July 21, 2025 • 50 mins
Ever wondered what it takes to build the foundation for our clean energy future? This episode dives deep into the fascinating world of industrial construction with a personal twist as Jerry welcomes his son Garrett home from Alberta for a father-son catchup that reveals surprising insights into tomorrow's energy infrastructure.
Garrett, a red seal ironworker specializing in rebar installation, shares his experiences working on Edmonton's groundbreaking net zero hydrogen production facility—one of only five industrial hydrogen plants globally and the only one in Canada. As we discover, this massive project represents Alberta's strategic pivot toward sustainable energy while leveraging its existing industrial expertise. Through Garrett's detailed explanations, we gain rare perspective on the engineering marvels supporting these structures, from 500-ton concrete foundations to specialized reinforcement techniques designed to withstand Canada's extreme northern climate.
The conversation offers a fascinating glimpse into how traditional energy regions are adapting to climate challenges. Rather than abandoning existing industrial capacity, Alberta is transforming potential waste products from oil refining into clean hydrogen fuel for transportation. With approximately 50 hydrogen vehicles already operating in Edmonton and plans to expand to 500, this project represents a practical bridge between today's energy economy and tomorrow's sustainable solutions.
Beyond the industrial insights, father and son share practical wisdom from their cottage life experiences, including an ingenious solution for off-grid cooling using portable mini air conditioners powered by phone battery packs. These personal touches highlight the podcast's core theme: finding practical, innovative solutions to life's challenges, whether building massive industrial facilities or simply staying comfortable during humid summer nights at the cottage.
Have you considered how hydrogen might fit into our energy future? Or perhaps you're curious about practical solutions for off-grid living? Join the conversation by sharing your thoughts and questions in the comments section below!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
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,ang and I will be right here in
your ears bringing you a brandnew episode of Outdoor Journal
Radio.
Now what?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
are we going?
Speaker 1 (00:19):
to talk about for two hours every week.
Well, you know there's going tobe a lot of fishing.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and
how to catch them, and they wereeasy to catch.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
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 the.
Russians would go fishing.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
To scientists.
But now that we're reforesting-and laying things free.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
It's the perfect transmission environment for
life.
Speaker 5 (00:47):
To chefs If any game isn't cooked properly, marinated
, you will taste it.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
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.
Find us on Spotify, applePodcasts or wherever you get
your podcasts.
Speaker 6 (01:15):
As the world gets louder and louder, the lessons
of our natural world becomeharder and harder to hear, but
they are still available tothose who know where to listen.
I'm Jerry Ouellette and I washonoured to serve as Ontario's
Minister of Natural Resources.
However, my journey into thewoods didn't come from politics.
(01:36):
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
applications used by Indigenouspeoples all over the globe.
After nearly a decade ofharvest use, testimonials and
(01:59):
research, my skepticism hasfaded to obsession and I now
spend my life dedicated toimproving the lives 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
that are shaped by our naturalworld.
(02:20):
On Outdoor Journal Radio'sUnder the Canopy podcast, I'm
going to take you along with meto see the places, meet the
people that will help you findyour outdoor passion and help
you live a life close to natureand under the canopy.
So join me today for anothergreat episode, and hopefully we
(02:40):
can inspire a few more people tolive their lives under the
canopy.
We can inspire a few morepeople to live their lives under
the canopy.
All right, well, I hope all iswell and, as always, if anybody
has any comments or questions orneeds to hear a show or wants
any suggestions, I know I had aninquiry about our one of the
(03:03):
shows.
I did I think it was with Lexi,I think and we talked about a
bug attractant that was killingmosquitoes en masse and it was
worked off, ran off propane, butthe D-cell battery one went.
It worked way better.
To be honest, the one that runssolely off propane isn't that
(03:25):
great for a mosquito attractant.
So we've got to try a couple ofothers.
Of course we've got the PIXgoing and the little badminton
racket sort of things that workfantastic in getting rid of
mosquitoes in camp and stufflike that.
But there's a lot of differentthings out there and we've tried
quite a few.
And we got one of those lightsnow where, when the generator is
(03:46):
running, when we're in our camp, what we do is we have this bug
light going and it attracts andtakes mosquitoes in because
they're attracted to thisparticular light and it blows
them in into a little trap andkills them off and it seems to
be working pretty good.
But you've got to run thegenerator to run that one and
I'm not sure about a batterypack, if there's things that
(04:06):
could run that.
But we're back with my son, myregular, my guest, my sidekick
on the program Garrett's in fromAlberta.
Welcome back out of the programGarrett.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Hey, it's good to be back.
Thank you for having me.
As always, it's always nice tocome home and see friends and
family.
I know I've had a bit of a busytime already, with a lot of
errands and catching up and alot of things on the go right
now, so glad to be back here, ofcourse.
Speaker 6 (04:32):
So, garrett, tell us one of the things you lost a bet
or you sucked enough in afootball pool and now you got to
pay for it.
What do you got to do as yourpunishment for being last in
your football pool?
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Well, to start, my excuse is all my main guys got
injured pretty early in theseason so I was down and out
with my first five picks beingplaced on the IAR already.
So I'm going to say that as myexcuse.
But no, I've got to run a halfmarathon.
It's coming up on the 6th here.
So just uh, in five days or so.
(05:07):
But I'm sure people uh won'tknow about it because this will
probably air after.
But just letting you guys know,uh, probably anticipating to be
in a lot of pain after, becauseI uh had a grade two hamstring
pull about two months ago andI've never ran a marathon in
general before.
But you know, I played rugbyand all these sports as a kid.
(05:28):
So I'm hoping to be fine andhoping that the 12-hour work
days I've been doing out inAlberta, and the 10-hour days as
well, have been making up forthe endurance I need for it.
But yeah, I got a half marathoncoming up.
I had a great two hamstringpull so I haven't been able to
really run at all for the lasttwo months.
But yeah, I'm going to berunning a marathon here.
Speaker 6 (05:48):
Oh yeah, excuses, excuses, just like always, never
got ready.
You could have been walking andgetting ready, at least to kind
of skip and hop and skip andhop and do stuff like that.
But it'll be interesting to seewhat happens with this half
marathon.
So tell us, garrett, what areyou working at in Alberta right
now?
Because I know you're workingon Site C in British Columbia,
(06:11):
which was Canada's largest hydrodam, and then you're working on
a potash mine in Saskatchewan.
And what are you doing now inAlberta?
Speaker 2 (06:20):
And whereabouts are you in Alberta.
So at first I was working inCalgary there, just a couple of
small apartment buildings,things kind of going up as work
outside and bigger jobs a littlebit slower.
But um, there's a new projectgoing on edmonton they got a
call for about a month ago nowand it's the uh net zero
hydrogen product or a productionuh facility out in edmonton.
(06:42):
So their goal is toindustrialize the production of
hydrogen so we can use that tofuel vehicles and at the time
when they're telling us aboutthe information there on this
project, it's looking to becompleted in about 2027.
They're looking at they havecurrently have, I think it's 50
(07:03):
hydrogen cars in Edmonton rightnow and most of them are just
kind of like running errandsfrom the airport kind of thing.
They have a taxi service, veryminuscule stuff, but they're
starting to get really big,especially because this project
we're working on is, I think,one of only five industrial
level hydrogen products acrossthe world and it's the only one
in Canada right now, to myknowledge, and that's what they
(07:25):
also said during the informationwhen they talk about this
project there.
So I would say they're out ofthe ground now, like there's a
few things left that are goingon, but they're really starting
to get production going there.
They've got a lot of thestructural things.
They've got a lot of the boilermakers are on site doing all
the pressure containers andeverything else and the big
tanks and stuff.
(07:46):
So it's an interesting project,that's for sure.
But yeah, it should be prettysteady work there for probably
another year or two.
Speaker 6 (07:54):
So now hydrogen.
You called it net zero.
So a couple of things Is this aprovincial project or is it
independent companies?
And one of the other thingsthat Garrett, I recall I met
when I was with Bill Saundersonwas the minister of I think it
was economic development andtrade and he was meeting in
Oshawa with the president ofGeneral Motors and I asked about
(08:17):
that and at that time thiswould be about 99-2000, that
General Motors had I think itwas a half a dozen hydrogen
vehicles that they were actuallytesting in the States and I
think it cost them a milliondollars at that time per vehicle
to get them going to try andsee if they could develop
hydrogen for their vehicles.
So in other words, and here weare in 2025, it's a long process
(08:41):
to get going.
So is it just like a provincialthing and are they using water
to develop their hydrogen or doyou know?
Speaker 2 (08:49):
So why it's net zero?
To answer your first questionthere is because they're looking
at doing zero emissions.
So they're taking in all thepollution and toxins that are
going to be produced from it andthat's what's going to be
causing the production ofhydrogen.
So they're going to be takingin, especially in Edmonton
because it's a very oil-basedarea there.
They're going to take all thehydrogen that they extract from
(09:12):
the process of oil and crude oiland things like that and things
when they go through theirsteps of refinery.
That's what's going to be.
The net zero is it's going tobe releasing zero pollution out
into the environment.
So that's why it's net zero.
So the second part of yourquestion there.
So you're asking like how theindustrial, like the production
(09:33):
of it, how it's supposed to beaffecting it's supposed to get
bigger or not?
So they're looking at gettingabout 500 cars going after,
which is, I say, a healthynumber based on the fact that
technology isn't quite there yet.
I know they had a hydrogenproduct or productions they're
trying to aim for inNewfoundland, but they said that
(09:55):
they're about forNewfoundland's area and the
production there.
They're about 10, 12 years out,give or take, before they can
really start making itworthwhile to do it.
So here it's just it's a slowproduction but because
everything's already kind ofgoing for Edmonton right now,
for all the oil production, likethe hydrogen makes sense
(10:16):
because it's more or less it'skind of like a byproduct of
everything else that's going onthere.
So they're kind of capturethese and use it as fuel.
Speaker 6 (10:23):
Yeah, most of the hydrogen plants that I'm aware
of, we're using the water astheir basis, so they separate
H2O, which is hydrogen, andoxygen, and guess what?
You get an overabundance ofoxygen.
Not that we need that, or do we?
And then they use the hydrogento run their vehicles with and
their emissions would bevirtually water coming out the
(10:44):
tailpipe with no problems at all.
So I think, from my perspective, alberta moving forward with
that, being an oil-basedprovince where their income is
basically generated from theproduction of oil and the sale
of oil, to develop hydrogen is alot of foresight from them, and
(11:05):
I recall the Premier, danielSmith, making statements about
that.
They wanted to move not so muchto electric vehicles but to
hydrogen vehicles, and it's goodto see that that province is
moving forward with that BecauseI think in my opinion, that's a
good way to go and will be farmore beneficial than EVs, with
(11:26):
all the things that go on withelectric vehicles and the
batteries and the production ofthose batteries, etc.
Etc.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Yeah, absolutely, and it is provincial, but I believe
it's also federally funded forthis project as well.
Obviously, I'm not that youknow above my pay grade, above
my desk kind of thing to know,like the exact details there,
but I know it is a public fundedproject as well.
Speaker 6 (11:52):
So what exactly is your job, garrett, that you're
doing, and give people whohaven't heard some of our other
podcasts together exactly whatyou do and what's your function
and where you're a journey redseal journeyman um.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
So my profession is we.
