Just another great evening
You know the stars have aligned when your friend quotes Seth Godin to you and it all makes sense.
That, with a side of belly laughs thank you very much.
This week was all about the food...
Macha latte
Pizza night with homemade lemonade and gooseberry pie, chai tea for the kids and the best coffee I have ever had (made with love - and an awesome Rocket machine).
Freshly picked orange delicious (Lactarius deliciosus) mushrooms cooked in butter.
Because of course, that's the most sensible thing to do after a juice cleanse! Oh well, what can you do when you are a foodie and there are only 10 days left before you hit the road and become ovenless again...
We were served delicious buckwheat pancakes (made with flour ground in a flour mill from a friend's family) served with maple syrup made by her partner's family. What a treat it was! And what a lovely time we had together. Then, I taught little girls how to make blueberry pies and maple pecan pies, made turkey zucchini and cumin burger (with zucchini from the greenhouse) served with a garlicky sour cream lemon pepper sauce for a simple dinner with friends. There was also a beet, feta and arugula salad with basil-balsamic dressing, a decadent brown-butter sage with blue cheese macaroni with pesto & walnut topping (a Jamie Oliver recipe), grilled veggies pizzas with chèvre and Cholula sharp cheese straws (based on this recipe). A coffee chocolate cake with basil buttercream (if you thing basil and chocolate are a weird mix, think again! Basil-chocolate is the new orange-chocolate!). Oh yeah! It was heaven!
Gugus et Chou-rave
Title of the show: The adventures of Gugus and Chou-Rave (a chou-rave is a kolhrabi, don't ask me how they came up with that name!).
Inspired by the Frantic Follies show we saw last week, the girls created their own show (they worked two full days on it!) and even made official tickets for their friends to attend. It was really awesome to see how brave they are to be silly and take on roles in front of an audience! They were great! And since we are housesitting at a house where shows take place in the forest, the setting was perfect!
Juice feast!
Since we have access to fresh greens from the garden, I usually prepare the fruits and at the last minute, I go pick the greens so they keep as much nutrients as possible. In that juice, there was kale, chard, spinach, dandelion - we still have some young dandelion greens in the shaddy spots here! - and lamb's quarter (Chenopodium album), an awesome weed that is very concentrated in nutrients, as weeds usually are (another awesome weed for juicing is chickweed (stellaria media). We have also juiced clover this week.
I know people have LOTS of opinions on juice cleanses, or juice fast (or fasting in general). In the raw food world, we call them juice feasts and that's really what they are. A juice feast is drinking only (homemade, colorful) juices for days (from 2-3 to as many as 60 or 90 days) to give your body a break so it can heal itself. It's like a reboot. If you wonder what the health benefits of a juice feast are, you can read this article from the Huffington Post. As some of you know, we drink a green juice almost daily and eat a pretty healthy diet, but sometimes feel the need to flush the accumulated toxins out. For instance, I have had a mountain bike crash and even after a few chiro session, my neck is still painful and I know the juice fast will bring down the inflammation. I also had more migraines lately (a sign my liver is clogged with all the good food and wine I have been having with friends in the last few months!).
People always joke about my baby face and the fact that I still don't have wrinkles at 37... I believe the daily juicing helps keep my skin nice and soft and my complexion clear (and, well, I have good genetic for wrinkles!). It amazes me how when I juice feast, I feel more grounded, relax, a bit slower (which is good for a little fiery thing like me!). However, just to be clear, don't expect to feel great on the first few days. It is totally normal to feel sluggish and unwell (headache, nausea, fatigue) while the body flushes out the junk and adjusts to the new reality of the juice fast. From day 3-4 on, you usually feel great and energized!
I realize that people confuse green smoothies and green juices. Smoothies are made in a blender (like the Vitamix) and keep the whole fruits and veggies (with their fibers) whereas juices leave the fibers out and are made in a juicer like the Omega, Breville or Champion. I have the Omega 8006 and love it (I have owned a Champion and Breville before).
There are tons of great recipes here, but I'll share our favorite with you. Usually, we make 4 to 5 juices a day (and JF and I drink at least 500 ml each time). The girls drink juice too, but eat their usual meals also. I start the day with the lemon water (actually, my version is the juice of one lemon - pure, as a shooter - washed down with very hot water), Then, the first juice of the day (and our usual green juice outside of the juice feast) is this one:
Detoxing green juice
2 bunches of kale
1 box baby spinach (or any other greens)
1 bunch italian parsley
5 apples
4 oranges
2 lemons
1 thumb of ginger
Run through juicer.
