Barry, in the mean time, is still working North of 60. Here he is checking out the Merv Hardie Ferry with Michel Lafrance, the Regional Superintendent of the Department of Transportation, Government of the Northwest Territories, (he must be taking the picture) which crosses the mighty Mackenzie River. Everyone that drives to Yellowknife has to go across the Mackenzie River which drains the eighth largest freshwater lake in the world, Great Slave Lake. The Mackenzie moves the water past the Arctic Circle and deposits it into the Arctic Ocean. For the past number of years there has been a movement afoot in Yellowknife to put a bridge across the Mackenzie, it is going to be built right where the red bouy is in the background of the picture ( I can't pick it out, but it is probably there). Barry says they started surveying last week and they will start bringing in materials this winter and the bridge is scheduled to be finished in 2010. There was a big dump of snow the previous week in Hay River and Yellowknife but it has all but disappeared here. Barry's last day of work in Fort Simpson, where he is currently stationed, will be Oct. 18. On the 19 he will fly to Yellowknife to get his hip checked out again and then return to Fort Simpson and start making his way south. I am hoping he will be here on Oct 21 or 22. It will be interesting to see if the doctor in Yellowknife thinks he is a candidate for a new hip.

Well I know you have all been wondering about "the car". Greame and Trish bought a 65 mustang and Graeme is in the process of restoring it. He is at the stage where the car has been completely stripped and he has straightened the frame, now he is working on the body panels. The watchamadoeys are finished and the thingamjiggers are perfect, that is about as far as my car smarts takes me.

Graeme is also a surfer, (being a cool Aussie dude, of course he is into surfing). Trish got him an Indo board for his birthday. The board is a snazzy oval shaped piece of plywood that you put a roller underneath and you practise your balance on it. Greame is quite amazing to watch on it, that has been our entertainment for the last few days. Quinn is going to get some yams tonight for his Thanksgiving dinner, Trish and I are pretty excited about that!! The turkey is smelling, the pumpkin pie is ready and we have garden potatoes for mashing. Life is good!

Graeme is currently trying to decide what colour to make his car. He wants to know what you think? Please e-mail me at ann_lange@yahoo.com to register your vote for a black or a red mustang. THIS IS IMPORTANT, he really wants to know.

Trish and I have been indulging in recovery from surgery using the Grey's Anatomy method. The fellow renting the downstairs suite owns season 1, 2 and 3 of Grey's Anatomy, a TV show about interns in a hospital. We have just completed season 3 after a marathon week of uninterrupted shows, no commercial, no breaks. It was great, I guess! Trish managed to sit still and put her leg up most of the time, so that is a REALLY GOOD thing. There were days when I had cried so much from watching all sorts of wonderful actors loose their limbs, their lives and their lovers that I had a headache. Graeme seemed quite disgusted some days to find us sniffling away when he walked in for lunch.

Graeme cut his head with a pipe at work today and when he came home, I had immediate worries about thrombosis and shock and the possibility that we might have to amputate his head if the cut became infected and became septic!! Oh my, oh my, oh my, way too many hours watching that doctor stuff. In all seriousness, he had a huge bump with a cut on his forehead and Trish bandaged it up and we made him lie down and put his feet up and he put ice on the bump until the colour returned to his face, he looked a big green when he came in. He complained that the mixed veggies that Trish had been using for her knee weren't the right shape for his head and we thought that the remainder of the ice cream might do the trick. He could just lick off the drips as the ice cream melted down his face.

Trish's knee is coming along. She is able to walk around without crutches, she says she feels like Uncle Bruce when she is walking. We went into town today and bought groceries for Thanksgiving. That was her first foray into town since the accident and she seemed to handle it quite well, although she did say tonight that she needed to put her leg up and rest.

Why don't they have medium sized turkeys, we had a choice between a $10.00 turkey or a $30.00 turkey, what we would have liked was a $20.00 turkey, but there was no such animal in the freezer we were checking out. Do you think they don't grow medium ones??? Hope you all find just the size of turkey that you are looking for and enjoy the process of getting it ready and sharing it with other people.

Trish is on the mend. Quinn tried to put the crutches in his mouth, all things are normal.

