August 6, 2025 • 61 mins
Escape to the edge of wilderness luxury in this eye-opening conversation with Rick Dolishny, who alongside partner Jenn Carr has created Ontario's most innovative glamping experience at Maynooth Station Lodge.
Rick shares the fascinating journey of bringing North America's only double-paned glass panoramic geodesic dome to life near Algonquin Park. This isn't just camping with better amenities—it's a revolutionary approach to wilderness tourism where modern comforts meet forest immersion. The dome features air conditioning, gigabit internet, a private hot tub for stargazing, and yes, a proper flush toilet that even the most luxury-minded travelers appreciate.
What makes this story particularly compelling is how quickly Maynooth Station Lodge found success. Despite regulatory hurdles with Ontario's building codes that weren't designed for round structures, Rick and Jenn persevered. Now, just weeks after opening, they're completely booked through October, attracting urban professionals from Toronto and international travelers from as far as Germany. Their contactless check-in model perfectly matches what younger travelers are actively seeking—privacy, independence, and seamless technology integration in a natural setting.
Beyond the dome itself, Rick has woven together a network of local adventure experiences—from UTV tours to whitewater rafting—creating a comprehensive wilderness getaway that benefits the entire Maynooth community. Local businesses report dramatic increases in visitors, with travelers arriving in everything from family minivans to white Porsche convertibles.
Whether you're dreaming of your own glamping getaway or considering entering the outdoor hospitality business yourself, this episode offers invaluable insights into the future of tourism.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
but what younger travelers are absolutely um
seeking out, and again they'refiltering the results to give
them.
This are experiences they wantto experience algonquin park,
which can be a real challengefor people if they're not used
to camping.
Algonquin park is gorgeous andpeople come around the world,
but it's pretty rough.
You're sleeping on the floor,but this is an Algonquin Park
(00:29):
forest experience withoutsleeping on the ground.
You're in the wilderness, butyou've got everything you could
possibly want and more.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
This week on the Outdoor Journal Radio Podcast
Network's Diaries of a LodgeOwner Stories of the North.
I'm back on the road with theFish and Canada crew and I'm
excited to talk with a longtimefriend, former and current
shooter, editor and technicalexpert for the Fish and Canada
(00:58):
television show.
But not only does thisgentleman have time for us.
He and his partner, jen Carr,have embarked on a journey into
the waters that I know and lovethe northern tourism industry
and it is my pleasure tointroduce to all of you Rick
(01:19):
Delishney.
On this show.
We talk about their new venture, manute Station Lodge, their
geodesic dome project, what ittook to get up and running and
the tremendous success it'sshown so far and, as usual, a
bunch of great stories.
So if you love learning aboutreally cool stuff and enjoy a
(01:40):
wee bit of entertainment, thisis a great one for you.
Here's my conversation with RickDelishney.
Welcome, folks, to anotherepisode of Diaries of a Lodge
Owner, and today is a veryspecial day.
I'm here with a wonderful manRavishing Rick Delishney is what
(02:02):
I like to call him and he hasbeen with well.
Peter Bowman is here too,walking in behind us, and, you
never know, I might be able topersuade Peter to do an episode
as well, but we wanted to getRick on, because Rick's
definitely more important.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Ah, I agree, Peter's caress might show up right now.
Oh my God.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
And we are sitting at Old Mission Resort shooting a
television show for the Fish andCanada television show.
And Rick is a very, veryinteresting individual because
he has been a cameraman andwonderful things You've heard it
on the intro and has beeninvolved with Fish in Canada for
(02:49):
how many years.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Well, over 30 years.
Honestly, it's on and off forquite some time, and the fact
that I'm shooting all summer,that's actually that's a first.
So, it's amazing after allthese years, I'm doing something
new and it's still exciting.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Yeah, wow, and that's wonderful.
And speaking of new andexciting for me, rekindling our
relationship has been new andexciting for me, but for one
reason in particular, and thatis you're getting into the
outdoor hospitality industry,and why don't we talk a little
(03:30):
bit about that?
Because I know it's one of mypassions and obviously it's one
of yours.
So what have you done?
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Well, honestly, steve , I've known you for so long and
back in the shortier days andsort of what the you set the bar
high for me, as me, as far aswhat my understanding of an
outdoor adventure lodge might be.
So I had that running throughsort of my wish list of
something I thought I wanted todo but didn't know how.
Now my partner, jen, and I havetraveled the world.
(04:00):
We've literally been across theglobe and we've stayed at a lot
of accommodations and we'vestayed at some really nice
places.
And we've stayed at a lot ofaccommodations and we've stayed
at some really nice places andwe've stayed at some dives, yeah
, yeah.
And we knew what we wanted andwe both, as it turns out, really
wanted to get involved inglamping.
(04:21):
So glamping is camping.
It's for people who want toexperience camping but they
don't, yeah, so it's like hotrunning water, air conditioning.
And so we investigated what'sgoing on around the world as far
as glamping success stories,and what kept coming up was the
geodesic dome, and we did someresearch on what's happening.
(04:42):
In Europe, even likeScandinavian countries, they're
very popular and in Canadathey're starting to come around
in Quebec and Saskatchewan andsort of the East Coast, but not
in Ontario for reasons.
Maybe we can get onto.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
So what exactly for us lay people is a geodesic dome
?
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Yeah, so that's a geodesic dome.
Yeah, so that's the geodesicdome.
That's the.
The original one was that expo67 in Montreal.
Oh really, it's a thisstructurally incredibly sturdy
structure that is now usedaround the world, especially in
hurricane zones and in the inthe along the equator.
They, they do.
They build these geodesic domefirst aid stations, hospitals
(05:28):
and temporary shelters forpeople, because they will
sustain hurricanes no way.
So that's how they became alittle more mass produced and
available to the averageconsumer, who can just buy one
now.
But we got a bit of a specialone, so we can talk about that
later.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Yeah, well, so whereabouts are you located?
I know you're in Ontario, yeah,okay.
So where do you have to put oneof these geodesic domes to
exploit the idea of glamping?
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Perfect.
So Jen and I would have coffeein the morning on our deck and
listen to and see no less than100 snowmobilers a day go past
our property.
We own five acres just outsidethe village of Maynooth, which
is about 20 minutes north ofBancroft.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Oh nice.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Which is two and a half hours to Toronto and two
and a half hours to Ottawa.
We're kind of right in thatsweet spot, right on the border.
Literally you can see AlgonquinPark from our domes.
So we are on the intersectionof two of the busiest ATV and
snowmobile trails in Ontario andthere's nothing, there's really
(06:40):
nothing between Bancroft andWhitney, and even then there's a
lot of hunting camps and a lotof places with no electricity,
no running water, and they shutdown in the winter or if they're
open in the winter they'repretty sparse.
Yeah, so and we also noticedjust the last there's a lot of
women, snowmobilers and ATVersand they're couples and they've
(07:03):
told us, and we've validated sofar, they don't really want to
stay in a honey camp.
Yeah, they like the idea ofhaving air conditioning and
Wi-Fi and a private hot tub.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
And heat in the winter.
Absolutely, it's a multi-seasonresort.
We're technically open threeseasons plus, so we're working
on that right now.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Yeah, so how big are these domes, like how big is the
dome that you have?
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Yeah, we have a unique dome.
It's one of the largest onesyou can buy in North America.
It's about 600 square feet.
It's two stories, so we've gota space for storage on the
second floor and we've got theonly double.
What is it?
Double-paned glass, laminatedpanoramic window.
So I'm excited about that.
(07:52):
What does that mean?
Until now, every dome that youwould buy in North America, or
actually in the world, thepanoramic window is a single-ply
clear plastic.
And if you've ever stayed in adome or if you've ever stayed in
a tent that has clear plasticand if you've ever stayed in a
dome or if you've ever stayed ina tent that has clear plastic
windows, you know thatcondensation's a problem.
And then they stain veryquickly, yeah, and they get
(08:14):
cloudy.
The sun turns the plastic cloudyand yellow, but the big thing
and the big problem withgeodesic domes in North America
is that when you have airconditioning inside or when you
have heat inside and you haveyou have condensation.
Yeah, and condensation.
For some of our, our friends inin saskatchewan and in new
(08:35):
brunswick.
They actually have to buildtrough a trough along, no, to
drain all the water that getsgenerated every single day and
they have to run dehumidifiers24 hours a day.
So we mitigated that with theonly double pane glass window
panoramic dome in North AmericaTo this date I think we're still
the only ones and we alsoinstalled commercial grade heat
(08:55):
pump that does the dehumidifyingand keeps the temperatures very
comfortable.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Wow.
So was this a brainchild ofyours that you had them build
for you?
Or was it like an option whenyou were researching it and you
said, hey, we would like to dothis?
Or you said to the manufacturerhey, you do it this way, but
we'd like you to do itdifferently for us.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
We actually sought out a manufacturer direct in
china who said they would dothis, and so we called them on
it and said, okay, can you shipthis?
And they're like, well, oh no,it's kind of you know.
You know, in business sometimesyou promise things that aren't.
They hadn't shipped it yet.
So we were like, okay, this issomething that we want.
(09:45):
Can you guarantee it'll work inCanada and the coals.
And they said it's industrialgrade, like what we've done
commercially, we're doing inthis smaller glamping dome
because they built the big likestadium homes, the people that
we ended up hiring.
So, yeah, no.
So, to answer your question, itwas a little bit of both, but
(10:08):
no one had actually delivered itand we got the first one.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Good for you, that's fantastic and have you like.
I mean because there is nothingworse than being in a dome or a
tent or whatever and it raininginside and it's nice outside.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Yeah know what I mean .
That's actually somethingpeople ask us about.
Um, you know, stargazing domesare actually kind of popular.
Out on the east coast, on newbrunswick, they have quite a few
, yeah, of these stargazingdomes where you, you, you put
the big queen bed in the centerof the dome and you look up and
you can see.
Well, in Canada it becomes arainforest, just like you said.
Yeah, that clear, single-plyPVC plastic is just, especially
(10:51):
in Canada.
The heat rises, so we don'thave anyway.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
We don't have the skylight dome, but what we do
have is a totally private hottub and you can sit in the hot
tub all night and watch thestars all you want and watch the
stars, oh yeah, well, I'dprefer to be watching the stars
outside in a hot tub anyway, acouple of wobbly pops and your
lovely lady beside you.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Oh yeah, and we, and it's a totally private as well.
Even though we're just outsidethe village of Manuth and our
home is on the property, youactually kind of drive by our
home to get through the forestto the first dome.
It's very private.
So, yeah, literally that hottub is yours.
We don't go up.
We're a total hands-off.
That's another thing we learnedum sort of traveling.
(11:35):
Um, we're a hands-off resort, sopeople pay, they book, they pay
, they ask questions.
They do it online.
We never, we never even talk tothem.
Well, we never.
We don't actually meet them.
They check themselves in with akey code and they check
themselves out and the systemlets us know when they're gone.
And it's actually a dream cometrue for jen and I to wow
(11:55):
hands-off kind of resort and, asit turns out and we have the
stats to prove it um, youngermillennial and jen x travelers.
That's actually a filter theyset in Expedia.
They want no contact with thelodge owner.
Really it's a filter.
Now you can look it up and it'sactually there now and people
will seek out resorts that arecontactless and you just do.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Wow, that in itself is a thought that is foreign to
me.
Yeah, I can imagine Right, butdoing it the way that you're
doing it, it sounds sointriguing to do so.
(12:40):
Listen, if you don't mind measking how much investment is
there in a dome like this Intime, in?
Speaker 1 (12:53):
everything.
So it's interesting, we orderedit and delivered it, and our
municipality really wasn't surehow to permit it, so it sat sort
of in the permitting phase foralmost a year, unfortunately.
Wow.
And then skip ahead to thisyear.
We've only been open five weeks, really, skip ahead to this
(13:15):
year.
So 2025, we dusted off the lastof the snow and chipped away
the last of the ice on theplatform that had been built in
the fall.
What kind of a platform did youbuild?
Yeah, quite a substantial one,but anyway, from when we cleared
off the ice to when we actuallyopened for business and you can
see all of this on ourInstagram and our TikTok page it
was only four weeks, really, tobuild the whole thing.
(13:38):
It's basically a small house.
So, yes, I interrupted you.
