Diaries of a Lodge Owner
Episode 50: Willy The Oil Man
What drives a man to leave behind the high-stakes world of oil exploration and embrace the tranquil life of a lodge owner? Join us as Will Palowski recounts his extraordinary journey from the oil fields to the serene beauty of Nordic Point Lodge. Will's tales of survival, grit, and determination provide a fascinating look into the rugged realities of the oil industry and the profound personal growth that comes from pursuing a passion. Alongside these captivating stories, we celebrate the lodge's unique blend of luxury and outdoor adventure, making it a haven for fishing enthusiasts and nature lovers alike.
This episode also dives into the thrill of encountering rare silver pike at Nordic Point Lodge and the crucial need for sustainable fishing practices. Imagine an evening at the lodge filled with acoustic melodies, breathtaking views, and the camaraderie of fellow anglers. Will not only shares his plans to weave the magic of music into the lodge experience but also emphasizes why preserving these natural wonders is vital for future generations.
From harrowing experiences in the Arctic wilderness to the unpredictable adventures of oil exploration in Central Asia, Will's stories are a testament to resilience and adaptability. Get a behind-the-scenes look at the technical and logistical challenges of drilling operations and the enduring camaraderie of those who brave these harsh environments. Plus, enjoy a flavorful segment featuring celebrity chefs Antonio Muleka and Luis Hookset, who share their passion for hunting, fishing, and preparing game. Their expert tips and entertaining stories add a delicious twist to this celebration of the great outdoors and the simple joys of life at Nordic Point Lodge.
What drives a man to leave behind the high-stakes world of oil exploration and embrace the tranquil life of a lodge owner? Join us as Will Palowski recounts his extraordinary journey from the oil fields to the serene beauty of Nordic Point Lodge. Will's tales of survival, grit, and determination provide a fascinating look into the rugged realities of the oil industry and the profound personal growth that comes from pursuing a passion. Alongside these captivating stories, we celebrate the lodge's unique blend of luxury and outdoor adventure, making it a haven for fishing enthusiasts and nature lovers alike.
This episode also dives into the thrill of encountering rare silver pike at Nordic Point Lodge and the crucial need for sustainable fishing practices. Imagine an evening at the lodge filled with acoustic melodies, breathtaking views, and the camaraderie of fellow anglers. Will not only shares his plans to weave the magic of music into the lodge experience but also emphasizes why preserving these natural wonders is vital for future generations.
From harrowing experiences in the Arctic wilderness to the unpredictable adventures of oil exploration in Central Asia, Will's stories are a testament to resilience and adaptability. Get a behind-the-scenes look at the technical and logistical challenges of drilling operations and the enduring camaraderie of those who brave these harsh environments. Plus, enjoy a flavorful segment featuring celebrity chefs Antonio Muleka and Luis Hookset, who share their passion for hunting, fishing, and preparing game. Their expert tips and entertaining stories add a delicious twist to this celebration of the great outdoors and the simple joys of life at Nordic Point Lodge.
This episode of Diaries of a Lodge Owner is brought to you by Nordic Point Lodge A luxury outdoor experience with five-star service.
Speaker 2:So you know you think about it. I think I've described it to you before. You're drilling into places that have been locked away under pressure for millions of years. We're not talking like a decade or I'm talking like millions of years. So when that releases, you know they're called kicks and it's a big deal. You know when that shit comes flying up the wall, it's it can be dangerous.
Speaker 1:This week on the Outdoor Journal Radio Podcast Networks Diaries of a Lodge Owner From the oil fields across the globe to the shores of Peralt Lake. As the owner of the legendary Nordic Point Lodge, this man's determination in life is second to none and the road he chose feels very similar to my path, which led me to the Upper French River. No, I wasn't an oil man, but we both took the dirt road to get there. And now it is my pleasure to bring back this awesome member of the family, will Palowski, on today's show. We find out how a young roughneck worked his way up the oil industry ranks to amazing heights, and the road Will walked that led him to where he is today Nordic Point Lodge. So if you love great stories from outstanding people or have ever thought about owning a fishing lodge, this is a great one. Folks, sit and relax as Will shares his journey that has led us to this moment. Welcome to the show and folks.
Speaker 1:In the intro I mentioned dirt roads. In the intro I mentioned dirt roads and I just wanted to talk about how I always felt that when life gave me a choice, I always took what for years, from the days of working on the farm with wild Bill Durkin to moving into the sheet metal shop, where that really transformed me into an entrepreneur and taught me about life and learned a lot of hard lessons. And that's kind of where this dirt road idea comes from is getting your hands dirty and things being a little bit rough. You know, in the spring the frost comes out of that dirt road boy and if you're in the truck and you're going a little bit quick, you know it gets awful rough and that's the way that life is sometimes. But I feel that those lessons are the ones that are so important and that transformation from, you know, working into an entrepreneur then laid out the path for me to go right into the bush as a lodge owner. And that old dirt road, like I say, it felt like it was slowing me down, but in hindsight it was perfect. It did slow me down. So life didn't pass me by and that was very important Because if I had have really buried myself in that business, I would have never seen any of my kids growing up.
Speaker 1:I needed that bit of a rough time to ground me, to bring me back home and you know, in my experience it is rare to meet people that are walking on the same road that you walked, especially when it's less traveled. And you know, it's my pleasure really to sit with this outstanding guy who, you know from the intro, is already part of our family, will Palowski. And Will is going to take us for a walk on his dirt road which took him through the oil fields of the West, starting as a roughneck, working up the ranks which saw him travel the world in some of the highest positions in the industry. But, you know, tragedy struck and and you'll hear that story but his passion then turned to fishing and that road led him to Nordic Point. And you know the, the, the people that actually go out and seek these businesses.
Speaker 1:That is a road that is not often traveled.
Speaker 1:You know, a lot of the owners are all born into the industry.
Speaker 1:You know they have the parents that have set things up or you know, but it's very rare to go out and, with a set of brass balls, put your life on the line and sometimes, once you get there, the confusion of the new business, it seems like life for me was a thousand winding roads, but I always just looked, you know, looked for the dirt road, the one that I felt it was going where I needed to go and, you know, will is just starting the chapter of his life that I just closed and I am so excited to sit here and talk to Will and find out what his vision for his journey coming up is going to be.
Speaker 1:And thank you so much. I really appreciate it, will, we are on site, sitting in this on your beautiful deck. Thank you for joining us all. Welcome. Well, willie, we're out here at your beautiful place, nordic Point Lodge. For me, it's a bit of a sad day. It's time for me to go home. It's time for me to go home and I feel really good about this place because it's like my home away from home.
Speaker 2:I love to hear that, buddy. I love it. I told you everyone who's listening you know if you guys have been listening to the podcast in the past that Steve's been waiting to get up here and the pressure's been mounting for everyone and the boys finally made it here. And what a successful trip we had. We were so fortunate to have you, steve, and all the Fishing Canada crew here. Oh yeah, class act, class act business.
