Happy Anniversary Dad and Mom

First, Merry Christmas everyone, hope you were all blessed to spend time enjoying family and friends. We were blessed by some great weather if you like temperatures in the freezing range, they are quite enjoyable except that they were accompanied by days of freezing drizzle. The temperatures are now back down into the -20 range with wind chills forecast at -40 the next few days.

It is Mom and Dads anniversary this week and I know they will not see this until after they get home from spending the holidays with my sister. Happy Anniversary to my wonderful parents.

Speaking of anniversary - Andrea and I have been together for 12 years this month, still a lucky man I am.

Next up is my birthday, we never really had any plans to do anything special but that changed I guessed. I have been running a 20 gallon salt water tank for a while and have been looking for a larger tank that will support more fish. It seemed every time we found something that would be the right size it was way over priced junk. There was one decent tank for sale, the guy had bought it from the same place we had bought Andrea's so we knew it was an amazing quality tank. He is selling it because the overflow is one the end so it was not the style he wanted and he had only had it about a month. We decided to buy it and use it as a room divider between the dining room and living room. The new tank will be 54 inches long, 24 inches wide and 24 inches deep. It is rated at 130 gallons (US) and like her's is made from starfire glass. We went and looked at the tank yesterday and it was literally mesmerizing, I had to literally pull Andrea away. The plan is to pick it up on the first, it is going to take a few days for the current owner to empty it out and get it ready to move.
Here is what it looks like in his basement. I will be using a different type of lighting, I ordered a light bar made by Orbit Marine that will be a bar that basically is almost the full length of the tank. As you can see it is meant to be enjoyed from both sides and we will be able to see it from the kitchen, dining room, great room and living room so it will be a great show piece much like Andrea's.

We are really excited to see how our grand children like the tanks, it looks like Ally will be the first to get to see the tanks but she should find them fairly entrancing...

In the meantime my little Christmas vacation is over, back to work in the morning, there is some really big projects going on as we are doing a major expansion of our production capacity and more modernization. With everyone from the production side on vacation it is time for our projects department and maintenance crew to get things done - of course that means I get to do what I do best: watch other people work LOL.

Andrea and Noah are on holidays until the 5th so they will get some nice time together. We have had several plans to go ice fishing but every time they have fallen through, but we will get there, likely not while we are getting -40 windchill's.

IMPREZA

Well after taking a weekend off from writing, I am back. A lot has happened since I last wrote. To start with I guess the big news is no surprise - Andrea replaced my VW Golf with a 2011 Subaru Impreza WRX. I mentioned she was looking at it last time, well she took it for a test drive (I had to go to ensure the passenger seat was adequate) and she quickly bought it. I guess it is safe to say Merry Christmas Andrea, it really is quite a car. We have made two trips to Winnipeg and is very impressive, rides solid and comfortable but is so sporty!!! The AWD system is amazing, we have constant ice patches on the road here and as much as in some ways I hate having traction control it is the only thing that makes driving easy in the truck, in the Subaru it does not seem to matter it just pulls and tracks like crazy. The leather seats are an adventure, I need the seat belt to stay in place when she touches the brakes...anyway it is good to see her having fun driving. I guess buying a bike woke her out of here slumber!!!

The VW will not be going to waste, I will drive it occasionally over the winter to keep it in good shape and then Jessica, Chris and Allie are flying up the 25th of April, they are driving the car home and it will give them a quality family vehicle for many years. Of course they will be here for Andrea's birthday to so that will be pretty exciting.

I had a great conversation with Johnathan last weekend as well, Andrea and I are planning to fly Mom and Dad up next summer if Dad is up to the trip and John, his Andrea and the kids would like to come up at the same time...it would be so very cool if that can work out.

On a personal note I am about two days from being windows free, (at home at least). I had to make a hard choice when I went back to school - I needed a quality fast light laptop, I went with an Asus Ultrabook and it was a great laptop for the purpose but I was very torn between that and a Macbook Air. I did hope that the touch screen and windows eight on the Asus would make it worth sticking with windows. I can say I just do not use the touch screen and I do not like windows eight any more than the other versions. Andrea has bought me a new Macbook Air for Christmas and I will be very happy to get it (I am getting it early) and move everything over to it. I am not a huge Apple fan - I do not think that Apple does anything special, but my Apple devices do something my Android and windows devices do not do - they just plain work, simple efficient and effective. Not perfect but reliable...and if Apple develops a new operating system they give it to you for free...

The downside is I ordered it online, Futureshop had it on sale for cyber Monday so a good price and free shipping..I decide to pay the extra 20.00 for express post, two day shipping means I should have it fast...right...NOT. I am hugely disappointed in Futureshop, it basically took them three days to get it moving, and then of course to expect Canada Post to actually give you what you pay for, duh, I guess I should have just drove into the city and picked it up, would have cost well under 20.00 in the VW and been faster by at least a week...I have ordered from several other retailers including Best Buy for electronics, several times and never this issue. I have ordered golf clubs from California and had them faster several times. The firearms dealer where I order the majority of my hard to get stuff from has it to me from Alberta in two to three days...anyway enough whining about futureshop, I do not have to buy from them again.

In other news, the twenty gallon aquarium Andrea had bought me for my birthday a couple of years ago was essentially going to waste. It had a couple of fish left but it was really just sitting in the basement being ignored, we sold the remaining fish and emptied the tank. I decided I wanted to use it as a miniature (properly named Nano) saltwater aquarium so I cleaned it carefully to get rid of all the left over fresh water algae and residue. Andrea had a left over bag of live sand so we moved everything upstairs and filled it with saltwater, added the sand and let it settle. Saturday we had to go find Andrea a new dress for my Christmas party at work next weekend (she will look GORGEOUS) so I bought a cheap wave maker, a couple of fish and some rock to place corals on once the tank is ready. The initial setup looks very sharp but I will need a much better light to grow corals so I will be watching the sales, I know which one I want. In the meantime I have three blue - green chromos in the tank with a couple of pieces of Andrea's rock to "seed" the tank faster.

