Tuesday September 30

Bonnie:  Today we spent the day in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.  It's truly a national treasure!  We watched a short movie that was very emotional (for me, anyway) and then looked at a "colorama"  of the battle at Gettysburg.  It is a huge circular painting that fills a large room.  Then we took a bus tour of the battleground sites.  This took over two hours.and was so interesting. After that, we listened to a park ranger talk about Abraham Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address while looking at the National Cemetery area.  We had just enough time to see some of the many artifacts in the museum before it closed. I'd like to see it again because there wasn't enough time for me to see all I wanted.  The battle at Gettysburg was a decisive one but it cost so many lives!  Freedom really isn't free!
Yesterday was also fun.  Of course, chocolate is always fun.  The part I enjoyed the most was tasting chocolate from 7 different places in the world. Amazingly, there is quite a difference between each one.

Bob: Gettysburg is always an awesome experience. The tour bus driver said that over 50% of the visitors to Gettysburg come back 5 times!! It is an inspiring experience. This battle changed the history of the United States. If the Union soldiers had fallen here who knows what type of government we might be living under today.

Hershey Candy Kiss Street Light

Monday - September 29

Bob: Got up this morning and went for a 3 mile walk with Bonnie. We saw 2 deer cross the road in front of us. After we had breakfast we headed to Hershey, Pa. to visit the chocolate factory. Toured the factory and went to the museum. Had lunch and headed home. After dinner we went to King's Gap State Park. We toured the grounds. Pictures of the Inn and a view from it are below. It was built in the late 1800's by the man who was Secretary of State for the Union during the Civil War. Then we went to Leo's in Carlisle. It is on the list of the top 10 or 20 ice cream shops in the USA. Needless to say, it was good.

Sunday - September 28

Bob: Went to church this morning. The Ward is in Chambersburg. They meet in the Stake Center. It is about 20-25 minutes away. Daphne, Bonnie and I went for a walk this afternoon around the Shippensburg University campus. We looked at several buildings and watched half an inning of a girl's softball game. (Thought the umpires looked a little sloppy in their dress. Also, the base umpire was resting on his knees in the set position.) We finished off the night with a short game of Mexican Train. All in all it has been a very pleasant day. The weather is really beautiful right now.

Bonnie: I don't have much to add. Daphne was a terrific guide around the Shippensburg campus!  We found a huge red wooden chair, bigger than Daphne, and several sculptures that were interesting. The best part was finding chestnuts with their spiky, green outsides.  We had to bring one home, of course.  We also saw where Chris teaches which is part of the same building where Daphne and Jonathan go to school.  It's been a lovely day.
Tomorrow I will be listening to Chris teach Seminary about 6:15 in the morning.  Six students come to Chris' house for their Seminary class.  I miss teaching it sometimes--the teaching, not the preparation of the lessons.

Saturday - September 27

Bob: We left NM today and drove to West Friendship, MD for Sarah's belated birthday celebration. Chris and Suzy brought there kids from Shippensburg. We made it in just under 5 hours without getting lost!! It was good to see everyone and the weather cooperated. Temperature was in the low 80s. After the party we then headed for Shippensburg. We'll be staying with Chris and Suzy for a few days and then going back to Dan and Misty's home. All the girls went to the General Women's Meeting broadcast from Salt Lake to the Stake Centers. The men went up in the mountains to have a camp fire and roast hot dogs, etc. However, every fire pit they knew of was taken. Thus we ended up coming back to town and going to Mike's home. He has a fire pit in his back yard. We were able to start the fire without too much trouble and roasted our dogs.
Time for bed now, but sleep might be a while coming as there is a race track near town that produces a lot of noise. Chris said they will be racing pretty late tonight. Maybe our tiredness will drown out the noise.

Bonnie: Good night and love to all. I love being with my family.

Friday September 26

Bonnie:  To those reading our blog, (if there are any left reading our blog!) we apologize for not updating it.  We are staying with friends who do not have a computer, let alone wifi.  It's taken some planning to get to the library and set things up.  We have had a very enjoyable time visiting with old friends the last several days.  We were going to post more on the blog yesterday, but the library was closed, so here we are.
We got into New Martinsville area Monday about 5 or so and then headed out to Reader to put the boat into Bob's brother's garage.  It took some time to unload it and the other things we wanted to leave.  We've decided that we have brought way too much stuff!  Bob's nephew, Jerry, helped us.  Flo and Ken Loy welcomed us to their home later that evening.  We visited with Bob and Sally Briggs on Tuesday after seeing Ron Wilson at the New Martinsville Nursing Home.  Wednesday we headed up to Pittsburgh to meet Bob's sister-in-law and go to Mike's grave sight.  We had a delicious lunch at Olive Garden and then headed to East Liverpool (actually Calcutta, Ohio) to see Vicky Bohrer.  That was a very fun visit.  Yesterday Bob went bike riding with Mike Barnes.  I'll let  him write about that.  I went to visit Leann Reniger and her daughter Mariah.  What a sweet young lady Mariah is becoming!  Then we went to visit with an old friend of Bob's, Gary Church, in Moundsville.  After dinner we headed south to Mary and Barbara Rose's house.  That was a very fun, delightful visit, too.  Today we will see the Voorhis' and go to a Magnolia football game.  What a great way to end our stay!  Each morning Bob and I have gone on a walk with Flo and talked about lots of people here.  That has been a wonderful way to start our day.  I'm so thankful for Ken and Flo's hospitality.  They have done everything to make our stay pleasant.  May the Lord bless them!


