Lot 39: The Cabin in Canada

Over thirty years ago my grandparents started visiting eastern Ontario as summer campers at a lake called Mazinaw. Eventually they became so attached to the place that they bought a lot on Mazinaw's sister lake, Shabomeka, and my grandfather, a pattern-maker and builder, designed and built a small cabin that my grandmother liked to call, in a bi-lingual rhyme, "the Shabomeka Chalet." Every summer they and my mother and her sisters would vacation at the cabin, and my family started vacationing there when I was three. Now my grandparents are gone, but we still have the cabin. This is what it looks like.

The Cabin A sidelong view.

The Cabin Full frontal.

The Cabin in Winter No one actually visits the cabin in the winter. Heat rises, and its high-ceilinged A-frame design makes this natural law a liability. Worse, it has no insulation, as it was designed purely as a summer home. Hardy neighbors have taken pictures, though. That's the dock pulled up and folded back on itself to keep it off the frozen lake.

Source of Heat The kitchen viewed from the living room. I'm not sure who these people are.

Living Room Part of the living room portion of the cabin, the (approximately) south wall.

Shabomeka Lake A view of the sunset from the dock.

Mazinaw Lake The tall cliff, called Mazinaw Rock, that the lake is known for. Mazinaw flows into Shabomeka through a boggy slough.

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Page created July 3, 2002