Under the Canopy

Episode 111: Off-Grid Living and Log Cabin Repairs: A Summer Update

• Outdoor Journal Radio Podcast Network • Episode 111

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Jerry Ouellette shares updates from his off-grid cottage work and growing frustrations with corporate veterinary clinics that are changing policies and raising prices.

• Dealing with a total fire ban at the cottage while needing to clear brush and fallen trees
• Completed major structural work replacing a 22-foot section of 8x8 beam using pony walls
• Building new dock cribbing with hemlock lumber due to historically low water levels
• Managing his chocolate lab Gunner's hot spots that develop after swimming
• Gunner uniquely asks to have his teeth brushed by standing between Jerry and the sink
• Corporate veterinary clinics now requiring annual visits before providing medications
• Approximately 60% of veterinary clinics now owned by corporations according to Marketplace
• Prices doubling for basic services after corporate takeover of local vet clinic
• Similar corporate ownership patterns affecting golf courses and reducing community programs
• Some pet owners turning to international telemedicine and medication services for affordability

If you have questions or suggestions for future episodes, please reach out. Stay tuned for upcoming episodes featuring John Snell the tea expert and updates on Chaga harvesting.


Speaker 1:

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, ang and I will be right here in your ears bringing you a brand new episode of Outdoor Journal Radio. Now, what are we going to talk about for two hours every week? Well, you know there's going to be a lot of fishing.

Speaker 3:

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

Speaker 1:

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.

Speaker 3:

All the other guys would go golfing.

Speaker 2:

Me and Garth and Turk and all the Russians would go fishing To scientists. But now that we're reforesting and everything.

Speaker 3:

It's the perfect transition environment for life.

Speaker 4:

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

Speaker 1:

And whoever else will pick up the phone Wherever you are. Outdoor Journal Radio seeks to answer the questions and tell the stories of all those who enjoy being outside. Find us on Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 5:

As the world gets louder and louder, the lessons of our natural world become harder and harder to hear, but they're 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 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 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. So join me today for another great episode and hopefully we can inspire a few more people to live their lives under the canopy. Okay, as always, we're thanking our listeners. Canada, states around the world really appreciate it, and the usual you got it. Ask it. Question that is you want to hear it. Let us know what a show would be about. We'd be more than happy to do what we can.

Speaker 5:

Now we did a bit of an update with Garrett and I'm just going to expand on some of the other stuff you know and the things that I've been doing. So I'm sitting here recording the podcast and I've got to tell you I've got two wrist guards on because Carpal Tunnel and stuff it was one of those sleepless nights and I've been pushing it too hard, doing stuff that maybe 30 years ago would have been something accepted. But hey, I'm a male and I'm stubborn and I'm sticking to it and I'll just keep doing it, even though Diane, my charming and lovely wife, may not say so. But hey, that's the way it is. I've got to tell you, up at the camp where I'm doing all the work, they got a total fire ban on and that's making it a little bit tough in that we're doing a lot of brushwork, a lot of cleanup, a lot of stuff that uh, fallen trees that have been down for the longest time and you try and burn a lot of that stuff. But with a total fire ban on up at the cottage you can't burn anything at any time because when that fire ban comes off, I'll bet you I have at least three fires going just to get caught up in all the scrub and the brush and everything else. And of course with the log cabin we want to make sure everything's safe. But, like the log home builders will tell you, round logs just don't burn. But anyways, yeah, so it's a little bit tough with the fire, total fire ban, but I understand. I mean they've had a number of fires that took quite a bit to get control of. Up near what was there Kinmount one and Bob Cage in another and I was just talking to a fire guy out of Kin kin mount and he was telling me up Barry's Bayway that there's a good size fire that they're having difficulty getting control of there. So I imagine that they'll. They will keep the fire ban on for a while until we get a bit more rain, but they're calling for a big downpour tomorrow which may mess up my day tomorrow. But that's the way it is. That's the way it goes and we need the rain in order to get that fire ban taken care of. And for those that don't know, it's the fire chiefs locally that make the decision on whether there's a fire ban, which that's what they're in the position for, and it's what's called the when I was Minister of Natural Resources. It's the indices that they look at to determine the likelihood of problematic fires.

