Lions and Lambs

Posted on March 3, 2010 by rubberduckyblog

I just found out how to link my blog to my facebook profile so welcome to any new readers that may have come my way from fb. Feel free to check through the archives and catch up on what you have missed. I realize that I am not going to win a Pullitzer prize any time soon, but hopefully I can keep you interested for a minute or two.

We have all heard the saying in like a lion out like a lamb. Around here it definately has been like a lamb and we are enjoying every minute of it. Does this mean we can expect March to go out like a lion? I for one am hoping not. I checked out the 14 day trend and if they know what they are talking about we are in for a very nice start to March with lots of sunshine and warm temperatures.

I know the snowmobilers are not happy to hear the forecast. It has been a horrible winter as far as they are concerned. From what I hear the turnouts for the local Poker Derbies have not been good. There certainly hasn’t been much snowmobiler traffic coming into the warmup. This weekend is the rescheduled Northern Lites Derby and although I wish them luck this melting snow is not going to do much for their turnout unfortunately. But, if anyone wants breakfast we will be serving up some pancakes, eggs, sausages and bacon.

Saturday is also a fundraising social for the South Interlake ATV Club in Argyle. Local band Past the Perimeter will be playing. If anyone wants tickets they can stop by here or just give me a call and we will put some aside.

There are actually quite a few different things coming up if you are looking for something to do. This weekend is also the Mid Canada Boat Show (http://midcanadaboatshow.com/). Next weekend is the RV Show (http://manitobarvshow.ca/). These are great shows to start the summer dreaming. Our local tourism area is going to be at both shows so be sure to stop by the Interlake Tourism (www.interlaketourism.com) booth and say hi, check out what we have to offer around here. March 13 will be Poker Night at the Duck then on March 20 the West Interlake Trading Company is holding a Time, Talent and Treasure auction in the Warren Hall. Details are here http://www.westinterlaketradingcompany.com/?page_id=499. They are raising funds to put a new roof on the elevator in Warren. In case you didn’t know this group “The West Interlake Trading Company is responsible for a local heritage site called the ”Warren Grain Elevator.” It conducts tours of the Grain Elevator as well as caring for the maintenance, upkeep and development of the site” I figured I should just quote the WITC site since they can say it better than I can.

I don’t know that it is terribly funny but it is not very often that you come across a cartoon that mentions Manitoba so I thought I would share:

Cartoon: MANITOBA FRIENDLY CAMPERS (medium) by Toonstalk tagged manitoba,camping,wildlife,campfire

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The green green grass

Posted on February 19, 2010 by rubberduckyblog

It seems like every year there is a certain week where all of a sudden the campground reservations for next summer take a big jump. Well this was that week. In a period of 3 days I think I processed close to 12 bookings for summer 2010. Normally we get only a couple a month at the beginning of winter and then February seems to be the start of vacation planning in Manitoba. Although this is technically the shortest month somehow it really seems to drag on. However, to me it is the turning point in a long cold winter. Once February is done and the calendar turns to March it is full swing planning for the upcoming summer. I really don’t care if there is still a foot of snow on the ground or like last year and we get a big storm. It is time to look for the green grass on the other side of the snow bank. It may take a shovel to find it, but I am sure it is still there somewhere.

With the coming of March also comes the start of my full swing search for employees. So time to spread the word if you know anyone looking for a summer job they can go to our website and fill out an application http://www.rubberduckyresort.com/Classifieds-Employment.page or just email me a resume. One step better is to drop it off in person since that way I can put a face to a name when making my hiring decision.

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Coming up

Posted on February 1, 2010 by rubberduckyblog

There are a few things coming up in the area.

February 6 is the rescheduled South Interlake Snoriders Poker Derby. http://www.southinterlakesnoriders.com/

February 13 is the Valentine Fundraiser Dinner at the Trail’s North Grill for the West Interlake Trading Company who is raising funds for a new roof for the elevator. http://www.westinterlaketradingcompany.com/

Friday nights is a sponge hockey league in Woodlands. They have a group on facebook with some info http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=Woodlands+rec+centre&init=quick#/group.php?gid=227378901621&ref=search&sid=834678695.972297356..1

February 27  is the Meadow Lea Poker Derby – Snowmobile poker derby beginning at the Meadow Lea Community Centre. registration starts at 9:00 a.m. For more information, please call Kurt at 375-6658

March 6 is the rescheduled Northern Lites Poker Derby. http://www.northernlitesmb.com/

I’m sure that I have missed some stuff so if you know of anything else let me know and I will add it to the list.

