Diaries of a Lodge Owner

Epiosde 130: Lodge Life, Unfiltered

• Outdoor Journal Radio Podcast Network • Episode 130

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The story starts before dawn and doesn’t end until the last plate is stacked. We open the door to real lodge life: the 5 a.m. kitchen huddles, the dockside calm for nervous boaters, the septic fixes nobody sees, and the dining room standards that set the tone for trust. It’s everything you don’t find on a brochure, told with the momentum of days that never quite go to plan—and the mindset that refuses to leave room for failure.

We trace the early missteps of running with a skeleton crew and the hard-won lessons that followed: why the old model worked, how details like hospital corners and clean bathrooms win hearts, and why making the spouse and kids comfortable is the fastest path to loyalty. There’s the infamous dinner where a guest’s outfit rattled the room and cemented a dress code. There’s the sideways-rain arrival of a major group—saved by a tarped pontoon, fast logistics, hot meals, and guides at the ready—that turned a shaky first impression into years of repeat business and referrals. Along the way, a community forms: lounge games that break the ice, a baby grand on the dock, jam sessions by the fire, and the quiet satisfaction of watching strangers become family for a few days.

The core takeaway is simple and demanding: never give yourself the opportunity to fail. Remove the off-ramps, make a clear decision, and stick to it. Keep judgment sharp—especially in a business where late nights and open bottles are always nearby. If you’re building anything in the outdoors—an outfitting service, a lodge, a guiding brand—this conversation offers candid operations insight, guest experience strategy, and the gritty resilience that keeps small businesses alive in remote places. Subscribe, share with a friend who loves the North, and leave a review to help more people find these stories. What tough lesson made you better at your craft?

