AN "NOT SO BUSY" WEEKEND!

After finally getting home on the Tuesday of last week from being acreage bound since the Friday before that during the incredible heat wave we had for the long weekend, my body just couldn't perform as well as I had hoped it would for this weekend, back out there.

Again, I left on the Friday, but I wasn't able to get out of my driveway until well after 4 p.m. & probably closer to 5. Everything here was a go & ready & all of my gear & the bike were packed into the old trailer, including another 150 liters of fresh tap water & 3 different sizes of rain barrels. Everything was ready, including myself, except for one thing, the vehicle towing the trailer was still not here. Nor the other guy coming up for the weekend!

Lee & his buddy, Charley the dog, make it up to the acreage for this weekend!

The Friday started out as typical as it gets for me. Around 7 in the a.m., my other friend, the Sasquatch Larry, whom inherited the estate from Ole BJ, popped in & picked up my trailer. Down in the back part of Ole BJ's acreage was a pile of good, salvageable, vinyl house siding & I wanted some for the greenhouse I'm building in the backyard of my house in town.

The Sasquatch was doing all kinds of running around, looking after BJ's estate, lawyers, bill payments, etc... so he offered to hook onto the trailer & tow it out to where the siding was all tucked away. I could load up as much as I wanted & then he would tow it all back down here again, after I had finished work that day. So I was all in for that deal. It sounded great. Free stuff!

I showed up at Ole BJ's, sorry, the Sasquatches house, now, about an hour or so later and he & I took a walk out to where he had dropped my trailer. BJ had constructed an old storage shed down here, years ago, and it was as full of collected stuff as was his house, I had seen inside of this shed before, several times, but the Sasquatch insisted on giving me another dime tour.

"Take whatever you want" he says. I pick up an old grinding wheel, the kind once used on the type of grinders old street walking knife sharpeners would push down the streets of a town or city while swinging a hand held bell announcing their arrival. "Just like new" quips the Sasquatch. So then I reach for an old pick. It had seen quite a few days of service & use, but it was still quite usable and again, I present it the guy standing in the doorway. The Sasquatches arms go up in the air this time & again he says; "Just like new"! So then, the loading began...

My plan was to go into work for a couple of hours after I had the trailer loaded & ready for delivery back to my place, but after doing so, I stopped into Sasquatch Larry's new place & that plan had changed. Some of his appointments got knocked around & now he needed to deliver the trailer back to my place in Fenelon Falls, A.S.A.P. & I had to be there to do the unhitching so that he could just turn around & head right back off to see the lawyer looking after Ole BJ's estate. And this suited me just fine too. I would then have plenty of time to unload , sort through all of this stuff & stow everything away & then pack up the trailer again for my trip back into the bush, well before the scheduled 2:30 p.m. prearranged time I had set up with everyone else.

The old trailer full of goodies.

A couple more barrels for collecting rain water.

Some various types of down-spout for the rain water collection system.

An old thermal pane sky-light window & a single aluminum crutch + several good tarps.

Another thermal pane for my cabin out there.

Lots of siding & all of the fixings.

The old grinders wheel!

An old pick!

I even grabbed up some old broom handles & this small long bow!

An AM/FM radio & a small bug zapper!

Most all of the really good stuff from Ole BJ's has already been scavenged through, but I have a bit of a different view point than most of the guys who had already picked clean the storage shed down below. Sure, it would have been nice to get in on some of the other stuff, I guess, but what I did manage to score for free, that day, suited me just fine. If I would have had to purchase the siding new, that alone would have cost me a few hundred dollars & I just don't have that kind of $$!


I spent the remainder of the early afternoon unloading, sorting, storing & then, reloading the trailer & had everything all set for the pre-arranged time. Lee was to be here for his 1st stay out at the acreage & Leighann's mom & stepdad were coming to pick up the trailer, And then I waited, and waited, and waited...

Finally, at around 4:30 p.m. sometime, Lee arrived & shortly after that came the In-laws. I was all, Gun-Ho, about getting on the road. I tried to get everyone up to my speed so we could be on our way becauseTthe Weather Network had something on it about the possibility of rain for Sunday & I had some "big plans" about how much work I could get done before then. Timing, was, everything...

But, just like that old adage taught to me by my Ma; "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions", my weekend would not go as I had hoped.



We arrived to the parking area in around 5:30 or close to it. I immediately disconnected my trailer so that the In-laws could get back on there way & so that I could do the same. It was around 6:00 p.m. when Lee, Charley & myself, were up along side of the bigger of the two Beaver ponds just north & east of the acreage when I spotted Mr. Beaver swimming with a new cut branch in his mouth.

Lee, had his camera rolling already, capturing the trip in from start to finish, but had to do this in two takes due to the sunlight, circumstances, etc... and he has sent me the links to all of the footage he took during the entire weekend, so I've included some of what happened here.

