Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2021 i Cottage Life

Chock full of treasures I am devouring the Aug/Sept ’21 issue! I grew up on Redman Island, Ont., in Lake Rosseau’s Venetia group. The retro cottage featured in “The Monk, the Recluse, and a Message in a Bottle” is indeed something special—such a refreshing contrast to all the new lake homes being built. “A Snake in the Grass” was chilling but informative. We have several large fox snakes on our island. I’ve never seen a snake larger than a garter snake, so we are learning to live together. Thanks again for a wonderful issue.—Charlie Dalton, Lake Rosseau, Ont. Download this now Thank you for sharing the story “New Canadian App Detects and Tracks Forest Fires in Real Time” (cottagelife.com). We are currently on an evacuation alert due to a major…

WALLPAPER IS OUT, and magazine covers are in. At least, they are for Sheila Guest. In 2018, the Port Severn, Ont., cottager had a bathroom wall that needed a makeover. “It was a mess,” says Sheila. “It was a piece of panelling that had been covered in Mactac—white with gold flecks; insert grimacing face—and there were holes from water pipes where an old sink had been installed.” Sheila also had many years’ worth of Cottage Life issues stacked in the cottage. “I dreamed up the idea to wallpaper the space with the magazine covers. I only wish I’d had enough to do the whole wall.” After removing the covers and cleaning the wall, Sheila coated it with Mod Podge (a crafting product that works as a glue, sealer, and finish).…

At the cottage, you light stuff on fire: candles, when the power’s out; the woodstove, when it’s cold; the firepit, every night that it’s not raining. So, we tried Bic’s new EZ Reach lighter—a pocket lighter with a 4-cm-long wand to keep the flame away from your fingers—in a variety of cottage applications (see below). Results? Our testers found the lighter easy to use; great for hard-to-reach, finicky wicks, like the ones in a kerosene lamp; and way more portable than a barbecue lighter. But, we wondered, couldn’t the wand break off, say, rattling around in a bag, or if accidentally dropped onto a hard surface? Not likely. We smashed the EZ Reach’s wand with a rock; with a larger, heavier rock; with a hammer; and with a 10-lb barbell.…

SINCE LUMBER PRICES remain quite high, cottage builders and DIYers are turning to felling and custom-milling lumber from their own properties. “It’s quite beneficial for a lot of property owners who have trees to turn into lumber that they can then use for a project,” says Chad Higgins, the owner of West Coast Custom Timber in Victoria, B.C. Prices for custom felling and milling timber vary widely depending on the project, but Higgins says it usually costs a third to half of the price that you’d pay to buy the lumber from a retailer. For West Coast Timber, for example, a tree that has already fallen might cost as little as $150 to remove and mill; prices could shoot upward to $1,500 if Higgins has to bring in extra equipment…

Q: This summer, near our cottage, there were a few fires where cigarette butts were deemed to be the cause. I’m concerned that some people on our lake don’t understand the dangers of improper cigarette butt disposal. How should people be disposing of used cigarettes at the lake, where the vegetation can get tinder-dry in the summer? —Jolene Macfarlane, via email A: You have a valid concern. Cigarettes don’t account for the majority of fires, but they certainly account for some of them. In the summer of 2019, for example, seven Vancouver Island fires over the course of seven days were attributed to discarded cigarette butts. Part of the problem is that a butt can appear as if it’s extinguished, but if it lands on burnable material, it can still…

AS LEAVES FALL and plants and mushrooms shrivel with autumn’s frosts, hardy, tree trunk-hugging bracket fungi stand out as remnant forest curios. Among the largest and most alluring, the smooth, mahogany-hued lacquered polypore—which festoons maples, oaks, and other hardwoods east of the Rockies—is an important pioneer in the process of decay that supports all life. LACQUERED POLYPORE is a white-rot fungus which releases enzymes from its tiny, spreading fibres to gradually break down heartwood near the base of living trees. Since outer sapwood forms the living portion of a trunk, trees hollowed by heart rot can still grow and prosper for decades before toppling in a random wind storm. UNTIL THEN, the cavities shelter birds, bats, flying squirrels, beetles, and a vast array of other creatures, while nutrients released by…

ONTARIO’S CHARLESTON LAKE ASSOCIATION is facing a familiar problem: increasing cottager complaints about boat speed, noise, and wake. “About 80 per cent of our members’ concerns are about boating safety,” says Michael McAdoo, who is part of the CLA’s environmental directors board. In response, the board formed a committee, chaired by board member John Webster, to address the issue. They launched the Boater Awareness and Safety System this past summer. The association hopes that BASS will reduce boat speed and noise and promote safe boating through five key educational and awareness elements: traditional media such as newsletters; web-based media on the CLA website and social channels; increased and improved signage around the lake; youth programs, such as a new boating safety module included in the CLA’s day camps; and other…

COTTAGE OWNERS IN Rondeau Provincial Park, along with Chatham-Kent City Council, have proposed a plan to buy 40 acres of park land from the Ontario government. The cottagers, who occupy 279 privately-owned cottages on less than one per cent of the park’s 8,000 acres, own their cottage structures but lease the land from the province. While this tenancy agreement has been in place in Rondeau since 1894, the land leases are set to expire at the end of 2022. The park was initially designed with cottagers in mind, says Keith Graham, a director of the Rondeau Cottagers Association (RCA). “The government went out and advertised and went to trade shows, and even went to the U.S. to try and solicit people to come and build cottages in the park,” he…

