no more calls...we have a winner

That's right Jason, the fifth was my birthday and for cracking Da Brownie code you win a genuine Fort Simpson toque- to claim your prize simply e-mail your mailing address to contest organizer at timothy.w.brown@hotmail.com

well as of approx 0230GMT 42 solar circuits have been completed, and number 43 is under way.

Yeah, I eat onion now, like dad was with it though, I like the flavor of it but don't like great big gnarly chunks of it. But you guys asking me about the onion thing brought something out of the messy mind.
About a year after my first wife walked out on us, I guess Rebecca would have been about 2 years old, I woke up one morning and could hear this munch-crunch noise echoing through the apartment. I jumped out of bed and went out to the living room, and there's Beckers, sitting on the floor watching cartoons and munching on a great big onion- just like an apple. I mean taking GREAT big bites and chewing it up- I was ten feet away and those onion fumes were almost like a pepper spray. "Beckers" I said "What are you doing?" She glanced at me and says "apple"
Another time I was at the fridge, and she saw a lemon inside and asked if she could have that orange. I told her it was a lemon and she wouldn't like it, but she insisted. I peeled it and broke it into sections-she ate that whole lemon without so much as a squint.
Anyways, to get caught up, yeah mike those are all pike. There's a lake outside of Yellowknife that has char in it, but I've never been there. For trout you have to go to a lake but Salmon have been caught down by Willow river. And of course everyone else's favorite the pickerel, I don't mind catching them but for fight and ease of catching you can't beat northern pike and those bad boys are everywhere. They are actually quite yummy too if you catch them early in the year or late in the year when the water is good and cold. You have to be a bit of a surgeon to get the Y bone out of them though.
We are just getting ready to go out in the boat right now.
Sis I know, what you mean about the life jacket thing. But when I first came up north I was fortunate enough to go up to Great Bear lake on a fishing trip. When we picked up the boat we were going to use I asked the guy( he was a native elder) about life jackets he laughed. "why?" he asked " Do you want to bob around for awhile before you die?" "A life jacket won't save you,just prolong the outcome"
The water is so cold there even in the middle of the summer you got about 5 minutes before hypothermia sets in. I tested the theory by having a bath in the lake, and I tell you when I ducked under to rinse my hair it was like having your skull squeezed in a vice. I was in the water for about 8 minutes and my lips were blue and couldn't move my arms and legs very good. The other guys were gonna have a swim til they saw me when I came out of the water.

well, I tried to post video of me and steve-o sailing down the lake (no joy on that one) so some still pics are the best I can do. Mike I guess I haven't changed much since those days on the Basin as we couldn't resist putting up a sail out on the lake in stiff wind. we used a ten by fourteen foot tarp. As i said in the video "we don't have much say in where we're going, but we're going there pretty quick"

I tried using the kicker for a tiller but it was sluggish at best.

Oh one other thing bouncing around inside the messy foolish mind, brought forth by Jason's soon to be trip home and his food list. To me as a kid growing up going to the city(halifax-dartmouth) meant one thing.....sunnyside donuts. Tim Horton's is a johnny come lately also ran to these guys. Anyone else remember sunnyside donuts? gimme a holla back, as the kids say.

I do indeed like fish in fact I love it. I remember when I was a kid I could take it or leave it, but now it's one of my fave's. We just came back from Willow river, we took off yesterday on a whim.
While we were down there, we cooked up a twenty-five pound lake trout. mmmmm yummy. we cooked it over an open fire and it took a little over two hours. a few rums and the night was complete(except for the whole sleeping in the truck thing thanks Coleman, owe you one-Ill get ya back for that when yer a little older.)
Cooking that trout down there gave me a reason to poke around inside the messy mind. When we were kids we'd be out the door in the morning and lunch was usually a big galvanized tub full of clams, mussles and crabs that we'd dig up and catch and cook over a fire right down on the beach. Mike remembers that I'm sure. We'd tie a bunch of drift logs together and go waaay out in the Annapolis basin.
I believe Mike and I probably still hold the record for going out the furthest. I remember Barry Watson's mother just screaming at us way out on the water. I admit I was scared but Mike was fearless.
Jason, the north is here, and you are welcome to come up any time. I think that would be cool.
I know the previous post alluded to the fact that I was giving up on the excursion vacation for something more main stream...uh not yet. I'm currently planning next years trip- it's a two day trip up a river system with two portages to a lake where there's an old abandoned lodge, couple of days on the lake, trout and pickerel fishing, and then two days on the river back out. 6 or seven days total. can't get that from a travel agent.

pics from previous post are of one of the thunderstorms overhead at camp on Willow lake and one of Miranda's grandfathers old trapping cabins. pics from this post are of a t-storm over the lake and another one of his old cabins. they are actually side by side not far from each other in the bush at the edge of the lake. the older log one is from like the early 1900's. The cabins were easily recognized by the building style, as soon as I saw them, I knew they were his. after having spent a week up there I can understand his life long love of the area. The entire Horn Plateau is a protected area. Not a park, as you can hunt and fish there. but protected from exploration and developement by the oil and gas and mining folks. I was flying in a plane one time and the guy sitting next to me is looking out the window and says "look at all that nothing" I leaned over a bit and glanced out the window and looked down and replied "look at all that everything".

I came back from my trip in better shape than I've been in years. I was not feelin great if you recall about a week before i left. But a week of drinking lake water and 18 hour days on the lake will set you right.

That being said this will likely be the last time I go out on a real excursion like this. Miranda worries and would prefer if I did something a little more orthodox like going to a lodge on a guided trip. I 'm starting to see the light on that. I've had my risky fun, and I will admit when the plane came to get us this afternoon, I was ready to come home. There was one point out on the lake when there was a question wether we should keep going or go back to camp. The waves were crashing over the boat, we were airborn more than a few times the wind was strong and steady and the waves were at about 4 feet I was having a blast...and i turned back to camp. There was a time when I would have kept going. but not now.