You had another good question.
Oh, the platform itself.
So that was part of thechallenge and the expense, and I
guess we'll loop back to thecosts.
Half of the cost was taken upwith engineering studies like
water testing and that sort ofthing, but also the engineering
(13:58):
that had to go into the platformthat held this thing and just
getting all the permitting doneand getting all the stamped
engineer drawings.
Because, as it turns out in theprovince of Ontario, there's a
reason why we don't haveglamping domes in Ontario the
Ontario building code.
They just glazed over and theytook months to get back to us
(14:20):
and even then we had to reallysend them case studies of what's
going on in Saskatchewan,what's going on on the East
Coast, what's going on in, say,Norway and Sweden.
And is this because they'reround?
Yeah, that's basically it theOntario engineers and the
building code like square wallsand roofs Like flat roofs or
(14:42):
canted roofs, but they likethings that are flat and we have
nothing in our dome that's flat.
That was it In a nutshell.
Yes, it was the fact that theyjust didn't understand a round
structure and because it wastechnically commercial, it
opened up other sort ofengineering challenges and
liabilities, but we got throughit.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Is it a concrete base or is?
Speaker 1 (15:04):
it a wood base, so this one's not concrete.
We use helical pilings and forthose that are interested to
learn more about that, I wouldtotally recommend it.
The dome itself would havetaken 18 sonotubes, so 18 holes
would have had been dug in theground, and 18, I don't know
concrete like tons so muchsonotube is going to be filled
(15:25):
with concrete.
So we went with a localsupplier who does these helical
piles and essentially they'realuminum corkscrews.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Yeah, they look like augers.
Yeah, they look like augers andthey screw right into the
ground and they're like 10, 12feet long.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
They're really really deep, far deeper than any
sonotube needs to be in Canada,and they went about 10, 12 feet
I think, and we had 18 of themand the cost was about double.
But it was finished in threehours and the framing started
the very next day.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
So we'd have to wait for the concrete to dry, because
there's no concrete.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
So we were able to actually get the contractor in
the very next day and start tobuild a frame and the frame
itself my God, it's a sight tobehold if you do come to visit.
Triple 2x12 beams oh really,you can land a helicopter on
this thing.
It's crazy.
So that was a big part of theexpense as well.
For our next domes and we arezoned for more domes we might do
a concrete pad.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Yeah, yeah.
And then if you did a concretepad, would you think about maybe
in-floor heating, like a heatpump, with heating in the
concrete?
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Yeah, that's definitely an advantage of going
with concrete pouring.
In Canada is that's a verytypical thing for garages and
things to have in-floor heating.
So yeah, we'll look into thatfor sure.
We've got a weird kind of ahybrid floor heating right now
where we heat the sort of autility closet under the
bathroom and we box that in andwe have a small heater that runs
(16:54):
in there and it keeps the floorof the bathroom nice and warm.
Oh, that's beautiful.
We didn't do full radiantheating.
But again, we've only been openfive weeks.
This is July 2025.
We've only been open five weeks.
This is July 2025.
We've only been open a month.
So we'll get through the winterand we'll see how it works.
And if we have to do somethingmore dramatic, we will.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Yeah, so this whole this idea of glamping, I've
heard of it and friends of minein the Shelburne area tried
yurts which were just glorifiedteepees on basically tent
(17:35):
platforms and I've seen picturesof what you have there and this
thing looks ridiculous, like itlooks amazing on the inside and
what kind of like.
Okay, so you've been open for alittle over a month.
(17:57):
Yeah, has it been busy.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Well, before we get into that, has it been busy.
I realized we didn't say thename of it, oh, manuth Station.
Lodgenooth Station Lodge.
Maynooth Station Lodge.
We bought the property acrossfrom the old Maynooth train
station which was very, veryimportant terminus in the
logging days from Algonquin Park.
All the logs would get traineddown and they would either get
(18:21):
split off in Maynooth to go inother directions or they kept
going south to say Peterboroughand Port Perry eventually.
So Maynooth Station is we havethe property across from that,
so we're Maynooth Station Lodge.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Now, that's very cool .
Oh, what was your question?
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Oh yeah, how have we been busy, steve?
We are sold out.
We sold out the day we opened,we pre-sold, and it's now July
and we're booking into Octobernow and every single day it
could be a Tuesday in the middleof July, and every single day
is sold out.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Really Unbelievable.
And how are you booking?
Speaker 1 (19:02):
We started for a few days.
Just, we built our own bookingengine.
So I work, I work in IT, I'm abit of a nerd and I I saw what
was going on in their OTAs.
So online travel agencies andthe fees that they're collecting
and sort of the general peopleare starting to think about
(19:23):
maybe not supporting Airbnb fora number of reasons.
So I built our own bookingengine and I said, okay, if
later down the road we hook upwith Airbnb or Expedia or
bookingcom, I'll create themechanism to feed that calendar
information to the other vendors, which I did.
And we were booking for abouttwo weeks and we started to get
(19:46):
a lot of direct inquiries aboutAirbnb.
And I see the reason why issometimes you just you have an
account and you just bookeverything through, say, expedia
, or if you travel, if you'reglamping, you book everything
through Airbnb.
So we tried it.
Oh, steve, the minute we openedup on Airbnb, we filled every
last available room or night forthe rest of the summer of 2025.
(20:08):
Really, and Airbnb now feeds usnew business every single day.
We wake up and there'll be oneor two bookings that we didn't
have to do anything for.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
So they're actually doing the bookings and
everything.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Yeah, everything through Airbnb and they're
promoting us and we're already.
It's called Superhost.
It usually takes people atleast a quarter, three or four
months.
In two weeks we're a Superhost.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
That's awesome.
That is ridiculous.
So you're enjoying this.
What are some of the challengesthat you've run into, if any so
far?
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Yeah, Well, the big challenge is regulatory and sort
of engineering and, yeah, noone knew how to build anything
around in Ontario.
So once we got through that andthe snow melted this spring,
things moved really, really fast.
The challenges with orderingsort of this new technology with
(21:06):
the windows direct from amanufacturer in China let me
tell you I never want to do thatagain.
You're an import-exportlogistics person and you're
paying duties and tariffs andlike that's not my business.
I don't know.
I didn't know what I was doing,but we did it and we somehow
got a shipping containerdelivered to Manuth, somehow, a
whole shipping container.
(21:27):
Well, if you go on our TikTokpage you can see the mess and
the disaster that happened whenthis truck driver from Brampton
tried to get into our forest andhe was just stranded.
There's a video on TikTok.
We have a very active TikTokpage.
In fact it lit up before weeven put a shovel in the ground.
(21:50):
We now have over 100,000, wehave about 200,000 views on our
videos and it's just Jen and Igoofing around trying to figure
out how to.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
And is it Old Mission ?
What's the TikTok page sopeople can find it?
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Oh, it's Minuth Station Lodge, minuth Station.
Yeah, we're at Old MissionLodge.
Yeah, it's Old Mission MinuthStation, minuth.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Station.
Yeah, we're at Old Mission.
Yeah, it's Old Mission.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Manute Station, Manute Station.
Yeah, go on TikTok.
And yeah, enjoy some of thevideos of Jen and I totally
trying things.
For the first time we're havinga ball, we're screwing up.
That's actually the last of thechallenges.
Really was just deciding okay,we're gonna actually build this
now, and a lot of theinstructions were in Mandarin.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Well, you speak Mandarin, don't you?
Not today, right on.
So you've had the pleasure ofbeing at Chaudière.
Yes, what are some of thesimilarities, or are there
similarities to what you'redoing versus what you saw at
Chaudière, which was what I wasdoing?
Speaker 1 (22:54):
right.
So chaudiere lodge falls intothat short list of of
experiences that jen and I havehad of traveling the world,
where, um, it came very close tothe glamping experience,
whereas you had the lodge itself, you had the full kitchen, the
full dining room, and, and yetyou were surrounded by nature.
And even getting to ChardierLodge, getting to with the
(23:18):
launch from the.
Doakies Reserve and that wholeexperience.
That was it.
Travelers these days don'treally care.
They care about the bed, andamenities and if they're free
parking, that's the stuff that Iwould always look up when I was
traveling.
But what younger travelers areabsolutely seeking out and again
(23:42):
they're filtering the resultsto give them.
This are experiences they wantto experience Algonquin Park,
which can be a real challengefor people if they're not used
to camping.
Algonquin Park is gorgeous.
Can be a real challenge forpeople if they're not used to
camping.
Algonquin Park is gorgeous andpeople come from around the
world, but it's pretty rough.
You're sleeping on the floor onthe ground and it's remote.
(24:04):
You can hike but you can'treally walk to get anything.
But this is an Algonquin Parkforest experience without
sleeping on the ground.
So back to your question.
Chaudière provided thiswonderful glamping.
It wasn't glamping then, butit's sort of like hybrid of
(24:26):
luxury.
But you're in the forest andyou had an incredible experience
with a gorgeous dock and justbeautiful facility, and it's
that and it's when I was a kid,when I stayed at Fort Wilderness
Lodge at Walt Disney World.
Same thing You're in thewilderness, but you've got
everything you could possiblywant and more.
(24:48):
Yeah, that was my goal.
That's awesome.
Yeah, that was my goal.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
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Speaker 2 (26:44):
So you've mentioned millennials, Gen Z, Gen X, this
and that.
Are you finding that's who isutilizing your dome?
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Absolutely.
It's shocking actually.
We kind of thought for thefirst year we'd be getting local
ATVers and snowmobilers who arejust curious.
They've watched it being builtover the past year.
We're kind of internet famousin Maynooth and Bancroft just
because people have beenfollowing us for years.
Really, from when we startedwith the zoning changes we
(27:17):
thought it would be sort ofadventure people and, as it
turns out, right now 100% areurban travelers from Toronto.
We had somebody come up fromHamilton.
We had a last minutecancellation and they said we'll
take it, and the very next daythey were up here from Hamilton
with their two kids.
Wow, and the kids wrote in ourguest book they're like, oh, a
bubble dome.
I've always wanted to stay in abubble dome.
(27:38):
It's not exactly a bubble domebut I'll take it from a kid
Because I was so excited and wealso provide a free Algonquin
Park day pass for everybody thatstays here.
So that's a $25 a day dealright there.
But and there's a lot of I wassurprised at the number of
people who've never been toAlgonquin Park, like I was born.
I was born in Leamington butwhen I was one we moved to
(28:00):
Whitney, which is on the Eastgate of Algonquin, so I have a
long history of living up inthis area.
So it's very serendipitous andit seems like the universe was
telling me something.
To come back to the AlgonquinPark mansion in Maynooth, but no
, my guests, our guests, areurban and they're not just
Toronto, hamilton.
Speaker 4 (28:20):
They're.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Germany, france.
Already we actually had twoguests from Germany.
We've got another one comingnext week.
Actually, wow, and they'refinding us.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Like I mean, just the fact that people are finding
you is ridiculous.
Oh, one thing I haven't askedyou how much is it to stay a
night?
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Ah right, right now it's $2.49 on weekdays and $2.99
on weekends and $50 for earlycheck-in or early check-out and
almost everybody is paying forthat as well.
So we're very excited.
We kind of bias the pricing alittle lower than other domes in
other parts of the world.
(28:58):
But they're on water, we're ontop of a kind of a small
mountain in the HalliburtonHighlands, so our advantage is
the view over the forest and thefact that we have actually I'm
going to say it, we have almostno bugs up there.
Wow, the wind blows up theMattawaska Valley and it comes
right over our hill and it justblows the bugs.
(29:20):
I don't know if I can, I don'tknow if I would actually put
that on my sell sheet, but I'venoticed it Because I go to
Algonquin all the time and blackflies and mosquitoes are
sometimes kind of crazy.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, hey, in Shelburne themosquitoes are pretty crazy.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
Yeah, so we're pricing it a little lower, but
we don't have waterfront, andthat seems to be the thing
Waterfront just sends it throughthe roof.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
So you've priced it a little lower, but you've
mentioned Algonquin Park.
What are some of the otherattractions that people are
coming for that you can offer?
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Great.
We've formed alliances with allthe major tourist destinations
in the Mattawaska Valley and theBancroft area.
For example, there's BancroftOff-Road Tours.
They run the glamping of UTVsLike these are automatic, oh
really, like the most amazingUTVs I've ever experienced.
