Float Cabin Living: What Do You DO?

Sometimes it's hard to find time to just relax.

What do you DO with all your time? There's never ENOUGH ! We love to be at our float cabin on Powell Lake, but there are lots of things that keep us busy in Powell River like clubs, civic events, quadding, hiking and boating. But of all our activities, we love being at our cabin best.

What do we do when we're up the lake? Here's just a few:

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  Bringing a cable to the dock.

  Cabin maintenance. Stay ahead of things and problems diminish.  Cables must be replaced, logs burned for dry rot, a new anchor dropped and flotation barrels added for buoyancy.

• New projects. John does most of these, but we "assist." Over the years we've added a new front deck, enlarged our log boom to reduce waves, added an indoor bathroom and upgraded our electrical system. In the next five years we'll need to replace our cedar decking and paint the cabin's exterior.

• 

  Cutting firewood on the raft.

  Firewood. We gather and split wood in summer to get ready for winter and keep it on the wood storage float until needed. We also maintain our woodstove to make wood burning safe.

• Weather Watching. Unlike the city, we are more aware of changes in weather. Our HDTV sliding glass door gives us full view day and night. Plus, Wayne has all his "weather toys" to follow the trends.

The author at work.

• Writing. Cabin life generates stories and a unique space for Wayne to write. I write grants in my consulting business and this blog about off-the-grid living.

• Reading. There's nothing better than a warm sunny day on the deck or a cold winter night by the fire to enjoy a good book. Wayne is a scifi fan and I like local books and memoirs. Using Kindles with built-in reading lights makes night reading so easy.

The Hewescraft parked at home.

• Boating. The cabin floats on Powell Lake, so there's lots of places to explore by boat and kayak. For local jaunts we like to use our 14' tin boat. Our 22' Hewescraft makes lake travel safer.

• Quad Riding: Our 24' barge lets us take our quads to ramps around the lake for quad riding and to camp overnight onboard.

Snowshoeing up Chippewa Main.

• Hiking. Loggers have built many roads to their timber lots along the lake. On weekends or when logging isn't active these make excellent hiking trails. In winter, boots can be exchanged for snowshoes. The Sunshine Coast Trail can be accessed from Powell Lake in several locations.

• Crafts. This is one activity that's a Margy thing. I like to paint with acrylics on things like jars, buckets and rocks. I crochet and hook rugs. I even made several sets of curtains.

• 

  The float garden.

  Gardening. Wayne helps me keep my float garden and containers on the cabin deck ready to produce delicious veggies for our meals in all seasons. 

• Preserving Food: When my garden is producing I've learned how to preserve the extras. I started with drying, freezing and storing root crops. Now I do water bath and pressure canning to my preserving skills. I love going to the pantry to grab a jar of carrots or potatoes.

No-knead sourdough bread.

• Cooking. Wayne is #1 cook with the BBQ going year round. I make side dishes and desserts, experiment with cooking on my woodstove and bake breads.

• Fishing. Whether it is from the cabin deck or trolling, fishing is fun. Every summer night fish tease us by jumping inside our log boom. But, oh, are they wily fish.

Enjoying the backcountry.

Of course, there's taking a sunbath on a warm summer day followed by a swim in the lake. Nothing feels better than that!

So, as you can see, the question should have been -- How do you find enough time to do all that you do at the cabin? -- Margy