The Great Crow Lake Parade!

After several weeks of having very few people visit (was it something Christine said?), CFB Crow Lake was like Times Square at New Year's Eve this past weekend.

That might be an exaggeration.  We had Rob and Deb over on Saturday and Caroline and her boyfriend Asley on Sunday.  So four people.  But for us, that's Grand Central Station!

Hey, no knock on people not being able to make it over.  Scheduling, weather, whatever.  It may have been a bit of a blessing in disguise as we had some concerns about the plumbing until recently.  That was resolved a couple of weeks ago, and with that taken care of, we're more comfortable with throwing the doors open.

So first, Rob and Debbie.  It didn't strike me until late in the day that I took very few pictures during their visit because Debbie was doing a pretty thorough job of it herself.  I'll get my hands on her pictures at some point and share a few (unless she beats me to it, or there's some sort of ban involved).

Pretty active little day.  Rob and I got into the pedal boat and moved the floating dock back into place (again??!).  All under the watchful eye of a spider who chose that day to chill on the dock.  It was not going to be challenged; that thing was about the size of a hubcap.  We saved it to hide in Kathy's bed the next time she spends the night.  So many ways to have fun at the cottage!

They both spent some time in the water hammock and Deb and I later took a more leisurely ride along the coast in the pedal boat.  Oh, and we found a plastic table in the woods!  It seemed like a good fit with the rest of our furniture around the fire pit, so we rescued it and added it to the set.  Why not?

They left around 8PM, I believe, around the time that their sunburns were starting to really show.  ;-)  We haven't spoken to them since the visit, but I'm curious to find out how they were feeling the next day.  I suspect there were tender shoulders and sore quad muscles.  We'll see.

Then on Sunday, Caroline and Asley.

Say hello, everyone!

A couple of opportunities to meet Asley had fallen through so it was a pleasure to finally do so, especially in a rather relaxed environment.

The fish got a fair amount of attention this day. Fish feeding off the dock has turned into a popular activity, a pleasant surprise that I didn't anticipate when we bought the place.  Everyone seems to enjoy it, and why not?  What's not to enjoy?

Uhm...You're doing the "catch and release" thing, right?

Which is all fine and good, except that frequently fed fish become a little more...bold.  I don't want to dwell on an ugly situation but suffice to say that a couple of weeks ago, one of those fish...violated me.  So please: Feed responsibly.

And keep an eye on Oscar.  He doesn't get the concept of throwing food in water.

They also had some fun in the pedal boat.  I remain surprised at how often that thing gets used.

And get a load of what they brought; blueberry poppy seed bread.  It took all my willpower to not lick my monitor while posting the picture.

Christine and I are on vacation next week and the bulk of it will be spent out there (go figure), so you may not hear much from us during that time.  Just an FYI.

Kayaking Crow Lake.

The whole damn thing.  It was planned for the last week of July, when Chris and I are both off and plan to be at the cottage most of the time.

Here's a map that will probably be of little use to you.

See the little yellow dot at the top?  We're a little to the right of that.  So I'm aiming to follow the coast until, well, I get back to my starting point.

Just something I want to do.  You know, the "because it's there" feeling.  Same reason I climbed the CN Tower years ago.  Just seemed like a neat physical challenge (confession: It's easier than it sounds).  Plus it's motivation to stay in some sort of shape, other than pear-shaped.

Quick aside about the CN Tower climb; you'd be shocked at how often, when I told people I was climbing the CN Tower, I'd be asked "From inside?".  Of course from inside, for Christ's sake.  I'm not friggin' Spider-Man!

Anyway...

Following my junk-shrinking (hey, that's not permanent, is it?) dive from earlier that morning, I got in my kayak for a shortened version of my planned trek.  It was an opportunity to learn from several mistakes.

I went past Gull Rock (remember that from an earlier post?  Anal probes!) to an island called Bertrim...Island.  Lovely place, with ridiculously clear water near the shore.  Blow this picture up.

Here's what I did wrong, and will fix.

1) I didn't wear my bad ass Mechanix gloves because I'd left them at home.  I blistered at the thumb webbing on both hands.  Insert frog joke here.  I'm not doing this unless the gloves are available.

2) I wore my bathing suit.  What blows about that is that you only burn in the inside of your legs.  Hurts like hell.  Long pants on the big trip.  I wonder if I'd look good in that Lululemon stuff?

Owie-owie-owie!

3) You take on water from the drips off your paddle.  But get this math: the further you go, the more water you take on.  I'm bringing a small towel or something so that I can wring some of it out.

