Big Cliff

It isn't just Mcsquinti, Mulrouney took hundreds of thousands of $ in kick backs "but he didn't do anything wrong", JC he put it right here in the Red Book! then broke every promise he made, Jag Beduria got elected using false credentials but he still got to serve out his term, in my opinion, he should have gone to jail. The list is long and the problem is that there is no system in Canada to make these guys accountable. You can vote for any party you want and they will promise you what ever they think you want to hear but as soon as they get into power, they give themselves huge raises and lavish pensions while the rest of us work our asses off and get taxed to death. Don't pay your taxes, go directly to jail. Right now, more than 50% of everything you earn goes to our government who spend it as they see fit (a good portion of it on themselves) and he who works hardest sometimes holding down two jobs just so he can feed his family and because his income goes up so does his tax rate while the guy that doesn't bother getting the second job and sits on his butt earns less so he pays a lower tax rate. Doesn't sound like a fair system to me! So here is the plan: I'll run for PM if you'll all contribute to my campaign. If I get elected I'll form a board of governers made up of average working people. I will reduce my pay to $50,000.00/year and pay each of the members of the board $50,000.00 salary and Reasonable Expenses. The board will vote on any majour expenditures and majourity will rule! Non esential expenses will be cut until the deficite is paid off unless there is good investment potential. Any public servent making more that $250,000.00 a year will be fired and replaced by someone willing to do the job for $50,000.00 a year and then they will also have a board of directors to answer to; you got it, also making $50,000.00 a year. Raises other than the cost of living will be based on performance, do a good job, show a profit, there will be profit sharing FOR ALL THE EMPLOYEES! Pensions will be adjusted based on the years a person has lived in and contributed to Canada. None of this "come live here 3 years and get a pension even if you haven't contributed anything". New immigrantes will be required to show merrit in coming to this country and a proficiency in our language and laws. They will be able to offer a skill or a trade or fill some other role that is of value to this country. In short, I would run this country like a business (and I have run a few that all made a profit). The billions of dollars that our casinos and OLG rake in every year would be diverted to paying down the debt and once the debt is paid off a budget would be established that is realistic and taxes would be lowered so that the net worth of every Canadian would go up. Seniors would all be entitled to quality retirement homes that are staffed properly and would have very strict guide lines as to the care of the residents. There would be no more "wards" every one would be entitled to their own private apartment and what ever care they would need so they could live out their last years in dignity and with respect. Now I realize that this would all cost money but look at all the jobs it would create, besides we spend on average $26,000.00 a year on prisoners why can't we do it for our seniors. Our justice system would over go some significant changes. It would be simplified, one crime, one time, do it twice, do double the time...... and Sheriff Joe Arpaio would be hired to impliment a similar system here to what he has done for Arizona. the money we'd save would pay for all the retirement homes! Well, do I have your support? Who wants to contribute to my campaign? Who will vote for me?

Were you fishing Sturgeon lake?

It doesn't seem to matter who gets elected and it won't until there is some form of accountability. Broken promisses and lies are just accepted and apart from waiting until the next election and voting for the person that tells us the biggest and best lies there isn't anything we can do about it.

The most important thing to me is that you are ok! Cars can be fixed, lives can't be replaced! Nail the next drunk turd and think about the life you might have just saved!

Head scratcher? Heck I'd have wanted someone to roll me a BIG one and I don't even smoke!

Oh does that ever bring back memories from trips in years gone by. Thanks for posting, I've got a smile you could drive a truck through!

Almost two more hours: A small mouth, a small muskie, and 6 small perch, not a single walleye. Sinker, if you can show me how to get some walleye out of this lake this spring, I'll owe you big time! I have had lots of advice from some really knowledgable people and I've tried every bit of it with very limited resultes. Many of the suggestions are well in keeping with techniques that I have used very successfully in the past but either I am doing something wrong or having the worst run of luck I have ever had! There are a lot of dead bluegill and sun fish (70' of shore line and I'll bet there are at least 20 dead fish) washing up on shore, not sure what the cause is. I am starting to wonder if it is related?

