It’s Freezing Outside

We’ve been setting records for the last week. I haven’t bothered going outside since Christmas. I’m glad we’re in the position where I can do that. 

Staying inside all this time has given me the opportunity to tweak up my grand piano and get it ready for delivery. It will be gone in a few weeks.

The birds are taking full advantage of our feeders. We’ve never seen pheasants this close to the house although we hear them in the bush outback all the time. There’s four of them hanging around the feeder. 

 I got the greatest gifts this Christmas. A new vacuum cleaner and a pair of Bluetooth ear protectors for when I’m on the bobcat and in my shop. I’ve broken all my Daisey mugs over the last few months and Carrie got me a replacement. Coffee doesn’t taste the same when not in a Daisy mug. 

This is our family picture for Christmas dinner 2021. 

Going thru past Christmas pictures I found this one of Ron and Barb when they came for a visit to our cabin in the mountains. Ron trashed his shoulder and I broke some ribs that week. He says you’re not having fun until someone gets hurt. Hence the name of my blog. I must be having a riot of a time. 

Christmas 2021

Ruth found a perfect 15 pound turkey for our Christmas dinner. I was excited to do it on the rotisserie this year. I almost put it on the smoker instead but at the last minute I changed my mind. That was a mistake. 

It was so big and so tender that it just fell off of the rotisserie. Luckily I just happened to go out to check on how it was doing before it could get totally destroyed. 

I managed to get it onto the kitchen in pieces and started to think about we were going to do for dinner. 

This is me trying to think my way out of a disasters. 

I sent Brad a text saying dinner was a disaster and what did he think about Chinese for Christmas. 

He came over a few minute later and said the Chinese restaurant in town was open and should he order dinner for us all. Haha. He was on it but I told him I was joking. I put the ham on the q and we had a great family ham and turkey dinner with all the trimmings at 5:00. After dinner we walked next door and had our Christmas family picture taken. 

It was a nice Christmas. We all had a great time. 

Ruth had taken Ellie outside yesterday to build a snowman after a big snow dump and wanted a picture of them together with their creation. Ellie reluctantly gave in and went for the picture. 

I got Ruth in the workshop

This has been a fun project. Ruth mentioned she would like a charcuterie  board for a lunch coming up with her friends and asked if I could make one. I said no but would be more than happy to Give some advice  on how they are made. We had a lot of fun doing this.

She’s a quick learner. We did a couple of test Rounds on the router and before I knew it she was a pro.

I had some black walnut kicking around my shop and there was some scrap Douglas Fir  outside under the deck. I love how this combination of wood looks. 

We attached some feet on the bottom of the boards which made them look different from the other ones we’ve seen. 

A couple of coats of Walrus oil made the grain of the wood pop and they look beautiful.

 

The finished product turned out beautiful. 

These boards turned out so nice she doesn’t want to give them away anymore. That’s exactly how I feel on anything I make. We’re so much alike. 

Killer smoke

There are fires all around the valley. Air quality is terrible. 

Last year these bushes were giving us a gallon a day of raspberries. 

This year we are getting about one cup every few days. 

They get lots of water but there is no sun. 

The Okanagan is famous for its fruit but this year all the farmers are in tough shape. 

lesson on Jigs

I dislike these jacks. Whenever I catch one I try to get the hook out to let it go without touching the fish. If your finger gets close to the mouth they will bite you amd these teeth aren’t a joke to deal with. 

This is why we like plyers. 

That Jack took my jig sk I started using a red jig instead of our usual pink. 

I stopped catching fish for over a day and a half while Ron and Barb kept pulling them in. 

That damn Jack. I can only imagine how strong that bite is. 

I finally cut the red jig off and went back to pink. 

Twenty minutes later I was back in the running. 

Funny how they seem to like that colour the most. 

It was smoky out most of the time but we survived. 

We ate , drank and laughed a lot this week. 

A great place to be. These two are wonderful friends.

Ron is up every morning cleaning the beach before we wake up. 

This is our limit and we hit it every time we went out. 

We always let the big one’s go. They are the breeders and we want to keep them stocking the lake for the next decade. 

