THE FINAL BLOG!

Yes, it's sad but true, this is the FINAL blog for us here in Barkerville. It's truly been an amazing summer here- made lots of new friends, immersed ourselves in Canadian culture and history, felt like murdering tourists, and all in all had a spectacular "working vacation" here in the middle of nowhere. Just a recap of September for all...

THE RODEO/GIRLS NIGHT OUT!
Kate and all of the women from MacBeth had a "girls night" at Jaqueline's house, so, feeling like I needed a manly substitute, I headed to the Rodeo in Quesnel with Tyler Setzer, the stagecoach operator. It was a pretty wild experience- I'd never been to one, and think I saw a pretty good one (although the Clown was pretty lacklustre, according to Tyler, and I would have to agree. There were bucking broncos, roped calves, bull riders, and barrel racers. Perhaps the most amazing thing about all of it for me was how FAST it all happened! The longest event of the evening was about 13 seconds long- pretty crazy! We opted not to stay for the dance...

GAMES & PARTIES
With less and less people in the park each day, and with no scheduled responsibilities at night, we've found ourselves with quite a bit of time on our hands, and have filled it with a variety of card games and parties. I seem to be the game aficionado here (THANK YOU mom and dad), and so end up being the organizer/facilitator of many of them. Some of my favorites have been...
BUNCO party- a wild, table changing, lots of yelling dice game with prizes and everything (an Olsen family New Years tradition).

MAO- a card game I originally learned from my friend Jenna, with a hugely complex rule set, the first rule being that you cannot tell anyone the rules. It's become a park favorite, with new rules added daily, and even a sub-game that involves talking like a pirate.

WEREWOLF- this is a party game that I originally learned as ASSASSIN (Thanks, Joe Eckberg!). People are secretly assigned roles of innocent villagers or Werewolves, a person is murdered every round, and then the mob tries to reveal their killer, often lynching many innocent victims in the process!

Other games we play a lot are Spite & Malice (or Dirty 30), Chicago, 99, Poker (with a quarter pound of jellybeans as the buy-in), Botticelli, and many more.

THE PIRATE PARTY!
As September 19 was "International Talk like a Pirate Day," Christina (the schoolteacher) decided to host a Pirate party! We all dressed as pirates, drank lots of rum and grog, and "Arr'ed" the night away.

FOOD!
As everyone is trying to get rid of all of their extra food, we've had a virtual feast every day in park- burritos, chili, spinach soup, meatloaf, you name it- Jacqueline and I are hosting a dinner tonight to polish of the last of our stores.

SNOW!
Yes, it has begun snowing. Nothing has stuck at our elevation, but it's only a matter of time... Otherwise, it has been WET & COLD- a real joy to be out wandering around in.

GOODBYES
People have been trickling out of the park over the last month, and it's always sad to see folks go. We've all said time and again how lucky we are to have such a great crew of people working in town this summer. This job is 99% the people you work with, and we've all had a BLAST together, regardless of bad crowds, bad weather, troubles with administration, etc. Huge Kudos especially to Faith & Jen, our bosses, who have cracked the whip and stood up for us in equal turns over the summer- I can't imagine doing the job with any other boss!

Well, I guess that's it! As I said before, Kate is gone already, heading down to Vancouver for a Doctor's appointment, and I take off Wednesday. Then it's back down to Blue Lake, and into the swing of many projects there!

Thanks to all who have read, written, and replied to these over the summer- we never felt far from home!

See you all soon-
Tyler & Kate

AMPUTATION!

So, I had to do a special blog dedicated to a very special event that happened on Tuesday. I carried out my first (and probably last) amputation on the streets of Barkerville! We had been talking about it all summer, and decided it was high time to do it. Events unfolded as followed...

I planned the event the night before. As we would have no time for rehearsal, I carefully planned each beat, and put myself as the main instigator of the event so I could orchestrate it as it went along. I spent the night before making the bloody and assembling the needed tools, and got to the park in the morning ready to go. The victim of the operation was one Billy Houser (played by Stu Cawood), who is one of the historical figures in the town who actually had his leg amputated. So the scene started with myself, Mrs. Bowron (Kate) ad Madame Bendixon (Jacqueline) having a picnic in the clearing. Suddenly the stage coach pulled up with a moaning Billy HOuser in the back of it, suffering from a major bloody leg. We quickly carried into the tent, and upon close examination, I decided the only course of action was to amputate. I gave Mr. Houser a a good hit of ether, sent Madame Bendixon off for my bone saw, and proceeded to examine the wound. Kate was my effects master, and expertly executed a spurting artery as I was trying to examine the leg. Mr. Church (Tod) came in with an axe, which I nearly used on the wrong leg, but Madame Bendixon arrived with the bone saw just in time. I then proceeded to saw through his leg (which I had replaced with a stick), being spurted by more blood from Kate, and finally, proceeded to snap the leg off and put it into our picnic basket. Then all that was left was to cauterize the wound with a hot frying pan (which we put on a damp sponge so it steamed and produced a hissing sound- delicious...) and attach a new, fake leg, and Billy was good to go. It was a huge success, and I even made one of the bystanders, the 10-year-old daughter of the stagecoach drivers, faint dead away. She was horribly embarrassed, but I was secretly elated- my first fainting!

