"Where Does He Get Those Wonderful Toys?"

Usually from other people.

With perhaps small exceptions that don't register enough to come to mind now, I think we're pretty well done replacing the knick-knacks that had been left behind by the previous owners.

One of the most recent changes involved a wooden train set placed on a small shelf above the couch in the dining room. Pretty inoffensive stuff, but it meant nothing to us.

It occurred to me at some point that it would be cool to replace it with my own toy train from when I was a kid.

I spent a fair bit of time messing around with that guy. We had this large table top set up in the basement combining the train with an auto racing track and would run both at the same time. Good times.

I knew that I'd seen a box in my parents' basement at some point with at least some of the pieces still intact. Assuming my dad had no plans to rebuild it all in his own basement, I asked him to bring it up some time and he did so when my parents visited during the first weekend of October.

We're located fairly close to train tracks at Crow Lake. You might not expect it to be, but the sound of the train going by is actually kind of pleasant, whether it's by the fire in the evening or buried under blankets early in the morning. You wouldn't necessarily attach the word "soothing" to that sound, but somehow, it kind of is.

So a railway-themed decoration is completely appropriate for us, particularly in light of the family members who have careers in the field. I love seeing this thing when I walk in and plan on adding to it.

Another "toy" spent the back half of the season at the cottage. It's what everyone at some point or other has wished they had at hand: A figurine of John A. Macdonald.

No?

There's a bit of a story here. A number of times when Christine and I planned on visiting Nanny in Kingston, I would suggest perhaps dropping by Johnny Mac D's burial site. There are signs in town pointing to it and everything.

But hell, I figured that the Big Country Daddy would have something with a little flash to represent his forever "sleep it off" point. I wasn't expecting neon or fireworks, or course, but you know...He's no Gretzky but he's still kind of a big deal!

I gave up on ever going, because for some reason Christine seems to lack interest in cemeteries. So I googled it, knowing full well I was in full spoiler mode, and it turns out it's totally lame. I pulled the picture below from the 'net.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeak!

But anyway, my apparently-too-frequent mentions of JAM's eternal hangover nap spot prompted Christine to buy me his figurine to sleep next to to display at the cottage. She, with Kathy, picked it up at the war museum, if I recall the tale correctly. (Edit: That's full of crap, they picked it up at the gift shop in the Parliament Buildings. I knew that.)

And while you may scoff at the notion of an "action figure" featuring a historical political icon, the ladies were told that these figurines are actually quite popular with Asian visitors, so...I don't know where I was going with that, but take it into account anyway.

Of course, I'm not foolish enough to have opened mine. It would ruin resale value down the road. But here's what it would look like if I did.

Just needs a couple of bottle of red wine and you're all set.

The folks behind Canadian Legends have since added Sir Wil and Sir Isaac Brock (!!!) to their collection. Not a bad start. Now I'm just waiting for Russ Jackson!

Do Not Attempt This Stunt In Your Own Living Room

Something you can do in your living is change the clock.  Especially when its tick is louder than a gravel crusher.

Here is the offensive timekeeper.

It looked more like something you'd find in a class room, and the last thing I want is to relive those days anyway.

So rather than have it continue to tick away my will to live, Christine bought one in North Bay that she liked far more, partially because it's quieter, and had it up over the door in no time.

Here's a better look at it.

Huh...the chipped paint is deliberate.  And if you think that's stupid, ask yourself if you've ever bought stone or acid washed jeans, judgy.  It's called "character", according to all the effeminate dudes on HGTV.

Now here's something you shouldn't do, and I must admit that once I was up there I had the occasional moment of regret.

Two years later, we're still finding tools and such tucked away in various parts of the grounds.  I even found a lawn mower last weekend.  Doesn't mean I have to use it, mind you, but I did find one.

But a couple of weeks back, we found a tree trimmer.  It had a rusted old saw blade attached to the end that we removed because it appeared to have become useless over the years, but the branch cutter itself (basically long distance gardening sheers) are still pretty functional.

And once you get started...You can't stop!  Trimming dead branches from ground level lost its luster quickly though, so my irrational man instincts (manstincts?  No, that sounds foul...) drove me to climb on something unsafe.  It's just how we're built and what we do.  "The ground is boring.  I want to pull and tug on branches while looking up towards the sun and standing on a steep surface several feet over rocks and wood".