Speaker 1:Well, let's just talk about this trip for a quick minute. We come here with the intentions of getting a couple of shows and we had the Easter Seals event winners. Well, they weren't winners. They bought your donated trip that Ange gave to Eric Lindros at his Easter Seals event. Yes, and they bought this trip. And just to give you an idea of how much they enjoy what we do, they bought last year's trip and you can see that episode. And then they bought this year's trip because they loved it so much.
Speaker 2:And last year's trip. Last year's experience was a golf experience. It was? It was golfing and fishing in Muskoka, nice and A little Southern Fins and Skins compared to the Nordic Fins and Skins package Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Nice, absolutely. And they really didn't buy it last year for the fishing at all. They wanted access to this beautiful golf course in Muskoka and once they realized how much fun we can have on these trips, they were like we're in, no matter where you're going, next year, we're buying it and there was nobody going to outbid them. Next year we're buying it and there was nobody going to outbid them. So we did that again, but I'll tell you what. Um, as usual, it seems it was a challenging shoot, not because the fishery isn't world class, because there is no doubt that it is.
Speaker 2:I told you guys it's this place is is an outstanding fishery. It's a standalone property. When it comes to the multi-species aspect of what we can offer, there's a lot of places that have incredible walleye fishing, rigars and incredible muskie fishing, and incredible bass fishing, incredible lake trout fishing, incredible whitefish fishery, incredible perch fishery, incredible. I could go on. Yeah, the thing is is we can offer all of it to the same level, which is fantastic. Yeah, and now you guys see that 100%.
Speaker 2:The conditions, oh my God, when the episodes air on national television, when everyone sees it man.
Speaker 1:The wind was sustained for every day that we were here and it was so strong it was blowing the snot right out of my nose, right, like I mean literally. There were gusts that, you know, made me step back on the boat, but we got her done. We got her done. We caught quality fish 30-plus inch walleyes 30 plus inch walleye, 25s, 26s, some beautiful lake trout Northerns, massive northerns.
Speaker 2:We didn't get the silver pike.
Speaker 1:A guest caught a silver pike while Fishing Canada was here, yeah, but we weren't able to get it on camera and just so all of you folks out there in the Diaries family, you may not have heard of a silver pike, and that's okay, because up until the Sportsman Show this year, I had never heard of a silver pike and Ange wasn't even sure about this silver pike. So they are extremely rare. Like it is a rare, rare species and really it's kind of like a blue walleye and it has something to do with the slime coat, does it not? So it's, and we talked to a biologist from the MNR at the Sportsman Show about this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, me and Ange Ange took me over, actually and introduced me to this gentleman and the gist of it is it's a pigment mutation in the DNA, so it's not a hybrid because it can reproduce. Yeah, and that's as I said on the last podcast, that's what we think is happening, because there's enough of them being caught. I'll tell you right now, there's more silver pike being caught this year than crappies. Wow, like you know, crappies you get on them certain times of the year and they're plentiful, yeah, but there's a lot of times of the year where they're hard to find, yeah, and and, and, when we can say that these fish we can. We can catch them more consistently than that. Yeah, people come and target the crappie.
Speaker 3:That's a step forward, right so?
Speaker 2:so hopefully, with the, with the conservation rules we have an effect and and the fantastic guests and clientele we have, they really take care of their fish. I watch people out in the boat when they're releasing a fish. You know they pick it up properly out of the net. You know they're not grabbing it when it's all charged up and thrashing the gills in the net. They wait patiently, they use the proper extraction tools to get the job done you know what I mean and release the fish healthy and properly and uh, and that's important and with all of those things working in our favor, I think that if those silver pike continue to breed, that it's going to be a really big deal in the future huge and and the thing for me that that makes it a big deal is not only are they extremely rare, they're beautiful, like I mean just to describe to you what these silver pike look like.
Speaker 1:it's almost like a pike body, but they've got a bit of a stubbier snout and the color is like it's almost like a whitefish kind of silvery, with the hues of purple and blue. Like we said, a grayling A grayling, that is an excellent comparison To catch these up to like 32, 33 inches long. They're gorgeous, like I mean. I want a picture with me and a silver pike Right To the point. I'm coming back here in July to try and do it, bud.
Speaker 2:I can't wait for that, buddy. That's going to be a great trip. Oh yeah, that's going to be a. We convinced Stephen to come up here for a second trip this year. He loved it so much, yeah, so his rubber arm was bent, bent, twisted, and he will be back, which is great, yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm bringing my family.
Speaker 2:Look at this view.
Speaker 1:The view is amazing. Like we're sitting on.
Speaker 2:Just so everyone knows, we're sitting the deck of the Nordic Point Lodge main lodge. Yeah, just looking over the lake, people are out fishing. It's a million dollar view.
Speaker 1:You can go over to the Outdoor Journal radio podcast and go to the Outdoor Journal podcast on YouTube, where we film it, and we did a podcast about three days ago that'll air in about a month, so it's the beginning of June right now and you will be amazed, it's breathtaking, this view. Thank you, buddy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a great place to wake up to every morning and come down here for a coffee and a cigar oh, buddy you know or a mimosa or just a water, and enjoy. Just take it all in Right. Just look at God's creation.
Speaker 1:And that's exactly what you're looking at God's creation here.
Speaker 2:You know it's something I uh, we uh with the, with the different, with the variety of clientele that we all have here and the style of camp we run, as we've talked it's it's a diverse camp. You know, we run out, we run those all-inclusive packages uh, we run the self-guided all-inclusive package from. So you can come here and take care of, you can have your own fishing experience on the water but get catered to service-wise and and eat with us and have the executive dining and and everything that you should enjoy, but you can take your own time and fish.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Being able to have all those things together. You know we always encourage everyone to come down to our lodge, right? We don't? It's not just for a place to come in. You can come in down here. We want you to come and hang out. Everybody come at night, play some poker, it's the gathering.
Speaker 1:It's the gathering, it's the gathering spot, it's the heartbeat and the bloodline.
Speaker 2:That's right, it's the heartbeat. You know something, steve, you taught me this weekend, you and Angelo and Dean, you know I love music People that know me I'm a big country music fan. You know 70s, 80s, early 90s country. You know, in that area, that era that I grew up I I really, really love that music and I I've never played guitar and I've always wanted to. I got short fat, stubby little fingers. They'll work and, buddy, they just don't move as good as yours. You know, you're like you wow, you're fluid it took me years.
Speaker 2:Well, and listening to you, these guys, they broke out the guitars. Dean busted out the banjo, yeah. And we had a gentleman, scotty, from the Easter Seals charity event yes, he whipped out. Man, what a musician. Scotty is a musician. What a musician.
