One really cool visitor

In mid July, while eating brunch one fine Saturday morning a surprising visitor came into the harbour...

It doesn't look that impressive from here, but the boat that came around St. Patricks Island is called the Kiyi, it is a USGS (United States Geological Service) research vessel that travels on Lake Superior taking part in a variety of research projects, mostly on the American shore.

The ship came within about 50 feet from our swimming rock, and blew a loud horn as the kids waved.  It spent about an hour in the bay, making a few circular passes before heading out towards the Slate Islands.

This is a relatively new ship, built in 1999 costing over three million dollars.  It sleeps nine, and is approximately 107 feet long; one of the larger non-freight vessels on Superior.  More information about the Kiyi can be found at http://www.nap.usace.army.mil/mdc/fs12.htm

I discovered later that this American boat has a reserach contract through the Lake Superior Binational Forum to travel to all remedial action plan sites on Lake Superior every two years.  There is an "area in recovery" site at the far northwestern end of Jackfish Bay, that was delisted from an "area of concern" in 2011.

Photo:  US army corp of engineers

As well, another research vessel, the Everett H, passed through Jackfish the day before, travelling along the west coast of the bay.  The Everett H is owned and operated by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.  It is commonly docked out of Keefer Terminal in Thunder Bay.  I'm assuming both vessels were taking creel samples of Lake Trout.

Photo: Great Lakes Association of Science Ships

For more information about the Everett H, you can go to:  http://www.canamglass.org/online/shipdetails.php?intShipId=102

Fun with friends

Hi all, perhaps the most important thing about the cabin is having the opportunity to share with friends. We've had a great time this summer with everyone who has come to enjoy the place.

Some came to help with the work, others with the play...

Painting the board and battons

On the steps of the old school

Lots of time around the kitchen table

(I really need to write a new blog about this.)

Grandmas.

Thanks to everyone who came out and made the summer a memorable one!

Pictures from this summer

Well, it seems like summer has moved along past that halfway point...  We spent the majority of July at the cabin and had the opportunity to share it with many great friends.  Thanks to everyone we now exist pretty comfortably in the cabin.

It has full insulation, heating, walls and even doors!  Surprisingly I somehow even got most of the trim installed, except the back windows.  Much of the outside has been finished, a much larger job than expected, that still went relatively smoothly.  The outside just now needs its second coat of paint/stain.

Heres the before, during and after...

finally... We're back!

Okay after almost an entire year we are finally getting around to posting on the blog again.  Apologies to all of you who were hoping we would do a better job updating the blog.  Well for those of you who were curious today is your lucky day.

Well as you can see we have a little bit of a kitchen now, complete with Mexican blanket counter tops.  We also have running water (blue jug on right), green stove on the left, and a kitchen sink under the window).

Darrell spent many an hour cutting and placing 1 x6 pine on all of our walls.  They look fabulous if he doesn't say so himself.

 Samantha's room was the first to receive a door.  Fancy double mirrored doors were donated to us by Erin and Will and had been stored in our basement (for many dance performances) up until now.  The great thing about these is that you can sit at the kitchen table and look out at the lake even with your back to the windows.  Samantha looks forward to using it to cheat at cards.

Well after 3 lovely July weekends spent with friends (more about those later) we have fantastic new board and batton and now lovely cedar shakes.  Things are starting to look gorgeous around there.  Too bad Kim took the weekend off or we might have had painted trim too.  There is always next time, lots of work to be done and as my mom says the work isn't going anywhere - it will wait.
Stay tuned for updates now that we are back in business.

Blueberry Adventures

 Well if your cabin burns down there has to be an upside - the blueberries this summer were definitely the benefit.  When I wasn't holding a ladder I would sneak up the hill to pick blueberries.  What a lovely treat...

I picked blueberries by the handful starting in mid August and into mid-September - yummy!

Bringing in the Warmth

 Well last weekend Darrell, Jeff, Mike, Simon and Opie began the process of making the cabin warmer.  They carried in tonnes of insulation and beautiful pine for the ceiling.  Hats off to Mike for sitting in the rafters for 8 hours while installing insulation.  These past few days Darrell headed out on his own to put insulation in the walls, and to install the new propane stove.

 Big winds this weekend but that didn't bother Darrell who slept for 11 hours on Saturday night.  See below another great shot of the stove just outside my bedroom door (okay you still have to imagine that the door is there).  Soon come...

... about those windows...

As mentioned before, the front windows of the cabin are 3 feet wide and 5 1/2 feet tall.  There are seven of them and they were actually built for the Thunder Bay City Hall about two years ago.  But due to someones unfortunate sizing, we hit a windfall and now have these beautiful thermal tinted windows to gaze out at St. Patricks Island with. 

Having those windows there made me itch to put them in...  so I got the go ahead to head out to Jackfish on Wednesday July 20 to start the process.  It was late when I got in so I started the next morning.  I was just finishing the first window when Wes and Opie showed up.  They brought with them a change in weather unfortunately, but we still got a big chunk of work done.  The rain started at about 3:30pm.  We thought it would come and go quickly but boy were we wrong.  It poured torrentially for the next eight hours.  We did have the roof on, but no top cap (Problem #1).  This meant there was a line of steady rain right down the middle of the cabin.  Problem #2:  all of the open windows meant lots of water coming in everywhere.  The need to stay warm kept us working though, and we actually put in all of the front windows. 

The boys kept warm in other ways too...

We decided around 9pm, that if the 4x4 trail wasn't washed out we would head into Schreiber for breakfast the next morning.  We did make it for breakfast the next day, then headed back and really got to work...

First the metal top cap on the roof of the cabin.  Wish it was done earlier, but now we have some rain protection.

Then we got it all together and put in the rest of the windows in about two hours.  The sun began to shine in beautifully and Opie remarked that its always beautiful on the day they have to leave Jackfish.  I stayed for one more day trying to put the sheeting on the gable end, almost complete.  By the end it really did look like a cabin; windows, doors, roof, and walls.  Finally shut in.