Naomi Heffler was an employee of Churchill River Outfitters, By all accounts, Naomi was an exceptional woman - she was an accomplished canoeist/kayaker; an excellent outdoor guide; a terrific skier; a brilliant scholar; a fine musician; but most importantly, a fantastic person. Naomi passed away in a skiing accident in 2003.

I didn't know Naomi. I first heard about her from long-time Churchill River Canoe Outfitter guide, Kevin Schultz show my wife, Velda and I "Naomi's Wave", at Corner Rapids on the Churchill River. There is a plaque there, naming this wave as Naomi's. in her memory, because she absolutely loved to play on it. Her story touched me.

When I returned to Churchill River Outfitters in Missinipe, I asked owner, Ric Driediger about Naomi. Even though it had been a few years since her passing, a tear formed in his eye and his voice cracked just a little as he spoke of her. It was obvious that Naomi had not just been an average employee. Ric truly respected, admired and adored her.

I didn't have to know Naomi to understand her spirit. In this day of perfect hair, perfect teeth, texting, social media, and entitlement, there is a breed of young ladies who rise above the mediocrity to become free-spirited independent thinkers. They are confident, self-reliant, talented, and spirited. They respect their fellow human beings, their environment, and revel in all Mother Nature offers them. They are the young ladies who love to paddle the wilderness, dance in whitewater and sleep in the forest. Naomi was such a lady.

My motivation to attempting a musical project such as this was initially based on somewhat selfish reasons. First, I really wanted to work with Sue Leonard; secondly, I wanted to create in the magical atmosphere Forest House provided. But...... Naomi's story would not leave me.When I suggested to Ric and Sue, that we dedicate this project to Naomi, they quickly agreed. Thus, the "Naomi Project" was born.

Sue got back to me about the tracks I sent her. The amazing thing is that she responded by singing vocal ideas over my tracks. I am very happy about this. In my mind, Sue is putting her reputation on the line to come out here and work with me. I would think she would certainly tell me that what I sent her was below her standards.I'm excited!

Went to the dentist a few weeks ago for a routine filling. Walked in happy and positive. Came out stressed and shocked. My dentist, (very good, but young enough to be my daughter's daughter), started poking around in my mouth in a completely different place than where the filling was, muttered something to her assistant, and then laid this on me.

"I don't mean to alarm you, but I think you may have oral cancer".WOW! One worries about lung cancer, prostate cancer, colon cancer....... but oral cancer? Had to go for a biopsy. The oral surgeon tried to reassure me that what he saw didn't look bad, but you still worry, you still fret, and you are much more aware of your mortality. Waited and waited and waited for my biopsy results - this caused me to worry even more - they were very slow in coming. Finally, one day, the phone rang. It was the oral surgeon.ncer?

"Dude, so sorry! We misplaced your results. Just found them today! You're clean! They're negative!"

My Forest House plans could have been affected by a little tiny bump in my mouth. Thank God they weren't!

The Naomi Project is many months away, but I'm already beginning to lay awake at night, mulling over the many logistical problems we need to overcome before this project can become reality.

Following are some of the things which have begun to keep my mind swimming, when I should be sleeping:

Packing - we have a ton of gear which needs to ultimately end up about 700km north of my home in Saskatoon, at Forest House. Due to the nature of my Internet work, I have to be a PC guy. The tower which now drives my recording studio is a massive Alienware, factory over clocked, liquid-cooled monstrosity weighing close to 100 pounds. How in the world are we going to protect and portage that thing? I also don't think we'll have the room or the manpower to be able to take in my full-size piano keyboard. Need to buy a smaller, but functional smaller one. Have started making and refining a packing list.

Travel Scenarios - Driving from Saskatoon to Missinipe is a given. Getting from Missinipe to Forest House is another matter. Ric and I have talked about the possibility of flying. If we do so, the amount of gear we can take will depend on what kind of plane is available. The lake Forest House sits on is much too small to land a plane on. We'll have to land next door on Hutchings Lake, portage the gear over to the Forest House lake, and canoe it about 3/4 mile to where the lodge is located. If we don't fly in, our only other option would be to go in by boat and carry everything over the 5 portages. We did this on our last trip to Forest House. Carried in gear for four people for three days. It was hard work. A pile of recording gear could be a real challenge.

