Welcome to the Construction Zone

The construction picture was taken just a couple of days ago but is already out of date. The picture is of #26 with the roof rafters on. It now has the roof boards on too. I believe on Monday they will start with tar paper and shingles. Meanwhile #27 had the main cement pad poured on Friday. It was 40 degrees this morning so that is “curing” nicely. Bruce is thrilled to have all the cement poured for both cabins. Although there is nothing to show, the septic system is fully installed so we won’t have to do anything with that in the spring. Next is to put the manhole in for the water service. Looking at all that is done on the new cabins, it’s hard to believe that the fire was on October 23rd just one month ago.

This weekend we had our first package devoted to showing people how to smoke meat. Only two people participated but they had a ball. As shown in the picture, Don and Bruce worked with them smoking ham, turkey, prime rib, salmon and pork ribs. They are each taking a smoked turkey home for Thanksgiving dinner. Last night they all sampled the smoking results. Nothing came back on their plates so it must have been good.

This is the last day of deer hunting up here. Slowly everyone seems to be filling their tags. Some of the stories associated with hunting are most fun. The best one is from our neighbor, Bob Baker, Sr. Bob was sitting on his elevated stand the other day near where he had cleaned a small buck several days earlier. Suddenly A female wolf and five pups appeared beneath him. Even though there was only a smell left from the blood, they all smelled it and then quickly checked out the entire area for any sign of deer. Bob figure this mother was teaching her pups to hunt. They were all larger than she was but if I was responsible for feeding five pups, maybe I would take a couple pounds off too.

Our Thanksgiving dinner is filling up nicely. Right now we have almost 100 people coming. On Monday we will make a quick trip to town for those last ingredients. There are always some unusual items that we don’t normally carry. They are often times the things that make a recipe special.

Speaking of special items, has anyone ever heard of pomegranate molasses? I found this recipe for ground lamb that is cooked with onions, eggplant, tomatoes, spices and pomegranate molasses. Once the meat mixture is cooked, you put it onto rounds of unbaked bread. The edges are folded up leaving a hole in the center. Then the entire thing is baked. It sounds good to me but I can’t find the molasses. Since I don’t even know what it tastes like, it’s hard to substitute. Bruce says just put some molasses with some pomegranate juice in but I am a little more anal than he is. Let me know if you have any information on this.

Those of us in the Gunflint family wish you and your families a very happy Thanksgiving.