Ah well. It's nature. And tell me this guy didn't have fun!

The picnic table gets a face lift!

And, a butt tuck, sort of.

Remember this insult to snacking?

Yikes...If that thing was a horse...

You may recall that a table cloth had been stapled to it, and you'll note the plastic covering the seats.  As my dad pointed out while replacing boards, they did a smashing job of retaining moisture and promoting rot.

The original plan was to change only the five table top and four bench boards, but it turned out that the two cross boards in the frame were beginning to fall apart too.  I was willing to live with that for the time being, until we noticed that one was crawling with ants.  And ants don't tend to improve a picnic. So my pappy went to the...huh...board store and bought a couple more to replace those as well.

And man does it ever look better.

Almost qualifies as a "before/after" shot.

Seems a touch more solid, eh?

While my dad was working on that (Saturday, and he left later that afternoon), and I was contributing by trying to keep mosquitoes away from him, Christine was off getting Nanny from Kingston. Nanny stayed with us for a couple of nights, paying her way more than adequately in cinnamon buns.  Oscar seemed to enjoy the change in laps.

We're heading out again Friday night, hoping to catch a meteor shower.  That's assuming that a) the night sky is clear enough for us to see them and b) that we're able to stay up past 10:30PM regardless. The former is probably more likely than the latter.  Wish us luck!

Does the Pope Crap In The Woods?

I have no idea, but apparently some large beast saw fit to do that very thing in our driveway.

Good Lord...Glad Chris spotted it before getting out of the car.

The first thought was that it had been left there by a bear, or perhaps the wooly mammoth.  It's certainly not an Oscar leftover since it probably weighed as much as he did (there's only so far I'm willing to go to ensure factual accuracy, mind you).

We did recall seeing a young girl go by on a horse once last summer.  Christine speculated that perhaps someone riding by on horseback took a moment to use our driveway as a lookout point, and the horse used it for something else altogether.

Awesome.  If ever I find out who the perpetrator of the crime is, I might be tempted to return the favour on his or her front porch.

Anyway, we'll let mother nature take care of that.  We were there to complete a specific project which began the previous weekend.

This is what the main entrance looked like.

Those containers are handy, but...not very attractive and somewhat space-consuming.  And if the couch-shaped one looks filthy, that's because it is.

The other one is just your standard plastic bin. We thought the space could be opened up, made more attractive, and those containers put to better use.

We recently came across a pretty good sale on similar containers and picked one up that we prefer. We put it together last weekend and though we took about five times as long to do it as we should have, it came out relatively unscathed.

Eh.  I should probably have removed the broom...there's always something...

So what about the two bins that were there before?  The one that was on the right was moved to the garden side for Christine to store some of her tools for easy access rather than having to haul it all from the shed.

The "couch" was moved to the lower level.  The original idea was to place it near where the canoe is stored and fill it with firewood but Christine wants to start planting in that general area as well.  So we went the other way.

What the hell, right?  Not the most attractive "furniture" but certainly functional.  We'll give it a good hosing at some point.  Toss a couple of (nicer) seat cushions on there and it's actually quite comfortable.  Besides, even filled with wood it can be moved around easily for anyone who wants to face the water, fire, whatever. With the lake (instead of ice) and the white cone flowers as a backdrop, it might end up looking all right but either way it's at least practical.

For size perspective, here's our model/mascot earning his keep...

In light of his recent heart issues, he had a great little day, sniffing, digging and getting into every nook and cranny he could find.  If nothing else had been accomplished, it would have been worth the trip on that basis alone.

And that scratches off an item from the projects list for the first time this year!

Unrelated to this specific topic, I've added a photography page at the top, under the banner.  For the time being, I've only uploaded a handful of the pictures that Rob and Deb took during their first (I believe) visit.  I'll add more from them and/or from anyone else who took some that we particularly like over time in no set order, rhyme or reason.

Crow Lake Bar Wars!

Our dock has a girlfriend!

It's spring time, so that's the only logical explanation.

Christine went to Crow Lake last Thursday night (she wasn't working Friday) while I was out of town.  She got out of the car and thought that our floating dock looked better than ever!

As it should;  it wasn't actually ours.

