But It's Not All Bad!

Leading up to becoming Atlantis Of The North, we had ourselves some pleasant and productive weekends.

The Festival Of The Maples takes place in Perth on the last weekend of April and, you may recall from past posts about this event, is our target date for opening our place up, so we look forward to it a great deal. Christine went without me last year, but we both went this year.

Unfortunately, I left my phone in the car, like a dippy dummy, so I didn't get any pictures of the event itself. But we did fare rather well.

Maple cotton candy might be the best $5 I've ever spent. Christine looks for that particular bottle of maple syrup at right because it's organic (and extra yummy).

We spent the most time at a booth for All About The Soup. They don't trumpet it, but their entire line is vegetarian so it was nice for us to not have to cherry pick.

We've had, and loved, the Trinidad Corn (as a soup) and the African Peanut (over rice) but will likely work our way down the menu. I may donate my portion of the Beet Chiller to my mum, because I know she loves her beets, and I luv my mum. :-)

A few weeks prior to all that, my dad and I worked on the living room floor.  I won't display much of that now, because I would rather wait for the baseboards and quarter round to be installed, but it's looking pretty class, I think.

Looking forward to the finished product.

Meanwhile, I'm taking a different approach to the kitchen floor. I'd already removed some of those tiles but now I pull one up every visit. By the time the season is over, I should have the whole thing pretty well stripped and ready for replacement.

We haven't fully completely settled on a new tile yet but it probably won't get done until about this time next year anyway. We'll come up with something.

Why Did The Turtle Cross The Road?

Not entirely sure but I wish it would move its ass.

It may not be visible to those who view posts in an e-mail as opposed to visiting the actual blog page, but I added a quick "statistics" counter to the right border.

It was really done as a gag. I forget the exact timing of things, but a couple of weeks back I received the now all-too-familiar "Babe...Can you check if this is a tick?" call.

Sure enough...Quick, Robin! To the tweezer drawer!

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaank...*pop*

All gone. We'd taken George out and investigated a number of new nearby trails. We suspect Christine picked up a clingy hitchhiker on one of the more poorly maintained ones. So we won't visit THAT one again unless it looks like it's been cared for. But a couple of the other ones are quite nice.

What we WILL continue to do is save turtles. Or more accurately, Christine will save them and I shall record the event.

You may recall that some time ago, Christine decided it would be a good idea to haul a shovel around in case turtles needed to be "escorted" across the road. I scoffed, at the time. Yes, I did scoff! But in no time, she was rescuing a turtle. Boy, was my face red!

On our way back from Sharbot Lake recently, we saw a big 'un that didn't seem to be in any hurry. So we hopped out of the car Dukes of Hazzard style. Off she went with the shovel while I tried to slow down incoming traffic.

At that point, ticks were up 3-2 all-time. But as we know from childhood stories, turtles tend to get their lead late in the game. The following weekend, on our way up, two more needed a little friendly guidance ...

I believe this is how bullfighters begin their training. Olé!!

Vamoose!!

So turtles now lead 4-3 following a furious, sudden comeback. Go, turtles!

No, really...Go! This isn't really safe for any of us.

2015 Festival of The Maples

We'd been down to Crow Lake a couple of times in recent weeks, including overnight on the 12th, but we both took this past Monday off and planned on making a long weekend out of it. We couldn't wait to get at it so come Friday afternoon, we packed up the car and bolted ASAP.

The last weekend of April has become our target opening date. The Festival of The Maples takes place in Perth that weekend and we want in. Even if we don't have running water yet by then (though we did this year), we've figured out how to manage without it so it would take a biblical event to stop us now.

That said...We had some concerns about our boy at right. George HATES kids. To be more specific, he appears to hate toddlers. No idea why (but one can speculate).

We debated whether to leave him behind and risk that he would not react well to that, or to take him to the festival and risk that he's difficult to control around a crowd.

We took a leap of faith and brought him. And he was pretty great. He only showed aggression towards one kid but Christine was on top of it. Aside from that one brief moment, we kept to the sidewalks rather than walking down the road with the rest of crowd and that worked just fine. Good boy, George!

A few shots from the event below.

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!!

Still Working on Birthday Week

Man, you don't always notice how much you get done until you sit down to record it.

All right, so we'd cleaned the deck but it rained fairly heavily shortly thereafter so we had to wait things out before actually painting.  So on Thursday, July 31st, Chris suggested we head out to Newboro.  Sounded good to me.  Let's roll, Kato!  We'll leave the chipmunks to their feasting.

Well, once in Newboro...Would you believe we saw...the largest loon in Ontario???  I knew you wouldn't so I snapped a shot.

We're not sure if it's largest in Ontario, all of Canada, North America or what.  I can't imagine there are too many larger loons around though.

Newboro is a sweet little town though.  It's most prominent feature/attraction are the nearby locks and marina.  After a little shopping and eyeballing some of the residential areas, we closed out what became a hot, sunny day by visiting that area.  All pictures below are from there specifically.

Maple maple maple maple maple!

After missing it by hours last year, I was determined to attend the Festival of the Maples in Perth this past weekend.  And we made it!  Turns out that they have shuttle buses from Ottawa and I could have been going for years and years, but...that doesn't matter!  I made it THIS year!

