The 10th was a writing day for me. Susan got bit by the cooking bug (I really like it when that happens!) and made bread and pizza (among other things).
On the 11th we paddled our kayaks to the marina at Echo Bay.
Susan used the pocket cooker to make breakfast this morning. We had oatmeal with apples in it. The apples are some we dried at home and brought with us on the trip. We use non-dairy coffee creamer instead of milk. We like a mixture of Hazelnut and French Vanilla creamer (powdered), a little cinnamon and some brown sugar mixed in with the oatmeal. The dried apples were an extra treat although I also like strawberries, peaches and raisons in mine as well. The nice thing is that you can mix all the ingredients dry for backpacking then just add boiling water. I've used vacuum sealed bags when camping then just added boiling water to the bag. Then I just "drink" it out of the bag and there are no dishes to wash. (I all it astronaut food.) That works best with quick oats but will also work with the old-fashioned kind. The only difference is that the quick oatmeal is pressed thinner so it will cook faster. It's the same stuff you buy in the little packets at the store except you can make it whatever size you want and it's also a lot cheaper. Don't forget that if you're going to add hot water to the bag the bag will have to be large enough to hold the oatmeal/water mix.
This is about all the fuel it takes in the pocket cooker to boil enough water for two servings of oatmeal.
After she was finished with the oatmeal she heated up the water in the tea kettle with the leftover "fire."
It was good.
After breakfast she took some of the dirty dishes down to the lake to wash them. The dog and cat came along to provide security. The cat was pretty brave near the water and seemed fascinated with the debris (driftwood pieces) floating near the shore.
The dog went hunting (and catching) driftwood.
She could actually be quite helpful getting firewood if she didn't take three times as many out of the woodpile as she puts in.
Susan made bread and pizza dough today. The pans must be small to fit int he Coleman oven so she makes two small pizzas instead of one larger one.
The bread baking...
And finished! It's too bad you can't capture the smell of freshly baked bread on the website!
This is the last jay of pizza sausage from our pigs we butchered a coupld of years ago. We still have some breakfast sausage left though. We grind our own meat and add the different spices to get it the way we like.
Home-made sausage pizza. We couildn't find the mozzarella cheese so Susan used a different kind we had on hand. It tasted good though. I love the bread dough she uses for the crust on these.
We were going to bury the dutch oven with beans and dumplings tomorrow so Susan began soaking the dried beans before we went to bed. (There are some dried onions in there also.)
The wind was calm so we I made a fire and we relaxed and had smores for an evening snack.
This is another piece of driftwood we burned. We dubbed it "dragon" wood.
We thought we'd have French Toast this morning using the home made bread and some of our dried eggs. We've been having problems rehydrating the dried eggs so Susan is crushing then into finer pieces.
The bowl on the right is "before" and on the left is "after." She's powdering it the really old-fashioned way with a couple of rocks.
We didn't bring any jelly with us so Susan made some strawberry jam using dehydrated strawberries from our garden. I think the recipe and process for making it will be an article on the website shortly. You can also use other kinds of fruit if you have it. It was some of the best I've ever had.
Part of this trip was to be an experiment to see how well our supplies held up in a "buggout" situation. So far it looks like we have enough food for about six months although after awhile it would lack somewhat in variety.
The dog and I are digging a hole for the Dutch Oven. (At least I'm digging a hole and the dog is just digging.) This was done on Thursday afternoon.
We brought several arm loads of wood up from the beach on Thursday evening so I could start the fire early Friday morning.
The menu for this evening is beans and dumplings. Hopefully it will be waitning for us when we get back from kayaking across the lake.
The fire burned down to a bed of coals with another fire beside the hole so I could rake those coals over the top. We didn't have a real shovel with us so I'm somewhat handicapped on spreading the coals evenly. There are several things I'll do different next time. I lined the hole with flat rocks but only part way up. I'll go all the way up the sides next time. I also needed more coals to put over the top of the D. O. If I'd had a shovel I could have used some of the coals from the bottom for that purpose but they were too hot for me to scoop out with the trowel we had. As a result the beans weren't quite finished when we got back in the late afternoon. I'll also have more coals overall next time and heat more rocks up in the fire. That way I can put hot coals and hot rocks over the top.
The Dutch Oven buried in the sand and marked with a rock.
Were off to Echo Bay in our Kayaks. When I checked the distance with the GPS when we were there on bicycles it was about 4.4 miles as the crow flies.
Looks like they're building anew boat ramp to accomodate the lower water level. The marina is in the foreground.
We couldn't exit the kayaks at the dock so we had to cross over their bouy barricade to land on the shore. We stayed well away from the power lines, etc along the dock but still expected to have someone come chase us off or ???? We brought sandwiches with us but bought a couple of cans of Coke each for drinks. It was nice sitting at the tables in the shade.
Then it was time to hit the water again. There was a light breeze but not enough to make any waves or to make travel difficult. Except for the occassional wake washing through the water was like glass.
Susan loves being on or in the water. By the way. We both have some impressive sunburns. That's what happens when those pale-skinned northerners get too much sun!
It was fun to see our reflections in the water.
Some of the cliffs we investigated. These aren't very high but they had lots of cool nooks-n-crannies.
Susan spotted this "alligator log" floating on the water. If you had a power boat out here you'd want to be careful of all the floating debris.
We found out there'd be a delay in supper when we got back. The beans and dumplings didn't get done so ...
I started a fire in the firepit, let it burn down to coals and finished cooking our supper. It was worth the wait.
The cat seemed somewhat annoyed that we made it home. (I made the mistake of giving it extra food this morning so if it wasn't hungry it didn't really see any need to have us around.)
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