The previous weekend, a group of 20-somethings had a little get together a few doors down (a place they  call The Crow Bar...we dig that).  No problem, we didn't really hear much from them, but they did enjoy the lake a fair bit.  But probably as a result of much diving and climbing on their floating dock, the anchor must have gotten dislodged somewhat and their dock began to slowly drift away.

Now it's on our property (or more accurately, in front of it).  The worst part of this situation is that it underscores how sad our floating dock looks right now.  It has a leak in the floater on one side so it's all tilted.  Something else that's on the to-do list.

It's not a priority though.  We've got plenty of water toys, big and small, including this swell guy that I found again on Sunday:

It's the Ahh-Qua Bar!  Get it?  We have a bar of our own!  Go straight to hell, Crow Bar!

The sun glare makes it hard to see properly, but the white dots are drink holders (there are 12 in total) and the spot where Christine's hands are is for bowls of chips, salsa, fried tofu cubes (*ahem*), whatever.  There's a loop under the central part so that you can tie it down and avoid having it float off on you.

So swim on up!  You just have to pronounce it properly.  Ahh-Qua bar.  Work on that.

Scott the canoe and imported goodness

I had this idea.  No, really.

We were left all kinds of dishes when we took possession of the cottage, but I noticed that we didn't have much in the way of glass mugs for refreshing summer beverages.  With the added benefit of decluttering stately Fournier Manor in mind, we brought the pair of these to CFB Crow Lake.

Hmmmm...Grower's cider...

The mugs were a gift from Chantal when Christine and I visited Calgary in 1998.  We spent an afternoon at the Columbia Icefield (obviously) and these were given to us as a souvenir.  Here's a shot from that day.

What an intrepid looking bunch!

Prior to "renting" that delicious liquid, Christine and I called upon the adventurous spirit displayed above and took our canoe Scott out for a paddle.

Scott is actually his name.  It says so on the side.

We were roughly at Bambi levels of wobbly when we first set off, but settled in fairly quickly.  Tip: When you sit in the back, no one can see you loaf.

We made surprisingly good time and Oscar is WAY better in a canoe than in a kayak (shocking, I know) or pedal boat. Yes, he wanders around about a bit more than we'd like, constantly changing sides from which to look over the side (tip: It's just going to be more water), but he seems interested rather than nervous.  That's a significant upgrade.  So aside from occasionally licking or biting your paddle, he's absolutely no problem.

We set a goal of reaching Gull Rock.  A few weeks back, when I went to the cottage with my dad, he spotted what we both thought was a rather hardy kayaker in the distance, being that it was about 2 celsius out.  A dead kayaker seemed more likely when we saw him the next morning in that exact same spot, though a pile of rocks also made sense upon further reflection.

We (Christine and I) checked the map by the Captain's Chair and sure enough, it's a tiny rock formation and not a dead floater.  We resolved to investigate further and return with photographic evidence.  You might need to right click and open the picture below in another tab or window to get a better look.

So what's the tripod-looking thing in the middle?  We thought it might be a reflector to help passing boats avoid the rocks.  It also occurred to Christine that it may be a device built to study alien activity...or built BY aliens to study HUMAN activity.  Having heard too many stories about anal probes, I insisted we get out of there post-haste.  That's not the kind of story I want to tell around the campfire (although ask me about the misdiagnosis of my first kidney stone some time).

Then Kathy showed up and the weather went all to hell.  Coincidence?  I don't see how it can be.  More on that day's events later; I still need to trim and resize some shots first.

Oh yeah, and we saw Elvis.

Crow Lake Productions presents: The Vortex Crisis

The Scene: Some dumbass impatiently tosses a Nerf Vortex over his head and it ends up in the lake, seemingly lost forever.  What to do??!

The Cast:
Jean-François Fournier: Action hero, and let's face it, born for the part
Christine Fournier: Love interest, well out of the hero's league, and sudden videographer
Oscar D. Wiener: Token comic relief, 22 flatulent pounds of cute
Nerf Vortex: Annoying obvious product placement

JFF: "Good Heavens!!  The Nerf Vortex has found its way into the lake and is slowly floating away!  Surely this is the work of a fiend, or fool!"

CF: "Hurry, Captain of my heart!  To the pedal boat!

JFF: "That's a mighty swell idea, love of my life!"

Oscar: "Arf!"

Chugga chugga chugga chugga!!