Needless to say, we're waiting to hear what the higher-ups have to say about it. They'll probably be all ornery about it, but everyone who watched thoroughly enjoyed it!

More soon!
Tyler

Back on the net!

Well, it's been another three and a half weeks in history! The park's busy season has finally hit, with huge groups of tourists on our tours, lots of the same questions over and over again, and the occasional exciting happening in the park. The diversity of folks we have visiting here is truly remarkable- some days we have fantastic groups of fun, funny, smart people who laugh in all the right places, are bright-eyed and enthusiastic, and make the job a real treat. And then there are the other types of tours, or "mouth-breathers" as we like to call them, in reference to their slack-jawed, dull-eyed, 4 beats behind you kind of look who you'd just love to body slam or french kiss, just to see if you'd get any reaction out of them. My guess is that you wouldn't.

Some highlights from in the park over the last couple of weeks:
-The Victorian Dinner! This was a seven-course meal that was auctioned off as a benefit for Barkerville, and was held in the Wendle house- one of the "domestic" displays in town (meaning it has a full-time person baking, cleaning, and answering questions in the "oldy-timey days"). Kate & I were the designated the hosts, and we proceeded to have a delightful dinner with two couples, with seven full courses and a different sort of alcohol with each course. Normally, I don't imbibe, but thought if ever there was a time to try, this was it! For those of you awaiting a spectacularly drunken finish, I'm sorry (and glad) to say that, aside from the world being about one degree slightly askew, we managed to maintain our sense of decorum. The dinner is supposed to last around 2 hours, but we ended up walking out after 4 hours of merriment, much to the chagrin of the kitchen staff, who were secretly begging and then threatening us to end it!

-MACBETH! After weeks of rehearsal, we hit tech week gloriously unprepared and under-rehearsed for the performance. After some nail-biting dress rehearsals, everybody put in the extra hours, and the show was a smashing success! Kate was delicious as a blind witch and Fleance (see photos), and I played a wounded soldier and Macbeth's psychotic right-hand-man Seyton, and got my fill of gore as I slit Banquo's throat, stabbed MacDuff's son to death, and then killed his mother by stabbing her in the head with my ball point pen (see photos). I got to do lots of fun effects and blood work, and perfected my recipe for a basically TOTALLY washable blood! The show was well received and well attended , although we were all EXHAUSTED after working in Barkerville all day and then doing a two hour show each night.

-The Burlesque Cabaret! Yet another successful cabaret in Wells, full of surprisingly family friendly content. Kate & I sang one of our favorite numbers "Do You Take It..." as a closing act, and have been receiving rather personal questions since... The BIGGEST hit of the night would have to be the theatre owner's two children, Kelk (5) and Lucy (3), who each sang a Disney song and were so cute you could practically hear the biological clocks of every woman in the audience kick into high gear...

-BC Day Games Day- more yelling, broad jumps, sack races, egg throwing, and greasy pole climbing by ridiculous tourists...

-Barkerville Kids Luncheon! A "kids' version" of the Victorian dinner- hosted by myself and Mrs. Hall (the school teacher) and served by the lovely Mrs. Bowron (Kate) for the ten or so kids that live on the streets of Barkerville all day- ages 7-12. What a blast- 3 forks, 5 courses (fish sticks, pizza, french fries & hot dogs, tomato soup, and chocolate cake), and a great show of appreciation to the kids for all of the "work" they do and atmosphere they contribute to the town.

-St. Saviour's Academy! An annual event held in Barkerville's gorgeous church, comprised of lots of local musicians and artists, this was a wonderful evening of music and poetry. I played my box bass as back up for Marty, the grizzled Quebecois stagecoach driver, whos ang and played his dobro, and Kate and I performed a duet of the song "Hide and Seek" by Imogene Heap. It was a beautiful evening, and the Reverend was very grateful to all of us who performed.