No-Option Mindset

SPEAKER_02

Never give yourself the opportunity to fail. There's always a way. And you just need to be persistent enough to find that way and believe that there's no choice. I didn't have a choice. I did not give myself a choice but to succeed. This week on the Outdoor Journal Radio Podcast, Networks, Diaries of a Lodge Owner, Stories of the North. Folks, imagine this. It's just us, our Diaries family gathered around a campfire. And we're going to dive into the heart of lodge life. I'm going to share a few behind-the-scenes stories and really make it feel like we're all in this together. So settle in, because this episode is all about us, the stories we build and the little moments that turn a simple day into a memory we share as the Diaries family. One of the questions that I'm asked a lot is what is Lodge Life like for you? What is what what I keep saying is? I'm not there anymore, but um what was a day in the life for me like? And um a typical day for me um went through a couple of adaptations, and those adaptations happened as the business matured. Um, in the beginning, a typical day in the life for me was total mayhem, it was mayhem. Um, in those early days, I thought when I bought Chaudiere, and this is something that um that I find with business and and entrepreneurs in general, I got lucky, but whenever you look at a business model that's working and you see somebody else doing something, the natural tendency is to look at that and say, wow, ah, that's a good idea. But if it was done like this, it would be so much better. And a lot of times, it's not. A lot of times, you should take what was working in a business or model your business around what is working and do it exactly like that. And you find that the way that somebody has done it for 15 or 20 years, well, there's a reason behind that. They went to the school of hard knocks. But me, I chose to go to the school of hard knocks because when I bought Shaudi Air, there was this massive staff quarters, and in that original business model, I thought that I could do it with uh an extremely reduced staff, like a uh a skeleton crew of sorts, and you wouldn't even be I had I had half of the skeleton, and the skull probably wasn't part of it, because I thought that I could run that business with um myself, one chef, one housekeeper server, and one dock hand. So in total, four people. Well, folks, the owner previous to me in the season prior to that, although he had issues and and uh collapsed from liver failure at the end of the season, uh, and the occupancy was very low when I took it over, um he had a staff of upwards of 12 to 13 people. And I thought, I thought my own little mind, um, that's ridiculous. And um I quickly found that although there were a lot of things that the previous owner didn't have nailed down or let slip, and I was able to um take advantage of uh improving, once I got a foothold, the employee thing was not one of them. It was not at all. And back in those those early days, and I bumped my staff up by the time August rolled around from the three plus me to about eight, I doubled. And um, the only reason I got through with double the staff was I was not busy at all. The occupancy rate was less than 30%, which was higher than it was the year before, mind you. But I I got through it because it was very low, and my days were full, I'm telling you. So a typical day in the life for me in that first and and second year was wake up in the morning at five, make sure uh Daryl at the time was the head chef, um, help Daryl make sure that he's going and he's all good. By 6:36, I was down on the dock. I was helping, um, I was helping on the dock. And at some points, I didn't even have anybody on the dock other than myself. Um, so I had my my um uh dock attire, I'll call it a golf shirt that was left over at the lodge from the old owner, and uh a pair of um slacks, uh khaki pants and and khaki shorts, well, khaki shorts. Then uh once I got the dock looked after at about you know 7:30-ish, start all the engines, clean everything, make sure that there's bait down there, sweep off the the uh cobwebs that form overnight, uh make sure all the boasts, boats are gassed up, um, and everything is is um um presentable. I would run back up, I'd go to my room, I'd change my dock shirt into a different, more formal looking shirt that I had, and I would help Becky, the the single server, and um and she would uh uh go uh and start serving people, and I would also help her serve. And then once we had um breakfast under control, I would run back upstairs, put my dock shirt back on, run back down to the dock so that I was greeting guests as they finished their breakfast, went and got changed, got ready to go out and tackle the uh the day, and um and I would be down there to uh make sure that they got to the boat, uh, rent boats to people who were just inbound, um check for damages, um, give lessons on how to run an engine, um, answer questions about the fishery, which I really didn't know all that well. Um, but I did the best that I could. Um if I had any guides, I would be making sure that the the people, the guests got to the guide and the guide was introduced to the guests. And once that was done, which would have been about, you know, it varied from nine until 10 in the morning. Then I would run around and and that was when I put my firefighting gear on and put fires out. Whether it's problem with uh, and and there were lots of problems in those first couple of years because, you know, I didn't know the system. Um, and I'm talking mechanical systems, septic water, um, electricity, all of the main frame uh systems that were running. And there's a lot when you're talking about 14 cottages and the main lodge and the staff quarters and the laundry room and a shop and a boathouse and the dockhouse. Like, I mean, there was a lot of shit going on. So that was uh uh that was the time of the day when everybody was gone taking garbage, you know, garbage builds up. That was another another big thing, making sure that the you had a golf cart that was running. Um it it just went on and on and on when it came to that stuff. Um I learned how to be a a plumber, you know, um shit runs downhill, that kind of thing. I had never in my life up until that point had a toilet off of the um off of the floor. Um, I learned about wax seals and you know how that all works, and and uh I didn't know much about septics and shit pipes, and you know, you'd have a I'd have a shit pipe that would separate from the pressure out in the bush, and then I'd have to go and fix that. And and that basically took me just before lunch. And just before lunch came, I would run back to the um main lodge up to my room. Sometimes I'd need a shower, depending on where I was. Uh, I would put my serving gear back on and I would help Becky and the and and later on uh I hired a couple more people. There was um um Sarah. Um she was a uh a housekeeper server that Daryl knew, and Kyla, which was another uh girl that Daryl knew who was uh an assistant uh chef. And uh Daryl and Kyla