Until next time...Geoff and Andrea

Well its over

Well the 2014 whitetail deer season came to an end. None of us shot a deer this year, not from lack of opportunity but from lack of quality. We are not sure how many of the deer will make it through the winter but we can feel good that we left some quality young deer and never seen any of the mature deer we had on camera during daylight hours.

There is a strong rumour going out here that the only reason they never cancelled the season this year was because outfitters already had bookings confirmed when they understood the devastation from the severe winter, they also claim outfitters have been told not to book anything for the 2015 season..we will have to wait to see how that plays out. Worse case scenario we will put a lot more effort in duck and goose hunting next year.

Winter is well underway already this year again, last year we had temperatures in the -25 -30 range plus windchill. We had lots of deer and deer sign, there was a couple of inches of snow on the ground and lots of deer movement. This year it was cold right up to the weekend but never as cold as last year, Saturday it hit +3 and was damp. Sunday morning we woke up to -5 and ice fog, followed shortly by snow flurries and high winds. Needless to say, we never seen a deer all weekend, not even a bit of fresh sign.

It was easy to pack it in midday given the weather and lack of sign.

Monday will bring a new adventure, Andrea has been looking to replace the VW golf for a while, she finally decided on a Subaru Impreza WRX, we looked at few over the last few months and - we seen one Saturday at the Honda dealer where we bought our bikes this summer and although I almost got away with driving by, well not really I had to go back. There is now a hold for Andrea sign in the window...a 2011 with 33,000 Kmh.

all wheel drive and fun,should be good if she decides to go that route. I guess we will know soon.

One weekend Left in Whitetail Season

Well where to start LOL, I am not sure. Last weekend we went to camp for four glorious days, went up Friday night and hunted Saturday and Sunday for muzzle loader season, then Monday and Tuesday for center fire rifle season.

Saturday was a cold morning without much wind so I went to my "honey hole" stand for first light. I was there for about 90 minutes when this little fellow came out to play around in the hollow.

The picture actually makes him look a lot larger than he is, I doubt he would have field dressed a 100 lbs...but he spent 40 mins entertaining me that morning. Just after he left a large bodied deer ran through further up the hill through the heavy brush. Could not tell if it was a buck or doe but it was not hanging around to tell me.

Andrea never found a thing around her stand so we went in for brunch and a nap lol. Those 0500 wake ups are hard on the body lol. We went back out at 1430 and sure enough the young fellow came through again. Again Andrea's stand was a bust.

Sunday morning I was back in the "honey hole" and I had a treat as this fellow came to play around...

Even though he is a fork horn he is actually smaller than the spike above. Take note of the nice sunny weather and dry ground. Saturday evening the spike came back to see me. Still not convinced he was worth shooting, a .50 cal muzzle loader at 40 yds would put holes in him to large to leave him one piece. I had him back again Monday morning for the center fire opener, my new marlin 3030 with its Bushnell legend 2 X 7 X 32 had him all lined up and all I could do was count ribs. I am not sure there is enough there to bother with so again I passed.

Andrea had another opinion, she figured the deer was worth shooting based on the pictures, so, she has taken over my stand in the honey hole effective Monday afternoon. I moved to a stand on top of the hill above the honey hole. I have seen a lot of deer there and it is where I shot my deer last year. The issue with the stand is that it is no good in the predominate west winds. I was able to enjoy a nice evening in that stand Monday afternoon and hoped I would see another big deer cross in the brush between me and Andrea...sure enough we both seen it, no chance for either of us to get a shot though the heavy brush though. We went to bed that night with great intentions, the weather gods however had other ideas. We awoke Tuesday to bitter cold, high wind and of course this,

We walked around and not a track to be found, we decided to make a shooting lane down the fence line so that if the wind cooperated we could possibly get a shot at the big deer that has been ghosting the brush...

One of our water jugs had broke so we had to run to Baldur and get extra water Monday and come Tuesday with the bad weather and lots to do before work Wednesday we decide to call it a trip and headed home at lunch time.

Three days later we were back again, things are a little different now, the ground is covered in snow, the wind has a vicious bite and the temps are not reaching pleasant highs. We started Saturday morning the same way, Andrea went to the honey hole, she was going shoot the spike horn if it was foolish enough to show up.  It showed up, Andrea of course put her cross hairs on it, then she to started counting ribs...the spike horn entertained her for a bit and then departed.

Monday I tried another area on the property but I think that particular area is only used at night and I never seen a thing. Andrea never seen anything Saturday afternoon either, but we did find that it was nicer in the afternoon as it was only about -15 as opposed to -25 in the morning.

Sunday morning brought brutal wind chills and a damp NW wind, we went down to the honey hole and Andrea took the stand while I went a couple hundred yards east to the fence line. We sat out in the brutal wind for a couple of hours but decided that no deer worth shooting would be out in that crap. We called it a weekend.

We got out just in time, we hit the secondary road that is two miles east of camp and the snow was crazy. By the time we were to the secondary highway it was near whiteout, snow squalls driven by 70 Kmh winds were great fun as there times we had to drive 10 kmh just trying to see the road.

We will be back next weekend for the final try, not sure about the deer thing. A couple of guys told me they are all herding up already. I am not sure we will take anything but a decent bodied deer, there are enough on camera at night...

On another note, I know I mentioned the Winchester 7mm WSM I picked up last time I wrote, but I did not have it in hand...I received it and was quite surprised, I thought I had bought a basic M70 classic, I actually got a M70 ultimate shadow...

It is the most balanced easy handling bolt action rifle I have ever found, I can't wait until the weather cooperates to start load development.

Til next week...

