Saturday July 21, 2007

First day at camp! After saying goodbye to Henri, Lisa, Trevor, Pierce, and Avery, Alan, Carole and Hardy headed out for food shopping and general surveillance. A trip to the farm stand in Beecher's Falls resulted in huge bags of spinach and lettuce, along with some beets and baby carrots, all pulled fresh from the ground. We went by Colebrook for the organic market but were 45 minutes too late -- it closed at 11am. After a stop at Ducret's for some fishing supplies, we headed to Solomon's where we "licensed up" (in Bill's terms) and picked up pork ribs, pork tenderloins, and fixings for bolognese sauce. Hardy promised his special ribs for supper.....

Back at the house, we made sandwiches and talked about hiking up Brousseau. It was a beautiful day -- sunny with large cumulous clouds floating by and about 70 degrees. But the ground was wet and we decided the Brousseau trail was likely to be a running stream and so we determined to swim instead. Hardy and Carole piled onto the large yellow raft Henri had bought for the kids and made Alan push us out into the lake. It was a labor of love as the water was cold. Once out, both Hardy and Carole took the plunge down the slide -- yikes! It was....refreshing. And not bad once you were in. Next came a canoe tour around the property. Not much going on in the inlet to report.

Time for the honored Papelousu tradition of casting at the ponds before dinner. Hardy and Alan headed down while Carole washed spinach and lettuce before joining them. Casted until dark at 8:30pm (Alan got four large brookies from the upper pond) and then headed back to grill Hardy's famous ribs, which had simmered earlier in the afternoon, make Carole's famous creamed spinach, and hang out with John and Dawn who had come back from a day fishing on Little Averill. Yummy dinner concluded with strawberries picked from Quebec. Yum, yum, yum.

After dinner, we turned out all the lights and found our way outside to the telescope. Ah, the joys of the country.

Recipe for Hardy's ribs:

5 T chili powder
3 T mustard
2-3 T cumin
1 T paprika
1 T salt
1 T garlic powder
1 t black pepper
1 t white pepper
1 t cayenne

Boil ribs in water with 2 T of the rub mix for half an hour. Leave in water on stove until ready to grill. Grill for half an hour, glazing with honey at the end over a hot fire on both sides.