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We have very close friends in Pennsylvania who holiday with us up here every June but sadly they missed it last June and there's every possibility we won't get together this year either. We ALL want this nightmare ended but as Dan said we don't want to push things and open the gates too early and we all end up back tracking.

My dad use to make homebrew all the time. Especially when his favorite (Black Label) crap went up in price. LOL He used a stone crock for fermenting; the whole house had a smell of hops, yeast and wet socks; nice to come home to. LOL After mixing his concoction, he would check it daily, by shining a flashlight into the crock's liquid; looking for the bubbles to stop. Once it did stop bubbling; he'd put a teaspoon of white sugar into each regular sized beer bottles. These were the old stubby bottles; Dad hated it when they went to the long necks; why; I don't know?!! LOL OK it's bottling time; Mom would always fill the bottles with a syphon hose from the crock to the bottles. She never admitted it; but I think she liked the taste of that swamp water? LOL Dad wouldn't let us cap the bottles with that metal cap crimping gizmo; "you'll break the bottles" and this is him breaking one in five. (Again LOL sorry) The filled and capped bottles would go into the basement for its "curing time". After whatever time frame that was he'd open a few bottles and we all had to try it. Well you know the saying a little white lie won't hurt anything. Well I lied through my teeth; Yeah Dad it's not bad a little on the yeasty side. Oh man was it bad; but Dad liked his brew. Sorry for the long post; BUT! One time Dad bottled his brew before it was done doing whatever it does. About three days later; in the middle of the night, I could here something banging/exploding? Went into the basement and there were bottle neck shards and bottle caps stuck in the drywall ceiling. Yup the bottles exploded and shot the tops into the ceiling. LOL Man I miss my Dad and the things he would try! Dan. Forgot to say I still have that old stone crock and everytime I see it I laugh at Dad's homebrew. LOL

hence why I would literally never buy one of those used boats off of some of the pros. You watch how they do it on TV...literally turn the thing over and rev it to max RPM instantly. A few of the pros though you can tell they cruise for a minute waiting for the motors to get up to temperature.

I’m definitely going to look into that. I’ve got a bunch of growlers I could use. I don’t want to buy bottles. If it wasn’t for mini-keg or growlers I wouldn’t get into it. Too much work with all the extra filling/washing/sterilizing.

As a frequent fisherman to Canada from USA Im really really hoping this years trip is not canceled again. Im 70 yrs old and obviously dont know how much longer ill be able to travel. Last year I finally had my dream trip scheduled to upper Sunset Country.*been wanting to go since I read about area in OutDoor Life as a boy* I get completely the closing of the border to some degree. But one would think that a recent negative test would be sufficient to cross. Now with the great mobization of USA logistics (70+ million USA citizens already vaccinated versus less than 2 million Canadians )one would think proof of vaccination would suffice also. (Both Myself and wife already vaccinated and daughter should be by July). Here's hoping cooler heads suffice and something can be worked out this year. Here's hoping I get to visit the great country of Canada again this year.

You think so? LOL Again I loved my Dad to no end; but he did experiment with things that sometimes went wrong! "Why didn't that work" "I Don't Know" lets try again; oh crap look out Danny run!!! LOL That's all I heard when Dad tried building a still! No it didn't go well; he blew up the chicken coop! Mom was pissed; no eggs and no sign of her hens. Believe this or not; but that was my Dad. Dan.

I brewed for years, but nothing fancy. I used the canned stuff from Brew Canada, had a big primary that would do a double batch (10 Gallons). It looks like a plastic laundry tub but with a tap on the side at the bottom and a air tight snap lid with a hole in the centre for an airlock. After the primary fermentation was done in about 5 days I would rack it down into 2 X 5 gallon glass carboys with airlocks for 3-4 weeks before bottling. To bottle I racked the carboy into a 5 gallon bucket with a tap on the bottom , add a cup of dextrose and bottled and capped in regular beer bottles, took a month to develop good carbonation. I did do a few additives later like hops, it was quite good I thought and never lost a batch. A double batch was about 5 1/2 cases I recall , was 28 ahead at the start of summer once 🤪

Making the most of a motor requires a little foreplay to warm things up to the right temperature, then again some guys IQ is like a small shoe size.

Takes 2 days just to get to a decent spot..

I didn't do it at home but many years ago there was a business in Milton called Hogs Head Brewery where you could make your own beer. A couple of friends and I started playing around and developed our own recipe. It worked out so well they actually added our recipe (called Bignell's pilsner) to their book of standards and took out a full page add in the local paper with my picture 😊. If there is a similar place close to you I think I would try doing it using their equipment rather than buying and maintaining all your own, that will give you a lot more options than trying to do it at home. Anyway, good luck and have fun with it, nothing more rewarding than DIY 😊

I wouldn’t put a new discontinued motor on a boat no matter how good.

I bought my boat new in 1991 with a 90 hp Merc. The only issue I had with it was the carbs had been incorrectly set at the factory. Once that issue was taken care of it ran flawlessly up until I pulled it off the boat and replaced it with a Merc 115 4 stroke in 2013. The 115 has been perfect other than an issue I had due to water getting in the gas tank when my auto bilge switch stuck and killed the battery causing the boat to partially submerge at the dock during a storm. Certainly not Mercs fault. Have run Mercs, Yammies and Honda's at the lodge I worked at. Both the Mercs and Yammies were great. The Hondas ran great but the lower units were not as robust as the others. At a remote lodge this can be a detriment as getting replacement lower units can be difficult. Mercs and Yammies easily take a whack on a reef that would smash a Honda lower unit. Don't get me wrong, the Mercs and Yammies do get some damage (usually a sheared off skeg and destroyed prop) but the Hondas end up with chunks of the housing missing and lower unit oil covering the water. Personally I have no issue with either Merc or Yammie. Buy either and you'll be happy. FYI Suzuki's are also a good choice. As said pick the brand with the best service centers in your area.