Diaries of a Lodge Owner

Episode 97: A Week In The Life Of Steve

• Outdoor Journal Radio Podcast Network • Episode 97

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A flame flickers inside the wheel well of a beloved 1992 Ford F-250, threatening to consume it. Just days earlier, another flame—hope for the Toronto Maple Leafs—had burned briefly before being extinguished in yet another Game 7 heartbreak. Such is the rhythm of life for our host this week, where catastrophes and triumphs arrive in clusters.

This episode chronicles an eventful week that begins with the emotional saga of the Maple Leafs' playoff run. After reluctantly allowing himself to believe in his team during Game 3, our host experiences the familiar crushing disappointment of elimination. His candid reflection on the core players—particularly Mitch Marner—reveals the deep wounds carried by long-suffering fans who remember legends like Wendell Clark leaving everything on the ice.

The narrative shifts to personal misadventures when a scaffold collapses beneath him at his island cottage, resulting in a four-inch gash requiring seven stitches. This first-ever experience with stitches leads to an unexpected souvenir—the medical instruments used in the procedure, typically discarded after a single use. The emergency highlights a crucial lesson for remote property owners: invest in a comprehensive first aid kit.

Most dramatic is the roadside discovery of flames inside his truck's wheel well, and the ill-advised attempt to extinguish them with windshield washer fluid—which proves flammable, creating a momentary inferno. This practical lesson in automotive safety is delivered with the host's characteristic self-deprecating humor.

The week's misfortunes continue as he returns home to discover rats have decimated his flock of meat chickens, reducing 75 birds to just 24 in a shocking overnight massacre. Amid these challenges, he shares valuable tips for garlic cultivation using concrete reinforcement mesh—a technique that yielded over 200 cloves in a small raised bed.

Throughout these trials, our host maintains the resilience, resourcefulness, and good humor essential for life in the wilderness. Whether you're a cottage owner, outdoor enthusiast, or simply enjoy tales of rural misadventure, this episode offers both practical wisdom and entertaining storytelling about navigating life's unexpected challenges.

Speaker 1:

I jump out of the truck and my front driver's side, I could see a little smoke coming out of the wheel. Well, and I thought, ooh, fuck, that's not good. So I got down on my hands and knees and I looked under. Well, I could see a flame on top of the brake calipers, right inside the rotors, and she was hot. And I'm thinking, uh-oh, that's not good. And then, you know, visions of this beautiful 1992 truck going up in flames were starting to come into the back of my mind truck going up in flames were starting to come into the back of my mind this week on the Outdoor Journal, Radio Podcast Networks, Diaries of a Lodge Owner, Stories of the North Folks.

Speaker 2:

I am excited to bring you this week a day in the life of me.

Speaker 1:

It's been an eventful week and on this show we are going to talk Toronto, maple Leafs, trucks, safety on the island and much more.

Speaker 2:

So hold on to your hats, get ready, let's go.

Speaker 1:

And I think folks, first of all, piggybacking on last week's show with Matt O'Brien, we were talking about a massive, massive game and yes, I am talking the Maple Leafs and that game turned out to be game six, which was an outright beauty. They come out, they won, they lost in absolutely awful fashion in game five and I had already done my eulogy, I had already buried the jersey. And they come out and you know I had $141 left in my betting account. I usually throw in a couple hundred bucks at the beginning of the season and mess around with it and you know I had convinced myself for game six that I was going to bet it all on Florida because I was just that incensed. In my mind in that moment there was no chance that after the game they came out and played that they were going to be able to drum anything up in Florida and I was going to make myself happy one way or the other. If they won I would have been happy and if they lost I would have made some money. But I looked at the odds and, honestly, I have never bet against my beloved boys in blue and I decided not. I threw her all down on the Maple Leafs, like a good, honest Maple Leaf fan. And they won me $407. And just like a good Maple Leaf fan, even though they've never won a game seven with this group, I threw her all down on game seven and lost all my money and they broke my heart once again. They sucked me back in in game six and they blew me out in game seven. And what a? What a you know, what a you know I, I, my dad, he's not doing all that good and this run meant a lot to us and you know there could be a couple more runs here in the very near future, but it was really, really heartbreaking. You know I've got so many deep-seated scars from this team and I take solace in the fact that finally, I cannot see how Brendan Shanahan can remain. I can't call it incompetence, but the whole thing with the Shanna plan. It has to be over. God just let it die.

Speaker 1:

And Mitch Marner, absolutely wonderful talent, great hockey player, not built for the playoffs, not at all Come up with one big goal and after last year I was so, so upset with his performances in the past in the playoffs that I um, that I couldn't. I couldn't handle even it coming, him coming back and then slowly but surely, throughout the season, you know, with his play, he he kind of won me back. Ottawa, you know, showed a little bit. He showed a little bit and then early in the Florida series, like I mean, this team really, uh, showed some resilience and got through that first round and into the second round. He scored that one big goal. Like I mean, it was a a lucky shot. You know, it wasn't a huge big play, although I got to give credit where credit is due. And in that, in that Ottawa series, he combined with Matthews for an unbelievable goal and scored a beautiful breakaway goal. And scored a beautiful breakaway goal. And I was thinking, you know, maybe, maybe. But I fought those feelings back because I knew my heart was going to get broke. And we moved into the Florida series and they come out and won game one, and they come out in one game too. And I still, at that point I was feeling optimistic but I was beating those thoughts of, you know, joy away from my mind because I am wounded.

