Oct 28 - beavers and loons

Beavers and loons ... yes, no fish yesterday. I went out in the morning, got setup, opened the minnow bucket ... no minnows. I knew that there was a hole in the face of the minnow bucket, facing the air as it floats -- that's why I bought a new bucket -- but there must have been some good wave action over the last couple of days or it got turned over because the dozen minnows that were left flew the coop. I tried a couple of casts with lures but it was cold work and I headed home. The evening's fishing was not much better -- I had worms and artificial bait on a multi-hook spreader but no bites. It was cold, very windy and either the fish were taking a rest or they didn't like my bait or setup. I sat in my usual spot for a while and then moved across to the sheltered bay and tried there for a while but no luck. Fishing may be over until there is ice on the lake. Perhaps with a calm day I'll try again but will get a few minnows in town first.

Speaking of town, I did go in and picked up my deer license. Gohm's was closed (where I could buy minnows). I also picked up a couple of newspapers and dropped one with Matthews. I talked to Jim and he came over to look at the larger hemlock -- we're going to drop it this morning and then split it later in the week -- that will give me another couple of cords, I think. I could cut at least another two cords of deadwood around the property -- fishing and woodcutting -- that's living off the land (and water).

I spent some time working on the crossbow, repairing the arrow-holder-spring (don't know what else to call it), but the red-dot sight mount did not fit on the bow. That's a no-go. Alex said that the normal sights are useless -- perhaps I'll test that out using his target arrows and target. If I can get consistent-enough results I could sit in the bush.

What else -- oh yes, not a major but an important project. On the way back on Monday a fox darted across 522 and went under my drivers-side front wheel. Well, it turns out that it must have gone around the wheel well -- not good for the fox and not good for the car. When I went up to the car yesterday I saw that the bumper was dropping on that side and the plastic piece inside the wheel-well was riding on the tire. Great. I think that the bumper "clicked" back into place but probably needs more secure mounting (this is not the actual bumper, per se, but the plastic cover). The mount points on the wheel-well cover had been ripped off and a little access panel lost. I moved the X5 into the garage, turned on the 20 amp heater and fussed with it for a while, drilling a couple of holes and attaching the cover with wire to the rest of the plastic. I still need to do some work on it to ensure that it's secure for the trip to Florida but it did stay in place to and fro on the bumpy road into town later in the day. I'm trying to avoid having to take the car to Toronto. I should probably call my insurance company and report this since the repairs could be expensive ... but I'm trying to do the repair without spending any significant money. The car has close to 120,000 miles on it now and it will basically be driven into the ground by the time I'm finished with it and doesn't need new plastic for resale value !

We had pork loin, Sandy's smashed potatoes and zucchini for dinner. Tonight will be the "last supper" if you will, since Sandy, Stef, Lauren and Mya will leave early tomorrow for Toronto. Stef has a lot of packing to do today. Sandy is planning on returning on Friday -- hair appointment of Thursday, dinner with Joyce on Thursday, dentist on Friday and then back. Tomorrow night it will just be me and Abby -- it's been a long time since it's been that quiet here. It will be strange. Alex is coming on Saturday. We'll scout the area on Sunday and then start hunting on Monday.

Back to my opening subject. I don't remember whether I wrote about the loons practicing their takeoff and landing on the lake. That is a regular thing when I sitting out there fishing. By now they are getting better. Last night in the sheltered bay I had no sooner setup when SPLASH, a beaver showed his annoyance and broadcast his warning to next-of-kin by smashing its tail on the water. For the next 1/2 hour it swam around me in a 50-75 foot radius circle. It was always in sight ... perhaps it thought that it could scare me off ? make me dizzy ? create a whirlpool and suck me under ???

Enough - time for breakfast. It's cold out there again at -4C. I'm not going to bother going out fishing especially since it looks just like it did last night -- cold, windy, gray. We are supposed to get snow flurries today but without accumulation. I moved the pressure washer into the basement yesterday, getting it out of the boathouse. I would put the kayaks away but Sandy is determined to go out at least one more time ... After today I can put one of them away because she will only use one and I'm pretty sure that neither Alex nor I will go kayaking.

I mentioned to Jason in an email that the water is very high, almost into the boathouse. The end of the dock that sits on a step is floating. I wouldn't even have to pry it off the step to move it over to the beach, just undo the turnbuckles and paddle it over. I'll wait, however, no rush, after all we're here for almost another two weeks before we head south.

Isn't this typical -- I wrote "enough" and then wrote two more paragraphs.

OK ... ENOUGH !