer is over. Miranda wants to build a gazebo where our teepee used to be and we are going to make a permanent fire pit with local stone and mortar.

I 'm looking forward to all that hard work in that hot sun.
The moon coming up thru the trees was pretty cool.

2010-05-26T19:04:00.000-07:00

our first trip of the summer went off without a hitch, that's Lone Mountain way in the distance looking downriver. Next is me on the cultivator and last but not least, getting the garden ready is a family affair and even coleman got in on the action. We planted corn, cucumbers, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes and watermelons. we started most of the stuff in the house at home and gambled that we wouldn't get another frost(i think we may have lost that bet as we had a frost here in simpson sunday night).

I knew mike was getting married again and was toying with the idea of crashing it, but ultimately decided not to. Thanks to sis for putting up pics it was great, I literally haven't even seen a pic of mike since i left- so it was cool. Congratulations bro! second time seems to be the charm in our family. As far as me coming down to new scotland it's gonna happen either this year or next, gotta be before 2012, you know the whole end of the world thing- Frank, batter up!

2010-05-18T21:13:00.000-07:00

coleman found charlene's chips and started feeding them to cheeto, one at a time(maybe we should have named her dorito instead of cheeto) he had fed her the whole bag before he thought to try one himself. he hasn't had chips before. and of course the pics are out of sequence.

and cathy to answer your question, harley is miranda's baby sister. she stayed with us for a couple of years when she was a baby, and spends a lot of time with us now, which is why she shows up inour blog on occasion. i probably never explained who she is before, so everyone, this is harley. harley this is everyone. kind of awkward like at a party or something, i apologize for my social faux pas.

2010-05-16T20:26:00.000-07:00

well, the ice is gone and the ferries are in, next weekend our summer begins, although with all the snow we've been getting you'd never know it.

Up top, we've got the coolman. in the next pic, the smile is still there but the fender is gone. Harley wiped out on her bike, she skinned her knee and gobbled some dirt but was okay and back riding the next day.

we had a few big cumulo nimbus move thru the other night, and miranda took some pics.

snow on the toys...grrrr. it's been like that off and on plus 17 one day snow the next.

and finally the scourge of the neighborhood. back soon with some fishing pics!

2010-04-07T19:44:00.000-07:00

I just couldn't wait any longer, after spending the last couple of days doing oil changes and the other regular maintenance on the toys, I took my bike for a ride, there is still plenty of ice and snow around but most of the roads are mostly clear so I went for it. up top, charlie brown sports her new smile.

2010-03-25T16:44:00.000-07:00

yup, inuvik it is frank. i drove by the nasty puke installation on the dempster highway. the polar bear was a smallish one and allegedley died from natural causes. i have a few more pics but they are in miranda's phone. i can't get used to coleman's short hair, he does look so much older, but he's still the same jibberish talking little boy. charlene fell asleep on her bunk bed rail right in the middle of telling me she wasn't tired.

2010-03-22T10:57:00.000-07:00

here's yer pics, this high speed is the shiznit as the kids say, talk about fast pic uploading.

where's Aldo?

2010-03-20T13:26:00.000-07:00

somewhere between fort Mcpherson and Inuvik. i'm driving down the Dempster highway, when wait...what's this? some crazy dude on a bike? yup. A fella from Italy bicycling from whitehorse, yukon to Inuvik,NWT. it's 1125km from fort mcphoo to whitehorse and then another couple of hundred from mcphoo to inuvik so about 1300km total. I had to stop and check his sanity and get a pic. he's been averaging about 100 km a day. very impressive what with the -35 weather. he just camps on the side of the road. he said he wouldn't make inuvik today, but i told him there's a hot meal and a hotel waiting for him so he might pedal a little harder. he spoke about as much english as i speak italian, but we managed to have a nice chat just the same. he passed the legal requirement for sanity, and had the gear so i let him be. i couldn't imagine biking thru those Richardson mountains tho. i'm in inuvik now and just had pizza hut woo hoo!
home tomorrow. weather permitting.

2010-03-19T17:55:00.000-07:00

one of the best trips ever. nice little community they have here. you'll have to wait for some pics because i don't have my camera cord with me, and i don't know how to put the little card dealy in the computer. i know, what a technotard,eh? it was -35 here on wed. -5 on thurs. kinda wierd. nice hotel too, clean and modern with internet and satellite tv. to you world travellers out there that sounds lame i guess, but it wasn't so long ago in the north that the hotels were pretty rough. you often had to share a room with a stranger, no tv, no phone, usually no water.
ahh the good old days, oh and it was usually about $200 a day for those accomodations as well.
so compared to that, this is nice.
the work went well too, the trainee is a crackerjack, so my work was easy. i wouldn't mind bringing the fella to my airport to work. that's about the highest praise i know how to give.
i'm on miranda's lap top but i'll see if i can find a pic or two, nope nothing current. i'm going to inuvik tomorrow and will stay overnight and fly home via yellowknife on sunday.

2010-03-05T10:13:00.000-08:00

well, i will soon be heading out on duty travel. it's been awhile since i've done that, and am looking forward to it. i don't mind the travel if it's to a new place i've never been. Fort MacPherson is where i'm headed for about a week. it's quite a bit further north than i've been.
my boss travels A LOT for work, so i don't mind helping out, give him a break. he's a good boss, gotta treat him right. somewhere up around Inuvik, i guess, fly to yellowknife than to inuvik and then drive to fort macphoo. somewhere on the dempster highway? who knows. i'll figure it out. shouldn't be too hard to find.