Well, another 4 hours out on the lake again this morning and not a single walleye to show for it. cast bucktails, pink jig heads with white twister tails and several other variations of plastics. Tried trolling the weed edges, tipping our jigs with worms, drift fishing everything from 4 fow to 14 fow. All we could manage were a bunch of small perch. Talked to two other boats, same results. Guess they all moved to other lakes for the summer LOL. Going back out again right after I have lunch, there is a nice breeze and a bit of a chop so even if the fish don't cooporate it will make for a nice afternoon.

You are so right my friend!!!!

Well, it all started off this morning, Dan showed up with his boat and a little project I had offered to help him with as we had planned. First of all I was impressed by his ingenutity, he is one smart young man! Second by his positive attitude and friendly demeanour. Dan I really enjoyed the time we spent working on that today, If you want to start serving your apprenticeship.....LOL Oh, and thanks for the ride down to my mechanics, they wouldn't let me have the orange car LOL (not even the hot chick that went with it) heck, I'd have carried her home on my back. Anyway, mine was all done and ready to go and I got two trimmers to fix for him LOL. So I look out my window and here are two guys in a boat against my shore line, it's obvious they have a problem so me being me ask if they needed any help. I thought that was a fair question since one guy was in the water trying to hold the boat off the rocks? Guy in the water gives me kind of a "look", said no! Motor won't start we're going to get it towed back to camp! Now normally I'd have said "well, I'm a small engine mechanic, would you like me to have a look?" But this guys attitude just kind of struck me the wrong way so I watched as they had some guy in a little boat with a 9.9 come and tow them away and thought to myself "Go have a cold beer Cliff"! IT'S Saturday!

OK, that explains it! Who is the that hid a bananna on my boat this spring? Oh, and where the heck did you hide it?

And you think I have attitude? How many " or ' lbs should he torque those head bolts to? What is the proper pattern for tightining the head bolts. What is the proper setting for the needle jets on those carbs and how long do you think that two stroke will run if he adjusts the carbs too lean!!! Long enough to get him out into the middle of the lake!!!! I always do my best to help any fellow OFNr and I have for more than 10 years, don't ever accuse me of not trying to do my best to do the right thing and help where I can!!!

No need to use both Lew. Stabil is an excellent product and so is Seafoam. I use Stabil in all my equipment here at home, every can of gas that I bring home gets treated right away. It is less expensive than Seafoam but if you use it regularly you won't need the Seafoam. That being said, Seafoam does work slightly differently with reguard to water. If you want to see the difference, pour a bit of Stabil into a glass jar and let it sit outside on a humid day. It won't take long before you will see water sitting in the bottom of the jar. Try the same thing with seafoam, you won't see the water seperation like you will with Stabil. The best defense; keep your tanks filled, less hot humid air in the tank means less water to be absorbed or condensed when the tank cools. Use a good quality stabilizer which you are already doing, (that is why you aren't having any problems!

The good lord willing I will be making an appearance for a while but I will be staying at my son's (we might even get into and win the fishing derby) I really want a chance to get to see many of my old friends and finally get to meet the boys from down South (I have some dehydrated puffball mushrooms for someone )

It sounds like you are doing most of the right things! I'm not sure if CTC has it, I buy it at NAPA Auto parts. Use the fuel treatment and follow their recomendations. You will eliminate most fuel related problems. I do believe in using a good quality oil and synthetics do have their virtues but as long as you make sure what you are using is good quality you should be fine especially in a two stroke. In a 4 stroke after the first oil change, I do believe there is some advantage to using a synthetic. Not that you have to! Premium gas should only be used in engines that are desigined to run on premium gas. I wish you were closer to me, I work out of my garage every Saturday up until about noon and would be happy to try to help you learn the proper way to do some of the things. Mind you, I'd make you get your hands dirty LOL. Unfortunatly I am so back logged right now that I am about 2 months behind but if you want to come and help out on Saturday mornings I'll teach you how to do whatever I happen to be working on that day. Oh, and BTW, (Just to clarify things) I have never charged an OFNr a cent for labour on anything I have done for them and I'm sure not trying to drum up extra business, I have way more than I can handle now. Saddly, I have had to turn some work away just because I am so back logged and I am not going to work 7 days a week anymore. So if you want to learn some hands on small engine stuff, Saturday mornings, 8:00 am until noon, bring work clothing and a Timmies, milk no sugar. 313 Snug Harbour Rd. Lindsay

You are absolutly right Joe, it is an amazing product. The only time I ever had a problem with it was on an older engine, the only thing sealing the rings was a carbon build up. Cleaned out the carbon, lost some compression LOL. I buy it by the case and always use it in my shop but you should follow the Mfg. instructions. Here is a link that will tell you how, why, and where to use it. Seafoam

Fuel starts to degrade within 30 days since they started adding ethanol to it.

