Canadian Adventures: Parks, Fishing and stuff

I've had the luxury of having 4 days off this week. Unfortunately, I hadn't known until Monday as they're cutting way back on hrs this month and I couldn't have gone out to see my sister. Oh well, I guess then I couldn't have come back to WI next week as we've just planned. I've also been able to spend a lot of much needed time with Kharren as she's going thru a difficult time right now.

So, with all this time off, Kharren, Khartem, Hayde and I have been off enjoying the nice summer days at the park. Yesterday, we went off to Bonechere Provincial Park on the north west side of Round Lake which is about 45 min south west of here. I have a provincial

park pass (similar to a state park pass) for the summer and want to try to make as much use out of it. We did about a 1-1/2 mile hike thru the woods (and bogs) and definitely got eaten by the mosquitos! Hayde had fun running around and splashing thru some of the water. Afterwards, I decided maybe we should hit Foy Provincial Park which is on the North east side of Round Lake. Jeremy and I had been there soon after we moved here. I figured here, Hayde could at least get into the lake and run around more. We enjoyed the beach to ourselves for a good while, until another woman with her daughter and their small dog arrived. We enjoyed playing fetch with Hayde and showing Khartem the beach

and water for the 1st time. Oh, before leaving, I had gotten 8 loaves of zuchinni bread made in the morning for a total of 14 loafs baked - although 3 loaves are already eaten. The rest are in the freezer.

Later in the evening, Jeremy, Amanda(basement neighbor) and I headed out on the Ottawa river to do some fishing. Jeremy had found a spot the other day that we hit up again. Amanada ended up with two walleye (or

pickerel as they call them here) and Jeremy got a good one just before we decided to call it a night. I ended up with a weed-fish that we had all gotten excited about until Jeremy netted it and we realized it was only weeds.

Today, Kharren, Khartem, Hayde and I took a trip into Algonquin. We did the Barron Canyon hike and then after being eaten by mosquitos again, decided to check out Achay campgrounds. We found a really really nice site right on the lake,

parked the truck and headed out on the beach - slightly away from the other sites so I could let Hayde loose. She had fun the entire time trying to pick up sticks from the bottom of the lake. It was pretty shallow for a ways out so she didn't have to swim too much. There were tons of small fish and we saw some huge tadpols!

I just woke Jeremy up from a post-dinner nap so we can get out fishing on the river again tonight. We'll see if Matt comes home quickly so Amanda can come back with us.

**********************************************************************************

Thursday-

I've forgotten some more stuff. We went to check out another house last Sunday after I worked. It's over towards Westmeath, east of Pembroke. It's a two story house with lakefront property looking directly west up the Ottawa River with some nice shallow sandy beaches just a minutes boat ride away

and fishing straight up the river. Unfortunately, it's higher priced than we want to pay, but could afford and it would be a ~50 min drive to work for Jeremy (~10-15 min for me to Home Depot). Sorry, didn't have my camera for this place. Plus, I just renewed our gym cards which is here in Petawawa and J

eremy's hockey is here in Petawawa so it looks like we've agreed and settled on trying to find something in town here. We need to get a hold of our landlord and talk to him about the other house (see pictures) he has that we saw. It'll be a little bit cheaper, a huge yard, but it needs A LOT of work! Jeremy's hoping he can work out a deal with him that we'll help clean it up and put some work into it at our landlord's expense. That way, we can make it more our own, without having to pay for it. We'll see what he says. Hopefully he can get some of the old junk out of the house and yard at least.

I've also just booked Hayde into a kennel for next week and

will have to take her in this afternoon for an updated kennel cough shot as they won't accept her with her shot being over 6 mo old. Good thing I don't have to work. I also forgot to mention that Jeremy built 1/2 of a golf ladder game. We had played this often at his mom's last summer while we lived there for a month. He made it out of pvc pipes. I had a picture of the backyard a few posts back that showed it. He ran out of pvc pipe so hasn't built the second ladder. I'll also attach a few pictures of my patio garden that's growing like crazy and starting to flower.