Speaker 5:

And what that is is when the winter comes in and the snow load comes in. If it's a good amount of snow, that's one thing. But because when it melts, a lot of times you're hoping it seeps in the ground. However, if it's a fast melt and the ground is frozen, nothing seeps in. I can recall back living in the late 70s in a place called Crooked Creek and Crooked Creek. I can recall snow in June in the bush. Still, the snow load was so high at that time. What the heck. I can recall snow in June in the bush, still that the snow load was so high at that time. What the heck. I can recall those times and those days that if you walked out and stood on the snowbank you could grab the hydro wires. That's how high the snowbank was and it was really kind of neat that they had these specialty plows that plowed it was about six, eight feet up to push the snow bank back farther so that they could get the next load of snow up on top of that. That's how bad the snow was. But that's what happens and you get it in June and what that means is a slow melt like that gets a lot of moisture in the ground and nice and deep into the ground so that you don't get these likelihood of as much as rain or forest fire problems because the ground and everything is so dry. But we had it was a pretty good winter snow-wise, snow load-wise. I don't know how it came out in the spring, but we had a pretty dry period. So the indices or the likelihood of fire is probably pretty high in the area until we get a lot of rain and it soaks into the ground and it removes that so it can work out.

Speaker 5:

But doing a lot of stuff, I know I had, I had the boys uh, josh and garrett out and and bert and we we had to replace a beam. So, um, plus some support for it, because some wood got rot, got into the one post and went all the way up the post and right where the post connected to the 8x8 was a white pine or red pine, I can't remember beam that got in there and that started to rot. So I had to replace a 22-foot section of 8x8 beam. Now sounds really easy, but you've got to build pony walls. Now sounds really easy, but you got to build pony walls and a pony wall is kind of like a two by four structure of 16 inch centers all the way across, eight feet long to hold up to support what the beam is supporting, because you just can't lift it up. So then we had to jack it up, used a three-ton jack with some special support there to push it up, put the pony wall in, let it down and then be able to remove the beam and then take out the support post that was rotten, put the whole thing in. It was quite an ordeal but we were well prepared. We had lots of ladders, we had lots of hydro there, lots of generators to back up, because you got to remember we're off grid there, so we're running all the power equipment by generators. So we had to make sure that the skill saws and the drills and everything else were working properly and the saws, alls and et cetera, et cetera. So we had the generators going but with the hard work of Bert and Garrett and Josh and all of us, we were able to get that done.

Speaker 5:

And now I'm moving on to other stuff. Like I mentioned, it was just a little bit sore, but we're building new. The water is really low in the lake. I haven't seen it this low in probably well, let me see over 25 years. I would say Never seen it so low, and what that means is that all the shore is receded back. So it's quite a ways out.

Speaker 5:

And now what we're doing is building platforms and cribbing as it used to be, and what I'm doing is repairing the cribs that were there. You know, we we downsized it a bit. Instead of a six by what, about 24 feet of cribbing. We're going to about 20 feet of cribbing and downsized it a bit, still using quite a bit of the the original stuff that's there, but just cut it down and putting it out there. And I gotta tell, to tell you, for cribbing, some of the best wood that we're using is actually hemlock.

Speaker 5:

So I went to a local mill down in Bancroft and they'll they mill up a rough cut hemlock. So I've got four by fours. The cribbing before was three by threes and it worked pretty good. And all the stuff that was in the water after 20-25 years so about 22-23 years I think is when we put that in, maybe close to 25, and we put the dock in and that was still great. So I still reused a lot of the hemlock that was there before and just added some new stuff for the new size that we cut it down to, and so we got all that done.

Speaker 5:

And then using and just added some new stuff for the new size that we cut it down to, and so we got all that done, and then using four by four stringers to put the planks on, and then we'll be building a floating dock as opposed to taking out another crib and reduce that footprint out in the water and take the old crib out and then just put a floating dock there. So it's better for the environment. Although we're allowed to, I don't know if it's changed that much, but it used to be up to 100 square foot of cribbing without requiring permits and stuff like that, but we were way, way, way below that and now we're even below that. Yeah, so I'll be using 16 foot 4x4 hemlock on top of the cribbing that's there and connecting it to a base that I've built just offshore with the cement cornerstones, kind of things that you can put 4x4 or 6x6s in there, and then we cut that to the height of cedar that I want in there to make it all level. The only thing is I'll have to put out some steps to get down from the top level down, and we kept it off the ground to make sure it doesn't start to rot, because the old stringers were directly on the ground and after well, it lasted, you know, pretty close to 25 years. So it was pretty good that the cedar or the hemlock that was on the shore lasted that long. But it's on the shore and directly on the ground. It started to rot right there. So we took that off and put it up on concrete to get it off the ground on shore, and plus, we used all the rocks that were in there and just filled with green bullfrogs, which was nice to see no leopard frogs, just the bullfrogs and there was a lot of dragonfly larvae swimming in the water. So we want to make sure that they stay around because they get rid of those mosquitoes en masse, which is good, so yeah, so we built up the pony wall, we replaced the 8x8 beam there, and now we're working on the cribbing and then I've got some metal roof to do so.

Speaker 5:

When we had the ice storm, we had a tree come down off the neighbor's property. When we had the ice storm, we had a tree come down off the neighbor's property, clipped the edge of ours, and now I had to get a 16-foot section of metal roof to replace the one that went through our roof up at the top. But I've got to get some expertise in to do that. So I've got somebody who's an expert in metal roofing Stoughton and I'll get Terry down to help us out and they'll take care of the metal roofing Stoughton. And I'll get Terry down to help us out and they'll take care of the metal roof problems.

Speaker 5:

But while they're up there, they're going to cut some vent holes for us and I got the wood stove coming in as well, so that remember, we're off grid, so we're running whatever we have. We've got some solar there, as well as generators, backups and things like that Run a lot of the stuff. And then for heat we had been using propane heaters and I had a number of those salamander types and area space ones, and this is a lot of ventilation, so it's not a problem. Of course I've got carbon monoxide detectors all over the place to make sure there's no issues there. But we'll replace that with a wood-burning stove. And guess what? With all the wood that we've taken down up there, we'll have lots of wood and that's what's added to my wearing of the wrist guards. So I've got the metal roof prepared.

Speaker 5:

I'm going to get some venting holes because I've got to get the septic vent hole to vent up through the metal roof and it's pretty hard to find somebody with some expertise to do that because the plumbing guys they didn't want to have anything to do with it. You know they said, look, we could try. But we're not experts and if it's leaked it's not our fault. You know advance warning. But I've got somebody now that should be able to take care of that. Otherwise you get I think Terry said it was methane gas coming in and you can smell the methane gas just the way it cycles through. But that'll all be taken care of and should be done in the next couple of weeks. So we're getting lots of work done up there.

Speaker 5:

But I got to tell you, normally I start off the program talking about my chocolate lab Ensign, gunner, and Gunner, he's been good. But when he swims in the lake he gets a hot spot. And these hot spots drive me a little bit crazy in that it's kind of like oh, how's it describe it Kind of an open sore that oozes some kind of an oily substance, and it's pretty easy to spot. But it's every time and it happened with Strider, our previous lab the same thing when he was out swimming in this water. For some reason these hot spots would come up, and then we have to get him on antibiotics. And of course I'm going to get into the vet stuff a little bit, because I'm a little bit ticked off with what's happening with vets in the province of Ontario, because, anyways, but yeah, so I'm taking care of that.

Speaker 5:

And the other thing is, I'm not sure if I mentioned this or not, but Gunner, he's got this habit. So if I'm in the washroom, the bathroom, and I'm at the sink, he'll walk in between me and the sink and he'll look up at me and that means he wants his teeth brushed. How many of you out there know dogs that want their teeth brushed? He comes in. All right, all right, I'm in a rush but we'll hurry up. So I'll brush his teeth for him and he's happy. You can tell he gets that big lab smile and just loves it.

Speaker 5:

But I use a bit of a specialty three-sided toothbrush. That I use and when you get some of the it's hard to find now but previously it worked pretty good and mostly most people don't know this. But you get a lot of bad breath in dogs. That's because most of the time it it's bacteria and you'll get a lot of rotten teeth that'll give them that bad breath. Gunner, gunner's what? Six or six, now six and a half and no bad breath at all because, guess what, I'm brushing his teeth all the time. So that's good and I'm sure it makes him feel good as well.