Finally Hunting

Well we have had quite a couple of weeks. Not quite sure where to start, I have been busy playing with my gun collection but first let’s talk muzzle loaders. We bought muzzle loaders a few years ago but never actually used them so after my shoulder surgery and not being to hold my bow at draw we thought maybe we should try out the muzzle loading thing to extend our hunting season as rifle season is only two weeks and we have to shoot a buck with antlers more than 4 inches this year.

Last weekend we sighted in our muzzle loaders and learned how to use them. This weekend we hunted for the first time with the muzzle loaders. We never had an opportunity to take a shot but it was great to get out hunting again.

It was a hard week waiting to go back up but I have been suitably preoccupied with my rifle collection, additions and subtractions. I first decided to let go of my 308 – I bought the rifle last fall with the idea I might use it for a tree stand rifle and never even fired it. Gave up on the model 7 260 experiment and I ended up buying a Marlin 3030 as I have always loved a lever action bush rifle. 

I do have an affliction with highly accurate flat shooting stainless steel rifles as well. I do have a couple of blued rifles, a 243 carbine Noah is using, and of course the 3030. To replace the 308 I bought a Savage Weather Warrior in 270 WSM. I had a savage 270 WSM last year and foolishly let it go, it was a super accurate rifle and fun to shoot so I am hoping the stainless model with the improved stock will be even better.

The Savage 270 WSM

I have also been daydreaming about having a high quality rifle in the nearly extinct calibre of 7 mm WSM. I have had a thing for 7 mm Magnum rifles ever since I bought my own first center fire rifle, I have had many over the years (a disease I inherited from my father according to Mom) but not a 7 mm WSM – I love the idea of having the 7 mm Magnum performance in a short action non-belted cartridge. The idea that it is such a ballistic treat but yet not embraced is hard to comprehend. Many writers tend to blame it on the “American” effect – if it is named in a metric convention it will not sell, yet the standard 7mm Rem mag does quite well year after year. I think it has more to do with mass media, the writers that “know everything” and write like they do have much more influence than common sense or useful application. The idea that improving a cartridge from a belted long semi efficient cartridge case to a short un-belted cartridge case that is more efficient and equally useful.  A lot of words to say I found one I really like so I snagged it and sold my 708AI. The 708AI is a great rifle but is has largely been supplanted by my 260 Rem in a Tikka stainless Hunter that will literally shoot one hole groups with 120gr Nosler Ballistic Tip Hunting bullets. 

The Winchester Classic in 7mm WSM

The Winchester Classic in 7mm WSM

The Tikka T3

So enough about my toys, we went up to camp Friday night and arrived just after dark. It was quite cold and windy so we lit the fire and made supper. Up early and out for our first hunt of the year. It really seemed like we had gone a year without hunting as confusion reined but we got out there. I spooked three deer on my way in and we never saw another one that day or Sunday morning. The wind was very harsh, actually shaking the camp Friday night and remained high until after 5 pm Saturday.

Sunday morning brought cool crisp air, just a breathe of wind and nothing but squirrels and bluejays making a racket. Oh well next weekend we have four day weekend as Andrea and I both took Monday the 10th off and the 11th is a stat holiday for all three of us. It will give us an extra opportunity to try and get a shot at this guy...

or maybe

if we get really lucky then one of us will get a shot at this

Yes that is off our trail cams, all them are...til next time.

Thanksgiving 2014

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, speaking of being thankful, we have had the camp for a year now. We actually did not head up this weekend until Saturday morning. We needed to work on Andrea’s saltwater tank and had to wait for new filters for the RO/Di water system. No real loss though, we made it up before lunch. A lot of things have changed with the camp over the last year.

We arrived on the property and noticed a few ducks on the pond so we parked in the middle of the field. We attempted to sneak into the cattails and bulrushes, thought maybe we could get a duck or two for Thanksgiving dinner. No luck there but an exciting start to the weekend.

We had been talking about switching around the counters so the sink would be under the windows, well Andrea started cooking brunch and I started tearing things apart. Great timing I know but it all worked out really well as I (with help of course) ripped out all the cupboards and then moved everything around. I moved the batteries from the counter and put them under the sink, adding two more from the boats trolling motor and rewired everything from the charge controller off the solar panel in. I still have to bring up some pipe next weekend to plumb in the sink drain. We also ripped out the old enterprise cook stove that took up so much room, it was never hooked up right and we could not get it to be useful. After moving that out we were able to move the wood stove and run the stove pipe vertically instead of a long horizontal run. It went all the way down to 12 degrees in the camp Sunday night so I lit a fire Monday morning to see if that made the stove more effective. We had debated on possibly buying a larger stove as the heat given off that last year was minimal for the size of stove. It now appears being able to actually draw will allow Andrea to bake my brain inside my skull…

We had bought five led light bars that really light the place up and draw less than one of the 50 watt halogen lights we used last year, far less drain on the batteries. We also bought a small fridge and a 750 watt inverter, it runs the fridge no problem but we are having issues getting the batteries to recharge. I will have to bring a multi-meter next weekend to check all the voltage levels. I am wondering if the solar panel just does not produce enough juice through the charge controller to handle four batteries.

We also for those that do not know, wrapped the camp in ty-wrap and sheathed it with 3/8ths plywood which we then stained. The difference in the warmth levels is incredible, the wind does not blow through the walls anymore so the insulation that is there can do its job. We found interlocking rubber floor mats and have now covered most of the floor so you can walk around comfortably in sock feet.

