Innehållsförteckning för Winter 2024 från Cottage Life

Level of concern Though I have never bought a cottage, I purchased an acre-and-a-half on a lake in Washington when I was 16. The next year, I built a 1,200 sq. ft. cabin that I used for a couple of decades before selling to one of my renters. A decade of sailing the B.C. coast followed. In the late ’90s, my wife and I built a cottage on her father’s island near Kingston, Ont., which we now own with other family members. “On the Road Again,” (Waterfront, Sept/Oct ’24) describes the rather onerous experience one family endured to find their dream cottage on Lake Nipissing, Ont. The house is only feet above water level in the photo. Being this close to the water is very risky. My in-laws’ place was…

NOVEMBER MARKS THE 150th anniversary of the birth of Lucy Maud Montgomery, the author of Anne of Green Gables. Both the writer and her works are synonymous with P.E.I.; of Montgomery’s 21 novels, all but one take place—at least in part—on the island. The outlier is 1926’s The Blue Castle, a then-risqué rom-com about an aging spinster who falls in love with a mysterious outcast. It is set in cottage country’s very own Muskoka. The Blue Castle’s fictional town of “Deerwood” is based on Bala, Ont. That’s where, in July 1922, Montgomery and her family arrived for a two-week stay at the Roselawn Lodge. (The lodge burned down in 1941.) A compulsive diarist and photographer, Montgomery thoroughly documented her time in Bala. Muskoka was a “fairyland,” she wrote in her…

1 Birdfy feeder camera ($180 for basic model; birdfy.com) This smart bird feeder camera pings viewers—through an app—every time an avian visitor arrives. It offers high-resolution close-up shots and can identify more than 6,000 species. 2 Deck-mounted heated bird bath ($200 for 20-inch model; urbannaturestore.ca) Attracting birds to the backyard with a bird bath is a sure way to combat the winter blues. Plus, having ice-free water is helpful for the birds—they use it for drinking and bathing. 3 AVIA bird-friendly coffee ($20; cafebirdfriendly.org) What’s not to love in a cup of joe that helps birds and wildlife? This bird-friendly coffee grows under a canopy of trees rather than on cleared land, without pesticides, and preserves critical habitat for migratory birds. AVIA partners with local organizations and a portion of coffee sales go…

INDOOR WATER SUPPLY pipes can be vulnerable to freezing at your four-season cottage—even if you keep the heat on low. Consider these four solutions. LEAVE A TAP RUNNING SLOWLY While this band-aid approach is simple and easy, don’t rely on it as a permanent fix. And don’t underestimate the amount of flow required to keep a pipe from freezing. It usually takes more than just an occasional drip. A constant flow about as thick as cooked spaghetti is what you want. INSULATE AND VENTILATE If a vulnerable area of pipe is accessible, add insulation, especially when pipes run along exterior walls. Always insulate only between the pipe and the outside cold; never place insulation so it blocks indoor heat from reaching the pipes. Boosting the movement of heated room air…

IF YOU’VE EVER warmed your toes with a hot-water bottle, you know the principle behind Michael Salter’s cottage heating system. Except this “bottle” holds 4,500 litres, it’s way too big to fill from a kettle, and you’ll never fit it beneath the covers. The heart of Michael’s system is a water-filled tank from Brooklin Concrete, snuggled in foam insulation in the basement of Michael’s Lake of Bays, Ont., cottage. At 11 p.m. on winter nights, when Ontario’s 2.8 cents per kilowatt-hour “Ultra-Low Overnight” electricity rate kicks in, an electric boiler warms the water in the tank to a balmy 65°C. When rates more than triple at 7 a.m., the boiler shuts down. For the rest of the day, the tank sends its stored warmth to the cottage’s hydronic in-floor heating.…

IT’S NO SECRET that cottage country populations have boomed over the last decade. Between 2016 and 2021, four of Canada’s fastest-growing populations were in rural areas such as Wasaga Beach, Ont., and Collingwood, Ont. More faces means a welcomed bump in business, foot traffic, and tourism for some sleepy cottage towns—and more visitors looking for places to rest their heads. For many folks, this involves a stay at a short-term rental (STR) property. Some are investment properties owned by individuals or corporations, which operate as full-time rental businesses; others are owned by cottagers who occasionally rent out their places to help with things like bills and mortgages. Justin Charles is a cottager in Rosseau, Ont., who falls into that second category. He’s owned his 500-sq.-ft., two-bedroom lakeside recreational property for…

