February 3 ... It’s mild and noontime. I’ve finally got caught up on chores after being away for a couple of days. It looks like we received about 3 inches of snow in my absence. I had a friend with a plow keep our front yard clear but It was heavy pushing out back this morning. We were all day coming home yesterday which began with some final appointments at the trade show we attended. Valerie needed four full days to do her buying this time as she put a major effort into sourcing new Canadian products this year. Hopefully as it all starts coming in over the coming months she’ll start using her Facebook page to explain it all ... everything from native made feather earrings from British Columbia to sunhats from Nova Scotia. ...... Highway 400 and 11 were filled with trucks and SUVs hauling sled trailers yesterday. The Winter pilgrims have arrived. The park & go lots at New Liskeard were loaded up. We’ve had a couple of big groups come by our place this morning including a gang from Buffalo who just couldn’t get over how much snow we have. .... I can’t get over it either! *** mac
February 1 ... Enviroment Canada updates their national temperature model on the first day of every month. Click HERE for details. *** mac
January 31 ... It’s minus 11 at daybreak. I’m headed out the door for a fast trip to Toronto. Valerie has been down there since Sunday on a buying trip for the store. I’ll be brining some of what she’s found home. Anyway. I’ll miss the start of February so I’ve attache dmy February postcard early. It is Kenogami, off Gilchrist’s Point. Superbowl Sunday is coming up and if you look closely you’ll spot a satellite dish on the white fishing shack. *** mac
January 30 ... Temperatures went into a free fall last night and bottomed out at minus 28 near dawn this morning. It’s a crisp, calm and sunny morning; absolutely stunning and the way a late January morning should be. We are under the influence of a ridge of high pressure that will be forced out of here tomorrow by an Alberta Clipper. Things will begin to cloud over this evening with rising temperatures tonight on a south wind. It is doubtful the cloud cover will last until Thursday which means the groundhog will see his shadow! I uploaded a view of the A-Trail yesterday afternoon where it comes into Kenogami from the south, across Highway 66. As you can see by all the bulrushes, this is a swampy area. It’s all good. I only went a few miles south but it was all good. With some grooming this week it will become epic. *** mac
January 29 ... Sunny, cool and calm conditions this morning after yesterday’s full-on snowstorm. I know what you’re thinking. If this were southern Ontario, people would be planning class action civil suits against Environment Canada for not only completely missing a major storm but failing to post warnings once it was upon us. The highway crews, incidentally, kept Highway 11 clear. They were late to get going on Highway 66 however and I’m sure the Gmail account that has been set up to crab about highway conditions got a workout. I guess nobody but me (& maybe you) see that the real issue is a combination of extraordinary weather and a cash starved federal weather service that no longer has the resources to keep track of things away from the country’s major centers. ................... They tell me the slush has returned to Kenogami this morning. I haven’t heard from Sesekinika today. I might get up there this afternoon.... if it doesn’t start snowing hard again. *** mac
January 28 ... 10PM ... I’ve just come in from plowing our yard out for the third time today. A ten inch dumping of snow has come. No advance warnings. Just a stalled storm cloud, I guess. I’m going to bed. *** mac
January 27 ... A nice snowfall has come in the night with just over an inch of accumulations. It has given everything from sled trails to yellow snowbanks a fresh coating of fluff. Several people told me yesterday that the slush problems have eased on both Kenogami and Sesekinika. I guess the early week rain knocked out the insulative value of the overburden of snow on the lakes. Anyway. I’ve got the payroll done. We got our semi-annual inspection from the LCBO this morning. Next on the agenda is to make ready for our beer truck delivery. It’s so nice and mild that I hope I can get out for a sled ride before sundown. *** mac
January 26 ... It was a very nice day yesterday with lots of sunshine. Our high was minus 7. I don’t know where the time went but I never got a chance to share any Robbie Burns Day nuggets with you. The skies clouded over late last night and a humid breeze sprang up from the south. It has painted a thick layer of frost on everything this morning.
