Thieving Canadians

Oh, Canada...

It was gray, cold and rainy. The fish weren't biting. And someone stole our outhouse.

Seriously.

My dad's cabin in Ontario. About 70 miles north of the Minnesota/Canada border. On an island on the narrow part of a pretty large lake.

Deep lake, rocky landscape, towering pines. Very 'nature'. Less a cabin than a small one room shack with some beds, but quite comfortable. No electricity or running water. As such, an outhouse.

A sidenote for the cityfolk. An outhouse is a small structure 'out' of the house over a hole into which you do your business.

Anyway, back to our outhouse, and a nice one at that, as far as outhouses go. So nice it had a door AND a window. Average Outhouse: Usually they were 3 to 4 feet square by 7 feet high with no window, heat, or electric light.

And when we arrived on the island on Friday about midday, our outhouse was conspicuously absent. It took a while to figure it out, too. We arrived, unloaded our stuff, got the cabin going (gas lights, gas stove, gas refridgerator), set up the boats, etc. and nothing was remiss. All was as it had been left the year before.

Then my brother-in-law Chris asked if any of us had been to the outhouse yet. Strange question, I guess, but the answer was no. Why?

Because it's gone, he said.

We all headed back, disbelief mixing with curiousity, to have a look for ourselves.

Gone. Just a hole in the ground mocking us. It wasn't destroyed in a storm or something, it was stolen. Not a trace remained.

So, someone, or more specifically some people, happened by the island, probably in the winter when the lake was frozen, spied our outhouse with the fancy window and thought to themselves "we must make it ours".

And they left us without a bathroom.

Bastards.

But, on the brighter side, we had a good time, caught some fish (not many, but some), and saw a black bear. And I broke a rod fighting what was likely a very big fish. Snapped the rod in two. After that, it was just a matter of time until it snapped the line too. Damn.

And, we got started on a new outhouse. Framed up, looks very nice (I mostly just observed, Chris is the handy one in the family).

I hope when it's finished later in June when my dad goes back with some friends they are sure to put a window in it. It makes an outhouse classy.