kincardine

VIDEO: “Mystery” by Dio / Ruko Over Lorne Beach

The flight started well enough, but I lost control of the drone during the return, right around the guitar solo (Vivian Campbell). It started veering to the left and losing altitude. I managed to bring it back to the beach and land it in the sand, but I thought for sure it was going to hit the water or trees. Why? It’s a “Mystery”!

To its credit, the Ruko U11MINI 4K gets incredible images with its always-level camera.

The water levels are heading back to their low point. It is a 20 year cycle. It does create beautiful imagery. Enjoy the flight.

Mystery (Dio/Bain)
From The Last In Line (1984)

Can you hear me
can you see
there’s a storm on the edge of the sky
does it matter
it does to me, i can tell you why
When there’s thunder, there should be rain
but it don’t always follow the rule
and is the wise man always right?
no he can play the fool
It’s always a mystery, not what it seems to be
it’s always a mystery, just like you and me
We are lightning
we are flame
and we burn at the touch of a spark
if there’s fire, but no one sees
the there’s only the dark
Just imagine, will you try
i can see that you’ve opened your mind
silver linings can disappear, but they always shine
It’s always a mystery, not what it seems to be
it’s always a mystery, just like you and me

#1219: Grab A Stack of Eats 2025

RECORD STORE TALES #1219: Grab A Stack of Eats 2025

Every year at the cottage, I try to expand my cooking game just a little bit.  In the past, this included making our own onion rings, slow cooking some beef ribs, caramelizing onions, working with exotic meats such as duck and lamb, and finding new ways to cook my veggies.  Had money been available this summer, I would have liked to start smoking my own meat.  Perhaps next year.  In 2025, we did try some new things and have some excellent food experiences.

The story starts in December of 2024.  We have a “tire guy”, Jason, who comes to the house and swaps out our tires twice a year.  I knew that Jason was a hunter, and I know he had a freezer full of moose meat.  We talked about it a bit, and discussed seasoning and cooking techniques for the exotic meat.  I asked if he could spare a taste of the moose meat.  Just a taste.  I am well familiar with moose, as a boss at work is also a hunter and brings in his own moose spaghetti from time to time.  It is not very gamey.  It has a beef-like taste and texture, with a venison finish.  It is a lean meat and not bad for you as a beef substitute.

Jason didn’t bring just a taste.  He went above and beyond, to the point that I was actually freaking out over the amount of meat that I had to eat.

I just wanted a taste.  What I got was a pack of moose pepperoni, a huge moose salami, and ten frozen links of big moose sausage.  Ten links.

There has not been a single year in my life where I ate ten links of any sausage at all.  Typically, I would have two or three at Sausagefest in the summer, and that is it.  I don’t do Oktoberfest and I’m not a big pork eater.  Jen won’t touch any kind of exotic game meat at all, so I could not count on her for any help.  The sausage was kept in the freezer until the opening of cottage season 2025.  It would be the first food experiment of the new year.

“Dad, you have to help me finish this sausage.  At least one link,” I told my father.

“Oh you eat them son, just enjoy.  You don’t have to share with me,” he answered as some form of polite excuse.

“You don’t understand what I’m saying dad.  I CAN’T eat ten links by myself.”

Cut to the end:  He didn’t eat any of them, and I did finish all ten.

Most of them were cooked on the barbecue, well done, and served with a toasted bun and a variety of toppings from mayonnaise to mustard to guacamole.  One was done in a frying pan, but the fumes actually triggered a seizure in Jen, so I avoided that method from then on.  Still, even with different toppings and condiments, ten sausages is a lot so I had to get creative.

One night in September, arriving at the cottage on a Thursday night, I needed to eat some dinner but had few options in front of me except…moose sausage.  I imagined cutting up the sausage into small chunks and using them in some way, and then realized:  I had everything I needed to make a moose spaghetti.  So I got cooking!

I began by cutting the sausage into meatball-sized chunks.  Then I sautéed it in olive oil, diced up some green peppers, red onions, garlic and mushrooms, and added them to the mixture.  I like a nice chunky sauce, so those diced veggies would blend in perfectly.  I let them cook until they reached the desired done-ness, and then added some craft spaghetti sauce that my dad had in stock from an unknown store.  I like a bit of heat, so I gave it several shots of Tobasco sauce, gave it a stir and let it simmer.  I made enough spaghetti to serve two, and dumped my sauce with moose sausage on top.  It was a masterpiece.  I finished it all – eventually.

