The Icelandic Festival in Gimli, Manitoba

Last Sunday we drove to Gimli for the Icelandic Festival. We've been going the last couple of years. Walked through the Viking village and talked with the 'Vikings' about life a thousand years ago. It was quite informative and interesting. You have to be dedicated to sleep in those tents for a few nights. The nights are getting cooler now, but, as one of the 'Vikings' there told me, they were quite comfortable with their thick furs they use for bedding. People in those days lived surely primitive, but they were skilled in making their clothing, weapons, and other things they used in their daily lives. The pace was slower and people spent their time making useful things, not spend it yapping on their cell phones and watching TV, or sitting in front of their computer all day long. They didn't spent as much time shopping either, the way we do. They foraged what they needed from nature, or traded with others.

I'm not saying I would like to live like that, but it makes you think about values in our lives.

Like every year we went to the Country Boy Restaurant for lunch. It is still called that, but on the sign outside it says 'Diego's Kitchen. Authentic Latin America Cuisine. Now they serve enchiladas, tortillas, and other Mexican dishes.

We found out they have new owners, which means changes. It seems every time a place changes hands, the new owners have the desire to change things. Why would anyone want to change something that has proved to be good? The place used to be packed, this time it wasn't, while the burger stand next door couldn't handle all the customers. This was the Icelandic Festival. A chance to make money.

We ordered our usual: Pan fried pickerel (or walleye), with fries and salad. $10.95. Not a bad price.
What a disappointment! Instead of 2 filets, they way it used to be, we received 1. The outside was much too dark and crispy. We got less fries and a smaller portion of lettuce. They put pieces of Mango fruit into the lettuce. I like mango, raisins, nuts, cranberries, pineapple, oranges and other fruit. Even jello but not in my lettuce!!

I didn't go to Gimli on Lake Winnipeg to eat Mexican food. I wanted fish. After we finished eating, we checked out what the people next door ate. They did have 2 filets, nice and golden brown. I guess next year we'll go the Chris' Fish and Chips next door. We may have to wait in line but it'll be worth it.

We felt like eating ice-cream, but they wanted over $3.00 for a small cone. We went to Robin's Donuts across the street. I paid $2.39 for a big scoop of strawberry swirl soft ice-cream in a sugar cone.

The secret of making money in any business is not high prices. It is better to sell for less, make less profit on each item, give the customer a little more than he/she expects, and in the long run a business will make more money by selling more items. A savvy businessman knows that. Buyers always love bargains and they will flock to the place where they'll get them.

I smoked my first Goldeye

Yesterday I caught 4 Goldeye in Lockport. I scaled them, gutted them, washed them and put them into the fridge. In the evening I put them into brine and left them overnight in the refrigerator. Some people say that it is best to freeze them for a few months before smoking them. Apparently, it makes the meat firmer and pulls out the oil, but I wanted to try out smoking them before I spent money on a smoker. 

In the morning I soaked roasted oak chips in water for 2 hours. The oak chips come from wine kits. They always include a small bag of oak chips, but I never use them. I’ve saved them over the years.

I took the 4 Goldeye out of the fridge, took them out of the brine, rinsed them, dried them with a paper towel, put them on a rack and left them for about 1 ½ hour in the basement to dry and to glaze over (so they can absorb the smoke but retain moisture).

Then I prepared my 2-burner gas barbeque for the smoking:

1)     I removed the rack from one side. Then I put more briquettes on the side without the rack. I took the oak chips out of the water, squeezed them dry and wrapped them with tinfoil. I punched holes into the top for the smoke to escape; then I put the package with the chips on top of the briquettes.

2)     I lit the burner, using only one. I left it on high with the lid open until the oak chips started smoking a bit. Then I put the fish onto the warming rack on the unlit side.

3)     I turned the gas control knob to its lowest setting. The temperature crept to about 275 F. Then I shut off the burner and let the temperature inside the barbeque cool down to about 180 F. Then I lit the burner again.

4)     After 2 ½ hours I shut off the burner and let the barbeque cool down with the fish still inside.