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Admitting Defeat

Posted on January 26, 2010 by rubberduckyblog

After this past weekend we are willing to officially admit that Mother Nature has won. We will not be organizing another winter poker derby. Our first year of the derby it was actually a nice day but that is where it ended. The following year was a full blown blizzard much the same as what we had yesterday. Last year was one of those lovely       -45C days and this year… 😦  On the upside the social was a big success. It started off slow as most socials do and we were a little worried, but that all changed at 9:30ish when the place pretty much filled up. A big thank you to everyone that ventured out in the snow. From what we hear the Northern Lites club is planning to groom  and open their snowmobile trails this week. Hopefully that will get some sleds moving around and maybe a few will stop by our warmup area. We had an interesting snowmobile ride on Saturday when a friend showed up with this:

Now that is my kind of snowmobiling – it was nice and warm inside. We loaded 7 adults and 3 kids inside and headed out for a ride.

Now that we are getting full swing into the new year we have been doing some planning for this year’s advertising campaign. Hopefully February goes fast and then we get into the Boat Show and RV show in early March. Once they are done it seems like no time before we are into camping season. I have already started bribing Mr Groundhog so that he will give us our early spring that we sooooooooooo deserve. Tomorrow I am going to a Creative Tourism Marketing Course in Gimli and will hopefully come back with some new ideas.

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Phew

Posted on January 20, 2010 by rubberduckyblog

Looks like things have changed and the Colorado low is not going to it us. It was a pretty stressful start to the week when they were predictinf a storm and 20 cm of snow over our derby weekend. There will be no snowmobile route as there is not enough snow to open the trails but there are other options. We will still have the vehicle route.   If you are into the high tech stuff you can bring your gps and take the geocache option. If you are not sure if you want to geocache the whole route, don’t worry we can give you a cheat sheet in case you run into trouble. If you don’t want to drive the route you can also take the ‘quickpick’ option and draw all your cards at Rubber Ducky. Registration is from 9am-noon if you are going out on the route. All hands will have to be turned in by 5pm, so you can do the ‘quickpick’ thing up until 5pm.

There is a little bit of irony surrounding the derby this year. We had added the geocache option to appeal to a wider group of people so that we wouldn’t just have snowmobilers.  Our hope was this would ultimately increase our number of hands sold of course. Well, without the snow this year we are now missing all the snowmobilers. Yes, we could have postponed like the other derbies did, but the social was already planned and at this rate I am starting to wonder if we will ever have enough snow to run a snowmobile derby this winter. So, we push forward. On the upside to anyone coming out your odds of winning may be pretty good. At some derbies you compete against 400 or so other hands and I will guarantee that we will not have anywhere close to that many at this derby.

Things are looking good for the social part of  the day and there will be lots of laughs to be had at the social on Saturday night. It will be a reunion of sorts for all the summertime friends. Most of our campers don’t see each other during the winter months so it will be a good chance to catch up on old times. There will be tickets available during the day on Saturday so if you decide at the last minute you will still be able to come out. I have finally decided on what to do for RDR Grill specials:

Grilled Chicken Dinner                                
   Juicy grilled chicken breast in your choice of sauce – honey garlic, BBQ or teriyaki. Served with fries or roasted potatoes, coleslaw and vegetable. Single 9.99  Double 13.99

BBQ Back Ribs                         
   Our ribs are slow cooked to tender perfection and smothered in a tangy BBQ sauce. Served with fries or roasted potatoes, coleslaw and vegetable. ½ rack  13.99  Full rack 17.99
Chicken & Rib Combo 
16.99
  ½ rack of BBQ ribs and juicy grilled chicken breast. Served with fries or roasted potatoes, coleslaw and vegetable 

 The next couple days will be a whirlwind of tying up the loose ends and hoping that everything is done. There are tables and chairs to move, food to prepare, maps to try and draw, and so on. And then at some point on Saturday evening we get to relax.

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Poker Night

Posted on January 14, 2010 by rubberduckyblog

I would like to introduce you to one of our diehard poker players. He has been to every poker night so far. He is a tough player to come up against since it is hard to read his poker face.

If you have been out to the campground, you may already know Diego as one of our seasonal campers. He is well known around the campground since he is so big once you meet him you tend to remember.  Some people are a little nervous when they first meet him but they quickly realize how gentle he is.

It looks like we have our second casualty of the poker derby season. The Northern Lites Derby was scheduled for this weekend but although I haven’t seen official confirmation yet I think it is a safe assumption that the derby will be rescheduled. After checking the long term forecast I am planning our derby on the assumption that the snowmobile trails will not be open and we will just be running with cars. I have 4 geocaches planned as checkpoints for the derby and have another 3 places in mind for bonus caches. 

I had an interesting tidbit passed on to me this morning. Did you realize that there was a National Rubber Ducky
Day.. http://www.mypunchbowl.com/holidays/national-rubber-ducky-day.