Speaker 1:

I have been constantly, and not just me, every Leaf fan out there who is my age, like I mean, I'm almost 50, and I very vividly remember 1993 with players that went out and played and give it their all, and you knew that everything they had was left on the ice. Dougie Gilmore was eating, you know, plates of pasta and losing two pounds, three pounds in a game. And Wendell Clark, oh my God, wendell Clark. He is, without a doubt, out of all of the players in the National Hockey League and no disrespect to Chris King, because I love Kinger too but Wendell Clark was my guy and still to this day is. You know, back in those days, if he wasn't on the ice, the only thing that I could focus on was put Wendell on. Put Wendell back on, because every time he hit that ice, he either had an unbelievable hit, a fight, a goal, a shot that hits the goalie in the helmet and, um, you know, today, um, I didn't. I haven't really connected with this team in that way. I know I haven't Um, but but in game three folks, um, they, and and game two was a great game, like they overcome some demons, you know, know they. They got out and got the lead. Then florida tied it and right away they went back, they, they got the lead again, and these are typical traits that this team has not been able to um, to, to overcome. In the past they would have folded up and they didn't.

Speaker 1:

And then game three came. And by the, by the middle of the, the, the game, middle of the second period, it was three to one. Toronto. John Tavares scored a beautiful wraparound goal that was reminiscent for me of the Dougie Gilmore goal in St Louis against Curtis Joseph not quite as a little bit different, but it reminded me of then and they were blocking shots like that is a. That is something that a playoff team does, that is something that they've not done before, and you can credit that to the coaching, to Craig Berube, another former Leaf and real tough guy.

Speaker 1:

And at that moment we were at 3-1, halfway through the second period of Game 3. And I'm looking at thoughts coming through my mind. All we got to do is, if we win this game, we're going to be up three games to none against the Stanley Cup champions. And you know what? I couldn't help it. That belief crept in and took hold of me and in that moment I was like, can they? I was watching with dad and I looked over at dad at that point and I said to him I said, pop, do you think they can do this. And you know what, that feeling of believing again was so good. It was so good and at the point that I decide in my mind that I'm going to let this team have me again. They got me, I believe. The wheels fell off. The wheels fell right off.

Speaker 1:

They ended up losing that game in overtime and you're left with the what ifs and if ifs and buts were candy and nuts, it'd be Christmas every day. But you know, they took them to overtime and it was a bullshit goal that Marshan scores and it goes off O'Reilly's knee and then his pants and flips ever so slowly up and over the brick wall, joe Wall, and into the net. And I wasn't broken. In that moment I was disappointed. But you know, morgan Riley scored I guess you would call it the Riley hat trick two on our own goal and one on theirs.

Speaker 1:

And you look at that game and you think well, you know what. It was bad luck. It was bad luck if that deflection in overtime doesn't go in. And it was the first shot in the overtime period and the overtime only had two minutes left. Like I mean, mean they played a solid, solid overtime and morgan if that. And then you think if morgan riley hadn't deflected the one in in the first period and you know, uh, uh, we willie kneelander had a scored on on one of his breakaways and it could have been different. It could have been different, it could have been different. But you know, there's still runway and then in game five they rear their dirty, dirty, absolutely disappointing, heart-crushing performance Like no will. They didn't leave it on the ice, they didn't start on time. It was a 6-1, absolutely awful game.

Speaker 1:

And in that moment, with all of the demons from the past, like these guys are core group and in that core you've got Austin Matthews, you've got Mitch Marner, you got Willie Nylander, you got John Tavares and Johnny Boy. I'm going to take him out of that because he played a very, very solid playoffs and had a great year and I don't hold any I'm not going to say blame, but I don't hold any ill feelings towards him in particular. But you got to throw Morgan Riley in there and him maybe more than any. But you got to throw Morgan Riley in there and with, with, and and him maybe more than any. When it comes to ghosts of the past, because that kind of collapse, that kind of game, that kind of loss is something that this group of core players does on a regular basis in the playoffs. They just do.

Speaker 1:

And, like I say, game six I was so convinced there was no way they were going to go into Florida and beat those Panthers the way that we needed them to beat them. And I'm up at the cottage Thank you, matt and Terry, for the internet connection and I sat down with Mark Plont and his dad, donny Boy. They were up helping me do some work up at the cottage and we sat down and watched that game and it was a thing of beauty. To nothing, joe Wall got the shutout. The Leafs played a flawless defensive game. They scored when they needed to and um, you know, they, they, they, they pulled me back in and um, and then just to pull me back in and in game seven lose. I don't even know what it was. It was it well, the, the stats tell it all. It was after the second period. They had more shot attempts against than any other team in all of the regular season and playoffs. By the second period. It was so one-sided In that game six, austin Matthews stepped up and he scored.

Speaker 1:

He played well and as far as I'm concerned, I still have some hope for Austin. I believe that he can be a great asset to the team, but I have no hope for for um, um, mitch marner. Uh, he's it's time. Um, thank you for your service, um, but um, it's time.