Christine had vacation to burn.  I took last Friday and Monday off so that we could head up and start opening the cottage.  Beds are made, boards are off the windows, and the living room floor reno is started.  We didn't have running water yet but got by regardless.  That first "man-made" flush takes quite a leap of faith, I can assure you.

The weather was the opposite of great but there was still a pretty hopping crowd.  If I recall correctly, I read that over 20,000 people attended last year. We arrived early and there were already a fair amount of people milling about.  By the time we left, it was getting difficult to walk down the street.

It actually took a while to find anything "maple".  There were plenty of displays for various organization and businesses but it wasn't until a little further in that the maple goodies started to appear.

Pretty much the standard stuff, mind you.  Fudge, taffy, butter, syrup...Compared to what Chris brought back from Nova Scotia last year (sparkling wine, white chocolate), the lack of variety was a little disappointing.

Until I came across...maple soap!  Genius!  It can be breakfast AND part of your morning shower!  You can go to work smelling like a stack of pancakes!  Who doesn't like the smell of pancakes?  Am I right, people?

I pointed this out to the gentleman at the booth and he said he'd steal the idea for promotional purposes.  Sure, just think of me when you're a billionaire.  Additional tip: Do the breakfast part first.

Some more sights below.

I don't know what the hell these things are.

Potato Spirals!  Apparently a favourite of the Perth PD!

I think I'm bothering the guy on the far left.

We weren't there very long but it was a nice time and I think it's going to be a regular occurrence for us from here on in.

Well, she's still there...

Does everyone do this?  You come home from a trip or something and when you first lay eyes on your house, there's that twinge of relief that it hasn't burned to the ground?

Similar feeling here.  So it had snowed and rained over the past few days.  The place was inspected a few months ago and has stood through 40-something winters.  There's no reason to fear the worst, but you can't help it until you know for certain.

The only slight surprise was that there were no critter tracks anywhere.  We saw a group of six deer during the drive in, and during our stays have seen a variety of animals (fox, a couple of raccoons, allegedly a lynx, etc) but there was no evidence of such visitors in recent days.  On the upside, there was no evidence of rodent squatters inside the cottage, either.

Shovelling wasn't really an option (or appealing in any way, shape or form, having cleared the driveway four times since Friday morning) because of a layer of ice that had latched on to, well...everything.  So we went inside and took some measurements of the master bedroom (sounds pretentious, I know...bear with me...) because we want to replace the carpet in there early next year.

While we we were there, we took the opportunity to stop at a few places that we usually drive through and say "we should stop here some time" and don't. 

We then hit a couple of stores in Westport 'cause Christine thought of visiting the bakery there.  At Village Green, that huge-ass store I raved about in an earlier post, Christine picked up a couple of mixes for dips (spinach, artichoke) and hot chocolate, while I walked out with dill mustard and maple butter (Hmmm...maple butter...).  At the bakery, we bought a loaf of oregano bread, a couple of apple turnovers and jelly donuts.

That done, we headed home so I could watch the Redskins win yet another game.  Ho-hum. ;-)

Offseason Roadie

Man, I was having a great sleep this morning.

I swear this is the truth; I was dreaming that I was kayaking in choppy tropical waters, and having a grand old time navigating the waves.  Then I woke up when Oscar ran into bed at 4:45AM and Christine said something like "If you feel really energetic this morning, feel free to shovel the driveway before you go to work".  Ottawa was in the middle of getting 20+ centimetres of snow.

Like most of you no doubt, I am at my most energetic at 5:15AM, so there I was in the driveway, slowly shoveling away my will to live.  And, not surprisingly, looking forward to my next cottage visit.

That visit is actually tomorrow Sunday.  Not EXACTLY what I had in mind, but it counts.  We're dropping by the place to make sure everything's where it should be, then spending the rest of the day doing the small town tour.  This is something we plan to do about once a month as "preventive medicine", both for the cottage itself and for our peace of mind.

Things should be significantly different from our last visit, when I again spent a fair bit of my time messing with leaves.

This shot would be more impressive if I were tall.

I mentioned before that the previous owners generously left us with many toys and tools, some of which we're still just stumbling across.  My highlight this time was finding a totally boss leaf blower.  Leaf blower!

It's a Yardworks...something or other. Turns out we may already have one at home of which I was not aware (research pending).  But having one at home is just not the same.  Using it at home feels like work.  Blargh. If we do have another one, then I shall bring it to the cottage next year and attack those leaves with one those bad boys in each hand.  I'll be like this guy, but in a garden:

The Gardenator

My blower looks kind of like the beast at right (you know...a leaf blower...).  We weren't prepared to get a good shot of me using that thing, but that is probably for best as so much awesomeness compressed into such a small area would surely break the internet.

In the meantime, we'll see what happens tomorrow.  We could be there for hours or for all of 15 minutes.  If we drive almost two hours to be there 15 minutes, it's arguably a victory in a "no news is good news" kind of way.  If so, we'll grab a bite to eat and do a little shopping in Westport, then head home to Oscar dog.