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Diaries of a Lodge Owner
In 2009, sheet metal mechanic, Steve Niedzwiecki, turned his passions into reality using steadfast belief in himself and his vision by investing everything in a once-obscure run-down Canadian fishing lodge.
After ten years, the now-former lodge owner and co-host of The Fish'n Canada Show is here to share stories of inspiration, relationships and the many struggles that turned his monumental gamble into one of the most legendary lodges in the country.
From anglers to entrepreneurs, athletes to conservationists; you never know who is going to stop by the lodge.
Diaries of a Lodge Owner
Episode 80: Behind the Rod - Willie and Krysta's Lodge Legacy
Willie and Krysta share their compelling journey at Nordic Point Lodge, filled with unexpected challenges, heartfelt memories, and the strength of their partnership. Their insights reveal the importance of community, teamwork, and resilience in the face of adversity as they reflect on the first two and a half years of lodge ownership.
• The inspiring decision to purchase Nordic Point Lodge
• The challenges faced during the initial weeks of operation
• The significant role of community support in their journey
• Memorable experiences from the first season, including fish fry events
• Hard work and dedication leading to successful lodge operations
• Reflections on growth, love, and family connections in their story
This episode of Diaries of a Lodge Owner is brought to you by Nordic Point Lodge a luxury outdoor experience with five-star service.
Speaker 2:What are we doing? I was just going to say what are we doing here. Why are we doing this?
Speaker 3:We were like why are we going?
Speaker 2:to do this. This is crazy.
Speaker 3:And here we are two and a half years later Shit shit pipes blowing up and that was our first week or two operating. But really you look back now, it wasn't that crazy, it was just incidents, but it just so happened.
Speaker 1:They all happened at once the rest of the summer we didn't have any names it was amazing this week on the Outdoor Journal Radio Podcast Network's Diaries of a Lodge Owner Stories of the North. Willie the Oil man is back at the helm of the Good Ship Diaries and his guest today is without a doubt, if not, the most important person in his life, right at the top and it is our pleasure to introduce to all of you Willie the oil man's wife, krista, on this show. Willie and Krista talk about how important building a passion with your life partner can be, the ups and downs they faced and are facing with their passion, nordic Point Lodge, and the secret to their success so far in team and hard work. So if you love peeking behind the scenes and hearing firsthand the trials and tribulations from an owner's point of view, have a listen to this one, folks. Here's Willie the Oil man and his wife and partner, krista.
Speaker 3:Hello, folks, and welcome to another episode of Diaries of a Lodge Owner's Stories of the North, willie. Here we're riding solo today. Mr Nitzwicky has earned himself another couple days to go spend some time with his loved ones, which is fantastic. He does not do that enough. He is such a dedicated man to his career. So we decided to step in today and do an episode of Diaries of a Lodge Owner Stories of the North, behind the Rod. It's my first episode, folks of Behind the Rod, so welcome.
Speaker 3:All our Diaries fans, all our Diaries family. We are excited to have you here and I have a really special guest with me today. It's my beautiful wife, krista Polowski. Krista Polowski and Krista and myself have, as you all know, have been on an incredible journey over the last two and a half years. We're going into our third season as the owners and creators of Nordic Point Lodge up in northwestern Ontario and we thought this would be a great time. It's the end of our year, coming into Christmas here and we're starting into our 25-26 season and we thought it would be a great time to step back and just reminisce and tell all you folks about the stories and the hardships and the transitions and the good, the bad and the ugly of what we've been through in the last two and a half years. Hi, honey, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2:Good morning, Good morning everybody, all listeners.
Speaker 3:Just is a little gun shy of the camera folks and the microphone, so we'll have to give her an applause to get her to speak. But that's okay. We'll have to give her an applause to get her to speak, but that's okay, honey. Um, I just want to say first off, before we get going, that it takes. You gave me the opportunity to to do what we did here and the chance to do it, and I appreciated it right from the start, and the support that you gave me and the backbone that you gave me was incredible and I can't thank you enough for that. So, before we even get going, I just want to say thank you very much and go ahead. Where did we start? How did this all start? Not the Lake of the Woods? How did this start? Where did we start this? Tell me?
Speaker 2:We were looking at purchasing a property. We looked at many different places. We took a drive out down the 105 one afternoon where's the 105 highway?
Speaker 3:what's all the folks where that is?
Speaker 2:that is just off vermilion bay, so it's going um 30 30 minutes north north of vermilion bay. Yeah, highway 105ion.
Speaker 3:Bay. Yep Highway 105 runs north-south off of Highway 17, which is in northwestern Ontario, straight north of Vermilion Bay.
Speaker 2:Thanks for that honey.
Speaker 3:I got you, I got you. I got you Directionally challenged.
Speaker 2:So we took a drive one afternoon and we just drove into a couple of different lodges along the way.
Speaker 3:I think we just drove. I think we stopped at, like every road actually. Yeah, all the way up the highway, because that was the area we were looking to be in. Yes, I think Yep, and we just drove into every one and the ones that were for sale.
Speaker 2:Obviously, we got out and yeah, looked around and checked out the buildings.
Speaker 3:One stuck out um I think there was two that stuck out oh see, yeah, yeah, there was two there was, like there was the one that the one that is on wabaskang lake down oh, down that really long road.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, yes down that.
Speaker 3:Um, I forget the name oh what is? The name of the camp I can't remember. Um, we went. Look pretty heavily at that one.
Speaker 2:That was first.
Speaker 3:Yes yep, and then, and then the other one that caught our attention after driving into many, several camps I can't even count how many was Rainbow Point Lodge, and I remember when we first got into Pro Fall. So our Nordic Point Lodge sorry, used to be called Rainbow Point Lodge when it was owned by Bob and Gail Extance. They'd owned it for 38 years or 39 years. Uh, wonderful people. Uh, they had a great. They had a great, uh business, great guests. Um, we, we've been so fortunate to have taken over their place and the legacy they had. But when we, uh, I remember driving into Pro Falls to town, and there's a, there's a restaurant on the right side called the Whiskey had. But when we, I remember driving into Pro Falls, the town, and there's a restaurant on the right side called the Whiskey Jack.
Speaker 3:Yes, and Graham McDonald owns the Whiskey Jack, graham and Laura McDonald. And if folks, if anybody is, if you are ever in northwestern Ontario and you're ever in that area I know it's desolate in the middle of nowhere and there's not a lot of reasons you would be there, but if you are, you have to stop at Graham and Laura's. His. He doesn't have a huge menu, he's got a small menu, but it is some of the best family food you will ever eat in North America super cool environment yeah, it's, it's like.
