Under the Canopy
On Outdoor Journal Radio's Under the Canopy podcast, former Minister of Natural Resources, Jerry Ouellette takes you along on the journey to see the places and meet the people that will help you find your outdoor passion and help you live a life close to nature and Under The Canopy.
Under the Canopy
Episode 66: Camp Life w/ Garrett Ouellette
Today on Under the Canopy, my son Garrett makes an appearance, providing updates from the wilds of Saskatchewan and British Columbia, as we look forward to celebrating my mother's 90th birthday with a family reunion filled with love and laughter.
We then pivot from the kitchen to the construction site, as we delve into the fascinating world of camp jobs and remote projects across Canada. From reinforcing concrete slabs to building rail support systems, learn about the challenges and opportunities presented by gold mines in the Yukon and wind farms in Newfoundland. Gain insight into the promising future of Ontario's Ring of Fire, while considering the personal sacrifices made by workers in these remote locations, far from their loved ones.
Kim's touching testimonial about the healing benefits of chaga cream adds a human element to our exploration of natural remedies, as we recount an unforgettable adventure involving a chocolate lab and a chainsaw mishap in the woods. In true adventurous spirit, we discuss plans for a northern fishing trip and oil exploration in Ontario, sharing tales of peculiar fishing regulations and ancient coral beds.
What brings people together more than fishing and hunting?
Speaker 2:How about food?
Speaker 1:I'm Chef Antonio Muleka and I've spent years catering to the stars. Now, on Outdoor Journal Radio's Eat Wild podcast, luis Hookset and I are bringing our expertise and Rolodex to our real passion the outdoors.
Speaker 3:Each week we're bringing you inside the boat tree stand or duck blind and giving you real advice that you can use to make the most out of your fish and game.
Speaker 1:You're going to flip that duck breast over. Once you get a nice hard sear on that breast, you don't want to sear the actual meat. And it's not just us chatting here. If you can name a celebrity, we've probably worked with them and I think you might be surprised who likes to hunt and fish. When Kit Harrington asks me to prepare him sashimi with his bass, I couldn't say no. Whatever Taylor Sheridan wanted, I made sure I had it. Burgers, steak, anything off the barbecue. That's a true cowboy. All Jeremy Renner wanted to have was lemon ginger shots all day. Find Eating Wild now on Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever else you get your podcasts.
Speaker 5: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 applications used 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 this 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. No-transcript. So join me today for another great episode, and hopefully we can inspire a few more people to live their lives under the canopy. As always, we want to thank all our listeners from across Canada and the States, and those in Ghana, Trinidad and Tobago, Switzerland and all the other locations that listen to us. We really appreciate all those audiences out there and, of course, we always say the same thing If you have any questions or any shows that you want to suggest, be more than happy to try and do what we can to accommodate you. Sometimes it takes a little bit of time to get guests on and to talk about stuff, but we try to do that. Now I know for those that saw on it was what was that on? Those that heard the podcast that came out a couple of weeks ago when I was back with the school again for the fall session. We actually were on. It's called the National News here in Canada and that session made it onto the National News and CBC Canada as well, had a little bit of a write-up on us, which was kind of interesting, although I personally found it kind of intimidating or somewhat concerning, because the teacher that set it up with Millbrook, the Millbrook school there, called me what was it that? She called me? The keeper of ancient knowledge. Well, we try to do what we can and we keep learning, and the way we learn is by listening and talking to people, because there's a lot of knowledgeable individuals out there and we never stop learning and that's what everybody should do.
Speaker 5:But this session is just a wee touch different. It's brought to my son, Garrett, who's done a number of shows with us. He's back from Saskatchewan for a special event. Actually, today our recording day is my mother's 90th birthday and we have Gerd, who's in from Saskatchewan, we have his girlfriend Brittany and my niece and others in from Calgary and my sister's in from Manitoba and people from Northern Ontario to have a little bit of a surprise party for my mom's 90th, and we're very much looking forward to that. Now. Elaine, who's a regular listener to our podcast, was very interested in hearing about all the stuff that takes place with Garrett and the Potash Mine and Site C in British Columbia, and so this morning I brought Garrett on to give us and Elaine a little bit of an update on what's happening at some of those sites. So welcome to the podcast, Garrett.
