Summer Kitchen/Cabin

Electronic mail message from Bryan Brost, Armstrong, British Columbia

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I never have thought of our beach cabin/summer kitchen as being anything
special. I am not sure it could be classed as architecture of Germans from
Russia or worthy as such. It was built merely to improve a need without
any thought of ethnic culture. My dad was aware through his parents who
had lived until 1929 in Alt Posttal about how life and home used to be in
Bessarabia. Some of this talk was of course in his thoughts. I myself
heard some of my grandfather's stories. In 1929 they with my dad as a
little child migrated to the Medicine Hat region of Alberta to raise a
family and live a life of farming in peace and in freedom.

Several years ago my family and I were able to visit the farm yard on
which they had farmed during the 1930s. We were lucky to get the chance to
see this place which is another story in itself. The resident there gave
us permission to look around the yard and outbuildings. It really gave me
a good impression of the home they had lived in shortly after arriving
into Canada. The residents now living here said they enjoyed awesome
sunsets

I looked in that direction and could sense how my grandparents
must have enjoyed sitting outside to watch the sunsets after their long
days of toil. The old house they had lived in had burned down the previous
year but the out buildings were still there including an old smoke house
my grandfather had built to smoke sausages and meats. From pictures I took
my dad confirmed that the smokehouse was built by my grandfather's rustic
handy work. They survived on their own wits providing nearly everything
for themselves on the farm. About 1980 my parents had sold their
electronic sales and repair service business and thought they might try to
see about living in British Columbia. For starters a friend of my dad's
who we had known since 1962 in Peace River, Alberta had moved to Vernon,
British Columbia. We would visit their family in the hot summers in this
beautiful North Okanagan country full of lakes, beaches, fruit trees, and
the warmer climate.

My dad and his friend Jim had learned about lake lotsbeing leased out
by a band member on the Okanagan Indian Reserve which is west
across the Okanagan Lake from Vernon. They therefore developed a lot
for each of themselves next to an elder Dutch couple who already had a
year round home established. My dad and mom and Jim and his wife marked
out their 50 foot wide lots and worked in the hot sun to clear away the
wild brush. They hired a backhoe to dig a ditch to redirect a stream which
they filled in with rocks to allow the lots to stay dry during the spring
melt. Jim built his lake cabin with help from my folks. There was a power
line not far away so they were able to get electric connections.

For a summer house my parents lived in a 16 foot holiday trailer to the side of
which they built a screened shelter to cook in complete with a sink for
washing dishes. Water drawn from the lake was simply carried in pails. Jim
and dad built a rustic outdoor shower house with the liner from a hot
water tank on the roof to soak up the day's sun. This really did not work
as good as hoped. My dad always whistled a tune to let Jim know that the
water was just fine but Jim did not believe it. Jim one day spotted my dad
adding heated water to the water tank from a canning pot. He couldn't fool
Jim. The tiny shower house also had a portable clothes washing machine
placed in it. The sunshine and lake breezes dried the laundry.

My folks and their friends seeded the lots with grass and planted trees along the
borders of the lots which today have grown and created a pleasant micro
climate to take the edge off of the hot summer heat of an Okanagan day. My
parents dug a small vegetable garden and planted flowers. They worked hard
and had lots of fun doing it. It became a popular place to check out by
relatives and friends so it became a lively place during the first few
summers. My folks however needed to get business going for themselves
again to develop again an income. In their travels of southern Alberta
they found a good opportunity in the town of Brooks to reopen an
electronics repair business with some sales, a modest business scaled down
yet adequate to support their needs. They bought a house and continued in
their business until they decided to retire in the city of Lethbridge.

The lake lot was then just a family holiday resort until summer 1990 when my
family and I chose to move to live and work in the North Okanagan Valley.
We lived at the lake lot trailer until we found a place to rent between
Vernon and Armstrong. I built another 8 by16 foot rough screened addition
onto the front of the existing trailer/shelter to create more living
space. In summer 1991, my dad came out from Alberta and together, though we
were not expert carpenters, we built a 12 by 16 foot cabin to use for
cooking, eating and doing laundry. We levelled a chosen spot by hand and
dug nearby a drywell we filled with rocks for dish and laundry water to
drain to. I bought some used railway ties from the Canadian Pacific
Railway yard in Salmon Arm and used them as our simple foundation. Upon
this we built a 2 by 6 lumber floor frame topped with 3/4 inch plywood
painted with a sturdy floor paint. With our amateur skills we built 2 by 4
inch lumber walls covered in 3/8 inch plywood. An old door was installed
as well as a couple of windows donated to us buy Jim. The framing was not
done correctly, but I now know how to properly frame a building. We built
trusses on the ground and installed them using a 2 by 4 as a ridge pole to
tie into place. We placed plywood in the attic area within the trusses to
use for storage area if needed. The ceiling was later covered in plywood
panelling. Plywood was nailed onto the top for a roof and we covered it
over with rolled roofing. We gave it coating of white paint and added 1 by
4 inch lumber painted with a chocolate stain to trim up the building.

My dad wired it up for power which we got approved by an electrical
inspector. We dug a small trench down to the beach in which we installed a
water line and an electric power line. My uncle who continued to farm the
land my grandfather had supplied an old water pump which he gave to my dad
to use at the lake. Dad refurbished it into good usable condition which
enabled us to turn on a switch in the summer kitchen to draw water from
the lake. Later I installed another 12 gallon hot water tank liner in the
attic which I plumbed so that it could be used to load up with water to
use as a gravity fed supply of water to the water tap like normal. For hot
water we just filled the canning pot with water and heated it on the
stove. Inside we built a kitchen counter of 2 by 4 inch lumber and plywood
using a sheet of vinyl flooring as a counter top. An old sink was found
and installed. An old clothes washing machine and an old electric stove
were given to us by friends. As well we moved the refrigerator from the
other shelter to this cabin. As the summers that followed proceeded my
wife and I improved the interior and added in a sofa bed to use our summer
kitchen as a sleeping cabin as well. Our children enjoyed the trailer with
add-ons as their cabin.

This then was our summer kitchen and summer home.

Attached is a short story about the summer kitchen I had written and sent
to AHSGR which they asked if it could be included in an upcoming AGSGR
Newsletter. It came out in the Number 12 Spring 2006 issue. Attached also
is a more recent photo of the summer kitchen/cabin.

Peace........Bryan