Fishing Derby results

Posted on October 28, 2008 by rubberduckyblog

Well despite the cool weather and nasty wind everyone had a great time at the fishing derby on Saturday. We had around 22 people enter the derby and they caught around 70 fish. They certainly kept the measurers hopping. Our eventual winner, Mitch got off to a slow start, but came from behind and pulled things together in the last 20 minutes or so. Mitch ended up catching 7 fish for a total of 96″, 2nd place winnter Bryan caught 6 fish totalling 86″; and 3rd place winner Andrew caught 5 fish for a total of 68.5″. Our kids winner Zachary caught 6 fish totalling 77.75″. The biggest fish caught was 17″ and went to Damon. A quick calculation that night showed that the ATV club raised $800 for the day.

Official measuring

Official measuring

Everyone had such a good time that we are already looking forward to making the SIATV an annual event and also our ice fishing derbies this winter. Almost makes we want it to get cold and freeze – no not really.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

A business tip

Posted on October 24, 2008 by rubberduckyblog

Get your story straight and know what your business offers so that people don’t have to waste there time coming to your store on a wild goose chase. Yesterday was the day to get the supplies for the fishing derby this weekend. We wanted to do chicken breasts for supper this time so I phoned a meat supplier who we had never dealt with and therefore never been to their location and don’t know if they have a retail area. I was told yes you can come in and buy here as long as it is not something like steaks that have to be specially cut. So I am thinking we are good to go, stop in check out what they have, what will work – thinking chicken kiev, or cordon blue etc. Well we get in there and oh no we don’t keep items in stock, you have to order them. This story was a whole lot different than the one that I got on Monday. So out we go to find plan B since we still need something to feed people on Saturday. In the end we are still doing chicken breasts, but are making teriyaki and buffalo style from scratch and we will not be rushing back to that business anytime in the near future.

Ticket sales for the derby and social have been kind of slow. It did help when we split up the day so that people could only come to one thing or another if they couldn’t make all three. If it turns out to be a nice day hopefully we will get quite a bit of drop ins. I think the forecast still looks promising for Saturday anyway, Sunday is a different story. I have heard rumors of flurries on the way.

The last hunters left here Wednesday morning and I certainly was not sad to see the end of another hunting season. Apparently the geese left early this year so Cupped Wings ended up cancelling 4 or so groups at the end. I went from expecting 12 guys on Sunday evening to finding out on Saturday evening that there would only be 6. On Wednesday there was supposed to be a group of 6 coming in and I found out on Monday that they cancelled that group too. Fortunately my plan was to go on Tuesday to get groceries so I did not have to throw too much food out.

Dennis is in the city now picking up some pipe to fix some drainage problems that showed up with all the rain this summer. Lake Sandyken and Minigolf Lake will hopefully be no more next year.

I guess it is time for me and my girlie assistant to go to the rec building to get some stuff ready for tomorrow.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The tale of camping cabin construction

Posted on October 21, 2008 by rubberduckyblog

 

I finally got the pictures done of the cabin. Follow the link below to see my picasa album. The interior pictures don’t show very well with no lighting yet. Anyone that wants a personal tour sometime just let us know and you are more than welcome to check it out. Yesterday they got the soffit and faccia finished and now all that is left is furniture and some decorating touches. I already have the first opening special advertised – the first 4 paid reservations or paid guests will get a complimentary gift basket.

Cabin construction
 

 Cabin construction

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

New event for 2009

Posted on October 20, 2008 by rubberduckyblog

I have been thinking of this idea for a while, and I am finally going to put into action for next year. The weekend is still undecided and the final details still need to be worked out but, the working title is ‘Pig out weekend’. It will include things like a cupcake eating contest, and a hot dog eating contest. I also want to do a big burger challenge. You may have heard of places that have giant burgers (anywhere over 1 pound) and you have to finish them in a specified time to get a prize and have your picture put on the wall. I am going to have to do some research on different ideas, then do a trial run on the big burger. I have been to a few places that show some eating records including things like cow brains, butter and mayonnaise. Why someone would want to eat large quantities of these things I just don’t know. There are of course normal things like pizza and burgers. Someone even ate Six Pounds of Baked Beans in One Minute, 48 Seconds. Now I don’t even want to think about the after effects of that one.

