life at the camp.com

Camp Vacation Week - June 22nd to July 1st 2007

2007-07-04T13:30:00.000-03:00

Hey everyone!

I've been quite the slacker with this whole "blogging business", in fact I'm actually gonna skip the past two camp trips. Nothing much exciting happened anyway, so I may as well carry on with our vacation week. So here goes nothing! :)

On Friday June 22nd, Darcy, Mitch, the 3 dogs and I piled more things than you can imagine into the Yukon and we were off to the camp for a week. It's really hard to pack for that long; trying not to forget anything really important, and making sure other pets that can't come (Teddy and Peter) will be well taken care of..thanks Mom! By the time the truck was loaded up, I was already yawning! We made a few stops in town and finally hit the highway..

Unfortunately, I was not much company on the drive up there..heh heh..

As soon as we hit the last store for ice, I finally woke up. I had to snap this picture of Jake in the back, too funny! You can't even see Kate and Meg, there was just SO much stuff jammed in back there..

I waited in the truck while Darcy grabbed ice and Mitch grabbed his treats for the trip. Of course, I had to take a picture of myself (with my eyes open)...

We were soon on our way, and here's what the sky looked like..not too promising.

We knew the weekend forecast was rain, but still..you always hold out some hope right? When we reached the camp road, we soon realized we were being followed. After a few minutes, we clued in that it was Aaron (he had gotten off work early). So we all arrived at the same time, and as we were unpacking the rain started. Needless to say, we didn't do a whole lot that night. We couldn't really have a fire, so we sat in the porch for most of the evening. It was a pretty laid back, relaxing night. I was ready for bed by 11:00pm, pathetic or what? :)

The next morning we were all up bright and early, and Darcy and Aaron got lots of work accomplished. They had both brought jacks with them so they could fix the blocking under the camp, which they did in record time...

And they took Aaron's truck to the pit and got a load of crushed stone for the camp yard, then levelled it all out...

After the work was finished, the boys had some target practice with Mitch's pellet gun...

And Jake and I enjoyed some Jiffy Pop..heh heh...

Around mid-afternoon our company arrived. Thanks to Facebook, I've recently been in touch with quite a few guys that I took Environmental Tech. with (we graduated 12 years ago). Some of them live quite far away now, but a few still live relatively close. Two of my buddies decided to make a trip up for a "mini-reunion" with Aaron and I. (I should mention, it was because of that course we started hanging out with Aaron, and eventually we got in on the camp lease with him). So Kim Brennan (who currently lives in PEI), and Tony Richard (who currently lives in Woodstock), came up for the night. Kim plays guitar, so he, Darcy, Aaron and Mitch planned on having a jam session.

We spent the afternoon reminiscing in the porch (damn rain), Kim Dickson arrived around supper time, and soon after the night of guitar playing began. The boys played All Night...it was such a hoot! We had such a great time, lots of laughs, one of the best times I've had in a long time actually. Here's a few random shots from that night..

Kim and I having a good laugh...

Aaron on his way in to mix another drink...

Darcy playin' one tune or another...

A group shot of the ET alumni (ha ha)..L to R is Aaron, Darcy in background, Tony, me and Kim..

Another group shot, I wanted one without my brace to put on our Facebook group..so Aaron solved that problem! :)

We all had a really great night, and everyone woke up Sunday feeling pretty good. Kim and Tony left around lunch time, and Aaron headed back to Moncton a few hours after that. Sunday was another rainy, dreary day for the most part. I vegged out reading a book and pretty much spent the next two days completely wrapped up in it. I wasn't the only one who vegged though...here's Jake relaxing..

Darcy and Mitch went for a drive on the four-wheeler, and Darcy had to move this tree off of the road..NOT! :)

While they were gone on the drive, Kim and I noticed another huge rainbow developing over the camp yard. Luckily Darcy and Mitch saw it too, and managed to get some pictures. This first one is actually a double rainbow..

Soon the first one got brighter and the second one disappeared...

Sunday evening the rain actually stopped and Darcy, Kim and Mitch had a fire outside. I stayed inside, too sucked into my Stephen King book to enjoy the stars (and that's saying something). Apparently it was nice evening, Kim even slept outside in the gravity chair!

Monday came, and Kim decided to stay on for another night since she didn't have to work until late Tuesday. I was starting to worry about my physiotherapy. The Friday that we left for vacation, I was told I could start full weight bearing on my leg. It's hard to practice walking in the camp yard with all of the gravel, and I knew that on Thursday I had another appointment with my therapist. Darcy decided to make me a cane and to put up a parallel bar for me in the porch to practice with...

So, I spent some time practicing with first one crutch and the bar, and then with the cane and the bar. It worked out pretty good! While Darcy was on his travels looking for the perfect piece of wood for my cane he came across these huge deer tracks...

We also spent some time watching another gigantic spider that lives on the outside of the porch.... (he's a monster..ick!)...

Later in the evening, during another trip, Mitch snapped this picture of one of the many rabbits they saw...

They also made a few trips "around back" where the beavers have been really busy...

Monday night was another nice evening. This time I did sit outside by the fire, but would not be separated from my book! :)

While we were sitting there, this HUGE moth came flying out of nowhere and launched himself into the fire! Mitch nearly had heart failure, and ran into the camp to grab some oven mitts. He put them on and tried to rescue the moth from the flames. He did manage to get him out...unfortunately, the moth didn't make it! :( Good effort though Mitch!

Tuesday morning Kim was up and gone bright and early. Darcy, Mitch and I had a couple of pretty quiet days. They spent lots of time four-wheeling, I spent lots of time practicing my walking, and Mitch and I both read quite a bit. On Thursday we made a trip to town for my physio appt., to get more supplies and to do some laundry. My appt. went very well, and I was told that I'd graduated to a cane! Woo hoo! I was very excited, best news I'd had in many months. Darcy bought me a bottle of wine to celebrate, and I cracked 'er open when we got back to the camp..

That evening Darcy heard some strange peeping sounds coming from the woods between our camp and Scott and Dean's. He walked over and found a partridge with her brood, here's a picture of one of the babies..

I should also mention that Darcy spent a couple of days painting the camp floor. He did a great job of it, it looks so much brighter now...

Earlier in the week I had spotted a mouse in our porch. Because of the "mouse sighting" we picked up some traps while we were in town. Darcy set them up with some bait, and we ended up trapping 13 mice on Thursday night. Gross..but totally amazing. I never imagined there were so many mice around! Mitch was having a great time walking around with a flashlight on trap patrol. It was quite entertaining!Thursday night was a great night overall. It was a beautiful night, lots of stars, and we spent most of the time laid back in the gravity chairs enjoying the view.

Friday morning we were up bright and early enjoying some coffee when Vince arrived. He, Darcy and Mitch decided to spend the day at the lake. It was another really nice day, and they had a great time. Here's a picture of Mitch walking toward the lake, (notice the osprey nest in the tree above)..

Mitch walking along the shore..

The lake...

And some pictures of the osprey coming back to the nest with a fish...

They also made a stop at the falls, which is a really beautiful place. I'm only including one picture of it because you can check out a quick video of it here..

They all had a great trip, and when they arrived back we hung around the yard waiting for more company. Here's a picture Darcy snapped of us..

Me, looking SO impressed.. :)

Mitch drawing a picture...

Our NB flag which I've been trying to get a picture of of, it was finally windy enough...

And Darcy trying to get a picture of himself for his Facebook profile...

Sometime after supper Vince showed up for the nightly bonfire. Soon after, Kim, Scott and Kari arrived. Kim brought a whole box of fireworks with her, and we waited until dark to set them off. It was great fun, but fireworks always are! I managed to take a couple of pictures, but I was finding it difficult...

I soon decided it would be better on video, so here are a bunch of short video clips. You'll notice the sound of Kate barking in the background the whole time, she is SO freaked out by fireworks! You can check them out here, here, here, here, and here! :)

We had a great time the rest of the weekend. The weather co-operated which was nice, and we spent lots of time outside. By Sunday, we were ready to pack everything and get back home (even though we could have stayed on another night). What can I say? I love the camp, but man I missed home! On our way out the camp road, we came across this deer...

So, that was the week in a nutshell! Hope I didn't forget anything too important! Till next time,

Lissy :)

A Day Trip

2007-05-28T12:54:00.001-03:00

This past Saturday Darcy and I made a quick day trip up to the camp. We needed to bring up our screens for the porch and some furniture. This will be a short post, because we were only there for a few hours, so I'll let the pictures tell the story...

The next two pictures were taken on our drive up. I wanted to get some shots of how eerie the sky looked (but the pictures don't do it justice). Everything was orange, we're assuming it's from a forest fire, but it was freaky. It all cleared off once we hit the camp thankfully..

The trailer carrying the screens..

A shot of the camp yard, not near as muddy as last weekend..

Darcy installing the porch screens..

Me being a dork.. :)

Our fence in front has collapsed!

Oh Canada!

My new little toad friend who I played with for about an hour (more pictures to follow..:)

And finally a shot of the path between our camp and Adam's. Notice the stump of the "woodpecker tree"..it had fallen when we were there last weekend. Of course we used it for the firepit..

That's all for now! We're heading up this coming weekend, so till then..

Liss

May Long Weekend

2007-05-21T19:56:00.001-03:00

Well, well! We finally made 'er back to the camp, and believe me it's been a very long three months. You would think after that long of a break Mother Nature would be kind enough to give us at least one day of sun! Not the case..it was raining pretty much the whole time we were there. But, we made the best of it! Thankfully Mary brought along a 20ft x 20ft tarp which made great shelter and allowed everyone to stay outside by the campfire.

Before I get into the "story", I should mention that pictures are limited. I don't even have any pics of Nick and Kari! The weather was not the greatest for running around with a camera, and seeing how I wasn't "running" anyway..well you can probably imagine.

Friday morning we left bright and early (Darcy, Mitch, Jake and I), and Mary followed us up in her truck. When we arrived they all started unpacking and soon after Joe and Kevin came up for a visit. Right about that time, the rain started and never really stopped! Tarp town was constructed and I found myself a comfy chair in front of the firepit. :)

Basically we spent the whole day in front of the firepit. Scott arrived around supper time, and Nick and Kari came around 7pm. The camp road was actually in pretty good shape, Nick was able to drive in right to the old road with his car. Joe's son John (who is not only a friend of ours, but Nick's buddy), came up for the night too. We had a great time. Everyone chipped in to help build me a ramp for easier access into the camp, which was a bonus! Crutches and muddy, wet weather are not a good mixture.

Saturday we all woke up pretty early, had coffee, and got ready to pick up Coll, Dan and Daniel who were arriving at lunch time. Some of us spent the afternoon in front of the firepit again, a whole other crew decided to go four-wheelin'. Darcy went on the trip, but unfortunately the axle broke off our bike! Needless to say, his trip was cut short. Seems like something breaks every time we go to the camp...

Saturday night Chris arrived with a truck load of wood and 20lbs of mussels..:) We had a huge scoff and lots of company that night. Pretty much everyone in the camp cluster was there, it felt like a reunion or something! It was great to see everyone again.

The next few pictures have a little story behind them. If any of you know Dan (Gammy), you know he has a tendency to sleep in any available chair..and he usually sleeps at the kitchen table. He also likes to sneak away to eat food..ha ha! Saturday night he kept disappearing inside the camp to munch on one thing or another and kept telling Coll he was going to bed soon. At one point, Coll came outside and announced that Dan was really going to bed, he was actually making the bed! We were all amazed! After a few minutes, Darcy and Kari went in the camp and saw this...

Of course, that's when the fun began. Imagine Dan trying to sneak M&M's! The nerve! :) Scott decided he wanted to sneak a few..
Then the bag made it outside to the firepit where Chris and Mary pretty much finished it off...

Once the mussels and M&M's feast was done, most people had left or crashed out. The last ones awake were Darcy, Scott and I. We enjoyed what was left of the fire and then hit the hay.