The other classic one I make every day is this one:
2 lbs carrots
1 small beet
2 celery stalks
3 apples
1/2 thumb of ginger
When I am tired of the sweet taste, I make a V8 type juice like this one. And we usually have this delicious one at the end of the day.
This time around, I really did not feel hungry of felt any cravings, like I did in previous juice cleanses. I attribute it to the fact that I used lots of freshly picked greens and wild edible, that are extremely rich in nutrients. Here's a list of common weeds that you probably have in your backyard that are an awesome addition to any juice!
Mountain biking on Montana Mountain, in Carcross, Yukon
Isn't that Unimog the coolest shuttle vehicle ever?!
It was Java's first ride (we took him on a fun 5 km loop) and he did awesome! He never was in the way and followed very well (he even whined every time we stopped because he wanted to keep going!). He's gonna be a great riding partner!
Very tired but very happy little girls!
Did I say tired?
How do you turn a big sandpit into a major tourist attraction? You call it The Smallest Desert on Earth! I am not kidding... this sandpit is undeniably the most visited sandpit in the world...!
Since I never bring my camera on our bike rides, you haven't seen many pictures of our outings here (I have posted some phone pictures on the Facebook page). Today was an all-day meet of the girls' bike team at Montana Mountain in Carcross (one of the amazing bike trail systems in the Yukon). They had shuttles going up all day and they had a blast! As for me, well, let's say that even with the beautiful scenery, the nice people and the great coffee, it still ended up being a pretty hard day... The trails in Carcross are challenging for my skill levels (which are, in all honesty, pretty basic...), and I don't really like being outside of my comfort zone (and being scared of hurting myself), so I am glad the pictures were taken before the tears and the swearing... when I was still smiling... I hope that next year we will be back in the Yukon early enough so I can take Boréale Biking women's skills clinic, feel more confident and beat that fear!
Our morning walks
That is the view of the Yukon River we get after a 5 minute stroll from the house (the trail litterally passes through the property) and we can hike or bike for kilometers.
Collecting wild sage for her best friend so she can smell the Yukon!
This is a squatter's cabin. In the 50's and 60's there was a big squatter population here (squatters are a group of people living without authorisation on Crown and private land) and there are still many squatters house in and around Whitehorse.
The mornings are getting cold up here already and getting out of bed is harder and harder… I end up being snuggled by little girls in the morning… The other day, a sleepy eyed Aïsha put her head on my shoulder and breathed in my neck…
-You smell so good, mama!
-Really? What do I smell like? (I had a lot of question marks in my voice since I hadn’t showered since the previous night mountain bike ride and imagine I smelled very… ahem... earthy!
-I don’t know, you smell like my mom… and it’s so yummy!
Ahh! These girls!
Beach days
You can see our friends' Dan and Helen Anne's house being built in the background. I was on kid duty while the dads put together the second floor.
After a few weeks of rain and cold weather, we thought fall was here for good (yes, August is fall here), but even if the leaves are already changing colors, summer surprised us this week with one last burst of sun and heat. I am sure that at least half the population of Whitehorse was crowded on the few beaches that are close to town, soaking up the warmth, knowing all too well that it might be the last time they can lay bare skin on a beach this year.
On our morning walks, I have been noticing how the fireweed leaves are starting to turn red, and the aspen leaves, yellow. The girls are running ahead, screaming like little squaws to inform the bears of their presence, arms open, beautiful and happy. I cannot help but notice how teenager like they are looking these days. I often catch a glance of the women they will be one day. But for now, just like all the Yukonners up here, I am basking in their glorious sunshine and enjoying every moment they still want to share with me, knowing all too well that it won’t last many more seasons...
Home for 3 weeks
We are housesitting again at a beautiful artists' house with awesome gardens and a greenhouse (and a really friendly cat!)... oh! And a hot tub too! We have been baking, juicing and sewing, as well as enjoying the beautiful trails that leave right off our door.
In 3 weeks (at the end our our housesit), we will be heading south to meet our beloved friends from Wisconsin in British Columbia, where we will spend a few months before crossing back into the States for our winter adventures!