We had an interesting ‘event’ here on Saturday. Does anyone know what you get when you cross a cell phone with a toilet – a soggy phone and a brand new toilet. What goes in does not come out in this case. We are not sure how he managed to do it but the old fella dumped his phone in at the same time as the toilet was flushing and whoosh it was gone. It was jammed in there so good the only way it came out was to break the toilet itself.

I hope everyone was able to enjoy and take advantage of the beautiful weather this weekend. I just checked the forecast and it is still supposed to be sunny and fairly warm today then back to more rain for Tues and Wed.  I guess as long as it is not snow we shouldn’t complain.

We were just thinking last night that our Lucy goosey who has stopped in for the past two years has not been around this fall. She is a lonely blue goose that shows up, stays for a while then takes off again. We are thinking that she is not going to come this year since we are hearing that the birds are gone already. Hopefully we are wrong and she is just late cause it was really a neat thing to have her here and hang out with the ducks.  There are apparently no ducks and geese around the area anymore. The outfitters staying here are even cancelling hunts this week. Instead of 6 guys coming in last night, I had 2 guys. There is supposed to be a group of 6 coming on Wed, but we don’t know if they will or not.

The ATV Club has decided to break down the pricing for the fishing derby this weekend in case someone wants to just come for a portion of the day. The derby only will be $20; supper and social $15 and social only is now $10. Of course the best deal is still everything for $35.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Cabin and hunters update

Posted on October 17, 2008 by rubberduckyblog

I have sat down to write this a couple times and it just has not happened yet. I have completely started over once already and am going to try again.

The Ducky Construction Crew is installing the flooring in the cabin this afternoon. They were able to get the painting finished last night. Still a few finishing touches to do and furniture to put in, but it is sleepable if ya absolutely had to.

Our boisterous group of 12 Louisianna hunters has left and made way for a quiet group of 6 Arkansas hunters. Man what a difference in the two groups. The Louisianna guys were a little over the edge, but a lot of fun anyway. It sure made the time fly by when they were here. It is nice to be down to only 6 for cooking for a few days. Those Southern boys sure knew how to eat and it kept me on my toes to make sure there was enough food to keep them full. One of the guys bought me out of Canadian nickels so that he could give them to his 8 year old daughter. She was going to take them for show and tell then give each kid in her class a nickel.  A rather interesting idea. I was kind of taken aback by a comment by one of the hunters today. He asked me if we are only open for goose and duck season. I thought it was a little strange that someone could be here for almost 24 hours and not notice that there is more to us than just rooms for hunters to stay in. My first instinct was to say “Are you serious?!!”, but that wouldn’t be polite. So I bit my tongue and politely said no our rooms are open year round and the campers in the summer.  How can you be so engrossed in hunting to not see anything else around here? Things that make you go hmmmm.

The pool is now officially put to sleep for the winter. The cover is on, the water is drained and the pipes are winterized.  It is such a warm sunny day that it’s hard to believe that the ground could be white any day now.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Posted on October 14, 2008 by rubberduckyblog

As I sit here writing this the sun is just starting to get up and the big ole moon is just going down. It sure is nice to see that orangy color to the East this morning. It has been a dreary and depressing couple of days.  I believe that most seasonals have their winterizing done and everything packed away for the snowy season.  There are still a couple that I haven’t seen yet and expect should be here in the next few days. As we all know the weather can change quickly at this time of year. It makes for a sad weekend to say goodbye for a few months. Saturday was our thanksgiving potluck with about 14 people all together. We were originally expecting more, but as everyone’s lives get busier there are always conflicts and some couldn’t make it.

