Innholdsfortegnelse for August/September 2020 i Cottage Life

We’ve got big (and little) plans for you Picture this: all of the most famous Cottage Life DIY projects in one place. Well, pinch yourself, you’re not dreaming. We’re building an online home for smaller projects, such as our antler key rack; candle lantern; and this bee box (above); and for bigger projects, such as our blanket box; kids’ picnic table; and Mission coffee table. In fact, you might be able to DIY everything on your property. (Kidding, but imagine the customization!) Head to cottagelife.com for details. Sounds system Ever wonder what the animal sounds you hear at your cottage actually mean? That’s something that we’ll decode on the new CL podcast. We’ll have new episodes every Thursday all summer, just in time for your drive to the lake. Find…

Nancy Drew on Campus (1995 to 1998, Simon & Schuster)Nancy, at university to study journalism, solves mysteries involving date rape and deadly motorcycle accidents, instead of the ones involving leaning chimneys, crooked bannisters, and crumbling walls. Nancy Drew (2007)16-year-old Nancy (Emma Roberts) and her dad move to Los Angeles, where the other kids make fun of her because she wears penny loafers. But also, she has to solve the murder of a movie star. Bruce Willis has a cameo. Nancy Drew (2019-present)Fresh out of high school, Nancy (Kennedy McMann) waits tables at the local diner along with Bess and frenemy George. In her spare time, she solves supernatural-tinged mysteries. Detective gotta detect!…

The squeaky bed is a cottage classic. In tight quarters, it lets you know who tosses and turns, who gets up for a trip to the loo, and who keeps jumping up and down on their bed over and over, squeak, squeak, squeak. What could they possibly be doing? Even in total privacy, a noisy bed can make sleep difficult. So fix it. Try to ascertain what’s making noise. Take the bed apart and independently test the mattress, the box spring, and the frame. Most likely, the metal or wooden frame will be your culprit. Start by checking that any wheels or casters aren’t broken or making noise. Then break out the tools and tighten down every nut, bolt, and screw you can find. If nuts or bolts are stripped,…

If your cottage’s outdoor wiring runs through a grey plastic conduit, an extra junction box plus some conduit makes for a well-disguised little cache for the microfilm. Smuggle enemy technical diagrams in a tricked-out tube of Pringles. Neatly slice off the tube’s metal bottom with a utility knife, and find a lidded jar that can slip inside. Using hot glue, attach the jar lid to the metal bottom. Carefully stack enough chips back in the upside-down tube to support the jar so the lip is flush with the cut tube and its lid screws on seamlessly. Squeeze some hot glue around the outside of the jar to secure it in place. Then, swallow any remaining chips to prevent them from falling into foreign hands. A false bottom is a classic.…

Let’s all take a moment and give thanks to electric car manufacturers. They’re the reason for a surge in interest in electric-powered boats. That’s good news for cottage boaters (and for our neighbours and wildlife) who want a quieter, more peaceful on-water experience or who want to reduce their contribution to nasty emissions, oil, and other pollutants in the lake. If you’re daunted by the prospect of learning the new technology, don’t be. Whether you want to convert an existing cottage boat or you plan to fit your next new boat with electric power, start by asking yourself a few basic questions, says Dean Heinemann, the director of sales at New York-based Elco Motor Yachts, which is a pioneer in electric marine propulsion and classic electric launches. First, what kind…

WE WERE ALL HAVING A PERFECTLY pleasant evening at our friend’s cottage on Kennisis Lake, Ont., when Jeff decided to bust out his old CD collection. Twelve of us were there on a night late in the summer, two generations—us in our twenties and our parents in their fifties—who had been friends for almost two decades. Jeff started cycling through the albums, playing one or two tracks from each disc before the next song request rolled in: the Eagles, the Clash, Tears for Fears, the Police. Then, as is known to happen when strong opinions and strong drink commingle, things got a little tense. Jeff, who has long held the title for the most laid-back grown-up I know, was trying to accommodate the enthusiastic requests from Norm, a big Led…