2010-03-01T15:08:00.000-08:00

a little cryptic i guess, eh sis? we went to hay river to get the truck serviced on friday. but while i was waiting for charlene to get home from school, i was looking at the old aeroplan site and apparently we have enough points for the northern browns to make the trip. i mean, miranda ain't on the plane yet, but she says she'll do it(she hates flying). so i'm just in the planning stage right now-it may end up with just me going or all of us, who knows? but looking at spring time.
yeah the chinese? or whatever, not sure but i think it's a sex thing, hmmph, sex on the internet, who woulda thot? miranda cut coleman's hair real short, so i'm waiting for him to wake up from his nap so i can see what it looks like.

hay today gone tommorrow

2010-02-26T14:59:00.000-08:00

hay river today....nova scotia next? soon probably.

2010-02-05T08:38:00.000-08:00

not too much going on in our neck of the woods these days. the weather is either cold and snowing or clear and really cold. and it always seems that when it "warms" up to about -20;the wind comes up to give you that wicked windchill. you know you are an optimist when you think of -20 as warming up. people go around saying things like "wow, t-shirt weather!" the other one I like is "just think only four months to go!" when refering to how long til spring. Only four months....only?

Miranda couldn't find coleman one day and guess where he was? yup he climbed up on Harley's bike and was sitting there going vroom vrooom, when I came in, I think he thought he was in trouble, cuz he just started climbing off right quick. in the next pic you can see coleman err maybe its rainman, solving rubiks cube. charlene with her chill on and in the last pic coleman with an almost full charge on. the humidity in here is really low and when those kids get on the couch and play the static charge is crazy. coleman likes to try and kiss you when he's all charged up. it sounds like velcro getting ripped apart in here. there was another pic with coleman looking at the camera with all his hair straight out but i must have deleted it off camera by mistake. If you haven't seen Ice Pilots nwt yet, check it out.

2009-12-29T18:47:00.000-08:00

yeah that's right it's me, coleman

the family

we bought harley a brand new dirt bike down in alberty

Beckers and charlie brown build a gingerbread house

2009-12-23T17:34:00.000-08:00

Coleman was grabbing these red balls on the sly and stashing them all in one place on the tree-til mom barked at him. We had a cold snap, I shot this pic at three in the afternoon, temp -44. My new trainees are on station now and when they came it was -14 and they were all like "this is'nt so bad" then wham! -40's for a week. but they are still here, so they're game.

We went down to peace river in alberty to do some shopping last week. 11 hours down, freezing drizzle, deer all over the GD highway-it was awesome! we bought a special someone something very special. It was the whole purpose of our trip, I would elaborate but who knows if this person might BLOG snoop looking for hints. I 'll fill yall in after christmas.

I got myself this wicked telescope back in october and it just came in now, this thing is so powerful I should be able to see human artifacts on the moon. And way up top the coolman coleman.

Merry Christmas to you too Mike, and sis I will endeavor to update more often, sadly no hope at all for me to start facebooking, i am way too conspiracy theory freak for that. but I will post on christmas and show how much we love jesus and the economy by how much we spent, we must love them both an awful lot. Frank and Cathy thank you for the card and merry christmas to you both from all of us.

2009-12-11T05:03:00.000-08:00

Two of the most popular shows on TV right now are shot in the Nortwest Territories. I think everyone has probably heard of Ice Road Truckers on Discovery and History channels, the new one is called Ice Pilots NWT. I made a non-speaking cameo appearance on Ice Pilots on wednesday night. Charlene was quite impressed to see dad on TV. I think they re-show it on history channel on sunday, if anyone wants to see me standing quietly in my office. This episode wasn't as exciting as the first two but still pretty good, (better than ice road truckers) maybe i'm biased as the truckers never put me on TV. Always thot my first national TV appearance would be on COPS or America's Most Wanted. I'll tell everyone in blogville the same thing I've told everyone here, "Don't be embarassed to ask, of course you can have my autograph!"

2009-11-03T09:17:00.000-08:00

well what a surprise, a blizzard for hallowe'en. At least this year there was room in charlie's costume for her parka. -19.0 out side this morning, so no reprieve from winter. The ferries are due to stop running today, so we'll be taking out a second mortgage on the house to buy a jug of milk. Steven (of the burnt legs) phoned from CFB Borden the other day-basic is going well for him. Well that's all for now, got a day off, got the kiddos...maybe go chicken hunting(charlene loves it).

2009-10-28T10:10:00.000-07:00

Frank, yuppers, geese flying after legal dark-and although there are no published IFR approaches into Willow River, because it's class "C" airspace they can get away with it. In all fairness to the geese tho, the weather was VFR at the time. We've been aggressively squeezing the last drops of summer out of '09 but alas winter arrived right on schedule. Every year everyone says the same thing "maybe the kids won't have snow for hallowe'en'

yeah right, the globe ain't that warm yet. It doesn't matter what costume you buy...the kids all end up dressing up as arctic explorers, with parkas and all the rest.

The willow river was starting to freeze over when we went down last weekend, by the end of the weekend she was froze. We pulled our boat in and pulled miranda's mom's boat in as well.

We have a 1000 liter water tank on our deck and we drained it before it froze solid, it made some neat ice sculptures under the deck.

Charlie Brown makes another trip to the wood pile. Gotta go, gonna grab some lunch and head down to willow. Solo trip this time. just me......WOO HOO!!

2009-09-22T19:26:00.000-07:00

Well it's been awhile (more blog posts are started with those four words than any other four)

What have we been up to? the usual, working and weekends at willow river.