Speaker 5:

But I wanted to mention I'm a bit ticked off with what's happening with the veterinary clinics in the province of Ontario and I see it's Canada-wide as well. So I'd been going to a vet clinic and the one I had been going to, the vets retired and they were spectacular. I used to drive over an hour to get up to it just simply because I got to tell you and there's good vets around just to tell you, and there's a lot of them, but you got to find the right ones that you can, you know, mesh with and everything goes smoothly. And we had the Dr Schroeder's in Fenlon Falls where it was spectacular Love going up there. But when they retired I started looking around to find some good vets and I found one. So we'd been going there and guess what? Strider was going there and Benny, josh's dog. Well, I guess he was taking care of Benny a lot, but Benny goes with us to the vet where we were going.

Speaker 5:

And I showed up and I said look, I need some more flea and tick medication for Gunnar and Benny. And they said oh well, benny's okay because he's been in, but we haven't seen Gunnar in a year, so you have to bring him in before we can give you any flea and tick medication. I said what, what's that all about? I said it was always before. You know, the dog was sick. They took him into the vet, the vet took care of it and you know, the next time you saw him was when he needed something taken care of or he needed shots or whatever. Was when he needed something taken care of or he needed shots or whatever. And they said, oh no, no, it's according to the veterinary college that those are the rules that we can't give your dog anything unless we see your dog every year.

Speaker 5:

I said when the hell did this start? And they're like what? Oh well, I said where does it say that? Well, that's what we were told. I said where does it say it in legislation? Of course you know, having been the minister and in politics for as many years as I have, you know a lot of this stuff that comes out is complete crap. And that's what that was.

Speaker 5:

And it ticked me right off, you know, and I was like, excuse me. I said, uh, what? So I said, you know, and where's my vet? I always had, because when I go to a clinic it's like I want the same vet to see my dog all the time, so the vet gets to know it. You know, the dog knows the vet. Not only that, they got a good relationship, and when there's a problem he knows the history.

Speaker 5:

So I kept seeing different vets and I'm going like, well, where's my regular vet? Anyways, they said that oh, he's no longer here and I thought what's going on with that? And well, we can give you some flea and tick medication this time, but we're going to have to see Gunnar before the next time. We need some more. I'm like what, anyway? So I go there pick up the flea and tick medication. And I asked you know? I said you know what happened with my regular vet and they said, oh well, try such and such. So next time something comes up, I find out, track him down. He's now at a different location. I have a conversation with him and I said like hey, what's going on? What happened? Like, how come you left the clinic? I mean, you started that clinic and you're not there anymore? He said well, most people don't know this. His words were, I think he said 60 percent of all veterinary clinics have been bought up by major corporations in.

Speaker 5:

Uh, and, and I gotta tell you, marketplace did a a special on it because on, and it came out january 24th and you can talk about it because it talks about corporate vets and how, and it says there that a lot of international companies are buying up all these vet clinics. Well, and I couldn't figure out why. Well, what dog food do you feed your dog? What? Since when have you ever asked that question? I've had dogs for my entire life. I've never had anybody you know kind of question with dog food and all that kind of stuff. Like where did this all come from? Well, my vet told me. He said look, a corporation came to us, they bought up the clinic. They made us an offer we couldn't refuse and we had.

Speaker 5:

He was under the impression that it would be the status quo and continue on, but anyways, anyways, it certainly didn't. So he left and got frustrated and he was the one that informed me that, like I said, and I think the uh marketplace show I mentioned 40 odd percent of all clinics in the province of ontario are now corporately owned. And so now they're going through all this crap where you have to come in every year and you have to do this and that and everything else and that, uh, in order to be able to use their services, which was never the way it was. So when I'm shopping around, the first question I ask when I go into a veterinary clinic now are you corporately owned? And it's kind of hard to find them, but certainly it's not all profit based, as this is on so many other different way companies operate, and that's what this whole thing is all about these companies, and I got to tell you the price to clip my dog's nails when he was in. So I take him in and said, oh well, he's in, you can clip his nails, sure it'd be this price. That price has doubled since they went corporate and everything else has just skyrocketed in prices and it's driving me crazy and a lot of other people. I mean, we got a friend around the corner that has kind of a Burmese mountain Burmese St Bernard cross and it's the only dog that doesn't get along with Gunner and actually it bit Gunner and we got infected and it cost me quite a bit of money to get that taken care of.

