Soggy Start

Even those of you who don't live in (or near) Ottawa have likely heard that there's been a significant amount of flooding in the city this year.

I am pleased to report that we are not affected. It's been a miserable spring, to be sure, but if I didn't see images of the floods on the news and social media, I wouldn't know it was going on.

At the cottage, however...

We've been there for four straight weekends now, I believe. I believe it was two weeks ago that I made a very simple pasta supper and we ate outside under a setting sun with the temperature in the high teens/early 20s. We couldn't decide whether to eat inside or outside but Christine prophetically pointed out that it might quite a while until we got a chance again.

Last year, the water level was low throughout. So far this year, we were pleased with how high it was. But when we arrived this past Friday, we quickly saw that it had taken it up another notch.

All right, well, the old shed spot is...a little damp, but whatever. We actually had it worse one year when the shed was still up. I guess it happens.

But then it continued to rain. And water continued to flow into the lake. So the next day...

Ugh...So the stones from the first picture are now submerged and we moved the fire bowl because it seemed unlikely that it would be put into use (though I would be willing to accept that challenge).

We headed out to Perth for a part of the day. We needed to stop over at the animal hospital there for some pills for Ladybug (antibiotics, no big deal, we just forgot them at home), picked up some wood for baseboards at Home Hardware, a few groceries, doggy beds (which are essentially large chew toys for George) and a wicked good pair of slippers at Giant Tiger for me. We had a rainy evening inside by the fire and by Sunday morning...

Those of you who are there more regularly, take a look at top right of that shot. You can barely tell there's land past the fire pit. Unreal.

But...Aside from gardens, there is really no damage that comes to mind.  Some folks around the 'hood are going to visit some time soon and realize that their cottage spent a solid couple of weeks with water right up to the back door or Sun Room.

There's also nothing we can do but wait it out. It's pretty wild to think that right around the time Chantal and Joseph visited last year, I could stand on dry land at the bottom of the lake. Safe assumption that I won't be doing that this year.

Check out that rain forecast thought (third line from the bottom) for nearby Sharbot Lake.

Well...It is what it is. If we need to start gathering animals in pairs, at least we've got dogs covered (more or less).

Whoever Draws The Sword...

As I write this, Ottawa is hit with its first significant snow of winter. After as green a Christmas as I can recall ever witnessing, we've got a solid foot of snow, if not more, coming down out there.

I rarely have the week between Christmas and new year's off, but this year I do, and judging from the chaos outside, I picked a good one to have off. As I recall, a co-worker of mine named Gail (Hi Gail!!) was emphatic that I should request it this year, to the point where I feared I would face physical violence. And so here I am, drinking red wine by the fireplace, listening to blues, and updating my little blog.

Making me feel more clever still is that my dad and I rode out to Crow Lake yesterday before snowmageddon hit. We dropped off a load of wood, took a peek in the bunkie in preparation for reno work there in the spring and made sure everything was where it was supposed to be. On the way in, we stopped in the Perth Home Hardware which inspired a few more decoration/renovation ideas and on the way back, we stopped at The Maples in Sharbot Lake for a delightful lunch.

I felt a little less clever when my pappy spotted something that required a little explanation. Last year, I posted about recreating Stonehenge using a concrete slab from the dock ramp and a couple of logs.

Well this year I inadvertently recreated Excalibur using another log and my wood splitter.

We were running a little short on firewood. That was one of the remaining logs from when a dead tree was cut prior to our taking possession of the cottage.

I thought I saw a crack across the top that had...potential. My goal, obviously, was to widen it and eventually cause the whole thing to split down the middle.

I was hammering away but seemingly getting nowhere until I heard a loud crack and my momentum damn near caused me to face-plant. After a moment to think "Finally!" I realized I wasn't as successful as I'd thought.

Thor would just shake his head at this shameful display. "Verily, thou art a dipstick", he would say.

Ah, crap...Well, still better than my wrists!

And now I can't get the splitter out. So screw it, that log has become decorative in our "Little Ol' England" spot alongside mini-Stonehenge. Yeah. I just thought of that now and I think we should keep it.

Christine was far more successful that weekend. Not only did she and Kathy combine to whip up some good Thanksgiving eats...