Speaker 1:He's very he doesn't. He says, oh no, it's just nothing. But that man is awesome, he is Lead picking and he's one of those guys that can play just about any song you want. It was a magical night. It really took me back to the days when I owned Chaudière and we would jam anywhere from two to five nights a week.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, it's the first time I've had acoustic music in the lodge and, being that we just built this main lodge, it's brand new Last year, right, so it changed how I feel about that situation. We will definitely be buying a couple of guitars.
Speaker 4:Hang them on the wall and we'll have them on the wall or have them on.
Speaker 2:a nice guitar stands in the corner and we're going to encourage everybody to come down here who plays and please. Because it's.
Speaker 1:Nothing brings people closer together faster than music, I agree.
Speaker 2:And an environment here where we're looking to retain that in the lodge all the time. And you know, when hockey's on, that's one thing. When you've got a good football game on, that brings people together too. But I would agree with you After seeing that. You've definitely taught me that, buddy.
Speaker 1:So thank you, absolutely so, willie. I would love to talk to you and let our family out there listening get to know who you are, and I want to take you back to the oil field days. Oh, okay, just to preface this and to set it up, will was a high-ranking officer out in the exploration of oil and just tell us a little bit about where you started and how you got into that and where you ended up.
Speaker 2:So you know, just as we spoke on one of the first podcasts about, you know my story when I was a young man, but I don't yeah, we didn't get into any details of my career back then. So you know, as I worked my way up as a young man, I made my way to where I wanted to be in the general area of engineering and which was on the petroleum side and the exploration horizontal side.
Speaker 1:And you started as a roughneck.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Yeah, I started from the bottom up, you know like, worked my way up roughneck and motorhand driller all the way up the ranks, went back to school, got a degree and went down into the office is kind of how she, how she panned out my my job in my job in engineering and on the drilling end. When I got to be, when I was, when I was a manager and a boss was, I would work with the geophysics and geology department and be given schematics on where they would drill roughly, tv-wise, into the earth, true, vertical, depth-wise, where they would be to get into the formation to extract bitumen. So my job was to put a team together on a location. So that would be the service hands, the drilling rig hands, the drilling rig itself, all the services provided that you need, whether it's to be the camps, everything it takes to run an operation, just like a launch. Yeah, it's very logistically the same being in the middle of nowhere and having to have all of the things come together to make it happen. It's just I had a different outcome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and when you say in the middle of nowhere, you truly mean it could be anywhere.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like I've drilled in. You know, 20 miles from the Arctic Ocean up by Kugeluk. Took all the way to. You know East Mongolia and Uzbekistan. You know Southeast Asia, you know all the way to just in southern Alberta. You know what I mean in the desert in Alberta, and so yeah, so my job, oh, listen to that boat taking off, they're racing out there to catch some those boys are excited.
Speaker 2:Yeah we got a storm coming in here right now they're going to hit the walleye bite before the storm comes. Listen to that just cruising. Yeah, so, yeah. So what I would do is I would create that team based on a budget, and we would then design, then have an engineering team come in with us and we'd develop a path, a well path, to get to the bitumen. So when you're drilling, like people think that you just drill down straight down into the earth and you punch in through through a cavern and it's an aquarium of oil, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Just like good old.
Speaker 2:Jed Clamp, that's right, and it just flows out right, and it's raining all over? Yeah, unfortunately it's not like that. If it's raining all over, it's really bad news and you're probably going to burn your rig down, right. So those are never real what you see in the movies, yeah, um, and on tv.
Speaker 1:But so you, we have to build a curve, okay, because you want to land in the formation and and this curve you're talking about is a well, the curve is a hole that you're you're putting into the earth correct.
Speaker 2:so we we start out vertical, we get down down to a certain point as a plan that we build. So the pipe will bend, just like anything. When it's long enough you can manipulate it. And was it steel?
Speaker 1:pipe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the pipe was steel but the tubulars that went around. So I'll describe the bottom end of the drill string before you drill. So you have a bit. Yeah, you have a mud motor. So the mud motor has it's basically a directional guidance tool. So you have a knuckle on this motor and when you pick them up they're straight. You break a knuckle apart just like Dundoo in a couple of bolts, but they're with big giant tongs instead of wrenches, and you turn this coupling and it has angles on it so you can go from 1.1 degrees, 1.2 degrees all the way up to, you know, 2.25 degrees of angle, in that you can put into this motor.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so the mud motor basically looks like for anybody that has a ratchet set. It's like the knuckle in the ratchet set.
Speaker 2:Exactly that's exactly what it looks like. Yeah.
Speaker 1:But you have control by adjustment on how you shape that knuckle Correct correct.
Speaker 2:So when we develop the well path we base, every pipe that you drill has a dogleg value in it. So how big of a dogleg, how much angle are you going to build every time you drill a pipe? How much angle are you going to build every time you drill a pipe? Well, when we have this motor set, that's the first part of the data we need and the information we need to get to that point. Yeah, so now you have the bit set up, the motor set up, from the motor up to the… Surface To the steel pipe…. Okay, …is always going to be aluminum, because it can't, it has to be non-meg. Yeah, because the tools, so inside those tubulars, is an mwd tool. It's called a measurements while drilling tool. So that is the actual brains of the downhole string, right, so it? It collects data and sends it to the surface and it's using magnetic fields from magnetic correct.
Speaker 2:So that's right. So you have to. So how we know where we're steering is we program the tool? We we high side it to zero degrees, so that knuckle that we've turned to. Now that it's 2.25 degrees set, we'll look up that angle, we will make that a zero radius mark or a mark on the radius, and then zero, recalibrate the tools to zero. So now when we turn the tools on down the hole, it will. The magnetic polarity in the earth is felt by the tools and it knows the direction as mutually and the angle inclinationally where we're going. So down to the, to the millimeter really. So I've drilled and I still wait.
Speaker 1:How accurate can you be with this?
Speaker 2:so I, I've drilled wells seven to seven and a half kilometers under the earth in a bend. We're blind Like we're talking true vertical depth. On average we're 3,000 meters deep, no way. So three kilometers deep and then four kilometers out Okay, so you're talking to the other side of this lake and three kilometers deep, and my drill bit is the size of probably a coffee thermos out of a, out of a, you know what I mean. Like a, like a bun coffee maker. That would be about the size of a bit, you know I mean.
Speaker 1:Like tim horn's coffee. You're like, uh, like a volleyball about Volleyball.
Speaker 2:About the size of a volleyball? Yeah, and I can put that volleyball inside of a coffee cup and make it balance on it.
Speaker 1:No way that far. Away.
Speaker 2:Blind, wow Now. So I, still, I, we, the crew that I had I had a crew back in the early 2000s and we still hold the fastest bit record ever to be drilled at a certain depth. I think I've shown you our award before for it, which is pretty prestigious. That was pretty awesome. That's amazing. So the tools, so everyone understands. So, if you're picturing all this, how does the information get to the surface? Because I've told you what it all is, but how does it get there so? So how it works is off of fluid dynamics. So when you, when you force fluid down the center of the pipe with pumps and we're talking like you're not talking like a thousand PSI here, like we're talking like 40, 50,000 KPA of pressure to get it down- because you're, you got to force that fluid seven kilometers down a drill string, yeah, and out the end of a bit that's jetted with nozzles, right.