Lots of calls from southern sledders looking for snow. We’ve got lots of it but our trails are extremely icey. It’s funny how people react when you say “Yes we have lots of snow but the sledding is limited.” Anyway. Snow is in the forecast today with an inch or so on the way. *** mac
January 24 ... A bit of a break yesterday. It didn’t get nearly as warm as was forecasted with a daytime high of just plus one. Our promised high was seven. Nonetheless, we had substantial rainfall. It must have been much warmer up there in the clouds where the rain fell from. The winds had turned to westerly by the time we opened this morning and a cool down has begun that should bottom out at around minus 17 tonight. Another mild spell will come on Thursday. Despite schools being closed, the kids weren’t out there chewing up the trail system. The weather was just too dirty. Once again this morning, they pulled all the school buses off the roads and our trails could take a beating. They’ve lost a lot of frost. So has our yard and we’ve got some ruts, here and there. We must have shoveled a couple of yards of sand around here yesterday. *** mac
January 23 ... It started out as a misty morning. Then it began to rain at about 11AM. It is freezing on contact and there is an ongoing freezing rain warning for all of North Eastern Ontario. The school buses did not run today. It’s all about one of those great big “Colorado Low” weather systems that seems to bring us a January thaw every year. Hopefully it will knock down some of the snow out of the trees. ....As promised, the groomer went south at Kenogami over the weekend and opened up the OFSC A-Trail south to meet up with Elk Lake. By the time I got down there to have a look it was too dark for pictures. *** mac
January 22 ... It’s a grey and cool morning with a raw and humid breeze coming in from the south. Our low last night was minus 27. A warming trend began just before midnight and it was minus 19 this morning when we opened the store. We’re headed for a high today of minus 6 and tomorrow of PLUS 5. We spent the afternoon up on Sesekinika yesterday. Slush continues to play havoc with everyone. We’ve heard stories from both Sesekinika and Kenogami this morning of people getting their stuff stuck going to or coming from their ice-shacks. They just had to venture a smidgin away from their established trails and ..
presto.
I’m hearing that some grooming was done on the A-Trail south of Kenogami. I’ll try to get out this afternoon for a look-see. The image I’ve included today is TATA Club Trail L-114, known locally as “the trail to MacPherson’s Store”. Just after turning off the A-Trail is this hanging tree trunk. It is a substantial log that somehow got snagged in a big spruce tree in a big wind storm three years ago. Where it came from is a mystery that I’ve never tried to solve because I don’t want to get anywhere underneath it to figure it out. It just looks like it’s going to knuckle under to gravity at any moment. *** mac
January 20 ... It was minus 31 degrees at sunup this morning in Kenogami. It was crisp, sunny and calm. We have since seen some cloud and a bit of a breeze which feels downright nasty. It’s now late afternoon. I’ve squandered all my chances of getting a cheery wintery view from somewhere close by to share with you. Temperatures are expected to gradually moderate over the weekend with a forecasted high on Monday - believe it or not - above the melting point. I don’t have a complete grasp of the science of frost but I know what happens when we get these extreme swings in air temperature - frost travels. It goes deeper into the ground and it is not uncommon for municipal water mains to burst following a thaw. The one and only time that we had a water supply freeze up in the trailer park that used to be on our property came after a classic January thaw. Anyway. Monday’s thaw could be accompanied - believe it or not - by rain showers. I do have a complete grasp of exactly how heavy a snowload on a roof can be when you add some rain to it. I think I better take a trip topside this weekend to clear off a couple of snowdrifts. *** mac
January 19 ... It has been a stormy day. First the winds came in hard from the southeast. Now as we approach late afternoon they are gusting vigorously from the northwest. Snow squalls are in the mix so - as you’ve probably guessed - visibility is often nonexistent. Our customers are generally stressed out and I’ve got my hands full keeping the steps shoveled and the yard plowed .. but .. I don’t care. I love winter. The big news locally today is that Junior ‘A’ hockey will remain in Kirkland Lake. The Blue Devils franchise folded last week because of a lot of issues, none of which had anything to do with any lack in local interest. We are, after all, the very definition of a hockey hotbed. Anyway. I’ll leave it to the Northern News to tell the tale tomorrow. *** mac
January 18 ... The storm blew itself out just before daybreak this morning with temperatures bottoming out at minus 21 (-6F). We only received an inch or so of fine and sugary snow. But it’s amazing how much an inch of coarse snow can drift up with a 40 mph north wind. Check out the pileup in front of our backdoor this morning. The winds have now calmed down and we’ve got sunshine. Apparently North Bay got walloped again. Next on the dance card is an Alberta Clipper weather system which is due to arrive late this evening. It is only supposed to be carrying another inch of snow with it and it will be generating south winds. So while today’s forecasted high is only minus 14, tomorrow things will warm up to minus 4. Here’s a little piece of our business’s history I’ll preserve by uploading here. It’s a shot of our propane filling equipment getting torn out of here on Monday.
