Old Ironmaker

About 20 years ago one early morning I'm just about to have my coffee and I hear my lady just screaming outside about her cat. What the? I went out on the deck and not 10 feet from me a Cougar, definitely a big Cougar, is sauntering along and down the rocks to the beach. It had shoulders the size of a linebacker and just seemed to ignore all the carrying on. By the time it got 1/2 way down to the beach I had gone inside and locked the patio door. One Cougar can handle another much larger Cougar I'm sure. She wasn't impressed by my protective instincts. I said I went to get a big knife.

They have been using liquid calcium chloride on the roads out here for a few years, I don't know the cost but it seems to work well. Does nothing for traction though. I bought a case of that pellet stuff cheap at TSC last spring on sale. You only need a bit so if you don't waste it the cost is less than bagged salt. Glad you guys are all OK up north. There a bit of slush on Lakeshore this morning but nothing to worry about. Went to Hamilton in torrential rain this AM. If all this rain was snow we would be buried this January. We still haven't had enough snow to shovel and not a flake this year yet. I can handle that.

I think the guy was running away from the Russian Mafia more than the Russian gov Dara, maybe both. I could see the tats from neck to sleeve.

Cliff we used to make the long drive to the Long Lac area and stayed right on Hwy. 11 as our base camp. We ran into more than 1 group of "Fly in only" groups of Yanks and Canucks who lost it when they saw us and found out we drove and portaged to hidden tinnies in the bush into their Fly In only lake(s). You really don't have to fly in if you have a few young backs to carry a 9.9 and gas in. Now you don't have to, you can easily carry a 4HP 4 stroke Honda under 1 arm and the case of brew to sell to the fly in only guys under the other. I still feel bad to this day for those guys. We dropped off a few cases of beer and groceries at the secret entry point on the Kimberly Clark logging road to 1 starving crew of Yanks. One guy kept in touch with me up to a few years ago. If I were to plan a trip I would go to M2B2's neck of the woods. Lake of the Woods said to be the best freshwater fishing on the planet and I believe that strongly. You will have a guide waiting for you there named Rick. I'm sure he will set you up. And you won't need to spend the kids inheritance to do it. Fly to Thunder Bay and rent a van.

Many points made as to what's wrong. Any solutions to all the myriad of problems outlined in this thread? We have some sharp people here on OFC that articulate well. Lets think tank a few solutions here. I think our immigration policies should mirror the policies of the last century. Just as both sets of my Grand Parents who emigrated to the US and Canada as far back as 1917 they needed a sponsor that took full responsibility for their welfare in order to get past Ellis Island or Halifax. Simple, the Gov. pays not one nickel to an immigrant. The sponsor houses them, feeds, clothes them all and lines up employment and education for them. Too simple to work again? Refugees are a different form of immigration. The Gov will rescue them so we Canucks can get a warm and fuzzy feeling and brag about our compassion when we go away on vacations outside the country. Of course I have a story. Flying home from Amsterdam in business class the man next to me is dressed to the nines in 98'. The flight attendant asked me to give him his declaration slip when he woke. He spoke only Russian. I tried to help him fill his papers. He reached in his pocket and handed me a slip of paper and it said "I am a refugee".

I don't know if he is guilty of anything, I think he probably is based on what I read, but talk about trial by media, or social media. I was charged once and one neighbour said to me you must be guilty otherwise it wouldn't be in the newspaper. Well there you go, I confess.

Loaded baked potatoes in a woodstove are great.

M2, it is Michael Corleone is elected Pope Pius the XIII.

What he said and I paraphrase was "we uh, can't uh choose uh between the uh environment uh and the uh economy." I'll leave out the uhs for now. He also said we have to get our product (oil) to market (through the pipelines, new or existing). And phase out the oil sands. He didn't say shut them down tomorrow. They will still be there many years to come. When a politician says phase out to him it means "not in my lifetime" the way the gov. moves.

Thank goodness we have NG here. About 16 years ago we had a major March ice storm and lost hydro for 2 or 3 days. Cold but not freezing. Plus 1 or 2. The NG fireplace automatically comes on if there is a power loss at the panel here. No fan and lowest setting. It really saved us some uncomfortable nights. We could cook on the stove, heat water and use the burners for heat during the day. There were wires down along Lakeshore Drive so it wasn't safe to travel plus the trees down along the laneway and low hanging hydro wires we dared not venture out far. We were stuck. At least we got to know a few neighbours as their places didn't have gas and only wood burning especially for the 83 year old lady next door whos wood burner was used as a table for years. I dare not fire it up. I learned how to play euchre, and cheat at it by her. She stayed our guest room. Lots of great pot luck BBQ's as everyone emptied the freezers into coolers on our deck. 3 families, before it was a nice wave hello and that's about it , we all became great friends after that. Actually good times looking back. There is about 1/2 inch or more of ice on the deck right now, not good if there in the morning.

