Man does not cease to play because he grows old.
Man grows old because he ceases to play
George Bernard Shaw

2012 Annual Owner's Meeting

Attended by Doug, Murray, Rob, Barry and Shawn. Our guests where Paul and Bruce.




High lites
  1. Meeting only took 3 hours!
  2. Weather was dry and cool.
  3. Micro Hydro provided enough power to run everything all day, every day.
  4. Good supply of wood cut and stacked.(thanks to Bruce and Paul)
  5. West loft wall finished in pine.
  6. Awesome meals. Including moose stew with moose drop pudding and a hot moose milk toddy.
  7. Great guests who pitched in and made the jobs go quickly.
Negatives
  1. The meeting took 3 hours.
  2. No partridges flew in front of Barry and Paul's guns.
  3. Lucy had a "moment" and locked herself in the shower for a day.

Friday morning



Cabin Update Sept 16-17 2012


Barry and I, finally, moved the solar panels into the sun!

After much debate on where south actually was (don't laugh it wasn't where we thought, the site is deceiving and you have to allow for 18 degrees off magnetic north and daylight saving time), we built a stand from iron wood (beaver prevention) and mounted the panels. 


11:00AM DST






Then we waited for sunrise.
At 9:15 am (DST Sept 17th) the sunrise clears the trees and hits the panels. Total sun exposure until late afternoon when the sun slides down behind trees in the west.



Also,simplified the battery wiring and added a volt meter.





The Beaver Wars of 2012 are over!



I extended the intake out 10 feet to deeper water and they can't seem to find it. Ran 24 hours without interruption.
 I did have to shut it down because the water got too low. Also had to unplug the turbine from the grid to avoid back feed from the batteries/solar panels when it's not running.


8th Annual Friends and Family Cabin Camping Weekend

Thanks to everyone for making the 8th Annual Friends and Family Cabin Camping Weekend so successful! 




Here Warren and Ron receive honorary Cabin shirts from Murray.



Lots of fishing done on Hunter Lake and Robinson Lake. Here Emily shows off a nice Perch.



The Annual Hunter Lake Big Bobber Fishing Tournament had a record number of participants trying to capture the title of Master Angler.



Despite their paddle boat being in constant danger of sinking, Team Past Glory brought it and won the Top Team award, again! 


















And the Master Angler of 2012 is Sydney Bremner!!  This is her 3rd title in 8 years!!










The Saturday night Ribfest Cook-off had seven contestants vying for top honors. Competition was fierce and voting very close. The judges left no ribs untouched in their efforts to find a winner.

The 2012 Top Chef Award goes to Rob this year. No doubt due to his "secret sauce" that he says that he gets from somebody named "Dave".


The Photo contest was held on Sunday. Winning entries will appear here as soon as I get them.


See everyone next year!










2012 Cabin Bookings


January 1st New Years!!!
January 7th
January 14th
January 21st  Barry & Doug
January 28th 

February 4th
February 11th
February 18th - 20th Family Day (for some)
February 25th - Annual Owners Meeting

March 3rd   - Barry and family (worst ever trip)
March 10th
March 17th
March 24th Barry & Jim
March 31st Barry & Family try for a better weekend... maybe when the snow is gone!


April 6th -9th Easter
April 14th The Annual Spring Flood Trip!! - Cancelled
April 21st 
April 28th Robin & friends- Cancelled due to flu

May 5th
May 12th Mothers Day Weekend
May 19th - 21st   Victoria Day
May 26th - Barry and family

June 2nd
June 9th
June 16th  Fathers Day Weekend - Doug, Jerry, Barry and Rob
June 23rd - Families ( Doug, Barry, Shawn)
June 30th - July 1st  Canada Day- Chris & Lee

July 7th 
July 14th - Doug, Marcy, Robin, Shea, Barry, etc
July 21st - Lindsay & friends
July 23rd - 29th Rob/Val & family

Aug 4th - 6th Civic Day - Barry/Ros and Shulist Family
August 11th
August 15th to 19th  - Barry/Roz & friends
August 25th

September 1st - 3rd Labour Day
8th Annual Family & Friends Camping Weekend

September 5th to 9th - Lindsay and Friends
September 15th - Barry/ Roz at the Cabin
September 22nd
September 29th - Aislinn and friends

October 6th - 8th Thanksgiving - Shawn with Family/ Friends
October  13th  
October 14th to 21st Pete Keyser and friends
October 27th  Doug & Marcy


November 3rd - Owners Meeting 
November 10th
November 14th -Doug, Nick, Abe
November 24th

December 1st Barry & friends
December 8th
December 15th
December 22th 
December 29th - 30th Barry & friends

Cabin Facelift and other incredible events Aug/2012

I convinced Rob to join me for a "little" project work at the Cabin. Somehow, Barry sensed a bigger project in the wind that wouldn't involve Atvs, campfires or fishing and declined to make the trip.
  We had  some rain on Sat night but Sunday and Monday were pretty fair days.

