Visitors

Could it be?? Yes, someone made the trek up to visit! Special K’s sister, Wendy and kids Wyatt and Mackenzie came up for the weekend…all the way from Dinsmore, Saskatchewan. (That’s a 10 hour drive!). We had a great weekend with them: we toured Finning and climbed up on a 797 haul truck, saw some bison, rode our bikes 14km round trip to Dairy Queen, went swimming and hot tubbing and ate our body weight in ice cream sandwiches. Thanks for coming up!
I’ll get some pictures posted soon.

Calling All Thai Chefs!

Please come to Ft.Mac and open a restaurant! This town has basically everything I need to survive, except a Thai restaurant. And that’s pretty crucial to my overall happiness!
There is actually a pretty good selection of restaurants here: you’ve got your standards like The Keg and Earls, some local favs like The Fish Place and Tio Mario’s and a smattering of decent pubs…but no Thai! I was craving Thai so bad last night, I would have gladly settled for Vietnamese but instead I ended up with some Syrian Shwarma. What? That’s not even close! It was delicious and all, but not that flavourful curry and coconut rice I was looking for…gahhhhh…(that’s my drooling sound)
SO, all you Thai chefs out there, we need you! And I guarantee you will make a fortune.
And while we’re at it, a Vietnamese place and a Cactus Club would be nice too! Thanks! Hope to see you soon.

Newfie Pride

If there's a Newfoundlander in your neighbourhood, you'll know it.

Just your everyday grocery-getting mobile

Weekend Update

Well it was another sunshiny week here in the Mac. The weather has been gorgeous all week, much to the disgust of pretty much everyone south of here. Whenever you’re tired of the rain, come on up for a visit!
So to enjoy the lovely weather we started the weekend by playing 9 holes at Miskanaw golf course (which is one of 3 golf courses in Ft. Mac, by the way) on Friday night. I bought a set of clubs on Kijiji a few weeks ago and I’ve been practicing at the driving range, so this was my big debut golfing in public with other people. And much to Special K’s surprise, I did pretty good! Especially considering I’m fairly new to the game AND I don’t even have the right shoes, which I’m told by my golfing partner (who’s name, believe it or not, is also Meagan) is crucial. Anyway, I ended up finding just as many balls as I lost, so according to my math, that’s par baby!
On Saturday, Special K went quadding with the boys and I went to the waterpark with the girls to hang out, tan and read celebrity mags. Ps: If anyone can shed some light on why Kim Kardashian is so special, do let me know - I don’t get it.
On Sunday morning we did a team house clean, and let me tell you that Special K can really clean when he wants to. He was scrubbing toilets like nobody’s business! My friend Kim says that all men fall into one of two categories: useful and useless. So Kirt, it’s official: you’re on the useful list!
Afterwards we headed out to Gregoire Lake with some friends for an afternoon BBQ at the beach. Gregoire is a provincial park about 30 mins from Ft. Mac. The picture isn’t very good, but you get the idea: Lake, boats, trees, sand, picnic tables, people having fun. For a weekend with no plans, it turned out pretty great!

Beware of Caterpillars

They’re baaaaack. And we’re not talking about the shiny yellow ones Special K loves so much. The other ones: the small hairy wiggly ones dangling from the trees.
I went for a bike ride last night through the Birchwood trails - which up until yesterday I was so fond of - until I saw this little creep hanging in a tree. Sure, one in a tree is no big deal to most people, but if you were here in 2007/2008 this sight would make you nervous too. Every 10-15 years or so there is an infestation of Tent Caterpillar’s up here, and it is absolutely nasty. I was here visiting Special K in the summer of 2008 and there were caterpillars everywhere; in trees, on cars, and crawling all over sidewalks and buildings. Special K had to hose down his house with pesticide to get them off. Plus, they eat everything in their path so most of the trees had no leaves left by the end of the summer. If you don’t already have the hibijeebee’s, click here for a better idea of what it was like.
So now you understand my fear of one little caterpillar! But then, to make matters worse, on the way home I rode through a small web of them that must have been stretched across the trail and almost crashed my bike trying to get them off of me. I’m just glad I was wearing a hat and earphones! There were only a few, so it’s probably not a sign of an infestation, but just to be safe I probably won’t be riding my bike through the forest anymore! Or if I do, I’m going to need a HazMat suit!

There’s Oil in Them Thar Sands!