Bob:  Concerning the bike ride, we decided to ride up route 7 in Ohio as the roads in WV all have a lot of traffic due to the gas well drilling and fracking that is going on. Route 7 is a flat road for several miles. But once we started I decided to ride up route 536 which begins with over a 2 mile incline. I made it to the top, but my legs and knees are still feeling it. When I stand up I have to wait a second before my knees can start moving forward. Seems as though the hill wasn't a good idea. Should have gotten back on the bike this morning, but I didn't want to drag it out of the truck. Hopefully everything will be back to normal in a couple days.

Sunday - September 21

Bob: Well the day I wasn't looking for has arrived. Finally got everything packed and left camp about 8:45. Had to get to church early so we could get the potato soup cooking and print my talk. Everything turned out real well during services and the pot luck was great. Several came to the lunch that we hoped would be there, but didn't know for sure if they would come. It was hard to say good-bye for it felt like we were leaving home. Time will only tell when we can go back. Looking forward to it already. And if we are lucky we can spend 18 months in Ontario beginning next June.
Left church at 2:00 and arrived in North York at 7:45. I believe we are about 10 miles or so due north of Toronto. I might have made an unwise decision staying on this side of Toronto. We will see in the morning. And we got more rain today!! Once we got to the motel it poured it down. Bonnie and I put the cover on the boat once we got here and I bailed about 20 - 30 gallons of water off the cover once the rain quit.

Bonnie:  It was so hard to say good-bye today. I didn't know I could get this close to people in 3 short months.  Sister Craig came to the dinner, her first visit in a while.  Sister Kernan came to church (!) and the biggest surprise was that Trudy came to sacrament meeting.  She came back later with Jack for the pot luck.  I doubt he has been inside any church for a very long time!  Then, Patsy gave me a treat--a little box of candy and some homemade soap.  I was overwhelmed with all the attention! I will miss everyone very much.
So now, we are on the next leg of our trip.  Tomorrow we will be in West Virginia!

Saturday - September 20

Bob: Spent most of the day packing up. Took 5 bags of food, etc. to Patsy and Karl. It is in the low 60s today, but it has rained off and on most of the day. Loaded boat and truck in between rain drops. Finished up the blueberry pie and tarts. Made a pot of potato soup for tomorrow's pot luck.
Not sure how we will do with the blog the next few days. Where we are staying in New Martinsville doesn't have wifi. I guess we'll go park in the Branch parking lot and write up the blog.

Friday - September 19

Bob: Loaded the boat this morning after I got up as rain is forecast to start tonight. So fishing is over for this trip.When we got home at 9:00 PM the rain had not started yet.
We went to New Liskeard today for the funeral service of Sister Boudreau. It was a nice service and luncheon afterwards. Got to visit with several of the members that we'll be saying goodbye to on Sunday. Later we did some shopping at the North Cobalt Flea Market and then we went to Trudy and Jack's. We wanted to hear how his guided tour of the Amish farm turned out. Last Saturday he went with 8 women he did not know and took them to an Amish farm. Before he took them he had fed them a line about how they needed to be wearing head scarves when they went.  Also, the spokesman's scarf needed to be red. He said when they got to within a mile of the farm that all the women put on their scarves. The Amish host was in on the joke and after introductions she told the visitors they needed to ask Jack why they all wore scarves. Needless to say they all took them off immediately.
We then took Jack, Trudy, their grandson, Brad Suave and his daughter to dinner at Gramma's Chip Stand. Then we went back to to Trudy and Jack's and had some of her special butter tarts. All in all it was a great day.
Did take a short drive to see if my Devils Rock sign was still up. It is still there.

Bonnie:  I have nothing much to add.  It will be hard to say good-bye to the friends we have made. We finished up our visits to families in New Liskeard today.  Tomorrow we will have the huge task of packing up everything.  We also need to finish up some of the food in the refrigerator.  I will need to wipe out the 'frig, oven and microwave tomorrow, give all of our extra food to Karl and Patsy and work on my talk!