Speaker 1:

And it's very, very unfortunate that um brad tree living, our general manager, was thrown in a position when he was hired that he only had a month to decide whether to keep Mitch Marner or trade him. And that was a couple of years ago, because at that point Marner had a no trade clause kick in on July 1st and Tree Living only had that one month to decide. And I'm sure, I'm sure that Brendan Shanahan, because he come out and and told the core four don't worry, you're not going anywhere. And I think that's probably why Dubas ended up going to Pittsburgh, which in hindsight has been great, because I have a lot more faith in Brad Treeliving as a general manager. But the point is we could have got something for Marner at that point and I was ready I was ready a year before that to make a move, but anyway.

Speaker 1:

So today we find ourselves grieving again for another absolutely heartbreaking loss, loss, and, and these guys seem to just do it so that, anyway, I'm very happy that that, if they were going to lose, they did it in this fashion, because I believe that Marner is is not going to sign with Toronto and I'm very happy for that.

Speaker 1:

I I believe that we've got a great core, great defense, great goaltending, and we don't have to go into a big rebuild and we can take the money that we save now. We're not going to get a player, he's just going to walk but we can take that money that would be spent on Mitch Marner like 14 sheets worth a year and go out and sign somebody else to play with the Leafs. And I really, really hope and I'm not a I don't claim to be a professional when it comes to knowing how to put together teams, but I know that we need somebody that is playoff hardened, somebody that has a little bit of experience in the playoffs, and I was secretly deep down after the Oilers and I'm sorry to all you Oiler fans out there, I know the West doesn't like the East much, but I'll tell you what I was secretly hoping that maybe you guys would have went out in the first round and Connor would have been a little bit upset. And when his contract comes up, which is very shortly, toronto may have seen a player like Connor McDavid and that would have been unbelievable, but I don't think it's going to happen now and I'm on the Euler bandwagon Go, edmonton go.

Speaker 1:

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Speaker 2:

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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 honoured 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's 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 radios, 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 Canopy now on Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever else you get your podcasts.

Speaker 1:

So, yeah, I was up at the cottage All last week. We were doing some work and an interesting thing happened to me. I've never had stitches. I've never had stitches, although I did plan, and this is going to tie in with remote safety. I'm on an island. So I went out and I bought a really good first aid kit, because sometimes you know I rented out and or you never know the kids are there and and you just never know. You got to be prepared.

Speaker 1:

Anyway, I was on a, on a scaffold and on the first flight and I had three boards to make a nice big platform like three full, a proper scaffold plank with the aluminum hooks that hook onto your scaffold. And then I had, uh, um, a good buddy ray. He lent me, um, while they're all his uh planks, um, he had uh, uh, three uh other planks that were just made of uh, heavy old oak board or something, and and one of them had uh, two, two by4s and a 2x12 on it and they were all secured on the bottom, but the 2x4s on the one end were about eight inches longer than the 2x12. And when I threw that plank up I got it well over on the 2x4s, but that 2x12, was right at the edge of the of the bar, the supporting bar, on the scaffold, and, um, um, when I was up, uh, uh, actually tuck taping um, some uh uh vapor barrier onto a wall. And, um, I, uh, I stepped on that middle board, right on that 12-inch board, and it wasn't fully on the end of the scaffold and it opened up like a trap door and my leg fell straight through it and it didn't really hurt, like I just went.

Speaker 1:

I went down, caught myself, um, but I must've landed kind of hard on that leg and Mark was over, um, uh, it was in the, in the building, and he said, uh, holy shit, are you all right? And I said, oh, yeah, I'm good, like I mean, I just, you know I was good. And then he said I don't think you do, I don't think you are. And when I looked down, well, I could feel my leg was wet and I thought, oh, maybe I, maybe I got a scratch or something.

Speaker 1:

And by the time I looked down and pulled my leg up out of the scaffold, my shoe was full of blood and I thought, ooh, now, like I said before, I've never had stitches right. So I'm thinking, ah, maybe it'll be okay, because you know I'm on the island, to get stitches is such a pain. So I pulled my pant leg up but I knew before, like I mean, my shoe was full, I was making a mess everywhere and got my leg up there, the pants up over my knee, and on the kind of backside just below my knee on on the inside of my leg, I opened up a cut. I'm pretty sure it just kind of tore somehow. I'm not even sure there were no nails there that gouged it or my pants weren't ripped or. But whatever, however it happened, I put a gash in my calf that would have been about three and a half inches, maybe four inches long and about an inch and a half deep and, mother, it was bleeding, like bleeding, and so you know I don't usually get too worked up. I'm not the guy that sees blood and gets faint or anything like that guy that sees blood and gets faint or anything like that.

Speaker 1:

So I pulled my belt off and I put it above my knee and tightened it on and held it to try and not make such a mess, and got down off the scaffold and walked over to the cottage and got my pants off and, you know, had a good look at it and yeah, it was one of those that, even though I've never had an injury where I needed stitches, I knew I needed stitches. So the boys wanted to take me and I said, no, just let's get the, let's get. I knew I had to go, but I didn't want to take them off the island and you know cause Lord knows how long the the weights are these days and I got the, my my first aid kit out and there there was these big pads and I don't even know what they were called. I don't know if they were compressed, this or that, but I read on it. It said tampon absorbent. So I thought, well, that sounds like a good one. So we packed two of those on it and taped it up real tight and taped it, cleaned my leg up and there was it. It. It wasn't bleeding through. So I managed to talk Donnie boy and Mark into letting me go myself, uh, which was, which was totally fine, and um, and it and it actually it didn't bleed through at all all the way to the hospital and um, so I drove, uh, I talked to Bud, uh Rostool at the Doakies Marina when I was on my way out and told him what happened and he said he said oh geez.