Speaker 2:So the tighter your orifice, the more pressure you're going to have spraying out of your constantly washing out the well with correct. So it's got the the, the cuttings. So it's got the cuttings. As the bit's turning, the cuttings get carried up. The annulus, which is the sidewall of the pipe, the fluid, carries it up. They come out over the top of a shaker. The fluid drops back into the tank. It's circled around the rig just like a bloodline in your body.
Speaker 2:The cuttings go overboard and so on, and it's filtering Correct, all the cuttings out, correct. So when that mud, so what happens is the fluid. So let's say we're sitting there, the pumps are off, everything's just stagnant. You click here, the driller will click his pumps on the tool down. The hole is programmed to once it feels pressure on the string, because as soon as it kicks pumping, like you say, it's not a little bit of pressure, so it vibrates.
Speaker 2:And as soon as it feels the vibration on the string and the pressure around it, it kicks the tool on. And then it's reading, as I said, your azimuth, your inclination. It'll read your gamma, it'll read your temperature settings, it'll read your vibe settings. It reads a lot, yeah Right, so it sends. What it does is it has a little pulser on the bottom with an orifice. So it has a little pulser on the bottom with an orifice. So now the tool's turned on and this little pulser going tick, tick, tick. But every time it ticks it shoots a little bubble out of it because it's an orifice and it's a fluid.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it shoots the little bubble through the orifice and that orifice expands the bubble and the bubble goes up the annulus with the fluid Yep, and there's a transducer at the top, just like a transducer on your boat Yep, and it accepts the data goes through a cable into a machine or our computer breaks down the data, sends it across to our shack and boom comes up. So what we'll do is we will drill one pipe. Let's say we get one and a half degrees of angle, but I need two degrees of angle to continue building. So now I'm dropping behind the line in my build. Yeah, so if I drop behind my line, that means I'm going to land lower.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, sometimes these formations are only 30 centimeters, they're only a ruler length, width, right, and you got to do that way. Sometimes they're not. Sometimes they're 10, 12 meters thick, yeah, but a lot of times they're not right, a lot of times they're. You're landing in something so small. It's critical, you know. And if you don't land, if you come out of that, okay, well, let's say you pop out the bottom of the formation. By the time you turn the pipe around. It's not like a, you know, piece of rope. You just turn it, shove it back up the hole. You need space correct. So every now every pipe or every bit of meterage you drill is out of the yeah. So now you're not extracting that bitumen. So it's super important to get ahead of to make sure that you paint lines we used to call it paint lines everywhere you go right, and it was definitely a challenging job but I loved it.
Speaker 2:I miss it every day. That's right. I love my job now, but if I wouldn't have had my legs crushed, I would probably be doing this in the summer and I would probably be doing that in the winter.
Speaker 1:So what happened to your legs?
Speaker 2:In 2009,. We had a drilling rig on fire and there was two guys in the sub, which is the substructure of the rig, and we had we had put packs Scott packs on to go and pull them out. It was a sour gas, well. So we had the Scott pack up.
Speaker 1:So what's? A sour gas?
Speaker 2:well, so so H2S is sour gas, hydrogen sulfide Gotcha.
Speaker 3:So it's like.
Speaker 2:So it'll basically when cows, when cows have cow patties, yeah, you get that Cow fart Basically right, but times you know a million right.
Speaker 2:So you know, like I can't remember the exact number now straight off the top of my head, steve, but X, amount of parts per million will put you out, and it's fast. So you know, you think about it. I think I've described it to you before you're. You're drilling into places that are have been locked away under pressure for millions of years. We're not talking like a decade or a hundred. You're pressure for millions of years.
Speaker 3:We're not talking like a decade or a
Speaker 2:hundred years. You're talking like millions of years. So when that releases, you know they're called kicks and it's a big deal. You know when that shit comes flying up the hole I don't know if you ever watched that Mark Wahlberg movie out on the ocean rig with that drone, unfortunately, that burnt to the ground and several people died on and uh, but that shit is real right and it's um, yeah, it's, uh, it's, it can be dangerous.
Speaker 2:So, anyways, that gentleman, we had a gentleman down so we had to go, we were, we were trying to rescue him and when we got him out, and just as we got him out the the, there was a pipe that was in a hydraulic arm, so a big giant arm with a tubular in it, and the hydraulics had caught fire by this time and the arm pressure released and when it released, it free fell from like 90 vertical feet and this pipe, like you're talking, like you know, like just over 4,000 pounds, yeah, a vertical lift right and weight falling from 90 feet, and it came right across my legs and crushed my legs. So I have, like at you know, 30 years old, you know I'd already had like six major surgeries and broken femur. So that was when I left the engineering field in the field, so were you caught underneath this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I got caught underneath it. The boys rolled it rolled off right away. Yeah, because there was two other men there, they got it off me and pulled me out. Yeah, I mean, after that I just passed out. Wow, it's lucky it didn't kill you.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm 40, I'm 43 now and, as you know, I had a double knee replacement at 40 years old. Yeah, already, right, like I'm, like I'm, I'm prosthetic from here down, right, so, um, but I'm lucky to be alive. So I don't really, it is right and and no one got hurt, that's my job is to make sure. The job is to make the oil company a shitload of money and stay in the formation and make sure that I am the best of my ability, the biggest part of our job. People underrate the safety value on an oil company and on an oil rig and if they knew, they would definitely look at it different, because those people are trained and some of the safest people in the world, yeah, are trained and some of the safest people in the world.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:In every angler's heart lives a fishing paradise With stunning scenery and wildlife on a trophy, multi-species fishery, having outstanding accommodation and a food experience to die for. They treat you like royalty, tailor-making a package that works for you. Nestled in northwestern Ontario, nordic Point Lodge is that paradise, and Will and his team can't wait to show you a luxury outdoor experience with five-star service. So follow your heart. Book now. Book now.
Speaker 4:Hi everybody. I'm Angelo Viola and I'm Pete Bowman. Now you might know us as the hosts of Canada's favorite fishing show, but now we're hosting a podcast. That's right. Every Thursday, Ang and I will be right here in your ears bringing you a brand new episode of Outdoor Journal Radio. Hmm, Now, what are we going to talk about for two hours every week? Well, you know, there's going to be a lot of fishing.
Speaker 3:I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and how to catch them, and they were easy to catch.
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Speaker 1:So you were drop shipping these rigs all over the world to explore for oil and bitumen. Tell me some stories about being out in the wilderness. Okay, you got a couple stories.