I fall under the category ofiron worker, um, to be more
exact, I am a rod buster.
So rod busting is rebar.
So we think of or think ofanything structures you see with
concrete and think of like thehuman body, so the bones of your
body is what rebar is toconcrete.
So we add all the stability,the structure and everything
(12:28):
else to give concrete thatadditional strength so it
doesn't break or snap or crumblekind of thing.
It helps keep all the pressures, especially with shifting
weights.
And, for example, in Alberta andI guess in just Northern Canada
in general, we have to put in alot of additional heavier grade
steel because they have suchthings as free and thaw
conditions.
So, for example, what we'redoing is we're doing these
(12:50):
massive slabs that are probablyeasily like right around.
I would say at least 500 tonsper portion of the slab.
So we did two portions in onemonth there.
So we did 1,000 tons of steel.
And what I'm doing is we areputting the grid system out.
(13:12):
So think of like a checkerboardand all the separate between
the black and white tiles.
There's a little space there.
That's where rebar is going togo to add support for each of
those tiles and then take thatto a much larger scale and much
more industrial size scale aswell.
So the bars we're putting in is35m bars, which the lengths
we're putting is also 18 meterslong, so each bar is over 200
(13:32):
pounds give or take.
Um, it also depends I don'tknow if we're using 500 grade or
400 grade steel, which justmeans just the strength of the
steel is much more, uh, strongerat a 500 grade compared to a
400 grade.
For people that don't know thedensity and stuff like that of
the metals.
Speaker 6 (13:50):
But I believe, is there not a stainless rebar as
well?
Speaker 2 (13:54):
There is stainless rebar as well.
Stainless is very expensive butmost of the time they only use
that in bridge work and othersmall portions maybe sidewalks
as well because they have ahigher exposure to water or to
say runoff water, so they reallywant to stop rusting so it
deteriorates the bridge a lotslower.
So they'll put stainless steelin those situations, whereas the
job I'm doing they're notreally designed to be exposed to
(14:17):
such vast amounts of waterconstantly.
So we're just using what theycall is unmarked steel or black
steel kind of thing, which isjust pretty much just a
standardized basic rebar.
I just didn't.
I don't know the density of itor the grade of the steel, so if
it's a 400 or 500.
I know there's new stuff comingout as well for a much stronger
(14:38):
steel so you can reduce thesize of it because it's much
more dense.
But that's stuff that'sprobably going to be a little
bit more out in the future herebefore that starts getting in
mass production as well.
But yeah, I'm a red steel ironworker, I'm a rod buster and
yeah, I've been at that job forabout a month or so now and I've
been doing rod like rebar forabout eight years or so, and
(14:58):
it's a lot of work, like everyday you're picking up like 10,
15 tons of steel per person andyou know, sometimes the one
person's packing up people aretying kind of thing, and by
tying I mean they're notactually like tying your
shoelaces, they are wrapping thesteel up in wire and twisting
it together to lock all theinterlocking steel, because
there's like a bottom layer anda top layer to it to keep it all
(15:19):
together.
Speaker 6 (15:21):
Well, I know you're helping your buddy, simon, when
he was doing a I think it was abasement pour or a patio pour or
something like that, and wherethey were putting the rebar was
in the wrong spot until youshowed them, and so stuff like
that.
How does the rebar actuallysupport?
Or where do you put it?
Say, when eventually we get tomy sauna, where we have to pour
(15:42):
the concrete for the sauna atthe camp or the cottage, where
do you put the rebar and how doyou tie it up and how does that
work?
Speaker 2 (15:50):
So when I was helping my buddy Simon there, so he was
doing like a cantilever slab,and a cantilever slab is
something that just overhangswithout a post underneath it.
So think of like a balcony offa building or some kind of
structure that hangs out withnothing supporting it directly
underneath.
So with that you think of justthink of gravity and it's like
(16:10):
gravity's pulling it on thatfarthest point.
So think of a door hinge.
If you were to push, take onefinger and push it from the
farthest point of the door, it'smuch easier to push that door
open and close.
But if you were to take it andpush it right where the hinge is
, it takes a vast amount offorce compared to the outside to
push that door close.
Same thing kind of applieswithin concrete rebar.
(16:32):
So when he was doing it, it'slike you need to really
strengthen that outside edge ofthe door because that's where
all the pressure is going to be,like going pulling down, cause
it's easier, easier to take thedoor, flip it horizontal, right,
so you're going up and down.
Now that's where all thepressure is because it's
overhanging.
So you have to strengthen asthat wants to pull down.
(16:54):
The snapping part is going tobe on top of the slab so you
have to really strengthen thetop steel of it as well as the
very far edge of it.
So I told him, like you know,don't worry so much about the
bottom, like, put a little bitin just to kind of keep it
stable, but you're going to needmore pressure on the top of
that that slab there.
So I helped him out there andthen help them out with.
He was pouring a patio slab justfor his, his house he was
(17:16):
building, and that was verybasic because it was.
It was a suspended slab, so youdon't need a lot because it
also wasn't going to take a lotof pressure.
But yeah, just a standard slab.
I put out a grid system for himat 150 there.
So 150 mils apart, which isspacing, and we used 15M, which
would add more than enoughstability for what it needs,
because in Canada we designthings to be built at 100 times
(17:39):
the necessary weight.
Speaker 6 (17:49):
So whenever I say this building is supposed to
hold up simple numbers here athousand pounds.
We're going to make sure it canhold withstand 10,000 pounds,
just because.
Well.
So what exactly, then, are youdoing for this net zero hydrogen
thing?
And are you pouring slabs thatare on the ground, or how does
that play out and what are youdoing there?
Speaker 2 (18:03):
So for this, for that project there, it slabs on the
ground which is going to justmore or less support all the
structure and all the weight ofthe big tanks or all the piping
that work.
It's quite the fun thing to seewhen it's completed.
There's other oil fields andrefineries out there that you
see and you're just like all theinterlocking piping work and
(18:25):
the network of grid, all thestructure, the structural steel,
the pressures it needs towithstand and take.
It's going to be a lot ofweight on the ground.
So these slabs we're doingthey're about roughly a meter
thick Probably.
I think one of them, I think,was 1,200, so a meter and a bit
thick there for a slab.
(18:47):
And we have about I think therewas like 30 or 40 slabs that are
going on there.
They each are right aroundabout 500 tons give or so, um.
So it's quite a fair bit andmore or less it just adds a base
and a foundation to allow thosebuildings to sit on.
And the other thing is theslabs that we're doing have what
(19:07):
we call is a hairpin, and ahairpin concept is something
that it's a bar that's going totie from your top mat to your
bottom mat, which is a meter anda bit apart, bottom at which is
a meter and a bit apart.
And we're doing that around theperimeter because of all the
freeze, thaw conditions and theway the pressure is going to be
out, especially with even likeearth pressure and like upwards
earth force.
And if people don't understandthat, take like your hand and
(19:30):
kind of like put all all four ofyour fingers on your thumb and
try and like extend your hand asmuch as you can so, as it says
it's sitting tall, those fingersare going to act like piles and
then all that ground underneathis going to be forcing up.
So think of stepping in mud asthat.
You put your foot in mud, allthat mud wants to ooze up.
That's all the upward forcepressure.
(19:51):
Now you take that and magnifyit by you know, hundreds of
thousands of pounds of pressure.
We have to make a slap strongenough to support that, that
weight or that force being upthere and then all the weight on
top of it to keep it all level.
Speaker 6 (20:04):
So that's one of the concepts of rebar is just adding
stability, even from like earthpressure and stuff like that so
you've mentioned somethingthere which I learned when I was
minister of natural resources,garrett was the oak ridges
marine, which is basically asmall when the glaciers came in,
they deposited, they left likea moraine or kind of a row of
(20:28):
hills as they retreated, andthat actually puts pressure on
the ground and I didn't realizethat.
And that pressure on the groundforces springs up.
Um, at the on the outskirts, oras you lead into, uh, go up,
like we have the oak ridgesmarine.
So at the north end of oshawayou go up, uh, this, this, this
(20:49):
ridge, and that ridge actuallyputs force on the ground which
forces springs up.
And so all around the oakridges, in areas you're going to
get springs popping up, wherefresh water comes down, falls
down through the and seeps inthrough the moraine, the ridge,
and then the pressure of thatforces it and causes springs,
(21:10):
which was something I had noidea about to deal with.
So when you're talking about thekettle lakes, which is
basically there's nothingfeeding them except the springs
come in.
So it's a series of lakes thatare all that are just in one
spot, like a lot of lakes.
For example, I was looking atEels Creek, I believe it was
(21:32):
that feeds into Stoney Lake orEels Lake.
It's not the same when you getthe pressure from these ridges
or these moraines, forcing waterup and causing small pockets of
lakes or ponds and things likethat, and that's something that
the pressure of the, the ridgeputting on the ground, causes,
which I had no idea about.
So, and how long is it going totake?
And how long can you work atthis garrison?
(21:53):
What about in the winter months?
Can you do your pour?
And how big?
When you say, I understand thatyou, you're talking about three
, or, uh, was it three metersthick or a meter thick?
And then, uh, how big wouldthese slabs be?
Speaker 2 (22:07):
um, so these are all like it's they're considering
like footing slabs or a raftslab, if people understand that,
as a raft slab is just more orless a ton of steel at, say, the
bottom of, like an apartmentbuilding that help design and
take a lot of pressure or a lotof weight shifting things like
that.
So these slabs are roughly.
I think we had about so there'sone, two, three, four shots, so
(22:33):
about four shots of 15 meters.
So these slabs are going to beabout 60 meters long and I think
it was one, two, three, four,five, six.
Yeah, so 60 meters long byroughly 90 meters, as as wide
kind of thing is.
That's roughly the size of thesome of the slabs we're doing
there.
There's a lot of smaller onesas well, but this one, like the
(22:54):
ones that were brought up for,are going to be relatively
really big in size.
Um, as I'm pretty sure the oneswe're doing are designed for the
tankers to sit on.
So this is where all like a lotof the condensed weight is
going to be on the slabs we'redoing up there for right now and
for work-wise for us, for rebarwork probably got, I would say,
the rest of summer, winter it'salways hit or miss because
(23:17):
there's certain rules andapplications that need to be
applied, especially for pouringconcrete.
They call it heating andhoarding, so you have to keep
the concrete at a certaintemperature range for it to cure
properly.
But heating and hoarding costsa lot of money because it's
constantly running propaneheaters, insulating everything
up, all the materials.
It takes to get a big tentsystem over it to to keep the
(23:38):
concrete, keep it all warm whileyou pour it, and all that money
costs a lot like costs a hugecharge actually on the companies
to do that stuff.
Um, I know certain places theydon't necessarily pour bridges
because bridges are too hard tokeep protected from the elements
as they're pouring.
Especially when you're up inedmonton or around saskatchew,
(23:59):
the temperatures there werereaching like minus 50.
Even worse with the wind chillas well.
So for them to keep that at acertain temperature range for
that concrete to cure it takes alot of time and effort and
materials for it.
So because this is probably apublic funded project, I would
anticipate that they are goingto be having work through the
winter.
