It’s Annie’s birthday today. Annie Lahti. July 15th. I don’t think she would mind me telling you that she is 90 today. That’s quite an accomplishment and worthy of honouring her for that alone, but I am honouring Annie for so much more. Annie opened her arms and let me […]
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It was another very fun weekend for my wife, August, and I down in the Fort Frances district at the 15th-annual Lake Despair “Castin’ for Cash” bass tournament. Lake Despair is located about 25 kilometers north of Devlin and connected to a chain of lakes that also includes Footprint and […]
I watched as two skiffs, full of adults and children, pulled into the docks Sunday afternoon at the marina and as a family was set to depart. The family preparing to leave meticulously strapped their children into life jackets. Life jackets also adorned the children arriving by boat. My wife […]
I have two orange cats. Brothers. “Casey” and “Finnegan.” I may have told you about them before; I can’t remember (I’ve turned 60 and I’ve given up trying to remember everything). I love Casey and Finnegan. Well, mostly I love Casey and Finnegan, but some days maybe not so much […]
There’s a downside to throwing all of myself for months into a passionate hobby like sailing. Nothing else around here gets done. The grass grew eight inches, and dust settled in thick layers on windowsills and end tables—reminding me of what an abandoned house must look like. The laundry was […]
The first-annual Kenora Walleye Open took place on Lake of the Woods this past weekend. Some 113 teams showed up for the tournament—the first open walleye tournament of its kind on the Canadian side of the lake. The field consisted of local anglers and those visiting from out of the […]
As much as I enjoyed my Canada Day off, it was like having two Mondays last week! The weather made for a perfect July 1st, though, and I spent the day cutting hay. I debated about heading out to the fireworks in Emo but chose to sit on the deck […]
This past week, new figures were released by Statistics Canada that show we are on the verge of a new recession in this country. The April GDP figures came in and they show the Canadian economy shrank for the fourth month in a row. The definition of a “recession” is […]
Everyone knows how important it is to stay positive. But knowing it and doing it are two different things. There are so many negatives in the world around us and difficulties in our own personal lives, especially as we get older. We easily could give up on trying to stay […]
It was a cold and blustery day but the breakfast picnic had been planned earlier so we went ahead anyway. By the shore of a local lake, three young families fried their bacon and eggs on two Coleman stoves. In order to keep the flame alive and everyone warm, we […]
If I would have known ahead of time exactly how it would all play out on Saturday afternoon, I’m pretty sure I would have chosen to stay safe at the dock and polish the stainless steel screws on my sailboat. But that’s not what boats are for, right? June 16, […]
After three weeks on the road in the southern U.S., I returned home this past weekend after wrapping up my third season fishing the FLW Tour. The final tournament of the season took place last week at La Plata, Md. on the Potomac River. Heading into this event, I had […]