Speaker 3:It's like walking into Elvis's man cave. You know what I mean. It's fantastic. And then so we drove and I remember we stopped, we stopped in there and looked around and then we drove on down the road more and there was Dutchies and my buddy Ashley, my buddy Ash owns it. Ash is a brick of a man, like he's been a logger his whole life. You know, we don't know each other well well, but we know each other well enough from being neighbors for the last two and a half years up there, and he's a great person. He owns Dutchie's Convenience Store and they got a. You know, it's like a grocery store, a bait shop, a LCBO, a beer store. He's got. They sell everything in there and he's got it covered. Man, he's got a golden ticket to the pond there. It's a great business.
Speaker 3:And then you know all the local people the Gullies camp across the road right, and Mark and Amy that own Pro Lake Camp across from us. You know, like all these people, they either grew up there and it was. It was like stepping back into like the eighties or nineties, at a time where everybody was just old school and the community of Ear Falls was the same and do you? Hey, do you remember that? Striving up in that and us feeling that and having that conversation going like this is weird. It was like stepping back in time.
Speaker 2:Yes, everybody knew each other. Everybody was close. Everybody you know talked lovely about each other. They had each other's backs. It was really cool. It was really cool to see that firsthand the first time we drove there and you've talked to anybody. You went for lunch.
Speaker 3:And then you know you got. So then we, you know, in Pearl Falls you have this beautiful waterfalls and we're like look at that waterfalls, you can walk. I remember walking down it with the kids. This is a couple times later, after we I think we'd already bought the place, but like it's so picturesque that you can walk down these beautiful falls and it's right at the end of our fricking property. Like those front four cabins, cabin one through four, at the front of our lot. When you listen, it's just tranquility.
Speaker 2:It is yep Having a waterfall right there.
Speaker 3:It's like, it's unbelievable, so that we noticed right away. You know they had a massive store at the entrance of the property, the. The grounds were flat. I remember driving in and going, because in northwestern ontario everyone knows like it's. It's just like steve talks about the chaudier, uh, or the french river area, like it's just all bedrock, you know, and it's just up and down and up and down, and up and down and up and down. Well, we ended up with 17.8 acres of flat ground, like only a foot or two off of the lake, like, so there's no big rises, it's really flat.
Speaker 2:And just to add into that, the willow trees were beautiful. That was one of the things I noticed right away.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because it was fall. We went up there. It was just starting to fall. I think it was like the last week of August, first week of September. Yeah, no, it had to be the last week of August.
Speaker 2:It was August, still yeah.
Speaker 3:So I remember the leaves were just changing and and yeah, it was gorgeous and Bob and Gail Gail had so we drove in there and Gail had an appointment with us last minute to look at it. And I remember we we drove in, we had some uh sandwiches that Gail made. We sat in the kitchen and I told him our deal that you know, like me and Dave were partners on this lodge and we wanted to with our families. The Johnson family and the Pelosi family were partners and they wanted to step into this place and they were very welcoming with helping us. You know, look at the camp and you know we fell in love with it, I think partially because of their attitude as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, day one they gave us a full tour and they were so, just so kind.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, no for sure, they yeah outstanding people and I think that's part of the reason we fell in love with the camp too. And there's, you know so, folks like if you go online you can see all this stuff. But, like you know, we have five sets of docks, you know, 17, 18 beautiful cabins, staff, accommodations. It was like this is a beautiful place and they ran it as a do-it-yourself kind of place and it's so big that we knew that we would have to continue the do-it-yourself in an aspect. But we knew that we also wanted our clientele from our other businesses, as you know, were all. They were more of a pampered clientele. They liked to be in the guided boats, they liked to have their minerals put on for them and taken off and have a show lunch cooked for them, and it's an experience for everybody should have. Some people like to do it on their own sometimes. Some people like to have that. So we wanted to make sure. We always said we want to accommodate everybody and that place was big enough to do it Right.
Speaker 2:Yep, absolutely. The pavilion in the middle of that property was also a big selling point, like it was just a gathering place for everybody.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so there's a big cedar log pavilion cedar strip log pavilion, with a metal roof, in the middle of our property, with beautiful hanging white lights, and our steak pit and fish fry pit is right there and, yeah, it's a beautiful area and when you first drive in, it's one of the first things you see and it's something that I felt always that we had to make pop, because when you first drive in you're like it's gorgeous, and then you drive down a little further. Now there's a main lodge, but no one else saw that really besides us.
Speaker 3:That was minding your image yeah, absolutely um, but yeah, so you know, we I, we ended up. I think we drove back up there like two days later and took another small look. And then I was going to Mexico with Dave and my buddies and my best friend and best man, kyle man, who will be on the show soon. Kyle's a bit of a chicken shit in front of the microphone and we're going to ride him like Seattle Sleuths until he gets on here and I'm going to make him listen to this episode now. We're all going to call him out because he's going to come on this show. Kyle is one of the best fishermen and best outdoorsmen you'll ever meet in Canada and he needs to be on this show. But anyway, here, here nor there.
Speaker 3:So we went down to Cabo San Lucas, marlin, tuna fishing, and we I remember being on the hotel room. I fucking felt like Donald Trump. I was in the hotel room, dave was on one end of the phone, karen Redden was on the other and I was like in between making the deal. And then, uh, yeah, so we ended up buying the property and, uh, signing a deal while we were on the beach in Mexico Crazy story. And then I remember coming home and I was jacked right up because I was like this is the start and I remember going to get on the plane and a hurricane hit Remember that the night before.
Speaker 2:Oh, yes, I remember.
Speaker 3:I was like what are you doing, flying home and kyle, me and kyle got stuck in a category three hurricane and they actually let the plane fly. I couldn't believe that. I couldn't believe it. And it was actually smooth because there was so much wind coming at you.
Speaker 4:It wasn't in turbulence it was just so much wind.
Speaker 3:I'll never forget that. But I remember coming home and that was it. You know, dave's Dave was the uh. As you all know, mr my partner is uh, he is a uh, a lion in the hotel industry and a creator and innovator and a mentor and you know he was behind us in as a partner in making this lodge go and we'll never forget him for that. And yeah, so we, we just knew right then that we had to.
Speaker 3:We didn't get into something that was two or three cabins. We didn't get into something that was two or three cabins. We didn't get into something that was majority of these places and I know a lot of you folks are lodge owners listening, and a lot of you folks are camp owners and or just people who have cottages and camps, cabins, but majority of the time these facilities are owned by people that have done it themselves as a family and, which is amazing, which is what we would try to be doing for our children. That was the point. But in saying that we didn't do that to start, we started at 40 years old, plus years old, knowing the basics of the industry. I just knew we could sell it because I could sell it, and I knew that with the right with me and you working together, babe, we could have done anything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was our dream. It was our dream and we made it happen and we jumped in with both feet and ran.
Speaker 3:Well, that's what I'm getting at. It was 18 cabins right and we had. So we didn't have a main lodge folks, so we had to. We bought the lodge in September. The deal was then set to close in January, january 13th.
