Old Ironmaker

I would rather have -10C days with bluebird skies than +C dreary overcast days. The only thing that keeps me sane is planning trips south. We were in The D.R. for 10 days after New Years and are heading back at the end of Feb for 2 weeks, thank God. I wish my wife would retire soon and say good bye to these winters. In Finland when they only get a bit of daylight, a few hours, they have tanning beds at the Hospitals and work places to spend some time in. They get through the winter by drinking copious amounts of semi frozen Vodka and hot tar (black tar from the ground not the trees) mixed into it. Certainly an acquired taste.

If you hold your arms out to the side when you are at WOT throttle with a 135 strapped to the back of your Skeeter can you get elevation? I believe it's a glasser but it must just fly.

Every time we travelled to Japan we all brought a bottle of top shelf Scotch for them as gifts. You would have thought we gave them the World. I as well had a fishing pal that was an old timer to us then and he always brought a bottle of Crown Royal that was filled with 4 Feathers or Wedding gut rot rye. When I called him out he just laughed. He was the guy that told us to keep a big Pike and stuffed it with Pickerel fillets. He spent 5 years in a POW camp, in Canada. We all miss Ozzy, RIP. As far as working night shifts, no one took into account that you had to go back in that night at 11. I had to attend Sunday dinners. birthdays and holidays at my in-laws when I worked 11 to 7 AM. No way I could stomach a full course meal at what was 4AM for me. My B-I-L was razing me for being a lump one evening when I should have been singing happy bday. No problem, that night I called him at 4AM and asked if he wanted to come over for a 6 course dinner at 5AM before he went to work? They never bothered me again. I did something similar with some Insurance salesman that insisted on calling me when I was sleeping as I was on nights. I told him not to call until next week. He just kept calling during the day. I finagled his home number from him and called at 3AM to talk about upping my life insurance. Not only did I not up my policy I planned to change brokers and told the broker why. I hope he learned his lesson because the broker fired him and begged me to stay with them. I never wish for anyone to lose their jobs but this guy was in the wrong business.

Massive fire in northern Alabama Marina. All smaller crafts. 8 lives lost of which 4 were children. We have hundreds maybe thousands of these typr of small craft Marinas in Ontario. The boats are jammed together so tightly fire jumps from vessel to vessel well, like wildfire. Cruisers, cuddy's and house boats have 1 way in and 1 way out in most cases. It makes me think about several friends that basically live on their boats all summer. If you overnight on your boat do you have a fire escape plan? https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/01/28/alabama-boat-fire-dock-cleanup-scottsboro-marina-underway/4596284002/

There are enough of us here on OFC to put together an Armada that would rival some countries Navy's.

I did the same thing in 2001. I thought I would be the oldest in the University, not true. I didn't finish as I was offered a position with the Ontario Ministry of Labour.

I am throwing it out anyway. I did all that, it's toast. It has taken a severe beating over the years. It's lag screwed into the deck so it won't blow away like my others did. It faces the full fury of Lake Erie. The hurricane force winds we had on Halloween and a week later actually bent the doors in concave before they finally broke off and bent the cross member in too. Yep time for a new Q. I'll save the new 80 buck diffusers and bring 1 with me shopping. After shopping I'll take it for lunch.

I love it.

Premature cheering. Got my 2 beautiful NY Strips all ready to go. Lit the Q, nice flames. Within seconds same thing. Repeated Crimsons procedure. Good flame for 30 seconds then 1/2" flame only. Time to dip into my boat/fishing account. That may be a misappropriation of funds, an impeachable offence so I will have to ask my wife to open the purse strings for emergency home maintenance. I only paid 140 Canuck bucks for it at a liquidators in Brantford 6 years ago, a toonie a month. Owes us nada. Off topic of course. The news is on a Boston TV station. They say brace for cold air coming down from Canada, what cold? 0C in Halifax -10 low. When in doubt blame Canada. Poor economy, illegal immigration, blame Canada.

I'm good with that. Good decision. When I saw the 300 page hockey thread closed I knew the times were a changin'. I'm sure there are plenty of hockey forums out there where anything goes, no refs.

On the job politics. It is one of the reasons why I took a very early pension from the Steel Plant 20 years ago. If you didn't pick the right team it came back to bite you on the arse if the other team took over the reigns of power. I knew it might be time when I was told to move out of my big office with the window and into a cubicle. I really didn't care because I didn't spend much time on my butt in an office. When they said I was to share the 4X8 foot closet with someone I knew time was up. What a coincidence that my guy retired just the week before. Another of us was passed over for the job he was temporarily doing for the last year. I told myself it was time to find the exit after 28 years. Office politics at it's best. Best move in my life I ever made was to leave. edit: The new team were all shown the exit within the next 6 months when the company was sold to a company with it's own team.