I'm just not too sure aboutconcrete work for the rebar
(24:20):
stuff, but they are going toprobably continue through the
work there, as this is kind oflike we need to get the job done
quicker, sooner than later.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
Back in 2016, Frank and I had a vision To amass the
single largest database ofmuskie angling education
material anywhere in the world.
Speaker 5 (24:43):
Our dream was to harness the knowledge of this
amazing community and share itwith passionate anglers just
like you.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
Thus the Ugly Pike podcast was born and quickly
grew to become one of the topfishing podcasts in North
America.
Speaker 5 (25:00):
Step into the world of angling adventures and
embrace the thrill of the catchwith the Ugly Pike podcast.
Join us on our quest tounderstand what makes us
different as anglers and touncover what it takes to go
after the infamous fish of10,000 casts.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
The Ugly Pike podcast isn't just about fishing.
It's about creating atight-knit community of
passionate anglers who share thesame love for the sport,
(25:32):
Through laughter, throughcamaraderie and an We'll see you
next time.
Speaker 6 (25:44):
And now it's time for another testimonial, for Chaga
Health and Wellness.
Okay, here we are in Lindsaywith Bill, who's actually?
This gentleman has given bloodover 230 times.
You're right, 233.
233, and that's amazing, andyou've had some success with
Chaga.
Tell us what you're dealingwith and what you did and what
(26:07):
you used.
Speaker 7 (26:11):
Well, I had mild high blood pressure.
It wasn't very really high, butI was on medication for a few
years and then I quit drinkingcoffee and started drinking this
tea, the combination tea, thegreen and the chaga Right, and
my medication is gone.
Speaker 6 (26:28):
Your medication's gone, gone and you couldn't give
blood during the other times.
Speaker 7 (26:32):
Yeah, I could, oh, you could I could yeah?
But a few times the machinekicked me out.
Oh yeah, but now it doesn'tanymore.
Speaker 6 (26:40):
So you think the green tea and the chaga helped
normalize your blood pressures?
Speaker 7 (26:46):
Oh yeah, oh very good , because it wouldn't be just
stopping coffee, it would haveto be something else.
Speaker 6 (26:51):
And that's the only thing you did different.
Yeah Well, thank you very muchfor that.
Speaker 7 (26:55):
My blood pressure is probably that of a 40-year-old
man, and I'm 71.
Speaker 6 (26:59):
Oh, very good.
Well, that's good to hear.
Thank you very much for that,no problem.
Okay, we interrupt this programto bring you a special offer
from Chaga Health Wellness.
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(27:22):
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(28:03):
Hey, thanks for listening Backto the episode, and this time,
great to see when you came out.
Mind you, your flight was alittle bit late getting here, so
it was supposed to be aSaturday show up just before 11
am.
It ended up.
By the time we got out of theairport it was 12.30 the next
(28:24):
day, so something along that way.
But you brought, which is greatto see Brittany's here,
garrett's girlfriend, and youbrought Belle, which is their
dog, which is a little bitcranky with Gunnar and with
Benny, my other son's dog, but Ithink Belle's starting to warm
(28:44):
up.
They were playing this morningafter I took Gunner for his run
this morning, and she was out inthe backyard, she being Belle,
which is a Doberman and it's nota big Doberman, a smaller one,
to be honest, a little bitsmaller than Gunner, which was
great to see.
But it was great to haveBrittany out.
And what's Brittany up to now?
(29:06):
What's she doing?
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Yeah, so, yeah.
So I guess people are askingwhy we got delayed on our flight
.
Well, when I booked the ticketsbecause it's a domestic flight
I was told they need 45 minutesto board and prep.
So, as we're taking Bell withus this time, so I was like,
okay, so we were there an hourearly to make sure that we had
time to board the dog andeverything else, which I think
would be more than acceptablebecause the process only takes
(29:31):
five to ten minutes, maybecloser to eight minutes, longer
than someone checking theirluggage bag at the kiosk there.
So we got there and they'relike no, we need the full 90
minutes to prep for flights oranything else.
And I don't want to get into it,but there was just a point of
like.
It just seemed like you justyou were too busy at the airport
(29:52):
and you didn't just have thetime to do it.
But you know, lesson learned.
So just letting people outthere know if you're ever going
to fly the dog and they have togo under the plane, just be
there 90 minutes before so youavoid the hassle of missing a
flight.
Speaker 6 (30:05):
Yeah.
So we ended up guess what?
We spent the whole Saturdaykind of waiting for the flight
to show up, which didn't show upuntil much, much later, like 11
o'clock, and then by the timethey got Belle, the dog and
Brittany and everybody off theplane, it wasn't until oh, I
don't know 1.30 in the morningby the time we got home the next
day.
But that's okay, it's great tohave them here and it's great
(30:30):
having Brittany here.
Things are nice to see and sheactually has been able to work
from home this week, so she'sout doing her job from a
computer.
But we spent some time at thecottage on the weekend after we
got you landed and then headedup for for a long weekend here
and, uh, we tried something alittle new.
What'd you think about those,uh, mini air conditioners that I
(30:53):
had in each of the rooms?
Speaker 2 (30:56):
I mean, yeah, it was uh unexpected about them.
I I've seen them pop up and youget speculations about it
because you're like, ah, it'snot gonna be great, it's not
gonna be enough, but like forwhat it was, for just an
individual room, just to helpwith the, the humidity overnight
or the because the thunderstormcame in so it was very moist
and humid and I know if Brittanywas here she'd be like I always
(31:17):
never like getting off theplane and getting out of the
airport because the humiditydifference from Alberta to here
it's like walking into like asteam room, so her hair gets wet
, she loses her curls and I knowif she was here she'd be
laughing at me for saying this.
But you know it is what it is.
So, but yeah, so the airconditioners I found were a nice
(31:38):
little size, pourable enoughthat it would be perfect for I
kept thinking about it If youwent camping and you're someone
like me who just I don't mindthe heat, but when I'm sleeping
I want it cold, and it'd be agreat little unit to have for
like camping or an individualroom, just to kind of get that
cool air sensation for you.
(31:58):
Just not enough that's going tofree, like you're not going to
feel like your whole bodygetting cool.
But you will notice adifference when you're in a nice
little smaller area and it willgive you enough coolness to
kind of keep you out of thatplace or temperature that you're
not going to wake up becauseyou don't overheat during the
night.
Speaker 6 (32:13):
Yeah, what it is is.
I tried these little things.
I saw something on Facebookthat came up and then I sourced
them out and I found one at alocal store that carried them
and they're at the time I thinkthey're like 40 bucks each and
basically what you do is youhave these little kind of
sponges that you soak in waterand they absorb it and then you
freeze them and once they'refrozen, you put it in the unit
(32:39):
and then you pour.
There's a little dish that sitson the top and this thing isn't
very big.
It's how big?
What do you say?
Size-wise, this thing wouldcompare to?
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Think of like a hat, maybe like a little bit more of
a like, if you were to take twohats and stack them on each
other and just like not crushthem, but like have them space
between them, kind of somethinglike that.
Like baseball, yeah, like abaseball hat size, you take two
and stack them together, kind ofthing.
That's probably the roughdimension, to give people a
rough idea.
Or if you think of like, uh,say, like a soccer ball just
(33:12):
slightly, oh, maybe a bowlingball.
A bowling ball might be a good,but just kind of square it off
a bit and that might be the sizeof this unit.
Speaker 6 (33:18):
So and what it is is.
It's so.
You've got this, this, thesefrozen sponges filled with water
, and you place it in the unit,you put the water on top and
then for a battery.
What I used was I plug in oneof my portable battery chargers
for my phone.
You know those 10,000 or those.
We actually picked up 40,000units for the phone so that when
(33:42):
we're off grid we can use thisto charge our phone.
And that's what runs thislittle unit.
Now it's got three fan levels onit and actually it worked very
well in keeping the bedrooms,because I had one in each of the
bedrooms, because we're offgrid and we don't run the
generator at night and it wasfairly hot and muggy, but this
cooled it enough that you couldbring the temperature down, so
(34:04):
it was bearable.
And for those people who werelike the individual who reached
out to me for looking for thebug killer, the mosquito killer,
for their camp, this would beideal.
Just think of the Chaga camp upnorth past Sault Ste Marie
Garrett.
These would work great in thoserooms in there for cooling
(34:25):
those rooms as well, becausethey're small enough and
basically what I could use istake up a cooler with ice in it,
and I don't use ice, we usefrozen water bottles.
So I take two liter pop bottles, I fill them full of water, put
them in the freezer and putthem in the coolers and then
that keeps everything cold andkeeps it cold in the fridge as
(34:45):
well.
But these little things workgreat in cooling the room and
keeping the temperature down, soit was bearable.
Not only that, but you got agood fan blowing on three
settings low, medium and highand it has a light on it, and we
got two nights out of each ofone of these little battery pack
things that you plug your phoneinto to run one of these things
, and it worked pretty good.
What did you think about it?
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Yeah, it was good, like good concept too, like it
doesn't take much power, like Isaid, like a little portable
phone charger thing.
You know if on a low settingtoo, especially like lasted all
night.
I remember I woke up, um,because I'm kind of hardwired to
wake up at like 4 am most times, even though if I'm like in a
different time zone, I stillmanage to wake up at 4 am and go
.
Well, I guess I can go back tosleep because I don't work today
(35:27):
.
But, um, no good, uh, goodtemperature, because I am like
I'm a person that needs to bestudied, I'd say, because even
the guys at work they're likehow are you wearing a sweater?
It's scorching hot.
I'm like, well, when it reaches25, that's when I'll take my
sweater off, because that way Ican still keep working when it
reaches 30, 35 over the summer.
So we've had the days where thesteel gets so hot it touches
(35:50):
your skin and burns yourself,kind of thing.
So I try and climatize my bodyso I can tolerate the heat a bit
more.
But, yeah, for when I'msleeping, though, I want it cold
.
I like sleeping in the cold, Ihave the best sleeps and for
what it was, it definitely didthe trick.
Speaker 6 (36:06):
Yeah, I found it to work pretty good.
I saw it on Facebook and then Isourced it out.
I bought one to try.
I tried it in one.
I thought it worked pretty good.
So I got one for each of theboys' rooms to try when we were
in camp, so when the generatorwas off and there was no fan
circulating in the air, thisactually worked pretty good in
keeping the rooms cool.
So it was a good thing.
And coming up, we got a littlebit of a job to do at the camp.
(36:30):
Hey, garrett, what are we doingthere with Bert?
Speaker 2 (36:33):
Yeah, so back to replace some beans that have a
bit of uh, I guess it was a moldor a bit of a rod that happened
to him.
We're not too sure exactly whathappened, but we just got a a
place and replace them there.
So there's a beam and a post, abit of rot there that happened,
which is that's normal it's.
It's a log home, right, so yougotta maintain and upkeep it.
Um, but yeah, looking forwardto actually getting this done,
(36:54):
because something learned,something new to learn and see
how things are done andreplacing.
So every one day when, if I getmy own camp or something
happens, I know how to do thesethings and I'm kind of excited
for it.
Speaker 6 (37:05):
Yeah, what happens is we got a deck out at the front
of the camp and the deck isn'tcovered where the beams are.
So when the snow load comes itsits on these eight by eights.
And they're what?
Are they?
11 feet long, I think it is.
