Tootsie II

MNR just announced another fire ban for the whole of the North-Eastern Ontario area. Kinda figured it was coming with the weekend approaching as things are so dry and I and my fishing partner are getting ready to head out near Shining Tree next week. Guess we'll just have to keep the garbage locked in the back of the truck instead of burning it. LOL!

Sorry, IMO, but that may not be as funny as you thought. If he had eaten it, it might have killed him. Raw tobacco is very poisonous to animals. In the old days, the chemical that vet's used to use to put dogs down was a nicotine derivative.

Using the Google "Ontario Forest Fire Location" app that is accessible on the MNR website, I measured the Timmins # 9 fire at being only about 60 km from Shining Tree, therefore the lodges in that area would be affected by the Emergency Area Order.

I completely forgot about the 6 lodges in the Shining Tree area that are probably within the 100 km Emergency Area Order. We go to a lake about 30 Km North-East of Shining Tree. My cousin's wife from just outside the Mattagami First Nation posted on her Facebook page that the Minaki Lodge and the Mattagami First Nation ( the Reserve) has been ordered evacuated. This is the worst fire season that I can remember since I was about 7 yrs old around 1954-55 when there was talk of evacuating Timmins and my uncle and aunt got burned out at Rinabi Mines.

An "Emergency Area Order" banning all travel and work in the bush within a 100 km radius of forest fire Timmins #9 has been declared. This means that no one can be in the bush within that zone for any reason. The OPP have stated that will will arrest and detain anyone disobeying the ban. Any OFC'ers who might have upcoming reservations for the next 2 weeks or so at any of the fishing lodges in that area might want to check on their status, that is if there's anyone there to answer them. Lodges like those on Mattagami Lake, Minisinakwa Lake, Mesomikenda Lake, Tatatichapika Lake, Kenogamissi Lake and Horwwood Lake immediately come to mind. My fishing partner and I were scheduled to go to the Shining Tree area next Monday, so that been kyboshed for now.

Those pics are from the one fire burning within the city limits at the city's East end between Schumacher and South Porcupine. The real big fire, now the largest out of control fire in Ontario is located about 40 km South-West of the city and is apparently heading in a north-easterly direction towards Kenogamissi Lake. It would have to jump Hwy 144 to get there. Cottagers and campers at several other lakes were also made to leave. My cousin and his wife who live year-round just outside of the Mattagami First Nation on Mattagami Lake near Gogama were put on notice of possible evacuation to-day by the reserve police. They are about 20 km to the South-East of the fire and if the wind shifts to come from the West- NorthWest, it could get bad for them. This fire has travelled very fast and very far since it was first detected on Sunday. At one point it was probably near "fire-storm" status.

Looks to me like you should've stuck to working on that fallen tree instead!

I don't give a hoot how they get these idiots, just as long as they get them. Even if the law is un-enforceable as FishNAuto's says, perhaps the inconvenience and hassle of having to deal with the courts to get off might stop some of them from doing it again. If your car is in motion you shouldn't be distracted from the task of driving by anything that takes your eyes off the road for more than 1-2 seconds. When I worked at Wally-World, I used to retrieve shopping carts and I nearly got nailed twice by "ladies" driving and talking on their hand-held's in the parking lot. There are other people and children in those lots and we all know how quick a child can dart out from a between cars. I also got a kick out of a post on another thread about the stove that could charge you hand-held device. My God, are people so enslaved to these things that they have to take them in the bush. Isn't the whole idea to get away from these damned things. Yes, I'm ranting but at my age I've earned that right,LOL.

Bet you that will take a few wobbly-pops to cut and split, no to mention all the time required to sit and watch it dry!

Yah, I reach the 65 milestone in Aug. and even the lady on the Service Ontario desk said you should get the "freebee" in the year you turn 65 or they should pro-rate the fee. But no, I had to shell out the full $ 27.+ for 8 months. I'll still have to fork out every 3 yrs for my small game license and I'll be dead before I let that lapse.

