Let’s meet more fun people….

Yesterday, I introduced you to a number of people in the Takla Reserve. Today, let’s meet a few more!!

This is Caroline…..

As you might be able to tell, she is NOT First Nation, but she is an integral part of the society!! She serves as a counselor to one and all and is often summoned in the middle of the night to help.

We met with her and she expressed her love and concern for the people of the Reserve. Her compassion for them oozes out of her pores!! Her house is in the middle of a Reserve gathering point and has a gorgeous view. She said that she often sits and lets the beauty around her work it’s magic to calm her life.

She is truly a blessing to the community!!

We also met Richard…..

……who is a “knowledge keeper”…. an “indigenous librarian” if you will!!

He has recently retired and is looking forward to working with the youth of the Reserve, helping them to remember and understand the history of the Takla people. You could call him an “Oral Historian”!

We visited the home of Devondre…..

….a 17-year old who has just completed Michael’s apprenticeship program. He was not in camp when we first arrived because he was in Prince George sitting his graduation exams. Instead of moving to Prince George for the final three years of his schooling, he had learned via an online course and had PASSED his exams!!

His Mom, Samantha, was thrilled…..

She felt that Michael had come into Devondre’s life at just the right time and had helped him to succeed.

He told us that his favorite classes were Math and that he was trying to decide whether to go to college or work in some other area. Regardless of where he lands, it is apparent that he has the will and drive to succeed.

I loved when his younger brother climbed up into Devondre’s lap…..

It is obvious that Devondre is going to be a shining role model for him as he grows up!!

This is Gina. She was a VERY important part of our visit!!

She is one of the chefs at the local cafe, and arrived early each morning to make breakfast for us, and man it was a good one….

There is one final story that I want to tell…..

When we were driving to the Reserve, we passed a truck with two men sitting on the back. One of these men was Clarence…..

The back story is that Clarence’s sister went missing and was found murdered in a motel.

This type of thing happens so often that there is a group… MMIW (Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women). This group advocates for the end of violence against Native women, drawing attention to the high rates of disappearances and murders of Native People, particularly women and girls.

Clarence is running approximately 150 miles to raise awareness for this group.

EVERYONE in the reserve was talking about it and “Clarence Spotting” reports were ricocheting from person to person. One worker was leaving the cafe, heading home and grabbed a pallet of water and cokes to take with him. When asked what he was doing, he said that he would be passing Clarence and would leave them there.

Another person had paid for a hotel and dinner at one of their stops.

In short, the WHOLE community was on Clarence’s side!!

For the next two days, I want you to meet two exceptional women in the community, and it just so happens that they are both bead artists!!

Please come back!!

Michael and I love to travel and see new parts of the world and then I love to take those memories and turn them into quilts!!! I hope that you enjoy traveling along with us!!

Be sure to subscribe to the blog so you don’t miss a single trip!!

Takla First-Nation Reserve

On Friday morning we left out early and headed to the Takla Lake First-Nation Reserve. We had a full truck with the two of us, Michael (our guide) and the three boys. They were excited to be headed home for a few weeks!!

After 4+ hours of hard travel on dirt logging roads, we were excited to see this sign….

A few minutes later we arrived at Takla Lake and the center of the Takla community……

There are around 800-900 people in the Takla Nation and about 275 actually live on the Reserve.

Our first stop was to drop Tye off and we had the joy of meeting his grandmother, Cecile…..

Isn’t her face expressive??

We had brought some bear meat for her, and Tye got it out of the truck….

She immediately asked if there was any fat on it…..

When we answered “Yes”, she excitedly said that she would use it to make medicine!! Wouldn’t that be fun to watch!!

She pointed to the stretcher bars at the side of her smoke house and longed for the days when she would use it to prepare moose!

She pointed to her flower garden and I discovered this beautiful bush there….

The next stop was to Derek’s Grandmother, Nancy….

She was so sweet as she talked about her grandson and how proud she was that he was part of the youth program that Michael runs.

She was also pleased when a bucket of bear meat was delivered…..

While here, we also met Larry….

….and Darnell…..

Darnell was selling raffle tickets to raise money for the Takla baseball team. We now have a square in the raffle…..

Finally, we headed to Mason’s house. He grabbed his possessions and headed into his Dad/Grandmother’s house…..

…..of course, remembering his fish that he caught last night….

Mason lives next door to the Takla school so we went across for a visit…..

The school houses grades 1 thru 9. First, second and third grade are in one classroom, 4th thru 6th in a second, and finally, 7th thru 9th in the third classroom. If the student wants to study longer they have to travel to Prince George and attend a school there. It is a hard decision for some parents because it means uprooting their lives!

The school has the motto of “Every Child Matters” and that showed in the faces of all of the administrators and teachers!!

We spent some time talking with Sabrina who is the Assistant Principal…..

She is currently working on her Masters in Education and wants to pursue a career as an administrator. She felt that the hardest thing for the school kids is that they don’t have consistency in their teachers. Many teachers will come for a year or maybe two, but often go elsewhere, leaving the kids in limbo.

I enjoyed walking around the school and seeing the kids happily in class. Many of them knew Michael (our guide), and gravitated toward him. You can tell that this German man has found a way into the hearts of these people!!

I loved this poster outside of the library area…..

…especially that the book is “How To Fish”!!

Our final stop for the day was to the Trading Post…..

…. a store, diner and hotel all in one!!

We were careful to NOT park here….

Our dinner that night was cooked by Desmond…..

…..a graduate of Michael’s apprenticeship program. During his time in camps with Michael, he learned to cook and found that he truly enjoyed it. He is now working at the local cafe and is planning to attend a culinary school.

We met his Mom, Lucy, at the school….

….and she also expressed her excitement for Desmond (Dizzy Des)’s newfound passion.

And believe me, he cooked a GREAT meal for us. It was so good that I forgot to take a photo!!!

Afterwards, he sat down and talked to us about what he learned in the program….

…. to be on time, respect others and work hard for your dreams!!

You can’t do better than that!!!

We are about half-way thru our tour of the Takla Lake Reserve…..come back tomorrow and we will meet a few more people…..

Michael and I love to travel and see new parts of the world and then I love to take those memories and turn them into quilts!!! I hope that you enjoy traveling along with us!!

Be sure to subscribe to the blog so you don’t miss a single trip!!

Babine Lake and beyond

Yesterday, we took a look at some of the camp experience. Let’s keep going today!!

First let me show you another view of our lovely meadow….

Isn’t that gorgeous!!

We are constantly seeing wildlife as we drive thru the area, like this back-lit Mule Deer. Even if you can’t see the details of her face, you can immediately tell what she is….

I am always enamored with mountains and the Skeena Mountain range is amazing. I kept saying that were in the Rockies, but I was wrong!! The Cascades are along the west coast, the Canadian Rockies are along the eastern edge of British Columbia and the Skeena Mountains are in between them!

But just look at these views….

We passed a beaver dam….

I am not sure that I had ever seen one before!

And, this uprooted tree was incredible….

I was interested while looking at the markings on these downed logs….

The are caused by pine bark beetles, who live under the surface of the bark….

Unfortunately, they will eventually kill the pine tree.

It has been fun to have a Teepee in the middle of camp….

Michael told us that it was purchased online and that you could custom design exactly what you wanted, including the size and the designs on the canvas….

I asked how was erected and he told us that they felled “Lodgepole” Pine trees to use for the poles. They first have to strip the bark and then leave them to dry for a while.

This set was in camp, awaiting the arrival of another Teepee…..

You start out by erecting three of these poles, tying them together with ropes……

You keep adding more poles, again in sets of three. The last set of three have the canvas attached to them, and the final two poles add the “flaps” to the top…..

I loved the designs inside the structure….

….and YES, I am seeing quilt designs!!!

One evening we headed to Babine Lake to let the boys go fishing…..

When we arrived, they got the boat ready to go….

….and Michael gave them last minute instructions on how to use the Satellite phone if needed…..

While they fished, we tooled around in the truck, enjoying the scenery and animals.

When we returned, the lake had an entirely different look to it. As the sun started to set (at 10:00 pm), everything took on a golden glow…..

It became deeper as it got later and I love this photo of the sun setting and the boys returning from their fishing…..

And yes, Mason caught a fish….

….which he proceeded to gut and clean…..

….ready to be taken to his Dad the next day!!

So, with one last glance at the fading sun, we headed back to camp…..

Tomorrow we are heading to the Takla Lake First-Nation Reserve and I can’t wait to introduce you to some of the people we met!!

Michael and I love to travel and see new parts of the world and then I love to take those memories and turn them into quilts!!! I hope that you enjoy traveling along with us!!

Be sure to subscribe to the blog so you don’t miss a single trip!!

Life in the Babine Camp

Life in camp is fairly laid back. There has been time for morning naps, afternoon naps and relaxing in the meadow.

Days here are VERY long…. sunrise is about 4:45am and sunset is around 10:10pm!! I think that is one reason that time seems to slow down here!!

Each morning starts out with us being woken by the light coming thru our cabin windows. Coffee is ready at 7:00 and breakfast at 8:00. We then feast on eggs and potatoes of some sort….great fuel for the rest of the day!!

After breakfast we often headed out into the surrounds in search of whatever animals we could find.

Michael (our guide) pointed out these HUGE grizzly bear tracks…..

I can’t being to image how big the bear was if his paw was this size!!

Just a little further down the same road, he pointed out Black Bear tracks…..

OKAY….we will probably see some bears!!

And then we did!!

This big Black Bear was spotted striding through a meadow…..

….and we watched as he sat down on his haunches and stared at us….

He acted fairly aggressive the entire time we watched him.

We also saw a Black Bear that was BROWN….aren’t they supposed to be black? Michael told me that a few black bears are called “color-phase”, varying in color from blond to deep chocolate. This one looked like Hershey’s milk chocolate….

I know that you can’t tell it was a bear, but you can at least see the color.

I enjoyed the scenery as we drove along….

….with large groups of Aspens amidst the rugged pine trees!

It was fun to look at the pine trees up close and personal!! I love how the branches look against the cloudy sky….

….or these seeds ready to release their pollen….

….or even the first pine cones of the season…..

Once we returned to camp, there were always chores to be done, including chopping wood….

…..or filling up the water bottles from the nearby spring…..

….and hauling them back to camp…..

I particularly love this meadow right outside of our cabin door….

As the trip lengthened, this field turned white with the Dandelion seed heads!!

I had fun playing with the camera and these bright flowers….

Meal times are always wonderful. Tammy cooks up some amazing dishes, including this vegetable stir-fry…

IT WAS DELICIOUS!!

Meal times were also fun because of our interactions with the three young men in camp….

The guys did a fair amount of work around the camp, but also had time for some play….

….hatchet throwing!!

It was cloudy much of the first days that we were there, but it fined up one night and the moon was gorgeous among the trees….

That, coupled with the fire in the Teepee made the perfect ending to the day…..

We will skip a few days in the trip posts so you can see my new centering tool and also finish up the quilts from the “Georgia Celebrates Quilts” show, but come back on Monday for more of camp life!!

Michael and I love to travel and see new parts of the world and then I love to take those memories and turn them into quilts!!! I hope that you enjoy traveling along with us!!

Be sure to subscribe to the blog so you don’t miss a single trip!!

Meet Our Camp-mates

Yesterday you saw our camp, now you need to meet our camp-mates!!

First let me explain a bit about why we are here. Michael (my husband) is, among other things, an outdoor writer, and was commissioned to visit “Driftwood Valley Outfitters” and report on some special work that they are doing with indigenous youth from the Takla Indian Nation. I will tell you more about it as the trip progresses.

This is Michael Schneider…..

He is German born and immigrated to Canada decades ago. He is a hunting outfitter and has a heart for the First-Nation boys who fall between the cracks. Most of these young men come from hard family situations and are in need of male role models to look up to. They are often living with their grandmothers and often have no interest in a traditional school, and are potentially headed into bad situations.

The idea is to get them out onto the land, teach them respect for people and nature, respect for their “First Nation” heritage and teach skills that they can use as their life goes on.

The program is highly supported by the Takla Elders and leadership. They see that Michael is making a difference among the boys that he takes under his wing.

Michael is helped in camp by Tamara…..

She is from Switzerland and has worked with Michael for 11 years. She can do anything….from cooking, to truck repair, to splitting wood, to taxidermy!! As we talked, she said that she had always loved being outside and working with her hands and that this was the perfect job for her.

There are currently three young men in camp with us. The fourth is back in Prince George, sitting his high school exams!!

This is Tye…..

…..Derek….

….and Mason…..

Tye and Derek are 15 years old and Mason will be 15 soon.

The boys spend approximately 200 days each year with Michael, split between various camps that Michael works from. He also takes them on trips to other parts of the world so that they can see other opportunities that are out there.

I am looking forward to telling you more about their journey in the next posts……

Michael and I love to travel and see new parts of the world and then I love to take those memories and turn them into quilts!!! I hope that you enjoy traveling along with us!!

Be sure to subscribe to the blog so you don’t miss a single trip!!