...But she whipped up this clever little swinging gate to prevent the wiener tots from running off the deck (well, one end of it for now, at least).

Ain't that something? I think the whole thing is built from wood we'd had laying around the place, much of it from our dismantled floating dock. Fantastic. Only three more of those and we can finally keep some control over the sausages.

We make such a great team. She builds stuff, I break things...We complement one another extremely well!

Birthday Self-Treating

As you've likely heard on several major media outlets, we demolished and removed a shed earlier this year. We were left with a blank(ish) slate in that corner of the property that we could embellish a bit so we treated ourselves.

I love my fire pit. Christine does not love my fire pit. She wants to take a mace to it. While I can admit that it's starting to look pretty shabby, this is one issue on which I am ready to put my foot straight down with great authority. When Christine isn't around.

While that gets sorted out, we bought a fire bowl.

Just the facts, ma'am/man: Three of the large stones were brought from home. Our water barrel rested on them before it was rendered inoperative following a hail storm (no, really, the attachment to the eaves trough was punctured).

Christine managed to find two more to make a little pattern, then fed her addiction of making me carry heavy things down several flights of stairs by buying 14 metric tons of crushed stone (estimated). It might not seem like that many on the picture above, but there were more added later.

Along with all that, as mentioned previously we moved the old dock over to that end and are using it to support the canoe. By and large, this is our little spot now:

We want to find ourselves a nice couple of chairs or maybe a bench and make that our little "couples" spot.

The fire pit will still work for larger get-togethers and for burning leaves and such, but this is a little more cozy. In fact it served as a great spot from which to smoke our birthday cigars (Cubans, don't you know, gifts from Caroline and Asley's wedding).

Hell of a view that night...

We're not quite done there yet, but it's already much, much more enjoyable.

Hark! Squatters!

Not really. It was just my folks.

On Friday night, my football addiction caused me to walk, then sit, through six hours of rain to watch my team get beat by eight. Eh. So Christine and I only made out way up to Crow Lake on Saturday, but my folks took possession early the previous day.

We couldn't hear much activity when we walked in but that was because they were in the middle of a "24" marathon begun the night before as a result of said rain. No spoilers, please, people. They were only watching the first season and spoilerers are jerks.

I don't know to what degree the modified schedule affected his behaviour, but big George lost all composure when he figured out that my parents were in the living room. He was all wags and jumped up on the couch for kisses (giving) and belly rubs (receiving). Nice to see that he's adapting to the extended family nicely, since introducing Oscar to new people usually required 24 months and 15 pounds of sliced ham. Kathy dropped by for a spell too on Saturday so Georgie had plenty of visitor-based excitement.

I can't report much else from Saturday because, you know...I took quite a few naps. But I got back to work a bit on Sunday morning. With the shed now gone, we wanted to continue with the removal of the floating dock.

Remember that thing? It took on water in one side so it floated all tilted. We removed the top boards a while ago, originally considering the possibility of replacing them with something lighter, but the further along we got the more unlikely that seemed. So I went after the frame Sunday morning. After Frankenshed, taking that thing apart was no effort at all, except for the one screw that had a broken head, inevitably. But there it went.

Jack Bauer's father is actually a traitor to his country and highly placed within a Ukrainian terrorist group.

Not really, I just made that up to confuse my mum.

The piece on the right was super light so I was able to flip it over without difficulty. By process of elimination, the one of the left was the one taking on water. Christine drilled a hole in it and sure enough...

See that trickle? Lasted over an hour.  As you can imagine then, filled with that much water, this thing was some kind of heavy. I would estimate it at about 800 pounds, so most people couldn't really budge it, but you know...

Anyway, that's as good as gone now so we can remain within our property line. Most of that beach doesn't actually belong to us. The last thing we want to do is start is a Crow Lake turf war.

And hey, doesn't Scott Canoe look pretty good back there? Or maybe not "good" but at least "logical"? You know, next to a BEACH. Beats having to carry him across most of the property.

The floating dock is nearly gone, but we do have another addition. Following a visit to Nanny's last last week, Christine brought back a bird feeder that fits in rather nicely.