We heard the Loons first. They went crazy! Probably to protect their one and only fuzzy chick that was on the lake with them. At the same time the Heron went into a squawking frenzy and we saw it in full flight heading across Hunter Lake. And right above it was a Bald Eagle! just cruising in circles, low over Hunter Lake.




.



I only had time for one pic before it landed in a tree across the lake. With my Cannon handheld at max zoom this is the best I could get. He sat for about 15 minutes then disappeared to the south.



Where did the Heron go? Check the pic. It is on a tree limb! I thought I was looking at the eagle across the lake until I got the telescope. This pic is through the telescope.


Then it was back to work.  We had a  Cabin "facelift" to finish.





June 2012

A couple of great weekends at the Cabin this June. First one was to do some spring cleaning and dock work.


The second weekend saw Barry's, Doug's and Shawn's families up for some campfire time 




.....   and a little more dock work.
Barry had supplied the materials and already had half of it installed so we added a couple more sections.







Jack was first to try it out.












Still have a couple of sections to add at the end for fishing/ swimming off of which will make it about 120 feet long.






Crazy weekend !! March 3rd/4th

Crazy weekend for the cabin, no happy medium, 6 deg and high winds had the road and snow in general turned to mush.
I planned on getting in early with the family and heading out to get the lumber but on Thursday night had a big water leak at Chapel. Rozz didn’t know I fixed it so she didn’t think we were going…late to leave, late to get there.

 Saturday morning I started out with the van and trailer. The road was a slushy swamp over ice. Trees were down everywhere, then on the steep up hill at the old beaver pond I didn’t get up the hill… then a truck from the other direction came over the hill……….. Rozz finally walked back into the cabin knowing we would be there a while, then he got stuck trying to turn around. He went to get help but by then I had three vehicles coming in and me trying to go out and I couldn’t get up the hill or back up very far with the trailer….

 That took care of most of Saturday, then a blizzard hit, so we went sledding, but the trail in and out was so soft the quad kept getting stuck. 
Sunday was much better -15 and windy for Sunday, the lake was covered in an inch of ice over 3 inches of water over a foot of ice a nice combo for dock building, at least the road and trail froze-up so we could get out. Maybe next weekend?

Barry

Owners Meeting Feb/2012

The 2012 Owners Meeting went off without a hitch.

Doug & Murray broke trail into the cabin with the Subaru.


Rob arrived by snowmobile.



Shawn arrived on skis.



...because his Toyota didn't like the snow and needed a pull!





Barry arrived on ATV as usual ...






But this was probably the best way to get to the cabin!





With 10 inches of ice to stand on, it seemed like a good time to take the old dock apart. Now if someone would just build a new dock before spring.



The weather was great. Too bad we were only there for the weekend.







More from the Annual Owners Meeting


Feb 24 - 26 Annual Owners Meeting
We managed to pick the best weekend of the winter for the owners meeting.
Got about 10cm of wet snow on Friday, just enough to make the trail slippery enough for Shawn to get stuck. It only took 4 strong backs and an ATV with a winch to get me out (sure wish I had put on those snow tires). Murray and Shawn went for a quick ski before dark with only 2 stream crossings - Note: When trying to cross a stream with skis on in the dark do not try to do the standing long jump.
Sat was -5 for great ski conditions. Shawn, Murray and Rob skied over to the Black River & met up with Doug and Barry for lunch. Now it was Barry's turn to get stuck. Doug completed his monthly stress test on his heart getting him out. The skiers negotiated an awesome trail along the Black back to the cabin (see photo above). Doug provided a great steak dinner and the owners meeting went well into the next day (as usual) - I hope Barry took good notes because we must have talked about a lot of important stuff. It was a cold clear night that the wolves were enjoying as well (made Doug a little nervous cooking the steaks outside). There were several nominees for the Technical Innovation - Total Solution award, but Doug was the clear winner for his hydro electric power plant he designed, built, installed and commissioned (see photo below).
Another gorgeous day on Sunday - I'm not sure what happened because I packed up and left.