A musical weekend
The rain held off long enough so we could enjoy an improvised dinner of whole salmons cooked on the fire and a beautiful blue moon ritual, with songs on the guitar.
She did her guitar concert on the big stage of the Yukon Art Center.
The kids rock band totally stole the show! They had changed the words of Eric Clapton's Cocaine's song (it was Propane!) and it was hilarious!
We brought the girls to see the Vaudeville revue show The Frantic Follies and we all had a blast! You should have heard them roar when JF got picked to go on the stage and won the best garter watcher title! What a night!
As we were driving back from her guitar class one afternoon this week, Fade to Black came up in the Westy and she started strummed the air. I told her that I used to play that song with my 16 yo boyfriend… (him on his electric guitar, me on my classical one…). Because, you know, sometimes you have to throw stuff like that in a conversation with your kids, so they realize, you have not always been a mom... and even worst, that you rocked!
She smiled and said with twinkling eyes:
-Really? That's so coooool! That means you could teach it to me!
Oh... I wish I remembered how to play, baby girl… I’d love to show you some Metallica or Iron Maiden from my past life!
Seriously...
You were not going to read it, were you?
We start them young on green juice in our family!
What's cuter than one puppy? Two puppies!! When our friend brought her brand new pup to meet with Java, they played non-stop for two hours!
My lucky little fox... asleep in my bed…
Yes, he is seriously adorable. He even nurses in his dreams...! I have started making him brown rice and cooked kale with chia seeds soaked in green juice... with a side of meat, of course, because, well, as much as I'd like to feed him a vegetarian diet, he is a carnivore! Oh, and I googled sprouted seeds for dogs... and started a Pinterest board of homemade dog food. Yeah, I know. I think I am falling in love...
Cooking and creating with Leslie
We are back at Wolf Creek campground (the fox campground!) and are camped near our traveling friends, Leslie and Philippe. Leslie is Belgian and is teaching us how to cook some awesome specialties. We made Belgian chocolate mousse (twice already!) and I am hoping she will show us how to make Madeleine soon! She also lended the girls a cool little machine she found at the free store (at the Recycling center) to make little donut-shaped cakes; such a treat for my oven-deprived girls! Mathilde also showed Leslie and 5 yo Adrien how to make polymer clay (Fimo) creations (we were lucky to have a workshop by polymer clay artist Lara Melnick offered to us by one of the girls' Yukon grandmas - Johanne - a few weeks ago). We had a blast!
Leslie also lended us a really fascinating book that we are reading aloud together around the bonfire (and snuggled in bed on cold rainy days!) called Aurore of the Yukon: a Girl's adventure in the Klondike Gold Rush. It is the story of a nine year old girl from Montreal named Aurore Cossinet and her adventure to the Yukon at the height of the Klondike Gold Rush in 1898. Amazingly, the story is based on her own diary and is written in her own words. Aurore's story was recently discovered by her great-granddaughter in a trunk at the old family cabin at Army Beach. Aurore travels to Dawson City, Yukon via Skagway and Dyea, Alaska, at the height of the Klondike Gold Rush in 1898. Along the way, she meets Jack London, Soapy Smith and other historical figures on her way to the story's climax in the Yukon. It is complementing all the learning we did last year about the Gold Rush when we visited Skagway and Dyea with the girls.
Mt Skookum
Do you see the mountain goat herd up there?
They hiked up that saddle, straight up to the top.
Our friend Phil is an awesome skier and had explored this area last year (he actually climbed Mt Skookum with ice axes and crampons with his skies on his back...) and wanted to go see what it looked like in the summer. It is a pretty remote area, at the end of Annie Lake Road. They drove as far as they could, then biked up 13 km on an old mine road (and carried their bikes on their shoulders to cross a few streams....) and started hiking in this incredible wilderness. They saw a herd of mountain goats and one lone caribou. Not another human for 8 hours. For JF to say that is was a tough hike, it means that it *really* was a hard hike, with loose rocks and some scrambling up using hands and feet. As you can see from the pictures (and those are phone pictures!), it was well worth the effort!
*Skookum is a Tlingit word that means "very strong". I find it quite fitting!
I wish I could...