looked after the kitchen and Sarah, man, what a workhorse she was, Portuguese girl. And I've never to this day seen somebody carry as many plates as Sarah. She was a workhorse. And um at the time she was a lesbian too, which you know, um played into um uh a lot of uh kind of fun that uh that she brought. Um and uh I remember um this is one of these lodge stories that uh that um I have it hasn't come to the light of my mind for years until now. And um this was my first year, and we did a wedding for one of the river guests. And um, like I say, I had next to no staff. And actually, Sarah, she made the wedding cake and did a great job. Like, I mean, a great job. And um I had all hands on deck. I had mom, I had dad, I had my sister Christine, um, a friend of my mom's, um Betty Lou, uh uh Actioni, another friend of my mom's, um Um Bev St. Clair, and I had Aunt Heather and Uncle Chuck, and Grammy was up there, and um Grammy came up to me after uh after the wedding was all over and this and that, and you know, it went off wonderfully. Um, Grammy, she wanted to be the dishes person, so she was in the dish pit. And uh my mom and um uh her friends uh and Sarah, they did the serving. And uh Grammy smiling, ear to ear, I'll never forget. Uh, she came up to me after the whole thing was over and she said, You know, Steve, I really like Sarah. I said, Oh yeah. She said, Yes. You know what she did? I said, I have no idea, Grammy. What did she do? Grammy looked at me and she smiled and she said, Sarah told me I have a nice ass. She started laughing. And uh to this day I'll never forget that. Um, but um they were Sarah and Daryl and Kyla in the uh in the kitchen that year. Um they were a uh they were a bunch of workhorses, that's for sure. And um uh I'm so grateful that uh that we got to meet and uh we got through that first year. But um that was a bit of an aside. The day in the life back then, so uh I I got you to to lunch, and um you lunch comes and uh I uh change, I get cleaned up, I help serve. After lunch, I run back upstairs, put on my dock hand equipment, um and uh gear, run down to the dock. I see all the guests out, and um I uh I then have the afternoon to put my firefighting gear back on and uh run around and um uh fix things, um answer questions, uh make sure that the staff is is on track, help Becky do the the the um uh housekeeping and and uh all of that stuff. By that time she was either in the uh laundry room and then you know I would if she was really slammed for for cottages uh in the morning, because we always wanted to have the housekeeping done by um by lunchtime so that when people come back in, all the housekeeping is done. And before they go, because typically people will come um when you've got an operation that includes um a sit-down lunch or the option to do that. If people are taking advantage of the sit-down lunch, which 90% of them did for all 10 years, um, before they come down for lunch, they'll inevitably go back to their cottage and you know, change, wash, do whatever, um, grab something they forgot for the boat and then come down for lunch. So I all and and it wasn't it wasn't a new idea. Uh Becky knew that because she worked for Jerry the year before I I bought it. And um she knew that that's the way it was. And when she told me that's the way it was, I was like, that's a good way. We we were gonna keep on that doing that. And uh I would help her get those cottages uh house-kept. Um, you know, I learned to make beds. Once Diane came later on that summer, she taught me how to make a bed. Aunt Beth, once she came later on that summer, Aunt Beth and Diane were were like two peas in a pod. They were they they were old school and you had to have hospital corners and it had to be tight, and um there there could not be any wrinkles on the top of the the top uh uh sheet and bed cover and and uh um uh the top blanket, uh all of the uh Hudson's Bay blankets. We had these red Hudson's Bay blankets, um 100% wool with black stripes on both ends of the um of the the um um blanket, and those had to be folded in a very particular fashion so that on a double bed you had to have the black lines line up properly across the foot of the bed, and on a single bed, the black line had to go across and be visible and and look uniform, and it was a whole thing, right? I didn't even know what I was getting into. I just let the women in my life at that point um teach me what I needed to do, and I did my very best to make sure that I try that if I got it half as nice as Diane or Aunt Beth, I was golden. I was golden. I'd still get shit for not doing it right, but at least it was acceptable, you know. Um, but uh I would then after the going back to those early days, I would put fires out in the afternoon until it was time to um that people were coming back in at uh, you know, 4:30. I would make sure I was on the dock because with dinner at six, people are definitely coming in at five. You get some that are coming in a little bit early. And I always wanted to be there to catch the the people um in the boat because there were some people that were new at operating boats, and docking is a bit of an issue, and it just makes somebody feel so much more comfortable when they're operating a 18-foot cedar strip with a 15 horsepower on it, which is what I had in those days. It makes you feel so much better when there's somebody standing at the end of the dock telling you where to park and then catching you and helping you tie up the boat. That is a huge stress for the person that is operating the boat that is taken off of their shoulders right off the bat. So that was important to me. So I was down on the dock catching boats as they were coming in, finding out how their fishing day was. Oh, you caught fish, where are they? Can I clean them? Um, back in the days of stringers. And um then once I got everybody in, and sometimes there was fish to clean, so you had to do that real quick, and then sometimes there wasn't. But as soon as everybody came in that were coming in, I would then run back up to the main lodge, run up to my room, put my serving outfit on, and for dinner, that was a different story. Um that was um, I had a pair of uh black jeans, black slacks, black pants, and um, and a white shirt, uh like a white golf shirt. Just a just the key was it had to be not a t-shirt, but a nice white shirt. And um for the girls, they were um black skirt, white blouse, and the skirt had to be no shorter than three fingers above above the knee, um, which that was Jerry's rule, but I quickly found out once I got lax why that's a rule. Uh you know, um as much as the guys like um the girls with with short skirts, the wives don't appreciate their husbands' wandering eyes. You know what I mean? And that I I um I learned that very quickly and made sure that that rule was enforced um um after a few of those incidents. One incident, and again, this is these are stories um from days gone by and um and memories that guests would take back. And um I had a group of guys, and this is going to the short skirt thing. This wasn't a short