Steven of the burnt legs has left and gone off to the military- I haven't heard from him yet but his aunt told me he was having a bit of trouble adjusting to his new way of life. So lots of overtime at work(like I need more of that) but we have two people at school that are doing well

so looking forward to being fully staffed. When I reach that holy day, I'm considering just working eight hours a day mon to fri 8 to 4... AAAAaaahh aaah(that's angels singing)

the pics are all pretty much what ya see is what ya get. Although it was pretty cool that Charlie Brown made and cooked her own hamburger on the fire for the first time. That's my girl!

Another first was me Coleman and Charlie all going for a ride on Quadzilla.

Any guesses on the first pic?

2009-08-30T19:53:00.000-07:00

We went down to willow river for the weekend. This time we didn't have any guests, and Miranda's mother and Robert weren't there either. So it was just the four of us down there. We took the kids out in the boat and had a visit from a pair of otters, usually I deal with

twin otters, today it was otter twins. we also saw a bear on the river bank. The weather was perfect although a little hot, it got up to 29c this afternoon. It was pretty hot yesterday too, so we filled up the kiddie pool and we all went in and sat down in it. Coleman fell asleep on the coffee table and miranda took a pic.

wet willow weekend

2009-08-26T18:48:00.000-07:00

It rained from the moment we left to go down to willow river friday evening, until about an hour before we left to come home. We still had a lot of fun though. We took Quadzilla out to these sand dunes on the side of the road and had a blast. On Saturday morning I went out fishing by myself in the rain for a couple of hours. Miranda and her mom decided to fix up the tipi- it was leaking in a few places and the fire pit was not centered yada yada yada. Despite the rain, it was a good weekend. I made what is fast becoming a tradition, my big ass pot of chili on the fire. mmmm. Those matching shirts I got us say "Rum Runners" on them, and I wanted to write it on the sand dune, but we had it all carved up before i thought of it. So the kids wrote it out with woodchips, and called me over to see it and I thought it was cute.

well, that's all for now. we're going down to willow river again this weekend so probably have some pics next week.

weekends

2009-08-18T19:24:00.000-07:00

Some pics from various weekends over the summer. Miranda reaches in to grab me by the pickerel. One of Miranda holding up one of my pickerel, and the good wife filleting one of my pickerel. I usually buy a mid-level quality fising rod and reel, right off the rack, knowing that I'm going to wear it out or wreck it. But this year I treated myself to a very nice Quantum tour edition precision tuned reel. It was awesome catching those nice pickerel on my kick ass rod and reel. And for sis, here's the Coolman and Charlie Brown and one of Beckers and Charlie Brown

modelling their matching t-shirts. I needed clean clothes when I was in yellowknife after my Medevac and release from the hospitol. So I was in Wal-Mart in a morphine daze and ended up buying each of us the same t-shirt.

What a day

2009-08-14T19:45:00.000-07:00

well been awhile now, hmmm, let's see what's been going on. Well I turned forty-three, the truck is great. been going down to willowriver every weekend. And today I went on a six hour floatplane trip up into Nahanni National Park did a two hour hike there and saw Virginia Falls.
Spectacular doesn't even begin to describe it...twice as high as Niagara Falls. From there we flew to Little Doctor Lake and visited Nahanni Mountain Lodge. Ted Grant, owner/operator of Simpson Air also owns and operates the lodge there as well. The good folks at Simpson Air gave me the trip for free to say thanks for all my hard work at the airport over the years.
The funny thing, I took my camera. But forgot my battery in the charger at home. Well not that funny, i guess, if you wanted to see pics.

the next time you see me...

2009-07-22T22:09:00.000-07:00

I'LL BE DRIVING THIS BAD BOY!!!!

I will attempt to keep it rightside up.

my fifteen minutes of fame...hmm, or infamy?

2009-07-16T19:02:00.000-07:00

Well, my story got printed in our regional newspaper last thursday. On monday it got picked up in the territorial newspaper, and finally, this week in the Drum again as the above cartoon.

the funny thing about it is that the guy who draws the cartoons lives in yellowknife, and has no idea that I work at an airport, so the idea of an aircraft wheel falling out of the sky on me is pretty funny.

Healing, slow but sure.

2009-07-07T09:38:00.000-07:00

I'm starting to feel better, I have about 80% movement in my arm, which drops to about 50% if there is any weight or resistance(or if I'm not wearing my brace). I think I broke a rib too, as I now have a large nob of bone on the end of one where it meets my sternum, and the pain i feel is more associated with that than my shoulder, I have to go back in for follow up, next week.
The lady from the newspaper heard thru the grapevine about the wreck and called to ask if I would tell her about it for the paper. I said yes, as it might mean that I can stop correcting all the rumours one at a time. I've heard that the whole family was in the truck, miranda broke her arm, miranda got a black eye, miranda was in there but didn't get hurt, just about every possible combination. One lady in town was just about to start arguing with me about who was in the truck(based on what she heard). Miranda laughed at that, the "moccasin telegraph" at it's finest. In this town, if you don't hear a rumour by noon, apparently you are supposed to start one.

2009-06-24T20:57:00.000-07:00

Well to answer a couple of questions, No Mike, No alcohol involved. Mr.Mickey was long gone 2 weekends ago. And Sis, the accident was caused by road conditions in combination with the weather. That road at any given time is a combination of little round rocks like marbles, razor sharp chips of shale, clay, and field stone. I hit a clay section after a moderte to heavy rain shower and the surface of the road was like oatmeal.

That same section of road a half hour before was fine. The coppers said it was due to road conditions.

The truck looks like Dr.Jekyll And Mr.Hyde. Funny about the passenger side. One of the cops said it was a half gainer with a twist.

2009-06-23T10:44:00.000-07:00

just took this about 10 minutes ago. doesn't look too bad now. Relatively speaking of course.
at least the blood isn't weeping out of the skin anymore. That's gotta be good, right?
Silver lining...Miranda is picking out our new truck. hopefully this one has side airbags. My left ear looks like one of them ultimate fighters. At first they thot it was swollen and purple from the bug bites but it was actually from my head going thru the drivers side window. oddly enough, no head injury. Hey Frank, Batter up!

wrecked 'er on the Wrigley road.

2009-06-21T21:03:00.000-07:00

I managed to roll my truck several times friday night. I broke my collar bone and shoulder blade. The evening was capped off with a 30km walk that lasted six hours in drizzle and rain, with the worst mosquitoes I've ever seen, while being stalked and eventually charged by a bear. Thank your favorite deity that Miranda and the kids weren't in the truck. I was medevaced to yellowknife and just got back this evening, miranda and the kids got home from Willow river about the same time I got back from YK. I have some pretty nasty pics of the bone trying to come thru the skin but, Beckers has done something to the computer and I can't find them.

I had a cut on my ankle and my shoe and sock was full of blood, I guess that's why blackie was following me. Pretty scary shit I tell you, that bear shadowed me for over an hour just off in the bushes snuffing and grunting(working up his nerve I guess) And me the whole time yelling at it, " Come on you F*****R!!" in a loud deep voice, well eventually he did, he came right out of the bush with his ears down swinging his head back and forth snorting. He was close enough I could smell him and see the mosquitoes all buzzing around his head. Funny the things you notice, eh? i had a good sized rock in my good hand and I raised my arm up and screamed and ran right at him. When I was about ten feet away from him he turned and ran back into the bush. I stood there yelling for a couple of minutes screaming that the bear was a pussy and a fag (not that ther's anything wrong with that) Seinfeldian reference there. I started walkinagain and was walking for about ten minutes when I heard the best thing I've ever heard in my life, Beckers and Miranda's uncle Tony coming on Quadzilla. I literally collapsed in the road.

Hope everyone elses fathers day weekend was better than mine. I only sleep about fifteen minutes at a stretch since it happened. I can't sit still, and if I'm not distracted by something else I just sit there playing it over and over in my head. truck crashing and that bear...jesus.

Maybe, I'll spend the rest of my life on the couch. I'm not sure what was worse, the crash, the walk, the mosquitoes(I was in shorts) or the bear. nope on second thought I'm sure the bear was the worst part.

I'm exhausted and in more than a little pain so I'm going to go now.

Willow river weekend

2009-06-16T19:10:00.000-07:00

another awesome weekend at Willow, that had me tree a bear with Quadzilla, that was some action alright. I came around the first turn in the road to see what the dogs were barking about and there was a medium sized black right in the road like right in front of me and just to the left about 5 to 8 feet away, so i turned to the left slightly and accelerated, well mr. blackie turned off the road and ran right up a poplar and was about 12 feet up the tree...me? was right at the bottom of the tree. He tried to shinny down so I gunned 'er and he skipped up another 10 feet or so. I called for Robert (Miranda's mother's boyfriend) he came over with a rifle, and i backed off and Mr bear came down. Robert shot a couple of shots into the air and I took of in a spray of gravel straight at the bear, who wisely headed out of dodge at agood clip. I pursued him for about a mile out the road and came back.

Next night, different bear bigger different bear and a running gunbattle all over the property (lots of trees, bushes and skinny little paths)

We had a real hard time convincing that one he had to go.

Robert killed one there last week.

well 5 times trying is my limit for pics. (there weren`t any bear ones..your just not thinking picsno what i mean?)

So you have to settle for sisters sharing a moment.`

time machine, or fountain of youth?

2009-06-09T19:14:00.000-07:00

well as usual the pics are in a random non-sensical sequence and as usual I ain't gonna shift em.

The truck was loaded to probably over the maximum, and was a little difficult once I got her up over one forty on that gravel road. just kidding.

But we got down there and had a blast for our first of several mini-vacations for the summer.

miranda and I are both going to work only tue. wed. thur. all summer which gives us the four day weekend all summer. more time off than working...

That is how life should be.

We took Charlene's quad and Rebecca's dirt bike down and then I came back and brought mine down. It was too awesome going out for a ride just me and beckers on our bikes down there. She's really coming along and is getting to be a good rider, not afraid to ride that's for sure.

I'm sad to report Big Texas is no longer with us, He'll live on in my memory, well the parts I'm able to remember anyways. The house that needs a chainsaw, heh heh, the wood stove. My old saw was, well old. So I bought a new one for the new house.

Coleman stove. check

Coleman lantern. check

Coleman Brown. check

Everyone in the tipi, and first but not least the fountain of youth, my Yamaha.

I haven't felt this good in a long time, and riding that bike is the reason, I've actually lost a waist size or two. There is no better way to head off to the weekly three day grind then on a motorcycle.

tim and charlie...SPOILED ROTTEN!!!

2009-05-31T18:56:00.000-07:00

we went to yellowknife the other day and I went in to the Yamaha dealer ship to get a couple of jugs of oil for my friend and...well you can see the pattern here. I bought myself (at miranda's insistence) a new motorcycle. That's my XT250, and miranda's only caveat was for charlene to get a quad too. I bought her a Polaris sportsman 90 and got a great deal and it's an awesome little quad, so, mission accomplished. Our yard looks like a dealership. I gave my other one to Rebecca, Miranda has Quadzilla....Synergy...everyone is happy and everyone is mobile.

