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

Today looks like it will be the last day of the deep deep freeze for a while. The 14 day trend was showing warm temps to hold out for couple weeks. I came across this list on a forum today and thought that I should share. It is comparing winter in Winnipeg to winter in Arizona.

1. Frost bite sometimes looks like a nice tan.

2. You’ll never have to watch for scorpions and snakes @ Portage & Main in winter.

3. Snow in your mouth disolves quicker than sand or cactus.

I thought it was kind of amusing and true even.

This Saturday is the Northern Lites Poker Derby which is starting and ending here. We are doing the breakfast in the morning as well. If it does turn out to be a nice warm day it could be quite a big turnout. I’m sure that a lot of people have itchy throttle fingers from not being able to ride much. I have seen comments and talked to one person about a few big groups that are planning to come out.  So, once again we are at the ‘how much food are we going to need?’ stage and how busy is it going to be? Not that I am complaining, it is all good.

I am really at a loss for anything else to say right now and just go ahead and post. Like it or leave it this is the best I could come up with today. I’ll come back and edit if I get more creative later and promise to do better next post.

I told you I might come back and here I am. Check out this week’s Stonewall Argus http://www.stonewallargusteulontimes.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1391567

I still can’t believe that considering how cold it has been overall this winter that we actually had a decent day for the fishing derby. We were able to finish without anyone getting frostbite. Certainly wouldn’t be able to say the same if the derby was today. Unfortunately it wasn’t much competition at the derby as we had one guy come out who really, really knew what he was doing. He was able to catch 15 fish while everyone else just kind of had a good time as you can see from this picture.

Redneck Fishermen

Now the fish and the real fisherman

Ice fishing

The day carried on into the evening as we had some entertainment from Party Tyme. In between their sets they also set up a Karaoke system so we had a few others providing some interesting entertainment, especially as the night grew to a close.  There were a couple good notes and a lot of bad ones. A good time was had by all however and that is the main thing.

In addition to the derby we also had quite a few snowmobilers stop by to warm up and grab a snack. We were starting to wonder why we hadn’t seemed to have anyone really stop in at the warm up. Seems like the weather was the definate answer. Having a decent weekend brought them out. Although today is back to the brutal cold they are calling for highs near -8 this coming weekend. If it actually turns out that would be fantastic for the Northern Lites Poker on Saturday. If they get warm weather it should make for a good turnout.

Sure why not? Our rec building is rented out for a birthday party on the Friday night. Then Saturday is our ice fishing derby so I will be doing a quick cleaning on Saturday morning and getting stuff ready. Along with the derby we also have a band coming to provide some entertainment in the evening. They are called Party Time and have been here once before. They usually set up the Karaoke between their sets so hopefully we get some people here to make it worthwhile. It sounds like we will have a promising turnout for the derby itself, I was actually just told by someone last night that he is bringing a crew down and they like to eat so I should be prepared. That sounds good to me.  The one big variable in Manitoba is of course the weather. If we have a -40 windchill I only expect to see the diehards, but if we all cross our fingers and do a warm sunshine dance maybe we will get lucky. At this particular moment we are looking at a high of -20 and light winds. That should be tolerable but -10 would certainly be better.

We now have a grooomed snowmobile trail coming into here since the Northern Lites club was able to get out with their groomer. They had some delays this year in that the groomer they just bought last year was in a shop that was damaged by fire this fall. They have just now been able to get a replacement groomer and get it ready to go. Hopefully they have better luck with this groomer and can keep it for a few years. The club has added a new section of trail that goes down to St. Francis area this year. For some unknown reason it was not added to the Snoman maps but it is on the clubs map which is available in this area and should be available online at their website http://www.northernlitesmb.com/start.cfm

I was just having a peak at our website statistics and since Christmas our number of visitors per day has doubled. The extra promotion that we have been doing for our events is obviously paying off. QX 104 was kind enough to run the info about our fishing derby in their family fun guide. I didn’t think that they would since it is not for a fundraiser, so was pleasantly surprised when I heard it. Every little bit helps. As I am going through the stats it always makes me wonder about some of the search phrases that people will use. Some seem completely off the wall, but still pull up our site.

Ok my original intention was for this to be posted yesterday but we were at a campground association meeting all day and the time kind of disappeared. But since I did wait I can now say that the forecast is for a high of -14 tomorrow. It is getting closer to -10.

The next two days are going to be some busy ones. I have to switch from laid back, season over mode to actually working again. We now have all four rooms and the cabin rented for the night. I still have two rooms to go through and touch up the cleaning since they haven’t been used for a while. The last couple minor details of the cabin will be finished today too then it needs a cleaning. The rec building isn’t too bad for clean, but does need a sweep and mop as always. I had planned to do some decorating, but I had a very hard time even finding any decorations of any sort. We hit three stores and didn’t see a party hat in sight and only a few noisemakers. Walmart barely even had any regular balloons never mind New Year’s Eve stuff. At one store she said she thought she had stuff in the back. It was two days before and the stuff is not out in the store? Now, I didn’t go to an actual party store and probably would have found something there. I admit to not being much of a shopper so after two stops and no luck I just kind of gave up and decided to get creative with what I have. At some point I also have to get some food ready too. I’ll be rolling meatballs for a couple hours today. Maybe I can convince my child labour to help out, so if you get a funny shaped meatball just remember it all tastes the same. lol.

It doesn’t look like the weather is going to cooperate for much outside stuff, but what else is new in Manitoba. New Year’s Day looks to be warmer so hopefully the people that are staying overnight will be able to get outside then.

Well I should probably get off this computer and actually get started on some of my to do list.

Click on Santa and Rudolph for a very special Christmas greeting.

        
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I was just browsing through the Winnipeg Free Press online and this headline caught my eye

Infant, toddler left in car while parents shopped so I had to check out the story and was a little mistified that some one would do this in Winnipeg.

Denise Lywak was horrified Sunday afternoon when she saw a locked car in a Kenaston Boulevard mall with the engine running, a baby and toddler in the back seat, and no adult in sight.

“That’s horrifying. That’s abandonment,” said Lywak, who called police and stood guard over the car with another woman until police arrived 22 minutes later.

That was just after the 20-something parents came back to the car, surprised that anyone was making a fuss.

Winnipeg police said Sunday night that they issued the parents with a ticket under the Highway Traffic Act for leaving their engine running.

— with files from Meghan Hurley

Obviously we only see one side of the story, but I personally can’t imagine how you could justify this. Just my personal observation for the day.

I have a feeling this week will fly by for many of us. I know that some people are already off work and those that are still there probably aren’t doing a lot of work. Around here it is still just like anyother day with the exception that it is gingerbread house construction day. After that it is cleaning the rec building day. Yay fun!!

BTW for anyone who has tried the Santa gift catcher game my top score is 74000 or so and I made level 9. Anyone beat that?

Stay warm and cozy in this cold snap.

So I thought I would share a little game with everyone today.

http://www.iluvtoplay.com/free-games-for-your-website.html 

Try the Santa gift catcher game if you have some time to kill.

I have been getting a few inquiries about New Year’s Eve, and it is looking like we may have a decent turnout. I just hope that the weather cooperates. It has gone from cold cold to snowy and blowy. Why can’t we have an in between somewhere.