skirt that I could control. Um but um this one time in particular, and I and honestly, you would think that it would happen more often than what it did for me, um, but um I can only Really think of um this happening once. And um I had a group of young uh young men uh who came uh to the lodge, and young I mean like um mid 30s, maybe not 40, but maybe it's hard to tell. Um and this group of uh this group of gentlemen um brought three women with them. And in the beginning, I thought they were kind of like boyfriend and girlfriend, um, until I overheard at dinner uh when I was making my rounds. So basically I would get dressed for dinner, and all of you know that the key and and um the one thing that I did start to finish uh was walk the dining room and talk to everybody at dinner time when I was there. And in the early days, I was there. You know, there wasn't much going home. But anyway, I heard this group of guys, and it was weird because the girlfriends that were that I thought in my mind, they didn't make it like I think they stayed for three days, maybe four maximum. They came, got off the boat, went to the cottage, and I didn't see them for the first day and a half. And um, I I thought that was a little bit weird, but hey, you know, whatever. And um then I overheard them talking about them sending their wives on a trip to I forget Cancun, something like that. So there were three stray fellas with young looking girlfriends, and again, when I say young looking, mid-twenties, they were like mid-thirties, uh-ish. I I don't know. But their girlfriends never made it to dinner until the second night um one of them come out, and that was when I knew I I I realized what was going on. And uh there may have been some infidelity um um happening because I don't even remember the guys going fishing. Uh they may have, but uh for the most part, um their holiday was spent in the cottage um on an island in the French River when their wives were gone. And um, you know, I guess their mantra was what happens on Chaudiere Island stays on Chaudiere Island. I don't know. Not my business. But what happened was, and this is the short stert skirt story that really kind of cemented things, and obviously my staff would have never um been dressed in quite the same attire. But um, so the fellas on their second day, it was dinner time, and um, you know, right before dinner, uh, a lot of the the my girls, my staff, um uh, and and I had uh guy housekeeper servers too, and and Diane was a big uh proponent of that. She always wanted to have at least one guy and three girls. Didn't always work out that way, but anyway, my housekeeping and serving staff would be putting the dining room together. So um, and then there a lot of times it was it was pretty close to six by the time they were done setting up, depending on whether it was a um a buffet, because then you got all the shafing dishes and all the stuff to set up. My point is most of the people would be sitting in the lounge, um, you know, from quarter to six to six when uh when uh the housekeepers would say, Okay, uh time to uh dinner, dinner is being served, and then everybody would hustle in and bustle into their uh to their uh their tables, which were always um it was assigned seating. Like I would assign each group to to the same table. And um this one day, I uh I um I was down in the dining room and everybody was called in for dinner. And as the guys and gals are shuffling into the dining room, the cottage that these people were in, the um the gentlemen and ladies, I'll call them, uh, was right beside the dining room. So my dining room had um windows on the north side and windows all the way across the west. So it was like an L shape, and it was all windows. Excuse me, I need to wet the whistle. So as people are coming in and they're sitting down, I walk out into the dining room and I'm I'm chit-chatting uh with uh with the first table, and it happened to be like over at the um on the north side, right by where I watch people walk out of the Oriol cottage, and um I see the people from the Oriol cottage coming out, and you know, a couple of the guys come out, and then this girl, and believe me, they they they were not unattractive. These these um these women were were very attractive, and this one in particular, I didn't get to know their names, obviously. Uh I it was a bit of a a bit of a um awkward position for me, but I saw her walk out of the Oriel cottage, and um I I had to do a double take. She was very nice looking, um, and she was dressed uh barely, I'll say, a mini skirt that was very short, um, and um every man in the room looked at her, and it was like, you know, those moments in life where you're in a bustling kind of thing going on, and all of a sudden, for whatever reason, there's this kind of awkward silence for a brief second. That's what happened. As she walked across the front of them wind of those windows, there was a bit of an awkward silence, and then there was an awkward conversations going on because this girl was basically naked. Like she she and I had never dealt with this before. Like I, you know, you've you've got uh the signs, no shoes, no shirt, no service, and this and that. Well, she had shoes on, uh, she had a tank top on that was, you know, it it hid everything on top nice and tightly, although there was lots there. And then her skirt was so short that when she bent over, her coochie fell out. And I just I was I was stunned. I didn't even know what to say because the women in the room were totally, totally offended, and the men in the room pretended to be totally, totally offended, but 90% of them were looking for that glimpse of the um of the monkey, let's call it. And I um in my head, I'm like, oh my god, what do I do? Because if I make a big scene of this and ask this girl to leave or tell her to go get dressed, um I I just hated confrontation. I really hated confrontation. And by this time, I think a lot of the people in the um in the in the lodge knew exactly what was going on. Like, I mean, there's nothing nothing that um um turns a lodge community into a rumor mill more than scantily clad women and middle-aged men. And uh again, I think that everybody knew what was going on. And right, wrong, or indifferent, I chose to ignore the whole situation. I just pretended that I saw nothing. I went up to those guys and I asked them how their day was, and I looked at the girl and I asked her how her day was, and they all smiled and said, Wonderful. And I asked them where their other wives were, where the other wives were, and they said, Oh, our other wives are tired, they're having a nap in the thing. And I asked them, would you like me to make up a plate for them? And they took plates of food to the others, and um the total uncomfortable, totally uncomfortable situation was a great lesson for me. Um I done and and thank the good lord, I never had to deal with that with guests again in in my tenure. Um, but just learning what it felt like and the awkwardness of having anything close to a skirt like that in the dining room, that right