For the last long weekend of the Summer, Chad and I decided to run away to Merritt and forget all of our house hold responsibilities. While part of me did feel guilty knowing we could have spent 4 days getting a lot of things done, I did kind of love laying on the grass reading all weekend long.

Chiu was sitting in the boat beside the dock, then the wind picked up and blew him out into the lake. He couldn’t get the motor started so the neighbour had to go rescue him. Poor Chiu.

The big project of the weekend was trying out the Smoker. Mark bought a pork shoulder so that we could smoke it and make pulled pork. On Saturday the boys spent the day messing around with the smoker, testing it out and preparing themselves for Sundays feast.

Saturday Neil made a full on Thanksgiving Turkey dinner. I was responsible for baking a pumpkin pie, which I had every intention of making of scratch, except life got in the way and Mom bought me a can of pumpkin pie mix all ready to go, so I went the lazy route. It actually turned out pretty damn tasty, but I do want to make it again from scratch at some point in my life.

Chad said it was the best turkey dinner he had ever had. It was amazing and we were so stuffed by the end of it.

Pulled Pork, that was the theme of Sunday. Chad basically spent all day watching the temperature gauge on the smoker and I spent the whole day laying on the grass reading the Hunger Games.

Mark also caught some Rainbow Lake Trout!

Unfortunately the pulled pork did not turn out as expected. While the smoker gave it an amazing flavour, it did not cook it properly. At about the 7 hour mark Mark realized this was not going as planned so he popped it in the oven where it sat for another 7 hours. Yes, 14 hours in total. By the time the pulled pork was cooked, it was after midnight and I was fast asleep, but I did get to try some in the morning and it was fabulous! An experiment that almost failed was saved!

We had some of Marks Teriyaki Rainbow Lake Trout which was super taste. I love lake trout.

It was a nice and relaxing long weekend. The only downside was the wind that would not let up. I was dressed like an Eskimo 95% of the time. I was chilled to the bone. That and the wind kept blowing smoke from the fire and the smoker in my face. It was a little much.

Much appreciation goes out to Neil for hosting us at his cabin once again. We always have such a good time and it’s nice to get away, to such a beautiful spot with good friends!