Speaker 2:Keep in mind this is winter in Northwestern Ontario, so freezing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, mine, like you know, you're talking minus 20, minus 30 consistently and you know one to three feet of snow on average by that time. And so I remember starting to make plans. I had a 3d image made of the lodge. I remember that I had like 3d drawings made. Yeah, I had, um, yeah, an architect in Thunder Bay. We had started Krista, started the liquor licensing and all that shit. Oh my god, what a nightmare. By the way, eight, months. To do that.
Speaker 2:It was crazy.
Speaker 3:I think we started in January and we got our liquor license in August. It was insane.
Speaker 2:End of August last week.
Speaker 3:Insane, but anyways, all of those things started coming together and it was a lot of work at the start to just I don't think anybody so. Where I was going with this is when you have a family business that takes it over and you progress over the years, you have the brand. I don't think I'll ever again do that. To create the Nordic Point brand was insane to do. I spent. I'll never be able to get paid for enough to what I did there Like it was.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so to keep in mind in January that this lodge came with an owner's place, so we were living in Kenora full time. So Will had to be out there at the lodge all the time, like full time, from January. So he left here in Kenora and we didn't see him again until May. We would come out on the weekend.
Speaker 3:We'd drive back and forth on the weekends to help, but he was out there, yeah, me and my son, my oldest son.
Speaker 2:Full time in Pearl Falls from the time we took possession of the lodge.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, we had to start building. Right, we had to build that main lodge because we had to open up in May with what we were trying to promote by every angle. Right, there was a lodge called T2 Island Lodge before and my partner, dave. That's where we met. Everyone knows the stories. We were looking for a hybrid model of. We wanted T2 Island Lodge executive experience when it comes to the hospitality and the service, but we also wanted a family atmosphere where you could come and do it yourself, because we needed that, because our property is so big and we want both parts. We are both parts.
Speaker 3:I am that blue collar guy and Dave is that executive group. We're meeting in the middle to mesh that, and that was always our vision, and so we had to get the main lodge going. So I remember actually Bob and Gail were nice enough. I remember I had all the plans ready and we went up in November before the first snow flew and I remember we put the laid, the pads yep we laid the cement pads in order for so when the ice and snow came, there was already pads down with cement underneath them.
Speaker 3:So then we came back. We hired Scott. Cook was the contractor, scott and his crew amazing guy, great, great contractor. If anyone's in the northwestern Ontario that needs work done, scotty Cook is the when it comes to structural buildings. He is second to not very many. He is fantastic and great to work with Great pricing. So Scott and his team came up. We started with the floor, obviously, and tied everything in, raised the walls. I remember raising the walls and I got pictures of everything documented from day one. That's so cool. It's so cool that we can look back and go remember when we did that yeah, to watch every week, every day, you know, every, every month.
Speaker 2:There'd be it's. It's just the progression was there.
Speaker 3:It was insane the progression. So I remember raising the walls. I remember we went and got Ash and Graham there was a couple locals we went and got and there was five of us and lifting those walls with plywood on them. Fuck, they were heavy but we got them all up. Like you know, within like it was the end of January, we had the walls up ready to go and the next week it was going to be minus 40. But we had the crane lined up, we had the trusses coming in and we had the steel there. So we only had a week to get it done. And because we're in the middle of nowhere we're an hour and a half northeast of Kenora and Kenora is still in the middle of nowhere to get a crane up there is like a five. You have to schedule it months in advance. So to get the crane in there it had to be on a week when it was fucking minus 40. And I'll never forget that week.
Speaker 3:It was so, like Krista said, folks like I was so picture you know Krista's living in Kenora, at our home in Kenora, raising half our family. I'm living out here raising the male side of our family and homeschool teaching at the same time, um, because there was no teacher up there for our son, um, so I had to school him at the same time. So I would get up at like 4.30 in the morning. I had a crew of guys there. I had Scotty Cook and all his workers and Kyle and Dennis and Mo. Remember Morris? Morris was our first hire. Morris Woodland, we love you for always.
Speaker 2:Just to pop in there real quick as, as a wife and mother of you know, we have five kids, so we would come up on the weekends to a house that six grown men were living in all week and we'd have to come in on the weekends and with the girls and they've been sleeping in their rooms like it was yeah so picks exactly that's where I was going so we get up right.
Speaker 3:So there's, I'm talking six. On average it could have been up to 10 guys at points living on couches and on coat, on futons and and fold out beds and in my daughter's beds and in my son's room on the floor.
Speaker 3:No one ever knew that stuff. You know that our investors and our friends and our you know a lot of the guests will never know that. But yeah, like we'd get up. I'd get up in the morning and I'd have to cook for these people, so I would do my work in the office for an hour, like 4.30 to 5.30. Then I'd start cooking for everybody, get everybody up. I'd start cooking for everybody, get everybody up. And then, after they eat, we'd have to go down to the job site at the main lodge or the cabin rentals or whatever we were doing that day because we were, you know, we put a half a million dollars into those cabins.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:And I remember it like it was insane the work. So going down there getting the guys going, and now you're, you know, 9.30, 10 o'clock, back up to the house, school, my son answer emails, get logistics going. So remembering, so now their guys are going, they're building, but we had to build the brand. We had to build, we had to make a stamp, you know. So we, you know, we hooked up with guys like Jamie Bruce and, uh and uh, brian Gustafson was promoting us out of his store. Uh, you know, we, we met Wayne and we started to work with Wayne a bit and we'd lined up a few shows to try and get some kind of traction and um, and yeah, we, we were really. The brand was huge, we were full flight into construction. And remember, we're green, right, like we've. Only, we've done this for a few years, but with one cabin, with one group at a time, so the mix was wild. I remember that the first few months was fucking crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was wild. I remember that the first few months was fucking crazy. Yeah, it was nuts Even before all of like. So, while all this building's going down, we're having to build this brand. We had to come up with a logo. We had to come up with a slogan. We had to come up with, you know, pamphlets. We had to come up with clothing. We had to come up with all of these things that we needed to do for marketing.
Speaker 3:Remember, remember our logo. I remember, yeah, marley Marley's our oldest daughter and that lives at home and she designed the compass look, the Nordic compass, look for the logo and drew it by hand. And then I sent it to Dave and Kendall and Riley, who are Dave's youngest daughters, chelsea would be the most which. Congratulations, chelsea and Blake. Yay, baby Having your next baby. Thank you, little Hadley. Little Hadley, welcome to the earth. Everyone's healthy. We love you all, but anyway. So, yeah, they, uh, I remember. A few days later, my email popped up and it was the logos that they.
Speaker 3:They digitized and and took what we had done like a design team and it was yeah, and it was perfect, and I was like this is the one we were building a website. At the time, we hired this girl named Samantha. She was absolutely horrible one of the worst website builders I've ever. She was a disaster to work with absolutely she was like.
Speaker 3:It was like she was the CEO of my company. Remember that? Fuck me man, she was the best. Yeah, she was horrible to deal with. I remember we dealt with her for quite a few months. And then Natalie, who is one of our investors, natalie White she's a genius when it comes to these kind of things. She works in marketing and she decided that she was going to help us because Samantha was such a nightmare to deal with.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so they worked together.
Speaker 3:So they worked together and, thank God, natalie helped and we got a basic website. It was beautiful, but it was basic At first. Yeah, we got it together and you know enough to go to the shows and promote. So now we're. You know, in the meantime Krista's running around Green Bay and Chicago and Milwaukee.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because we had these shows. They came with them. Well, they came with them. They were already set up.
Speaker 3:Some of them were set up and some of them weren't.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And, yeah, I remember us hammering these shows. So we're building the brand, building the lodge, building the place, giving clients, promoting it, promoting it Somewhere in there. We have a family somewhere. And then, yeah, and then, besides that, chris is running around the US. So we, I remember spring was coming and I was like, oh, it's going to get a little bit more relaxed now that spring's here.
Speaker 2:And that's, I think, when Stacy, dave's wife, and Kendall, yeah, they came up for the day they came out to do, yeah, to do some, to look at some design stuff.
Speaker 3:Yep, they were going to yep because we had to change a bunch of furniture.
Speaker 2:A bunch of furniture, a bunch of yeah, just yeah, when you had to she's.
Speaker 3:they do like design, interior design stuff For the hotels, yeah, so they came out to do yeah.
Speaker 3:So they came out to help us idea and give us some ideas as to where we can go, and uh, yeah, I remember that. So then we we got into the first season and it went good, our first. I remember our first guest bear hunters. Our first hunting guests were a group out of toronto and they cooked with grease like three times a day, every day for a week, and it was awesome what they would do with their. They'd flush everything down the toilet, everything, all the grease, everything.
Speaker 2:And keep in mind we're green, so not really knowing right the system and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3:So, sure enough, it was like day two One of the sewer pipes, the four-inch sewer pipe, blew apart. There was shit everywhere, I remember that, and we had we. The drains in the sink Dennis was running around in shit, johnny Cowboy. Johnny was running around. I remember it was a nightmare and I was like fuck. I thought everything was going to be relaxed now.
Speaker 2:First group. What are we going to do?
Speaker 3:I don't know what was worse than that. I remember so then we couldn't what it was. What it ended up being was a route that was like 50 meters away, but the break was. What it ended up being was a root that was like 50 meters away, but right where the break was there was like a spider web of pipes that went all over my camp. So I couldn't figure out where the break was and I had to bring in a guy, a plumber, with a Roto.
Speaker 2:And it was.
Speaker 3:Tristan Hales from Tristine Plumbing and that's the first time I met Tristan he.
Speaker 3:I remember calling him because I used another plumber to build the lodge and I tried and I remember calling Tristan and he was so kind, he came right out in the middle of the day rushing out there because I had guests and he worked out there for 7-8 hours until he fixed the problem. And yeah, amazing guy. And so anyways, we got that problem solved and I remember just shutting it down and my phone rang yeah, cabin 6, the hot water tank isn't working. Fuck down to cabin 6.
Speaker 5:I go hot water tank's working.
Speaker 3:I think I came to bed at like 9.30. I'm like Crystal was like day one shaking her head like oh my god what is this going on?
Speaker 3:I remember that that was crazy. Yeah, so then we, but everything was fired up, good, like that was really only our. We had a few few little incidents like that, but that's camp life, but we didn't have any major issues. Our kitchen was huge, firing up, like we had to get all the like. Remember we had to get a liquor license, all the health and safety stuff, the food inspection stuff you know, because we're running a full, like chef bachetti is. You know, as you guys know, he's, he's second to none in my eyes.
Speaker 1:He's uh when it comes to log chefs.
Speaker 3:He's number one, yeah 100 and, but he had, he was getting to know us, we were getting to know him, we were, you know, he. Everything was new, you know. But fuck, we pulled it off our main. Our lodge is kick ass yeah, yeah, it was our lodge that we built main lodge is second to no one yeah, yeah, we had to get all the kitchen equipment.
Speaker 2:We had to get all fuck, we installed it ourselves. We had to build the bar we had to build. It was the deck oh here's a good story, folks.
Speaker 3:I remember you'll remember this babe.
Speaker 3:So I think it was three or four days it was a Thursday and on the Monday we were getting inspected by Health and Safety, and then we were opening. On the Monday we were getting inspected by health and safety and then we were opening on the Wednesday. So this was like six days before opening, four days before inspection. And I remember yep, this fucking guy come out, this safety wingnut came out and he was inspecting. He was a fire and safety guy and he was one of the biggest morons I've ever met in my life.
Speaker 3:So I've had this guy out a few weeks before and he came out and I told him our design of the kitchen showed him the plans, I showed him the layout and I showed him where the hoods were going and he was going to install the fire suppression and we were he's like everything was a green light. Well, he was one of these guys. Everything was a green light. Well, he didn't understand a fucking word I said out there at all. And until we had gone and we put up these two small range hoods that we thought were sufficient, we didn't know shit. Now, looking back, they wouldn't even been close, yeah, but we didn't know, he told us they were fine.
Speaker 3:yeah, so, mind you, this guy comes back out, and now I'm talking about we're Days days before we're six days before going, and he's like well, this is no good. I'm like, what's no good? Fire, we can't put our fire suppression onto this. Blah, blah, blah, where do you want to? This hood range isn't going to be strong enough. I'm like well, you told me that this. I showed you the pictures and I showed you the drawings and the designs and the dimensions.
Speaker 2:What do you want me to do?
Speaker 3:he's like well, you're going to have to get one welded up. And I'm like well, we're in the middle of the north woods, am I going to find someone to weld me stainless steel and find a blower?
Speaker 2:Days before opening.
Speaker 3:So we're talking like McDonald's size fucking range, hood and exhaust system that I have to install into my kitchen one weekend before we're supposed to open up. Will was not very happy. I was throwing shit, I was mad. I kicked that guy out of my building. I remember that I was like get out of here Like you are a nightmare. I was absolutely furious with him and so I started making calls because I thought, well, maybe we could get a used one.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So I started calling around Kenora and driving. We were lucky there was a few people that were willing help us out, a few realtors. Karen Redden actually was one of our realtors. She had she had, uh, a hood range from somebody who was just closing the restaurant. It didn't end up working out the deal, but in finding him we ended up finding a guy in Winnipeg that was willing to work all weekend and weld this thing all weekend and put a blower on it and make it and I was like, holy shit, we're lucky.