That experiment was a total success.  Maybe Jason will get me some more sausage this winter, and I can try again next year.  Not ten links though.  Five will do me fine.

Our other successful experiment involved my first try at cooking a steak of Canadian wagyu.  I have cooked Japanese A5 wagyu at home before, but that is a very expensive and hard to find meat.  We no longer shop at our local Kitchener butcher (Robert’s Boxed Meats) after they sold us not one but two rotten steaks.  No third chance for Robert’s, and no more access to Japanese A5 wagyu.  The bright side of this is that after Robert’s almost ruined our cottage weekend with a steak that we had to throw in the garbage, my dad suggested we try the local Kincardine butcher, the Beefway.  This began a love affair and with a great store, and relationship with the staff who know us by name and recognize us when we come in.  When we first visited, I asked if they had heard of such a thing as A5 wagyu.  They had, of course, but didn’t carry the animal in stock.  Cut forward to 2025, and they now have Canadian wagyu in stock.  Not as marbled as the Japanese A5 variety, it might actually be a more enjoyable meat to enjoy as a steak.  There is a farm on the highway to the cottage that grows the animals, which is likely where the Beefway got theirs.

The Japanese A5 wagyu is so rich, that you really can’t eat more than a little in one sitting.  It is considered more a steak that you cut into cubes and share.  The Canadian variety was better suited to the steak eating experience.  I ended up doing two this year, both ribeyes.  The Beefway had a variety of cuts in stock, but I like a ribeye.  It was not cheap, but as a treat, certainly the best steak I’ve ever made at home.  More enjoyable than the A5 due to the better meat to fat ratio.  It was still incredibly tender, even when I accidentally cooked the first one to a medium well.  The second one, I underestimated and cooked it to a rare.  The thing is, both were really good.  With a good steak, I always keep the seasoning simple with salt and pepper, and maybe garlic powder.  A crappy steak needs everything I can throw at it to make it tasty, but the wagyu doesn’t need much.  No steak sauce.  You want to taste that meat.  You’re paying for it, so you better be able to taste it.  Salt might be enough on its own.

That is 2025 and its food experiments in a nutshell.  Nothing crazy, and all with local meat.  Which leaves us to end on a funny story.

The first time I purchased wagyu from the Beefway, I was so excited about my find, that I wanted to tell the world.  I made a post on the local Kincardine Facebook group.  There were several “likes” and loads of positive comments, except from one person who just didn’t…get it.

Darlene Johnson saw the price on my ribeye and had an absolute fit.  Her first of many comments is below.

 

She didn’t understand that the steak was a local cow, bred similar to the Japanese variety, no matter how it was explained to her.  She continued to berate me for buying it, and the store itself for “selling out” to Japan.  She said she preferred a nice lean steak.  I bet she cooks it well done, too.  I had to block her.  She was just mean.

Darlene A. Johnston will not dissuade me from buying the meat I like, and I will continue to patronize the Beefway as long as they are open.  Wagyu or otherwise, I have never had a tastier steak (or bacon, or pork chop, or chicken breast), than what I can get at my new favourite local butchers.

2025 was another successful year for food.  Bring on 2026!

 

OCT 6 2025 UPDATE:  She’s baaaack!

#1203: Wildfire Haze (with drone videos)

RECORD STORE TALES #1203: Wildfire Haze

 

Wildfires are more and more common as the world warms, but this year has been something else.

The sunsets have been alien and unimpressive.  The sun appears as a red dot, but disappears before reaching the horizon.  You can’t smell or taste the smoke, like you could in 2023, but the visuals are more obvious in 2025.  The windmills that dot Bruce County disappear into the distance.  The horizon isn’t a clear line, but a blur.  The sky is a hazy blue-grey.  The water is a shimmery silver.  It is like we live on an alien world, or a place from a science fiction dystopian novel.

This is the first chapter I have written since we lost Grandma on July 30, 2025. If she were here, I would show her the photos and videos and ask if she had ever seen the lake like this, in her 60 or so years at Lorne Beach. While I can never ask her now, I feel like the answer would be no. I don’t think she’d ever seen a sky like this on Lake Huron.