Sasha Chapman Sasha Chapman is a long-time Cottage Life contributor and an award-winning environmental writer. She grew up cottaging on Lake Simcoe, and now has her own cottage on Georgian Bay. Her latest story for the magazine, “On Frozen(ish) Pond” (p. 50), explores our relationship with ice and what it means for us as Canadians now that it is slowly disappearing. “I’ve been thinking about ice for a long time,” she says. “My ancestors were ice harvesters, so I’ve always been intrigued by that history.” While her story is serious and thought-provoking, Sasha hopes readers will come away with something positive as well: “There’s a wonderful rhythm to the seasons, and we depend on ice to help give us that. I hope people will appreci-ate ice, and winter, more now.”…

ANIMALS: they’re just like us! All mammals—including humans—use a combination of strategies to get through the long, cold winter SCARF CALORIES SLEEP MORE INCREASE INSULATION Wolves would rather eat fresh kills, but they’ll rely on frozen deer or moose carcasses if necessary. Groundhogs plump up ahead of hibernation; they gain a layer of fat up to two centimetres thick. Chipmunks enter a state of “torpor” (inactivity) for chunks of time. Their body temperature drops and their metabolic rate slows. Both get a heavier fur coat for the winter. When resting, the Arctic fox wraps itself in its long, bushy tail for extra warmth. Deer mice don’t grow a thick coat, but they do snuggle up in fur- or feather-lined nests when it’s time to snooze.…

IT’S ALL HANDS on—and off—deck as researchers from Michigan Technological University pilot the Armada 8, a 26-foot uncrewed vessel from Ocean Infinity. The data collected by the team will be added to Lakebed 2030, an initiative from the Great Lakes Observing System, to map the lakes in high-definition. Unfortunately, existing charts for many areas of the Great Lakes are decades old, says Travis White, a research engineer at the university involved with the initiative. Out-of-date records pose a hazard to boaters because they’re missing shoals and other underwater hazards. The Armada 8 doesn’t run totally solo. A crewed “chase boat” tags along and remotely pilots the uncrewed vessel. With two vessels sharing the work, the team is able to map twice the amount of area in the same amount of…

1 Nindejin screw kit Bolster the hardware supply for all those odd cottage fixes with a variety pack—this one has 1,132 stainless steel wood screws in nine sizes. ($37, amazon.ca) 2 Mastercraft five-piece wrecking set Ah, the joy of wrecking stuff. With a versatile five-piece set of pry bars and cat’s paws, your handy-person will have the right-sized tool for removing trim, pulling nails, or just tearing up the joint. ($30, canadiantire.ca) 3 Husky magnetic pickup tool Help retrieve those critical screws and nuts that fall between deck boards and behind the workbench. Since it prevents frustration, this is a true gift of love. ($10, homedepot.ca) GIFT GUIDE You give tennis bracelets If you enjoy wrapping gifts that are luxe and spendy, even when they’re not truly necessary, here are some ideas to…

IF THE PLUMBING starts leaking, how likely is it that you’re in the cottage to shut off the water right away? Moen’s Flo Smart water monitor and shutoff device learns your typical water-usage patterns and can perform a scheduled leak check to flag a leaky toilet flapper valve or a hidden pinhole leak in the wall cavity. If it detects unusual water flow, it sends an alert to your phone, and it can stop the flow automatically—or you can use the app to shut off your water. The device requires electricity and Wi-Fi, and it starts at about $700 from building centres and other retailers.…

Q: When it comes to winter clothing, does the colour of the outer layer have any effect on heat emissivity? For example, is white a better colour than black?—George Waters, via email A: We understand why you’re asking the question. “Everyone knows that in the summer, wearing white is better than wearing black,” says Stephen Morris, a professor emeritus in the department of physics at the University of Toronto. But that’s because dark colours absorb more heat than light colours. The reverse isn’t true: clothing colour doesn’t make a difference when it comes to emitting heat. “The colour of the outer layer wouldn’t have an effect on how quickly you lose heat to your surroundings,” says Joanne O’Meara, a professor in the department of physics at the University of Guelph.…