5)     The barbeque was cool after 1 hour. I used a spatula to loosen the fish from the grill. Some of the skin stayed behind, but that’s okay. We don’t eat the skin anyway. The meat looked good and the fish had a pleasant smoky aroma. We put the fish onto a baking sheet and put them into the fridge.

The problem was to keep the temperature from going above 275 F. Once I had, by mistake, 2 burners going on low for about 10 minutes and the temperature rose to nearly 400 F until I noticed it. Not good.

It was a tedious job. I left the burner on for about 5 minutes, then shut if off for about 10 minutes, and then I lit it again. This I did for the entire 2 ½ hours.

Note: I will buy a smoker. It will make life so much easier. This is actually the first time I smoked anything and I wanted to try it out. I searched the internet for advice and for recipes. I found plenty of both, but nobody advises you how to tell when the fish are done. I cut into the skin of one fish after 2 ½ hours and it separated easily from the flesh, so I figured it was done.

Here is the recipe I used:

1 liter of water

¼ cup pickling salt

¼ plus cup of brown sugar

½ cup of apple juice

¼ cup soy sauce

½ tsp. black pepper

¼ tsp. onion powder

¼ tsp. garlic powder

A few splashes of Worcestershire sauce

Evaluation:

We had them for supper. They were not great but edible. The taste was okay, but the meat was still quite soft. Maybe I should have smoked them longer. I think if they would have been smoked in a smoker and not my barbeque they would have been better. The way I did it wasn’t really the way to smoke them, because there was no consistent supply of smoke. Actually, there was probably not much smoke at all, because the oak chips were not even charred. I can use them again. I think I’ll wait until I have a real smoker before I smoke goldeye again. I will use the same recipe.

I went fishing

I took a couple of hours yesterday afternoon and went fishing in the Red River in Lockport. Lockport is only about 3 km away from our place. We fish near the dam. The fish come up from Lake Winnipeg  and are stopped by the dam. They congregate in the turbulent water below the dam in great masses. Many anglers go there every day to try their luck. Sometimes people fish shoulder to shoulder, especially on the weekends and when the weather is nice. Sometimes whole families are there. Not really a place to go if you want to spend a quiet few hours of fishing.

I was lucky and caught 7 Goldeye and 2 Sauger. The Sauger were a bit on the small size. The limit for Goldeye is 10, so I'm still 3 short of my limit. Should I catch more they'll go on my wife's license. I scaled them with a scaler-board I got from my son years ago. I've never used it before. It works great. You just insert the tail of the fish into the clamp at the end of the board and start scaling them fish with a scaling-knife. The fish are slippery and it is hard to hold them.The scaler-board makes it so easy. Once they are scaled I gut them, wash them and put them into a freezer bag filled with water (4 fish in a bag), then I freeze them until it is time to smoke them. Probably in the fall when the weather is cooler.

I used a 6 pound test line on my rod, put a floater about 4 feet above the hook. The hook is small, tipped with a piece of night crawler (a large worm). Then I throw it into the river and let it drift in the current, hoping to catch a fish. Some guys there didn't use a floater. They fish the bottom. I tried it but gave it up. I got hung up between the rocks at the bottom of the river and lost a few hooks and the sinkers, not to mention a few feet of line.

I also caught a carp and a tiny catfish (about 3 inches long). I don't keep the carp. They are too greasy and taste muddy. Some people keep them. They must really spice them up for them to taste like anything I'd want to eat. Obviously, I didn't keep the catfish either.

Speeding is okay, even if you kill someone

Apparently, it is all right to drive over the speed limit, according to one of our judges. This judge ruled that, even though some young man hit and killed a 91 year old woman while driving 100 km/hr in a 60 km/hr zone, he is not criminally responsible for killing a human being. This young man didn't drive recklessly, because everyone speeds on that stretch of road  where it happened.

Wow! Let me write this again: he didn't drive recklessly, even though he drove at least 40 km over the speed limit!

This opens up a whole can of worms. It means anyone can speed and get away with it, because people speed on every road. I see it every day.

Our son had a serious accident when he was younger. He came home late one night, being tired he dozed off and, consequently, rolled his car, demolishing it completely. He was extremely lucky to come out of it alive. The cops and rescue people who arrived at the scene couldn't believe he survived the crash. He was charged with reckless driving, had to pay a fine and received demerit points on his license.