Again, if you go on our TikTokpage you'll see a video that we
(30:18):
went on the tour that they offercustomers.
There's nothing you have to do.
You show up, you put a helmeton a visor because it can get
dusty, and they have a two and afour-hour UTV trip through the
forest outside of Bancroft.
So we have an alliance withthem and sort of a and that's
like a side-by-side.
Yeah, but it's the nicest I'veever been in.
(30:38):
Like, again, the video's on oursite, you'll see it.
But yeah, side-by-sides, yeah,four wheels and automatic
transmission and the whole thing.
And then we also have analliance with the Mattawaska
Canoe Center, whitewater rafting, 25 minutes from the dome, and
I did some research on it and,again, we did an amazing video.
It's one of my most popularvideos and it's the Owl
(31:00):
Whitewater people in Ottawa.
They run that and then they runthis here in Mattawaska Valley,
which is like less than half anhour from the dome.
Wow, and we're building morealliances as people come on
board.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Location, location, location.
Exactly.
That's very cool.
Now, did you kind of luck outwith your location, or did you
buy this location, thinking ofthis project?
Speaker 1 (31:25):
No, jen bought it because it gave her the.
She worked in tech and works intech and you know, through
COVID there was that wholeflight out of the city.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
So she had family up this way and so she bought the
house off the former mayor ofMaynooth actually.
So it's a very small towncommunity, but it's amazing.
And then I met Jen just acouple years ago and come up and
then, like I said, we weresitting on the patio drinking
coffee, watching snowmobilersand ATVs go by and we're
thinking, well, how can wecapitalize?
Speaker 2 (31:57):
on this.
Well, I remember you called methat's right, right when you
were thinking about this idea?
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Oh, that could have been two years ago, eh yeah for
sure.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Well, it had to have been two years ago because at
the time I was actually on theAmaranth Township Council and
you must have been talking toAnge, or well, you called me
wondering about getting someadvice and I remember giving you
advice as far as the townshippermitting process and all of
(32:28):
that stuff, township permittingprocess and all of that stuff.
But I remember you calling meand I was thinking, wow, this is
a very interesting idea.
I wonder how it's going to turnout.
But for all intents andpurposes, man, you've knocked it
out of the park.
(32:53):
And the great thing about itthat I see that I've gathered
from this conversation and folks, rick and I, we've already done
one shoot together up on BuckLake, obakamika Lake or
something like that, at BuckLake Lodge, and we've had lots
of conversations to catch up.
But the thing that in ourconversation now that I see is
(33:20):
you're in a unique positionwhere you've already made
inroads building your first dome.
Yes, nobody else has made thoseinroads, not in Ontario.
Everybody else in ontario otherthan in your township are going
to run into the same problemsthat you did.
So for expansion.
(33:42):
Um, you and you mentionedyou're already, uh, approved for
more yes, and we have theinfrastructure already laid.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
All our trench work is done for our second dome or
A-frame.
We're still deciding what ournext project is going to be.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
So for the dome, like I mean, you've figured out the
part of that, so I think thatyour second build will be far
(34:19):
easier than your first.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Yeah, it will be, and we get asked a lot exactly
those questions.
People are either going to talkto the municipality or try to
get zoning, and there's morepeople in Ontario that I think
are really curious about us.
We get emails all the time andeven phone calls like how did
you do it?
Sort of thing.
We have a website calleddomeduncom.
(34:41):
Domeduncom is exactly that it'sa DIY.
It's a place where you canreach out to Jen and I and we're
just consultants for hire andwe can answer any questions you
have about the zoning and theconstruction and the ordering of
these domes.
So that's a little.
I got 25 side projects, butthat's another one of my side
(35:02):
projects and it supportsMiddletown Station Lodge.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
Hey, listen.
Well, whenever you're throwingspaghetti at the wall, you never
know what's going to stickright Spaghetti yeah, and that's
the thing.
The more irons in the fire, thebetter off you are.
Yeah, and that's awesome.
And how are you finding itlogistically Like having guests
(35:28):
coming in?
Obviously you're not talking tothe people.
They're letting themselves in,they're letting themselves in,
they're letting themselves outand your software, I'm assuming,
is intelligent enough to letyou know when they're gone.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
No, it's not.
Not when they leave, althoughwe're working on a solution for
that.
When they arrive, totally ittriggers the cameras on the road
and we can see that for sure.
I guess it triggers them on theway, for that, when they arrive
, totally it triggers thecameras on the road.
Yeah, and we can see that forsure.
I guess it triggers them on theway out too yeah.
So we have some cameras on theentrance road that leads up to
the top of the hill in theforest, and no cameras are up
there.
That's how we see it, so howlong is your turnover?
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Like you know, like there's logistics with all kinds
of different things.
Even though you're removing theguest interaction part out of
it, there's still a ton oflogistics.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
Precisely, and the turnover is the largest.
Hard cost, as you know, withany lodge, is turning over a
room or a cabin for the nextguest.
There's time, there's resources, there's the soap for the
laundry and there's money andthe dollar value has ranged
pretty broadly actually, fromsay, $40 to almost $90, actually
(36:47):
over $100.
If we hire an Airbnb service tocome in and clean the dome,
it's over $100 to turn it over,which is pretty substantial, but
it's actually kind of par forthe course.
You do have to, really you haveto be aware of that when you're
pricing what you're trying todo.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
Well, have you got any questions about that kind of
stuff?
Like I mean, I used to turnover a ton of people.
You had 16 or 18 cabins.
I had 15 cottages, 15, right, Iused to turn over a ton of
people, you had 16 or 18 cabins.
I had 15 cottages 15, right,yeah, yeah.
Well, 14 on the ChaudièreIsland and then one on the
island that I retain, that I ownnow, right, right, so I had 15
(37:27):
total cottages.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
I can't even imagine, steve, I can't even imagine.
I have a million questionsabout that, but it's all got to
do.
That's funny.
This week we have the bestguests.
They come in, they clean afterthemselves, we walk in, we just
stand there and we go.
All right, what do we do?
Like you do it back therechange the sheets and you're
done.
We had a guest this week.
It was a family.
They had young kids.
(37:48):
They had dirty dishes in thesink.
No, can you believe it?
Speaker 2 (37:53):
Like Jen and I, stared at each other for a
minute.
We, laughed.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
We were like we are so spoiled.
We've got the best guests ever,but we had to wash the dishes
and that took an extra 15minutes and we were so pissed
off Not the guests, we love theguests but the fact that we
hadn't had to do that in threeweeks just goes to show you how,
how, how streamlined we got itso we could turn over in in just
over half an hour.
Oh, that's amazing.
Which is kind of incredible,and that's working with the two
(38:18):
of us a solo, it's about 45minutes.
If we have to wash dishes, addanother few minutes.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
And then you, obviously you've got all of your
linens.
Well, that we can turn it overin 45 minutes.
But then the whole gettingready for the next guest, and of
course we're talking laundry.
You know, for one dome it'slike an hour and a half, but as
soon as you go, two domes, allof a sudden it's three hours out
of your day and then it's fourand then it's six hours.
Then it's the whole day, a weekspent doing all the back load of
(38:47):
laundry Like I can't evenimagine.
So we've got the one dome now.
We're enjoying this while wecan, yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
And and you can, there are ways to to scale that
up.
Like I mean, um, you can getmore laundry machines right.
Like I, um, uh, with all 14cottages we would typically be
changing over all on the sameday and not only changing over
on the same day.
Um, our changeovers had to bedone by 3 o'clock in the
(39:15):
afternoon and checkout wasn'tuntil 11 in the morning, so we
had between 11 and 3 tocompletely change over
Potentially 14 cabins, and a lotof times there were 14 cottages
.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
Just the way the lunches work and they're
bringing the boats and groups in.
That's right that's right.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
So, you know, we had um half a dozen washers and
dryers each.
We had um two, sometimes three,full sets of linens for all of
the beds on the island.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
Um, you know, and we were talking, uh, 44 beds that's
right, because you had eachcabin would have about up to
four singles.
Well, we, yes and then you canmake them into kings.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
We had that's right like we had, our largest
cottages were three bedrooms, sothere were six twins, uh, two
in each bedroom.
And, um, the way that we did it, every bed on the island was a
twin and there would be two ineach room.
But if you wanted a king bed,if you push two twins together,
(40:21):
and we had a seat belt systemwhere we would strap the
mattresses together so that youknow when somebody rolls to the
middle of the bed you didn'tfall in between them.
So we would have that with anice piece of foam, so you could
almost not tell that it was twobeds rather than a king.
(40:42):
And we would configure all thebeds the way that people wanted
them in the cottages and thenthat way, all we needed, as far
as our I'll call it material,were king sets and twin sets.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
But see, that adds another layer of time and
resource.
We're just talking aboutturnover and checkout, but what
you just described, you have acommunication with the guests
before they even arrive and youmay have to send a crew or
yourself to configure thesecabins the way your guests want
100%.
So I can't even imagine how youdo it, but I'm kind of new to
this.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
And those configurations would happen on
the turnover.
So we would have I would haveour calendar by week and every
cottage was listed on thatcalendar and then every day of
the week was on that on thatgrid.
So a week prior to and I wouldput them out in two week
(41:43):
calendars.
So every person on the staffwhether it be in the kitchen,
whether it was on the dock orwhether it was the housekeeper
servers they all knew who wascoming in next week and what
days they were coming in and howthe cottages were to be
configured.
So when they did a changeoverand a changeover folks just
means when people leave thecottage and new people come in
(42:07):
and you've got to.
My goal was always to make andthis actually come from Ange
Viola my goal was always to makeand this actually come from
Ange Viola make that cottagefeel as though when your guests
walk into it, it's the firsttime that anybody has ever been
in that cottage.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
That's incredible and actually I have Angelo Viola to
thank for a number of oursuccesses because, similar to
our story, he's traveled theworld.
He knows what he likes anddoesn't like.
One example that always comesup porcelain flushable toilets.
He's done with compost, toiletsare great, and Cinderella's,
(42:48):
and we investigated them all andwe ended up spending a
significant amount of our budgeton a commercial grade septic
system because I knew AngelaViola would want a flush toilet.
Wow, but you know what?
It's one of the things thateverybody says they can't
believe we've got and they loveit.
Yes, so Ange was right.
Yeah, I'll tell them that 100%.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
Wow, you're probably the only dome in the country
that has a porcelain flushtoilet.
Speaker 1 (43:14):
Oh, you're absolutely right Again, because people are
really skittish about zoningand stuff.
They have found a way around.
It is just by makingthree-season domes or not even
putting utilities in the dome,and the municipalities will
treat that more like a tent or atemporary structure.
And then sure, but then there'sno toilet, there's no bathroom,
the shower is outside.
And then sure, but then there'sno toilet, there's no bathroom,
there's no, the shower isoutside.
(43:34):
The toilet could be a pittoilet or an outhouse or
something outside of the dome ora shared comfort station, which
is.
I mean, I camped as a kid, Icamp now, nothing wrong with it,
but it's not the glampingexperience that Jen and I wanted
.
So, yeah, we have porcelaintoilets.
Speaker 2 (43:49):
And thanks Angela, yeah Well, toilets.
And thanks, angela, yeah Well.
Hey, listen, I with with thosefacilities.
That's something that I want todo Right, that's something that
I can feel confident that Iknow my wife will want to do.
Oh yeah, it's like, it's likeour cottage.
It's very quaint, it's a 1950Sears cottage kit, but we have
(44:15):
everything you need.
We've got a shower, we've got abeautiful bathroom with flush
toilet, septic system, yep, likeI mean, we've got internet,
we've got the tv, we've got andthat's just kind of new.
I was a little bit torn onwhether or not I was going to
put internet in there, becausemy kids are glued to it a lot,
but and not only the kids, it'severybody you know what that's?
Speaker 1 (44:37):
the glamping experience.
Buddy buddy.
People talk about unwinding anddetoxing and I'm sure there's a
reason for that.
A number of our guests havesaid we're going to come and
unwind and detox in the airconditioning with gigabit
internet, and they consider thata detox just the fact that they
got out of Toronto.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
Yeah, yeah, and that's true.
