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.

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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.

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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.

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And they say bees are busy.

Posted on October 1, 2008 by rubberduckyblog

Have you ever seen a chipmunk in September? Now that’s busy. The little critters just don’t stop going – back and forth, back and forth. We went for a walk last night and must have seen at least 7 chipmunks at various sites gathering their goodies for the winter. Earlier in the summer we had one little guy, (I call him Chippy no tail because well obviously he is missing most of his tail) making his trail – starting at site 26, across the driveway, along the bottom of the screen on the rec building, across the front of the house and over the step, to the sunflower seeds at the side of the house and all the way back again. He did not stop all day and I always knew it was him because of his tail. He was just hilarious to watch. On one of his trips our cat was sitting on the step when he was doing his lap. He was on such a mission that he didn’t even notice him until he was less than a foot away. Luckily for Chippy, Sammy is a big lazy ole thing who finds it an effort to go from the bed to the food dish. A quicker cat and he would have been lunch. All he did was retreat and regroup, wait a few minutes and start all over again.

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What a difference a week makes

Posted on September 28, 2008 by rubberduckyblog

Last weekend was just like a summer weekend around here with almost 20 overnight sites and quite a few seasonals around. This weekend we only have 2 overnight sites and Fri there was only one seasonal out, Sat there were 4 out. We seem to have changed from summer to fall very quickly. This morning most definately seems like a Manitoba fall morning. It is cool, windy and dark. I am not very fond of the dark part. It makes it hard to get out of bed some mornings when it is soo dark. It is nice to see the sunrise sometimes though. It is happening as we speak and the sky is actually a very nice pinky, purpley color. If it wasn’t so cool and windy I might actually go take a picture as it comes up over the fish pond, but no that’s not going to happen this morning.  We have almost exactly 12 hours between sunrise and sunset today – 7:21 rise to 7:18 set. I thought that was an interesting little tidbit and while I am at it did you remember that last year it was a high of 19.6C and does anyone remember 1965 when the record low was -7.2, how about 1952 when the record high was 31.7C. I certainly don’t remember myself. My facts are courtesy of Sylvia at CKY.

Just heard that this is the 100th anniversary of the Model T and apparently there was a gathering of a bunch of cars at one of the Ford plants. Here are some more little tidbits (I am just full of useless info this morning)

  • October 1, 1908 marks the anniversary of the first Model T built for sale.
  • The Model T was the first low-priced, mass-produced automobile with standard, interchangeable parts.
  • The Model T was equipped with a 20-horsepower, four-cylinder engine with a top speed of about 45 miles per hour, weighed 1,200 pounds, and achieved 13-21 miles per gallon.
  • The moving assembly line for the Model T revolutionized manufacturing in 1913.
  • More than 15 Million Model Ts had been sold by May 26, 1927, when a ceremony marked the formal end of Model T production.
  • Henry Ford called the Model T “the universal car,” a low-cost, reliable vehicle that could be maintained easily and could successfully travel the poor roads of the era.
  • On Dec. 18, 1999, the Ford Model T was named “Car of the Century” by a panel of 133 automotive journalists and experts who began with a list of 700 candidates in 1996 and sequentially narrowed the nominees through seven rounds of balloting over three years.

    • If anyone is interested in more useless tidbits, you can check out wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Model_T

    What struck me immediately was the 20hp and 45 mph. Don’t quote me, but I think our truck is somewhere in the 200hp range and don’t some lawnmowers have 20hp engines? The top speed of 45 mph hours isn’t too shabby really, that is around 70km.  Although when you consider what the roads and general landscape must have been like way back then, 70 was probably pretty darn fast.

    Today is yet another fall supper, this time in Argyle. There must be one a weekend for the next month with Grosse Isle next weekend.

    We had some guys staying with us for the Stonewall 12/20 goose shoot. I believe they were from Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin maybe. Sounds like they were lucky enough to draw a good field this year and had a good hunt. They are already booked for next year again.

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    It’s a small world after all

    Posted on September 23, 2008 by rubberduckyblog

    We have two different groups of waterfowl hunters staying here right now – one is on a guided hunt and the other group is on their own doing a little freelancing. The strange thing is that they apparently some of them only live 40 miles away from each other. They could have carpooled. Our unguided guys are definately here for a good time – hunt all morning then kick back and relax in the evening. The guided hunters ended up leaving a day early.  Two of the guys from the next group ended up coming early so they caught a duck hunt tonight and are just settling in for a well earned sleep after driving for a couple days from the sounds of it. They are from Baton Rouge, LA – a long, long ways away. As of right now, I have no meals to do tomorrow since they are planning on picking up the others at the airport in the afternoon, then having supper in Winnipeg before they come out.  That means no 4:15am alarm for one morning anyway.