You are right, neither job is hard. Having a torque wrench and knowing how to use it properly when you have changed the head gasket takes a little more knowledge and why bother to see if the head is warped or not, stick a new head gasket in it and have at it. Or you can just use a ratchet and socket and tighten them to 230"lbs (or what ever that feels like; snug and what the heck a quarter turn more just for good luck)Knowing the proper bolt tightening pattern; that you should be able to find in the manual. Cleaning the gunk out of the carb is easy, knowing what you are looking at when you have the carb apart and checking for a leaking needle valve or seats; float bowl leaks(I guess I shouldn't have spent over $1000.00 on carb tools so I can test and adjust them properly)making sure you put everything back properly and adjusting the jets, what the heck, just tighten them up and back them out a couple of turns and see what happens, who needs a tachometer to tune it properly, adjust until it sounds right! I'm not trying to make it sound like rocket science but some of the most expensive repairs I have ever had to do were because someone thought "it's just a simple fix, I can do it myself and save some money"! Those are the ones where I have to go back to square one and try to figure out what they did to it (and most of the time they won't admit to doing anything) but the needle valve seat just jumped out and turned it self upside down and fell right back into place. (Now that is the first thing I would look for if there was a carb problem Then they get upset because it took me 4 hours to do a job that I could have done in 2 if they hadn't played with it first. I don't know if you realize it but a marine mechanic has to serve 5000 hours of apprenticeship, (and his first 2000-3000 were probably at slightly above minimum wage) go to school for 24 weeks spaced over 3 years and he can't have a mark on any test below 70% and then write a test for his license, a 120 questions on everything from electronics, to pnumatics, to gear ratios and then some. again, the minimum pass is 70%. By then he probably has a bare minimum of $7000.00 (and most have a lot more than that) invested in tools. Oh what the heck for those that want to, good luck on fixing it yourself! The next repair might be a lot more than $500.00. I'm going fishing!

Wouldn't have done much to help the head gasket though. Might have even made it worse. Maybe now you will start to use fuel stabilizer in every tank, won't repair the head gasket but it will prevent fuel problems in the future.

I have to say that is true loyality! Most of the guys I know would have given up the name of the lake. They might not tell you where on the lake or exactly what they were using. You deserve a lot of respect!

Saw a guy who had his hand badly torn up many years ago up in the French River. Claimed it was a big pike. Never saw the fish but his hand was shredded.

I'd just get an ant eater as a pet.

What lake were you on?

It's not the mechanics that you have to watch out for, most of them get paid by the hour and most of them take pride in what they do. A marine mechanic gets paid about $25.00 an hour (if he is lucky) and gets no comission on parts and supplies. The shops charge you upwards of $85.00 an hour plus make huge margins on parts and supplies. I have done jobs on equipment where I thought an honest bill would be $50.00 and watched the customer pay out well in excess of $150.00. and no, I don't work there anymore. Your best bet is to find a qualified licensed mechanic that has a good reputation and works out of his own shop. If he doesn't have a sign up but is always busy then you know you are in the right place. That is the guy who might not be able to fix it for you TODAY but when he does fix it, you will get a fair deal at a reasonable price.

I have to say, you are a far better fisherman than I am. We fished Sturgeon Lake hard on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday and we tried everything we could think of. Shallow, deep, weeds, weed edges. Bucktails, grubs, spinners......... We managed to boat 5, 1 under the slot, 1 above the slot and 3 that were in the slot. I guess I'll just have to hire you as a guide to teach me some how and where to! What would you charge for a day on Sturgeon lake? Might be a good investment for me.