Though it would arguably look better and definitely be easier to see and refill nearer the cottage, from past experience Christine decided against having it up there. While various furry critters are munching on food that isn't meant for them, they also look at the cottage and decide to take residence in a structure that wasn't meant for them either. Chipmunks today have no sense of property (I blame rap music). Best to keep the food at a certain distance so as to avoid a whole other kind of squatter.

And that's it! We return on Saturday with the goal of spending the entire week. We have SO many grand plans for that time, both in terms of entertainment and cottage improvements. And we'll probably complete about all of 15% of them. We'll see how it plays out.

No posts in October???

I didn't realize it had been that long.  Why didn't one of you say something??? ;-)

It turns out that the last few weekends of cottage season were largely uneventful (which, you know, is kind of nice from time to time...). We had made some plans but they feel through so we were left with leaves to burn and animals to feed (and villains to capture in the Batman series of video games but no cares about that. For the record though, I'm THAT much closer to catching that Riddler jerk. I WILL get him).

I may look pretty miserable there but truth is I'm seldom happier than in front of a fire in the fall (indoor or outdoor). Maybe I'm happier when the RedBlacks win.  So like I said, seldom.

Still, some things got done. We did have Kathy over on a lovely Thanksgiving weekend...

...a visit which was kicked off by replacing the leather couch in the dining room.

Now pardon me, but...that was one heavy bastard. It was a sofa bed, all wood and old, cracked leather...Just dreadful. Comfy enough, mind you! But still. It was time to see what my old friend Dumpmaster Gary was up to.

Kathy delivered replacement couch and for the life of me, I can not find a picture of it now. I could have sworn I'd taken one but I just can't seem to come across it. Whatever. I'll have plenty of opportunity to get one another day because THAT couch isn't going anywhere any time soon.

Another minor project got taken care of earlier that day. Remember those fence posts I "made"?

We had one 12-foot length of wood remaining (always better to have too much than not enough). So I cut it in half, then split one of the halves down the middle to make a frame of sorts for the kitchen garden.

I like that kind of job because it sounds a fair bit harder than it actually is. Then I have the choice to either a) make it sound like a terrible ordeal or b) make it sound like it would be a terrible ordeal for anyone else, but it wasn't for me. I choose based on my desired outcome.

Anyway, it's not exactly the sort of change that will set property values soaring, but the garden looks a bit more organized now and we have a bit of a path to the compost box.

We've done more since, and I'll go over that in the next post, but in the meantime here are some results of the animal feeding referred to earlier.

Calabogie Nights (on a Saturday afternoon)

But first, a couple of small outdoor projects.

To begin, Christine has recreated Stonehenge at Crow Lake.

It's not QUITE as spectacular, but it's a bit more practical.  The concrete slab comes from the area under the dock and the logs are from the dead trees that were cut down when we bought the place (just over two years ago now.  Wow).  They're too big to burn as is, and it would have been a monstrous job to cut them, so here, prop up some concrete for a while.

Smaller version around front (actually, Christine considers THAT one to be Stonehenge, I include the larger "table" without approval).

As the wood pile diminishes, we swipe an idea from the cottage area that we visited near North Bay between 2009 and 2012.

Get it?!  Flower bed!

The headboard was left behind by the previous owners.  It belonged to the bed in the guest bedroom, which was replaced early own during our ownership (the bed, not the room).  We kept the headboard (is that the right term?  It's not a board...) and I believe that even at the time the plan was to use it in this way, so we're now following through.  The stack of boards along the front are leftovers from the picnic table, and the short logs attached to them were from the burn pile, each split in two by my pappy.

And speaking of my dad...

He's been racing for years, and I'd never gone to watch him.  He was doing so again so in relatively-close Calabogie on a Saturday last month, so Christine and I planned to go, spend the afternoon out there, and head back to the cottage for the night.

Calabogie Motorsports Park is a little chaotic when you don't know your way around, but it doesn't take long to figure things out.  Armed with crew credentials (which tickles me, being that I don't even drive), we got to watch qualifying from just behind the wall around the track, but found higher ground for the race itself.

Christine is all business back there.

Offices, merchandise store, washrooms, etc.

Vintage car race. 

Leading the pack!

Side benefit: The trip took us through the town of Balderson.  You can't beat a town named, however indirectly, after cheese.  You also can't help but return a week or two later and buy maple cheese there, along with a great many other tasty treats.