there, that one situation was when I said self, Jerry's three-finger idea is a very good freaking idea. And I implemented that because I had servers, like, and it's hard to let me, let me, it's hard because a lot of times um there's uh I would I would say this is the uniform and and um uh in the in the requirements uh when I'm vetting people for jobs, but then you know, you're you get tight for people, you lose somebody because they didn't understand they were on an island and they didn't know what island life was, so they would leave, and um I would need to hire somebody on the fly. And all of a sudden I've got somebody there that doesn't have a black dress or a white blouse. So now I'm struggling to find a black dress and uh and um a skirt and a white blouse, and um they're telling me what size, and I'm in the goddamn women's section, a giant tiger looking for a black skirt and a white blouse or whatever store it was, and it was hard to figure out what sizes people were, and so it was a bit of a nightmare to get the proper fitting skirt. Um, but I never had a short skirt like that. I'll tell you what, it was um it was a sight to behold, to say the least. Um, and and when you're trying to portray yourself as a not fine dining, but um excellent food and great atmosphere. Uh there's there's people uh there were certain people that were that were very happy with the atmosphere, and then there were certain people that were not impressed one bit with the atmosphere. And honestly, the people that weren't impressed one bit were the ones that make the most difference and were the most important. Because ladies, um, for all of you out there, uh for me, one of the most important, um the most important person, and there's two in a in a uh group dynamic for me to make sure I kept happy number one, um, girls, the wives, the significant others, the ladies that were that were there, and as important, the kids. Because if I could keep if if I could if I could make Chaudiere comfortable for some for a husband's wife who's not particularly an angler, and she's decided that she wants to try to to do something with her husband that's out of her comfort zone. Um and um and I I could make it so that uh it was a place that she could even just tolerate, have a good time, you know, read a book, uh, have quiet time, sit in a screen porch, make sure the bathrooms are very clean, make sure the food is good. That they they're the most important. And in that situation, they were not happy with me. And there was some repairing to do with with the people that were there. Uh, I I vividly remember a couple of conversations with ladies and apologizing. And I was the one that initiated it. I was the one because I saw the people, I saw their reaction to the situation, and in so many ways, it was it was very funny. Um, but in so many ways, I was sweating bullets. It was um uh, you know, to to to see that unfold. Anyway, enough of that memory. So needless to say, uh, in those early days, my days were jam-packed and the learning curve was so steep, uh, it took sharp nails to just barely hold on. Um, but learn I did and learn very quickly. Um and uh and then later on, you know, my days got um, I don't want to say less impactful, but once I I got well, number one, once I put together a good um core staff that could alleviate a lot of a lot of that um pressure and um busyness and everything else, like I had no time to think about anything. Um the one thing I hated was booking people, uh, was checking people in and checking people out. Uh checking in was okay. Checking in was pretty good. I hated taking people's money. And um when Aunt Beth came that first year, uh, they they came for a week and stayed for four years. Um she looked after all of that. She looked after the money, she looked after paying bills, she looked after all of that stuff and took that off my plate to the point where, you know, I I didn't even think about it. I had so much in front of me, and I knew if I focused on making sure that the experiences my guests were having were good, that they would come back. And Aunt Beth, God rest your soul, I love you. Um without her to take on that financial stress and burden, I it would have been very difficult to make it. And there were, there were times when at that at the end of that first year, you know, the last month or two, where Aunt Beth would be up in the office and she would she would call me up there and and literally be in tears, not saying, I don't know where the money's gonna come from. I'm not sure how we're gonna how we're gonna make it. And I always just said, Aunt Beth, we'll figure it out. And when I was saying, I was just saying that because I couldn't, I I didn't have the mental fortitude to try and figure it out myself. Um I just kept doing what I was doing and I didn't even think about it. I wasted no brain power, and you might call that a terrible way to run a business, which I'm sure it is, I'm sure, but it worked out. I just believed wholeheartedly that it was gonna work out, and if it when it really came down to it, if Aunt Beth said, hey, it's you know what? Um we got no money. We need to find money. I would have found money. You know, I always knew I would I would have found money. I had a lot that uh I severed, actually, three lots that I severed from the uh from the main lodge uh um um property that uh I had in my back pocket. That if I needed to sell a lot, I knew that I could sell one fairly quickly for 30, 40 grand. Um, so you know, but it never came to that. It just it never came to that. Um and it was it was uh it was that that was a day in the life for me. Um always interesting, um, never the same. Uh the people that I met day in and day out were amazingly interesting. Um there were staff problems constantly. Uh, but I I think that's pretty typical for any business like the one that I was operating. You know, you can't you can't take um, you know, that first year I was short staffed, obviously, like uh we talked about, but later on, I would run a staff of anywhere, including guides, you know, I could be up to, you know, 20 people. Um, and you can't take 20 individuals, put them on an island, work long hours together, and live the rest of the hours of the day together in fairly tight quarters. Like the staff quarters was a 3,600 square foot building with uh 14 bedrooms. Everybody basically got their own room until usually halfway through when you get some drama, when you know, uh housekeeper server hooks up with a dock hand or a cook or chef or assistant chef or lord knows who. And then instead of you know having two rooms, which they did have two rooms, they just slept in one. Um, you know, you can't, especially when you have that stuff going on, you can't not have something going on with staff every day. And some days it wasn't it wasn't terrible, some days it was good. Some days the drama hit um hit um feverish heights, to say the least. And And um, you know, it was um it was uh it was always interesting. My life was was um was full of um abundance in every different way. Good, bad, and ugly.

