August 2012 - More MackTush

 

August 1, 2012

Off to the Nahmint Bridge for a short afternoon trip. Some beautiful wild flowers at the bottom end of the lake.  The road along the lake is a couple hundred feet above the lake the entire way.

The bridge is a popular place to swim with some nice rocks to sun on.  The only problem is, when it gets really hot the horseflies come searching for fresh flesh.

A beautiful spot just before the head end of the lake.  The river spills through a canyon under the bridge and into the deep pool.  In the spring this pool fills with Steelhead (rainbow trout).

The bridge is a popular place to swim with some nice rocks to sun on.  The only problem is, when it gets really hot the horseflies come searching for fresh flesh.

Coast Guards WE Ricker

August 9th - Kristi, Garrett and Sandra Visit

 The last two weeks have been incredibly beautiful and hot.  Quite busy around camp preparing for the August long weekend as both our daughter from Saskatoon is visiting and our son Garrett and his wife Sandra were over from Squamish to visit.  The weather could not have been more beautiful. Temps up around 35 degrees and we all spent most of the time in the water.  The dogs were in the water as well.  We finally convinced Kira to swim with our dog.

We did a lot of sitting in the water and swimming with beverages to stay cool.  The hottest weekend ever for awhile.  The temperature went up to 36 degrees for two days... mostly unheard of at the water.  The rest of the week was quite a bit cooler thankfully.

The cool beverages

Dogs and their sticks!

Dogs guarding Dave's baby Boston (next door neighbour) 

Kids got us a load of firewood.

Kristi showing us morning Yoga for Garrett and Sandra.

August 16th

 Well it is another Thursday, where Ray had to go to Nanaimo so I tagged along to get the laundry done.  Yesterday it turned 31 degrees at camp with not a breeze.  Spent most of the day in the water.  Since the last post we've seen a whale go buy and the spring salmon are starting to be caught!  We even had two on our fishing lines but they got off.  Oh well, half the fun is trying to catch them.  The weather is supposed to be blistering for the next 4 days.  Thank god for the cool water.

We're having trouble with the internet a camp so the blog is sporadic. We have bought a new antennae today, so hopefully the problem will be solved.   

 

2012-08-21 11:25

 The sun came out to play again.  Took our daughter Kristi fishing for Spring salmon for the first time this year.  What a blast.  We had one on fairly quickly and she got to play the fish awhile before she lost it.  The next one she landed and we got one Coho salmon and a Sockeye salmon, as well.   For three hours on the water we did extremely well.  The fish is in the brine as I am going to make smoked salmon with it tomorrow with my Bradley smoker.  I can taste it already!  Ray has two appointments in Nanaimo this week so we will not get another opportunity to go fishing until Friday, the day Kristi leaves to go back to Saskatoon.  The visit is sure going by quickly.

Kristi's first spring salmon.

What a day! One sockeye salmon, one coho salmon and one spring salmon!  Into the smoker with you!

Second full moon for the month called a "Blue Moon" over Macktush.

August 28th - Terry and Kim Visit

Another week flew by.  Last Wednesday my ex-boss and her husband came for a visit during their holidays at Horne Lake and we ate fabulous barbecued chicken on the spit.  It was sure nice to see Kim and Terry.

Ahhhhhh!  Holidays!  This is the life.

Today we are at the Pain Clinic in Nanaimo as Ray is getting a nerve block for L-3 and L-4 and hopefully that will relieve some of his pain for up to 5 months they think.  Everyone keep your fingers crossed!

The boat's motor trim gear quit so it will have to go in and get fixed.  Unfortunately. our mechanic is swamped and will not get to it until a week Thursday.  Hopefully there will still be some fish to be caught when we get it back.  If it does not get back before the end of the first week of September we may just park it until next year as we have to start taking things apart and putting into storage in preparation for October 1st, the date to be out of camp.

 

July 2012 - Canada Day and our first month of retirement!

 July 1, 2012  Canada Day

For many years Ethyl and Marvin put on the Canada Day celebration.  Too bad this year turned out to be Marvin's last, god bless.

Lorne Hilmo and Marvin Bonner

Riel

"Believe it or not, I had to win this!!  

Darlene Ruel and Delores Rawcliff 

Arni

Marilyn

Ethyl

Frank

July 8th

 The sun finally decided to bless us with its warm yellow face!  We've enjoyed three beautiful days in a row and it appears that summer finally arrived.  The time just seems to fly by.  I'm unable to load pictures to the blog as our limited internet will not accept the long transfer.  We are going to look at other options.

