Rubber Ducky Resort & Campground – A family campground located in Warren, near Winnipeg, Manitoba

I think we are all still shaking our heads in amazement that so much water could fall in so little time. We had some minor flooding issues like everyone else did, but were quite lucky overall. We had no damage and noone had their camper basements flooded. It is now Tuesday morning as I write this and things are drying up really fast around the yard. I only had one family that braved the weather to come out for weekend camping. The phone was ringing all week with cancellations. We did however have quite a few seasonals out for the weekend. On the upside of the weekend mother nature turned off the tap for a little while on Saturday morning so that we could check out the community garage sale in Warren. We did get a little bit damp, but at least we didn’t get drenched. Saturday evening we decided the only thing to do was put on a movie in the rec building.

Avatar on the big screen

 

I did manage to get out for walk in between showers on Sunday morning and snap some pictures.  I made it about 1/2 way around the campground and then made a hasty retreat back to the house when it started pouring rain yet again. The water level has dropped drastically since these were taken and we are almost back to normal. By this weekend things should be completely dry (as long as mother nature is done)

The ducks were lovin the weather and all the extra ponds to play in

Pintail Lake

Where the bridge is supposed to be

The bridge where it is not supposed to be

Not a good day for a campfire

 Thankfully the weekend was not a complete writeoff and the sun came out on Sunday. The little kids and some big kids were able to get in the pool. They were quite happy to help with draining the excess water out the side of the pool. After that many inches of water the pool was full right to the very top and the funnest way to get it out was with a couple cannonballs.

There is not much point in even looking at the forecast anymore since it never seems to be right lately. Hopefully this weekend coming up will be a nice, sunny one. We are doing free kiddie train rides all weekend for anyone camping here and it is not much fun to ride in the rain.

If you listen to QX 104 this week you may hear some Rubber Ducky Ads. There are some quick blurbs like this hour or the weather brought to you by… After only one day I must say the response has been good. The visitors on our website took a jump and I got quite a few bookings yesterday and this morning. As we turn the calendar to June it is time to really start thinking summer. Only 24 more days until school is over and summer holidays begin. Let the countdown begin!

The May long weekend in Manitoba is typically seen as the ‘official’ start to camping season but this year it seems odd to think that camping season is just beginning. With the early spring and nice weather our camping season actually started over a month ago. But who am I to argue – Let the camping begin!!

It is time today to cleanup and recover from a great long weekend. With the short week it seems like next weekend will be here before we know what happened.  The campground was full as per usual on the May long. It doesn’t seem to matter what the weather throws at us we are always full on the May long. You can’t keep the die hard Manitoban’s away. Luckily this year we did not really have to contend with bad weather. Saturday was a little cool, cloudy and drizzly but it didn’t really seem to affect anyone. The pool was still busy, the rec building was hopping for the ice cream social and the picnic shelter was pretty full for the outdoor movie. Everyone enjoyed the first movie night so much that we decided to put on a second movie on Sunday night. Sunday was a much better day overall with the sun shining bright and the clouds staying away. We had 60 games played in our Wii bowling tournament. There were some people that played more that one game as we had a little friendly competition happening so once one person got a higher score someone else would play again to try to beat it.  We did have one problem this weekend when the fountain in the pond came falling down. With some much appreciated help from our campers it was fixed, redesigned and replaced in the pond. It almost seemed like they knew what they were doing. (just kidding). It is now free standing so we have gotten rid of the guide ropes that used to be there. Looks much better now.

Looking forward to this weekend the weather sounds like it will be a nice camping weekend again. The sites are starting to book up quite nicely. There is a happy hour/meet and greet planned for Saturday evening. It is basically just an excuse to get everyone together to mingle and enjoy some good conversation. If all goes well we will likely have a bonfire at the same time. Saturday is also the annual town wide garage sale in Warren. So if there are any bargain hunters out there make sure you do the tour around town.

It looks like we may be passing out cigars in a few weeks. We have one momma duck that we know started sitting on her nest last week. If you are here and see a duck running madly across the campground towards people quacking demandingly that is her. The translation for what she is quacking is basically “food, food give me food NOW!!” She is quite loud and demanding about it too. This weekend I noticed that we are now down to only two males and one female hanging around so I am assuming that there is another momma on a nest somewhere – I just don’t know where. They like to camoflage their nests in the bush and sometimes do a really, really good job. They usually sit on the eggs for just under a month before they hatch, so mark your calendars and cross your fingers. Hopefully by then I will have found the other nest, so  I can keep track of her.

Wow another fabulous, sunny weekend. Our pre opening pool inspection is scheduled for Thurs afternoon, so it looks like we will be open for this weekend. The water is sitting at a balmy 80F and ready for its first swimmers.

This past weekend was a little quieter than last, but we did still have a fair number of people around. We had a couple overnight campers and also a few seasonals. Friday evening was spent just hanging out in the rec building.

 Thanks to Doug, Peter, Mickey, Collette and Wayne’s shoulder for letting me use there picture.  Oh wait someone seems to be missing and there is an empty chair… Who could it be??? lol This is a bit of an inside joke carried over from last weekend that I have to share with everyone now. One of our seasonals who shall remain nameless was very very adamant that she should be in my blog. I took that as the start of a new game. hee hee. It is her goal to be in the blog and my goal to torment her and keep her out. Nothing personal just a little friendly fun and entertainment. Sometimes it really doesn’t take much to amuse me.

