I've been working on a new head-unit & switch combo for the past few weeks, and yesterday was the first test fit. It looks pretty good and fit very well, although it didn't play any sound. It's no problem though, just a switch set to the wrong setting - I think. We'll see when I do the final install this week. :-)

View the Jeep > Projects > Alpine IDA-X100 HU and Switch Panel folder...

The Columbia Cougar Flats tent is in excellent condition, only used a few times, and has great reviews on the internet. This is the perfect tent for a car/minivan camping with the family and/or dog. We paid $425 (inc. taxes) and would let it go for $200 CDN. Here are a few of the features:

• Cabin dome-style tent sleeps 6 to 8 people; includes polyethylene tub floor.
• 86-inch center height; 15 × 10-foot base size.
• Divided into two rooms.
• Includes hanging gear loft, corner shelves and hanging cup holders.
• Cyclone Venting system for better air circulation while rainfly is in use.
• GoBe Dry rain protection system helps keep you dry in any terrain.
• 2 Bay windows, 2 Doors.
• Steel and fiberglass poles.
• Wheeled carry bag.

I put together a bunch of pictures of this tent for you to get a better idea of the size and features.

Update: I just remembered a door's mosquito net got a small rip (thanks to Pete's paw). We sewed it back up, but the tent is no longer perfect/as-new, so in this case we'll let it go for $150.

Anyone interested in a Brinkmann Stainless Steel Magnum 2 Burner Propane Stove? It's in great condition (only used a few times) and is excellent for car/minivan camping -- big enough for some fairly large pots. We bought it for $80 from Cabelas and we'll let it go for $40 CDN. The kitchen table is also for sale, but we have to dig up the receipt to figure out the price. :-)

Update: The table is still listed on cabelas for $70 USD, so we'll let it go for $35 CDN. So that's $75 for both the table and stove.

Update: The table and stove have been sold.

I've installed a new Network-Attached Storage (NAS) file server with 4 Terabytes of disk. I've moved all our music, pictures, websites, etc. onto the NAS, and now I'm just fine-tuning the file and directory structure. You'll notice some small changes in the photo album folder names. For example, the "Canoeing" folder is now called "Canoe-Camping". There are many, many more changes, and some of these could cause broken links here and there. If you find something doesn't work, please let me know. Thanks.

Some of you must have thought that we forgot to take our traditional holiday picture. We were a bit late this year and did not get around to sending X-Mas cards. We are sending you guys our best wishes for the new year. For all our friends we wish - Health, Excellent Diving, OffRoading, Dog Training, Traveling, Cool professional and personal projects. We hope to see you all in the new year. Enjoy x!

View the Special Events > 2008 > 20080101 - Happy New Year from JS, Mel and Pete folder...

It was our first outing with the new sleds. The weather was nice / -13c and sunny. All tree of us did some sledding with the dogs and had opportunity to practice passing. As a leader Pete prefers to pass to the left. Pete was a bomb. He loves it so much that on the 4th ride he started not wanting to come back to the start. The sleds were just amazing. Speed was nice. We can't wait to some day have more dogs to add to the bunch !

View the Dog Training > 2007 > 20071215 - Larose Forest Passing Clinic folder...

The 2008 Jeep Jamboree Schedule was published earlier this month. Melanie and I were looking forward to booking the Vermont and Maine Jeep Jamborees. Unfortunately, the Vermont Beer Festival and the Vermont Jeep Jamboree are both on the same week-end! So we had to choose one or the other... Last year's VIP experience at the Vermont Beer Festival was really excellent and we were hoping to do the same this year. JP also came up from South Carolina for the Beer Festival, which made it all the better. Hopefully we can convince JP to attend the Vermont Jeep Jamboree instead. :-) It's a long drive though, so we'll see. If anyone else would like to join us, the Vermont Jeep Jamboree is July 18-20 in Killington Vermont, and the Maine Jeep Jamboree is October 3-5 in Bethel Maine.

I had a hell of a time finding winter tires I liked, but finally bought some US made Toyo M-55s. I had to drive down from Montreal to the US to pick them up, but it was well worth it since the US made M-55s are pinned for studs. These tires are used extensively by commercial fleets and working pickup trucks out west and up north. They easily last 80k or more and many owners sipe them. There are siping machines that exist, but there none in Montreal, so I had to hand-sipe mine. Hand-siping also does a better job, supposedly, because you can stay away from the edges of the lugs. Automated siping machines are just a big cork-screw cutter that cuts 1/2" wide sipes along the tread circumference.

