Back online!
We left at 6:00 AM this morning and we're coming home with a full belly, a full battery, and an almost full limit of fish. We can bring home 16 walleyes and 16 northern pike, but we fell two short on the northern pike. I'm sure that if we had fished a little harder earlier this week, we could have easily filled. After eating two fish for lunch everyday I'm okay with having a break.
I hadn't realized it, but it had been two years since I was at camp with the men of the family (well most of them, my brother was on tour being a rockstar). I REALLY missed it. Being isolated (away from the women, the web, and the work) is a great way to build our guy relationships and remind ourselves of why we come.
A typical day at camp.
6:00 am - Wake up. We don't set an alarm, but my Dad has an internal clock the size of Notre Dame's Bell Tower.
6:10 am - I actually get out of bed after using ten minutes to build the body heat to survive a chilly morning in Canada.
6:11 am - Put clothes on. Its usually cold, so it doesn't take long.
6:30 am - One of the most important parts of the week. Blueberry Pancakes! We buy fresh picked blueberries or stop and pick them ourselves. They are wild, juicy, and small. The blueberries combined with my father's culinary skills make for a fantastic meal to start the day.
7:00 - 7:30 am - Pack the coolers, stove, pans, rods, reels, rain gear, and take off for the first fishing spot
8:30-11:30am - Fish! The morning is usually spent trolling islands, bays, and weedlines looking for walleyes. We prefer walleye for lunch because it is less oily and contains less bones than northern pike. We fish places like Jon's Honey-Hole, Todd's Rock, Lee's Bays, and the Alley. All filled with as many fish as memories for the people they are named after.
12 Noon - Shore lunch! Another essential part of the trip. We dock the boats, clean the fish and start melting a block of lard in the frying pan. We eat walleye, potatoes, and beans. The fish is fresh, golden brown, and melts in your mouth. I usually eat two whole fish. Its way too much, but it only tastes like this for one week out of the year. This year, the mosquitos were pretty obnoxious, so we tried something new - Boat Lunch. We tied our boats up in a calm bay and stayed bite-free.
1:00 - 4:30 pm - Fish! The afternoon is spent casting reeds and reeling in pike. This year the pike bite was slow, so we went on mini adventures. We drudged through small streams and rivers to make it to Lake Aldous this year. There, we fished around a small island that was burnt from a small fire. As we trolled around the corner, a small Caribou jumped up and hid in the trees. It was a small island so my boat mate and cousin Alex got out dad's attention and tried to surround the small island. Unfortunately, we learned that caribou swim faster than a four stroke, 25 horse, Johnson motor and the caribou made it to mainland with us only getting a glimpse. In order to get to the lake, Alex and I had to pull the boats through a small bog.
5:00 pm - Get back to camp and start our night duties. The men clean fish and the old guys cook.
6:30 pm - Supper. The first night we eat fish, but after that its pork loin, boneless ribs, ribeye steaks, or chicken thighs. Sweet corn, potatoes and some sort of fish appetizer are the sides. We eat too much.
9:00 pm - After dinner. With a Labbatt's Blue in hand (for us that are "of age") we've finished dishes and showers. Its time for a card game. This year's specialty was 4-handed Cribbage. The dad's beat the boys pretty badly each night, but we definitely had an equal amount of fun.
10:30 pm - Lights out. In the old days this was literal because the owners shut off the generator, but now its only figurative.
Yet again it was a successful year. Although my battery is fully charged and I'm ready for a big work week, my Ipad's battery is not.
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Posted with Blogsy
Canada Fishing
I love road trips, my family, and the outdoors, and the trip I'm on today is about all three. Each summer, the men in my family take the trek 18 hours north into the land of blue waters, green trees, lots of other great stuff, eh? That's right, Ontario!
My grandfather, Bruce, started coming to Ignace, Ontario in 1951. Why? nobody knows, but the fishing has always been good, the water always clear, and the company, well that changes year to year but we are always among the best. The annual fishing trip to Canada was a right of passage for the Helvig Family. At the age of 7, you've learned enough about water safety, respect of elders, and fishing to earn the right to come. When I first started coming up, the camp was full of relatives and neighbors from the county. My grandfather always brought his 1971 16-foot Lund, and filled it with my great Uncle Merle, and neighbor Dave. They had to leave early because in an 18 hour trip, there are atleast 4 casinos on the way, and a lot of crab leg buffets to attend to. My family always consisted of my father, uncle, brother, and later on my younger cousins. My sister and mother even came one year, but I think we scared them away with snakes, fish guts, and primitive bathrooms.