Speaker 2:Yes, thank you for having me. It's always a pleasure being on the podcast here and yeah, as you said, I'm back from Saskatchewan. I was out there for practically about a five to ten week turnaround if you include the four days I took off for the little short break. But yeah, it's nice to be back. Saskatchewan is definitely getting colder and Ontario is very hot. In comparison, you can definitely notice the humidity difference from Ontario to Saskatchewan. For sure. You come here and everything's very, very damp and moist. And when my girlfriend Brittany got off the plane, the first thing she said to me is oh, it's very damp outside. She said to me is oh, it's very damp outside, my hair is getting curly.
Speaker 5:So just one of the differences there. Yeah, so it's great to have you back in Ontario. As always, garrett and I know we've got, or you've got, some plans for us, since next week we're heading north to do a Chaga pick as well, but in British Columbia, how are things? And I hear there's potential for the work. Now you've finished Site C, which is Canada's largest. I didn't realize. It was the largest largest hydro dam. And now I heard you talk about something, discussions about a potential for Site D. Do you know anything about that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so a couple of the co-workers out there that are from BC. They keep in touch with the guys out there and there's rumor there's going to be Site D will be starting up because apparently there's one more location out there for another dam to be put up. I'm not too sure exactly when it's going to be starting or not, but with increased demand in hydro I wouldn't be surprised if they start this project sooner than later.
Speaker 5:Not too sure if it's a go or not, but the rumor is they're going to be starting site d sometime in the near future here so and of course with the all the evs out there, and a person who used to be my, my executive assistant when I was elected here in Oshawa, paul Paul's wife, stacey, works for one of the major car manufacturers and now starting I believe it's next year I don't have all the details, maybe we should try and get somebody from that industry on to talk about it a bit. But what's happening is is that the retailers can only sell so many gas cars based on the number of EVs electric vehicles they sell. So I think it starts next year. I might be wrong, I could be wrong, I could be right. But at least from what I understood from Paul, my former executive assistant when I was elected here in Oshawa, that starting next year, for every electric vehicle they're allowed to sell four gas-powered vehicles and slowly that reverses over the next series of years so that before you can sell a gas-powered one, you may have to sell four electric-powered vehicles, which has a big concern. So when you're looking at that, it's not only the vehicles and the repairs and all the batteries and all the things that we hear about and the needs for that, but also the hydro generation to charge these vehicles and the demand for that can be quite high as well. So we hear about these things, but the thing with I know dams, these things.
Speaker 5:But the thing with I know dams and I know from Ontario Hydro when we were talking back when we first got elected between 95 and 99, and Darlington Power Plant is right adjacent to us and they were telling us there that with the growth and the demand of the manufacturing sector, there wouldn't be enough power in Ontario by the year 2015. And that it takes 10 to 12 years to build a plant to be able to have that power to supply the manufacturing sector. So when you're talking about Site D, potentially in British Columbia, you're looking at an extended period of time in order to plan it, to get all the operation right, at an extended period of time in order to plan it, to get all the operation right, to have it up and running. So that's the kind of timeline that they look at. So what's not happening now, what's not happening next year, but what's going to happen 15 years from now and where's the demand going to be and how do we accommodate it by planning now.
Speaker 5:So when you look at those sort of things, those industries, whether it's the hydro dam and I was with Mark, another person who's looking at hydro development in northern Ontario Actually, I may try to get Mark on for a podcast and looking at developing small, they're called low flow generations, where they go from anywhere from about 5 to 12 megawatts of generation, because the new technologies have come forward that allow smaller dams to be able to generate electricity. So those are the kind of planning lines. But what's happening with your project in saskatchewan, garrett? So you mentioned the cold and so they can't work in the cold, or is it? You're far enough along that they they you're not required there anymore, or how's that working out or what's happening there?
Speaker 2:yeah, so. So in Saskatchewan, the potash mine there we're nearing the end of production. For our part of it they still have a lot of phase and everything else to go for, but I believe they started phase two. Phase one, I believe now is more than 50% complete. I'm not too sure what defines their phases and what they're saying each phase is considered to have what parts in.
Speaker 2:Again, we are a subcontractor out there, so we're not the main, the main contractors. We don't get the information. We kind of you know we get the second word and third word of mouth kind of thing and we're hearing down the chain as it comes down. Right now, as we're looking at, we have majority of all the foundations and processing plants and base footings and stuff like that all in place. Now it's just more or less, as some guys might call it, jewelry work. It's just dressing pedestals, putting in small little support areas here and there, little additional footings, if they have changed their plans, something like that. But right now the main housing area of the potash is all pretty much completed. They have maybe a give or take a month of a little bit more work for us there before it's really getting down to the bare bones of the job for us.