DON’T WANT TO mill the trees on your property (p. 32)? Why not reclaim 2x4s from the shed you’ve been meaning to tear down, or salvage boards from your neighbour’s old barn? Here’s how to give old lumber a second life. Is it salvageable? Wood that is rotten, bug-infested, or has otherwise lost its structural integrity belongs on the burn pile. Look for soft, spongy areas. If you can poke a screwdriver into the board, it’s no good. Clean it 100 years of accumulated dirt will mask even the most beautiful plank. Give it a brisk dry scrub with a stiff brush and a blast with compressed air. Any piece of wood destined for indoors should also be treated for bugs, ideally by kiln drying. You can find local custom…

Do I have an LDD allergy? Q: We had an infestation of LDD moths at the lake this year, and I broke out in an itchy rash on the back of my neck. At first I thought that it was mosquito bites. Was it the caterpillars? Am I allergic?—Dwayne Nickel, via email A: It’s certainly possible that the LDD moth caterpillars caused the itchiness. “The reaction is not caused by a bite or sting from the caterpillar; the caterpillar hairs themselves carry histamine as a defense mechanism,” says Yuka Asai, an associate professor in the Division of Dermatology with the Queen’s University Department of Medicine. “So if you come in contact with the hair, it can provoke a hive-like reaction that looks like insect bites.” This is more common on…

APRIL 15, 2020 I yelled at my husband on the street today. A stranger stopped and asked us for directions. I kept walking. Matthew, my husband, paused to help, standing less than six feet from the man. “Oh my God, stand back!” I shouted. I grabbed Matthew by the arm, pulled him away, and suggested to the stranger that if he was lost, he could use his smartphone. When I apologized to Matthew at home, I explained that everything is stressing me out about Toronto these days: opening the door to our condo lobby, touching the buttons on the elevator, passing people in the halls. The virus could be anywhere. It’s a conversation we have had before, like after I called Matthew “reckless” for picking a stray nickel up off the…

HAPPY LAKESGIVING! We went into a food coma after tallying up all these tasty lakes LAC CANAPÉ: 1 SHRIMP LAKE: 5 PUNCH BOWL LAKE: 1 SQUASH LAKE: 4 POTATO LAKE: 6 LAC PUMPKIN: 1 YAM LAKE: 3 PARSNIP LAKE: 1 LAC ROLL: 2 TURKEY LAKE: 5 GRAVY LAKE: 2 HAM LAKE: 7 PIE LAKE: 4 COFFEE LAKE: 4 25+ CRANBERRY LAKE WE STOPPED COUNTING… SORRY.…

ALL WORK AND NO REST makes goose a dull bird. Photo contest entrant Judy Tarves-Elliott sent us a shot of this small gaggle of Canada geese that stopped by her McGregor Bay, Ont., cottage for a break. “They were resting in a peculiar one-legged stance that I’d never seen before,” she says. Neither had we. Quick, to the Cottage Life experts database! Turns out, this is common in ducks, geese, and other water birds. “There are two reasons that waterfowl and some other birds stand on one leg,” says Scott Petrie of Delta Waterfowl in Bismark, N.D. “One of them is to thermoregulate—to help adjust their temperature.” Birds usually do this in the colder months; they lose body heat through their feet. “The other reason that birds stand on one…

ROTARY TOOLS, KNOWN generically by the brand name Dremel, are common in the craft world, but they are a great addition to your cottage tool box. When tackling a project that requires the finesse of small hand tools but the oomph of a power tool, a rotary tool is the perfect fit. Here are a few jobs that will be a breeze with one: 1 Refinish a peeling railing instead of replacing it. Regular sanders can deal with large, flat areas but are a pain in tight spots. Fit a rotary tool with an abrasive disc or bit to make detail sanding less painful.2 Replacing a broken tile? Try spinning a carbide bit to make quick work of removing hard-to-reach grout.3 Snapped the head off a screw? Use a small…

Q: “Help! I love my wife, but I hate the cottage (which she loves). I find it too rustic, and I always feel bored there. I don’t enjoy watersports, swimming, or hiking. But I do want to spend time with her. What should I do? Can I train myself to enjoy the cottage more? Or is there another solution?” A: Without resorting to advanced-level re-education techniques perfected in China during Mao’s Cultural Revolution, I can’t really think of any way that you can “train” yourself to enjoy a cottage more. You could certainly try to embrace activities such as swimming or fishing with a gruelling daily regimen of front-crawl sessions to the swim raft, multiple reps of cannonball sets, and endless hours bouncing crank-baits off the neighbour’s dock. But I…

I LOVE HAMMOCKS, but finding suitably distanced trees in the right location—facing the right direction—is tough. The solution is a hammock stand, and the choices you can buy are pretty straightforward: metal stands run about $150 and are consistently rated “flimsy.” More robust (and beautiful) laminated wood stands will set you back $400–$600 and beyond—not in my budget. So I set out to design a beautiful, strong, wooden hammock stand for the cost of a flimsy metal one. The design is surprisingly simple—it relies on 24 identical arcs, cut from a single sheet of plywood and laminated in groups of four to form six strong, curved beams. You make the super-handy drink/snack shelf with the leftover plywood—it’s something that you won’t find on any other stand. I designed this to…