HAPPY NEW YEAR 2019

Hey everyone, Happy New Year. And what a year. Definitely one of the most trying in my lifetime. However I find myself looking forward to 2019 season more than ever. It was tremendously rewarding watching Hayden come into his own as he took on a huge chunk of the work and responsibilities of rebuilding what took 10 years to build. I can’t even begin to describe how much  work Debra did. Belinda really stepped up and ran the kitchen. 

What a year.

Hayden and I went in to camp early March and stayed over ice out (May 8). Hayden went thru everything on all the boats. He removed wiring and installed all new fitting etc, he fixed floors and carpeting. He cleaned all the fuel systems and lower units - everything. He had the boats in the best shape EVER.

We did a lot of work to  finish 4 bathrooms in cabin 2. We were just finishing the massive 40x20 deck when the fire happened. Debra came in the evening before and brought 4 boat loads with all the groceries to see us thru the next 6 weeks. All the frozen shiners and all the laundry. We had all the propane and gas. We had the water system and all the water heaters ready to go.  Generators were ready We even had a huge pile - 12 cords of firewood. Everything to run our small community for the season. We were ready. And then it was gone. 

The next 10 days were like the twilight zone. 

It is absolutely amazing how much we accomplished in those 10 days.

I have to give Hayden mo

st of the credit. He was incredible.Deb and my father in law Gary were awesome. Thanks to all of our guests for their patience and help. Especially Barry Hess who went above and beyond. Belinda stepped up and did a great job. Denny Burns came up and helped out. To make a long story short we came out of it in many ways stronger than before. 

Looking forward to 2019 season it is time to confirm dates for this summer.

At this time I have every one penciled in for their usual times. I have a bunch of new groups booked in and now have groups waiting for me to confirm their time. So I need everyone to let me know when they want to come up this summer. Of course we are looking forward to everyone returning. 

Thanks again for supporting Anglers Kingdom. I will continue to make positive improvements and keep the rates affordable.

 Speaking of which I ordered six new Honda 60 hp tillers. They have the idle down feature for extremely slow trolling. Plus the variable cam for quick hole shot to get up on step fast.  The variable cam acts like a shifter for increased speed and  great fuel economy  - awesome motors.

 I bought 2 more 20 foot outfitters with 90 hondas. 
Combined with the boats we bought last summer our fleet of boats is better than ever. I believe unprecedented at a remote fishing lodge. In August we finally received our larger generator allowing us to power a larger water pump.

WINTER HAUL

In late January I bought tracks and installed them on a 3/4 ton diesel truck. Starting mid February we start hauling all the re-building materials and over $20,000 of fuel for the season. The tracked truck should make this huge job manageable for Hayden and I. We definitely won’t have time to haul it in the summer. In April and before opening we plan to  build a new water tower, generator shed and repair the board walk. Plus several hundred other items. Hayden has a couple of pages on his list of things to do on the boats. 

VIDEO PUTTING AWAY BOAT WITH EXCAVATOR -

- MUCH EASIER 

Jjj

In October we built a pontoon barge and hauled in an excavator. Used it to clean up a huge part of the mess from the fire. We needed some room to at least park the boats. Removed about 100 dead trees. Many would have fallen on the boats even not taken down. Would have taken us 6 months by hand.

 We will continue to work on that and use the excavator 

or many other projects. It will help make the overall operation much more efficient. Simplify installing or removing motors for example. 

The short version is that we are continuing to make improvements even while recovering from the fire.

We plan to build the lodge/dining room next spring 2020 - another huge project. But we are taking steps now to position ourselves to make it happen. 

We purchased and installed a better faster satellite internet system. We have satellite pagers for communication in the river which solves a whole list of operational problems. 

The answer to my most often asked question is “Yes we will back to business as usual for 2019” actually better than usual. 

Happy 2019 I hope you had a great holiday season and have been keeping warm thru  January deep freeze. Belinda also says hi. She and a helper with take care of the kitchen and cabin cleaning. Hayden and his helper will keep the boats and everything running smoothly. We are all excited about this years possibiities. 

We very much look forward to seeing everyone again this summer. 

Please contact me soon to set up your dates.

Tell all your friends about Anglers Kingdom. 

It would be nice to fill every cabin each week in 2019. 

We could use a financially strong year. 

Kg