So they're 11 foot eight byeights that hold the deck up,
and some rot got in there.
(37:26):
Now we got to build a pony wallto hold it up and then take the
beams out and replace them.
But this time I did something alittle bit different.
I got did you notice?
The caps that I have to put on?
So I've got caps to go on topof the beam so that the snow
won't sit on there, or the rainwon't sit on there or rot won't
get.
(37:46):
Well, it won't get wet becausethere's not a lot of sun to dry
these out underneath the deckthere.
So the water sits in there andthey start to rot.
And guess what?
I got to replace it.
So we got eight by eights.
I got eight by eights and Itried to get hemlock.
But nobody's cutting eight byeight hemlocks in the area, and
although I could have got freshcut ones, but I wasn't sure I
(38:07):
wanted fresh cut ones, becauseif you've carried a hemlock you
know it's pretty heavy.
But eight by eights we wentwith red pine and so we'll have
8x8 red pines that Bert willcome in, put up a pony wall,
jack up the deck above it andthen take the beam out, put the
new beams in Well, one post wehave to put in and then put the
(38:28):
beam on and then the caps on topand then put the deck back down
on top of it.
So it'll be a little bit of alearning experience, but we've
got some expertise.
Bert's a carpenter by trade andhe's used to jerry-rigging a
lot of stuff.
So we'll see how that goes.
Hopefully yourself, myself,bert, and your brother will be
(38:49):
able to take that on, but it'llbe a learning experience, like
you said.
Yeah absolutely.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
You know I have a rough idea how to do it, because
when I see these buildingsbeing erected there it's like,
yeah, they use tons of support.
So I have an idea what toexpect.
But it's just something I'venever done physically myself.
I've seen it.
But you know somethingdefinitely worthwhile to learn,
because you never know even yourown house.
If your own house one day, youknow, I gotta replace a post or
a beam, some accidents happen,storm came down, tree landed on
(39:18):
the house or something like that.
Just something good to learnhow to do things properly.
Speaker 6 (39:22):
And so the one thing at this camp cottage is, ever
since we got the property in1999, the only thing that I said
that I wanted there was a sauna, and I still don't have a sauna
going, although we've got rebarnow that we can put in the
sauna for a poured floor and adrain on it, and I've got logs
(39:51):
to cut and hopefully somedaywe're going to be able to maybe
even in the summer Okay, whereare we going to put it?
Let's put it over here.
So guess what?
So they started digging to digit out and then I ended up
digging a hole to put where theconcrete's going to go, and then
it's like, no, let's not put itthere, I don't want it there
now.
So now I have to redo anotherspot to try and find, and
(40:11):
hopefully we'll be able to getmy famed sauna.
For 26 years now, that's allI've wanted up there, but it
seems to fall on the backburners when all of a sudden,
okay, we got to replace the deckbeams, and guess what?
We got to replace the cribbingon the decks on the lake because
they've gone bad.
Now, did you notice what waslying on the decks waiting to go
(40:34):
down to the lake?
Did you notice what?
Speaker 2 (40:35):
was lying on the decks waiting to go down to the
lake.
No, I didn't notice that.
But you know I got the willingneed to shovel some stuff.
If I want to pick the spot andI got time, I can shovel it out
this weekend or coming up here.
Speaker 6 (40:52):
Well, no, what was on the deck was the 4x4s for the
cribbing.
So we'll build some cribbing sowe can start building it and we
don't have ice movement at thelake that destroys cribs.
So the cribs that we had justkind of aged out, we put those
in, we brought the property, sothey're like pretty close to
20-25 years old and they needreplacing.
So we got hemlock 4x4's, we'lldrill it and then we'll connect
(41:15):
it all and then we'll put twosmall and then we'll put, uh,
we'll put two small cribs onewill be like, uh, probably, oh,
four feet by five feet and twoof those out and then put the
dock on top of that so itdoesn't have a strong impact and
we don't have ice movement thattakes these things out and
we'll be able to.
And then on top of that I'vebought enough of floats to build
(41:38):
a floating dock.
So the first section and thenext section will be basically
sitting on cribbing and thenafter that we'll have a floating
dock out there, which I've gotthe wood and I've got the floats
now.
But priority is we got to getthe beams done for the deck
before we move to next phase,which will take the summer as
well well, that's good to hear,because I've got a nice fancy
(42:02):
boat that I've had for a fewyears.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Now that I've, uh, probably invested too much money
I shouldn't say online, becausepeople go well, I mean, hobbies
are important but you know howcan you spend ten thousand
dollars on this unit and setupand you haven't even gone
fishing in a year.
So I always feel bad about that.
But it'd be nice to have a nicespot to put the boat there so I
can go fishing a little bitmore yeah, so.
Speaker 6 (42:25):
So what are you doing afterwards then?
Gary, you're working on yourboat, because you had dad pick
it up.
Uh, from from.
Uh.
Well, we had the maple syrupguy, one of the guys we had on,
jeff Wagner.
He did a podcast with her and Iwas able to get Jeff to store
your boat there, but Dad had togo pick it up and bring it back.
So it's back now, and nowyou're going to get it ready.
Are you going to get anyfishing time in while you're
(42:46):
here?
Speaker 2 (42:48):
Well, the whole thing when I came back is I want at
least one day to go fishing.
So I'm probably going to spendthe rest of the day after this
podcast cleaning the boat up,running some new cables and
wires, because, um, I took thesystem apart before just.
Uh, well, I don't want to leaveit outside in the winter in the
elements there.
And the other thing is I wantto do a bit of ice fishing
because I bought the, the livescope system there and our good
(43:11):
friend angela voile was tellingme all about it and you know,
even though it's a game-changingunit, it still takes some time
to figure it out and I justhaven't had the time to spend to
really learn it all yet.
So it's something I'm lookingforward to.
But yeah, I'll be cleaning theboat out, running wires,
reinstalling the fish finers andreinstalling the trolling motor
(43:32):
.
I got with the iPilot andeverything else.
That way I can spot lock andthings like that.
As I hear like stuff like thatand huge advancements in fishing
is really making it moreenjoyable, especially for people
like me, that I only get maybea weekend or two every month or
so to go out and go do a bit offishing.
So it's nice to not spend myentire day trying to read a lake
(43:52):
and study a lake and learn allthe stuff where I can go.
Hey, I can see the fish.
Speaker 6 (43:56):
I'm gonna stay here and stay on the fish because you
know I only got four hourstoday, so it'd be nice to catch
a fish if that's all the time Igot so, with all those lures
that show up at the house boxesof, I don't know where they're
coming from, but, uh, you'reordering all these and what kind
of fishing you're gonna get outto do, garrett, while you're
here.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
Well, all those boxes and stuff, they're all custom
lures that are meant for muskiefishing.
Because I got hooked on muskiefishing pretty bad, because the
first ever muskie I remembercatching was a 46 or 48.
No, it was 46.
A 46-inch muskie.
That was just absolutely abeast of a fish and the
(44:36):
excitement and the rush I gotwas like going deep sea fishing
and hooking a marlin, because itwas just, it ran, it was
fighting, you see, a jump out ofthe lake.
Oh, it was just an excitingtime.
And I remember yelling at theguy I was fishing with get it in
the boat, get in the net, andwe're.
And we're not thinking we'regoing to catch a muskie that big
, because we're not.
We're in a spot that's notknown for catching muskie this
big.
So the net I brought was onlygood for maybe a 40 inch muskie
(45:00):
at most, but no, it barely fitin the net and we got it on and
it was exciting.
So now I discovered all this newindustries of muskie fishing
now and people make a lot ofcustom baits.
So there's a lot of baits outthere that people do raffles for
, because each some of thesebaits are, like you know, five
hundred dollars kind of thing.
So what they'll people will dois they'll go 50 spots at ten
(45:21):
dollars or they'll go let's go90 spots at thirteen dollars,
depending on what the bundlesthey are in packages.
So some of these baits I win,some of these baits I get.
I've ordered a custom, uh, twocustom baits now, um, because I
heard that they were like thehot colors to get, and it's,
people don't really sell thoseones, so you can order it and
and I've gotten shipped to thehouse now.
So I don't think I'll be goingmusky fishing, though I don't
(45:42):
think I have the time to reallyget out there, and especially
when I'm just trying to get allmy boats set up, because I think
I just want to catch some fish.
So I'm probably going to gobass fishing, probably going to
do a little bit of trout fishing, um, see if I can catch a
rainbow trout or two.
And probably, uh, I would liketo have, like, if I can get a
walleye or a pickerel I mightsay walleye, but a walleye would
be nice, uh, especially get agood eating one, because I
(46:04):
haven't had a nice walleye shorelunch in a while now.
Speaker 6 (46:07):
So well, I gotta tell you when, when my son, our sons
, were young they were justsmall we would go out on a lake
and I'd take a cooler filledwith water and hooks and bobbers
and we would go to a littlerock shore to catch panfish,
sunfish, rock bass and thingslike that, and then we would
(46:28):
catch them live, release theminside the cooler and this is
when they're like three yearsold and all that did was inspire
them to go fishing and it's agreat way to get kids involved
in the outdoors and at the endof the day we would let those,
all those panfish, back in thatspot and the next day or the day
after we'd be back there againcatching the same fish and, lo
(46:52):
and behold, they'd be playingwith them in the cooler and
having a great time.
But it's a way to get theminvolved in the outdoors and a
way to get them going.
And guess what?
It's now late 20s and he'sstill fishing and still involved
.
But $500 a lure are you crazy?
Holy, mackerel Must be nice.
You must be doing okay inEdmonton working the rebar to be
(47:14):
able to even contemplate thatkind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (47:17):
Well, when you work the hours I do, you got to sit
back and appreciate some things.
So it's nice, I don't mindworking hard, but I just want to
go and do my little thing, mylittle fishing trip, every once
in a while.
So I appreciate that stuff andI work hard to make sure I can
afford those things.
But God knows if I get one ofthose baits snagged or something
, especially if a friend goes inand is like how much are you
(47:40):
going to go jump in the lake forthat bait or are you going to
pay me out, kind of thing,because those ones you jump in
after four and you spend all daygetting back.
Speaker 6 (47:49):
Anyways, that's great to hear, as always, garrett,
it's great to have you back.
It's great to get the updates.
I, it's great to have you back.
It's great to get the updates.
I hope our listeners appreciatethat.
It was interesting with thosemini air conditioner kind of
things and all it was was a goodfan blowing over some iced
sponges and a little bit of coldwater on top.
So it worked great in keepingthe rooms down and it's great to
(48:09):
be back up at the camp andhopefully you'll be able to get
your boat cleaned out and get itin the water.
Speaker 2 (48:15):
Yeah, always excited to be home here, always excited
to be able to see friends andfamily and, yeah, like I said,
spend the rest of the daycleaning the boat up.
I got to run a couple lines,reattach the live scope to the
boat there and more or less justgive it a good cleaning because
it's sat there for a bit now.
Speaker 6 (48:32):
So I'm just going to clean it out and make sure it's
all good to go Awesome.
Well, just an update fromwhat's happening with my podcast
partner, garrett.
Great to hear from him, andit's just a little something
different out there that we'relearning under the canopy.
Thanks, garrett.