The idea for the weekend was to test a bunch of rifle loads, and make sure our hunting rifles were zeroed. I plan to hunt mostly with a new Marlin 336 in 30-30 this year, with a choice of either my 7-08AI or my 260 Rem as my backup rifle. Andrea is going to be hunting with her 243 as always and with her 270 Win as back up. Noah is borrowing one of my 243’s, a carbine I bought from Doug and will have his heavy varmint rifle from last year as backup.  So after all the work was done, Sunday afternoon we headed down to site everything in. I had also made a bunch of test loads for a 243 I parted with, so Andrea thought she would play with those, load #4 produced a 0.3” group. 95 grain Nosler CT BT bullets for those that care lol. The best I managed to find with my 260 was 0.5” but that will have to do, 140 gr Sierra Game Kings. I wonder if the 140gr might be a little heavy for the Tikka. I will load a few this year but save the other 375 for when I finally get my 6.5 Swede. Have to save a while for that, a stainless, laminate Sako…I also had re-zeroed my 7-08AI last weekend as it had gone on a cross country trip, visited a guy in AB, them found its way to my friend Doug…I managed to bring it home like the prodigal son. Shooting the loads I had made for it before letting it go, (used that combo to shoot that very decent Grand Manan buck before we moved to MB). Last weekend I played with it and got it to shoot 0.72” @ 100 in a 40+Kmh cross wind. That will work. The new Marlin from the Remington factory is a very nice tight rifle, all the mechanical parts function very well, the wood and checkering are decent and it shoots decent for a lever action. Three shots into a deer style target put 3 in the vitals at a 100yds. What they use as an excuse for bluing on these rifles is sickening but I will oil the heck out of it and it will make a dandy bush rifle and stand rifle for close work.

We finally put out our trail cameras last weekend, I had pictures of three does, one a very large body, one was so curious she came into the camera for three close-ups…

unfortunately after the last two severe winters destroyed the deer population we are only allowed to shoot bucks with antlers over four inches…unless they come around during the rut that could be a wish and a prayer. We had over 20 different deer on camera last year, this year so far three on mine and it appears one on Andrea’s that is the medium sized one I seen on mine. We went out this morning to celebrate Thanksgiving and moved her tree stand, her camera and cleaned up the area for some shooting lanes. We then came back and she made me French toast, hash browns and newfie steak for breakfast. Now we will head down and move my stand from where I shot the doe last fall into my honey hole. I see more deer there than anywhere else on the property, I pulled it out on the Thursday before the season ended in an attempt to get the large buck that was crossing on the ridge, I now have a hanging stand there so it is covered as well.

We plan to go back next weekend to hopefully play with our muzzleloaders and of course do some more target shooting. Last year we were tripping over grouse everywhere, this year nothing.

June Showers

Happy Father’s Day, it though somewhat bittersweet for me as my Dad is in the ICU recovering from multiple surgeries. He is doing well at last report, and for all the updates and the help she has been to Mom through all this my sister Gail is a hero.

I know it has been a long time since I wrote anything, but I have been so busy lately I just have not persuaded myself to write at all. I decided back in March I would need to go back to work, a few different reasons played into this decision… one being the length of the winters here being so long with so little to do while Andrea is working; I do enjoy ice fishing but to get to a decent lake takes about 3/4 a tank of gas each trip, not something my budget would support every day. Second, we have a few dreams we still wanted to check off the list before it was too late, the first being getting our motorcycle licences and buying motorcycles, we have the bikes –

Andrea’s –

Mine –

We will have finished our training courses by the end of the month and will be legal to drive. I will be adding a small windscreen and some saddlebags at some point. 

We finally made it up to camp last Friday evening, we just wanted to make a plan to upgrade the insulation for hunting season and check the lawn mower. I got the mower going fairly easily and Andrea ran it dry cutting some grass. We wanted to go back this weekend to cut the rest of the grass and cut some firewood but we are suffering from our third day of rain so that idea went out the window.

Back to the job, I am sure blessed to have the friends in my life that have taught, mentored and finally acted as references that enabled me to secure the position. For those that do not know, I am now the Health and Safety Officer at Monarch Industries Winkler Foundry. There are a few videos on YouTube for those that would care to see more of what happens in the foundry and what is made there. I have worked there three weeks now and it’s an interesting, challenging environment. The people there are very welcoming and helpful so it has been a very positive experience to this point.

We are of course very happy to be out on the golf course, we are both playing leagues, I have a great partner and we are doing quite well as I am still very limited in the use of my left shoulder, it is coming along nicely though.

Of course the other big thing we have is a six foot 14 year old eating machine, I had to go back to work in order buy groceries for this monster…

At this point I will let Andrea write about her aquarium, it is coming along very nicely…

Well the aquarium is coming along nicely although now that the nicer weather is here, I have been only adding little bits here and there. I am hoping to place a coral order online as the local selection is quite limited.

I have had some fatalities, I no longer have any blue green chromis or cardinals. I am not sure what happened to the chromis but I suspect the cardinals died as a result of the capture method or I have too much flow/lights (I really suspect they were not healthy critters when I got them as they only lasted a 2-3 weeks).

I have lots of new additions, I have a green bubble tip anemone but unfortunately he has decided to live in a cave so we don’t see him much L. I really wanted to have an anemone for my clown fish to host so I purchased a Seabae anemone which my clowns are hosting J I now have a One spot Foxface, Yellow eye kole tang, dwarf flame angel (Geoff’s favorite), lawnmower blenny, a square anthias, 2 Azure damselfish and 2 velvet damselfish which are supposed to get big, mean and lose their awesome colors so they may become fish bait lol. As far as corals, I have a torch, hammer, leather, 2 sps, quite a few polyps/zoas, a green montipora, a sea fan, and some green star polyps. I have a xenia but for some reason he kept getting unattached to the rock and ended up attaching to my tuxedo urchin so I decided, why not J so he travels around on the urchin J There are 3 videos after these pictures...

Foxface and the thing coming out of the sand beside him is a sea fan:

Dwarf Flame Angel

Velvet damselfish

Leather coral

Green monti

one of my SPS

Torch coral

Azure damselfish (blue and orange) and and my yellow eye kole tang

my clown fish and their seabae anenome

hammer coral - he is a little closed up ....

