Weekends Over

The long weekend is over and we are back in Hanley once again. This has got to go down as one of the finest Labour Day weekends that I can remember in years. However, I guess going back to when I was working, it was more than likely that I worked most of the weekends and was locked up in an air conditioned room. However, I did get the odd weekend off.

We hit the lake on Saturday afternoon after picking up Craig on the way through Saskatoon. I had done up some ribs on Friday and had them marinating in the sauce overnite. I did change the method of pre-cooking them this time. Instead of boiling them to get the fats out I put in tinfoil and baked the ribs in the oven for 90 minutes. It did a wonderful job and is sure a lot easier than boiling. One other change was in the marinate sauce. I doubled the receipe and of course it requires 1/2 cup of rum. James had returned from his recent trip south with a bottle of Lamb's 151 Rum so I put about an ounce of this in the sauce. As the ribs marinated from about 4:00 pm Friday until 6:00 pm Saturday, they definitely had the flavour of the sauce.

On our way through Prince Albert I stopped at the Safeway to pick up some corn for our supper. Of course seeing as Saskatchewan is so small, I ran into one of the OCC operators from Regina who was up at Murray Lake for a wedding. Who would think that at that particular point in time we'd both be at a Safeway in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan in the produce department. Of course we had a chit chat and we got further behind our schedule, however, it was a nice visit.

We finally made it to the lake at 5:00 pm and I gave Craig the rundown on what to do to get it up and running again with Sam supervising. I immediately put the corn on the cob in some water to soak them good for our bbq that evening. At about 6:30 pm we started the cue up and got the corn going. As they were soaked in water we just cooked them right in their husks. The ribs got their turn on the cue for 40 minutes or so and we were eating. The nicest part was that it was so gorgeous out, we sat at the picnic table outside and ate. That sure doesn't happen too often either because of the mosquitoes or the wind or the temperature.

The ribs were marvelous as was the corn and we ate every last morsel.

The weather continued to be great for the whole weekend. However, did the temps ever drop at night. Along about 4:30 a.m. it was time to find some extra covers as it was downright cold. The next day though the temp was back up to about 28 or so.

On Sunday mom and Fred drove up to the lake and we had a great visit out doors. I bbq's some steaks, peppers and small potatoes and the trimmings. There were a fair number of the no-see-um types flies around so we ate indoors. We were a little late eating, but nothing to drastic. Plenty of time for Fred to get back to the city and miss all the deer that mom likes to spot :-)

We enjoyed the weekend and then got everything stowed away for the winter, emptied the water and blew out the lines and closed the cabin up until next year. As we were locking it up I thought with these temperatures it is just such a shame to be closing it up. However, with the temperatures dropping at night and who knows when we'll make it back up, it was probably the smartest move on my part. Many years I've had to try and get it winterized and it was pouring rain or other types of inclimate weather. Still it is shame with the way our September is going.

Craig and I finally got it all done and we departed the lake at 1:00 p.m. on Monday. Craig wanted to be in the city a little earlier as he wanted to move some of Steph's effects into her new apartment. But at least he got a little rest on the way home. There was still lots of time left for him to get a greater percentage of the articles moved.

Sam and I continued on home and arrived about 4:00 p.m. James was home at the moment so he gave me a hand to unload the trailer and get all the other stuff put away.

All in all, it was just a great Labour Day weekend.