Speaker 3:So we, we went all the way to Winnipeg, which is five and a half hours turn around, got this thing loaded all the way back. You know, I remember calling Kyle and Dennis in and they came in at like four in the morning to help me hang this hood range. We had to cut the wall out, put it through. It was fucking crazy. Like if I sent pictures of this thing it would be like it's insane. It's like being in a Moxie's kitchen. Yeah, it's huge. Our kitchen is awesome. When you walk in our kitchen, it's impressive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's beautiful.
Speaker 3:But yeah, so anyways, we had the inspector come out a day before and we passed. You know, that's something that I pride myself on with us is we've had two years of operating service now.
Speaker 2:We've had zero violations, whether it be Ministry of Natural, awesome for us yep I agree yeah, you know things might get a little crazy sometimes, but it was a lot to get there, but we got there, and, and with pride, and and oh yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3:I think our that first year, though, was I didn't see my family at all. We, we would do a fish fry once a week. It would give the chef a day off because Jarrett remember, jarrett cooks in the morning, then he rests during the day, then he cooks at night. Jarrett is like a fucking robot man, like he goes. He's awesome. Chef Machete works like 16-hour days man. He's way under he's. You couldn't replace him. No, jared. No, he's not replaceable. He's not a number, that's for sure, he's a stand-off.
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Speaker 2:I remember where were we going with that Thursday Fish Fries, yes, the. Fish Fries yeah.
Speaker 3:And they were fun. Cowboy Johnny would get up. If you watch our promotional video on our website, you see Jay Siemens is there with his family and kids and Johnny and him are laughing and telling stories and having. He's having a drink and johnny's doing the fish fry cooking in his cowboy gear. I would just stand back and I'd be like this is so perfect, like my boy, johnny cooking for what he does, loving right.
Speaker 2:His baby was theirs and we would drive up like, keep in mind that the girls were still in school here till the end of june, right till the end, till june 30th. So we would drive up Like, keep in mind the girls were still in school here until the end of June, right until the end, until June 30th, so we would drive up for these fish fries, which the lodge is an hour and a half from Kenora, we would drive back and forth for these fish fries.
Speaker 3:It was so fun just to have all the guests in the camp. The guests would all get together. Sorry, I was yawning there. Folks, I'm having my coffee, we're sitting. We sat at the breakfast table this morning actually, so sorry about that. But yeah, we would get together and people would be from Arkansas and Alaska and. New.
Speaker 5:York and.
Speaker 3:Texas and Wisconsin and Minnesota and Ohio and Iowa and it's like, and they all would, and all of different classes. That was the best thing about what we did. Yes, I agree, it didn't matter if you made 20 fucking grand a year or 20 million a year. You were sitting under that pavilion and everybody got along and they had the same passion, would you agree?
Speaker 2:I agree 100. Everybody sat, everybody joked, everybody talked, everybody laughed um. You know, had beers, had games, we had games outside. It was fun.
Speaker 3:We had one incident when we were filming our promotional video. Actually, we had a group of people there and they had some really aggressive dogs and they were really ignorant people. I remember they were friends of the old owners and the old owners were amazing, but these people just they couldn't get the change know over their mind and and we expected to have those kind of guests because we're new, we were new, right, yeah we expected that we were going to get a little, you know, flashback from people but that was a lot that was a lot.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they were. Uh, oh yeah, they were yelling at, swearing at my kids and yelling at people in the camp and, anyways, I ended up kicking them out. I remember that I kicked them out at 6 30 in the camp.
Speaker 4:Anyways, I ended up kicking them out.
Speaker 3:I kicked them out at 6.30 in the morning I went down there and asked them to leave.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they did.
Speaker 3:Nicely, and they did. I gave them their last night's stay back and their payment and said thank you very much. Please don't come here again. But thank you very much for your business. Yeah, but that was the only incident we had with the fish fry. The fish fries were always. Oh no, it wasn't. Let's tell the story about the guy.
Speaker 2:Oh, with the nfl referees kid that smashed out the fucking freezer oh my god, this that was like second weekend, that was like may, may long, wasn't it that was? Just after may long weekend anyway.
Speaker 3:Second or third it was our first fish fry, yeah, ever. That other story when we kicked those people out was the end of the summer, but this one was it was our first fish fry. This was right in the mix. Jarrett just got the kitchen going. Just like I said, we just got operational. We just got certified.
Speaker 3:We did like a walk-through dinner for the whole community to like test our equipment and the staff and you know, we had like 30 people in there for dinner. This was the same week. Keep in mind that the first group was flushing grease down the floor. Oh yeah, same week. Yeah, oh yeah, no, that was insane.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it was the exact same week and the hot water tank, yeah, yeah I think this was right before that actually. So, anyways, we we're having the fish fry and we had a gentleman there who was an nfl referee for 20 years. I won't say his name, but great guy um. When he first showed up he was a little difficult to deal with and and he was one, he was like he was one of these guests that really needs pampered, for sure, but it was him and his two sons and his buddy, and his buddy was cool. The one son was like a fucking harvard law graduate, he was like the, you know, the all-american son, and the other one was the all-american reject. It was the real, just a bit. And I'm not talking like young kids, like 17, 18.
Speaker 2:I'm talking like mid-30s, 40s, right Like 30, 40.
Speaker 3:So, anyways, these guys, they're our guests. And on this fish fry night, the one gentleman, the degenerate son, let's call him he was hammered, wasted. He was like jumping over the oil at the fire pit. Johnny was trying to give him shit and he was fucking a mess and he was starting to make a scene. So his dad, who's like I say he's an NFL referee, he came up and he kind of grabbed him and he was like fucking get back to the cabin Like get out of here, you're embarrassing us, and we thought that was the end of it.
Speaker 3:You know it was a bit of a scene at dinner from them and funny. Ha, ha, ha, whatever, yeah it was over. What an idiot. Goodbye, Well. So the fish fry ends a couple hours later and everybody goes to. I think a couple people went down to the main lodge, had some drinks and everyone went to bed.
Speaker 2:Which is pretty everybody in the norm. Pretty much was done by 10 o'clock, Like the lodge wasn't busy.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, our lodge is like yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean lodge shut down. Everybody's in bed by 10 o'clock.
Speaker 3:Some of our people think that, like every weekend, it's just like 50 wild men just having a blast. Well, it ain't fucking 1970 anymore. Folks like it's majority of it is families that have a nice dinner and have a cocktail after it's very quiet after 9 30 10 o'clock very quiet yeah and uh, but yeah, so you know all the creatures were stirring, not even a mouse.
Speaker 3:You like that, honey? I threw that Christmas hat in there. So then I remember I get up every morning early as heck and I'm up and I'm pounding away on my computer at like 4.30 in the morning.