Thursday September 18

Bonnie:  It is cold today, too.  I did the wash wearing my heavy coat and gloves!  I will do just one more load, probably Saturday so we'll have mostly clean clothes for our trip to West Virginia.  Bob went fishing but came home early.  We had an early dinner and then went to Elk Lake to check out one more place to stay, the Moosehorn Motel and Cabins.  It is the next best place to stay, in my opinion, after where we are right now at Elk Lake Cabins.  We'll see what happens in two years.
We may go to the Jakob's tonight.  There will be a funeral tomorrow at the Branch, so we will attend that and try to see one more family in New Liskeard.

Bob: The fishing today was tough. When Isaac and I got back to camp the temperature was only 42. With the wind down on Mountain Lake it felt pretty cold. Keeping your hands warm is the big problem. We did catch 4 fish however. Threw all of them back.
Moosehorn is pretty nice. They only have 3 cabins and one of them is a big house. He said if we wanted to rent any one of them for the whole summer he would do it. The big house is pretty old, so I don't think we would want that one. However, there is one big 2 bedroom cabin on the water front that is pretty nice. That would be my pick. Visitors could get a room at their motel. We checked those rooms and they are pretty nice too. Also, the dock is really close. But, I agree with Bonnie, that Elk Cabins would be the best choice. Just hope it is still available in two years.
Visited with the Jacobs tonight. We took some ice cream and had a nice enjoyable visit. Half a gallon of ice cream is 6.75 in Elk Lake.
Temperature outside is 33 right now. Supposed to be 27 at 6 AM. High tomorrow is predicted to be 56. Rain scheduled to start tomorrow and go through Saturday. Looks like packing won't be any fun. This time we are going to travel with the boat cover off. Bought some Rubbermaid bins to pack everything in. So it can rain and nothing will be hurt.

Wednesday - September 17

Bob: Went to Englehart and Kirkland Lake today to visit some Branch members. One man and his nonmember wife, whom we visited before, are both in a nursing home in Englehart. They were so appreciative of our visit. We told them we would be going back to the states this Sunday after church. Tonight I checked my email before starting the blog and he had sent me a message. He wants to know if we can arrange a ride for he and his wife so they can come to church on Sunday. Bonnie and I are quite pleased they want to make the effort to come. Visited with 2 others in Kirkland Lake. It was our first visit with them.
Trying to finish John Grisham's Sycamore Row. That will be 2 books for me this month. I'm about 20 behind Bonnie. But I'm fishing hours ahead!!

Bonnie:  We did have mostly gratifying visits tonight. We couldn't find one couple home. And it's a sweet surprise that this couple from Englehart wants to come to church on Sunday.  We won't be able to pick them up because the truck will be packed solid.  We are contacting Karl to help us out with this.  It will be an interesting Sunday for sure!

Tuesday - September 16

Bob: Went fishing with Karl today. Left the cabin around 8:00. Got home after 6:00. We drove about 25 miles to the Shillington Lake. The last 13.2 miles were on a logging road. We were passed by one logging truck and one service vehicle. Since I was hauling a boat in the back of my truck I wasn't going too fast. So I just pulled over and let them go around. If you aren't careful the logging trucks will run you off the road.
Once we got to the lake we had to carry everything down a hill. The distance was between 150 to 200 yards. Wasn't too bad except for the motor. We didn't have to take the boat down as Karl's friend has a boat chained up at the lake. Only problem with that is the boat has a small leak. So we spent some of our time bailing water out of the boat. It wasn't dangerous, just annoying.
The lake is the most beautiful lake I have been on up here. It is completely surrounded with old forest. There are no cabins, not anything back there. We did see a couple of bald eagles that we probably disturbed. They started squawking up a storm when we got close to where they were sitting. We left that side of the lake, but they proceeded to follow us across the lake. However, then they caught an up draft and just soared high above us for a while.
Didn't catch lots of fish, but we brought 3 pike and 2 smallmouth bass back with us. Wasn't much fun carrying our motor back up the hill to the truck. I think we left the lake around 4:00.
Once we got back to Karl's I helped him finish digging up the potatoes in his garden. Thought there would be lots to do, but his wife and neighbor dug 2 or 3 rows before we got there. Some of the potatoes are very big. He gave me some that he punched with a pitchfork while he was digging. I need 5 pounds to make a batch of potato soup for Sunday's pot luck. I only need 4 of his potatoes to equal the 5 pounds.

Bonnie:  I had a quiet day working on my talk and finishing the last library book I have.  Oh, and washing up the huge potatoes and carrots that Karl gave us.  I don't know how we will eat them up before we go!

