The Frozen Mukluk

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Spring has finally arrived!!FARO RCMP DETACHMENTWe are please to say our Garden Gnome was found, apprehended and returned this month by LilouLEFEBVRE! Thanks to Lilou for your help. We’d like to remind everyone to keep alert to yoursurroundings, if you see something you aren’t sure about tell someone. We can work together tokeep Faro safe. Parents please take the time to remind your kids and get them thinking aboutsafety.It’s great to see folks out enjoying the spring weather.With the spring comes a lot more daylight hours and more time spent outside. With this in mind let’s continue to be respectful of ourneighbors. What seems like a BBQ and get together with friends can be a noisy party to a parent trying to get a child to sleep next door.Please enjoy the weather and extra daylight with this in mind.To the parents out there, please take a few minutes to discuss with the youth in your home about the dangers of entering any of theabandoned houses or buildings found throughout our community. The winter has not been kind to some of the old houses and duplexes. Manyof the buildings are un-secure and can easily be accessed by curious children. It’s important that our youth understand these are notplaygrounds. There are real dangers associated with entering the structures. Broken glass, unsafe structural conditions and mold are factors inmany of the buildings, not to mention the possibility of a young person inadvertently getting locked in a room or basement. Parents are totake a few minutes to talk to your children about the danger and to ensure they understand not to enter any unoccupied structures.We are very fortunate to live in ATV and dirt bike country. Lets all enjoy the trails and forests safely and frequently. Throughout April, RCMPhave noticed some un lawful use of these machines. Any motor vehicle that is operated on a public road or highway must be registered. Anydriver operating a motor vehicle on a public road or highway must have a valid drivers license and have insurance. This is not to punish thoseusing the machines. It is more for the protection of the safety and property of those who are legally using the road ways.RCMP in Faro will be very tolerant of the safe use of off road vehicles, however, please stay on the trails. If a roadway must be used to accessa trail the roadway should be crossed and a trail should be in close proximity to the crossing. The shoulder of the road is not to be used as atraveling lane for off road vehicles. Please play safe and let common sense be your best guide to an accident and injury free spring andsummer.Please be aware that Road Safety week is coming May 13 to 20. Officers will be out patrolling the highways on look out for Motor Vehicleoffences. Please take the time to think about safety; slow down and be wearing your seat belt...Enjoy the nice weather!!To contact Faro RCMP in an emergency, call 994-5555 or 1-867-667-5555. These calls will be answered by Whitehorse OCC whowill have officers respond to the call. For general inquiries in the community, call 994-2677. If there is no answer, please phone994-5555 and an officer will be contacted.Faro Detachment would like to remind members of the community about our Emergency Phone located at the front entrance tothe Detachment. This phone line is connected directly to Whitehorse RCMP dispatch. The caller only has to hold the phone totheir ear and someone from Whitehorse Dispatch will answer. This will ensure a quicker response from Faro RCMP members.
The Silent ExplosionBy Rick CharleboisWhen you live in the mountains north of 60, springtime often comes with a bang. The cold, dark, snow, andsilence all seem interlocked in an eternal prison of frozen time. The pains, the suffering, the extra work to survive,and the long dark nights seem to never end. In February, the days get longer and brighter until by March, daylightincreases at a rate of 6 or 7 minutes a day. Everything is looking a tad brighter; lower down in the valleys snow isdisappearing, and soon the rivers are breaking up and sending their massive blocks of ice to the Bering Sea. However,in the mountains the cruel grip of winter can hang on mercilessly until June. At the same time, summer may just asfiercely claim its own. In these Northern latitudes, the battle of extremes is not uncommon. There are only twoseasons to be fair, winter and summer. Spring and fall are