Every single one a keeper Jock Mitchell, a Nebahwin Island, Ont., cottager, got this guest “book” idea when he saw some folk art while in the Southern U.S. All the fish are the same shape, cut from some old cedar. Names and dates go on the back. “A nice record, especially for guests from far away,” he says. “One spent a whole day painting the state flag of Maryland, the most complicated” (far left, middle photo).…

So many of you refer to your cottages as your “happy place.” It’s where you escape and unwind, where you don’t worry about what you look like or what your schedule says, and you don’t have to spend any energy getting motivated to do things (unless that thing is coming in from the dock to get more chips). It’s where you can spend a whole day in the hammock with a book and not feel any guilt about it. But this summer feels different. The cottage is still the cottage, of course, and we’ll still be so lucky to spend time there in nature and with our loved ones. But some things will change: there may not be any late-afternoon boat rides to get hand-scooped ice cream cones in town.…

Not a strong puzzler? Well, you will be. Once you follow these tips from our editor-in-chief—and raging “puzzle nerd”—Michelle Kelly.* Puzzling is meditative and incredibly satisfying, says Michelle. “You see your progress. There’s a start and there’s a finish.” And you will finish. “You just have to keep going. It’s a life lesson, really.” 1 Pick the right puzzle. One that you want to assemble. “People send me examples of puzzles—round ones, monochromatic ones—and I’m like, ‘No thanks.’” Jigsaw puzzles are supposed to be fun. Not torture. 2 Two thousand pieces? Bring that on. As long as the image contains a variety of graphic elements and lots of different colours. 3 Avoid cheap puzzles; the individual pieces tend to all be the same shape. 4 Ready to puzzle? Use a…

I was 10 or so when I first experienced the childhood pleasures of cottage country at a rambling old place my parents rented on Acton Island in Muskoka: endless rounds of kick the can and tag on the cool, shady paths that wound around the cottage; dancing till we dropped as we shouted the chorus to the ’60s hits “I’m Henry the VIII, I Am” and “Sweet Pea,” over and over; finally falling asleep to the lap, gurgle, lap of water in the boathouse over which my sister and I slept. At the cottage I learned that life is simpler, there are fewer rules, and even adults let their hair down once in a while. This was amply proven by my most important cottage discovery, which, as it turned out,…

Q: I read somewhere that cats are the number one threat to birds in the U.S. and Canada. Is my outdoor cat a threat to birds around my cottage?—HAZEL VALENTINE, VIA EMAIL A: Yes, your cat is a threat. Is it the number one threat? Truth: habitat destruction and climate change probably play a larger role, at least in terms of indirect threats, says Aly Hyder Ali with Nature Canada, a national nature conservation charity. “But cats are the largest direct threat, and they do have a huge impact.” One North American study estimated that cats cause up to 350 million bird deaths per year. “And that’s probably conservative,” says Hyder Ali. Cats themselves aren’t the problem. “It’s the improper management of cats by humans,” he says. It’s a misconception…

Pyramid Kids who like counting the fish under the dock will love spotting the cards that add up to 13; they won’t even realize they’re honing their math skills THE OBJECT: To remove all of the cards in the pyramid in one play-through of the hand by pairing off available cards that add up to 13. Cards have the same value as their rank; aces count as 1, jacks as 11, queens as 12, and kings as 13. Kings are removed singly, whether they turn up in the tableau or in the hand (see Glossary, opposite). THE LAYOUT: Creating the tableau: deal out 28 cards face-up and overlapping to form a pyramid, as shown above, starting at the top with one card and finishing with seven on the bottom row.…