Speaker 4 (49:06):
How did a small-town sheet metal mechanic come to
build one of Canada's mosticonic fishing lodges?
I'm your host, steve Nitzwicky,and you'll find out about that
and a whole lot more on theOutdoor Journal Radio Network's
newest podcast, diaries of aLodge Owner.
But this podcast will be morethan that.
Every week on Diaries of aLodge Owner, I'm going to
(49:29):
introduce you to a ton of greatpeople, share their stories of
our trials, tribulations andinspirations, learn and have
plenty of laughs along the way.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
Meanwhile we're sitting there bobbing along
trying to figure out how tocatch a bass and we both decided
one day we were going to be ontelevision doing a fishing show.
Speaker 2 (49:50):
My hands get sore a little bit when I'm reeling in
all those bass in the summertime, but that's might be for more
fishing than it was punching.
Speaker 6 (49:57):
You so confidently?
You said hey.
Speaker 4 (49:59):
Pat, have you ever eaten a drum?
Find Diaries of a Lodge Ownernow on Spotify, apple Podcasts
or wherever you get your podcast.
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,ang and I will be right here in
your ears bringing you a brandnew episode of Outdoor Journal
Radio.
Now what?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
are we going?
Speaker 1 (00:19):
to talk about for two hours every week.
Well, you know there's going tobe a lot of fishing.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and
how to catch them, and they wereeasy to catch.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
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 the.
Russians would go fishing.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
To scientists.
But now that we're reforesting-and laying things free.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
It's the perfect transmission environment for
life.
Speaker 5 (00:47):
To chefs If any game isn't cooked properly, marinated
, you will taste it.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
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.
Find us on Spotify, applePodcasts or wherever you get
your podcasts.
Speaker 6 (01:15):
As the world gets louder and louder, the lessons
of our natural world becomeharder and harder to hear, but
they are still available tothose who know where to listen.
I'm Jerry Ouellette and I washonoured to serve as Ontario's
Minister of Natural Resources.
However, my journey into thewoods didn't come from politics.
(01:36):
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
applications used by Indigenouspeoples all over the globe.
After nearly a decade ofharvest use, testimonials and
(01:59):
research, my skepticism hasfaded to obsession and I now
spend my life dedicated toimproving the lives 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
that are shaped by our naturalworld.
(02:20):
On Outdoor Journal Radio'sUnder the Canopy podcast, I'm
going to take you along with meto see the places, meet the
people that will help you findyour outdoor passion and help
you live a life close to natureand under the canopy.
So join me today for anothergreat episode, and hopefully we
(02:40):
can inspire a few more people tolive their lives under the
canopy.
We can inspire a few morepeople to live their lives under
the canopy.
All right, well, I hope all iswell and, as always, if anybody
has any comments or questions orneeds to hear a show or wants
any suggestions, I know I had aninquiry about our one of the
(03:03):
shows.
I did I think it was with Lexi,I think and we talked about a
bug attractant that was killingmosquitoes en masse and it was
worked off, ran off propane, butthe D-cell battery one went.
It worked way better.
To be honest, the one that runssolely off propane isn't that
(03:25):
great for a mosquito attractant.
So we've got to try a couple ofothers.
Of course we've got the PIXgoing and the little badminton
racket sort of things that workfantastic in getting rid of
mosquitoes in camp and stufflike that.
But there's a lot of differentthings out there and we've tried
quite a few.
And we got one of those lightsnow where, when the generator is
(03:46):
running, when we're in our camp, what we do is we have this bug
light going and it attracts andtakes mosquitoes in because
they're attracted to thisparticular light and it blows
them in into a little trap andkills them off and it seems to
be working pretty good.
But you've got to run thegenerator to run that one and
I'm not sure about a batterypack, if there's things that
(04:06):
could run that.
But we're back with my son, myregular, my guest, my sidekick
on the program Garrett's in fromAlberta.
Welcome back out of the programGarrett.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Hey, it's good to be back.
Thank you for having me.
As always, it's always nice tocome home and see friends and
family.
I know I've had a bit of a busytime already, with a lot of
errands and catching up and alot of things on the go right
now, so glad to be back here, ofcourse.
Speaker 6 (04:32):
So, garrett, tell us one of the things you lost a bet
or you sucked enough in afootball pool and now you got to
pay for it.
What do you got to do as yourpunishment for being last in
your football pool?
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Well, to start, my excuse is all my main guys got
injured pretty early in theseason so I was down and out
with my first five picks beingplaced on the IAR already.
So I'm going to say that as myexcuse.
But no, I've got to run a halfmarathon.
It's coming up on the 6th here.
So just uh, in five days or so.
(05:07):
But I'm sure people uh won'tknow about it because this will
probably air after.
But just letting you guys know,uh, probably anticipating to be
in a lot of pain after, becauseI uh had a grade two hamstring
pull about two months ago andI've never ran a marathon in
general before.
But you know, I played rugbyand all these sports as a kid.
(05:28):
So I'm hoping to be fine andhoping that the 12-hour work
days I've been doing out inAlberta, and the 10-hour days as
well, have been making up forthe endurance I need for it.
But yeah, I got a half marathoncoming up.
I had a great two hamstringpull so I haven't been able to
really run at all for the lasttwo months.
But yeah, I'm going to berunning a marathon here.
Speaker 6 (05:48):
Oh yeah, excuses, excuses, just like always, never
got ready.
You could have been walking andgetting ready, at least to kind
of skip and hop and skip andhop and do stuff like that.
But it'll be interesting to seewhat happens with this half
marathon.
So tell us, garrett, what areyou working at in Alberta right
now?
Because I know you're workingon Site C in British Columbia,
(06:11):
which was Canada's largest hydrodam, and then you're working on
a potash mine in Saskatchewan.
And what are you doing now inAlberta?
Speaker 2 (06:20):
And whereabouts are you in Alberta.
So at first I was working inCalgary there, just a couple of
small apartment buildings,things kind of going up as work
outside and bigger jobs a littlebit slower.
But um, there's a new projectgoing on edmonton they got a
call for about a month ago nowand it's the uh net zero
hydrogen product or a productionuh facility out in edmonton.
(06:42):
So their goal is toindustrialize the production of
hydrogen so we can use that tofuel vehicles and at the time
when they're telling us aboutthe information there on this
project, it's looking to becompleted in about 2027.
They're looking at they havecurrently have, I think it's 50
(07:03):
hydrogen cars in Edmonton rightnow and most of them are just
kind of like running errandsfrom the airport kind of thing.
They have a taxi service, veryminuscule stuff, but they're
starting to get really big,especially because this project
we're working on is, I think,one of only five industrial
level hydrogen products acrossthe world and it's the only one
in Canada right now, to myknowledge, and that's what they
(07:25):
also said during the informationwhen they talk about this
project there.
So I would say they're out ofthe ground now, like there's a
few things left that are goingon, but they're really starting
to get production going there.
They've got a lot of thestructural things.
They've got a lot of the boilermakers are on site doing all
the pressure containers andeverything else and the big
tanks and stuff.
(07:46):
So it's an interesting project,that's for sure.
But yeah, it should be prettysteady work there for probably
another year or two.
Speaker 6 (07:54):
So now hydrogen.
You called it net zero.
So a couple of things Is this aprovincial project or is it
independent companies?
And one of the other thingsthat Garrett, I recall I met
when I was with Bill Saundersonwas the minister of I think it
was economic development andtrade and he was meeting in
Oshawa with the president ofGeneral Motors and I asked about
(08:17):
that and at that time thiswould be about 99-2000, that
General Motors had I think itwas a half a dozen hydrogen
vehicles that they were actuallytesting in the States and I
think it cost them a milliondollars at that time per vehicle
to get them going to try andsee if they could develop
hydrogen for their vehicles.
So in other words, and here weare in 2025, it's a long process
(08:41):
to get going.
So is it just like a provincialthing and are they using water
to develop their hydrogen or doyou know?
Speaker 2 (08:49):
So why it's net zero?
To answer your first questionthere is because they're looking
at doing zero emissions.
So they're taking in all thepollution and toxins that are
going to be produced from it andthat's what's going to be
causing the production ofhydrogen.
So they're going to be takingin, especially in Edmonton
because it's a very oil-basedarea there.
They're going to take all thehydrogen that they extract from
(09:12):
the process of oil and crude oiland things like that and things
when they go through theirsteps of refinery.
That's what's going to be.
The net zero is it's going tobe releasing zero pollution out
into the environment.
So that's why it's net zero.
So the second part of yourquestion there.
So you're asking like how theindustrial, like the production
(09:33):
of it, how it's supposed to beaffecting it's supposed to get
bigger or not?
So they're looking at gettingabout 500 cars going after,
which is, I say, a healthynumber based on the fact that
technology isn't quite there yet.
I know they had a hydrogenproduct or productions they're
trying to aim for inNewfoundland, but they said that
(09:55):
they're about forNewfoundland's area and the
production there.
They're about 10, 12 years out,give or take, before they can
really start making itworthwhile to do it.
So here it's just it's a slowproduction but because
everything's already kind ofgoing for Edmonton right now,
for all the oil production, likethe hydrogen makes sense
(10:16):
because it's more or less it'skind of like a byproduct of
everything else that's going onthere.
So they're kind of capturethese and use it as fuel.
Speaker 6 (10:23):
Yeah, most of the hydrogen plants that I'm aware
of, we're using the water astheir basis, so they separate
H2O, which is hydrogen, andoxygen, and guess what?
You get an overabundance ofoxygen.
Not that we need that, or do we?
And then they use the hydrogento run their vehicles with and
their emissions would bevirtually water coming out the
(10:44):
tailpipe with no problems at all.
So I think, from my perspective, alberta moving forward with
that, being an oil-basedprovince where their income is
basically generated from theproduction of oil and the sale
of oil, to develop hydrogen is alot of foresight from them, and
(11:05):
I recall the Premier, danielSmith, making statements about
that.
They wanted to move not so muchto electric vehicles but to
hydrogen vehicles, and it's goodto see that that province is
moving forward with that BecauseI think in my opinion, that's a
good way to go and will be farmore beneficial than EVs, with
(11:26):
all the things that go on withelectric vehicles and the
batteries and the production ofthose batteries, etc.
Etc.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Yeah, absolutely, and it is provincial, but I believe
it's also federally funded forthis project as well.
Obviously, I'm not that youknow above my pay grade, above
my desk kind of thing to know,like the exact details there,
but I know it is a public fundedproject as well.
Speaker 6 (11:52):
So what exactly is your job, garrett, that you're
doing, and give people whohaven't heard some of our other
podcasts together exactly whatyou do and what's your function
and where you're a journey redseal journeyman um.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
So my profession is we.
I fall under the category ofiron worker, um, to be more
exact, I am a rod buster.
So rod busting is rebar.
So we think of or think ofanything structures you see with
concrete and think of like thehuman body, so the bones of your
body is what rebar is toconcrete.
So we add all the stability,the structure and everything
(12:28):
else to give concrete thatadditional strength so it
doesn't break or snap or crumblekind of thing.
It helps keep all the pressures, especially with shifting
weights.
And, for example, in Alberta andI guess in just Northern Canada
in general, we have to put in alot of additional heavier grade
steel because they have suchthings as free and thaw
conditions.
So, for example, what we'redoing is we're doing these
(12:50):
massive slabs that are probablyeasily like right around.
