Float Cabin Living in the News

This has been quite the year for Powell River Books and our float cabin to be in the news. It started with the Travel Channel for an upcoming show Extreme Houseboats. That was followed by an excellent YouTube video about float cabin living by Kirsten Dirksen of faircompanies.com. Several sites picked it up and created news articles including Business Insider and The Blaze. Then there was the interview and article for the Huffington Post.

To cap it all off, reporter Kierra Jones of the Powell River PEAK came out to the cabin for an interview and to take some pictures. We picked Kierra up at the Shinglemill Marina for lunch with us at the cabin and an onsite interview. This week her article "Lutzs love life up the lake" was published. Were we surprised when we got our copy of the PEAK and found ourselves on the front page, both online and in print.

Thanks Kierra for sharing about our life up the lake and Wayne's Coastal BC Stories and Anomaly at Fortune Lake science fiction books. -- Margy

Canning: Blackberry Jamin'

This year the blackberries have been exceptionally big and juicy. Each time we head up the lake, I pick a some from the bushes in the Shinglemill parking lot. They come in waves, so there've been lots for the picking. My cupboard was bare, so I decided to make some blackberry.

Blackberry Jam Recipe

I used two resources to make my jam. The first was a book I found at Kingfisher Used Books here in Powell River, the Farm Journal's Freezing and Canning Cookbook. I got mine used for $3.95, but they are much pricier online. I also used the directions from the Certo Pectin Crystals box.

The ingredients are simple.
Yields about 8 cups. Do not double the recipe.

5 cups crushed blackberries
1 box Certo Pectin Crystals
7 cups granulated sugar

Thoroughly crush berries. You can remove some of the seeds if you wish, but I like them included. The Farm Journal cookbook recommended lemon juice, so I added two tablespoons of fresh squeezed to the berry mixture.


Mix the crushed berries and the Certo Pectin Crystals in a large pan. Bring to a boil over high heat. Then add the sugar all at once. Return it to a hard boil and let it boil for one minute. The cookbook says to be very accurate, so I used my timer. Remove from heat and stir and skim for five minutes.

Pour into warm, sterilized jars to 1/4" from the rim. I used 250 ml (8.5 oz) jars. Wipe the tops clean of any spilled jam and place sterilized lids and screw caps on, making them finger tight. The Farm Journal book recommend five minutes of processing in a boiling water bath (the lid was off only for the picture), so that is what I did.

The trick to jam making for the novice is to have things ready to go. I boiled the water to sterilize my jars and lids first. Then it was held at the ready for the boiling water bath at the end. The whole process took me about two hours, but the end result was some really tasty jam that will last us through the winter, reminding us of the warm, sunny days of August. -- Margy

Release Your Inner Turtle

I've never seen a turtle in Powell Lake. But this summer when our good friend John brought up a large rock from the bottom of our natural swimming pool, that was my first thought. On a lark, John left the heavy rock sitting on the stump that rises from the middle of our pool during dry months.

I took out our float called Utopia, loaded up the heavy rock, and brought it over to the cabin deck. I got out my acrylic paints and started to bring out its inner turtle. Wayne was a bit skeptical when I started. He joked it looked more like Kobe Bryant's basketball shoe. So now, his name is "Kobe the Turtle."

After several coats of clear acrylic spray to seal the paint, Kobe is ready to take his place of honour on a cedar stump on our cabin's transition float to shore. Here he'll be able to bask in the sun and remind us of summer days all year long.

Head on over to A Peak into My Paradise for the Happiness is Homemade Link Party to see more recipes, crafts and DIY projects. -- Margy

Corduroy Skies

As we were coming down the lake on Tuesday to pick up a reporter from the local PEAK newspaper, the clouds in the sky look just like corduroy cloth.

Wayne (my resident weather expert) said it was a form of Mackerel Sky, altocumulus clouds hinting at possible rain. On our way back up the lake, they persisted, but with a little less definition.

Altocumulus clouds range from 6,500 to 16,500 feet. They may indicate the approach of a frontal system. We got the wind and cloudy skies, but only a misting of rain. I love the summer weather, but a real rain shower right about now would be pretty nice. -- Margy

Off-the-Grid Scifi: Anomaly at Fortune Lake

A New Off-the-Grid
Science Fiction Book  
by Wayne J. Lutz

Anomaly at Fortune Lake

On a remote lake in Canada, Ashley and Justin live off-the-grid. But their idyllic life is interrupted by two mystifying anomalies. A distant galaxy exhibits unusual characteristics in Justin's amateur telescope, and something under the lake is stirring. Can a determined woman bring clarity to the events that are rapidly unfolding?

Go to www.PowellRiverBooks.com for more information.

Kindle for $5.99
E-book for $6.99
Print for $9.95

If a tree falls in the forest does it make a sound?

This summer we decided to keep our quads near the cabin so we can use them more often. Last week we took a ride west of Powell Lake. To leave Hole in the Wall, we followed an overgrown track to more recent logging roads leading towards Chippewa Bay. This area has log booms, a dock for work boats, and a barge ramp for heavy equipment. Logging has been active here since the beginning of the 20th Century.

A side road is called Museum Main. It leads up from the dock on Powell Lake to a historic logging area where steam donkeys were once used as the power to haul logs out of the bush and down to the lake for transport to market. The logging road passes two donkeys, hence its name. But as we headed up the main, we encountered an obstruction larger than normal.

We get some wicked winds up the lake during winter storms. What do you think it sounded like when this old giant split from its roots and fell?

Can you imagine how hard it must have been for a steam engine to move such a massive log? They did it all the time. There's just enough room to squeeze a quad and rider under the butt end. Next time we'll go back and ride the additional four miles to the first donkey. -- Margy

Pollyfrog

I've been watching Bullfrog pollywogs grow in our natural swimming pool at the cabin. When I first saw them, they had no legs. Just very large tails.

Then back legs started to grow. From little bumps, they matured into legs with webbed feet perfect for swimming faster and deeper.

About two weeks later, here's what I found. I call it a pollyfrog. All of the legs have matured and from the front it is very frog like, except still a bit pudgy.

From the back, you can see the remnants of the diminishing tail. Lungs have developed so now the young frog can emerge from the water. But he better look out, Buster the Garter Snake may be nearby, and he loves the taste of a fresh, young frog. -- Margy