duckies update

Well we hear that our ducks have been a bad influence on their foster brothers and sisters. The others used to be quiet, good little ducks and now well the Rubber Duckies have taught them how to quack. Whenever someone walks into the barn it used to be all quiet, then once our ducks came they would squawk and now apparently everyone squawks. They have also taught the others to follow their foster parents around the barn. What can we say – they like people and are used to everyone talking to them.

The Stonewall Argus phoned yesterday to do an article about our poker derby coming up. We really appreciate the extra publicity, but I hate when you have to on the spot come up with interesting things to say. I don’t think that I will ever get used to that part.  We had a total of 4 snowmobilers stop in to the warmup this weekend. It was cold and miserable even for snowmobiling. My fingers are crossed that the forecast for this weekend holds out.  It will be nice to actually get out and enjoy a weekend of ice fishing, sledding and snowmobiling.

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Enjoy today

I heard this morning that tomorrow will be back to -38 windchill so we better enjoy today and remember what this week has been like. Yesterday was absolutely amazing -5, sun shining, no wind. Even I enjoyed being outside on a winter day.

We will be heading up to Gimli tomorrow for a workshop put on by Interlake Tourism Association and Travel Manitoba. See if we can learn anything, maybe do a little networking. It will be a pretty slow weekend around here I imagine. The colder weather again will most likely keep most snowmobilers away.

I had a good response to yesterday’s newsletter. There were a lot of people clicking the links to check out the specials and events coming up this summer.In the last few days I have booked the cabin and 5 sites for May long weekend. That puts me up to 12 sites booked already. Also, booked the cabin for a one week stay in July. I have started getting things together for our campground map advertising too, so  spring must be coming. We will be printing a few hundred more maps this year since we ran out around the end of August last year. I am going with positive thinking and planning for an early spring. I would like to have the maps printed and ready to go for April 15 this year. That groundhog better come through for me.

To continue on with the positive thinking theme I will leave you all with this thought. It’s been around so some of you may have seen it already.

 Mayonnaise Jar & Two Beers…

 

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 Beers. 
A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him.
 

When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls.

 He then asked the students if the jar was full.

 They agreed that it was. 
The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar He shook the jar lightly.

 The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls.

 He then asked the students again if the jar was full.

 They agreed it was. 
The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar.

 Of course, the sand filled up everything else.

 He asked once more if the jar was full.

 The students responded with a unanimous ‘yes.’ 
The professor then produced two Beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand.

 The students laughed.. 
‘Now,’ said the professor as the laughter subsided, ‘I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life.

The golf balls are the important things—your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions—and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. 

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car. 
The sand is everything else—the small stuff.

 ‘If you put the sand into the jar first,’ he continued, ‘there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls.

 The same goes for life.

 If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.  
Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.

Spend time with your children.

 Spend time with your parents.

 Visit with grandparents.

 Take time to get medical checkups.

 Take your spouse out to dinner.

 Play another 18.

 There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal.

 Take care of the golf balls first—the things that really matter.

Set your priorities.

The rest is just sand.

 One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the Beer represented.

 The professor smiled and said, ‘I’m glad you asked.’ 
The Beer just shows you that no
matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of Beers with a friend.

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Poker Derby of a lifetime

To say the  Northern Lites Poker Derby was a success is a minor understatement. They have never seen that many sleds come out for one of their derbies.They had a total of 513 hands sold, in comparison to 183 last year. I have heard estimates of up to 200 sleds involved. The club raised almost $2000 and the 1st place winner received $865. Not bad for a day of snowmobiling. And it certainly was a nice day which was one of the main reasons for the huge turnout. Everyone had been hibernating from the cold for so long that as soon it was warm everyone came out like crazy. I almost wish for another prolonged deep freeze to happen and then a warm up for our derby. I’m not sure if it is worth $2000 or not though.

We did not too bad on our end for the day with 44 breakfasts served and some various other things throughout the day and into the evening. We were finding that a lot of people were confusing this derby with our derby in February and thinking that we were running this one. They would ask us questions about the checkpoints and derby route and I couldn’t help them much since I didn’t really know where things were going. Things got so busy in the morning that I didn’t even get a chance to find out much details and they ran out of maps by the end of the morning. We are hoping that the confusion doesn’t affect the attendance at the Rubber Ducky Derby. Last year mother nature gave us a nasty day with -40 and full out blizzard conditions, so we are due for a nice day this year. With this year’s derby landing on Valentine’s Day we decided not to do the Bud, Spud and Beef dinner that we have done in the past.  There are so many other things going on and a lot of people will be going out with their sweetie so we didn’t want to end up with a whole bunch of left over beef. We will just be doing our regular menu for that day and will stay open in the evening as long as there are people here to order.

Here are a couple pictures that I was able to get while registration was going on.

jan12_cr

jan13_cr

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

jan11

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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

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Ice fishing derby results

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

Redneck Fishermen

 

Now the fish and the real fisherman

Ice fishing

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.

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A busy weekend in January?

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.

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A good time was had by all

Our family New Year’s Eve was a big success. With around 35 or so people the crowd was just the perfect size so that everyone was still able to enjoy themselves. We had all 4 rooms and the cabin booked for the evening. That was our first cabin rental ever so it was an extra special day.

New Year's Eve at the duck

New Year's Eve at the duck

I think Rockband was by far the most popular thing throughout the evening. It is amazing how good some of the kids were and how not so good some of the older, inebriated kids were. lol. The weather did not really cooperate for any outside activities but a couple families did roast some marshmallows and some people did make it into the hot tub.

New Year's Hot Tubbin

New Year's Hot Tubbin

 

And out of the hot tub

dscf1784

Then they made a mad dash back to the hot tub.

I have another picture that I would love to post, but that wouldn’t be right. It involves a large, drunk man and a party hat. If you were here you may know what I mean, if not just ignore the somewhat inside joke.

It is funny as we continue to look back like in the last post and think that last year we could hardly give the rooms away and this year I turned away 3 people because they were all booked. At one point we even questioned whether or not we wanted to do anything for New Year’s, but in the end decided that we might as well. Now we  are glad that we did and are looking forward to next year already.

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Looking back..

With the end of the year quickly approaching I decided yesterday was time to start switching over my files. As I was packing away 2007 I came across some of our plans and scribbles from our construction years. We actually managed to follow our original scribbles pretty closely. There were a few minor exceptions such as on one of the plans we actually had sites going North off Ducky Drive behind what is now site 52 and 54. In the end we decided to leave that clump of bush untouched and au naturel. The plans for the motel room building/house were followed pretty much to the letter. You may not know this part, but we actually designed the layout ourselves and what is now our house is designed to some day be converted into more rooms with one of them being a two bedroom suite. The rec building did have some changes though. There was one plan that  had things turned around and the laundry in a completely different spot. It was really interested to look back at how things started but the most interesting was a picture that I had forgotten about. A friend of ours was flying over in a plane and snapped it for us. I am guessing it was taken around late August or early September. It still shows our camper fortress that was our home for 3 months and the outside of the rec building was still pink styrofoam. Unfortunately it is not very good quality and was just a print out off a computer, but it was a good ‘before’ picture. I don’t have the original and I would doubt that the person that took it still has the original. It would have made a great comparison picture for the ones that Dennis took this summer.

I wrote this post a couple weeks ago as you may have figured out since it is already a new year. I think everyone naturally tends to look back at the previous year and look ahead for what is in store.  I know that I always do, but I am always planning a few months ahead. Even though it is snowing yet again, I am already planning our events for next summer when hopefully it is 30 above instead of 30 below.

We had some visitors while I was writing this post.

Partridges in the snow

Partridges in the snow

 

I have seen them here and there all winter and today they decided to stop by our living room window. We counted 10 at one point and then they were gone.  I guess they don’t stay long without a pear tree.

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Getting ready for New Year’s

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.

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Ice fishing has begun

Boxing day was the perfect day to test out the ice fishing on the pond. The temperature was quite warm and suprisingly there was no wind. Pretty much the perfect winter day in Manitoba.

Ice fishing

Ice fishing

 

 

Here fishy fishy

Here fishy fishy

Dennis has built an ice fishing shack for the colder days. It is available to rent for anyone that wants to try out a little ice drinking oops I mean fishing. There is lots of ice and we are hoping for a good turnout for the derby on Jan 10.
The shack

The shack

From all reports everyone that was here had a great time and we are looking forward to more fishing on New Year’s Eve and the January derby.
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