Speaker 1:

He said where are you going to go? Sudbury or Sturgeon? And I said no, no, I'm going to go to Sturgeon Falls. And I was thinking, you know, sturgeon's smaller, probably not the wait time, it was like a Thursday at one o'clock in the afternoon. And he said, oh yeah, that's not a bad idea. He said, and then you've got North Bay 20 minutes down the road if the wait is is too long, which I am so glad he planted.

Speaker 1:

That seed in my mind because jumped in my, my big old Ford F-250, which is another story I'll tell you about but jumped in the old F-250 and off I went, drove into Sturgeon Falls and got into the Emerge parking lot there. And, note to self, if you're ever going to Sturgeon Falls, make sure you got a pocket full of coins, because it's a coin up to get out of the parking Parking's cheap $3.50,. But you need change, which I didn't. And anyway I walked in nine hours. Nine hours was the wait, and I knew I had a pretty good gash and I wanted to get it sewn up as quick as possible so it'd start to heal. And Bud's words of wisdom rang in my mind when I heard nine hours and I said, actually, you know what, I'm just going to continue on down the road to North Bay. She said, okay, I can't advise you one way or the other, but it's totally up to you. And I said, yep, I'm heading down the road.

Speaker 1:

Thankfully that's what I did, because I got to North Bay into the hospital, I needed to buy dog food and I was thinking, oh, should I do it first? I just wanted to get it done. Anyway, the nurses in there, they were beautiful, they were so friendly and helpful and I was in and out in like three hours. It was an absolutely wonderful experience. It was an absolutely wonderful experience and the young kid that stitched me up, a nurse practitioner, ian, I think his name was. He had just been working at the hospital for about six months and come in, cleaned it out real good and froze it up a little bit and he stitched me up and anyway, I ended up getting a couple inside the cut and a bunch on the outside, so I think the final tally was seven. And then, like I say, he patched me up, I was out the door and I had time to go to get my dog food and do a little bit of running around in town and then head back, head back to the lodge and oh, it was just a. It was a wonderful experience.

Speaker 1:

I was really having a good day for, you know, falling in and tearing my leg open for seven stitches, and you know, all the old I got a 92 F250 that's in absolutely mint condition. It's only it's got the 7.3 diesel and I've got I bought it with 57,000 original miles and no rust Traded my 2022 and the guy give me cash and that truck and I'm so happy for it. Uh, and you know, you get the wave from the, from the odd fella. And uh, and there's a guy pulled up beside me hey, nice truck, like, thanks, brother. And uh, I go get my stuff and I'm on my way back to, uh, the, the cottage, and um, um, it started to pull a little bit to the left, which, uh, and with these old, with older vehicles, like I mean, we're talking technology, that's, you know, 30 years old, 30 plus years old. And um, I thought, geez, that's, um, I'm going to have to check that. You know, I'm not one to get out of the truck and check shit, right, I just keep on driving.

Speaker 1:

But I got off the highway and onto a little paved shortcut from Highway 17 over to 64. And I decided that I'd pull over and just check it, just in case. Well, I jump out of the truck and my front driver's side I could see a little smoke coming out of the wheel, well, and I thought, ooh, fuck, that's not good. So I got down on my hands and knees with this big patch on my leg and I looked under. Well, I could see a flame on top of the, on top of the, the brake calipers, right inside the rotors, and she was hot and I'm thinking, oh, that's not good. And then, you know, visions of of this beautiful 1992 truck going up in flames were starting to come into the back of my mind. But again, I'm not, I don't get too excited, I run a lodge. A lot of shit happened that has happened to me over the years. So I thought, okay, what have I got to put that flame out? And then this is a life lesson for everybody out there.

Speaker 1:

I like to think that I'm a mechanically inclined guy. I can fix trucks, I can. You know, I've had engines apart and boat engines and I've got great people that are extremely knowledgeable that have helped over the years. You know Scotty Hamp. He's a good buddy of mine, a mechanic, and anytime we do stuff, anytime I need a hand or don't know something, I call Scotty and he knows he's a consummate professional when it comes to engines and vehicles. And my Uncle Barry you guys have all heard the stories about Uncle Barry, so I've had a lot of people in my life that are mechanics and so this was something I didn't know and found out in very, let me say, exciting fashion.

Speaker 1:

So I'm standing there on the side of the road and there's a wee fire brewing on my brakes and I think, okay, what have I got to put this fire out? I looked in the back of the box and I had a jug of windshield washer fluid. So I thought, okay, the windshield washer fluid. Well, folks, windshield washer fluid is flammable. Do not try and put fires out with windshield washer fluid. So, not knowing this, and you know, after riding around in the back of my truck most of the winter, the uh, the label was was gone, and I grabbed this jug of windshield washer fluid and I got down on my knees and I give her a good shot while the, the, the, the little flame turned into like a rocking and rolling blaze that was coming right out of the wheel. Well, now it was a flash because it was burning the alcohol. After I realized that there's alcohol in it I thought, oh my God, now I've got a blaze.