but calendar terms.A heavy low-pressure system blankets the whole valley with thick fog a mere fifty feet overhead. Sounds heardfrom the cabin echo like that of geese, the first scouts sent north in search of open water. Rushing out withbinoculars in hand to greet them, I realize the honking is not only un-goose-like, but also far off in the distance. Yetthe trumpeting seems so near, so loud; the quality and crisp clarity of sound waves trapped, as they are, in a superconductiveatmospheric phenomenon so rarely witnessed. The beautiful notes sing lustily in my ears by the time Ifinally catch a glimpse of movement. Two magnificent trumpeter swans, white as ghosts against the fog, gracefullywheel in just above the treetops. They are preparing to land in a small open lead a few hundred meters behind me.They emerge as two fighter jet aircraft flying in formation at gravity-defying slow motion, throttled back way paststalling speed. Their secondaries, serving as flaps, bend down and flutter wildly and deafly through the still air tosimulate the screaming of reverse-thrust jet engines, in an effort to check their speed so as not to overshoot theundersized runway.I head back into the cabin just in time to hear the radio welcoming the first day of summer. I look out mywindow and see indeed, there has been a change. A few weeks ago, my yard, just below tree line, was buried undera meter of snow. Springtime in the mountains came on June 4th this year, when the sun finally burned through thesub-arctic atmosphere and raised my thermometer from +2 to +30 Celsius. For five days, the sweltering heatpersisted almost twenty-four hours a day and reached highs in the low thirties. The river, swollen above solid ice, andflooding in the forest made for dangerous times. Today, much of my yard is still under water, for after the sun camethe heavy rains. There is still ice in the depths of uprooted trees under the creeks shady banks.Most observers would not call it summer yet, but the organic timing devices say GO, and the silent explosionsplatters the woods with the pungent aroma of bright green eruptions. Willows, alders, and horsetails are all behindschedule, and today they are racing out of their buds to receive the sudden warmth. Bluebells and lupines will soonadd splashes of blue to inform me of their blooming victory. The heavy smell of growth permeating the foresttriggers an orgasmic olfactory experience.For only a few short days, songbirds had shattered the frigid silence with their frenzied blast of courtship, as wewere still under the heartless throes of winter when they arrived. Now they have all silenced and scurried into theirnests. The poor shore birds will not fare well this year; there has been no shore, and will not be for a long while. Thesnow has retreated to the tree line, but there is much to come from above to swell the river, either under the nameof hot sun or torrential rains.Moreover, there is another unmistakeable sign that summer has come - mosquitoes, the well-known curse of theNorth, the Arctic Vampires. Oddly enough, they are a welcome sight. Yes, the nine months of wind and snow andforty below have finally relaxed their hold for three months of life and light, and hope in this bleak landscape.It seems like only yesterday was cold, dark, and depressing to the soul. Today warmth, sunshine and joy conquerthe mood. Old Sol has thawed the earth, allowing the hardy flowers to shoot up through the thick mulch of moss. Thesilent explosion has transformed all overnight. External and internal light give strength, the forest thrives, the spiritrejoices.The End**This short story was published in 2009 in Paragon 2, a literary journal from Memorial University in St. Johns Newfoundland.
Page 1 and 2: The Frozen MuklukLocal Monthly News
Page 3: Cool website of the month - This mo
Page 7 and 8: LOCAL ServicesMichel Dupont Aviatio
Page 10 and 11: Department of EnvironmentSpring is
Page 12 and 13: Went North CreationsWent North Crea
Page 14 and 15: REAL ESTATEHOUSE FOR SALEFOR SALEHO
Page 16 and 17: FOR RENT!3 bedroom, 1 bath unit!Ful
Page 18 and 19: FOR SALEFOR SALEMen's size 7 sorel
Page 21 and 22: What’s goin’ on?ARASAnvil Range
Page 23: BOOK LAUNCHOf Ross River’s recipe
Page 26 and 27: Crane & Sheep Festival / Town of Fa
Page 28 and 29: ANNOUNCEMENTSAnnouncementsPlease su
Page 30 and 31: For another successful Crane & Shee

The Frozen Mukluk

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