So, like I mean, the whole ideaof what you're doing is very
cool and I'm really proud ofwhat you've done as a good
friend of mine and jumped intosomething like this, because I
know we've not talked about howmuch it costs, but I've been,
(45:17):
and I don't know if you've evertold me, but with a septic
system, with everything thatyou've been, and I don't know if
you've ever told me, but with aseptic system, with everything
that you've done, the piles, thewhole deal, you've got to be 60
, 70,000.
Speaker 1 (45:32):
That's a great guess.
We're under 100,000, but thatalso included the infrastructure
for the second dome as well,gotcha.
But yeah, you're almost righton the money, it was under
$100,000.
And we did spend more on thesort of engineering and we spent
more on, yeah, the septic.
Speaker 2 (45:50):
Getting the septic system in that wasn't cheap,
like a lot of these domes thatyou were talking about previous
to that.
I would be floored if theyinvested any more than 20 Gs on
them.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
Oh, there are a number.
Yeah, there's a couple inOntario that seem to stagnate.
They either ran out of money orthe municipality shut them down
.
There's a number of domeprojects, actually very close,
within 100 kilometers of wherewe are now in Algonquin, that
aren't open yet.
They've been under constructionfor years and, yeah, the
quality of them it's that thinPVC, it's the single pane glass
(46:25):
which doesn't work in Canada,and they're not open yet because
there's no magic, there's nopizzazz, there's no.
Again, going back to my Disney,having worked at Disney and
then traveled to Disney, I havea very high.
I set the bar high with what Iwanted a glamping experience to
be and, yeah, you're right,nobody's really done it in
(46:48):
Ontario.
Speaker 2 (46:49):
And the key to your success and the key to my
success in retrospect isabsolutely what you just said
experience, Exactly.
It said, experience Exactly.
It's the experience and thefact that you've got total
privacy on a small mountain inthe Halliburton Highlands.
Speaker 1 (47:11):
All right, let me qualify for that.
There are no mountains inOntario, no, but we are in the
Halliburton Highlands and it isa high part of the Halliburton
Highlands A beautiful.
Speaker 2 (47:21):
You're overlooking a beautiful valley.
Speaker 1 (47:24):
We are.
There's a beautiful.
The Papineau Creek runs just atthe bottom of the valley and
then you turn around 180 degreesand walk about a kilometer and
you're in downtown.
Downtown, you're in the fourcorners of Maynooth.
You have a cafe, you haveantique shops.
It's a very quaint little town.
Speaker 2 (47:41):
I'm assuming it's a beautiful town.
Speaker 1 (47:42):
And a lot of people drive through it to get to
Algonquin but they don't knowwhat it is and they don't
necessarily stop.
But that's already changed.
I'm going to toot my horn for aminute.
There was literally a post thatjust happened on Facebook, on
the Maynooth business Facebookpage, and they're like oh my god
, our, our traffic has increaseda thousand percent and, uh,
(48:03):
people are checking in fromaround the world and what is
happening in manuth?
And I've got to be quiet, okay,I'm gonna shoot my heart with
you.
Yeah, what is happening inmanuth.
That has, uh, brought someattention that now all
businesses are benefiting fromthe caliber and the quality of
(48:24):
guests that we're bringing intothe community.
One example that I'll give wehad an executive from Toronto
who worked in the softwarebusiness and she just wanted to
get away and she booked the domefor four or five days, showed
up in this beautiful whiteporsche convertible, like it was
.
It's on our website, you cansee it.
She let us post it.
(48:45):
It's the most beautiful car andit's parked right next to our
dome.
It's incredible.
Well, she made an impression onthe entire village of manuth.
She would buy the pastries atthe sunrun and then she went to
the arlington, which is the bigpurple palace um pub hostel in
Maynooth as well.
She went there twice actuallyand got to know all the regulars
, and all the townies were like,oh there, she's back.
(49:06):
No way, pull up in this porchand buy a pizza and take it back
to the dome and eat this pizzalike in her dome just relaxing.
We have made a great impressionon the community and I'm really
proud of what we've done.
Speaker 2 (49:22):
Well, um, you know what they say all ships rise
with the tide and and when you,when you start um um doing
wonderful things and hooking upwith all of these other little
businesses, all of thosebusinesses benefit, and it's not
just one way, it's all ways itgoes, both ways it's all ways
(49:43):
right, and that is also the keyto great business and small
business and making smallbusiness in this country work,
because it's a very difficultthing these days to make
anything work in this countrywith the way that our political
climate is and um, um, I've beenin small business basically for
(50:07):
most of my life and um, and,and it takes a special kind of
person to be able to just say,to hell with it, um, I'm doing
it and and make it work and andthat's what you've done, and
congratulations.
Speaker 1 (50:23):
Well, thanks, steve, and, like I said, we set the bar
high.
Knowing people like you andAnge, and just Jen and I with
our travels, we set the bar high.
But thank you, thank you forthe advice you gave us years ago
, and here we are today, in 2025, talking about a project that
is complete.
(50:44):
It's a success and we'relooking on what to do next.
Speaker 2 (50:48):
Yeah, yeah, and it's a success.
Very quickly, like I mean,since you've been, I'm
dumbfounded at how well it'sbooking for you and I'm really
excited because, you know, if Iwas in your shoes, I'd already
be looking at the plans for thenext one for sure.
You know, like, and hey, listen, it's a huge investment that
(51:11):
you made into the business butit's starting to pay off and you
can actually kind of put somenumbers together to figure
things out.
And when you're the best andwhen you start, see, the key is
to start with the best.
Look at everybody else and takethe best of the best.
And if you can start on topwith your facility and have the
(51:36):
idea of the experience that youwant to provide for people, and
that experience, even thoughyou're not directly interacting
with a lot of your guests Someof them, I think, you are- and
I'll ask where's the liquorstore and they'll text us
occasionally.
But you're still building anexperience for them.
(51:59):
But you're still building anexperience for them by making
available this web ofamazingness that they can
experience when they're there.
Just you know, sitting.
An idea that I'm really wishingI could enjoy right this moment
(52:23):
would be sitting in a hot tuband looking at the stars.
Oh, my friend, and maybe notright in this moment, like I
mean, it is July the idea ofdoing that in January is much
more appealing to me.
Oh yeah, but just the littlethings.
You know stargazing, and you'rein the middle of a beautiful
(52:44):
boreal forest.
You are, like I mean, you're atAlgonquin, you've got the
high-end side-by-sidefour-wheeling ATVing guys there,
whitewater rafting, crazy.
Like I mean, it's a wonderful,wonderful business model.
Speaker 1 (53:03):
Incredible community and I feel as if there's all
these parts that were alwaysthere but we needed somebody to
connect them and, as you'vealluded to, which I will allude
to, government is not our bestfriend.
If you're waiting for them topromote you, you're going to
wait a long time.
They're probably not going todo you justice.
(53:25):
Now we've had some greatexperience with the local
Hastings Highlands Tourism Board.
They've been actuallyincredible with helping us.
The local funding through CFDCit's a federal sort of funding
agency.
Again, those arecommunity-based government,
maybe arm's length government orgovernment-government agencies.
They were great.
(53:46):
But overall it's so much moresatisfying if you can get people
together that share your commonvision of what something could
be and gosh even like the localcampgrounds.
We're so friends with them andyou know, we can offer it, we're
(54:06):
all in it together.
We, you know, even when we haveour second dome, it's only going
to be two domes, like it's notgoing to be a stretch for us to
sell out.
So we need to be able to buildrelationships with the local
hotels and campgrounds andhostels and everything else
which we've done and we'rereally proud of that.
Speaker 2 (54:21):
Good for you.
So tell all the Diaries familyout there again where to look
for you, how to get a hold ofyou, how to book in and just
make sure you reiterate yourwebsite and all of that stuff
Perfect.
Speaker 1 (54:38):
So if anyone's interested in getting into the
glamping business, domedonecomD-O-M-E-D-O-N-E dot com is where
you can book Jen and I toanswer any questions you've got
and we've kind of done it all.
We are at Manuth Station Lodge.
You can go tomanuthstationlodgeca and we have
links to all of our socials.
I'm kind of proud of it.
(55:01):
Our TikTok really exploded.
So if you're on TikTok you wantto watch some fun videos on
everything from installing thatseptic system to the day that
the shipping container arrivedand couldn't get up our hill,
and what a disaster that was.
We documented everything.
So if you're interested in sortof the reality and the behind
the scenes of the glampingexperience, manoustationlodgeca
(55:22):
and check out our socials and,like I say, reach out to us if
you have any questions.
Speaker 2 (55:27):
We'd love to talk about it.
Thanks, buddy, I can't wait toget there myself for sure.
And folks, that brings us tothe point where we're going to
send you over tofishingcanadacom and check out
the giveaways.
Now, listen, I've just heardthrough the grapevine that our
giveaways right now are a littlelight in the loafers.
(55:49):
But you got to go and watchbecause I'm not 100% sure.
But I've heard rumor aboutpossibly a boat and motor Boat,
motor and trailer thatpotentially could be going up
there.
So keep your eyes peeled forthat and all the merch over
(56:11):
there you can get.
It's wonderful.
And, of course, thank you toLakeside Marine in Red Lake
Ontario.
They are a wonderful supporterof the Diaries family.
And, of course, thank you toLakeside Marine in Red Lake,
ontario.
They are a wonderful supporterof the Diaries family and we
really appreciate you guys upthere for absolutely
second-to-none service.
(56:32):
It's ridiculous.
And also, night Night Nixonyeah, I still remember you,
buddy, and all you folks outthere.
You know, nixon, he's our uh,he's our little diaries fellow
that listens to me when he goesto sleep every night.
So, uh, thanks, buddy.
And lastly, thank you to all ofyou that have got to this point
(56:56):
listening.
I really appreciate it.
It helps so much keeping thispodcast going and like and
subscribe and comment and youknow you can get me at steveann
at fishincanadacom with anyquestions and comments as well
(57:18):
and we really appreciate it.
And, rick, thank you so muchfor doing this.
Speaker 1 (57:22):
You're very welcome, Steve.
Let's change the world.
Speaker 2 (57:26):
Absolutely, buddy.
I love it.
Let's change the world.
And thus brings us to theconclusion of another episode of
Diaries of a Lodge Owner.
Stories of the North.
I'm a good old boy, Nevermeanin' no harm a lodge.
Speaker 4 (58:02):
And that'd be fine.
Speaker 3 (58:05):
I'll be making my way , the only way I know how.
Speaker 2 (58:13):
Working hard and sharing the north With all of my
pals.
Well, I'm a good old boy.
I bought a good old boy, I buythe lodge and live my dream, and
now I'm here talking about howlife can be as good as it seems,
yeah.
Speaker 3 (58:37):
Hi everybody.
I'm Angelo Viola and I'm PeteBowman.
Now you might know us as thehosts of Canada's favorite
fishing show, but now we'rehosting a podcast.
That's right.
Every Thursday, Angelo and Iwill be right here in your ears
bringing you a brand new episodeof Outdoor Journal Radio.
Hmm, Now, what are we going totalk about for two hours every
week?
Well, you know, there's goingto be a lot of fishing.
Speaker 4 (58:58):
I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and
how to catch them, and they wereeasy to catch.
Speaker 3 (59:03):
Yeah, but it's not just a fishing show.
We're going to be talking topeople from all facets of the
outdoors, from athletes, All theother guys would go golfing Me,
and Garth and Turk and all theRussians would go fishing To
scientists.
But now that we're reforesting-and letting things freeze.
Speaker 4 (59:19):
It's the perfect transmission environment for
life.
Speaker 6 (59:23):
To chefs If any game isn't cooked properly, marinated
, you will taste it.
Speaker 3 (59:29):
And whoever else will pick up the phone Wherever you
are.
Outdoor Journal Radio seeks toanswer the questions and tell
the stories of all those whoenjoy being outside.
Speaker 5 (59:42):
Find us on Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever you
get your podcasts.
As the world gets louder andlouder, the lessons of our
natural world become harder andharder to hear, but they are
still available to those whoknow where to listen.
I'm Jerry Ouellette and I washonoured to serve as Ontario's
Minister of Natural Resources.
(01:00:04):
However, my journey into thewoods didn't come from politics.
Rather, it came from my time inthe bush and a mushroom.
In 2015, I was introduced tothe birch-hungry fungus known as
chaga, a tree conch withcenturies of medicinal use by
Indigenous peoples all over theglobe.