Speaker 1:

And a couple of guys were driving by and saw this all unfolding and pulled over, and an older gentleman he's got a camp out on the Vouv River, I think he said, or just outside of it was just outside of Verner and a younger fella, and they were just out getting water for their camp. And they jumped out and the old fellow says you're running awful hot, aren't you? I said, yeah, man, I am. And then the young fellow said hey, listen, I got water. And at that point I remembered I had a bottle of water in the truck. So I run around and grabbed the bottle of water, then got down and give her a shot of water and it went out right away. But it was hot, hot, hot.

Speaker 1:

Obviously the caliper seized on me. That's why it was pulling a little bit to the left and with a big old 7.3, one caliper seized isn't going to stop you, it pushes through. And so, anyway, we got that out, got it cooled down with water. They set me up the. I put the rest of the antifreeze in my or windshield washer fluid in the truck and they set me up, filled that up with water and filled my water bottle up with water and and followed me all the way down to 64. And I put it in reverse.

Speaker 1:

Um, the uh, older gentleman. He said, I'll put it in reverse, it might unlock for you and um, I drove it slow just because I, you know, and tried not to use the brakes because I didn't want him to seize up again. But it let loose and I I got it back to um, to um, uh, dokees, uh and uh and then ended up by uh, I had caa tow it back to to Doe Keys and and then ended up by I had CAA tow it back home to mom and dad's where we've got a shop and a hoist and and all that fun stuff. But but yeah, the old 92, she, I still love it, I love her. I, you know, I, I was, I I give her a, I give her a wee rub on the dash and told her everything's okay. You know, I still love you and I've got a break job to do and you know like, I mean the parts for the old girl lines, everything for both passenger and driver's side front, and I was 500 bucks for everything in parts. So you know she's treated me well.

Speaker 1:

About these rumors that I'm hearing that Kearney is going to ban all vehicles made prior to the year 2000,. Which is very upsetting to an honest guy like myself. But we'll take it day by day and go from there. But yeah, so anyway I got back to the island and uh and uh, um back over and Mark was there to pick me up in the boat and and had a, had a great uh rest of the uh the the week and weekend and mom and dad and um Melissa and the kids all come up for the long weekend at the cottage and got to see Mark and Donny Boy on their way out and we had a wonderful weekend on the French River and did a little bit of fishing. You know Dad got one walleye and that's good. So it was a great weekend.

Speaker 1:

And just to wrap this whole story up, folks, I can't stress enough how important it is if you're camping, if you've got a cottage, especially if you're on an island, you're isolated a little bit. You gotta have a, really you gotta have a a really good, uh, first aid kit Like I. I would have. I I, you know I was, I was good, but without a good first aid kit it would have been a real pain in the ass, um, to to deal with a cut like that and anything else Like I mean you could get burnt, you could. You know, and I always take it for granted. I go up there a lot by myself because I just love being on the island and I have the opportunity to sometimes go when everybody else can't. And it opened my eyes. I always took for granted, you know, working on the roof or working doing this or picking up stones and and just whatever, running a chainsaw or running a weed eater or you know, you gotta really be mindful, especially when you're on your own. And you got to be prepared and thankfully, thankfully I had.

Speaker 1:

I had the, the first aid kit and like I mean it's a good one. I went out and I spent about two hundred dollars on on this first aid kit. First aid kit, um and uh, I needed to because the the, the stuff that uh, that um, um was in it. That I needed is the stuff that you get in the expensive ones, not the cheap ones. So there you have it. Oh, and one more quick, um, uh, funny, uh, note, well, funny, call it what you want.

Speaker 1:

But when I was getting stitched, um, ian, uh, when he was done, um, he, uh, he said, hey, uh, do you like tools? And I said yeah, I like tools. He says, okay, well, you can have all these. And he gave me the, um, the, the tweezers that he was using, the two sets of scissors, hemostats, like everything that he used to stitch me up. I tried to get the needle but I didn't get that. But all of that stuff he gave me.

Speaker 1:

And I found out that at hospitals they just throw that stuff out, that's a one use, and then garbage, and they're all stainless steel, they're all high quality, but I guess it's cheaper. And when he said it, he said that it's cheaper for the hospital to just use them once and then discard them rather than sterilize them. I was thinking in my head, well, that's a waste of money. But then you know, after talking to Mark and kind of brainstorming about it, with the liability that they might have, with um, sterilizing, and then what happens if you know somebody gets sick from you know uh, uh it, they're not being sterilized or whatever. I kinda, I kinda get it. Well, at least that there's a, there's the potential for that to be, for that to be true. And hey, I'm not a doctor, I don't, I'm not, uh, I don't run a hospital. So who am I to second guess them? And they say bad things come in threes, right.

Speaker 1:

Well, the truck was number three and the cut was number one. And when I was lying on the bed getting stitched up, my son Rayburn, phoned me and it's a little out of character for Rayburn to call me and he said hey, you want the good news or the bad news? And I'm getting stitched up. And I said I'll tell you what. Give me the good news. He said I don't got none. I said, oh, okay, well, give me the bad news. And I had bought I grow meat roosters. We grow all of our own chicken. I think you probably in the past I've talked about the chickens and stuff. But anyway, I had 75 chicks you buy them from Bonnie's Hatchery and I was raising my meat roosters.