We didn't visit the town of Calabogie itself so that's probably an excursion for some time next year, whether there's a race on or not.  This wasn't on my mind when I said earlier in the year that I wanted to check out events nearby during the cottage season, but it was a fun change of pace.  Vrooom!!

Birthday Week part 2 of a couple more

But first, before we move on from Christine's birthday, a brief flashback...

Shortly after we opened the place this year, we dropped by Westport to do a little shopping.  Christine eyed a piece decorative metal art (I guess that's what you call it...) in one souvenir store that she thought would be a great fit.

At the time, because she was reluctant to get it, I suggested we go ahead and buy and put it down as an early birthday present for her.  We try to avoid cluttering, but I couldn't pass up that birthday gift insurance policy opportunity (damn good thing, too, 'cause sure enough...).

Anyway, here it is:

It's hung over the window to the left of the entrance to the master bedroom.  We like having a window there, but weren't crazy about the frosted sunrise/sunset decoration on it (can't seem to find a "before" picture at the moment).  We debated about scraping that decoration off, but thinking it might end up being difficult to do it so that the window is completely "clean", we decided against the attempt.  Christine did a great job of using it as a frame to her crows instead.

And it couldn't be much more appropriate in Crow Lake.  We've had a lot of fun with visiting crows this summer, leaving peanuts around for them to find.  We actually miss them between visits, even if they don't always look or sound all that friendly towards us.

Back to our current spot in time, my folks popped by for a couple of nights on Tuesday the 29th.  As usual, it took no time for my dad to get busy with odd jobs.  That included additional work on the picnic table, which had its legs replaced.

That's some sharp looking legs. And the picnic table's pretty spiffy too!

We also started fencing off the area at the end of the property in which Christine wants to build her boat garden.

I'm fairly proud of the above.  We bought three 12-foot pieces of wood, two of which I split down the middle (more or less.  It was eyeballed, so...) with the axe.  A few weeks back, I planted the posts through root and rock (and horse flies), then split two of the remaining 6-foot pieces lengthwise. Pappy screwed them into the posts all nice and tight to further things along.

When the cut pieces weather over time, the whole thing should look a bit more uniform. Christine has since planted flowers at the base, but they don't seem tremendously happy there. I'll wait until they perk up before posting any pictures of that.

Dad also installed an equalizer along our wonky living room floor.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a good picture, but this shot from March, when the floor was painted, should at least illustrate the challenge he faced in making the floor equal.

On the night my parents arrived, they treated us to an excellent meal at The Maples Restaurant in nearby Sharbot Lake.  I've talked about their pizza before, and Chris and I had have had a good breakfast there, but they impressed again.  We had an excellent pasta primavera on their deck, near the beach.  Under some slightly worrisome clouds, mind you, but the rain held off.  Well, it did that night, anyway.

That takes us to Thursday, July 31st, when we made a brief roadie into a swell little town called Newboro.  That's next.

Fun For The Whole Family

Before spending pretty well every weekend out of town, on nice mornings Chris and I would load the inflatable kayaks into the car and find a spot from which to set off.  We frequently did so from nearby Manotick, following the river along the huge-ass backyards of a great many far-too-expensive and attractive homes, coming to the clear conclusion that the people who lived in those homes were bastards.

I was jealous one time (well...several times, but one time in particular) when one yard had a small family of geese chilling by the water.  That just seemed like such a cool thing to wake up to.

We did spot such a gathering on Crow Lake while going around one of the islands in the canoe.  But shortly after arriving in the evening a couple of Fridays ago, I made my way down by the water and nearly stepped in goose...evidence.  It was all over the place.

Now I don't actually know how much...evidence...a goose can unleash, so it was difficult to judge numbers but I reported to Christine that we'd definitely had a visit and left it at that.

They must have liked the place, because they returned the next morning.

I spotted a couple of them from the driveway when we returned from getting groceries in Westport.  They knew I was around, too, but were skittishly accepting of my creeping around the top deck.  So I started to snap away.

16 geese in total, of varying ages.  So take THAT, Manotick!

After their little break was over, one of the kiddlies got restless, blurted out a couple of honks, waddled to the water and plopped in.  The rest followed suit and off they went. Hopefully they drop by again sooner rather than later.