Sunday morning just about everyone left for home. Only our family and the Knowles clan were staying on for another night. Through the night our tarp town blew down, it got really windy and the rain was just relentless. We spent Sunday inside the camp. It was actually a nice relaxing day! We played with Daniel, played Scattergories with Mitchell, and went crazy with the camera. The rest of these pictures were taken throughout that day...

Sunday night Kim arrived shortly before dark. We decided to cook up the rest of the mussels and we pretty much took 'er easy..

Monday turned out to be the nicest day of all. That's always the way! We were all packed and heading for home by 11am..

So, that's it! Now we're starting to get back into the camp groove, so we'll probably be heading back up in a couple of weeks time. Till then,

Liss

February's Camp Trip...

2007-02-25T11:08:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone!

I know, this post has been a long time coming! I can't believe that two weeks has passed already...but I've got good reasons for being so slack. :) As all of you probably know, I've been quite "laid up", and doing this entry reminds me that it'll be my last camp trip for a very long time.

So, I'm not gonna get into a whole pile of details. Kim did an entry on the weekend too, but I figured that I'd at least post some of my pictures. Friday night Darcy, Mitch, Jake and I were the only people at the camp. It was a quiet, relaxing night (except for the many trips that Darcy had to make to bring in gear, and all of the shovelling that I did). We didn't bother having a fire outside, mostly stayed in. On the way in, Darcy spotted some ruffed grouse (partridge) in a tree..here's some pictures of them, they are dark but you can still see them somewhat..

Our usual "thermometer" picture..so we can remember what the temperature was like..ha ha! :)

A few pictures of Jake (the most photographed dog in the world..)

The camp yard and firepit that night...I had to "show off" my shovelling! :)

Mitch and I decided to play a game of "Family Guy Trivia"...he kicked my butt of course! :)

Darcy watching us play, while he sips his "Bailey's Irish Cream"...

Darcy brought up supplies to fix the broken sled (from our previous camp trip). Here's some pics of the patch-up job..works like a charm now!

So, as you can see Friday night was pretty mellow! We all hit the hay by 11:00, and got up bright and early the next morning. Company started arriving around noon. First came Mary and Chris, followed by Tracy, Trenton and Andy, and later on Kim. We all spent the day outside, it was actually quite nice out. We had a huge fire, lots of laughs, and the kids had a great time driving the ski-doo and Andy's four-wheeler. Here's some pictures from that afternoon..

I love this picture of the fire, taken later in the evening..

Probably not too long after that picture, I fell on the ice in front of that beautiful fire..ha ha! At that point, everyone moved inside. The rest of the night is kind of a blur for me to be honest. I think I was in shock, not to mention lots of pain. I knew I wasn't going anywhere until the next day..so I hung in there as long as I could. Everyone had a snowball fight (inside the camp)..I do remember that! Crazy stuff! When I made my "attempt" at getting into my bunk, I fell a second time, I think that's when the worst damage happened. After lying there crying like a baby for quite some time, it was finally lights out for me. How embarassing! I hate re-living that night, which is probably another reason it's taken me this long to post!

I should also mention that Mary decided to paint Andy's toenails hot pink at some point in the night...the scary thing is he was a willing participant! Ha ha! You're a good sport Andy! Here's some pictures to prove it...

So, the next morning everyone had some breakfast and then the many trips began. That's the hard part about winter camp trips. First all of the gear has to be hauled out with ski-doos, four-wheelers and sleds,..then all of the people. I have to admit, if there was ever a time I could have just "wished" myself to be home, that was it! I was really dreading the ski-doo drive out, and was also wondering how I'd ever get into our truck.

Unfortunately, after many trips in and out, Andy's four-wheeler had run out of gas. Darcy had to bring both sleds back to the camp with the ski-doo (he tied them together) and try to figure out a way to transport himself, Kim and I back out to the truck. That freaked me out, I knew there was no way three of us were fitting on that machine, especially with my leg stuck straight out. We improvised, and attached Mitch's G-T snowracer with a rope to the back of the ski-doo. Kim drove the ski-doo and Darcy got on the GT. I just sat back and hoped for the best! :) It really wasn't that bad, Kim drove very slow, and we had an uneventful trip out. Thank God! Here's a picture of the "sled train", and of our trip out, from Darcy's point of view...

Well, that's about it! It was actually a pretty fun weekend overall (minus my accident). Now that Scott is back in Miramichi, he's getting antsy for another camp trip..and so is Darcy. I'm sure they'll be heading up in a couple of weeks. I won't be able to go for quite some time, not until we can actually drive all the way in anyway. So, guess the next "camp post" will be Darcy's!

Later folks!

Liss

So Long Scott!

2007-01-16T09:54:00.000-04:00

Hey folks!

I figured I'd better post this past weekend's camp trip (especially since Kim has linked it to her blog and I haven't done it yet! :) I'll keep the details to a minimum..

Friday afternoon, Darcy, Mitch and Jake drove up in our truck, and Kim and I went in her car. Scott had left earlier that day (the benefits of not working..ha ha!). It was actually a really nice day, not too cold and no wind. The camp road was plowed about half way up, but the rest of the road was still driveable. I took absolutely no pictures on Friday night, probably because we spent the majority of the time cruising around on the four-wheelers and sled. There was a mishap, but I left that story to Kim since I missed the event. You can read about it on her blog. Despite that, we still managed to have a really good night!

Saturday became quite a bit colder. Tracey, Trenton and Andy arrived (in the camp yard with a mini-van..ha ha), around lunch time. We spent the whole day outside! The kids had a great time taking turns with driving the four-wheeler and hopping in the sled. Tracey and I even managed to get sucked in for a trip or two! Unfortunately Kim had hurt her back and spent her afternoon zonked out in the top bunk. But, that was a good choice because she woke up feeling much better!

By dark, it was time to go inside! It was just too darn cold to stay out any longer. We had a "sing-song", and Andy taught Mitch and Trenton how to play crib..which is what they did for the rest of the night! :) So, that's pretty much it..nothing too extreme, but a good time overall! Now, time for some pictures..

Tracey getting "sucked in" for her first sled trip...heh heh! Trenton is driving the bike and her and Mitch are in the sled. I'm not sure what Darcy is doing (adjusting her hat maybe?)..

A close-up of them in the sled..

The camp yard, and as you can see there's not much snow!

The boys playing crib...

Tracey and Andy...

Scott and Darcy..

The gang trying to decide what song to sing next...

Kim's "unimpressed" look...heh heh!

And probably the last time you'll see a picture of the truck parked in front of the camp this winter! I'm sure the road won't be so great next time...

So, that's about it! Scott's last camp weekend for quite some time..hard to believe! It's gonna be strange not having him around...we'll all miss ya buddy!

Till next time,

Liss :)

Festivus Continues At the Camp!

2006-12-31T13:04:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone! It's been awhile since I've done a camp post..been away from that place for too darn long! Because of that, we decided to continue the "Festivus Celebrations" up there. Unfortunately we could only go for one night, so we decided to leave early on Thursday (that way we could enjoy the afternoon up there). After lots of dilemmas over who was actually going (Matt and Karine couldn't come; they were leaving the next morning :(, and Jana couldn't go since she had to work), we finally got 'er straigtened out.

Scott was planning on leaving very early Thursday morning, and the rest of us (Mary, Chris, Chris's two kids Samantha and Jordan, Nick, Kari, Darcy, Mitch and I) were planning on leaving around lunch time. Darcy was supposed to work for half of the day, but ended up leaving much earlier. Mitch had spent the previous night at his friend Liam's house, and so with a quiet house all morning, I packed super-quick. Everyone ended up being ready to leave by 11:00, so Mary, Chris and the kids headed out. We told them we'd be right behind them. Then all hell broke loose when we couldn't get in touch with Mitchell. I must have called Liam's house 50 times, Darcy went there 3 times banging on the door. We had no idea where he was..and we were ticked! Eventually we tracked him down, at 12:30...turns out he and Liam were both sleeping. We piled him into the truck, (still in the same clothes from the day before..ha ha!), and headed to Mom's to say our goodbyes to Matt and Karine! "I hate goodbyes!"..lol. Nick followed us in his car, and we still had a few stops to make (Mary's house to get the lobster she had left behind, Barnaby to pick up Kari, and of course, the liquor store). All this time, we were worried about the other people who had left almost 2 hours before us..especially since we had the key to the camp! Doh!

Anyway, we hustled along, until we hit the Plaster Rock Highway...what a nightmare! We decided we'd better call Matt and Karine to tell them to take the other route home. Here's a picture of how the highway looked...(now you'll know you made the right decision Matt!)

Everytime we make a winter trip to the camp, we wonder how the road will be. Will it be plowed? Will we need the bike to get in? Fortunately, the road was actually plowed half-way up, and the rest of the way was a sheet of ice covered with a bit of fluff. Definately driveable! Well,..it was for everyone except Nick who had his car. He did make the attempt, but soon realized it wasn't worth it. Here's a picture of the camp road (this is for Dean..who always asks..ha ha!)

A shot of Darcy driving...

Mitch and Jake in the back of the truck...poor Mitch, we didn't even give him time to brush his hair..ha ha!

So, we parked Nick's car, loaded all of their stuff in our truck, abandoned the trailer, and Nick and Kari bundled up and drove the four-wheeler in. I was camera happy that day, so I had to take a picture of them...I think it's a great shot!

When we arrived at the camp, it was toasty and warm, and there was even a fire going outside! We were impressed! Mary thought Scott might have a key to our camp (which he did), so they went right to work. We're thinking being late may become a habit..if Mary and Chris are going ahead of us...ha ha!

We had planned on making a huge seafood chowder, (huge it was...2 stock pots full), so everyone pitched in to help. It was delicious! The next morning the dishes were not so fun (BIG thank you to Nick and Kari for doing the majority)..but I think disposable bowls are in order for the next time! UGH! Very gross!

We all managed to stay outside by the fire for the whole afternoon and most of the evening. It was chilly, but not too cold, and not too windy either! I took some pictures of everyone outside..

This one pretty much speaks for itself..Mitch and Jordan were busy in the background trying to build a snowfort..

Here's Darcy teasing Chris because he had the exact same hat....

Mary just bought a new puppy, a minature dachshund, or "wiener dog", his name is Kaiser, and he's SO cute. Mary carried him around in her ski-pants most of the time, so I had to take a picture..

Here's Nick, Kari, Jordan and Kaiser...

What had started out as a snow fort turned into a "burying contest"..the kids took turns burying each other in the snow and then trying to break out. I looked over and could only see Jordan's head..once again..a picture was in order! Ha ha..

Mitch throwing himself on top of Jordan...

Eventually the fire died out and it was getting cold! Nick's beer was freezing as soon as he opened it..so we decided it was time to head back inside. We took a few pictures when we got back in. Here's one of Kari and I...

And another of Nick and I...

Mitch and Samantha playing Connect Four...

Darcy and Kaiser...this was just before Darcy fell asleep on that couch..ha ha!

And, another group shot, taken just before I turned into "maniac DJ"..and cranked out one tune after another, as loud as the stereo would go. Ha ha! I think the only ones who appreciated it was Nick, Kari and Scott, ...everyone else was getting rather annoyed. Oh well! I love the tunes loud..what can I say?

So, we were all packed up and ready to hit the road the next day by 11:00. Pretty good time for a bunch of people who had no motivation whatsoever! It was a fun trip, but I don't think I'll be doing the "one-night" stay ever again. Leaving after one night really sucks!

Hopefully there'll be some more winter trips soon, it's my favorite time of the year up there! Hope everyone has an excellent New Year!

Liss

Last Weekend of Deer Week

2006-11-19T21:20:00.000-04:00

Well, deer season is officially over..all over but the cryin'! The boys got "skunked" this year (pardon the pun..ha ha!). The fact that it poured rain the whole week didn't help matters much, but they stuck it out and hunted all day, every day. Oh well..there's always next year!