Monday September 15

Bonnie: Today I did the last of my baking, using up one of the bags of frozen blueberries.  I have two bags left, each with 4 cups of berries in them.  I'd like to take them with me to give to my son Chris, and my daughter Misty and their families.  We think there will not be a problem crossing the border with the berries.  I also am trying to read the last of the library books I have. The time really flies!  Tonight Bob and I went fishing.  It was cold, cold, cold, even with gloves and my heavy coat. We caught three walleye that we will give to the Jakob's, since we have enough fish for two meals at least.

Bob: I went fishing this morning when it was coldER. Caught 4 pike down on Mountain Lake in shallow water. It spit rain for a while but I had my rain suit on. When Bonnie and I went out tonight I thought we would troll for pike. I had a crank bait on and Bonnie was using a spoon. She caught the first fish, a small pike that we threw back. Then I caught 2 walleye. Put a crank bait on Bonnie's poll and she caught the next walleye. They are on a stringer down at the dock.
Went to check with Karl about going fishing tomorrow. We are going. Will dress for cold and rain. He told Bonnie and I that he talked to the Stake President at Stake Conference about us serving a mission in Ontario. The Stake President talked to the Mission President and gave him our retirement card. The Mission President said he could pull some strings and it should not be a problem. He said he would be in touch with us once we got home. So, we shall see.

Sunday - September 14

Bob: Today was Stake Conference at church. The meeting was in Sudbury, which is about 179 miles away, or about 3.5 hours. They were video conferencing the meeting to our Branch, so we didn't drive down. However, the connection wasn't very good so got the sound only. There were some good talks though. Afterwards we went to Brother Sauve's for lunch and visited with 4 members of the Branch that don't get to church often. Then on the way home we stopped at another camp to take a look. It has possibilities, but we still prefer Elk Cabins.
It's hard to believe that a week from today we are leaving. Spent some time tonight trying to figure out our schedule for visits. We will arrive in New Martinsville on September 22nd and stay with Florence and Ken Loy until we leave. Planning on attending the Magnolia game on Friday night with Wheeling Central.

Bonnie:  So today, because many in our Branch went to Sudbury to conference, there were four men and four women to see the broadcast.  It was interesting singing together, kind of like a small choir, NOT!  The talks were enjoyable.  One of the older sisters there today is very deaf.  I asked her what she heard and she said that all she heard was static!  How frustrating for her.  But she said she feels the Spirit so that helps.  Brother Suave, bless his heart, fed us again today.  It was omelettes and fruit.  A very nice lunch.  Then, as Bob wrote, we had some very good visits.  We visited Fred, the man in the nursing home who has had a stroke, for the last time today.  We gave him a 5 x 7 picture of the Savior.  He cried again when I told him about the Savior's love for him.  I hated to tell him good-bye! Then we saw two older sisters.  We ended our visits with a family we've been anxious to see.  They are moving soon so it was good we found them. Now we can update the records.  They may have been lost totally to the Branch if we did not find them home today.  Then we checked out another camp on the way home.  I still like Elk Cabins the best.
I can't believe this will be our last week here.  There is so much to do. This week, I'm trying to prepare all the food I have bought, at least as much as possible.  We will have two more nights of fish, although Bob is getting tired of fixing it.  Maybe he will let me cook it! No, on second thought, probably not. He's very particular about how it's done.  Then, there is the ordeal of preparing a talk for Sunday.  That will take me some time!  And we have our last visits in Kirkland Lake on Wednesday and maybe Thursday.  It will be a good, happy, busy week.

Saturday - September 13

Bob: Awoke to RAIN, again. Didn't quit till after noon. We drove towards Gowganda and checked out a couple for camps this afternoon. Got home about 4:30 and the weather still didn't look good. Decided we would not try fishing this evening as everything in the boat was wet, the temperature was about 50, and it looked like rain. Spent the evening watching 'War Horse' (one of my favorite movies! Bonnie)

Friday - September 12

Bob: No rain today!! We spent most of the day visiting fishing camps south of New Liskeard. Our plans are to come back to Canada in the summer of 2017 and we want an alternative to Elk Cabins in case something happens to Elk Cabins. Some of the ones we looked at we wouldn't want to have, but some were okay. However, none of them have everything we have here and they are farther from church. So we are hoping everything works out and we can come back here.
Got home and ate supper. Went to town to see if Karl is available for fishing on Tuesday. When we got ready to leave Karl said it would be nice if both of us spoke in Sacrament Meeting the last Sunday we are here. Bonnie is not real thrilled about this. But we'll only have 10 minutes each. Shouldn't be too hard!!
Think I'll go fishing tomorrow morning with Isaac if it isn't too cold. The high tomorrow is predicted to be 47, so we will see when we get up.