I haven't moved my truck since i got home.

2009-05-18T20:44:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been awhile since we posted anything of note, or to be honest, for me, really been near the computer at all. It's been freakish busy at work with break up and all. but the ferry is in the water and operating.

there have been a few "firsts " this week. Coleman had his first dirtbike ride and his first ride on quadzilla.

Charlie Brown mastered her two wheeler without training wheels-she was dreading it but was pretty good straight out of the gate.

I bought a new chainsaw to go with...our new summer house. Yeah we bought a house down at Willow river where we camp every year. it's awesome. pics will follow when the Wrigley ferry goes in the water.

The first pic is for Frank. Everytime someone in this town comments on how nice the weather is we wake up to this. What a surprise, a picture of a plane and the sun sets on our neighbour's tipi.

2009-05-06T18:36:00.000-07:00

echoing elder bro frank, happy b-day sis. on the 5th I believe n'est pa? I must say sis the years have been kind to you. livin' the goat life agrees with you. (i know frank, a second class pun at best)

2009-04-10T20:00:00.000-07:00

well, miranda is normal sized, sooooo that must be a REALLY big bottle of rum. I bought that in Yellowknife and am saving it for summer. The new Honda Foreman 4x4 is not being saved til summer. We bought that today. it's an 09 and 500cc- lot's of power. I think we've put almost 4 hours on it already. Oh yeah and the obligatory Coleman shot, chillin' watching TV.

charlie brown scores....

2009-03-24T18:19:00.000-07:00

now all she needs is summer. We all went to Yellowknife for a couple of days of shopping and to visit Rebecca. Charlene loves her little dirt bug, and mom got her all the cool (safe) stuff to go with it, helmet, pads and gloves. who's big ass is that in my cupboard, oh Coleman of course.

2009-03-16T20:12:00.000-07:00

no pics, nothing really to take pics of, well the kids of course, but I just went searching and didn't really see anything particularly amusing. I know it's been awhile since I last posted, but things hace been pretty slow lately. the seventh inning stretch as far as winter goes. Coleman is completely walking now. and at times tries to say certain words. I'm not sure if anyone else remembers that thing that mom used to do when we were kids..." all around the garden, went the teddy bear, one step two step and tickle up in there!" and of course you tickle the armpit at the appropriate time. Coleman loves it.
anyhoo, not much else, cold as hell and twice as windy lately. But at the same time, it's still daylight when I get home from work...so at least there's that.
We may all be cruising around in flying cars by the time I hit facebook, but the missus is on there somewhere I think. so I'll try and get a post or two in before the arrival of the flying car.

2009-01-17T15:22:00.000-08:00

well, it got up to +12 degrees today, so we went out and had some fun. I tried my bow with some success(and some failure) I'll find those other two arrows in the spring. Charlene was expecting a bang or something I guess.

frank as you can see from the pic, it wasn't so much ON the floor as it was THROUGH the floor.

2009-01-11T18:21:00.000-08:00

The work bench got squared away. Here's a couple of the moon over paradise or as it's more commonly called frozen wasteland of the third corner of hell. I was saying to a friend the other day when it warmed up to -30, you know how cold it's been for a while when warming up to -30 seems awesome and everyone is talking about how warm it is. compared to -40 though -30 does SEEM warm.

2009-01-08T19:15:00.000-08:00

well it's been very cold and remains that way, -42 outside right now. there's no wind so thank your favorite deity for that. my -100 celsius rated boots will be here next week.

I picked up another maintenance gig looking after another observatory out by the airport, this one is called the Northstar project. The work will be very similar and they've offered me 75 bucks an hour...HELLO!

The pic...the messy work bench of a fool. this is where the magic happens folks. but I've promised the missus that we'll clean up, tidy and organize it tomorrow night so here's the "before" look for the "after" on saturday. I prefer it the way it is-I know where every single thing is. the only time I lose anything is after it has been "mirandized" such as will happen tomorrow night. god, i think i might need a drink to get through it.

2009-01-05T16:56:00.000-08:00

Miranda has taken measures against our consistently cold weather. These new boots are rated for -100 degrees celsius, so I think she's good in that regard now. Antarctica here we come!

I teased her a bit about overkill, but it's good to have good gear. she has a jacket with an avalanche rescue system in it and I mean thank god for that, the last 3 times she was trapped in an avalanche, we had a hell of a time rescuing her.

a pic of me practicing my draw with my bow. Charlie brown got all outfitted with new North Face gear too. christmas can get drawn out a bit here as stuff trickles in thru the mail.

the big chill

2009-01-04T10:33:00.000-08:00

no, not the movie, the weather. two nights ago the temp got down to -47 and the next night down to -46. the warmest it's been for the last three days is -35. Me and charlie brown got up early today and sneaked (snuck?) out to go for breakfast before mom and coleman woke up.
it was nice. unlike a lot of other kids, charlene is very well behaved at reataurants and such, and that makes it very enjoyable for old dad.
it's -38 outside right now, so probably won't do much today...going back to bed sounds reasonable, enjoyable and inevitable.

happy new year

2008-12-31T20:21:00.000-08:00

well as they say it's twelve o clock somewhere. A belated happy birthday to older brother jurassic Frank. I understand cathy couldn't use the appropriate amount of candles on the birthday cake because of some added fire insurance issues (with THAT many candles, it's technically a bonfire).
Yeah, ol' Frank has been around since the time of christ, and is still wearing his hair and beard the way him and jesus did back in the day.
I'm just kidding frank. I hope you and cathy have a great new year with much happiness.
well, i'm getting into my cups as they used to say in ancient rome...vino veritas, did I get that right Frank?