SPEAKER_06

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.

Never Give Yourself Room To Fail

SPEAKER_00

That's right. Every Thursday, Ann and I will be right here in your ears, bringing you a brand new episode of Outdoor Journal Radio.

SPEAKER_06

Hmm. Now, what are we gonna talk about for two hours every week?

SPEAKER_00

Well, you know there's gonna be a lot of fishing.

SPEAKER_06

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

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, but it's not just a fishing show. We're going to be talking to people from all facets of the outdoors.

SPEAKER_00

From athletes, all the other guys would go golfing. Me and Garden Turk, and all the Russians would go fishing.

SPEAKER_06

The scientists. Now that we're reforesting or anything, it's the perfect transmission environment to line.

SPEAKER_04

The chefs. If any game isn't cooked properly, marinated for you will taste it.

SPEAKER_02

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.

SPEAKER_00

Find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Sobriety And Clear Judgment

SPEAKER_01

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 Oulette, 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. 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.

Closing Thanks And Network Plugs

SPEAKER_02

The other thing that I'd like to talk about around this this campfire is some of the memories from from you guys, from the people that I met there. And um one of the guests in particular, um Tina Tomlinson. She is a uh a wonderful lady and uh um of Russian descent. And um she would come with her husband, and um um they would Tina was the life of the party. Tina and Ross Tomlinson, they were guests of the lodge long before, well, Ross was for sure, um, long before I bought Shaudier. But um Tina was famous for on their first night, whenever we would get together at the main lodge, and whoever was in there, she would play two games. Number one, who are you and what do you do? That was game number one. And she was um uh at one point in her life, she was a uh news anchor, and um, she's a a concert pianist, and um, you know, she would we'd go through the room and I didn't I loved it because I it was it wasn't I didn't have to do anything for entertainment. She was the entertainer, and um she was very good at getting people um intermingling and um uh that game, who are you and what do you do? Uh basically she went around to everybody in the room, including me, every time. Um, and um it was an introduction. My name's Steve. I used to be a sheet metal mechanic, now I own Shaudier, and uh every person would do that. And then she had this other game, and it involved a string, an empty wine bottle, and a ball or a um uh uh uh anything that you could, uh a margarine container, a a plastic cup, uh, it didn't matter. Anything that you could put on the ground. And what the game was was she would have a starting line and a finishing line, and she would pick somebody from the crowd and pit them against somebody else, and she would pull them up to the wherever, like out in the like uh not right in front of the fireplace, but where there was a little bit of room in the in the uh in the lounge where you have a 20-foot or or 30-foot run. We move some chairs and this and that, and she would take the string, tie one end of the string to your belt loop right in the small of your back. So that string hung down your ass crack and almost to the floor, and then she'd take the wine bottle and she'd tie the wine bottle uh neck onto the string so that that wine bottle would hang um with your legs kind of you know a little wider than shoulders distance apart, would hang about two inches off the off the floor. And she'd do that to two people, and then she would set an object in front of them on the floor and say, go. And the object was to swing the bottle on the string tied to your belt loop back and forth between your legs, and use that bottle to bat the object across the floor of the room to the finish line. First person gets there, wins, and she would have some sort of a prize that she would bring, usually a bottle of wine or whatever it was. And it was one of the most hilarious actions that you could see. And people loved it. People loved it. And the ones that knew from the year prior to what it was, they hit it the back of the room when she was picking people because you're standing up there, you got a wine bottle hanging from belt loop on the back of your pants between your legs, and you're making gyrations. You're making gyrations with your hips to try and get that bottle of swinging to knock that object across the finish line. And um, Tina was uh was great at that. Not only that, she was in great shape. And at the time, probably geez, I'm gonna say she looked like she was in her late 40s, early 50s, but I think then she would have been late 60s. Um, she looked wonderful and in great shape for her age. And every morning she'd be down on the dock doing yoga and inversions. Like, I mean, she would stand on her head on the dock. Um and uh and and the one year, um Tina and Ross brought a mini grand piano to the lodge. And uh this was part of an idea that they had. They wanted uh Tina was teaching Russian students uh piano and had a very and had a very successful and specific way of teaching, and she wrote a couple of books on uh on um on it, and um she wanted to do piano retreats where she would bring her students to Chaudiere and she would teach um her students from the lodge, and uh we put this baby grand piano and it was digital, right? So we put it down on the dock, and uh Tina um played it, and we took videos of it, and I I think you could probably still find a couple of those videos kicking around on uh uh if you search Showtier, but she played this mini grand piano down there, and and unfortunately, nothing really came of it other than for you know, two years I had a baby grand piano up in the main lodge that I added to the uh music repertoire. And um, the best part about it was um I played the guitar, and people knew that I could play the guitar. So everybody just assumed that I was a musician. And um with that baby grand there, you know, people would be coming in, and and I had the whole the whole thing set up. So you walk through the the main door of the lodge and you walk into the lounge and the the fireplace is right straight in front of you, and right to the left, I had my guitars hanging up on the wall, and then right underneath it, I had the baby grand. And I knew, and I've said this before, I would always look for people that played. And I knew that people could play if they stopped their gaze on those guitars because they were pretty good-looking guitars, nothing real special, but pretty good looking. And um anybody that stopped, I'd say, You play. We jam here all the time, and a few times people would say, Oh, can you play piano? And I can't play piano at all, like not a lick, I can't even play chopsticks, but I knew where the demo button was, I had it set for like Mozart or some like totally, totally extreme difficulty um uh uh song. And uh I would say, well, as a matter of fact, I do. And I'd and if they if they asked me to sit down, and two or three times people asked me to sit down, I'd sit down behind that piano and I'd hit the demo button, and the music that come out of like the the the box and Chopin and all these songs that were in there, and I just sit behind it and just gracefully move my fingers back and forth, and they would be like, Oh my god, you are great. I'm like, Yeah, took me years. I'd in I I would tell them that it's all bullshit too, right? I wouldn't I wouldn't keep it going for for very long because you get burned doing that, right? But um, yeah, that Tina was a was wonderful. And and you know, another guest memory, and this goes a little bit deeper than