Speaker 2:I do, I do. Okay, I got a good one. I got a good one for I got a good northern story for you Right on, right on um. So so this is probably like the the middle of my outdoor portion of my drilling rig career. I was probably five years into into work and and what was your position?
Speaker 1:I was time, I was a motor hand, a motor hand.
Speaker 2:So a motor hand is he's like the maintenance guy, he's that he blows down the compressors, keeps them glad Because, remember, we're drilling at minus 50, minus 40. It's not, you know, it doesn't. You don't get cold and get to go home and go crawl into bed, and it don't work like that. Right, we're at this, actually at at this, the story that I'm going to tell we were about, you know, 20, 30 miles from the arctic ocean.
Speaker 2:yeah, I said and we were up the mackenzie, the mackenzie delta, up the mackenzie river, right before kugeluk took and the.
Speaker 1:what does the landscape look like there? Oh, it's fucking tough, it's tough.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's nothing like when you go up to the end. If anyone doesn't know this, ange and Pete and the boys and Stevie, they're going up to do another shoot. You're doing a big shoot in NWT, yeah, right, yeah, and which, by the way, I can't wait for you to go to that lodge. That place looks awesome. Yeah, I'm jealous. I don't get to go with you. Everybody is Right, you will see. So it's.
Speaker 2:You know, a tree that has been growing for 30 years is going to be like four and a half feet. It's like a willy size to stubby, to stubby. They're really wide, even, but they're really short too right, even, but they're really short too right. So the ground is it's got that fluffy moss, but hard, hard rock and hard, hard clay. Underneath there's nothing. The forage is not there, like the animals. Everything that moves up there wants to eat something. Yeah, you know like we used to take wolverine and bear safety classes before and I thought it was a joke. Yeah, it's not a joke. It's not a joke. It's not the first time. You're standing on the drilling rig floor and you're looking out on the tundra, yeah, and you see a barren wolverine that's like 140, 150 pounds, looks like an Italian mastiff with razor sharp claws, Like six inch claws, like a velociraptor, and they just snort, and they snort and they run. They don't stop running until they see something move. And as soon as they see something move, they hunt it.
Speaker 2:And you and you watch it right, because you can see, for what's, what is the human eye? I think the human eye can see like 25, 25 miles miles flat before the curvature of the earth. So I think, like you know it's, it's a really crazy thing to watch like so here. Let me give you a short story into the big. Yes, yes, so the Wolverines, so the same project we're on, but it was the first go-round I had gone up there, so we were like just bringing the rig in and just getting to, the geophysics and geology department was still there and we had outhouses at camp, so we were all we were busy. This is when we're firing up, right. So the main once you get drilling, that's one thing, right? You?
Speaker 2:can keep drilling, you can make as long as you're making a hole, you're in the good books with the oil company. But until you get there, you know it's not eight hours a day, and let's take a half hour for lunch, and let's take a half hour for lunch and let's punch a clock and it ain't like that, buddy, it's.
Speaker 2:You fucking go from five in the morning, yeah, till midnight. Yeah, sleep for four or five hours and then you go again, because that's how it is and that's why you're making 700 bucks a day. Yeah, and they don't care. I think it doesn't fucking matter any other way, they don't give a shit. Yes, this is what you're doing and this is where you gotta get. Yeah, and that's the mentality. That's why you know, as you see, that me, yeah, yeah, you go harder, that's it. So we're all busy. So back at camp, these geologists, geophysicists we had told them hey, the shitter's getting full.
Speaker 2:The holes getting full dig another shithole and when we get back tonight, me and the crew will move the shit shack. Yeah, perfect. So these guys thought they would do even more one more for us and they would just move the shit shack. So they put it over top of a hole that they didn't dig. They just thought it was a great idea. Fuck, there's a hole right there already. Let's just drag this shack over and we'll put a little shit right there. Perfect, jeez. So one of the engineers from the location we all come back at fucking 7 o'clock at night this time we were thinking we were fucking grabbing supplies for something and while we were there, we'd grab a quick shit, grab a shower grab from the chef back out to camp right or back out to the rig.
Speaker 2:So we're going back and forth by helicopter, right? Yeah, so the guy, the engineer, goes over and goes into the shack, drops his trowel and starts doing his business. Yeah, starts his business and he hears this fucking snorting down the hole and he spreads his legs and he looks down the hole and it's a fucking Wolverine den. So he's like it's plastic so it can't crawl up because it's sliding on the plastic wall. Well, fuck me.
Speaker 2:So we're in the kitchen and he comes out and he is tripping like his pants are around his ankles Shit all the way down his thighs. And he's tripping and he falls and he's. Needless to say, they all learned a hard lesson that day. Oh, no doubt, don't take the easy way out or Wolverine will snatch your nuts, that's right. Just imagine Jesus Christ. That would have been a rough one.
Speaker 1:Oh, you think yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was a good day. That was one of the funniest so that's a. So that's a preemie into the main story here. Yeah, so back to the back to back to the other story. So we're the same project. This is a little while later, late fall, I mean late fall up there is like fucking mid-september yeah, like, so, like it's like it was right around my birthday.
Speaker 2:My birthday is september 15th, so we uh, my job, one of my main jobs, was to we had two motorhands on this project. This, this project was this drilling rig was so massive and it could walk itself. This rig had the ability to hydraulically, it had legs, like a spider, really, and you would drill the well and then, instead, because you couldn't move a crew in, you can't like to move a drilling rig it takes like a like in places like that. It takes a week, man. Yeah. A drilling rig you're talking. It takes like a like places like that. It takes a week, man, yeah you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Like it's not, it's not like moving up, moving a shed or moving out? Yeah, like moving a house would be nothing. Yeah, moving a drilling rig is a big deal, right? Yeah, so you're. So you have to, you have to piece it together, you have to take your time right and you're. And in midst of all this, you need a lot of hands. So we had two motorhands on this project at the time and one of our main jobs was working with the helicopter pilots to sling all the supplies in. So we had a base camp with sea cans for all the supplies.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how far was it away from the rig?
Speaker 2:Oh, I don't know, like 15 miles or something, 20 miles.
Speaker 1:I can't remember yeah yeah yeah, it was close.
Speaker 2:It wasn't far, but it wasn't fucking walkable. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I mean like it was far enough. So this one particular day, you know it was starting to get cold out. You know, I remember the moose. I remember seeing a cow and a calf. You still get moose up there, yeah, the odd ones. I remember seeing a cow and a calf walking around and you know you're just on the edge of snow and I'm out there slinging barrels of fuel. So the guy, so the chopper Jim Bembo is his name.
Speaker 1:Jim Bembo, jimmy Bembo. These guys must be crazy too, these chopper pilots Fuck, they're nuts man. They're fucking crazy.
