Big Cliff

A sign I use to have up in my office when I owned my own business: Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part!

Nice report and pictures, good size fish too. As for eating them, tried some smoked carp once, I've got other fish that I'd rather eat!

Don't change anything because it's "UN Canadian" change it only if it's "UN you"; each to their own! As far as watching animals performing and doing what they are best at: Well, from my own experience I truly think that in many cases these animals are better cared for than many domestic animals (yes there are always exceptions). I have a German shorthaired pointer, from the time he was seven weeks old I started training him as a field dog. Work, work, work, we would be out in the heat, the cold , the rain. Up early in the mornings, often training until dark. By the time we would get home we'd both be sore and tired but just try to get out of the house with his leash or a gun without him, you'd break his heart! Andy turned out to be an excellent field dog and won many awards and field trials, he loved it, the being around other animals, the competition, the attention. If you ever get to meet Andy you'll find out that he thrives on the attention. Andy loves to please, come to our house and he'll immediatly go get you a toy, a slipper, anything he can find (we finally taught him not to bring any of Sue's underware). That's just Andy and he is proud as punch when he makes you happy. Andy is getting up there in years now, he has a bit of arthritis and I had to make a set of steps so that he can get up onto our bed but still to this day, pick up his leash (we really don't need it but he thinks it's part of going for a walk) a fishing rod (he thinks fishing is just hunting with a different tool) or a gun and no matter how sore or tired he is he'll be right there. In fact we have to limit how much activite he does get because he would literly run, hunt or fish until he droped dead if we would let him. Don't get me wrong, I don't believe in crulity of any kind but for the most part I think that many of the animals that are trained to do what they are best at are happier, better fed, groomed, and cared for in general than many of the so called "pets"!

Priceless!

Had a yard sale here about four years ago and I had a lot of old fishing tackle (some still in the original packages) that I knew I wasn't going to be using any more so I decided to sell it too. A lot of it was duplicates that I had bought (I always buy 2 of anything new to try) and for one reason or another didn't use it any more, some was part of a lot of stuff I'd purchased when a tackle shop was closing. I sold a few items but toward the end of the day this young boy came by and I could see he was quite interested in it. He spent about 20 minutes looking at things and asking "how much?" but hadn't bought anything. I had been a little busy with some other people that had stopped by but when they left I got a chance to talk with him, seems he only had $2.35 and was trying to decide where he could best spend his money. Well it was his lucky day, since it was the end of the day and this stuff hadn't sold I decided to put a LOT price on all the fishing tackle and it just happened to be $2.00 (couldn't take his last $0.35). You should have seen his face LOL. $2.00 for everything (fishing tackle) well the kid went home with a fairly good size box filled with stuff and a smile on his face you couldn't have beaten off with a brick. I saw him fishing several times that summer at the local marina but they moved away that fall; I often wonder if my junk got a kid into fishing, I'd like to think so!

Water level dropped about 4" on Sturgeon Lake last night, looks like the worst is over for our area but we are pretty high up on the Trent System, (Third lake down from Balsom which is the highest). All this water has to be going somewhere! Checked out the dam last night again and there are still very few walleye up compaired to this time other years, I think the spawn is going to be about 1-2 weeks behing normal from what I have seen. Could make for fantastic fishing or a real bust!

Tree30eight: Too funny!

No No No! This has to be some kind of a joke, someone has figured out how to post under his name, Mods, get all over this thing quick, report that IP address, it's been hijacked! misfish, GOLF? Never NO unless hell has frozen over and then he'd go ice fishing. Roy, pick me up on your way through, we'll get the sod that's trying to give our buddy a hard time, I'll sit on him and you can pour old milwackie down his throat and blow smoke in his eyes.

Thanks Steve, some excellent ideas there much appreciated and will look into them. I will also check into zoning, insurance, and legalaties and then Sue and I can decided which way we are going to go with this if at all. Can't tell you all how much we appreciate the ideas, thoughts, opinions, and feedback. It really helps in making these kinds of decisions. This sure is one fine family!

Well, today is the first day of the rest of your life Glad to hear it is off to such a positive start, congratulations! I have been dealing with RBC for more than 25 years and they have been fantastic to deal with but if I ever was going to make a change it sure wouldn't be to First National. Thanks for the heads up!

It was my pleasure and BTW Jack thank you so much for taking the time to show us those magnificent carvings you have done, they are absolutly beautiful. I couldn't believe some of the detail!

Peter, I will be happy to check for you, I know they have done a lot of work this year, new store and all and last year was the worst I have ever seen it for weeds but I'll drop by tomorrow and ask specifically. I'll post on here tomorrow evening.

Well, if you are close to Lindsay and want to bring it over I can fix it for you.

Thanks Lew, that is one of the biggest considerations we have, in fact it might be the biggest factor in deciding if we do or don't rent it out for the summer. Steve, how do you go about finding "winter tennents"? If we could find a mature person/couple, it might work out well and it would be nice to have someone in the house if we want to go away for a couple of weeks in the winter. I don't like leaving the house empty.