Dara, please when did he say that? I am very proud of us all that this semi political thread has gone this long without the rhetoric that usually is synonymous with a discussion such as this. I have to say that only a few times our politicians lives were threatened here that would get you a knock at the door from the Men in Black in the US. I guess it isn't against the law up here to threaten our PM harm as it is to threaten POTUS in the USA. It should be.

The Young Pope. It will give Game of Thrones a run for the Emmy's this season. UK's Sky TV and HBO collaboration. Top notch stuff. Yesterday caught " The Accountant" Ben Affleck produced and stared. He said to his buddy Mat Damon, " I can be Jason Bourne too". It is his Jason Bourne.

That is not ice fishing. It was the May Walleye opener in the near North 2014. Remember?

Nothing in many years. My former Father in Law had a Walleye honey hole there he had been going to since he was a kid. We would go from Nip to there for at least 1 day during the summer. Same exact presentations as Calendar Bay, troll worm harnesses and white or yellow stand up jig with worms and trailer hooks, pretty simple.

I like Cliffs red wool trick. Learn something new everyday. With small minnows I hook through the eyes below where I think the brain is. Please don't tell that animal rights group, please. For dropshoting I use the dropshot 360 degree swivel hooks. They need to move 360 degrees. So head or tail. Never the back. Only use live bait for perch now, maybe a massive shiner in Fall looking for a wall hanger Bass or Pike.

Ketch, I get it. I thought Old Age was more than that. Looking at the possibility of losing my company pension we will be doing some serious down sizing and we already did. I thought Old Age was a few hundred more. At those huge stipends we won't be driving a vehicle in a few years so we can pay our taxes for roads I can't afford to drive on. We have had it pretty good up to now. People say we are "lucky". Luck had nada to do with it, it's called "working" for it. I as well started paying taxes since 16, for what? All those wise guys that worked under the table for years, took every summer off to fish,never worked if it was too cold etc. etc. will still get the same pension at 65 than I do.

PM re sent. We love Waterford. I just noticed the home town on your avatar.

Cliff it is disgraceful. Freeze or eat? Pick one. You say your pension is less than $600.00. That can't include Old Age pension and or CPP, can it?

Water temps killed us this year. It was reported that in 70 feet of water the surface temp and bottom temps were only a few degrees difference. Typical area for Bass, Walleye and Perch did not produce. Wandering around on a Great Lake looking for fish is daunting. To be blunt this past season sucked. If I was a subsistence fisherman we would starve this winter.

I remember seeing a fishing show, may have been Al Linder 30years back. Where 2 boats with Pro Bass guys fished a smaller lake in Upper NY State along with State biologists recording and tagging. Within 3 or 4 days all they caught were tagged Bass.

Yes G. Mech, co gens are now used here to recycle energy, unlike just 20 years ago when we just burnt it at the bleeders or pumped the steam to atmosphere, better late than never. As far as Political Economics imagine if a private company ran their businesses like our politico's do?

I am intrigued every time I watch them pull their nets out here. Some sets are more than a kilometer long. I only saw a few "other" species in that haul that were clearly not perch. I would say they were large perch size Small Mouth. Not many though.

MAN CUTS OFF HIS OWN HEAD TO PROVE HE'S MACHO Ok, next. I loved the " You won't believe how amazing these 70's TV stars look today." One of the stars listed were dead so they won't be looking so great after all. First and last time I looked at one of those cheap ways to get you to a dating site.

Are you looking for an operator with huts and transportation? If not I can get the number of a trailer park operator on Quinte where we went that you can park your car for a few bucks and a short walk out to the channel, and there was fish there and I hear there still are. Big Quinte Walleye. Because of the current ice can be thinner than I am comfortable with the last time out there. We paid 60 bucks for a motel room across the street from a not bad Mom and Pop restaurant on hwy 2 just east of the Rez.

Taxing a company for emissions allows the Feds to earmark dollars to those manufacturers that are unable to stay above water if they are legislated to spend millions they don't have for emission control improvements. I don't know if I buy that. Based on the amount of C02 I don't emit here in Ontario or Quebec I get a carbon credit. You on the other hand are polluting somewhere in California. You in Cali. can buy carbon credits from me in Quebec so you the California guy can keep polluting without investing the money you don't have to improve your systems. I don't pollute as much in Quebec and you do in California, I have credits to sell you. So the incentive is to not pollute so you can bank credits to sell for $$. If all goes well emissions to atmosphere is reduced or remain neutral at the least. That's what I get from all the gibberish. I may be way off base but why would I invest millions for new systems to reduce emissions if I can just pay someone else far less money than the capital expenditure for improvements will be. The new Blast Furnace Gas cleaning system and Casthouse bag house built in the early 90's came in at 20 million if I remember right. I can check that number. We are talking huge dollars. There has to be a maximum number of credits that can be bought, I don't know. Is there? It is far too complicated for me to fully get my head around. If it's complicated enough for the taxpayer to not understand the Gov. agency given the task to confuse us enough has done it's job. In other words Bull baffles brains. So I don't question it I just pay my taxes and hope someone smarter than I figures it out.