Despite that, we all managed to have a great week/weekend regardless. Dean and Jade arrived on Tuesday, Aaron on Wednesday, Dan on Thursday, and Mitch, Kim and I on Friday. When Mitch and I got there on Friday the rain was coming down in buckets! I pulled the truck up close to the camp to unpack and left the keys in the ignition so Darcy could move it when we were finished. Bet you can guess what happened next...that's right, we got locked out of the truck! Darcy almost had another "hissy fit"...but then he totally redeemed himself by somehow breaking in to the passenger side door. We were SO relieved!

After a few hours, the rain actually stopped and we built a huge fire outside. A couple of guys from a camp down the road (Kevin and John) came up for a visit and Darcy and Aaron broke out the guitars. I took some random pictures of the evening..

We all had a great night..we were so lucky that the weather cooperated! Saturday was a beautiful day..it was wonderful to see the sun again! The boys all spent the day hunting, Kim and Jade stayed at Dean's camp and vegged out. Mitch and I hung out at our camp and read most of the day. Kevin and John headed out for home, and by dark the boys were all back. We again built a big fire, and waited for the meteor shower that was supposed to happen. Unfortunately, we didn't see much, a few shooting stars. I have no clue why we missed it..but I was disappointed! We still managed to have a fun night, it was much mellower than Friday night, but we were all pretty tired.

We had a visit from the flying squirrel and I managed to walk right up to the feeder and get some pictures of him. He is really getting fat!

After I snapped about 5 pictures, he flew off of the feeder and onto a tree. I took some pictures of him sitting on the branch, this is my favorite one..look at his little paw raised up..too cute!

Well, that's all for now! No crazy stories like last weekend! We won't be heading up to the camp for quite awhile (maybe sometime around the Christmas holidays).

Till then,

Liss :)

First Weekend of Deer Week - Saturday

2006-11-14T17:37:00.000-04:00

Hey! So here goes my attempt at trying to explain Saturday's events. I should note that if you haven't read Friday yet just scroll down since I'm posting backwards again.

So Saturday was a beautiful day! Everyone was up bright and early (except for me of course...I like to sleep in!). Darcy took off to go deer hunting, and then his brother Mike and Mike's son Ryan arrived about 10:00am. Mike had only visited the camp once before and Ryan had never been up. Mitch was really excited to see his cousin, and even more excited that Ryan brought along his electric guitar. The two of them had a great time playing AC/DC tunes, and they played really well together. Our camp sounded SO loud!

Around lunch time Darcy had come back, and then Adam, and Chrissie arrived with their two kids Luke and Magnus (aka Moose). They were staying at their camp (which is beside ours), so we visited over there for a bit and eventually we ended up back in our yard. Later in the afternoon, Dean's father Winston, brother Jimmy, his wife Katie, and their two sons Tommy and Clarke (aka Clarkey), and their dog Zera all arrived. It was decided that Jim and family would take up residence over at Adam's camp (since they had way more room).

Once everyone got unpacked we were all gathered in our camp yard. What a sight! There were little kids running in every direction..it was really quite funny. Mitch and Ryan entertained them with the guitars, soccer, and their attempt at building a fort/teepee. Here's a picture of them posing with it..Mitch and Ryan to the sides and the little guy inside is Jim's 3 year old Clarkey.

Winston stayed over for a little while and then decided to head back to Dean's camp. Before he left, we had a surprise visit from Gammy. He and Coll were in Miramichi visiting Coll's Mom with the baby. He decided to come up for a quick visit (he only stayed a little while), but he'll be heading back up mid-week. Here's a group shot of everyone while Winston and Gammy were still there. From left to right is Dean, Mike, Winston, Jody, Jimmy in the background, Gammy, Melanie and Katie.

It seemed as though the minute Winston left, the straggling between camps began. Everyone was everywhere, total chaos! The kids were going from camp to camp, so were the adults, and we were doing our best to keep the dogs inside the camps. Anyway, for some reason Jake was let loose and he was hanging out over at Dean's camp. Kim and I took a walk over there so she could mix a drink and ended up staying for a chat with Winston and Adam. Jake was in that camp (hogging the couch as usual), and Adam's son Luke had fallen asleep in the chair. So, I told Kim to put Jake outside so we could move Luke to the couch. About a minute later, all we could smell was skunk! UGH! If any of you read my last posts, you'd remember me mentioning the skunk (I even had some pictures of it). Well, apparently he does spray (Dean and Darcy)!

So, Kim, Adam and I grabbed our flashlights and started back to our camp where all hell was breaking loose. People were flying in every direction! Darcy was screeching and trying to hold onto Jake, meanwhile somebody had dumped ketchup all over him. Poor dog! The smell was really overwhelming. We know a great remedy for getting rid of skunk spray, we had the same thing happen to our cat earlier this year. We actually helped out Matt and Karine with it one time too..remember Matt? :) Anyway, the recipe is a bottle of peroxide, a quarter cup of baking soda and a couple of teaspoons of dish soap. We knew it was the only thing that would work, but we weren't sure if we'd ever get all the ingredients (especially baking soda). I have to say, everyone really pulled together! Dean took off on the four-wheeler going to different camps and collecting peroxide and baking soda (thanks Kevin!) Chrissie was off to get a bucket to mix everything, Jade went to her camp to get some incense to burn (the inside of the camp reeked). Jimmy, Mike and Jody were grabbing water jugs from the shed, Katie took all the kids and the other dogs to Adam's camp. It was complete craziness! Anyway, we eventually got everything, I mixed it up and Darcy washed Jake with it twice. The third mixture was used for Darcy, he really stunk. He took the biggest "hissy fit" I've ever seen, and he kept yelling "I stink"..like we didn't know that! He can laugh about it now anyway!

So, here's a picture of Jake getting scrubbed down..

And another of him afterward. I found an old blanket and wrapped him up. He laid right down in front of the fire, he was so cold and traumatized. We all felt so bad for him. Imagine having four huge water jugs of ice cold water poured over you in November? The poor thing..

All I can say is Thank God everyone chipped in to help out, and that the stink eventually went away. Talk about killing the "party atmosphere" pretty quickly. It didn't take long to get things revved up again though. The boys brought out their guitars, and a whole bunch of guys from camps down the road showed up. I thought that was so funny, especially since they all knew about the skunk incident! So here are some random shots from the rest of the evening....

That's Chrissie, Dean, Darcy, Mike, Ryan and Mitch...

A nice picture of Mike and Jimmy..(I should note that these two guys hung around together when they were younger, and haven't seen each other in a very long time).
A "Jade Sandwich"...ha ha!
And finally Melanie, Kim, Kevin and Adam...

I have SO many pictures, so it was hard to choose which ones to put on. I wish I could have added all of them! Anyway, a great time was had by all. The party rocked on till about 4:00...and by then it was raining. We've decided that this will become an annual event, hopefully that plan sticks! It was great to see everyone again and I hope you all had as much fun as I did!

So, a new crew of people are heading up there this week with Darcy. Kim just left today (Tuesday), and Dean and Jade arrived. Tonight Gammy is going up, tomorrow Aaron, and then on the weekend Kim, Scott, Jana, Rene, Mitch and I will arrive. Should be a good time! Until then,

Liss :)

First Weekend of Deer Week - Friday Night

2006-11-13T19:24:00.000-04:00

Hey there! I just got back from another wild and crazy weekend at the camp. I've decided to break this up into two posts (since I have way too many pictures). Of course I'm doing it backwards again, but oh well!

Darcy and Jake left on Thursday night, and Mitch and I planned on heading up Friday right after work/school. Friday morning Dean and Jade got dropped off there by Dean's brother Jimmy. Jody, Melanie and Ben arrived soon after that, and then Kim, and then Mitch and I about supper time. We had to wait a bit before starting a fire outside, it was so windy and cold. Eventually the wind died down and we were good to go. We had a visit from Kevin and Jamie (guys who have a camp down the road), Kim cooked a killer meatpie over the open fire (very yummy!), and we had a great night overall. I should mention a thank you to Mom who looked after Kate and Meg (Thanks Ma!) We decided it wouldn't be wise to bring them since we knew we were having a lot of company (including lots of small kids). So here are a few pictures from Friday night ..oh and another thank you to Melanie who sent me some of these (Thanks Mel!).

For some reason we all seem to be taking pictures of ourselves lately...not sure why! :) Anyway, here is one that Darcy took of us, it's not centered, but it has the camp in the background, so I didn't bother to crop it...
Darcy sitting by the fire with Ben in his lap....looks like he's about to fall asleep..ha ha!
I get such a kick out of this picture of Ben, he's actually waving at Melanie, and hamming it up for the camera. He loves getting his picture taken!

Mitch playing a tune for Ben..he really enjoyed hearing guitars..

Mitch will probably kill me for including this one..but I couldn't resist. I wanted to get a nice shot of him, Dean and Jody, but Dean started grabbing Mitch for a hug..look at the face on him! Too funny..Another one of Darcy's attempts at taking a picture only this time Kim joined in...
A nice picture of Jade and Kim..
And another one of Ben getting ready for bed..

Well, I'm gonna keep this one short because Saturday's entry is going to be LONG. We had lots of company and lots of interesting stuff happened! Stay tuned!

Liss :)

A Rockin' Good Time!

2006-11-06T16:01:00.000-04:00

Hey everybodee! Well, here I go again...round 2 of trying to post this entry! I had the whole thing almost totally finished last night and the blog site went down for maintenance. I lost the whole thing..UGH! I was quite ticked but I did learn a valuable lesson, always "save as draft" as you write.

Anyway, because of all these dilemmas, I've decided to completely skip the post on the October vacation week. There's hardly any pictures, and I missed half of it! I'm gonna move right along to this past weekend's events.

Friday night was a little different from our normal routine. Mitch really wanted to bring his buddy Trenton for the weekend, and we had absolutely no room for him (we had already planned on squeezing Dean in with us). You all know how kids can be though, they just won't take no for an answer..so they came up with their own plan. Trenton's Dad agreed to drive the two of them up to the camp after school, and Trenton's Mom (my friend Tracey), decided to come up on Saturday, stay the night, and drive Trenton home the next day. The only problem was that we were very late leaving; I had to work later than normal, we weren't totally packed, we still had to pick up groceries, gas,etc..not to mention we also had to pick up Dean. So, when we arrived at the camp it was dark, and I was getting worried about the boys. I have to say the two of them impressed me! They had built a fire outside and were standing in front of it, very proud of their accomplishment. I think they enjoyed the little bit of freedom, and liked proving how "grown up" they could be.

After unpacking everything, we built the boy's fire a little bigger, and a few guys from a camp down the road came up for a few beers. Scott showed up not long after that, and we all had a great night. I have to admit I was looking forward to the next day when Jana, Tracey and Kim were coming up...it kinda sucks to be the only girl up there. It was still good fun regardless, and the weather was awesome!

Saturday was a beautiful day! Chilly..but it is November right? After breakfast, Scott and Dean busied themselves splitting wood, Darcy went deer hunting, and Mitch and Trenton played around in the yard. Tracey arrived right at noon, and Jana and her parents (Frank and Joan) came shortly after. They stayed for a visit and the boys built another fire outside for us.

By supper time, everyone was congregated around the firepit again. I should mention that because of deer season, there are a lot of people at their camps. That means, we get LOTS of visitors, which is what happened on Saturday night. The more the merrier! :)

We had a great night for tunes..Darcy has been learning quite a few new songs over the past couple of weeks. Lots of them are Stones songs (go figure!), and we had such a hoot singing them! My favorite was "Sympathy for the Devil"...it took about 3 tries to get through the whole song, but we were determined! We even divided into groups..ha ha!! Darcy, Scott, Dean and I sang the main part, Tracey and Jana were the "Woo Woo" group, and Kim had the shaker (a case of BB pellets). :) Whatever works! Good times!