It turns out that the pond was a very busy spot this time of day. The beavers were busy doing what they do best & the Great Blue Herons & the turtles were all out & about too, either capturing fish or else sunning themselves before the big yellow fireball disappeared for the night. Unfortunately, I still haven't mastered sneaking up upon the turtles using a running quad-bike, so you may not see any of them in this short video. But the ponds, all over throughout the area, are all full of painted turtles...

Arriving at my camp is always a huge event for me. I'm no longer as anxious as I used to be, wondering if all of my gear is still safe or if there's been any storm or other type of damage caused from animals or whatever & last Monday, I had left camp & forgot a bag which contained some lunch meat in it. With the black bears out & about so soon after our early spring, I was really concerned about things up there, all the rest of this week. But it is what is & the truth is, it's all just tents & tarps & more, stuff. All of it can be replaced. Still, I don't want to accidentally attract these animals to where I'll be living all of this summer & hopefully, right through the hunting season too.

Everything was fine at camp & just as I had left it, as usual. Nothing at all had made any attempts at the cloth shopping bag which contained the ham inside of it & I attribute this to the fact that the luncheon meat had not yet been opened. I guess those factory sealed packages do work quite well!

We spent a little bit of time getting my camp set back up & then Lee went off looking for an area for his tent while I made a few trips up & down the mountain, delivering gear from the trailer to our, "Base Camp". By 7 ish, the pot of water was boiling & we were drinking coffee, but due to the insects, not much of this evening would be spent beside our fire pit.

So out came one of my deep-cycle 12-volt batteries, an inverter & the ghetto blaster. One of these times, and hopefully that means, the next time I get up here, I'll remember a deck of cards & a crib board. My kids brought this idea up last weekend & I think it's an awesome one. I've no idea why it didn't occur to me earlier. I LOVE playing cards. Bridge, Crib, Euchre & I use to play as often as possible. The past couple of years however, it seems to me that I've not played any of those card games, at all or very rarely. A deck of cards would be a good addition up here. I'll need to go through some of Ole' BJ's kitchen drawers this week, sometime!

A couple of the barrels I will use to create a "Rain Catchment System".

A piece of left over foam cut to work as an emergency, extra seat?

Listening to the CBC on McMac Mountain!

My tool area newly arranged.

Charley inspecting Lee's new camp site!

Our first evening was spent inside of the screen house because of the mosquitoes & we only left that shelter to tend the fire, boil water & to cook meals. Again, I set up the radio & hooked up my 12-volt light & we sat inside the shelter until around 10:00 o'clock. I kept an eye on the time. All of last weekend, I had been reading a particular paperback novel which I wanted to finish off & I was kinda looking forward to getting back to it. So when 10 p.m. finally rolled around, I excused myself for the night & made my way into my tent dragging my 12-volt light along with me.

The following morning, Saturday, I needed to go to the pharmacy in Minden. I arose around 7 in the morning after awaking several times to the local song birds & then drifting in & out os sleep for a while & eventually, I had the fire lit & the water boiling for coffee. Lee had his camp set up in back of my camp area & was well shaded from the sun. I had noticed the night before that he had set up inside of a bowl shaped depression area with a dead tree leaning over it, so I pointed this out & we made plans to relocate him once we returned from our trip into town.

We were all set to make our trip down the trail, back out to Lee's car, when I caught sight of a white tail deer standing on the trail several yards ahead. Lee had just shut his video camera down or something & by the time he had it back up & running, so was the deer. In the video below, during the first 1 or 2 seconds, you can see the flash of it's white tail heading off into the bush to the left...

Once back to camp after our trip away for a couple of hours, the mosquitoes, black flies & the deer flies were all out & looking for a meal. Since we were the largest mammals around at the time, we were it!

But I did have my plans. I did, want to, try & accomplish, something, up here. It's what I do, up here. Every time I visit the acreage, I try to accomplish something, each day. No matter what. And this day had to work out like that...

But the bugs & the heat & my own level of self will, were preventing me from getting out of the screen house to do those things I had hoped to do. That I had planned on doing, this day. I just didn't have it in me. I think I was burnt out from all of the "happenings" of last weekend, still!

So we devised a plan. Neither of us had ate anything yet & we were in desperate need of breakfast or lunch, since the noon hour was well past. A meal needed to be prepared & then afterwards, we would relocate Lee's camp site up closer to the fire pit & then we would clean up the storage area where I keep my tools & other pieces of equipment. While doing so, we could also begin packing up some other camp items which belong to another guy who will no longer be using the acreage. At least, something, would get done. And it did.