I would say at least 500 tonsper portion of the slab.
So we did two portions in onemonth there.
So we did 1,000 tons of steel.
And what I'm doing is we areputting the grid system out.
(13:12):
So think of like a checkerboardand all the separate between
the black and white tiles.
There's a little space there.
That's where rebar is going togo to add support for each of
those tiles and then take thatto a much larger scale and much
more industrial size scale aswell.
So the bars we're putting in is35m bars, which the lengths
we're putting is also 18 meterslong, so each bar is over 200
(13:32):
pounds give or take.
Um, it also depends I don'tknow if we're using 500 grade or
400 grade steel, which justmeans just the strength of the
steel is much more, uh, strongerat a 500 grade compared to a
400 grade.
For people that don't know thedensity and stuff like that of
the metals.
Speaker 6 (13:50):
But I believe, is there not a stainless rebar as
well?
Speaker 2 (13:54):
There is stainless rebar as well.
Stainless is very expensive butmost of the time they only use
that in bridge work and othersmall portions maybe sidewalks
as well because they have ahigher exposure to water or to
say runoff water, so they reallywant to stop rusting so it
deteriorates the bridge a lotslower.
So they'll put stainless steelin those situations, whereas the
job I'm doing they're notreally designed to be exposed to
(14:17):
such vast amounts of waterconstantly.
So we're just using what theycall is unmarked steel or black
steel kind of thing, which isjust pretty much just a
standardized basic rebar.
I just didn't.
I don't know the density of itor the grade of the steel, so if
it's a 400 or 500.
I know there's new stuff comingout as well for a much stronger
(14:38):
steel so you can reduce thesize of it because it's much
more dense.
But that's stuff that'sprobably going to be a little
bit more out in the future herebefore that starts getting in
mass production as well.
But yeah, I'm a red steel ironworker, I'm a rod buster and
yeah, I've been at that job forabout a month or so now and I've
been doing rod like rebar forabout eight years or so, and
(14:58):
it's a lot of work, like everyday you're picking up like 10,
15 tons of steel per person andyou know, sometimes the one
person's packing up people aretying kind of thing, and by
tying I mean they're notactually like tying your
shoelaces, they are wrapping thesteel up in wire and twisting
it together to lock all theinterlocking steel, because
there's like a bottom layer anda top layer to it to keep it all
(15:19):
together.
Speaker 6 (15:21):
Well, I know you're helping your buddy, simon, when
he was doing a I think it was abasement pour or a patio pour or
something like that, and wherethey were putting the rebar was
in the wrong spot until youshowed them, and so stuff like
that.
How does the rebar actuallysupport?
Or where do you put it?
Say, when eventually we get tomy sauna, where we have to pour
(15:42):
the concrete for the sauna atthe camp or the cottage, where
do you put the rebar and how doyou tie it up and how does that
work?
Speaker 2 (15:50):
So when I was helping my buddy Simon there, so he was
doing like a cantilever slab,and a cantilever slab is
something that just overhangswithout a post underneath it.
So think of like a balcony offa building or some kind of
structure that hangs out withnothing supporting it directly
underneath.
So with that you think of justthink of gravity and it's like
(16:10):
gravity's pulling it on thatfarthest point.
So think of a door hinge.
If you were to push, take onefinger and push it from the
farthest point of the door, it'smuch easier to push that door
open and close.
But if you were to take it andpush it right where the hinge is
, it takes a vast amount offorce compared to the outside to
push that door close.
Same thing kind of applieswithin concrete rebar.
(16:32):
So when he was doing it, it'slike you need to really
strengthen that outside edge ofthe door because that's where
all the pressure is going to be,like going pulling down, cause
it's easier, easier to take thedoor, flip it horizontal, right,
so you're going up and down.
Now that's where all thepressure is because it's
overhanging.
So you have to strengthen asthat wants to pull down.
(16:54):
The snapping part is going tobe on top of the slab so you
have to really strengthen thetop steel of it as well as the
very far edge of it.
So I told him, like you know,don't worry so much about the
bottom, like, put a little bitin just to kind of keep it
stable, but you're going to needmore pressure on the top of
that that slab there.
So I helped him out there andthen help them out with.
He was pouring a patio slab justfor his, his house he was
(17:16):
building, and that was verybasic because it was.
It was a suspended slab, so youdon't need a lot because it
also wasn't going to take a lotof pressure.
But yeah, just a standard slab.
I put out a grid system for himat 150 there.
So 150 mils apart, which isspacing, and we used 15M, which
would add more than enoughstability for what it needs,
because in Canada we designthings to be built at 100 times
(17:39):
the necessary weight.
Speaker 6 (17:49):
So whenever I say this building is supposed to
hold up simple numbers here athousand pounds.
We're going to make sure it canhold withstand 10,000 pounds,
just because.
Well.
So what exactly, then, are youdoing for this net zero hydrogen
thing?
And are you pouring slabs thatare on the ground, or how does
that play out and what are youdoing there?
Speaker 2 (18:03):
So for this, for that project there, it slabs on the
ground which is going to justmore or less support all the
structure and all the weight ofthe big tanks or all the piping
that work.
It's quite the fun thing to seewhen it's completed.
There's other oil fields andrefineries out there that you
see and you're just like all theinterlocking piping work and
(18:25):
the network of grid, all thestructure, the structural steel,
the pressures it needs towithstand and take.
It's going to be a lot ofweight on the ground.
So these slabs we're doingthey're about roughly a meter
thick Probably.
I think one of them, I think,was 1,200, so a meter and a bit
thick there for a slab.
(18:47):
And we have about I think therewas like 30 or 40 slabs that are
going on there.
They each are right aroundabout 500 tons give or so, um.
So it's quite a fair bit andmore or less it just adds a base
and a foundation to allow thosebuildings to sit on.
And the other thing is theslabs that we're doing have what
(19:07):
we call is a hairpin, and ahairpin concept is something
that it's a bar that's going totie from your top mat to your
bottom mat, which is a meter anda bit apart, bottom at which is
a meter and a bit apart.
And we're doing that around theperimeter because of all the
freeze, thaw conditions and theway the pressure is going to be
out, especially with even likeearth pressure and like upwards
earth force.
And if people don't understandthat, take like your hand and
(19:30):
kind of like put all all four ofyour fingers on your thumb and
try and like extend your hand asmuch as you can so, as it says
it's sitting tall, those fingersare going to act like piles and
then all that ground underneathis going to be forcing up.
So think of stepping in mud asthat.
You put your foot in mud, allthat mud wants to ooze up.
That's all the upward forcepressure.
(19:51):
Now you take that and magnifyit by you know, hundreds of
thousands of pounds of pressure.
We have to make a slap strongenough to support that, that
weight or that force being upthere and then all the weight on
top of it to keep it all level.
Speaker 6 (20:04):
So that's one of the concepts of rebar is just adding
stability, even from like earthpressure and stuff like that so
you've mentioned somethingthere which I learned when I was
minister of natural resources,garrett was the oak ridges
marine, which is basically asmall when the glaciers came in,
they deposited, they left likea moraine or kind of a row of
(20:28):
hills as they retreated, andthat actually puts pressure on
the ground and I didn't realizethat.
And that pressure on the groundforces springs up.
Um, at the on the outskirts, oras you lead into, uh, go up,
like we have the oak ridgesmarine.
So at the north end of oshawayou go up, uh, this, this, this
(20:49):
ridge, and that ridge actuallyputs force on the ground which
forces springs up.
And so all around the oakridges, in areas you're going to
get springs popping up, wherefresh water comes down, falls
down through the and seeps inthrough the moraine, the ridge,
and then the pressure of thatforces it and causes springs,
(21:10):
which was something I had noidea about to deal with.
So when you're talking about thekettle lakes, which is
basically there's nothingfeeding them except the springs
come in.
So it's a series of lakes thatare all that are just in one
spot, like a lot of lakes.
For example, I was looking atEels Creek, I believe it was
(21:32):
that feeds into Stoney Lake orEels Lake.
It's not the same when you getthe pressure from these ridges
or these moraines, forcing waterup and causing small pockets of
lakes or ponds and things likethat, and that's something that
the pressure of the, the ridgeputting on the ground, causes,
which I had no idea about.
So, and how long is it going totake?
And how long can you work atthis garrison?
(21:53):
What about in the winter months?
Can you do your pour?
And how big?
When you say, I understand thatyou, you're talking about three
, or, uh, was it three metersthick or a meter thick?
And then, uh, how big wouldthese slabs be?
Speaker 2 (22:07):
um, so these are all like it's they're considering
like footing slabs or a raftslab, if people understand that,
as a raft slab is just more orless a ton of steel at, say, the
bottom of, like an apartmentbuilding that help design and
take a lot of pressure or a lotof weight shifting things like
that.
So these slabs are roughly.
I think we had about so there'sone, two, three, four shots, so
(22:33):
about four shots of 15 meters.
So these slabs are going to beabout 60 meters long and I think
it was one, two, three, four,five, six.
Yeah, so 60 meters long byroughly 90 meters, as as wide
kind of thing is.
That's roughly the size of thesome of the slabs we're doing
there.
There's a lot of smaller onesas well, but this one, like the
(22:54):
ones that were brought up for,are going to be relatively
really big in size.
Um, as I'm pretty sure the oneswe're doing are designed for the
tankers to sit on.
So this is where all like a lotof the condensed weight is
going to be on the slabs we'redoing up there for right now and
for work-wise for us, for rebarwork probably got, I would say,
the rest of summer, winter it'salways hit or miss because
(23:17):
there's certain rules andapplications that need to be
applied, especially for pouringconcrete.
They call it heating andhoarding, so you have to keep
the concrete at a certaintemperature range for it to cure
properly.
But heating and hoarding costsa lot of money because it's
constantly running propaneheaters, insulating everything
up, all the materials.
It takes to get a big tentsystem over it to to keep the
(23:38):
concrete, keep it all warm whileyou pour it, and all that money
costs a lot like costs a hugecharge actually on the companies
to do that stuff.
Um, I know certain places theydon't necessarily pour bridges
because bridges are too hard tokeep protected from the elements
as they're pouring.
Especially when you're up inedmonton or around saskatchew,
(23:59):
the temperatures there werereaching like minus 50.
Even worse with the wind chillas well.
So for them to keep that at acertain temperature range for
that concrete to cure it takes alot of time and effort and
materials for it.
So because this is probably apublic funded project, I would
anticipate that they are goingto be having work through the
winter.
I'm just not too sure aboutconcrete work for the rebar
(24:20):
stuff, but they are going toprobably continue through the
work there, as this is kind oflike we need to get the job done
quicker, sooner than later.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
Back in 2016, Frank and I had a vision To amass the
single largest database ofmuskie angling education
material anywhere in the world.
Speaker 5 (24:43):
Our dream was to harness the knowledge of this
amazing community and share itwith passionate anglers just
like you.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
Thus the Ugly Pike podcast was born and quickly
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Speaker 5 (25:00):
Step into the world of angling adventures and
embrace the thrill of the catchwith the Ugly Pike podcast.
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Speaker 3 (25:11):
The Ugly Pike podcast isn't just about fishing.
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(25:32):
Through laughter, throughcamaraderie and an We'll see you
next time.