This year, its my father, Jon, Uncle Jon, 16-year old cousin Alex, and myself. Its been the same crew for the last several years as most of our fellow fishing mates are with the Great Fishermen upstairs. Its nice to take a small group, but it puts more responsibility on each individual. Cleaning fish, cooking supper, and doing dishes are just a few of the daily chores that need to be done each night. As a 7 year old, dishes were my duty, but through persistence, hard work, and excellent quality control i've climbed the preverbial corporate ladder and become the fish cleaner. Like the Heavyweight Title in wrestling, I once had a shot at being the camp cook, but some hot coals gave my potatos a little too much carbon. The result was a deflated ego, sore jaw from a hard meal, and a new job cleaning fish.
Rumor has it that the camp has internet. Although I look forward to Skyping with my new fiance, I think I'll unplug for now.
My grandfather, Bruce, started coming to Ignace, Ontario in 1951. Why? nobody knows, but the fishing has always been good, the water always clear, and the company, well that changes year to year but we are always among the best. The annual fishing trip to Canada was a right of passage for the Helvig Family. At the age of 7, you've learned enough about water safety, respect of elders, and fishing to earn the right to come. When I first started coming up, the camp was full of relatives and neighbors from the county. My grandfather always brought his 1971 16-foot Lund, and filled it with my great Uncle Merle, and neighbor Dave. They had to leave early because in an 18 hour trip, there are atleast 4 casinos on the way, and a lot of crab leg buffets to attend to. My family always consisted of my father, uncle, brother, and later on my younger cousins. My sister and mother even came one year, but I think we scared them away with snakes, fish guts, and primitive bathrooms.
This year, its my father, Jon, Uncle Jon, 16-year old cousin Alex, and myself. Its been the same crew for the last several years as most of our fellow fishing mates are with the Great Fishermen upstairs. Its nice to take a small group, but it puts more responsibility on each individual. Cleaning fish, cooking supper, and doing dishes are just a few of the daily chores that need to be done each night. As a 7 year old, dishes were my duty, but through persistence, hard work, and excellent quality control i've climbed the preverbial corporate ladder and become the fish cleaner. Like the Heavyweight Title in wrestling, I once had a shot at being the camp cook, but some hot coals gave my potatos a little too much carbon. The result was a deflated ego, sore jaw from a hard meal, and a new job cleaning fish.
Rumor has it that the camp has internet. Although I look forward to Skyping with my new fiance, I think I'll unplug for now.
Thursday, July 5, 2012
#GettinHitched
I am extremely excited to share that I am no longer "on the market" and now engaged to the love of my life, Kendra Van Beusekom.
We've been dating for over two years after meeting at school during a FarmHouse BBQ (both of her brothers were in the house with me during school). Our first date was in the park in St. Paul, MN where we learned to dance to 50's music and walked the historic streets of downtown.
It's been the best years of my life with the pinnacle of our relationship coming last night (July 4th, 2012). The story, as it follows, will be told for ages and passed down from generation to generation. (I hope)
It all starts on July 3rd when we headed down to Spirit Lake, Iowa where we met up with a group of firiends that I attended high school and college with. There, many of them asked if I was ever going to "pop the question" to which i gave the normal response, "maybe in 5 years." We watched fireworks, built a bonfire, and slept in tents. It was a FANTASTIC start to the 4th of July Festivities.
After packing up our tent, eating breakfast, and taking a much needed mid-morning nap, we started celebrating Independence Day by packing a cooler and tying up few boats to float in the sun on Fox Lake (where I live). By 6:00 pm we were hot and tired. We were cleaning up for a supper with family at my aunt and uncles' Fox Lake home when I nonchalantly asked if Kendra would like to see fireworks tonight to which she replied, "I don't really care, we saw some last night at Spirit Lake, its up to you." Not the answer I expected, so I had to improvise.
"Kendra, what if we went to a quieter place to watch fireworks and didn't have to deal with traffic? We'd be done by 10:30 pm and home by 11." She fell for it... so i went on,
"Its a quiet place that I like to watch the Fairmont fireworks from, but its kind of a secret so you can't tell anyone about it," I said.
Kendra started laughing, "What do you mean a secret?"
"I mean that its top-secret, so i'll probably have to blind-fold you, so that you can't tell anyone else where it is." I wasn't sure how she would react, or if this was even what I wanted, but she played along with a willing attitude.
So I got Kendra in the truck and put the blindfold on, but I "forgot" something so quickly left to grab a bottle of white wine from the fridge, two dixie cups, and a corkscrew (almost forgot that part...) She was left in the truck feeling the back of my seat looking for where I could have gone. It took about 25 minutes to make the 18-mile trip to the home farm because I had to throw in a few wrong turns (kendra was counting turns and trying to remember the path like any good victim of a kidnapping).
I drove to the home farm and parked right under a new grain bin. Its the newest member of the "grain handling division" of Helvig Farms Inc, and it has a nice spiral staircase running along the east side making it an ideal way to allow a blindfolded Kendra to climb as high as she did. I got out of the truck and pretending to say "Hi" to people i knew. I opened the door for Kendra and asked if she had brought her inhaler because the next part was quite the hike. I raced up the steps to set up the blanket. After getting her safely secured on the top step, I popped the cork on the wine bottle and took her blindfold off. The fireworks were just getting started. It was a perfect evening with a slight breeze from the south carrying the sweet smell of swine. The bugs had gone to bed and the Moon was full. Kendra even commented that people do crazy things on a Full Moon (I now agree).
During the night I had told Kendra that one time I watched the fireworks from the top of our leg which is only 10 feet taller. (For those of you not involved on a farm the leg is a tall, metal, octopus-looking attraction that acts like an auger to put the grain in the bins) I love being on top of the grain bin because its as close as I can get to heaven while being on the farm. I find that its a great place to pray, make life decision, smoke a cigar, and drink a beer. (All things I have done)
It was a PERFECT night almost to the point where I thought Kendra knew what I was up to, so I threw in a few comments to not only calm my nerves, but to throw her off. I said, "I'm so dehydrated from being in the sun, afterwards remind me to steal a gatorade from my parents." and "This is quite the date, but don't worry I'm already planning August's date" (a joke that we only go on one date a month)
I can't say that I was necessarily nervous, but I was giddy, and if you've ever sat next to me in a class where I'm giddy you know that I move... a lot.
The finale came and Kendra started thanking me for such a wonderful date night, but the night wasn't quite over. I got down on one knee (which is awkward on a small, metal staircase) and I pulled the box out from my back pocket. I said, "Kendra, I hope you don't mind, but I kind of have a finale of my own... I've loved you VERY much for a long time and promise to continue to love you for the rest of my life." At this point, the box was open, but since it was so dark, Kendra was still looking off in the distance not realizing exactly what was going on, so I raised the box in front of her face and said, "Kendra Ann Van Beusekom, Will You Marry Me?"
She freaked out and started crying, breathing heavy and trying to talk. My hands got sweaty and my heart started racing. She said, "Yes, of course! Oh my gosh, I can't believe this is happening!"
She immediately started grabbing for the ring, but with her shaking and my intense fear of dropping a ring off the side of a grain bin, I had to stop her. I put the ring on her finger, but since it was dark she still couldn't get a good look at it. Now, this part wasn't planned, but its probably my favorite part.
I said, "would you like to see your ring" and I grabbed my phone and turned the flashlight on. From darkness to intense light, Kendra got the first look at the newest piece of jewelry that she will wear for the rest of her life!
We've been dating for over two years after meeting at school during a FarmHouse BBQ (both of her brothers were in the house with me during school). Our first date was in the park in St. Paul, MN where we learned to dance to 50's music and walked the historic streets of downtown.
It's been the best years of my life with the pinnacle of our relationship coming last night (July 4th, 2012). The story, as it follows, will be told for ages and passed down from generation to generation. (I hope)
It all starts on July 3rd when we headed down to Spirit Lake, Iowa where we met up with a group of firiends that I attended high school and college with. There, many of them asked if I was ever going to "pop the question" to which i gave the normal response, "maybe in 5 years." We watched fireworks, built a bonfire, and slept in tents. It was a FANTASTIC start to the 4th of July Festivities.