So, now I'll get to some of the pictures from that night. First off is a pic from early in the evening (Darcy was just starting to play). From left to right is Jana, Kim, Scott, Tracey, Trenton, Dean, and Darcy on the picnic table..

I had to take this picture of Tracey with her "never-ending" can of beer..ha ha! She's holding the smaller can so you can appreciate the size of that sucker!

Mitch, Tracey and Trenton in front of the fire. It threw off lots of heat!

The crew singin' a tune...

Mitch and I attempting to take a picture of ourselves...

Here's a couple from later in the night (when more company had arrived)....

And finally, Dean and I. That hat he's wearing is too cool! The flag on it lights up and flashes. Once I discovered that, I wore it the rest of the night..ha ha! Wish I could have had it for Canada Day!

So, that's it for that weekend! We all had a really great time, and we're looking forward to the next two weekends. Darcy is heading up on Thursday night to stay for 12 days, at least I can go on the weekends! Lots of people are coming up..Dean's Dad and his brother Jim and family, Darcy's brother Mike and his son Ryan, Aaron,Rene,Gammy, plus the usual crew. I'm sure it'll be a blast! Stay tuned..

Liss :)

The Last of the Thanksgiving Pictures...I Promise!

2006-10-24T20:08:00.000-03:00

Finally...the last of the Thanksgiving pictures! Now I can move on to more recent camp events. So, here they are in no particular order...

This is Dean attempting to split a log...ha ha! Kim called this picture "Missed"...
Aaron playing with the chainsaw...
Arianna and Autumn relaxing on some logs...they are so cute!
Jade, Mitch and myself during our stroll through the woods on Saturday..
Another group shot from Saturday night...The Martin Clan getting ready for a tour next door...
The look on Arianna's face in this picture is priceless!!
This is our friendly skunk who's been hanging around quite a bit. We've been able to walk right up to him and everything..he's around every night. Dean says he can't spray...let's hope not!
And finally...Kim! Ha ha! This was taken on Monday after we had left and were stopped at the store on the highway. Kim came up to our window and made this face, little did she know that Mitch was holding the camera and snapped a picture. Too funny!

So, that's it for that! It's taken me forever to upload these pictures..this site is getting worse and worse for that. I've still got some posting to do for last week (Darcy and Mitch were up there all week with Dean and Jade). I'll get around to it eventually!

Later folks!
Liss

More Thanksgiving Pictures...

2006-10-23T22:15:00.000-03:00

Hey everyone! Since this darn blogger site is actually letting me post pictures I figured I'd get them finished while I can. So, a big thank you to Kim who sent some of these my way! Here goes...

Here's Dean and Darcy trying to pry that huge stump out of the yard. They did a great job of digging it out, but later used the truck to finish it off..
Dean and Jade (notice the partridge feather in Jade's hat..too cute!)The boys playing with the fire next door...
The truck hauling out that god-forsaken stump!
A beautiful picture of the camp..I love the colors!
Jade, Mitch, Autumn and Arianna trying to break open peanut shells on the rock..
Autumn enjoying her peanuts...
Jade, Kim and Mitch all dressed in their hunter orange, we were just about to take a walk through the woods..
And a picture of the trail we walked on through the woods. It was such a beautiful day!

So, the write-up is below, once again I'm posting backwards! There are still more pictures to come. Stay tuned!

Liss

Thanksgiving Weekend at the Camp!

2006-10-23T20:29:00.000-03:00

Okay, I know, Thanksgiving is long past...but I've been a busy girl for the past few weeks! Anyway, this blogger site is giving me major grief again! Posting pictures has become a dilemma so I've only got a few, I'll have to add more later or do another post.

So, we spent the Thanksgiving long weekend with a bunch of our friends at the camp. As most of you know, Dean and Jade are home for a couple of months from South Korea, so it was kind of a welcome home party for them too. Anyway, we had lots of company and a wonderful weekend. The weather was awesome! Friday night was kinda quiet, but by Saturday night we had our family (plus dogs), Coll, Dan, Jen, Aaron, Autumn and Arianna, Kim, Scott, Dean, Jade, Michelle, Cleve, and their friend Dan. (Hope I didn't forget anyone!). Saturday night was quite the hoot, lots of laughs and tunes on the guitars..plus a BIG fire! Sunday lots of company left for home, and Jen cooked us up a turkey on the BBQ, very yummy!

So, here's a picture of Dean and Jade taken on Friday night by the fire..Here's a pic of Jen doing crafts with the kids on the picnic table (I admit..I did join in on it too..ha ha!)

Autumn and Arianna getting ready to go four-wheelin' with their Dad..A few pics from the fire Saturday night...

And of course Coll posing on her pole..ha ha! There is a story behind this one, but what happens at the camp stays at the camp!! :)
Mitch, Autumn and Arianna sitting on their "log chairs" that Aaron made for them. He's pretty good with chainsaw art!

And here's how Dean and Jade drove out on Monday...on Aaron's bike while it was in the trailer! Too funny! Kim did the same thing on our bike, hopefully I can post more pictures later!

Well, I know this is a short entry, but I've still got lots of posting to do! So, stay tuned for more pics very shortly! Taker easy everybody!

Liss

Porch Burnin' Weekend - Friday

2006-08-28T07:29:00.000-03:00

Hey guys! Well here it is, our one and only camp trip for August! This was our "ceremonial porch burnin' weekend", and was it ever a blast! Darcy, Mitch, his friend Dakota, our 3 dogs and myself all arrived about supper time. Vince got there shortly before us, and Scott showed up soon after. Kim couldn't make it this weekend due to some family function (ya missed out Kim!).

Shortly after we arrived, Mitch and Dakota decided to try some target practice with the air gun....The rest of us started the fire..and admired Vince's new four-wheeler (I wish I had of got a picture!). Somewhere around 8:30 Coll, Dan and Daniel came walking up the camp road. They had brought their car (because of the baby seat), so couldn't drive in all the way. Dan took our truck out to get their stuff, and while he was gone Jana pulled in with "Papa Frank"..her Dad! Frank stayed for a while, had some hotdogs, and then he hit the road. Coll wanted to get Daniel ready for bed, he was tired after his long drive. So they set up his playpen and Coll fed him...Once the baby was settled, it was porch burnin' time. Man, did that fire ever throw off some heat! Here's a few random pics from the rest of the evening..
Darcy was really enjoying getting his picture taken...lol

Vince and Scott...they both look so happy!
The Knowles clan..sorry about cutting off Daniel in the picture, my balance wasn't that great obviously!
Coll, myself and Dan all roasting in front of the fire!
This one is funny, I can't tell who is standing in front of the fire though! I think it's Coll, but she doesn't...when you enlarge it, it's too blurry to tell.
Check out the grate on top of the pit, by this point it had melted and was sinking down in the middle. Now that's a fire! LOL

Everyone had a great night, lots of laughs..but no guitar tunes. It just wasn't meant to be! Darcy and Jana saved their energy for Saturday's "Camp Idol"..heh heh! Next up, Saturday! Later,

Liss

Porch Burnin' Weekend - Saturday

2006-08-27T18:31:00.000-03:00

Well folks..fall is in the air and I LOVE it! Saturday was a gorgeous day, sunny and the air was crisp. Not a day for shorts! Daniel slept right through the night, and didn't wake up till 8:00am. What a good baby! He doesn't cry when he wakes up either, just starts talking and jabbering, it's so cute. We put our new coleman coffee maker to the test, and Darcy cooked an artery-clogging community breakfast for everybody. After that we all retired to the yard and just sat around yakking. Scott and Vince went for a run on the bikes, the rest of us took 'er easy. I think we all had an afternoon nap, except for Coll. We got a few pics from that lazy afternoon, first up is Katie Pooh!Here's little Gam sitting in his playpen..
Jake looking rather serious..lol I love this pic!Jana managed to sneak this picture while Darcy was crashed out in the hammock..it's a bit blurry but it's still funny!
So, after everyone woke up and ate some BBQ, we were good to go again! A couple of guys who have the camp beside Scott came over for a visit (Jim and Jerry). Vince arrived, and we started to burn the remainder of the porch. Believe me, there wasn't much wood left! Mitch and Dakota spent their afternoon and evening catching frogs, which they kept in the camp porch. They ended up with 10 or 12 frogs, and they were jumping out of the bucket and trying hard to escape. Before things got too out of hand, I roamed around and took a few pictures. Here's a group shot of everyone..
Coll and little Gam...I know Daniel is his name, but for some reason I think "Little Gam" is gonna stick..sorry Coll! :)
One of the crazy frogs who escaped the bucket..it looked funny to see frogs crawling up the porch screens!
And another group shot..that's Jerry, Vince and Dan sitting on the picnic table, Coll and Scott sitting in the double chair, Jana, Jim is on the bike, and Darcy looking through his song book. He and Jana were getting geared up to play some tunes.

The rest of the night was quite fun! Lots of great tunes on the guitar, Scott and I did the background singing..LOL. We thought we sounded pretty good, eh Scott? :) Our batteries lasted right till late that night, which was a bonus! It's so nice not using a generator.

So, this'll be it for the camp trips till October! We've hardly spent any time there this summer! Next time we're having a party for Dean and Jade's arrival, there's also some other reasons (Jana's birthday, Vince's retirement, and Scott's "retirement"..LOL). So, we'll just have to do it all at once and have a big bash! Should be fun! Till next time,

Lissy

Last Weekend of Camp Vacation

2006-07-28T20:13:00.000-03:00

Finally, the last post for the camp week! Friday night Kim and I arrived about 5:00, Scott had been there since early that morning. We were so excited to be there, every Friday feels like that at the camp! Aaron arrived around 8:00, and just around that time the sky took on a really eerie glow, it was quite freaky! We looked up and saw a rainbow right over the camp yard, Kim took a picture with our camera, it kinda turned out, but it was fading away pretty fast...Later on at dark, we could hear a truck coming up the road and then saw headlights in Scott's driveway. It turned out to be Keith, so once he unloaded his gear he came over to join the party. Here's a pic of them vegging in front of the fire, I think Darcy and Aaron were inside tuning up their guitars at this point..
Mitch stayed outside with us for quite awhile that night, it was so nice out! It was calling for rain, but we fluked out and didn't get any. Gotta love that! Here's Scott, Mitch and Keith having a say..
By midnight, Mitch had hit the sack. Everyone else was starting to fade as well, but they managed to stay up for a bit. Once Darcy had his bowl of cereal, I knew it was beddy-bye for him! I was SO disappointed, this chicky was not ready for sleep...as usual! LOL Luckily Aaron was wide-eyed as well, so the two of us took a wander tour, blasted some good 'ol Dire Straits, and had lots of laughs. (That's after we put Keith to bed..eh Keith?). We didn't hit the sack till about 5:00am, which made the next day a really tough one for Monsieur Martin!
Here's a shot of our handcrafted "Remington" fire-poker that our good buddy Rene (a.k.a. Stephane) made for us. What a jewel! Our campfires wouldn't be the same without it.
Saturday morning everyone was up early, except for a few of us, and breakfast was served at Scott Horton's. I missed it, which was probably for the best anyway! LOL

Scott, Kim, Aaron, Keith, and his brother Perry (who came up that morning) all headed out around noon for a long four-wheeler run. They didn't get back till after 8:00 that night, a long day for all of them! Darcy and Mitch left for town about the same time, to attend Darcy's Mom's birthday party. They got back around supper time. That left me alone for the afternoon with the dogs, it was a very peaceful and relaxing day! Here are some pics from the bike run that day...

