Indholdsfortegnelse for May 2022 i Cottage Life

Mink reign supreme I just read your article “The Usual Suspects” (Mar/Apr ’22). I noticed mink were not mentioned. Are we the only cottagers who have mink? Our place is in the Thousand Islands. The mink poop everywhere in our dock shed. They’ll eat fish and leave the fish heads under the dock to rot, which draws flies. We have pulled up our dock twice now to try to block their entry from the water. Last year, the mink moved under the cottage, and my daughter’s Mastiff dog was determined to find the fish heads they took with them. Have you ever crawled under a cottage to try to convince a 150-pound dog to come out? Let alone trying to do so with fish heads hidden under there.—Pam Frost, Thousand…

Q: We’re no longer using our cottage as frequently as we used to, but we aren’t ready to sell. We want to start renting it out (to short-term renters). Should we tell our neighbours that this is our plan?—Torrie Samson, via email A: Yes. A million times, yes. Reverse the situation: “Would you want to be advised?” asks Suzanne Nourse, an etiquette consultant with the Protocol School of Ottawa. “Well, then, there’s your answer.” We certainly understand why you’re asking. Renters get blamed for all kinds of lakeside sins: playing loud music, partying late, drinking too much, setting off fireworks, attracting bears, owning poorly trained dogs, parenting children who shriek all of the time while swimming…You’re probably dreading a tense and uncomfortable conversation. But telling them “is 100 per cent…

Q: Do you have any suggestions for alternatives to Wood Energy Technology Transfer inspection of woodstoves for areas where qualified WETT inspectors are very hard to get? What do insurance companies suggest for such regions?—Phil Dean, via email A: There certainly aren’t any alternative certifications. “WETT is the only program in Canada,” says Zigi Gadomski, the president of Wood Energy Technicians British Columbia. But, since “it’s not a government certification or mandated by the government, an insurance company can use anyone they want.” They can. But they probably won’t. “All companies that I know of will now only accept a WETT certification on units such as free-standing woodstoves, pellet stoves, and steel fireplace inserts,” says Bob Dixon of Mason Insurance Brokers in Welland, Ont. “It’s just a fact these days.”…

IN THE SPRING of 2019, Cheryl Feldstein was stuck in traffic along Highway 16, leading into Jasper National Park in Alberta. A male elk was standing at the side of the road. Cars pulled over, helter-skelter, while tourists clamoured to get an up-close photo with the beast. Too up-close, in many cases. This was a scene she’d witnessed before. As the former executive director for a wildlife rehabilitation facility, Feldstein has worked alongside community partners and the media to educate the public on the dangers of close-up photography—both for the animal and the human. It was discouraging to see that so many hadn’t received the message. One of the worst parts, she says, is knowing that often the people taking these photos love wildlife as much as she does. “I…

I CRINGED WHEN my mother told me she’d just bought a kayak from a big box store. I’ve worked as a sea kayak guide and instructor on the Great Lakes for more than 20 years; I take pride in the fact that my sleek and seaworthy fibreglass touring kayak is worth more than my car. People like me use terms like “bathtubs” and “kayak-shaped floating objects” to refer to boats like the nine-foot, $300 plastic kayak my mom asked me to transport to her cottage on Lake Huron’s North Channel. I averted my eyes and cartopped it as fast as I could. My attitude softened when I noticed how often my mom ended our phone calls with, “Okay, I gotta go paddling now.” I understood the joy she’d discovered in…

WHAT COTTAGER HASN’T accidentally dropped something into the lake? If you’re lucky enough to cottage in the Kawarthas, no worries: Jack Milne is on the case. The local scuba diver has been cleaning up the water—and retrieving lost items—for the last two years. Because it’s fun. “I go out every chance I get,” he says. “It’s great to swim around and see what I can haul out in a single day.” Jack first tried scuba diving during a trip to Thailand in 2017. “I was immediately hooked.” So the Cameron, Ont., resident took up the hobby in cottage country. He dives near swimming areas, cliff-jumping spots, and public boat docks. And he finds “a crazy array of items,” he says. Some of it is garbage. Some of it is valuable…

MANY ALUMINUM FISHING boats have livewells (for holding live bait or caught fish) that get water from the lake via pumps and hoses and through-hull fittings. It’s important to inspect this rigging because through-hull fittings exit the boat beneath the water line; a hose failure or a cracked pump housing will pour water straight into the bilge for that sinking feeling. If your boat is getting long in the tooth, you should strongly consider replacing these hoses. Another option, for cottagers who don’t use their livewells, is to detach the connections entirely. An easy fix, one that doesn’t involve epoxy or aluminum welding, is to remove the old hose from the through-hull connection, which will reveal a barbed plastic fitting inside the boat. Slip a short length of new hose…

Q: Several years ago, I was kayaking in a swampy bay in our lake. From a distance, I thought I saw the legs of a dead giraffe. How can that be, I wondered. But as I got closer, I could see that it was actually a large plant root of some sort. I took a photo; I was interested to know what it is.—Neil Poutanen, Lac Sinclair, Que. A: We were interested too. Because we had absolutely no idea. (Well, we were 99 per cent certain that it wasn’t part of a dead giraffe.) Turns out, your second guess was correct. It’s a root system. “Those are actually the roots of a water lily—you can see the leaves in the surrounding water,” says Sean Fox, the manager of horticulture and…

