Now is the time to make a plan!
We are looking at one of the best weeks of the summer leading in to the Labour Day long weekend. You can still get a cabin from tonight until Friday September 4. Cabins are full for the long weekend. There are still campsites available for the holiday weekend, both with and without electricity and water.
Now is the time to make a plan!
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Though I am a big fan of people turning OFF their digital devices while they are here, I have been shown a couple of apps that are worthwhile. I can't give you the names (because I won't advertise them) but I am sure you can find them!
1. Constellations. This thing is great because you can hold your machine up to the sky and it will highlight whatever constellation you are pointed at, making it easier to define. 2. Birds. There is an app that gives identification information including the song. Some people have called birds in by playing the song, and we have identified more birds than can be seen by simple observation. Might as well learn something while you are having fun. BONUS! Catnip! Oh, this finding is going to piss the chemical people off...wonder if Health Canada will approve it for use as a repellent? Citronella is back on the market, now that Health Canada's decree forced all of the natural repellent people to remove stock from shelves and eat the loss. I can't say I have seen citronella on the shelves this season, but then, I have no need of mosquito repellent, so I haven't looked.
BTW, I was bit such as a child that I looked like I had measles all summer (in between the freckles). My Mom put citronella on me. It didn't work for me, but it did work for my 3 siblings. Different things work for different people. I also have no reaction to mosquito bites now. At all. It seems innoculation may not be a bad thing. Also BTW, if you check, all of the human West Nile virus infections have been in suburbs, not the bush. Not so sure that the mosquito that carries West Nile thrives in this environment, no proof. I haven't tracked the equine cases, and everyone in the country buys the vaccine for their horses. It might be the fear factor. Someone who works in Google Business support has decided that my business is a rental agency and is not eligible for display on Google maps.
STOP THE INSANITY! I've been working on this since Friday in between clients and all of the other things I do here, and it just keeps getting dumber and dumber. It all started because I updated my 'business introduction'. Before the digital era, my place was easy to find. Now between GPS faults and other 'big corporate machines' I cannot, no matter how many listings I have on the internet, be found. Unbelievable... So now Google has locked my page. They took it upon themselves to put my map marker somewhere in Idaho, and since the marker doesn't agree with my posted information my page has been suspended.
I have spent hours getting the map marker placed correctly on multiple occasions. The 911 numbers are not 'uploaded to the system' yet (we've been waiting 5 years). I think this is the problem. Another lovely internet problem beyond my control. So tiresome... Google isn't answering its gmails, which is also curious. Too funny.
I checked in to my gmail account today and found notifications for reviews on my Google+ Red Deer Log Cabins page. Very nice surprise. Then I looked up my Google+ followers. They are, all but 3, businesses in Red Deer, Alberta. Doesn't anyone read any more? I hope they didn't hire IT people to do that for them. But...thanks for following! It happens on a regular basis that someone comes in the driveway and wants to drive around to have a look. My response is to invite them to park the vehicle and come for a walk.