2008-12-25T21:28:00.000-08:00

going for 11p.m. and still occasionally vulturing on the turkey carcass and I'm actually having a couple glasses of wine, even at christmas that's rare for me.

Other than me coleman and miranda having the flu, it was a good chirstmas. only one bummer we didn't get to see beckers as she stayed in yellowknife for x-mas. Coleman looks like a Las Vegas lounge singer in his little vest and tie. And BEHOLD....SILENT DEATH! Miranda got me this kick ass compound bow and all the goodies. oh, Coleman will be selling copies of his self titled debut CD in the parking lot after the show.

Merry christmas everyone.

2008-12-21T18:33:00.000-08:00

Apparently i post about as often as I buy new winter jackets, and there is a reason for that, I have a pinched nerve in my neck and sitting at the computer is about as aggravating as it gets. Coleman has been practicing his peek-a- boo, there is some talk of him being invited to try out for the canadian olympic peek-a- boo team or as the chinese say peeka-boo.

every 13 years...just like clockwork

2008-11-14T19:15:00.000-08:00

yup, that's a new winter jacket I'm wearing. The last time I bought one was 13 years ago, i wear stuff till it wears out, but the missus has objections about me going around dressed like a homeless guy who's down on his luck.... When I travel for work it's sorta expected that a feller presents himself in a certain light. " oh, YOU'RE the airport guy, sorry thought you were a homeless guy" I've actually heard that before- I think deep down I like shattering that first impression.

Frank, i will trade your +18 of the other day for my -18 of this morning. Old man winter is not here yet...but he sent his missus the BVSQ on ahead to get things ready for him, hence the mongo-drift hanging off the edge of the roof.

a pic of Coleman and Miranda.

2008-11-07T17:49:00.001-08:00

well, I just got back from Wrigley, NWT, pop. approx. 150. Flying back today was kinda cool. The cloud deck was maybe 500 feet above ground most of the way back, so the tree tops were not too far below us. With the mountains going by it was pretty cool. Of course, I didn't have my camera...next time. there is a road to Wrigley but because it's on the other side of the Mackenzie river, you have to take a ferry, but with freeze-up going on, the boats are done for the season. I was up there training a gal to work at her airport. Which is a vital link for an isolated community at this time of the year. maybe some kid pics and whatnot tomorrow maybe.

2008-10-08T17:16:00.000-07:00

we've had a bit of snow but nothing to speak of, it's not collecting or anything. A pic of Coleman and one of Charlene, oh yeah, heh heh, almost forgot...Happy Birthday Coleman Brown!! He's one year old today. There's also a pic of the sim board from the final excercise of the emergency site controller course I took.

And what will likely be the last fish I catch this year.

on the go...

2008-09-29T09:36:00.000-07:00

we've been busy lately. went to yellowknife last week for a couple days,( Frank, it was snowing the entire time we were there) I'm flying out to yellowknife this afternoon for a few days.
I'm taking an Emergency Site Controller course, ( mmm control, one of my favorite things)it's part of an Emergency Management course I've taken. It's a good course and despite the fact that I'm short staffed at the airport, ATS services(my employer) believes in professional developement and on going training, so off I go.
It's gotten down below zero here for a few nights and all the leaves are just about down. We'll have snow down by the end of oct., we always do. our kids go trick or treating in parkas every year. Although one year we had a green christmas which was odd.
There is a Cougar hanging around town these days. I've spent quite a bit of time looking for him for a photo-op, but no magic yet.
Sis, my medical condition remains a mystery(they haven't told me anything yet) well no news is good news. I guess. health care up here is pretty good considering. I think the longest I've ever waited for an appointment or even on a walk-in is maybe 20 minutes. I don't have any recent pics but I'll ask the missus to put some up tonight. The Coolman is standing up now, as long as he has something to hold onto. He'll be a year old here right quick. well bye for now, I'll try and not go a month between updates.

2008-08-29T19:33:00.000-07:00

lets see...what's been happening lately. Rebecca is here visiting and we've had a lot of fun. She learned how to drive the dirtbike down at Willow river and got reaquainted with her fishing rod.

One of the pics shows her with a nice pike. We've done quite well with the pickerel, and miranda's friend caught a really nice whitefish. it was yummy but a bit over cooked (sorry babe, but you know it's true)

What else, Oh yeah I went to yellowknife on monday, I flew over and came back that evening. I had some tests at the hospitol and spent some time with my boss while I was there.

Charlie Brown goes to school! Her first day was on tuesday. She had fun. She's sitting in the compant car honking the horn right now.

2008-08-19T19:20:00.000-07:00

Well, we've been kinda busy lately, lots going on. Trying to squeeze every last minute out of the too short northern summer. On friday we all took off down to willow river and had a good time, we didn't fish much but ate really good, lots of yummy steaks and burgers.

Yesterday, I drove down to fort nelson B.C. it was pretty cool but a quick trip, we were there for about forty five minutes and came back. we stopped in fort liard onthe way home to pick up the company car and bring it back to simpson.