Speaker 3:No, I was like yeah, it was like 5, 5.30 something. I was early and I knock on the door and it's my best friend, it's Kyle. So Kyle knows I got a bit of a hair trigger temper when it comes to common sense and stupidity and sometimes what I feel is common sense and stupidity. Might not feel what other people's is, but I have a small tolerance of it and Kyle knew that. So he came up to the house and was like Listen, buddy, you're going to get mad but it's fixable. And I'm like this is fucking not how I want to start my day, because I know if he's coming to tell me this, he's telling me this to keep me calm. So I get my side by side and I rip down to the lodge.
Speaker 2:And keep in mind we have a full cap.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, and this is our yeah. We're just getting going.
Speaker 2:Like second weekend right.
Speaker 3:So we're just getting going like second weekend, right. So we're like, yeah, I think there was 60 people, 50 people, there was 50 people there, yeah, 50 people. Folks like our camp doesn't hold 12, 15 people, like we're talking it holds fucking 70 people. So, oh my god. So I go ripping down there and I walk in the back of the kitchen and it is like 400 degrees, like it's. It's like getting off the plane in fucking cuba. It. I walk in the back of the kitchen and it is like 400 degrees, like it's. It's like getting off the plane in fucking Cuba. It hits you in the face and I'm like what is going on in here? And I see all the elements are just turned off, but they're. But I remember looking at the stove like the element, and it was fucking red like they. They were red like a yellow. What's the show when they were branding Yellow?
Speaker 2:Oh, Yellowstone, yellowstone. When they're branding the cattle. That's how it looked like Red burning yeah.
Speaker 3:I was like what the fuck? And then I'm looking around the kitchen and it's a mess, like our brand new kitchen. Everything was thrown everywhere. I look over to the right and our brand new coolers. Somebody had thrown something through the coolers. All the glass was smashed out, so there's like $5,000 of food in there, all full of glass. And the love seat was planted right in front of the no just the cushions oh, the cushions right yeah you're right, you're right, baby could he be sleeping there somebody had. That's right.
Speaker 3:He had put the cushions in front of the stove to be warm because it was so here's what happened, folks, is this fucking idiot, degenerate son of this nfl referee decided to go in and have some drinks. So out at the bar there was fucking booze, everywhere there was bottles smashed. It was a mess. So then he must have got hungry and he went back in the kitchen and turned on every element on my stove and we're talking like Viking range fucking stoves here like with like 10 elements. So we cranked them all on high, which I can't believe.
Speaker 3:The fire suppression didn't go off. I remember calling the fire suppression guy after it and saying you're a fucking idiot, because this thing, it was 600 degrees in here and your fire suppression didn't even go off. Just imagine if the fire suppression would have went off, that first two weeks of operation we would have been shut down for two weeks waiting for them to come clean it up. Yeah, Because you'd have to get a fucking team in there and it would have been a disaster. That's our pride of the fleet. Our main lodge is the pride of our facility, right, Mm-hmm? And so then he must have wanted to make a sandwich or eat Mm-hmm. So he. You can see the steps, folks. It's like fucking CSI, but you can watch the steps as they've unfolded. So he went over and he must not have been able to get into the freezer because he was too inebriated. So he took a roll of meat wrap, like that heavy, heavy roll of meat wrap that you wrap, your butcher your steaks in, and he threw it through our cooler windows, Smashing it all over our food. It was a fucking mess. I remember Jarrett. So then Jarrett came into the kitchen and Jarrett was coming undone. He was because he worked so hard to get that kitchen where it was.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so Kyle in the meantime, because he knew I would have get that kitchen where it was. Yeah, so Kyle in the meantime, because he knew I would have probably punched the guy in the head. Kyle went over and got the guy and told him you guys should leave. I gave him his bill and told him I'll send you an invoice for all this repair, but please leave him. So they left. The funniest part of the story, though that was just nuts Like that is the story. The best part about the story is the fucking guy leaves. It took me like eight weeks to get paid from him. He never fucking paid us because he didn't think the fucking bill was good enough for his son. He thought it should have been cheaper for all the damage he did, and it was like $1,500.
Speaker 2:We had to throw out all the food in the cooler. I was disgusted. And again, what are we doing? I was just going to say what are we doing here? Why are we doing this?
Speaker 3:We were like why are we going to do this? This is fucking dumb.
Speaker 2:This is crazy, yeah. And here we are, two and a half years shit pipes blowing up and that was our first week or two.
Speaker 3:But yeah, but really you look back now it wasn't that crazy, it was just incidents. But yeah, it just so happened. They all happened at once.
Speaker 2:The rest of the summer we didn't have. It was amazing. Yeah, it's been amazing.
Speaker 3:We haven't even had so much. And I tell steve this, you've heard me say this the other boys here orlando um from anderson's lodge here a few weeks ago, we haven't even lost the bottom end.
Speaker 3:No no, right, like I haven't even lost the bottom end on the lake, and to me, I pride ourselves on that, right. I think that is awesome and I think it's something that's undervalued in our maintenance. I think that what we've done in our maintenance really shows you in the reflection of our breakdowns. You know, yep, I think that's huge. So yeah, and then we, I guess. So our season went on. We finished out year one Thoughts of bear hunting. There was lots of stuff we learned in the hunting. There was yeah, Like.
Speaker 3:I'm not really much of a hunter. Folks I used to hunt when I was younger. I like I love eating. I love eating wild Miguean meat, like my buddies always bring it over. I'm just I'm not that guy anymore. I kind of got turned off. I had a friend killed in the bush and he got taken by wolves actually eaten alive and I was it kind of turned me off. I was more of a fisherman so we just kind of, you know, I kind of let Kyle and my other buddies kind of do the Johnny. They kind of took care of the hunting but there was lots to learn, fuck.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, and it was neat. And for me. I knew nothing about hunting, so it was.
Speaker 3:The M&R up here was great, though, oh yeah, it was the M&R office out of Dryden, especially like they're the ones that issued our bear tags and our moose tags and who I deal with regularly, can or us once in a while, but mostly Dryden, and I think they're amazing, like they're. They're, they were, uh, they were great to deal with. They were very helpful, educational, you know, they helped us lots, lots. I think that going into year two we had a lot more confidence, for sure, because we knew how the business laid Like. We didn't really know how the business was going to roll out, you know.
Speaker 2:So just on that train of thought for a second. So after year one ends ends, so season one ends mid-october we're. So through the winter we're selling and doing, doing the sports shows again. So so I went back out to the states again to do that uh, the all canada show um in january it was with, yeah, with my sister, my cousin and it was going second year was.
Speaker 2:I had so much more experience, I knew what I was talking about. I knew like the first year was kind of Well, just imagine the first year. You don't even know what you're talking about.
Speaker 3:We don't even know the odds. Remember, we're trying to sell in January, february, at a place we've owned for two weeks.