Speaker 5:So, garrett, when you talk about a couple of things, so people need to understand the size of this. How would you compare it to, say, a hockey arena or the ice pad in an arena or a football field a Canadian one, of course and what was your role there? So what are you doing, putting the concrete down on that, or for the processing, and how much concrete, or how thick is the concrete pads and what do they put in the concrete? Being your role is what people want to know.
Speaker 5:Not only that, but I think people need to understand when you mentioned about phase one and you work 10 weeks, that's 10 weeks straight, 10 to 12 hours a day Although I think this camp job had were 10 hour days, because the other one had 12 hour days in BC when you were there and four days off in 10 weeks. It's not four days, not five days a week job. This is seven days a week, going straight for 10 weeks straight. So kind of give us some understanding of the size of the operation and what it is and some of the size of the material you're utilizing. I mentioned I think you even mentioned how many individuals it took just to pick up one piece, but give us a little bit of better understanding of all that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I guess to clarify there then I guess so when we talk about the rebar and the size of the job that's going in for people that don't know the work that revolves around rebar and size, something like that. If you were to take a hockey rink, one of the areas that we were building for hoarding the potash when it's all refined and processed down and ready to be shipped out across the world, the area that one of them that we were working on was one kilometer long and if you're comparing it to like a hockey rink kind of thing, the width of the hockey rink was probably a double ice sheet wide, and this is just one of them. So it's one kilometer long by, say, two hockey rinks wide. I didn't get the exact measurements how wide it is, but that's probably the closest comparison. And then think of, say, one or two story um height wise is that's how the perimeter of this is built. So it's more or less the bottom is just going to be natural earth and then from there it's about two stories up of concrete walls to hoard and house all the potash as they're being processed to ship out, and then what they also have they're shipping out with is they're going to be doing it with a rail system, so I believe it's a 72 cart rail and each of these holds, I believe, 10 to 20 or 10 to 15 tons of potash per cart. So they're going to be, and they said they could fill these carts within, I believe it was a single day period, or less than 12 hours, or 14 hours, I believe.
Speaker 2:And then so there's 25 kilometers of track that they had to install. So we had to do all the supports and processing for the when the train is coming onto site to be loaded. We had to do all that work, which was the one area was mainly about a good one kilometer, one kilometer and a half long of rail support. And then for the plant itself, we're also doing all the pedestal work, things like that, for all the conveyor belts when it goes through the crushing process and then the refining process and it gets moved around the site. We're doing all the conveyor belts like that. I never got the exact measurement there, but if I was to take a guess, it'd probably be at least probably roughly three kilometers of track system that we have to do for all the conveyor belts, for them to process and move all the material around to each phase of the refining process there.
Speaker 5:So the actual concrete bed that you worked on is two hockey widths wide and one kilometer long. And then now a lot of people may not know what rebar is and what is it but, and how thick is this pad that you're working on?
Speaker 2:So the slabs that we do for where everything's being sit on there were 900 and 1300 millimeters, so roughly one meter. On average there is how thick the slab is. So when we put the rebar in, most of the weight was on bottom. But these slabs were also designed because of permafrost. It's a two-tier slab system. So there was one meter thick of slab for the main slab, which was about 25M to 35M rebar, which is about give or take an inch to an inch and a half thick of rebar going in on the bottom layer and same on the top layer, and then that one meter slab gets poured.
Speaker 2:They have about what they call a void area, which is roughly I believe it was 500 to 600 millimeters, so about half half a meter. There, a void which is just going to be natural earth, because during the thaw and freezing sec times of the year they are expecting to have a lot of shift and weight and concrete pressure stuff like that, so they don't want the concrete cracking. So there's going to be a meter thick slab on the bottom, about a half meter thick of just natural void, natural earth kind of thing. Most of the time it's going to be a crushed rock material and then from there they'll have another slab, which is only going to be a smaller thin slab. It'll probably be about a 500 millimeter thick slab, so half of a meter there, and that's the concept for the slabs that we were doing there.