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Well, I'm almost embarrassed to say this, but over the winter I realized that I had a problem that's typical for farms and I ended up with a rat infestation out in my little barn. It's like a 10 by 10. It's, it's beautiful, it's like Shangri-La. The walls are insulated. It's like, I mean, it's, it's got hydro, it's, it's a beauty.

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Little chicken coop and the rats got in there and I thought that I had them under control. I got quite a few in the rat trap, like quite a few, three or four. And the thing that tipped me off, funny enough, I was sitting on the couch looking out the back window. We've got nice big back windows in our living room facing the backyard, and I saw an owl one day and this would have been in January or whatever Beautiful big owl, and around Shelburne we don't see. You see them the odd time, but not often. And this fellow was sitting right back by the barn and I thought, wow, it never dawned on me until I started seeing evidence of rats. And then I went out and they had chewed a couple of holes in the wall and they were pulling out all of the insulation and it was just. They are awful, awful little creatures.

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I have now found a creature that that I dislike more than red squirrels and, um um, the. So I had got, uh oh, maybe four in in the rat trap and I was putting them on the on my back fence post and the owl would come and get them Right fence post and the owl would come and get them Right. So I did that and then, you know the the trap stopped going off and I thought, well, maybe I got them all. And, um, anyway, I, uh, I, um, I had a box with uh, like one of those protective boxes that you can put a little bit of poison in. Uh, it holds the poison inside.

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Got a few more with the poison and I thought, okay, I got her under control. Well, I don't, I don't have it under control at all and I had no idea that rats will eat chickens, well, chicks up to about a month old. And um Rayburn called me while I was on the uh, on the gurney getting stitched up, and he said, yeah, the rats got like he said it was. He said it was like a war zone. They got, well, I'm down to 24 out of 75. And the majority of them all went in one night and the rats come out and they were killing them and then not even eating them. They just killed them and chewed them a little bit and went to the next one and killed it.

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They're awful, awful little nightmarish creatures and I don't like poison. I don't like poison at all, because poison never stops working, and especially in, in, uh, in an environment where I, um, I'm, I'm eating the product out of the out of there, I'm eating the product out of there. So, you know, poison is not really an option for me. So I've been blocking off holes and putting in traps and all kinds of stuff. But if anybody out there and I've even thought about staking them out, you know, and I've even thought about staking them out you know, I've got to buy a box of .22 shorts and, you know, sit in the barn and wait at night for the little buggers to come out and blast them with the .22. You know, those wee shorts, they're a glorified pellet gun really. I know the Mennonites around Elm almira, that's what they do in the barn. They'll, they'll use shorts because they don't go through the steel of the barn roof apparently. But um, I, um, I, I gotta figure that problem out. And uh, you know the my, my

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little girls. I got a bunch of eggs in the incubators and and if you hear a humming going on in the background that's an incubator of mine. So I've got more chickens and chicks on the way. These ones are more specialty chickens. Their giant braum is a buddy of mine, chris McGriskin. He's a chicken man and set me up with my egg laying flock. And uh, there's some uh pretty cool breeds. You know uh, giant Brahmas and Langshan and and uh, these ones are uh, we're um, uh in, uh cahoots together and and gonna uh put together some, uh, some nice breeding trios and and uh, and there's a great market out there for them, like they're fairly valuable birds but they're cool, they're big, they're very docile, they're my you know what, out of all of the chickens I've had over the years, from Banties to, you know, isa, reds and Bard Rock and you know White Rock and all these different breeds Giant Brahmas are probably

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my favorite. Their comb is more like it's like a. It's small and looks like a flower almost on top of their head. And the hens, they hardly have a comb at all. So they kind of look more like a hawk head and they are so docile. The roosters are friendly and big Like. I mean, you know my, my big rooster. He top of his head it stand higher than my knee, like he's a. He's a good size bird,

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but anyway. So the girls were looking after chicks. I got chicks popping out everywhere I got. I got rats in the barn. I, you know, I'm, I'm looking after a a a big gash on my leg I tried to get. I tried to convince Melissa while they told me I couldn't shower for four days or something. And I tried to convince her while they told me I couldn't shower for four days or something. And I tried to convince her that those beautiful, wonderful nurses at North Bay told me to tell her that she had to give me a sponge bath every night. But I bet you guys can and girls out there can guess how many sponge baths this guy's got. Yeah, yeah, I'm pretty stinky, anyway, yeah, so we've got that and I've got a bunch of beehives on the go. I'm gearing up to put about six

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hives out. And good buddy, Gary Thiebaud we had him on the show the other day and he's going to be coming up here in the next week or two and we are going to talk all bees and one of the things that I wanted to do as a lodge owner was to have a beehive out back or two, and we also the chef, philly Phil and I always talked about getting a pig right so that we could feed the pig all the slop, because all the food waste from the kitchen you can't, you couldn't put it in the garbage, so we ended up putting it in buckets and dumping it out on one of the shorelines around the back, and I had a great, great cleanup crew of about 30 turkey vultures and 150 seagulls. That that they. They were my best workers, man. They were an hour early every day and they did not leave until the job was done. But we wanted to, philly Phil and I wanted to, you know, get a pig or two and and raise them up and then have a pig roast at the end of the season. But we didn't