My friends Helen Anne and Dan are building their dream house on their dream property. These guys are the king and queen of manifesting their dreams. I remember clearly sitting on the beach on the other side of the lake with Helen Anne many years ago and her pointing to the other side of the lake and saying: one day, I’ll have a house there. Of course, I thought. There are only 8 parcels of land where you can build a house around that lake and they are very coveted… She set her intention, shared her dream with some people (including AN acquaintance who has a cabin on the lake) and let it go... A few years went by. Then last year she received an email from that acquaintance who shared that a neighbour on the lake was selling his little old cabin. They made an offer. And got it. It was a giant leap of faith. And a big undertaking to demolish the cabin and start building a house for their family. And last night, they held their first floor party! As we sat on the plywood floor as the sun was going down, watching the kids play in the lake, we listened to an older neighbour (most of them have lived there for 25 and 40 years!) tell us about how this used to be the party place when they were young. He proceeded to tell us how one very merry evening, a few guys sky-dived naked and one landed in a tree right there. It felt like the perfect closure to a fun evening. This is really a happy place!
When we met with them in 2012 for a few weeks during our travels, I remember asking Dan if he was taking that year off to reevaluate what he wanted to do for a living. He said his dream was to teach canoe and kayak, but never gave it much tought before. Now, 3 years later, he runs a very popular canoe summer camp and trains athletes!! Talk about making things happen and following your passion!
I know some of you read my posts with envy. Maybe what you see in me is that part of yourself that wants to take a leap of faith. That my fire lights up your fire. But that fear, or your need for routine and for security, makes you believe that you can't do it. Don't believe the lie. Jump!
What is it that you wish you could do?
I wish I could live a thousand lifetimes and try them all…
A hike in the clouds
You never know what's gonna be revealed once the clouds lift... There is always a silver lining.
“Thirty-nine years of my life had passed before I understood that clouds were not my enemy; that they were beautiful, and that I needed them. I suppose this, for me, marked the beginning of wisdom. Life is short.” ― Iimani David
A new passenger
Meet Java. He is part of a litter of puppies that were rescued when they were 3 weeks old in Pelly Crossing (with their mom) by the Yukon Humane Society. The mom had given birth under the shed of a man who planned to get rid of them in a pretty drastic way (think river drowning). He is a mix of Brindle, Bear dog, Husky, Lab and probably many other breeds...
JF and the girls had been wanting a dog for a few years already. As much as I love dogs, it was not part of my plans to share our 150 square feet of living space with anybody else... especially not the shedding kind... but I could see how much my desire to not have a dog was coming against their desire to really have a dog. So I took a deep breath and trusted that it would all be fine.
So that's how we added a new passenger to our crew. And his shelter name - Java - was a perfect fit for the Red Bus café... oh and his little sister was called Mara... What's not to like?
A day inside
Aïsha read Alexander The Great's story while Mathilde knitted and Mara did some origami. I call this a perfect rainy morning...
Watching Pollyanna
Today was a grey rainy day. We hunkered down in the bus and got ready for an inside day. I know many of you believe that our life is just one big giant holiday, and it is in a way, but come in, I’ll show you what most of our days really look like… Of course, summer is a bit different since we are visiting with friends here and enjoying the Yukon as much as possible, but there is still work to do… JF works more than full-time from the bus and when he isn’t, I do translation contracts (mostly at night). When we’ll leave the Yukon (in 5 weeks!) and head south, we’ll get back into more of a routine. Because, honestly, when you live on the road and every day is different, you need some kind of framework around your days.
When the girls were younger, we homeschooled using a Waldorf curriculum. Actually, when I started my old blog in 2008, it was mostly to share Waldorf ressources in French. I had the perfect Waldorf homeschooling going on. I told the girls stories I learned by heart with homemade needle-felted puppets, we baked our sourdough bread and made cheese, butter and crème fraîche from our cows’ milk. Yes, I know. I was a bit of an overachiever. But I like to call it passion. It sounds better. Here’s more of a background story if you care to read it.
Then, when we started traveling, we moved to unschooling since it felt like a better fit for our family. Learning is everywhere, and its even more true when you travel! A few years ago, the girls asked me to pick up the role of teacher again and with some doubts, I carefully tip toed back into it… do we still unschool? Do we homeschool? We live. We do a lot of what we love and this is different for all of us. But mostly, we find joy in our daily life.
