Family Thanksgiving at the Lake

Jordon finally posted some of our Thanksgiving photos from the lake to Flickr.  Despite being the middle of October, it was cold out.  When we got to the cabin, inside was at freezing and with four heaters, it took around 5 hours to warm up to 20 degrees Celsius.  Once night came the heat dropped down to about 18 degrees but that was find with us.   We have a radiant heater that we direct towards Mark and Oliver at night and sleep as comfortable as they do at home.  Jordon and I hunker down under a big pile of blankets and rely on the dogs for some extra heat as well.

Jordon and Mark went for a long walk along the beach and throughout Arlington Beach.  Mark was walking along the beach and fell into the lake.  We aren’t sure how that happened and even Mark was laughing at the idea that he fell into the lake.  He got his feet wet but that was about it.  Oliver and I stayed inside.  It was too cold and I didn’t want him to get sick.

On Sunday, we drove to Regina and ran some errands.  I am the world’s worst packer and had to run to Dollarama to get some stuff. The good news is that they had yoga pants for $2 and I found a pair there that fit me as I forgot to pack enough pants for me.  As you can see the from the video, we ran into a train on a very, very quiet prairie highway on the way back to the cabin.

Later that Sunday, we headed over to Kinney Memorial Lodge for a wonderful Thanksgiving feast with about 200 of our closest friends.  The meal cost us $16 per person but it was worth it as it was a great evening.  There was turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, yams, turnip puff, and a lot of salads and desserts. 

We sadly closed up the cabin that weekend for the winter and headed back to Saskatoon.  We hope to be back in early April.  Hopefully the weather agrees with us.

The World’s Best Pancake Recipe?

Jason Kottke has said that his wife has found the world’s best flapjacks recipe.

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, whisk, set aside:

• 2 cups flour
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp fine salt

Combine the wet ingredients in a second bowl, whisk:

• 2 cups buttermilk
• 4 tbsp melted butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 beaten eggs

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and whisk until just combined. Fry in a pan with butter. Top with maple syrup and devour.

He has some more comments about the recipe on his blog but I thought I would post them here so I remember the recipe for when we are up at the lake.

Bland No More

Michael Penny of House and Home redoes a bland apartment on a very tight budget.

Here are some of his ideas

1. Use psychedelic yet gorgeous vintage wallpaper to cover a sheet of plywood from The Home Depot and lean it against the wall. Most apartments won't let you wallpaper the walls, so this way you get the impact — and it’s portable! I created a pair of panels facing each other in the dining room and behind the writing desk in the living room.

11. Layer up your $120 Craigslist.org dining set with $1.50/yard burlap and an H&M pashmina.

Black Rock Powder Co. Crate from Cabelas

Take a look at these dynamite shaped fire starters from Cabelas.

Invented in 1866 by Alfred Nobel, dynamite's cylindrical shape perfectly fit down the drilling holes used in mining operations. When the charges were set, the now-famous phrase "fire in the hole" was cried to warn miners of the coming blast. Though the contents of this sturdy wood crate will not move mountains, they will start your fireplace. One look at the realistic "dynamite" crate will have family and friends looking twice. Each cedar wood crate contains 20, 8"L x 1-1/4"W, fire-starter sticks. They are made of paraffin and sawdust for a long, hot burn. Each stick will burn approximately 30 minutes setting ablaze even the most stubborn wood.

Tabletop Radio for the Lake

 
The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a big part of summer at the cabin and all over Saskatchewan.  We were at Arlington Beach several times this summer and missed out on the action because we don’t have a television at the lake and we realized that we don’t even have a radio as we generally just bring up a iPod along.

After missing out on several games, Jordon decided he wanted a radio up there to listen in on the action.  He wanted a tabletop radio like the one above but he wasn’t willing to shell out almost $100 for a simple AM/FM radio.  What ate away at him was Office Depot sold some for about $20 a couple of years ago and he never got one. 

In the end we paid $25 for a small boom box that we can plug our iPod docking station into.  It allows us to play some CDs, listen to our iPods, and of course catch some Saskatchewan Roughriders game on the radio.  We took it out on Thanksgiving weekend and it worked well.  It’s not as cool looking as a retro tabletop radio or have the sound quality of the Bose Wave but that’s okay since the price was a whole lot cheaper.

We thought our search was over but yesterday Jordon was at Wal-Mart when he saw a ONN Tabletop Radio for $22 that looks like the above Sangean but also includes an input for our iPods.  He didn’t think twice before purchasing it and the summer of 2010 will have music, mindless football commentary, and some interesting stories on CBC Radio.  I can’t wait.

Technorati Tags: Memorex,Sangean,audio,ONN,tabletop radio

Green Line Architects Tree House

 
 
 

What a great series of images dug up by Kent at the Tiny House Blog.  I had a great tree house as a kid but it pales compared to this.  I think this thing has more square feet than our house.

Lake Union, Seattle Floating Home

This is a spectacular floating home in Lake Union, Seattle and is by Vandeventer + Carlander Architects.  The home has a private space downstairs and a float level has storefront windows. The private space is located on float level while public areas have taken the second one. The entry, guest rooms, master’s bath and bedroom are located one the float level. There is also a private terrace accessible only from the master bedroom.  More photos can be found here.  via

The Shake Shack Burger Recipe

Serious Eats has re-created the famous New York City Shake Shack Burger recipe

There's nothing special about the burger—regular squishy bun, a 1/4-pound patty of griddled meat, lettuce, tomato, and sauce—but like all good burger experiences, the sandwich is far more than a sum of its parts. To recreate the experience at home, I had to eat it, dissect it, deconstruct it, research it, eat it some more, rebuild it, break it down again, reconfigure it, taste it, eat it one more time, and finally reconstruct it again. Here are the results of my labor, from the ground up.

I am so trying this up at the cabin this summer.

New coffee grinder

We picked up coffee grinder for the cabin last week.  I am not sure what the difference between a $30 coffee grinder and a $8 coffee grinder so we went with the $8 grinder.  It isn’t going to get a lot of use and our other grinder has lasted a decade now and works as good as new.

The big advantage is that we can enjoy and serve fresh ground Starbucks coffee beans now.  Even as a non coffee fan, there is something nice about some fresh ground coffee, a coffee press, and a good book on a cool fall day.  While I can’t promise perfect weather, I can put together a good cup of coffee anytime I want (even if I don’t like to drink it).

I know as Canadians we should be drinking Tim Horton’s coffee but their coffee doesn’t generate anywhere the same amount of passion as Starbucks does around here.