Winter's coming

[Fort Wisers]

After a few weeks of "summer" +30 weather in September/October, we had some rain and now we're healthy into the negative digits.
We're heading to camp tonight, low of -11 deg C tonight and a good NW wind to boot.
We'll get that little fisher baby bear (camps wood stove) cranked as soon as we get in but I suspect there will be some shivers crawling into the blankets!
Hope everyone has a warm cozy weekend....

[puckster_guy]

I was up at camp this week. TG for wood stoves. We got a dusting of snow on Teusday was cold all week. Well worth the trip. BTW the new road is really coming along. Some of the new sections already look complete.

[Greg]

Ya, this -10 and -20 windchill weather really hit hard and quick - I took Thursday off, went fishing for an hour (to cold and windy and with all the rain, the Ottawa river is sooo dirty and murky, it looks like chocolate mild.  I winterized the motor at the dock (never done that before, that is cool on a 2 stroke Evinrude ETEC) and then, for the very first time, after watching a couple hours of YouTube videos, I winterized my boat myself.  Now that I know how it is done and I have done it once, I think I could do it all again in about 2 hours.  About $100 in materials (antifreeze and lower end unit oil and grease on the prop shaft).   I am taking it to a barn for the winter so I get some driveway space back... no matter what, it is a sad day to say good-bye for 5 months.

[Balsams]

Went into the rink for men's league game Thurs night was cold and rainy...came out and it was a blizzard. Post game beer in the parking lot was starting to freeze up. Family commitments have kept us away from our cottage near Parry Sound since (Cdn) Thanksgiving, and we hadn't drained down the plumbing!!!!!! Leaving in an hour to head up. Hopefully not to a bunch of burst pipes and damage......

[Hodgey1]

It has definitely hit here  yesterday's high temp 23f brrrr. Today 35f. October being so warm and nice lulled us into thinking preparing for winter could wait. Mistake. My wife and I have spent the last week or two doing nothing but winter prep, hauling firewood, winterizing boat and all day today, putting porch furniture in the barn.

As I am still snowmobiling, I have some love for winter left, but now being over 50, I find myself loving it less and less every year. Part of my job keeps me outside so the cold is something I have to deal with and what makes me like it less. I have a picture on my desk top of a sunny warm day fishing on Kipawa, I'm already counting down my return.

[Goach15]

Finished closing  up the cottage at Dorval Bay for the winter yesterday (Nov 11 ) . About an inch or two of snow on the ground.We had more snow in Barrie than Kipawa . Even though the weather this summer wasn't the greatest as it seemed to rain every weekend we were at the cottage every weekend from March 31 to  yesterday except for 2. Spent 4 full weeks there as well. The Fall weather this year was amazing and the fishing was very good . For the season the biggest fish was a 20 lb pike with the biggest walleye being 26 inches. Must have caught 300-400 walleye just under the limit so next summer should be even better .Used light chartreuse jigs with leeches 90% of the time. Black jigs worked best when chartreuse didn't. Always caught some keepers and we ate many "pickerel "dinners .Did a lot of fishing and caught fish every time out from early June to late October. Found a way to keep leeches alive all summer long and even ended up releasing about 4 dozen of them once the boat was pulled out for good at the end of October..Cant wait for next spring !!   

[Fort Wisers]

We got up to camp Friday night, there was some snow on the ground and the temps were about -12 deg C (10.4F).
Saturday morning looked like this:


No problem keeping warm!
For our friends to the south
25C = 77F
-9.1C = 15.62F


This weekend we celebrated our 10 year anniversary so we took the kids to Mom's to spend Saturday night and had a peaceful, relaxing Saturday evening.
(first full night without kids in years)
Sunday we got up early to hit Myrts http://www.myrtsfamilyrestaurant.com/ (local restaurant) and we were pleased to see a few extra layers of snow!


We also got the second half of the floor under the front room insulated. This, plus the insulating we did this summer really made a big difference with heat retention.
That plus a better supply of well seasoned firewood this year compared to last and we're ready for winter to unfold.

[Oarin]

Really looking good!

[puckster_guy]

Nice job Ft.W. Insulating under the floors is a project for next year, with a dozen others lol.I can still warm it up now to about 24c. Last year i was lucky to boost it past 12c. I'm hoping for one more trip till the snow closes the road. A sled is on my Santa list for for sure. Prob get one for next winter.

[SgtCrabby]

Keep these cold reports coming!   I may not be real familiar with the Celsius scale, but I do know a minus is where water turns hard and is shivering. 
I do like the picts with snow.

It took me awhile to realized what y'all call a sled is what is also known as a snowmobile.  I may be slow, but I'll get it eventually.

[Fort Wisers]

@puckster_guy yeah the floor was a nice change, we didn't expect much but it really helped a lot.
Since you're on the lake (and there always seems to be some breeze coming off the lake) you should really notice a difference.
We will complete the rest of our floor insulating once we complete the plumbing under those sections, maybe next summer.
Good luck with convincing Santa on that sled!

@SgtCrabby so sorry about the deg C values, I added a conversion to the post above to make it more friendly for everyone!
Will try to do the same in the future!