Crazy Cooks & Gold Miners

Author's life and times as an adventurer in the Yukon's wild country. How any two people can pack so many events and careers into one lifetime is a wonder. In fact, Joyce Yardley herself is a wonder. From a prim little girl who didn't want to finish school, she found herself learning to be a wife, a postmistress, a lady rancher, a lodge and restaurant owner, and a gold panner. She accomplished all of that and more. She raised a family and experienced the making of a movie. This book is a delight. It not only paints scene after scene of life in the Yukon, but it also reveals Joyce Yardley's love of adventure, and what it was like to be married at sixteen to Gordon Yardley, and engaging and thoroughly professional northern jack-of-all-trades. Together they ranched, fixed airplanes, logged, built and operated a northern lodge, and raised their kids. But these were just a few of their adventures - all of them loaded with challenge and excitement. Living in remote corners of the Yukon during the thirties, forties, and fifties was not easy. Not everything went right and when things went wrong there was not always help at hand. But you will not find a whimper nor a single word of regret on these pages; on the contrary, they are loaded with fun, thoughtful comment on life in Canada's Yukon, and , scattered throughout, are oases of rich dialogue covering everything from catching a crooked cook to hunting a marauding grizzly. Joyce Yardley has recorded it all - and page by page reveals her adventures in the land of gold an d the home of the Klondike. Her love of this land is obvious, and her ability to pluck the colorful details of her crowded life there makes her a notable northern scribe.