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Thursday, January 11, 2007
Whats up with us!
A few people have been asking me to post to the Dease Lake blog what is new with us now that we have moved away, so here is a bit more info. (Sorry if I repeat myself with stuff in previous posts)
We are currently living in the Comox Valley and have rented a 3 brdm duplex. I continue to work for the SEO company as I have for several years now, and Lyndsay is on the teacher sub list for the Valley. We also recently got a puppy! He is now a 6 month old Shih-tzu and is incredibly active. He just loves to play fetch and is extremely cute. (I actually took a short video of him and posted it on YouTube - you can see it here) This is the first time either Lyndsay or I have lived in the Comox Valley under our own roof. Last time we were both here we were living with our respective parents and still in school. All our places together have been in Victoria, or up in Dease. It's strange to live just down the street from my dad after living so far away for such a long time. We've had a few great snow days here in Courtenay. One dump brought us a little over a foot of snow (that is quite a bit for around these parts) and a few smaller snow falls have left the ground white. Nothing even close to the Snow in Dease, but fun never-the-less. Since moving the DeaseLake.net site has seen very few updates as I switch focus to a new Comox Valley site that I am working on. It still has a ways to go but is coming along nicely as I refine the design and continue to add content. I have set up a Blog on the site, although have yet to start updating it regularly. It will be more of a Comox Valley News blog then a personal blog. Also added a form to this one - something I thought of adding to the DeaseLake site but didn't think it would get much use - (the Comox Valley site forum isn't seeing much attention yet either, so I may remove it). Overall live is good as the wheels keep turning and we plug on day by day. I will try to post to this Blog every now and then to keep everyone posted on whats up, so check back on occasion. Wednesday, January 10, 2007
A New Post?? Wow!
Well its been more than 7 months since we moved away from Dease Lake. After recently hearing about the many changes such as the GasNGo possibly reopening, Mama Z's moving to the Northway, The Wholesale moving to the Post Office Building, and a number of other things, we are starting to really miss it out there. We miss the -20 and below temperaters, we miss the ice fishing, the snow, and the community as a whole, and we certainly miss the many good friends we left behind.
Dont get me wrong, we are both quite happy to be back in the Comox Valley, afterall, our families are here, and this is where we are both from. Its strange. We lived in Victoria for about 6 years, and I dont miss living there one bit. We were in Dease Lake for a matter of 9 months, and we miss it very much. Hopefully we can plan a road trip and head back to the North for a visit. :) While its a little late, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and all that stuff to everyone up in Dease, we miss you all. Monday, July 03, 2006
Maybe not the last post?
Perhaps the last post was not, afterall, the last post...
I had a few things I wanted to mention to my readers of this blog. First I am surprised how many people actually read this and visit the site on a regular basis! When I first set up the site I anticipated being of use for a couple of searchers. Since setting it up I have recieved the occassional email of questions and comments, but not a lot of feedback. Since notice that we are leaving the Stikine, I have had a ton of emails from people all over wishing us good luck and letting us know they are sorry to see us go. I have also had much contact with people wondering the future status of this website. As it stands right now the DeaseLake.net site will remain live. I have no plans of taking it down as it has already become a resource for many people. If I do eventually plan on removing the site before doing so I will see if I can find anyone who is willing to take it over. The site may start to become more static as my updates will be much fewer. If you still manage to find something that is out of date, or inaccurate, please let me know and I will correct/update it. The same goes for business postings etc. I will be happy to post all that kind of information as it arrives. Many thanks for the best wishes from everyone! To let you know we have made it safe and sound and as I write this I am sitting at the table looking out the window at the ocean and a clear blue sky... with a view like this its hard to miss being in Dease Lake with the bugs... oh yes, did I mention that there are no bugs here? While we loved living in Dease, and love the surrounding area, I think the part we will miss most is the people. We had made so many good friends in the short 8 months we lived up there. While we will keep in touch with some, I am sure we will lose touch with most over time. In a community like Dease Lake there it is quite easy to meet people - something that will be much more difficult here in Comox. Lyndsay and I both graduated from Highschool here in the Comox Valley, but most, if not all, of our friends from way back when have moved on and left the area - we will be pretty well starting from scratch with the exception of our family here. The move went very well. I had my reservations about the UHaul truck and was concerned that it may not make it, but it did in fact pull through with no major problems. The drivers side wiper started falling off, and with some frequent engine sputtering we managed to make it in one piece. We got into the valley around 8:30 last night after catching a 5pm ferry. Hoping to be able to unload the truck today but are unsure if the storage place is even open. As we settle in here I will post a few more times to let our friends from the North, and anyone else interested, know what our status is. Please if you have any questions, or want to drop us a line feel free to use the contract page on this site to drop us a note. We love getting email. Tuesday, June 27, 2006