Speaker 2:Yes, and people would ask us all these questions and I'm like, uh, yeah, we have no fucking idea because I don't even know what the property, I don't even what the grass looks like. To be honest, yeah, it was year one was crazy, but the sports show the second year was. It was much better. It was it was I was able to. You know, I had the knowledge from from being there and learning from you know, from all of the experiences we had.
Speaker 3:So it was I think the sports shows are great for the blue-collar clientele.
Speaker 2:And I don't mean that in like to divide a, it was the same people.
Speaker 3:It's just, I don't see a lot of the executives, a lot of the people that are going to pay thousands of dollars to come for those two, three days are not going to go bootkicking around looking for that place. Majority of them are going to tell their secretary of guard they're going to call online or look online. The ones that come're the dedicated 20-year guests. It's going to come with four to eight people.
Speaker 2:They're all the guys right which going two years in a row. I noticed it was the same people, the same people that came here like both years back to back. Yeah, same people asking the same.
Speaker 3:That's what I liked about the sportsman show in toronto. That was one thing you did. You saw a lot of new people. We saw a couple. Sportsman Show was yeah, yeah, we saw a lot of bear hunts down there. Yeah, lots, lots, lots. Yeah, we sold all winter, krista did. I continued to build, as you all know. You know Steve had been involved in our life by that time with the Diaries of a Lodge owner. That's where we'd already started our episodes and you folks had already heard us. But then back in episode 24 was mine and Krista's introduction to the podcast world, which was awesome. I know we're getting up there now. Yeah, we're doing like 75 podcasts.
Speaker 2:I remember the first one I was like oh, I'm so nervous. First one I was like oh, I'm so nervous, I'm still nervous.
Speaker 3:steve went right to you, steve was like we'll start with chris, we'll start with chris thing.
Speaker 3:You're like uh, that's exactly what it was so funny, so funny, you know, but yeah, like that, uh that next winter we just booked, booked, booked, booked. The whole goal the next year was just growth. Right, we put a half a million dollars, like I say, into these cabins. We built a brand new executive premier cabin, cabin 8. It's phenomenal. It's eight bedrooms, two stories, all glass on the front, built right over the water, four bathrooms, four bathrooms. Yeah, like it's an amazing property. So, yeah, we did all that. Again this winter we painted every cabin on the fucking property. Remember that? Oh my god, that was a lot of work painting it was. Yeah, we did everything. Man, like that place is, we put our whole heart and soul into that place in the renovation end and our staff again stayed there all winter west. They didn't have to sleep with me this time.
Speaker 2:They uh we cabin 13.
Speaker 3:We insulated one of the cabins, yeah, so uh, like insulated in the ground with with the sewer and water, so we were able to, uh, to winterize it, winterize it for them. So that was that was fortunate. Yeah, we kept powering down and powering down and we got through until the spring and our whole goal going back to it was to make sure we had, make sure we had enough growth revenue wise. We can always adjust our pricing. We can get, we can. We can adjust as we grow when it comes to our profit margin and our clientele, who's coming here more? Is it more of this kind of clientele or is it more of this? What do the people want?
Speaker 3:But we had an idea, you know, and I think going into this year was a big deal. You know it was and it was good. We grew our company in both aspects. You know, financially, physically and emotionally. Yeah, you know we put a lot of focus on the boats we're running Minn Kota Trolling Motors from Lakeside Marine there, andrew, lakeside Marine, you know everybody knows he's our guy when it comes to marine sports and you know our chainsaws and our steel and our Husqvarna equipment that we run for our lawnmowers and weed whackers and such. Andrew sells it all and he is the, as you all know, he's the staple up here. So, um, but yeah, with his help, we outfitted that, we outfitted a bunch of garments, outfitted all new electronics on the, on the 105 competitors that we have and uh, or 185 competitors, I'm sorry folks and uh, we actually put two new, brand new motors we went with we actually remember that Started the year we went with, we tried to go with two 70s.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:Instead of 90s. We run 90s on our boats, folks, and we tried to go down to 70s for fuel economy. And it was right on the line. Remember it would work. Awesome, yeah, it would plane out, it would save you fuel. It was quiet. It awesome, it would plane out, it would save you fuel. It was quiet, it was smaller, but then the boys would have a day of rain and the fucking boat just getting wet was enough weight.
Speaker 2:Remember that they couldn't get off plane, or they couldn't. Yeah, I remember.
Speaker 3:So anyways, yeah, we put a lot of focus into our motors. That project didn't work out. We ended up going back to the 90s, which was fine, with trial and error, you know um, yeah, but we, uh, we were busy. This summer, 2024 was a busy year for us. It was, it was nuts, it was, it was busy. I don't, I can't remember any. There wasn't really any horror stories. We had a lot of new clientele on both ends of the business.
Speaker 2:Yep, amazing people, everybody that came, everybody that's been so grateful for the support and you know, and giving Nordic Point Lodge a chance. For sure, it's been amazing and we were wedding planning the entire time? Yes, I wouldn't say I was wedding planning the entire time. Yes, I wouldn't say I was wedding planning shit, but I would say you were the entire time.
Speaker 3:So then we got married officially. Me and Krista been together for years, but with COVID and the delays in life and building all these new businesses and creating this experience for our children and our family, we've decided that we had to put our wedding off. But we pulled it off on september 14th. We actually got married at nordic point lodge and if you guys go on the website, natalie white's gonna have some have our photos up there, um, in a wedding section. But it was probably one of the most beautiful outdoor venues I've ever seen. It was perfect and we didn't try it like we asked. We tried for a wedding, but we didn't do anything out of the ordinary to make it above and beyond. We're very blue collar people and grassroots, so we just wanted to have our family and friends there and the fucking place looked.
Speaker 2:It was perfect. It was the most perfect day. It was the most perfect venue. It was the most perfect day. It was the most perfect venue. It was the most perfect food they get every. Every part of that experience was perfect the.
Speaker 3:Uh, yeah, like the, the, I can't say it. You have to look at the pictures, folks. You have to go online at nordicpointlodgecom and look at the pictures. Um, we had. What did we do for dinner, baby? We did.
Speaker 2:We had Chad Gropp.
Speaker 3:Chad Gropp from Kenora. He does his own catering business. He is amazing.
Speaker 2:He did a pig roast for us.
Speaker 3:Chad was one of our old chefs.
Speaker 2:Yep, yep.
Speaker 3:Back in the day.
Speaker 2:And then we had Chef Machete did a prime rib.
Speaker 3:Yes, yep, yep, prime rib, and we did it on the deck. Yep, a buffet style on the deck over the lights. It was so beautiful yeah.
Speaker 2:Sean Roach did the DJing it was yeah. And Chad did the catering it was. It was amazing. It was amazing.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:The pictures turned out good, yeah, it was.