-The FINAL Cabaret! Marking our last performance of the summer at the Sunset Theatre, the final performance was yet another sold-out show. Kate and I were involved in multiple acts- I performed my solo "...Baby One More Time," played box bass again with Marty (two songs this time, one of which not even I knew we were playing! Thank God his Dobro was tuned to G- at least I didn't have to figure out the key!), and played a talk show host who goes completely insane. Kate sang "The Sounds of Tourists"- a duet based on the "Sounds of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkel, and a parody of all of the questions we get asked 100 times a day by tourists- "Do you live here?" "Are you really cooking?" "Is that a real baby?". A HUGE hit, to say the least. The night finished with a great chorus number by all of us who had performed in all of the cabarets- a wonderful finish to a successful string of performances.

-Pig Ears! Last Monday 5 of the kids and I holed up in one of the cabins and made some of my favorite cookies- "Pig Ears" or "Klyners"- a deep fried cookie spiced with cardamom. We had a blast, made about 180 cookies, and then dispersed them throughout the town...

-Street Dinner! As Stu and Chris leave next weekend, and Lynnette will be out of town starting tomorrow, we thought we had better get together for one final "Huzzah" all together. So, we ordered about 15 dishes and proceeded to eat, drink, and be merry all together. We count ourselves so lucky that we have such an awesome group of fellow actors for a job that can be equally fun, frustrating, challenging, infuriating, exciting, and mind-numbingly repetitive. We've had a blast together, and as the season slowly starts wrapping up, folks are starting to leave town, and it's so sad to see everyone go!

-Autumn Moon Festival! I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, as this event actually happens tonight, but thought it was worth including. This is an annual event attended by hundreds of peopl, involving a parade of lanterns through the street, a re-creation of the Chinese myth of Chang-O, and a fireworks display to end the night. It's been raining off and on all day, but it appears that we'll have clear skies for the show tonight!

That's all for now- hope you all are well, and now a few words from Kate!

Hi Everyone!

Kate here, with my first contribution to the Blog! I have climbed out from under the reams of reviews, interviews and annual general reports - all collected to write a research paper for Dell'Arte - and on the night of August 19th I quite delightfully hit "send" on my keyboard and have felt considerably lighter since.

Yes, indeed - Tyler is right. Those of us working in the park have hit the 'mid-August blues,' meaning after a few months of doing the same tour twice a day and answering the same questions over and over and over and over...like "Are you guys volunteers?" or "I hope you know the miner who did that to you" (referring to my pregnant belly - fake, of course - don't worry), we are indeed tired souls. But this too shall pass...September is coming, which should be delightfully quiet...the time of year when we play croquet down the main street of Barkerville, as well as Hide and Seek...maybe even Sardines.

Well Tyler has covered the major events. Oh - except that we went to see the latest Die Hard the other night - it was AWESOME. I could tell you more, but what is big news in our world is often just the drama of the day and would not mean much to you...Wells is a very small town in which everything is everyone's business and nothing is safe from being the next juicy fodder for gossip and examination. It is quite something else. Sometimes exhausting and other times quite simply, deliciously and remarkably human.

I do love it here, though. This place both creates and attracts very colourful people - of all kinds. And it is stunningly beautiful - I could live here just for the skies.

Alright, time to sign off. Lots of love to you out there who are reading this account of our adventures...
--Kate

Week 9 & 10

More and more of the same up here- we have had some beautiul weather, some wild storms,some COLD days, a lightning strike here in Wells, the occasional grizzly sighting, mosquitos the size of horseflies, horseflies the size of ground squirrels, and ground squirrels so fat you would swear they are baby grizzlies... Just a recap of some significant events...

Last Tuesday we had the second Wells cabaret here in town which was full of more sketches, a cowboy song based on brokeback mountain, and I sang the song "Dear Boss" while wrapped in bandages... This past Tuesday was another cabaret, this one COMPLETELY sold out- Kate did a character piece, and we both did an infomercial, both of which were very well received... We've also been rehearsing MACBETH- Kate as a blind witch, and myself as a mild-mannered psychopathic right hand man of Macbeth...

It's been a couple of weeks of surprise and expected visitors. Kate's friend Ross, who was in her acting class in Victoria, appeared at our door one night. He was in town with a firefighting crew and was a terrific surprise- we shared war stories- him of grizzlies and fires, us of tourists and stage coaches. A few days later we ran into the parents of Kate's best friend in elementary school on the streets of Barkerville, and Wednesday night Kate's sister Jessica and her boyfriend Daryl came into town- we were expecting them, of course, and it was great to see them! They came into town and watched us in our daily antics, and we had a terrific day off Thursday, spending most of the day basking in the sun and swimming. Then Kate's parents (Tom & Trudy) and two friends of their family, Ann & Vic came up, and we all had a great supper around the campfire, including another delicious MEAT CAKE as well as vegetable packets and sticks wrapped in Bisquick. Jess & Daryl left on Saturday morning, and Tom & Trudy take off on Monday morning.