We went to get our first snow tires yesterday in Champlain NY (JS bought them from a place in the US and had them shipped to a warehouse in Champlain - literally on the border line). Yep we could not get those snow tires in Canada - TOYO's 33 inches M55 studed. In Canada, they only have the studeless version. We did not wait at all to pay the Duty on the tires. They are quite heavy 60 pound each. Now we are missing 2 wheels before we can have these installed.

View the Donnett's Pepper Pete folder...

This week we got our first snow storm in Montreal. Pete loves it. He loves to smell the snow, run in it ... and yes in this picture you can see that Pete likes to recycle. He carries empty bottles to the trash !

View the Donnett's Pepper Pete folder...

On Saturday, three of us met in Terrebonne to run a Jeep Trail along a Hydro line. The trail is known to be mostly sand and water, with some mud here and there. Melanie and I were driving our green 4-door JK with 33s and 3" lift. Matthew was driving his stock red 2-door JK with 32s and FabFour bumpers. Steve was driving a black 2-door JK with 35s, 3" lift with pucks, and 1" body lift. This is a trail that can be done by smaller 4×4 stock vehicles, but last Saturday, this probably wasn't the case. It had been raining for several days, and the weather was dipping well bellow 0C at night. This meant the ground wasn't absorbing much water, and most of the water holes had a good 3/8" of ice covering it. When we got to expanses of water that we couldn't go around, we stopped and tested the depth with our rubber boots. We took some risks based on guestimates of depth, and were pretty lucky generally. We took our time and tried to be careful. Matthew calculated our average speed for the day at around 2.2km/h. :-) All of our Jeeps survived, although we all have to check and/or change fluids in our diffs, t-case, trans, etc. Steve has some problems with his ESP, and has difficulty turning to the right. Hopefully it's just electrical and not too serious. Unfortunately there aren't too many pictures of our Jeep, because we were in front. When possible, Melanie would try and tip-toe around and take a picture, but often the water holes were just too big to walk around.

View the Jeep > Off-Road > 2007 > 20071117 - Jeep Trail in Terrebonne folder...

The Event

Last September 27-30 we attended our first Jeep Jamboree in Bethel Maine. It was the 18th annual Jamboree for Bethel. There were over 130 Jeeps of all kinds and 250 + people. The types of Jeeps varied widely - Willy's, Army Jeeps, CJ's, TJ's, YJ's, Jeep Cherokees, JK's 2 and 4 doors - Sahara, X's and Rubicon .... and 1 Jeep Liberty. Doug and Jodie Wilson are the organizers of the Bethel Jamboree. Many thanks to all the land owners who allowed the use of their land for the trails, all the trail guides who accompanied us and prepared the trails before and after, the lunches were prepared by the local school ... The whole weekend went very smoothly - at least from a participant standpoint. Our experience was great and yes we will be back next year to the event. THANKS to all.

Enter Last week we installed the new horns and skid plate, finishing the front bumper. It took a while, but looks pretty good. Once I have the new "Heavy Duty" coils up front, I'll calibrate all the lights.

Last week-end Mike and I changed the battery to an Optima D34M (Deep Cycle 750 CCAs), and just about every connector on it. I think there are about 9 wires going to the battery! :-) We also added a 7 circuit fuse box bellow the globe box. This'll power the CB, GPS, and three gauges. Those are the three projects for this week. We're going to be busy if we're going to get everything done before next Wednesday. :-)

View the Jeep > Evolution folder...

Last week-end we installed a Garvin Roof rack on the Jeep. These racks are a little different than the typical ones you see -- they have to bolt onto the body because the Jeep Wrangler's roof can be removed completely. :-) The body panels are a little thin, so I purposefully installed some heavy steel corner guards a while back to support the roof rack. The rack also tilts back to allow the soft-top to open/close. We'll get try out that feature next spring, once we have the soft-top on there. Next Monday we're having the 3" lift kit installed, and that'll pretty much finish this project -- just a few odds & ends left, like the winch, lights, and CB.

View the Jeep > Projects > Garvin Roof Rack folder...

Phew! Mike and I added some tow-hooks to the front bumper yesterday, test fitted the winch, all while Melanie emptied and prep'ed the rear differential for a new cover (shown here). Then today I mounted the CB antenna bracket and ran the coax. You can see pictures of that install here.

View the Jeep > Evolution > 20070811 - Installing Tow Hooks and Rear Diff Cover folder...