I have a bunch of videos from that trip which I've decided not to post, they may offend some of you! If anyone wants to see them, let me know and I can e-mail them. I think they are a hoot! That's about it, Saturday night was pretty mellow. Kim went to bed as soon as she got back, Aaron and Scott lasted a little while, but we were still all passed out by midnight. Nothing picture-worthy that's for sure! It was a great week..lots of memories! No more camp trips for awhile..:(

Later,

Liss

Darcy and Mitch's Week at the Camp

2006-07-27T22:08:00.000-03:00

After all the girls left the camp on Sunday, Mitch and Darcy were on their own for the week (except for Tiffany, who stayed an extra night). I'm not getting into great detail, obviously because I wasn't there for most of it. I will say that they had a great time, did lots of four-wheeling, fishing and work around the yard. Sunday afternoon Darcy took both kids biking and they saw a huge buck and a bull. It was the first time Tiffany had ever seen either kind of animal, so that was pretty cool. They had a huge thunder and lightening storm that night, so they mostly stayed inside the camp.

The next day Darcy worked on extending the fence in the yard and dug a new hole for our future outhouse. Here's a pic of the new fence...They all went biking again and saw lots of cool stuff, here's a nice pic of a butterfly on a thistle..Monday night Cleve, Michelle and I took a drive up to get Tiffany and to bring Darcy some ice. We stayed for a couple of hours, it was a really nice evening. The following couple of days Darcy and Mitch did lots of traveling. Here's a pic of Darcy fishing the river...
A nice shot of the river...
This is the new trail leading back to where the new outhouse is going to go. Darcy chopped a chunk off of the shed step too..
And here's a deer that they saw along the road, it's kinda blurry, but it's still a cute picture. Look at the size of those ears! LOL
On Wednesday night, Kim, Jana and I drove up to once again do the ice delivery thing. We had only planned on staying a few hours, but that turned into a few ice cold beer, and that led to us staying the night! It sucked that Jana and I both had to work early the next morning, but oh well! Ya only live once! We set the alarm early and got back to town in plenty of time. It was good fun!

Darcy and Mitch both had a great week, and their peaceful quiet camp soon turned into chaos when we all arrived on Friday. I'll post that entry next! Later,

Liss

More Pics From The Chicks Weekend....

2006-07-26T22:20:00.000-03:00

Well, Kim sent me off a bunch of pictures, some of them from our first weekend so I figured I'd post them first. Here goes...and these are in no particular order!This is Tiffany vegging in the hammock..this is right about the time she decided she wasn't leaving the next day.
This pic is one Kim calls "What's All the Excitement About"..good choice Kim. I'm not sure what was going on here, probably trying to pick a song to play.
Michelle and I....do you suppose I had too much sun or too much Baja Rosa? LOL
This one turned out quite blurry, but it's still cool, it's Tiffany driving Mitch's bike through a HUGE mud puddle..very fast!
Darcy and Jana playing a tune....
On Sunday Mitch took the raspberries that he and Kim picked and he made some homemade jam, everyone had some with breakfast that morning. Good job Mitch, it was very yummy!
Here's Tiffany when she first got on the bike, she was scared to death!
This pic Kim called "Chillin and Singin", which is pretty appropriate. Just another random group shot!

Anyhew, that's all for the first weekend. I've been trying to post for the past couple of days but this blogger site wouldn't let me for some reason. Obviously it's up and running again, so I'll try to finish posting tomorrow! Time to hit the sack! Later,

Liss

Pics From The First Weekend

2006-07-24T21:53:00.000-03:00

So, I finally have some pics from the first weekend at the camp, or should I say "Chick Weekend". Not much to say since I already posted about it, so here goes...
Here's Gammy havin' a laugh by the fire, I have LOTS of candid Gammy photos which are just not appropriate to post! You owe me one Dan! LOL
This is Mitch, Darcy and Jana playing some tunes earlier on in the evening.
This picture is just too funny! This is the result of Kim driving Mitch's bike..she looks so impressed!
This is Darcy and his "harem" as he called them all weekend..(Jana, Michelle and Kim). See..I told you he loved every minute of it!
Here's Mitch and Tiffany (Michelle's step-daughter), they were busy looking through the old photos of the camp. Kim has some really cool pictures of her driving the bike, still didn't get them Kim...I may add them in later!
This is Kim happily mixing her raspberry martinis!
Darcy and Jana playing a tune....
And finally everyone having a munch fest around the fire (Chris, Mary, Jana and Michelle).

So, that's all the pics I could fit for that weekend, I'll post more for Darcy and Mitchell's week, and then another for last weekend. Later,

Liss

The Chicks Weekend Was Meant To Be!

2006-07-16T21:44:00.000-03:00

Whew! I'm back from a wild weekend at the camp! And what a time we had! Before I get into more detail I have to say that even though the girls night was officially cancelled, it was still definitely a girls weekend! Poor Darcy! LOL

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures yet, since Darcy still has the camera for the rest of this week! Kim has some though, and she'll be sending them my way A.S.A.P, so I'll post them in a couple of days.

Anyway, Friday was a crazy, hectic day! Trying to pack stuff for Darcy and Mitch for a whole week in the woods is not an easy task! We actually didn't make out too bad, the worst thing..we forgot the dog food! Duh! Luckily we always keep some at the camp, so they were good for a night anyway. Saturday we knew Mary and Chris were coming, so we just called and asked them to bring some up. That saved an extra trip to town, Bonus!

The truck was LOADED with stuff, luckily before we left the house Dan..A.K.A, Gammy, pulled in the yard and since he was coming up for the night, offered to take Mitch's four-wheeler in the back of his truck. I had planned on making the trip with Kim in her car, and then we ended up driving my buddy Jana up too. Jana works with me, and is the only co-worker that actually made the trip up!

Anyhew, we had a great drive up, lots of laughs, and an even better time once we arrived there! Jana plays guitar, so her, Darcy and Mitch played some tunes by the campfire, and Kim and I tried to sing..heh heh! I think it's time I learned some kind of instrument, I felt so useless just sitting there! Anyway, Gammy actually stayed awake till midnight! Then, he passed out in his usual place, a lawnchair by the fire. The rest of us rocked on till 3am..well, except Mitch, but he did outlast Gammy!

Saturday was so freakin' hot! None of us had an ounce of energy to move, it took us forever to get breakfast going! I think it was 1:00 in the afternoon before we even ate. It was too hot to do much of anything, so we pretty much just vegged out in the yard most of the day. Mitch and Kim did go pick some raspberries, and Darcy and Kim took a drive later in the day. Kim drove Mitch's bike which was probably not the best plan..eh Kim?? She wiped out, cut her leg up pretty good, and was completely covered in mud when they got back. All we could do was laugh at her!

Soon after that, Mary and Chris arrived (with our dog food..thanks guys!). The beer were flowing quite freely by that point, and we got our campfire going. About an hour later, Michelle arrived with her step-daughter Tiffany, who is 11. We had only met her once before, but she wasn't a bit shy, and was excited to go camping. Mitch was even more excited to have someone to hang out with! Tiffany really wanted to try Mitch's four-wheeler out, so she took his bike, and Mitch took Darcy's with the trailer hooked on. The two of them drove out to Michelle's car to get their gear, and Tiffany was scared of driving! Didn't take her long to get over that fear, she was soon splashing through the biggest puddles she could find, and driving loops around the camp yard. The two kids had the time of their lives, and so did the rest of us!

One major problem we didn't think about was the bed situation! We just didn't have the room for all our company. Kim, Darcy and I ended up going to Scott and Dean's camp to sleep, so it all worked out in the end! Chris and Mary passed out early, they were both exhausted and were planning a tubing trip the next day. Darcy sat with Michelle, Kim, Jana and I, and was picked on most of the night! Poor guy! He had a rough night, but I think he probably loved every minute of it!

Today was another hot, humid, muggy day! Gross! I hate this kind of weather! We once again took our time getting the "community" breakfast together. Chris and Mary left early for the tubing trip, the rest of us sat around drinking lots of coffee and laughing. Darcy stayed outside most of the day, he said he could, and I quote, "Cut the estrogen with a knife"..lol. We stuck around most of the day, and when it was finally time to pack up, Tiffany announced that she didn't want to leave with us. After lots of discussion, she ended up staying with Darcy and Mitchell. Brave girl! We decided to make a road trip up tomorrow night to pick up Tiffany, (that's if she'll come), otherwise we'll bring her some clean clothes and bring Darcy some much needed ice. Kim and I are heading up Wednesday night for ice delivery, so we can always pick her up then if she decides to stay on for a couple more days.

So, I'm sure that Darcy was glad to get rid of us all, and he was taking the kids on a four-wheeler trip for the afternoon/early evening. They were both very excited! I only wish that I was on vacation this week too! :(

Anyway, that's enough for now, I'll post some pics within the next couple of days! Later,

Liss

Soju is Evil!!

2006-06-14T21:54:00.000-03:00

Well, believe it or not, I almost forgot to make a post for the June 3rd weekend! I just thought of it tonight, and figured I'd better get it done. Friday night, our family arrived, and Scott came shortly afterwards. Vince couldn't make it up, he had the flu, which really sucked. About 9 or 10pm, Kim showed up unexpectedly (she wasn't supposed to arrive until 4am). She managed to leave work early, so that was a bonus. We vegged out in front of our "fire"....Darcy made this from some scrap metal, he welded it all together to make a tube, and then filled it with citronella oil. He bought some wicks at Canadian Tire, and Presto! It works like a charm, especially when the woods are dry and we can't have a campfire, plus it helps keep the flies away. Pretty cool!
Darcy also spent lots of time with the whipper-snipper, cutting the grass in the yard. The flies were really bad...hence the bug-suit. It looked so much better when he was finished, great job Darc!
On Saturday, Darcy, Scott and Kim went for a spin on the bikes..Mitch and I stayed back since we no longer have a back seat on our bike, and Mitch didn't bring his. They cruised around for a few hours, ate lots of flies, and came across this tree stand in the woods. The boys had to climb up for a pic...
And here's Scott and Kim...cool glasses Kim!
Saturday evening Mary and Chris arrived with a truckload full of wood for us (Mary gave us some of her wood from last year). We decided that we HAD to have a campfire, but only a little one! It was just meant to be, and it's sure not the same without one. So, we had a fire, enjoyed some beers, and then Darcy brought out the Soju. Forgive me if I'm spelling this wrong..it's a Korean rice liquor, and let me tell you, it's very evil! It has no taste, and is actually quite easy to drink. Mary, Kim, Chris and I drank way too many shots...the result was not pretty! The next day all four of us got sick! Needless to say, we're pouring the rest of it out! Dean, if you're reading this, please don't bring any home with you this fall...heh heh!
I thought it would be fitting to show a picture of it...it even looks like a water bottle! Anyway..lessons learned! Overall, we had a great weekend...minus the soju of course.

This will be my last post for quite a while. We won't be making any camp trips until mid July..next week we're heading off to Ottawa to stay with my brother Matt and his fiancee Karine. Can't wait! Till next time, Liss

I Screwed It Up Again!

2006-05-28T15:39:00.000-03:00

Well, after going through all that work, and writing five separate blog entries for the May long weekend...and saving them all as drafts before publishing them..I still managed to screw it up! How? I'm not sure! I wanted to post them in order, starting from Thursday, through till Sunday, so I published them in that order..unfortunately they still published backwards!

I'm too damn tired to bother changing it now..so please scroll down....way down...to the entry called May Long Weekend - Thursday Night Intro...then continue all the way up (if you want to read it in order that is!). I'm so ticked off! Anyhew, that's enough venting for one day! Chow for now!

May Long Weekend - Sunday

2006-05-28T14:49:00.000-03:00

Finally, my fifth and last post for the May long weekend..what a process! These are all pics taken on Sunday, which was the last day for the Knowles clan, and Kim. There were no pics from Monday, since we all headed out so quickly..so these will sum it all up! Here's Aaron holding Daniel, Coll and Dan were busy packing up their gear. Daniel didn't look too scared of Aaron...that says something Darcy..heh heh!
Here's Kim and Autumn picking flowers, Kim was getting ready to head out for home..
Here's a pic of "Dead Lake", the place I talked about in my first post..Darcy and Aaron had a very quick trip in and out of there.
This pic of Scott was taken during our trip around back through the cutouts..so are most of the next pictures..
This is Jen's "I'll start with you!" picture, it's an inside joke we had..looks kinda like a helmet advertisement for Canadian Tire...heh heh! Sorry Jen, but it had to be included!
This pic has a little story too, while we were driving along, Darcy found this old pair of ugly sunglasses lying on the road. He put them on, and pretended to be a cop when Jen and Aaron drove up, Mitchell then decided to put them on, and pose for this picture..
The Martin clan, snuggled together on their four-wheeler..
The Martin's and Mitch driving up ahead of us..we really wanted to capture the blue sky..it was so nice to see after all the rain we had!
And back at the camp, Mitch and Autumn playing a game of washers.

