You know what's real funny about all this rain?? so far this summer it has
rained mainly on the days (nights) that I work..lol. On my weekly 4 days
off we have sun or very minimal rain during the daytime hours, but the
nights I work (like this past weekend) it pours and a few times we even get
a good light show at work.

Snow..."Don Cherry for Prime Minister"


"Mike Romain" <romainm@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:40B6364E.5543E26B@sympatico.ca...
> Well we got back ok... Not quite in one piece, but with most of the
> pieces....
>
> I was setting up my driving lights for highway aim Saturday when I
> realized I didn't have any headlights... Crap, so I check the 4 year
> old dimmer switch, sure enough, seized up. I take a hammer to it, nope
> it ain't clickin'. Get new one, put it in it, works. Go to set up
> lights just before leaving again and no lights again! Double crap! So
> I look at the dimmer plug and the sockets are gone. Rotted right out.
> Cut wires and twist for low beams. All Right, lets get out of here!
>
> What a weekend! We got away about 8 PM Sat. It was almost zero
> visibility at times on the highway when it wasn't bright daylight from
> the lightning, Jo and Steve had a couple kids along, running in a
> Cherokee and almost bailed for the night about a third the way there,
> but stuck it out. It was just insane! 90 kph or 55 mph tops, lower for
> most of the drive. (This is on a highway where the slow lane runs at 70
> mph or 110+ kph normally)
>
> As we are getting to the bush area, the rain almost stops and the
> puddles are empty. 'Great', I say, 'we went far enough north to miss
> the rain' as my wife slaps me in the shoulder. LOL! Ya right, it
> caught up and stayed with us. Mother Nature has a warped sense of humor
> sometimes....
>
> We come to a causeway across a Ducks Unlimited sponsored marsh and, oh,
> oh, I think, the 3' high culvert is washed out. Get out and check, and
> it's ok, solid bottom. Turns out the beavers dammed the culverts.
> Nasty wash out damage in a bird nesting area though.
>
> So it is raining harder and harder and I notice one wiper, my side is
> wiping strange places... My wife noticed too and commented. I said I
> hop it holds 'till we get there... It up and jammed just as we found a
> hunt camp to stay the night in. The windshield frame gave up. Crappy
> aftermarket one split at the hole from flex and let the linkage jam up.
>
> So next day I tear into it and brace it and lose the spring clip
> putting it back together. I heard a perfect pinball machine tick tick
> ding as the clip goes down the defroster duct.... So I steal a clip
> from my choke fast idle rod and it lasts 10 minutes. Oh well, I still
> had it manually working on my side in the rain after I unhooked the
> linkage.
>
> So it rained some more on Sunday, then we had some thunderstorms. We
> did a bit of wheeling across the bush roads over to a lake we camp at
> lots. There were 15 tents in there! The loggers have just plain ruined
> the area. This lake used to be 6 hours from where we came into the bush
> and 4 hours from the other end and now it's 45 minutes from one side and
> a mini van can make it. But this time that side is closed because the
> loggers crushed another Ducks Unlimited sponsored marsh's causeway with
> a 10' high culvert and water level control dam. The MNR has the road
> posted closed to motor traffic so even if we could winch our way across
> the ravine, it would be a 'bad' idea. Closed is closed. There were a
> bunch of ATV's that went across that are giving them a bad impression
> according to the MNR guy I talked to on Tues.. That kind of BS gets
> areas closed!!!!
>
> We were going to go on another firewood run in the evening to have a
> fire and marshmallows, etc., but it decided to really rain hard, so we
> didn't.
>
> We did a pile of hikes down to the marsh during the day and nights. The
> marsh noises at night are wild! The frogs were in full symphony with
> the bull frogs playing bass and the big Barred Owls were yapping/howling
> away. They are extremely loud and one person in our party said he was
> out with others that though they were hearing coyotes when they heard
> the owls. I can believe it.
>
> We saw lots of fresh tracks (did I mention it was raining, so tracks
> wash out fast) moose, deer, fawn, raccoon, what really looked like big
> cat, (palm sized tracks with no claws showing, so not dog) fresh beaver
> cuttings, and bird. We only physically saw a porcupine, a big old
> ground hog, a couple foxes in the marsh at night caught in a spot light,
> and a ruffed grouse I tagged driving by and walked/sneaked through the
> woods, back with the young girls so they could see it in person. They
> did then it took off with a roar scaring them good! LOL! The Blue
> herons were longer distance and the red wing black birds were everywhere
> squawking at us and chasing Herons away from their nests.
>
> Got up Monday to some more rain. The TJ folks had to get back, so they
> left fairly early.
>
> Steve and I and the kids are going to go out on a run when I check my
> new hub to see how it's doing.
>
> LOL! SOB! Two bolts are snapped and the rest of the studs and bolts
> are just plain gone!!! What is it with these things? I even used some
> studs because I heard they were better and used loctite on
> everything....
>
> So I just hand pulled it off and tossed the hub in the back and we went
> on another run anyway with me in 2 WD and ended up on a winter built
> skidder run.
>
> These are mud roads with brush and ice filling the holes as they make
> them for the trucks to run in the winter only. Come thaw and you can
> have 6' or deeper holes covered by a bit of muddy brush. (snapped a
> shock pin on one a couple years ago. Bottom dropped out fast.)
>
> Man that organic mud sure can turn a mud tire into a slick in a hurry!
> LOL! I had 'fun' trying to get across one log bridge and up the creek
> bank. It was one of those slick hills with a funky bridge that could
> end up with a Jeep rubber side up. The bridge was made for a skidder
> with 6' high tires and chain cleats on. Steve followed along in a
> Cherokee with no problem in 4x4....
>
> That is the only place we got any photos. Steve had a full camera with
> only a couple left and Jason had dead batteries with no charger along.
> (we have inverters)
>
> If Steve can forward the photos to me I will put them up and post a
> link.
>
> So it's just pissing rain and I am staring to see bottomless pits in the
> road so figure it's a good time to turn around while I am still moving.
> I didn't feel like winching in a thunderstorm.
>
> We got back and they packed up in the rain to leave. My wife and I
> stayed until Tuesday when they called for clearing. Driving with a
> manual wiper is no fun.
>
> So Tuesday morning and some trucks show up from the local works dept.
> Apparently the loggers phoned in saying they can't cross the washout in
> the marsh and these guys are trying to figure out who's fault the
> environmental damage is and what is needed to fix it.
>
> If the loggers caused the culvert collapse, they are liable for the fix
> and the damage.
>
> The workers thought they saw back hoe tracks and asked us if we had seen
> any and I said nope and we had bee all across. No track either, we were
> down at the marsh a lot on short hikes. It is a neat place, especially
> at night.
>
> Then a conservation officer showed up and I talked with him a bit and
> pointed out the second high water bypass culvert nicely dammed up and
> water wash across the top of the road and the lack of any dirt piles
> from back hoe work over on the main culvert. He agreed that nature was
> to 'blame' for it. They will call in the local trapper to clean out the
> beaver. He is a 'nuisance' beaver affecting the forestry access road.
>
> I don't know what that means for the clean up though.... A large bird
> breeding area was damaged. We saw lots of Red Wing Black Birds, Great
> Blue Herons and Ducks of many varieties nesting in there.
>
> So I asked the MNR guy about the weather (no radio coverage in there)
> hoping for clearing for my drive home (one manual wiper only) and he
> laughs saying they are calling for flood warnings that day and
> recommends I get that rain x stuff at a store 100 miles down the road or
> at the other store 50 miles through the woods the other way. LOL!!!!
>
> I got freaking lucky. Had some low cloud/heavy mist for the dirt run
> out
> and the first 50 miles, then it didn't start raining again seriously
> until I was 20 miles from home.
>
> Oh, did I mention it rained all freaking weekend?
> ;-)
>
> Had a fun time, met some nice new folks and I think everyone enjoyed
> themselves.
>
> Mike
>
>
> Mike Romain wrote:
> >
> > My wife and I are heading off into the Canadian bush for a few days.
> > Have a couple with TJ coming and Steve and Jo are joining us.
> >
> > I don't have a working camera, maybe the others do. If we get photos I
> > will post the link.
> >
> > Mike
> > 86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
> > 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's