The 'critter count' here at NorthWapiti grew a little 10 days ago. Nope - no puppies, no chicks, no kittens - and we don't count bees. There are, by my calculations, 1.4 million of them here  (no, I'm not kidding 24 hives of about 60,000 bees each) .... Our 'critter count' grew by THREE. 

Meet - Parsley

Sage

and Thyme

Yup.....DUCKS!!!

Why ducks, you ask?
Well, our gorgeous piece of property in the Tawatinaw Valley, which we love dearly and has been more than ideal for us for the last 19 years, is just not suitable for sheep. 
Being in a river valley, the ground is mostly sand with pines, lichen, and scrubby brush.
While we could clear out a corral, feed year round and haul the sheep somewhere to properly work them, that really is not fair to my husband, sheep and this lovely piece of  land. 

We looked pretty seriously at moving, but to be bluntly honest, dog bylaws in the province have gotten so out of control that to leave a place that we know is accepting and supportive of our dwindling, but still important to me, sled dogs would be insane. 

So things were in limbo..... until Twig and I went out to do a sheep herding demo with some friends in a nearby town.
Gisela, another herding friend, was doing a demo with her border collies and ducks after our sheep demo. It was the first time I had actually watched dogs working ducks. It got gears really turning.
I talked to a few folks about it and just over a week later Bet and I were picking up our new ducks. 

They are Indian Runner/Peking Duck crosses from my friend Jill. Jill uses them for herding in addition to her sheep and has some lovely working dogs. 

You can see a video of Jill doing a 'duck demo' here . 

We set up the pen we used for the chickens last year with a dog house, a 'pond' and the likes. They seem to be enjoying the set up and are settling in well. 

Got to say, I'm enchanted. They are ADORABLE.

Twig is also enchanted. They are HERDABLE.
Zac says 'They are not sheep'. He refuses to look at them, but I can get him to move around them so they go where I need them too. 
​Bet gets so excited around them I think she pees alittle - not that she'd admit it. 

Stay tuned - new adventures on the way!!!

The other day I was puttering around the Tawatinaw River valley with my lovely nieces and a small herd of dogs that were loving splashing in the water on a warm summer day.

We headed up to one of my favourite ridges where I often sit and watch clouds roll across the valley and immediately I noticed something bright orange sitting along the ridge line. I muttered under my breath thinking someone had left some garbage up there but was silenced quickly when I realized it was a memorial marker.

​That afternoon at the hairdresser I Googled the name on the rock and found a lovely obituary for a man close to my age that had some struggles in life, but seems to love and be loved well. One of the things he loved was this valley.

I roam this bit of the Tawatinaw valley on a daily basis and there is not much of our 160 acres of land and the land surrounding it that has not been touched by my footprints, sled runners, my snowshoes, quad tracks, bike tires, and the paw prints of a dog or two or four or 16 that seem to always be tagging along with me. My love for this spot began the moment I first set foot on it, as many can attain, and hasn’t waned even a touch in the 19 years since.


It is extremely rare that I run into other people in the valley, but sometimes I find signs of their presence - empty beer bottles (which disgust me), smashed bits of vehicles that folks tried to squish down trails intentional keep too narrow to accommodate them, footprints, crayfish traps, remnants of fires thankfully well put out, and images from our game camera.


And then there are the signs of those that inhabited it in a different generation - graves (at least 4 scattered around the property), fragments of old bottles and metal that sometimes work their way up to the surface of well worn trails, old house sites with their dug out basements/cold storage spots, and the likes.

And, of course, the signs of the MANY animals that have and do call this area their home - moose, deer, bear, coyotes, wolves, cougars, fishers, bobcat, lynx, skunk, porcupine, rabbits, eagles, herons, foxes, elk, beavers, otters, and many smaller critters have all been documented on the property.

And if you have sat in my infamous ‘Chairs’ out along the trail, you were in the presence of the ashes of many amazing sled dogs - and some truly awesome pets - that have shared my life.

As much as I think of it as ‘my’ corner of the world, it is not. I am just one of thousands and thousands of souls that have been connected to this land and will be connected to it in the future..

Years ago I ran into a lady whose Great Uncle lived in the area. We did the ‘where did he live?’, ‘where do you live?’ Game and it turns out we were talking about the very same place. He lived here during the Depression and passed along the fact that his young brother contracted an illness and died here - one of the small graves, I’d suspect. I wish we had kept in touch and I could have found out more.

I know brief tidbits of the valley, like the story from the woman I ran into and some of the older folks that lived in the area and berry picked down here their whole life. Stories of fires, stories of going to school, stories of the old shingle factory, crossing the Tawatinaw with oxen and wagons heading to settle the Peace Country… The folks we bought the property from had grand plans cut short by his heart attack and death here (the lilac in front of the house was planted in his memory by his children). A few years back a Mother and daughter stopped in to see the place. The daughter had fond memories of picking blueberries out here with her Grandma. She reported that Joyce had sadly passed a few years back. I told her she was welcome out any time to pick berries.

Connection to land is special thing. I am grateful to have experienced it and have that thread of community that runs behind, through and eventually beyond me via it.

I doubt I’ll spend my whole life here. It feels like there are still new adventures out there for me and different landscapes to love and explore but for the time I’m here, I’m going to love it as it deserves to be loved - and when I leave, like Tom Parker, a bit of me will likely stay behind. ​


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