Raising Kids in a Candy Store

Does that title sound like a near-impossible feat? For a while, it felt like it could be. Our humble little store has always included several shelves of candy. Mostly we carry candy bars, and we also have ice cream treats and some various sodas on hand. Wouldn't that be a wonderful place for a kid to grow up? Little ones would think so.

Several years ago, I had a conversation with my then five-year-old nephew. He loved to go shopping, and felt that he didn't get to go often enough. Since he lived in California, and I hadn't seen him since he was very little, he really did not have any recollection of me, and had no idea of where I lived or what I did. When I told him that I lived in a store, his eyes got wide. I could almost see the intrigue going on in his mind, with visions of me living in a place like Target or Wal-Mart. Oh, how far from the truth!

But the reality of it was that, once we started to have children, we were raising them with candy on the shelves of their own living room/store. It was easy with the first one. We just didn't feed him any of it. He had no clue what it was all about. But by the time he was nearing two, he was just dying to find out what all those kids were getting from the shelves when they came in to the store. One day I caught Robert literally climbing the shelves like a ladder, just to investigate what was up there. The secret was out. A year or so later, Greg found a bag of candy under Robert's bed. He had taken one of our camping stuff sacks and had put some candy bars in it. When confronted by his father, he readily admitted to it, saying, "I eat them, and I love it." So much for keeping the secret from him.

What the oldest child has to discover on his own, the younger siblings just get to know by osmosis. Paul and Addie just seemed to always have known about candy, as I don't recall any moment when they didn't. Not wanting to totally admit defeat and call it a lost cause, I knew that I needed to come up with some way of controlling how much candy and treats they would consume, as well as how often I had to endure the pestering about it. So I landed on the idea of Tuesday treat night. Each Tuesday, they could ask for and receive one treat of their choice. Sometimes it was candy, sometimes pop. I noticed that some had favorites and other times it was purely random. For a while, I regularly stocked Reese's Nutrageous, as Paul seemed to gravitate towards those, while Robert was often an ice cream sort of guy. If they happened to forget that it was Tuesday, we occasionally relented and let Wednesday fill in. But if they were gone on some outing and missed it, they just had to wait until the next week. It worked well for me, and I figured that I had the situation nailed for the summer. Once fall returned, we could stop the treats until the next year. But that was not to be, they informed me, as this was to them a year-round gig. I gave in on that one. It seemed reasonable enough.

It must have worked, because through the years, there were relatively few cavities in our household. Paul gave up drinking soda altogether when he was thirteen, and Addie rarely had any herself. Robert may still like ice cream, and I do wonder if he has a particular hankering for it on Tuesday nights. For the most part, Tuesday treat night seems to be a thing of the past, but I am happy that for that time in our life, we were able to find a compromise that worked well for all of us.

Working the Bread Oven

Some years back, in the time after the bread oven was built, Greg had cause to email Alan Scott, the builder/instructor who taught the class for our oven. Greg was asking about the thermocouples that are embedded in the firebrick and concrete. He told Alan that we still hadn't insulated the oven. Alan was surprised, and said that when we did finally do that, we would be quite pleased with the efficiency of it. Now that it is insulated, I can't agree more.

Through the years of baking and pizza making, it seemed that the ciabatta bread I make would always turn out the best. I guess I had nailed the recipe, and since it was the one that the family asked for most, that is what I continued to make. But last week, I ventured out and tried a different recipe, one that I have made several times in my inside oven. It is a honey wheat bread, with some beer in it, and has always been a good one. In the bread oven, it turned out even better.

My biggest challenge in the past, it seemed, was to get a decent crust on top of the loaf. I was looking for one that had a good "tooth" to it, but didn't make my own teeth hurt when biting into it. I found it in this recipe and the insulated oven. On Friday, we baked off a few loaves, and some cabin guests baked up some whole wheat bread. It all went quite smoothly, with no burnt crust, and the bottoms were a perfect golden color. Hooray for good bread!

It's probably time to start planning another pie-baking day, especially given the tremendous berries out there. If you are interested in joining us, leave me a comment, and I will pick a day that works. If your are staying with us sometime in the next month and want to bake something, let me know, too! This oven is much better when shared with the community.

Our final shot is our two little bread-baking helpers, as we took photos of each other. It was a fun time!

Sunday Photos

Time for the Canoe Races!

The canoe races are just around the corner, and I feel like I am in a race for time. I'm not training to paddle, but I am trying to finish a project. In addition to racing, the evening of fun includes a raffle and silent auction. I am working on a pair of hand knit socks to donate...and they are not done!

But that's not important. What is important, though, is to tell you about all of the fun of the races. This is a fund-raiser for the Gunflint Trail Volunteer Fire Department, and it has been happening for more years than I have been around the trail. In my early days up here, the races were held every other week, and hosted by different lakes. In the last several years, the Gunflint Lake homeowners have teamed up with the Seagull-Sag homeowners to put on a full evening of entertainment for the whole family. There are minnow races and games for children, a delicious sloppy joe dinner, some contests, and of course, the action of the races themselves. Three categories of races are included: the regular paddling, backwards paddling, and the broken paddle race. After those have concluded, there is gunnel-pumping, where the racer stands on the back of the canoe's gunnels and propels the watercraft forward by pumping with the legs. It's a hilarious race to watch, with many people ending up in the water. Overall, the whole gathering is a great time to socialize, cheer on the racers, and support the fire department.

But back to the raffle and auction. Each year, the organizers collect many donations of prizes, from gift certificates to handmade items, and put these all on display for the attendees to peruse, and possibly win. The collection is amazing. Sometimes we've been fortunate enough to win a few of the items. It's a lot of fun to hear the names of our friends and neighbors called out, and to watch them go up to collect their prizes. The evening is capped off with the big raffle, a Wenonah canoe.

Tickets are available now at several of the businesses, and you can purchase them on the night of the raffle as well. Put it on your calendars to attend, this Wednesday, July 21, as it is a wonderful evening.