Work for Fraser

Well i figured it was about time I said something about work as i have now been here over half way.
I am now at Station 43 in Bells Corner heading west from where i live. The station is a lot more quieter than being in the city at Station 13 but you can still get busy nights. The station has a pump and a rescue and also a tech rescue truck which carries the high angle rescue gear.
Being that it has a rescue the station goes to more car accident which is what i wanted as i am keen to see how they do extrication here.
Although the station is further away than the previous station it is quicker to get to.
The guys from 43 are really good and very helpful, and also do more drill like we do at home to keep everyone up to speed on the rope gear and other things.
Also a nice thing about 43 is that i do not get detailed out to other stations every second week like i did at 13, even though it was a good way of meeting lots of the firefighters in the city.

Tubing

After the Sugar Bush we had decided to go tubing the pakenham ski Field just back up the road as we had talked about and wanted to have a go at tubing. Although not the biggest tube park area, it was a good cheap one for us to have a go. We ended up siting and watching the skiers over lunch before having a few more going before we took the scenic route back into town.

Sugar Bush

Last weekend we headed out to a sugar bush, now this is the term for a maple syrup producer, One of the guys I work with at station 43 has a family sugar bush called Fultons so we headed out there for breakfast and also to have a look at how maple syrup is made.
Other than it was an hours drive the area around the sugar bush was very nice, Scott said if we where heading out to try and get there just after 9am or the place gets busy.
We arrived and talked to Scott then went and had our pancakes sausages and beans with lots of maple syrup.
After the food we went and had a look in the sugar camp where they boil the syrup down to the way you get it in the shop. The whole thing was quiet interesting since before i got here i did not have a clue where or how the syrup was made.
After talking to Scott we headed out for a walk along one of the tracks and played step over the syrup lines that take the liquid back to the shed.
We then had a ride on a horse draw sleigh around the forest and then watched Scott's 6 year old son get interviewed by Ctv(local TV show)for a bit they were doing on the sugar bush.

Skating the Rideau Canal

With winter starting to come to an end it was decided that it was time for Sarah to skate the entire length of the Rideau Canal.
We parked the car at the Dows Lake end and headed back towards the city.
The day was really nice with hardly any clouds in the sky and only a bit of wind, but still in the minus somewhere just not lots in the minus.
Well Sarah Skated from Dows Lake to the end in town and then all the way back again, as for me I skated halfway into town and then sat down and had a hot chocolate, much better I thought.
On the return trip sarah also went up to the top lock above the lake.
By the way did I mention that Sarah skated the entire length, oh I did because she keeps mentioning it to me!!!

Snow Shoeing 24th Feb

The weather had finally warmed up enough that we figured we could safely go snow shoeing with out freezing to death 10 metres from the car, so we headed into Gatineau park and hired some snowshoes and headed out to the end of Meach lake.
We got out of the car and strapped on our flash snow shoes and started off into the wilderness of Gatineau park.
The walk was amazing, the hardest thing was getting use to the snow shoes, although most of the track was well used we walked off and on the track to really experience the whole snow shoe thing.
We walked out to one of the lookouts and then further to a nice seat where we sat in the sun and enjoyed the view.
We then headed back to the car and Fraser discovered going down a steep hill was not that easy, not that i fell over just slipped down the track.
In total we walked 8.5km in snow shoes so we thought that was pretty good for our first time ever.

President Obama in Ottawa

The Leader of the free world was coming to Ottawa and we figured we should get into town and try and see him.
We drove into the museum of civilization and parked the car there and then walked across the river into Ottawa, as usual we cut though the park beside the rideau canal figuring we could get near Parliament!!!
You could see the police around the Parliament building and and as we got closer to where we crossed over the rideau we got told we were not aloud to go this way and had to go back, but to hurry as the cop thought that Obama has getting here in 10 minutes. Then the cop told us to go around the chateau and back to the road.
We ended up on the edge of the police cordon on rideau street beside the chateau, and could not go any further, but in the end we and the people we were standing with wee told if we went though the hotel and to the front we could stand on the road, so off we went and in the end it paid off as we got to have clear view of Obama in the Beast and the 30 other cars that follow him where ever he goes.
So i guess that makes us world famous in New Zealand or not.

Quebec City in the Winter

Six days in February 13th to the 18th
Fraser, Sarah Bec and Leon all headed up to Quebec city for a week to look around in the winter and also check out the winter carnival.
We all piled into Leon and bec's car and headed north for the five hour drive. And figured out where the place we had rented was, then off for a drive around and a look at some of the old city.
Next day we all go up early and parked the car down the bottom of the old city and walked thought the old city and looked at all the things to see and then headed over to the area where the carnival was happening. The Carnival was very much like the Ottawa winter festival with some of the same things. The Saturday night we headed out to watch the parade and did not realise the spot we had we had to wait 2 hours for the parade to get to this point.
In the end the parade was quite good, but not sure it was worth the time we had waited, did i forget to mention the it was about -10 at the time.
The next day Fraser, Sarah and Bec looked at different things around town and Leon headed out for a ski at mont St Anne's.
That night we drive out and looked at the falls at night.
Monday, Fraser and Leon headed out skiing and lift Sarah and Bec to do some shopping.
Mont St Anne's Ski Field is a huge area covering two sides of a mountain with the longest run being almost 4km long.
We started out with some easy slopes and then got into some more harder ones, and finished the day with a couple of hard slopes, the worst thing was because some of the runs were so long your legs where screaming by the time you got to the bottom.

The Tuesday we all packed up and headed just out of Quebec city the the site of the ice hotel were we had a look.
The place did not look like much from the out side but inside was amazing, the ice is made in a way that it freezes from the inside out so it is clear, the cost to stay was a bit much but it was still a really neat thing to see as they only build two in the world.
All the rooms each had a different theme and so where set out differently, they even had five rooms designed by students, with the five being the top of the entrants. Was well worth the visit.
We then carried on to Jacqueline in Montreal and spent the night there before returning to Ottawa and back to work for Fraser.