We cleaned up & sorted out the tool storage area & then relocated Lee's camp onto the same site the other guy had been using. Lee would be safer here if it rained, instead of inside of the bowl shaped area which would just collect water & flood his tent out & then this would present me with another job which needed to be looked after, A.S.A.P.,  the felling of that dangling widow maker of a tree that was right over top of his tent. But I wouldn't get to that chore until Sunday.

Afterwards, the heat & bugs had me exhausted, pretty well, so we took the time to just laze around & enjoy the camp for what it is, our get away from the rest of the world. While doing so, I heard a quad-bike ride up to the area where I park my trailer. Once before, some riders had used this area for turning around & I don't, really mind, too much, that they do this, but it is a rule out here that you respect other peoples private property. I don't have any signs posted & this is something that I really, really, really, don't want to have to do either.

But there was an occasion last season, when I had my trailer parked off to the side of the main trail, but still on my land, when a couple of younger guys pulled up & were unloading my ramps from the back of my trailer. I walked out of the bush with my dog Stanley & they just about jumped right out of their skins at the sight. I did ask them if they needed any help & they replied that they thought the trailer to be abandoned. After informing them that it wasn't, they kindly replaced my ramps back into my trailer & made their way back in the direction they were heading. So, when I heard this bike pull in, right up onto my land, I took notice & told Lee that I was going to see what was going on. I was no sooner to my feet when I heard the bike shut down, and then seconds later, someone calling my name; "Rusty"?

I couldn't believe my ears!

Last week, Leighann's Ma & Pa had bought themselves a 550 Artic Cat Quad-bike, and now, here they both were at the entrance to the acreage. Leighann's Ma is 87 years old!

Bill & Lillian had rode the 25 kilometers up the trail system, from their home on the Burnt River to our acreage. Bill, has had any number of strokes & doesn't have ANY use of his right side, any more, so when he bought the quad-bike, the dealership had to reverse the throttle & break levers for him so that he could operate the throttle using his left hand. Whenever he does manage to walk anywhere, he has to drag his entire right side around like dead weight & of course, Lillian, is an little old lady. And now, the two of them were down at the bottom of the hill, calling out my name...

I made my down by foot, still in disbelieve. Because I've been using their vehicle to deliver & pick up the trailer the past couple of weeks because my own truck is still broke down, I had extended the invitation to do this, for them to, drop by any time, thinking to myself perhaps that, they would never do this in a million years?!?! WOW, how time flies. Had it actually been an millennium since I last seen them?

Lillian dismounted the bike & I walked with her up the side of the mountain while Bill rode the quad up to camp. For an elderly woman, Leighann's Ma is probably in just as good a shape as I am, if not better. She has never smoked a cigarette, ever & I think, but I don't know for certain if I recall this correctly or not, she may have had a drink or two during all of this time but that would be about the extent of it. Even though her health has become a little bit poorer in the past couple of years, she made the climb up the mountain trail I'm working on, with very little difficulty, if any at all!

I did video their sitting at my camp fire while I made some tea for her & a coffee for him, but can't locate it on my camera now, for some reason. But that's no big deal, they do plan on visiting again & it's going to be a long, hot summer. I will capture them on video the next time. It's quite the sight!

But, that's about all that happened this weekend. I ended up pulling down that one tree on Sunday, shortly before heading back out to the parking area. One thing that did take place, early Sunday morning while I was carrying Leighann's rifle & my crossbow down to the trailer, was the spotting of another, huge, white tail deer. It was unbelievable. I'm trudging down to the trailer with two hunting weapons, and a deer bolts out about 7 or 8 yards away from me. It's the story of my life, everything happens when I least expect it to.

Check out the video of the "other side" of the Beaver pond. During our trip out, we decided to pull over to allow Charley to go for a swim & cool off some so I used my remaining strength & energy to cross the beaver dam & hike out to the point of rock over there...

The damn thing didn't work...

But here are a couple of pics of the area.

Myself at The Point!

I wonder just how deep it is?

Yeah, it's going to be a long, hot, summer. Bill & Lillian have four more plastic 55 gallon drums for us to use in our rain collection system & I may haul them out here next weekend & then use them to construct a dive platform for in the middle of the pond. If I can locate an deep enough area for swimming.

I do have two canoes here at my house in town, so the oldest one will be used up here for paddling back & forth from shore to the swim platform. In order to do so however, I'll require a roll cage on my bike for transporting the canoe from our acreage down to the pond or I'll have to discover a good hiding area very close by the pond where others won't be tempted to set it adrift or worse. Shit happens. But I do like the idea of a roll cage for carrying the canoe, as well as more gear!

I should be up here full time by the middle of June, or a few days earlier & I'll only be coming out on Tuesdays so as to re-supply, kiss the wife, whatever & I know that during all of this time, the dog & I are going to need to bath some place until I have a proper shower set up in camp along with a means of collecting enough water to keep it functional. So, here's my bath tub!