Weather - "waterproof cases" are the operative words here. With the potential of torrential downpours while we're loading, portaging, canoeing, etc. protecting the equipment is paramount. I'm going to have to identify exactly the amount of gear we're taking VERY SOON, so I can figure out how many and where I'm going to get the cases I need.

Plan A, Plan B, Plan C? - How many plans do we need? - we have a week to get the gear into Forest House, set up, record, rip down, and get out. Everything depends upon the weather. Flying could be easily affected either going in or coming out by the weather. Storms, or days of stormy, socked-in, windy conditions are a distinct possibility. We must be prepared to go by boat and portage.We must be prepared to go by boat and portage.

I think I'm going to have many more sleepless nights.

Naomi Project Report - I have been writing and working on new ideas for the Naomi Project. Haven't sent anything new to Sue for a while. She has been very busy working on her new EP in Hamilton, Ontario. She's very excited about it and I hope it does well for her.

Sue and the "posse" of musicians, producers, and engineers she is working with have worked with a list of just about everyone in the music business, ranging from kd lang, to Peter Gabriel, to Tom Jones, to George Harrison, to Daniel Lanois, to Robbie Robertson, to Bon Jovi, etc., etc., etc., etc................................

My list of credits? - not so impressive - I did see Sting in concert once.Am I intimidated? FER SURE!!!!!!!

The decision has been made. I simply cannot see a way to take my 100-pound Alienware tower to Forest House. There is no logical way to do it. Therefore, if the project is to continue, I'm going to have to "bite the bullet" and get myself a machine I can carry. Easier said than done!I decided to look for a high-end lap top to run my studio, so I went to Avid's Pro Tools (the main recording software I run) website, and searched their Support FAQs for their lap top recommendations. They suggested six models, two each, by three different manufacturers.

One of the manufacturer’s suggested was Dell. I have been using and leasing Dell PCs since 1995, but for a lark I decided to check out the other two manufactures first, Asus and HP. Went to their websites, only to discover the models recommended by Avid were no longer manufactured. So, I went to Dell to discover that one of the two suggested models, the Dell Precision M6700; Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3940XM CPU @ 3.00GHz 3.20 GHz; 32 GB RAM was still available. I contacted the Dell rep I had been working with for over a decade. She informed me the model I was interested in was slated to be discontinued within a month.

Why was it becoming so difficult to find high-end lap tops? Demand had greatly diminished since the introduction of tablets. I can see this becoming a real problem in the future. Custom-built product may be the answer, but in an age when the prices of computers are dropping, the cost of recording using PCs may be on the rise.

Anyway, Dell was very nice to me, offering special pricing, an iron-clad warranty, and next day service. The new machine is on its way!

Have been testing out the Pro Tools and all related plugins extensively on the new lap top. Continuing to identify exactly what equipment we should take and have also started assembling a collection of Pelican cases. Awesome (but expensive) cases! They are tough, air tight, they float, and the insides can be customized to cradle almost anything you want in a layer of foam. The only drawback, is that the largest cases I got weight like 30 pounds before you put anything into them.

Sue has been very busy with the release of her new EP. It's amazing! She's doing Press and radio for it, so we haven't been addressing the Naomi Project all that much. I'm still working on ideas for tracks. Our goal now is to go up to Forest House with six tracks and see what happens.

Ric Driediger from Churchill River Canoe Outfitters and Forest House, emailed me that he had approached Naomi's parents about what we were doing and they are fine with it. I am very pleased about this. The last thing Sue and I wanted to do was go against the wishes of the people who knew and loved Naomi the most.

Feeling very good - stronger every day! I am continuing to walk daily and am now up to about 10 miles. I have lost 10 pounds and my energy level is noticeably higher.

Both Velda and I are very disappointed we won't be going to Australia. It has been weighing heavily on my mind.

I have been spending much time writing and tweaking tracks. Sue has been writing some powerful lyrics. I finally worked up enough nerve to tell Ric Driediger about my heart condition. My worry was he would be hesitant to have me at Forest House so soon after my hospitalization. He was very casual about it and didn't mention anything about cancelling the trip. Another hurdle cleared!

Sue Leonard arrived in Saskatoon today. Velda and I picked her up at the airport. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, so the three of us went down to Earl's for supper & sat on the patio, munching and chatting.

First impressions? Sue is a fantastic lady! Great to talk to...... humble...... well-traveled...... kind...... interesting...... and most importantly, has a wonderful sense of humor. I was a little apprehensive about meeting her, but am now looking forward to the trip north to Missinipe tomorrow. Should be a blast!

