July 9, 2005

July 9, 2005

West Hawk Lake day 53 of 113

YEAR 2 DAY 22

 

Today was sunny and hot. Our firewood sales are going well. The first day we sold 6 bundles. The second day we sold 7 bundles. Today, the third day we are selling firewood, we sold our remaining inventory of 10 bundles. I guess we'll have to keep a larger inventory. We started with 10 bundles, and replenished each day what we sold the previous day. Tomorrow when Ann comes around, I guess I'll stock up with 20 bundles instead of only 10.

This morning I did regular preventive maintenance and inspections. While Joanne went to Falcon Lake to buy some groceries, I read. When she returned I drove to the park gate to make a phone call. As we were having lunch, our friends from Ottawa, Erbon and Lorraine Dickinson arrived. When we finished having lunch, we went down to their campsite to visit a bit. We left them to finish setting up their tent and gear, and I went to buy a newspaper and beer. We read the newspaper for awhile, until Erbon and Lorraine came over to our site to visit. We sat around for the afternoon chatting. As I had promised, I prepared a pickerel dinner, served with barbecued potatoes and cole slaw. Oh ... and wine, of course. A bottle of red for Erbon and Lorraine, and a bottle of white for Joanne and me. Supper was a huge success. We sat around the picnic table visiting and sipping wine ( and selling firewood ) for the entire evening.

Just before the campground office closed for the night, I walked down there to get an update on what sites were available, and what reservations had still not shown up, etc.. Reed, the new campground office attendant, was the proud new foster father of a baby squirrel. I advised him on how to care for the little beast, then brought it back to our trailer to give it some water and a meal of scrambled egg. After watering and feeding the little cutey, I took it back to Reed, and showed him how to feed it scrambled egg using a cotton swab. Good luck. It's difficult, but possible, to raise an orphaned baby squirrel to independence. As a result of our ownership of pet supply businesses, we have experienced "fostering" of just about everything imaginable.

I did today’s accounting, then today’s journal. It’s 11:00 P.M. and the drunk campers are just now noisily heading through the campground on their way out to the bar beside the campground. The “Parkies” ( what we call the Park Patrol staff ) are likely going to be quite busy at 2:00 A.M. as the drunks roll back into the campground.

About 11:05 the camper in B12 came by to tell me that they blew the circuit breaker for their campsite. I sat outside waiting for the Park Patrol to come by. They have keys to the breaker panel padlocks. I don't ! The campground "authorities" refuse to allow the campground host to have keys to the breaker panel padlocks. Don't you just love the mentality of bureaucrats ? ! The Parkies opened the breaker panel. I reset the breaker. While I went to B12 to verify that their power was okay, the Parkies headed to H1 to do an eviction. By the time I had walked to B12 they blew the breaker again. Doofus ! They were using a borrowed trailer, and didn't really know what they were doing. By the time I walked over to H1 where the Parkies were doing an eviction, they were so embroiled in this ugly eviction process that they said I had to wait for them to finish before they could return to open the breaker panel again for me. I waited an hour and a half ! By then the B12 campers had come stomping over to my trailer to not only complain that they were still without power but now they were upset by all the noise coming from the bar patio. Finally, I got the Parkies to open the breaker panel again, and I reset the breaker a second time. The eviction had to be delayed until the morning. None of the campers in the evicted group managed to blow a safe reading on the Parkies' breathalyser, so the Parkies couldn't send them out without a sober driver. The Parkies opened all the remaining beer in H1, and dumped them out. Talk about unhappy campers ! When I finally came inside shortly after 1:00 A.M. there were still 6 Parkies dealing with the H1 situation. And the bar was still going to be open for another hour ! Once the bar closed they were going to have a whole new set of problems to deal with.

DSK