I've gotta say a big, "HELLO" to a couple of my avid readers out there, Crystal & Ryan. I had no idea until last weekend, when the kids told me about you two, that you guys even read my Blog. That's freaking awesome guys!

Now, get your asses up here to the acreage & begin diggin' in. It is what it is!

LIVE FROM DARRYLS HOUSE ON MCMAC MOUNTAIN

Here's my youngest son, Darryl MacCharles, kicking the piss out of my old Fender while singing a really cool song he wrote as a Johnny Cash tribute to "The Man In Black"!

The video starts out during something else & he begins about a minute or so into it...

THE FIRST ANNUAL MCMAC MOUNTAIN HILLBILLY MUSIC FESTIVAL

My sons, Rusty Jr. & Darryl MacCharles, playing a song composed by their cousin, James Fries, while we partied the night away out at our 100 acres of Canadian wilderness during the May 24 long weekend.

"THE "BEAR" ESSENTIALS"

From left to right, my nephew, James, my daughter, Dana & then my 2 sons, Rusty Jr. & Darryl.

May 24th, 2012, has quite probably become "THE BEST WEEKEND, EVER!"

I can't recall having a better weekend, anywhere, at any other time in my life. When I left Fenelon Falls, at around noon on Friday, I wasn't expecting my daughter, Dana & her boyfriend, Grant, to show up at all. The last I had heard, they were staying behind because Dana needed to dental surgery & a long weekend up here would eat into her budget for that.

Trailer loaded.

A new box carrier for my bike.

 I awoke around 6ish on Friday morning, had lots of coffee & cigarettes for breakfast & then began loading up. A couple of days earlier, I decided to build a box style carrier for the front of my bike. Another guy up at the hunt camp in Bancroft who has the same bike as mine, built an enclosed box carrier for the front of his & it seemed very, useful, so I figured I would do something similar but leave the front of box exposed for loading up bits of firewood from around the camp or trail or wherever.

My eldest son, Rusty Jr. called later on in the morning. He, his brother, Darryl & their cousin, James, were all planning on coming up that night or Saturday morning, but their ride got screwed up or something & now they would all have to take a bus in order to get up here for the weekend.

My heart really sank when I heard this news. I sent Rusty an e-mail stating that I understood if they couldn't make it, blah, blah, blah, but really, inside, I was hurting. First it was Dana & now it was the boys. I wanted all of my kids up here for this weekend. It would be the first time that they would get to see with their own eyes, the magnificence of the acreage & what attracts me to this kind of landscape. And they were all suppose to be up here, together, at the same time for this!

When I left for the acreage at around noon on Friday, the last I had heard, Dana & Grant couldn't make it but that Leighann would drive down to Kitchener & pick up the boys once they finished work, if she had to. The guys would at least be able to spend most of the weekend together.

At the acreage. Now, I have to unload all of this gear!

A fallen log through my tent!

Setting up the screen house.

The Coleman screen house out of the bag...

My camp is coming together...

But I still have a few repairs to make!

I arrived at camp at 1:30 & spent the next 3 to 4 hours unloading the trailer contents onto the bike, transporting it all up to the main camp area & then setting things up. I was undecided if I would take my solar panels, inverters, charge controllers & batteries up there with me this weekend. My whole plan was to just fell some more trees & maybe clean up what I had down already. It's almost the 1st of June & our cabin needs to be ready for this coming hunt season. I would really like to have it well before then!

But, after I had the trailer loaded up, I realized that there was still enough room for a few more things, so I brought out 2 12 volt, deep-cycle batteries, a 30 watt PV panel, the larger charge controller & a 1500 watt inverter. Now, when the need does come up for using an electric tool or appliance (and it did already), I'll be a little better prepared & not have to run the small generator at all for this purpose!

MUSIC! & it's in stereo (kinda)!

Other than listening to the radio, which I did decide to do a lot of on Friday, I used my 12 volt power system to provide lighting to read by...

Interior lighting for my tent.

Instead of attempting to read by flashlight or candle light, now, while I'm kicking back after dark or just laying in my bed wondering; "What's that noise outside?", I can enjoy reading my books without straining my poor eyeballs any more. The photo above doesn't show it very well, but that's due to my piece-of-shit camera. With the 12 volt "Trouble Lamp" hanging over head, in my tent or my screen house, it's as bright as day, almost, and I have no problem, what-so-ever, reading the smaller print in some of the paperback books I've been hauling up to camp every now & then!

I'm even sleeping better out here, now...

Foam rubber.

Fold-away cot.

Cut foam to suit.

And I get a comfortable bed at camp.

I even made a pillow!