After 24 years of being there, it has left a void at the north end of our building. We’ve already began planning an expansion of our building into that void. Stay tuned! *** mac
January 17 ... It got as mild as minus four, late last night. The winds turned to northerly after 3 this morning and we’ve had spiraling temperatures ever since. Flurries are blowing
around. Heavy snowfall and high winds are expected this afternoon. We’ve got to go to Timmins after lunch. Yikes. *** mac
January 16 ... It was cloudy and minus 9 at daybreak. We’ve got a thick south wind this morning and you can really feel the humidity in it. A storm is brewing but we are not expecting any significant snowfall until tomorrow. A second bout of snowfall is promised for Thursday, a fast moving Alberta Clipper. All in all, our snow shovels could face 7 inches of snow accumulations by the time this week is over. A regular grooming schedule begins today on our snowmobile trails. There is no word on whether a grooming tractor will be sent down the A-Trail from Kenogami to the Englehart River crossing. If it happens, I’ll let you know. Our club is sending out a “brushing machine” over the next couple of weeks to trim back the new growth, especially in the tag-alder prone areas. It’s too bad the four-wheeler crowd that uses these trailways for the majority of the year can’t share a little of this expense. It uses up already dwindling financial and volunteer resources. *** mac
January 15 ... When the sun rose this morning we were at minus 32 degrees but by this afternoon things had warmed up to seasonal levels. If you are fan of winter, it doesn’t get much better than this with calm winds and sunshine. At 1:45 this afternoon I found myself out on Lake Sesekinika, stopped to take the panorama I’ve included. We are just beyond the south bay on the east side and the tracks point up the length of the lake towards Sesekinika Village. We get so spoiled getting around the lake in winter. Our boat averages 15 to 20 mph at full throttle. Our sled can safely maintain 50 to 60 mph along this stretch at half throttle. Go figure. *** mac
January 14 ... It has been a spectacular day - sunny and cold - but with very calm winds. I played hooky for a couple of hours this afternoon and took a sled ride out to our camp on Sesekinika. The lake is full of snowdrifts and I was kept very “busy” getting there and back. On the way back I stopped on the A-Trail to capture a shot of this moose crossing. It provides a wonderful perspective of how much snow is on the ground. The moose was dragging it hooves but not quite dragging his belly yet. The A-Trail from Kenogami to Sesekinika has not been groomed since Friday’s storm and is predicably chewed up. A friend from Englehart sent me this shot of the A-Trail near Elk Lake a couple of days ago...
This is the iconic Montreal River railway bridge crossing and I bet it will conjure up some wonderful memories of past sledding safaris for a lot of readers of this journal. He reported “no problem” sledding from Englehart to Elk Lake. I’m sure after Friday’s snow it will be ‘epic’. *** mac
January 13 ... We’ve just closed the store on this bitterly cold night. It was a crazy day compounded by the fact that the school boards wrote it off as a “snow day”. Zero visibility this morning kept the school buses parked. A gusting north wind never let up all day today. It was day one of our winter tourist season and we had a lot of sledders in for gas. Our trails are now officially open except for long distance A-Trail touring. Minus 26 is our forecasted low. Wind chill values could bottom out at minus 35. I’m going to turn in early with a good book. *** mac
January 12 ... It has been a busy morning with a daybreak temperature of minus 9 under grey skies. The promised snowstorm has not yet begun but an ill east wind is telling me that it’s not far away. We could get as much as eight inches of snow here if we’re lined up right with the way it blows off Lake Huron. No news yet on local OFSC trail openings but if we do get a good dumping over the next 24 hours they’ll be a mess for the weekend, regardless.I read a wonderful bit of insight into human nature yesterday in the Globe & Mail which I’m going to share with you here ...........“Auto companies have made great strides in improving engine efficiency in recent decades. But those improvements haven’t done much to improve the fuel economy of America’s passenger car fleet. Instead, consumers have ‘spent’ most of these efficiency improvements on bigger, faster cars. … This is a fine example of a very common phenomenon: consumers often ‘spend’ technological improvements in ways that partially offset the direct effect of the improvement. If you make engines more efficient, consumers purchase heavier cars. If you increase fuel economy, consumers drive more. If you give hikers cellphones, they go to riskier places. If you make low-fat cookies, people eat more. And on and on. People really do respond to incentives.” ........ Go figure. *** mac
January 11 ... I plowed and shoveled away another inch of fresh snow this morning. We could get another four or five inches tomorrow from a storm expected to track along upper Georgian Bay. North Bay and Sudbury could get a good dumping from that one. We are starting to get a lot of calls with questions about the condition of our sled trails. Our local club is expecting to announce some openings this weekend with conditions listed as limited use. What we need is a cold snap to tighten up the swamps and freeze over the water crossings. There was open water this past weekend on the Blanche River crossing here in Kenogami and - as mentioned - the Lake Sesekinika crossing was awash in slush. So. You really can’t go far, yet. We’ve been telling everyone to go and ‘pound the hell’ out of Cochrane’s trails.
