A day in Ashdad

This weekend we spent some time with our friends in Burnstown. We arrived around noon on Saturday and after a little catching up we dug into a quick lunch of hotdogs, chicken nachos, and lemon loaf. It may sound like a strange combo but it turned out to be a hit all around.

After lunch we put on our raincoats and rubber boots (or "gum rubbers" if you're from Ashdad) and headed over to walk the property that our friends recently purchased. We spent about 3 hours touring the trails, walking the fence lines, and circumnavigating the beaver pond. A very enjoyable afternoon - especially given that the bugs are not yet out and the leaves are still off the trees providing us with maximum visibility. And even though we were prepared for it, it never did actually rain.



The rest of the day was spent cooking, eating, drinking, and playing some riverside blues down by the Mad Cabin.

The Mad Cabin... Spring and Summer



And of course the kids also had a blast together. Check out the monster fort they made for the Saturday night sleepover. Sweet.

"Mad" Cabin hideout

Friday after work/school the kids and I drove up to our friend's cabin on the Madawaska River to stay the night. For me life's all about "windows of opportunities" and as luck would have it our plan to visit conflicted with our friend's plan to actually be there for the visit.

Apparently my half day advance notice conflicted with their plan to go camping at Bon Echo (with other friends I might add). Not willing to drop what I thought was a great idea I quickly modified it to be an adventure rather than a visit.

Luckily our friends are very accommodating and gave me all the advice I would need to "move in" to the cabin for the night. Advice number one, don't mess with the homemade mouse trap (a bucket of anti-freeze in the corner) and number two, be sure to "check out" the new thunder box out back.

After some convincing both kids decided to join me giving mom some alone time to catch up on some school work. We arrived just after sundown and quickly carried our gear down the steep hill to the river. Somehow we managed to get everything down in only two trips (where's my mule?) but as Sara kindly pointed out you'd think we were planning to stay the week. Ha, such is always the case.

This cabin has evolved into something just the other side of awesome. A great multi-level deck, BBQ and stove, lots of natural sunlight, a cozy loft for sleeping, and now a woodstove for those chilly nights. All you would need and a little more.


A game of UNO and some late night NDS...

Saturday morning we woke early to the sound of rain... well what we thought was rain was actually the sound of the cascading creek that crosses the path just metres away from the cabin. Sunshine greeted us as we all took turns at "the box" and then I boiled up some water for coffee and hot coco. Today's agenda? Relaxation.




In the end we left the mousetrap well enough alone and as requested, we put the new open air outhouse to the test. (No thanks necessary guys.)


Shout out to the Neills... wish you were here.