Speaker 5:

But these people have had enough of all this crap that's going on. And my understanding now. I didn't speak to them directly because when they're there with their dog I don't take my dog out, so we don't really see each other a lot. But the others were telling me that they were getting a lot of their medication out of Australia. So what they do is this kind of it's kind of like a tele-vet sort of thing where they were using vets out of Australia and getting their medication is, from what I understand, shipped from there. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure she said Australia and they would send up the medication from there. Yeah, it takes a bit of time to get here but price wise, it's like a third the cost of the medication for the exact same stuff coming from there, and they just plan in advance and take care of it in that way. And I think you're going to see more people doing the same thing, because the way these corporate veterinary clinics are operating, I'm disgusted in them that it's solely profit-based and that's appears to be. I just getting wound up about it because it ticks me off to no end that this sort of stuff happens. But that's the way things are going and I understand.

Speaker 5:

I happen and for those that don't know, I do enjoy getting out for a round of golf occasionally. Most of the time I play nine holes once a week whenever possible, and I happened to be out. Josh took me out for Father's Day and we got paired up with another couple and the other person one of the couples was a female who actually was a spectacular golfer that was on a golf scholarship. She had been on a golf scholarship down in the States and came back and worked as a golf pro and she was telling me that she works with now all the schools for the golf teams to play in the competition for the high schools throughout southern Ontario. And she was saying that I asked about so which golf courses do they use? Well, they use this one, that one.

Speaker 5:

I said, what about this one? Oh, well, that one golf course has been bought up by a corporation and they don't provide any of that kind of stuff for the students now to get involved in golfing. And I said what? And she said, said, yeah, major corporations, just like, I'm sure, the vet things, where it's, whether it's local or international companies buying up all these, in this case golf courses. And now it's all about the profit. And I and I can see what's happening with a lot of them, because that's what's taking place is it's not the same kind of great relationship you had before. Now it's all about dollars and cents which is taken away from a lot of the places.

Speaker 5:

So when I'm checking with golf courses where I play, I ask if they're corporate or not. In the same way, when I'm asking around at vets, uh, if they're a corporate operation or not, and I stay right away from them because I don't want to put up with all that mandated prices that, uh, virtually all the same at every one of them whatever you call that, on top of all the stuff that they're making up like, oh, we have to see you, mandated to see you once a year. So if you're interested, out there, take a look, because I'm sure a lot of people don't know what's happening. They just wondered why, all of a sudden, these prices are kind of way out of line. But so things are happening out there.

Speaker 5:

Gunner's doing well, I got his hot spot under control, and not only that, but I'm sure he'll be back in the water this coming weekend, so we'll have to keep an eye on it. But and it's antibiotics and a cream that we put on it but, uh, it's, it's a lot of us, if you do it with our pet, I mean, how many people do you know brush your dog's teeth? So obviously we're taking care of him to a pretty good plus. He gets his his runs usually a couple of times a day. But when we're up at the camp, or the cottage as they call it in Southern Ontario, he gets lots of exercise there and just loves going out down to the water and he'll just. What's he doing out there? He's just gone for a swim, or else what's he chasing? Oh, maybe it's that bear up there.

Speaker 5:

But that's a little bit of the update of what's happening. Hopefully we got a big rain coming tomorrow that'll take the fire ban off so we can get some fires going and clean up a lot of the brush and all the rotten wood that's around, or is going and clean up a lot of the brush and all the rotten wood that's around, or we end up taking to the dump and they'll burn it there, but they charge us for that. So those are just some of the things that are happening out there. But, as I mentioned before, I'm going to try and get John Snell back on. He's the tea guy, which I found fascinating. We had some recording problems and as soon as he's get back from Pakistan we'll try and get them back on and re-record some of those sections and talk about the things that I wasn't able to get back out. Anyways, it's always a pleasure.

Speaker 5:

If you've got any questions, ask them. We'll do a weekend to answer them. If you've got any suggestions for a show, let us know. And that's just something a little bit different, a little bitch and beef and complaining and updates on what's happening out there under the canopy, and pretty soon in about, oh, probably about three weeks we'll start to get ready to start doing our Chaga harvest and head up to check to make sure everything's up to par and what's taking place there. All right, thanks for listening. Have a great day.

Speaker 2:

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Speaker 1:

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Speaker 2:

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