Your Virtual Agimac River Outfitter Experience

 Greetings to all our wonderful Agimac River Outfitters friends.  We finally made it back up to camp on Father's Day (same as last year) after jumping through all the hoops required at the border.   Just trying to get the correct covid test to be able to cross the border was a grueling story in itself.  We were told by a border agent on the phone that if we came up to the border and did not have the correct test taken that was negative, we would be charged $6,000 each.  Isn't that amazing?

Thankfully we had the correct test and were able to get our work permits after waiting for three hours.  It's always a good feeling to leave the border behind.  Everything was in order here at camp when we arrived and it was good to be back.

Since none of you will probably be able to come up this year again, I thought I would send you some photos and videos to let you have a virtual experience at least.  It truly is a beautiful place to spend a summer.  To save on fuel since we have no guests, we only run our small generator at night.  We freeze four gallon milk jugs and then when we turn off the generator the next morning, we put them in the refrigerator to keep our perishables cool.  

The following morning John got right to work mowing all the three foot high grass.  Some places had to be weed whacked first to save on the mower.  I quickly began clearing weeds in the garden and planted some leaf lettuce and green beans.  I see they are just poking up their heads today.  

It's been real warm and dry with only a few rain showers.  We desperately need some rain for the plants, flowers, grass, garden and even the blueberries.  Our stash of blueberries is gone since we have not had good picking for two years.  

The last couple of days I have been painting our side deck that John finished renovating last year and did some touch up painting on the house.  I also repainted the front decks of cabins 8 and 9.  You never know when it will start raining again, so thought I'd best take advantage of these nice sunny days.  Of course, we have been doing lots of relaxing too.  There's no pressure to get everything done at once when we have four more months of isolation here.  

I just got my fishing license and the moment our 14 day quarantine is finished, I am heading out to my favorite fishing spot.  Ironically, our quarantine is over on July 4th... independence day for us.  

We had an interesting experience yesterday.  Since camp is quiet with no guests, there is a proliferation of grouse families around.  We have seen at least three different mamas with their little ones walking to and fro around and under cabins and by the garage.  John always props open one big door on the garage to make it more accessible for us to go in and get tools etc.  Joanna was out walking Scarlett (on a leash so she can't chase the grouse babies)  and she saw a couple of little ones run or fly into the garage.  She came to get me and using brooms we tried to encourage them to fly out the door.  It didn't happen.  We would get them to fly toward the door, but they would be up high above the door and not fly out.  Instead they would fly back to the back of the garage or over the ceiling of the generators.  

The Mama sat outside on John's tractor and made clucking noises, but the little ones stayed in the garage.  We didn't want to leave them in there, so when John started the generator later that evening, all three of us went in there with fish nets to try to catch them and get them out.  Now there were five little grouse in there.  We were able to catch them and carry them over to the edge of the woods and let them fly off to find Mama.  Two of them were sitting at the peak of the garage over the door , so John had to climb a ladder and grab them with his hand to bring them down.  How elated we were to finally get all five out of the garage and back to their Mama.  

Sure wish you all could be here with us.  We hope and pray next year will be a time of reuniting with all of you.  Hope you have a wonderful summer with family and friends.