Speaker 2:They're nuts, they scare the, they're fucking crazy. So this guy would work. He worked on a tuna boat in New Zealand, oh, really, yeah. So he would fly. They'd catch these fucking massive tuna bud, yeah, and then they put them in a big woven basket on the ship and the helicopter pilot comes down with a whatever long ranger or whatever they're using at the time and they go on to it and then they haul them off the ocean and right to the factory, right. So that's what he did in the off season of us, and then in the fall, winter and spring I guess a few weeks in the spring he would work for the drawing. So this guy yeah, he was fucking crazy man. So this particular day I'm in the chopper with him and we're heading out there to sling the fuel and he starts climbing vertically with the chopper. So this was a jet ranger.
Speaker 1:We were in and did you have? Oh, this was when you were going out. He didn't have a tank of fuel underneath.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, this was like right when we were going out to do all this, yes, and it's just me going out there, right, so I would just sit out there at camp. And he just went back and forth. So, guy on one end, guy on the other end, 20, 30 miles away, yeah, all day, right. So, but going out there, so he starts to climb in elevation. So, eddie, we get up. You know, we're 5,000 feet, 5,500 feet, and I'm like I don't know if you've ever been in a chopper before Like I love being in them, they're cool, they're cool, yeah, cool as fuck. But we're like I love being in them, they're cool, they're cool as fuck.
Speaker 2:But it's a big difference when you're in a float plane or a plane at 5,000 or 6,000 feet than a chopper. Looking down through the glass and you're climbing and you really feel the difference right vertically in the air. So we're up and we're up, and we're up, and he's like, ok, we're going to do an auto rotate and check the gen and check the motors. I don't know what's he talking about. So there's two pilots in the front and me and this I don't know what the camera number of the other guy's name was and he goes okay, cut the genny in, Cut the motor, cut the. What the fuck are you talking about, jimmy? Cut the motor and he fucking cuts the motor and we drop like 15 feet and then the generator kicks in and the fucking I'm like I got this, I'm like man.
Speaker 2:there was shit coming out my nostrils. I was so scared, right like I was, like I didn't remember. Like I'm supposed to be, I'm supposed to be a 220 pound solid, fucking tough Dude. I'm a fucking drilling head and it's a, and it's a and it's a staple. There's the toughest man I've ever met in my life. Yeah, and well, I definitely. For that moment, I was not man, I was fucking wet.
Speaker 2:I was wet in my panties for sure. So how far did you drop? We only dropped like 15 feet, but it felt like 15 miles, yeah, yeah, yeah, I find out this after how far? Right? So here's the premise, right? So at the time I'm in scramble mode and these guys are doing their job. So what it is it's actually something they do is they'll they? They have to check. So if, if the motor cuts out in a chopper and they can't get the backup going, what they do is they called, it's called an auto rotate, so they'll, their blades will flare out against the, against the air, as they're dropping and the, the helicopter. The blade will stay stationary and the helicopter will actually turn. Yeah, okay, so it just basically slows down the chopper as you're falling to the ground before you.
Speaker 1:So you hopefully don't crash and burn, correct?
Speaker 2:Correct Hopefully. It gives you another 1% chance To survive. To survive, right? So I'm getting tested on the 1% fucking maintenance challenge that day because of Jimmy boy. Yeah, so, after all the chaos and Jim laughing at me and fucking telling me shit, your pants back there, Willie.
Speaker 2:He decides to, so now we drop back. He shoots back down to like 5,000 feet and then pulls a hammerhead. Well, a hammerhead in a helicopter is like just like a hammerhead. You go up vertical up the shaft of the hammer, roll it off the side and then turn to the left and you're like fucking almost like I'm almost 90 degrees to the left and then drop off the back of the claw of the hammer.
Speaker 4:He's like that's a hammerhead. No, willie.
Speaker 2:And I'm like that's a hammer handle, willie. And I'm like, okay, can you fucking take me to work now? So we get to the spot where all the C-cams are and I start doing my thing and we're working, and working, and working, and it's getting towards the end of the day and we knew there was a bit of rain potentially coming in. But whatever, even if we had to fly in the rain, it was no big deal, right, but it was. But a storm kicked up, so, like in the McKenzie Delta. It's like the McKenzie Mountains are there, right on the edge of the McKenzie Delta, yeah, and that's where this storage area was was right on the side of this fucking mountain, yeah.
Speaker 1:So the storm comes in. You're on the side of a mountain.
Speaker 2:In the fucking almost to the Arctic Ocean, in the middle of nowhere. Yeah, with fucking ass-eating, fucking wolverines, that could right.
Speaker 4:And polar bears.
Speaker 2:And polar bears and grizzlies, and it's like. I'm not thinking about this at the time. I'm just like okay, fuck, well, the storm's coming in. Well, it came in a lot faster than we thought. It was like sleety hail, hard, hard rain and heavy winds, and so I'm out there. Fuck, now I'm trapped.
Speaker 1:Right, and the problem is what moment did you realize? I don't think they're coming back for me.
Speaker 2:There was. You know, it was just, it was just, it was right before dark, and then I was just.
Speaker 1:Did you have any communication? No?
Speaker 2:no, no, no, no, no. There was nothing. No, yeah, no, like back then fucking pagers were just coming out right, like you know, like there was no mob bell to call from the pump.
Speaker 2:So the moment I realized is when I was trying, I was like so think, there's no trees, yeah, there's nothing to burn, there's nothing to hunt, like I couldn't. It's not like here, where if I got stuck in the bush here I'd be pretty good, I'd be okay for fucking 30 days. I can make it right, you know, like there's things to help you at least try and survive, or a chance. There's no chance there. There's no water. There's no, there's nothing, right, unless you have a rifle to shoot a moose or to take down a grizzly or pull it. There's nothing there, right, like so. So that that was the moment where I was like, fuck, now I'm in trouble, right so? And what was?
Speaker 3:there in the cab.
Speaker 2:So there's nothing sea cams. The sea cams were full of metal, with metal with equipment and barrels of fuel. Right Well, I had no way to spark the fuel.
Speaker 1:I couldn't even use fuel on a post or something like the old Indiana Jones days.
Speaker 2:I couldn't do that because I had nothing. I couldn't rub a stick together, I didn't have any string, I had no….
Speaker 1:Nothing.
Speaker 2:Nothing.
Speaker 1:Not even a lighter.
Speaker 2:Nothing. No, I didn't have any string. I had no, nothing, nothing, Not even a lighter Nothing, no, I didn't smoke. Back then I picked up the bad habits after all the stress and fucking Jim Benbow put me through that's what really happened. So, but yeah, so that was probably what I realized. So I like, so I'm fucking. So I'm just picturing I'm soaking wet, oh no, freezing, and it's like minus eight, minus 10 now at night, because it's like you're fucking almost in the Arctic in mid-September, right, yeah, stuff's starting to lock up. So I then there's no lights, it's fucking pitch black. And look at that beautiful loon, oh yeah, like folks. There's like 20 feet in front of us. There's a loon just talking to me and Stevie out here. Yeah, look at the pair of them. Yeah, so I crawled into a sea, can? I opened one of the doors? Yeah, because there's wolverines. Well, at that point I was like fuck, because that stuff smells you from 50 miles away.
