Indholdsfortegnelse for October 2020 i Cottage Life

Feelin’ hot hot hot Great Lakes cottagers may have noticed warmer-than-normal water this summer after they bravely cannonballed off the dock. By July, Lakes Erie, Huron, Ontario, and Michigan were, on average, 3.3°C to 5.5°C warmer than they were at the same time last year, according to the Great Lakes CoastWatch program. A high-pressure system—fair weather, little wind—had moved over the region and stayed there; this warmed the usually-chilly lakes into the mid-20s. A digital revolution The internet is coming! Lakeland Energy is launching nearly a dozen projects to bring broadband to Gravenhurst, Muskoka, and Parry Sound. Translation? Better high-speed access for countless Ontario cottagers. Hot damn! It’ll be easier for them to visit cottagelife.com. Why else would they go online? Pink flawed A bird is not a boat. In…

Is it time to replace your smoke alarms? If they’re 10 years old, the answer is heck yes. Quick, to the hardware store! Where you may be confused! There are combo models that also detect carbon monoxide; units that message your phone; alarms suited to smouldering fires (“photoelectric”) vs. fast-flaming fires (“ionization”); strobe light models; even versions that use a voice alert instead of beeping. One recent study showed that a recording of Mom’s voice was three times more likely to wake up children under 12. Having at least one alarm on each storey and outside sleeping areas is a legal requirement for existing cottages (with additional rules for recent builds), but the choice of features “comes down to personal preference,” says Mike Peake, a fire prevention officer with the…

TASK FORCE #1 Two engineers with ambitious leanings Some may say that engineers Richard Foucault and Tom Gage are retired. But whenever they get together, these fellow Lang Lake, Ont. cottagers can’t stop working. There’s always a new project on the go, from fixing old chimneys, to creating an innovative water valve for a pumping system, and even building a 140-foot-long inclinator system. Their enterprising ways started in 2014, a few years after Tom and his wife, Barb, purchased land on the lake. It came with the ruins of an old lodge, but the only parts of it they could salvage were the two stone chimneys. Barb fell in love with them, even though one was so deteriorated it was about to fall over. She begged Tom to fix it,…

Drew Hayden Taylor Author, playwright, and filmmaker Drew Hayden Taylor, from Curve Lake First Nations, Ont., uses his creative talents to explore the world from an Indigenous perspective, as seen in his essay, “Thanksgiving: Past, Present, Future” (p. 79). Drew’s childhood experience of cottage country was different than that of cottagers today. “I grew up canoeing all over the Kawartha Lakes, and we would pull up anywhere on the shore to eat,” he says. “Today most of the lakefront is taken up by cottagers.” Drew explores land and water conflicts between Native and non-Native people in the most recent of his 33 novels, Chasing Painted Horses. Suharu Ogawa Originally from Japan, Suharu Ogawa decided to become an illustrator after what she says was an early mid-life crisis. “I couldn’t give…

The All-Guilty Pleasures Thanksgiving…

Whether canvas, coloured polyethylene, or clear plastic, tarpaulins are indispensable for outdoor storage, protecting everything from boats and woodpiles to half-shingled bunkie roofs. The only trouble with tarps is keeping them from shifting, flapping, or blowing away, because the tie-down grommets are never where you need them. You can buy clips and clamps for this purpose, but what are the odds you’ll have one in your pocket when it comes time to cover the sailboat for the season? For a nifty tarping solution, just look down, pick up a small stone, and make a rock “button.” Push the rock up from the underside of the tarp, then lasso it with a slip knot in your tie-down rope. Pull tight, and you’ve got a solid grommet replacement that can be located…

1 Plumbing and water supply So you’ve drained your tanks and lines, put antifreeze in your traps, and opened all your taps. That’s it…right? DON’T FORGET TO…empty flexible sprayer lines in sinks and showers, supply and drain lines for washing machines, garden hoses, and dishwasher lines. 2 Animal control You’ve packed up all the food, but have you left our furry friends a smorgasbord? DON’T FORGET TO…clean toaster crumb trays, barbecue grease catches, and dirty barbecue grills. 3 Electricity and heat When shutting off the power, it’s common practice to just throw the main switch in the breaker panel, but this can be dangerous when you reopen in the spring. If you turn on the main breaker and everything comes on at once, it introduces a huge load to the…

When our team gathered for a Thanksgiving meal, we asked recipe developer David Grenier to create this feast for us inspired by our family favourites, finding short cuts, make-aheads, and updates to freshen up these classics. Slow Cooker Mulled Wine Makes 3 Litres Mix it up, and turn on the slow cooker; it’s that simple. When your first guest arrives, the cottage will smell amazing, and you’ll have a warm and toasty sipper to offer. 2 bottles (each 750 ml) red wine (a jammy, fruity Shiraz or Merlot will work well)1 litre apple cider1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries1 cup brandy½ cup maple syrup4 cinnamon sticks4 whole star anise4 whole cloves fruit to garnish (sliced apples, pears, and oranges) 1 Combine all ingredients, except fruit slices, in a 6 qt slow…

