SUN, SAND AND SISTERS

It is that time of year again where I leave the bare trees and frosty mornings for the warm sands and sunny skies of St Pete Beach to enjoy a week with my sisters Susan, Joanne and our honorary sister Deb.
I look so forward to this week to be able to enjoy their company, drink our favourite cocktails (Susan wants to try Whiskey Sours on the beach but I think I will just stick to strawberry daiquiris and margaritas) and go to our favourite spots to eat and dance the night away - ok so maybe stay up to 10pm.  Watch the beautiful sunsets with our friends we have met there - Roger and Sherri - and just enjoy the walks on the beach and the sounds of the waves lapping at the shore.  Our search for sea shells and other beach treasures is a daily routine.
This year I have pledged to go down the big water slide at the Trade Winds - I will be sure to get an action photo of that!!

Ladies, start your engines...

HAPPY GRANDPARENT'S DAY

I'm a Happy Grandma!!

WATCHING...

Got all my chores done and it was a nice day so I passed some time in the double blind this afternoon.  I had charged my camera so I got some pictures of the only visitors to the feeder - the blue jays and the chipmunk.  My Canon SX600HS has an amazing zoom - it says on the actual camera that it is an 18x optical zoom but I can get it up to 72x - probably not optical but I am not too techy but I know it can get some great closeups as you can see.  We haven't seen the BIG bear around for the past few days but the little cub is still coming around and so are the deer!!!  I was hoping to see the little cub but he must be sleeping.  I was entertained by these guys tho.  Fun to watch.

And I want to welcome Mimi and Bob to the blog.  They run Mimi's Vegetable Stand in Cottom in Southern Ontario - friends of John and Linda and any friends of John and Linda are friends of mine.
Enjoy!!

STRUTTIN' FOR THE LADIES

We brought the trailer back from Hinkler and you usually see birds on the main road in.  A lot of people hunt them this way from their cars as they don't have a quad to go down all the trails.  You can sometimes get your limit this way.  I was prepared on the way in and on the way out.  Did not see one on the way in but saw this fine looking gentleman and his lady friend (on the other side of the road) on the way out - it was on a corner and we could see another vehicle coming the opposite way stopped as well.  We would have been in his line of fire if he had gone for it and vice versa.  The other vehicle backed slowly away.  We were hauling a trailer so we couldn't back away as easily.  I really didn't want to shoot this guy as he was way too focused on his lady friend to even notice us.  We slowly pulled passed him on the road and let the other car and hunter know they were still on the road.  I don't know what happened after that as we drove away.
We have enough birds that we really wouldn't have missed not taking him.  Today, I made partridge soup!!!!

DINNER AT AUBREY FALLS TRADING POST

We got a group together and headed up the highway to the Aubrey Falls Trading Post for dinner.  It is under new management and the hosts - Michelle and John - are doing an amazing job.  The place is spotless and the food is delicious and the ambiance is so welcoming.  The colours on the way up were nice to see altho I would say they are past their prime but the yellows and oranges were still very vibrant.
We had arranged for a group of 15 of us and they would prepare a special meal for us.  It was soup - either mushroom or smoked ham and split pea - I had the latter and it was delicious - I really am not a split pea kind of girl but it changed my mind.  Fresh dinner rolls were on the table and horseradish - you can't have a roast beef dinner without horseradish!!  The main meal consisted of mashed potatoes, generous slices of roast beef and green beans and carrots.  And gravy!!!  And for desert we had home made apple pie and whipping cream - I even had desert and it was very very good.  The service was very professional and we were all attended to by our hosts.  They made sure we had everything we needed.
I am sure this won't be the last time a dinner is organized at the Post.  It is nice to have such a special spot for dinner - or breakfast or lunch - in our area that is within an easy drive - but I can't speak for the conditions when winter comes.  And they cater to snowmobilers as well.

BIRDING

Rejean, Rick and myself headed out for one last bird hunt this week - we decided to go to Rapid River as we hadn't been there in quite a while and never hunted on the quads there.  The trails were beautiful and should have produced more than the two birds we saw.  Rick got the last one and we are having bird for our pre dinner snack this afternoon.
Just one question for all my loyal readers who know something about hunting etiquette - when hunters on on a trail and more hunters come up behind them - should the second group of hunters who approach turn around and go back or proceed in front of the original group.  This has happened to us twice where the approaching hunters have gone around us and proceeded up the trail, either spooking the birds or shooting them.  I think they should turn around and go back as the first group has first dibs on the trail.
What do you think?

LOOK WHO I WAS WATCHING

Rejean came back from filling the feeders and said he saw the cub across the lake.  I quickly got my gear together and headed out to try and catch a look too.  As I was pulling up on the quad, I could see the black fur so I stopped and turned off the quad.  I got the picture on the bottom just as he turned away and disappeared in the bush.  I walked the rest of the way to the blind and settled in.  I would say 5 minutes later he calmly walked over to the feeder and started eating the candy corn we have for the deer.  He ignored the delicious apples and the salt lick and chomped on the corn for another 15 minutes or so.  My camera died!!!!  But I got a couple of good shots.  After he was done he started coming up the hill towards the blind but I was ok as I had locked the door and I could quickly close the window.  But he headed over to the right and continued up the hill and out of sight.  I made sure he was gone and made my way back home to download the pictures.
What a thrill that was!!!!

ps - it was the cub so no one is going to shoot him - at least not this year….

