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Backwoods Weather Report – Port Loring, Ontario Tuesday, December 17

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Well, the morning started with a few rain showers changing over to flurries, mostly ending by early afternoon. There’s a risk of freezing drizzle early on, so watch for slick spots. Wind has been shifting: west 12 mph (20 km/h) gusting to 25 mph (40 km/h), then northwest 25 mph (40 km/h) gusting to 37 mph (60 km/h), calming back to west 12 mph (20 km/h) by early afternoon. Temperature falling to 17 F (minus 8 C) this afternoon, wind chill making it feel closer to 8 F (minus 13 C).

Tonight will be partly cloudy. Wind becomes south 12 mph (20 km/h) before morning. Low near 10 F (minus 12 C), rising to 28 F (minus 2 C) by morning. Evening wind chill will feel like minus 0 F (minus 18 C).

Thursday, skies will become cloudy in the morning with periods of rain or drizzle. South wind 19 mph (30 km/h) gusting to 31 mph (50 km/h). High around 41 F (5 C), with morning wind chill near 16 F (minus 9 C). Overnight Thursday, rain or snow with low near 36 F (2 C).

Backyard sensor check: Barometer 28.65 in Hg (970.2 mbar), humidity 84%, temperature 35 F (1.8 C), winds calm from SSW 0 mph (0 km/h).

Nature’s signs today—trees swaying in stronger gusts, air smelling damp and sharp from rain, chickadees are looking for shelter and breakfast, and crows circling above riding the gusts.

Until the next time: Keep Your Minds Open & Your Stories Alive. GW

All my books are available on my Amazon Author Page.

If you purchase a book, a brief Amazon review really helps new readers discover my work—it means a lot.

Support my writing: Support My Writing

In Closing, I Would Like to Wish You Well!

George Walters | [email protected]

George's Writers Corner, My Opinion Only, Old Days, Old Ways, What’s Really Going On

Follow the Money, Not the Noise

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Only on The Walters Post

Turn on the news and it is nothing but money talk. Numbers, charts, warnings, and experts telling you what you should do. Funny thing is, every one of them wants a piece of your money.

Banks want it. Advisors want it. Governments want it. Media talks about it all day long. Everyone claims they are helping you, but somehow you are still worried at the end of the month.

Here is the hard truth. Most people are not broke because they do not make enough. They are broke because they were never taught how money works.

Nobody teaches you how to handle money. They teach you how to spend it. They teach you how to want things you do not need, using money you do not have, and paying interest for years just to feel good for a few minutes.

The old way was simple. Pay your bills. Buy what you need. Think hard before buying what you want. Fix things instead of replacing them. Use what you have.

Credit cards were not extra income. They were tools. If you could not pay it off, you did not use it. That was not being cheap. That was being smart.

I am up there in years now, and if I had money back then, I did not hand it over to someone else and hope they knew better. I put money into myself. Skills. Tools. Things that could earn money. Nobody can take that away from you.

All this talk about needing millions to retire scares people for a reason. Fear keeps people quiet and spending. You do not need to be rich. You need to be aware.

Know where your money goes. Know why it goes there. Ask who benefits from it. Because most systems are built to keep you just comfortable enough to stop asking questions.

So turn down the noise. Read. Learn. Think for yourself. Spend less than you make. Make your money work for you, not the other way around.

That is not advice from an expert. That is just plain common sense.

Until the next time: Keep Your Minds Open & Your Stories Alive. GW

All my books are available on my Amazon Author Page.

If you purchase a book, a brief Amazon review really helps new readers discover my work—it means a lot.

Support my writing: Support My Writing

In Closing, I Would Like to Wish You Well!

George Walters | [email protected]

George's Writers Corner, My Opinion Only, What’s Really Going On

Life Didn’t Wait for Us

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Only On The Walters Post

You ever stop and think about it? About how long this whole circus we call life has been running before we showed up. Because if you look at it straight, humans are the new kids on the block. I mean, really new. Life had been kicking along for billions of years before anyone figured out how to make fire without burning their eyebrows off.

We like to think we’re the pinnacle, right? The top of the ladder. But if you go back far enough, there were tiny little things squirming in water while the planet was still basically a ball of molten hell. And they were surviving. Not just surviving—they were figuring stuff out, making energy, defending themselves, and doing all of it without asking anyone for permission. And they didn’t even have apposite thumbs.

Fast forward a few billion years, and there were humans wandering around, hunting, gathering, getting sick, getting eaten, figuring out how to raise kids without Google. And here we are, acting like we invented life. We didn’t. We were late. Very late.

And it’s funny when you really think about it. You’ve got species that have been around for hundreds of millions of years, doing their thing perfectly fine, and then humans show up thinking they’re going to put it all together. And yet here we are, still stumbling, still trying, still arguing about who’s right and who’s wrong. Meanwhile, the bacteria that outlived the dinosaurs don’t care one bit about our opinions. They’re just happy being.

It’s not pretty. It’s not perfect. It’s messy, it’s stubborn, and it’s full of accidents. Life didn’t plan for you or me. It just kept moving. And we happened to land on the planet at the tail end of the rehearsal. That’s reality. Not glamorous, not dramatic, but honest. And maybe that’s the funniest part of all—we’re the only ones who think the whole show is about us.