"Cease thy infernal bobbing, toy, or it's Davey Jones' locker for you!"

Great Success!!

CF: "Oh, my silver fox!  You've saved the day once again!"

JFF: "All in a day's work, ma'am!"

Oscar: "Arf!  *pant* *pant* Arf!"

JFF: "Couldn't have said it better myself, little chum!  Ha ha ha ha ha!"

CF:  "Ha ha ha ha ha!"

Fade to black.

This was actually a little embarrassing because...it's the second time it's happened.  I did something similar at the cottage my folks rented in North Bay and Christine made the save that time.  So I felt pretty small (don't take the obvious dig there, please) about doing it AGAIN.  Ugh.

On the upside, I never cared a crap about the pedal boat until that day.  I thought I'd never use it, to tell the truth.  With our own kayaks, a canoe and row boat, a pedal boat wasn't particularly appealing.  But after that daring rescue, I used it to place the cottage's water intake hose in a different spot...

...then Christine and I took Oscar dog on a little ride.  He's not a water dog by any stretch of the imagination though, so that didn't last real long.  Earlier, we also used it to push a floating dock into its position for the summer.

So I stand corrected; it's not a long distance craft at all, but it has its uses.  It'll come in real handy the next time I toss something into the lake by mistake.

Lean Mean Red Machine

Had some unexpected fun at CFB Crow Lake today.

My dad and I were planning a trip to the dump to get rid of an old couch, a bed, the carpeting we pulled up a couple of weeks ago, etc (this isn't the fun part).  Dad joined us early in the afternoon in his van.

I'd forgotten that dad hauls my old bike around in that van.  This is the beast I used to ride on (for the most part) da mean streetz of North Bay when I was about 10-12 years old.  It's somewhat shocking that it's still in one piece in light of the extreme levels of punishment I put that thing through back in the day.

How I've never broken a bone is unexplainable, though I did think I'd busted ribs one time when I accidentally found myself trying to go UP concrete stairs on it.  Physics don't work that way, dawg.

I'd come home and dad would look at its bent tire rims and handle bars and ask me if I ever used my bike to jump off stuff.  I would respond in the negative, which was borderline...well...complete bullshit.  But in my own defence, I never did this kind of thing:

These things need to be properly defined.  There are "jumps" and there are "jumps".  I don't read minds.

In any event, Christine and my pappy were about to head to Sharbot Lake to buy quarter-round for the master bedroom.  That gave me a golden opportunity to terrorise Crow Lake on my rad wheels for a while.

"Eastern Ontario 4 Life, yo!"

A short while.  Turns out I run out of breath significantly faster now.  Not sure how that happened.  Must be some sort of lake effect.  Whatever.  It's...not important.

I did have a pretty intense flashback moment though.  I'm so used to the brakes being on the handlebars on my current bike, that when I started down the cottage ramp, I actually forgot how to stop for a  second.  I thought I was going to plow into our deck fence.

Here's the one set of skid marks I can show you.  Trust in my judgement on the other ones.

I'm sure a little lemon juice and baking soda will get that right out...

There was a dirt bike under the cottage that the previous owners left behind.  Dad's decided to make that one into a recovery project, meaning that "my" bike and I are now reunited after about 30 years.  (30??  The math can't be right on that...I'll work it out later...).  It'll have a pretty mellow retirement.

Mind you, with a good head of steam, I'm pretty sure I know a really fast short cut to our beach...

Lunch at The Maples

This post is brought to you by...Mechanix Wear gloves!

My dad bought me these a few months ago to prevent thumb scuffing while paddling the kayaks.  Yes, I know that sounds quite diva-like but it's more irritating than you'd expect.

Anyway, they're basically a second skin when I'm out there.  Hell, I'd wear them in the shower, if we could ever get that friggin' curtain up.  I've worn them so much that they now smell like feet, which is somewhat puzzling, now that I write that out...I'm sure I'm doing it right...Anyway, they're awesome.

So...Dropping by CFB was kind of a last minute decision today but we're quite glad we did.

I didn't say anything about it at the time, but last week we stripped the Sun Room and replaced the carpet with the indoor/outdoor variety (indoor/outdoor?  How does it know??).  It's difficult to tell the difference, and there's still plenty of work to be done in that room, so I didn't get into it, but here it is for now.

This time around, we cleared an area right to the left of the front door.  That spot doesn't appear on any listing pictures.  Why?  Because it wasn't particularly attractive.

There was a small freezer there.  Sounds handy on the surface, but for our purposes, not really.  The fridge is plenty roomy for us and the freezer's location caused it to become nothing more than a convenient place on which to drop something as you walk through the door.  So why not put something there that actually serves that specific purpose?

Several weeks ago, we bought a very simple (i.e. cheap) shelving unit to put in the freezer's place.  We finally got around to putting it together today.  It went great and...we now have more freezer space at home, where we're more likely to need it, because the little guy actually fit in the car.

Nothing fantastic, but a bit of a space saver and we also got to use some of the leftover indoor/outdoor (how DOES it...) carpet to rest it on, so are getting a bit more of our money's worth there.

We made a couple of stops in Sharbot Lake prior to heading home, including The Maples.

We tried this bad boy...

Hot Italian Ciabatta Sandwich: Delightful roasted red peppers and tomatoes tossed with garlic and pesto, laid atop slices of provolone cheese and fresh tomato, on a fresh toasted ciabatta bun.

And will again. And again and again.  That restaurant is one of those places that whenever we'd drive by I'd say that I'd like to try it some time.  Nice to check that one off the list and to know that it's worth taking someone to if we have guests.  Good, simple family restaurant, all of 15 minutes or so from the cottage.  Something to bear in mind.

The Coolest Tool Ever!

I ain't no fool. I know full well that such a provocative post title will prompt Kathy to try to come up with a cooler tool.

But she will fail.  *sad trombone*

Brace yourself for awesome and get a load of...The Shark!!!

I might never use it, and I still would have bought it.  Because it LOOKS like a SHARK!  Look at it!!

It's not just a utility knife, either.  It's a wire stripper, too.  When the hell am I ever going to strip a wire??  Never!  But who cares?  It looks like a shark!  It even has gills!  They're pointless, but they're cool!

We bought this bad boy during our visit this past weekend.  This trip went significantly better than the last.  The furniture was moved out of the master bedroom with minimum profanity, and the carpet came up easily. 

For the most part.  It appears that the vanity (deep right on the listing picture below) is built directly on top of the carpet in that part of the room.

Good friggin' thinking!

So I had to whip out the guns and tear that strip out.  There's still a frayed part sticking out, but that is when THE SHARK will come into play (once I've built up the nerve to take it out of the package).

We also bought the required screwdriver...huh...tip (What word am I looking for?!) in order to remove those shower doors from the previous trip down.  Rod and curtain are going up soon ('cause one is pretty well useless without the other).

Because of the light colour of the walls, we went with a dark wood floor (well...it looks like wood...).  We're going to go again on the weekend of the 23rd and see about getting that finished.  If it goes well, other rooms will get similar treatment.

We got to enjoy a little time in the sun, sitting on the rocks on snow beach (see previous post).  The only eyebrow-raiser were rather large footprints that, upon closer inspection, were not left by a person.  After careful investigation, and based on recent local weather patterns, I can only assume they were left by one of these:

So we'll have to watch out for that. I think there's a spray you can buy...

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.

Extending our stay

We've owned CFB Crow Lake for about six weeks now and are in no hurry to let it sit under a pile of snow.  We've known from the time of purchase that there'd be a period of time when we're paying for the place but unable to use it, but we're quite willing to push the limits.

We hope to stretch out our brief 2012 season with the purchase of a little something called the "Quartz Infrared Platinum Portable Furnace".  Hell, I would have bought it for its cool name alone!  Here it is:

Okay, Oscar, get out of the way, sweetie!

Let's try that again...

Here we go.  It's advertised to heat a 1000 square foot area.  Don't know about that...But it seemed to do a good job in the dining room and perhaps even the kitchen.  In the living room, meanwhile, we got this bad boy going on Thanksgiving weekend.

We were reluctant to get it roaring because we weren't sure how to operate it.  Turns you throw wood in there and set it on fire.  Who knew?  Oh, pretty well everyone?  Okay, well that was rhetorical anyway...

Of course, there's also an old standard that helps...Coffee!!

No matter how much we're able to fend off the cold though, we would still have a problem with lake water intake so we're not kidding ourselves; we can't go over during the hardest winter months, but our little furnace should help add a few weeks at either end of the season.