The one that got away

Yesterday afternoon I was out cutting the grass on my new (used) lawnmower.  A gentleman that I had never met stopped in looking for Wade.  He said to me "don't wear out that mower the first day!!"  It always surprises me how the small details of your life get noticed by the people around town.

"Look at that contraption!!" is what Darlene said when she saw the new lawnmower, I laugh every time I think of it.

We heard they are cutting out on the Carney Road, so we rode out to see if our baitsites would be effected. We couldn't get through because they were working right on the main road.  I love watching the limber work.  At the end of the video is a skidder exacatly like the one Wade drives in the winter.  He works on a crew just like this one.  One fellerbuncher, one limber, two skidders hauling trees out to him.

After lunch, Wade and I went out to the Yellow Line Road to take down a coyote blind for the season.  The road was muddy and wet and we got stuck briefly and Wade had to push us out.  When we got back to camp, we saw a bunch of gear stacked on the steps and a rough looking canoe on the lawn of the new camp.  Leitha yelled over and said that a group of 4 guys were dropped off here and had lost their canoe.  They had borrowed Leitha's car to hopefully spot the canoe washed ashore on the riverbank.  When they returned empty handed we got the full story.

They had put in at Baker Lake several days ago and had canoed all they way to the Ouellette Farm where they camped for the night.  They awoke this morning to find one of their canoes and a cooler had floated away sometime during the night.  The river had come up and the canoe wasn't tied off.  Hilton spotted a red cooler floating down the river this morning around 6am.  The guys were from Jackman and the youngest member of the party was sent for help while the rest of the group waited at the campsite.  After walking 10 miles he was picked up by a good samaritan who kindly took him back to pick up the others and all the gear.  They looked quite tired out and seemed happy to be here although were quite bummed about losing the canoe. After a good meal at Two Rivers Lunch they contacted their ride and will be picked up tomorrow.  Tonight they are relaxing comfortably in the cabin.  When asked if they needed anything, the only thing they requested was a case of Bud so Wade and I went to Judy's on a beer run, our good deed done for the day!  Something tells me they will sleep good tonight.

Looks like there might have been a problem with the paddle too!