I wrote this almost 3 years ago and it is still very true today :
Of course, there are days where I'd love my girls to love what we love. It would make our life easier. But above all, I want them to discover what *they* truly love. What makes them sing. Not what I think is good for them (whatever that means). What feels good to them. And that, my friends, is really at the core of unschooling. Finding that place where no one has to give up who they are for the others, but can soften enough to support one another.
Sometimes, it feels like we're a mish-mash little family all in limbo, but sometimes things just shine, and i see that i haven't failed in every way after all. That I actually did OK. And maybe even better than that.
Mushroom hunting at Fish Lake
The mossberries are almost ripe!
The bolets weren't out yet (nor did we find any other interesting mushrooms...), but the company was great, and nature was stunning, as usual. We found many bones from a big animal (horse or moose?), and beautiful wildflowers and berries. This place runs in my blood.
On housesitting and domesticity
A house with a slide beside the stairs? Yes, please!
Mathilde sewed that shirt for herself from an old shirt of mine and a pair of shorts!
If you follow Road it up on Facebook, you probably saw my little series about all the things I love about the Yukon. Here’s one more: housesitting. I had never heard that word until I moved here 12 years ago. It’s staying at someone’s place for free while they are gone and taking care of the animals, plants and garden, for weeks or months at a time. We are lucky to have at least a few offers every summer when we come here. This year, since the girls have 2 bike meets a week in town (and dance camp this week for Mara, music camp for Mathilde in two weeks), we are sticking to the housesitting opportunities that are close to town.
So this week, we are housesitting at our friends’ beautiful place, 3 minutes drive from Mara’s dance camp. I feel so domestic watering the garden, baking and feeding the cat and hamsters! There’s a washer and dryer, an oven and a dishwasher!! A mere two hours after we arrived, Mathilde and I were already baking cookies! The next day, I started with granolas, and soon I had baked a strawberry shortcake, cardamom-pecan-apricot cookies and apple crisp. That’s how I roll! Give me a kitchen, and I’ll feed you!
Oh! And the girls and I did an hour-long interview (in French) about our life on the road. You can listen to it on Soundcloud here. The first 2 minutes have some silences, but after that, it's all fine.
Goodbye Pine Lake
The soapberries (Shepherdia canadensis) are already out! The girls love to whip them into Indian ice cream (when whipped with sugar, the berries turn into a pink foamy concoction). The girls also love to rub the berries all over themselves (it creates foam!) and rinse themselves in the lake. It really does leave the skin feeling clean and fresh!
Yosemite, Sequoia National Park, Lake Tahoe, Joshua Tree: here we come!!
It was the grey jays fighting over a piece of rhubarb pie, the loon singing in the middle of the night when all is quiet, the mama duck and her ducklings that came to see me when I sat on the dock. It was the pain and shame that I shed on that very same dock. It was the healing tears. It was wild strawberries stained mouths and maps all over the bed, the planning of the next leg of our adventure.
It was the way I realized how I am walking the tightrope between old and new, familiar and exciting. It was the deep exhale. Breathe.
Another beautiful encounter and more friends
We left Whitehorse at 9:30 pm after a two hour bike ride in the rain. The girls fell asleep on top of each other on the drive back, between bike helmets, piles of clean laundry and bags of groceries. It was the perfect hour to drive the distance that separated us from our campsite in Pine Lake, near Haines Junction. I rolled down my window and let the warm hair dry my hair. After about 30 minutes of driving, we were completely alone on the road. We didn’t pass one single vehicule for almost an hour. Alone in that beautiful wild nature.
We expected to be alone for our second week in Pine Lake, but we lucked out with awesome neighbors! I had met a nice family a month ago in the Whitehorse Library parking lot (she was taking pictures of our stickers on the Westy when I came out!) and we talked for 5 minutes and stayed in touch through Facebook. They were on a 4-month long road trip, heading towards Alaska. On their way down, they stopped in Pine Lake for a few nights and we had great conversations together about living intentionally, eating healthy and stepping out of the rat race. It is so easy to connect with people that really get you!
We also had the beautiful visit of the girls' Yukon grandmas on two separate occasion during the week. The attachment they feel for these women who took care of them almost every Wednesday night for 4 years while JF and I had a few hours to ourselves is so special. My heart is heavy with gratitude for all the love around us.