 

On Thursday, Ray picked up a German tourist hitchhiking and brought him to the campsite for a couple of days.  He traded getting us a load of firewood, chopping and stacking it for room and board for two days.  Max is a 22 year old electrician and plans to stay in Canada for six months backpacking and trading lodging and food for work.  Quite an industrious young man.  Very nice and spoke English really well.  We took him out Salmon fishing and he learned to do it all as Ray only showed him so as to not irritate his back pain further.  He learned real quick.  Unfortunately with all of the seiner boats and gillnetters in the canal, the fish were not there and we did not catch anything.  Oh well.  He was fed well and I sent him off with some frozen left over spaghetti so his next meal was taken care of!

Off to water my garden as the temperature should be again, in the high 20’s centigrade.

Total for the past two weeks, 7 sockeye, and about 200 prawns!  No crab as yet, maybe today we will be lucky.

 

July 16th

Well it is Thursday and that means Ray is off to Nanaimo for the pain clinic again and next week he finally sees the anesthesiologist so hopefully they can come up with a plan to reduce his back pain.

The weather lately is fantastic.  Lots of sun and warm temps finally.  We are browning up like a roasted turkey without even trying.  I stay out of the sun most of the time, but I think you tan in the shade!  Not complaining though.

Unfortunately the fishing for the other campers isn't gone well.  Lots of fish, but the water is so cold they are moving straight into the river.  Oh well, we are not too interested in catching very many anyways.  Where would we put them!  We finally caught our first crab of the season though.  It was very good.  We are only getting about 40 to 50 prawns a day but that is enough for a feed.

Here are some pictures of the prawns.

Deb's first fish of season.

Deb's flowers are sure coming to life with the great weather we're having.

2012-07-22 15:49

Another day in paradise!  It rained over night and today has been cloudy with sunny periods.  We moved the cell antenna closer to the beach and the internet seems to be working better. Yeah!  Still keeping busy with camp chores and try to be finished every day by 2 or so to relax. Had my first swim of the season last week even though it was a bit windy.  Ray and I have been walking every day as well.

Ray saw the anesthesiologist finally on Thursday and they are going to give him a nerve block in August to try and get his back pain under control.  Sure hopes it works.

Here are some pictures over the last few days.

A load of logs coming into Port Alberni for the sawmills.  Note because of the current that the tug has to pull the barge over before it can get in front of it again.

Francis Barkley

The Skaubryn lumber ship.  The pictures below shows the stern that extends to the dock.

The camp supervisor is doing a great job and is beautifying the "Creek Trail".  We took a walk with Val recently to explore the recent improvements.

First swim of the summer.

July 25, 2012

Ray's mom came for a visit.  She's adamant to take a bus/ferry trip all the way to Port Alberni so we don't have to drive to Nanaimo to get her.

June 2012 - MackTush Campsite

 

June 1st

 Well, today is very busy, the day before we move our stuff into storage.  Last night I took a load by myself in the truck with bins of clothes etc. down to Macktush.(2 hour drive)  Got there at 8pm and spend the next hour unloading!  Finally relaxed in front of the fire and eating take out chicken and it started to rain.  Oh well, at least it did not rain while I was moving stuff.  I stayed overnight, up at 6:15 am and back on the road at 7am to Nanaimo. (2 hour drive)  Then I packed another load into the truck and we drove to Errington, 45 minute drive, to his brothers and dropped of all the shed stuff.  After a few more stops, we're finally back at home at the somewhat empty house for 3pm to finally sit down.  I sat in my lazyboy, drank a beer while Ray napped to rest as he is still recovering from his "rotorooting surgery" last week!  Tonight will be spent doing the last of the laundry and last of the kitchen dishes.  We start the big move at 8:30 am tomorrow.  My last day of work is next Wednesday where I can say "I'm retired!".  Probably will not blog until after that.

Jim and Sandie (2012-06-01 17:38:17)

Retired is one of the best words in the English (or any) language. All your hard work will be so worth it when you can just relax - next week.

 

June 10th

 We moved out of the house on Saturday June 2^nd and into our summer home at Macktush Creek Campground into the fifth.   As of June 6^th, we received the money for the house and it's also my last day of work!  I am officially retired.  Tomorrow (Monday) will be wonderful as I don't need to go to work.  Now if I can only get the dog on the same page!  Up at 5am every morning so far!