Speaker 6 (25:44):
And now it's time for another testimonial, for Chaga
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Okay, here we are in Lindsaywith Bill, who's actually?
This gentleman has given bloodover 230 times.
You're right, 233.
233, and that's amazing, andyou've had some success with
Chaga.
Tell us what you're dealingwith and what you did and what
(26:07):
you used.
Speaker 7 (26:11):
Well, I had mild high blood pressure.
It wasn't very really high, butI was on medication for a few
years and then I quit drinkingcoffee and started drinking this
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my medication is gone.
Speaker 6 (26:28):
Your medication's gone, gone and you couldn't give
blood during the other times.
Speaker 7 (26:32):
Yeah, I could, oh, you could I could yeah?
But a few times the machinekicked me out.
Oh yeah, but now it doesn'tanymore.
Speaker 6 (26:40):
So you think the green tea and the chaga helped
normalize your blood pressures?
Speaker 7 (26:46):
Oh yeah, oh very good , because it wouldn't be just
stopping coffee, it would haveto be something else.
Speaker 6 (26:51):
And that's the only thing you did different.
Yeah Well, thank you very muchfor that.
Speaker 7 (26:55):
My blood pressure is probably that of a 40-year-old
man, and I'm 71.
Speaker 6 (26:59):
Oh, very good.
Well, that's good to hear.
Thank you very much for that,no problem.
Okay, we interrupt this programto bring you a special offer
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(27:22):
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(28:03):
Hey, thanks for listening Backto the episode, and this time,
great to see when you came out.
Mind you, your flight was alittle bit late getting here, so
it was supposed to be aSaturday show up just before 11
am.
It ended up.
By the time we got out of theairport it was 12.30 the next
(28:24):
day, so something along that way.
But you brought, which is greatto see Brittany's here,
garrett's girlfriend, and youbrought Belle, which is their
dog, which is a little bitcranky with Gunnar and with
Benny, my other son's dog, but Ithink Belle's starting to warm
(28:44):
up.
They were playing this morningafter I took Gunner for his run
this morning, and she was out inthe backyard, she being Belle,
which is a Doberman and it's nota big Doberman, a smaller one,
to be honest, a little bitsmaller than Gunner, which was
great to see.
But it was great to haveBrittany out.
And what's Brittany up to now?
(29:06):
What's she doing?
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Yeah, so, yeah.
So I guess people are askingwhy we got delayed on our flight
.
Well, when I booked the ticketsbecause it's a domestic flight
I was told they need 45 minutesto board and prep.
So, as we're taking Bell withus this time, so I was like,
okay, so we were there an hourearly to make sure that we had
time to board the dog andeverything else, which I think
would be more than acceptablebecause the process only takes
(29:31):
five to ten minutes, maybecloser to eight minutes, longer
than someone checking theirluggage bag at the kiosk there.
So we got there and they'relike no, we need the full 90
minutes to prep for flights oranything else.
And I don't want to get into it,but there was just a point of
like.
It just seemed like you justyou were too busy at the airport
(29:52):
and you didn't just have thetime to do it.
But you know, lesson learned.
So just letting people outthere know if you're ever going
to fly the dog and they have togo under the plane, just be
there 90 minutes before so youavoid the hassle of missing a
flight.
Speaker 6 (30:05):
Yeah.
So we ended up guess what?
We spent the whole Saturdaykind of waiting for the flight
to show up, which didn't show upuntil much, much later, like 11
o'clock, and then by the timethey got Belle, the dog and
Brittany and everybody off theplane, it wasn't until oh, I
don't know 1.30 in the morningby the time we got home the next
day.
But that's okay, it's great tohave them here and it's great
(30:30):
having Brittany here.
Things are nice to see and sheactually has been able to work
from home this week, so she'sout doing her job from a
computer.
But we spent some time at thecottage on the weekend after we
got you landed and then headedup for for a long weekend here
and, uh, we tried something alittle new.
What'd you think about those,uh, mini air conditioners that I
(30:53):
had in each of the rooms?
Speaker 2 (30:56):
I mean, yeah, it was uh unexpected about them.
I I've seen them pop up and youget speculations about it
because you're like, ah, it'snot gonna be great, it's not
gonna be enough, but like forwhat it was, for just an
individual room, just to helpwith the, the humidity overnight
or the because the thunderstormcame in so it was very moist
and humid and I know if Brittanywas here she'd be like I always
(31:17):
never like getting off theplane and getting out of the
airport because the humiditydifference from Alberta to here
it's like walking into like asteam room, so her hair gets wet
, she loses her curls and I knowif she was here she'd be
laughing at me for saying this.
But you know it is what it is.
So, but yeah, so the airconditioners I found were a nice
(31:38):
little size, pourable enoughthat it would be perfect for I
kept thinking about it If youwent camping and you're someone
like me who just I don't mindthe heat, but when I'm sleeping
I want it cold, and it'd be agreat little unit to have for
like camping or an individualroom, just to kind of get that
cool air sensation for you.
(31:58):
Just not enough that's going tofree, like you're not going to
feel like your whole bodygetting cool.
But you will notice adifference when you're in a nice
little smaller area and it willgive you enough coolness to
kind of keep you out of thatplace or temperature that you're
not going to wake up becauseyou don't overheat during the
night.
Speaker 6 (32:13):
Yeah, what it is is.
I tried these little things.
I saw something on Facebookthat came up and then I sourced
them out and I found one at alocal store that carried them
and they're at the time I thinkthey're like 40 bucks each and
basically what you do is youhave these little kind of
sponges that you soak in waterand they absorb it and then you
freeze them and once they'refrozen, you put it in the unit
(32:39):
and then you pour.
There's a little dish that sitson the top and this thing isn't
very big.
It's how big?
What do you say?
Size-wise, this thing wouldcompare to?
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Think of like a hat, maybe like a little bit more of
a like, if you were to take twohats and stack them on each
other and just like not crushthem, but like have them space
between them, kind of somethinglike that.
Like baseball, yeah, like abaseball hat size, you take two
and stack them together, kind ofthing.
That's probably the roughdimension, to give people a
rough idea.
Or if you think of like, uh,say, like a soccer ball just
(33:12):
slightly, oh, maybe a bowlingball.
A bowling ball might be a good,but just kind of square it off
a bit and that might be the sizeof this unit.
Speaker 6 (33:18):
So and what it is is.
It's so.
You've got this, this, thesefrozen sponges filled with water
, and you place it in the unit,you put the water on top and
then for a battery.
What I used was I plug in oneof my portable battery chargers
for my phone.
You know those 10,000 or those.
We actually picked up 40,000units for the phone so that when
(33:42):
we're off grid we can use thisto charge our phone.
And that's what runs thislittle unit.
Now it's got three fan levels onit and actually it worked very
well in keeping the bedrooms,because I had one in each of the
bedrooms, because we're offgrid and we don't run the
generator at night and it wasfairly hot and muggy, but this
cooled it enough that you couldbring the temperature down, so
(34:04):
it was bearable.
And for those people who werelike the individual who reached
out to me for looking for thebug killer, the mosquito killer,
for their camp, this would beideal.
Just think of the Chaga camp upnorth past Sault Ste Marie
Garrett.
These would work great in thoserooms in there for cooling
(34:25):
those rooms as well, becausethey're small enough and
basically what I could use istake up a cooler with ice in it,
and I don't use ice, we usefrozen water bottles.
So I take two liter pop bottles, I fill them full of water, put
them in the freezer and putthem in the coolers and then
that keeps everything cold andkeeps it cold in the fridge as
(34:45):
well.
But these little things workgreat in cooling the room and
keeping the temperature down, soit was bearable.
Not only that, but you got agood fan blowing on three
settings low, medium and highand it has a light on it, and we
got two nights out of each ofone of these little battery pack
things that you plug your phoneinto to run one of these things
, and it worked pretty good.
What did you think about it?
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Yeah, it was good, like good concept too, like it
doesn't take much power, like Isaid, like a little portable
phone charger thing.
You know if on a low settingtoo, especially like lasted all
night.
I remember I woke up, um,because I'm kind of hardwired to
wake up at like 4 am most times, even though if I'm like in a
different time zone, I stillmanage to wake up at 4 am and go
.
Well, I guess I can go back tosleep because I don't work today
(35:27):
.
But, um, no good, uh, goodtemperature, because I am like
I'm a person that needs to bestudied, I'd say, because even
the guys at work they're likehow are you wearing a sweater?
It's scorching hot.
I'm like, well, when it reaches25, that's when I'll take my
sweater off, because that way Ican still keep working when it
reaches 30, 35 over the summer.
So we've had the days where thesteel gets so hot it touches
(35:50):
your skin and burns yourself,kind of thing.
So I try and climatize my bodyso I can tolerate the heat a bit
more.
But, yeah, for when I'msleeping, though, I want it cold
.
I like sleeping in the cold, Ihave the best sleeps and for
what it was, it definitely didthe trick.
Speaker 6 (36:06):
Yeah, I found it to work pretty good.
I saw it on Facebook and then Isourced it out.
I bought one to try.
I tried it in one.
I thought it worked pretty good.
So I got one for each of theboys' rooms to try when we were
in camp, so when the generatorwas off and there was no fan
circulating in the air, thisactually worked pretty good in
keeping the rooms cool.
So it was a good thing.
And coming up, we got a littlebit of a job to do at the camp.
(36:30):
Hey, garrett, what are we doingthere with Bert?
Speaker 2 (36:33):
Yeah, so back to replace some beans that have a
bit of uh, I guess it was a moldor a bit of a rod that happened
to him.
We're not too sure exactly whathappened, but we just got a a
place and replace them there.
So there's a beam and a post, abit of rot there that happened,
which is that's normal it's.
It's a log home, right, so yougotta maintain and upkeep it.
Um, but yeah, looking forwardto actually getting this done,
(36:54):
because something learned,something new to learn and see
how things are done andreplacing.
So every one day when, if I getmy own camp or something
happens, I know how to do thesethings and I'm kind of excited
for it.
Speaker 6 (37:05):
Yeah, what happens is we got a deck out at the front
of the camp and the deck isn'tcovered where the beams are.
So when the snow load comes itsits on these eight by eights.
And they're what?
Are they?
11 feet long, I think it is.
So they're 11 foot eight byeights that hold the deck up,
and some rot got in there.
(37:26):
Now we got to build a pony wallto hold it up and then take the
beams out and replace them.
But this time I did something alittle bit different.
I got did you notice?
The caps that I have to put on?
So I've got caps to go on topof the beam so that the snow
won't sit on there, or the rainwon't sit on there or rot won't
get.
(37:46):
Well, it won't get wet becausethere's not a lot of sun to dry
these out underneath the deckthere.
So the water sits in there andthey start to rot.
And guess what?
I got to replace it.
So we got eight by eights.
I got eight by eights and Itried to get hemlock.
But nobody's cutting eight byeight hemlocks in the area, and
although I could have got freshcut ones, but I wasn't sure I
(38:07):
wanted fresh cut ones, becauseif you've carried a hemlock you
know it's pretty heavy.
But eight by eights we wentwith red pine and so we'll have
8x8 red pines that Bert willcome in, put up a pony wall,
jack up the deck above it andthen take the beam out, put the
new beams in Well, one post wehave to put in and then put the
(38:28):
beam on and then the caps on topand then put the deck back down
on top of it.
