Oct 15/16 - rain & fish & ducks

The 15th started ok, with reasonable weather, hunt in the a.m. - got one duck, saw some geese - lunch and then rain the rest of the day. Well, almost the rest of the day that is because it cleared just in time to go out for a half-hour at dusk, but the ducks we saw didn't even come close to us.

We played pool, watched a couple of movies, whiled away the day.

The 16th started better, hunting in the a.m. with a little occasional drizzle and then clear with the occasional peek at the sun in the afternoon. After the dawn hunt (nothing), I went to Mass in Britt. It was dark in the church, seems that all of Britt was without power. Back home, we ate lunch and then went down to the end of Smith's Bay. Alex had gotten a bass while I was at church and we did some more fishing, catching a couple of small pike (really small, like 12"), and a couple of sunfish (me, with minnows).

Right after we got back home it started to pour but then cleared an hour later and we went out for the evening hunt/fish. We anchored the boat behind the island close to Grumblenot Island (people are in), but didn't see any ducks. It was a good spot for the decoys and a good spot for bass (caught two) and for sunfish (caught several). Alex had caught his a.m. bass on a lure; I was catching the bass and sunfish on worms. I finally gave up on the sunfish, was pulling them out as soon as I dangled the line into the water, one foot below the surface. It would have been great fishing for kids; would have been great fishing had I cared to clean sunfish.

We got home, having watched a line of dark clouds wrapping around us and then minutes after getting everything inside, the sky opened up. Earlier in that black cloud we'd seen lightening but that never got close to us.

We played some more pool; watched another movie; the day went by.

On the 15th we had local pike and PQ perch; last night we had pork loin.

This morning there was more rain heading for us. Alex would have gone but I'd had enough sitting in the rain. We had breakfast, sat and chatted, then Alex packed up. Just as he was about to drive off, Sandy came running out and asked about the plant so we packed "the grandma" plant into his car. He's going to drop it off with David at the Cadet Cleaners (he doesn't know that yet !). I'll be phoning him shortly.

Another year goes by. We leave on Wednesday and I've got a lot to do before then. The main project is wrapping the gazebo and putting up the lights; the other large project is simply finding a way to pack everything. Somewhere in there I'll bring in the boat batteries and perhaps take Abby for a final boat ride of the season. Sandy's kayak is still out; perhaps she'll have a last ride too.

It's a little cooler this morning, at 41F. Unless I get out for a bike ride in Reading, I'll be vegging until getting to Florida and then within the next few days need to do a 200k to keep my R12 alive (by the end of October). That won't be fun ... but at least it will be warm.

Moose season is this week so perhaps I'll just go outside and shoot a few dozen shotgun shells to spook the moose. Wouldn't they like that :). There are hunters everywhere ... orange men in the bush; orange men in boats ...

Onward ?