Bonnie:  Some of the cabins were very "rustic", hardly any counter space in the kitchen, one without an oven, no closets or storage, and looking like they were falling apart. None of the six places we looked at had a washer/dryer unit on the property.  The renters go into town to do their wash.  Others had much better facilities with fun play-places for grand kids and actual lace curtains in the windows and delightful bedspreads. But as Bob has said the cabins here, though not having the feminine touch and being older, have everything else we need and the price is better.
I am not excited about speaking again.  I thought I was done with that and it will be a challenge for me.  I guess I need to learn something from this!

Thursday - September 11

Bob: Not much happening today. Weather is really cool. Probably didn't get into the 50s today. Did not have any rain however. Spent most of the day reading. Did bail out my boat and 3 others that belong to the camp. Took about an hour as they all had a lot of water in them. Bonnie swept the cabin and cleaned up. Had fish for dinner. Had another visitor tonight as Brother Voterro stopped for a few minutes. He is the mayor of Thornloe and he was attending a mayor's meeting in Elk Lake. Watching the BYU game right now. Game started great as BYU went up 23-0, but it is 23-15 at halftime.

Wednesday September 10

Bonnie:  We had another late day today, getting home about 9:35 tonight. We started about noon for New Liskeard where we first picked up some brush at a sister's home.  Then, we picked up a used TV and two office dividers to dispose of from another sister.  We took the brush to Jack's house where he will burn it, and then the other things to a store in town that allows people to leave their used stuff.  After getting some ice cream to eat with our dinner tonight, we returned to the house of the first sister.  She fed us a turkey dinner, complete with stuffing and delicious gravy.  We had a raspberry cobbler for dessert with the ice cream.  After doing the dishes, we had to do some shopping for food this week.  It started to rain hard just as we left after dinner.  By the time we got home, two cereal boxes and a box of rice were quite wet.  Oh, well.  We should be able to use the food.  Thank goodness for portable heaters!  Tomorrow we expect more rain, so I will be inside most of the day. Maybe I will be able to finish another one of my library books.

Bob: Not much to add. Weather wasn't too bad today until it started raining while we were having dinner. It's still raining at 11:02. Temperature got up into the high 60s today. We had our hosts light our furnace yesterday, but I'm not sure the blower is working. Turned the thermostat up and the flame kicked on. But I didn't hear the blower kick on afterwards. Flame is off now and only the pilot light is burning. Guess I'll move the temperature up another notch and sit next to the thing and see if the blower kicks on. --Everything seems to be working. The flame kicked on and after 2 to 3 minutes the blower started. Flame is now off and blower is still blowing hot air. Should kick off shortly.
Quite surprised the internet is still up and running because of past bad experience when it rains.

Tuesday September 9

Bonnie:  Since Bob is deep into his Tom Clancy novel I will begin the blog tonight.  There is not much to report for me today.  I finished a book on Joseph Smith by Truman Madsen today.  It is a wonderful book because there are some rare paintings included in it and some fascinating information on the prophet.  Other than that, it was a "normal" day.  Thankfully, Isaac came over to turn the heater on, because tomorrow it is supposed to be cold.
When Bob got home late afternoon today he excitedly called for me to come look at the fish Isaac caught.  Two of them were huge.  In fact, they were so big they will be stuffed and mounted to hang on the wall of the office at Elk Cabins!!  I'll let Bob tell you more about that.  Then, he wanted to clean the truck.  It was about 6 when we finally ate dinner. As I was doing the dishes I looked over at Bob.  See the picture below. Bob was so tired from his fishing expedition he had to have a nap! (If women only understood how hard it is to fish for 7 hours after getting up in the middle of the night because you can't sleep!)

Bonnie's Mischief

(She would never, ever, let me do this to her)

Bob: As I said above, I awoke in the middle of the night and did not go back to sleep. Isaac and I left about 7:50 for Hubert Lake. It's about 3/4's of a mile back to the where we launch the boat. You don't travel much faster than an idle speed to get there. Have to lift the boat off the truck and drag it a few feet across rocks, wet ground, etc. Anyway, we set off in the water around 8:40. Isaac said he had been to Hubert once before and caught a 22 inch walleye. Said it was off "that point, over there." Told him I usually didn't fish that area because it is pretty shallow, but we'd go try it out. We were going straight across the lake and were about half way there when he said, "I got one on the line. Feels like a nice one." I was reeling my line in when he yelled, "Holy ****. It's a big walleye. Get the net!" He finally got it to the boat and I netted it for him. Had to cut some rope off the anchor to make a stringer as we had forgotten to bring one. See picture below. That is one really nice fish.