Keep the conversation going I just read “Strange Days Indeed” (Editor’s Note, June/July ’20). I wanted to thank you for taking a balanced and fair approach. I think you summarized the issues well and in a way that didn’t malign either side. My husband and I are lucky enough to have unrestricted access to a beautiful place built by his grandparents in the Algonquin Highlands, Ont. Our lake Facebook group has been a constant battleground since the pandemic began, and, to be honest, I’m not confident that relationships will ever be repaired. I find it rather tragic as we all share a love of the same beautiful lake. I hope your editorial inspires productive conversation about the issues. It would be a shame to survive this horrendous situation and emerge…

First came Slow Food. Then Slow Fashion, Slow Travel, even Slow Gaming (what?). Now Muskoka’s Safe Quiet Lakes hopes to make Slow Boating the next hip thing on a busy route near Port Carling, Ont. “We’re not bringing in extra rules, we’re just asking people to be more aware of their wake,” says Colleen Kennedy, the leader of a project to calm boat wake along a two-plus kilometre stretch of the Indian River and Mirror Lake. “It’s about common courtesy and keeping the lakes safe for everyone.” To encourage boaters to ease off the throttle this summer, volunteers with Safe Quiet Lakes will install No Wake signs and buoys along the busy waterway connecting Lakes Rosseau and Muskoka. A radar sign, meanwhile, “will let boaters know how fast they’re going,”…

Every year, the day after school let out, my three sons and I would head up to Muskoka to spend the entire summer in bliss. I’d unpack, while the boys would head out to the garage to locate the bin jam-packed with toys from the previous years. The excitement they had when they hauled everything out inevitably turned to whines and complaints when I asked them to put the toys away before bedtime. And this happened every evening, every day of the summer. A deck of cards became my catalyst. I turned it into a game to get the kids to not only pick up their toys, but to also encourage them to help out with chores. The game began at 8 p.m. every night. I assigned a task to…

Looking for a quick way to improve your cottage this season? Window films are thin, flexible sheets, typically made of polyester, that you can apply to glass surfaces. They allow sunlight in but can block over 99 per cent of harmful UV rays and prevent excess solar gain. Visually speaking, the two most common types of films you can buy are non-reflective and metalized. Non-reflective films come in various opacities, block UV rays, and help deter bird strikes by reducing the reflections that birds perceive as trees and sky. Gila Frosted Privacy Window Film is one example: a semi-opaque, non-reflective product available at Home Depot for about $1.50 per square foot. Metalized films, on the other hand, are shiny and reflect UV rays. They’re not great at deterring birds because…

Q: “My friend gets irritated when some of us want to watch trashy movies during our girls’ weekends at the cottage, but she is perfectly happy to have us all read trashy magazines instead. She says there is a difference, but I can’t see it.” A: If I had to guess, I would say that you are likely not part of a multi-generational, old-fashioned cottage family, accustomed to collecting regatta pennants and scratching tortured verse on sheets of birchbark. Because the difference you cannot see—irrational cottage tradition—is certainly real but invisible to outsiders and newcomers. Most cottagers have moved on from these old habits, and many never have observed them in the first place. But there remains a sizeable circle of cottage folk, like a splinter group of old-order Mennonites…

“WITHIN CERTAIN SET BORDERS WE ARE FREE TO ROAM, OR MEDITATE; TO FOOT IT, OR SWIM IT—AS WE CHOOSE; TO MISS MEALS, OR TO PARTY WITH OUR FARMER NEIGHBOURS, TO WATCH THE ELATION OF THE KIDDIES IN THIS THEIR EDEN WONDERLAND; TO ENJOY THE DELICIOUS MISHAPS OF HOPEFUL SPORT.”—BRUCE BEACH COTTAGERS’ ASSOCIATION, 1932 EVERYONE IS A WINNER AT BRUCE BEACH—except at the North-South Game.” Eight-year-old Chris Buchanan tells me this over lunch on the back deck of his family’s waterfront cottage on Lake Huron, just south of Kincardine, Ont. It’s mid-afternoon on Saturday, the day before the community’s annual famed baseball matchup, and while his clever joke gets a laugh from those sitting at the table, it’s also pretty astute. This picturesque summer locale is as laid back, kindly, and…