A friend of mine gave me this chunk of foam rubber for an old motor home we used to own a bunch of years back & I never did use it for that purpose. It stayed tied up into a coil for th longest time, and then after I moved back into our Bond St. home, I wrapped my basement water heater with it.

The old fold-away cot was salvaged from a scrap metal run I was doing with A.B. after his Ma passed away a couple of years ago & I knew right away what I would be doing with it. For too long had I tossed & turned & lost all kinds of sleep atop of the camp cots I had. They are all, way too narrow & way too uncomfortable. I've had this cot up here since last season & I've been sleeping atop of it without a mattress. Even so, this was WAY more comfortable then any of those damn cots!

While packing up on Friday morning however, I decided to go into the old dungeonous basement here, wipe off as many eight eyeballed anachrids as I could find, including their cute little egg sacks & re purpose this damp & dirty spider sponge into what it was originally, suppose to be, my bed. Hopefully, I've not relocated too, too many of my own, personal use spiders, out to the acreage where they won't know anybody!

Last seasons felled logs beside some good sized building stone.

Just about everywhere directly around my campsite & leading up to it from the main corridor trail, there trees laying down from last autumns cutting spree. They're all different sizes. Some are quite large & too large for me to maneuver alone without use of a winch &/or bar & some are just too small to be used for much of anything other than wood for the fire pit. But there are a few trees down that will make ideal cabin logs, for building the floor, walls & roof.

6" to 8" round logs for my cabin...

It's not as though there's any shortage of materials up here, for building just about any sized cabin one would want to live in, out here in the bush. Our acreage is so dense in some areas, with all kinds of this, "Scruff Wood", as I like to call it. These are Pines & Spruce trees that are rooted just atop of solid granite & because of the clearing(s) I wish to create to allow for ideal viewing of the sunrise & for maximum solar gain for any panels I might install up here, I'm just cutting them down, now, before this happens...

Blown over!

The winds atop of this mountain type terrain have no problem at all toppling over any tree that doesn't have a good strong root system going deep into some good soil. During any one of my hikes out into the bush, any where's around here & not just on my acreage, I come across all sizes of trees that have lost this battle to those elements of nature.

My concerns for the high winds uprooting trees at or around the trail system I'm creating on my own acreage are not too important, it's mostly where people will be camped out, "during those storms", that has me worried more then anything else. So wherever someone might have a camp or a cabin, in the future, some careful planning has to be made for windy weather. Any tree that looks as though it may come over, anywhere close to my camp site, has been or will be soon, cut down & those logs used for constructing my first, small cabin!

After setting up camp, drinking many more coffees & smoking FAR too many more cigarettes, I decided to hike down to another camp site area that I had started clearing last season & check in on it. With the boys all coming up to do a "Survivorman Outing", I was kinda hoping that they would select it as their camp site instead of hiking so far back into the bush that I wouldn't see them at all, most all of this holiday weekend.

Whenever I do hike around out in the bush & especially on my own land, I scout the ground surface for any signs of the local animal life. I had not seen anything at all during the ride in, but that's not unusual being the time of day. Just about any time that I do spot a Moose or a Deer, it's in the morning or just before dark. Riding in at lunch time, you're hard pressed to even spot a bird flying around.

I was about at the half way marker between my camp & the newer site when I came this...

Scat!

Moose Poop!

We're right in the very heart of Moose territory here so I've become too accustomed to seeing the moose shit & now, I just drag my boots right through it without so much as a second glance. However, because we do have Cougars (Pumas) around here & Wolves & Coyotes all over the place, whenever I do coma across their shit, I give it a good poking through to see what they've been eating. The shit in the upper picture was full of hair, but so old I was hard pressed to tell what exactly shat it out. I'm kinda leaning towards a Wolf or a Coyote because it doesn't coil as much as Cougar shit does. All of these creatures eat roughly the same diet, up here, of mice & rabbit or birds & bugs & whatever else they can catch, so the contents will almost always will have hair in it!

The old tree I use for marking my way point on the new trail system.

Ground flowers all over the area!

The newer campsite was still in tact & workable & no trees had fallen over blocking passage to the new trail I'm working at creating, so now I'm back to camp to spend the remainder of my Friday evening, doing whatever the hell I feel like. And I know I'm going to be needing lots of firewood this weekend, so that's most likely what I better feel like doing!

A typical evening at camp for this guy!

I did my best to stay awake past midnight. There was a possibility that Leighann may bring the boys out here after dark & I wanted for them to be able to see the light of my camp if this happened. After cutting & piling a bunch of firewood for our weekend get together, I did my best to fix up the old screen house Leighanns mom & dad donated to the acreage, set up my 12 volt lighting system inside of it & sat there & read well into the dark of night, but around 11 p.m. sometime, I couldn't sit there any longer. My eyes were closing & I was nodding off, losing my place in the pages I had been attempting to read & then, having to re-read them again, just to nod off again & have to do it all over again, so I moved the lighting system into my tent for the night & read myself off to sleep.