Like Ron has always said “ we have 10 more good years left in us “ and I want them to be full of fishing trips. 

I found some wifi

I stopped in West Hawk to visit with my old childhood friend Len. We’ve known each other for over 55 years. 

His camp burnt down this spring and they lost everything one has at a summer home. I know what it’s like to survive a fire so made him and his wife a new crib board. 

I left Len’s around 3:00 and headed to Malachi. The gravel road hasn’t been plowed for months and it shows. It was the worst ride I’ve ever done. I was going so slow that at one point I looked out the window and saw a fly pass me. 

I was timing it so that I would meet Ron and Barb at the Malachi landing but because of how slow I had to go they passed me about half way there. I had to drop at about 10 -15 kilometres an hour and the ride was about 20 kilometres long. When they were passing me Barb asked if i wanted/ needed a drink. YES PLEASE. 

 


Finally. When I got there we loaded the boat and headed out. 

I love this place. This is the little shore bunkie that I helped Ron build over the last two summers while here fishing. 

Our first morning out fishing. 

Yahoo

My first fish was a beauty. Ron did the net for me when I was pulling it in.

 


Barb had just bought a new stringer so we were all thrilled about that cuz the old one was having trouble keeping closed and the fish were  getting off. 

The new one turned out to be worse. 

The metal on it was totally letting go and my nice fish disappeared.   

My next big fish was also a beauty. 

We went back to the old stringer. 

This is one of the reasons I love coming here. 

My next fish was a big Jack. We hate Jack fish. The bigger broke my hook. 

Here I go again

For  almost the last 26 years I have gone fishing in North western Ontario with Ron and Barb. We missed last year thanks to Covid so this is my 25th year. For the first 12 or so years we went winter ice fishing as well. 

I left for this years trip on Thursday. The first night I stayed at carries boat and fidnishebthebdoors on the upper deck. They looked great when I finished. 

This give a lot of storage she never had before. 

I left the boat Friday morning heading for Winnipeg. 

We live in a beautiful province. 

The Rocky Mountains are beautiful. 

This never gets old. 

I stopped in golden to make my lunch. 

This is why I love traveling in our coach. The meals are the best. 

I also love out prairies. So gorgeous. First night with friends in Calgary (Bob and Brenda)  and then off to Winnipeg Saturday morning.   

I stayed at Karen’s place in Winnipeg Saturday nignt (big  drive) and went Sunday morning to visit our niece in Gimli. She’s such a nice person. I wish we saw her more often. 

On to Ron and Barbs for dinner and a good sleep. Tomorrow we all leave for their camp at Malachi for a week of fishing.   I had made a cribbage board for them just before I came. 

They seemed to like it a lot but on inspection I noticed that I had missed drilling out 10 holes. Sheesh. 

How did I do that I’ll never know. 

We leave for the lake tomorrow. It’s quite a bump into the camp. Gravel road and then boat. No internet or cell phone so hopefully I’ll have lots to post when I get out of the bush. 

I’m on my way to Ontario

This is my annual fishing trip that I’ve done for 25 years with my friend Ron. He has a beautiful cabin at Malachi lake with his wife that I’ve been lucky enough to enjoy with him for the last 2.5 decades. Over the years we’ve done the siding , levelled the floor with fresh footings, built a garage , outhouse , deck  and a cute bunkhouse on the waterfront. 

We’ve caught tons of walleye , eaten tons of great food and laughed so much that it should have been illegal to laugh that much. 

The first stop on this adventure is in Sicamous where I’m installing the new sliding bench  doors on Carries boat they turned out quite nice  

This is the sliding Door that I installed about three weeks ago and I’m quite happy with the way it turned out 

This is the port bench that I cut open last weekend

Hi


This is the starboard bench that I cut open last weekend

This is me finishing off the slider in my workshop today

Just about done. I had to cut the fibreglass on my tablesaw but I wore a respirator, glasses and ear protection. I hate fiberglass. I am so itchy tonight from it splashing  up on me as I cut it on the table saw.  

The finished product. Finally. I’m done. Now all I have to do is install it. 

Clamped in place and drying with clear silicone. It looks great. 


This is going to help a lot in the storage issues.