Well, that's all for now, 3 and 1/2 hours is sure a long time to post a blog..my hands are sore, and so are my eyes! The weekend was a blast..I hope I captured all the memories for everyone that was there! Till next time, Lissy

May Long Weekend - Saturday Night

2006-05-28T14:07:00.000-03:00

These are all pics taken Saturday evening..they pretty much speak for themselves!Here's Autumn and Aaron roasting some marshmallows.. Jake in his usual position on a chair, he would never lay on the ground like a normal dog!
The next two pics need a bit of explanation..if you know Mitchell at all, you'd know that he is obsessed with the TV show "Lost", his favorite character is Mr. Ecko, who carries a big club around with him, and writes Bible scriptures all over it. Anyway, Mitch decided he wanted to make one for himself, he calls it a "Jesus stick", not sure it that's what Mr. Ecko calls his or not..but here is a pic of Mitch creating it..
And here's the finished product...
Here's Autumn eating her marshmallows...she has more on her face then in her mouth..heh heh!
All the chicks..
I apologize in advance to you Coll, but I just had to put this pic in..it's too funny! The pic is a little blurry, but it still works...what a laugh!
Here's Darcy and Jen hamming it up for the camera! Note, this is Jen before....
and this is Jen after...heh heh! We started calling Jen "Aunt Jenina" after this pic was taken! I think the name will stick for a very long time Jen, sorry! Heh heh!
Darcy and Aaron playing a tune in the porch, I think they were both just about ready for bed when this pic was taken, eh boys?
And this is the one and only pic of the fireworks that we had, Kim was the only one who bothered to try to take a picture, the rest of us were too busy watching the show!

So, once again, I can't fit any more pics, which is probably a good thing, since some of them would make great blackmail photos...believe me it could have been much worse people! Anyway, read on for Sunday's entry...

May Long Weekend - Saturday Afternoon

2006-05-28T13:34:00.000-03:00

This is all pics taken from Saturday afternoon, some at the camp, and some from the fishing trip... I had to include a picture of Cosmo, poor Cosmo had quite the culture shock being at the camp. He'd never been to the woods before, and he was really missing Mom! He spent most of his time lying underneath the table, when he wasn't outside smelling everything in sight!
Here's Autumn sitting in the canoe on the lake..she looks just like her aunt Marilyn in this picture!
Here's the Martin clan..really nice pic guys!
This is Aaron's "model" picture, he looks like he's posing for a fishing magazine..another really great picture!
Back at the camp, Darcy decided to hold Daniel for a picture, I think he was just a tad terrified of Darcy..we zoomed in for this shot! Heh heh..
And this is pretty much the same shot, except Dan is there too..
Here's a really nice pic that Kim took of Danny Jr. and Sr...so sweet!
Here's Daniel napping away in his playpen..he looks so peaceful!
And finally here's Jake, napping away on the picnic table..how peaceful is that? What a dog!

That's all the photos I can squeeze in for this one...read on!

May Long Weekend- Friday Night and Saturday's Journey to "Secret Lake"

2006-05-28T12:57:00.000-03:00

This post is pictures from Friday night, some of Kim's pics from Saturday morning, and the group's journey to "secret" lake....that's not really the name, but Darcy won't let me say where it is! Heh heh!Here's a pic taken Friday night, Mitchell was playing the guitar for Autumn..too cute!Later on Mitch did crafts with her, here she is happily working away... Here's all the bikes loaded up with the boat and canoe, pretty tippy looking! They are en route to the lake..
Vince and Autumn cruising along..
Autumn all geared up for her bike trip, she is just too cute!
Aaron hauling Jen out of a major waterhole..one of the many they encountered that day!
This is a pic Kim took over at Scott's..it's a trillium..very nice picture!
And yet another of Kim's pics, this one is a spider (check out the legs), coming out after the rain..a really cool pic!

That's all the pictures I can fit for this one..read on!

May Long Weekend - Thursday Night Intro

2006-05-28T11:41:00.000-03:00

The May Long Weekend has come and gone, and it was so much fun! I've been waiting to post my blog entry, because I have so many pictures to go through that it's hard to decide which ones to use! I'm also posting this in many parts, once again because of all the pics, so it's gonna be a long read!

I figured I'd start this off by giving a few general details about the whole weekend, since I only have one pic for Thursday night. All the other entries, the pics can speak for themselves!

So, Thursday night I drove Darcy, Mitch and our three dogs up to the camp. Darcy had Friday off, so he wanted to leave early. Unfortunatley, I had to work Friday, so I had to come back home. Scott was already up there when we arrived, and Vince was there too. It was raining that night, so I think they stayed inside most of the evening, but they still had a good night.

Kim showed up at 4:00am Thursday night, or should I say Friday morning, as soon as she finished her shift at work. She has a car, so she obviously can't drive right in to Scott's camp, so Scott agreed to go meet her with his four-wheeler. All I can say, is thank God Kim was smart enough to bring a flashlight with her! Scott did manage to stay awake long enough to drive out and wait for her, but he parked his bike off to the side of the road and proceeded to fall asleep! Meanwhile, Kim drove right past him, parked her car and waited for him. She figured that he wasn't coming, grabbed her flashlight and walked in through all the mudholes to Scott's camp, expecting to wake him up! She was surprised to find that Scott wasn't even there! Down the road, Scott woke up and saw Kim's car parked a way's down..so he went back to the camp to find Kim. It all worked out in the end..but Kim you need to get off those late shifts..heh heh!

Friday was another crappy weather day! Rain, thundershowers, wind, you name it! I arrived about 5:30 with my Mom's dog Cosmo (Mom was on her cruise, and my brother Nick gone away for the weekend), and then Jen, Aaron and Autumn arrived around 8:00. We had a fire going for a little while outside, but the rain soon started again! We all moved into the porch, Darcy had put the screens up the week before, which was a great help keeping the flies at bay, and the sideways rain! Mitchell and Autumn stayed inside doing crafts most of the night, the rest of us just spent the evening catching up.

Saturday was a really nice day..sunny with cloudy periods, but absolutely no rain! We all had a big community breakfast at Scott Horton's , then everyone except Kim and I went on a fishing trip with the four-wheelers and boat/canoe, to the "secret" lake. Kim and I waited for Colleen, Danny and Daniel to arrive, and spent our time over at Scott's...Kim pulled roots in the yard, and we both got eaten by blackflies. The fishing group had a long day..but it was a fun journey! It took them 3 hours to get there, many delays with unexpected branches and trees, which Darcy had to cut, and lots and lots of waterholes! I think they only got one fish, which Darcy released, and Autumn fell asleep on the way there and back. They were all quite tired when they got home.

Dan, Coll and Daniel arrived around 2:30 that afternoon. We set up Daniel's playpen, Coll fed him, and he went down for a quick cat-nap. The rest of the crew arrived around supper time, we had a BBQ, and then built a campfire. We roasted marshmallows, had some drinks, and so many good laughs that everyone complained how sore their stomaches and faces were from laughing so much! It was definately one of the funnest nights I've had at the camp in years! Aaron brought a box of fireworks out at dark, and Darcy the pyro set most of them off. Very cool! Autumn was a little freaked out, she stood there with her ears covered most of the time, she liked to look at them, just not hear them! Poor Daniel was sleeping in the camp, and the dogs would bark everytime a firework would go off, they almost woke him up! Luckily he slept soundly until the next morning..and he didn't even wake anybody up when he awoke, just Coll! He was so good!

Sunday was another nice day! Coll and Dan headed out by lunch time, back to Miramichi to visit some relatives. Kim headed out as well, although she hated the thought of going to work at 4:00pm...sucky! Darcy and Aaron went on another adventure to a no-name lake, which they soon decided to call "Dead Lake", since there were absolutely no fish in it! Autumn layed down for a nap, and slept the whole afternoon, Jen and I had a game of Boggle and soon decided we'd have a nap too! Mitch was not impressed whatsoever! He really wanted us to go with him on the four-wheelers down to the river..we had no energy for that trip! After supper, we all piled on the four-wheelers and went for a cruise through all the cutouts behind the camp. It was such a beautiful evening, except the flies were wicked, so we kept moving as much as possible. We saw a baby moose, but didn't get a picture..which was too bad. Halfway through the trip, Vince's bike started making some really bad sounds, so he decided to head back right away. The rest of us weren't too far behind..especially since our bike started making funny sounds soon after! What's the chances of that? Anyway, we came back, had a fire, the kids played washers for a while and later that night the rain started..boo! We headed back to the porch where we remained the rest of the evening. It was a good night despite the rain, the boys jammed on the guitars for a bit, and we had some good laughs.

Monday, we woke up to a downpour! It rained continuously all night long! Not a good day to be packing up for home! Vince was gone by 8:00am, the Martin clan packed up quickly for their trip back to Moncton, but did stop by at Scott's for a cup of coffee on their way out (Autumn insisted). We weren't too far behind them. Our biggest problem was figuring out how we'd all fit in the truck on the way home! The three of us, plus 4 dogs! Thankfully Scott drove Kate home, and Cosmo, Jake and Meg all squeezed into the backseat of our truck! Fun! Fun! You can't imagine how smelly 3 wet, muddy dogs are inside of one vehicle! YUCK!

So, that's a quick play-by-play of the whole weekend..the next posts will mostly be pictures, that's enough writing for this chickie! Read on..

The Woods Are Dry!

2006-05-16T10:46:00.000-03:00

I tried to think of an appropriate title for this entry, the only thing I could come up with is "the woods are dry" or it could have been "NO BURN". For May 5th, we could not believe how dry it was, the forest fire index was at extreme, so no campfires for us! Sucky or what? I can remember a few years ago going camping in a tent on the May long weekend, and actually shovelling snow out of our spot! How things have changed!

Anyway, this weekend our family, Scott, and our friend Rick all went for the weekend. We haven't mentioned Rick before, his last trip to the camp was many moons ago...we're not even sure how long (4-5 years)?? Anyway, we had a great weekend overall, the weather was really nice, it was supposed to rain most of the weekend and we only got a couple of 5 minute showers on Saturday afternoon. Friday night we were sitting around the firepit, even though we had no fire, (we are such creatures of habit!) Darcy went ahead and put the coleman lantern inside of the pit, to give the 'feeling' of a fire, heh heh! See the pic below...you may think it's strange but it actually worked, Scott even kept standing in front of the pit and rotisserizing himself, (like we would on a chilly evening), again, creatures of habit! On my last entry I showed a pic of the road in front of the camp, covered in snow, this is the same shot 2 weeks later. Amazing or what? You'll notice the dried out huge puddle..that's the first time we've ever seen that puddle completely dried up! Scary..
On Saturday, Darcy and Mitch went for a spin on the four-wheeler..here's a pic of Mitch taking a break..
Later in their journey, they found a nice pond (I think it was a pond..), anyway, they caught a couple of tadpoles. These tadpoles were freakin' huge for the time of year! After showing our buddy Dean the pic, he did some research and found out that they are bullfrog tadpoles, and they are in their 2nd season. That explains why they are so huge...they'll be frogs later this summer, if they survive living in the bucket on my front porch. Heh heh!
Here's the tadpole's home...nice spot!
And Mitch finally got to bring his guitar to the camp..he's been begging for the past few months. Saturday afternoon we had an outdoor concert, Mitch and Darcy took turns jamming, man was it ever loud! Scott was next door working in his yard and could hear it no problem. Rick had no problem hearing it either, (from the top bunk inside the camp where he was trying to have a nap...eh Rick?). Heh heh!