ARRIVAL OF THE FITTEST!


All night long I slept like a baby!
The evening temperatures dropped to around 6 or 7 degrees C. & my new mattress/cot system was like having a rented room at the Hilton. When I finally did awake, the birds were all coming to life & making one hell of a racket out there, so I just drifted back into sleep for another hour or so.

After coffee, I took a quick ride out to the area of road where we park our vehicles to check for any sign of family. The day was getting so very hot, already, and it was still early a.m.! There was no real set time when they might show up & no one was out there then, so I did some of my own mental calculations as to what time I thought they might show up, under various conditions & decided that I should most likely go back to camp & try again around the noon hour.

It was almost high noon exactly when I did hit the trail again & just as I neared the larger Beaver pond, I caught sight of some people hiking the trail in towards me. But it wasn't my sons & my nephew & it wasn't until I was almost right up to them when I realized that my daughter had made the trip out & here she was, standing beside the Beaver pond on her way out to see me, with her boyfriend, Grant. My weekend would now be complete!

I stopped the bike & dismounted, anxious to hug my baby girl & welcome them here. I didn't even have my helmet off yet when out from the creek, just several feet away from where we were standing, a Black Bear emerges from having a drink of water down there & stands right in the middle of the trail, checking us out!

He had to be 350 - 400 lbs., at least & he had the whitest-tannish looking face I have ever seen on a Black Bear before, ever. Every bear I've ever seen before, in the wild, has always had a completely black face & here was this guy, standing there staring at us with what almost appeared to be some kind of mask on.

The timing was just too surreal. The heat of the day, the time of the day, my bike having just shut down after riding "right by" him & my kids all hiking in, some 3 kilometers now, visiting this kind of wilderness for the first time, ever, and out comes an old Black Bear checking us out like we're quite possibly it's next meal. It was so, AWESOME!

Leighann came up behind Dana & Grant & the boys were just a little ways further behind here, so they didn't get to see the old Goliath. But Dana & I bent right down on the trail & eyeballed him right back, getting the best view of this beast that we could. After a few seconds, he just put his nose in the air & then continued across the trail off into the interior of my acreage. It was just WAY, WAY, WAY, too cool!


After I had a quick word with everyone & alerted them all to the situation, I turned my bike back towards the acreage to go pick up the trailer. Everyone was exhausted from hiking the trail in this heat & I couldn't believe it myself, just how freakishly hot this day was becoming, so early in it. So rather than have to walk the remaining distance, my brother-in-laws old tent trailer would now become the "acreage limo" for the remainder of this hike & for the rest of this weekend even. Little did we know, just how hot the rest of the weekend would become!


"SURVIVALISTS MAKE YOUR MARK"

Rusty Jr. chillin' in the bush!

Instead of Leighann having to drive all the way down to Kichener to pick up the boys, my daughter & her boyfriend drove everyone up & they were all in Fenelon Falls for Friday night where they partied the night away before heading here on Saturday. Knowing my kids, some of the bullets they were sweating out during that hike in with most all of their gear, was laced with rum. And I was right!

Dana & Grant were going to just head right back out again & drive back to Kitchener, but after very little convincing I had them set up with a tent of their own, a couple of my extra cots & my 2 best sleeping bags. Everyone had brought in a "little bit" of their favorite refreshments of either beer or rum & I had groceries a plenty to feed us all. I would have rathered my daughter spend the entire weekend out here, but one night would have to do.

Dana cooked up some sausages for dinner which she & Grant had brought with them, for her, Grant & myself. Because the boys were all intent upon doing their own thing, the "wilderness method" way, she didn't bother making any for them.

The boys were to build a shelter, light their fires & catch all of their own food, using only items natural to the area or provided in any typical, survivalist type of setting. I have to hand it to these guys. They did so well!

James constructing the lean-to.

Darryl showing off his "Survivalist" app?

Fire lit & shelter framed.

Screened in using old screen house materials.

But bugs do like to crawl!

James tried sleeping in a chair the 1st night!

The boys got busy right away, constructing a shelter & gathering firewood for their first night out in the elements. Before anyone even thought about coming up, I warned EVERYONE about bringing in enough bug spray. Even though it's not even suppose to be "Bug Season" yet, this acreage & this type of land in general & all of this area, is well beyond the norm for bug population. We have bugs, a-plenty, up here, and this long weekend they all started to make themselves known!

The bugs were definitely "not as bad" as they can & will be, come June & then throughout the remainder of the summer & I even heard it said on the CBC that we shouldn't have had the mosquitoes & dragonflies that we did have plenty of, so early in the season, so the boys didn't even get the "Full On" effect that I & a few others have experienced back in here. And they didn't come prepared with enough bug spray!