Graeme took Trish into the hospital in Cranbrook on Monday to get her knee fixed. That was a good thing (that Graeme went with her instead of Quinn and I) they didn't get home until after 9:00 at night and Trish was still very groggy from the anesthetic. She looked pretty rough, I have never seen her so pale, it was a bit scary seeing her like that. Apparently the surgery went really well and she has to go back in 2 weeks to have the doctor look at it. When you watch her try and move her leg to a comfortable position you realize how much pain she must be in and how truly uncomfortable she is. She is not a complainer though and says very little about how much it hurts, believe me, she gets that from her Dad.

While they were gone I saw 2 bears cavorting around on the pasture about 300 meters from the house. Trish figures they were last years cubs. They seemed to be getting on quite well with each other and I just loved watching them put their heads down and scooch under a rail fence, amazing. One stood on his/her hind legs and helped herself to something in the bushes and then they wandered up to the neighbors deck to check it out and then headed off, after boxing each others ears. I make sure I am talking loudly to someone whenever I head down the driveway and I went and picked all the apples off of the tree, maybe they will figure out they are gone and take us off their snack route.

Quinn experiencing '"solid" foods

Trish and I have been busy the last few days. We went to Radium Hot Springs and soaked away our troubles for the morning. Quinn really enjoyed the warm water and seemed quite happy to get his face wet and float around on his back. Yesterday we joined in a yogathon to raise money for people that plant trees around the world. Apparently people all over the world were doing "sun salutations" for 108 minutes to raise awareness about world peace and other stuff. The girl that organized it showed a video about this organization that has planted 50 milliion trees around the world, replanting a barren mountain slope in the Phillipines that had been deforested for over a 100 years. They planted 3 species of trees and over 30 other species started growing once the planted trees had taken root, that was a pretty awesome fact. Amazing that seeds could lay dormant for over 100 years and then florish!!

Blue Eyes Squared

We saw a bear hanging about the yard yesterday and when I went down to the bottom of the yard to put the composting in it's spot, the bear had broken the top off the crabapple tree and leaned ]on a branch of the tree with the MacIntosh apples and busted it, to get at those apples. He was a pretty good size, bigger than the 2 we saw on our drive from Yellowknife to Innisfail for the wedding.

Today we made 4 apple pies. The lady next door had given Trish some apples so we made a Dutch topping for one of the pies as she had requested, 2 were ordinary and we made a lattice top for the last one, as they say variety is the spice of life. We picked the potatoes yesterday so have to get them ready for storing today. I helped Trish plant them in May when I was here so it was very nice to be here to help her take them out of the ground. Trish goes in for her surgery tomorrow, so I hope that all goes as planned.

Quinn giving his Mom a kiss

I made it to Windermere by the skin of my teeth. I had left my luggage in Bob's office downtown and he said he would give me a ride to the bus station. Lovely idea, BUT, he got caught in traffic and when we got to the bus station I had to butt in line because the bus was scheduled to leave the moment we got there. The teller phoned and asked if the bus had left yet and the lovely people at Greyhound actually held the bus for me while Bob ran around lugging my truly voluminous luggage around the terminal for me while I got the ticket.

Trish left here at 0500 this morning in order to be at the hospital at 0630 for pre op to fix her Anterior Cruciate Ligament in her knee. When she was in the hospital bed waiting to go into surgery they told her that a machine that was necessary for her surgery wasn't there. They do not have a permanent machine so have to share with other hospitals. It was supposed to be flown in last night, someone went to the airport to get it and it wasn't there. Rather than sit around all day and starve, waiting to fit into the surgery schedule they decided to do her knee on Monday morning. Quinn and I got to know each other, I had so much fun blowing on his feet when I was changing his pants. Trish and Graeme had some time alone together to do some shopping and I had a good practise run for Monday.

Before I left Yellowknife I took Cassidy and Elijah to the store and Elijah chose racing cars on a little track as his treat. He kept me busy putting the track together and changing the tops of his cars. The electical connection did not always work the way it should so it made for a busy afternoon. He asked to take it to his Dad's house, so we dismantled it and packed it up for transportation, someone else can wrestle with it now!!