Speaker 3:It's crazy.
Speaker 2:I I was like fuck because that stuff smells you from 50 miles away. It's crazy. I mean it's crazy. And they're hungry. Everything up there is hungry. Everything up there is hungry, right Everything, jeepers. So that was the moment I got into the sea can and I just cuddled up in the corner and I just fucking stayed as warm as I could.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but that's a tough deal when you're wet and it's minus 10 in a steel box. The steel box was brutal, right. It's like trying to sleep in a walk-in freezer Fuck right. But the alternative was, yeah, sleep outside, the real outdoor freezer in the outside, right.
Speaker 2:So I'm like so yeah, I stayed there, you know, huddled up in the corner I was the morning. I was in pretty bad shape in the morning, right, yeah, hypothermic for sure. Yeah, I was borderline, yeah, borderline for sure. So we, the boys, came back. It was like 4.15, 4.30 when they were, because up there the sun came up a little bit earlier, stayed a little bit, or it went down super early, it went, came up a little earlier, that time of the year being the fall, and they made it out there and they got me and fucking put me in the rescue blankets and fuck, are you all?
Speaker 1:right, willie, what the Willie yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a pretty wild night. I remember going. You know, the animal thing at the start was one thing, but then I was like once I realized I couldn't, fucking, I couldn't have heat. Yeah, it was a totally different game changer, right, like I was, like I can go a week without eating, I'm not worried about that. Yeah, I'm worried about making it through the night, yeah, with nothing. Yeah, right, so, yeah, those were. Those were a couple stories they're getting into the, the stories of the north. Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, those. Hey, have you got any? You've drilled all over the world. Where is one of the most interesting places that you drilled? Not in this country.
Speaker 2:Kazakhstan, oh yeah, by far One of the coolest places ever. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. What's it like there? It's like stepping back into a Rocky Balboa movie. It is man. It's like it's the Soviets, but it's not. But you see, the culture from that era still resonates with the people, but it's just. They have freedom, you know, which is great, but one of the like a really unique, very unique country. You know, like the people are so kind. The topography is weird. It's like they have mountains but they have deserts and the deserts can be freezing right, like, I mean, kazakhstan's famous for hockey, like Kazakhstan was against us in the Olympics.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And they love Canadians.
Speaker 1:Yeah, ultimately they love. Oh, fuck Wayne.
Speaker 2:Gretzky is like he's an idol over there, he's an icon right, and they really look up to the Western countries like that, right. And no, I really it's a unique place in the world. It was special to me just because of the people that were there at the time and what we did over there. And then, you know, I like to travel, right and I like culture. So, like you know, when I've been to Southeast Asia or we've been to Central America and the other place I've been everything's. You have the same values in certain extents, but that place was special to me just for the reasons, some stories that had happened over there and some things that I had seen that I'd never seen before, right.
Speaker 1:Give us an example.
Speaker 2:So my drilling shack over there was not like it was over here. So over here, when I'm, as an engineer, on location, I have an ACCO trailer with a flat screen TV, a fireplace. I'm a Canadian, I'm pampered, right yeah. But over there it's not like that. I slept on plywood with a hay, with a horse hair pillow or a hay pillow. Um, you know, I remember calling krista, my wife, and I'd show her my bedroom and she's like like how are you living there? Like you're an animal, so like when you have to take a shit in the morning, yeah, there's 15 other guys, middle easterns, and it's a big giant hole Excavator comes in with a hole and digs a hole in the ground. You squat up to the hole.
Speaker 1:That's it.
Speaker 2:No, I swear on my life. And there's no like there's no toilets bud. Yeah, it's all. There's urinals built into the ground so the women squat to pee and the men stand to pee and everything else gets done outside. And a bidet, really, to wash? Yeah, because there's no trees. There's no trees.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right, and the amount of like if you go to a hotel or a high end. Yes, there's toilets in that, yeah yeah yeah, yeah, the normal community is just that's how they live. The food there was awesome. I used to eat shashlik. All the time I go to town with the Uzbek guys and they'd invite me right to their house and they, they, they bring me in and you were like a, you were like a God to these people, right, and they treat you like they were amazing people Amazing and yeah, the whole experience over there.
Speaker 2:I've got a really good story for you. Here's a good one. I don't tell too many people this one.
Speaker 1:I probably shouldn't tell it on the air, but I'm going to Hold on folks.
Speaker 2:I'm going to tell you anyway, it might get me in trouble, but whatever, I'm retired now from that career. Nice. So a guy, brad Nielsen, brad's in my wedding this this september.
Speaker 2:I get married september 14th, nice, and uh, officially finally after four years of trying was gosh, darn covid, right, yeah, so anyway. So brad calls me up, and how I ended up over on this project is I trained Brad fucking 15 years ago and you know, at that point, probably 20 years ago in Haliburton, he called me up and he was the lead project manager for Haliburton over there. So he needed to. He needed a guy to come in and fix some problems. They had some problem wells and they were having some issues. To come in and fix some problems. They had some problem wells and they were having some issues. They were running some Chinese drilling hands and some Russian guys and there were communication problems.
Speaker 2:So that's how I ended up over there and you could only be there for 30 days because you weren't on a. How it worked, was you pretty much just went in on, you just went in and drilled and the company was American. So they set up your visas and everything. Yeah, but everything's temporary, yeah, so we would go in. I went in for 30 days thinking I was only going to be there 30 days. I was only going to be there 30 days.
Speaker 2:I get to day 28, and Brad says to me Willie, you've got to leave the country. I need you for another three weeks. So now I need you in here seven weeks straight. First off, I called Kristen. I'm like you know, can I stay halfway across the world for another three weeks in the middle of the desert fucking living like a savage? Can I? Can I? Am I allowed to do that? Yeah, okay. So I tell brad I'll stick around and help them out. Right, and I was gonna help him close the project down. Yeah, that I was doing. So.
Speaker 2:He says well, I need you to leave the country. Okay, well, get me, buy me a ticket. My face. He says, no, no, I need you back the same day. I'm like what, what do you mean? Like, where am I gonna go? How am I gonna leave the country and come back the same day? He's like well, I'm gonna put you on a train. The Kazakhstanian border is right there. I'm gonna put you on a train. You're gonna walk across the border, spend fucking 20 hours and you're gonna come. Okay, why am I doing that? Because you got to leave the counter. Okay, okay. So he still sets up the logistics and here I go. So train takes me to the border.
Speaker 2:And remember, I know like not one person speaks English. Yeah, I'm fucking talking on Google Translate to everybody and I'm the biggest fucking redneck. You know me. I'm a redneck. Right, here's me walking around everywhere talking on my phone trying to. So I'm trying to find a driver to take me to. The town was called Something Shaq, something Shaquemia or something like that. And I find this driver and he's like okay, I'll get someone, I'll get someone. So I'm still. The drivers are in the customs with us, right, like they're trying, just like when you're getting out of the plane in fucking Mexico, right, yeah, yeah, trying to, like when you get out of the plane in fucking Mexico, right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Trying to hey, I know you haven't got your bag yet. Do we want to buy a puppy off me? Right, like, you know what I mean. Right, like, just give me a minute here, right, yeah. So I'm going through customs and right before I go through I text Krista and I'm like okay, babe, I'm just crossing the border now I'll let you know when I'm back in Uzbekistan, because I'm not going to have service. I was having to pay as you go, uzbek phone with a SIM card, you just pop in because nothing else works in these countries. So she says, okay, babe. So I go in.
Speaker 2:Well, halliburton at the time had been doing this with several hundred employees, which they neglected to tell us. So I go through the fucking border and they hold me. No, yeah, so they're like are you working here? I said, yeah, I'm contracting through Halliburton. Where's your work fees? I said I don't need one. I'm here on contract through Halliburton, which is an American company working on. I don't need one. I'm here on contract, you're helping which is an American company working on. It was an American project and I had a designation from like, I had stamps all over my passport and designation, a written designation from the people in Uzbekistan, but now I'm not in Uzbekistan, now I'm in Kazakhstan and they're like well, how do we know? You're not coming here to work? Yeah, and it's a different fucking Middle Eastern country, third world country that I'm trying to enter.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I'm like, uh-oh, oh, no, I'm like, so they held me for 18 hours in this cell, like in a cell. Yep, Well, yeah, it was just a bed. It was like what do they call it? It wasn't a cell.
Speaker 1:It was like a fucking A room with a bed.
Speaker 2:It was a room with no. I had a desk in it, and a fucking chair.
Speaker 1:It was just like.
Speaker 2:Yeah, whatever right, but they called it a cell yeah.
Speaker 2:So what they were doing was just making sure with Epsilon Epsilon was the oil company that Chevron or that Halliburton was working with and they were making sure everything was checking out and crossing the T's and all that, which is fine, yeah, so they come back finally after all these 18 hours and they let me out and I go across the border. Well, fucking, Krista is coming unglued, because last time I talked to her I'm going across the border in the Middle East and now I go missing for 18 hours. She's like like she was a mess, right? Yeah, I probably got a hold of her. So, yeah, so we get into Kazakhstan and I spent 24 hours there and come back and, yeah, got back to the Reagan Did the 18 hours count to your 24?.
Speaker 2:No, it didn't. By that time I was so mad, it didn't matter, I was fucking mad at Brad. Oh yeah, I'm like thanks a thanks a lot, man for the setup and he was all so mad.
Speaker 3:He's like, oh my god, oh my god first he's like where have you been?
Speaker 2:and I'm like you fucking want to know where I've been. And after I told him he was like oh sorry, man, yeah, that was a pretty wild, that was a wild wild time. That was a good one. But wild time, oh yeah, yeah, that was a good one, but yeah, that country was. They were special places. I don't know. Like you know, thailand is awesome, thailand is a is a beautiful country. Right, it's Canada. Like there's so many places in Canada. I've drilled New Brunswick. Like you guys go to New Brunswick for the striper cup and shit and Brunswick for the striper couple shift and New Brunswick is an awesome area. You guys are going to New Brunswick again. I heard yeah, this fall Nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what are you? Doing Stripers on the Bay of Fundy, nice, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Like out on the ocean.
Speaker 1:Yeah right, in the Bay of Fundy.
Speaker 2:That's awesome, that Bay of Fundy is retarded.
Speaker 1:Oh, the tide again. It's like 30 feet. I think Pete said yeah, it's 25 to 30 feet. That's insane, depending on the time of year. The tidal bores are really cool, all the creeks and the ditches around when the tide comes in it's just like a wave, a four-foot wave that flies through the creeks.
Speaker 2:I did some work out there on Sable Island. So Sable Island is just south of, yeah, the dartmouth, yeah, southeast of dartmouth, and uh, I was only out there for one, for one hitch and um. But we stopped in a place called stewiak, nova scotia, and it was just north of halifax and it was. It had one of those creek inlets. The reason we stopped there's a whale. A whale got stuck, came up the fucking with the tie.
Speaker 1:Oh, gotcha, gotcha Into this like creek.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So like it was pretending it was a steelhead running, I guess, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, with a steelhead couldn't turn around in time and get out before the waves come out no way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they must have had to wait until the tide came back.
Speaker 2:No, I think the you mean by those banks. They're like they get cut right out by that.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, yeah, I know it's very cool. Well, willie, I guess it's about that time I've got to go and catch a plane home.
Speaker 2:Well shitty buddy, I'm going to miss you I.
Speaker 1:It's a sad day. It's a sad day, but that just means that there's a new beginning coming and I'm really looking forward to it and we'll stay in touch. Obviously, and folks, thank you so much for listening and if you like this content, like subscribe. If there's anybody out there that you feel is somebody that would make a great fit for me to introduce to the world, let me know and we've got a great deck for anybody that's looking to forge wonderful relationships. Memories yes, I would love to talk to any of you out there. And again, head over to fishingcanadacom. Check out those giveaways. There's always something awesome. And, willie, thank you so much again. I really appreciate you. And thus brings us to the conclusion of another episode of Diaries of a Lodge Owner. I'm a good old boy, never meaning no harm.
Speaker 1:I'll be all you ever saw, been reeling in the hog since the day I was born Bending my rock stretching my line in my rock stretching my line someday I might own a lodge, and that'd be fine.
Speaker 3:I'll be making my way, the only way I know how working hard and sharing the north with all of my pals.
Speaker 4:Well, I'm a good old boy, I buy the large and live my dream. And now I'm here talking about how life can be as good as it seems.
Speaker 3:Yeah, what brings people together more than fishing and hunting?
Speaker 4:How about food?
Speaker 3:I'm Chef Antonio Muleka and I have spent years catering to the stars. Now, on Outdoor Journal Radio's Eat Wild podcast, luis Hookset and I are bringing our expertise and Rolodex to our real passion the outdoors.
Speaker 4:Each week we're bringing you inside the boat tree stand or duck blind and giving you real advice that you can use to make the most out of your fish and game.
Speaker 3:You're going to flip that duck breast over. Once you get a nice hard sear on that breast, you don't want to sear the actual meat. And it's not just us chatting here. If you can name a celebrity, we've probably worked with them and I think you might be surprised who likes to hunt and fish. When Kit Harrington asks me to prepare him sashimi with his bass, I couldn't say no. Whatever Taylor Sheridan wanted, I made sure I had it. Burgers, steak, anything off the barbecue. That's a true cowboy. All Jeremy Renner wanted to have was lemon ginger shots all day. Find Eating Wild now on Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever else you get your podcasts.