uh than a guest memory um that I have, but um one of my guests that uh uh I'll never forget for a number of reasons, um was my father-in-law, Alan Nixon. And um in the beginning, like I mean, there were there were very, very few people in Shelburne and and people that I knew that when I told them what I was going to do, they thought it was a good idea. Um especially on Melissa's side of the family. And I can totally understand it. Like I mean, if my it and I I didn't really understand it at the time. Now I have a couple of daughters, and if um if uh if I had a a son-in-law that had a j had a decent paying job, had a house and a mortgage, um, and um my daughter was engaged to and at the time married, like I mean, we got married and had two babies and another one on the way. Um if I had a if if if a a son-in-law said to me, I'm quitting my my job or my uh my business that I'm making money at and I'm gonna buy a fishing lodge, I'd be very skeptical too. I'd be very, very skeptical too. And there wasn't a whole lot of um there wasn't a whole lot of uh of uh uh of support there. There was but um uh what I will say is um he didn't say anything. He didn't say anything good, anything bad, he didn't say anything at all about it. Um, but he knew that this this whole and nobody had seen it, nobody had the vision, um, and he didn't say anything. And um I knew Melissa um she didn't say no, but sh like everything in her demeanor was telling me no, and I went and bought it anyway. Um I was in a position in my life, I've told you this story before, but I was in a position in my life where I believed that I needed to do this or I was going to die young and um uh this I I had to do this, and I had convinced myself I needed to do this for myself and my family. And um, and I did. Um, and the first couple of years, first year was it was a difficult year. And um uh, but like a good father-in-law, um, Al was a um, he was the head um sales manager for a bunch of aggregate companies that started with Arnbro in the beginning, and uh, you know, Arnbro was acquired by Blue Circle and Don and on and on up to St. Mary's Cement. And he he um organized a um company trip um to come up that first year. And um they um it was it was very big for me because Al had never seen the place. He had no understanding or no idea of what it was. And um that first year, I um I I had um just the Alaskan, I had two Alaskan lunds that I used to pick up guests and bring them over to the lodge. And neither one of them had a cover on. And I was very lucky uh for most of the year, you know, there there wasn't a whole lot of rain. Um, and we were able to, you know, dodge and weave and and and get people from the marina to the to the lodge and from the lodge back to the marina um without having the worry of of of rain. Well this trip of owl's was coming. And uh days before the trip, I'm looking at the weather because I'm nervous. It's a big group. It's the first real big group that um that I had. Um there were big groups that were already booked from years past coming, but later on in the season, this was maybe July. And um it was a group of like I'm looking at a picture of the group right now on my desk. Uh, two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve, fourteen, sixteen, eighteen, between eighteen and twenty people that Al is bringing. And um, these are all industry people, you know, they're owners of um of uh trucking companies that truck the aggregate, they're uh cement companies, they're builders, they're everybody, the who's who of the of the um aggregates business and anybody who used the aggregates in all of Ontario. And it is going to piss rain the day that they arrive. Like there is not and and it is not even a question, you know. You look at it, and you know, if it says 60% rain, chances are it's not gonna rain. This was 100% rain all day, and not just a little bit of rain, like heavy rain. And the day, and I'm thinking, oh, it's gonna change. It's gonna change, you know. I'm four days out, it's gonna change. The weather always changes, it didn't change, it actually got worse. Um, so the day before they're too they're they're due to arrive. I said to um, I think at the time I had Diane hired already. I'm like, Diane, what the hell are we gonna do? And um she said, um, again, Diane, she she bailed me out of so many things. Um, she said, Well, if I were you, I'd talk to Bud. And Bud, as you all know, is the he he owned the Dokies Marina, still does, owns the Dokies Marina. And she said, I talk to Bud because Tinny and and Bev, they have a uh, and I'm like, Tinny. And she says, Yeah, bud's bud's dad. You know, Tinny, Tinny and Bev. They've got a a party barge, a pontoon boat. Um, I would see if you can rent that. So I'm like, oh my god, Diane, you are a genius. So off I go. I'm I'm head straight to the marina, and I'm I'm like, hey, bud, does your mom and dad do they have a um a party barge, like a um a pontoon boat? And bud's like, oh yeah, that's it right there. And it was parked in the marina. No, it wasn't it wasn't um beautiful, but it was it was good. Like it was way better, and it had a bimini top on it. And I'm like, oh my god, this could be amazing. Bud, can I rent that tomorrow? I've got my father-in-law's group. I tell him the whole story. They come over. I gotta get them over. He says, Yeah, yeah, no problem. So it comes the day of, and it is boring. And not even it's storming. Like it is storming. There was no lightning, but the wind was ridiculous. Like, I mean, it was blowing rain sideways. And I'm thinking, how, oh my god, what am I gonna do? Even with a biminy top, you are soaked. Like, I mean, the it's coming in the sides. So I go, I went over first thing in the morning. They weren't due until, you know, one o'clock or whatever check-in was. And um, I said, bud, I got a I brought two tarps. I said, Can I I need to put these tarps on the side of the the bimini? Is that okay with you? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I think he even helped me put the tarps on. And I tarped this boat up. I tried to button it up as best as I could, but I had to leave the front open so I could see when I was driving, and I had to leave the back open because that's where I was driving from. Well, the boys get here. And um, when he saw how I was transporting everybody over. I think he was he was a little bit horrified, to be honest. Um, but what what was I gonna do? You know? And uh we loaded um we loaded everybody. I think it actually took us two uh two trips because there were so many of them, and all of their gear. They were there for wasn't a wasn't a long stay. I think it was um either two days and three nights, or three nights and three days, like they might have stayed late, but it wasn't more than three nights. Um, and um it was a lot of gear and a lot of people. And with all of the effort that I made to get them across to the lodge in a somewhat dry and meaningful way, it totally failed. Everybody was soaked like drowned rats, man. Like we were soaked, it was awful. And the whole time I'm like, oh my god. And you know, I'll already didn't know what the hell was going on. And when he was looking at a boat that wasn't even mine and and Jerry rigged with with tarps and everything else, it was it was a crazy, it was a crazy first impression. But once we got over to Chaudiere, you know, and we got everybody into their cottages efficiently, and I had the dock hands ready in the pouring rain. We got all of the gear unloaded quick, uh into the into the um uh golf carts and up to the cottages, nobody moved any of their own gear, and then everybody got changed and met down at the main lodge. You know, Al was um, I think he was quietly impressed with this with the um state of the facility. Um even in that first couple of years, once the elbow grease came out and we put a shine on everything, even then, it was a