So yeah, life came first. Humans came last. And if you want to see it in perspective, look at a chicken. Look at a tree. Look at bacteria in a puddle. They don’t care about your plans or your opinions. They just survive, adapt, and laugh quietly at your self-importance.

And that’s the truth. Harsh? Maybe. Funny? Definitely.

Until the next time: Keep Your Minds Open & Your Stories Alive. GW

All my books are available on my Amazon Author Page.

If you purchase a book, a brief Amazon review really helps new readers discover my work—it means a lot.

Support my writing: Support My Writing

In Closing, I Would Like to Wish You Well!

George Walters | [email protected]

George's Writers Corner, Weather, What's Happening

A Few Words From a Feller Who Learned Right and Wrong the Old Way

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Visitors At our Bird Feeder This Morning

Good morning. You know I kinda figure that the way the coffee tastes on the first sip… tells me how my day is going to be.

Backwoods Weather Report – Port Loring, Ontario
Monday, December 15, 2025

Early morning conditions:
It’s cold and still in the bush this morning. The temperature is sitting at 5°F (-15°C) with humidity at 87%, The barometer is low and falling at 29.35 inches (993.8 mbar), which usually means unsettled weather will hang around. Winds are near calm, with a light east to southeast breeze. Skies are fully clouded over.

Today

It will be cloudy, with a few flurries drifting through, mainly this morning. Snow amounts around 2 to 4 cm, about 1 to 1.5 inches, just enough to freshen things up. High will reach near 25°F (-4°C).

Tonight

Any lingering flurries end early, then it turns quiet and cloudy.
Low near 5°F (-15°C).

Tomorrow – Tuesday

Still cloudy, with a 40% chance of flurries, mainly in the morning. There’s also a risk of freezing drizzle, so roads and walkways could be slick.
Winds will shift to the south and increase to about 30 km/h by early afternoon.
High near 28°F (-2°C).

Nature’s signs

The woods feel quiet this morning, sound carries farther, and the snow underfoot has that crunch that only comes with the cold. It feels like winter is tightening its grip on us here in the north… at least for today.

On another note, yesterday I spent the day back in my old woodworking shop, losing track of time as I worked. By the end of the day, I had a few picture frames finished along with turning the place into one heck of a mess. Got to the point I couldn’t find anything.

So knowing that... today’s plan is to clean things up enough to find what I need, then get back to making more frames… and hopefully not another mess.

With that I am off for my morning breakfast that my lovely wife has made for me and will then head on out to the shop. Have a good day.

Until the next time: Keep Your Minds Open & Your Stories Alive. GW

All my books are available on my Amazon Author Page.

If you purchase a book, a brief Amazon review really helps new readers discover my work—it means a lot.

Support my writing: Support My Writing

In Closing, I Would Like to Wish You Well!

George Walters | [email protected]

George's Writers Corner

What’s Really Happening with Home Prices

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Only On The Walters Post

They’ll tell you COVID changed everything , that people suddenly needed home offices, more space, and that’s why house prices shot through the roof. Sure, there’s some truth to that. But let’s be honest: the story that sells newspapers and clicks isn’t the full story.

Here’s what really went on in my opinion. Houses didn’t suddenly become magical cash cows. Prices jumped because the market got hyped … the kind of hype that makes people think they have to buy yesterday or miss the “opportunity of a lifetime.” Stories about scarcity, “hot markets,” and “prices only go up” were everywhere. It’s like a carnival game: everyone leans in, everyone pays, and somehow the house always wins.

Then there’s the banks and mortgage companies. Oh, bless them. Low interest rates make lending cheap, and the powers that be protect them if things go sideways. So they hand out big mortgages like candy. You get a house that’s priced close to double what it’s worth, sign up for a long mortgage, and suddenly you’re in over your head — all while the bank sits back, safe as a cat in a sunbeam.

COVID made a convenient story. Some people really did need more space, but mostly, it was psychology and momentum driving prices. Buyers thought they were keeping up, lenders thought they were clever, and sellers — well, they just smiled all the way to the bank. Until now.

Now the market is cooling. Niagara, St. Catharines, even North Bay — prices are softening, homes are lingering on the market, and buyers can breathe a little. The hype machine has slowed down, the music has stopped, and suddenly the house isn’t magic — it’s a piece of wood and brick that will probably sit there if you don’t pay attention.

So if you’re patient, you watch, and you wait for a home that actually makes sense, you can step in without getting caught up in another round of frenzy. Houses are just houses. The story around them can be loud, flashy, and sometimes downright absurd — but underneath, it’s the same as it ever was.

Sometimes you have to pull back, see the whole picture, and laugh a little at the circus. Because if you don’t, you might just be the one paying for the popcorn.

Until the next time: Keep Your Minds Open & Your Stories Alive. GW

All my books are available on my Amazon Author Page.

If you purchase a book, a brief Amazon review really helps new readers discover my work—it means a lot.

Support my writing: Support My Writing

In Closing, I Would Like to Wish You Well!

George Walters | [email protected]