What exactly is oil sand you ask? Well, here it is! It’s sand covered in a thin layer of water, encased in a layer of bitumen. So yes; oil mixed with sand -- just as you suspected!
We came across some last weekend when we were out exploring, so I thought I’d give you a little educational post today. Don’t worry, it’s a very dumbed-down version!
Oil sand occurs naturally in the ground in many parts of the world, only here in northern Alberta there is a lot of it. The deposit here is 140,000 square km - about the size of Florida. The goal of the oil companies is of course to separate the oil from the sand and turn it into something useable. Around Ft. Mac the oil sands are fairly close to the surface so they are literally dug out of the ground in giant open-pit mines. The majority of Alberta’s oil sands (80%) are too far below the surface to be mined this way so they are recovered using in-situ methods, ie: drilling. The amount of land that is actually mineable is 500 square km – about the size of Toronto.
And that’s pretty much all I can wrap my brain around for today! One of these days I will make it to the Oil Sands Discovery Centre and learn more.

I’ll leave you with a few fun facts:
-Two tonnes of oil sands must be dug up, moved and processed to produce one barrel of oil.
-Northern Alberta has the second largest oil reserves in the world, after Saudi Arabia
-The oil sand reserves in N. Alberta are about the size of Florida. The part currently being mined is about the size of the Kennedy Space Centre.
-There is enough oil in Northern Alberta to provide Canada with all it needs for the next 400 years.
-There are 91 active oil sands projects in Alberta. 5 are open pit mines.
-The mines around Ft.Mac are active 24/7/365. They only stop if it’s -50 and the giant trucks won’t start or when Greenpeace is chained to something.

Man Down!

The men in the man cave are dropping like flies around here! When I first moved in, there were four dudes and now there are two. Actually one at the moment, as Special K has gone to Illinois for a week. B-Rad is the latest to permanently vacate; he took a new job and is now living in camp a couple hours away. And I must say, the living room just isn’t the same without him relaxing in the lazyboy at 9am, Jack & Coke in hand! ;)

So, that means it’s down to the boyfriend and the brother now – stay tuned to find out who’s next!

(jokes, jokes - I don’t want either of you two to go anywhere!)

Here fishy fishy fishy

It truly is an outdoorsman’s paradise up here. Special K’s buddy Mike took us out in his jetboat last weekend for a cruise on the Athabasca river, near Fort McKay. They both managed to catch 4 or 5 fish each, while I only caught a stick and lost 2 hooks! But hey, at least it’s an improvement over the time I caught my own eyelid! (true story!)

Hucksters New 'Do

I finally found a place that would groom the Huckster sans medication and for under $300. Seriously, that’s the best I could find until this new pet store “The Bone & Buscuit” opened up this week. The groomer did an awesome job, which I didn’t even think would be possible because she’s such a spaz. (the cat, not the groomer).
Anyway, not only is there less hair everywhere, it has completely changed her personality. Suddenly she’s all friendly and nice and wants to be pet all the time. And, the weirdest part is that every night since, instead of meowing at the door to go outside, she’s been curling up beside me or sleeping right on my pillow, which has never happened before. I think she’s trying to thank me!

Deep-fried Pickles

Are…surprisingly delicious! And the place to try them is at the “Burger Bar” - the local watering hole in tiny Anzac, which is about 40km south of Ft.Mac. It’s just a small little town, 600 people or something, but they have this great little pub. The ride out was awesome too– such a great night for a cruise and the bugs are still pretty small so no major facial injuries! The pickles themselves are totally worth the trip – when you come to visit, I’ll take you!

Ps. I love chaps, they make me feel bad-ass, yo.

Somebody turn off the lights!

It must be summer because it stays light out now for most of the night. It’s 3:30 am as I write this, and I can see the glow of sunrise between the houses across the street and the sky is blue. Blue! I don’t think it ever really gets completely dark anymore, hence the reason I’m up at 3 in the morning! Maybe I’ll go mow the lawn or something.

Kona Love

The wedding was absolutely beautiful and we had a great time in Hawaii. Here’s a pic of Kent and Lisa on their big day. The rest of the trip was great as well – sun, sand, surf and a good group of people, what else do you need right? One of the highlights was a dolphin snorkel trip, which was incredible – we were literally swimming with wild dolphins out in the ocean – so neat! Hopefully the pics from my underwater camera turn out!