16.-19.03. - Haines ਜੰਕਸ਼ਨ, Yukon

What next... It has gotten warmer here, significantly warmer. From originally -17 °C and below, we have now reached temperatures around freezing point. Quite a rapid increase. On March 16th, it snowed a lot, probably about 30 cm in total. Of course, that also brought a lot of work with it - but let's start from the beginning. One of our 'long-term' tasks here is organizing the shop. Apparently, that is sorely needed. There are a lot of screws and nails lying around and nobody really knows where they belong. And, of course, they are all made in the 'imperial system', meaning the units of measurement are in inches. So, what's bigger: #5x7/16'' or rather #8x5/8''? For us Europeans, it's an absolute nightmare. And even though Canada has officially switched to the metric system, the general population hasn't really caught up yet due to the difficulties with our neighboring country. By the way, everyone here (including the children) can give their weight in pounds (lbs) and their height in feet (ft), but if you ask them for the values in the metric system, you'll only get puzzled looks. And this is despite the metric system supposedly being taught in school...

Furthermore, we had to shovel snow. This is especially fun when there has been a lot of snow and there was already a significant amount of snow before. We had to clear the balcony and 3 trailers. Why you need 3 trailers? No idea. We wonder how a family with 2 children can afford such a fleet of vehicles (6 cars, 1 excavator, 3 trailers, 1 sailboat, various snowmobiles, and 1 tractor) when only one parent works... part-time (the other one not at all). The heavy snow also brought some positive aspects: snow bathing! What fun. Also, we now have our car (which I repaired the brakes of): our (VW) Düsenjet(ta). The car already has 520,000 km on the clock, some cracks in the windshield (we're afraid to use the windshield wiper), it has a fuel cap but no fuel filler neck, the brakes have been repaired by an amateur, and the tires are equipped with spikes for better grip - along with other hidden defects at first glance. No reason to panic: the thing still runs, although sometimes with worrying noises.

We also saw our next moose (although they are supposed to be extremely rare to see here). It was standing on a snowy field, looking for edible blades of grass. A beautiful sight, for sure. And making coffee here definitely requires some skill: First, you have to fill exactly 18.3 g of coffee beans into the coffee grinder and then grind them. With luck, you'll get 18.3 g of ground beans out of it (sometimes more, sometimes less - no one knows where the difference comes from or goes. It's almost like Einstein's ΔE=Δmc² - there's also such a mass defect). Anyhow - once the beans are ground and in the portafilter, you can brew the coffee. In the meantime, milk is heated and frothed with steam. When you combine the two, you get really good coffee. Cool!

Furthermore, today, on March 19th, we went on our first little hike. We drove to Haines Junction and hiked the local Dezadeash River Trail (5.5 km). Overall, it was quite unspectacular. You basically hike through the monotonous Canadian forest and don't see much of the Dezadeash River. Especially since it is thickly frozen and covered in snow. The only cool and spectacular thing was the view of the St. Elias Mountain Range. And annoyingly, we probably won't be able to climb any of those mountains during this time of year. Too much snow, too remote, and difficult to reach. Damn it. In the evening, we had dinner at Mile 1016 Pub - burgers with fries and local beer. All in all, really delicious, and the past few days here have been really nice.

By the way, our host family went to Whitehorse yesterday, and we have the place to ourselves until Thursday. Let's see what's next!