(01:00:26):
After nearly a decade of harvestuse, testimonials and research,
my skepticism has faded toobsession and I now spend my
life dedicated to improving thelives of others through natural
means.
But that's not what the show isabout.
My pursuit of the strangemushroom and my passion for the
outdoors has brought me to theplaces and around the people
(01:00:48):
that are shaped by our naturalworld.
On Outdoor Journal Radio'sUnder the Canopy podcast, I'm
going to take you along with meto see the places and meet the
people that will help you findyour outdoor passion and help
you live a life close to natureand under the canopy.
Find Under the Canopy now onSpotify, apple Podcasts or
(01:01:10):
wherever else you get yourpodcasts.
but what younger travelers are absolutely um
seeking out, and again they'refiltering the results to give
them.
This are experiences they wantto experience algonquin park,
which can be a real challengefor people if they're not used
to camping.
Algonquin park is gorgeous andpeople come around the world,
but it's pretty rough.
You're sleeping on the floor,but this is an Algonquin Park
(00:29):
forest experience withoutsleeping on the ground.
You're in the wilderness, butyou've got everything you could
possibly want and more.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
This week on the Outdoor Journal Radio Podcast
Network's Diaries of a LodgeOwner Stories of the North.
I'm back on the road with theFish and Canada crew and I'm
excited to talk with a longtimefriend, former and current
shooter, editor and technicalexpert for the Fish and Canada
(00:58):
television show.
But not only does thisgentleman have time for us.
He and his partner, jen Carr,have embarked on a journey into
the waters that I know and lovethe northern tourism industry
and it is my pleasure tointroduce to all of you Rick
(01:19):
Delishney.
On this show.
We talk about their new venture, manute Station Lodge, their
geodesic dome project, what ittook to get up and running and
the tremendous success it'sshown so far and, as usual, a
bunch of great stories.
So if you love learning aboutreally cool stuff and enjoy a
(01:40):
wee bit of entertainment, thisis a great one for you.
Here's my conversation with RickDelishney.
Welcome, folks, to anotherepisode of Diaries of a Lodge
Owner, and today is a veryspecial day.
I'm here with a wonderful manRavishing Rick Delishney is what
(02:02):
I like to call him and he hasbeen with well.
Peter Bowman is here too,walking in behind us, and, you
never know, I might be able topersuade Peter to do an episode
as well, but we wanted to getRick on, because Rick's
definitely more important.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Ah, I agree, Peter's caress might show up right now.
Oh my God.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
And we are sitting at Old Mission Resort shooting a
television show for the Fish andCanada television show.
And Rick is a very, veryinteresting individual because
he has been a cameraman andwonderful things You've heard it
on the intro and has beeninvolved with Fish in Canada for
(02:49):
how many years.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Well, over 30 years.
Honestly, it's on and off forquite some time, and the fact
that I'm shooting all summer,that's actually that's a first.
So, it's amazing after allthese years, I'm doing something
new and it's still exciting.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Yeah, wow, and that's wonderful.
And speaking of new andexciting for me, rekindling our
relationship has been new andexciting for me, but for one
reason in particular, and thatis you're getting into the
outdoor hospitality industry,and why don't we talk a little
(03:30):
bit about that?
Because I know it's one of mypassions and obviously it's one
of yours.
So what have you done?
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Well, honestly, steve , I've known you for so long and
back in the shortier days andsort of what the you set the bar
high for me, as me, as far aswhat my understanding of an
outdoor adventure lodge might be.
So I had that running throughsort of my wish list of
something I thought I wanted todo but didn't know how.
Now my partner, jen, and I havetraveled the world.
(04:00):
We've literally been across theglobe and we've stayed at a lot
of accommodations and we'vestayed at some really nice
places.
And we've stayed at a lot ofaccommodations and we've stayed
at some really nice places andwe've stayed at some dives, yeah
, yeah.
And we knew what we wanted andwe both, as it turns out, really
wanted to get involved inglamping.
(04:21):
So glamping is camping.
It's for people who want toexperience camping but they
don't, yeah, so it's like hotrunning water, air conditioning.
And so we investigated what'sgoing on around the world as far
as glamping success stories,and what kept coming up was the
geodesic dome, and we did someresearch on what's happening.
(04:42):
In Europe, even likeScandinavian countries, they're
very popular and in Canadathey're starting to come around
in Quebec and Saskatchewan andsort of the East Coast, but not
in Ontario for reasons.
Maybe we can get onto.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
So what exactly for us lay people is a geodesic dome
?
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Yeah, so that's a geodesic dome.
Yeah, so that's the geodesicdome.
That's the.
The original one was that expo67 in Montreal.
Oh really, it's a thisstructurally incredibly sturdy
structure that is now usedaround the world, especially in
hurricane zones and in the inthe along the equator.
They, they do.
They build these geodesic domefirst aid stations, hospitals
(05:28):
and temporary shelters forpeople, because they will
sustain hurricanes no way.
So that's how they became alittle more mass produced and
available to the averageconsumer, who can just buy one
now.
But we got a bit of a specialone, so we can talk about that
later.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Yeah, well, so whereabouts are you located?
I know you're in Ontario, yeah,okay.
So where do you have to put oneof these geodesic domes to
exploit the idea of glamping?
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Perfect.
So Jen and I would have coffeein the morning on our deck and
listen to and see no less than100 snowmobilers a day go past
our property.
We own five acres just outsidethe village of Maynooth, which
is about 20 minutes north ofBancroft.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Oh nice.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Which is two and a half hours to Toronto and two
and a half hours to Ottawa.
We're kind of right in thatsweet spot, right on the border.
Literally you can see AlgonquinPark from our domes.
So we are on the intersectionof two of the busiest ATV and
snowmobile trails in Ontario andthere's nothing, there's really
(06:40):
nothing between Bancroft andWhitney, and even then there's a
lot of hunting camps and a lotof places with no electricity,
no running water, and they shutdown in the winter or if they're
open in the winter they'repretty sparse.
Yeah, so and we also noticedjust the last there's a lot of
women, snowmobilers and ATVersand they're couples and they've
(07:03):
told us, and we've validated sofar, they don't really want to
stay in a honey camp.
Yeah, they like the idea ofhaving air conditioning and
Wi-Fi and a private hot tub.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
And heat in the winter.
Absolutely, it's a multi-seasonresort.
We're technically open threeseasons plus, so we're working
on that right now.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Yeah, so how big are these domes, like how big is the
dome that you have?
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Yeah, we have a unique dome.
It's one of the largest onesyou can buy in North America.
It's about 600 square feet.
It's two stories, so we've gota space for storage on the
second floor and we've got theonly double.
What is it?
Double-paned glass, laminatedpanoramic window.
So I'm excited about that.
(07:52):
What does that mean?
Until now, every dome that youwould buy in North America, or
actually in the world, thepanoramic window is a single-ply
clear plastic.
And if you've ever stayed in adome or if you've ever stayed in
a tent that has clear plasticand if you've ever stayed in a
dome or if you've ever stayed ina tent that has clear plastic
windows, you know thatcondensation's a problem.
And then they stain veryquickly, yeah, and they get
(08:14):
cloudy.
The sun turns the plastic cloudyand yellow, but the big thing
and the big problem withgeodesic domes in North America
is that when you have airconditioning inside or when you
have heat inside and you haveyou have condensation.
Yeah, and condensation.
For some of our, our friends inin saskatchewan and in new
(08:35):
brunswick.
They actually have to buildtrough a trough along, no, to
drain all the water that getsgenerated every single day and
they have to run dehumidifiers24 hours a day.
So we mitigated that with theonly double pane glass window
panoramic dome in North AmericaTo this date I think we're still
the only ones and we alsoinstalled commercial grade heat
(08:55):
pump that does the dehumidifyingand keeps the temperatures very
comfortable.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Wow.
So was this a brainchild ofyours that you had them build
for you?
Or was it like an option whenyou were researching it and you
said, hey, we would like to dothis?
Or you said to the manufacturerhey, you do it this way, but
we'd like you to do itdifferently for us.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
We actually sought out a manufacturer direct in
china who said they would dothis, and so we called them on
it and said, okay, can you shipthis?
And they're like, well, oh no,it's kind of you know.
You know, in business sometimesyou promise things that aren't.
They hadn't shipped it yet.
So we were like, okay, this issomething that we want.
(09:45):
Can you guarantee it'll work inCanada and the coals.
And they said it's industrialgrade, like what we've done
commercially, we're doing inthis smaller glamping dome
because they built the big likestadium homes, the people that
we ended up hiring.
So, yeah, no.
So, to answer your question, itwas a little bit of both, but
(10:08):
no one had actually delivered itand we got the first one.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Good for you, that's fantastic and have you like.
I mean because there is nothingworse than being in a dome or a
tent or whatever and it raininginside and it's nice outside.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Yeah know what I mean .
That's actually somethingpeople ask us about.
Um, you know, stargazing domesare actually kind of popular.
Out on the east coast, on newbrunswick, they have quite a few
, yeah, of these stargazingdomes where you, you, you put
the big queen bed in the centerof the dome and you look up and
you can see.
Well, in Canada it becomes arainforest, just like you said.
Yeah, that clear, single-plyPVC plastic is just, especially
(10:51):
in Canada.
The heat rises, so we don'thave anyway.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
We don't have the skylight dome, but what we do
have is a totally private hottub and you can sit in the hot
tub all night and watch thestars all you want and watch the
stars, oh yeah, well, I'dprefer to be watching the stars
outside in a hot tub anyway, acouple of wobbly pops and your
lovely lady beside you.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Oh yeah, and we, and it's a totally private as well.
Even though we're just outsidethe village of Manuth and our
home is on the property, youactually kind of drive by our
home to get through the forestto the first dome.
It's very private.
So, yeah, literally that hottub is yours.
We don't go up.
We're a total hands-off.
That's another thing we learnedum sort of traveling.
(11:35):
Um, we're a hands-off resort, sopeople pay, they book, they pay
, they ask questions.
They do it online.
We never, we never even talk tothem.
Well, we never.
We don't actually meet them.
They check themselves in with akey code and they check
themselves out and the systemlets us know when they're gone.
And it's actually a dream cometrue for jen and I to wow
(11:55):
hands-off kind of resort and, asit turns out and we have the
stats to prove it um, youngermillennial and jen x travelers.
That's actually a filter theyset in Expedia.
They want no contact with thelodge owner.
Really it's a filter.
Now you can look it up and it'sactually there now and people
will seek out resorts that arecontactless and you just do.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Wow, that in itself is a thought that is foreign to
me.
Yeah, I can imagine Right, butdoing it the way that you're
doing it, it sounds sointriguing to do so.
(12:40):
Listen, if you don't mind measking how much investment is
there in a dome like this Intime, in?
Speaker 1 (12:53):
everything.
So it's interesting, we orderedit and delivered it, and our
municipality really wasn't surehow to permit it, so it sat sort
of in the permitting phase foralmost a year, unfortunately.
Wow.
And then skip ahead to thisyear.
We've only been open five weeks, really, skip ahead to this
(13:15):
year.
So 2025, we dusted off the lastof the snow and chipped away
the last of the ice on theplatform that had been built in
the fall.
What kind of a platform did youbuild?
Yeah, quite a substantial one,but anyway, from when we cleared
off the ice to when we actuallyopened for business and you can
see all of this on ourInstagram and our TikTok page it
was only four weeks, really, tobuild the whole thing.
(13:38):
It's basically a small house.
So, yes, I interrupted you.
You had another good question.
Oh, the platform itself.
So that was part of thechallenge and the expense, and I
guess we'll loop back to thecosts.
Half of the cost was taken upwith engineering studies like
water testing and that sort ofthing, but also the engineering
(13:58):
that had to go into the platformthat held this thing and just
getting all the permitting doneand getting all the stamped
engineer drawings.
Because, as it turns out in theprovince of Ontario, there's a
reason why we don't haveglamping domes in Ontario the
Ontario building code.
They just glazed over and theytook months to get back to us
(14:20):
and even then we had to reallysend them case studies of what's
going on in Saskatchewan,what's going on on the East
Coast, what's going on in, say,Norway and Sweden.
And is this because they'reround?
