Comments (0)

By Sadie, June 29, 2010 9:31 pm

The kayaks are here! The kayaks are here! I picked them up from the freight shipper today. Here they are still in their shipping blankets. I’m so excited.

Comments (0)

By Sadie, June 28, 2010 9:11 am

When we were down in South Carolina to visit Victoria and her husband, we got to play a game that we had never seen before. This new game quickly became a favorite activity. It’s called Ladder Golf and many other random names. To play the game, all you need is some PVC pipe made in to the shape of a ladder and some golf balls that are attached together with rope. It’s hard to describe, so it’s a lot easier if I just show you this video that I found online.

I have a feeling that we will be making one for the island. It seems like a fun activity to do while having a bonfire on the beach. Interested in making your own? Here are a couple of tutorials. An all PVC one that looks like the one Victoria has down south. Here’s a more heavy duty looking wood and PVC one courtesy of Cottage Life.

Comments (0)

By Sadie, June 27, 2010 8:44 am

Another one of our projects that may become a reality this summer is the outdoor shower. Normally we just bathe in the bay, but there are some people that aren’t a fan of that. Even for the bathing in the bay fans, it’s not the easiest to do when it’s raining because the rocks are too slippery. It’s also tough to do when the water is really rough out because all of your toiletries float away. This is why having an outdoor shower would be fabulous. We still have to figure out how we will get the lake water from the lake to the shower with pressure and how to possibly heat the water, but we are thinking about a few options. So far in our planning, a few websites have become helpful. I’ll share them below, just in case you are thinking about building an outdoor shower too.

Some pics and ideas can be found on the Cottage Life site.

Pics from the CL message board that initially gave me the idea.

And a homemade solar water heater might be a good idea too.

Comments (0)

By Sadie, June 26, 2010 12:11 pm

We’ve been planning our summer projects for quite some time now. It’s great to think that some of these will be happening in the next couple of weeks. First it’s the solar power and after that will be the Adirondack chairs / Muskoka chairs built out of old water skis. We have been thinking about this one for quite some time. I think that we will be able to modify this plan to use our old skis for the back of the chair.

As much as I love the standard ones that they sell in town (as shown below), it would be a lot cooler to have ones that we made ourselves – especially ones that recycle old island stuff.

Comments (0)

By Sadie, June 25, 2010 7:43 am

I’ve been busy picking our mulberries these past few weeks. Even with a tall ladder, there’s no way that I can get them all though. There’s just too many berries and so many of them are high up. Our ground is stained because of them and it seems like my hands are perpetually stained from picking them all too. We keep filling containers of them and freezing them. The plan is to use them in making some white chocolate ganaches this winter.

Here are the ones that I managed to pick this afternoon. It’s about another three cups worth.

Comments (0)

By Sadie, June 24, 2010 8:41 am

One final picture post from the Stan Hywet Father’s Day Car Show and then we will resume to your regularly scheduled IslandGirlTalk program. Like I said before, they tend to have around 400 cars at the show each year. There really is something for everyone at this show.

Here is a shot of the show field:

This year’s feature was Lincolns. This aluminum bodied beauty was in the show’s gold circle. You can see part of the manor house in the background:

Another great Lincoln at the show:

Someone even brought this awesome vintage boat!:

Comments (0)

By Sadie, June 23, 2010 8:54 am

Even though we were out late at the drive-in the night before, a few of us woke up early to wash the gravel dust off of our cars and go to the annual Stan Hywet Father’s Day Car Show. The Stan Hywet show is a very prestigious show with amazing cars coming from hours away to be there. I’m not sure how many cars were there this year, but it’s usually in the 400 range.

Here’s a local member’s 1954 Packard Henney Junior ambulance on display:

My green ’66 Cadillac Miller-Meteor hearse/ambulance, with my friend’s ’67 Cadillac Miller-Meteor hearse and the ’67 International Travelall that was parked next to us:

My green hearse/ambulance next to my friend’s hearse:

Comments (0)

By Sadie, June 22, 2010 1:53 pm

As I mentioned in Saturday’s post, I was back in Ohio this past weekend for a couple of car shows. They went really well. It was good to show my car and I had fun with the rest of the people from our car club that were able to make it. On Saturday, we had a local meet for our classic hearse an ambulance club. We had 12 of our cars on display. Here’s a couple of pics of us at the drive-in movies that night. Thanks to Tony for the pics. I got sidetracked talking to people and realized once it got dark that I barely took any pictures. Oops.

My friend’s 1959 Superior Cadillac hearse at the movies:

And here I am with a member’s 1973 Suburban ambulance.

Comments (0)

By Sadie, June 21, 2010 8:01 am

This is the start of a new age in cottaging here at Action Island. We just purchased a very small solar system for the cottage. It’s nothing fancy; I promise. It doesn’t mean that we’re doing anything crazy like getting a TV or really off the wall electronics stuff and we definitely aren’t getting rid of our propane. We will still need that to run our fridge, stove and three lights. With the new system, we will be able to charge our cell phone so we can use it in case of an emergency and it will charge my laptop too. This is a very good thing because right now I have to go to mainland every few days to charge my laptop and phone by using the inverter in my car or charging them at the library. More trips to town to charge things means less island time, so solar is definitely going to be a good thing. I hope that it arrives in the mail soon.

Comments (0)

By Sadie, June 20, 2010 10:12 am

For a while now we’ve been making our own granola. Our personal recipe has evolved from reading and trying out recipes that we’ve found online and in cookbooks. We’ve modified things as we’ve gone along and we finally have granola making down to a science. We make it in huge batches to last us a for a while. It’s great for snacking, cereal, and whatever.

Our latest version of this is:
2 cups of oats (not instant)
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup raw slivered almonds
4-5 tbs vegetable oil
7 tbs honey (the more honey, the more the granola will be chunky, so just put however much you want)
1 cup dried cranberries

Mix all of the ingredients together, except for the cranberries. Put the mixture onto a cookie sheet that’s covered in parchment paper. Put it in an oven at 325 degrees for 20 minutes or so. The longer you keep it in the oven, the more crunchy it will get, so it’s just your preference. Just experiment with it. After you pull the granola from the oven, let it cool for a bit and then mix it with your cranberries. You could try using other dried fruit like raisins, dried blueberries or cherries, etc, but the cranberries are so good that we’ve just stuck to that. I’m thinking of modifying the recipe to try it with dried blueberries and vanilla once our blueberry crop arrives.