Green Star polyps

Fish, there are fish in MB

Well at least in Andrea's aquarium...she cycled the tank using the ammonia method and then on the first weekend of April decided to add her first fish, she went with blue green chromis

for the first round. She added three small fish on Saturday evening and carefully watched for any tank related issues. After six days of the tank and fish doing well she decided it was time to add a few more. She went with the salt water aquarium standard clown fish

and decided to go with a pair of cardinals as well.

She is currently at seven fish in the 100 gallon display tank. All these fish will grow to about 3" in length when mature.

I know I have not wrote anything for a bit, but honestly even I do not know how to make sitting home on the couch sound exciting. That is all I do for the majority of the time, a quick trip for a few groceries or going for a drive with Andrea has been the excitement for me the last 13 weeks. I started physio last week, finally able to ditch the sling and start moving my shoulder but under some restrictions. Most movement is supposed to be guided by my other hand and I am under a limit of lifting no more than 10 lbs with that arm. The exercises keep me busy for a couple of hours a day with more to come but they are sorely needed to regain function and strength in that shoulder.

I would like to report that the warm weather is making everything feel like spring but we are still suffering negative temps during the day and things will be a while yet before growing again. With the coming weekend being Easter, we are planning to go to camp the one of the nicer days to see how the place weathered the winter and to take some measurements of things we want to work on to start budgeting...going to take the atv's up though as I suspect the lower pasture where we access the property will be very wet.

I have made a very poor home movie of Andrea's aquarium but if you would like to see it please click below...

Andrea has always been a bit of a photography buff, she actually has some fairly high end equipment and I am going to be spoiling her for our anniversary with a macro lens for her Nikon.
Our anniversary is coming up in a couple of weeks along with her birthday (man did I get suckered on that date) so we have been putting aside a little spare cash to go into Winnipeg for her birthday. A bunch of people from the area and from out of province are getting together for a "frag swap". This means essentially a yard sale for aquarium related stuff, I plan on taking the truck just in case...

An aqua view

The last of Andrea's aquarium parts showed up Monday, THREE months after paying for it. I admit CAD Lights builds very nice aquariums, unfortunately they suck at delivering them. Their customer service is as bad as any company I have ever dealt with. The Canadian reps were good to deal with but they could seem to get nothing done from head office in a timely fashion. I wish I could end this on a happier note talking about the company but how when you buy a Christmas present for your wife and the company completely bungles the order and then takes three months to make it right do you feel good about them...anyway moving on.

We have spent most of the week finding the supplies to finish off the custom plumbing job she wanted. We split the return line into 3/4" return directed into the refugium and controlled by a ball valve to ensure that the flow is kept to a trickle. The other branch of the return stayed at the standard size of 11/2" into the main portion of the sump.

Once the setup was dry fit we ran a garden house in and filled the tank and sump with standard water from an outside tap (I had spent some time in the sun getting the ice out of the hose) and ran everything to ensure the modified setup would work. Everything seemed to be exactly as she wanted it so at that point Andrea shut everything down and drained the tank.

The following morning I shop vacuumed the remaining water and grit from the tank and then set the supply hose from our RO/DI (reverse osmosis/de-ionized) water system I had installed to perform the dual feature of giving us both pure drinking water and the special water recommended for supplying a reef aquarium. As this system will supply a maximum of 100 gallons of purified water per 24 hours it was going to take a couple of days to fill this beast. I started it at 07:44 Friday morning and we ran it well into the night Friday. We shut it off planning to be safe if we slept in...yeah right, 06:30 seen us starting the day by flicking on the water flow and getting ready for the days plans. We had some running around to do and Noah and I were scheduled for haircuts (only a slight trim for me thank you), Andrea needed new sneakers for running around at work and so on. We shut off the supply while we were out for a few hours but promptly turned it back on when we returned home.

As Saturday evening dragged on the tank seemed to have doubled in capacity, it was akin to watching paint dry waiting for the final inch to fill and the overflow to start draining water into the sump. Of course the whole time waiting for the tank to fill was not as simple as sitting there watching for Andrea, she had to mix enough of the special salt into it to make the specific gravity read 1.025, we did the calculations and she mixed the salt in, she ran the water heaters to help bring the water up to temp (26*C) and once the salt mix was done she had to add her sand bed. She chose after much debate to go with a deep sand bed in her refugium so she made that 4 inches deep while going with a shallow sand bed in her main tank so that is about 1.5" deep. Her rock had been in place for quite a while waiting for the missing aquarium parts.

About midnight she was content, the proper water levels had been reached, everything was finally running and everything was the way it was supposed to be. That includes water so cloudy you cant see into it, using very fine sand comprised mostly of calcium chloride means there is a bunch of very fine silty stuff in the water column, this will completely settle in the next couple of days and the water will become crystal clear. The tank still has to do whats known as "cycle" which essentially means it has to have an ammonia source to build a colony of nitrifying bacteria that will convert the ammonia (toxic to fish and corals) to nitrite and then build a colony of bacteria that will convert the nitrite (also toxic to fish and corals) to nitrate to prepare the system to process the fish waste once they are introduced to the tank. Once she can start adding fish and corals the system will become a living breathing coral reef, over the years it will grow into a spectacular show piece, however this is not a venture to be undertaken by those without patience.

Aquarium Index

Display Tank - this is a 48" wide, 20" high, 24" deep tank made from 1/2" thick Starfire glass, holding aprox 100 gallons. There is an overflow in the back center that has three holes drilled in it to allow plumbing to move water around.

A - D this is the part of the aquarium known as the sump.

A- This is the refugium, the original sump from CAD Lights did not include this, I bought a piece of glass at a local shop and we installed it to create this section. Allows for additional bio-filtration and allows a place to grow different algae for more bio-filtration and to grow micro organisms to feed the fish and corals.