I also am a past issuer from Wally World in Owen Sound, and all the licenses and tags were individually numbered and we had to account for them and the money or the store was on the hook for them. Please note that at that time we only remitted at the end of the month so the paperwork for any license bought at the start of the month didn't get sent to the Ministry till 4 or 5 weeks later. Add their processing time into the mix and I'll bet you could be looking at an 8 weeks delay in the purchased getting their cards if it was applicable. That's why when I had to renew my fishing license for 1 year in 2012 I went to a Service Ontario outlet. If they can't get it right, who can? It took about 5-10 minutes from the time I got to the counter. I won't say how long it took to get to the counter though.LOL.

I'm going to tell you folks a litle tale that happened to my wife and I a few years ago when we were shopping for a new dishwasher and the word "exclusive". We looked at a dishwaher being sold by a large multi-national building products chain that uses orange as its predominant color. You guess who! They said in their store sign that a certain model of a well known brand name was "exclusive" to them. I took down the model number and then we went to the local small time dealer in town who also handled that brand. His price was about $ 90. more but the model number differed by one extra letter. When we attended the local small dealer's shop, I noted that that the hook to which the door latches was steel on his model, the one at the major building supply chain was plastic. There were a couple of other major quality differences that caught my eye that also made the orange place's model inferior in quality. Then, as I worked at Wal-Mart, I started checking out a couple of extra items for other differences. When I went to by a new electric circular saw that was "exlusive" to Wal-Mart, the same thing happened. The Wal-Mart model did not come with the cutting guide in the box like a local hardware store's did. From knowing the way Wal-Wart and other large box stores worked, I have deduced that when one of them advertizes a product as "exclusive" to them, they have beat the supplier over the head so bad to get the price down to where they want it that the supplier makes up their profit margin by cutting the quality of their product and I'm willing to bet a dollar to a donut that the large multi-national doesn't care as long at they get the sale. So that's why I am now very suspicious of the word "exclusive" in retail.

Here in Owen Sound it's a given that we can expect one short lived snow fall in the first week of April. Like everything else so far this year, it was just a couple of days early. LOL.

Dates this year are Sat. and Sun, June 2nd and 3rd. You can look it up if you want by searching NOWT ( Northern Ontario Walleye Trail) They run 5 or 6 derbies across the North.

That thing would be nice for puddle jumping a lot of smaller inaccessible lakes in Northern Ontario, but at $ 20,000. a pop, Yikes!

I have the same model that Radnine so graciuosly modelled. I like it. I agree with the same theory that if you get whacked on the head going overboard, the manual one won't save U. IMO, U have to be more careful stowing them to ensure that the manual pull rope does not get accidentally pulled. At first the side holding the CO2 cartridge seems a bit bulky, but it's nowhere near the bulkiness of a full PFD and you soon don't even know it's there. I still carry my old PFD in the boat just in case I do forget to put my Auto on and the OPP/MNR show up on the water. I somtimes take it off when we're anchored and still fishing and the sun is really hot.

I went with the 14' wide body Naden a few years ago and love it. Mine just flies on calm water and takes waves well in rougher swells. I had bought a new 30 hp Johnson 2 years prior to that, so I had to stick with the 15" transom. If I was buying new, I would definitely go 20" and long shaft motor. Picked mine up for a real good price at the end of the season in Coldwater. The Naden is rated for 35 hp but be careful if you go 4 stroke, as a lot of these hp ratings were done on the basis of 2 strokes which can be up to 40 lbs lighter. Depending on which of my three annual fishing trips we're on, it either rides on its own trailer or on a rack that I have built over my off-road pop-up tent trailer.

Written without prejudice: My fishing partner had a 1997 F-150. His mechanic told him to dump his in 2009. Apparently, they are notorious for rusting out at major stress points on the main frame even when sometimes undercoated as his was.

I wonder if any of this would have happened if your trucks had Quebec plates on them.

LMAO! Boy, some of us are bored tonite.

I just tapped by barometer and the needle fell through the floor like I haven't seen in ages. I then came down to the computer and saw this post. Could be an interesting night with the old dog. Heavy winds scare the heck out of him.