The pics, of course Coleman with his drooly grin. There was a forest fire in the mountains behind the first range. And steve-o once again wishes he would have listened to me, but he didn't and his tire paid the price as well as his rim. the highways up here are can be brutal.

three years in on a life sentence

2008-08-06T18:58:00.000-07:00

I mean that in a good way, today is Miranda and my third wedding anniversary. Oddly enough we don't have any pics from the wedding in the computer. Funny story though, our wedding like most everything in my life was unorthodox to say the least.
I was down in Northern Quebec training a couple fellas to work at the airport there and got back to Fort Simpson on July 4 after being away for almost three weeks. I had a one hour layover in Yellowknife on the way home so I had my boss meet me at the airport there and I went and bought an engagement ring and hustled back to the airport to get my flight home.
When I landed in Simpson I ran straight through the building and out to the parking lot- I was down on one knee before she was even out of the vehicle. She teared up and said yes(go figure)
" When?" she asked, before I knew what I was saying I said "on my birthday!" She said "no, how about the next day, the sixth?"
That gave us one month to put together a wedding. I didn't even own a suit or a pair of dress shoes. Over the coming weeks, we started putting stuff together,got the marriage license and a Justice of the Peace, arranged for the rec center, bought the food and all that. About one week before we were to get married our justice of the peace got very sick and couldn't perform the ceremony...uh-oh.
well we got another guy, a pentecostal fella as the catholic priest and anglican minister wouldn't marry us without taking 10 years of marriage counselling, which I thought was kinda cart before the horse, know what I mean?
So the pentecostal guy is on board and we're good to go. Until the morning of the wedding, when pentecostal guy drops the bomb that because I was divorced... HE WOULDN'T MARRY US!
AAAAAGGGH!!!
Lucky for us Fort Simpson has a ferry...with a captain...hmmm that was the best we could come up with until the last minute we heard a rumor that a fellow in town had a special license he got from the territorial government to be able to perform marriages(he was going to perform the ceremony at his son's wedding)
I called the guy, I didn't know him from Adam and persuaded him to do it, remember this was on the morning of the wedding.
So at 2:00 p.m, right on time we started the ceremony- no rehearsal no plan, not even so much as who was going to stand where. I picked an invited guest to do a bible reading, and we just winged it. went off without a hitch. Would have been really cool to get married on the ferry though...oh well...next time. Just kidding babe, I love you and happy anniversary!

2008-07-30T18:13:00.000-07:00

Sis, coleman doesn't so much crawl as....I guess humps is the word I'm looking for. yup he humps around on the floor. it works for him though. chubby little bugger can't quite stay up on his knees yet. Coleman had his first boat ride last week, he didn't seem to mind it at all. he also had his first jacuzzi while we were in Hay River. It's been smoky here off and on over the last week or so, not so bad as to make you choke but bad enough to provide some welcome relief from the bugs. there have been a few fires in the area and some pretty big ones over by yellowknife. The pics, Charlie brown's self portrait(I'm ready for my close up, mr. DeMille) A Pickerel we caught over by Harris creek, Coleman in the boat, and one of the tanker crew walking the wing of the DC4 while refuelling for operations 10 south east of fort simpson. This is not a water bomber, these guys drop dry chemical retardant and are used primarily to contain a forest fire as opposed to attacking the fire itself. forestry has a base at my airport, and sometimes when we have 2 or 3 tankers and 2 or 3 bird dogs(small, fast twin engine a-craft that accompany and direct the tankers) operating in the area.

2008-07-27T12:22:00.000-07:00

We made a quick trip over to Hay River on friday after work. The truck was due for a service, so we all piled in and away we went we came back last evening. here's a pic of the Hay River gorge, if it comes up. we saw a lynx and of course I had to jump out and chase him to get a good look,(don't try that at home) as he wouldn't turn around. When I got close and hollered at him he turned and gave me a decent pose. When I was walking back to the truck miranda screamed at me " HE' S RUNNING AFTER YOU!!!" I almost shit and started running to the truck until I saw her laughing, in fairness though I would have done the same thing to her.

Oh yeah, Coleman says, "Look where I can go!"

way to go charlie brown!

2008-07-08T18:45:00.001-07:00

I took Miranda and Charlene out fishing last night, across the river to Harris creek, neither had been out in the boat yet this year and it was a great start. Miranda caught a few with her new rod and reel. But the big winner of the evening was Charlie Brown, she caught the biggest fish and was pretty proud of herself(I was grinning pretty big too) She looks like me and when out in the boat fishing, talks like me too. It's cute, she's got this big fish on her line and he's pulling line and her drag is screaming, she's holding on tight and says " he's very agressel" aggressive is the word she was looking for but it's even cuter for the mispronunciation.

The fish was too heavy for Charlene to hold up, so dad had the honor.

2008-06-29T19:24:00.000-07:00

Here's a nice fish(not the one that bit me) and a pic of a spider web. I woke up around 6:30 and the fog was right up to the tent I mean zero visibility. I stumbled around and got the fire up enough for coffee and as I was sitting on a log having coffee the sun started to lift the fog and as it lifted the spider web was revealed. beauty in nature.

2008-06-27T22:20:00.000-07:00

well, I'm back. pics will be spread out over both blogs over the next few days as there are a million of them. It was an awesome trip that began on the first evening when a cariboo came running through our camp and almost ended up arse over tea kettle in my boat. We had thunderstorms almost everyday for a few hours with hail one time. but as steve-o and I are both weathermen that was a bonus. we caught a lot of fish and literally went back to camp sore from fighting the fish, we caught a few 20 pounders and I couldn't even guess how many in the 10 to 15 lb range.

steve-o fell out of the boat, which was odd because he did it by trying to stay dry. He dropped my lip grip in to the lake, and in reaching over to get it, was just shy, if he had took a breath and leaned his face in, he would have been able to reach, but he tried to turn his shoulder and defy the laws of physics but physics won, and tossed him in the lake.