Sue and I left Saskatoon about 6:30 am on Monday, August 26. We had one LONG drive ahead of us - around 500km. I was amazed..... the time passed very quickly. I soon discovered I wasn't mistaken with my initial assessment of Sue based upon our first meeting the day before. She was a BLAST to travel with!Sue has experienced a myriad of things in her life. She has toured the world twice with kd lang, experienced the glamour of cities like New York, Los Angeles and London, lived on the Queen Charlotte Islands, settled in rural Idaho, and much more. Now, she was in a car with a bald guy, beginning an adventure in Saskatchewan's far north. She was definitely not phased by this at all!

We chatted about all kinds of things as we drove north. Sue talked about her experiences out there in the world, and I related stories about my experiences driving north on this highway literally thousands of times from the 1970's until today. The time flew. Soon, we were pulling off the last 80km of gravel road that Sue affectionately called "The Logging Road" into Missinipe.

We had a couple of hours to kill before our float plane trip to Hutchings Lake, next to the small Lake Forest House overlooks, so I took Sue on a tour of Otter Rapids. I was very impressed, because we had spent over six hours together cooped up in a car and for the most part, we still liked each other!

We arrived at the dock at Osprey Air just in time to begin loading all our gear onto the Turbo Otter that would be our chariot to Forest House. My Chevy Equinox was loaded to the hilt with about 300 lbs. of ”Pelican" waterproof floating cases, ranging from 24" x 30" inside (the majority) to smaller. 

A I was recovering from a heart attack, suffered just 8 weeks earlier, I was THOROUGHLY & ETERNALLY GRATEFUL that Ric Driediger, owner of Churchill River Canoe Outfitters, had provide us with two willing "mules" to load our stuff....... son Dan Driediger and his friend, Nick Bergen. The duo would also accompany us to Forest House.

Soon, we were airborne, cruising over a landscape of seemingly endless lakes and in less than half an hour, we were landing on Hutchings Lake, next door to Forest House. Ric Driediger and his wife, Theresa were standing on the dock, with warm, welcoming smiles to greet us.

The next phase of the operation was to haul all gear over a portage to the lake Forest House sits on. It was then canoed to the lodge by the boys. Sue and I walked in on a moss-covered trail through the quiet forest. Every time I travel to Forest House, the beauty of the lodge and the forest overwhelm me. This time was no exception

It had already been a very long day, but I was extremely excited to see if all recording equipment we hauled in would work on the solar-powered grid. The main lodge at Forest House is large and spacious. Sue and I checked out the acoustics throughout the building and decided to set up in the gorgeous dining area. It is roomy and features high ceilings. I set up all the equipment and tested everything except our Blue Bottle Rocket Stage Two main vocal mic. Everything worked perfectly. Life was great!

Ric, Theresa, Dan, Nick, Sue and myself sat down to our first fantastic dinner at Forest House. Great food and great company!

After supper, even though we were extremely tired, Sue and I decided to do a little recording. I set up the Blue Bottle Rocket and turned on its power supply. It's an old-style tube mic, so the power supply cycles through a red glowing light, meaning the tube is warming up, to green, indicating all is ready. Disaster! Every time the power supply tried to cycle from red to green, it would shut down. This was not a good thing. After several attempts to get the Blue running, I tried my other mics. They both also ran off their own power supplies....... same result! This was definitely not a good thing! The Forest House solar grid just couldn't run these mics! To bring Sue all the way out here...... all the preparation...... all the effort...... only to find out we had no way to record vocals!

God put Ric Driediger on this earth to primarily point people to the wonders Mother Nature has provided us. Fortunately, he also gave Ric the ability to problem solve. As I panicked over this dilemma, Ric calmly watched me while deep in thought. Then he said " We have a generator just up the hill. Let's try plugging the mics directly into it. It's far enough away that we shouldn't hear it. Wanna see if it works?"

My panic turned into joy as the Blue's power supply turned green. Ric had saved the day! We would just have to run the generator while recording vocals.Our first glorious day at Forest House ended with Sue and I laying down some test vocals and turning in, tired, but very content.

I woke up early to a simply magnificent warm and sunny day. Theresa prepared a hearty, delicious breakfast for all of us, a perfect start to our first day of recording.

