Riding out a SNOWSTORM in our Tiny Cabin by a Frozen Lake

The snow is falling and the wind is whipping, but our little cabin holds strong inside the pines. Today I've got my daughter with me. We're here to just soak it all in. So join us for some peace, adventure, and of course tons of laughs. This is tiny cabin life. We're in Sand Dune State Forest in Minnesota gearing up for a day of snow and some pretty cold temperatures. I brought out our travel cabin for this one which is the largest and most comfortable camper that we have. Let's get in the cabin. Let's get a fire going. So as you can see here I decided to get the fire prepped before we even got out here. It's something I should probably do on every trip but I especially wanted to do it this time with Olivia so that we could get this place warm as quickly as possible. Oh it's cold. It's gonna be warm in no time. As you can see we're camped out on the edge of this lake which is providing a beautiful backdrop for this snowstorm. It's a really nice camp too. It's right off the side of the forest road and directly across from a national wildlife refuge. The camp itself is surrounded by pine trees and it even has a nice little fire ring which I'm hoping we'll get to use later on today. Well guys I am so excited to have little Olivia out here with me for a very long overdue daddy-daughter trip. We're going to just be spending the day and night out here in the travel cabin which I also haven't used in quite a while and we're really looking forward to it. So we're going to try to make these cinnamon rolls in the dutch oven here and I find it kind of disturbing that they have to tell you that they're made with real cinnamon. I'm not sure what else you make cinnamon rolls with but I guess it's good to know that it's real. While we waited for the cinnamon rolls to bake I put up the gate in front of the fire and headed outside to make sure we had enough firewood for the day and night. All right let's see what we got. Oh yeah baby. Those look great. Well unfortunately as you can see the outsides are a little charred. The inside still looks pretty good so hopefully they still work out. Well for doing these on the wood stove I think they look pretty good but we're going to find out huh. These actually turned out great you guys. They are a little crunchy just on the outside but the inside is fluffy. Bite down. There you go. Last piece then we got to give some to Ellie. Sand Dune State Forest is a fascinating stretch of land here in Minnesota. It was established in the mid-1940s as a conservation effort to essentially give purpose to a land that was deemed useless at the time. They planted thousands of pine trees in order to stabilize the sandy soil and transformed this place from a wasteland of sorts to an outdoor lover's paradise. Ready, set, ready, set, nope. Just kidding. Wow he's happy now. The end. He's sparkly. Yeah he is sparkly. After hanging out in the cabin for a while we noticed that there was a little break in the snow and decided that this would be the perfect time to get out and do some exploring. All right let's get you in this thing. All right believe it or not this is for like little babies but it should work just fine for you. All right so we're going to make our way over into the pines and from there hopefully work our way down to the lake. I know we're right on the lake but there's a really cool spot up and around the corner here and uh yeah it'll be fun to see if we can get all the way back in there. Yeah that's what she's saying. Good work Al. Feels quite nostalgic being here because this state forest was one that I would go to all the time right before Olivia was born. Riley and I would come here and camp out and it's kind of fitting to be doing it again with Olivia right before her baby sister arrives. Wow look at the pines. They are so pretty. Aren't they pretty Olivia? So this right here is a camp that Riley and I, that mommy and I stayed at in the bike cabin a couple years ago. I want to say almost three years ago and it was a lot of fun. It was very tight. If you think it's tight with Ellie and me sleeping in there or if I thought it was tight boy having two human beings in there is uh really tight but this is an awesome little camp. Well we're gonna try to make it down to the edge of the lake per this girl's request. Once we get through this brush it should be a lot easier. You got it. Good work. Way to go. Now it's smooth sailing all the way down to the lake. It's nice down here. Yeah it is. Wow we made it. Is that the lake? Yeah that's the lake right in front of you. Look at that snow. So Olivia when it gets really cold the water freezes and it turns into ice cubes. You know ice cubes like in your water? That's what happens to a lake. So right now the lake is frozen over. It's completely solid. So that's the lake right down there. Right here. See the ice? You know it's funny we take the knowledge of these basic things like water freezing into ice. We take those things for granted but you do kind of realize how crazy that sounds you know when you're explaining it to a little human like this. That's one of the things that having a kid does to you. It allows you to kind of see the world through the eyes of a child again and it's it's really amazing. The snow began to pick up again as we enjoyed our time out there on the lake and eventually we decided that we should probably head back to the cabin and warm up a bit. All right we got to put some more wood on the fire here. Is it burned out? Yeah it's not fully burned out but uh we want to keep this cabin warm so. Family's amazing! What are you saying? Dear lord thank you for this time together out here. Help us to stay safe and have a great time. Amen. Amen. Well we got some stew here which Rye made last night. It's pretty good isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. And it's too hot. No i don't think so. Let me try it. It's not too hot. You want a bite? Here's a little carrot. Yeah that's what we say. I realized on this trip that eating with a toddler in here is not easy. There's no like dining room table and she's too big for her little high chair that she used to use in here. So that's why we're like sharing everything. After relaxing a little bit longer in the cabin we decided to head outside and try to have a campfire. That's how we build fires you know. Start with little pieces and then we put bigger pieces on. So see we're putting a little bit bigger pieces on. Just a little bit bigger. It's chilly. It's chilly isn't it? It's chilly. Say it again. It's probably chilly outside and so outside. You're very very cute Googie. I'm very busy walking. You're very busy walking? Yeah. You're doing a great job at walking. I'll tell you what you got some nice boots. And my gloves. Yeah you got some good gloves there too. One tough cookie. You want to put some wood on the fire? Yeah. All right let me split it up and then I'll let you put it on okay. All right this is a good piece for you to put on. Take that piece just put it on the fire okay and just throw it. Good job. Now take this piece put it on the fire here. Put it on the fire. Yeah. High five. Low five I guess. And more. You want more? Yeah. All right. Put that one on. Nice. Almost. Almost. Here put that one on. Nice. Very good. Put that one on. Chuck it on. Very good. And put this one on. Very good job. You're a pro. You're a pro. It's very warm in there. Not sure how much longer we're gonna last out here. The wind's really starting to pick up and it's getting cold so I think we're gonna be heading into the cabin for the night very very soon. That's what we call a good old-fashioned body slam. Well guys we've got an extreme cold warning here. It's saying that we're gonna get a wind chill of negative 44 degrees. That's crazy. Now thankfully this cabin is very well insulated. We've got all the heat we could ever need and we're close to town so we could get out of here if we needed to. But that's pretty nuts. This girl would have no idea. She would have no clue. Well that's an absolute fail right there. Oh boy. I'll eat that one. Dear Lord, thank you for this dinner. Thank you for an awesome day. Help us to continue to have fun and be safe. Amen. Well the grilled cheese turned out okay for one of them. This one is not good. That's gonna be mine. But Olivia's looks great. Nice and golden brown. Exactly what you want. Actually not so bad. While it is black it's not like hard. So that's good. How is it? Good. Good? Good. All right it is about time for us to hit the hay. Thankfully it is toasty warm in here. That stove is cranking. I'm sure I'll have to stoke it in the middle of the night. But for now we are more than good. So we're gonna get some shut eye and we'll see you first thing in the morning. Good night. Well good morning. Olivia's still sleeping in there which is why I'm being extra quiet. But it's a beautiful morning. It is freezing outside. Let's see how cold it really is right now. Okay so right now it's four degrees. Says it feels like negative 11. For the day it's gonna be negative 20. So temperature is continuing to drop rapidly. Look who's awake. Would you like some coffee? Yeah. All right we'll just pour you a little cup here. Cheers. That's good coffee. We're gonna just enjoy these last cups of coffee and then I think soon here it's gonna be time to pack out and hit the road. All right guys that is gonna do it for this one. I hope you had as much fun as we did. I know these adventures are a little more low-key and rough around the edges when I bring Olivia along but they are so much fun. They're so fulfilling to me. It's just precious time spent with my little girl and it's just the best. So I hope you enjoyed it. I want to give a special shout out of course to our patrons who generously donate to this channel. Thank you all so much. But to all of you who watch, comment, subscribe, all that good stuff. Thank you so much. You're all the reason we get to do this on a weekly basis and I'm extremely grateful for that. But with that we just got one girl to get home and see and that's mommy. So we're gonna do that. We'll see you guys next week. God bless.