The park has been pretty steadily busy, with big groups for our tours, lots of foreigners, and flocks of kids roaming the streets, terrorized by us, and terrorizing us in equal turns! We're starting to get a little loopy- switching roles, ad libbing ad nauseum, and just plain breaking down when things get absurd... The crowning moment thus far was when were doing our PIRATES OF PENZANCE finale out in the street in the pouring rain, and someone dropped a golf ball-sized jawbreaker off one of the balconies. Never one to pass up a body part, I immediately declared it as the eyeball of the Pirate King, and things just went downhill from there, ending with both the audience and us weeping with laughter as the sky opened up with a torrential downpour. Bodes well for time to come!

Hope everyone had a good July- drop us a line any time- it's always good to hear from the outside world!

More soon...
Tyler & Kate

Week 8...

It's actually been a pretty quiet past week here in the wilderness. After the huge RV Caravan left town, things reverted back to normal, with relatively uneventful days... There were some fun extracurricular activities, however, foremost being this summer's first SUNSET CABARET! A showcase of many of the Barkerville's performers, it was an action packed evening of songs & sketches. Kate and I performed "Bury the Hatchet" (HUGE thanks to Sarah Peters), with Kate singing and me playing my box-bass. A big hit. Other acts included a sketch where
Gollum goes on date, and a song about the pine beetle infestation up here... Great fun. We have also begun rehearsal for MACBETH, which we will perform in Mid-August. The cast is comprised entirely of Barkerville folks, and should be great. It's my first crack at Shakespeare since college, and I'm looking forward to it! The director, Tim Sutherland, has worked a lot here in Canada (most recently Old Trout's FAMOUS PUPPET DEATH SCENES), and I think will be a real treat to work with. Other than that, Kate and I headed into Quesnel and caught a late showing of TRANSFORMERS, which is totally ridiculous, and did our bi-weekly shopping extravaganza- best discovery: a butcher shop that sells bison for the same price as beef- awesome! It's been HOT the last few days, and yesterday we went to a great local swimming hole, which I know we will frequent all summer...

Thanks to everybody who's been emailing us- it's so great to hear from all of you!
Tyler & Kate

Week #6-7: Canada Day & Bears, Oh my!

It's been 10 days since our last post, and with good reason- we've had an action-packed
time here in the Great True North!

Friday, 6/22
After another day of tours and rehearsals, Kate headed back down to Vancouver for Saturday & Sunday to attend a good friend's wedding. I had another pretty normal day in the park, although it was the official "last day of the school season," meaning that after today, we won't have any more buses in the parking lot, delivering masses of children who charge through the doors to the first candy store, buy $50 worth of candy (including jawbreakers the size of tennis balls) and then spend the day rampaging through the park. As it is the last day, the park is FULL of kids, including a group of sixth grade girls who I threaten with smallpox inoculations every time I see them, who then run away, only to find me again to repeat the whole process. Near the end of the day Jacqueline (Madame Bendixon) tells them that they should get some laudanum from me. They have no idea what it is, so I explain, and they follow me around for the next hour, yelling at each other, trying to explain to me who Paris Hilton is (I'm convinced that she's a famous French midget) and what a school bus looks like. That night we have a big party in celebration of the school season being over, including a barbeque, bonfire, and a huge croquet match.

Saturday, June 23
Tours during the day, and a games night at the house of Jacqueline, Stu, and Chris. We play Assassin, some bizarre game where you have to guess adverbs, and another round of Celebrity. Great fun. The highlight of the evening is when Larry, the blacksmith has to "seductively" drink a cup of coffee. It's really an excellent group of actor/performer/artisans here in town.

Sunday, June 24
More tours and scenes. We're at the point now where we know about every part of the tour, so things often get a bit loosey goosey, which is quite fun. Kate comes back in the evening, this time to stay!

Monday-Tuesday, June 25-26
Rehearsals for Kate, and tours for the rest of us! Monday morning we have our official "Fire Practice", where we learn how to use the fire Extinguishers, and Fire hose- the town burned down once in 1868, and they don't want it to happen again! I finally get my new instrument, the Bogdon Box Bass, in the mail...

Wednesday, June 27
I spend the first of my two days off hammering out the remainder of BABES IN TOYLAND, which has turned into yet another irreverent and bizarre holiday tale, complete with bad puns, an army of AMERICAN FARMER Action Figures, bursts of song, and Eskimo Gypsies. I head into Barkerville at the end of the day to meet Kate for a DELICIOUS Chinese food Birthday Dinner at the Long Duck Tong, Barkerville's spectacular Chinese Restaurant! Special thanks to Mark and Jenny for the Birthday money for the dinner!