They’re very easy to sketch but animal tracks in snow are hard to capture with a camera. Anyway. This is my attempt to share with you my discovery of this lynx track outside our kitchen window. I guess she wanted to see what we were cooking for supper last evening. There was a least one set of kitten tracks close by. My neighbours along the Grenfell Road have been spotting them in the daylight on a regular basis and I’ve been promised some pictures. In the meantime we’ll have to look at the footprint and use our imaginations! *** mac
January 10 ... A bit of a break from the light snowfall this morning. It’s expected to come back this evening with a couple of inches accumulating overnight and then an inch or two more tomorrow. It’s been a very prolonged bout of weird weather for early January. I mentioned yesterday how much windshield fluid we’ve been selling. On again off again snow ... gusting winds from the south one day and the north the next ... temperatures that range from zero in the late afternoon to minus 18 at daybreak ... THIS IS NOT NORMAL and makes for - at times - quickly deteriorating driving conditions. I bring this up because some people are cranky about it. They want to feel safe driving off to all those far-flung hockey games and Wallmarts, regardless of the weather. Add to the equation an energetic new opposition MPP for Temiskaming that’s trying to be relevant and .. PRESTO .. It must be the government’s fault! Read all about it HERE in the Northern News.For my part, I’ve lived and made my living along Highway 11 since the mid-70's and see the same degree of road maintenance now as I did then. If there has been a change it has come with the stiffening of the Occupational Health and Safety rules. Snowplow operator are not obliged to put their lives at risk any more in Ontario. *** mac
January 9 ... A spectacular sunrise this morning with a pastel blue sky. It had a Carribean feel to it. The key to the success of our little enterprise has always been to put ‘customers first’. By the time I did that the sunrise was all over and I didn’t capture it with my camera to share it with you. Things have since clouded over and we’re anticipating another inch of snowfall today with a very mild high of around the melting point. The winds will be southerly and gusting. It’s messy driving weather and perfect conditions for selling winter windshield wash fluid. In a good year we sell a couple of skids of it. Well .. I just got off the phone from ordering our third skid this season. I’m feeling like a big wheel ... but ... you know what even a very small dog can do on a big wheel! *** mac
January 8 ... Our low was minus 18 C last night (zero F) and things have tightened up a bit. Both Kenogami and Sesekinika are awash in slush at the moment. I’ve attached a shot I took yesterday from our camp on Sesekinika and you can clearly see the water pouring in to the sled tracks on the ice in the foreground. That’s the marked OFSC lake crossing further out. See it? It’s all gone to slush too. A week ago you could have skied on the ice here. No way at the moment. *** mac
January 7 (2nd entry) ... Here it is. The first trail shot of the season. It is southbound and about a half a klic southeast of the Silver Tire cottage road to Lake Sesekinika. If you are a newcomer to this journal, expect an image like this once a week or so. I always try to leave a ski tip or something in it to give some scale. *** mac
January 7 ... I guess I won’t be doing any ‘shrimp on the barbie’ this morning. We have a tabletop barbeque on the railing outside our kitchen door. It’s showing how much snow has come since we last fired it up in early December. Another inch and a bit of fluff landed overnight. It’s a dull but very comfortable morning with occasional heavy flurries. Temperatures are going to fall off this afternoon on a northwesterly breeze. The year is a week old and I’m going to get out there after lunch and keep a couple of ‘get active’ resolutions. *** mac
January 6 ... The predicted snowstorm has ended up being a bit of a bust ..at least here in North Temiskaming. I’m told that North Bay got slapped around by a combination of heavy, wet snow and then, freezing rain. Locally, we might have received a half an inch with a daybreak temperature of minus 12. Over the next 24 hours, those wild & crazy guys at Environment Canada are now saying that no more than an inch or so of more fluff is going to land on Kenogami. Just the same, it’s sloppy. Our yard is now full of chunks of slush, from either falling off or getting kicked off vehicles in our yard. I’m going to sound like a snob but I sure will be glad to see the roads getting back to normal next week with just our regulars from the highway and lake communities. It has been a perilous Christmas season for family travel here in the northeast.We finally got our MNR licence issuing computer up and running properly yesterday. The long awaited printer arrived from Tennessee on Wednesday and a techie from Nashville spent an hour with Valerie on the phone yesterday finishing up her training. Unlike her first session, this trainer’s English could be understood. There’s just something about the twang of middle Tennessee that can make English sound ‘muddy’ over the phone. *** mac
January 5 ... Minus 15 was our daybreak temperature. We’re going to start a slow warmup by lunchtime to minus 8 overnight and then plus two by tomorrow afternoon. The mild spell will be accompanied by as much as 5 inches of snowfall, beginning this evening. Here’s the picture some of you have been waiting patiently for. It’s my annual shot of the first sighting of the trail groomer in our yard ...
There it goes, scooting across the north end of our property before disappearing once again into the ibis. Now we’ll wait for the final inspection of the trails before our OFSC club declares at least a part of their network open. It shouldn’t be too much longer. *** mac
January 4 ... It’s mid-morning and minus 12. We received an inch of snow last night with a gradual warm up and relief from the bitter cold we experienced yesterday. It could get as mild as minus 4 by late this afternoon as this current depression, fueled by south winds, passes through. A second trough on Friday could bring a little rain. If this weather has got you confused, how do you think this robin feels?
He appeared on New Years Day on this deck at a home on the Grenfell Road. Technically, that makes this the first Robin sighting for the year - certainly a record - but I doubt that Spring has arrived. Fortunately, the bird feeder’s owners have taken notice and place out some meat for him. They have to wait for him to show because the whiskey jacks are meat-eaters too. Wouldn’t a nice juicy worm be a treat! *** mac
January 3 ... It’s minus 26 degrees Celcius this morning with a bitter northwesterly breeze. Blackfly bites are not an issue this morning. It’s Valerie’s birthday and I’ve got an appointment in North Bay ..so..I’m taking Valerie out for supper today in North Bay. We’ll leave right after we open the store. *** mac
January 2 ... We never got out on the lake yesterday. By 2 PM it was snowing heavily and we were advised that the lake had filled up with slush. By 8 PM we’d received over six inches and I had to plow out our yard because we were expecting the tanker to arrive with our first gasoline delivery of the New Year. He came in the night. This morning the tanker was replaced by a Tim’s truck ...