I did hear James say that he did have a can or tube of lotion type bug repellent, but that's no where near suitable for this type of terrain. Out here, your own body sweat carries the lotions away & leaves you vulnerable. I always use a spray & keep applying it, as needed. Everyone who comes out here should have at least 2 cans for themselves, if they plan on staying any length of time.

I did happen to have a few cans with me. I always keep a pump action can in the bike, leave some here over the winter months & then put cans of spray into all of my packs. Not having this item out here is the equivalent to a drywaller going to work without a case of beer. He might as well have left his pouch at home!

So, yeah, the boys built their own lean-to shelter, A.S.A.P. & had their camp all set up for their 1st night, with lots of time to spare. They did ask me to come along & lend a hand, perhaps showing them a few tricks along the way, but I think it was more to, please me, then anything else. You know, something like; "Let's keep the old guy busy so he doesn't drink all of our booze", maybe?

Afterwards, Dana did cook them up a pot of noodles & meatballs I had brought along. Even though it was quite a warm afternoon & evening & after working all of that time out in it, you just feel like guzzling as much water as you possibly can instead of eating anything at all, a guy still does have to keep his calorie count up. The boys did the best they could to eat as much of it as they could & later that night, while being chewed upon by all kinds of nasties, they heated their canned goods too & had a meal at their own fire.

But before leaving the "Base Camp" as they've now titled my camp area, we all sat around my fire & caught up with one another. Because of the distance between here & where they all live, I sometimes "most times" don't get to see my children as often as I would like to.

Having them all out here now, out at my acreage, where my world exists & where I feel the safest in this world, was like having another, dream come true, for me.

We laughed & joked & drank & partied. We kept the fire going & ate meals prepared over open flames. We talked about the future & the possibilities & just had the best freekin' time ever & I even got to spend more time with my sisters eldest son, who I only ever get to see once in a blue moon anymore when at one time, I knew him as well as I did my own. I just can't stop stressing, how great of a weekend it was. The only that could possibly top it now, would be having the entire family out here, choosing their own sites & building their own little cabins & planting their own vegetable gardens!


Leighann couldn't stay the 1st night. I rode her right back out & we did a quick drive into Minden where she checked the mail & then she dropped me back off at where I had parked my bike. Because of the amount of people I had out here, there wasn't enough room to bring Stanley with us & Leighann needed to get back for him, but she would leave him alone the next night & come spend it out here with us.

That night, every one of us out here stood & admired the stars, they were out in the millions & I had never noticed so many, any other time I had been out here!

SUN-DAY

Dana & Grant wanted to head out Sunday & try to beat any traffic I guess. Even though Grant slept well enough, Dana's back suffered from sleeping on one of those damn little cots. Had I given it any proper thought before passing out myself, I would have remembered her situation with back problems & given her my bed instead & twice this weekend would this come back to haunt me.

Leighann called one of the kids phones to let them know she was leaving Fenelon Falls. Using this method, I approximated an arrival time for her & then rode Dana & Grant out to their parked vehicle, individually, instead of trailering them out down that hot & dusty trail. But something else came up & Leighann would not show for quite some time yet so I returned to camp to await another call after saying my goodbyes to both, Grant & Dana.

What I found on my return ride...

Gone fishin'!

They would rather be diving in!

Sunday became unseasonably hot & with the humidity in the bush, the temperature felt like it was in the 40's! Earlier on in the day, the boys attempted a hike out to another watershed area located on one of my topographical maps, but the mosquitoes swarmed them all back out before they could get too far.

But these guys are no quitters! They were bound & determined to provide at least "one" single bush meal which they caught themselves, or they would each eat a bug, so off to the Beaver ponds they went to try their luck at catching some fish.

These ponds have lots of promise. I see the Great Blue Herons, the Beavers, Turtles, Otters & I see all kinds of small minnows swimming about & I've even caught small Rock Bass out of ponds a hell of a lot smaller than these ponds. But with the heat we were getting today, I just could not imagine a fish striking their bait, at all. And they did get skunked at this part of their adventure.

So we came up with another idea. "Tim Hortons"!

When Leigh finally did arrive, I hooked the limo back up & we all headed into Minden for Ice Caps & coffee's & smokes & whatever. It would be a great time to roll down the windows to blow some stink off & then tighten them all back up to allow the A/C to chill us off a little before heading back to camp to suffer through the remainder of this day.

One thing I did do is bring lots of water up with me. My friend Lee, had contacted me several weeks ago about a guy down my way who was getting rid of a bunch of 15 liter water bottles so I had gone over to his place in town & gathered up about 40 of the things. On Friday morning, I filled 10 of the bottles up with tap water from the house & piled them into the trailer as well. I had no idea, what-so-ever, that we would be getting this kind of heat wave, so soon into the spring & was I ever glad that I did have this amount of fresh water available to us, today!

