Canoe Trip/Happy Civic Holiday

This past week has been mostly uneventful - I thought until I reread this blog and realized how long it's gotten and what we've done. I actually started working again - more than 5 hr/week! They're starting me in the millwork department - windows, doors, molding. I have a LOT to learn as many of the orders are special order and I have to design them on the computer. Looks like the software should be really easy, but I don't know anything about all the components of doors/windows and how to install them! We'll see how it goes. I had three days of "training" which means watching someone else work, this week in the evenings. It was pretty slow and I ended up getting pulled into all other departments which I know little of. I did pick up the corker at the place we get our wine stuff so I could bottle our second batch of kit wine. I managed to do that Tuesday before work. Took a bit, but I finally found a quick way and managed to get 32 bottles completely full and corked. It's pretty good and somehow managed to finish off at least one bottle already!

We did get out fishing Thursday evening (only day this week I didn't have to close). We went out with a guy Jeremy works with that he's gone fishing with a few times before, Chris Foy. We went back out to Black Bay and did some trolling. The two of them were using more muskie lures, but I used my good ol' rapala and ended up catching the only three fish we pulled in. All small small-mouths. We boated down the other part of the Petawawa River just about to the point where the rapids start.

Saturday, we tried to get up early, but weren't completely successful, but we did manage to get out on the river somewhat early. We fished for about 4 hours and I caught a small walleye and Jeremy caught a nice northern just before we decided to pack up and head back in. We tried using minnows this time, but still haven't had a lot of luck. This river is confusing. It was a decent day weather-wise at least and by the time we headed in, was getting nice and warm. Later in the afternoon we putzed around outside. I checked on my plants and cleaned them up a bit. My zucchini plant had fallen off the picnic table and a lot of the leaves bent and were dying to I snipped them off and hope new ones will fill in. I think some one's been eating my cucumbers as they've disappeared. But, all in all, the tomatoes are looking good as are my peppers. I have one nice cucumber and a lot of my zucchini are getting soft and roting so I'm trying to figure that out. They may have gotten a bit dry as I keep thinking it's going to rain and then it doesn't always so I've lacked watering. We have, I believe, broken the record for the most rain in July and every day it seems like it could rain at any minute.

Jeremy worked on his green jeep trying to sand off some of the rust and touch it up with some new paint. He'll have to work on the red jeep next before doing some touch ups on the truck. We also got the grass cut nice and short. We've been trying to cut it with the manual push mower, but it gets really hard when it gets too long. We did get up to base for a little bit to play tennis. Or at least to practice some of our hits and try to do some volleys.

Today, we still tried to get up early, but were unsuccessful, but did get out before 9am to head up towards Chalk River/Deep River to do the Corry Lake canoe trip. We put the canoe on the red jeep with me driving and Jeremy drove the green jeep. We stopped at the Corry Lake boat landing, dropped the green jeep off then headed out towards Deep River to get to the put-in spot. We had a nice hour or so canoeing thru a marshy area. We also hit several beaver dams we had to get over. Jeremy of course had his tennis shoes on and I had my sandals so I had to get out and pull/push him over the dams. I did manage to loose my balance once and went in up to my waist! The river was pretty deep for not being very wide. Hayde did a good job sitting in the canoe. She sat behind me and kept switching looking out past each shoulder. We then ran into some rapids and got hung up on some rocks. Our map book said there was an unmarked path for portaging. We didn't see anything so we got out(thankfully the water wasn't very deep) and looked for the easiest way around the rapids. We hauled the canoe out on shore for a bit then put it back in and hauled it over some more rocks. Whew - it was buggy! In the end, we got back in and paddled our way thru an even smaller river dodging low hanging branches and spiders. Eventually we came out on a small lake - Ottarson Lake. We saw one boat of fishermen before we headed back into the river to continue our journey towards Corry Lake. We hadn't realized the bridge we had come across last fall on one of our boat voyages upriver was so close to the other lake. I weren't sure the boat could get underneath, but as we canoed under we figured it might be worth a shot to try some time. We continued to paddle on and finally ended up in Corry Lake. We knew we had another 7km to paddle to get to the boat landing and we were hitting some good winds, but thankfully, most of the trip down the long lake wasn't too bad. The sun disappeared and towards the end, we got rained on for a few minutes. In the meantime, Hayde was getting bored/anxious/needing to pee so we stopped a few times to let her out. We made her swim next to us for a short time, but she wanted back in so we stopped and let her back in. Before the boat landing, we let her out again to swim the rest of the way, ~100yds or so. That tired her out pretty well. I had my garmin on the entire way, and it said we did about 9 miles which took us about 4-5 hours. I didn't look to see what time we started or finished and unfortunately, it's not letting me upload it to the garmin site so I can post a link for you to see. Sorry, Dad, we managed to get some scratches on your nice paint job, but at least now it looks like it's been used - and it has!

We've been trying to hit the gym - I think I've had better luck getting in three times a week and I'm trying to get my running back again. My feet still hurt a bit and my right hamstring is still sore, but getting better. The humidity is down from what it's been for the last week or so with such a big threat of rain every day. Jeremy has tomorrow off for the Civic Holiday, but of course I have to work. He'd like to try another new lake for fishing so we'll see.