Speaker 5:And so you put this rebar, which is a reinforcing material that's used to kind of keep the concrete together and make it stronger, and it's like inch and a half, two inches in diameter, and how long are these rods that go into there if you're 200 feet wide by a kilometer long pad? So how long are these bars and how do you get them into position when they're that large? Because that's quite a bit of weight.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so let's explain the whole process.
Speaker 2:When they come on the shipment of the truck, the standard length that a truck can carry is 18 meters.
Speaker 2:So when we were getting bars, there was 18-year bars, 35m, going in and you would have, once the crane is unloaded off the truck then placed onto the slab, we would open these bundles up and we'd be grabbing each bar individually.
Speaker 2:On average that they have about at least four guys on those bars because they weigh I believe it's right, around 400 pounds a bar kind of thing and with their laws and stuff like that they have out there, they don't, and even just camp rules itself for the own company that's running the operation. You're not supposed to be lifting more than 50 pounds per person. So they have to require four people or five people going on each bar to make sure they're understanding the compensation there. Mind you, they do have a little bit of leeway for us because when the bars are so long, the amount of force when you pick up the bar is not going to be, you know, 50 pounds rare on your shoulder kind of thing, because it's so spread out. You're going to have maybe 40 to 30 pounds on your on your shoulder when you're having like a team lift when everyone's lifting together all right, that sounds like.
Speaker 5:Let's just say that the experience that we've gained in our life, and as we gain more experience, we realize that some of these jobs are meant for the young one doing all that lifting and hauling when you got a 400 pound bar, but it's got to be more than four guys if it's a 50 pound max lift, with the rules and regulations in each province has its own rules and regulations, because if there's four guys, that's only 200 pounds they can lift, but if you get six or eight for a 400 pound bar, that's that's more than enough. So and then now you also talked about some other potential positions and camp jobs around the country as well. I know you mentioned one in in the Rock, newfoundland I don't know what's happening there or what's taking place and then some other spots, and maybe you can kind of enlighten us about some of the other camp jobs you're hearing about. Now. These camp jobs basically kind of give us a background for those who haven't heard any of the other podcasts about what a camp job is.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So a camp job is when you're going out there. They cover your housing and food and everything else like that. So most of the camps that I've stayed on it's kind of like a hotel room. You get your own bathroom, you get your own bed. Usually it's a single bed, nothing too crazy or extravagant, but it's nice enough that you're comfortable with it. The food's always usually pretty good. Sometimes you have bad nights because it's just they get bottom of the freezer, kind of thing, so you have the same thing over twice in a row, kind of thing sometimes. But a camp job is usually a rotation or a schedule. So when they do camp work it's usually have two or three shifts, depending on how the demand for work is and how fast they want to get it done. So the camp that I was at in Saskatchewan was a two-in-one, so it's two weeks on, one week off. I took the opportunity to do and stay longer for some periods of time, so I was there for roughly a 10 week rotation before I came back, and then so the other jobs across Canada right now that are going on.
Speaker 2:There's one up in the Yukon. They're building a gold mine up there and that camp, I believe is going to be three weeks on, one week off, and it is in the middle of nowhere. So if you were to land in the capital city of Yukon, which is Yellowknife, yeah, yellowknife, there it'll be. I believe it's a three to four-hour bus ride from Yellowknife into the middle of nowhere where this gold mine's being set up and that one should be going. Starting now they're're having about, I think, 15 to 20 guys there. Um, they've started this project. They are hoping to pick up a bit more so they can push through the winter, because the gold operation up there is really late spring, summer and then it's pretty much gets shut down by the snow.
Speaker 2:Um, another project that you mentioned there was the Rock, which is in Newfoundland. There they have a huge project going on. It's going to be a windmill project and a power plant as well. They have, I believe the first phase of this is 93 windmills being constructed and they're not small little windmills. These are the biggest size that they have available and they're not small little windmills. These are like the biggest size that they have available and with those it's pretty much the base alone of it of each of these things, I believe, is 10 tons of steel and that's just for the base layer and then all the supports and like that. So I believe that at the end of each of these windmills there's probably, I think, 50 tons of steel that goes into these ones. And so to give a rough idea, if you were to take let's just use a hockey rink again take the pad of ice and go from the red line to the goal line there, that's probably the width of this base alone for the windmills to be constructed in. So then you got all these tons of rebar and reinforcement of it going into that area. So the first phase is about 93. And then the power plant itself. I can't remember the total tonnage there, but I believe it's a 5,000 ton job or 4,000 ton job for just the power plant alone. So in total this is going to be a huge project for Newfoundland. It'll probably last a few years there for sure, and that's designed again just to meet the demands for electrical power and supplies for the grid and stuff like that as well.