So I am in Calgary now, headed for Windermere later today. It had snowed in Yellowknife on Saturday so I was looking forward to some warmer weather the further south I got. So, today in Calgary it snowed. I have been accused by my brother and my nephew of bringing the weather with me and I probably did. Hopefully it will be a tad warmer in Windermere, I was counting on a lovely southern fall. Barry said it snowed all day on Sunday in Fort Simpson. He will stay in Simpson until the middle of October and then he will drive out to meet me at our daughter's place in Windermere. I see to have accumulated a lot of luggage in my travels and had to pay extra on the plane and on the bus. ON THE BUS, my goodness they have the whole bottom of the bus to fill up and there wasn't room to squeeze a couple of extra bags on, give me a break. Oh well, the extra baggage on the bus was a lot cheaper than what I had to pay on the plane. Must go and catch my bus now.

I had a simply marvelous September long weekend. I went to Moose Bay with our good friends Janet and George Diveky and thier granddaughter Jackie, on their 35 foot Ericson, YOLA. It is a 25 mile race out on Saturday, we stay over on Sunday and have a grand potluck supper and then on Monday we race back to Yellowknife. Well, let's not talk about the racing, on the way out the winds were very fickle, to put it kindly, and we motored after 5 hours of torture and then started again only to have the wind gods frown on us once more, causing the first leg to be scrubbed. On the way home we started off the day motoring again, although the wind did come up and we were able to tack our way slowly towards YK. When we were 4 miles from home we hit a dearth of wind in the dreaded Dettah wind hole. As it was getting to be late in the day the Captain, very correctly, made the call to take the sails down and surrender and we would have to register a very unsatisfying DNF. AWWWWWWW!!





While we were in Moose Bay we checked out the cranberry situation, took a side trip to Drybones to check out the forest fire and the old Dene settlement, watched Jackie and the birthday boy Julian negotiate a floating bridge and dregded up many wonderful September long weekend memories. I am so glad I was able to go, the only thing that could have made it any better would have been if I could have shared it with Barry. He is just being a busy beaver working as hard as he possibly can in Fort Simpson. I have two weeks until I leave Yellowknife and then I will return to Invermere to be my daughter's legs for a week or so while she gets her knee repaired.

The wedding was terrific. We are really happy that we attended. It was a terrific time, Barry was the "named photographer" so he spent his time snapping pics on his brother's fancy new camera. The kids behaved beautifully and had a terrific time on the dance floor. Cassidy has natural rhythm and Elijah invented a truly strange dance step which involved hopping about on one foot, we could not imagine how he managed to keep it up for such an extended length of time.Quinn enjoyed the procedings and slept enough for Trish to teach Cassidy a few dance steps. He is a very alert young man, taking in whatever is happening, never dwelling too long on one thing but casting about to discover what else is new and different in his universe.

Kendra and James seem well suited for one another and it was a pleasure to get to know them better and here some of the stories about their past. The ceremony was performed by Margaret, the groom's Mom. and I could not believe how composed she was during it. It was great to have all of the Sam Lange's immediate family present and accounted for in one spot, and we have pictures to prove it. The wedding was held on farm property that has been converted to host weddings. There was a place to camp and hold a campfire, open space for the kids to run around and play games as well as a lovely dell where the wedding took place and numerous spots for truly memorable photos to be taken.

We are safely back in Yellowknife preparing for another work day tomorrow. Barry is going to stay in Yk tomorrow and then head back to Fort Simpson on Wednesday. He will take the car and then drive out with it when he leaves in Oct.

We are now in Innisfail, Alberta. Heather, Cassidy, Elijah, Barry and I drove from Yellowknife. We are here for the wedding of our nephew James Lange, Bruce and Margaret's son. We left on Thursday night after work. We got to the ferry at 2315 hours, the last one was supposedly at 2330 so made it with plenty of time. Cassidy managed to stay awake so that she could experience the ferry ride, but Elijah was fast asleep and missed it. He did not want to nap the rest of the trip in the car in fear that he would miss the ferry on the way back. Grandma absolutely promised that she would wake him up the next time we get to the ferry. We arrived in High Level at 033o and got a hotel room and crashed for 4 hours. We were on the road again at 0730 and 10 hours later at 1730 we followed the signs to the wedding site.

