Busy Week again

After a slow few weeks things are moving around here again. Last night was the Northern Lites club meeting, thursday night is the South Interlake Snoriders and Saturday is our big day for the winter – The Rubber Ducky Derby.

We have made a few changes to the derby for this year. Most significantly we have extended the hands in deadline to 7:00pm. We are hoping that this will accommodate people coming for the Supper and social after.  Last year our deadline was 4:00pm and we found that there was a major congestion of people coming for the social (starts at 4:00) and others returning from the derby. We are hoping that this will spread everyone out a little more. (fingers crossed). We also have added a fourth checkpoint this year – Meridian Trail Store in Argyle, Rosie’s Cafe in Inwood, Oak Point Chalet and The Woody (that’s the Woodlands Motor Hotel for all the non-locals). This makes for about a 100 mile run, if they do the whole route. We don’t make it a prerequisite to do the whole route however. Some people start in Inwood for example and come to Oak Point, The Woody and to RDR. We are trying to keep things flexible so that it can be enjoyable for more people.

The kitchen will be humming all day. Breakfast is starting at 8:30 for the early risers and it will go until around 10:30. We are doing pancakes, sausage, bacon and scrambled eggs this year. Chef Ron will be expertly tending to our roasts and I am in charge of the baked potatoes, baked beans, and salad along with all the minor technical details. And Grandma is baking up some of her delicious homemade rolls.

The Northern Lites are looking after the social part of the evening. Last year was a success and everyone had a great time, so hopefully things go well again this year. 6 inches of snow would sure make things  a lot better for the snowmobilers however.

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Seasonals all full

Welcome to the Barkleys – our newest seasonal campers. They claimed our last open seasonal campsite this weekend.  We are now back up to maximum capacity. Summer’s coming I can feel it.

I am starting to get quite a few bookings for this summer. I had a group book their campsites for May long weekend just this morning. Another group is already booked for August long and a few more here and there. So, as long as mother nature gives us another nice summer things are looking for a busy season.

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Well seems like a while since I was on here last. There just isn’t much going on when its 40 below. We have had a few snowmobilers in the warm up shack, but even they seem to be hiding from this weather. At least we have a little relief for the next few days.

The Northern Lites are having a poker derby this weekend. The registration is being done here and we are also doing the pancake breakfast. So, Saturday morning I will be frying sausages and flipping pancakes.

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

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Seasonal Camping

It looks like people are starting to look ahead to the camping season already. I have received a number of calls about seasonal campsites in the last week. I was a little surprised considering what the weather is like these days. Hopefully that means it won’t take too long to get rid of the open site.

Hold on to your hats if you are outside today. It’s crazy out there.

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Did you know…

 

A girl duck, or hen makes a loud QUACK sound while the boy duck, or drake has a raspy, muffled call.

 

Ducks sleep with half their brains awake. Ducks are more likely to sleep with one eye open when they are located on the edge of sleeping groups. They can detect predators in less than a second.

 

Ducks can live 20 or more years with good care and feeding. The world’s record is held by a Mallard Drake that lived 27 years. Quacktastic!

 

Baby ducks are precocial, meaning they are born with their eyes wide open, with a warm layer of down, and are not fully dependant on their parents for food. Ducklings are ready to leave the nest within hours of hatching.

 

Ducks have very good vision, and they see in color.

 

Did you know that a duck’s quack doesn’t echo? Nobody knows why.

This is just a few tidbits that I came across. Some of them I know are true, some who knows. How can anyone tell if a duck sees in color? It’s a little hard to ask them if the sky is blue. The echo one is interesting though. I will have to start listening closely to check it out.

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Back to school, back to normal

You can almost hear the sigh from parents all over. The kids are gone back to school today and we can get back to normal routines again. No more ‘bored’ kids anymore.

We took advantage of the incredible weather yesterday with a little sledding. That little bit of freezing rain that we got overnight gave us a nice crust to the snow. We go down the bank on one side of the fish pond, onto the ice and across to the other side.I must admit that it was fun for this big kid as well as the little ones. The 14 day trend according to theweathernetwork.com is for above average temps so hopefully we can get some more good sledding in.

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Events 2008

I have updated the events page for 2008. http://www.rubberduckyresort.com/option.asp?catcode=28 Things will stay much the same as last year (if it ain’t broke don’t fix it). I have added a couple things here and there. Also, more things will come up throughout the season. It is only January of course. While everyone else is thinking winter I have to think summer. The first of the ‘shows’ (Boat show) is in mid February then they continue from there. I have to get things figured out now, so that we can advertise them.

As a note to anyone that regulary attends the boat show, RV show etc. The dates have been changed this year. The boat show (http://www.midcanadamarinedealers.com/?pid=wpgboatshow) is Feb 21 and the RV show is Feb 28.

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New Year’s Eve

We have come to the end of another whirlwind year for us here at RDR. I am switching to a new web album for my website and in the process am going back through all my pictures from 2007. It really puts it into perspective how much things have changed when you see the pictures of what it looked like back in May. When we were building the new sites I took pictures every day, sometimes more than once if it was a busy day. Once I get done updating the site I am going to try to put together a before and after album to post on here.

Tonight will be very low key and casual around here. Last year we tried to do a fundraiser in conjunction with a hockey team and it didn’t go as well as hoped – Live and learn they say. If you recall we got about a foot of snow that day which certainly didn’t help. People also don’t seem to be doing much for New Year’s anymore. This suspicion of mine was actually confirmed in the Free Press the other day. I don’t remember the exact statistic, but I think it was in the neighborhood of 50% of people that don’t do anything. So tonight we have done nothing special – other than doing up a whole pile of chicken wings. The rec building will be open as usual; the concession will be open for hot wings and other things. The hot tub is set up outside the side door. We will have the music on and watch the ball drop at midnight. We don’t expect a huge crowd, but those of us that are here will have a good time.

Whether you are the percentage that stays home or the percentage that goes out make sure you have a good time and be safe!!

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Nice day for??

It is starting out to look like it will be a nice day. The sun rose at least and there are no clouds for the moment.  I think that I will be taking the girlies for a skate on the pond this afternoon. I can handle this -10, but that -30 is for the penguins.

Sometime this weekend I guess we will be putting up a few New Year’s decorations in the rec building.

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Merry Christmas

santa__reindeer__cool.gifIt’s just about time for Santa to stop by. We hope that everyone is having a wonderful holiday season. Only a few more days till it will all be done and we can get back to normal again.

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