Thanksgiving off the grid

WORCESTER - Call it an off-the-grid Thanksgiving.

When it was Luisa and Jim Heffernan’s turn to host Thanksgiving dinner for their large extended family last year, the Worcester couple had the idea to try something different.

Why not have Thanksgiving at the rustic cabins the family owns on a pond in the Maine woods?

Twenty-five cousins, good sports all, said, “Why not?”

So they trekked north to Springy Pond in Clifton, Maine, a half-hour east of Bangor and five hours from Central Massachusetts, for a Thanksgiving with no electricity, no running water, turkeys roasted in coal-fired converted trash cans, and vegetables, mashed potatoes and apple pie cooked in a vintage 1896 cast-iron stove.

“It was the most memorable Thanksgiving ever,” said Mrs. Heffernan, 57, who works in advertising sales for the Telegram & Gazette.

The gathering was held at three cabins the family owns on 44 acres in Penobscot County that Mrs. Heffernan’s father-in-law bought in the 1950s with the idea of establishing a summer camp.

The cabins have no electricity, though two have wood stoves for heat. Drinking water is filtered from the pond. Restrooms are in the form of two outhouses.

“My husband’s cousins are always game for an adventure, so they readily agreed to come north, with cars packed with extra Coleman stoves, lots of food, headlamps, cold-weather gear and sleeping bags,” Mrs. Heffernan said.

Her husband, Jim, 57, professor of electronics engineering technology at Quinsigamond Community College, fashioned two turkey-cookers out of trash cans, heated with coals above and below. The birds, 18 and 16 pounds, were roasted inside the heat-sealed cookers as at a clambake. “After two hours, the meat was falling off the bone,” Mrs. Heffernan said.

She said the restored wood stove was used to cook an apple pie, mashed potatoes, and side dishes of turnips, parsnips and carrots. A dishwashing station was set up outside, with pond water heated by a Coleman propane stove used for rinsing.

With no refrigerator, leftovers were placed in coolers, chilled by large blocks of ice that lasted several days. They made plenty of turkey soup, in a lobster pot on a propane stove, she said.

No electricity meant no electronic devices. Guests, who all stayed the weekend, performed music on melodica and guitar, played board games and did puzzles, and went hiking and canoeing. Some even jumped in the 40-degree water of Springy Pond for a swim.

Thanksgiving off the grid does take extra planning, said Mrs. Heffernan. For example, so guests would not have to go outdoors in the middle of the night to visit the outhouse, she fashioned an indoor latrine from a box and a bucket, lined with peat moss.

“Friends say if the apocalypse ever comes, they know who to call,” she said.

All things considered, Mrs. Heffernan said, “Compared to the Pilgrims, we had it pretty easy.”

This year the Heffernans and their two children, Myles, 29, and Celia, 27, will enjoy Thanksgiving with the cousins in suburban comfort in Framingham.

Mrs. Heffernan was asked if she’d like to do Thanksgiving in the woods again.

“Yeah,” she said, adding, with a laugh, “Don’t tell the family.”