My big adventure

[RobbyPants]

I haven't been posting here much, until recently, but I figured I'd update you on my biggest life change.

I've lived in Michigan my whole life (I'm 38). My wife, kids, and I just moved to (very!) rural Ontario. My wife got a job teaching on a First Nations reserve in western Ontario. We're about seven hours northwest of Thunder Bay. It's about a 170 km drive to get groceries.

I quit my web development job I had in Michigan, since it was going to be a big hassle for them to pay me when I was a permanent resident of Canada. Now that we're settled in, I'm going to start looking for some remote software development work.

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The drive up here was an adventure in and of itself. It took three days (doing it in two would have been pushing it). We got stuck for a few hours when the only highway between Sault Ste Marie and Thunder Bay was closed down due to an accident. Still, we found a really nice park we killed a few hours, there.

[The Valkyrie]

That's a hell of a change!

Good for you!

[RobbyPants]

The place we're staying at is pretty decent. It's technically an apartment. There are two other units next to us. We're right next to the lake, which is great! My wife likes to do yoga in the mornings, and when it's not wet, she goes down there to do it.

This is the path just off to the side of our place:



And, here is where that path ends:




So... taking out the trash turns out to be an adventure.

I have to drive it 2 km down to a local dump. Of course, this fucker thinks it makes a great buffet, so I have to keep an eye out for him every time I get out of the car!



Luckily, there is a dumpster near the house I can use, and the bear doesn't like to wander into the community. If I'm throwing out lots of meat scraps, I still drive it down to the dump, to keep from attracting animals.

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Annnnd..., this was yesterday (September 22):





It melted by lunch time. On our way into town, we saw our first moose. Luckily, it got off the road in less than a minute.

[Minimalist]

Enjoy the Health Care System.

Oh, and you have a national leader who isn't a fucking dick.

Good choices.

[brewer]

Looks like pole, gun, boat and FWD territory. Hope it works out for you.

Maybe Tizheruk can give you some adventure tips.

[Minimalist]

Time for this, again.

[RobbyPants]

Looks like pole, gun, boat and FWD territory. Hope it works out for you.

We ditched our old Honda Fit for a Subaru Outback. 140 km worth of gravel each way for shopping means the thing is continuously filthy. There is a good amount of fishing and moose hunting up here. The education director gave us some moose stew meat that is currently in our freezer. We looked up a recipe and got stuff for it when we went shopping yesterday.

[brewer]

Looks like pole, gun, boat and FWD territory. Hope it works out for you.

We ditched our old Honda Fit for a Subaru Outback. 140 km worth of gravel each way for shopping means the thing is continuously filthy. There is a good amount of fishing and moose hunting up here. The education director gave us some moose stew meat that is currently in our freezer. We looked up a recipe and got stuff for it when we went shopping yesterday.

My guess is that Amazon won't deliver bulk food items to you. Bummer.

[RobbyPants]

My guess is that Amazon won't deliver bulk food items to you. Bummer.

The "local" grocery store where we shop will fly them out, but we'll be paying for that. The reservation has both an airport and a lake where pontoon planes land. My wife flew out on one of those for her training. We have been stocking up our pantry each trip when we go shopping. The goal is to not feel like we have to drive off the the reservation any time we're worried about road conditions. We still want the car for being able to drive around the several of the places here.

We ordered some stuff from IKEA, and the furthest out they'd ship is to that town with the stores. The airport will fly it the rest of the way out. So, there are options, but it's costly.

On the plus side, we are spending almost nothing on entertainment and eating out, and rent and utilities are part of my wife's benefit package. We're paying $400 a month Canadian for a two-bedroom place, water, electric, internet, and satellite TV.

[The Valkyrie]

Now we can make jokes about a certain Mr Pants going off the reservation!

😊