Summer Sky

It's really summer, and the summer sky is reflecting promise.

French River

This is a view from the beginning of the French River looking at Lake Nipissing. Lake Nipissing is the next biggest lake in Ontario after the Great Lakes. Its average depth is around 20 feet; although, there are many deeper areas. The French River is quite deep in some of its main channels measuring up to 330 feet in places. After the last ice age an incredible amount of water flowed through this area.

Tree Pollen

There sure is an abundance of tree pollen in our area this summer. It looks pretty dramatic on the water as opposed to how much of a nuisance it is on everything else; it's able to do what mosquitoes and other bugs can't do - pass through screens.

Four Mile Bay Sunset

It was a beautiful evening on Four Mile Bay yesterday, and it was a great Whiskey night aboard the "Fun Ship."

Clouds

Cool cloud formation seen as we were driving home on Highway 11 on Sunday afternoon.

Four Mile Bay

The view down Four Mile Bay from Zenadu

Lake Nipissing May 9, 2018

This is a view of Lake Nipissing on May 9 with ice still on the lake. The lake was declared ice free yesterday May 16, 2018.

Red Pine

There was enough open water yesterday to take the canoe for a shoreline paddle. The wind was up, so it was much nicer in the sheltered bay.

Lake ice and Rain

Our lake is still far from being ice free.  Today's rainfall may help the melt.

Frozen Lake

The ice will be on Trout Lake for a while yet!

Slow Melt

There is still a lot of snow in the bush.

Humboldt Broncos

Very sad indeed

Women's World Curling Championships North Bay 2018

Had a great time this morning watching Korea-Italy, China-Japan, Scotland-Germany and Canada-Denmark at the Women's World Curling Championship here in North Bay.Very entertaining and well organized!

Northshore Road Ice

It's that time of year again - the higher sun starts melting the snow and ice on south exposed rock faces.

Easter Cactus

Our Christmas Cactus is blooming - it must be an Easter Cactus.

Lahr Reunion Team and Hooters #22 March 3, 2018

What a great crew!

1st Annual Shotski Festival

 We had our 1st Annual Shotski Festival on Saturday on Four Mile Bay of Trout Lake. Lots of curling, laughs and good times were had by all.

 Here the boys are right in to the winter vodka shotski - Skol!

Warm fire on the lake and lots of ice candles to light the way.

Ice Candles

The weather is perfect for making ice candles, so that's what I'm doing leading up to our first annual Shotski Festival on Trout Lake this coming Saturday. I'm hoping to have in excess of 25 of theses babies ready by then as well as a few Swedish candles.

Oblivion

I took this photo in the late 70s somewhere on the highway between Sturgeon Falls and Field. Note the moose head on the wall on the right and the Oblivion sign above the doorway. I wonder if it's still standing.

Trees

The moss on these trees on Sunny's and my bush trail is not on the north side of the trees - here the moss is on the south side of the trees.

Ice Candle

Here's one of a dozen ice candles I made recently. Hope they don't melt too much this weekend during our January thaw.

Cold and snow

Winter here in the near North

Winter

1/3 of the way through winter

Wood Stove

When the temperature is minus stupid cold, the only place to be is inside in front of the wood stove.

Brrrrrrrr

This is what it looks like from our beach when it's -30C with a windchill of -40C. Sure am glad I'm not a brass monkey!

Winter Birch

Winter has moved in to our part of the world where the bush will be mostly black and white for months.

Beach View

Even beach views in Northern Ontario in late November can look like sunny Caribbean beach views.

Parkview

The infamous Parkview Hotel, one of my all time fave dives!

Reflection

November is a dark drab month, so here's a photo from a warmer time of the year. This is on the voyageur route somewhere between North Bay and Mattawa.

Rememberance Day

North Bay, Ontario

Tamarack

This tamarack tree I rescued years ago from a ditch at the side of the road sure stands out at this time of year.

Autumn

All the planters have been emptied. The remaining plants that are alive won't be for long due to the deep freeze that's coming tonight. I didn't want the pots to freeze and crack, so I emptied them while the temperature was above 0C.

Rough

With the cold weather approaching, I'm thinking it's going to be a bit rough spending the winter in this house in a small village in the Merrickville area southwest of Ottawa.

Abandoned

There are lots of abandoned items in the bush around old farms. I wonder how long this wagon has been sitting here.

Cabin on a Ledge

This cabin has a great view over Trout Lake and a view of most of the years' sunsets. The triangle rock looks like it was dropped into place from above.

Clematis

Last bloom of the season.