Grandma’s funeral will be August 22.  I have been asked to speak.  I would have wanted to speak even if I was not asked, but now that the task is ahead of me, I am strangely without words.  I have things I want to say, but these thoughts are disorganized and jumbled.  When I speak at her funeral, I want it to be the best speech I’ve ever given.  I have spoken at weddings, funerals, and my Grade 2 English project, but this feels like the most important speech I have had to do yet.  What to say?

I wish I could show you the wildfire haze, Grandma.  Actually I wish you were there on the weekends like you used to be.  I used to drive her to the lake.  I would pick the music.  She liked my picks.  She didn’t even mind Sloan’s 4 Nights at the Palais Royale, which was the exact length that it took to go from her driveway in Waterloo to her cottage.  A few weeks ago, we decided to drive to the cottage listening to music she’d like, so we picked the Swingers soundtrack.  She loved Dean Martin.  She loved Tony Bennett.  A lot of our family’s musical inclination came from her side of the family.  Though my dad played saxophone, Grandma’s family were the musicians.

I miss talking to her.  I used to say she was the only one in my family who understood me when I spoke.

I’m going to have to come up with a heck of a speech for her.

 

 

VIDEO: Grab A Stack of Rock – Emergency Preparedness Kit – Just in case the nuclear reactor melts down!

Things you didn’t know about Grab A Stack of Rock summer HQ!

It’s not just about the music and showing off our collections in paradise.  It’s also about emergency preparedness!  Check out this helpful video in the event you’re ever up in cottage country during a nuclear meltdown.

These kits are distributed to residents within 10 km of the Bruce Nuclear power plant.  I thought it would be at least interesting to have a good look inside one!

 

#1192: Close Encounter of the Stinky Kind!

RECORD STORE TALES #1192:  Close Encounter of the Stinky Kind!

It has been the Spring of Unseasonal Cold!  Unable to catch a break this year, Jen and I have spent most of our cottage time indoors with the heat cranked.  What a change from years past.  The water levels are low, and we have not seen much wildlife.  Well, except for a recent close encounter.

We left for the lake on Thursday night, to the soundtrack of Frehley’s Comet.  Friday was a day off, and it was spent cooking exotic meat on the barbecue (more on that in a bit).  It was also spent flying my new drone.  A step up from the Potensic, I now have in my arsenal a Ruko U11MINI 4k.  Unfortunately, due to the wind and cold, I only had one flight with it.  You can see from the video footage that the camera is far superior.  The images and videos are clearer, and level with the horizon.  I will be posting a full review soon, and more videos, as I work with the drone and gain more experience.

We ran out propane on Friday night, just after my lamb chops were cooked to a perfect medium rare.  The last gasps of flame puffed to an end as the lamb was finished.  Of course, with two big beautiful steaks on deck for Saturday night, we had to get more propane.  Friday was the day for exotic meat – scallops, moose sausage, and lamb chops.  Each one of them turned out perfect.  My scallops had an abundance of butter to soak up, seasoned with garlic oil and chunks.  The moose sausage was strong but not game-y, and the lamb of course was the highlight.  I did those with butter, garlic, oregano and fresh parsley.  But Saturday was steak day, the “big” day.  We had a porterhouse and a ribeye to grill!  Propane would be purchased on Saturday morning.

I woke Jen up around 7:00 AM.  Nobody likes hitting the Kincardine McGas bar during the breakfast rush, so we aimed to be there before that.  I started warming up the family truckster, Jen got in, and I noticed that I left a Tim’s coffee cup in the car.  I grabbed it and quickly ran over to my fireplace to toss it out.  It was a cool but beautiful morning, still dim as we waited for the sun to penetrate the clouds.

Just as I approached the fireplace from behind, preparing my aim to launch my cup, I saw movement!

Black and white movement!

I skidded to a halt and aborted the launch of my coffee cup.  It landed meters away from the target — which was a blessed thing!  Inside the fireplace, nosing around looking for scraps, was a large black and white skunk.  I shrieked like a baby and ran.  “There’s a skunk in there!!” I shouted to Jen who had no idea why I was running.

I was literally a second away from being sprayed.  If I had not halted when I did, that coffee cup would have launched right into the fireplace, hitting and startling the skunk, and thus ruining my weekend and probably the week after.

Close call!  They say close only counts in horseshoes?  It also counts when barely missing a skunk at 7:00 AM!

