Went on a 10-day fishing trip to Ignace (Ontario) Canada http://www.ontariotowns.net/Ignace/ and fished 8 lakes in 10 days.
VERY remote lakes on some of the most un-improved roads you have ever seen!
I am used to fishing Minnesota where lake homes and resorts are common on the lakes.
In the Ignace area, there is nothing on the lakes.
You are all alone in a 14' tin boat with the resident black bears, moose, wolves, and bald eagles.
Lucky for us, there were 3 boats among us in our fishing party.
Caught Walleye to 24"
Northern Pike to 36"
and Yellow Perch to 14"
The Minnesotans I was with complained that the fishing was the worst they had ever seen in the area, but my boat limited out on Walleye every day but one.
Hey... if it was easy, anybody could do it.
Once we crossed back into the US I discovered that our area had been hit by a storm with straight line winds in the 90 mph range on Friday June 29th.
Lots of damage and wide spread power outages.
My home whole-house generator was working, so everything was OK for the time being.
Then I got the call during our drive to MN on the 30th... the generator had quit and ran the battery dead trying to re-start itself.
It was an 8 hour drive from Ignace to home base in Minnesota, so I had some time to trouble-shoot and formulate a plan.
Instructions for the Admiral: Get the generator folder out of the file cabinet and call the generator repair guy.
I'm sure he is busy, but get on his list.
Backup generator is in the basement with dedicated cords there to cover both refrigerators and the sump pump.
Instructions to operate the generator and what cords go where are attached to the generator.
Fly out of Fargo on July 1st, and get home to no power and a broken generator.
Generator guy said the throttle servo broke and he ordered the part expressed shipped.
Part arrives Tuesday and is installed. Generator is running and a/c is blowing cold.
Power does not come back on for us until 1530 on July 4th.
Thank goodness for the hot tub. Without it, I would not have had any water to bathe with.
"Bucket showers" using hot tub water was the order of the day.
The 5-gallon bucket and toilet seat off the boat (and a gallon of bleach) provided rest room duty during the outage. :|
Fact: My generator will run my well pump, but I am on a county sewer system that is NOT powered during an event like this, so we cannot run any water or flush any toilet.
To do so would fill the 'grinder pit' and cause sewage to back up into basements (including mine).
The grinder pits are mini lift stations shared by two homes and are a factor of being so close to sea level that the sewer outflow from our homes is actually below the county lines.
The grinder pits lift the sewage from our homes outflow to the county lines.
Truly a very bad design that we intend to discuss with the county very soon. Either the county needs to provide power to the grinders via an emergency generator, or they need to allow us with whole-house generators to have access to power the pumps.
Oh... and while all of this was going on, Apple decided to shut down MobileMe which is what I used to host my photos and my aviator here, so until I figure out an alternative, all of the photos I've posted to CP will come up blank (for now).
When I get the time, I need to see if Apple has a planned hosting alternative, or if I need to look elsewhere.
And today I saw 103 degrees in the shade on my deck.
Checked the surface temperature of the deck with a laser thermometer and it registered 138.8 degrees.
Note to self: Do not go out on the deck today in your bare feet. :shock:
What is next? :roll:
VERY remote lakes on some of the most un-improved roads you have ever seen!
I am used to fishing Minnesota where lake homes and resorts are common on the lakes.
In the Ignace area, there is nothing on the lakes.
You are all alone in a 14' tin boat with the resident black bears, moose, wolves, and bald eagles.
Lucky for us, there were 3 boats among us in our fishing party.
Caught Walleye to 24"
Northern Pike to 36"
and Yellow Perch to 14"
The Minnesotans I was with complained that the fishing was the worst they had ever seen in the area, but my boat limited out on Walleye every day but one.
Hey... if it was easy, anybody could do it.
Once we crossed back into the US I discovered that our area had been hit by a storm with straight line winds in the 90 mph range on Friday June 29th.
Lots of damage and wide spread power outages.
My home whole-house generator was working, so everything was OK for the time being.
Then I got the call during our drive to MN on the 30th... the generator had quit and ran the battery dead trying to re-start itself.
It was an 8 hour drive from Ignace to home base in Minnesota, so I had some time to trouble-shoot and formulate a plan.
Instructions for the Admiral: Get the generator folder out of the file cabinet and call the generator repair guy.
I'm sure he is busy, but get on his list.
Backup generator is in the basement with dedicated cords there to cover both refrigerators and the sump pump.
Instructions to operate the generator and what cords go where are attached to the generator.
Fly out of Fargo on July 1st, and get home to no power and a broken generator.
Generator guy said the throttle servo broke and he ordered the part expressed shipped.
Part arrives Tuesday and is installed. Generator is running and a/c is blowing cold.
Power does not come back on for us until 1530 on July 4th.
Thank goodness for the hot tub. Without it, I would not have had any water to bathe with.
"Bucket showers" using hot tub water was the order of the day.
The 5-gallon bucket and toilet seat off the boat (and a gallon of bleach) provided rest room duty during the outage. :|
Fact: My generator will run my well pump, but I am on a county sewer system that is NOT powered during an event like this, so we cannot run any water or flush any toilet.
To do so would fill the 'grinder pit' and cause sewage to back up into basements (including mine).
The grinder pits are mini lift stations shared by two homes and are a factor of being so close to sea level that the sewer outflow from our homes is actually below the county lines.
The grinder pits lift the sewage from our homes outflow to the county lines.
Truly a very bad design that we intend to discuss with the county very soon. Either the county needs to provide power to the grinders via an emergency generator, or they need to allow us with whole-house generators to have access to power the pumps.
Oh... and while all of this was going on, Apple decided to shut down MobileMe which is what I used to host my photos and my aviator here, so until I figure out an alternative, all of the photos I've posted to CP will come up blank (for now).
When I get the time, I need to see if Apple has a planned hosting alternative, or if I need to look elsewhere.
And today I saw 103 degrees in the shade on my deck.
Checked the surface temperature of the deck with a laser thermometer and it registered 138.8 degrees.
Note to self: Do not go out on the deck today in your bare feet. :shock:
What is next? :roll:
