TBow

Gas jumped from $1.10/L (average) to $1.18/L locally here almost overnight in the wake of the issues going on in Lybia. I've even seen a couple stations posting prices of $1.23/L that were close to 401 off-ramps. $1.10 cdn/L = $5.00 cdn/Imp gal. (that's $4.33 US/US gal.) $1.18 cdn/L = $5.36 cdn/Imp gal. (that's $4.64 US/US gal.) $1.23 cdn/L = $5.58 cdn/Imp gal. (that's $4.82 US/US gal.) If I cross the border into the states (northern NY), gas is running about $3.50 US/US gal (that's $4.46 cdn/Imp gal. or $0.98 cdn/L) What amazes me, is that a barrel of crude oil trades on the open world markets based on future prices for one month down the road. So with that in mind, the drastic (16% to 20%) rise in crude for March acquisitions, should have affected the price at the pumps in a month or two. But amazingly, the price at the pumps rocketed immediately as soon as the world crude prices for March jumped because of the Lybian crisis. In contrast to that, when the price of crude oil plummets on the open markets, it takes a month or so to realize drops at the pumps. OH NO! The gas companies aren't gouging. BULL! BUNK! POPPY GUNK! TBow

Tim's RUTR 2011 Score: Shaun - 1 D TBow - 1 C

Well I'm back up and running. The geared sprocket on the right braking disk had stripped every tooth on it and rendered the drive system on the right side down for the count. I ordered the parts last Friday and they came in at the local Argo dealer this afternoon around 2:30. Fortunately for me the weather was sunny and warm (well just slightly above 0 C / 32 F) as I don't have a garage or shop to work in so all jobs are outside. I had the parts installed and everything back together and tested by 6:00 tonight and ready to do. I'll be heading out into the woods tomorrow with it as long as it doesn't rain. TBow

1959 VW Beetle. Bought it when I was 15 in 1968 and spent every cent that I made pumping gas on the weekends (I made $1.25/hr) putting chrome-like or shiny junk on it. Only had my 365 Day Learners Permit for one month after I turned 16 before I got my drivers lisence. Got my lisence in the afternoon and was street leagal with that VW that night......WHAT IN THE HECK WERE MY PARENTS THINKING!!!!!!!!!!!!! :jaw: TBow

Poutine is just a coronary waiting to happen! :eat: TBow

Why it's "R-r-r-r-r-r-Roll Up The Rim" season at Tim's!......Man I got'ta get a life! TBow

Quote: "Can get slippery when wet." Now that's just plain not right to mention! EWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!! Must happen when someone refrains from following the warning not to use when vehicle is in motion! TBow

Before I'd start testing, I'd get an electrical schematic to help pinpoint thngs already mentioned here. TBow

I've never been into a Gander Mountain store, but there is one about an hour away in Watertown, NY. I have to cross the border to go there, so I wouldn't head that way unless there was another purpose for the trip. I can appreciate the comments about poor service. We have a chain of hunting/fishing/outdoors stores here in Canada, that I will never grace their doors ever again. There's another local sporting goods store that I absolutely can't stand as well. My opinions about these stores is mostly in part due to poor service, or as I like to put it, service with a poor attitude. I have only ever been to a USA Cabelas once, and was astounded by the excellent and friendly service I received there, not to mention prices that pleasantly floored me when compared to high cdn prices. High prices for just about anything in Canada is generally the norm, and you have to do a lot of shopping on line or browsing a ton of stores to find any bargains, be they Bass Pro Canada or Cabelas Canada. I find I've been doing a lot more research online prior to laying out cash for just about anything anymore. I pay particular attention to product and consumer reviews and price-match whenever it's available. Retailers may not like price-matching too much, but too bad! Quit trying to rip me off! TBow

I own an 8wheel drive 1984 Argo that's my play toy. I've owned it for about 5 years, but had driven it where I worked prior to that, and bought it when it was surplussed. When I first bought it, it was in need of some repairs and although I don't consider that it was ever really abused, it was ceratinly lacking in anyone doing regular maintenance on it. I tackled a number of issues with it when first acquired and seems like every trip I use it, I find something else to tinker on. I was out plowing snow with it on Thursday of this week past on a piece of property that I have permission to hunt on. The township roadplows usually fill in the entrance to the property and the neighbors across the road fill it in even more when they plow out their driveway and push all the snow across the road. I spent about an hour and a half clearing out the accumulated snow bank to allow me access with my truck and trailer onto the property so that I didn't have to park on the road. After a couple hours of plowing and manouvering all my equipment around, I had hoped to get out and do a little scouting. But just as I was finishing everything, one of the drive sprockets on the Argo's right side stripped and left me and my machine down for the count. I was able to get it back up onto the trailer to get it home and I have since ordered the required parts, but they won't be in until next week. Sure hope it doesn't snow too much before then as I rely on the Argo to do any heavy snow moving in mine and my mother-in-law's driveways. Plus I want to get back out to do some scouting before all the snow is gone. This older Argo sure is a tinkerer's dream and can go most anywhere, but it can also be a nightmare when it breaks down afield! TBow

This evening was quite a change from conditions this afternoon. About an hour ago we had wind gusts of 25 to 30 mph. I had to venture outside to replace the cover on my Argo which had blown off and well across the backyard. The winds were also driving snow virtually horizontally, but as of yet, there's been little accumulation. TBow

The temps were around +10 C today with mild winds and plenty of sunshine this afternoon. Actaully felt like a spring day. We had a few rain showers last night too. Bottom line, the snow is melting faster than an icecream cone on a mid summers day in southern Florida! Temps are supposed to take a nose dive again tomorrow, so I guess I'd better savor the warmth (or less cold) now! TBow

I once posted a comment in the forum room of an ATV website regarding ATV manufacturers and specifically particular model reviews. I wasn't really too happy with most of the reviews I'd seen on the television off-road series as most reviews only talked about brand new vehicles and stuff like: 1. power ratings 2. handling characteristics 3. acceleration Pretty much stuff you could find in the manufacturer's brochures. Most of the info I usually look for in a review is a year or two into the history of the vehicle and how it's held up, what were the weak engineering points and parts, how user friendly (or not) was it to DIY with regards to repairs, how expensive was dealer parts or aftermarket goodies and how well did the dealer or manufacturer back up their warranties. Are you considering ATVs in this list or would you like to stick to passenger vehicles and trucks? TBow

Well as usual, the Sens lost another one. They played a good 1st period (as they have typically done in the past 15 or so games they've lost), but started playing like minor leaguers in the 2nd and 3rd. They pretty much lost the game on a short handed goal scored by the Islanders, then tied it up, only to loose in shoot-outs. I laughed when we were leaving the rink, outside there was a fan going bonkers screaming "GO SENS GO"! Then he'd yell, "THE SENS STILL STINK, BUT GO SENS GO"! Where he wanted them to go, I have no idea. They traded Fisher to Nashville (good move for him and Carrie Underwood I guess), and I'm guessing the Sens organization will be looking at a whole rebuild of the team after this year's fiasco. Anyways, we had box seats in a corporate box, so even though the Sens didn't produce, I was all-in-all, quite comfortable! :camera: Even though it's nice to see a professional game once in a while (as expensive as it is), I still used to enjoy coaching and watching my kids play minor sports even more. I coached my 2 daughters and my son in girls and boys minor softball for almost 15 years and was team manager on my son's minor hockey team for a couple years. I really enjoyed those years. My oldest grandaughter is now playing girls hockey and I get to see the occassional game from time to time. TBow

My daughter got my wife and I a couple of tickets to see a Sens game tonight, so we're off to see them play. They've been been on a real terrible loosing streak this past couple months and they just won their 1st game in the last 16 this past weekend I think. Hope they can pull another rabbit out of the hat tonight. We'll likely go out for dinner with my daughter before the game, so I guess I'll call this my post Valentine's Day gift to the bride. TBow

I think the only restriction in regards to hunting, is that you must purchase a non-resident hunting license. However, if you are going to hunt moose, I believe that you must go though a registered outfitter / guide. I believe for whitetails and bear (I think), you are allowed to hunt on your own after purchasing your valid license(s). Residents of Ontario are required to take a conservation Turkey Coarse in order to hunt turkeys in Ontario. I'm not sure if that goes for non-residents as well or not, but I'll look into it and get back to you. As far as bringing firearms (guns, not bows) into Canada, you should check with the Customs, but I think it's just a matter of a little bit of red tape and it's no problem. I would make a point of calling them first rather than show up at the border with a gun or two and try and get it all done right there. I did however hear a couple guys talking at my fish & game club today about some sort of restriction stateside about not being able to export ammunition out of the USA into Canada, but I haven't confirmed that or if it even concerns ammmunition carried for personal use. Finding property to hunt on is likely going to be the hardest thing. If you've got friends or family already in Ontario with property, your on the road to success. The further north you travel in Ontario, the greater amount of Crown property there is, that allows anyone to hunt on, providing there's no regional restrictions. Here's the link to the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resourses. It only listed the 2010 Hunting Regulations, so I'm not sure if the 2011 regs are out yet or not: http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/en/Business/FW/Publication/MNR_E001275P.html TBow

I get a lump in my throat everytime I watch the ending of "It's a Wonderful LIfe".....O.K. you can revoke my "man card" now. After 40+ years of marriage, it's pretty much useless anyways! TBow

Being from Canada, we always tend to think, "where goes the US economy, so goes Canada". We have a habit of paying attention to the political and economic trends south of the border. On a business news network I watch, they indicated that over 9 million jobs were lost during the 2008/09 downturn in the US. During 2010, they mentioned that over 900,000 of those jobs lost in the US have been recouped, and they use those numbers as indicators of a pending recovery, not a total recovery. That's still leaving a lot of americans out of work. They have indicated that the recovery will most likely be supported by growth in small business, not large industries. The growth of large industrials will be the result of a healthy small business environment. Canada went through hard economic times during the early and mid 1990s and the government of the time initiated some hard to swallow austerity programs. I know I personally went through almost 7 years without any raises and subsequent years of salary increases in the 1.0 to 1.5% raises per year. The government of the day (Paul Martin's Liberals) was very unpopular. But in hindsight, the tough economic measures they took then, has placed Canada as the envy of most if not all of the G7 countries. We weathered the 08/09 downturn in better condition than most countries in the world. Our gas at the pumps is priced in litres and typically is running about $1.15/L which translates into $5.22 cdn per Imperial gallon (that's about $4.55 US/ US gallon). We grudgingly pay it, but life goes on. The austerity programs we struggled through in the 90s, took about 8 to 10 years to see significant progress on the road to economic recovery and better times. Recovery from such tough times such as this are meaured in years, not months. In our case, we voted out the government (Liberals) who put us through these austerity programs of the 90s and it has been the subsequent government (Conservatives) who have reaped the political benefit of the more secure economic environment that Canada now finds themselves in. And Paul Martin, the Liberal Finance Minister and subsequently the Liberal Prime Minister, is now being asked to be a financial consultant throughout Europe to not only explain what measures they took in the 90s to see Canada through tough times, but also how the government of the day sold such austerity programs to the tax paying citizens. In retrospect, the Liberals during the 90s showed a significant amout of foresight and initiated progarms that were hard to swallow, but secured our future. And this is just my personal humble opinion looking from outside, but the US economic troubles were fostered during the Bush years. The current administration is merely the unfortunate heirs of financial catastrophe of the the boon and doom Bush economics. America's strength has always been in it's technological and manufacturing communities which have always been fostered by a healthy academic system. But the sentiment in the world today is that the issue troubling a large portion of the world is it's ability, or rather it's inability to feed their populations. I think our road to better times will be germinated in the labratories finding better ways to grow food and in the fields where those technologies will be proven. Studies have shown that the average age of farmers in now about 58 years old. We are not creating an environment to encourage our youth to remain on the land which is something that will have to change. The growth in the agricultural communities should certainly have affect on small business and manufacturing......hopefully. TBow

O.K. I've made a terrible terrible terrible mistake. At first thought, I was upset that the mother-in-law was out shovelling snow last week. I have since changed my mind. After she made her 9th telephone call to my house last night, I'm now of the opinion that if we get a major major snow blizzard, I'll be encouraging her to get out the shovel and not only clear out her house and driveway, but I now want her her do mine as well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ANYTHING to get her away from the telephone! PLEASE MAKE THE RINGING STOP!!!!! TBow