Dale, you have to watch the Nabakwasi. Some parts of it are closed as sanctuary til June 15th from right near Twin-J's to several miles up the river right to Nabakwasi Lake, I believe. Check the reg's if you're planning an early season trip.

If you are intent on staying on the upper Grassy, I know of no commercial outposts of the type you are seeking. We've been fishing parts of that system for over 30 years (Loonwing/Sinclair/Kapiskong) and still do the same type of camp set-up that you do. For us it's worth it because we are there for 14 days. According to the land use planning guidelines estabilshed by the Ministry for that area, they will not allow any commercial development, including outfitters, on that system. That is because that area is considered to be a "headwaters" area. As well, that area is considered to be part of the traditional gathering grounds of the Mattagami First Nation from Mattagami Lake, about 20 km away. The only private camps that I know of on that area of the system are owned by band members. Last year we met one large party of guys who stayed in Gowganda at night but travelled to our area each day to fish. They trailered their boats in the first day and chained them to trees for 2 nights. Sent you a PM.

A good paralegal who specializes in title searches and conveyancing can probably do it for you and ensure its proper registration at the registry office for a lot less than a lawyer.

As an ex CMHC inspector/appraiser I can tell you about a few of the pitfalls that I saw many homeowner/builders get into over the years. Firstly, I don't even know if the banks will still make mortgage loans to homeowner builders. I retired in 1999. I always hoped to meet the homeowner on my first draw inspection and explain things to them. The "darn" bank loans officers never seemed to know how it worked and never explained things right to this type of client. In my early years I saw a lot of homeowner/builders get behind the 8-ball financially during and after construction. On a homeowner/builder loan, the construction advances were based on what was called a "residual holdback basis". This means the bank must hold back sufficient "residual" money to complete the house if they get it back on their hands before it's complete. Say you owned the land outright with a value of $40,000. and it was going to cost you $ 160,000. to build your house on that land. Total cost and completed "market value" to be $ 200,000. So you go ahead get all your permits and approvals and put in the foundation and maybe get the first floor deck (joists and subfloor) in place and maybe get your well and septic done and call for your first money draw inspection. The inspector uses a table based upon the amount the house is completed to determine at what percentage of completion you are at. So at the stage I just described and based on my recollection of those tables, you are at 20% of completion. $ 200,000 minus 80% residual to complete = $ 160,0000. You've hired your foundation contractor, well driller, septic guy, had them do the work and you get $ 00.00 on your first draw! How do you pay them and then buy the rest of your materials and pay the framers and others. I always told clients to check this out and many wound up having to arrange another line of credit to get them through the early stages until the next major draw stages had been reached. Of course that line of credit, if they can get it, has financing charges associated with it that they did not count on. Also, if you are planning on doing some of the work yourself, while working at a fulltime job and doing your family duties, you will damn near kill yourself from exhaustion. I'm not even sure that the banks/trust companies still accept "sweat equity", that is your own work as park of the loan conditions. I've met a few of these homeowner/builders who at the latter stages of doing most of their own worked looked like they about to keel over dead from the stress and exhaustion. I'm not saying it can't be done and I know a friend whose done it three times, but the first one was hell till he got the hang of it. Also, make sure that you have good written specifications and drawings for all work done by subtrades that you may hire. Word of mouth is never good enough these days. Make damn sure that they are WSIB covered. If Joe the Plumber's helper gets hurt on your site and Joe isn't WSIB covered, guess who might get sued by his family or charged by the Ministry of Labour - it's YOU as you are deemed to be the " Major Contractor" on the job. Also ask for references, check them out and particularly ask how they were for getting the work done on a timely manner when you need it and was it as per the original contract price. And of course always have all the permits you need and talk to your local building inspector to make sure you don't miss any mandatory building code stage inspections. While there are a few "power trippers" out there, most inspectors are more than willing to sit down and talk to you so that you know what you can expect from each other. Also make sure that you have sufficient insurance on the site from both loss by fire during construction and liability if some kid goes on your site after hours and breaks his neck. As you can see, if you can hire a good reputable local house builder from the area, the whole process could be easier but again, watch the financing and make sure you don't give him a huge wad of cash even before he starts.