 

 

#1190: Return of the Sooners

SOONER [Noun]: “Sooners” is how my dad refers to the people who show up to go to the beach for the day.  I wondered what “Sooners” meant so I looked it up.  He must have got it from one of his cowboy movies.  Sooner:  “a person settling on land in the early West before its official opening to settlement in order to gain the prior claim allowed by law to the first settler after official opening.”

RECORD STORE TALES #1190:  Return of the Sooners

I like to do something new every time I go to the lake, if possible.  This time, I didn’t have anything planned.  I had two shows to do, but otherwise I wanted to enjoy my time and the surroundings without too much goal-setting.

This time, however, plans took a turn of their own.  Allow me to explain.

John Snow invited me to co-host an interview with a big, big name.  That interview was scheduled for Thursday afternoon, the 22nd of May.  I had planned to go to the cottage on Friday afternoon.  However, the big interview got re-scheduled at the last minute, to Monday the 26th.  Frustrated, I decided to cheer myself up by going to the lake on Thursday night instead, and working from there on Friday morning.  Something unthinkable just five years ago.

The wifi is better at the lake and I have more space.  We left town Thursday night and I dutifully worked a cold, rainy Friday morning from the cottage.  I wanted to work from the porch, but the cold and rain made this impossible.  It is rarely so cold in May, but here we are.  We have not had one nice weekend at the lake yet this season!

Even so, working from the lake was awesome:  making my bacon mere inches away from my laptop, or being able to step outside and enjoy the (cold) fresh air!  But best of all, when the day was over we didn’t have to drive anywhere.  We were already there!  The bonus time spent at the lake was a game changer.

Friday afternoon was booked off.  We went into town to buy some treats, and came back to a Friday afternoon all our own.  There was nobody around.  Not one cottage on our stretch was occupied that weekend.  The peace and quiet was unusual!  The last time up, I was worried that the guy across the road was going to blow leaves all through my Friday show.  This time there was nobody across the street.

Mid-afternoon, sitting in my armchair, I saw a car across the road.  I saw him stop, look out the door, and pull into the neighbour’s driveway.

“Ah crap,” I murmured to myself.  “Looks like we won’t be alone after all this weekend.”

A few moments later, I noticed five people standing and sitting around our bench at the beach.

“That wouldn’t be the neighbours,” I said to myself.  “They have their own property on the beach.  They have never used ours.  Who are these people?”

I allowed them a few minutes to take pictures or do whatever they were doing, but they didn’t move on.

Sooners.  Goddamn sooners!  They were back after a long absence.  I hadn’t seen any sooners in two years.  I decided to make sure they knew they were on private property, and using my bench!

I put on my hoodie and walked down to the beach.  I saw them turn and watch me approach.  Five guys.  They looked like students to me.

I nodded as I approached my bench.  I was curt with them.

“Hey, just going to use my bench.  This is my property.”  I paused.  “See ya.”

They began moving on, but back through the neighbour’s property.

“You can’t go that way,” I alerted them.  “That’s private property.  You have to use the public walkway.”  I pointed to it, a few feet to their left.

“Do you know where there is parking around here?” one of them asked.

“There isn’t any.  This is a private road.  You have to go park up the side road.”

I watched them leave.  After a while, I walked up to the side road to see where they parked.  They were nowhere to be found.  They had left the subdivision completely.  I guess I scared them off.

In the Battle of the Sooners in 2025, the score is now 1-0 for me!

Because of the cold and rain, we didn’t get a lot of outdoors stuff done to report on.  However, the weekend was not over, and we did get some drone time and some photos taken, so there will be more to come.

 

 

 

 

 

#1185: The Worst Weather, and the Best Weekend! – April 2025 [with Videos]

RECORD STORE TALES #1185: The Worst Weather, and the Best Weekend!
April 2025

We had a busy weekend lined up, but we were prepared for the worst – and the best!  We got a bit of both, but our spirits have never been higher.  Let’s rock this spring 2025!

Preparation is always key.  We left town at 8:30 AM, bound for Toronto.  It was time for Jen’s annual face-to-face with the neurologist, but traffic was light.  Apparently it was quite busy the day before, with Metallica in town playing Thursday for the first of their no-repeat weekend.  That was a stroke of luck, but then we hit a second one just as we arrived.  Our appointment was for 10:00, and the 9:30 had cancelled at the last minute.  That means we got seen early, and we got to the lake early too!