Sunday afternoon we had a group of 12 hunters from Lousianna come in with CWO. There are some real characters in the group and they have some different accents. It was 81F when they left home and they seemed to think that we were a little crazy for sitting in the hot tub on a cool Manitoba evening. It was actually quite relaxing even with the cool temperature and rain misting over us. Not sure if I mentioned it somewhere along the way, but back in the summer we upgraded the hot tub in the courtyard. This is a much more efficient one so we are able to keep it open all winter without any problems. The other one had a few issues and made it very high maintenance and difficult to maintain in the cold temperatures.

Now that we have the hot tub good to go, I have started doing some extra promotion for winter time and snowmobiling.  I talked to the owner of Sno-much fun about snowmobile rentals and tours. If anyone is interested in renting a snowmobile he will deliver it here and if there is a big enough group he will do a tour in this area. I heard at one point that they were forecasting more snow for this winter so the snowmobilers will have a better winter. Unfortunately it is time to think winter since it will be here whether we like it or not. At least we are not in Regina though, sucks to be them this weekend.

Fast forward to 10:30am and the sun is still shining brightly and just starting to warm up the house. The ducks have been silly creatures lately. Now that the traffic has slowed down they have been cruising all over the place – in front of and beside the rec building, by the pool area, you name it. They seem to think they own the place now.

Today is election day so finally we get an end to listening to all the political bad mouthing. Hopefully Stephan Harper and James Bezan will stop calling me too. I am sure some of you were fortunate enough to get the recorded phone call.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Correction

Posted on October 8, 2008 by rubberduckyblog

I must make a correction on my previous post. Geri did not snitch on me. Metro was just that curious that he had to find out as soon as he got home what I wrote. Ahhhhh my plan worked perfectly, now I will rule the world (or at least The Duck)

I am in the process of switching over our website to a different web host. It is very similar to the old one, with a few minor changes and improvements. I am still tweaking a few things. Some of the behind the scene things are easier for me to use now. It is now more user friendly for me to make changes. On the old site I had to learn html to make changes on the home page, now everything is similar to a wordprocessing program.  The pictures page is a big improvement since I never did like the way it was before but I didn’t know how to make it better. The reservations page is still getting a few kinks worked out of it, but I don’t expect a huge rash of bookings for this weekend anyway. That wind is just a howling outside right now, certainly not very appealing for camping.

We are having our Thanksgiving potluck this Saturday. I think that I counted maybe 14 or so people. I will only have 4 hunters to cook for that night as we have the rooms booked with non hunters. I had an interesting surprise at 9:30 last night when I found out that the group of 5 hunters that I was told were leaving after lunch today is actually leaving after lunch tomorrow – small communication breakdown. That left me scrambling to find food for an extra 5 guys for supper, breakfast and lunch. On the upside I have another break with no supper Thursday and no breakfast or lunch on Friday.

The boys have been busy building the camping cabin last week and this week. It is coming along good and is going to look pretty darn good when it is done. I have been taking pictures as things progress and will post them here in the next little while.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

A day in the life

Posted on October 6, 2008 by rubberduckyblog

and a few explanations. I admit that the posts have slowed down in the last few weeks and won’t pick up for another couple yet. On Saturday night Metro decided that he should point this out and give me a little shot about it – all in joking because he already knows the story of a day in my life right now. So, of course I had to put in a special post just for him. Even more amusing for me because I know that he doesn’t have immediate access to a computer. Apparently Geri snitched because he had read the post by Sunday evening already. So that is the explanation for the last post that doesn’t make sense to anyone else.

Now for a day in the life. As I said in previous posts a  waterfowl outfitter has their hunters staying here and I am doing 3 full meals for them. Right now there are 9 hunters and two guides/outfitters staying here, so that makes meals for 11 guys. It will vary from as little as 3 hunters to up to 15 at one point and the majority of groups are here for 3 nights.

4:15 am – Alarm #1 goes off and time to get up to cook breakfast

4:45 am – Full Breakfast is served

approx 5:15 – cleanup is done hunters are on their way and I go back to lay down in bed and hopefully snooze for a little while.

somewhere between 6:30 and 7:00 (depending on what is going on that day) alarm #2 goes off and time to start getting things ready for girlies to go to school.