Speaker 3:That was. That was kind of the closing to our year because we went on our honeymoon for two weeks out to uh bc krista he's gonna be on the show here our uh, my buddy jay out there. He was our sturgeon guide and uh, krista caught her first sturgeon, so did I, we. We got three One that was 7'2", one that was 7'6" and one that was 8'4" and it was yeah. So we went on our honeymoon and then got back and we closed up camp.
Speaker 3:You know, tristan went up, blew down camp with us and a couple of guys hunted some moose and no real experiences later in the year. It was kind of quiet and you know, shutting that lodge down at the end of the second year has really shown us because now we have the development of being green, growing the business, growing into our first year, growing into our second year, and now we're like growing into our third year and it's like we just wanted to take a breath and tell everyone, you know our story and what the you know all the things. Hey, krista, that we went through like I, we could talk on this podcast for two hours more about, oh yeah, the stories and that you know the guys get hurt and the hardships and the, the funny stories and that and and with closing out the second season to have so will and holton are in canora, back in canora with us now, yeah, we're not building at all this winter.
Speaker 2:We're so we're taking a breather. We're all together here as a family, waking up together every day.
Speaker 3:It's amazing yeah, we're, uh, we're focused on just being together as a family this winter and, uh, selling the lodge and growing our other business, sunset limousineousine Services Chris owns that. We've got several different vehicles up here in northwestern Ontario. We do all the executive shuttling and shuttling for the fishermen and all the hunters and people that are getting out to these beautiful places that we have in northwestern Ontario and Sunset County. And, yeah, thank you very much, very much, babe, for being by my side. You're my best friend and I can't, uh, I think you know when you step back. And, folks, we have, we have two episodes air already, um, from fish tv. We had them come film but then we had fish in canada, up there. They're airing in january and these episodes, folks, I'm telling you they're, the fishing was incredible. Angelo and Pete have a story that you're gonna see in the first episode of the year. That's that you know like it's we're we were just so fortunate.
Speaker 3:I remember you know like so fortunate absolutely.
Speaker 3:I remember here. You know the highlight I want to tell you folks, the highlight of my lodge career. My wedding obviously is the most important day of my life and it was amazing and I will never forget that day. It was the most beautiful thing I've been part of in my life. But when Ange and Pete and Steve and Dean and Vova were up here filming, and you know there was one night when I got to sit back and we had the guests from the Toronto trip that won the trip that we donated at the Eric Lindros Easter Seals Charity Foundation, I remember they were there and we were all stretched out and there was a few guitars and Dino had his banjo, yeah, and a couple drinks were flowing and we had some guests there and Jarrett was bartending and you know we just I sat in the corner and I just looked and I was like this is my life right now, like I have the most beautiful woman in the world. I have my idols, angelo and Pete, sitting six feet from me asking me to sing country songs with them.
Speaker 2:And he was with the most incredible voice in the world.
Speaker 3:Steve Nitzwicky, who's now a dear dear friend of mine and partner in this podcast, and like he, like Steve is. You know, I know you folks listen to him and love him for being here you Diaries family but he's the more you get to know him. He is an incredible human and salt of the earth man. Steve is a one of a kind and you know I just took that moment in and was like this is fucked up, this is awesome.
Speaker 4:Right yeah.
Speaker 3:Like you know, I took a little video recording, just so I have that memory always I remember that.
Speaker 3:I'll never show anybody that, except for my family, but it was. It's all but folks. I want to, uh, we want to thank Lakeside Marines, uh. The Omaha Motors, uh, you guys keep hearing their con, their commercials on here. They're amazing it, no matter where you are in Northwest Ontario, from Thunder Bay all the way to Kenora. Please reach out to Andrew Sleds side-by-sides quads boats, g3 boats, yamaha motors. Please reach out to them. If you guys have any suggestions for any shows. We've got some great content coming up. If you have any questions, comments, you know you can listen to us. You can on any podcast platform Spotify, apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. Check out fishincanadacom for all your contests. I'm sorry, folks, get on there. There's new ones every week. Ange and Pete and Dean and the boys do an amazing job keeping that up to date. Get on there. Win a LiveScope for Christmas. And with that my love brings us to another episode, concluding, of Diaries of a Lodge Owner.
Speaker 2:Stories of an Orphan.
Speaker 1:I'm a good old boy Never mean to no harm. I'll be all you ever saw, been railin' in the hog since the day I was born, bendin' my rock stretchin' my line. Someday I might own a lodge, and that'd be fine. I'll be making my way the only way I know how, working hard and sharing the North with all of my pals. Well, I'm a good old boy. I bought a lodge and lived my dream. Oh boy, I bought a lodge and lived my dream. And now I'm here talking about how life can be as good as it seems. Yeah.
Speaker 6:Hi everybody. I'm Angelo Viola and I'm Pete Bowman. Now you might know us as the hosts of Canada's Favorite Fishing Show, but now we're hosting a podcast that's right. Every Thursday, ange and I will be right here in your ears bringing you a brand new episode of Outdoor Journal Radio. Hmm, now, what are we going to talk about for two hours every week? Well, you know, there's going to be a lot of fishing.
Speaker 5:I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and how to catch them where those fish were going to be and how to catch them, and they were easy to catch, yeah, but it's not just a fishing show.
Speaker 6:We're going to be talking to people from all facets of the outdoors from athletes.
Speaker 5:All the other guys would go golfing Me and Garth and Turk and all the Russians would go fishing.
Speaker 6:To scientists.
Speaker 1:But now that we're reforesting- and letting things breathe.
Speaker 5:It's the perfect transmission environment for life.
Speaker 7:To chefs If any game isn't cooked properly, marinated, you will taste it.
Speaker 6:And whoever else will pick up the phone Wherever you are. Outdoor Journal Radio seeks to answer the questions and tell the stories of all those who enjoy being outside. Find us on Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 4:As the world gets louder and louder, the lessons of our natural world become harder and harder to hear, but they are still available to those who know where to listen. I'm Jerry Ouellette and I was honored to serve as Ontario's Minister of Natural Resources. However, my journey into the woods didn't come from politics. Rather, it came from my time in the bush and a mushroom. In 2015, I was introduced to the birch-hungry fungus known as chaga, a tree conch with centuries of medicinal use by Indigenous peoples all over the globe.
Speaker 4:After nearly a decade of harvest use, testimonials and research, my skepticism has faded to obsession and I now spend my life dedicated to improving the lives of others through natural means. But that's not what the show is about. My pursuit of the strange mushroom and my passion for the outdoors has brought me to the places and around the people that are shaped by our natural world. On Outdoor Journal Radio's, under the Canopy podcast, I'm going to take you along with me to see the places, meet the people. That will help you find your outdoor passion and help you live a life close to nature and under the canopy. Find Under the Canopy now on Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever else you get your podcasts.