Unfortunately, Ric and Theresa would be leaving us today. The original plan was for Sue and I to be at Forest House with co-owners Greg and Joanne Zinter, from Edmonton Alberta acting as our hosts. Unforeseen problems had delayed their arrival for a couple of days. Ric and Theresa came in to prepare for us and had to return to Missinipe. Dan and Nick would see to our needs until the arrival of Joanne and Greg.

We had come to Forest House with six tracks for which I wrote and recorded the music in advance.

Over the winter months, when Sue and I began planning for this trip, we realized it would be very difficult to show up at Forest House with nothing prepared and attempt to write together "off the cuff". There were so many logistical variables and possible unforeseen glitches to encounter, that we felt it best to come prepared. Over the winter/spring/early summer, I sent Sue tracks for her approval and input.

Sue and I started off by working on a track called "Goodbye". She had previously penned some deep lyrics for it. As she ran over her vocal ideas for the first time, a little shiver ran down my spine. It was clear - this was going to be a fantastic experience!

We worked away the morning, stopped for lunch and a little rest. I took some time, grabbed my cameras and took a short walk in the forest looking for teeny tiny subjects to shoot with my macro lens. This year (I had been to Forest House twice previously), it had been so dry that I had to search very hard for the exotic wild flowers, fungi, and myriad of mushroom species I had found so easily in past visits.

The rest of the afternoon was spent laying down more vocals and background vocals for "Goodbye". Our chef, Dan Driediger, prepared a delightful Cedar-Planked Lake Trout for us. After supper, we took a little time to relax, and then went back to work, starting to map out a plan for our next track, "Ashes to Ashes", and continuing to tweak "Goodbye".It had been an extremely productive and fruitful day! Sue was simply unreal to work with. We missed Ric and Theresa, but Dan and Nick were excellent stand-ins. Sleep came easily this night.

I am an early riser, usually the first out of bed, and this was no exception on this gorgeous Wednesday morning. As soon as I started stomping around in the main lodge, Dan appeared and began brewing some coffee. Soon, the four of us had gathered around the dining table, having a little breakfast, chatting and laughing.

Sue and I began our musical day by working on "Ashes to Ashes", a semi-funky, riff-based tune with tons of percussion throughout.

Sue had written the lyrics for "Ashes to Ashes" previously to hearing my track - the cool thing was when she heard my track, she decided to try out these lyrics over it. Amazingly, to us, it seemed like a perfect fit.I had to spend a little time modifying the form and flow of the track, which I didn't mind, because when the time came. Sue closed her eyes and belted out amazing vocals. WOW!

The boys prepared a light lunch, after which it was time to begin background vocals for "Ashes to Ashes" and making further modifications to "Goodbye". We were putting in long hours. When we weren't recording, I would be dealing with arranging and re-arranging bed tracks, while Sue was continuously writing and tweaking lyrics.

That evening, Nick Bergen prepared a light curry for us, after which, Sue and I went back to work. Sadly, it was time to say goodbye to Nick that evening. Greg and Joanne Zinter had been on the road all day from Edmonton and would be waiting at McLennan Lake for Dan and Nick to begin the final stage of their journey to meet us at Forest House. Dan would be returning with them, but Nick would be returning to Missinipe. Nick is a really cool, driven, hard-working, humorous, and intelligent young man. Both Sue and I appreciated being given the opportunity to spend some time with him.

The boys set out to make the five-portage trip to McLennan Lake in the early evening. The sun had already begun to set as they walked off down the trail. Sue and I just kept layering more and more vocal harmonies over the main melody of "Ashes to Ashes". Time flew by and soon it was almost 10:30 pm. I stepped out onto the deck to see glimpses of small lights flickering through the forest. Soon, Dan Driediger, Greg and Joanne Zinter, and surprise guest Harrison Davey came trudging up the path to the lodge.

It had been a long day for us and an even longer day for them...... the perfect time to enjoy a nightcap and preview what we had accomplished with our music that day.Time for bed, and to dream about tomorrow would bring.

This now our fourth day at Forest House. We awoke to yet another set of new faces gathered in the lodge. Our new hosts, Greg and Joanne Zinter had arrived very late the day before, bringing with them our old pal, Dan Driediger, and another new face (for us), his friend, Harrison Davey. There is always that tiny bit of uncertainty and "clumsy" conversation when getting to know new people. In our case, it lasted for mere seconds. Soon, we were enjoying an awesome breakfast prepared by Greg and Joanne.