Yeah, that's basically it theOntario engineers and the
building code like square wallsand roofs Like flat roofs or
(14:42):
canted roofs, but they likethings that are flat and we have
nothing in our dome that's flat.
That was it In a nutshell.
Yes, it was the fact that theyjust didn't understand a round
structure and because it wastechnically commercial, it
opened up other sort ofengineering challenges and
liabilities, but we got throughit.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Is it a concrete base or is?
Speaker 1 (15:04):
it a wood base, so this one's not concrete.
We use helical pilings and forthose that are interested to
learn more about that, I wouldtotally recommend it.
The dome itself would havetaken 18 sonotubes, so 18 holes
would have had been dug in theground, and 18, I don't know
concrete like tons so muchsonotube is going to be filled
(15:25):
with concrete.
So we went with a localsupplier who does these helical
piles and essentially they'realuminum corkscrews.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Yeah, they look like augers.
Yeah, they look like augers andthey screw right into the
ground and they're like 10, 12feet long.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
They're really really deep, far deeper than any
sonotube needs to be in Canada,and they went about 10, 12 feet
I think, and we had 18 of themand the cost was about double.
But it was finished in threehours and the framing started
the very next day.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
So we'd have to wait for the concrete to dry, because
there's no concrete.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
So we were able to actually get the contractor in
the very next day and start tobuild a frame and the frame
itself my God, it's a sight tobehold if you do come to visit.
Triple 2x12 beams oh really,you can land a helicopter on
this thing.
It's crazy.
So that was a big part of theexpense as well.
For our next domes and we arezoned for more domes we might do
a concrete pad.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Yeah, yeah.
And then if you did a concretepad, would you think about maybe
in-floor heating, like a heatpump, with heating in the
concrete?
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Yeah, that's definitely an advantage of going
with concrete pouring.
In Canada is that's a verytypical thing for garages and
things to have in-floor heating.
So yeah, we'll look into thatfor sure.
We've got a weird kind of ahybrid floor heating right now
where we heat the sort of autility closet under the
bathroom and we box that in andwe have a small heater that runs
(16:54):
in there and it keeps the floorof the bathroom nice and warm.
Oh, that's beautiful.
We didn't do full radiantheating.
But again, we've only been openfive weeks.
This is July 2025.
We've only been open five weeks.
This is July 2025.
We've only been open a month.
So we'll get through the winterand we'll see how it works.
And if we have to do somethingmore dramatic, we will.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Yeah, so this whole this idea of glamping, I've
heard of it and friends of minein the Shelburne area tried
yurts which were just glorifiedteepees on basically tent
(17:35):
platforms and I've seen picturesof what you have there and this
thing looks ridiculous, like itlooks amazing on the inside and
what kind of like.
Okay, so you've been open for alittle over a month.
(17:57):
Yeah, has it been busy.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Well, before we get into that, has it been busy.
I realized we didn't say thename of it, oh, manuth Station.
Lodgenooth Station Lodge.
Maynooth Station Lodge.
We bought the property acrossfrom the old Maynooth train
station which was very, veryimportant terminus in the
logging days from Algonquin Park.
All the logs would get traineddown and they would either get
(18:21):
split off in Maynooth to go inother directions or they kept
going south to say Peterboroughand Port Perry eventually.
So Maynooth Station is we havethe property across from that,
so we're Maynooth Station Lodge.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Now, that's very cool .
Oh, what was your question?
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Oh yeah, how have we been busy, steve?
We are sold out.
We sold out the day we opened,we pre-sold, and it's now July
and we're booking into Octobernow and every single day it
could be a Tuesday in the middleof July, and every single day
is sold out.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Really Unbelievable.
And how are you booking?
Speaker 1 (19:02):
We started for a few days.
Just, we built our own bookingengine.
So I work, I work in IT, I'm abit of a nerd and I I saw what
was going on in their OTAs.
So online travel agencies andthe fees that they're collecting
and sort of the general peopleare starting to think about
(19:23):
maybe not supporting Airbnb fora number of reasons.
So I built our own bookingengine and I said, okay, if
later down the road we hook upwith Airbnb or Expedia or
bookingcom, I'll create themechanism to feed that calendar
information to the other vendors, which I did.
And we were booking for abouttwo weeks and we started to get
(19:46):
a lot of direct inquiries aboutAirbnb.
And I see the reason why issometimes you just you have an
account and you just bookeverything through, say, expedia
, or if you travel, if you'reglamping, you book everything
through Airbnb.
So we tried it.
Oh, steve, the minute we openedup on Airbnb, we filled every
last available room or night forthe rest of the summer of 2025.
(20:08):
Really, and Airbnb now feeds usnew business every single day.
We wake up and there'll be oneor two bookings that we didn't
have to do anything for.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
So they're actually doing the bookings and
everything.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Yeah, everything through Airbnb and they're
promoting us and we're already.
It's called Superhost.
It usually takes people atleast a quarter, three or four
months.
In two weeks we're a Superhost.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
That's awesome.
That is ridiculous.
So you're enjoying this.
What are some of the challengesthat you've run into, if any so
far?
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Yeah, Well, the big challenge is regulatory and sort
of engineering and, yeah, noone knew how to build anything
around in Ontario.
So once we got through that andthe snow melted this spring,
things moved really, really fast.
The challenges with orderingsort of this new technology with
(21:06):
the windows direct from amanufacturer in China let me
tell you I never want to do thatagain.
You're an import-exportlogistics person and you're
paying duties and tariffs andlike that's not my business.
I don't know.
I didn't know what I was doing,but we did it and we somehow
got a shipping containerdelivered to Manuth, somehow, a
whole shipping container.
(21:27):
Well, if you go on our TikTokpage you can see the mess and
the disaster that happened whenthis truck driver from Brampton
tried to get into our forest andhe was just stranded.
There's a video on TikTok.
We have a very active TikTokpage.
In fact it lit up before weeven put a shovel in the ground.
(21:50):
We now have over 100,000, wehave about 200,000 views on our
videos and it's just Jen and Igoofing around trying to figure
out how to.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
And is it Old Mission ?
What's the TikTok page sopeople can find it?
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Oh, it's Minuth Station Lodge, minuth Station.
Yeah, we're at Old MissionLodge.
Yeah, it's Old Mission MinuthStation, minuth.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Station.
Yeah, we're at Old Mission.
Yeah, it's Old Mission.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Manute Station, Manute Station.
Yeah, go on TikTok.
And yeah, enjoy some of thevideos of Jen and I totally
trying things.
For the first time we're havinga ball, we're screwing up.
That's actually the last of thechallenges.
Really was just deciding okay,we're gonna actually build this
now, and a lot of theinstructions were in Mandarin.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Well, you speak Mandarin, don't you?
Not today, right on.
So you've had the pleasure ofbeing at Chaudière.
Yes, what are some of thesimilarities, or are there
similarities to what you'redoing versus what you saw at
Chaudière, which was what I wasdoing?
Speaker 1 (22:54):
right.
So chaudiere lodge falls intothat short list of of
experiences that jen and I havehad of traveling the world,
where, um, it came very close tothe glamping experience,
whereas you had the lodge itself, you had the full kitchen, the
full dining room, and, and yetyou were surrounded by nature.
And even getting to ChardierLodge, getting to with the
(23:18):
launch from the.
Doakies Reserve and that wholeexperience.
That was it.
Travelers these days don'treally care.
They care about the bed, andamenities and if they're free
parking, that's the stuff that Iwould always look up when I was
traveling.
But what younger travelers areabsolutely seeking out and again
(23:42):
they're filtering the resultsto give them.
This are experiences they wantto experience Algonquin Park,
which can be a real challengefor people if they're not used
to camping.
Algonquin Park is gorgeous.
Can be a real challenge forpeople if they're not used to
camping.
Algonquin Park is gorgeous andpeople come from around the
world, but it's pretty rough.
You're sleeping on the floor onthe ground and it's remote.
(24:04):
You can hike but you can'treally walk to get anything.
But this is an Algonquin Parkforest experience without
sleeping on the ground.
So back to your question.
Chaudière provided thiswonderful glamping.
It wasn't glamping then, butit's sort of like hybrid of
(24:26):
luxury.
But you're in the forest andyou had an incredible experience
with a gorgeous dock and justbeautiful facility, and it's
that and it's when I was a kid,when I stayed at Fort Wilderness
Lodge at Walt Disney World.
Same thing You're in thewilderness, but you've got
everything you could possiblywant and more.
(24:48):
Yeah, that was my goal.
That's awesome.
Yeah, that was my goal.
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Speaker 2 (26:44):
So you've mentioned millennials, Gen Z, Gen X, this
and that.
Are you finding that's who isutilizing your dome?
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Absolutely.
It's shocking actually.
We kind of thought for thefirst year we'd be getting local
ATVers and snowmobilers who arejust curious.
They've watched it being builtover the past year.
We're kind of internet famousin Maynooth and Bancroft just
because people have beenfollowing us for years.
Really, from when we startedwith the zoning changes we
(27:17):
thought it would be sort ofadventure people and, as it
turns out, right now 100% areurban travelers from Toronto.
We had somebody come up fromHamilton.
We had a last minutecancellation and they said we'll
take it, and the very next daythey were up here from Hamilton
with their two kids.
Wow, and the kids wrote in ourguest book they're like, oh, a
bubble dome.
I've always wanted to stay in abubble dome.
(27:38):
It's not exactly a bubble domebut I'll take it from a kid
Because I was so excited and wealso provide a free Algonquin
Park day pass for everybody thatstays here.
So that's a $25 a day dealright there.
But and there's a lot of I wassurprised at the number of
people who've never been toAlgonquin Park, like I was born.
I was born in Leamington butwhen I was one we moved to
(28:00):
Whitney, which is on the Eastgate of Algonquin, so I have a
long history of living up inthis area.
So it's very serendipitous andit seems like the universe was
telling me something.
To come back to the AlgonquinPark mansion in Maynooth, but no
, my guests, our guests, areurban and they're not just
Toronto, hamilton.
Speaker 4 (28:20):
They're.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Germany, france.
Already we actually had twoguests from Germany.
We've got another one comingnext week.
Actually, wow, and they'refinding us.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Like I mean, just the fact that people are finding
you is ridiculous.
Oh, one thing I haven't askedyou how much is it to stay a
night?
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Ah right, right now it's $2.49 on weekdays and $2.99
on weekends and $50 for earlycheck-in or early check-out and
almost everybody is paying forthat as well.
So we're very excited.
We kind of bias the pricing alittle lower than other domes in
other parts of the world.
(28:58):
But they're on water, we're ontop of a kind of a small
mountain in the HalliburtonHighlands, so our advantage is
the view over the forest and thefact that we have actually I'm
going to say it, we have almostno bugs up there.
Wow, the wind blows up theMattawaska Valley and it comes
right over our hill and it justblows the bugs.
(29:20):
I don't know if I can, I don'tknow if I would actually put
that on my sell sheet, but I'venoticed it Because I go to
Algonquin all the time and blackflies and mosquitoes are
sometimes kind of crazy.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, hey, in Shelburne themosquitoes are pretty crazy.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
Yeah, so we're pricing it a little lower, but
we don't have waterfront, andthat seems to be the thing
Waterfront just sends it throughthe roof.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
So you've priced it a little lower, but you've
mentioned Algonquin Park.
What are some of the otherattractions that people are
coming for that you can offer?
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Great.
We've formed alliances with allthe major tourist destinations
in the Mattawaska Valley and theBancroft area.
For example, there's BancroftOff-Road Tours.
They run the glamping of UTVsLike these are automatic, oh
really, like the most amazingUTVs I've ever experienced.
Again, if you go on our TikTokpage you'll see a video that we
(30:18):
went on the tour that they offercustomers.
There's nothing you have to do.
You show up, you put a helmeton a visor because it can get
dusty, and they have a two and afour-hour UTV trip through the
forest outside of Bancroft.
So we have an alliance withthem and sort of a and that's
like a side-by-side.
Yeah, but it's the nicest I'veever been in.
(30:38):
Like, again, the video's on oursite, you'll see it.
But yeah, side-by-sides, yeah,four wheels and automatic
transmission and the whole thing.
And then we also have analliance with the Mattawaska
Canoe Center, whitewater rafting, 25 minutes from the dome, and
I did some research on it and,again, we did an amazing video.