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The first casualty

Posted on January 7, 2010 by rubberduckyblog

The first Poker Derby of this no snow winter has been rescheduled. The South Interlake Sno Riders were set to have their annual derby this weekend but according to their website, http://www.southinterlakesnoriders.com/ it has been changed to February 6. The Woodlands club has their derby set for next weekend, January 16 but they have already discussed a plan B in case we don’t get anymore snow. Our derby is set for the 23rd and if we still have no snow we will just cancel the snowmobile route and just run the vehicle route and of  course the social evening will still happen. The 14 day trend from theWeatherNetwork.com is not looking very cooperative for snow. If we ever do get enough snow to ride this winter the trails will be busy with a lot of snowmobilers with cabin fever. And if it happens to hit in time for one of the derbies it should make for an awesome turnout. That happened with the Northern Lites Derby where we had weeks of brutal cold and then it warmed up just in time for their derby. They had an unbelievable number of sleds come out for the ride. So, now I am going to be selfish and ask everybody to hope for that dump of snow to come in time for our derby. So everyone who is reading this please go find the first star out tonight then

Stare intently at the wishing star. There’s no need to feel embarrassed. Remember, you already know how to make a wish come true. Say the magic words we all learned as children aloud: “Star light, Star bright, the first Star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, Have the wish I wish tonight.”

Ok so yes it is a little corny, but really what is it going to hurt. It’s worth a try.

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Wow 2010 already

Posted on January 4, 2010 by rubberduckyblog

2010 was kicked off with another fun filled New Year’s Eve at the Duck. We had a nice sized crowd with around 35 people.  There was a mixture of seasonal campers and some of our regular campers. Everyone pretty much knew everyone else and we were able to have a relaxing evening.

Somewhere behind all that steam is a group of boys having lots of fun.

The steam clears and yes they are there

Into the snow they go

Into the snow they go

 The boys had to run a little farther to find the snow this year. Last year there was a snowbank nice and close by, but not this year. There were some bigger boys that finished off the night in the hot tub, but I didn’t get their picture. I had better things to do at 4 in the morning lol. And I don’t think they would have been quite as agile to go and jump in a snowbank.

The Poker Players and we had to put the hockey game on the big screen to watch the shoot out

Some of the wii players

   Despite the cold weather the ice fishing was a popular attraction on the weekend. There were a few fish caught and also a few that got away and as always lots of fish tales to be told. The snowmobiling on the other hand has not been popular at all this year. There still isn’t really enough snow to bring most sledders out. This has not been a prosperous year for keeping the RDR Grill open on weekends since our main clientele is the sledders. January is looking to be a pretty busy month however. It starts on the 9th with poker night; the 16th is the Northern Lites Poker Derby; the 23rd is our poker derby and the social for the RDR social committee. We were able to sell a few tickets on New Year’s but still have lots available.

Today is time for everything to get back to normal after a couple weeks of a kind of messed up schedule. Maybe now I will be able to keep track of what day of the week it is. It has been hard lately with all the holidays.

And in case you were wondering it is only

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Posted on December 22, 2009 by rubberduckyblog
Merry Christmas from Dennis, Sheri, Haylie and Sarah
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It’s been a while

Posted on December 15, 2009 by rubberduckyblog

Seems like I have been slacking off lately. It has been a week since I last posted.

On Friday we went to a very interesting meeting at a new supplier for the RDR Grill. We got some great tips for preparing the food in general. Most importantly we were able to sample some new foods to see if we would like to add them to the menu. That was a treat to sit there and have a chef prepare the stuff just for us to enjoy.  There will be some new items like salt and pepper dry ribs, sweet potato fries, salads; and some improved items like homemade pizza, ducky 911 wings and burgers.  Some items we decided against. I just don’t think the duck is ready for calamari rings. We will be unveiling some of the changes at our New Year’s Eve bash.  Another product that we found interesting was biodegradable plates. They are still plastic and disposable which is good for us, but they are also good for our environment.

I am just finalizing the last details for our Poker Derby in January, with a tentative date of the 23rd.(edit: just confirmed this date) We have a few options going on so hopefully it will appeal to lots of people. There will be a route for snowmobiles and a route for vehicles. There will also be a geocache map and a regular map. For those that may not know geocaching is finding ‘caches’ (hidden containers that usually contain a  log book and trading items) using a gps and the gps coordinates. So the derby will still have the traditional checkpoints, but anyone wanting to geocache will be given the gps coordinates and must use their gps to find the locations. This option will be available for both the cars and snowmobiles. I will also do up a normal map so that anyone who is not experienced in geocaching can still take part.  There are quite a few geocaches hidden in our area and up highway 6, but the idea of doing the poker derby  by geocache is new to the area. Following the derby we will also be having a social evening. This is to raise funds for our newly formed RDR Social Committee.  I am hoping to have the last detail confirmed today or tomorrow so that I can start advertising.  Fast forward a couple hours and I now have confirmation that our derby will be on the 23rd and all the initial planning is done. Now to work out all those minor details.

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