4) A lunch wouldn't kill me.  A tofurkey sandwich, on dill mustard, would be lovely, perhaps with a refreshing iced tea...

5) Leave early.  I left for this trial run at around 10:20 but was still on the water at high noon.  By then, it was hotter than bacon fat out there.  At some point, I think vultures were circling, just waiting for me to die. Jerks.  Besides, the water tends to be calmer earlier, therefore easier to navigate.  I like those nautical terms.

That's about it. 

Bertrim Island is further than it looks, and I managed it OK, but that also underscored just how long my little excursion actually is.  So maybe our week off at the end of August is a better target time.  Whatever.  Sooner or later, I'm doin' it.

Morning Glory

Our last couple of visits to the Sharbot Lake Farmers' Market resulted in gut-wrenching, soul-withering heartbreak.  By the time we arrived, the cinnamon buns were sold out.  Gone!  #CottageProblems.

Now we all know that a small town Farmers Market is a dog-eat-dog environment. You can't let your guard down for a moment or you'll end up getting punked by some old hippie who's all "peace and love, man" until it's you, him and the last cinnamon bun on the table.  All of sudden, it's survival of the fittest.  Peace and love are tossed right out the smoke-filled Volkswagon van window.  Pave paradise, put up a boxing ring.

It was determined by not me that we would be out a little earlier this Saturday in order to beat the bun rush and avoid once again having our spirits shattered.  I was reminded of my days as a stock boy clerk at K-Mart.  We'd have a $2 off sale on laundry detergent or some such.  You'd unlock the doors as the store opened then have to run for your life to avoid getting caught in the ensuing stampede.  It was like the running of the bulls, except the bulls all wore track pants and smelled like cigarette smoke and hair spray.

But I digress...

Awokened (what?  No way that's right...) at roughly 6AM by a daschund licking my back (or at least I assume it was Oscar, otherwise things got a little weird for a moment there...), I crawled out of bed, threw my bathing suit on, and jumped in the lake.

My pre-dive view

Whoo!!  That's a jolt!

That's one of those things that you think might be cool to do "one day" (well, some people think that...) but when dozing under the covers in your comfy bed, you're not exactly bristling with motivation to dive into a misty lake.  But dang it, the water's finally a decent temperature, a mere 10 months after we bought the place, so off I went.

My mum told me that this is something that, of all people, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith does regularly.  From a cottage (or small home, whatever) in one of the Carolinas, the first thing he does in the morning is dive into the lake.  And look at how well he's aged!

Right...That may not be the best example.  There may be other factors at play there.  But I will admit that it is an invigorating way to start the day.  Maybe not EVERY day but once in a while...

Crikey!

It's the rare Oscarinus Wienericus in its predatorial state!  Be VERY careful...They won't harm you but they WILL steal your food.  And your Kleenex.  They love the Kleenex.

I'm really just testing the video upload function.  You may not be able to view it from an e-mail.  If you also can not view it from the post itself, please let me know.

Close call

About a month ago, Christine and I were talking about this little blog.

I was explaining that, back when I started it, I thought that eventually I would run out of things to talk about. At some point, visits would become routine and the place would be renovated and redecorated to our liking and that would be that.

But then, it always seems like a little something happens that we feel like sharing.  We go into every weekend expecting nothing but to enjoy the place, but the next thing you know...we see Elvis or something.

Or we have an oil spill.

We showed up on the afternoon of our anniversary to find a notice on our door.  Due to an oil spill two days earlier, lake water was not to be used for basically anything but flushing toilets. We had noticed significant damage to a few properties just down the hill, but couldn't tell what had caused it.  In fact, we didn't know any of the details until we got home and my dad had sent us this article.

A little scary to hear, but eventually we realised that the only thing we use the lake water for is washing dishes and we could still do that with the water that we haul in from Ottawa.  The lake was still a little cold to swim in at that point so nothing lost on that level.  Another encouraging sign was that it didn't seem to be bothering the wild life.

Christine went back a week later and was greeted by another notice in the door, but this time to tell us that the advisory was off and normal water usage could resume.  So all told, it lasted a week.  It did seem, based on our walk over to the public area, like the situation was being well managed so the lift didn't come as much of a surprise.

Why only bring this up now?  Well, it didn't seem very appropriate to stress over a 90L oil spill in light of the situation in Calgary at the time.

So we've been back to our usual shenanigans, including this past Canada Day weekend.  And the water is now finally warm enough to swim in.