It's one of my most popularvideos and it's the Owl
(31:00):
Whitewater people in Ottawa.
They run that and then they runthis here in Mattawaska Valley,
which is like less than half anhour from the dome.
Wow, and we're building morealliances as people come on
board.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Location, location, location.
Exactly.
That's very cool.
Now, did you kind of luck outwith your location, or did you
buy this location, thinking ofthis project?
Speaker 1 (31:25):
No, jen bought it because it gave her the.
She worked in tech and works intech and you know, through
COVID there was that wholeflight out of the city.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
So she had family up this way and so she bought the
house off the former mayor ofMaynooth actually.
So it's a very small towncommunity, but it's amazing.
And then I met Jen just acouple years ago and come up and
then, like I said, we weresitting on the patio drinking
coffee, watching snowmobilersand ATVs go by and we're
thinking, well, how can wecapitalize?
Speaker 2 (31:57):
on this.
Well, I remember you called methat's right, right when you
were thinking about this idea?
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Oh, that could have been two years ago, eh yeah for
sure.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Well, it had to have been two years ago because at
the time I was actually on theAmaranth Township Council and
you must have been talking toAnge, or well, you called me
wondering about getting someadvice and I remember giving you
advice as far as the townshippermitting process and all of
(32:28):
that stuff, township permittingprocess and all of that stuff.
But I remember you calling meand I was thinking, wow, this is
a very interesting idea.
I wonder how it's going to turnout.
But for all intents andpurposes, man, you've knocked it
out of the park.
(32:53):
And the great thing about itthat I see that I've gathered
from this conversation and folks, rick and I, we've already done
one shoot together up on BuckLake, obakamika Lake or
something like that, at BuckLake Lodge, and we've had lots
of conversations to catch up.
But the thing that in ourconversation now that I see is
(33:20):
you're in a unique positionwhere you've already made
inroads building your first dome.
Yes, nobody else has made thoseinroads, not in Ontario.
Everybody else in ontario otherthan in your township are going
to run into the same problemsthat you did.
So for expansion.
(33:42):
Um, you and you mentionedyou're already, uh, approved for
more yes, and we have theinfrastructure already laid.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
All our trench work is done for our second dome or
A-frame.
We're still deciding what ournext project is going to be.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
So for the dome, like I mean, you've figured out the
part of that, so I think thatyour second build will be far
(34:19):
easier than your first.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Yeah, it will be, and we get asked a lot exactly
those questions.
People are either going to talkto the municipality or try to
get zoning, and there's morepeople in Ontario that I think
are really curious about us.
We get emails all the time andeven phone calls like how did
you do it?
Sort of thing.
We have a website calleddomeduncom.
(34:41):
Domeduncom is exactly that it'sa DIY.
It's a place where you canreach out to Jen and I and we're
just consultants for hire andwe can answer any questions you
have about the zoning and theconstruction and the ordering of
these domes.
So that's a little.
I got 25 side projects, butthat's another one of my side
(35:02):
projects and it supportsMiddletown Station Lodge.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
Hey, listen.
Well, whenever you're throwingspaghetti at the wall, you never
know what's going to stickright Spaghetti yeah, and that's
the thing.
The more irons in the fire, thebetter off you are.
Yeah, and that's awesome.
And how are you finding itlogistically Like having guests
(35:28):
coming in?
Obviously you're not talking tothe people.
They're letting themselves in,they're letting themselves in,
they're letting themselves outand your software, I'm assuming,
is intelligent enough to letyou know when they're gone.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
No, it's not.
Not when they leave, althoughwe're working on a solution for
that.
When they arrive, totally ittriggers the cameras on the road
and we can see that for sure.
I guess it triggers them on theway, for that, when they arrive
, totally it triggers thecameras on the road.
Yeah, and we can see that forsure.
I guess it triggers them on theway out too yeah.
So we have some cameras on theentrance road that leads up to
the top of the hill in theforest, and no cameras are up
there.
That's how we see it, so howlong is your turnover?
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Like you know, like there's logistics with all kinds
of different things.
Even though you're removing theguest interaction part out of
it, there's still a ton oflogistics.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
Precisely, and the turnover is the largest.
Hard cost, as you know, withany lodge, is turning over a
room or a cabin for the nextguest.
There's time, there's resources, there's the soap for the
laundry and there's money andthe dollar value has ranged
pretty broadly actually, fromsay, $40 to almost $90, actually
(36:47):
over $100.
If we hire an Airbnb service tocome in and clean the dome,
it's over $100 to turn it over,which is pretty substantial, but
it's actually kind of par forthe course.
You do have to, really you haveto be aware of that when you're
pricing what you're trying todo.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
Well, have you got any questions about that kind of
stuff?
Like I mean, I used to turnover a ton of people.
You had 16 or 18 cabins.
I had 15 cottages, 15, right, Iused to turn over a ton of
people, you had 16 or 18 cabins.
I had 15 cottages 15, right,yeah, yeah.
Well, 14 on the ChaudièreIsland and then one on the
island that I retain, that I ownnow, right, right, so I had 15
(37:27):
total cottages.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
I can't even imagine, steve, I can't even imagine.
I have a million questionsabout that, but it's all got to
do.
That's funny.
This week we have the bestguests.
They come in, they clean afterthemselves, we walk in, we just
stand there and we go.
All right, what do we do?
Like you do it back therechange the sheets and you're
done.
We had a guest this week.
It was a family.
They had young kids.
(37:48):
They had dirty dishes in thesink.
No, can you believe it?
Speaker 2 (37:53):
Like Jen and I, stared at each other for a
minute.
We, laughed.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
We were like we are so spoiled.
We've got the best guests ever,but we had to wash the dishes
and that took an extra 15minutes and we were so pissed
off Not the guests, we love theguests but the fact that we
hadn't had to do that in threeweeks just goes to show you how,
how, how streamlined we got itso we could turn over in in just
over half an hour.
Oh, that's amazing.
Which is kind of incredible,and that's working with the two
(38:18):
of us a solo, it's about 45minutes.
If we have to wash dishes, addanother few minutes.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
And then you, obviously you've got all of your
linens.
Well, that we can turn it overin 45 minutes.
But then the whole gettingready for the next guest, and of
course we're talking laundry.
You know, for one dome it'slike an hour and a half, but as
soon as you go, two domes, allof a sudden it's three hours out
of your day and then it's fourand then it's six hours.
Then it's the whole day, a weekspent doing all the back load of
(38:47):
laundry Like I can't evenimagine.
So we've got the one dome now.
We're enjoying this while wecan, yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
And and you can, there are ways to to scale that
up.
Like I mean, um, you can getmore laundry machines right.
Like I, um, uh, with all 14cottages we would typically be
changing over all on the sameday and not only changing over
on the same day.
Um, our changeovers had to bedone by 3 o'clock in the
(39:15):
afternoon and checkout wasn'tuntil 11 in the morning, so we
had between 11 and 3 tocompletely change over
Potentially 14 cabins, and a lotof times there were 14 cottages
.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
Just the way the lunches work and they're
bringing the boats and groups in.
That's right that's right.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
So, you know, we had um half a dozen washers and
dryers each.
We had um two, sometimes three,full sets of linens for all of
the beds on the island.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
Um, you know, and we were talking, uh, 44 beds that's
right, because you had eachcabin would have about up to
four singles.
Well, we, yes and then you canmake them into kings.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
We had that's right like we had, our largest
cottages were three bedrooms, sothere were six twins, uh, two
in each bedroom.
And, um, the way that we did it, every bed on the island was a
twin and there would be two ineach room.
But if you wanted a king bed,if you push two twins together,
(40:21):
and we had a seat belt systemwhere we would strap the
mattresses together so that youknow when somebody rolls to the
middle of the bed you didn'tfall in between them.
So we would have that with anice piece of foam, so you could
almost not tell that it was twobeds rather than a king.
(40:42):
And we would configure all thebeds the way that people wanted
them in the cottages and thenthat way, all we needed, as far
as our I'll call it material,were king sets and twin sets.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
But see, that adds another layer of time and
resource.
We're just talking aboutturnover and checkout, but what
you just described, you have acommunication with the guests
before they even arrive and youmay have to send a crew or
yourself to configure thesecabins the way your guests want
100%.
So I can't even imagine how youdo it, but I'm kind of new to
this.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
And those configurations would happen on
the turnover.
So we would have I would haveour calendar by week and every
cottage was listed on thatcalendar and then every day of
the week was on that on thatgrid.
So a week prior to and I wouldput them out in two week
(41:43):
calendars.
So every person on the staffwhether it be in the kitchen,
whether it was on the dock orwhether it was the housekeeper
servers they all knew who wascoming in next week and what
days they were coming in and howthe cottages were to be
configured.
So when they did a changeoverand a changeover folks just
means when people leave thecottage and new people come in
(42:07):
and you've got to.
My goal was always to make andthis actually come from Ange
Viola my goal was always to makeand this actually come from
Ange Viola make that cottagefeel as though when your guests
walk into it, it's the firsttime that anybody has ever been
in that cottage.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
That's incredible and actually I have Angelo Viola to
thank for a number of oursuccesses because, similar to
our story, he's traveled theworld.
He knows what he likes anddoesn't like.
One example that always comesup porcelain flushable toilets.
He's done with compost, toiletsare great, and Cinderella's,
(42:48):
and we investigated them all andwe ended up spending a
significant amount of our budgeton a commercial grade septic
system because I knew AngelaViola would want a flush toilet.
Wow, but you know what?
It's one of the things thateverybody says they can't
believe we've got and they loveit.
Yes, so Ange was right.
Yeah, I'll tell them that 100%.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
Wow, you're probably the only dome in the country
that has a porcelain flushtoilet.
Speaker 1 (43:14):
Oh, you're absolutely right Again, because people are
really skittish about zoningand stuff.
They have found a way around.
It is just by makingthree-season domes or not even
putting utilities in the dome,and the municipalities will
treat that more like a tent or atemporary structure.
And then sure, but then there'sno toilet, there's no bathroom,
the shower is outside.
And then sure, but then there'sno toilet, there's no bathroom,
there's no, the shower isoutside.
(43:34):
The toilet could be a pittoilet or an outhouse or
something outside of the dome ora shared comfort station, which
is.
I mean, I camped as a kid, Icamp now, nothing wrong with it,
but it's not the glampingexperience that Jen and I wanted
.
So, yeah, we have porcelaintoilets.
Speaker 2 (43:49):
And thanks Angela, yeah Well, toilets.
And thanks, angela, yeah Well.
Hey, listen, I with with thosefacilities.
That's something that I want todo Right, that's something that
I can feel confident that Iknow my wife will want to do.
Oh yeah, it's like, it's likeour cottage.
It's very quaint, it's a 1950Sears cottage kit, but we have
(44:15):
everything you need.
We've got a shower, we've got abeautiful bathroom with flush
toilet, septic system, yep, likeI mean, we've got internet,
we've got the tv, we've got andthat's just kind of new.
I was a little bit torn onwhether or not I was going to
put internet in there, becausemy kids are glued to it a lot,
but and not only the kids, it'severybody you know what that's?
Speaker 1 (44:37):
the glamping experience.
Buddy buddy.
People talk about unwinding anddetoxing and I'm sure there's a
reason for that.
A number of our guests havesaid we're going to come and
unwind and detox in the airconditioning with gigabit
internet, and they consider thata detox just the fact that they
got out of Toronto.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
Yeah, yeah, and that's true.
So, like I mean, the whole ideaof what you're doing is very
cool and I'm really proud ofwhat you've done as a good
friend of mine and jumped intosomething like this, because I
know we've not talked about howmuch it costs, but I've been,
(45:17):
and I don't know if you've evertold me, but with a septic
system, with everything thatyou've been, and I don't know if
you've ever told me, but with aseptic system, with everything
that you've done, the piles, thewhole deal, you've got to be 60
, 70,000.
Speaker 1 (45:32):
That's a great guess.
We're under 100,000, but thatalso included the infrastructure
for the second dome as well,gotcha.
But yeah, you're almost righton the money, it was under
$100,000.
And we did spend more on thesort of engineering and we spent
more on, yeah, the septic.
Speaker 2 (45:50):
Getting the septic system in that wasn't cheap,
like a lot of these domes thatyou were talking about previous
to that.