Isaac with 24 inch walleye

We fished most of the lake. We were using Karl Jakob's boat and my electric motor. Weren't moving fast, but we were moving most of the day. Sometime after 3 we were close to calling it a day. I suggested to Isaac that we troll back across the the water where we got the walleye. "Sounds like a plan," he said. So he began trolling with the same lure he had used earlier hoping to catch another walleye. That is the only type of fish we were going to bring back. I was fishing on one side of the boat and Isaac was fishing on the other side of the boat, so we weren't looking at each other's fishing line. I heard the water boil (that's when a fish comes barely out of the water and tries to grab your lure, but misses it). Isaac yelled, "Did you see the size of that pike?" "Didn't see him," I said. "He was huge" said Isaac as he threw his lure back into the water. About 10 seconds later he said, "I got him!" Took a little time, but we got him in the boat. The pike was just under 34 inches. Another fine fish. See picture below.

Isaac with pike

After landing the pike we headed to shore and the trip home. Had to unload the boat, then lift the boat into the truck. Next we had to load everything back into the boat now that it was on the truck. Drove out of bush and stopped in Elk Lake to give the boat back to Karl. Had to unload the boat, then take the boat off the truck. Karl drug the boat back into the water. Then we had to load everything back into the truck.

Got home and unloaded everything again. Washed the truck because of the mud that Bonnie and I got on it yesterday driving back to Sydney Lake. Ate supper, and then innocently decided to take a nap as I had been up since shortly after 3 AM. A sleeping captain can't trust his first mate!! (I don't care for this "captain" and "first-mate" business.  Bob just needs to learn that all's fair in love and Canada, and that's he's only captain when we're in the boat!)

Monday September 8

Bonnie:  We looked at a new camp called the Golden Eagle.  It has some nice features such as a water trampoline and a long slide into the lake.  But it is more expensive.  We most likely will return to this camp in the future, even though it is old.  Sometimes old is good!!! (Especially us.) Bob is going fishing tomorrow with Isaac, the son of the owners, to Hubert Lake.  This means borrowing Karl's boat.  It was no small task loading it into the back of our truck, with "weak" little old me!  But, we did it, (or really Bob did it!)  It looks like I will be cleaning the cabin and working on my personal history tomorrow.  Oh, and I must make a dessert for Wednesday to take with us on our visits in New Liskeard.  We've been invited out to dinner again!  Sometimes there are nice benefits to being Branch Missionaries.
Tonight Bob is reading a 600 page Tom Clancy book that he wants to finish before we leave.  He's about half way through it.  I'm reading a book on the prophet Joseph Smith.

Bob:  Judging by what we are reading you can figure out who is the serious one in the cabin tonight! Brought 2 Tom Clancy books with me, but the one I'm reading was written before the 2 I have. It's a Jack Ryan novel. The title is Red Rabbit.
Bonnie and I went fishing about 4:00 this evening and stayed out till after 6:30. We got 2 bites. I hope Hubert Lake isn't dead tomorrow.
Started the monthly ritual today of balancing the checking account. In checking off the cancelled checks I found 2 that were not recorded in the check register. One of them was over a year old and I had added it back into our account this past June. Looks like we may have some problems getting things to balance this month. It hasn't been easy in Canada because of the currency exchange rate and fee charged for credit card usage. Through July we are good though.
And I am half way plus 2 pages through Red Rabbit.
On the way back from Golden Eagle we drove 3 kilometers into the bush to Sydney Lake. It has a nice ramp to put a boat in. Might take my boat out there if the weather doesn't get too cold. We are turning the heat on tomorrow. Temperature is dropping beginning Wednesday.

To the left of the boat ramp on Sydney Lake

To the right of the boat ramp on Sydney Lake

The road we drove on to Sydney Lake

Sunday - September 7

Bob: Up early this morning for exercise. Today is Fast Sunday so no breakfast today. Heading for church at 9:00. Going to ask the brethren in Priesthood Class what they would do if someone asked them to tell them about the church. Should lead to some interesting discussion.

CONGRATULATIONS TO BYU FOOTBALL. WENT TO TEXAS AND PASTED THE LONGHORNS 41 - 7. LOOKS LIKE UTAH IS ALSO OFF AND RUNNING AS THEY ARE NOW 2 - 0.