This past weekend was the official kick off to our seasonal camping season and it was a great one. I don’t even know where to begin weatherwise since it was and is just fabulous. I have my fingers crossed and double crossed that this weather will stay around all summer. Have you ever noticed that the unplanned parties when people just kind of show up usually turn out better than the ones you spend hours planning. I had planned poker night for Saturday as an excuse to get some people out to rec building and kind of like a welcome back to get all the seasonals mingling to start the season. That’s where the planning stopped and I just let things happen. Well what a party it was. The rec building was almost full at some points and everyone had a fabulous time. There was much laughter and fun had by all. I’m sure there will be many stories told throughout the season about opening weekend. There is no point in me going into much detail because it really was one of those situations where you really had to be here. If that was any indication how the season will go it should be a good one. I have nothing much planned for this weekend. I figure we will see who is around and do an impromptu decision. If anyone wants to do Bingo or movie night or ?? there are easy things to set up on the spur of the moment.

The pool is physically pretty much ready to swim in. Now we have to wait for our annual inspection to get our approval to open for the season. I checked the temperature and it was hovering  just above 70F. Not great yet, but by tomorrow it should be good. Hopefully we can get the inspection process done quickly. First step is to get our water samples in tomorrow and wait for the results before we can move on to the next step.

We actually have a couple campers staying with us for a few days this week. This is a good time of year for those that enjoy the peace and quiet of the campground to themselves. There has still been lots of seasonals passing through here and there. A little different from last year when we didn’t see very many people until May Long. Everyone is definately making good use of this weather.

Today is the proverbial April showers day to bring May flowers. I am just glad that it is rain showers, not snow showers like Alberta got this week. It is not much of a camping day today, but they are saying things will improve dramatically for the weekend. Right now the forecast calls for sunshine starting Friday morning all the way into next week.

The good news this week is that the water is now flowing into the pool. It won’t be quite warm enough for a swim this weekend, but it is always good to see it full of water. The hot tub is still out of the hole to get the jets replaced. This has turned out to be a rather large task which we don’t want to have to do again anytime soon. So, if you or anyone you know has ever sat in a hot tub and poked and played with a jet, please stop.

 We are going to have hot waffles again starting this weekend. Like last year you can have plain or chocolate chip and we are also adding saskatoon waffles to the menu. I’m not sure if everyone knows what a saskatoon berry is but in a nutshell they are a purple berry similar to a blueberry. Saskatoons are native to Manitoba and grow wild in lots of places. I personally grew up eating the berries fresh off the tree and still go hunting through the campground bushes in search of ripe berries every summer.

We have poker night planned for Saturday evening at around 7pm. You don’t really have to play poker if you come since it is really just an excuse to get together on a small town Saturday Night.  We have one of the new rental hot tubs still set up and getting test driven. Last weekend we got it up and running and had a few willing volunteers to help make sure everything worked as expected. And as expected it was warm, bubbly and relaxing. One interesting feature that we didn’t really know about was that it has a waterfall and fancy light system in one corner.

I have been getting a fair bit of feedback about our new advertising campaign. You will recall from my previous posts that we had put some signs up around Winnipeg. Well I am ready to divulge all the details- we have 5 bus benches around town. The ones at St James/Ness, and St James/Ellice have been identified on Facebook by our winners Nicole Abbott on Rubber Ducky’s Fan Page and Justin Park on Scrapyard Paintball’s fan page. The others are at Ness/Sharp, Grant/Oakdale, St Annes/Barton.  Nobody has mentioned the one on St Annes to me yet so I am starting to wonder if I picked a bad location.  I have not seen the benches myself so if anyone has the opportunity to take a picture and send it to me I would be very appreciative. Just don’t do it while you are driving please.

It has been a busy couple days around here as we get full swing into Operation Spring Cleanup.

• The rec building is undergoing a complete spring cleaning complete with all the chairs steam cleaned.
• The pool is now all melted and we have started draining, cleaning and etc to get it ready to open (I personally don’t really know what all the steps are to opening the pool so we are just going to call them ‘etc’ lol
• The hot tub is out of it’s hole ready to get some maintenance done.
• The biggest project this spring is the replacement of the carpet on the mini golf course which is coming along quite good. The guys got a good start on it today and shouldn’t take much longer to finish.
• Last on the list for this week will be to bring home our Rubber Duckies

Many of our seasonals have also started their spring cleanup.  There have already been a few out this week to rake leaves and cleanup the winter ickies. If the weather holds up I am sure there will be a lot wandering around this weekend. I have already talked to a few that are planning to come out and some will even be having their first overnight camp of the year.  After tomorrow the shelves in our store area will be almost stocked . I will have all the important things like chocolate bars, chips and candy ready for sale ; ) I think there will be some strawberry slushees available this weekend too.

I heard a rumour today that Scrapyard Paintball will be opening April 24.  There will be some season opening specials happening but I haven’t got all the details so will post the information once I get it.

I have got a few reports of people spotting our bus benches. We have had our first person post on the Rubber Ducky Facebook fan page, but are still waiting for someone to post on the Scrapyard Paintball fan page.