Today we completed the third day of the build – all foundation work. Foundation construction is not glamourous. It’s slow and tedious, requiring copious amounts of gravel, wooden forms, placement of “poly” (plastic sheeting) and rebar and the checking and rechecking of measurements and levelness. The space you see in the photo is for four houses (the foundation of the fourth, closest to the camera, is only half done and will be completed later once there’s no need for heavy equipment in the area and last foundation can be completed). This is the before:
Here we are at work:
And we have a mascot…
Every build has paid professionals to supervise and guide us in our work. Jean-Marc (right) is the big boss and Remy (left) is his assistant. Both are originally from the Quebec City area but fell in love with the Yukon and have lived here for many years.
Once the stakes, poly and rebar is in place, it looks like this:
Our high paying union jobs (haha) allow for breaks from time to time. These breaks are a great opportunity for us to meet other Habitat families (who have been making delicious lunches for us), get informed about how to deal with bears in the wild and learn about all the different types of hammers in the construction industry.
Today during our lunch break we took a short walk into the woods to cliff overlooking the Yukon River. Imagine this view from your backyard. It’s no wonder so many Canadians from the south leave their lives behind and come here. If you look carefully in the second photo you’ll see a bald eagle perched in a tree.
For the most part, the weather has been good here. We have had cloudy mornings and sunny afternoons with comfortable working temperatures. But today we worked through drizzle and rain for most of the day though I didn’t really notice how hard the rain was until we stopped working for our afternoon break.
Food here has been excellent. As I mentioned, we eat lunch on site and the lunches are prepared for us by nearby Habitat families (food is supplied by Habitat). Yesterday’s lunch consisted of Thai soup and homemade fresh bread:
Each evening we venture out to a different restaurant in Whitehorse, a city that has a surprising variety of choices. Last night was the best yet at Antoinette’s, named after the Trinidadian woman who owns it. All the meals are Caribbean flavours often with some local wild meat options.
Even with the summer solstice two months behind us, the days are longer than at home. We’ve been able to get out and see some of the sites in Whitehorse, including the salmon ladder:
The ladder allows for the salmon to circumvent the hydro plant in Whitehorse so that they can complete the 3000km run up the Yukon River from the Bering Sea to the headwaters.
By the way, if you’re wondering what a Habitat house looks like in Yukon, they’re pretty sharp. Sadly we will not get to finish the houses we’re working on now, but seeing the finished product and having a chance to meet some of the families occupying these finished homes is very motivating. As you can see, this is a duplex.
More news later! It’s time to get ready for dinner…
sedativegunk 