So it'll be a little bit of alearning experience, but we've
got some expertise.
Bert's a carpenter by trade andhe's used to jerry-rigging a
lot of stuff.
So we'll see how that goes.
Hopefully yourself, myself,bert, and your brother will be
(38:49):
able to take that on, but it'llbe a learning experience, like
you said.
Yeah absolutely.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
You know I have a rough idea how to do it, because
when I see these buildingsbeing erected there it's like,
yeah, they use tons of support.
So I have an idea what toexpect.
But it's just something I'venever done physically myself.
I've seen it.
But you know somethingdefinitely worthwhile to learn,
because you never know even yourown house.
If your own house one day, youknow, I gotta replace a post or
a beam, some accidents happen,storm came down, tree landed on
(39:18):
the house or something like that.
Just something good to learnhow to do things properly.
Speaker 6 (39:22):
And so the one thing at this camp cottage is, ever
since we got the property in1999, the only thing that I said
that I wanted there was a sauna, and I still don't have a sauna
going, although we've got rebarnow that we can put in the
sauna for a poured floor and adrain on it, and I've got logs
(39:51):
to cut and hopefully somedaywe're going to be able to maybe
even in the summer Okay, whereare we going to put it?
Let's put it over here.
So guess what?
So they started digging to digit out and then I ended up
digging a hole to put where theconcrete's going to go, and then
it's like, no, let's not put itthere, I don't want it there
now.
So now I have to redo anotherspot to try and find, and
(40:11):
hopefully we'll be able to getmy famed sauna.
For 26 years now, that's allI've wanted up there, but it
seems to fall on the backburners when all of a sudden,
okay, we got to replace the deckbeams, and guess what?
We got to replace the cribbingon the decks on the lake because
they've gone bad.
Now, did you notice what waslying on the decks waiting to go
(40:34):
down to the lake?
Did you notice what?
Speaker 2 (40:35):
was lying on the decks waiting to go down to the
lake.
No, I didn't notice that.
But you know I got the willingneed to shovel some stuff.
If I want to pick the spot andI got time, I can shovel it out
this weekend or coming up here.
Speaker 6 (40:52):
Well, no, what was on the deck was the 4x4s for the
cribbing.
So we'll build some cribbing sowe can start building it and we
don't have ice movement at thelake that destroys cribs.
So the cribs that we had justkind of aged out, we put those
in, we brought the property, sothey're like pretty close to
20-25 years old and they needreplacing.
So we got hemlock 4x4's, we'lldrill it and then we'll connect
(41:15):
it all and then we'll put twosmall and then we'll put, uh,
we'll put two small cribs onewill be like, uh, probably, oh,
four feet by five feet and twoof those out and then put the
dock on top of that so itdoesn't have a strong impact and
we don't have ice movement thattakes these things out and
we'll be able to.
And then on top of that I'vebought enough of floats to build
(41:38):
a floating dock.
So the first section and thenext section will be basically
sitting on cribbing and thenafter that we'll have a floating
dock out there, which I've gotthe wood and I've got the floats
now.
But priority is we got to getthe beams done for the deck
before we move to next phase,which will take the summer as
well well, that's good to hear,because I've got a nice fancy
(42:02):
boat that I've had for a fewyears.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Now that I've, uh, probably invested too much money
I shouldn't say online, becausepeople go well, I mean, hobbies
are important but you know howcan you spend ten thousand
dollars on this unit and setupand you haven't even gone
fishing in a year.
So I always feel bad about that.
But it'd be nice to have a nicespot to put the boat there so I
can go fishing a little bitmore yeah, so.
Speaker 6 (42:25):
So what are you doing afterwards then?
Gary, you're working on yourboat, because you had dad pick
it up.
Uh, from from.
Uh.
Well, we had the maple syrupguy, one of the guys we had on,
jeff Wagner.
He did a podcast with her and Iwas able to get Jeff to store
your boat there, but Dad had togo pick it up and bring it back.
So it's back now, and nowyou're going to get it ready.
Are you going to get anyfishing time in while you're
(42:46):
here?
Speaker 2 (42:48):
Well, the whole thing when I came back is I want at
least one day to go fishing.
So I'm probably going to spendthe rest of the day after this
podcast cleaning the boat up,running some new cables and
wires, because, um, I took thesystem apart before just.
Uh, well, I don't want to leaveit outside in the winter in the
elements there.
And the other thing is I wantto do a bit of ice fishing
because I bought the, the livescope system there and our good
(43:11):
friend angela voile was tellingme all about it and you know,
even though it's a game-changingunit, it still takes some time
to figure it out and I justhaven't had the time to spend to
really learn it all yet.
So it's something I'm lookingforward to.
But yeah, I'll be cleaning theboat out, running wires,
reinstalling the fish finers andreinstalling the trolling motor
(43:32):
.
I got with the iPilot andeverything else.
That way I can spot lock andthings like that.
As I hear like stuff like thatand huge advancements in fishing
is really making it moreenjoyable, especially for people
like me, that I only get maybea weekend or two every month or
so to go out and go do a bit offishing.
So it's nice to not spend myentire day trying to read a lake
(43:52):
and study a lake and learn allthe stuff where I can go.
Hey, I can see the fish.
Speaker 6 (43:56):
I'm gonna stay here and stay on the fish because you
know I only got four hourstoday, so it'd be nice to catch
a fish if that's all the time Igot so, with all those lures
that show up at the house boxesof, I don't know where they're
coming from, but, uh, you'reordering all these and what kind
of fishing you're gonna get outto do, garrett, while you're
here.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
Well, all those boxes and stuff, they're all custom
lures that are meant for muskiefishing.
Because I got hooked on muskiefishing pretty bad, because the
first ever muskie I remembercatching was a 46 or 48.
No, it was 46.
A 46-inch muskie.
That was just absolutely abeast of a fish and the
(44:36):
excitement and the rush I gotwas like going deep sea fishing
and hooking a marlin, because itwas just, it ran, it was
fighting, you see, a jump out ofthe lake.
Oh, it was just an excitingtime.
And I remember yelling at theguy I was fishing with get it in
the boat, get in the net, andwe're.
And we're not thinking we'regoing to catch a muskie that big
, because we're not.
We're in a spot that's notknown for catching muskie this
big.
So the net I brought was onlygood for maybe a 40 inch muskie
(45:00):
at most, but no, it barely fitin the net and we got it on and
it was exciting.
So now I discovered all this newindustries of muskie fishing
now and people make a lot ofcustom baits.
So there's a lot of baits outthere that people do raffles for
, because each some of thesebaits are, like you know, five
hundred dollars kind of thing.
So what they'll people will dois they'll go 50 spots at ten
(45:21):
dollars or they'll go let's go90 spots at thirteen dollars,
depending on what the bundlesthey are in packages.
So some of these baits I win,some of these baits I get.
I've ordered a custom, uh, twocustom baits now, um, because I
heard that they were like thehot colors to get, and it's,
people don't really sell thoseones, so you can order it and
and I've gotten shipped to thehouse now.
So I don't think I'll be goingmusky fishing, though I don't
(45:42):
think I have the time to reallyget out there, and especially
when I'm just trying to get allmy boats set up, because I think
I just want to catch some fish.
So I'm probably going to gobass fishing, probably going to
do a little bit of trout fishing, um, see if I can catch a
rainbow trout or two.
And probably, uh, I would liketo have, like, if I can get a
walleye or a pickerel I mightsay walleye, but a walleye would
be nice, uh, especially get agood eating one, because I
(46:04):
haven't had a nice walleye shorelunch in a while now.
Speaker 6 (46:07):
So well, I gotta tell you when, when my son, our sons
, were young they were justsmall we would go out on a lake
and I'd take a cooler filledwith water and hooks and bobbers
and we would go to a littlerock shore to catch panfish,
sunfish, rock bass and thingslike that, and then we would
(46:28):
catch them live, release theminside the cooler and this is
when they're like three yearsold and all that did was inspire
them to go fishing and it's agreat way to get kids involved
in the outdoors and at the endof the day we would let those,
all those panfish, back in thatspot and the next day or the day
after we'd be back there againcatching the same fish and, lo
(46:52):
and behold, they'd be playingwith them in the cooler and
having a great time.
But it's a way to get theminvolved in the outdoors and a
way to get them going.
And guess what?
It's now late 20s and he'sstill fishing and still involved
.
But $500 a lure are you crazy?
Holy, mackerel Must be nice.
You must be doing okay inEdmonton working the rebar to be
(47:14):
able to even contemplate thatkind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (47:17):
Well, when you work the hours I do, you got to sit
back and appreciate some things.
So it's nice, I don't mindworking hard, but I just want to
go and do my little thing, mylittle fishing trip, every once
in a while.
So I appreciate that stuff andI work hard to make sure I can
afford those things.
But God knows if I get one ofthose baits snagged or something
, especially if a friend goes inand is like how much are you
(47:40):
going to go jump in the lake forthat bait or are you going to
pay me out, kind of thing,because those ones you jump in
after four and you spend all daygetting back.
Speaker 6 (47:49):
Anyways, that's great to hear, as always, garrett,
it's great to have you back.
It's great to get the updates.
I, it's great to have you back.
It's great to get the updates.
I hope our listeners appreciatethat.
It was interesting with thosemini air conditioner kind of
things and all it was was a goodfan blowing over some iced
sponges and a little bit of coldwater on top.
So it worked great in keepingthe rooms down and it's great to
(48:09):
be back up at the camp andhopefully you'll be able to get
your boat cleaned out and get itin the water.
Speaker 2 (48:15):
Yeah, always excited to be home here, always excited
to be able to see friends andfamily and, yeah, like I said,
spend the rest of the daycleaning the boat up.
I got to run a couple lines,reattach the live scope to the
boat there and more or less justgive it a good cleaning because
it's sat there for a bit now.
Speaker 6 (48:32):
So I'm just going to clean it out and make sure it's
all good to go Awesome.
Well, just an update fromwhat's happening with my podcast
partner, garrett.
Great to hear from him, andit's just a little something
different out there that we'relearning under the canopy.
Thanks, garrett.
Speaker 4 (49:06):
How did a small-town sheet metal mechanic come to
build one of Canada's mosticonic fishing lodges?
I'm your host, steve Nitzwicky,and you'll find out about that
and a whole lot more on theOutdoor Journal Radio Network's
newest podcast, diaries of aLodge Owner.
But this podcast will be morethan that.
Every week on Diaries of aLodge Owner, I'm going to
(49:29):
introduce you to a ton of greatpeople, share their stories of
our trials, tribulations andinspirations, learn and have
plenty of laughs along the way.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
Meanwhile we're sitting there bobbing along
trying to figure out how tocatch a bass and we both decided
one day we were going to be ontelevision doing a fishing show.
Speaker 2 (49:50):
My hands get sore a little bit when I'm reeling in
all those bass in the summertime, but that's might be for more
fishing than it was punching.
Speaker 6 (49:57):
You so confidently?
You said hey.
Speaker 4 (49:59):
Pat, have you ever eaten a drum?
Find Diaries of a Lodge Ownernow on Spotify, apple Podcasts
or wherever you get your podcast.
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