Hello from the land of little sticks!

Well, I've finally made a couple of posts, so I guess I should maybe introduce myself? Saw the "new member questionnaire" sticky, so here goes!


How did you hear about frugal village? I actually stumbled onto it probably about a year ago or so, I was searching google for some recipe, can't remember what, and one of the hits was in the "kitchen clones" thread. Looked around and saw a whole bunch of stuff right up my alley.

What interests you here? I would call myself "thrifty", although that's maybe not the word my beautiful wife would use, lol. I'm much more likely to re-purpose something or visit the "east-end shopping center" aka the local dump than to go out and buy some brand new flashy gadget that breaks the second you take it out of it's obscenely over-elaborate packaging.

What will you contribute? Whatever I can! LOL. Maybe I'll elaborate a little more in the "tell us about yourself" and "interests and hobbies" sections.

Do you know any other members here? Nope, not a one!

How many kids? Ages? Two little angels, my beautiful and hilarious little girl who turns 6 in May, and my little man who was born 2 days before this past Christmas (2010).

Tell us about yourself. Hmmm... how indepth should I go? I live above the 56th parallel in Northern Manitoba, in the Northern edge of the boreal forest. (I tried to post a google maps link, but apparently I need 15 posts or more, so if you're interested, google "Gillam".) I originally moved up here for work, I work for the provincial electrical utility. I started out up here as an Electrical Technician, fixing and maintaining the giant hydroelectric generators on the mighty Nelson river. I've since moved into Technical Support and Technical Training, I help run classes for apprentices just starting out in the trade to give them hands-on training in controlled environments, and I also help out the staff at the plants if something has broken and they need help figuring out how to fix it. So that's my occupation, I'll guess I'll just skip that section below.

Work brought me up here, but I fell in love with everything that has to do with life in the North, and particularly living in the forest. We live in the last row in town, so literally 50 feet from my back door is the forest. In the summer, we often have black bears and wolves in the back yard. A little un-nerving, eh? It's really not so bad. The bears are more like big raccoons, the town bears anyway. Just yell at them and wave your arms and they run away. Wolves, well one or two is nothing to worry about. When they pack up and start attacking pets and chasing kids, then it's time to get serious about them. Some people have to worry about crime, we have to worry about wildlife. I'd rather take my chances with the latter though. Crime is virtually unheard of here, we don't lock our doors or take the keys out of our vehicle.

I'm also a member of the Canadian Rangers (same thing with the link dealy, google if interested, it's a pretty unique organization) This is the best thing in the world for me. I absolutely love the outdoors. I get to be a part of the military that causes no harm, that is engaged entirely with helping people. We do a lot of wilderness search and rescue: for instance if one of the polar flights (many many more than you would realize) crashes or if a canoeist gets lost, it's our job to find them, set up shelter for them to keep them warm, address any immediate medical concerns and create helicopter landing pads for rescue efforts. We also teach wilderness, and specifically winter survival to the regular forces of the military, as well as to some outside groups.

I could go on I guess, but I'll leave it that. There's still a whole "interests and hobbies" section.

Do you own any pets? When we decided to move up north, we went out and got ourselves a big dog. Bears hate dogs and would rather not be around them. We started with a Choc/Black Lab/Newfoundlander cross and a little weasely looking thing, they make a really funny pair. Last winter I got my Northern dog, a shepherd/husky mix. So three dogs in total, 2 big and 1 small. For the new pup (75 lbs now so hardly a pup), we bought a harness, and he loves to pull. He will pull my little girl around on the toboggan all day long, and he really likes pulling me down the cross-country ski trails and across the lake.

Occupation? lol see above.

Married or single? This April will be our 10th anniversary.

Interests and hobbies? Anything outside and away from the TV. Hiking, canoing, XC skiing, snowshoeing, fishing, hunting, camping (particularly winter camping, who doesn't like living in a tent with a woodstove at -40?), photography, general exploring... My walls in my office here, as well as "my room" at home are covered with topo maps so I can try to plan my next big adventure. I love snowmobiling and quadding, but am actively trying to move more towards self-propulsion (canoing/hiking/skiing). We also have a small remote cabin on an island on the big lake up here that I would live at if I could. The only way to access it is by boat or across the ice. Nothing fancy, just an escape from civilization. There are regularly moose and caribou walking across our beach. It's paradise to me.

Well, I think that's probably enough, for now anyway!