A west wind kept things blown out overnight. Highway 11 was as glossy as a rink all morning but they’ve got some sand on it now. Next time you have a Tim Horton’s donut keep in mind these guys that are out there on a very tight schedule, regardless of the weather. They’ve got video surveillance in the cab so the corporation can keep an eye on them. No goofing off or smoking allowed. *** mac
January 1, 2012 ... It’s a mild morning with a heavy coating of frost on everything. We’ve had a trace of snow overnight and could receive 5 or 6 inches by mid-day tomorrow.. It was a nice night for observing the turn of the year and there was bonfires everywhere around Kenogami. We were invited out to friends for a late supper and ended up watching a slide show of images from over 30 years ago when “we were all just starting out” around here. Build a house and raise some kids. That’s what we did. The highlight for me were our ski races in the late 70's. Believe it or not, Kenogami hosted an annual biathlon - a skiing and shooting skills event - with 80 or more fun loving souls chasing each other around with firearms. We live in a different Canada now.Anyway. This afternoon we’re going to ski out to our cottage on Sesekinika. I’ll bring the camera. I can remember a lot of frigid January firsts but not this one. Click HERE for a look-see at the latest prognostication from the wild and crazy guys at Environment Canada. Expect things to remain a tad on the mild side for a while yet.
So what will 2012 bring to Kenogami? I’m not ready with a list of predictions this morning other than to say that I doubt Herbie will stay above the ice into May this year. *** mac
December 31 ... It is a dull and relatively mild morning. Last night’s low was minus 12. Things are going to warm up to near the freezing mark by mid-day tomorrow with an inch or two of snow forecasted for New Years Day. We’ll be closed tomorrow. It’s one of the four days on the calender where the sale of spirits in Ontario, when not accompanied by a meal, is forbidden. We’ve been taking the first day of the year off since 1999. The Grenfell Township landfill WILL be open tomorrow with abbreviated hours; 10AM to 4PM. They’ll be selling 2012 permits. If you need to use interact to buy one, we’ll sell you one here at the store until 6PM today.Tomorrow we’ll look ahead to a new year. Today is a time for retrospection. 2011 brought a real face lift for Kenogami with the reconstruction of the bridge, the addition of a Highway11 passing lane on the way to Sesekinika and a fresh coat of pavement from the Hwy 66 intersection all the way up to Mooseridge Creek. The Blanche River/Lake Sesekinika bridge project finally was finished. Our road board also made some significant investments, most notably the reconstruction of the Silver Tire Road into the cottage properties on Sesekinika’s southwest shore. ......... Last winter was dominated by the presence of Hydro One construction crews. They strung a brand new powerline between Kenogami and Matachewan to supply the new mine. They set up their staging yard in Kenogami. .... And to finish off the year...... three local facilities set up to accommodate some of the many tradesmen who are here working on the surface construction of mines in Matachewan and Matheson.
A lot of property changed hands around Kenogami and Sesekinika this year. There’s a lot of new faces at our mailboxes. Valerie and I are often the first welcoming committee. They want to know about the dump and - often - who does inspections to satisfy home insurance requirements. We try to encourage them to come to THEIR community hall for the next community event. We don’t use terms like “networking” but that’s really what living here is all about.
