October 12, 2020 “Happy Thanksgiving”

Canadian Thanksgiving : The first Thanksgiving Day after Confederation was observed as a civic holiday on April 5, 1872, to celebrate the recovery of the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) from a serious illness. Seems the date bounced around a bit and eventually settled into its October slot. The date was officially set in 1957 when Parliament fixed Thanksgiving as the second Monday in October. Now you know!

Looking for grouse on a back road in the fall.
It’s a Canadian turkey! (..and yes Len, Canadians do own guns)

The end of the season…

Since most of you reading this were unable to make it up here this summer it really was a scaled down version of a normal VBL season. Since my last blog post we’ve had a few Canadian guests and continued on with finishing some projects to prepare for 2021. We are looking forward to having all of you back next year!

Ice out contest winner arrives at VBL…

If you recall the winner of this spring’s ice out contest was George from Manitoba. He happened to be our last guest of this season as well. Here he is after selecting a prize from the VBL bling counter. Congratulations George!

Rated “xxxl” Stoic George brandishing his winnings.

While George and Candace were at camp we did our usual trek back into Clearwater Lake to unleash our fury on the always cooperative trout and whitefish. Seems 2020 was unusual in many ways….

On the trail back into Clearwater lake…..via the moose pond.

It seems the fish had other plans, and while we tried, the trout were no where to be found. An early spawn? Faulty locator? The curse of Joe Moskal? Covid 19? The plan was to fry up some fish…..go to “plan B”

Not what we were looking for but they will fry up just fine!

The wood musky…

The wood musky carved by Charles Weiss on the BBQ deck.

Time has been hard on this old fellow and it was time to do some repairs…..

Getting some body work done. Epoxy wood and sandpaper.

While I’m no artist I thought I could not make things worse. Since Charles wasn’t available I decided to take the plunge. I went as far as the base coat of primer before taking a different course of action…

Structurally in better shape and ready for some artistic brilliance.

Rhonda, a local artist with some creative ideas about painting fish has taken on the final phase. What will it look like? We will just have to wait and see…stay tuned.

A Rhonda creation…..a northern lights trout.

Cabin 3 bathroom…

Some projects that were done over the summer.

Before
After
Interesting latch (with locking mechanism) on the bathroom door.
If you’re renovating the bathroom you might as well go all out…
Replacing sewer lines.
New sewer lines equals good flushing in 2021!

Looking forward to next year…

October evening.
Water levels are very low this fall.
Interesting eagle shot from Clearwater Lake, September 2020.
Hope to see all of you in 2021!

What to take away from the 2020 experience…

I would say we were very lucky to “have to” spend our time here at the lodge this season. Looks like the near future will be much of the same but with more snowshoeing and less boating. I know some of you coped with spending more time on your local waters. Judging by our bookings for next year most of you are looking forward to getting back up here. We appreciate your anticipation and look forward to a return to more normal times.

9 thoughts on “October 12, 2020 “Happy Thanksgiving””

  1. Andy
    Reply

    Gord,

    It looks like we will have fewer plunger runs by the owner cursing under his breath about low fiber American diets. Very sad tale about Clearwater.

  6. Professor
    Reply

    Hi Gord…I loved this wrap-up post for several reasons:
    – Renovating the wooden musky is a really good thing. I like the sample of Rhonda’s work you showed. Great imagination and beauty.

    -Renovating Cabin Three, especially with the plumbing upgrade, brings me peace of mind. Andy and I often fretted about a colossal back-up. Back in the US this is known as a shit-mess.

    -Resting the lake trout and whitefish is commendable and generous. I hope to get reacquainted with
    them, and VBL, next year. See you then…Joe

  7. Bob Kaufman
    Reply

    Although Clearwater is usually a slam dunk, we did experience an exceptionally tough day there a few years back when we went there with Adam. Adam was on his phone with Henry, thinking we were on the wrong lake or at least in the wrong area of the lake, but I knew we were in the right place at the wrong time. Four anglers, one trout and two or three whitefish. I would have been skunked if I didn’t catch a puny small mouth casting the shoreline. However, I think I heard some unflattering Polish adjectives used with the name “Gord”. I’m not sure, but certainly all is forgotten by now?

  8. Len
    Reply

    I know you could own guns, just not any fun ones 🙂 I am suffering a bit of VBL withdrawal, and the boat has become just another horizontal surface in the garage. Whilst cleaning up a bit, I came across a whiskey and ginger-ale with a lemon slice. I’m wondering if anyone we know may have lost theirs?

    Looking forward to returning to normal, and seeing everyone again in 2021!

    1. Susanne
      Reply

      Hey Len – I think I know someone who might know something about that drink…save it for her for next year! It will still be good! 🙂

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Testimonials

On behalf of the Boyes Group, I would like to pass on our sincere thanks for hosting the Muskie Madness Week and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay at VBL and had a great time!! This was our 7th year on Eagle Lake and we have stayed at a few other lodges but VBL takes the cake hands down! You can definitely count us in for next year. I’m happy to see you post some of my pics, they turned out well. Thanks again Gord for a wonderful week of fishing and your stellar hospitality, you run a first class operation, we look forward to seeing you next year!

Trevor Benner

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