Lots of things happening over the past few months. My job involves working with farmers, and most of the fall harvesting is done in Manitoba, however due to rain and snow in the other two prairie provinces about 25% of the crop, especially Canola is still in the field. We’ll be testing samples well into the new year.
On the home front, we’ve been busy. I’ve frozen several bushels of apples and pears, from our neighbour’s tree, as well as making 20 lbs of pumpkin puree from the pumpkins that grew in my garden. I had thought that I planted Spaghetti squash when I was home in May, but somehow pumpkins grew as well. I likely have about 25 lbs of squash as well to eat over the winter.
Also in our garden a few weeks back we had a visitor, who was happily eating the Kale and posed for this picture.
We’ve done a few projects around the house, on our return I wanted Andy to paint the living room the colour of water, as a reminder of where we’d been. His first attempt was too bright, and not what I had envisioned. It ended up being a mistake made by the paint store- so he had to re-do it.
In the end I’ve quite pleased with the new colour- called Blue Lake.
We next wanted to change the upholstery on some of our dining room chairs- going from green to grey.
We have had a heat wave the past few days, normal temps are around 4C, however it’s been close to 17C since Friday. Great weather for completing the fall yard work.
To keep us busy over the winter we have been curling on Friday nights in a mixed league with our neighbors. Both Andy and Dave curl several times during the week. But once is enough for me. We’ve played 3 times and lost two of them.The bonus has been that I have won the 50/50 draw twice. Both Andy and I are curling with sticks rather than kneeling and delivering rocks from the hack, as we both have knee issues.
Last night we went out to Gimli to the hanger where are powerboat is stored for a Pirate’s Party. 
What a Motley Crew! It was a fun night, we got back to the city by midnight, and because the time was changing back to standard time, we supposedly got an extra hour of sleep. We have to go back to the hanger in the next few weeks, as the props are still sitting in our garage, after being repaired and re-balanced in Buckhorn.
I posted the powerboat on Kijiji yesterday, in hopes of selling it over the winter.http://www.kijiji.ca/v-powerboat-motorboat/winnipeg/great-powerboat-cottage-seeking-new-owners/1213858630?src=topAdSearch
Last year on this date, we were in Green Turtle Bay Kentucky, making our way south on the Rivers. Can’t believe where the year has gone.
We arrived in Winnipeg at 11:30- 30 minutes early. Great service! My friend Shirley, was picking us up and bringing our car, so we had to wait a few minutes for her.
The boat will be put up on the hard here, and any items that could be damaged by freezing needs to be taken off the boat. I cleaned the stove and oven and de-frosted the freezer.
as well as stuff to be stored. I emptied out the fridge and unplugged it. We weren’t sure if we would be pulled out this afternoon, or if they will wait until we are gone. Brian and Helen are picking us up tonight after 5 and will be driving us to Hamilton.
We followed the other boat to the Port of Orillia marina and tied up shortly after 4.
After we were signed in, Andy and I went for a walk around town. We found a bakery and bought the essentials bread, butter tarts and cinnamon buns. For supper we joined other loopers: Dale, Andy, John and Priscilla from Changing Latitudes and Laura and Artie from Leap of Faith at Brewery Bay. Andy and I stopped at Metro on our way back to the boat and picked up some provisions.
We locked through shortly after 9 am, there was a houseboat in the other chamber coming down.
We crossed Mitchell and Balsam lakes before reaching the Rosedale lock, we went through this narrow cut. Being the middle of the week, we saw very little traffic on the lakes.
To get to Fenelon Falls we had to go another 4 miles and cross Cameron Lake. We arrived at Fenlelon Falls just before noon, and were able to get a spot on the wall with power.
We walked to the laundry mat and did some washing, we stopped and bought wine on our way back to the boat. Later in the afternoon we went out for—you guessed it- Kawartha Ice cream—I had the Sweet heat. This cruise ship was tied up at the dock- it runs between Peterborough and the Big Chute. We had previously seen it go through the Scott Mill lock several weeks ago.