But speeding and killing another human being while doing so is okay and not considered reckless driving. I don't see the logic in that.Something stinks to high heaven with that case. I hope the children who lost their mother and grandmother in that horrific accident put in an appeal.

There is always talk about making our roads safer, but nothing ever gets done about it. People still talk and text on their cell phones while driving. They drive without their seat-belts on, pass in no-passing stretches of the road, drive slow in the left lane on the highway when the signs say: Slow traffic keep right, drive through red lights...and they speed. Young criminals will steal cars and take them for joy-rides, sometimes causing serious accidents, even killing people, but they never get punished enough. Most of them are repeat offenders.

I got a $200.00 speeding ticket a few years back while driving 10 km over the speed limit in a construction zone.I was caught with one of those cameras. The sign said: 60 km when workers present. There weren't any workers there when I drove through that part of the highway. Many drivers got a speeding ticket that day. And on other days. The whole thing was nothing but a tax-grab. It had nothing to do with driving safely.
I am not a speeder. I always follow the traffic signs. This may sound like the whining of a kid who got spanked for misbehaving a little, while his brother got away with throwing a rock through the neighbor's window, but what I mean is it seems the wrong people get punished most of the time for minor infractions, while the serious offenders get away with their crime.

Real speeders should get fined heavily. If they get into an accident and hurt someone they should pay dearly with a hefty fine and loose their license. If they kill someone they should face jail-time. That, of course, depends on other circumstances also, but they should never get away with it scot-free. Drivers, who are caught using their cellphone should get fined a minimum of $500.00 and receive demerit points on their license. Instead of setting up traffic cameras, the cops should be out there on the streets and watch the drivers, watch for erratic drivers who are weaving in and out of traffic, drivers who go through red lights. Drivers who rev up their engines and take off like rabbits when the light turns green, drivers who are actually speeding on purpose. Records should be kept of offenders and repeat offenders should get higher fines, even loose their license.

Sounds harsh? These measures may save many lives. Possibly even yours. Like I wrote in one of my previous blogs, we live among idiots. They are everywhere, even on the road driving a car. The next one may just be headed your way.

Be careful out there and have a nice day.

We're being screwed

Why are gas prices still so high? The price of a barrel of oil has dropped to the low $80.00 level. A few weeks ago it was even below that. It is strange, when the price of oil goes up only a couple of dollars the gas prices soar, so why don't they go down when oil prices drop?
Because the oil companies are playing with us, in a way stealing our money, just like the banks when they raise their interest rates to unreasonable levels.
Oil is ruling this world, that's why we have wars, that's why we don't have electric cars or cars with motors that run on other, cheaper fuels. And our governments do nothing about it because they are controlled by the oil companies. In many ways the economy is also controlled by the price of oil (as it is by the interest rates). High gas prices mean high transportation prices which translate to high produce prices. Everything is connected to the price of gas. The state of our economy can partially be blamed on the oil companies.
I wrote a book, a mystery, Bullet of Revenge, that touches on the subject. The book will be released by the end of this month. I will announce it here, even though I'm not using this blog to advertise my books.
Perhaps you are interested.

Spanking...a new revelation. Or: It's not my fault. Blame my parents or my teachers

 Researchers have discovered that children who get spanked develop paranoia and become drunks. Wow! Where the hell do they come up with that one? It never amazes me what the ‘experts’ come up with. How old were these researchers?

If that were true then every one in my generation should be a paranoid drunk! I was spanked when I was a kid and I’m not paranoid, I drink very little alcohol. I don’t smoke, either, even though my dad smoked a pipe. (That one little tidbit is for those psychiatrists and psychologist and researchers who believe children always copy what their parents do). None of my friends from my generation have problems with paranoia or alcohol. None of them do drugs, either. Something that can’t be said for the new generations who grew up not being spanked when they misbehaved. Their parents probably let them do anything they wanted.

What a revelation! Now I finally know why there are so many drunken and homeless people downtown. They were all spanked when they were kids. My theory is they may not be in their position had they been spanked a little and taught some discipline, but that’s only my theory. I’m not an expert in these matters. I only use my brain to figure out things I observe.