Open Letter to Trump by Freelance journalist and entrepreneur Tucker Benedict

Freelance journalist and entrepreneur Tucker Benedict just wrote an open letter to Trump to remind him what it means to be American. Benedict’s message has officially set the internet on fire! Read it below:

Donald Trump,

My family immigrated to the United States of America on the third boat after the Mayflower. Our heritage precedes any records of Trumps, or Drumpfs, in America. Members of my family have served in every major conflict in US history with the exception of Iraq; your family cannot say the same. Yet, you continue to act as if you’ve sacrificed for the betterment of our country when the reality is: we don’t even know you’ve paid taxes half the time. Instead of acknowledging your past though, and honorably promising to change from a position of great entitlement, you accost service members you don’t care for, threaten democracy with attacks on the media, and worsen divides that threaten to tear America apart. Moreover, there’s a part of me that’s angry from a personal standpoint, my father founded the criminal divison of the EPA, and was the senior environmental prosecutor in the country until 2014, and whose storied career began with work on Watergate. You’ve destroyed his life’s work in under 7 months, but I’m not writing this from a position of anger or even from a personal standpoint, I’m trying to speak for a great many Americans who are understandably frightened for the future; who feel they’re watching the degradation of our way of life. This letter isn’t about me, or my feelings, but it is intended for you, Mr. President.

There’s a storm coming and as our enemies around the world lick their chops watching the division within America, we continue to charge towards a future in which we tear ourselves apart. Many of us, yourself included, seem to have forgotten what it means to be American. If our memory continues to fail and we forget entirely what being American truly means, we’ll not only lose our status as the world’s leader, we won’t deserve it anymore. This is not a world I can imagine nor that I have any desire to. Without America to serve as an eternal source of light within the darkness the world will be cast into chaos. In order to preserve what so many gave so much to obtain, we must first remember what it means to be American. While we seem hopelessly intertwined in a national, and very partisan, identity crisis we can only hope to pull out of it by remembering the lessons our founding father’s taught us all those years ago when they first defined, through their actions, what it means to be American.

Currently, there are a few misconceptions on what makes someone American; there seems to be a great deal of entitlement when considering the term. I was born a white male and a citizen of The United States of America but I don’t think that makes me an American. There seems to be a lot of controversy swirling around this notion but the reality is being born a certain way entitles me to nothing. The circumstances of birth don’t make you American, they never have, but actions do.

We earn our status as American through our actions day to day, month to month, and year to year. In doing the right thing by our loved ones, our countrymen, and ourselves we become American. There’s not flashy gesture or fancy piece of paper that can make you truly American but living the right way can; waking up and doing the right thing everyday, no matter how big or small the action, is what makes us American. It isn’t a static definition either, it’s a dynamic one just like we are as people; always changing, growing, and working towards the betterment of not only ourselves but our society as a whole. When considering how we define being American it’s worth noting those criteria.

When I voted it was in a densely populated, urban sector of Philadelphia. There were four booths for hundreds of people; many of whom were elderly and couldn’t stand for hours. It was a very telling few hours. Some of those elderly individuals struggling the most sported Make America Great Again hats. Instead of being happy at your supporter’s misfortune though I spent my day making trips to a conference room located at the back of the line hundreds of people long in order to ferry chairs to those who couldn’t stand. It wasn’t a big gesture or one that required a tremendous effort, it certainly DID NOT deserve any praise, because I knew it was merely the right thing to do for my fellow American. This attitude seems to be dying though, as we forget more and more what being American means. As I walked back and forth with chairs under each arm I watched many of my young peers barely look up from their phones; some even seemed noticeably annoyed that a fellow millennial would go out of his way to help your supporters. Make no mistake, those watching seemed to have forgotten what being American means just as much as anyone. When nobody joined in to help I was only made more aware of the change I’ve seen in my lifetime; the gradual shift many of us have noticed in our culture. It might seem subtle to some, but many have forgotten to do the right thing for no other reason than it helps another American. If this lack of support for each other continues to proliferate we’ll witness the decay of American values and worth This is something I attribute to the win at all cost/look out for yourself mentality that’s taken over politics and permeated into our culture; winning has become more important than standing up for each other. Americans used to do the right thing automatically, while many still do, others have stopped if there’s no reward or personal incentive. Americans used to help each other no matter who was President and that’s truly what made America great; our uniquely American loyalty. That loyalty, love, and solidarity saved us from the greatest threat the world has ever known, liberated Europe, and won two world wars. There’s been a change though. It’s apparent everywhere. We saw it when 23 of 24 Texas congressmen voted to deny aid when Hurricane Sandy hit, now faced with Harvey, Texans find themselves in an unfortunate position. This is merely one example of a larger problem within our society though and if this cancerous divisionist mentality continues to spread we’ll witness our downfall.