Speaker 2:And then we have a couple more jobs going around in Ontario. There's two gold mines going up in Ontario I'm not too sure the exact location and this was brought to my attention probably about a month ago now, and they are on and off again trying to get this project done before spring there. So they're having an outreach for a couple more guys. And the other thing is there's steel mills going up with the government and the increased demand on steel Steel mills are going up as well in northern Ontario, so there's lots of work out there again. So these steel mills are just more or less expansions, which is going to be a lot of wall work and slab work and I believe they're not too big of a bar. I believe this one's only a 20 to 25 M, so nothing huge, but it's a lot of work going into to construct these buildings and operations.
Speaker 5:Well, that's quite a bit Now. You mentioned Yukon, but the one thing is, garrett, do me a favor, don't mention to mom about the Yukon job. It's tough enough, especially with the three weeks on, one week off, and by the time you get there and spend time with Brittany in Calgary and then back to Ontario, it's usually a few months before we see you. So don't mention it to mom just yet. But it's certainly good that these sort of things take place and I know in Ontario once the ring of fire starts to get developed as well, because there's so much leg work to get that in. And for those that don't know, what the ring of fire is, is basically millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of years ago, a asteroid hit in Ontario with such force to go down to allow the Earth's core to flow into areas around Sudbury, and that's how all the metal is found in Sudbury. But also, at the same time, it appears now that there was the same time asteroids hit in the far northern part of Ontario called the Ring of Fire, and it has just as much metal content in those areas and there will be huge amounts of demand for camp jobs and development.
Speaker 5:But the problem there is. It's so remote. How do you get everything in? It's like you're talking about Yukon, that well, first of all, how are you going to build kind of an accommodation in Yukon, which would probably take the first stage in order to house everybody and feed everybody? But the same thing in Northern Ontario. So how do you get roadways? Because there's no roads up there. Everything comes in by ice road in the wintertime or it's really really tough because hudson's bay is really shallow up there. For those that heard the polar bear podcast with us, they know that we got stuck in the mud flats of hudson's bay so it's hard to get ships in and out from those and it'd be very, very difficult to do that unless they started dredging some way, shape or form, but anyway. So there's lots of work around, lots of potential there.
Speaker 2:So, and just to cut in there about the asteroids there, when you're talking about this ring of fire and stuff, you know, when you're at the work site and some of the conversations come up with the guys and you're just sitting there you think to yourself because you got nothing else to do but just wander, look in the sky and think you know? One of the things that came to my mind is what is the greatest weapon known to mankind?
Speaker 5:The greatest weapon known to mankind.
Speaker 2:Well, let me think Probably I don't know, after having gone through COVID, but probably what a nuclear bomb, probably what a nuclear bomb, you would think, with all the technology and advancements we had in society, that you know nuclear or lasers or any of these accomplishments that we've created, or splitting atoms, stuff like that, but no, the greatest weapon of mankind that we've still yet to beat is a rock.
Speaker 5:A rock, what do you mean? A rock? I mean, I had rock fights with Eric McLaughlin when I was a kid, but what are you talking about? A rock, what do you mean? A rock? I mean, I had rock fights with Eric McLaughlin when I was a kid, but what are you?
Speaker 2:talking about a rock. Well, in today's world, that ring of fire and asteroids we're following today, that giant rock in the sky that's falling on us we have no way to defend ourselves or really combat a giant rock.
Speaker 5:Well, gary, you certainly gave us something to think about, but yeah, the most uh yeah, I guess you're right the most dangerous weapon that's out there is still a giant rock that uh can cause a lot of problems worldwide. That's a good one, garrett, I never thought about that one. 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.
Speaker 1:Ang 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?
Speaker 4:Well, you, know there's going to be a lot of fishing.
Speaker 1:I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and how to catch them, and they were easy to catch.
Speaker 3: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 Garton.
Speaker 1:Turk and all the Russians would go fishing.
Speaker 4:To scientists Now that we're reforesting and laying things free. It's the perfect transmission environment for life.
Speaker 1:To chefs If any game isn't cooked properly, marinated, you will taste it.