Thursday, June 28
As Kate and I have the day off, we sleep in, I spend the late morning finishing up BABES, and then we head into Quesnel (about an hour away) for shopping. We drop a big chunk of change at the grocery store (food here is incredibly expensive), and then hit up the local thrift stores, and discovered some major gold, including: an old fashioned labeler (major jackpot for me), multiple food storage jars, baking equipment, a great old flour bin, and a mysterious loom piece- all at the local recycling depot, which is run by a family of scavengers who live on the side of the dump. Too cool. Then we had a great dinner at a Japanese restaurant in Quesnel (we were both at each others' thorats we were so hungry). The big happenings of the day were on the ride home- we saw 3 moose, including a mama and baby, and then came over a hill to arrive ten feet away from an adolescent grizzly bear, munching dandelions on the side of the road. We sat and watched him for about 5 minutes before continuing on. Even shot some video of him- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s90noXxehng

That night I put together my Bogdon Box Bass- a 2-stringed string bass made out of a cardboard box, and put together with 4 screws, hot glue, and packing tape- a total contraption, but it sounds excellent, has a built in pick-up, and cost around $70! I plan on making my debut performance with it at the first cabaret here in town on July 7

Friday-Saturday, June 29-30
More tours, more rehearsals, and preparation for the big DOMINION DAY (Canada Day) Celebration on Sunday! Friday night we have a "poker night" at the house, and also play a round of Snorta- both are huge amounts of fun.

Sunday, July 1
Canada Day! We get to the park at our usual day, do a morning tour, and then launch into Canada Day festivities. There's a parade through town at noon, and then we street interpreters host 4 hours of games day with the public! A wild and crazy day, to be sure. As the loudest voice on the street, I am MC, and spend the next 4 hours announcing, haranguing, and keeping people entertained as we lead them through a dazzling array of games, including a broad jump, an egg and spoon race, a ladies nail driving contest (the record holder hit it in with 3 hits- they make 'em tough here in the wilderness), men's hammer throw, Mouthful of Crackers then Try to Whistle race (Where we get crackers spit all over our faces by all the kids) peanut toss (where we got to whip handfuls of peanuts at screaming children), egg toss, greasy pole climb (where contestants would try to scale a pole that had been greased up to win a bottle of whiskey) and finally a big Tug-of-war. The park is brimming with about 3400 visitors, which is a HUGE number for such a little place. We finish up games day, change out of costume, rush home, slam some dinner down our throats, and then head back to the park for another 4 hours of dancing at the saloon. The evening is really fun, with lots of folks getting totally hammered and a big fireworks display at the end of the night. We get home totally exhausted, and finally get to bed around 2am.

Monday, July 2
Those of us who have to work the next day look like we've been run over by a truck, but the park is thankfully quiet. We coast through the day with a bit less enthusiasm than normal. I've caught some sort of flu bug that Kate is just getting over, and when we finally get home, we crash early to try to make up some of the sleep from the night before.

Tuesday, July 3
Another relatively quiet day. Kate and I decide on another dinner at "The Duck" in the evening, see the last of the local grizzlies (most have gotten the hints made by the police with pepper spray, air horns, and rubber bullets and moved on) as he strolls across the road and into the campground, and then watch a couple episodes of our new favorite series BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, which Stu has loaned us on DVD.

Wednesday, July 4- HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!
The park is pretty dang busy all day long, as the Canadian "Good Sam Club" is in town- FOUR HUNDRED RVS, occupying every campsite within 50 km. Crazy. In the afternoon, we celebrate the birthday of Marty, one of the stage coach drivers, who's turning 74. He's a classic cowboy- walks bow-legged, big mustache, chews tobacco, swears like a sailor, and is an absolute charmer with the ladies. He's very appreciative of the gesture, and we all enjoy some Six-Minute Chocolate Cake and brownies, whipped up by yours truly. Kate and I spend another evening at home, working on the internet and watching movies.

Thursday, July 5
Our day off! We wake up late, take a walk through town, do some much-needed cleaning, and do some catch-up correspondence.

I'll try to get this back on a more regular basis, but who knows how the wind may blow!
Until the next one-
Tyler & Kate

Week #5: Birthdays and Wildlife...

Well, the past 10 days started slow, and ended in a blaze of activity! Sunday through Wednesday were all pretty much "Business as Usual" with tours, swordfighting, informal gatherings, and the like. Then things started to get interesting...