B - Protein Skimmer - this is a device designed to do what natures waves do, create a foamy, bubbly spot that removes impurities from the water, much like the dirty foam winds pile up on the beach.

C - Filtration Media - this removes excess bits through mechanical media (foam)

D - the lower D is the section of the sump that houses the return pump which pushes 1100 gallons per hour of water from the sump back to the display tank. This water flows out into the tank helping create the current required to emulate a natural reef in tidal waters. The are also two other wave makers installed in the tank, each one capable of circulating 1100 GPH - these are connected to a programmer that enables them to alternate operating times to simulate ocean currents etc.

The upper D is the main return line, the upside down T in white is where the return water comes from the display tank, dividing it into the refugium and main return, the D is on the actual drain hose that provides the bulk of the water to the sump to be filtered and returned to the display tank.

The lights shown hanging above the display tank are full spectrum LED lights that are fully programmable to create a natural sun / moon cycle.

Post Surgery

Well its been a week and a bit since I had my shoulder done. I do not know exactly how many pins were put in, I will find that out when I see the surgeon again on the 20th. I do know he also had to make an opening for one of my bicep tendons to slide as it was all jammed up, I think that may have been more painful than the rotator cuff repair itself. All in all it is starting to feel better but I am a long way from doing much. Noah's March break was this week and I had fun teasing him that I could drive so he could do everything else and we would spend the week ice fishing, in reality though no chance.

Ice Fishing Wrap Up

Well it seems like the last ice fishing trip I will be able to make this year was a blow out success, Andrea and I actually hit the road at 06:15 and were on the ice at Pelican Lake by 08:30. Setup and fishing by 09:00 and were landing perch immediately. We were fishing a flat in eight FOW and the bite was on, poor Andrea had only been out a few times this season so it took her a few minutes to get set-up and fishing. I landed four perch before she had a line in the water but she did not take long to get going.

My flip shelter once again proved it worth, with wind chills in the -33 Degree range we ran our little buddy heater and were quite comfortable fishing with out our coats on. Although it is tight in the little flip with two people it is so much easier to setup and be fishing in minutes rather than trying to setup a tent in 30 MPH wind.

The day was wonderful, the fishing was fantastic, the sun shining bright and my wife to keep me company, hard to beat that any time of year.

Pelican Lake seems to be an interesting lake we will get to know well in the future, only a 30 minute drive from our camp, we look forward to making the place capable of being warm and comfortable in the winter so we can go spend weekends there and fish both Rock and Pelican Lakes year around. Both lakes have a plentiful supply of Perch, Walleye and Northern Pike so they will supply our reasons for "getting away" to camp when there is no hunting season to draw us up there. Our idea to purchase this property is looking better and better...

Back to the fish story, we caught fish steadily until about 12:30 when the bite changed like someone threw a blanket over the fish, I then began just opening tackle bins and proceeding to try random jigs, hard baits, tails colours etc until I found what they wanted...they wanted a tiny bright pink fish fry bodies on small bright pink jig heads...the bite was on, over the next hour I caught another 17 perch...this was quite a switch from the morning bite, I was most successful with buckshot lures in a rainbow pattern as well as a Lindy Rattlin' Flyer Spoon in the same while Andrea was using a Rattling Flyer Spoon Perch that I had done so well with last Monday and a variety of other larger jigs, lots of stuff worked well in the morning as long as it was tipped with perch eyes, after the bite switched I think we may have caught two on setups tipped with eyes, everything else was on plastics in the afternoon. Knowing we were getting ready to head home I decided to call Dad and Mom for a quick chat before we packed up, we were all chatting on speakerphone on our end and I missed a couple of bites while talking to Dad, Mom got on the phone and bang a heavy hit, Andrea took the phone while I landed the largest perch of the day. It had tangled my two lines so bad I just cut the lines, a nice fat prize to end the year. Overall we must of landed 100 + perch for the day....

We filled a large grocery bag with perch for a couple of meals, about 20 - we were actually allowed 25 each under the limit but that just seemed excessive to me. 20 perch the size we kept will actually feed the three of us two fish dinners and make a few fish patties for Andrea's lunches.

Noah had a friend over last night and I dragged the two of them out this morning to help me unload the truck...the truck has been full of ice fishing gear all winter, but it is now all in the house, garage or storage as it is done...

Off to Winnipeg in the morning, when I get home my arm will be immobilized for the next six weeks (so the Dr says LOL) but in six weeks it will be time to be getting ready for GOLF, open water fishing and working on the camp...yeah SPRING!!!

Time is Flying

When I looked and seen that I had not posted anything in over a week I was shocked, I guess I have been busier than I realized. Mostly fishing except the weekends, we were planning to go to Pelican Lake last weekend but that never worked out.

Backing up a little in time: I mentioned in my last post I had gotten a Frabil ultra light combo in exchange for the Abu Garcia that broke. One fish, a 10" crappie told me that combo was junk, I took it back that afternoon. The young lady working the customer service desk at Canadian Tire said wow they should not do that,should they when I showed her how the drag jumped 1/2  a turn a pop..I ended up giving up on that and taking a Fenwick Elite Tech Ultralight rod and mounting an Ugly Ice reel I had and going with that. Over 20 fish later and I am thoroughly impressed with the Fenwick...

I have been fishing a few times now in the last week, a couple of days I went out for the afternoon and managed to get one or two crappie. Thursday was a harsh day weather wise so I skipped fishing and played around the house.

Friday I hooked up with Josh and we fished Minnie again, I got one 11" crappie and he got two real little ones, he really wanted to get a third, as he said another one the size of the first two and he would catch up to me..(they really were not that bad.)