WHAT’S SEMI-CYLINDRICAL, made of steel, and is changing the way we think about building homes and cottages? Quonset huts. While their futuristic appearance may seem ultra-modern, they’ve actually been around since the 1940s. The structures were developed during the war to quickly and easily house military folks. Bases in remote locations would receive the huts in pieces, with personnel taking as little as a day to fully assemble one, from the corrugated metal shell, steel frame, and wood fibre insulation, all the way down to the plywood floor. Quonsets have come a long way since then. Farmers have used them for decades to store livestock, equipment, and hay bales, and now, people are living in them. When compared to traditional “stick built” structures, Quonset homes are better able to withstand…

DENISE ROY AND Rahim Jaffer had been pondering an investment property in their hometown of Toronto, Ont., since 2022. But when their daughter was born in early 2023, the couple reconsidered. “We wanted her to have a place to spend time in nature instead.” They envisioned a spot outside of the city where they could unwind as a family and rent it out when not in use. Denise had always been passionate about interior decorating, so they were up for a renovation project. The couple had visited friends’ vacation homes in The Blue Mountains, Ont., and loved the region. “I learned to ski really young, and that was a big part of my childhood,” says Denise. She liked the idea of getting Rahim and their daughter hooked on her favourite…

ATTEND ENOUGH LAKE association meetings, and sooner or later, you’ll hear contradictory advice. One well-meaning speaker (in a fleece vest) wants to safeguard water quality, so idle the lawn mower, leave fallen trees and limbs, and maintain a diverse tangle of waterfront foliage. Cue the slide show of a cottage nestled in the woods, with loons gliding past the dock. Another equally well-meaning presenter (in a blue or tan uniform) touts advice from FireSmart, a program founded in 1993 that helps owners increase their property’s resilience to wildfire. Mow the lawn, pick up branches, thin surrounding evergreens. Click. Up comes a slide of a tidy yellow cabin on a manicured lawn, with trees that are well-spaced. After taking in a FireSmart presentation, Bracebridge, Ont., resident and Muskoka Watershed Council member…

THE CABIN WAS sold to us as a summer-only place: it was a 10-minute boat ride from the marina. So we studied the maps and told ourselves we would find a way to get there in winter anyhow. Maybe we could ski to the cabin when Georgian Bay froze? But we didn’t count on the currents that kept the water moving and the ice from thickening. Or the fact that the winters themselves were getting milder and milder. That first summer, we boated over to the waste transfer station to find a new home for two taxidermied fish. They had come with the cabin and were in excellent condition, but they offended the sensibilities of our vegetarian teenage daughters. A local handyman took them off our hands straight away. We…

life in pictures flight take Warren Lowe, Green Lake, B.C. How they got the shot Warren is an avid bird photographer. Last spring, a heron landed in a tree near his cottage, and he jumped to grab his Sony A9 camera. He took a high-speed sequence of photos and captured this heron just as it took flight. Sorting through the shots, Warren loved the framing of this one. “It was a lucky coincidence that the heron took off when it did,” he says. “I try to capture my love for the subject and share that as a story with others.” What makes it a winner Our judges see a lot of herons in the photo contest, but never like this. Usually the bird is stoic and poised, standing on the…

To meet the challenges of winter freeze-up, many river otters across Canada retire alone to remote upstream beaver ponds or small, boggy lakes. Yet, they often become more active by day, their ventures above the ice evidenced by subtly web-footed tracks, with a heavy tail drag, along frozen watersides. Ice cover keeps most otters to as little as a tenth of their summer movements. The streamlined mustelids can submerge for up to four minutes, torpedoing as much as 400 metres between dens or breaks at rapids or shallow, underwater springs. By gnawing and clawing gaps or holes into beaver dams, they can also lower the water to create a layer of air beneath the ice. An otter frequents a number of old beaver lodges, muskrat mud dens, or bank burrows,…