Speaker 3: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 5:Find us on Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And now it's time for another testimonial for Chaga Health and Wellness. Okay, we're here with Kim from Bob Cajun and Kim, you had a great experience with the Chaga cream and your grandson. Can you tell us about that a bit?
Speaker 6:Yeah, so my grandson actually struggles with psoriasis. He's only 16 years old, so of course, the self-esteem right. He doesn't want his face all covered in scales and stuff like that. And I picked him up on a weekend to come and visit with me and I had overheard you talking to somebody about psoriasis.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 6:So it kind of piqued my interest and I thought I would ask you about that. And when you explained it to me I took a container home for him.
Speaker 5:Right.
Speaker 6:And in one day he was over the moon, happy that his face looked clear, and he's going to be religiously doing it because he's so self-conscious about it.
Speaker 5:So he tried other things through the medical system and things like that, yeah, and he just didn't have any success.
Speaker 6:Correct, he had a prescription of cream and you know, it would sort of dry it up a little bit. But that was the problem it just dries it up and then it's flaky on his face and he doesn't really like that and it leaves a lot of little red blotchy stuff right. So after he rubbed that stuff on the chaga stuff, right he was. His face didn't look so angry you know because it's a red, angry sort of right on his face and it didn't look so angry, it looked looked soft and clear.
Speaker 6:So he was over the moon happy, and so I took him home, and then he messaged me after a couple of days to tell me that he's so, so happy that his skin looks clear.
Speaker 5:Great. Thanks very much, kim. From Bob Cajun, you're welcome. Okay, we interrupt this program to bring you a special offer from Chaga Health and Wellness. If you've listened this far and you're still wondering about this strange mushroom that I keep talking about and whether you would benefit from it or not, I may have something of interest to you. To thank you for listening to the show, I'm going to make trying Chaga that much easier by giving you a dollar off all our Chaga products at checkout. All you have to do is head over to our website, chagahealthandwellnesscom, place a few items in the cart and check out with the code CANOPY C-A-N-O-P-Y. If you're new to Chaga, I'd highly recommend the regular Chaga tea. This comes with 15 tea bags per package and each bag gives you around five or six cups of tea. Hey, thanks for listening Back to the episode.
Speaker 5:So you got back this week just in the past. Oh, which day was it last? Anyways, and the first thing that we do is we head out and start cutting firewood on the same day that you get back, and, of course, we take our chocolate lab out with us and maybe you can just kind of give us a little bit of insight. What happened with? I think that was. Was that the first tree? I'm not sure, because there was a lot of downed trees already. I mean we had there was a lot of blow down with some black cherries, some poplar and a bunch of other hardwoods as well, and the first tree we had a little oh no, no, it wouldn't be the first tree, because you and Josh cut some down as well. So one of the trees in there we had a little incident. What happened there?
Speaker 2:We were taking a tree down and it's all. Tops are all snapped off, so it's very straight logs. There's not much of a lean there to really predict fall. So I made the prediction for the fall there, which was going until it caught up at the top there, and then it back snapped and it got caught up. So instead of falling north, it fell south, just to give people a little bit direction there. So it fell the opposite way.
Speaker 2:We were intending it to fall. It got caught up. It wasn't a huge tree. So I look around, I see everything was being adjusted so I thought things were okay. So I go to pick up this. I don't know how long the tree was to pick up the tree, though, to make it to fall, to get to fall reverse direction. Now, as things were going, it rolls on us even more and it starts to come down, and so it came to the point of I look up, I see my dad running trying to grab the dog and I see this nice orange and white, great looking, expensive saw sitting there and I see bits and pieces of orange and white great looking, expensive saw sitting there and I see bits and pieces of orange and white flying in the air.
Speaker 5:Yeah. So what happens is it's a tall canopy, it's like a 60 foot canopy and the leaves are still on the trees, so you can't see a lot of the top and in the top of this, the tree that he was. He was trying to control the fall, caught some of the stuff inside, above the canopy, the tree line there, and it fell a different way. So I had to quickly adjust and either save our chocolate lab or save the Arctic 462 steel chainsaw. The lab got saved, the chainsaw got totaled, just totaled, and all it was was just the tree just nailed. It just caught everything.