8:00am bus time

8:00-9:00am some where about now I find time for breakfast myself, ingest large amounts of caffeine and do misc paperwork etc stuff.

Mornings vary depending on what is for lunch. Non kindergarten days I try to make fairly low maintenance and have everything ready to just heat and go. On kindergarten days when I am alone I do things that require a little more prep and prepare stuff for the next day. Usually by 11:00 I/we (girlies) are in the rec building to put the final touches on lunch and make sure the last cleanup is done.

12:00noon lunch time

1:00pm – 2:00pm – clean up lunch and get supper started including dessert.

2:00pm-4:00pm – I/we are hopefully back in the house for a little relax time and finish up anything that has been put off from the previous days. More caffeine injected.

4:00pm – bus time

4:00-7:30pm – I go back to my job as mommy and check out the backpacks, feed, bathe and put to bed the girlies.

7:30ish-8:00ish – at some point it is time to head back next door to finish making supper.

9:30ish – supper served. They have been very late getting back in the evenings and supper has not been finished until shortly after 10:00pm. This is later than usual and I am hoping that it doesn’t happen much longer as it is a very long time to wait from when I am done with the girlies to when supper is served.

somewhere between 10:30pm-11:00pm I make into bed and start all over again.

This is a regular day assuming that we have no rooms to clean  or I don’t have to go for groceries. Groceries is once a week and the rooms switch over an average of two times a week.

Now I am not writing this to complain or tell my sad tale, but if you see me and I look half asleep that’s the explanation. That is also the explanation as to why the posts are few and far between right now. I do get a break of one day this week I think and my last day is on the 26th. Those of you who have heard about the fishing derby on the 25th and are quick on the draw will notice that I still have one 4:45 am breakfast to do the next morning and I am not sure how that is going to work. I am planning to con my mom into cooking breakie the day of the derby, but I think it will be me the day after.  When we scheduled the derby there were no hunters booked for that night, but that has apparently changed and we still 6 have hunters in.

Now I haven’t done it all by myself either I have had a lot of help from my mom, especially on the cleaning days. This past weekend Geri volunteered herself to be my kitchen assistant as well. Just the company alone makes the day go faster, but someone who will wash my dishes, and entertain my girlies…..priceless.

It is now 10:24 and I am just back from supper and wanted to finish this off before I drag myself into bed. Tomorrow is grocery day so I have been trying to make my list in between cooking and washing dishes with the hopes of not forgetting anything. That doesn`t usually happen, I will forget something.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

The complaint department is closed

Posted on October 4, 2008 by rubberduckyblog

I am being told that I have not been posting as much as I should be so here I go with a post.

 

HI METRO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It’s my blog and I can do whatever I want.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

All is quiet

Posted on October 1, 2008 by rubberduckyblog

We have a few days break from the hunters’s with Cupped Wings right now. The last group left on Saturday afternoon and the next one doesn’t come in until Wednesday. It has been pretty quiet the last few days. On Sunday the campers that were here left pretty early, as it was not a nice day weather wise. Yesterday was not much better, but today sounds like it won’t be too bad and will continue for the week. So I get to enjoy a few down days before the next group comes in. There are 12 hunters plus the guides,and outfitters should make about 15 for meals. This only lasts for a couple days, as 8 of the hunters are leaving on Friday, then I go down to only around 7 hunters for the next week. I get another break for a day next week.

Sadly, the pool is cooling off as we speak. The heat was turned off on Sunday and soon it will be put to bed for the winter.  The winter storage campers are starting to come in, so I guess it is finally time to accept that summer is over. It seems like only last month it was March and we were planning for the upcoming season and already it is over. Time sure flies when you are having fun.

Looks like this weekend it will be Saturday night football night as the Bombers are on TV at 6pm. I thought about doing a movie night, then decided I better just put on the game instead. I was undecided about whether or not to shut down the slush machine, but considering it sounds like it is going to be nice I will keep it going.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment