[ reader tiPs ] Clean Sweep erase thermos stains
Denture cleanser tablets, which have a bleach- ing compound, help to get rid of tough coffee stains in your camping Thermos. After a canoe trip, fill your Thermos with warm water, add a few denture tablets and wait 10 minutes until the fizzing stops. Then, pour out the solution, scrub with a bottlebrush and rinse well with warm water. Repeat if necessary.
JULIE WILLIAMS FREDERICTON, NEW BRUNSWICK
spruce up Your Knife
When grime and dirt build up in your Swiss Army knife, it’s time to give it a thorough clean- ing. Unfold all the blades and let it soak for five minutes in a mild acidic solution of hot, but not boiling, water and vinegar. Scrub with a tooth- brush and cotton swabs to remove dirt from hard-to-reach places. Dry with a towel. Oil the hinges of the knife with WD-40.
RALPH MILLER VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA
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The Life and Times of
Mufferaw Joe T
he French Canadian man made famous by a Stompin’ Tom Connors song was a real-life
voyageur, logger, strongman and figure of leg- end, said to have paddled the 300 kilometres from Ottawa to Mattawa in a day. Stompin’ Tom’s Mufferaw Joe was likely Jo-
seph Montferrand, a strapping, fair-haired, blue-eyed, six-foot-four Quebecer who was born in Montreal in 1802. He was the Canadian Paul Bunyan—un bucheron formidable who could swing his fists as well as he swung an axe and wasn’t afraid to fight to defend French Ca- nadian rights in the days before Confederation. Shortly after Montferrand’s death in 1864, a
young Sir Wilfred Laurier wrote the man’s biog- raphy. While he may never have had a pet frog that was bigger than a horse, as Stompin’ Tom suggests, and it’s questionable that the sweat from Mufferaw’s brow created Mississippi Lake, it is clear that the giant was a prominent canoeist. At age 21, Montferrand signed up to be a Hudson Bay Company voyageur, where he
worked for four years. Around this time, an am- orous Montferrand was said to have portaged from Gatineau, Quebec, to Kemptville, Ontario, to visit a lady friend—his well-worn path be- came the Rideau Canal. Today, he’s immortalized by a wooden like-
ness in Mattawa, Ontario, where voyageur songs still echo in the hills. —Conor Mihell
www.canoerootsmag.com 9
Heave hi, heave hi ho. The best man in Ottawa was Mufferaw Joe.
PHOTO: STEPHANIE PARK
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