Speaker 5:But that's what happens when you're dealing in a lot of those things. We try to tell people. It's not so much when we go into the woods and that was one of the first things I taught my sons was it's you got to watch up there, because not only when you're cutting, when branches break off up there that all of a sudden a wind will come down and those branches that are stuck in other trees come down and they start. That's where you get your widow makers they call them, or Chico's which end up causing a lot of problems. Yeah, but so, and there was quite a bit of wood in there. I mean there was some camp wood that individuals wanted campfire wood we call it. It's a poplar which burns good and it had been down probably, for this was a blowdown. That was probably down for about two years, but not lying flat on the ground, because if poplar lays in the ground it'll absorb moisture. But this poplar was laying up on other trees that had blown over, so it was sitting high and pretty dry. Laying up on other trees that had blown over, so it was sitting high and pretty dry. So we got that cut up and got that out to some individuals.
Speaker 5:But it's not a great heat fire, although I know an old teacher of mine, john, when I was in high school, way back, shall we say, in the 70s. He loves to burn poplar in his stove and his fireplace. It's a nice sounding wood and the pop it's actually an aspen, a large tooth aspen, which was the tree we were talking about, but it's in the popper family. It's like maple trees. There's different types of maple trees and popper as a whole family on itself and anyway, so there was quite a bit of there. But so after we head out to to to take Brittany to the airport on Monday. Then we got some more plans for me, garrett. So what are we doing, say, four or three days from now? Where are we headed then?
Speaker 2:So we'll be heading up north. There in northern Ontario we're going into the bush there to be picking chaga. I'm looking to help out with the business there to get some more supplies and stuff like that, as I've been away and haven't been doing much of the harvesting so it's definitely been a process and falling a little bit short on supplies there for us.
Speaker 5:Well, yeah, what happens is that Roley another buddy of ours and I went up and did kind of a look-see and there was some new roads cut because they were cutting. I think it was a. I talked to some of the guys clearing the roads up there. They were cutting new roads in where we go because the forest company was looking at about a 10,000-hectare cut. But it's not just a, it's not a clear cut. What it is is these are select cuts where they'll go in and take certain types of trees and anyway. So when they put these new roads in, it gives us access to deeper into the bush because you ain't getting in. The old skidder trails that we use for the ATVs and stuff like that make it somewhat accessible. But when they put a new road in, it gives us new access. So we've got quite a bit of new road going in for our larger area and when Roley and I were up there, we didn't take any climbing spurs, because we're a little bit more experienced than that and the full figure males don't necessarily climb as well as we used to once upon a time.
Speaker 5:But you know, garrett, when we were out, when we had the incident with the 462, and you're looking by the time, because it's an Arctic, which means an Arctic saw has a heated handle just to keep your hands warm when you're cutting in the wintertime.
Speaker 5:By the time you get an Arctic saw and all the bells and whistles and I think it had a 22-inch bar or a 24-inch bar on that chain and chain on that saw.
Speaker 5:You're looking at a couple of grand that just kind of went splat, which was a bit concerning because it's never nice to see, but it's either saved the dog or saved the saw. There wasn't any question there of what was going to be saved. But when we were out I don't know if you noticed or not, garrett, but a lot of the forest stuff there was that spectacular bloom of turkey tail, and turkey tail is a medicinal mushroom that we did a show about and a lot of other mushrooms in the forest as well. But with the cold snaps that we had at night we got a lot of frost and you can see the turkey tail has lost all its color and everything else. So it kind of looks like it's sort of that bloom has died off there, but it's still certainly nice to see. So anyways, we saw a bunch of stuff and kind of good and we're going to anything else planned for me up north when we're there.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, so going up north will be a little bit of a vacation too. I'm definitely going to be planning on taking going fishing, or taking us fishing, at least once or twice there. I haven't done much of any fishing this year, which has really been a letdown for me, but that's okay because you know things are priorities and the goal is always to keep work as much as I can because the way the economy and things are going, you got to save as much as you can to buy a house one of these days. But, yeah, looking forward to doing a lot of fishing up there in the north. I know the rivers or the brook trout are probably out of season now, but we'll be definitely looking forward to going up to the stock lakes there for sure.
Speaker 5:Yeah, because the splake that they stock and the rainbow are still open. Now, garrett, do you know there's actually only one day in the entire year that splay are closed for, unless they change it, since we've been around working in the ministry and I haven't checked to verify it, but I think it's still the same. And do you know what day they close splay on? And do you know why they close splay on one day, splay fishing?
Speaker 2:No, I have no idea.