Bonnie:  Now I can say I've had an authentic English dinner!  Sister Margetson, who we've mentioned before, is from England.  She is a very classy lady.  She just turned 80 years old and is the chorister in Church including the Primary.  She is the Poet Laureate of  Cobalt, Ontario, is on the Museum Board, and the Theatre Board of that community.  When I say theatre, I mean plays, concerts and musical productions put on by the community. Last year she performed in a production of Les Miserables. She has been a Stake Relief Society President and a temple worker for several years.  As we've mentioned, we took her with us the two times we went to the Toronto temple.  This beautiful sister invited us to have dinner today. To start out, Ann showed me how to "fold" the napkins.  I'll have to ask her again what they are called...lily somethings.  She was taught to do this by her grandmother!  They look like flowers when you're done and are put under the glasses of water at each place setting. It was a three course meal.  Our first course was beef onion soup, with cheese to put on top.  That was followed with a well seasoned beef roast, potatoes, peas and carrots and dark delicious gravy.  But the high-light was the yorkshire pudding!  If you've never had it you've missed a treat.  It turns out that they are like rolls, but puffy and hollowed out in the middle.  This is where you put the gravy.  They can be eaten with a knife and fork or in your hands.  Absolutely heavenly.  The last course was trifle for dessert.  Jello with lady fingers was the bottom layer, a layer of pudding, ( I think,) topped with another color of jello with fruit in it, topped with pudding, then real whipped cream on top of that.  She was out of sprinkles and cherries which is what she usually puts on top of the cream to finish it off.  She must have worked all day yesterday to prepare all of this.  Then, she gave us a gift, a little hand-made decorative vase that can be used for lotion or flowers without the stopper, of course.  We were very full, needless to say, and so appreciative of all the work she did.  We insisted on doing the dishes for her.
After we waddled out from her place, we stopped by the church to make some calls.  Then, we delivered a Book of Mormon to a lady in New Liskeard.  It was a media referral.  She and her son had seen the "Book of Mormon" musical in Toronto and she wanted a Book of Mormon to give her son as a memento.  We wrote our testimonies inside the front cover, asking her and her son to read Moroni's promise in Moroni 10: 4-5.  We'll see what happens!  Then, we visited another single sister with whom we enjoyed a long conversation.  She asked Bob to pray before we left.  We got home about 7:15 pm or so, another long Sabbath day, but very enjoyable.

Saturday - September 6

Bob: Sorry we did not get this posted yesterday. We had Karl, Patsy and their 2 foster children, Mason and Summer, over for dinner last night. Because we needed the space we put the computer in the bedroom, and then forgot about posting to the blog. I was preoccupied with what to teach in Priesthood Sunday morning. Karl said he forgot to assign the lesson to someone and asked me to do it. Bonnie and I worked on that, so the blog was forgotten last night.
Went fishing yesterday morning with my neighbor, Kaz. He is from Poland, but he and his wife live about an hour north of Toronto now. We went to Mountain Lake and caught 5 pike. There were several boats on the lake today as the gold mine in Matachewan is having a fishing tournament at our camp. Don't know how we would have fared.
In the evening as I said, Karl and his family came over. It was a fun evening.
Weather definitely cooled off today. It was in the 40s when we went fishing this morning. When the sun finally came out it felt real good. The temperature eventually got to the 60s. Sunday's high is predicted to be 59. Looks like most of summer is gone. Everyone has told us this summer's weather has been very abnormal.

Friday - September 5

Bob: Went fishing this morning. Was going to take our neighbor in cabin 1, but he was sick with a migraine. Did land 7 pike and another one broke my line right at the boat. Don't know what happened as he wasn't a big one. But another lure is at the bottom of Mountain Lake. When I got back to camp I was so tired that I slept for a couple of hours.

Had walleye for dinner and then we went trolling for pike. Bonnie caught 2 and I got 1. They weren't as hungry this evening as they were this morning.

Bonnie: I spent most of the day working on my history, with the aid of a book Shannan gave me. It's harder than I thought it would be. It asks how much a candy bar was when I was young, and a stamp and a movie ticket. Some of this stuff I just can't remember! I think the internet will help, though. I also made the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever made. (I agree-Bob)

Note: I have learned that a choke cherry is aptly named. I was offered one yesterday and, you guessed it, it almost made me choke!

Thursday September 4

Bonnie:  It's been a great day today.  We left relatively early to go to Quebec, the Canadian province next to Ontario.  It's like going to another country because everyone speaks French and everything written is in French.  We went to a little town called Angliers.  It's a tiny fishing town.  Then we went to Ville Marie which is bigger and very quaint.  Bob took me to the chocolatier in town. Ummmmmm, delicious!  Then, we went back to Ontario to go out for an early dinner.  We went to a Chinese buffet. It was good to eat something other than fish and something I didn't have to cook! Then we did the shopping and headed home.  Because it was so nice out we decided to go fishing when we got back.  It was a pleasant way to end the day.

Bob: Not much to add. There is a dam in Angliers on Lac des Quinze. They are doing some construction on the dam, but traffic can still drive across it. We decided to go across and look around. We took a picture of the dam from below it. It is posted below. While we were driving around we came to a fork in the road. We weren't sure which way we wanted to go, but came to a road sign that we thought would help. Take a look at it below. Some help that was! We decided to turn around and go back to where we came from.
We drove to Ville Marie and then Notre Dame du Nord after leaving Angliers. Beside visiting the chocolatier in Ville Marie we went down to the boat harbor that was near by. Took a picture of it also. When we got to Notre Dame du Nord we stopped and took a walk on the boardwalk.
All in all it was a relaxing day and we saw some pretty scenery. I think Bonnie enjoyed her birthday.

