Moose Hunting Preparations

On Monday, Kent and I drove to Egmont to bring Pop, his motorhome, and his tin boat on trailer, home with us. Kent and Pop (yes, my 95 year old ‘Pop’) are going moose hunting!

We arrived at Egmont a little after 6 pm, unpacked a few things from the truck, loaded up Pop and his walker and drove to the Backeddy to have dinner. Pop’s oven quit working last week, so dinner out was a great plan! The Backeddy was closed, Tom and Sherry’s at Earl’s Cove was closed, Ruby Lake was closed… and we were getting hungry!

The Pender Harbour Golf Club restaurant was open and we all enjoyed hot beef sandwiches made by our friend Dianne who used to work at the Backeddy. We were so pleased to see her and she told us about her upcoming trip to Oahu to see her sister. Now that really made me start thinking about a holiday – again.

Tuesday morning we loaded the motorhome with all the last minute items and did a number of chores. It’s always surprising how many jobs are required to prepare to leave a place for a month. Kent hooked up the boat trailer, took in the electrical cords from the dock, unplugged the motorhome, loaded the gas cans into the boat, covered the boat, locked up the shop and the garage then shut off the water system.

Meanwhile, Pop was loading his last minute supplies, putting his scooter away, turning off the hot water tank, and reminding Kent and I of the various jobs which still were required.

I cleaned out the fridge, burned the garbage, put on the dishwasher, tidied the house, made the beds, grabbed the cat before he escaped and set the house alarm. Kent drove the vehicles up the driveway and locked the gate and we were off – without forgetting a single thing! I drove the truck with Pop and Sylvester with me, and Kent drove the motorhome with Hugo as company.

We were home by 2:30 and started unpacking then packing all over again. Much gear is required to go hunting, including bedding, towels, clothes, food, radios, outboard engine, generator, not to mention guns and amunition and hunting supplies. Kent also had a lot of errands to run before leaving. Wednesday he had a ton more errands which cropped up and he finished packing the motorhome.

I was looking for one of my favourite cookie recipes to make a batch of fresh cookies for Kent and Pop to take with them, when Kent told me he arranged for Sean to come to the Marina at 6 pm as a fellow boater needed a diver to clean the barnacles from his rudder, shaft and propellor. Uh, oh – no time to make cookies after all… We took dinner with us to the boat and 9 of us had a very enjoyable evening chatting, drinking wine and watching Sean’s bubbles.

Kent and Pop were on the road this morning at 7 am, heading for the hunting grounds.