Mike was born in 1947 in Grande Prairie Alberta. He was raised on a family farm until 1960 when his family moved to Calgary for a better life and to look after his grandfather. Because he was in a one room school house he had completed two extra years of schooling, and he finished high school in Calgary.

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Sylvia was born in 1949 in Consort, Alberta, the youngest of three siblings. She was also raised on family farm that did mixed farming or basically some of everything. Her parents moved the family to Calgary in the early 60s in search of an easier life.

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Mike and Sylvia met in Calgary in 1963 through Mike’s sister who was a friend of Sylvia’s.

Mike Worked at Calgary Steele Tank building propane storage tanks. Then in 1965, Mike drove to the Yukon with some friends and went to work for the Mayor in Whitehorse (Ed Jacobs) at Jacobs Industries (a machine shop) for several years.

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Sylvia moved to Whitehorse to join Mike in 1965. Sylvia worked at the Whitehorse Inn for two years then went to work at the Dairy Queen for 18 years.

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Mike Worked at the McRae gas station and auto repair until it burned down in the spring of 1970. Then Mike went to work at Taylor Chev until 1978 when he and Sylvia made the foolish move to sell their house in Whitehorse and move back to Calgary. After only nine months, they realized Calgary was not their home anymore, and they returned to the Yukon in 1979 (their forever home).

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Mike and Sylvia bought an 18-acre farm on the Takhini River Road in 1986, and started custom farming and helping others develop or improve their agricultural properties. Mike joined the Yukon Agricultural Association in 2003.

Mike and Sylvia decided to start their own business in1980 and started Blumenschein Enterprise Ltd, automotive repair shop, Polaris snowmobile, and ATV dealership along with Argo dealership. Mike and Sylvia worked at the family business until it was sold in 1994 and Sylvia stayed working for the new owners until she retired.

When they sold the business in 1994, Mike became fully dedicated to the agricultural industry. Mike and Sylvia started a new business in 1998 doing custom farm work. He started custom farming and helping others develop or improve their agriculture properties. The custom farming business naturally grew, likely because of the need to develop agriculture land in the territory and the exceptional quality of service Mike provided.

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Over the years Mike has cleared and put into production approximately 3,570 acres, and he also put 800 acres back into production. Mike has custom farmed on properties from Tagish to Braeburn to Mendenhall and was active in clearing land, breaking, seeding, fertilizing, cutting and baling hay.

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Mike served as President for the Yukon Agricultural Association (YAA) for four years 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013, and Vice President for two years.  He has also served as Board Member and Secretary. To this day they are still involved in agriculture. While president of the YAA he retained 160 acres of agricultural lease land for the agricultural association to do projects on.

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Mike and Sylvia have received farmer of the year award from the Yukon Agriculture Branch twice, in 2005 and in 2017. Mike also received Governor General award for contribution to the agriculture industry in 2015.

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In 2017, Mike was awarded the Canadian Sovereign's Medal for Volunteers presented by Doug Phillips on behalf of the Governor General of Canada. Mike continues to share his knowledge of managing moisture, aeration, feeding the fields, and timing on working the fields. To this day they are still involved working with farmers and have just completed a 3 year project developing 150 acres of hay land. Mike and Sylvia are very proud to call the Yukon their home for over 60 years and they are honoured to be selected as Mr. and Mrs. Yukon 2026.