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