After constructing shelters, tarps etc.  It finally feels like home.  We have an open concept design.... a kitchen overlooking the living room which overlooks the ocean.  We have a formal dining room (the bug tent) and guest bedroom (tent with a raised air bed).  Pretty good eh!  Ray is to try and take some video that we can add to this post.

The weather hasn't been great yet, but we are staying warm and dry.  Baked cookies for Ray today, the first time in probably 5 years.  Well off to take another walk and then campfire.

Retired!!!!!!!

June 20th

 

The weather has been fairly lousy so we decided to go to Vancouver for Father's Day and see my Dad, stay at our son Garrett and his wife Sandra's place, and take Ray's mother out for lunch for her birthday on the Monday.  Sure showed us that we still hate the busyness of large cities!  Back to Nanaimo on Tuesday morning for Ray's appointment with the pain clinic in Nanaimo.  We are staying at a motel for two nights as my office is having a retirement dinner for me on Wednesday night.... cannot believe it!  Anyways we will be back at our summer home on Thursday afternoon after doing a shopping trip to the grocery store.

Jim and Sandie (2012-06-20 16:38:11)

It always feels so good to be back home again. And I know how you feel about large cities. Really don't like them.

 

2012-06-28 13:01

 

It is hard to believe that another week has gone by.  We spent two very busy days in Nanaimo after coming back from Vancouver and got back to the campsite for around 3pm last Thursday.  Ray spent the weekend getting the boat ready so that we could start putting down the prawn traps and crab trap.  Everything seems to be working fine and on Monday we had our first feed of prawns for this year! 

 

Ray headed to Nanaimo on Tuesday for his appointment at the Nanaimo Hospital Pain Clinic so it was up to him to do all the “town shopping” and he did not get back to the campsite until 5:30 pm after leaving camp at 8 am.  It was a great opportunity to clean the trailer top to bottom as no one was around to bother with my generator.

 

Monday night we befriended the people at the campsite across from us.  They were from the base at Comox and were from Search and Rescue.  They are parachutists. The four guys with one with his two sons were here for a week to practice GPS and fish.  They had an exercise Tuesday afternoon with the helicopter on the back logging roads.  I got a few pictures of the chopper as it flew right over my campsite a hundred feet or so above.

 

Wednesday morning we took Steph and his 2 boys out to show them how to fish sockeye.  We lost 5 but got 4 in the boat.  Were they every happy and excited.  (Everyone else in the canal caught nothing as the gillnetters and seiners just finished the day before.)  Next we took them to pull the prawn traps and crab trap.  We got 68 prawns and gave them too them.  They were so thankful.  They promise every time they fly over us with the big chopper or the search and rescue plane (The buffalo) they will radio us .... pretty cool. 

 

I got creative for dinner as Ray brought back fresh pork back ribs.  I smoked them in the Bradley smoker for 2 hours and then slow cooked them on the Bbq. (With my special rubs and sauces.)  They were awesome. 

 

Today, Thursday, we had several people over to watch the Euro Cup Soccer semi-final as we have a TV set up in the bug tent.  Everyone is warm and out of the rain.  Sunday is the final so hopefully it will not be raining as more people are expected to come and watch and the 10 x 10 tent is only so big!

 

May 2012 - Moving to MackTush Campsite

May 15th

Here are some pictures of the new home.

May 26th - Garrett and Sandra

Our son, Garrett, and his wife Sandra, surprised us this weekend by coming to visit.  Lots of laughs, nice walks and the dogs had a ball, in and out of the water.  

May 29th - The House is Sold

 

Well it's been quite the month!  The house went on the market for sale on April 2nd and sold on May 2nd. with the people taking possession June 6th!!!!!!  We are having our stuff moved on June 2nd.  So packing, giving notice at work, moving the trailer into our "summer home" and setting it up for a more permanent life has been a whirlwind of activity.  Ray had to organize all things to do with a storage locker, shed purchase for his brothers place in Errington, where we will have a physical address, and changes of address with various banks, insurance etc.  The boat had it's overhaul and motor is refurbished and is now sitting at the campsite waiting for the sockeye season.  (Ray will have to give it a miss this year however.)

Wow!  So I am sure I am forgiven for not blogging and/or following all of you guys out there.
last day of work will be the 14 of June and I am hoping the new girl I am training will do so well that I can leave as the 7th of June instead.  Here's hoping.  I am taking great pleasure in telling everyone that I am "retiring".