Hope is not lost though because it isn’t too late to start putting America, and each other, first again; all that’s required is remembering what made us Americans in the first place.

In school, when I was young and studying our history, I learned a great lesson; one I think is important enough to share. I learned that being an American isn’t something you obtain from being born here, or even from keeping other people out; being American is something you become through your actions and character. Defining what it meant to be an American was something our founding father’s sacrificed all that they had for.

Today, with all the modern luxuries we have it’s hard to understand being so passionate about something you’d die for it but our founders had that passion for the characteristics which would later define our nation. By fighting so fervently amongst ourselves that we forget the value of other Americans we put into jeopardy all that we have. It’s all of our duty to honor that which our founding father’s felt defined America. Honoring those traditions can mean different things to different people but all of us must find a way to honor them, every day if we are ever to truly Make America Great Again. This isn’t hard to do, it only takes remembering to do the right thing. I’m not perfect, in fact, I would consider myself the last person for anyone to take their cues from, but for me, I honor those traditions by trying to do the right thing every day to the best of my ability, whether it’s big or small, seen or unseen, noted or unnoticed. You see, if you remember to do the right thing, to treat others how you’d like to be treated, and do everything to the best of your ability, I promise everything else, all the nonsense in the media, won’t matter a single bit, because we’ll once again have a country of people who look out for one another. The alternative is unacceptable.

So Mr. President with this in mind I wanted to give you some advice for salvaging your presidency:

1. Tell the truth. In times of doubt, the truth is always the right answer. If lies are allowed to be believed as fact America will continue to forget that the real enemy isn’t each other, it’s those who seek to end democracy, freedom, and our way of life.
2. Stop defining what it means to be American from a partisan stance. You have no right. None of us do. Being American is defined by those who came before, and it’s defined by those whose examples will survive the test of time. If someone is willing to come here, work hard, abide by our laws, and protect our way of life, then you, Donald Trump, have no right to tell them they cannot be Americans. Being born to millions in New York, dodging your country’s call in its time of need, and verbally accosting service members does not make you the one to decide what it means to be an American.
3. Stop attacking the media. You bear a great responsibility; millions of Americans look to you for guidance and comfort during hardship. If you continue to point their anger at the media we may lose an integral pillar of democracy. If you do not you will cement your legacy as the enemy of democracy. History will condemn you.
4. Stop using radical Islam and immigrants as scapegoats to bring people together. We’ve seen in history scapegoats unite the masses but at great cost. Instead of pandering to the fears of your base you could teach them to accept. You’ve uniquely been able to reach the individuals that make up your base unlike any before you; you have the opportunity to take advantage of their love for you and to teach them that being American really means doing the right thing above all else. In doing this you could not only save your legacy but America as a whole.
   There is a storm coming and it cannot be defeated by a divided nation; a storm that doesn’t care if you’re liberal or conservative, a storm that seeks to upend democracy, freedom, and our way of life. As Americans, we have to do the right thing even when it isn’t easy, even when there’s no reward because that’s truly what makes us Americans and if we forget that, we’ll truly be lost.

Respectfully,

Tucker Benedict.

Source: http://media.realtimepolitics.com/2017/09/20/freelance-journalist-letter-to-president-donald-trump/

Look At Me

I'm pretty tired of new monster houses on our lake that shout out LOOK AT ME.  This one is located at the end of West Peninsula Road. To build it, the old house that was on the property had to taken down. It was my understanding a new structure had to be on the same footprint as the original house, and its size was limited to a percentage larger than the original house's size. Well this new house is not on the footprint of the original house (it is on the lot though). And you could probably fit 3 of the old house in this one. Another example of money talks, and how money greases the rules. Further, I bet the occupants of this monster are only 2 people.

Hay there

Hay bales are popping up all over Chisholm Township.

Horses

Chisholm Township horses on Sunday morning.

Sagging barn

This old barn is starting to succumb to its age, not unlike a lot of us.

Avon River

Once the Avon River in Stratford winds its way down from the east past the country club, past the Festival Theatre and downtown and then past Avondale Cemetery, it turns into quite a shallow, murky, mundane creek.

Full Moon August 7, 2017

The full moon over Trout Lake last night from our dock.

Cardinal TV Series

The TV series Cardinal Season 2 has been filming at various locations in and around North Bay all summer. Here they have changed the name of the Portage Hotel to the World Tavern and gussied up the outside as well.