The biggest one was um when ah my second son um graduated from Rayside and ah he said, "Mom I'll bring a few friends is that okay so we can have a party at the camp?." And I said, "Oh, okay fine." Eighteen.

So what happened when they all showed up? Speaker: What can you say, you pick them up at the dock and you take them to the camp. Yeah so when I said to Andrew, I said, "Okay you have got six friends here that is it." And he said, "Oh no." He starts naming them. I thought, "Oh good Lord." "We all brought our own food mom." "Okay."

I know there's some differences between like- we'll call a cottage a 'camp' up here. And they call it a cottage. We call a skidoo a skidoo and they call it a 'snowmobile'.

Plus there was a bunkhouse too in the bush at the camp- at the mine. And we- we my mom had a cousin up there already.

Besides that though, we did a lot of stuff together with the family. Since I was growing up, my dad and my mum, they took us wherever they went they took us uh- they took us with them. So, ah, my dad had a camp on Nipissing. He built a camp there and, ah, after a while, ah, they sold that, they went to grandf-- grandf-- grandfather's camp on the- by River-Valley, up North maybe, about an hour past that. Interviewer: Okay. Speaker: We had a camp there and that was my grandfather's camp, we used to go end up going there after a while, ah, they sold that, they went to grandf-- grandf-- grandfather's camp on the- by River-Valley, up North maybe, about an hour past that. We had a camp there and that was my grandfather's camp, we used to go- end up going there after a while.

Not Crescent over here but in Chelmsford. Interviewer: Oh, okay. Speaker: So we lived there, we rented a house for a year. The landlord was selling it so we ended up moving into his parents' basement. 'Cause they were living up at camp. Um, we did that from June 'til August. Well, we got our down payment and stuff. Might even have been May. May or June, anyway, 'til August. We moved in here in August. Before that we were in Elliot-Lake.

Interviewer: No, it's true. Um- do you have, like, any favourite things to sew? Speaker: Quilts. Interviewer: Quilts? Speaker: I'm enjoying making the quilts, yeah. Interviewer: Yeah, have you made any like- really big ones lately or- Speaker: I made a king-size one for my camp. Interviewer: Oh wow. Okay. Speaker: It's way too warm. Interviewer: Oh yeah? Speaker: But it's up at- up at the trailer- in the ice-hut. Ah, I followed a block of the month. So they send you, um- they give you the pattern, you just do it in your own colours.

Speaker: I have to give in tomorrow and I've got five hours of the Parry-Sound one to finish and I've got a one-day-er to do. And I'm going on holidays in four wee- three weeks, so like- not taking any more jobs for a couple weeks. Interviewer: Oh, where you going? Speaker: Just to camp. Interviewer: Oh, okay. So your camp- is that on Fox-Lake or- Speaker: Yeah. Interviewer: Yeah, Fox-Lake. Speaker: Trailer, yeah. I still call it camp. Interviewer: Oh, okay. Yeah, still. It's still camp.

Interviewer: Um, I think- maybe I'm thinking of your- I-don-t-know if it's your parents' or T-J's parents- Speaker: Oh, my- T-J's parents' camp at Geneva, yes. Interviewer: Yeah. That's what I'm thinking of probably. Speaker: Yeah, they sold it. Interviewer: Oh did they? Speaker: They sold it, yeah, it's been a couple years.

them do something else. Like I'd say, "Okay you wash all those pots and pans. I'll do the tablecloths." Interviewer: Yeah, "I'll do the-" Yeah, "I'll- I'll do it." Speaker: Much easier. Interviewer: Yeah, yeah that's true too. Speaker: To them it was hard. For me it was easy. And we won many- our- our camp won many awards when we were there.

Okay. Ah, what can I say. Okay, so, I used to camp with, ah, my friend's family. Like we- I used to camp a lot near Ma-- near here. And we were like a bunch of people, like, ah, a bunch of my mom and her, ah, friends, and stuff. And, there was this one guy who was my age, and he was like a cute guy, you-know, like, everybody was like, "Oh-my-God." But we

with a- with a farm tractor and a- and a flatbed wagon, and brought it to Remi-Lake, and dad had got a piece of land that he was able to, ah lease for- for a while, and then, ah, subsequently, we- we bought the property and own the land then, but tha-- that Spruce-Falls bush-cam is still standing, it was built, ah, in sixty-one. And, I remember, I was four years of age, I remember tha-- that- that construction going on, and us having a- having a cabin, you-know. And, ah, I just sold it, ah, two years ago.

And they were moving from one spot to the next, you-know, and what they usually did was- th-- the- the- the guy who was in charge of the- the cooking in the- in the camp and took care of the dogs, he would uh snowshoe and- or walk ahead with snowshoe to where they were going to go for the next- in three days from now to- to stay for four days or-something.

So you'd pack a trail, come back, that would freeze up and he could- they could move that- the- the- take down the camp, the tents and- And ah- and all their gear, and bring 'em down- bring 'em ah up to the- where they're going to set up next. So ah th-- back in those days, they- they were sleeping in a seven-by-seven tent. Three guys in a seven-by-seven tent.

Don't put me inside. I- I just can't sit down, and- so I'm always out-- outside in the winter, you-know, start cutting trails for snow-shoeing, and we have a camp in the bush, and so, yeah. Um, when we lived in town, like, we would always retreat to the lake, we had a fish-hut, um, during the winter, and that's where we'd spend our weekends, on the lake.

Stuff that people, like, would pay money for now and have as decoration in their house. Really cool stuff. And as we explored more- I think we spent about three days. We ended up grabbing shovels. Starting to dig, and there used to be an old bush camp right around that area. And that was their dump, essentially. Everything had, you-know, composted and disappeared except for all these, like, glass things or metal things that were still around. The glass, I-mean, they might as well have been made yesterday.

And that one ended up walk- wandering into the boat- bush and we shot him, I think, the next week. Because he kept coming into the camp. Sucks to say. We didn't want to, but sometimes you had to. But that's an example of a close call.

There's six of us in our group. Speaker: So we break up three and three and we go to two different ends and- and then we meet. We meet after so we- we gather back at our camp at- we go at five, we probably come back around eleven. You-know, we just diddle-daddle for lunch and then we go back out around three, come back nine. You do that over and over again ah 'til you get your moose.

No, the closest I've come to is ah, we're at the camp, the bear was um- um- we were- we were um- we were fishing. We had a fish-fry. And so ah after we had the fish-fry, you have to dispose the oil, 'cause you leave it around the camp you're asking for trouble, right?

I left it there. We went fishing. When I came back the bear was in the oil. Like I was walking up to the camp and you just look up and the bear's nosing in there and he's eating the oil. And I had my gun inside the camp, because we k-- we keep a gun there in case something- you-know, 'cause once the bear starts coming-