Yesterday we got a fair amount of snow. Considerably less than what was forcast, or what the mid-west US got hit with, but still enough to make for some sore backs in shovelling the modest amount of snow we did receive. I made my rounds yesterday to my mother-in-law's and my mom's houses to clear them out and then came home to finish off what I had in the driveway. And no, my vent is not about the snow we got, or the shovelling I had to do. This morning I peered out the kitchen window and noticed my next door neighbor, an 82 year old widow, shovelling snow on her sidewalk and driveway. Now most of you are likely thinking, "Why didn't you go out and help her by shovelling?". Well this old girl could likely buy me 10 times over, and has contracted a man to snow-blow her sidewalks and driveway for her. So why in the world was she putting herself at risk by shovelling at her age? And kitty-cornered to my house and across the street lives a 90 year old widow. Well guess what? She was out shovelling her sidewalks too. Now I'm sure you guys got'ta be thinking, "Well c'mon TBow! 90 years old! You should'a been shovelling her out for sure!". Ah but wait Grasshopper. Her son lives right next door and he always comes over to her house with his snowblower to clear her snow. So what in the heck was she thinking by trying to shovel at her age? I commented to my wife how ludicrous these ladies were by jepoardizing their safety not to mention the issues that they'd put their neighbors and relatives through should something happen to them. Then I headed off to the other end of town to shovel my mother-in-law's driveway and sidewalk prior to my brother-in-law picking her up for one of her 3 trips a week to the clinic for her dialysis treatment. My mother-in-law is 83 and can sometimes barely make it from the house to the car without support from her driver. So what do I see her doing when I round the corner this morning? That's right! She's shovelling the sidewalks!!!!!!! I mean, like I hate to be disrespectful, but when women get real old (And that may go for men too, but around here, they just don't seem to last to long. Must be all the shovelling they had to do and died of heart attacks), do they just become stubborn, or do they get really really stupid? I gave my mother-in-law heck and told her to never again do any shovelling. I threatened to take the shovel away from her house. I said I'd feel like heck if anything ever happened to her, plus when she does stuff like that, it just puts pressure on me to rush to her place to get ahead of her. And if she ended up in the hospital, the whole family would be making countless trips to the hospital in addition to the additional home care we'd all have to provide, if not suffering the ultimate final care for her. O.K. That's my vent for the day! And if women truly are from Venus and men are from Mars, I think they should change places, cause there's sure to be snow on Mars as it's further from the sun than Venus and has to be colder. And Venus is just a sunburn just waiting to happen. I can tell you from first hand experience that men don't like shovelling snow, but apparently women seem to love it! Silly wabbits! TBow

Going on 41 years (287 dog years) now. Hence my knowledge and need for a separate account. Joint accounts? YA RIGHT! :no: If we had joint accounts, I wouldn't have made it 41 years! TBow

During the past month or so I've been seeing a lot of turkeys around. I guess they're bunching up for the winter as they're likely congregating on the few remaining food souces available to them in the snow and cold temps. I found the remnants of one turkey that looks like it met its demise from a coyote. Still their numbers seem to be healthy. Hope they hold out in these numbers for spring. I might try and help them out this winter by trying for a few yotes. TBow

I think if you took the cash they wanted for every extended warranty from every purchase you made (vehicles, electronics, appliances, etc.) and put it into a separate account ear-marked for repair or replacement costs, you'd be money ahead in the long run. Retail salespersons are required to push extended warranties for one reason, "It makes money for the retailer", which typically translates into costing the customer money in 9 out of 10 times. I purchased an extended warranty on an Oldsmobile back in the 80s. It cost me $500. Every time I took it into the dealer to get any warranty work, they told me I wasn't covered because it was usually a "friction part" and I was on the hook for the cost anyway. TBow

Made it home on Sunday morning at 8:00 a.m. Talk about culture (weather) shock! Left 27 C in Montego Bay and arrived in Ottawa at -17 C (wind chill at -22 C). When I got home, the Duramax fired right up, but on Monday she was dead'r than a road-killed bunny rabbit. Plugged her in and she fired up 5 hours later. Note to self: PLUG IN DIESEL from now on!.......or stay in Carribean all winter! TBow

My Fish & Game Club has an annual fund raiser auction and I've picked up a few guided Canada Goose hunts for about $125 for a days hunt for 4 people. Good outfitter and great success. They set up about 150 decoys and flip open blinds on pre-permissioned farm land. Usually limited out by 10:00 to noon hour. As far as big game is concerned, I'd rather do it all DIY if that is available, but not all regions, states or provinces allow non-residents to DIY. TBow