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do that. And another, the other project that I wanted to implement was honey, because having your own honey to serve to guests would have been really, really cool and depending on what they're eating and the pollen that they're getting, it changes the flavor and color of the honey. And to have a French River honey would have been very cool. But we're going to talk everything bees coming up. So I've got, I'm getting ready for that and really excited because that is going to be a great show. The beekeeping itself is so freaking interesting. I love all of that type of thing and I'm really looking forward to jumping into that hobby, make a little bit of money with it, you know. But and Gary's great, we'll keep him focused and and he is such a knowledgeable guy when it comes to a number of different things, so you can look forward

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to that. And and my garden. I'm so far behind on the garden other than my garlic. I tried and this is another thing I'll share with you Good friend of mine, Paul Fleer, lives around the corner from me and I'm a big garlic guy, like I love garlic in everything I love. You can buy a garlic dehydrator or fermenter sorry. You can buy a garlic dehydrator or fermenter sorry, it's like a Instapot almost and you put your garlic right in the clove, you don't even take the husk off of it, throw the bulb right in the fermenter and over seven to 10 days it heats up, it cools down, it makes magic, it does this, it does that, whatever, whatever. And you open it up and the garlic in the bulb. When you open up those cloves they've all shrunk, obviously and they've gone black, like black like night, like they look like something that you should

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not eat. And you eat that clove and it's got a really, really interesting good flavor. It's got a texture of like a soft gummy or maybe like a very. The texture would be a very, very consistent prune, like you know how prune has the skin, and it's not consistent. The garlic is like a really, really soft gummy. It's got a good flavor, really good flavor, and it's supposed to be extremely healthy for you and I wanted to do some

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of that. Anyway, I stopped over at Paul Fleer's place Paul, he's a good fishing buddy of mine from way back and he was growing garlic and I had always wanted to grow garlic. I know a little bit about it, you know you should plant it in the fall and everything else. But he showed me that he made this box and it was like I don't know four feet by eight feet long or whatever the size of his box was. It was almost like a raised bed, but it wasn't really raised, it was just there and I asked him I said how like? I mean, how are you growing your garlic? Cause he sells it too and it's a breed called music and they're big, beautiful clothes. And he, he showed me and I thought, geez, I've got a raised bed right now. I tore out, um, but, uh, I reinstalled it. So this is what, um, this is what he told me or showed me

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to do. I took my raised bed, um, put it back into the back garden that I've got, put it back into the back garden that I've got. I tilled the ground real good before I put the raised bed down and again it's just kind of sitting on top of the ground. Then I dug a lot of the good soil, the good topsoil from around it and threw it in. So this raised bed would have been about I guess it's about maybe three, six, nine, 10 inches deep. So I filled it up with maybe three or four more inches of of good topsoil. So I still got five, six inches left above ground in there inside the

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raised bed. And you get it's a mesh you can get at Home Hardware. I got mine at Shelburne Home Hardware here. But what it is is it's that big. You get it in 4x8 sheets. It's like a 4x4 square and it's meant for concrete. It's meant to go. You pour your concrete and you throw these mesh sheets. Throw these mesh sheets into the concrete to solidify the concrete, to hold it, to give it structural integrity, and so I got two of those. You put them across the top and my raised bed was four feet by 16 feet long. So I got two sheets of that. You put it right on top, you tack it down and then and you plant your garlic on

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the grid. So, and another wonderful, and I and and Pauly boy, I'm sorry I can't remember whether you told me not to give your secrets away, but you know what away, but you know what. This is a great way to do it and I'm hey, listen, if you need garlic, give Paul Fleer a call or reach out to me because I'll set you up with it. But he was taking a long, just from your toolbox, an extension, a deep socket, about seven-eighths of an inch deep socket, and just you go along that grid every four inches, Boom, you stuff that socket down, mark it. Geez, he told me exactly the right depth and that's. I wish I could say it was a trade secret, but I've forgotten how deep it was. But I'm gonna say maybe four inches deep. Anyway, google it. I'm sure the google box will figure some shit out, or chap, gbt or gdi or whatever you want to go um, but you go on

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that grid. I I took um my buddy ray pool. He always, he always preaches about a concoction that you dump in the hole for your tomatoes, for your onions. Well, I'm pretty sure he dumps it into every hole that he plants, and it was like worm casings and blood meal and a lot of different organic fertilizers. Mix them all up, dump a little bit in each hole. Then I planted all of that garlic, one clove in each, covered it over and then the key is to I only tack down the one side of the expanded mesh, or the grid, the mesh, lift that up, flip it over so it's open again and fill it right full with leaves, old leaves Like I planted in, you know, middle of October, beginning of November, sometime

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like that. So all of the leaves from the lawn and all that stuff, rake up those leaves and pack her, put her in there on top of that, on top of your garlic, and then flip those screens back over. And those screens work twofold. They are your grid. So you're planting them on a four, four inch grid and the spacing is beautiful and they hold all those leaves in over the winter so they don't blow out and by the springtime we had great. We had really a really good year