Today, I had a massive job ahead of me - to change the tempo of "Naomi's Wave", our song dedicated to the Naomi Heffler's energy, love of nature and fervor for life by sixteen beats per minute. This song contains at last count, close to 50 tracks, each having to be altered individually. To further complicate matters, my lap top was utilizing so many resources, that I couldn't automate the process. I plugged away at this for a good six hours, foregoing any hiking and photography possibilities for the day.

Harrison and Dan would be leaving to go back to Missinipe later in the day, leaving Greg, Joanne, Sue and I.

We started working on Naomi's Wave late that afternoon. In this song, we were trying to capture what we felt is the essence of Naomi - her sense of oneness with Mother Nature.... her love of surfing that wave at Corner Rapids...... her joy at being in the wilderness. We had already modified the main bed track to make the song "float" a little more. After much discussion and experimentation, Sue and I agreed the vocals weren't working the way we wanted. Sue began to completely re-write all the lyrics.

That evening, after supper, we took a break from our efforts on Naomi's Wave and recorded some vocal "scratch" tracks for "This Night", a quiet, relaxed piece featuring voice and piano. Then, it was bedtime.

Day Six - already! After finishing off last night with some great singing from Sue, and getting some long, deep sleep, we awoke to another beautiful day. Both Sue and I were much more relaxed and centered. The entire entourage had yet another gourmet breakfast (we most certainly were getting spoiled!). Danny and Kathy were preparing to return to Missinipe this morning, but not before I followed them around, snapping "candid" shots of the lovebirds on the deck, by the garden, in the workshop, in the funkiest outdoor bippy in the world, and licking insects. The experience raised our spirits even more.

After saying goodbye to Danny and Kathy, Sue and I hit the "studio". Productivity was rampant! Sue laid down several tracks for "Naomi's Wave", including layers of background vocals, we re-visited "Goodbye" and "This Night", and soon it was getting to be supper time. We were tired and slightly burned out, but it was a very good tired!

As Greg and Joanne prepared supper, Sue and I began writing lyrics for another song idea, "Livin' Without FaceBook". The idea was to add the vocals starting tonight, finishing tomorrow, our last day here. It was soon evident the creativity switch had been turned off. We had traveled several hundred miles and spent ten to twelve hours a day recording six days straight. We were very satisfied with the four songs we had finished. We concurred there was no point attempting to force the issue in the interest of quantity. The decision was made to relax that night use our seventh day to explore the trails around Forest House, relax and begin packing up the equipment.

Our seventh day started, as usual, with a great breakfast with Joanne and Greg. I was awake very early and by the time everyone sauntered into the lodge, I had already broken down and packed up a large portion of the recording equipment.Shortly after we finished eating, Sue and I decided to take a hike around the lake. Our first stop, however, was the "Coolest Outdoor Bippy in the World", just up the hill, to take some shots of each other in candid poses on the can.

Because we were so busy recording, I had missed a couple of days of hiking. A day or two earlier, it had rained gently, for a little while. That tiny bit of moisture had regenerated the forest floor and we didn't have to travel far before we discovered new mushroom and fungi growth nestled within the soft moss. Sue would scout ahead and identify potential subjects, while I crawled on my belly behind her snapping away.

The morning soon passed and we returned to the lodge for lunch. It was a lazy kind of afternoon. I packed up more equipment, Greg puttered around the grounds taking care of some chores, Joanne read on the deck, and Sue disappeared for a teeny nap. Later that afternoon, I took one last opportunity to walk and take pictures on the trails around Forest House.

The evening was calm, the lake like glass, and the temperature warm and balmy. The Zinters suggested we dine at the picnic table on the shoreline next to the lake, a great way to enjoy our last supper at Forest House - a great meal, with new friends in a beautiful location. The evening was calm and clear, with a blanket of starts so close, you could almost reach up and touch them. The four of us sat outside, down by the lake, taking in the spectacular show Mother Nature had arranged for us.

When we returned to Saskatoon, I truly believed the difficult part was over. All the planning, the writing, the packing, the travelling, the worry, and the doubts were all behind us. We had returned to civilization with four tracks ready to be mixed. The end was near…… well, not really!

It took four years to finish these songs and complete the project. Why? Unfortunately, life got in our way. Many things happened to both Sue and I. Roadblocks like health issues, losing family members and close friends, commitments, fires, Windows 10, and many more things hampered completion. No excuses…... just life.