McGrowl

Maggi is now on Twitter.  I guess that would be @mcgrowl.  The best part is that Barack Obama is following my dog’s Twitter account.

Mark Learning to Skimboard

While we were out at Arlington Beach last weekend, Mark went skimboarding, managed to hurt himself, bled for a bit, overcame adversity, and fell of his skimboard some more.

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Pier 1 Imports

A couple of weeks ago I bought a plate set for the cottage from XS Cargo.  We got up there and a plate was cracked.  I had tossed the packaging but at $13, it was cheap enough to get another set.  Sadly they were out but since the set was overstock from Pier 1 Imports, we went over there with the hope they sold single plates.  Luckily they had the plate in stock but only in full sets.  When I asked if they sold single plates, the very helpful store clerk when to the back and brought me out a single plate compliments of the store.  She said that it was from a set that was broken in shipping and they kept them for this purpose.  Until that moment, Pier One wasn’t really on my shopping radar but since then, it is becoming a favorite store of mine.  At a time in Saskatoon where the idea of customer service in a retail store is the exception rather than the rule, it may be the best bit of marketing that store has ever done.

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Bungalow in a Box

This is kind of cool, here is bungalow in a box.  In case you wanted a bungalow for yourself, you can check out their website.

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Lightbox Cabin

I know I have been blogging a lot about cabin’s lately but this is kind of cool.  Well actually since it is metal and in Texas it is probably not cool but boiling hot but you get the idea.

A couple of years ago friends of ours built a retreat just outside of the town they lived in.  It was on some old family farm land and made a great retreat.  In the end I think what makes a great retreat is not always where it is but where it isn’t (close to work and the stresses of daily life).

Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan

The Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan tent is up and it is almost time for the new season to start.  I haven’t decided which show we are going to yet but it will be one of them.

Technorati Tags: Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan,The Tempest,Henry IV

Michael Pollan’s Writing Cabin

Author Michael Pollan has an amazing little writers cabin that he built himself.

Near miss

I forgot to mention that while at Arlington, I almost got sprayed by a skunk.  I was going to toss a small bag of garbage into the dump when Jordon said, “Toss it from a distance as I guarantee there is a skunk in there.”  I ignored him and tossed the garbage bag into the dump when sure enough, a skunk came running out.  I ran as fast as I could to the car, screaming all the way.  By the time I got to the car, Mark was hollering and Jordon was contemplating leaving me behind.  Luckily I didn’t get sprayed or it would have been a long summer by myself at the cabin.

Apartment made from shipping containers

Uncle Sam is making military housing out of shipping containers.

Weekend at the cabin

We weren’t supposed to take possession of the cabin until June 15th because the camp was renting it out.  I had called out to the camp on Friday and was told that the rental had fallen through and we could come up whenever.  I mentioned that to Jordon and he said, “How about tonight?”.  So we packed up the car with Maggi in tow and went to the lake.  Jordon asked Mark for directions and instead of telling him to turn on to Highway 16, Mark said go straight to Regina.  I was a little freaked out when Jordon followed Mark’s directions but I found out that you can go east at Kenaston and still get to Nokomis.  Despite the bad highway from Kenaston to Nokomis, it is a nice scenic drive.

I had asked Lee if he wanted to come along but he had to work and that was a good thing as the cabin was full of spiders when we got there.  Lee HATES spiders.  After spraying RAID around the place, we unpacked and settled in.  It was so quiet that night, it was amazing.  Of course at 4:00 a.m. every bird around started to make noise.  The loons were particularly noisy.  I was half expecting Jordon to get up and yell out, “WOULD YOU ALL SHUT UP!” but it never happened.  Of course the reason we were awake is that there is only a three quarter bed in there.  It was fine unless Jordon or I exhaled at the same time.  A cozy situation was made worse when Maggi made her move and tried to get into the bed.  The other issue is that Jordon kept thinking he had spiders crawling on him all night.

In the morning Jordon went out for a long walk with Maggi who came back soaking wet.  We had breakfast and then Jordon and I went to the lodge to pay some fees and formalize the sale.  We walked back to the cabin knowing it was ours which was a fun feeling to have.

Later that day while I relaxed and puttered around, Jordon, Mark, and Maggi explored the camp together.  Maggi learned that she would rather go under a bridge then over it.

After the three bold explorers had checked out the horse stables, the other beach, a trampoline, played some basketball, and gone swimming… I drove down to the beach area with Mark’s skimboard where Mark tried to learn to ride the waves.  Maggi fetched non-stop the whole time we were out there and as part lab, used every opportunity she had to get wet.

After heading back to the cabin, Jordon asked for his medication for his diabetes.  Ummm, I kind of forgot that and my medication.  Jordon’s hands and feet were already burning from the neuropathy which was made worse by him walking through the sand.  After talking it over, I also needed my medication for my blood pressure/pre-eclampsia and we decided to drive home instead of staying for the second night.

During our time there we made a game plan on what we were going to do with the cabin.

• The first thing to do is paint the exterior addition.  It needs to be scraped down and painted and we will keep it white.  The trim around the windows and doors is white now but we are thinking of painting it taupe/brown that we look at and like on the house across the street from us.  The door and the screen door will be a firehouse red that we use for our front door.  While we are at it, we want to hang a nice exterior light fixture on the outside of the cabin and a flag pole.  I imagine we will fly a Canadian flag there but Jordon mentioned it would be fun to have a Guyanese flag as well.
• After we do the exterior this year, the plan is to do some interior painting starting with the larger bedroom.  The bedroom hasn’t been painted but the rest of the interior is in pretty good shape as far as paint goes.  The plan is to introduce a little bit of color on one wall per room but keep most of it white.
• We were talking about this wall and the low ceiling when Jordon came up with the idea of talking out the low ceiling.  After banging around, we realized it there was no insulation there.  With the steep roof line, we are thinking it may be a perfect place for a loft.  It would be something like this.

Of course there is some other things that need to be done like redoing the front step and fixing some of the supports the cottage is resting on but we do have a bigger vision of what the cabin will look like in the future which is a lot of fun.  Jordon did manage to take some photos while we were up there, you can find them here on Flickr.