THURSDAY
I had the day off, so spent most of the day working on BABES IN TOYLAND, which is progressing very nicely. Then I headed into Quesnel for some grocery shopping with Stu and Chris. Wow food here is expensive! One of the downfalls of living in an isolated environment, to be sure! On our way home at about 9:30pm, we saw a bunch of deer, a couple of black bears, (or rather the rear ends of a couple of black bears, as they bolted as soon as they heard the car), and then, about 1/2 a KM outside of Wells, came around the corner and saw two gorgeous GRIZZLY BEARS! They were spectacular! HUGE, golden, lounging on the hillside outside of Wells, without a care in the world- spectacular. We passed them a couple of times, and then headed into town. I was up late in preparation for the next day...

FRIDAY
My Birthday! Earlier in the summer, I had the brainstorm of making a cake entirely of MEAT. So, that's what I did. I put it together like your typical layer cake- recipe as follows:
TYLER'S MEAT CAKE RECIPE
INGREDIENTS

Ground beef mixture, acting as a "mortar" between the layers- including

• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 lbs ground beef
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 3 large cloves of garlic, pressed or minced
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 2T Oil
• 1t dried oregano
• 1/2t dried thyme
• 2t ground cumin
• 1/2t black pepper
• 1t salt
  

(Mix all ingredients of the Ground beef mixture in a large bowl, making sure to evenly distribute the spices)

Other ingredients:
2 large round steaks, tenderized
1/4 lb of Sliced ham
1/4lb of sliced pepperoni
1/4lb of sliced Canadian bacon
1/2 bottle of cheap beer


-In a cast iron skillet, lay in the following layers, making sure to cover the entire pan:

1. First (bottom) layer: 2 lbs Round Steak. Be sure to tenderize thoroughly with a hammer, your fists, or a bone from your last kill.
2. Second Layer: a thin layer of the ground beef mixture
3. Third Layer: 1/4 pound of sliced ham
4. Fourth Layer: Ground Beef Mixture
5. Fifth Layer: 1/4 pound of sliced pepperoni
6. Sixth Layer: the remainder of the ground beef mixture
7. Seventh (top) Layer: 1/4 pound of Back Bacon/Canadian Bacon

-Once all the layers are packed into the skillet, slowly pour in half a bottle of cheap beer.
-Cover, and place in a preheated oven at 350 degrees.
-Cook for 1 1/2 hours.
-Let sit for 5 minutes, then slice and serve as pie
-(There will be a lot of liquid in the pan, making for a delicious gravy)
I was prepared for an unmitigated disaster, but let me tell you that it was DELICIOUS! Flavorful, tender enough to be cut with a fork, and filling, it's definitely a permanent addition to my recipe books! I enjoyed it for lunch along with Stu and Chris, and made deliveries of pieces to various other folks in town. A birthday tradition from now on, to be sure. Other than this culinary masterpiece, my birthday was pretty quiet, and I spent the evening cleaning and getting the apartment ready for Kate's arrival... Big thanks to everyone who sent me birthday wishes from around the world!

SATURDAY
On my bike ride into town, I was fiddling with something on my handlebars, and looked up to stare right in the faces of a couple of Grizzly cubs on the other side of the road! Too cool. I continued to ride, which spooked them, and they took off into the swamp. I think this was the healthiest reaction for both of us. After that excitement, it was it was the official GRAND OPENING of Barkerville, which included rides on the beautiful new stage coach, the launch of the new waterwheel, politicians wandering the town, and the opening of two new shows at the Theatre Royal. The theatre had a huge shindig dinner, but the pricetag ($50) was a bit steep for the other town performers, so we had a "We Wish We could Afford to Support the Theatre" party right next door to their big party, complete with formalwear, delicious foods, and party games! We caroused into the late evening, and then I returned home to do final preparations for Kate's arrival.

SUNDAY
No bears on the road this morning, but some definite animal excitement in town! One of the horse teams for the freight wagon, Fred & Sadie, were particularly skittish, first being spooked by a man with a couple of loud plastic cases so they reared back and had to be gotten under control by Marty, their driver. Next, they had to change course on a street in town, and nearly collided with our changing cabin, being stopped only when being expertly handled through a junkyard of old mining equipment and plowed into a row of trees on the banks of Williams Creek. Finally, the presence of a piece of canvas in the road caused them to change course and freak out a third time, this time in Chinatown and headed towards the center of town. Marty saved the day one more time by somehow guiding them between to cabins and up onto a hillside, again, narrowly missing two historic buildings! Needless to say, Fred & Sadie were retired to the corral for the rest of the day, and Marty was supplied with a bottle of whiskey.
The rest of Sunday was relatively uneventful, until I flew to Vancouver to surprise Kate on her birthday! I had received an email from Jessica, Kate's sister, saying what a great surprise it would be for Kate for her to see me a few days early! Her parents very generously bought me a ticket on their air miles, I coordinated days off with 3 different people and a ride to Prince George (2 1/2 hours away) to the airport. I was originally supposed to catch the 8:25 flight down, getting me to Kate's place at about 10:30pm, but got to the airport in Prince George early enough to catch the 5:15 flight, called to let them know I could get in earlier, was picked up at the airport by Brian, a friend of the family, and we drove immediately to the Japanese restaurant where they were having a birthday dinner for Kate, and gave Kate an excellent birthday surprise- the kind where it's so out of the blue that she couldn't quite figure out what was going on for the first few seconds. Once the excitement had died down, we (Me, Kate, Tom & Trudy [her parents] her sister, Jessica, Jessica's boyfriend Daryl, and my driver, Brian) enjoyed a spectacular meal of sushi, sashimi, tempura, and other Japanese delights. We headed back to Kate's parents' house, opened some birthday presents (including a smal herb garden, DVDs, and a straight razor...) Then it was off to bed, all of us very happy with such a successful birthday surprise!