Anyway, that's all for this entry! This weekend coming up is the long weekend, lots of people are supposed to come up so it should be a great time! Till then, Lissy

Long Easter Weekend

2006-05-14T19:46:00.000-03:00

OK, I've been slacking with my blog entries, it's been a whole month since my last post! We've had two trips that I have to catch up on before the May long weekend, so I figured I'd better get to work. The long Easter weekend was a blast! Four days of relaxation and a little too much Yahtzee, heh heh! Our first two days, we had beautiful weather, the next two were a downpour of rain (hence the Yahtzee!). Don't think we'll be playing that again for a LONG time!

Thursday night, our friends Michelle and Cleve came up, Scott was up too, and so was our buddy Mike who has a camp down the road. It was Mike's Birthday, so we celebrated, and had a really fun night! On Friday, Michelle and Cleve left, we had a great night, huge fire, the usual. Saturday, Kim came and brought the rain with her (eh Kim?), heh heh. We spent most of the night inside, but still managed to have fun. Sunday was Easter egg hunt day for Mitch, and we had a big ham dinner, yummy! Then the dreaded Yahtzee tournament began, and lasted for the rest of the evening. I have to admit, it was fun, and very flukey too! Anyway, enough with my babbling, I'll let the pics speak the rest...This is how the road looked in front of our camp, we drove the truck in so it was a bonus! So much easier to unload when the truck is right there, no more sled, woo hoo!
Here's a pic of Scott plowing through the water down by the river, he and Darcy went for a spin on the bikes.
Here's a pic of Michelle, (sorry it's not a better pic Michelle), she was in the middle of one of her hilarious stories...she kept me in stitches all night!
Here's our mud covered Meg, or Muddy Fluffy as Scott calls her, she looked like that all freakin' weekend! We even bathed her on Sat., which was a big waste of time!
Mitch busy carving or should I say peeling, the bark off of a stick of wood. I'm not sure what the purpose was, but it sure kept him busy all day Saturday.
We had another visit from our flying squirrel..he had quite the feed!
Here's Scott and Kim being entertained by our crazy dogs..Jake is always trying to sit on somebody's lap!
And here's Jake with his new toy, a soccer ball that he carries around in his mouth like that all day! He must have really sore jaws!

Anyway, that's all for that trip...more to come! Till next time, Lissy

Our Crazy Dogs!

2006-04-10T20:47:00.000-03:00

I decided to do another post, a tribute to our three crazy dogs;Kate, Jake and Meg. We took so many pics of them this past weekend that there was no way they would fit in my regular post, so I decided to pick a few out and do it in a separate entry. Anyway, these dogs are a source of constant amusement, the camp just wouldn't be the same without them..here goes..This is a pic of the three of them when they first got out of the truck, they were really excited to be there..look at all the paw prints everywhere (and look at Meg..heh heh!)
Here's Jake having a snooze on Mitch's sleeping bag, he kind of resembles a pig doesn't he? (Sorry Darcy, but it's true!)
Here's a familiar site, Kate and Meg at the back door waiting to get in, Kate was scratching at the bottom of the door, and Meg just stands behind her waiting to get in..
Here's Kate in the backyard, she just finished playing in the water hole back there...notice how little snow there is!
Here's Meg waking up from her nap, with her tongue stuck out! What a spaz!
This is Jake's most familiar pose, it's how he lays on the couch at home all the time!
And this how Jake looks when he thinks he's about to catch something...Darcy is about to throw a snowball and he's waiting to pounce on it.

So that's all of the doggy pics I can fit on here for today, my pictures are too large! I'm sure there'll be lots more to come...until then, Liss

Tarp Town Returns!

2006-04-10T20:12:00.000-03:00

I must start out by saying that finally owning a digital camera is really cool! We spent the better part of our weekend taking picture after picture..it's hard to narrow them down for blog entries! Anyway, just Darcy, Mitch, the dogs and I were up this weekend, plus a few neighbours down the road from us.Here's a picture of us arriving, we drove in all the way to our old camp road, which saved us about 3km compared to last time. The snow is dwindling away really fast!
This is our friend Adam's camp, who is our neighbour on the other side...
I had to include this pic, it looks like a commercial for BudLight..our weekend sponsor..heh heh!
Friday night it started to pour rain, and we had a really good fire going in the firepit..instead of going inside Darcy decided to construct Tarp Town again..it worked! Kept the rain off, and the heat in!
We filled our bird feeders up on Fri night, and Sat we had lots of birds visiting. We took lots of pics, but this one of a redpoll, turned out the best by far!
Darcy took a drive to the woods behind the camp and came across this set of beaver tracks leading to the hole in the snow..
Saturday night we visited with neighbours for a while and then came back to a game of Yahtzee..Mitch kicked ass! He beat Darcy and I both by over 100 points, and he got Yahtzee on his first roll of the game! Beginners luck or what?

Anyway, we had a great weekend and we're really excited to be heading up for the Easter long weekend. I'm sure we'll all have a great time. Till next time, Liss

Log Rolling and Flying Squirrels!

2006-04-03T20:12:00.000-03:00

Well it's late as usual, but I have an excuse (eh Scott?)..heh heh. I figured I'd better post the entry from last weekend, before we head up to the camp for the next two weekends! Can't wait! Woo hoo! You'll be happy to know that Darcy bought a digital camera last week, so we won't be bugging everyone for pictures of our trips all the time (unless they're really cool!)

So, our family, plus Scott and Kim were all up for a weekend of relaxation and good times! The weather was awesome, and we all had a blast! Mitch and I started a game Friday night, seeing how long we could balance on a rolling log. It quickly became a competition, with Darcy coming out as reigning champion (he can even roll backwards, and drink while rolling along..as you'll see in the picture)!Here's Kim trying her luck...
And Darcy rolling along, while taking a drink...
Here's a pic of Mitch trying to hide behind me, while Darcy is getting the fire going...
Mitch having a good laugh on the picnic table...
Kim and I having a rave...Scott looks like he's trying to avoid the conversation (can't say I blame him)! God knows what we were talking about..
And here's a pic of our little visitor, the flying squirrel! He's been around before, last fall he would show up at the bird feeder the same time every night! We tried to get pics of him before, this is the first time we managed. Darcy and Scott slowly crept to the feeder, and managed to get a few feet away from him (last year Darcy even got close enough to pet him). He looks like a regular squirrel, except he has excess skin and looks like a kite when he stretches out..plus he only comes out at night. He doesn't really fly, he glides from place to place. It's a really cool creature!
And here's another pic of him..I'd like to get one of him gliding sometime! It will probably be impossible, but we'll keep on trying! Anyway, that's all for now...we're heading up again this weekend, and then for the long weekend of Easter. Until then, Liss

More pics from the weekend!

2006-03-18T20:18:00.000-04:00

So, here are some pics we got from Jody and Mel of last weekend at the camp, thanks guys!This is Mitch looking quite unimpressed for some reason, we're not sure why..he obviously didn't brush his hair for this picture..heh heh!
This is Jody and Mel's dog Kaiser, he's a German Shepard, and gets along really good with our dogs!
And here's cute little Benjamin, vegging out in his playpen, he looks so cozy!

Anyway, I'm sure there'll be more pics from this weekend, if we ever get Mitch's pictures developed! Till then, Lissy

Some Pics From Our Weekend!

2006-03-18T20:01:00.000-04:00

Well, I guess I lied...I just got some pics from the weekend that I forgot existed! Jody and Mel had their camera, so they e-mailed some to us..here goes..Here's Darcy posing in his snowpants!
Mitch looking rather surprised...we were in the middle of our "Guess Who" tournament
Here's the whole group of us with Benjamin..except Darcy who took the picture
I have a few more pics..I'll have to post them on another entry!

Spring has almost sprung!

2006-03-16T09:01:00.001-04:00

Well, I'm starting to get some flack about not posting from our camp trip last weekend (March 10-12). The problem is, this one's gonna have to be written because we have no pics yet. Darcy and I desperately need a digital camera, and Scott and Kim didn't come this trip..so that left Mitch as the official blogger photographer. He used his own camera and the pics aren't developed yet, so when we get them, and scan them, we'll post them at a later date.

Jen, Aaron and Autumn were supposed to come this trip, unfortunately Autumn and Arianna were both sick! That's two trips they missed out on, hopefully next time it will happen for them! So, Darcy, Mitch, the dogs and I all left town about 3:00, Darcy and I both managed to leave work early on Friday. It was raining in town, by the time we hit the camp road it was only misting a bit. We soon realized that Kenny, Bernie and Daryl were all up for a weekend of ski-dooing at their camp. They popped in for a few beers Friday night, we had a fire going outside and the rain held off till midnight. It was a really nice evening, very mild!

Saturday was bright, sunny, mild but extremely windy! We got up early, had some coffee and bagels, and cleaned up the camp some. Jody, Melanie and their baby Ben were due to arrive at noon. Darcy planned to meet them out where we park the vehicles, so he and Mitch (Mitch brought his four-wheeler), both left about 11:30am to pick them up. They took the radio with them, and left me one, but didn't tell me about it! I stayed outside for the next 1 and 1/2 hours playing with the dogs in the yard, and poking at the fire...meanwhile the radio was inside the camp. Darcy and Mitch were trying to reach me the whole time, wondering what time it was..Jody and Mel were a bit late. Anyway, they all arrived safe and sound at 1:00, and little Ben slept the whole way in, on the back of the four-wheeler (Melanie was carrying him in a snuggly). As soon as they got in, we set up the playpen and laid Ben down, he continued to sleep the rest of the afternoon. We stayed outside all day and all night...it was really nice out! We had a huge fire going, the boys took a few trips on the bikes, and Mel and I just vegged out. Occasionally we'd go in, feed Ben, change his bum, and back to sleep he went! What a good baby!

Jody and Mel also brought Kaiser, their german shepard. Our dogs, especially Jake, got along quite well with him. Kate doesn't like anybody, so no surprise there! The only thing I can say that sucked about the weekend was the wind..it never let up until Sunday..of course! Sunday was extremely beautiful..we were walking around outside with t-shirts on! Jody cooked us some breakfast, Melanie did the dishes, I fed Ben, and Darcy and Mitch packed up. We all left around noon...we hated to leave it was such a nice day!

We'll be heading back up next weekend, soon enough we'll be able to drive right in..there's hardly any snow left on the camp road. So much for ski-dooing this winter! We took the four-wheeler more than the snowmobile!

I decided to include a picture from last deer season, this was sent to us from our buddy Rene aka "Stephan", we met him through Jen and Aaron. It's a pretty cool pic considering the only light is from the fire, which is why they all look so orange, heh heh! In case anybody's wondering, from left to right is Scott, Darcy, Rene and Aaron. So, that's all for now, I'll do another post later, when Mitchell's pics come in! Till next time, Lissy

Icy Weekend!

2006-02-14T20:04:00.000-04:00

Well, here's some more pics from our icy weekend..they pretty much speak for themselves...Scott is on the front porch with the dogs...
the camp yard and crazy Jake..
Meg and Jake resting...Meg's giving her "evil eye"..
The view of our yard from Gammy's Pass
Kim's bright plan to take a pic of her and I..way too close!
The log puzzle...heh heh
Jake pondering while looking out Scott's window..
And finally the three chefs making breakfast at 10:00pm Saturday night...

So, that's it for a while...I don't think we'll be making any camp trips till March so until then....Liss :)

The Iciest Camp Weekend Ever!