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    Posted on September 21, 2008 by rubberduckyblog

    Bingo was a huge success this weekend. It was almost standing room only, well not quite but the rec building was quite full. The jackpot was a whopping $28 won by Laura from site 16. I think a lot of people were close, but not close enough. I know of one girlie and one grandma that both only needed one number. I hear that the movie was pretty good too. We had a few people come out, a lot of the kids seem to just float in and out but don’t really sit long enough to watch.

    The weather was certainly cooler than they had predicted, especially when Mr Sun didn’t come out to play. We were all a little baffled that the kids could stay in the pool having fun, while we were outside with jackets on. The most surprising was when Metro started the train and they all ran from the pool straight into the train. Kids must have a different body thermometer than us adults, because they did not seem to even notice that they should be cold. Both Friday and Saturday nights were just about perfect campfire nights, not too hot and yet not so cold that you were freezing your butt off.

    My website is finally back up and running with the current version. We are back in September, not March anymore. I am still having a few problems with changing and updating however I did manage to add in some information about the cabin coming in 2009 and switcherood a couple things around. Dennis has actually started some construction on the cabin yesterday.

    I was just reminded by Haylie that today it is officially fall. I guess it is time to finally accept that summer is over and fall has begun. Now as long as that snow stays away it won’t be so bad.

    We have just made the executive decision to keep the pool open one more week. The forecast is calling for the temperature to stay around that 15-20C all week and into the weekend. Hopefully that gets some people interested because as of right now I have no campsites booked. This past weekend I went from having two sites booked on Monday to having 20 sites here on Saturday night. Things can certainly change in a hurry with a good forecast.

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    Day 5 and they did it

    Posted on September 19, 2008 by rubberduckyblog

    A whole week of not chaning the forecast 20 times. They have dropped the temperature for Saturday, but I think sunny and 14 will still be quite tolerable. I don’t think anyone will be complaining. I was surprised that it didn’t cool off until quite late last night – almost like summer. I was outside and comfortable in a Tshirt at 8:30 at night.  I noticed in the paper this morning they said it was a high of 29, only one degree off setting a record. 

    I was watching Canada AM for a bit this morning and they always have a survey and this morning’s question was “Do you think people are becoming increasingly rude”  With us being in the business of dealing with the public on a daily basis this caught my eye. Now, for the most part the people that we get here are really good, polite and patient but there are other types of people out there. This reminded me of a conversation that I had the other day. I was doing my grocery shopping and since it was fairly early Monday morning they only had one cashier on as it was not busy, of course until I pull up to the till with my cart full to the brim with stuff. I had just started to unload when someone else came along with their cart. The cashier asks me if I could wait while she goes to phone to get some help so that this poor guy doesn’t have to be stuck behind someone like me. Literally less than a minute and she is back to finish my stuff and she thanks me for waiting. Now I thought that was good of her to thank me, but really unnecessary as I saw the question as rhetorical. To me there was no answer other than ‘sure go ahead’.  Then she tells me that she actually had a lady say ‘no’ and that the cashier couldn’t leave. I thought that was just awful, what could be that time sensitive in your life that you couldn’t wait less than one minute so that someone else didn’t have to wait behind you. Luckily these incidents are few and far between.

    I have seen some big RVs in my time and I didn’t think you could get much more than 4 slides and 40′, but apparently you can. I was reading RV West magazine and came across an article about an RV with a deck out the slide. You have to check it out http://veranda.countrycoach.com/. Have a look through the photo gallery too, there are some amazing pictures. Wouldn’t it be nice to afford something like that?

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    Day 4 and what a day it was.

    Posted on September 18, 2008 by rubberduckyblog

    It was actually hot out today and so far the forecast is still sunny, sunny and more sunny.

    Our first group of American waterfowl hunters through Cupped Wings is here today. They are just here for the night then they carry on to the camp in Boissevain, then come back here on Sunday for a couple days. This group is two sons, the father and another guy.

    Another weekend is here already tomorrow. It seems like this week has gone by fast. Saturdays is movie night and I have yet to decide what the movie is going to be. Guess I should get on that.

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    Day 3 and hmmmmm

    Posted on September 17, 2008 by rubberduckyblog

    who turned out the lights? They were calling for a cooler day today, but it was still supposed to be sunny. They haven’t changed the forecast for the weekend yet though.

    It looks like I finally have my email back, at least I hope they are all coming through. I also found out that right now you can’t access our website unless you make sure you have the www in the address. This is creating some problems because it seems most of us (me included) use the shortcut and don’t bother with the w’s.  Fortunately this didn’t happen in July or August but January would be have been better.  I still have no idea when the proper version of the site will be back up.

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