Today was another awesome day weather wise in Yellowknife and the melting continues nicely. I managed to get in a really good walk almost 20,000 steps and I'm now one big day from Hope, BC.I returned home and contiuued pumping the back yard out and  raking up the mess from the fall.  My BBQ is now snow free and I decided to fire her up and grill a chop. I like to cook outside as much as possible in the summer to reduce the use of household power. I have the worlds oldest stove and when cooking I'm sure the power meter looks like a helicopter rotor. I should really get rid of it and probably will this summer. I have a few reno ideas in mind and a new stove would be part of it. I would like a little Propane stove with a small oven. I broil most of the meat that I eat and seldom fry foods as it is just to hard to lose the gut these days.

Smokey the almost dog likes it when I BBQ as well knowing hes in for the bones and a few leftovers if he is lucky. Smokey can smell a BBQ from quite a distance and isn't shy about showing up uninvited.

Smokey the almost dog will be moving south in a few weeks late June at the latest, as Todd his owner is relocating. I had hoped to bring him to the 'Annual Sociable" but,  he will have moved by then. Things could change and we may have the pleasure of his company a while longer.  Smokey was getting pretty good at canoe sittting and seemed to enjoy being paddled around.

This here along with the squirt boat I'll be trying to teach myself the high and low braces for canoes, they are easy enough in a kayak but I find that I tip canoes.

I have some nerve damage left overs from a stroke and this makes a canoe fairly uncomfortable for me and so I stick with the kayaks mainly. As the leg gets better I hope to spend more time in the canoe as I think to be a well rounded paddler I should be at least competent in a canoe, I'll worry about getting good later.

 CERTNWT trainining with the water kite shark and swift water type stuff will keep us busy and I'm not sure that we will be able to squeeze everything we need to do into  the short summer we have. I'm doing the Avalache Awareness program over the net and it is pretty interesting and there are a few other online courses that I'm taking as well.