Teresa

Small Log Cabin

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An update on the Small Log Cabin

small log cabins
Small Log Cabin

It’s been awhile since I’ve updated on the small log cabin.

Traveling to the cabin

We have been enjoying snowmobiling up the past few winters, it’s been great as we live not far from the Great Canadian Trail and can snowmobile right from our home to the cabin which is a trek of about 45 km. It took some time to get the cabin back to the point of being able to use it, but now it’s great! Small log cabins are wonderful.

I keep the cabin stocked with blankets, towels, a change of clothes and the basics of food year round and we use it lots.

We don’t leave any canned goods over the winter, but I do have flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, oatmeal, salt, pepper and lot of dried foods. One day I’ll do an inventory and post if on the site. We have never been short of food when heading out for a day.

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Most Effective Mosquito Repellents

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Find out more about the Most Effective Mosquito Repellents



This spring at the cabin it has been so wet and our summer hasn’t started out much better. We really do need the moisture though after the forest fires from the last two years but the mosquito population is now at an all time high.

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Where to find Peat Pots for starting and transplanting seeds

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Growing your seedlings in Peat Pots
Seed Starting

Wow! I have all these seeds started and went out to my garden shed to find I have run out of peat pots  I need 2 1/2″  or 3″ pots to replant these veggies.

I have spent the better part of this morning calling every store I can think of in our area to see if anyone has pots…..no luck absolutely everyone is sold out!  I guess with this Covid-19 the time as come that more people are realizing they can grow there own food.  I think this is fabulous, but holy moly do I need pots.

One of the stores would said they would order them for me if I can’t find any, when I called back and placed the order all was good until I got a call back saying the order would not be in until mid May early June.  I can’t wait that long  It’s April 24th today!  Now what?

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Extend You Vegetable Growing Season

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Learn how to extend your growing season

From protective row covers to greenhouse and the placement of trees and other plants.

AHZZY Protective Row Cover with Greenhouse Support Hoops, 6Pack Adjustable 4ft Long Garden Grow Tunnel with 0.9oz Non-woven Row Cover for Greenhouse UV Frost Protection

Extending the growing season where I live is something that has to be done without it some crops would never get to harvest.

Some ways to extend your growing season are by using row covers, cold frames and greenhouses are a few ways to go, but your can also use permanent protection like trees.



What type of protection does your garden need?

If your garden is in an open area that is not protected from wind the soil will dry out fast and it has no natural protection from the cold.

A hedge of spruce trees 4’ or so away from the garden can be enough to increase the air temperature by a couple degrees Celsius.

Two rows of snow fencing about 60 feet apart will do the same thing.

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Mini Fridge for Off Grid

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Mini Fridge for Off Grid

We have a little cabin off grid and for the most part we don’t really need to use a fridge, but we have installed a small solar system for things like this.


I’ve been thinking it might be nice to have a fridge in the summer, especially since we will be spending more time there; so I started doing some research and found some that should work nicely.

The Mini Fridge

Ice Cube one of many mini fridges

This mini fridge is 15 litres and runs on 45 Watts so will be able to run on a 200 watt inverter with no problems.

Some great advantages to this one are:

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What’s the best rat trap

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Best Rat Traps on the Market

This year has been a really bad year for mice and rats, we have mice where they have never been before and it appears most of the neighborhood is experiencing the same problem.

Why do we have such an increase in rodent activity? I suspect it has something to do with the weather, we have had an unusually cool summer with much more rain than usual. Here is an article I found that talks about how weather can affect rodents. Home owners over run by mice

The best Traps

I don’t like to use poison as we are out in the country and who know what is going to eat that poisoned rat or mouse, so we are careful with how we get rid of these critters.

This year I found these new traps and I just love them! They are way better than the old Victors (that’s the old wooden ones grandma used) The Catchmaster traps I think are the best, they are so easy to set and to take the mouse or rat out of. They come in three sizes. I have them all!

Catchmaster 2-Pack Snapper Easy Set Mouse Trap
In the past we have tried all kinds of makes and models of mouse and rat traps, some works OK and others not at all. These are by far the best, and very easy to set and very easy to remove the mice as well. The trap is built well, not flimsy at all.

Price: $19.90 (two pack) Mouse Trap

Price : $24.97 Rat Trap

What to use for Bait?

Rodents eat mostly nuts and seeds – I think the majority of people use peanut butter to bait the traps.


I have used peanut butter before, but I found if I put two or three pumpkin seeds in the well of these new traps works very well.

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Chaga Tea

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Chaga from the Birch Trees Chaga Tea is a great way to get all the wonderful nutrients from the Birch Tree Tao Chaga Wild Harvest Canadian Chaga Mushroom (Inonotus obliquus) Chunk – 1 lb (454 g) Read about all the many benefits and healing properties of Chaga here 

Make your own Dandelion Wine

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Dandelion Wine

Dandelions

Last May the Dandelions were out and with so man we figured we would try our hand at making Dandelion Wine. This was a first, but I had come across an old recipe in my Grandmothers book, so thought I’d give it a try.



Dandelions are the first flowers to be seen in the spring, we often add the tender young greens to our salads because of the healthy benefits this plant has. Making wine with the dandelion flower gave us a wonderful tonic, we would occasionally have a glass for its medicinal benefits.

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