fairly impressive um place. And um impressive enough that the rest of that trip went off very good. Um, I had guides for them for the two days, and everybody went out. Um, and that went on for, you know, the 2010, 11, 12, and um 2013. Uh and in the summer of 13, um, this is when um without ever really coming out and saying, you know what, you did a good job. Um uh Al brought uh he he asked me, said, Hey, listen, I'd I'd like to bring my dad to see the place. And um when he brought Jim, um his dad to see Chaudier, and they didn't stay overnight, he drove Jimmy like, you know, four hours to see, and they and Jim come over and he saw the place and and um um was impressed. And uh though that was that was every bit as good as saying, hey, I was wrong. You you've done good. I I don't I don't believe how how this turned out. Um and then um that was early that year, and I'm not sure why they didn't stay. There could have been a reason, there might not have been, but um, and um the um um that was Al's last trip. Um I remember Dario Michello, he he was one of Al's very close friends uh from um he owns a trucking company and he emigrated from Italy and started with one truck that he run 24-7 and built it into an empire, uh, him and and his brother. And um Dario and Al that last year sat on the dock. Uh, they didn't go fishing, they didn't make it in for for lunch, they didn't make it in for breakfast. Uh, I'm pretty sure they made it in for dinner, but I'm not sure either one of them really remembers it. Um, and all they did was they laughed, they drank wine, and had a a wonderful time. And um, in September of that year, Al died of a heart attack uh and complications that led into that that heart attack. Um, but um that was uh that was a very uh a very um uh great thing that he did for me bringing those people and from from that trip that Al started, that tradition that Al started, um the spin offs were huge. There was probably I'm gonna say three or four other groups from other areas of of business that did exactly the same thing. They brought their their people um in their own way to the lodge for the same experience. That three days, the guides, the shore lunches, and all of that stuff. And that was from Al. And that memory of of Al bringing Jim to the lodge was uh was was huge for me. Um, but yeah, like I mean, the the the memories, um there's so many of them. And it's funny. Um they don't uh uh my memory, I don't know whether it's because I'm getting old, but to sit down and try and think of these memories before I'm sitting in front of this mic, this this um uh campfire with all of you per se, uh I I have a hard time remembering them. But as I sit here and and uh and and tell stories, they all come back. And um just uh um to to um kind of wrap things up and include everybody, I've got a I've got a question from a longtime listener, Jake McElpine. Um and uh I thought I'd read it. I haven't really given it any thought, so bear with me. Uh, but it says, so Steve, if there was one piece of wisdom or a favorite story from your years running the lodge that you think everyone should hear around this fire, what would it be? And um that is a great question. Thanks, uh, thanks, uh Jake. I really appreciate that. Um well I'll tell you. The the I'll go I'll go on the wisdom side since I've told a ton of stories already. Um for me, the one piece of information that I can that I could could give to um anybody that is in my situation twenty year well, fifteen years ago versus um uh to now, that piece of information number one would be don't give yourself the opportunity to fail. That that that's not even um that shouldn't even be in your vocabulary. And believe me, things get tough sometimes, um, but never, never give yourself the opportunity to fail. There's always a way. And you just need to be persistent enough to find that way and believe that there's no choice. I didn't have a choice. I did not give myself a choice but to succeed. Even when things were looking very bad, I didn't choose to look at it that way. I chose to not give myself an um opportunity to fail, um, never quit, and make a decision in the moment and stick by that decision and don't let anybody talk you out of it. Bear down and do it. And um if you can do that, and only you can only you know, and honestly, until you're right in that moment, you will never know if you can do it or not. Because I I I think that most people um err on the the side of I can't, I can't. I uh no, I could never do that. I could never mortgage my house, mortgage, take a uh line of credit from my from my parents, and I could never uh take a vendor take back and and go to a mortgage broker and get all kinds of other money to do something. I could never do that. Well, I did. And with that, I did not give myself the opportunity to fail. Because if I failed, I was taking a whole whack of the people that I love the most down with me. And um, I made it work. And you can too. You just need to have the motivation and the attitude to make it work, and and that's the wisdom. And and if there's a caveat to throw in on that, um, Jake, it's it's um anybody in in my in in the this type of business, um take the the the the words of Mike Apron. Uh and he was the uh he was the gentleman that I met at the first um sports show in Toronto that I did, and his piece of advice was there's there's two kinds of people that that operate these these places, there's the ones that drink and the ones that don't, and only one make it. And um that goes hand in hand with not giving yourself um the option to fail. Because if you cloud your judgment with um drinking and even a little bit, because a little bit leads to a little bit, leads to a little bit, and all of a sudden it's more than a little bit, um that can get in the way. So do not give yourself the opportunity to quit or fail, and and uh do not use alcohol to to to cloud your judgment. It's very easy for somebody in the lodging business um to do that. And um that's that those are the two. That's the wisdom. That's the wisdom, folks. And uh thank you to all of you for getting to this point, uh, putting up with my rambling. And um, hey, if you guys think of anybody that um I should talk to that you would be interested in in uh hearing their story, or lodge owners out there listening. If you guys um want to share your story and uh find it similar or not similar to mine, uh reach out, let me know. Uh let's uh let's uh let's turn up the heat on uh Diaries of a Lodge Owner here for 2026 and uh Happy New Year and all of the other stuff. I'm sure I said it on the other uh podcast, uh, but um this is gonna be a great year. Um focus on positive and uh and it's gonna be a great year. So thanks again, folks, for getting here. Thank you to our producers, um Anthony Mancini and uh Dean Taylor, and thank you to the Outdoor Journal Radio Podcast Network for making this all possible. Angelo, uh Pete, uh you guys rock. And um don't forget to tune in Saturday mornings for the um Fish in Canada new season. And uh the first few have not uh have not uh featured uh yours truly, but they are coming, believe me. And uh there are the uh the the last couple of episodes have been outstanding. Um check those out. You can see them on the website, uh ww.fish and canada.com, or go straight to the Fish and Canada YouTube channel and you can pick up all new shows uh on the Monday after they air Saturday morning. And um again, thus brings us to the conclusion of another episode of Diaries of a Lodge Owner, Stories of the North.

SPEAKER_03

I'm a good old boy. Never meaning no hog. I'll be the only you ever saw been railing in the hog since the day I was born. Someday I'm I don't know lodge and be fine. I'll be making my way the only way I know how. And now I'm here talking about how God can be as good as it seems. Yeah.

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