I would be floored if theyinvested any more than 20 Gs on
them.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
Oh, there are a number.
Yeah, there's a couple inOntario that seem to stagnate.
They either ran out of money orthe municipality shut them down
.
There's a number of domeprojects, actually very close,
within 100 kilometers of wherewe are now in Algonquin, that
aren't open yet.
They've been under constructionfor years and, yeah, the
quality of them it's that thinPVC, it's the single pane glass
(46:25):
which doesn't work in Canada,and they're not open yet because
there's no magic, there's nopizzazz, there's no.
Again, going back to my Disney,having worked at Disney and
then traveled to Disney, I havea very high.
I set the bar high with what Iwanted a glamping experience to
be and, yeah, you're right,nobody's really done it in
(46:48):
Ontario.
Speaker 2 (46:49):
And the key to your success and the key to my
success in retrospect isabsolutely what you just said
experience, Exactly.
It said, experience Exactly.
It's the experience and thefact that you've got total
privacy on a small mountain inthe Halliburton Highlands.
Speaker 1 (47:11):
All right, let me qualify for that.
There are no mountains inOntario, no, but we are in the
Halliburton Highlands and it isa high part of the Halliburton
Highlands A beautiful.
Speaker 2 (47:21):
You're overlooking a beautiful valley.
Speaker 1 (47:24):
We are.
There's a beautiful.
The Papineau Creek runs just atthe bottom of the valley and
then you turn around 180 degreesand walk about a kilometer and
you're in downtown.
Downtown, you're in the fourcorners of Maynooth.
You have a cafe, you haveantique shops.
It's a very quaint little town.
Speaker 2 (47:41):
I'm assuming it's a beautiful town.
Speaker 1 (47:42):
And a lot of people drive through it to get to
Algonquin but they don't knowwhat it is and they don't
necessarily stop.
But that's already changed.
I'm going to toot my horn for aminute.
There was literally a post thatjust happened on Facebook, on
the Maynooth business Facebookpage, and they're like oh my god
, our, our traffic has increaseda thousand percent and, uh,
(48:03):
people are checking in fromaround the world and what is
happening in manuth?
And I've got to be quiet, okay,I'm gonna shoot my heart with
you.
Yeah, what is happening inmanuth.
That has, uh, brought someattention that now all
businesses are benefiting fromthe caliber and the quality of
(48:24):
guests that we're bringing intothe community.
One example that I'll give wehad an executive from Toronto
who worked in the softwarebusiness and she just wanted to
get away and she booked the domefor four or five days, showed
up in this beautiful whiteporsche convertible, like it was
.
It's on our website, you cansee it.
She let us post it.
(48:45):
It's the most beautiful car andit's parked right next to our
dome.
It's incredible.
Well, she made an impression onthe entire village of manuth.
She would buy the pastries atthe sunrun and then she went to
the arlington, which is the bigpurple palace um pub hostel in
Maynooth as well.
She went there twice actuallyand got to know all the regulars
, and all the townies were like,oh there, she's back.
(49:06):
No way, pull up in this porchand buy a pizza and take it back
to the dome and eat this pizzalike in her dome just relaxing.
We have made a great impressionon the community and I'm really
proud of what we've done.
Speaker 2 (49:22):
Well, um, you know what they say all ships rise
with the tide and and when you,when you start um um doing
wonderful things and hooking upwith all of these other little
businesses, all of thosebusinesses benefit, and it's not
just one way, it's all ways itgoes, both ways it's all ways
(49:43):
right, and that is also the keyto great business and small
business and making smallbusiness in this country work,
because it's a very difficultthing these days to make
anything work in this countrywith the way that our political
climate is and um, um, I've beenin small business basically for
(50:07):
most of my life and um, and,and it takes a special kind of
person to be able to just say,to hell with it, um, I'm doing
it and and make it work and andthat's what you've done, and
congratulations.
Speaker 1 (50:23):
Well, thanks, steve, and, like I said, we set the bar
high.
Knowing people like you andAnge, and just Jen and I with
our travels, we set the bar high.
But thank you, thank you forthe advice you gave us years ago
, and here we are today, in 2025, talking about a project that
is complete.
(50:44):
It's a success and we'relooking on what to do next.
Speaker 2 (50:48):
Yeah, yeah, and it's a success.
Very quickly, like I mean,since you've been, I'm
dumbfounded at how well it'sbooking for you and I'm really
excited because, you know, if Iwas in your shoes, I'd already
be looking at the plans for thenext one for sure.
You know, like, and hey, listen, it's a huge investment that
(51:11):
you made into the business butit's starting to pay off and you
can actually kind of put somenumbers together to figure
things out.
And when you're the best andwhen you start, see, the key is
to start with the best.
Look at everybody else and takethe best of the best.
And if you can start on topwith your facility and have the
(51:36):
idea of the experience that youwant to provide for people, and
that experience, even thoughyou're not directly interacting
with a lot of your guests Someof them, I think, you are- and
I'll ask where's the liquorstore and they'll text us
occasionally.
But you're still building anexperience for them.
(51:59):
But you're still building anexperience for them by making
available this web ofamazingness that they can
experience when they're there.
Just you know, sitting.
An idea that I'm really wishingI could enjoy right this moment
(52:23):
would be sitting in a hot tuband looking at the stars.
Oh, my friend, and maybe notright in this moment, like I
mean, it is July the idea ofdoing that in January is much
more appealing to me.
Oh yeah, but just the littlethings.
You know stargazing, and you'rein the middle of a beautiful
(52:44):
boreal forest.
You are, like I mean, you're atAlgonquin, you've got the
high-end side-by-sidefour-wheeling ATVing guys there,
whitewater rafting, crazy.
Like I mean, it's a wonderful,wonderful business model.
Speaker 1 (53:03):
Incredible community and I feel as if there's all
these parts that were alwaysthere but we needed somebody to
connect them and, as you'vealluded to, which I will allude
to, government is not our bestfriend.
If you're waiting for them topromote you, you're going to
wait a long time.
They're probably not going todo you justice.
(53:25):
Now we've had some greatexperience with the local
Hastings Highlands Tourism Board.
They've been actuallyincredible with helping us.
The local funding through CFDCit's a federal sort of funding
agency.
Again, those arecommunity-based government,
maybe arm's length government orgovernment-government agencies.
They were great.
(53:46):
But overall it's so much moresatisfying if you can get people
together that share your commonvision of what something could
be and gosh even like the localcampgrounds.
We're so friends with them andyou know, we can offer it, we're
(54:06):
all in it together.
We, you know, even when we haveour second dome, it's only going
to be two domes, like it's notgoing to be a stretch for us to
sell out.
So we need to be able to buildrelationships with the local
hotels and campgrounds andhostels and everything else
which we've done and we'rereally proud of that.
Speaker 2 (54:21):
Good for you.
So tell all the Diaries familyout there again where to look
for you, how to get a hold ofyou, how to book in and just
make sure you reiterate yourwebsite and all of that stuff
Perfect.
Speaker 1 (54:38):
So if anyone's interested in getting into the
glamping business, domedonecomD-O-M-E-D-O-N-E dot com is where
you can book Jen and I toanswer any questions you've got
and we've kind of done it all.
We are at Manuth Station Lodge.
You can go tomanuthstationlodgeca and we have
links to all of our socials.
I'm kind of proud of it.
(55:01):
Our TikTok really exploded.
So if you're on TikTok you wantto watch some fun videos on
everything from installing thatseptic system to the day that
the shipping container arrivedand couldn't get up our hill,
and what a disaster that was.
We documented everything.
So if you're interested in sortof the reality and the behind
the scenes of the glampingexperience, manoustationlodgeca
(55:22):
and check out our socials and,like I say, reach out to us if
you have any questions.
Speaker 2 (55:27):
We'd love to talk about it.
Thanks, buddy, I can't wait toget there myself for sure.
And folks, that brings us tothe point where we're going to
send you over tofishingcanadacom and check out
the giveaways.
Now, listen, I've just heardthrough the grapevine that our
giveaways right now are a littlelight in the loafers.
(55:49):
But you got to go and watchbecause I'm not 100% sure.
But I've heard rumor aboutpossibly a boat and motor Boat,
motor and trailer thatpotentially could be going up
there.
So keep your eyes peeled forthat and all the merch over
(56:11):
there you can get.
It's wonderful.
And, of course, thank you toLakeside Marine in Red Lake
Ontario.
They are a wonderful supporterof the Diaries family.
And, of course, thank you toLakeside Marine in Red Lake,
ontario.
They are a wonderful supporterof the Diaries family and we
really appreciate you guys upthere for absolutely
second-to-none service.
(56:32):
It's ridiculous.
And also, night Night Nixonyeah, I still remember you,
buddy, and all you folks outthere.
You know, nixon, he's our uh,he's our little diaries fellow
that listens to me when he goesto sleep every night.
So, uh, thanks, buddy.
And lastly, thank you to all ofyou that have got to this point
(56:56):
listening.
I really appreciate it.
It helps so much keeping thispodcast going and like and
subscribe and comment and youknow you can get me at steveann
at fishincanadacom with anyquestions and comments as well
(57:18):
and we really appreciate it.
And, rick, thank you so muchfor doing this.
Speaker 1 (57:22):
You're very welcome, Steve.
Let's change the world.
Speaker 2 (57:26):
Absolutely, buddy.
I love it.
Let's change the world.
And thus brings us to theconclusion of another episode of
Diaries of a Lodge Owner.
Stories of the North.
I'm a good old boy, Nevermeanin' no harm a lodge.
Speaker 4 (58:02):
And that'd be fine.
Speaker 3 (58:05):
I'll be making my way , the only way I know how.
Speaker 2 (58:13):
Working hard and sharing the north With all of my
pals.
Well, I'm a good old boy.
I bought a good old boy, I buythe lodge and live my dream, and
now I'm here talking about howlife can be as good as it seems,
yeah.
Speaker 3 (58:37):
Hi everybody.
I'm Angelo Viola and I'm PeteBowman.
Now you might know us as thehosts of Canada's favorite
fishing show, but now we'rehosting a podcast.
That's right.
Every Thursday, Angelo and Iwill be right here in your ears
bringing you a brand new episodeof Outdoor Journal Radio.
Hmm, Now, what are we going totalk about for two hours every
week?
Well, you know, there's goingto be a lot of fishing.
Speaker 4 (58:58):
I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and
how to catch them, and they wereeasy to catch.
Speaker 3 (59:03):
Yeah, but it's not just a fishing show.
We're going to be talking topeople from all facets of the
outdoors, from athletes, All theother guys would go golfing Me,
and Garth and Turk and all theRussians would go fishing To
scientists.
But now that we're reforesting-and letting things freeze.
Speaker 4 (59:19):
It's the perfect transmission environment for
life.
Speaker 6 (59:23):
To chefs If any game isn't cooked properly, marinated
, you will taste it.
Speaker 3 (59:29):
And whoever else will pick up the phone Wherever you
are.
Outdoor Journal Radio seeks toanswer the questions and tell
the stories of all those whoenjoy being outside.
Speaker 5 (59:42):
Find us on Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever you
get your podcasts.
As the world gets louder andlouder, the lessons of our
natural world become harder andharder to hear, but they are
still available to those whoknow where to listen.
I'm Jerry Ouellette and I washonoured to serve as Ontario's
Minister of Natural Resources.
(01:00:04):
However, my journey into thewoods didn't come from politics.
Rather, it came from my time inthe bush and a mushroom.
In 2015, I was introduced tothe birch-hungry fungus known as
chaga, a tree conch withcenturies of medicinal use by
Indigenous peoples all over theglobe.
(01:00:26):
After nearly a decade of harvestuse, testimonials and research,
my skepticism has faded toobsession and I now spend my
life dedicated to improving thelives of others through natural
means.
But that's not what the show isabout.
My pursuit of the strangemushroom and my passion for the
outdoors has brought me to theplaces and around the people
(01:00:48):
that are shaped by our naturalworld.
On Outdoor Journal Radio'sUnder the Canopy podcast, I'm
going to take you along with meto see the places and meet the
people that will help you findyour outdoor passion and help
you live a life close to natureand under the canopy.
Find Under the Canopy now onSpotify, apple Podcasts or
(01:01:10):
wherever else you get yourpodcasts.
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