I KNOW MY way around our cottage woods pretty well. I can walk the path through the forest to the lake in the dark without a flashlight—my feet know the way. Between my family’s property, the neighbour’s lot, and the old farm on the other side, there are more than 100 acres to explore, crossed by deer trails and hydro corridors, creeks and valleys. I’ve been tromping over that land my whole life, so it was a shock when I got lost there last winter. My two daughters, my husband, Steve, and I strapped on our snowshoes late one bright, frigid afternoon in February. We’d been online all day, and cabin fever was imminent. Striking out north-westward from the cottage, we made our way up the long, gradual slope, stopping…

FLITTING, DODGING, NEVER seeming to land, northern spring azures are ethereal specks of splendour, appearing miraculously on sunny, warm spring days. The pale blue butterflies herald the unfolding of the season’s ephemeral blossoms—to which they’re intrinsically tied—along forest trails and watersides throughout Canada to the tree line. BENEATH SUN-WARMED leaf litter, azures emerge from plump, brown or yellowish chrysalids for their maiden flights, unlike the smattering of other early spring butterflies, which overwinter as adults. Males patrol almost constantly for mates, especially mid-afternoon to dusk. They seem to disappear when occasionally landing to bask, the grey-brown undersides of their closed wings blending with ground colours. Living for only a few days to a couple of weeks, they sip a little flower nectar, but tank up on minerals from mud puddles…

WHAT IS A powwow, anyway? Contrary to a common, and ignorant, idiom, having a powwow is not participating in an informal meeting at the office. But they aren’t the same as they used to be either. Prior to 1876, powwows were a ceremony to mark alliances with other tribes or to celebrate a good hunt. They typically occurred once per year, where people would drum, dance, eat food, and heal. But with the introduction that year of the Indian Act—a piece of legislation widely recognized as racist—various Indigenous ceremonies (as well as the potlatch, ghost dance, and sun dance) were outlawed. This lasted until 1951 with the removal of some of the discriminatory sections. Today, powwows are acts of reclamation that help maintain connections to traditions, songs, regalia, and community.…

The search: In 1985, Chatham, Ont., couple Don and Yvonne Dreise started buying fixer-uppers to renovate and live in. “We enjoyed doing a project from start to finish,” says Don. “Every couple of years, we’d sell and move to a home that needed more ambitious renovations.” During summers, Don, a project manager at a multi-trade contractor, and Yvonne, a now-retired BMO customer service representative, would take their three children camping in a pop-up trailer. The family travelled to parks throughout southern Ontario, from Pinery and Sauble Falls to Bon Echo and Algonquin. “We were never interested in getting a cottage because we didn’t want to be tied down to the same place,” says Yvonne. “We wanted to experience something new every year.” The compromise: In January 2021, the Dreises took…

IS ROT SETTING IN on your deck boards? Replacing the lumber you walk on is usually an easy repair. You can even upgrade wood to low-maintenance composite lumber if you’re tired of refinishing your deck. But a new deck surface won’t last long unless you check and repair the substructure at the same time. Remove a few old boards from the edge of the deck to be sure that the existing substructure will be safe and reliable if you reuse it. If you used deck screws, you may be able to unscrew them, but chances are debris and corrosion will frustrate your efforts. Instead, use a reciprocating saw with a hacksaw blade to slice through screws or nails at the joint line between deck boards and the underlying frame. It’s…

Q: There is a right-of-way through my property that dates back to horse and buggy days. Traffic has obviously increased; it is now being used by heavy construction equipment to build and remodel cottages beyond our property. Is this legal? Can it be stopped? Can an old RoW be revoked because of a substantial change in use?—Jan Le Clair, Sand Lake, Ont. A: Ian Keay, a managing partner with MKC Law Office in Peterborough, Ont., is answering your questions with…more questions. “Does the party using the right-of-way have that right in their deed? If the answer is no, then, does the party using the right-of-way have a prescriptive right-of-way?” (That’s when the easement is created after a party uses the road for a certain number of years, giving them a…

ON A QUIET April morning, when the wind is low and the soil still damp from snowmelt, smoke rises like fog from Lake Simcoe’s De Grassi Point. Tongues of flame sprint through tall grass, creep beneath oaks and pines, lick at downed twigs and dead leaves. Within hours, four hectares in Innisfree, Ont., a neighbourhood of homes and cottages, will be scorched and blackened. No one will call 9-1-1. This isn’t a wildfire, an arson, or an accident. It’s a “good” fire, a prescribed fire that treats and heals remnants of a rare tallgrass prairie and red oak-white pine savanna. “It’s modelled after the natural burns that keep the savannas open and functioning,” says Conrad Heidenreich, a York University geography professor emeritus and a long-time cottager, now retired to the…

THERE IS A SMALL cabin in a quiet corner of southern B.C., set against rocky cliffs above a deep, narrow slice of lake: Anderson Lake. A rack of elk antlers is fastened above the little cabin’s front door, and from the end of the antlers, hanging from a piece of twine, is a wooden sign. In a cheerful font, it reads: “Be nice, go play outside.” The sign is a message to the three children of Catherine Aird and Sholto Shaw, who bought the property ten years ago. “I’m always telling them, ‘play outside,’” says Catherine. Certainly it’s a statement of the family’s cottaging philosophy, but it’s also practical. The off-grid cabin is small and its amenities are limited. The wilderness around it is boundless. The building is largely unchanged…