I talked to Lunge Haven today, seems they are expanding operations and may have some slips available, they quoted me $22.00/ft for the season and do have gas and have expanded their store this year, looks nice and they will be cutting the weeds in front of there this year so there will be good access from the chanel. I also talked to Jim over at the Mourings Marina this morning. Boy a lot of changes happening over there; The office is being torn down and will be operated from the quanset hut up by the road. They will not be offering gas at all this year, they were forced to remove their tank because it was too close to the water. The old covered slips that got damaged by the ice last spring are being torn down as I type this, should be gone in the next few days, oh well, it will improve our view. They will still be offering launching and parking, Jim told me he thought it would be $15.00/day or $75.00 for the season. They do have washrooms and showers there. Slips..... Jim wasn't sure yet but he did say he would offer OFNr's a discount. I have asked him to post on here to let everyone know what the rates will be, I hope that when he does no one screams SPAM but if it is taken that way, it is totally my fault, sorry in advance but I thought it would be helpfull information.

LOL Beans, you'll just have to use the one up stairs

Sounds like you are looking for some adventure in your life. Have you thought about joining the armed forces, get some adventure, some wonderful opportunities, and build for your future too. Just remember the seeds you plant today will be the crops you reap tomorrow.

OK, well here goes, I'm not much of a photographer but this should give you some idea. The rooms look smaller in these pictures than they actually are and the kitchenette isn't done yet, that would probably take about a week to finish but would include all the basics.

Thanks Nancy and yes, there is plenty of room for for a blow up air mattress, in fact I have two of the twin size ones that we set up when my neice and her gang come to visit. As for charging extra, probably a little to cover the extra hydro/gas/....... but it wouldn't be much. If we do decide to rent it I'll let you know. About the only rule we have is NO SMOKING IN THE HOUSE. Roy: your post brought up a good question, can't really call it a cottage so I wasn't sure how to advertise it if we do decide to go this route, any suggestions? Musky or Specks, Good point, we often have company stay over and hadn't quite thought of the "customers thing" thing Bernie, a friend of ours has a three bedroomm cottage that she rents out for the summer months, very nice place, three bed rooms, hot tub, she gets $1600.00 a week in the summer for it through one of those agencies. I wouldn't expect anythisg close to that unless I was renting out the whole house. I hear you Gerritt, that is one of the reasons I did post on here to get an idea of what would be a fair price, and what would be expected for the money charged. Wayne, Ya we are still in the decision making process and not sure if we are going to go through with it or not, this is a 3000 sq foot house with just two of us (and our dog Andy), it just seems a shame to have all this space and not do something with it + the cost of maintaining it goes up every year but my pension doesn't. It's either generate some additional income or sell this and move to something a little smaller. barbless fisher: We did think about the B&B idea but that would involve a lot of extra work with linnen, food..... I work all week from spring to fall from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm that would put a lot of extra pressure on Sue. DanC, Landlocked, Rob V, Gawel: Thank you all! Some very good points there and to be honest we hadn't really given them a lot of thought, those would be some of the things we would have to consider before going ahead with this but hey, that is why I posted on here, because I knew I'd get some good feedback and a variety of perspectives. All part of the decision making process. Brandon, you brought up an interesting point: We sort of thought about perhaps renting it to a student, can you give me some idea of what a student might pay for a nice clean firnished large one bed room apartment, all utilities including high speed wireless. They would have to help with the snow removal in the winter but I would supply the snow blower. Might be a good opportunity to help a kid and help us too. In fact it might be a lot of fun having a young person around here again now that our kids are all grown up and gone. I'll post a couple of pictures to give you an idea of the accomodations. Thanks to all of you that have taken the time to respond, any other suggestions or input would be most appreciated!

Biscotasing comes to mind, had a wonderful camping trip up there with my son and a friend of his. I also know some smaller lakes in the French River area but most of them don't have boat launches, you have to hike in to them but if you want "remote"!

We have a fairly large house on Sturgeon Lake but there is just the two of us and we hardly ever use the basement. The basement has a large bedroom, huge family room with gas fireplace, TV, 4 piece bath, it's own private entrance with a walkout to the lake gas BBQ, good fishing right off the dock, air conditioning and I am going to put in a kitchenette. We were thinking of renting it out for the summer either for weekends or by the week but have no idea what sort of money we should be asking for. I tried calling a couple of agencies but they only handle the whole residence and aren't interested in just the basement. Not sure where to start but know lots of you guys rent cottages and such. can you give me some feedback please. BTW, it is about 900 sq ft.

It was a wonderful way to spend a morning with a good friend, the fish were just a bonus and the tree I caught has to have set some kind of a record for length but it didn't put up much of a fight. Beans never even offered to net it for me (well, actually I think he did ask if I wanted the net, this post will get edited if I try to repeat what I told him LOL).

Came across this on a website: "We recently put a large garden wind chime in a tree, in a corner which was used constantly by scores of cats. Amazingly, we have not seen a single cat in our garden since. " There are several cats running loose around our place but we haven't had any problems with them getting into our gardens, could be because we have a wind chime hanging near where our garden is, could be because we have a dog. I have noticed there seem to be a few less lately but Sue and I saw a nice red fox out here yesterday and it was looking for something to eat....... Rabbit/cat, guess the fox wouldn't care, want to borrow our fox?

Thanks Bernie, good advice! Much appreciated! Do you have a particular product that you rely on?

Sam, wish I still had my truck as I would love to help and a 62 year old with a shovel and sand bags probably would be more in the way than anything but if you need someone to fix pumps or anything; have tools, will travel! Apart from that can't offer much more than prayers!