That did it Crimsongulf. Thank you so very much. And here I was looking for a bag of money to buy a brand new Q. Not that I would have been heartbroken if I had to buy a new Q. I wonder why that procedure worked. GO BAMA!!!!!GO!!!!

It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

Good for you Nick, that takes some guts not many have. One of the greatest quotes I have ever heard was about NFL coaching legend Vince Lombardi. "If he didn't quit his insurance sales job to coach a High School Football team he would have never coached in The NFL." I have to warn you, there are politics where there are only a hand full of employees.

I am going to do this asap. Thanks.

I always enjoy coals over gas Cliff, charcoal not briquettes. I usually have someone's old gas BBQ left on the side of the road and I put some type of sheet metal or old baking trays, they last the longest, across the bottom to hold the charcoal. A trick I use is to put the coals in a metal coffee can and poke several holes in the top of the can then light it and blow air into the bottom with a hair blower or leaf blower. It lights all the coals quickly then I remove the can and spread out the coals. I have done it using smoker wood chips, voila, a cheap smoker. If I add iron ore pellets I have a home made mini Blast Furnace. The generic shields I looked at would not fit properly, all too short. The manufacturer knew what they were doing, needs their replacement parts only.

Thanks bud. It sounds logical. I'm now thinking spider webs from last fall. It is warm out here, +5C today. Not a single bit of ice or snow on the ground. I'm going to try and slowly open the tank as you mentioned. If that ain't it I'll pull the burners and check the regulator and outlet to the burners for webs left over from last fall. Thanks again. This thread should be on the non fishing forum Art. It's an old thread.

We were late one year doing test runs. We like going out in 2 boats in case one needs a tow. The problem it was a Sunday on the Grand south of Dunnville. I do not use the boat on weekends, too many ramp follies. So I'm lined up 5 boats ahead of me. 2 guys in a 14' tinny pass me and all the other boats and cuts in. Everyone's yelling at them, they don't bat an eye. The one guy gets out and goes and gets his mini van. He can not back the van in straight, more than a 1/2 dozen tries. My buddy is already out and has my truck and trailer standing by so I can drive onto the trailer. The guy is hammering the trailer into the dock, time after time. Ted offers to back the truck up for him, no speak English. This time he scrapes the side of the van against the dock, not a nice sound for the owner. Now everybody he cut is applauding everytime he scrapes his trailer and van against the dock, with great glee they cheered. Finally the trailer is in the water straight but not far enough in, everyones telling him to back up more, no speak English. The 2 guys get into the water waist deep and struggle to get the boat on the trailer. There isn't enough water under the trailer so they are trying to lift it on. After great effort the trailer is under the boat. They pull up the ramp a bit and stop. Now they are going to do everything they can do hundreds of feet away but no they are going to unload the boat and put everything in the van 1st. There's 6 boats behind me know. That enough of this non sense and now there is an angry mob. The guy that was next in line jumps onto the dock and screams something at these idiots, jumps into the van and pulls it away from the ramp at the cheers of the angry mob. How these 2 duffuses didn't et punched in the face I have no idea. I do not like boating on weekends.

Thanks, we bought them online months ago. Just now I fire up the BBQ and hardly any pressure on the burners. I can't win for loosing. The regulator may be toast. I haven't used it for months. Too windy.

I grieve whenever someone is taken too early in life, especially a child. I could not find 1 news station that was not talking about his and his daughters tragic loss. 7 others died on that chopper and not much mentioned about them and the 2 other children that perished as well. The pilot wasn't even mentioned. He had a family too. Some reported about his rape allegations years ago that was settled out of court. Maybe not the proper time for that but it is a fact. I grieve whenever someone is taken in the prime of their life, especially a child. There were thousands that died since yesterday accidentally and young people as well, no mention of them on CNN.

No such thing as Catch and release south of the US border. Glad you had a great trip. I always had a great time in Costa Rica, 25 years ago now. A Hamiltonian I knew had a little place down there with a few beach huts and a Pizzeria of course. Never fished, too busy relaxing.

Ok, OK It's a fishing boat, I give. A very productive fishin' boat. O/B or no O/B.

I once was 5'11.5", I am now 5'10', 6'2" in the 70's with the Disco platform shoes, ha! I'm doing my therapy exercises, getting ready for the lunkers in 2020. I walked about a mile today. See above Doc.

This is a thread for fishing boats Brian. There isn't a boat posted I wouldn't be proud to own. Some really nice rigs boys. Including yours Misfish. I just don't like rowing.

Buy yourself a proper oyster shucking knife. Beats a butter knife and it may save you a few thumbs. You tripled your investment in 1 day. Nothing like oysters fresh out of the sea on the half shell with some Tabasco and fresh lemon. I could make a feast with those fresh clams. I would eat them raw with the same as the oysters. Man they all look yummy. You go Cliff, I'm so jealous.