Mike, Melanie, and I have been working hard to get the Jeep ready for the September Jeep Jamboree in Maine. The roof rack, shocks, springs, etc. should be in shortly, and last week-end we finally got to install the new bumper. We decided to install it in two steps, saving the winch, skid plate, off-road lights, and crush cans for another week-end. We're also going to replace the stock fog lights, but we'll have to fab a bracket for those, so it might take a little longer. :-) Anyway, here's our new bumper, about half-way done.

View the Jeep > Evolution > 20070804 - Installing AEV Front Bumper folder...

Mike and I installed some new rock sliders (aka rock rails) on the Jeep this week-end. They stick out 4" from the body, so they will also work as steps to access our future roof rack. Luckily Patrick lent us his garage for the day, 'cause it would have been near impossible to install these on the street. :-) Earlier in the week, I also installed an under-hood relay and fuse box and a center console switch mount to control future off-road lights, backup lights, etc. The off-road lights will be installed on our new front bumper, that should be shipping this week.

View the Jeep > Evolution > 20070728 - Installing Shrockworks Rock Sliders folder...

We celebrated the 15th Burlington VT Beer Festival with our friend JP this past weekend. We had VIP pass and were treated to the VIP tent, nice seating, escape the line-ups, some finger foods, special brews, chocolate, etc. We did 2 sessions and the end of the 3rd. JS will remember the Atomic hot sauce and the cinnamon chocolate :*) Melanie will remember the small room at the Wynham hotel, JP did la tournee des bars by himself and rock Burlington once again. We did breakfast at the Penny Curse Cafe and Mirabelles. We did dinner at the single peable for my b-day. It was delicious Cantonese style dinning (JP was happily surprised). We had black sauce green beans on BBQ, shitakes els style, lemon chicken, sheaded pork BBQ with fried oyster on top (yum), dumplings and some very hot pork. Just delicious :*; We had time to catch up with JP and talk Beer, Job, Girls, Jeep, Dog ... and did a couple loop on those subjects. I went shopping at Victoria S, bought Happy Potter last book and turn 35 ... It was a cool weekend.

View the Special Events > 2007 > 20070720 - 15th Vermont Beer Festival With JP, JS and Mel folder...

We had a great BBQ to celebrate the beginning of the summer. JS and I just came back from Bonaire and Pat, Tove and Leon were visiting. Leon received many gifts. Leon was quite happy of the Pink Flamingo.

View the Special Events > 2007 > 20070521 - BBQ with Pat, Tove and Leon folder...

	Baby's Got New Shoes!

The wheels finally came in this week and I had the tires mounted this morning! I used 8oz of Innovative Balancing's ceramic beads per tire. It took about 10-12 mins per tire to add the beads - a real pain in the butt. The advantage to ceramic beads, instead of conventional lead weights, is they can't get dislodged when off-roading. It also balances the tire no matter if there's mud, snow, or ice on the wheel.

View the Jeep > Evolution folder...

I've had quite a few things in the workshop waiting to go on the Jeep, but there's only so much time in a week-end, so Mike and I have been tackling one project at a time. This week-end we changed the headlights and improved the turn signals. Mike worked out a sweet wiring diagram to turn the sidemarker lights (the orange lights on the front fenders) into a running light / turn signal combo. The new Cibie headlights also have a "city light" feature for the daytime -- a second bulb that got wired to the running lights. We also had to splice in a new connector for the H4-type lightbulb. The new headlights look really sweet and should be a huge difference. All that's left to do is align them properly before using them on the highway. I figure the local Loblaws should have a good level parking lot and wall to do this.

View the Jeep > Projects > Cibie Headlights folder...

I've created a Jeep > Evolution folder to group all the pictures we take of our various Jeep installation / modification projects. So far we've installed a partition net for the dog, added corner guards / armor, a gas cap lid, taillight guards, changed the center console, changed the muffler, and added a device to disable the engine. This week-end we'll probably change the headlights and pad the speaker bar for better sound. Still back-ordered are new bumpers, a basket-style roof rack, wheels and tires, shocks, springs, control arms, trackbars, diff covers, snorkel, compressor, and much more...

View the Jeep > Evolution folder...

We bought the Jeep for many reasons, one of which was to train Pete on the week-ends. So, off we went to St-Lazare today to train Pete on the Guide Canins property. We started with a double, but the terrain was a little difficult and Pete hunted around for the second bird a little too much, so we switched to singles. Pete cheated on the way back from the first bird (a fairly difficult long retrieve), but after two more runs with some 'hot spot' corrections, he understood to take the more direct route. All in all, a very good training day.