The Last Dease Lake Blog Post
(I want to start by saying that the views in this post are that of Scott Van Achte. Lyndsay and the other two teachers whose contracts ended in Dease Lake did not contribute to this post in any way nor have anything to do with this Blog)
This is probably going to be the final post in the Dease Lake Blog post. We recently received news that Lyndsay's contract will not be renewed for the next school year. She was on a temporary contract and the term ended. I want to start off by thanking everyone in the community for being incredibly inviting and hospitable since we moved here in October. While we truly wanted to stay here in Dease Lake for many years to come, without a job for Lyndsay it just can not happen. I am fortunate for the ability to work from home and am quite mobile, and so we have decided that if we must leave here, we will head South back to Vancouver Island and the Comox Valley, where we want to ultimately settle down anyway. One thing I do want to make sure everyone knows is that Lyndsay and I, along with the other 2 teachers from Dease Lake School who were not rehired all wanted to remain in the district and had no immediate plans of leaving. The School Board, however, decided it best for some reason, to bring in new teachers from other districts and provinces. I fail to see how this makes any sense considering that the community wants the district to hire teachers that are willing to stick around. Well, they just had 3 great teachers wanting to stay, and got rid of all of them - also they had only good things to say about them. Well, that's how life goes some times, and we are going to look at this as a good thing and find the silver lining. We always imagined ourselves settling down in the Comox Valley, so that's where we go. A bit early, but certainly for the better in the long run. We have booked our UHaul and hitting the road on Saturday off to another new adventure. Thursday, June 22, 2006
Summer Solstice = Party
Yesterday was summer solstice. It happens only once a year, and when living in the North not only signifies the longest day of the year, but an excuse for a party!
Now I am not one to party during the week, but this once a year event is a great exception, even if it means spending the following work day all sleepy. (I was smart though, and only had a couple drinks, so at least the hangover factor has no place here today. Last night started with us heading over to Phil and Mo's to set up some tables, chairs, and a tarp. (It looked like it was going to be a rainy night). We started by fastening two ends of the tarp to the beams at Phil's carport and the others to a couple of poles. It didn't take long for a huge burst of wind to come along and rip apart one of the reinforced corners in the tarp and bring the whole thing down. Okay, fair enough. Rob says, "I've got duct tape" So, we fix the eye and start putting things back up - right then, another huge blast of wind ripped two more eyes and a long tear down the edge of the tarp. "That's it! It's coming down now". We gave up on the tarp, which was probably a good idea seeing as how by the end of the night not a drop of rain had fallen. Dinner was potluck style, and boy was there a lot to eat! BBQ'd chicken breast, burgers, buffalo burgers, pork chops, steak and prawns. Smoked salmon, spring rolls, honey garlic wings, a half dozen types of salads and sides, ambrosia salad, some amazing lemon/whipped cream dessert, cookies... the list goes on and on. Kids were running around doing there thing while the adults, many of which are teachers, sat back enjoying only the second full day of their now two month vacation. As we moved into the evening the baseball mitts were pulled out along with the bocce, and a good time was had by all. We headed over to Rob and Marilyn's house (next door) and had a huge bonfire to ease into the remainder of the night. All I can say is thank god for Mosquito repellant. While its far from perfect, it certainly helps ease back the bugs a little. This was the first party I have been to up in Dease Lake that consisted of more than one profession. Often the parties involve mostly teachers, medical staff, etc. This one had people from all professions and groups of the community. All our neighbors and friends were there. Around 1:00ish or so Lyndsay and I decided it was probably time to head home to bed. The sun still slightly out, but turning dusky, we walked home. It would be only another hour or two before it would start to get light out again. A great end to a great evening. I think there should also be a party on the shortest day of the year, but I doubt anyone would want to do it outside, and if they did, surely it wouldn't last until well past midnight. Monday, June 12, 2006
Map of Dease Lake
Added today: A map and busines map of Dease Lake.