I find that many kids these days have no respect for older people, their teachers, policemen (policewomen), even their parents. Parents are not buddies to little children. Their job is to teach them and discipline them when they do something wrong. A little pat on the naked butt never hurts their tender psyche.

Undisciplined children get a rude awakening when they grow up and suddenly discover they can’t get away with doing anything they want. There are certain laws they must obey. If they don’t follow rules they get punished, either with a fine or even sent to prison if their crime warrants it. Had they been punished for misbehaving when they were small they may have learned respect for rules and the law. And some kids need a little more than just being talked to.

Why do people always have to blame somebody else for their problems? Instead of saying: “I’m a drunk or a drug addict because I got spanked when I was a kid,” they should say, “I’m a drunk because I can’t control myself. I never learned any discipline; I was never taught how to control my urges. My parents didn’t punish me when I did something wrong because they didn’t want to hurt my psyche, but, yes, I take full responsibility for my actions.”

Some people gamble, some take drugs, some drink excessively, some are paranoid. Some people are just plain crazy. Some don’t know how to handle money; they borrow too much, overextend their credit, charge their credit accounts to the limit, buy on impulse. Some men beat their wives, their children. Some get into fights, some steal, break into cars, rob people. Some rape women and abuse children. When they get caught they blame it on something or other, never take responsibility. Like Vince Li, who murdered a guy and cut off his head, because he heard voices telling him to do that. It wasn’t his fault. He is in a mental hospital in Selkirk now and doing fine…according to his doctor, who is probably a psychiatrist. I don’t know if he still hears voices. I wonder if he got spanked when he was a kid.

The problem is that people confuse spanking with beating. No, you don’t beat your children. Neither does a husband beat his wife, (or the other way around. It happens!) It’s a crime and should be punished severely. Inflicting pain on others is a crime. Spanking is not inflicting pain. I got spanked, on the buttocks with a belt. Spanked with a belt not beaten with a stick. The belt was soft, so were my buttocks. Sure it hurt, but it didn’t cause any permanent damage. My dad never hit me anywhere else, never in the face, on the head, or on the chest or back. He never took out his anger on us children. When we got spanked we deserved it. He was stern and taught us respect for rules and the law. We had respect for our teachers, the police, older people, and our parents. We did not call older people by their first name, we called them Mr or Mrs. In some cases perhaps ‘Uncle’ or ‘Aunt’, but never by their first name only.

I cannot agree with these researchers. Paranoia, drunkenness, and other problems are not caused when children are spanked. People develop those things as they grow older. Some people can’t cope with life so they take refuge in drugs or alcohol. Some people are just born with bad genes. Not their fault. My advice: deal with it. Don’t look for causes and don’t blame others. Get help. Try to solve your problem. Learn to meditate. Pray. Get busy. Maybe even get a job if you don’t have one. Educate yourself. Take up a hobby. Get into sports. Do something but don’t mope and feel sorry for yourself. And above all: Don’t blame your parents for your problems! You and you alone are responsible.

A hot dog at Skinners

It's Canada Day today. We just came back from Skinners in Lockport where they serve the worldfamous hot dog. Well, I must say we were not happy. We paid $12.00 for the full meal (a regular hot dog, homemade fries, a drink). My complaint: Too much mustard on the hot dog. The homemade fries were too small, too crunchy, and too greasy, and only a small portion.
What the heck happened to the prices? $12.00 (incl. Tax) seems a bit steep. I can get a large hot dog (or a polish sausage) on a large bun and a drink for $1.50 at Costco. (plus tax)and it tastes much better than the worldfamous hot dog.
I used to eat a hamburger, but I've gotten sick too many times. I haven't been to McDonalds for years. I got sick from their hamburgers 3 times in a row. Two years ago, on Canada Day, I had a hamburger at Skinners, got sick from that one, so I decided to eat only hot dogs from then on. About a month ago I got sick from an Uncle Burger from A & W. The only place I haven't gotten sick yet is Burger King.
I'm sure glad our kids are grown. We couldn't afford to take them out for a hot dog.