On Friday, we locked through shortly after 9, with 3 other boats. It was a 15 mile trip to Bobcaygeon, crossing Sturgeon Lake. There was very little wind, and sunny skies. The forecast was for another hot and humid day. We were unsure as to whether we would get a spot on the wall, but really lucked out as a house boat was just moving up to the blue line. We tied up by 11:05. In the afternoon we went and checked out the stores on the main street, but didn’t find anything that we needed. We avoided the food store as we are trying to clean out the fridge and freezer prior to getting to Buckhorn. However we did have a need for more Kawartha Ice cream to help us cool down.
Saturday morning we got up and went to the farmer’s market, where we bought fresh bread, cinnamon buns and corn on the cob. We then came back to the boat and I did some cleaning/packing. Andy went in search of a barber, he returned shortly before noon. We decided to try out the Chinese food place for lunch as it was air conditioned. Following lunch we checked out some other stores, but didn’t buy anything. In the afternoon, we sat in the shade and read our books. At about 5 pm we went for a walk to the Kawartha Dairies store for ice cream. Today $1 from each cone was being donated to cancer care because it is Tragically Hip day in Bobcaygeon.
I’ve been talking about ice cream so much, my sister and brother-in-law had to try it. Here’s Gord with a Kawartha cone somewhere in Ontario.
I didn’t see any constellations during the night, but there was this drone flying over the crowd, and I wouldn’t say there was a riot, but rather lots of people from Bobcaygeon that gained notoriety because of these lyrics.
and lock through almost immediately with 3 other smaller boats.
We tied up on the top of the lock. At about 2:30, my sister and brother-in-law arrived.
They were on their way to Brampton for the 55+ Canada games, where Gord would be playing slopitch. We went to the Big Chute Marina for supper,
we didn’t have a definite plan for the day so decided to join them at an anchorage near Windsor Island . To get there we went through the Waubuno channel which runs south of Parry sound and went past Snug Harbour
boats over 40 feet. Neither of us had a problem and didn’t see less than 9 feet of water. Once out we went around Franklin Island and followed a channel into Windsor. There was 2 sailboats and a Carver Santego anchored there, we each found a spot and dropped anchor. Later in the afternoon we went for a swim, and found that some of the rocks on shore had very steep drops, whereas there were other places where there seemed to be a ribbon of rocks very close to the surface.
Andy tried some casting, but the fish were not biting. On Thursday we left Windsor about 9 and weren’t sure what our destination would be, we had considered going to Byng Inlet, but decided maybe we would only go as far as Point au Baril. On our way through the Shawanaga inlet we encountered Stillwaters II and followed them through the Point au Baril channel.
Following supper, Andy did some fishing and caught 2 Bass.
We exchanged pictures that we had taken of each other’s boats in the past couple of days.
it was overcast and they were predicting rain and wind- we wanted to put in as many miles as we could prior to any rains. Our first task was to once again go through the Hangdog reef. Not as easy with the wind blowing and waves, but the Captain managed to get us through although it was pretty tense at times.
and the town marina.
We had to wait for the 1:00 opening of the swing bridge
and then took the south channel back to Georgian Bay, this part was new for me and there were lots of narrow channels, as well as lots of cottages and small runabouts going to them. We saw and island for sale
and met a tour boat- Chippewa.
so we continued on. We went by Picnic island and turned into Beausoleil Bay and went to the dock at Cedar Spring.
Andy visited with Ken and Bob on the next boat. We saw a water snake swim by.
Our neighbours had seen a black bear on the hiking trail here yesterday, sorry Dave Fuller- you missed it. Hope you see one before you leave Canada.
Later in the evening Don Allin and his partner Barbara stopped by, we had visited with them in February in Florida. Don was the broker who had negotiated the sale of On Business to us in June of 2014, they were pleased that we had completed what we had set out to do.
Cruising ON BUSINESS 