Kids Stuff

So today I had an hour to kill.

It was just enough time to get the front lawn cut...then I could fit in with the neighbours. Lawn homos the lot of em'..
( to be fair.. I like my lawn to look nice too...and it usually does )

To hell with the lawn...I went fishing.

I frantically tied up a generic little bluegill lemon mosquito and grabbed my 2 wt and my camera and slipped out to the ponds.

I was kind of hoping Morin and I would hit the ponds together tonight over a couple of beers ..but he has a spinning class at the gym and then a Labiaplasty session at the surgeons office..
Fuck him..

Anyway...the Bluegill confirmed immediately what I'd suspected all along...
I am a master flytyer...LOL

Beautiful day out today.

I have no problem blowing off chores every chance I get.

Yet another sad story has entered our lives recently. Another story about tragic loss that makes no sense but yet another reminder to live..

The lawn can wait.

Also..my dog is cool.
Ultra cool and smart..just like the owner.
:o)

Avery also has a new pet.
She is crazy about snakes and this one she has named Apple...(huh?)...whatever...

The snake has already shed it's skin once... I'll never get over that.

014 from Gene Norland on Vimeo.

Hogsback Heaven

I have a very strange love hate relationship when it comes to my job...

However..every now and then...

I showed up for work today and the first things that I usually do is check my mailslot.

Today it was stuffed with an interoffice package.



My friend Vietch at work has been going on and on about this beer out of Ottawa called Hogsback lager.

Vietch is an avid beer drinker and knows his shit...

I was intrigued..

He had assured me that it would be the best beer I have ever tasted...

ABSURD....
However..
When it comes to beer.. I keep my mind and my options open.
I tried to track this beer down but it was almost impossible. The local LCBO couldn't keep it in stock...??!!
Even more intrigued!!!

Well today my brother brought me in a beer and left it in my mailslot....and ...hold the presses...this thing most definitely makes the top five...
Thats two new top five beers in the past year if I count the Erieau Lager...

Beer is a gift from heaven and this one is another gem.

Cheers to me.

There was a second item in the package...proving that all my friends have a perverse sense of humour..

Joe Henderson

After my intensely bitter sea of human garbage post I thought I'd better come back with something beautiful...

This is a great ballad written by Gershwin for the musical Porgy and Bess and I love the chord changes...
Joes sound is perfect for this kind of stuff.
For a while I had a hard time with the Scofield/ Henderson pairing but I am diggin it now.
This is a nice version of this tune...

I can't believe that people like Joe Henderson can pass away...they 'are' heaven in my book.

Here is another great version that I ran across today...different key...one of those melodies that just gets ya..
...and no Morin he didn't create the Muppets you Philistine POS...however I think that the older version of Joe is definitely channeling a little Morgan Freeman..

Sea of Human Garbage

Back to work for three...

It just about did me in.

I am so fortunate to have a job...but my workplace is a sad joke at best and working there is killing me...quite literally.

Oh well...Live by the choices you make and go hard. 

I am good at my job and proud of the enforcement that I do in spite of all the bullshit.

Got a good one second shift in....but I am surprised I still have the energy anymore.

I should just be like everyone else in the world and do as little as possible for as much as I can get..don't get involved...and just come home tune into american idol, have affairs and get drunk...

Anyway..off today...and had a great time.... even managed to get out for a run.

I did 4km at a good ...not great pace but did it without stopping and I feel very good now because of it.

The kids and I took Rube for a nice long walk in the morning at Wawanosh Wetlands.
Ruby loves it in there but I flicked two ticks off her before we got in the car to go home.

Ticks are bad this year...

Avery asked me at about 3pm if I would take her fishing.

No Brainer..

She's so much fun...and I wouldn't trade the days I spend chasing panfish with her for any Steelhead trip I could imagine.

Lifes not so bad I suppose ....

I am going to change my guitar strings and crack a KLB Rasberry Wheat Beer and see if I can keep from juimping...lol



I have been working on the 'head' of this old Mike Stern tune called Gossip.... I used to be able to play this in my sleep when I was in college..
That bird has flown!

I found this live version on Youtube as well as the original.




The percussion dude at the beginning cracks me up. Fusion Music sounds so dated now...but I love the syncopation of the opening riff...and it is a good workout for these old hands... I almost have it again...almost..

Lotsa Dogs...and Chaos..

Today we had a visit from the Breeder that we bought Ruby from.

I really like this Lady. They are dutch and , are actually here in Canada on work permits so the borken english is at times a bit of a barrier...but certainly better than my dutch.

The only dutch I know is Heineken...and there is a good chance that I've just misspelled it..although spell check is giving it a pass..lol.

She brought the whole family including the two adult Flatcoated retrievers....Nala and Pumbaa.

Great dogs.

Nala is the liver coloured one and that is Ruby's mother...

I wondered how they would be together but the all got along great and I think they recognized each other immediately.

Arianne is the Breeders name and she has four young children of her own...so thats 7 kids and three dogs ..one of which is a puppy..
Chaos...just chaos...but I am pretty sure we had a nice visit!!??!!...

There were only a few smallish injuries and I am pretty sure those were just attention grabbers.

;o)

It was a nice mothers day reunion for little Rube...

I love this dog...I look forward to spending time with her.

Today we went for a very long walk at a local Conservation area. The hope was to burn her out before the visit to help with the behavior.

It went very well and Arianne was amazed by Rubys progress.

....and yes, to quote Morin, I think I am becoming a bona fide "dog fag"...

Relief

So here is the little girl with the 'dog phobia'...

lol



Now not so much.

This morning while I was cleaning up the kitchen after the Mothers day get together I watched Avery and Ruby play their little stick possession war for the better part  of an hour...and it was really cute.

The dog just seems to know not to get too rough with her and I love that.

I think that Avery has gotten more out this dog than any of us...Ella included,..and that is a huge relief for me.

004 from Gene Norland on Vimeo.

She was so afraid of dogs that I thought it was unnatural. One of the reasons I chose to get a dog was because of this. I figured that once we got a puppy she would come around...I mean who can resist that??

...well you never really know....but it has worked out beautifully and I think that she will be a better child because of it.
Once again..Morin was right on the money...god it hurts to type that.

No spring steelhead fishing for me...

I am back to work on Wednesday and Monday and Tuesday are booked.

I did sneak down under the Bridges the other day to check that out. They had been catching fish and I thought that on a rainy day, midweek, I would be able to tolerate it enough to find some enjoyment in it.

I was wrong.

I admit that it would be a fun place to fish, provided that I was the only person on earth.
But ...this is the fruits of the local hatchery...and I am just a visitor with that aspect...its theirs and it is working well for them..
I will stick to the woods and streams...

I hooked one fish...which I lost...and then was overwhelmed with the amount of pot smoke...

I don't do shoulder to shoulder and I think that I will just hang er up until Fall.

I thought about taking the 2wt flyrod down to the marina for the giant Gillies that are hanging around the docks....
Would've been way more dignity in it.

Ruby vs Lake Huron

Today was Rubys first trip to the beach and she actually went in swimming for sticks.

005 from Gene Norland on Vimeo.

She loves it and she just went wild down there with the kids. She is such a good dog and is really starting to become a member of the family.
 These dogs are so smart that it is really spooky.

She craves training and I am totally comfortable giving her the run of the house now.

Today my father in law and I went hard at the window wells and the grade issue in the back yard. The entire time we worked out there Ruby just hung around and enjoyed our company..the gates were all open and she never ventured off the property once.

Her leash manners are coming along nicely and I think soon she'll be walking right by my side without pulling or any 'Heel' cues.

Last night around 11'oo I had taken her out for her nightly business and while we were out there we heard a pack of coyotes baying.
It was a still night and it sounded like they were just down the street but they were more likely on some farmers property a few kms out.


Ruby went apeshit...she didn't dig that at all!!...lol



Her hair went up on her back and ran into the wrong door trying to get into the house.

She is cute but not much of a guard dog.

She did take off after a bird the other day and Kim said that she let out a little growl at the neighbours dog..

Progress...

Fun day...quite a contrast from yesterday.

Still no Alaska pics or post from Morin...hmmmm...suspiciously there happened to be a fudgepacking convention on that very same week in Vegas....
...free lance fish writers and photographers got a free butt plug at the door...and we know how numbnuts loves a good dealio...

Salmon Derby Wrap UP

I had to skip a few days of posting.

Friday was forced to take a day off. This was planned to some degree and expected.
In truth I had expected to be wanting a day off by that point but when Friday arrived that wasn't the case at all.
Gerry and I have been into fish all week....way more than most guys...to the point where some Jackass actually accused Gerry and I of cheating!!...lol

..fucking rednecks...
( see above pic for shining example!!)
My Father in Law is the kindest nicest man I have ever met and volunteers his time all year to make the Derby and in fact the local hatchery a viable possibility.
I would bet my life that he is incapable of lying to anyone but himself...and even then he is unaware that he is doing it.
It is like accusing Jesus..

Douchebags...always douchebags...they are everywhere.

Anyway, on Friday Kim was teaching and we had nobody to watch little Ruby-doo.

Rube has been doing awesome with all of her training and we haven't had an accident in weeks ( there have only been 3 total !! )


... I didn't want her to be forced into 'going in her crate' and undermine all of our progress.
Also I had a tree removal guy coming to the house to give me a quote on the DEMON POPLAR in the backyard.
The bane of my existence....the hurricane couldn't even knock that fucker down.
This hill billie that was coming had originally said that he could probably knock all the trees down and grind the stumps and take away everything for 18oo.

Well...he showed up at 4:45 pm  with a quote of $45oo.oo ...and Rube slept til 1 pm.

Which ...put in Norland terms...means I could've fished.

The boys didn't do jack shit without me.  The fishing is tough in this end of the Great Lakes and if you are unable to adapt with different tactics and keep your mind open you WILL lose....

My brother in law cannot do this...he ran riggers all day tight to the ball and didn't get a bump.

The riggers only got one small 'Coho' for us all week....where as the inline boards sang there song consistently..and the biggest fish came on a Dipsey with a stealh snubber and a clear disc flouro setup..

The next day we hit 8 out of 12 fish with two double headers...go figure.

That day sucked as well as at right around 10:00 am I got a text message that my Grandmother had passed away.
She was very old and this was expected ....she had lived to long and had been in great pain for some time.
This is a blessing and a relief for my Mother and the rest of the family.
...but it still is kind of shitty when you lose a family member...regardless of circumstances.

The memorial will be Wed and I am dreading it...mostly because my family is a shitshow that has very clear and caustic divisions within it.
The Cleavers we are not.

We did fish on Sunday...at my mother s wishes...Owens fish had been bumped off the kids board and we had to get another fish for him.

We got fish....good ones...but not good enough...sigh.

All in all it was a great event...probably the most enjoyable ever for us full of great father and son and grandpa memories.

Seven

Well we headed back to that same spot and everything had changed.

Water had become ultra clear and colder by about 5 degrees.
None the less we trolled around in it for about the better part of an hour then turned out towards some deeper water.

Steelhead are awesome and it is a shame to waste such a magnificent creature on anything other than a good and proper float reel....

In about 20 ft of water the temps jumped to where they were yesterday and the outside board goes ZZZZzzzz- ing!!

A beautiful Steelhead jumping like a mad fool way out there in the morning sun!!!

Very cool!

I was actually rooting for the fish...but it will be on the table tonight.

We were 5 for 7 today but still the big fish elude us.

I have to take tomorrow off for some chores and puppy duties so it only stands to reason that tomorrow they will hit all huge fish.

...two days left after that.

Fingers crossed.

BTW... haven't heard from Morin...I kind of miss the 7 million mindless text messages a day like.. for example... "you are a useless choda licker".....or..."whats it like being a pile of gay?"

I hope hes dead

Day Six

And what a difference a day makes...

I actually had that old standard going through my head today while the rods were popping!!
LOL

Today we were 9 for 14. The highlight and lowlight being a 9 lb hen Steelhead that was like a Ballistic Missile.
She fought her heart out...but nothing goes back during the Salmon derby..lol...ESPECIALLY ON SENIORS DAY!!!

I was consoled the minute she started spewing beautiful eggs all over the back of Gerrys boat!!

..Big water bonus!!!

This should keep me from mooching from Morin for at least a month or so.

GOLD!

Gerry was all concerned that the fish was going to lose the precious weight needed to win him the Seniors prize!!
I had other thoughts and searched around frantically for a Ziplock baggie.
So Awesome.

Today we found warmer water right in tight to the beach.....and I mean tight.

We never ventured out farther than 10 ft and on some passes past the point I thought that our shoreside inline board was going to beach itself.

Strange ..but that is where the fish were.

All decent fish but nothing on the board.

Owen is still leading the kids category. He is praying hard for a weekend hurricane.lol