Brrrrrrr! New Years

Well, as Bill said, I got to the cabin just fine on Monday....to no power. Not a big deal at the cabin, except the fire went out in the middle of the night. Brrrrr, down to 39.

When I got there, I got the fire started in the wood burner. Headed into Houghton Lake to get some lamp oil. Headed back to our place, where I stopped at Elbow Lake Bar, knowing they wouldn't have any power either. But, they have old propane lights and are able to cook with a generator. I had my choice of either a hamburger or chili. I opted for chili. The owner asked if we were going to be there for the New Year, I said yes. He said, bring a dish, we are having a party. He would be supplying the ham. So, I headed back to the cabin to come up with a couple of menu items...hoping that I would have power so that I can cook using the electric range, instead of the grill, which has about 12" of snow on it.

The power came on at approx. 1:30pm on Tuesday afternoon. I opened the fridge for the first time. We lost everything. Shucks. I had planned on making 'Bluegill cakes' for the New Year's party. We had a lot of bluegill in the freezer, that and melted ice cream make for a gagging good time cleaning out the fridge.

I ended up making Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts, a cold Crab Dip and Jalapeno Popper Dip for the party at Elbow Lake Bar. The party was a great time! Lots of great food and nice folks, we were stuffed.

I have to wait for Bill to come home to show pics from this week. He will be home on Sunday with our nephew Jimmy, they have been ice fishing. They have been using MY secret fishing spot! Hmmmmm, I'll have to get them back. In the mean time, here are some other pics.

Cabin mantle lit up with oil lamps.

Cleo, she's exhausted after opening gifts for Christmas.

This is what Bill made for me. It's a memory box for Brittany, my Standard Poodle, she passed away a couple of years ago. It has a couple of pics of her, her last collar, and her paw print. Bill usually makes me something for Christmas and my birthday. I'll share pics of those in future blogs.

Of course, I can't leave Bill out. This is him with a Journey CD that he wanted for Christmas.

This is an older picture. These are 2 of our nephews ice fishing at our place in one of Bill's shanty's. He has a couple of them. Jimmy is in the front, and Sean is in the back. Jimmy lives close by and comes up north quite a bit. Sean lives in Texas and doesn't get to come up as much. Sean LOVES fishing as much as his Uncle Bill.

A quick peek inside

I'm heading up north early tomorrow morning, but I thought I'd share a quick photo of our stone fireplace just after we bought the cabin. The fireplace is SOLID rock, which were split to give you the illusion of identical sides. Most of the stone is granite, some marble and other various fieldstone. The part that you cannot see is the actual arch in the fireplace that I'll show at a later date with pic's that we have after temporarily pulling the insert out to clean and maintain it. The opening in the fireplace itself, is approximately 3-4 ft. deep and about 3 ft. high at the middle of the arch. It has the original custom cast iron floor. This is one HUGE fireplace. The insert is an 'Earth Stove' Heat-O-Lator (sp?). This is our main source of heat in the winter. The 'mantle' portion, if you'd like to call it that, is solid concrete - painted black. It is approximately 3ft. deep. The deer head came with the cabin :) We call him 'Bob'. You can tell by his mount that he was custom sized to fit in this space. I'm not sure how old the curtains were, but they shredded when I tried to wash them, very dry-rotted. My Mom made us new curtains that you will see in future photographs. Every window in the cabin are original 1948, except for the 2 front windows. The windows that you see on either side of the fireplace are original. They are single pane 8 lights made of cedar...yes, I said cedar window's, probably why they have lasted 60 years. They are in need of replacement, but that will happen over time. Anyway, anyone know how to clean the grout between the stones on the fireplace? I'd really like to know!