Speaker 5:I was not aware of my intention of that at all, that they close Spleik for just one day. Yeah, spleik is closed for one day and there's a reason for that, because if a fishery is uncontrolled then the federal government takes control of it and by closing it you have a closed season and open season. The province is responsible for regulating that fishery and Spleik is the only fish that celebrates Christmas, because that's the only day it's closed, is Christmas Day and it's open all that way for regulation and control. Now, splake, for those who don't know, is a cross between a speckled trout and a lake trout. So it's quick-growing and can be a large fish and they do a lot of planting or stocking of a lot of lakes with it. It will reproduce. Some people think that they're mules and they're sterile and can't. But no, actually in Sault Ste Marie, the fish hatchery there, they were showing us the splake stock trout that they use for breeding purposes. Because splake will breed and when they release there's three reasons. One is to for releases are done but splake are done for mostly for a put and take kind of fishery so that'll attract fisher anglers to go to a specific lake to reduce pressure on other lakes and some of the other reasons they do stocking for other lake trout or walleye or speckled trout and all the other trouts is two reasons. Is one to establish or to supplement specific stocks in the lake. So if a lake trout in an area is having difficulty or there's been problems in the area and they want to bring that population back, they'll get some eggs from that area and rear that and release those back in to shore up the stock there. Or if they have lakes that they believe would be adequate for things like lake trout or brook trout, then they will actually stock it to bring it back in to have it as a self-sustaining fishery. So there's three reasons. One is to put and take so it draws people to them, to reduce pressure on other locations. Other is to shore up current stocks. And the last reason is to establish new populations. But and you can go on the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources websites and if you go by the districts, you will actually see the amount of fish that are stocked in what lakes in Ontario Most people don't know this. For those that love fishing and angling, there's great opportunities and they will actually show you the lakes and when they got stock. So let's say it's September of 2023. They may have put 2,500 rainbow trout into this particular lake and they'll give you the details over the past quite a few years. So it kind of gives you a sense of when and where, and they update that on a regular basis, which is really good to see.
Speaker 5:You know, and recently we just had a podcast on where we had the Dr Bamforth from, and we talked about the what was it? The oh, the dinosaurs in the boneyard just outside of Grand Prairie, alberta, and she had stated that oil was actually old coral beds that had been covered from their old saltwater coral beds in Alberta and all those oil locations where the coral beds were actually deteriorating and turning into oil and turning into oil. Now I know in Northern Ontario I happened to find some coral that was 10 million, 100 million years ago, because it used to be a saltwater sea in that area that is no longer existing, and I took these coral samples into the Royal Ontario Museum and had them identify them and it was great to see. But I started thinking, you know something, if there was all these, nobody's checked for oil in those areas and I'm starting to wonder. Maybe it's something that we should look into, but I'm not going to disclose the areas, because certainly it would be something of interest that if Ontario had more deposits of oil to become self-sufficient. Which is very important for a lot of jurisdictions is self-sufficiency whether it's energy, whether you know developing hydro dams and other dams, or whether it's food, but certainly having your own supplies of oil that have not been discovered yet would be a bonus for a community like Ontario.
Speaker 5:And you know, garrett, we had our good friend who's passed now. Bless his soul, doug. He used to like to burn. He always used to say to us now can you get us a bit of pine? And because I just like burning pine now, and when you get it, just crack it open just a little bit because it needs to be a little bit dry. And it gave that smell in the house and it gave a nice warm heat and he liked it.
Speaker 5:Early and late in the fire season and I know I started this week We've had a bunch of fires out there where that 70-foot spruce, that white spruce that we had in the front yard, came down in the spring and we cut it and split it and we're burning that and mixing it with maple hardwood Because I find that it doesn't burn good, but we're out there and we're going to head out shortly and we're going to go cut another load of wood and get out there and spend some more time under the canopy. But, garrett, thanks for being on the show, thanks for updating us and we look forward to getting out there and spending some time under the canopy again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's always a pleasure to be on the show and it's always good to be home. I appreciate all the help and we're definitely going to have to cut some more firewood here because I've got to replace a very expensive saw now. So, yeah, but again, always a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 5:Thanks, garrett. Just another way of learning something and some updates on what's happening out there and how our world impacts, whether it's hydro development in British Columbia, potash mines in Saskatchewan, gold mines in Yukon and northern Ontario, wind turbines in Newfoundland and all the things that go with it. It's just a little bit more understanding of what happens out there and what takes place under the canopy.
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