Check it out! Dease Lake Map In the near future I plan on expanding the usability of this map, but this will do for now. The sizing is a little bit off and it is stretching the page. Will be a big job to fix due to the image maps. If you have any suggestions on how to improve this map, let me know and I will try to fit it in! Sunday, June 11, 2006
May = Walk On; June = Swim In
This is entirely crazy.
May was a month of wind, rain, and snow... yes snow. At the start of May we went ice fishing on Alan Lake. Today is June 11 - We just got back from Alan Lake. No, we were not ice fishing ... we were swimming! This is nuts! How can a lake go from frozen and thick enough to walk on one month, and warm enough to swim in the next? If it weren't for the threat of leaches, I would probably still be in the lake. A quick dip in and out was enough for me. We thought the warmth would never come. Just a few days ago it dipped below zero. Today we have been hovering around the 28 degree mark for hours. Tommorow is suppose to reach a high of 31! Lets hope this heat sticks around! Monday, June 05, 2006
Comments - Keep 'em coming!
I have started to get comments from visitors to the site and really appreciate it! Keep them coming! Have an opinion of the site? Good or bad, I want to hear it. Constructive critisism is great and ultimate means an improvement to the site. Since the recent redesign I am more interested in what people think about this site than ever before. If you have any ideas for improvements I want to hear them. Also how are we doing so far? The quality of the site as it stands right now, is it a useful resource to you? What would you like to see photos of?
Please keep the comments coming, and many thanks to those of you who have already sent some in! Saturday, June 03, 2006
Snow in June???
Before heading to bed last night I checked out the weather network to see what we had in store for the weekend. The forecast was for 3-5 cm of snow overnight! SNOW?? Its JUNE for crying out loud! Thankfully when I woke up and looked out the window it was raining... hmm... not so sure I love the rain, but never the less, better than snow for this time of year.
There is a big staff party/BBQ tonight, and some sunshine would sure be nice, but I guess we will have to make due with what we have. Right now it may be raining, but it is quite a warm day... its about 4 degrees right now. Wow, above 0 in June! What a concept. Apparantly it is very cold right now - ya, I know obvious, but this is not normal for this time of year up here, apparantly we are well below average. Figures. Looking forward to summer and heading south. Will be soaking up the warmth for a few weeks on the island. May not be a tropical exotic location, but compared to here it will be paradise. Community Garden
Well, we have officially planted in the community garden. It will be interesting to see how well our seeds do up here. Apparantly some things grow really well, primarily root vegetables. We have planted some peas, carrots, and lettuce. Thats it. (If it does well, we'll do more next year). Its interesting, never before have I gone to do gardening and had to bring a bear bell and some pepper spray. Watering the garden is no easy chore either, having to walk to the nearby river to fetch water. We were hoping to plant some tomatoes but apparantly they don't do very well here - guess it just doesnt get warm enough.
Anyways, this is probably one of the most boring blog posts I have written. Not really sure where I am going with it so I will end it now. Do be sure to check out the photos section for the latest Community Garden Photos. |
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