Finally, a big change came to our lives in 2011. We truly became empty nesters with the passing of Valerie’s mother in April. It has meant a change in our lifestyle with a personal freedom we haven’t really experienced since before the birth of our daughter. Of course, we still have one remaining ‘big kid’ to take care of and that is our business but we are discovering that it is beginning to take care of itself. Our plan is to become cottagers and to someday fade off into the sunset. *** mac
December 30 ... This month is ending as it began ... busy, busy. The day began clear and cold but it quickly clouded over with a steady light snowfall this afternoon. The bitter cold has gone away. I’ve just finished unloading our beer delivery. It was a big one as we load up while the holiday specials are still in effect. We’ll pass that on to our regulars in January. It is also a bookkeeping trick as we try to come close to matching the yearend inventory with last year’s numbers. I made a mad dash to the bank, right after lunch, to do some other bookkeeping magic. Next week the hard number crunching begins. We’ve made some money this year and by the end of January it would be nice to know just how much of it the government will be expecting. There was a time, and not all that long ago, when it wasn’t a big issue. There is an expression for what happened next. It goes “Once bitten. Twice shy.” *** mac
December 29 ... According to Environment Canada, our low last night was minus 33. According to my neighbours, it was much colder. I just witnessed two of them competing with one another over how much lower their thermometer plunged over the other. “My property is colder than yours.” How Canadian is that ..eh?As expected, we did not receive a replacement printer yesterday to hook up to our new fangled fishing licence machine. We were talking to the MNR and they will no longer let us issue them manually. We’ve still got two business days to get hooked up and trained but hopes are dimming. Just to be safe, you may want to look elsewhere for a licence if you’re planning a New Years Day trout trip. Locally, they are currently available in Kirkland Lake at Service Ontario or Federal Variety. *** mac
December 28 ... Brilliant and dazzling sunshine this morning, splendor in the wake of a nasty storm which sprang up yesterday afternoon. Temperatures went into a freefall, to minus 22 this morning. It’s hard to say how much snow came. It blew hard in the night but my guess is around 3 inches. I plowed through some 2 foot drifts in some parts of our yard this morning. Highway 11 was closed down after 4PM yesterday, south of Cobalt. There was a horrific head-on collision south of Latchford near the Bay-Lee-Mac Road entrance. It was fatal, claiming the life of a child. They kept the road closed all night. Northbound truck traffic this morning is noticeably heavier than usual. *** mac
December 27 ... It has been a very mild Christmas but things are going to change dramatically today. Environment Canada has issued a flash freeze warning for Temiskaming District in advance of the arrival of an Arctic cold front. Last night’s low was zero. Tonight’s forecasted low will be near minus 20 with windchill values below minus 30. Yikes. We had a great couple of days to kick off our Yuletide. There’s nothing like a break to recharge the batteries. Some people are not missed for a week or two at this time of the year. Valerie and I could only be spared for two days but it felt like a week! This morning (8:30AM) we had a training session on our new MNR computer for issuing hunting and fishing licences. During that process we discovered that we have a faulty printer so, depending on their courier system, we might not be ready for issuing 2012 fishing permits in time for New Years Day. We might go from being ‘heroes to zeroes’ with some dedicated anglers. *** mac
December 24 ... It’s Christmas Eve. It’s early. We open in half an hour and close at 6PM tonight. It’s going to be crazy. After that, two glorious days of rest. Several years ago we decided to squirrel away Boxing Day all for ourselves. We are the last remaining ‘store’ in the Kenogami and Sesekinika area and we feel duty bound to all of those who have remained so loyal to us but .. we really need a rest. So does our staff. It got as cold as minus 28 degrees last night. Temperatures will really climb today with an inch or so of snow in the forecast for tonight and Christmas Day. The Grenfell Township landfill will be open on Boxing Day. We’re selling 2012 dump passes. I know what your thinking ..they make a great stocking stuffer.. a year long backstage pass to Kenogami and Sesekinika. Merry Christmas.*** mac
December 23 ... There’s no worry of it being anything other than a white Christmas this year, here in Kenogami. Our thermometers bottomed out at minus 29 last night (-20F). The winds will swap around to southerly by late this evening with a warm-up and another light dusting of snow coming on Christmas Eve. To say that “we’re hopping” here at the store is a major understatement. I took a break and took a drive down Kenogami Lane a while ago and captured the attached image I’ve included .. all the while looking forward to the day when I’m also semi-retired enough to take the time to craft such a wondrous display. Incidentally, those are short sawhorses. Things are white but not THAT white! *** mac
December 21 ... Hold everything. Apparently, the winter solstice does not happen until just after midnight tonight. So. We’ve got a beautiful late autumn day lined up with a forecasted high today of minus one. There’s a nasty bit of weather crossing the bottom half of the province today but it will not be a factor here other than delivering a southerly airflow. We open the store in about an hour and we’re gearing up for a busy day. I found this image of Round Lake in my mail box last evening.
It was captured yesterday afternoon and shows that the usual last “hold-out” in our local chain of lakes is now completely frozen over. Way cool. *** mac
December 20 ... It’s the last day of autumn and we’ve got a humid southerly breeze happening out there to mark the occasion. It’s mid-afternoon and I’ve given up trying to get away to capture a fresh picture for this journal. I’ve missed some sunny and cheery moments but it’s just too busy. The extra traffic today seems to be coming from the Detour Mine site. Their crews are headed home for Christmas. *** mac
December 19 ... We awoke to a significant snowfall. I measured it and my scale said seven inches. I’ve spent the day shoveling and plowing it. At 6:10 this morning a tree fell down across the power line on the shoulder of Highway 11 near the Northwood Camp entrance. It took us out along with Sesekinika Village. They had us back on-line by 9AM. We were ready for another planned interruption this afternoon but it ended up not affecting us. One thing after another and ..bingo..it’s almost closing time. I’m going to hit the sack early and get a fresh start tomorrow. *** mac
December 18 ... One week from today is Christmas. Val and I are hanging in there. For
me .. but especially for Val, Christmas Day will be a welcomed and long overdue day off! This year we’re going to get greedy and take Boxing Day off too. How bourgeois is that? In the meantime, we’re closing at 6 tonight and hosting a Christmas party for our staff. It clouded over by late afternoon yesterday with flurries coming by this morning. We might get an inch or two of snow accumulations by tomorrow morning with another mild spell coming. Big freezes on Friday and again last night have now left us with well over a foot of ice on most of Sesekinika and Kenogami. *** mac
December 16 ... There’s a raw wind this morning from the northwest but we didn’t get the hard freeze that was forecasted. That’ll happen tonight. Last night’s low was minus 10 accompanied by a dusting of light snowfall. Minus 22 is the promised low for tonight. We’ve been very busy this morning with people headed south off of the James Bay coast. It must have been an early train or plane. You can always tell their vehicles because they have a thick layer of crust on them from being parked for a long stretch at either the ONR station in Cochrane or the back parking lot at the Timmins airport. There will be a much larger wave coming through next week and they’ll be diamond miners looking for Christmas gifts to bring home. Ching. Ching! I’ve made a link HERE to the mid-month national temperature model. It’s looking good for us here in Kenogami. Mind you .. I think normal is good. *** mac
December 15 ... Just ten more days until Christmas and the solstice is less than a week away. We had a sloppy snowfall last night of a couple of heavy inches and I’ve spent the morning shoveling and plowing it. It’s noontime and plus one. We could hit minus 16 tonight after a cold front pushes through this afternoon. Yikes. I’ll be spreading sand in our yard tomorrow morning. *** mac
December 14 ... Wow. It’s already lunchtime. Busy. Busy. If you’ve noticed how hurried these entries have become lately, it’s simply because the Christmas shopping rush is now well underway. Spare time is at a premium. The weather remains mild and road conditions are safe again today.
We’ve got the best regular customers and at this time of year they treat us to homemade baking and other delights. A few minutes ago a gentleman from up the way surprised us with a fresh warm pizza. I’ve never received a Christmas pizza before. It’s wonderful. He said it was a gift of thanks for favours we’ve extended to him this year. We are grateful to so many people like him who have remained so loyal over the years. Many of those years were far leaner than 2011. *** mac
December 13 ... Not a lot of time for chatting again today. We’re back to being 4 cents cheaper per litre for gasoline than Kirkland Lake and that means some extra activity at our pumps. Ironically, our long-standing price strategy has been to be a penny or so better than Timmins to attract some return highway business from there. We are independent dealers and ultimately control our own prices. We have many customers who go on and on like Valerie and I are responsible for all the gas prices in Northeastern Ontario. No. We are just responsible - district wide - for the weather!! .... It continues to be very mild today. *** mac
December 12 ... It has been a very mild morning. I’ve been busy both out at the pumps and also being a go-for for the plumbers. So. I’ve made a link HERE to something to keep you in the loop on local stuff. Get ready for all-hell to break out next year in Temagami. *** mac
December 11 ... So far today, it’s been a bit of a fight. I’m starting to win now so I thought I’d take a break. We have a huge pressure tank for our water system, a relic from when there were 8 mobile home sites and a Laundromat along with a store and home on this property. It sprang a pinhole leak in it in the night. It’s patched up now thanks to a friend who is also a plumber. He’ll return tomorrow, with his crew, to remove it permanently. He says it’s a time bomb. We have added on around 18 hundred square feet of space to our building since taking over 26 years ago. All of the additions are heated with ‘in floor’ hot water radiant heat and when the water goes down, so does the heating for about 40 percent of the building.Heating has become a nonissue this afternoon with temperatures at or a tad above freezing. We had a little light drizzle just after lunch. Residents on both Kenogami and Sesekinika are now reporting 10 inches or more of solid ice on their lakes. There’s no snow on it and people have been skating along the beaches. The snow will likely begin to pile up this week, locally. Incidentally. According to Environment Canada, a septillion snowflakes fall on Canada every year. A septillion is a one followed by 24 zeroes. *** mac
December 10 ... Valerie and I were on the run from the moment we opened, this morning. We expected it and we were rested and ready. It’s mid-afternoon now and we have staff onboard with us. Weather-wise, the story today is the humidity. Minus 10 (2PM) feels like minus 19 thanks to a ‘thick’ westerly wind and 70% relative humidity level. It is expected to get a lot milder tomorrow.A horrific two vehicle collision on Highway 11 early last evening. It happened just up the road from us near the Silver Tire Road exit. A car from Timmins got clipped by a northbound three quarter ton pick=up. Kenogami’s Fire & Rescue team responded quickly and “mechanically extricate” a lady from the southbound vehicle. She was later air-evacuated to Sudbury with serious head trauma. As of 11AM she was in “serious” condition. We had some short but heavy bouts of snow flurries, on & off, yesterday afternoon. *** mac
December 9 ... The sunshine has been dazzling this morning with a fresh skiff of snow in the yard. Our low overnight was minus 17, despite a south wind. We’ve been promised seasonal conditions for the next couple of days and then another warm up on Sunday. A friend from Round Lake told me that his lake is still open this morning except for “fresh ice in Sportsman’s Bay”. Only the mouth of the Blanche River remains open here on Kenogami and - as you can see - the lake is now sporting its first ice shack, up in the north end. They tell me there’s a least 6 inches of ice out there but ... somehow .. It just seems a bit early to be moving the housing out very far. *** mac
December 8 ... It has been tough this morning trying to get a moment to jot something down here. I note that our webmaster added a note on yesterday’s entry, telling us that this journal just turned another year older. Back in the December of 1999, it seemed like I had all the time in the world for pontificating. Our little enterprise has come a long way since then. Anyway. Lots of traffic this morning. Every other vehicle seems to be related to either the ming activity in Matheson or Matachewan. There’s just so much going on .. from Kirkland Lake to Detour Lake. There was a truck accident up on the north side of Ramore this morning. Traffic was reduced to one lane for a while. *** mac
The almanac turns 12 today - December 7 ... I’ve been chasing the sunshine today. Yesterday was my birthday and my present was a ticket to the Gordon Lightfoot concert last night in Sudbury. We went there after my dental appointment in North Bay and slept over. We didn’t have anyone lined up to sleep over at our house so I was under strict orders not to talk about it ahead of time in this journal. ANYWAY. Lightfoot was a real treat for me ... lots of memories. It has been a very long time since I attended a concert where the arena crowd was often dead quite during the songs because the lyrics were worth hearing. Here’s the kicker. Val bought the tickets on-line a couple of months ago. After we found our seats we discovered two separate couples from Sesekinika in our same section, one our row. Go figure.
The townsite ‘arm’ of Lake Temagami finally froze over last night. The sun wasn’t shining when we arrived there and I took a gloomy snapshot. Just down the highway, though, I stopped at Hornet Lake and captured this cheery image of the lake’s inlet at the north end. If you look closely you can still see the remnants of a beaver dam across the open fast-water channel. I was moving our daughter home from college , around ten years ago, when we were held up by a traffic accident which happened just up the highway from here. While we sat and waited we watched a black bear walk out on that beaver dam and try to catch some fish. It was Spring and I guess the spawn was happening. I look over there every time I drive by now. Incidentally, there’s a ‘for sale’ sign (again) on the driveway into the Hornet Lake B&B. ...and the for sale signs are now gone from the Scandia Inn property at James Lake. *** mac
December 6 ... It was a nippy night with a low of minus 18. That’s zero Fahrenheit if you live south of the border. I’m heading out the door this morning - even before we open - for an appointment in North Bay. I want to take my time getting there. I’ll bring a camera although I hear most of the snow is right here where I live. *** mac
December 5 ... Minus 10 was our low last night. Things really tightened up with a nice one inch dusting of snow. The snow is a blessing because it restored a bit of traction out there again on the cottage roads. The “strange stuff” this morning is all happening to the north of us. Highway 11, from all accounts, is bare and wet all the way up but Highway 101 into Timmins is “shiny” in many areas this morning. The count was 5 vehicles in the rhubarb along the stretch to Timmins including a school bus (empty) at Connaught. Anyway. It’s another Monday and that means we’ve had some of our regular customers from the agricultural community to the north of us drop by. Here’s one item that will be up for bids at this week’s sale...
You know. If you live in suburbia and you want to make a real splash with the neighbors this year ... well ... there’s really nothing quite like having a live steer or two as part of your nativity scene, out there in your front yard. Add a young rooster for those early morning joggers going by and you might win a prize! *** mac
December 4 ... Well. I promised you things would get strange and ... sure enough. It rained all night and washed all the sand we spread around yesterday. I have never seen a police-ordered road closure around Kenogami of anything other than Highway 11. Strange days, indeed. Tonight, temperatures are going to dip between 9 & 11 degrees below freezing with a steady north wind. Tomorrow could get even stranger ..so..stay tuned! *** mac
December 3 ... It’s noontime and we’ve got light flurries happening. Rain is forecasted. It’s going to get strange around here today. Timmins bound shoppers have already started turning around in our yard because it’s getting so slippery. *** mac
December 2 ... Sunny but cool conditions today. We have been VERY busy. Messy weather has been promised for the weekend. *** mac
December 1 ... Here we go, headlong into the last month of 2011, dragging our canoes behind us. I’ve made a link HERE to the national December temperature model. Environment Canada included the following message when I went looking for it. “As of December 1st 2011, the seasonal forecast system has been upgraded. The new system is based on 10-member ensembles of predictions made with two coupled atmosphere-ocean-land physical climate models, and produces predictions at all time ranges.” I’m not exactly sure what they’re saying other than that the “ocean-land” reference is likely about El Nino and La Nina, climatic phenomena that nobody seems to have gotten a real handle on yet. Mother Nature can be a mysterious lady! .... It is the last day today for the early bird deal on OFSC trail passes. Buy where you ride! *** mac