After packing up our tent, eating breakfast, and taking a much needed mid-morning nap, we started celebrating Independence Day by packing a cooler and tying up few boats to float in the sun on Fox Lake (where I live). By 6:00 pm we were hot and tired. We were cleaning up for a supper with family at my aunt and uncles' Fox Lake home when I nonchalantly asked if Kendra would like to see fireworks tonight to which she replied, "I don't really care, we saw some last night at Spirit Lake, its up to you." Not the answer I expected, so I had to improvise.
"Kendra, what if we went to a quieter place to watch fireworks and didn't have to deal with traffic? We'd be done by 10:30 pm and home by 11." She fell for it... so i went on,
"Its a quiet place that I like to watch the Fairmont fireworks from, but its kind of a secret so you can't tell anyone about it," I said.
Kendra started laughing, "What do you mean a secret?"
"I mean that its top-secret, so i'll probably have to blind-fold you, so that you can't tell anyone else where it is." I wasn't sure how she would react, or if this was even what I wanted, but she played along with a willing attitude.
So I got Kendra in the truck and put the blindfold on, but I "forgot" something so quickly left to grab a bottle of white wine from the fridge, two dixie cups, and a corkscrew (almost forgot that part...) She was left in the truck feeling the back of my seat looking for where I could have gone. It took about 25 minutes to make the 18-mile trip to the home farm because I had to throw in a few wrong turns (kendra was counting turns and trying to remember the path like any good victim of a kidnapping).
I drove to the home farm and parked right under a new grain bin. Its the newest member of the "grain handling division" of Helvig Farms Inc, and it has a nice spiral staircase running along the east side making it an ideal way to allow a blindfolded Kendra to climb as high as she did. I got out of the truck and pretending to say "Hi" to people i knew. I opened the door for Kendra and asked if she had brought her inhaler because the next part was quite the hike. I raced up the steps to set up the blanket. After getting her safely secured on the top step, I popped the cork on the wine bottle and took her blindfold off. The fireworks were just getting started. It was a perfect evening with a slight breeze from the south carrying the sweet smell of swine. The bugs had gone to bed and the Moon was full. Kendra even commented that people do crazy things on a Full Moon (I now agree).
During the night I had told Kendra that one time I watched the fireworks from the top of our leg which is only 10 feet taller. (For those of you not involved on a farm the leg is a tall, metal, octopus-looking attraction that acts like an auger to put the grain in the bins) I love being on top of the grain bin because its as close as I can get to heaven while being on the farm. I find that its a great place to pray, make life decision, smoke a cigar, and drink a beer. (All things I have done)
It was a PERFECT night almost to the point where I thought Kendra knew what I was up to, so I threw in a few comments to not only calm my nerves, but to throw her off. I said, "I'm so dehydrated from being in the sun, afterwards remind me to steal a gatorade from my parents." and "This is quite the date, but don't worry I'm already planning August's date" (a joke that we only go on one date a month)
I can't say that I was necessarily nervous, but I was giddy, and if you've ever sat next to me in a class where I'm giddy you know that I move... a lot.
The finale came and Kendra started thanking me for such a wonderful date night, but the night wasn't quite over. I got down on one knee (which is awkward on a small, metal staircase) and I pulled the box out from my back pocket. I said, "Kendra, I hope you don't mind, but I kind of have a finale of my own... I've loved you VERY much for a long time and promise to continue to love you for the rest of my life." At this point, the box was open, but since it was so dark, Kendra was still looking off in the distance not realizing exactly what was going on, so I raised the box in front of her face and said, "Kendra Ann Van Beusekom, Will You Marry Me?"
She freaked out and started crying, breathing heavy and trying to talk. My hands got sweaty and my heart started racing. She said, "Yes, of course! Oh my gosh, I can't believe this is happening!"
She immediately started grabbing for the ring, but with her shaking and my intense fear of dropping a ring off the side of a grain bin, I had to stop her. I put the ring on her finger, but since it was dark she still couldn't get a good look at it. Now, this part wasn't planned, but its probably my favorite part.
I said, "would you like to see your ring" and I grabbed my phone and turned the flashlight on. From darkness to intense light, Kendra got the first look at the newest piece of jewelry that she will wear for the rest of her life!
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