Noah had no school Monday so I dragged him to Pelican Lake for the day. We were actually set up and fishing by 10 AM (much later than I wanted but such is life) By 1030 I had iced four Perch and then the bite slowed down, it took a good part of that time to figure out what they were going to bite, none of my traditional perch stuff worked but I got them biting on this http://www.lindyfishingtackle.com/productdetail.aspx?id=rattlnflyerspoon.

Once the bite slowed down I figured it was time to pull out one of my friend Doug's tricks and popped out a fresh perch eye and hooked that up to a jig from my multi pack that is similar to this
http://www.lindyfishingtackle.com/productdetail.aspx?id=techniglogenzworm

I ended the day with about 20 perch, Noah grudgingly actually caught two, the first came after I slipped a perch eye on his jig he was dead sticking and got nailed...the second came after I went to remove the ice from the hole he was fishing and made the jig move, the flaskher showed fish immediately so I told him to grab the rod and he lifted a bit and hammered another one about 11". That was the extent of his interest, unfortunate as he has the potential to be a great fisherman. I caught a few more over the afternoon and we brought home a nice feed.

Perhaps though the most satisfying part of the day was meeting a retired farmer who was very new to ice fishing, he had an auger with no extension so he drilled as deep as he could then I finished his holes with mine. He had a hummingbird flasher that he had no idea how to setup so I showed him how to set that up. He was not catching anything so I gave him a couple of perch eyes and he had a jig similar to the one I was using, by the time I left he had caught three and was planning on more...kind of neat.

broken rod and more

As I mentioned before, Andrea and I gave each other new Abu Garcia ultra light combos for Christmas. We had very little chance to use them (Andrea less so than me) but we both caught perch on them last weekend and were very happy with how they preformed. I continued to use mine this week catching two more crappie on it but missing the hook set on several others. I blamed this on my own over reaction rather than the rod, however I did not like the size of the guides when fishing cold weather. The guides are very small and ice up very bad.

I fished again Wednesday early through the afternoon and caught one crappie, the same Thursday, I was on the ice early and caught one crappie and then my flasher died. I had been questioning how good the charger was and now I found out, I also found out it dies at about 11.6V. So my trip Thursday was over by 1030, no point in trying to catch crappie that are disinterested with no flasher to even indicate where they or your jig is in the water column. I had a spare battery maintainer / trickle charger so I hooked that up and left it sit. Surprisingly it took almost 12 hours to indicate fully charged, but at least everything seemed to be working well.

Friday seen another bitterly cold day so I decided to go out later, the wind had been blowing about 40 MPH overnight but was supposed to die down midday. I hit the ice about 1230 and fished a couple of different areas I wanted to check out...more of the same I could get on fish but not coax a bite, these new areas were also showing less fish than what I had found in other areas.

Once the wind died and the sun was beating on my black shelter it was quite pleasant, I was able to fish in my fleece until the sun went behind the trees. Once the sun was not providing the same level of heat my rod started to ice up quite badly and while trying to clean some of the ice out of the tip guide I snapped it off. I was very disappointed that it was that fragile..

Saturday seen me off to Canadian Tire where I had bought the rods, they were supposed to be warranted for one year. No problem, they told me to go get a new one, however they had no more so I ended up with a frabill ultralight combo, it was the same price but I am hesitant to think I will like it as much...

http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/frabil-ice-fishing-rod-reel-combo-0785516p.html#.UvfXivldW9Q

I already had this combo in medium for walleye and it is acceptable but not top notch, I already find the reel is not as nice as the Abu Garcia. However if it works as intended I will be ok with it. I do think I will start buying more stuff from the US and have it shipped to the parcel depot right across the border, $2.00 a parcel is all she charges and the price difference can be 1/3 of the cost of buying here...the down side is lack of warranty like Canadian Tire honours.

We have had wind chill warnings all weekend and looks like more of the same Monday so I will be buried in my shelter with the heater going trying this new rod...

Tuesday will see me doing something different, I have been asked to attend a testing phase for a job as an administrative assistant at the Morden Agriculture Research facility...God only knows how that will turn out, I expect that some of the others attending will be very experienced as well.

Fish, for real FISH

Noah had no school Friday so we packed up for a day on the lake...it was cold and windy but we set up the large tent with the double sunflower heater and was very comfortable. We fished all morning until 2 pm and although there were lots of fish on the flasher nothing was biting (again). I stopped to talk to a couple of other fishermen on the way off the lake, a real nice gentleman named Gary also pulled me out of a snowbank that I tried to smash through when I high centred the truck.

Can you imagine staring at a flasher that look like this all day and not being able to coax a bite?





















































It can make a fisherman go crazy, however I am not the only one. I have talked to a dozen fishermen that knows the lake and they are all having the same issue, very poor fishing. I am wondering if it has something to do with the serious floods we had here last spring. roads were (and some still are) washed out and the lake overflowed the damn and left many thousands of crappie laying everywhere. The fairways of the golf course were literally covered in fish...that is not to say there are no fish left in the lake, there are, however the quantity of fish to forage is dramatically changed and I am thinking they are having a very good winter and just not hungry.

On our way out Friday we stopped at the COOP gas bar where we buy the bulk of our fuel, one of the guys there mentioned that the perch had been biting really good on Pelican Lake which is very close to our hunt camp. Andrea and I decided a drive to Pelican would be in order Saturday morning. We were in Baldar where we would turn North to the camp when I realized I had likely forgot the battery pack for the auger. Now you can improvise a lot of things ice fishing but without holes in three feet of ice you are out of luck. We decided that if we could we would beg someone to drill us a couple of holes. We pulled onto the lake and could see a bright green auger close to an area where lots of people were fishing. A nice military gentleman from Shilo was kind enough to lend me his battery and I drilled out holes for us. Popping up the flip shelter we set up and I immediately missed a bite but caught a perch shortly after. Andrea proceeded to catch three in short order and I caught another. I then had a huge hit that cut me off immediately then minutes later the same thing happened to the gentleman that lent me his battery. His father in law switched to pike gear and caught one close to 30 inches. Andrea then hooked up into a nice pike and actually played it for three good runs on 3lb test tied to a 2lb mono leader, quite impressive I think before it cut her off. Shortly after that the wind changed, the clouds blew in and the bite died!!! You could just tell all the locals knew it was over as within minutes everyone packed up and left, we tried for another 30 minutes but no more bites. The end result was 5 perch landed, 4 hours of driving and three hours of fishing. BUT we caught fish and both broke the skunk on our new Abu Garcia ultralight rods (they work quite well when there are fish biting).

