What's Happening at Halley's

At the start of March we literally had one man living on One Man Lake island! Kirk, one of our pilots from the past two summers, has made the lodge his residence again until May when he starts flying again. Construction really picked up the first week of March, with all of the guest room ceilings being replaced with new insulation and pine boarding. The walls were stripped out, sound-proof insulation was added and covered with thick drywall. While that was being done we replaced all of the headboard lights and installed USB plug-ins above the new night stands. The guest rooms look amazing. The game rooms and dining room had new carpet installed, which looks dynamite! The overhaul was needed and we thank everyone who put their time and effort into making it spectacular!

March is the best month (we think) to ice fish—the weather is beautiful, there isn’t too much snow and slush on the lakes, and the fish are hungry! All of us have had a chance to head out fishing for some sort of species this month: walleyes, northern pike, and trout. Our favorite bait of choice is still a jig and a minnow. Check out this video featuring the kids and a big northern!

Wow, what a March we had, with warm temperatures during the day and cool at night—keeping the ice nice and strong. Good ice was a necessity as the guys were crossing it every day to work on One Man and the outposts. We had a lot of snow this winter and some of it started to melt, but we still have quite a bit in the bush and in the yards. The lakes (in late March) still had 30” of ice! But the melt is about to begin—temperatures at the end of March were around mid 50°F and rising!

We are excited to start a new project at our One Man Lake Lodge! We have been updating and sound proofing the bedrooms, and putting in new flooring in the game rooms. In February the guys hauled the drywall and insulation to Caribou, where it was loaded into our track truck and taken across the lake to One Man. Check out one of the loads of drywall—it took three trips (10 miles each way) to get it all out there! You can see that the walls are being ripped out and prepared for new insulation and drywall. We will keep posting progress pictures as we go!

Chris, Rob, and Jamie spent much of January and February cutting firewood at our outposts. All of our fly-in locations are now completely stocked with firewood—more than enough to get all of our guests through the year! The cutting and hauling of firewood is a lot easier at this time of year, when they don’t have to contend with getting the wood to the boat, into the boat, down the river, out of the boat, and up to the cabin. During the winter they use snowmobiles with sleighs to bring the wood right from the bush up to the cabin. It’s also nice hauling wood in winter as you don’t have to worry about sunscreen or bugs—but you have to hope your backpack lunch doesn’t freeze along the way!