View the Dog Training > 2007 > 20070602 - Field Training in St-Lazare folder...

	Here she is!

Here she is, our new baby; 116" wheelbase and 4347 lbs! :-)

It was raining on and off this evening, but we still managed to install the clutch lock, Husky floor mats, Raingler partition net for the dog, door sill protectors and wheel lock nuts. I don't know how people have been putting on that Raingler net, but I had to create some tie-offs for the sides. Now we gotta get the soft-top out of there so the dog can get in! :-) Oh, and the best thing, no tacky "Trail Rated" badge! Woohoo! That's the only badge I really didn't like on the Jeeps. :-)

There's already a lot of stuff in the workshop or on it's way for the Jeep, so we'll be adding / modifying stuff on the Jeep for the next several weeks. :-)

View the Jeep > Evolution folder...

This trip to bonaire will be our 10th one since fall 2001. We fell in love with this island back in 2001. We made friends over the years. The diving is pristine. We also visit Bonaire to dine at the Mona Lisa and Capriccios restaurant - 2 best restaurants on the Island. We will be trying out our new DS200 Ikelite flashes on this trip :*) To my team in Montreal and Kanata, I lift my glass to our new center and our success !! You may view some of my pictures of the 2006 vacation on the following link.

View the Scuba Diving > 2006 > 20060429 - Bonaire folder...

I took the day off and went mushing with my Mom in St-Lazarre. The Ottawa Fun-race is coming up, and we wanted to try some passing maneuvres before this week-end's event. Well, it didn't quite go as planned. Pete was great and plowed along as usual. I had to run/push up the hills, and kicked a little along the straights. Getting back to the car after 4 km, Pete and I were so tired that we took a break about 100' from the car! :-) Michele stayed behind, and the girls were pulling so much, she had to ride the break almost the whole way! :-) The girls fought a few times. I think Tsumi was very excited, and when dogs get excited, all their character traits -- good and bad -- seem to come out. :-)

Pete did pretty well. I usually rate our trainning sessions, and this one would rate an 8/10. He was responsive to commands, and caught on quickly to what the job was. He still tends to turn around up front before we take off, and I'd like the line to stay tighter, but overall, it's not too bad. I also got a chance to try out the new Hybrid Running Jacket we bought him to keep his balls nice and warm. It worked out pretty well -- I just rolled up the back end when we stopped for pee & pooh.

View the Dog Training > 2007 > 20070206 - Mushing in St-Lazarre folder...

It was time. After years of renting, we decided the time was right to make a serious week-end commitment and bought a 2007 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon. It's a four door Jeep -- their first model. It's been selling waaaaay beyond Jeep's expectations, so we probably won't have it before mid-March. The 2007 Jeep Wranglers come in several configurations -- The Unlimited is a four door, and then there are "trim levels": X, Sahara, and Rubicon. The X is the basic model, the Sahara is the full equiped street model, and the Rubicon is the off-road model. We added just about every option to the Rubicon, including power windows, hard and soft tops, towing option, etc. Now I have to order the winter tires (Nokian Hakkapeliitta SUV with studs), the roof rack and basket, Cold Air Intake (adds about 10-15 HP), etc.

The Diabolissimo team has done it again ... Prepare fabulous meals for Xmas for their friends and clients. The Kyoto martini drink brought colors to the evening and we hope no hangovers. Gyosa, Suishi plates, dumplings, ... lots of wine, excellent cake filled our stomachs. Beautiful creations and presents were offered among team members. Music from the 1980's was playing away. We have a special performance from Mimi, the youngest of the Diabolissimo team - Don't miss it ! Merry Xmas to all. Thanks for all your good work.

View the Special Events > 2006 > 20061223 - Diabolissimo Xmas Party folder...

After training the basics over the summer, and using the Mountainboard a few times to get things going, Pete has finally graduated to the kicksled! We've been looking forward to taking out the kicksled since we got snow a few days ago, but I've been on-call this week, so couldn't participate in the usual morning training / walks. We took two videos of this afternoon's ride. Although it was a little dark for decent video, we wanted something to mark the occasion. :-) Next time, I'll wear a headlight to illuminate Pete and our path for the video. Hopefully we'll get more snow next week when I'm no longer on-call. The kicksled is a lot of fun, although a little more side-wiggley than the mountainboard. :-)

View the Donnett's Pepper Pete folder...

Sorry folks - a small bug caused an excessive number of unsubscribe links to listed in notification e-mails sent earlier today. A quick fix should have solved the problem now. :-)