MONDAY
A day spent running errands in Vancouver. Kate had a Doctor's appointment, we hit some antique stores looking for a pair of historical eyeglass frames for Kate, met with her friend Alexander for lunch (I had french fries and fried calamari- the fries were OK, the calamari tasted like old tires dipped in batter), paid a visit to Kate's grandma, and for dinner one of Braidwood's pieces de resistance: roast beef & Yorkshire pudding- incredible! After dinner we relaxed, I boxed some digital guy on their Nintendo Wii, and then headed off to sleep so we could be well rested for our day of travel back up the next day

TUESDAY
Kate's birthday! After Kate's car was finished at the shop, we drove back up to Barkerville (1 hour by plane, 9 hours by car) stopping in Cache Creek to pick up Chris, who had been visiting his girlfriend. We arrived in Wells around 8:30, and spent the rest of our night unpacking and moving Kate in.

WEDNESDAY
We biked into Barkerville for a day of tours and rehearsal for Kate. She met the whole crew, met up with friends from when she worked here 2 years ago, and started drilling the tour. On our way home, we saw the two grizzlies lounging around in the swamp just outside of town- sheesh they're big animals! Then it was off to a meeting about the weekly cabarets that will begin happening mid-July, then to the Wells elementary school (15 students total) for their end-of-the-year concert and awards night, then back home for a late dinner. The most exciting news of the day was that Kate will be able to return to Vancouver on Saturday to attend two of her very good friends' wedding, which she thought she was going to be unable to attend.

THURSDAY
So that bring us up to today! Kate headed into Barkerville for continuing rehearsals, and I'm enjoying a relaxing day off- shaved for the first time with my straight razor (nerve-wracking but fun), did some email catch-up, and have an afternoon of writing ahead of me... It's great to have Kate up here, although we of course miss all of our friends to the south. Have a great Mad River Festival opening, Blue Lake crew, and break lots of legs!

Until next time...
Tyler & Kate

Week #4: In full swing!

Hey all!

This past week flew by with lots of tours and rehearsal, but we are now spending all day in costume, wandering the streets. I'm still amazed that this is actually a job- aside from having to memorize lines and be nice to people, it's basically days of wandering around, chatting with people, and enjoying the town! People so far have been great- from the huge groups of schoolkids racing around town on a "historical scavenger hunt" to the pair of Dutch tourists who probably weighed 150 pounds total but ate their weight in food at the Chinese restaurant, to the totally off-the-wall woman from California who tried to get me to marry her so she could finance her gold claim and grabbed my butt while we took a group photo- the quality of the days are definitely dependent on the patrons in town that day! Weather has been all over the place, some days of 90 degree heat, pouring rain, and huge winds. Wildlife has been out and about as well- just this morning there were a pair of grizzlies wandering through town (I've yet to see one while biking, which is at once disappointing and nice), moose, deer, Barkerville's resident rodents, the Columbian ground squirrel, or colloquially, whistlepigs, the gorgeous horses that operate the stage coach, mosquitos and no-see-ums, from which I have already received lots of itchy bites, and the most exciting, a local dog that wandered by with a mouthful of porcupine quills whcih we ended up having to wrestle to the ground and have 3 of us hold it down in the middle of the street in the pouring rain while a fourth pulled over 50 quills from its mouth.
Time not working has been spent writing an adaptation of BABES IN TOYLAND, working on Dell'Arte projects, swordfighting (which I am slowly becoming better at, which means that I am now eligible for receiving some sharper blows, but am not hesitant in doling them out, either!), hanging out with folks here in town, and working on a few side projects... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8_i731VD-8).

I had a couple of requests for photos of us in costume, so they're included! More shots of us in action to come...
Until next week!
Tyler

Week #3: Our final week of rehearsal

As life here isn't exactly chock full of excitement, I have a feeling that this blog is probably going to be updated weekly, barring amazing and exciting events...

