solopaddler Posted September 30, 2009 Report Share Posted September 30, 2009 Well last weekend for the first time in a loooong while Jo and I had a weekend to ourselves. (Thanks mom ). We had initially pondered the possibility of a lightning trip somewhere tropical, but with money a wee bit tight we headed north instead. We love it up there anyway. The view from the deck when we arrived was magical: A bit cool and misty, but perfect weather for stoking up the stove and opening a good bottle of wine. Some of you guys may remember my issue with the cached boat? Apparantly the MNR has a problem with cached boats in my area and I found a sticker on it in mid August saying it had to be removed by Oct 1st or it would be seized by the crown. This was the weekend to deal with it. I had first thought I'd just drag the thing back out but had a change of heart. Instead I bought several cans of brown and green paint to camoflage it and decided to hide it a bit better. Snapped a quick pic of the initial work in progress: I didn't get a pic of the finished product as Jo was pestering me to hurry up. (She spilled half a can of paint on her good running shoes and was pissed. ) Needless to say it looked great though. If they find it now more power to 'em, they can have it! Beyond that we did a fair bit of fishing. As per usual once my lake turns over the walleye scatter and are generally tough to catch. Over the years I've discovered a couple of post turnover spots that always seem to produce at least a few. One such spot is a deep flat in 35-50' of water. Using heavy 3/4-1oz jig heads with stinger hooks tipped with dead 4-5" shiners every drift across the flat produced one, sometimes two fish. They weren't big, but man were they tasty! Once again amazingly no pic's LOL! Not sure what was with me last weekend but I'm blaming it on Jo distracting me. Every year sees a few more improvements at the camp, there's always something to do. Earlier in the year we built an electric rail system to haul our gear up the steep hill to the cottage. It's not something I really need yet, but my parents, both pushing 80 can certainly benefit. Besides that a new propane stove was installed, this one with a small oven. Works great!: A new propane hot water heater (actually an RV model) which now services the shower and the kitchen and bathroom sinks: What's nice is there's no pumps involved, being off the grid the simpler the better. The water is pumped from the lake to a holding tank on the hill behind the camp. It's then gravity fed to the water heater and cold water taps. We've actually got better water pressure up there than we do at home. When I opened the camp this spring it looked as though someone had taken a sledge hammer to my shower liner...it was in a billion pieces. Being cheap I lined it with some leftover cedar I had under the cottage. So far so good. Now the coup des gras. For the benefit of all current and future female guests I present a sparkling new outhouse complete with flush toilet. (Mega brownie points my friends....mega ). Next year the roof needs to be done and a new sleep bunkie is on tap...as I said always something. It's a labour of love though. Headed up over thanksgiving for one last trip and to close up for the season. I think we're gonna try deep frying a bird while we're there. Never done it before but heard it's good. Anyone have any tips fire away. Have a good one, Cheers, Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbuck Posted September 30, 2009 Report Share Posted September 30, 2009 Using the RV stove, water heater, toilet etc... is a great idea. They are all efficient, only question, what do you do with the waste water??? As for deep frying the bird, you are looking at about 45 minutes for a 15lb bird, in and around 3 minutes/lb at 375deg oil. Good luck, deep fried turkey is great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solopaddler Posted September 30, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 30, 2009 Using the RV stove, water heater, toilet etc... is a great idea. They are all efficient, only question, what do you do with the waste water???As for deep frying the bird, you are looking at about 45 minutes for a 15lb bird, in and around 3 minutes/lb at 375deg oil. Good luck, deep fried turkey is great. I knew someone would ask about the waste. It's quite an ingenious system actually, Mcgyver would be proud. The waste goes directly into an incinerator (homemade I might add). Liquid is taken care of through a filtration system that involves weeping tile and a ton of sand and gravel... The incinerator will need to be fired up only once in a blue moon...it's quite large. Thanks for the cooking tips! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyb Posted September 30, 2009 Report Share Posted September 30, 2009 Solo...that is amazing!! I would take that over a trip down south ANY day!!! Let us know when the next "work weekend" is...I'd be happy to lend some muscle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solopaddler Posted September 30, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 30, 2009 Solo...that is amazing!! I would take that over a trip down south ANY day!!! Let us know when the next "work weekend" is...I'd be happy to lend some muscle You got it buddy, help is always nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt bruce Posted September 30, 2009 Report Share Posted September 30, 2009 Nice job on the out house Im sure your wife is glad . Make sure the bird in all thawed and VERY DRY , any water in the bird will cause problems , can be very dangerous with all that oil , but you will enjoy , we do one every thankgiven at my friends camp outside bancroft , we made a stand for the large pot , that we can put coals under and when the oil gets to 350-375 in goes the bird. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillM Posted September 30, 2009 Report Share Posted September 30, 2009 (edited) Mike, you have a deep fryer? If not I got the big pail and stand that attaches to a standard propane tank you are more then welcome to borrow. One thing though, make sure to put the bird in the pale, then fill with water before attempting to guess how much oil you need. You'll want it about 1 inch above the bird.. The last thing you wanna do is overfill the pot and have a grease fire Oh yeah, you'll want an oil with a high flash point... peanut is the best (I use canola) We've done deep fried birds for the past 2-3 years, they rock... Edited September 30, 2009 by BillM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJQ Posted September 30, 2009 Report Share Posted September 30, 2009 Nice to get away with the wifey.. alone.. i agree... and yes... any outhouse improvements will definitely triple the brownie point count!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigugli Posted September 30, 2009 Report Share Posted September 30, 2009 The rails are a great idea. Mother had a summer place in Minden that was 75' above the lake on a steep slope. I remember only too well having to haul gear up and down that hill. I certainly miss the views we had of the lake framed in birch trees and blanketted with a morning fog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solopaddler Posted September 30, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 30, 2009 Make sure the bird in all thawed and VERY DRY , any water in the bird will cause problems , can be very dangerous with all that oil Thanks captain that makes sense! One thing though, make sure to put the bird in the pale, then fill with water before attempting to guess how much oil you need. You'll want it about 1 inch above the bird.. The last thing you wanna do is overfill the pot and have a grease fire Thanks Billy that makes sense too. But....now I'm confused LOL! How do I keep the bird dry like the captain suggested and measure it like you said? I'm guessing put the bird in the pot then pour oil in instead of water to measure? (Thanks for the offer of a cooker. I've already got one up there though....) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darsky Posted September 30, 2009 Report Share Posted September 30, 2009 see-thru door on the outhouse = OOOOPsie,didn't mean to see that....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeXXington Posted September 30, 2009 Report Share Posted September 30, 2009 Excellent cottage, nice rail system there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strakey Posted September 30, 2009 Report Share Posted September 30, 2009 Hey mike even when your not fishing you still manage to impress me in some other way. Thats a nice lookin camp for quebec nord on an island. Certainly puts most of the ones ive seen to shame. Nice goin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyb Posted September 30, 2009 Report Share Posted September 30, 2009 Put dry, thawed bird in a bag, with no air in the bag to skew displacement, then dunk it to check appropriate fluid level. Or, get two birds. Cook the dry one, then toss the wet one in and film the results for YouTube Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redneck666 Posted September 30, 2009 Report Share Posted September 30, 2009 nice camp man! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
troutologist Posted September 30, 2009 Report Share Posted September 30, 2009 Great camp Mike. Im curious if you will have any more issue with that boat or if the initial problem has blown over... Id strongly suggest injecting the bird with some manner of cajun and seasoning the outside, you can make a great crust. Even with proper oil measurement, try to do it on some type of "not you deck" material, saw splatter catch a few times. Wait til the bird is done to fry the fish too!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solopaddler Posted September 30, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 30, 2009 see-thru door on the outhouse = OOOOPsie,didn't mean to see that....... HAHA! Actually I noticed that in the picture too. It's a trick of lighting or something, the door has a frosted design on it, impossible to see in. (or so I thought. ) Hey mike even when your not fishing you still manage to impress me in some other way. Thats a nice lookin camp for quebec nord on an island. Certainly puts most of the ones ive seen to shame. Nice goin Thanks bud. It's water access but on a mainland point though... Put dry, thawed bird in a bag, with no air in the bag to skew displacement, then dunk it to check appropriate fluid level. Or, get two birds. Cook the dry one, then toss the wet one in and film the results for YouTube Johnny that's not the right answer but I like the way you think!! (Anyone remember those old dirty Johnny jokes? ) Great camp Mike. Im curious if you will have any more issue with that boat or if the initial problem has blown over... Id strongly suggest injecting the bird with some manner of cajun and seasoning the outside, you can make a great crust. Even with proper oil measurement, try to do it on some type of "not you deck" material, saw splatter catch a few times. Wait til the bird is done to fry the fish too!! Thanks Jay! As far as the boat goes who knows? I'm amazed they went to the expense and trouble to fly in the first time. For all I know they'll never be back. But if they do come back they'll never find my boat anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corvette1 Posted October 1, 2009 Report Share Posted October 1, 2009 well mike its about time you gave the fish a break hope you and your wife great time awesome cottage Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joey Posted October 1, 2009 Report Share Posted October 1, 2009 Wow, that rail system is freaking awesome. Great job. Nice report and pics. Hope they don't find your boat, let us know in the spring okay! Joey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillM Posted October 1, 2009 Report Share Posted October 1, 2009 Mike, we measure the bird with water in the pale hours before we actually cook it..... Only takes a few mins to dry it off with some paper towels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCTFisher9120 Posted October 1, 2009 Report Share Posted October 1, 2009 Nice place u got there, many delicious foods will be cooked over that nice stove/oven! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blaque Posted October 1, 2009 Report Share Posted October 1, 2009 Clean dry outhouse +50 brownie points see thru door with toilet centered perfectly within that see thru door -40 points dahhhhh, ur still up 10 points Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oxcowboy Posted October 2, 2009 Report Share Posted October 2, 2009 once you eat that deep fried turkey, you will never want one in the oven, dang its good. but yeah check the amount of oil you will need, i havent ever had a fire hazzard, but it does make for a nasty deck. your camp is starting to look like a resort. good for you, hope the wife enjoys it. jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leecher Posted October 2, 2009 Report Share Posted October 2, 2009 Mike, you got yourself a real piece of paradise up there Kid free weekend..... bonus!!! Got to love that and the cottage improvements.... looking good bud Leechman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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