The boys had replenished the booze stock while we were in town, but the heat of the day & our miserable situation of being stuck in it had everyone guzzling more water, which suited me just fine. The rum & the beer could await the cooler temperatures of the evening before they needed to be drank. I made up a quick "Swamp Cooler" from an old 20 liter pail, placed the beer & booze in it & then used one of my t-shirts to wick away water. Because the pail was for the most part, completely exposed to the outside temperature, it didn't chill the contents any further, but it did help to keep the beer at a respectable drinking temperature instead of it boiling as soon as it was opened.

Myself & James trying to hide away from the heat!

My sons, Rusty & Darryl!

For the remainder of that afternoon, the boys & I sat around doing as little as possible. Just to get up & walk around caused you to sweat uncontrollably & the sun itself was relentless. We moved our seating regularly so to avoid any direct sunlight, whenever possible & spent this entire day just sitting around & shooting the shit until the sun began to settle.

And then it was a party!

The first annual "McMac Mountain Hillbilly Jamboree"!

Darryl & James get ready to Black Boogie?

That's why Leighann was late arriving, I had her go back & bring a couple of guitars from home! Both of my sons write & play their own music & are just incredible musicians & James has been playing around with a guitar for as long as I can remember so, tonight, while drinking a few, smoking a couple & enjoying myself immensely, I was going to record some of the coolest music I've ever heard, my boys playing & singing their own music!

I did manage to take several minutes of video, recording 3 or 4 different songs, but because of the mic on my camera, whenever someone was drumming or playing the spoons, that sound would drown out whoever was singing, so I'm going to dick around with the videos & attempt to resolve the issue, somehow, and then I'll post those videos at a later date. But it too really was the "Black Boogie Best"!

"FIRE"


A person doesn't really need a whole lot, out here. During the heat, water & shade & when you're hungry, something simple to fill your belly. A nice meal, every once in a while is always a treat, no matter where you are. But the very most important thing a person needs out here, any time of the year, is a fire, and now, these guys can all create fire in an emergency situation, anywhere they are!

Fire!

I had this old log kicking around from someone else's failed attempt at fire starting & the boys were wondering what the hell it was. When I explained that the design was to allow for air to pass through so that a person could use this to cook a meal, I could see the sparks flying from their minds & that they were wanting to attempt this method too. They cut the log down so that the curfs were not as deep as they were & then filled the inner most opening with cattail seed & dried pine needles. Then, using the survivalist tools attached to their knifes, these guys created fire & cooked a meal. This is most definitely, the hugest obstacle between living & dieing, out in the elements. And these boys have it mastered!

Allowing the stove to burn for a minute first.

Using a couple of sticks to raise the can up.

The fire has quite a hold inside now.

Adding more fuel.

Soups on!

The stove is burning nice.

Every ones awaiting some Chunky soup!

We celebrate with a drink!

It's hard to imagine just how proud I am of these boys. I've always had this HUGE sense of pride, regarding my kids, but now I was able to share this with my nephew as well & they all learned some really cool survivalist training that they just would not have gained anywhere else other than in a true wilderness setting such as our 100 acres!

One of the survivalist style knifes used by the boys.

James & I at the side of my mountain.

My sons & I.

We may still all make it out alive!

Examining one of my logs for the new deck.

If they'd all get off of it & just carry it over to where I need it!?!?

The building site for the deck!

Our outdoor kitchen after a few days.

The old "work horse" has served us well!

One more hike through the bush before we go.

We startle a Spruce Grouse out of her nest of eggs!

Driving home after!?!?

Leighann & I had to drive the boys back to the city of Kitchener on Monday afternoon. We left Fenelon Falls around 4ish sometime & dropped everyone at their desired locations down there. It was our full intention to just turn right around & make the drive home again but after watching my son Darryl playing soccer with my first born grandson, Kailum, I wanted to stay the night & perhaps, get to hold this little guy for a little while.

The drive down went without any problems, other than traffic. I took this photo of the line up of cars on Hwy's 7 & 7-12 just before Sunderland. I've never seen traffic like this, so far into farm country!

I drove all the way down & then on the way home, Leighann took over the driving up around this very same area. We stopped in Lindsay briefly & as we were on way home again, a woman changed lanes & drove right into the side of Leighanns brand new car causing over $2200.00 in damages.

The accident happened right at the intersection beside the dealership where she had bought the car, so we all pulled into that parking lot where the 2 drivers could exchange insurance papers & so that the dealership could have a look at our car. And then it all began to get worse. I didn't get into my door until well after 3 p.m. but at least all are safe & home!

More to come soon...