Our last bush plane load of people, dogs and gear said good-bye to Reliance on the east arm of Great Slave Lake in a snow storm. We arrived 3 days later at our new home in south central Alberta in a snow storm, an anomaly for Sept. 13.
The Ice Queen of the North did not want to let us go.
The preparations for that early morning flight had been hazardous for Roger, Gus and three dogs, from an icy cliff side trail and uncooperative winds, to crucial eyeglasses knocked off by a plane strut into a cold eight feet of lake water. A bad virus accompanied us for the next two weeks and our chest colds had to be ignored other than day time and night time cold meds. The stress of the whole endeavor of selling our property and moving from bush life in Reliance NWT population 3 to Alliance Alberta population 150-ish took an exhausting toll.
It has taken us a couple of weeks to get our lovely new home in order. Thankfully, we purchased all the previous owners furniture and tools along with the house as it would have been very difficult to start from scratch. I convinced Roger to bring along the pelts left from their harvest last winter instead of selling them to the GNWT Fur Harvesters program, so our home is decorated with beautiful Northern furs and all the Northern art we have collected. It feels so cozy and familiar with photos of caribou and dog teams. None of us miss Great Slave Lake, except for the drinking water, which is a bit surprising. It was a hard life on Fairchild Point and not only all of our adventures, but also our daily life, were filled with very hard work and danger. Roger has quickly come love the simple switch that turns on the toasty natural gas fireplace and Gus says it is the easy life now.
One of the main reasons we chose this particular property, aside from the very reasonable price, was the gardens. The previous owner was a successful master gardener and the acre is filled to the brim with exotic perennials, a huge vegetable plot with a phenomenal asparagus bed, a koi pond and five different types of lilac bushes. The heated glass greenhouse is still filled with producing tomatoes.
Located on the edge of the village, away from the hustle and bustle, our place is very peaceful. From my office window I look out on a row of now golden tamaracks and a field where five paint horses spend their days quietly grazing. Stunning numbers of all sorts of geese land in the wheat fields surrounding us and there are deer and moose in the woodlands. At night the howling and yipping of coyotes in the coulees accompany our stargazing in the dark sky.
Alliance Alberta is a very friendly and welcoming town. Our neighbours came to say hello and brought gifts. Downtown has a small old fashioned grocery store and a dozen other small businesses. Visiting in the village office, we met the woman mayor and one of the village councillors who happens to be from the NWT.
We hit it off immediately and have become fast friends. One thing I was very happy to discover here in our village is a meditation studio 3 doors down from our house. I’ve become interested in brain science since my sons traumatic brain injury and in my reading I have discovered that we can rewire the way our brain thinks, which is the purpose of meditation. Since my doctor at Primary Care in Yellowknife told me a few weeks ago my blood pressure was at a dangerous level (I wonder why?) I hope to be able to fix that with meditation, gardening exercise and diet changes now that we have access to fresh food and the stress of the property sale is finished.
When I told people we were moving away from the bush, everyone asked me to keep writing my column for News/North. I’m not sure if I can keep the story relatable to Northerners, but I will do my best to keep bringing you interesting stories and my personal insights as we transition from Reliance to Alliance.
The end reward is that I can take long naps beside our new natural gas fireplace.