Ideas for Visitors

Using the cabin

We want you to have an enjoyable adventure in our family cabin. This page will help you to know some of our traditions, as well as supplies and equipment for your use. Our cabin is a real retreat—no phone and no TV.

Sullishak has a basic stock of cooking implements (including a toaster, coffee maker, and waffle iron) and dry foodstuffs. We all use what we need and replace what we've used before leaving. The Sentry Market is only two blocks away and has a full range of groceries.

The cabin has blankets and down comforters. You should either bring your own sheets, pillowcases, dish towels, and towels -- or you can use the washer and dryer in the entryway before you leave. There is a living room futon and a double bed in each of the small downstairs bedrooms. Upstairs there are three double beds and two single ones. The bedroom dresser and hallway closet contain handy things: light bulbs, fuses, paper and pens, tools, and so forth. The bathroom has a shower.

Sullishak has no garbage service, and the stove is not suitable for burning garbage, so we pack garbage out. Feel free to use one of the big plastic bags under the kitchen sink. We sweep and clean the cabin just before leaving. Unless we know someone else will be coming shortly, we take everything perishable out of the refrigerator—some refrigerator donations have been quite incredible when found a month later . . .

The cabin's main sources of heat are a baseboard heater in the living room and a wood stove. Wood and kindling are in the small woodshed. The electric lawnmower is in the locked tool shed along with the ax, rake, and so on. Feel free to use them, especially if the grass is long. All keys are on the side of the bookshelf near the wood stove—where they belong.

From mid-March through Thanksgiving, you'll find the electricity and water turned on and ready to use. From Thanksgiving to March it will be necessary to "de-winterize" the cabin by turning on the electricity and the water. To do this, simply look at the Winter Checkout List posted near the door (also shown below) and reverse the procedure.

Checkout Lists

Summer Checkout List-- March 15 to Thanksgiving

• Turn off: lights, electric blanket, electric heaters in living room and small bedroom , coffee maker, and electric stove.
• Take perishables out of the refrigerator.
• Take out the garbage. (Plastic bags under kitchen sink.)
• Leave sheets and towels clean. Bring your own or use the cabin's washer and dryer.
• Sweep and clean cabin.
• See that the wood stove fire is out or almost out.
• Lock the woodshed and tool shed. Return keys to nails on side of bookshelf by wood stove.
• Lock cabin.

Winter Checkout List -- Thanksgiving to March 15

In addition to completing the Summer Checkout List, you should:

• Unplug the refrigerator. Defrost and clean it using a baking soda and water solution. Prop the door open.
• Go outside the house to the crawl space under the bathroom window and turn off the water faucet. Then unscrew the small petcock at the side of the turn-off valve so all water in the cabin's plumbing drains out. Do not drop or lose the petcock. Leave it partly screwed on. After turning off water, flush the toilet twice to empty the toilet tank. Add abut 1 cup of antifreeze to toilet bowl. Pour a few tablespoons of antifreeze into the kitchen sink, bathroom washbowl and shower drains.
• Turn off all electricity. Do this at the main fuse box on the living room wall.