Dam on Lac des Quinze in Angliers, Quebec

Bonnie outside the Chocolatier in Ville Marie, Quebec

Quebec road sign

Ville Marie Boat Harbor

Notre Dame du Nord boardwalk

Wednesday - September 3

Bob: Got up and went to help Karl with putting his firewood away. We were stacking the 'mill ends' he bought from the local lumber mill. Mill ends are the ends of boards the lumber company cut off and cannot use. We would stack pieces about 2 feet long and either 6 or 8 inches wide. Karl made a rack that would hold a stack 2 feet wide, 8 feet long and about 3 feet high. Once we stacked it then he would run his chain saw down the middle of each stack. He ended up with 8 stacks a foot wide. We did 3 loads and he did some before I got there. After we finished we went fishing, but didn't have much luck. I had 2 pike on, but they were little so I shook them off before landing them.
Got home about 4:45. We had to go to Elk Lake and get some milk to make biscuits. Milk is $3.97 for 4 liters in New Liskeard. In Elk Lake it is 6.95 for 4 liters! Biscuits were very good, especially after being made with such expensive milk.
Bonnie and I went fishing for walleye. I caught one on the first cast and we didn't get another one all night. Had a couple of bites but that was it. Fishing has really slowed down since August 10. The rain started on August 11th.

Tuesday September 2

Bonnie:  Bob went fishing today, taking with him the truck and the boat. He got home about 5:00. I had the day to myself so what did I do?  Washing, ironing and cleaning the cabin!  As I've said earlier, some things never change.  I also worked on my personal history which was good.  After dinner we went to the library and to Patsy and Karl's to make a phone call.  We were there till 9:00!  It's always fun to go to their house! I'll let Bob finish our post about his fishing trip... oh, and the three big white trucks next to our cabin that belong to Canadian conservation officers.  I wonder what they are doing in our little campground???

Bob: Went fishing with Brother Sauve and Brother Gunnell today. We fished in Cassells and Rabbit Lakes. Put my boat in the same place I used 30 years ago when I was in Tamagami with Ruthie and the 3 kids. The new owners bought it in 1985 and it looks a lot different. Did not remember much about the lake except the narrow strip that you have to navigate to miss the rocks. They have the lakes marked with red and green markers now that indicate the shallow spots. Fishing wasn't much better there as we only caught 3 fish in about 4 1/2 hours (11:00 - 3:30). But that wasn't the prime time to be fishing anyway. Brad and I got to Rick's about 9:30, but he wasn't ready. Then he had to go to a restaurant to get his breakfast. Didn't get on the water till about 11.
While we were fishing today Brother Gunnell told me I am supposed to have a waterproof flashlight in my boat as a safety item. Told him I wasn't aware of that. Brad then suggested I look up the requirements on the internet. When I pulled into the campground on my return there were 3 white trucks marked 'Ontario Conservation Officer' parked by cabins 3 and 4. I figured I'm not putting my boat into the water until I find out if I need that flashlight or anything else. Saw online that I needed the light and a 15 meter life saving line that could be tossed to someone overboard. Went to the office and asked Linda about it. She gave me the standard safety kit that goes in the boat. So now I am completely legal. She said the officers are having a 2 day class here this week. They have it every fall and use different camp grounds every year. Glad to know they weren't out looking for the ignorant American that isn't following all the safety rules!
Enjoyed our evening talking to Karl and Patsy. He and I are going to work on his firewood tomorrow and then do a little fishing in the evening.

Monday - September 1

Our internet went down last night while we were trying to save this. Will do a separate post for Tuesday.

Bob: Went fishing this morning. Caught 2 perch in the weeds. Moved out to deeper water and caught 3 walleye, but lost two of them. Had them in a wire fish basket hanging on the side of the boat. When I went to put the 3rd fish in the basket, the basket was gone. Don't know what I did. Not fishing this evening as rain is forecast for around 6:00. Loaded the boat on the trailer this afternoon so I can take it to Tamagami tomorrow morning. Washed all the mud off the truck. Cleanest truck in camp now.

Bonnie:  I went to Elk Lake this morning to see a special plaque given to the town of Elk Lake to honor its founder. The founder was also part of the "Princess Pats" who were also honored. The "Princess Pats" are an infantry division that is not government (Canadian) funded that played a big part in all the wars since World War I. They are named after an English princess. The fun part was the parade complete with bagpipes.