When looking for models for our story about making the leap to living full-time at the cottage (“So Long, Cottage Commute,” p. 50), we wanted to find an older couple, but keep our social bubble small. (Thanks, pandemic!) And since we’re all about family at CL, editor-in-chief Michelle Kelly called up her mother, Mary Kelly, and her mother’s husband, John Barr. The pair had a blast posing for the camera at Wahwashkesh Lake, Ont., but wasn’t expecting to have to jump off the dock 30 times to get just the right shot. Talk about pier pressure!…

We have photographic proof that the fall colours are spectacular no matter where you have a cottage or cabin: a shot from Kevin McNeil, taken at Aylmer Lake, N.W.T. (p. 19). The glorious pops of colour are thanks to bearberry, in particular, the Arctous genus, says Paul Sokoloff, a senior research assistant in botany at the Canadian Museum of Nature. “It’s very typical vegetation for this part of the Northwest Territories.” Bearberry is a dwarf shrub adapted to Arctic conditions; the Arctous genus has two species, alpina and rubra. They’re green in the summer, says Sokoloff, but “it’s common for both of them to turn bright red in the fall.” Doppelgänger alert! The two species are easy to confuse. You can only tell them apart by their berries, says Sokoloff.…

Spicy S’more Replace graham crackers with ginger snaps. Testers said Delicious. The best one! The spice cuts a bit of the sweetness. Tropical S’more Replace regular marshmallow with toasted coconut marshmallow. Testers said One marshmallow only gives you a whisper of coconut; use more for stronger flavour. Triple Chocolate S’more Replace graham crackers with chocolate-coated butter cookies. Testers said I think I died and went to chocolate heaven. Choco-less S’more Replace chocolate with caramel sauce. Testers said The S’more Police would say that this is not a s’more, but we say it still works. Inception S’more Replace graham crackers with Frosted S’mores Pop-Tarts. Testers said Tasty, but soft. Good for people with false teeth.…

I’ve been using log splitters for more than 25 years to turn chainsaw-cut rounds into firewood. Place a block on the splitter, move the lever, then watch the hydraulic ram cleave the wood. Machine power replaces human sweat. Very small electric wood splitters are available, but you’ll make more firewood in less time with a gas-powered model, and you won’t need a power outlet, either. For the past year, I’ve been using Champion Power Equipment’s 25-ton splitter, a medium-sized, $2,000 machine that’s large enough to be useful but small enough to wheel around easily. A splitter rated at 20 to 27 tons—the force applied to the wood—is powerful enough for most logs. (My machine weighs 430 lbs, not 25 tons.) When it’s in horizontal mode, place blocks on the tool’s…

Living space 1,575 sq. ft. Why we love it Minimalist design; light environmental footprint; thoughtful decor WHEN Peter Schneider and Richard Almonte started looking for a cottage in 2008, Peter’s dad, George, gave them some important advice. The couple lives in downtown Toronto, where Richard is a professor and Peter is a lawyer; they were considering a property more than 4,000 km away, in northern B.C., where George has a place on a secluded lake. George appreciated the thought, then told them to think again. “He said, ‘If you’re going to find a place, it needs to be near to where you live,’” says Richard. “He said we needed to start our own story.” The question is, how does someone start a cottage story without a long family history in…

With all the projects I’ve done over the years, a custom tool box with easy access to everything I use regularly trumps any “toss your stuff in there” retail version. I’ve tweaked the interior design on this project to find the best configuration that meets my specific needs. My tools and accessories are expensive (I bet yours are too), so I need to store them properly and have a spot for everything. Oh, and when one is missing, I know exactly which tool I’m hunting for. The build is a standard box with a lid compartment, but it’s the tool storage customization that really makes this design special. Use my layout, or create your own. It takes some time to make the small pieces, but be patient; the end result…

Who goes there? Dozens of creatures break down, or benefit from, fallen leaves. They include: Each autumn’s colourful mantle of newly fallen leaves adds to a mass of organic decay commonly exceeding the bulk of all living things in the forest. Together with fallen deadwood, this immense bed of compost harbours unparalleled biological diversity and nutrient riches for new growth on land and life in water. Rain and moisture, aided by frosts and thaws, leach up to a third of a fallen leaf’s contents within two or three weeks. Fungi colonize the new litter immediately after it falls, together with bacteria consuming the lion’s share of it, even beneath the snow in winter. Vast multitudes of mites, springtails, worms, and other invertebrates accelerate decomposition, riddling litterfall with tiny holes, which…

To cut down on empties at his Pencil Lake cottage, north of Buckhorn, Ont., Jon Mansell converted a fridge into a draft dispenser. He always has a keg of beer chilling when guests arrive, some from as far away as Hawaii and the Czech Republic. “I tell them, ‘Sign the fridge, and I’ll give you a beer,’” Jon says. He also asks them to add a comment about their visit. It’s only fair: it wasn’t easy getting that fridge there. “We’re water access, and we had to hike it up the hill.”…