The kids were amazing in the car, no fighting and we had great fun, singing, playing games and just looking at everything. We saw bison grazing on the sides of the road, a small black bear gamboling along in the ditch, a coyote scooting across the highway, cows hanging out in a field, horses standing on a hill, a bull surveying his domain and a beaver dam just waiting for some action. We also saw huge amounts of hay in bales waiting to be put away, everytime Elijah saw it he would say "Hay", and I would think he was saying "Hey", and ask him what he would like. It took me quite a while to not react when he would exclaim "Hay"! We had a great trip down and we have 4 movies for the kids to watch on the way back. If I can just remember to charge up the computer we should be in great shape. We plan to head part way back on Sunday and then hopefully drive the part of the road where the bison hang out in the daylight and arrive in Yellowknife late in the evening on Monday.

Heather and I and the kids all went to the beach today. It was the perfect day, sunny, not too hot, NO BUGS. The kids played in the water, we played soccer and built a sand castle and then we had a weiner roast. Cassidy got stung by a wasp when she was changing and had a huge welt on the leg. Elijah discovered snails in the sand at the water's edge and was busy poking in the sand finding as many as he could. We went and had a weiner roast and then headed back to the beach. We had finished drinking our juice boxes and Elijah figured out a great game. You take the empty juice box and you blow it up and then you stick the straw back in it and put it on the ground. Then you stomp on it and see how far the straw will fly. It was a classic little boy game, eventually the juice box would give up the ghost and burst and that made the best noise. Cassidy was a great help carrying the firewood up to the campfire and carrying the water to put out the fire afterwards. There was much stirring of ashes to make sure nothing was still burning.

On the way to the beach Elijah wanted to have a smiling contest and all our cheeks were truly sore once we got there from the huge smiles plastered on our faces. Grandma suggested a frowning contest shortly afterwards but no one could maintain a good frown, although I think Cassidy held out the longest.

I finished off the day by going to spend dinner with some of my old sailing buddies and remeniscing about days gone by and making plans for September long weekend in Moose Bay. It should be a blast.

Our trip into Tungsten was wonderful. It was a 20 year blast into the past. The weather when we left Simpson was not good, low clouds, wind and rain and were not even sure we would be able to land in Tungsten, but the weather gods smiled upon us and it cleared up as we flew over Virginia Falls and then cleared further on the approach to Tungsten so we could see our old friends, Baldy and the Dutchman in all their glory.

We were met at the runway by Mark, the safety guy, and after donning the required safety vest and hard hat we, Barry and I and the pilot, got a wonderful tour of Tungsten. We walked down the streets and visited our townhouse. I wandered into the out of bounds old school house to take pictures, then we got to go through the rec centre. It was almost sad to see the condition of it. Part of the top of the rec center had been severly damaged by an avalanche, but the lower part is still in good condition and the gym is in use, although there is no heat in the building. Tungsten is strickly a fly in operation now, 3 weeks in and 3 weeks out, with employees from all over.

Here the wall of the rec centre was buckled by the force if the avalanche.

The safety guy lives in Comox on Vancouver Island. Barry was fascinated by how the mine was being run now and quizzed Mark on where the ore was coming from and the changes in the mine and the mill. Barry smoozing with the current occupant of his old office and once again enjoying the tremendous view.

After we finished out walk down memory lane we were treated to lunch in the old cook house. Then we were driven down to the hot springs and Barry and I doffed our clothes and soaked in the natural hot springs. The pilot unfortuneately had to go back to town to make a phone call (aw gee, too bad) so we had the place in ourselves for about 1/2 an hour and soaked our troubles away. What a treat. The hot springs were pretty much as we remembered them and we were told that they are used a lot by the workers.

The flight back was quite spectacular, flying over a very rugged mountain range. We f;ew down the North Nahanni River and saw the confluence of the mighty Mackenzie and the Liard River as we approached Fort Simpson. When we landed it was rainy, cloudy and cold once again. I have fulfilled a dream of returning to Tungsten and although we did not get to trudge up the mountain to look for the tree we climbed when a grizzly chased us, it couldn't have been a better trip. We felt very priveleged to be allowed access to the town site because Mark made it very clear they did not allow casual visitors onto the site. Thank you North American Tungsten for your superb northern hospitality!

Notice the avalanches and the huge slump in the snow in this mountain shot.

Where the Mackenzie meets the Liard, a very important historic spot.