2006-02-13T19:55:00.000-04:00

Well, looks like this blog is gonna take a couple of parts too...there are too many pictures for just one blog (not that I'm complaining...thanks Kim). This past weekend was very cold (-20) and very icey! The trees were completely covered with ice and they were just sparkling! It was a beautiful sight! At night time, when the wind picked up, it sounded like millions of glasses breaking all around us. Very cool! Many trees were hanging in the road, weighed down with ice. We had quite the adventure coming in on the four-wheeler. Darcy spent the week building a new sled, this one has a spot on back to stand on. It's very fun, but tricky when dodging hanging branches, as you'll see in some of the pics. Anyway, enough rambling..on with the pictures... Here's Kate running down the trail toward Kim..trying to dodge her at the last second..
Here's the chop down, not too far away from us...look at all the ice!
Here's what happens when you hold a cheese slice in the air around our dogs..heh heh ...take a look at Jake's tail sweeping the floor!
Here's a view from the sled behind Darcy..
Here's Mitch building a paper airplane over at Scott and Dean's camp
Take a look at those ears flapping in the breeze!
Here's the boys, Darcy, Scott and Kevin..not sure what they were up to..
This is a better pic of the new sled, see the metal grate on the back where you stand?
And here's Mitch and Darcy, Mitch on the back of the sled, they are lost in the "icicle cave"...

Well that's all for now...gotta get ready for another post..maybe tomorrow. Liss

And Here's Part Five!

2006-02-13T19:26:00.000-04:00

So here's the unexpected part five from the last blog entries. We just received some more pics from Mary, mostly all group pics...here goes... Myself, Mary and Kim all having a good laugh!
A group shot, Vince, myself, Mitch, Scott, Kim, Darcy and Chris, (Mary is taking the pic) Another group shot...
Yet another pic of Scott with beer...don't have many of those..heh heh!
And here's tipsy Kim! Or should I say, reflective Kim!

So, now I've got to get to work on this past weekend's blog. I just received a pile of pics from Kim..it's gonna be hard to pick and choose which ones to use. Till then, Liss

A Beautiful Weekend! UNREAL! Part 4

2006-02-04T18:15:00.000-04:00

This is the last time I'll say this, please scroll down to read parts 1,2 and 3, I put these in the wrong order! Anyway, Sunday morning we awoke to a sunny beautiful day, which is kinda bittersweet. It's nice to leave in good weather, not have all your gear get wet and stuff, but it's so sucky leaving on such a perfect day! Anyway, we took our time, had some breakfast, cleaned up, and never started leaving till after lunch. We hauled all of the gear out in two trips, and Scott, Kim and I started packing up the trucks while Darcy and Mitch went back to the camp for one final trip. They had to bring the sled back to the shed. So we put Jake in our truck so he wouldn't go chasing Darcy and Mitch. A few minutes later we look over to see this... We laughed so hard! Jake is so serious all the time, and he really looked like he was going to drive away! Both my Mom and brother Matt said all that's missing is his paws on the steering wheel!
Darcy and Mitch came back, we got the trucks loaded and then it was time to load the ski-doo. This is a process as you can tell from the pic. They boys have to lift the front end on the trailer and then I get to give it the gas...heh heh! Great fun!
Here's Darcy jumping overboard...the sled kicked sideways when I hit the gas..doh!
Finally we're all packed and ready to leave! Another trip coming up this weekend, hopefully it won't take me so long to post. The scary thing is I still have pics coming from Mary for this trip. I'll have to post them later on! Till next time, Liss :)

A Beautiful Weekend! UNREAL! Part 3

2006-02-04T17:51:00.000-04:00

So, this is part 3, like I said in my last post, scroll down to read parts 1&2. Sorry for the confusion...continuing on! Mitch and I took a stroll over to Scott's through Gammie's Pass (for those of you who don't know, the trail between our camp and theirs is called Gammie's pass, named for Gammy aka Danny). While we were there we had a fire outside and mostly played with Jake, in this pic I threw a snowball and he caught it. He loves chewing on snow and ice!
Here's the front view of Scott and Dean's camp. Later that night, Darcy and Vince came back with a load of beech for the firepit, and we had a dandy fire! This pic is titled "beech..man's new best friend"...
And here's Kim,aka "The Official Fire Poker", she loves to poke the fire, and that's just fine by us! Heh heh!

Anyway, the rest of the night got kinda crappy for me, I had a major earache and had to hit the hay early! The rest of them took a spin on the bikes, and they had a great night! So, time to work on the next post which is all about our trip out! Chow for now!

A Beautiful Weekend! UNREAL! Part 2

2006-02-04T17:32:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I'm finally able to publish part 2 of our camp trip. The blog site was experiencing technical difficulties last night and this morning, so it's been a process! If you're reading this, you should scroll down and read part 1 first! I didn't think about the order before I started and this trip will probably be in four separate blogs, unfortunately number 4 will be first...doh!

So Friday night was a blast! The boys made lots of trips unloading gear (Darcy, Chris, Scott and Vince), and Mary, Kim, Mitch and I stayed back and kept the fire going. We all had a great night, but nobody was feeling too hot on Saturday morning! Mary cooked a HUGE breakfast, with Chris's help, and then we all felt much better! That afternoon, we all vegged out outside, and Mary and Chris headed for home. Here's some pics from Saturday... This is Mary and Chris a few hours before they left for home..
Here's the yard again...notice Jake is about to run toward Kim who is taking the picture at the edge of the yard...heh heh!
This is Vince, myself, Darcy, Mary and Chris just vegging out..
Here's a pic of Mary's departure...
And here's a pic of Chris's departure...

So after Darcy and Vince left to take Chris and Mary out to the truck, Mitch and I decided to head over to Scott's to see what him and Kim were up to...see part 3!

A Beautiful Weekend! UNREAL! Part 1

2006-02-03T19:27:00.000-04:00

Well, as you can tell from the title, the weekend of January 27-29th was beautiful! (and unreal)! The weather was mild, it was sunny, we couldn't have asked for a better weekend. This trip will be done in a few blogs, for some reason I can't add more than 5-6 pictures per blog, and let me tell you, I've got lots of pics. Here's where the thanks comes to Scott and Kim, and also to Mary, even though I didn't get her pics yet! Darcy and I desperately need a digital camera! Anyway, I'll let the pics take over from here, To our surprise this was how the camp road looked going in, all sanded and plowed! How great is that?
And here is the famous smiley tree, it's mandatory to use it when giving directions to the camp, it's where we go to use our cell phones, it's a landmark! Unfortunately, it's starting to rot and won't be there forever, that's why we decided to take a pic! His painted face is starting to fade now, so we've discussed re-painting him..very soon!
Here's Darcy getting suited up to go on the snowmobile!
This is a bunch of us hanging around outside on Saturday, you can see Mitch waving, I'm beside him and Mary and Chris are sitting in the chairs. Not sure if anyone else is there or not!
Pretty much speaks for itself!

Our four wheeler and sled that Darcy built.So that's it for part 1, time to start part 2....Liss

One Froggy Night

2006-01-21T20:18:00.000-04:00

Well it took me a week, but I'm finally putting in an entry for our trip last weekend. You'll be able to tell from the pics that it was one foggy weekend, or "froggy" as we like to say! It was extremely mild, and we had a wicked time! I'll just comment on the pics..which were provided by Scott, thank you Scott..here goes.. This is sparky, the fire we built after many trips of hauling our gear in and lots and lots of shovelling (eh Nick?)
This pic was taken in Scott's yard on Saturday, as you can see it was 5 degrees at the time, the fog was just setting in, the temp reached 12 degrees that day!
This is Scott's firepit, just a pic to show how foggy it was! Freaky!
Here's a pic of Nick and I, we were both soaked, it was raining by this point. Still having a blast though!
And here's a big pile of snow that came crashing down off the roof of the camp, it sounded like an earthquake when it fell!
Here's Nick and Kari by the fire, I think that's Dahlia in Kari's lap
Here's Scott and Vince, Vince has a camp down the road from us.
This is Vince's four-wheeler with the trax, really cool rig! This thing just plows through the snow!
Of course we have to have a pic of Jake, this was actually taken while Scott was holding a chip in the air, he was begging big time!
And here is Nick and Kari's dog Dahlia, look at those cute little teeth!

So that's about it, there were some more pics but I'll put them on another post, another day! We're heading back up this weekend with Jen, Aaron, Autumn, Mary and Chris. Should be a fun weekend, we plan to go sliding if there's any snow left! It's been raining so much and staying really mild! Till next time, Liss

Jack and Jill Party

2006-01-12T21:54:00.000-04:00

Hello again..this is Liss (I figure I better start saying whether it's me or Darcy). I had the urge to do another post before our camp trip tomorrow. But before I say anything more, I must give a huge THANK YOU to our buddy Dean for these awesome pics! All of these pictures have a common theme, they were taken last spring when a bunch of us headed to the camp for Dean and Jade's "Jack and Jill Party". It was such a fun weekend! Here's a list of who attended; Dean and Jade (obviously), Darcy, Pregnant Colleen, Danny, Scott, Jen, Aaron, Michelle J, Cleve, Darren, Michelle M and myself.

Because of the time of year, the weather was kinda crappy, very wet, but we still managed to have a fire outside, and take a four-wheelin' trip all day Saturday. I'll let the pics speak for themselves...Here's a pic of the whole gang, we decided to park here in front of the many "Inukshuks", I think that's how you spell it! They were just sitting there on the hillside, kinda wierd, but pretty cool.
Here's Scott passing through a huge mudhole, one of the many obstacles we got to drive through that day!
And here's Scott drying his ass by the fire, heh heh! The funny thing is, he got wet when he tried to drive by and splash Aaron! The fire was built beside a lake where we stopped for a break to get warm, and quench our thirst. Just us standing around, waiting for Darcy to build the fire...
Same thing..waiting to get a move on back to the camp! This is the girls having a "hen party" back at the camp, the boys were outside getting soaked in the rain...I think there was too much estrogen in the room for them...Dan's getting ready to bail out!
Here's a proud moment, Jen's leading the pack, and crossing the pipes, you go girl! Heh heh!
And here's the happy couple! Aren't they sweet?
And finally, here's Dean, Darren, Scott and Cleve out by the fire.

We have some great memories of that weekend, it was such a blast! Until next time,
Liss

One Week To Go!

2006-01-07T11:13:00.000-04:00

Well with one week to go, we are getting very excited. Last night we spoke with our friend Dean on the webcam. He currently lives in South Korea with his wife Jade. Dean, Jade and our friend Scott own the camp next door to us. Last winter they were here for a visit and Dean sent some pics. I decided I would post them now, that way I won't get them mixed up with future ones. Here goes!This pic pretty much speaks for itself, it's our dog Jake playing around in the snow. Check out those crazy eyes!
Mitch and his friend Trenton built a snowfort-igloo in our yard, here is Jade and Mitch checking it out!
This pic is taken in Scott and Dean's yard. Mitch just threw a snowball at Jake and he is about to catch it. Can you see the snowball in mid-air?
This is taken at their firepit, where Scott is working away trying to start a fire. Meantime, we are all relaxing on the snowmobile..heh heh!
And finally, Darcy and Scott are having a say...enjoying the beautiful mild day that we had.

Well that's it for now..there'll be more to come real soon! Chow!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow....

2006-01-04T19:14:00.000-04:00

Well, it took a while, but we finally got the snow we've been looking for. It all landed on Boxing Day, and we are thrilled! Now, we are getting ready to head up for the first winter trip with the ski-doo! Woo hoo!
We will be heading up on January 13th, and then two weeks from then. We'll have to pack the trails down real good this trip, because we'll be having company the next trip. Jen, Aaron and Autumn are supposed to come up for a sliding party. It should be a good time! Anyway, till then, I'll post a few pics from the camp, and of the snow....can't wait!

I WISH I WAS THERE!

2005-12-04T17:44:00.000-04:00

Well it is finally here, life at the camp.com, so you will all be up to date on the fun your missing. This entry will be short and sweet, lights for christmas to put up and all that stuff. but i will get a start any way. And where the hell is the snow?