Monday 15 December 2014

More Exciting Projects

Greetings from the North! Not exactly the snowy, cold North that we are used to... last year around this time we were absolutely buried in deep snow and trying to survive in record breaking cold temperatures. Today, the school busses are cancelled due to freezing rain! We had a bit of a cold snap in November, but we've had a very mild December. Our foot or so of snow is slowly melting and we've had many warm, foggy, even rainy days lately. Luckily, the cold weather in November gave us some good thick ice. Ice fishing has been great, we are all eating fresh Walleye on a regular basis. 

The mild weather and good ice has also allowed my Dad to get his airplane back on skis a lot sooner than last year. He and Chris have done some minnow trapping with the airplane and also went and checked on some outposts.

Minnow Trapping with the Airplane
Lots of Snow at Wright Lake!
The new building at Northern Lights has been on hold for a little while as we wait for the electricians to do their work. The building is completely shelled in; roof, windows, and doors are in, and all of the partitions are up on the inside. Insulating will start very soon. I will post pictures of the progress as we move along. In the meantime, Dad and Chris have been busy in the shop working on various projects as well as doing lots of minnow trapping.

The New Office Building at Northern Lights Resort
I have finally managed to sit my Dad down for a few hours to start on another project that we've been wanting to do for a while. I have started a new Blog. The inspiration came to me last year while sitting down for "rum o'clock" with Mom and Dad at a sports show in Minneapolis. "rum o'clock" is what they call their daily "down time" that happens at 5:00 p.m. everyday; Mom and Dad take that few minutes to have a "rum" and review the days' events, and plan the next days activities. At this particular "rum o'clock" they started telling me stories about how they got their "start" and began building a life in Northwestern Ontario. At first my Dad talked about starting from scratch and living off the land, and then about later when he met my Mom. Some pretty incredible stories emerged. I've been encouraging him to either write a book or to let me start sharing some of these stories with people who would find them very interesting, educational, and most of all entertaining. Judging by the response that we've had from this blog, "News at Clark's Resorts and Outposts" I think these stories will be much appreciated. People seem to enjoy reading about the lifestyle that we live and adventures that we have here in Northwestern Ontario. The few adventures that I've written about in the last year are nothing compared to the stories that my Dad has from his past.

I'll be posting a series of his short stories on our new blog, "Rum O'Clock with Wayne", to share with our readers some of the trials and struggles encountered while building his life and businesses and raising a family in Northwestern Ontario. His experiences are diverse and varied, whether its encounters with bears, thin ice, weather, or technical/mechanical breakdowns of airplanes or other equipment, just to name a few. I think you'll enjoy hearing about them. I hope you will stay tuned, as I will endeavor to post a new entry around the first of every month.

Click the picture below to be directed to our new blog and read the first of many stories from my Dad.