Kukagami Autumn News
Greetings all! Given that long emails are hard to read, I've bolded the topic of each section, so you can scan the news and just read the parts that interest you.
What an amazing summer we had! It started in April, with the earliest ever break-up on the 3rd, then carried on right through the early days of September. The drought of spring coupled with some early summer lightning storms started two fires, one in the north end, and one inland just east of the middle part of the lake. A third fire in June burned the south tip of the island in front of our camp on the other side of the lake. Check out our blog for lots of photos. Follow this link to see the Ontario Map of Fires for this year. Click on the out fires button below the map, then zoom in. Considering the extreme dryness of the forest, we were lucky there weren't any really big fires anywhere nearby.
Mosquitoes had a brief fling in June, then all but disappeared through the rest of the summer. Can't complain about the bugs this year! Unless you are a bat, of course. Bats eat bugs....so they must have had a tough time of it this summer.
Now autumn is here, the leaves are just beginning to turn; the lake has cooled enough that we really need to have a hot sauna to inspire a swim in the lake. Colours are well underway, and mushrooms are popping up everywhere. The garden is still gifting us with bountiful tomatoes, cukes, herbs, beans and zucchini, of course.
We're just home from our annual trip south to pick apples for winter. Once again, we brought home bushels of wild and organic apples. Over the next few weeks we'll be busy making applesauce and dried apples to take us through the winter.
Thanksgiving weekend still has spaces available. If you haven't made plans yet, you might consider having a small family reunion here, and let us do all the cooking and dishes! The fall colours promise to be spectacular this year. As well, we'll do a nature walk and identify mushrooms!
We listed the Lodge for sale last spring, but have yet to find a buyer. Allan and I will take over the promotion for the next few months – and we need some ideas of where to advertise! Hoping you can suggest some venues where we might find someone who would love to leave the trappings of civilization, and spend the next few decades living and loving life in the forest. I'm thinking of Mother Earth News types of publications. Or do you know of somewhere to advertize?
Our vision is to find the buyer over the course of this winter, then move to the camp across the lake in spring. We will be delighted to help the new owners get settled. And if they want to continue operating the lodge in winter, we'll be nearby to assist with trail preparation and such. If you know someone who is ready to take this leap...let us know!
Whether the lodge sells or not, this will be our last winter running the lodge. We will surely miss seeing all our winter friends in 2012. But we won't miss hauling in all the supplies, cutting the firewood, keeping the fires burning and on and on. So, if you have not yet made your winter reservation for this year...better do so soon!
Kukagami Cookbook! Well, it is not exactly ready to go to the printer yet... but I have promised to get the cookbook finished by the end of November this year. Early estimates are that it will cost about $25. The cookbook will be a rambling tale of what I have learned about cooking over the past 27 years of running the lodge; including details of the ingredients I use, how and why. There will be about 25 recipes, plus variations on several themes. I'm still looking for someone to so the illustrations!
If you are interested in buying a cookbook, let me know! This will help me figure out how many to get printed.
Hope to see you here one more time in 2011!
Warmly,
Viki
705-521-6587