Now, why would I do that? 1. Way back in 1989 I noticed people were driving to the water taps, the beach, and the bathrooms. This is a small park. The longest walk in the entire place is 5 minutes. People driving to the bathroom dumped cars in the driveway, left running while they ran in. That meant someone in a cabin could not exit the campground without cutting through a campsite. Very tricky when all of the waterfront sites are occupied. Also very invasive of privacy. Everyone is in such a hurry! Sometimes they cut through the Doll House (overflow bunkie) cabin yard and drove over the septic field, bottoming out in the rhubarb patch. 2. People who won't walk sort of edit themselves out of the picture. I think the registered vehicles are enough traffic in the park. 3. For security purposes: if a car is not registered, I want to know when the people leave the land. If the car is parked by the house, this is easy to keep track of. 4. On a Friday night, a guy in a pickup truck flies past my front door. I go out the back door and intercept him on the campground road. Standard question: who are you and what is your business here? The person is trespassing. There is a STOP and Register sign at the front door. For all of those who think it is a nothing to enter private land and pass the front door, the Trespass Act clearly details that they have then committed trespass. Back to the guy in the truck. He asks if a little blue car came in. I say yes. He says where is it. I ask who is he looking for. He cannot give me a name. He gets frustrated and leaves, spinning gravel, because I am standing in the road (direction in) in front of him. The little blue car was from Nova Scotia, and they were not expecting any visitors. EVERY CAMPGROUND HAS A LITTLE BLUE CAR IN IT ON A FRIDAY NIGHT. What was he really up to? Empty pickup truck, unregistered, in a campground. Was he shopping for camping equipment? 5. Last night I had this request again, to go for a drive. The driver wanted to drive to the cabins, the beach, not even in to the campground. Very Loud Vehicle. One of the reasons this place exists is so that people get a break from vehicles, exhaust, dust...a distance of 70m is not really very far to walk... 6. Even police officers are required to stop at the door and not just traipse (or 'fly') through. They may not legitimately pursue anyone on to private property. I know my rights. The best cop in town stops and says hi, and what/who he is looking for. I take him there. Any officer who does not respect my land rights is given a runaround. IF a registered person has a mobility impairment I do allow them to drive to the waterfront or the washrooms. If an unregistered person has an impairment, I do allow them to drive through the grounds "for a look", escorted by me. As far as I know, just about everyone else could use a little more exercise...The main reason though is to preserve the quality of the experience here. One of these hit my window today. It was flopping around, so I captured it and held it in my hand until it could see me again. Such a tiny thing..I put it on a cool patch of grass, and a minute later it flew away.
Glad I could be of service. This bird is also called a black and white warbler. A hard rain fell last night. This morning I was awakened by another hard rain. It was enough to turn the waterfall on again.
So often there is rain in the forecast that does not materialize at this location. The problem is that the meteorologists are using data from Bancroft and from Lake of Two Rivers and extrapolating to get the result for Madawaska. Both of those locations often get hammered, and all I get here is a few drops.
It is very dry here. Most of the rain in the last month has missed this spot. So... if you are thinking of getting away from the city, but don't like the weather forecast for the area, consider again that it is (often) not raining here. That being said, I expect a little rain today because there was no dew this morning. It is raining in Algonquin Park and in Bancroft right now (I can see it in the sky), but I have yet to feel a drop. Sometimes it is raining at the town of Madawaska, just pouring, but I have nothing here. Madawaska is 2 km by road and 1 km by water (or as the crow flies). It's a magical little spot. It seems there is something special about the way the river runs between the hills here, and somehow the rain is pushed to either side, on a regular basis. Due to the cancellation of a large event this weekend, I have cabin availability. This could be your chance to get away, and book a "last minute" cabin. Email or call for particulars.
Double bill this week! The skies are giving us both for the next couple of nights. There have been aurora for the last couple of nights, but not strong ones here. People thought they were clouds. You can't see stars through clouds though...
Pleiades peak is supposed to be Wednesday after midnight, so technically Thursday morning. I've got some new clients that breathe new life into that slogan. Nature lovers love it here. I love hearing why they like it so much.
This place is everything your regular trailer park is not. I also had some German folks who went into Algonquin to see the sites there, and came back loving this place even more. People have great family vacations, they actually play with their children instead of sending them off to get hurt on a plastic playground. A couple of likely long term friendships were made this past weekend. It is so great to see all the smiling, shiny faces when people are leaving. Hopefully they can hang on to that feeling for a while after they get back to their everyday lives. Happy days for me, a Mennonite family was here. It reminds me of my youth; I grew up surrounded by these gentle, considerate, cooperative, competent people.
The boys swept the men's washroom on the way out (there has always been a broom in there, except when a camper borrows it to clean up). ! I'm sure the girls did the ladies as well, it's just that it really showed on the men's side. Charming! So there was no overflow camping here because of that. The place is 5 sites from full without them. Numerous people are here who I have not seen for a couple (or 10) years.
Just goes to show that people remember where the good times are..... Oh, and it poured in Bancroft and Algonquin Park, but it only spit a little bit here. |
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February 2018
AuthorSince 1989, I have been known to many as The Red Dear. Most of the rest of humankind calls me Sandra. Categories
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