Anyhoo, the pics are popping up, one of our stuff in the float plane- I can't say enough about the operation Ted Grant runs at Simpson Air, Ted is a legendary bush pilot up here and all his crew are top notch. A pic of a river that runs off the Horn Plateau from about 2000 feet up. Steven in the back of the plane with the gear and head set on. Miranda crying and waving good bye on the river bank above the simpson air float dock. sometimes the fish get even, I released a jackfish and after it was back in the water as i was pulling my hand back up the fish came back airborn out of the water and shredded my finger...good times, good times.

vacation!

2008-06-18T19:28:00.000-07:00

well my vacation started an hour ago. feels good. 3 days til departure. I know I ve been remiss with the blogging and I know the eagle ain't moved a lick, but to be fair, I've been busy at work, and miranda was looking after the residence for the past two weeks. Friday the thirteenth was a bad one as Miranda had to take me to the health center at 6:00am in extreme pain (they blame my kidneys). I'm dubious about that. but some "imaging" will tell the tale. when I get back from fishing of course-a guys gotta have priorities. there was some talk of medevac-ing me out, but I opted to stay in town and just have them manage the pain. If I had gone to YK on a medevac, they would have just done the same thing, at least at home I was somewhat comfortable. Sis here's the one and only...Coleman Brown. I told myself I wasn't going to cross contaminate my blogs but the answer to the question is a "boar spear" and it is exactly what it sounds like. Steve-o of the crispy sticks wants to kill a bear with it...I know, I know. (don't worry, I won't let him)

2008-06-05T19:39:00.000-07:00

Well, not much happening. 15 days til the trip. pics of the majestic eagle, at the not so majestic fort simpson landfill.
badee badee badee that's all folks.

2008-05-23T21:44:00.000-07:00

miranda and charlene have some fun challenging gravity. A freaky cloud and a sunset from about two weeks ago. We just got back from Yellowknife. We left Simpson last night at 7:00 p.m.-got in to YK at 2:00a.m. left YK at 2:00p.m. and back into simpson at 9:30p.m about 1600km round trip. pretty tired.

welcome back midnight sun

2008-05-14T19:19:00.000-07:00

I took this picture at 11:20p.m. two nights ago, as you can see it's pretty light out. The ferry will be going in the water tomorrow and operational on friday. we will likely take a drive down to Redknife river on sunday for some Arctic Grayling fishing. pound for pound these are the fighting-est fresh water fish I've ever caught.

2008-05-10T19:52:00.000-07:00

Miranda learned how to drive the dirtbike today. She got the hang of it pretty quick and was soon doing circuits around the house. Charlene had lunch in her playhouse today. We started putting together Charlene's playground set, and will finish it tomorrow after work. I also managed to finish installing my weather station, and tomorrow will power it up.

It was a busy day, but a nice one. Sure nice to spend the day outside instead of in the office.

Some bad news as Charlene's pup brownie is missing and presumed eaten by wolves. There have been some hanging around in the woods behind the airstrip in town all winter. you could hear them howling sometimes. it's not a very common occurence, but it happens. Cheeto was traumatized for a few days as well and was very timid but is back to her old self now.

Charlene took it quite well, and there were no tears.

break up

2008-05-07T19:08:00.000-07:00

My prediction turned out to be pretty close. The Liard river broke at the ferry crossing sometime after midnight and the ice broke by town shortly after that. There was little risk of flooding this year as the ice didn't jam up and has been flowing smoothly. GTUG got stuck and had to get towed back to Woverine Air's ramp at the town strip.

The busted ice, it was not so good a show this year. I hear maybe a week to ten days for the ferry. busy at work today.

breaking up is hard to do...

2008-05-05T18:44:00.000-07:00

for the ice on the river this year it is, that's for sure. I'm guessing tomorrow night at the latest. we are on our annual flood watch.

We have the Vista curse on our computer as well. when I get my laptop, I'll be getting windows XP installed.

I'm only trying once for pics tonight.

congrats to Sis and Gary on the arrival of the two new baby goats.

well that's it for me, it was like fort simpson international airport out there today.

and i am bushed. here's pics from previous post. woo hoo! it worked!

2008-05-01T18:52:00.000-07:00

well, not too optimistic about my chances for pics tonite but what the heck, it's not like I was caught in grid lock, or stuck in line at the grocery store...so I have to get my frustration somewhere.
Speaking of the grocery store, at this time of year EVERYTHING and EVERYONE that comes or goes from fort simpson has to be flown across the river, til the ice breaks and the ferry goes in the water. Here a Great Slave Helicopter, that's a Bell 206 jetranger, comes in and drops another load of groceries to the truck waiting on the simpson side of the river.
there's nothing like a nice helicopter ride across the river to drive the price of milk into the stratosphere. At this time of year when you go into the grocery store you kind of have to find your happy place to avoid the pain.
If blogger allows here's Coleman and Charlene doing what they do best, being cute.
Okay, blogger.
Well everyone, since blogger says no go on the pics, you will have to imagine the helicopter, and my cute kids.
p.s. the helicopter is blue if that helps.

charlie brown v5.0

2008-04-24T20:03:00.000-07:00

Charlene turned five years old yesterday. she had a party and got a LOT of presents. I'll tell you though, seven little girls can sure make a racket.
Miranda never had much of that kind of thing(birthday parties and such) as a kid growing up in the bush, so she makes up for it by going all out for our kids. blogger is bluggering me so that's it for now. four tries for pics is my limit, maybe tomorrow.