Saturday, June 27, 2009

They're Back!


During our morning coffee ritual on the front deck I was checking the mountain for our goats. Suspicious movement on one of the snowfields, I got out the telescope, and there they were. Wilhelm is back with his harem of nannies, and this year 4 kids. Haven't seen any of the youngsters from last year yet, they may have been evicted by the boss, but it's great to see the family survived the winter.
Lou is still enjoying his place in the boat, he doesn't like it to leave the dock without him aboard. The stick population of the island is diminishing, he brings a new one to the deck to chew up every day. Will have to each him to use a broom!
Still waiting for the sunshine to return, though the rain is good for the garden, the forests...and the mushrooms!
Jill

Monday, June 22, 2009

The Solstice in Omineca

Hope that everyone had a happy Father's Day / Longest Day (also known as: First Day of Summer and the Summer Solstice). We celebrated with crepes for brunch and an afternoon fishing trip. My sister, husband and two boys came to the lodge for the weekend.

Top photo is by my nephew, Sebastian. He captured a rainbow across the lake, near sunset on the shortest night (June 20th). Up here at this time of year, nights are already very short. For about a month, it doesn't get dark at night. There's just a long twillight between 11:30pm and 2am. The nights are so bright that we won't see the Milky Way until mid-July. By August, it's so dark and clear again at night that it seems like you can see every star in the universe.

Middle section of photos are mostly of my nephews, Harrison and Sebastian doing some dry fly fishing in Spitz Bay. We were anchored in the bay and Harrison decided to go for a swim while Sebastian and I kept fishing. When we caught a trout Harrison would release it for us. Swimming with the fishes, in a good way.

Bottom photos: Lodge from the dock and Antlertree by Sebastian.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Morels, Norwegians and Lou

After almost three weeks of hot, dry weather, rain has finally come to Omineca. Good for the forest and good for the mushrooms! Lou and I have found a nice handful of Morels (morchella elata). They were tasty in the rice pilaf. They’ve been growing on the trail behind the lodge.












Our Norwegian guests have gone home. Ronny, the smiling man, (he organized the trip) turned to laughing with glee as he reeled in fish after fish. Lots of fun with his group. It was nice to have Wes and Colin in camp to get things started for another year. Also, great to have Frank's Dad, Bert “the director“ in camp. He built a new roof for the Yukon tent platform, got some camp footage with his HD video camera and cooked a few memorable breakfasts!






Lou was a big hit with the guests, I was afraid he's be smuggled out of the country in a suitcase... (gotta watch those Norwegians! Ed.)
I'm off to Williams Lake to do the production work for the next issue of Die Kleine Zeitung mit Herz... nice to get to civilization but always hard to leave such a paradise.
See you next week.
Jill

Monday, June 15, 2009

The Omineca Wilderness Satillite System is "On the Air"


This is going to change everything. We're still working out a few of the kinks but Omineca Lodge is now connected to the world by satellite internet. I'm saying "Wow!" as I'm typing this. The wilderness hasn't changed, it's still all around us, all the time. But this new technology will help us share our piece of the wilderness. Our blog really is a convergence of the web of the 21st century with life in the Canadian "bush". Stay Tuned. Contact us at the Lodge by email. mailto:frank@wildtrout.ca


Oh and by the way, Lou is feeling at home and has taken his place at the bow of the boat. It didn't take long.
posting again soon,
Frank