Highly excited I dropped Andrea off at work Monday morning, the weather forecast was for -18 with only 15 Kmh winds, should be a great day to catch fish right? Not so much, it started really well as I was on the ice just at daylight and the air was barely moving. I had to move around a bit to get on fish but I did (the flasher picture above is what it looked like when I found them) but they were not biting. I decided to drop a piece of minnow tail on a jog head on a dead stick (a rod sitting in a holder not being jigged) while I jigged a wide selection of different colours, tails and even hard baits trying to entice a strike. The wind kept blowing harder and harder until it was actually trying to blow my sled across the lake...great fun but I eventually seen the tip of my deadstick dip and quickly set the hook...

I landed my first crappie of the season  - a very nice 11" fish that fought more like a pike than a crappie, very fun. I fished through until 2 pm but that was the only bite I had. I stopped and talked to another local named Darryl  who is thought to be the most knowledgeable fisherman on the lake. He reported no fish either although he had only been there about 2 hours when I left. 

Anyway I have chores to do Wednesday and the weather is looking harsh until Saturday so I may not get out again but I only have seventeen days of fishing left before I become a one armed winter bound old man so I am pushing on the ice fishing...the surgeon mentioned the torn rotator cuff is only part of the problem, one of my bicep tendons is really messed up - he is going to try and fix it but odds are it will have to be cut...I am not growing old gracefully...

Is this really what winter is all about

When Andrea and I agreed I was going to fully enjoy the pleasure of being retired for a year I had wonderful visions of a golf season fully enjoyed, a hunting season to remember for a lifetime and ice fishing the days away on Lake Minniwasta for crappies until my hands were permanently cramped in the shape of a rod holder.

The golf season was not bad, we (especially me) enjoyed a great part of the season at Oakwood with a great trip with Rebel and his son in law to play Granite Hills, what a course. I was happy to move and pickup where I left off in Oakwood at our new course in Winkler, that pleasure was short lived as the moving company broke my Callaway driver during the move. It was replaced after the season ended but it put a real damper on the end of the season...

My hunting season was well chronicled on here in other blogs but it definitely left memories that will last a lifetime, mission accomplished. My only regret was Noah not getting his first deer but there is always next season!

Icefishing has been spectacularly disappointing, the weather this season has been nothing short of horrendous, many days of -40 or more of wind chill, even days like today when the temp gets up into the -18 to -20 range the windchill is -38. It is manageable in the shelter with the heater going but not today.  Overall the fishing seems to be a disappointment this year, all the guys are complaining about the weather and the sporadic fishing so I am not alone.

I went out one recent Monday with Rebel to the world famous Lockport, I caught one small sauger fishing from about 10 am til 4:30 pm, he caught three I believe. For a days fishing that was a real letdown, but seeing a friend for the first time in months was a real bonus.

I had seen an article in the local paper talking about the Mayor of Emerson MB talking about how the icefishing was better there than Lockport / Selkirk (Selkirk is known as the catfish capital of the world) and boasted that walleye, sauger, goldeye and catfish were plentiful there. They had even gone so far as to put in a new boat launch to help the icefishers access the river. Andrea and I were excited a wonderful opportunity very close to home, Saturday was to be a decent day and we packed up the family and went to spend the day fishing the Red River right on the US - Canada border. We arrived in town and I drove to the boat launch (clearly seen on google earth) and the road was not plowed??? We drove around town trying to find and access point close to the railroad bridge that the local shacks were located near. Andrea used her phone to search for information and found some info so we drove in that direction. We finally found river access but it was no boat launch. We could have drove on but thought we should walk down and explore it first - a good thing, there was two feet of snow in places but even more concerning was water on the ice under the snow. I went back to the truck and got the auger while Andrea grabbed a shovel and her flasher so we could check for likely fishing holes. The first hole I drilled revealed three feet of water, we kept moving until it was revealed the best we could hope for was 10 feet of water, still very concerning as the was water everywhere and only about 12 inches of less than stellar ice.

I drilled several holes each, we hauled out our gear and proceeded to fish for several hours, the sun was out, we were sheltered from the wind and it was a glorious day to be out in the fresh air. After a few hours the wind shifted so it was coming down the river in our faces, the sun went into hiding and we were faced with a choice, go get the tent and heater out of the truck or pack up. We packed up, we had been fishing hard for several hours and not even seen a fish on our flashers, a waste of time and no threat to Lockport and Selkirk as fishing hotspots. (several locals confirmed article was a joke to them the fishing there sucks)

Tuesday afternoon seen me getting shack wacky again and even though the temperatures were extreme and the wind blowing 40+ out of the NW I loaded up the gear and hit the lake for crappie. A good four feet of ice so no fear like the river had posed, I set up my flip shelter in minutes and was marking crappie from bottom at 28 ft at times right up to 18 feet. The wind was flapping my shelter like crazy, there were time I wondered if it was going to survive, the heater was great when the wind was not lifting the frame a foot in the air and sucking all the heat out. I tried I am not sure how many combos but not a bite, I may have to try live minnows this weekend as the crappies are not biting yet.

Anyway, I am off to see the sawbones about getting my left rotator cuff fixed, scheduled for surgery on the 24th of Feb. Looking forward to having it done, not so sure about the recovery period though.