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for snow. Those leaves were all packed down. They're kind of broken, they're kind of decomposed a little bit and that garlic man, oh man, she pushed through there like you wouldn't believe and um, um, once it, uh, once your garlic gets pushed up, you got to kind of watch too. Any of those garlic that are that are struggling, that kind of gets stuck in in the middle of a leaf or it's. It's amazing what they'll push through. But you kind of just kind of help them so that they're not getting caught too badly in those leaves. I've left them there. That biomass helps. When it's dry it holds moisture, when it's wet it helps evaporate moisture and it also is great compost and it keeps the weeds down. And once your garlic comes through to the point where it's poking above that screen or that mesh, pull the mesh off. You're done with that for the year. All of the garlic sprouts will hold your leaf base in there from

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blowing away. And Bob's, your uncle and I got back from the cottage, went out back and I was amazed at how well it's doing. Thank you, paul. I really appreciate what you did and I put in for interest. In a four by 16 raised bed I fit 207 clothes. So you multiply that by about five. I'm going to be doing good and I love this system so much. I'm going to be doing good, uh, and, and I love it, I love this system so much, I'm going to, I'm going to double down, I'm going to put another bed in there, just the same way you know, and, um, epsom salts and, uh, wood ash was another, uh was another um, um, uh little uh tidbit that I had learned, uh, uh on the, on the Google box and TikTok and whatever, whatever that I employed and it seems to be working

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very well. So there you go, folks, your gardening tip of the day from a former lodge owner and all you lodge owners out there. Owner and all you lodge owners out there. Man, oh man, I got to tell you, if you're providing food in an American plan, that homemade, homegrown stuff is outstanding. I used to grow my own lettuce and carrots and different things here at home and I would. When I had enough, I'd the overflow would go to the lodge and it. It really, really helps, especially if you've got a place to do it, at your, at your, at

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your facility. We had a, we had a raised bed, you know, on the French River, where we're on top of rock, but the chefs always had an herb garden there. You know chives are a great one because those beautiful purple flowers are an unbelievable garnish too. And you know the chefs that I had, dave and Philly, phil and all those guys, daryl, in the beginning. They really love to have access to something that is easy. It's right there when it's in season to doll up those plates. And you know you can have thyme and rosemary and all kinds of different herbs in an herb garden and um it it just to have fresh herbs that are growing, that are live and not from, you know, cisco's or or Flanagan's or whoever um that are dried in a, in a plastic bottle, makes all the difference. Um, grow a herb garden. I've got one going here, I got one up at the, up at the cottage. It's um it's, it's fairly easy, low maintenance and um it it really really, at certain times of the year, makes a big difference. So, and listen, um, this is going to be a first but not

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a last. I want to thank producer Anthony Mancini. That man has been producing this show now in concert with Dino for a long time, like multiple, multiple episodes. He is the guy that cuts it all together, makes me sound good and he needs to know, know that I really, really appreciate everything he does. Um, you know, anthony, you rock brother, thank you very much for everything you do. And um, folks, head on over to fishingcanadacom and and and get your um, uh ballots in when Garmin stuff we've got all kinds of. You never know what Ange and Pete have

Speaker 1:

on the. Go over there, uh, get over there and and uh, take advantage of of winning free stuff. Mercury engines uh, you never know, we just give away an electric engine. Um, you get over there over there and look after that. And thank you to everyone who supports us. You know Lakeside Marine, andrew up there, thank you very much. We really appreciate working with you. It's easy. You guys are consummate professionals and I appreciate everything you do. And folks, last and definitely not least, I appreciate you guys getting this far in this episode. If not for you, we wouldn't be here and I thank you. And any questions you've got, you know how to reach out to me. Steven at fishincanadacom. Willie, he's not with us today. He's got swollen vocal cords and for a man like Willie, swollen vocal cords is a devastating injury. You know what I mean. And, willie, we hope you're feeling better and you get them vocal cords all tuned back up so you can get back on the air with us and folks. Thus brings us to the conclusion of another episode of Diaries of a Lodge.

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Owner.

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Stories of the.

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North Since the day I was born, bending my rock, stretching 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. Boy, I'm a good old 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 3:

Back in 2016,. Frank and I had a vision to amass the single largest database of muskie angling education material anywhere in the world.

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Our dream was to harness the knowledge of this amazing community and share it with passionate anglers just like you.

Speaker 3:

Thus the Ugly Pike podcast was born and quickly grew to become one of the top fishing podcasts in North America.

Speaker 5:

Step into the world of angling adventures and embrace the thrill of the catch with the Ugly Pike podcast. Join us on our quest to understand what makes us different as anglers and to uncover what it takes to go after the infamous fish of 10,000 casts.

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The Ugly Pike podcast isn't just about fishing. It's about creating a tight-knit community of passionate anglers who share the same love for the sport. Through laughter, through camaraderie and an unwavering spirit of adventure. This podcast will bring people together.

Speaker 5:

Subscribe now and never miss a moment of our angling adventures. Tight lines everyone.

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Find Ugly Pike now on Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever else you get your podcasts.

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, angelo 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.

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I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and how to catch them, and they were easy to catch.

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Yeah, but it's not just a fishing show. We're going to be talking to people from all facets of the outdoors, from athletes, All the other guys would go golfing Me and Garth and Turk.

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And all the Russians would go fishing To scientists.

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But now that we're reforesting and letting things breathe.

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it's the perfect transmission environment for life To chefs, if any game isn't cooked properly, you will taste it.

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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.