The doctor was happy with Jen’s progress, and is increasing a couple medications that seem to be have a positive effect.  Good appointment, and we were back on the road.

The music to Toronto was Live-Loud-Alive by Loudness, and the music to the cottage was the brand-new Dreams On Toast by the Darkness.  The Darkness album is easily their best since Last Of Our Kind, and will warrant a lengthy review over its 29 combined tracks.

We had a second pleasantly uneventful drive up, arriving in Kincardine at 2:00 PM.  We made our first stop of 2025 at our butcher, the Beefway.  There we picked up two beautiful T-bone steaks, some assorted bacon ends (applewood smoked), and some pickerel, pickles & pies.  In and out in under 10 minutes.

Friday afternoon was a weird one.  It was cold, then it rained, and then got warm and humid.   I took a stroll and found the last patch of snow left on the beach.  I attempted to make a snowball, but the snow was not good for packing.  It was dark all day, and  I set up on the front porch to rock the music.  The first album of the year was Combo Akimbo by Blotto, since the guys have been so cool to me this year.  Always a fun record.  Around “Metal Head”, I decided to try flying my drone.  Just as I got it in the air, it started raining.  No flying on Friday.  The rain did not hamper the 100th episode of Grab A Stack of Rock, which broadcast from the porch as planned.  Even Broadway Blotto came to check out the festivities.

We were indoors for the rest of the weekend, but the pickerel and steaks were sublime.   The sun did finally come out Sunday morning, which enabled me to take the first real flight of 2025.  Nothing fancy, but plenty of beauty.  I think I need to start flying less as a pilot, and more as a cinematographer.  Maybe that will be part of 2025’s goals.  Improve the drone videos with better, smoother shots.  I may have something in the works there.

I always like to do something every year at the lake that I have never done before.  Here are three for this weekend alone:

  1. First time seeing snow at the cottage this late in the season.
  2. First time barbecuing Spam.  (Frying pan is better for Spam.)
  3. Took the drone a teeny bit further this time and got a look down the river.

The music home was, of course, Iron Maiden!  There is no rest for the wicked, nor for 50 Years of Iron Maiden.  Fear of the Dark is next up on the recording schedule.

It was such a packed weekend that I slept for 13 hours on Sunday night.

We’ll be back soon.  The April showers will bring the May flowers.

Droning On – Recent Videos with Music!

Lots of new videos up on the channel, with great music to go with them!

The First Flight of Dr. K – Marillion “Fugazi”

I actually let Dr. K fly my drone. This is the unedited footage. You can see the panic on my face, with my hands on my head in anxiety!

Following a Canada Goose and some beach dogs – Jeff Bridges & Colin Farrell “Fallin’ & Flyin'”

Really special footage here of a lone Canada goose in the morning. I hovered nearby, afraid to get too close.

Dawn flight in the fall to lone rock – Brant Bjork “Sun Brother”

This flight took me further than I’ve gone before, all the way to a lone rock on the other side of the river that my sister and I used to sit on.

Drone Videos, Deep Purple and the wonders of the beach [VIDEOS]

This could be the last weekend for good drone flying weather at the lake. Here’s what I made, and some great tunes for you to enjoy.  First up we have a Thursday night flight to the tune of “The Roller” by Liam Gallagher’s Beady Eye.  Then we have two Deep Purple instrumentals on an unedited Friday morning flight:  “Son of Aleric” and “Contact Lost”.

Notably, the water levels are noticeable lower than two weeks ago, and the river entrance has dried up.  I took the drone a little further to the river than on past flights.  Got up to max altitude each time.  Lots to see here, and some cool flying techniques that really leave you feeling like you’re gliding along with me.

The third flight on Saturday morning might be the most beautiful. The water was so clear, and the reflections from the sun made for beautiful flying. I soared in close to some boulders, and took a look across the river for the first time. There I found an big boulder we used to sit on as kids. The music for this video is “Blue Ocean” by Flying Colors.

VIDEO: July 25-28 at the Lake – loads of drone beauty shots

Six cameras.  3 hours and 20 minutes of footage.  Edited down to 14 minutes of highlights, all to the music of Richie Kotzen.

Ducks, geese, seagulls, and one John Clauser cameo.

Enjoy.