Sunday, May 27
We begin rehearsals with our newest cast member, Chris, who is playing Mr. Thompson, the newspaper editor, and Dr. Watt's arch nemesis in the Cariboo elections (which historically, is totally inaccurate, as they were never in Barkerville at the same time, but hey, drama always wins over fact, as the media is always so quick to remind us!). Rehearsals, coupled with 2 tours a day leaves s pretty wiped at the end of each afternoon, bu as our time with our director, Matthew, is limited, we plunge boldly on. Sunday night is a relaxing one, spent reading BABES IN TOYLAND, which I'm adapting for a holiday show this fall.

Monday, May 28
More rehearsals and tours- we have more school groups, which are usually fun, provided we have them in the morning! If they're scheduled for the afternoon, it's like giving the tour to a bunch of zombies, as they're all crashing from the sugar highs of lunch and all the candy they've bought in the morning... Otherwise, they're usually pretty good, the only issues arising being traffic control (which we are very quickly figuring out, and if Prancer, the town cat, goes waltzing through- we might as well institute a "feline shut-down" rule. Monday evening is another sword fighting session, with bigger welts and bruises as we all become a bit less hesitant with the swords- nevertheless, it's another great time, although
I can barely walk afterwards because my legs are so sore from 2 hours of lunging! Afterwards, I get together with Jacqueline and Lynnette to run lines, and then it's off for a hard night's sleep!

Tuesday, May 29
Tours and rehearsal, Tours and rehearsal. The big excitement is in the evening. Around 6pm I'm sitting at my computer, working on the program for the Dell'Arte MFA Thesis Projects, and the dogs across the street are barking incessantly. Now this is not an uncommon occurrence, as they are quite psychopathic, so I continue to work. Half an hour later, my neighbor asks me if I saw the GRIZZLY BEAR THAT WAS WANDERING DOWN OUR STREET! I say I didn't. I now pay a bit more attention to the dogs.

Wednesday, May 30
The weather gets consistently hotter each day, and I foresee a summer spent mostly in my vest in shirtsleeves, as just an hour in the heat gets me sweating, and we're expected to be on the street eight hours a day! I feel a bit sorry for the girls, whose costumes aren't quite as layered as ours, and whose apperance is far more dictated by the Victorian standards of dress. Naturally, we gentlemen encourage them to walk around in there bloomers and corsets, but I'm afraid it would cause just too much of a scandal... We enjoy one tour with a school group and one with a group of older folks, and continue to rehearse. Jacqueline and I enjoy a nice bike ride home through the increasingly blooming scenery, and I spend the night putting the finishing touches on the Thesis Program.

Thursday, May 31
It's hot on the street by 9am, and we bake during our rehearsals and tours. In the evening, park administration holds a "get-to-know-you" party at the Long Duck Tong, Barkerville's Chinese restaurant. The food is delicious, and FREE, making it doubly good, and the meeting that follows is pretty standard- everyone stands and introduces themselves, the bigwigs put forth some goals for the summer, talk about bear control, and read off a nice letter from a man whose relatives were very well known in town, singing the praises of the actors and interpreters in town- my boss, Faith, is very pleased, well, as pleased as she can get (she's a bit of a lioness- when she's happy, she's happy, and when she's not, she is NOT.) I bike home, check in with Kate after the opening night of her thesis project, and hit the hay.

Friday, June 1
It's our final day with our director, so after the morning tour, which is a GIGANTIC crowd of about 20 adults and 70 schoolkids, and which we do three-handed, as Lynnette is off for the day, we then rehearse hard in the HOT sun. Our afternoon tour is a skunk, (aka no one shows), so we do a bit more rehearsing, and then go and have ice cream and beer at the newly opened HOUSE HOTEL in town, celebrating our last day of rehearsal! Our director, Matthew, heads out that night, and we are officially on our own! After a great raft ride through the swamp outside of Wells, with Todd and Sasha & Lena (two of the workers at the St. George Hotel, I spend a quiet night at home, talking with the family, catching up on some emails and watching SAW III.

Saturday, June 2
As I have the day off, I wake up late, putz around the apartment for a bit, and then catch a ride into Quesnel with Jacqueline for some errand-running and grocery shopping. Who knows what the evening will hold? It's very strange that three weeks ago I was walking into this place for the first time, as it already feels like home! Great folks, spectacular scenery, and great fun. I'm only sad that more of you can't make it up here to experience it first hand, and that it's so remote that I can't be with folks for the important events that are happening elsewhere!

Special HAPPY GRADUATION to my brother Soren, and a big CONGRATULATIONS to the M2s, for a succesful opening of your thesis projects!

Until next time-
Tyler