MARLENE'S PICTURES FROM OUR RIDE

Marlene's pictures from our trail ride yesterday.  Not often I put pictures of myself on this blog but I will make an exception in this case.  We had a great time!!!

THE FALL COLORS ARE PEAKING

The leaves are late this year but that is good news for anyone coming up north for Thanksgiving - i.e. Rick, Steve, Jason and Renee.  Actually they are spectacular considering how dry it was this summer.  The reds and oranges are so vibrant and yellows are just starting.  The drive up 129 is something worth doing this weekend if you get the chance.
Enjoy!!

ps - I couldn't resist the little Halloween display I passed on BassWood Lake Road.  Loved the little barfing pumpkin!!

BEAUTIFUL DAY ON THE TRAILS

We could not have asked for a better day for our quad ride with Donn and Marlene.  It was sunny and warmed up quite nicely for our 11am departure time.  We took them on trails they hadn't been on before and I think they had a good time.  We took them down Foot Print Lake Road to the River then over to a trail leading to Snowshoe with a stop along the way to one of my favourite spots where we picked up a couple of nice rocks.  Donn has one all picked out for next summer when he has help to carry his treasure. We washed all the mud off the bikes riding thru the water down by the River.  The final spot was the Jacuzzi where we disturbed a nice snake sunning himself along a path.  He slinked away but soon came back and we got the message that he wanted his spot back.  4 hours and about 30 miles later, the tour was over.
Next summer Donn and Marlene can take us on some of their trails.  Looking forward to that!!

HARD WORK FOR A MEAL OF ACORNS

Here's some pictures of the oak tree we came across on the mine side that the bear had been working in.  Hard to believe he got up as far as he did - right to the top.
I wish I would have been able to get a picture of that!

ALL CLEAR

I am questioning my decision to post these two pictures but it is a fact of life up north that sometimes you have to do things that you don't like to do and this is one of those times.  We have had a problem with one particular bear that has been coming around for the past several weeks.  We know that he has been on our driveway and close to the garage.  He has been visiting the feeders we put up for the deer and actually tearing them off the trees.  We tried not putting corn out for a while but he continued to come around.  We have deer hunters coming up for the hunt on November 2 and when you have a bear you don't have deer.  Not to mention the fact that they head out to their blinds in early morning and you don't want to surprise a bear this size in the dark.  We had to do something about the bear.
Long story short, Rejean headed out to the blind at 6pm Sunday - I stayed home.  I heard the shot at 6:30 and Rejean called me on the walkie-talkie that he had him.  He stayed in the blind just to be sure the bear was dead and not just injured.  I called some friends for help in retrieving the bear before it got too dark.  He had only run about 50 feet before he went down.  Arnold says it weighs over 200 pounds and a nice healthy male.  He will be butchering it today and we will be getting some roasts and maybe some pepperettes from it.
When we went out today to put the feeders back up, I noticed an oak tree with broken branches all around the base of the tree.  Looking closer you could see that all the way up to the top of the tree branches had been broken off.  The bear must have been after the acorns.  It must have climbed the tree and broken the branches all the way up the tree.  Amazing such a big bear could climb out on those branches to break them off.  It wasn't a good year for berries so they had to look elsewhere for food sources to fatten up before their hibernation.
I do feel bad about killing the bear but it did have to be done.  You can't have a bear this size wandering around where people live and hope you don't run into it.  After living up here for 10 years, it was the first time I was a bit scared to walk to the mailbox to get my mail.

I hope it is the last bear that we have to deal with in this way.

ACCU TEMP?

As you can see from our "Accu-Temp" thermometer outside of our trailer, it was very hot at Hinkler this past week...

A SUCCESSFUL HUNT

What a perfect few days to be out in the bush!!  Not a cloud in the sky and hardly anyone out on the trails.  On our first day out when we came back, our neighbours in the campground, Will and Harley, got a beautiful bull moose - their first one in four years.  It was massive!!  When I first saw it hanging, it just didn't look real.  They say they will share about 600 pounds of meat  when it is all said and done.  We celebrated with them by their campfire that night.  They have quite the set up there.  All together we got 9 birds.  I could do no wrong he first day but the next day I couldn't shoot a bird if my life depended on it.  I did get one tho.  Rejean got stung by a couple of bees retrieving a bird in the bush.  We must have disturbed the nest.  But it was cold first thing in the morning - there was frost in the mornings and my hands just wouldn't warm up.  We spotted a bird on the road first thing and I couldn't load my gun let alone shoot it.  Needless to say that bird lived another day.
We hope to get out again when Rick comes back up next week.  It will be better as the leaves will be down and it will be easier to see them in the bush.
The last picture is of a Spruce Hen that flew into the tree as I was going past it.  It was too close to shoot so I took out my camera and got a picture of it.