Innholdsfortegnelse for September/October 2023 i Cottage Life

Time to zero in On the new season of Life Below Zero, Sue Aikens and company are back, battling to find food and trying to maintain connections to the outside world. Watch the season premiere on the Cottage Life channel at 9 p.m. ET/PT on September 13. Find your channel at tv.cottagelife.com. Return of the (succession) king He’s back! Estate planning lawyer Peter Lillico will be presenting about common succession mistakes at the Fall Cottage Life Show in Mississauga, Ont., on November 10–12. For those of you who can’t attend in person, subscribe to our free newsletter, Family Matters, to get started and to stay in-the-know about upcoming webinars: cottagelife.com/succession. MEET CARLEY FORTUNE Missing the cottage already? Author Carley Fortune’s bestselling romance novels are set at the lake (and they’re…

In this day and age I enjoyed reading “The Cottage is Boring!” (Aug ’23) and your tips for keeping kids engaged and loving the cottage. But I noticed reading was not among the activities listed. I have always cultivated a love of reading among my kids and now my grandkids. There is nothing like a great book to beat the boredom blues!—Kathy Larkins, Six Mile Lake, Ont. The latest edition of CL really hit the target. “The Cottage is Boring!” took me and my brother back to our childhood—“summering” at the lake was wonderful with all of the magic of the island, the cottage, the river, and the activities. Our teen years were difficult, sometimes very lonely with few friends around and all the required daily chores…boring! However, once we…

FALL IS AN important time for cottage-country waterfowl. If they’re not flying south ahead of the cold season, they’re preparing to hunker down near large areas of open water in hopes of finding plenty of food through the winter. And we say ’tis the season to give them some props. Time for Cottage Life’s inaugural Waterfowl Awards! COMMON MERGANSER Mama mergansers are known for taking care of the offspring of others. This is why you might see a string of two dozen blended-brood ducklings trailing behind a single female. We don’t know how she does it—and all while keeping that red hairdo on point. CANADA GOOSE There’s a reason these birds get so damn chatty while flying south in a V-formation: young geese and their parents are communicating. Juvenile geese…

Autumn rains bring a flourishing of wild, edible mushrooms. This recipe uses chicken of the woods, but any meaty, flavourful variety works. But, beware: many edible mushrooms have evil twins that lurk in the forest. Forage for consumption at your own risk. MAKES 4 SERVINGS 6 oz wild mushrooms2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus more for brushingsalt and pepper1 shallot, diced (optional)2 tbsp Italian parsley, chopped (optional)4 tbsp waterlemon juice, to taste 1 Preheat oven to 500°F. Trim mushrooms, removing stems and any old or dried bits. Scrape or wipe away dirt. Cut into ¼-inch slices and brush with olive oil. Season liberally with salt and pepper. 2 Preheat olive oil in large cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms in a single layer. When sizzling, transfer skillet to…

WHEN YOUR SEPTIC system catches a chill and ices up, there’s no coughing or sniffling. But there’s often no flushing either. Now, cottagers closing up for a winter of polar temperatures and limited or unreliable snow cover can keep their septics cozy beneath Matt’s Sewer/Septic Blankets. Pegged over vulnerable water lines and septic components, these purpose-made synthetic covers trap the earth’s heat to reduce frost penetration, says Andrew Kirk, the Manitoba-based distributor. The American-made product is “an insulated mat of woven fabric with a waxy coating to it. It’s partly water repellent, but it also breathes,” Kirk says, adding that most buyers are on the Prairies. Installation “is as simple as putting a blanket on the ground.” Blankets come in four sizes with prices from $150 for a 6-by-12-foot cover…

HERE IS WHAT I’ve learned. If you walk through the forest not looking for fungi, you probably won’t see them. You won’t see their tiny spores swirling through the air, searching for a friendly place to land, a place to grow—even though their spores outnumber every other living particle in the air. You won’t see their mycelial threads that stitch the soil together under your feet and weave themselves into some of the largest and oldest organisms on earth—even though these interweavings among plants and roots are what makes life on land possible. You won’t see these not-animal, not-vegetable creatures hunting for nutrients in soil and rock, deciding (yes, deciding) which trees will get vital nutrients and when. And you might not even see their gorgeous fruit: the mushrooms that…

Largetooth aspens hoist a straight, slender trunk, most of it branchless, topped by a narrow, rounded crown. Adverse to early or late frosts, largetooth aspens keep mainly south of the boreal forest, from southeastern Manitoba to the Maritimes. They thrive on sandy ground, especially near forest edges. In October, this tree outshines the more ubiquitous but sombre yellows of trembling aspen, with its bigger, jagged-edged leaves turning a bright golden yellow or orange, sometimes tinged with red. Even after the largetooth aspen’s leaves fall, its smooth, thin, greenish-grey to yellowish bark can photosynthesize on mild days. After a few decades, the lower trunk develops rough, dark furrows. Though they release silky, wind-borne seeds from dangling catkins in late spring, most aspens emerge from fast-rising root suckers. Football field-sized swathes of…

Anicka Quin Journalist Anicka Quin fell into writing more than 20 years ago when she was reading her university’s student paper. “I saw a poorly written story about music and thought, The bar must be pretty low.” So she started following bands and writing about them. Now, Anicka focusses on lifestyle content. In this issue, she wrote “Kaden, Miriam, Mark, Callia, and Angie Bickmore’s Big Family Project” (p. 66), about a family renovating a fishing camp. “The kids have a way of finishing each other’s sentences when they recall their reno war stories,” she says. “You get the impression that even the disasters were fodder for laughter later.” Anicka lives in Vancouver, where she is the editorial director of Western Living and Vancouver magazines. Meegan Lim Illustrator Meegan Lim always…

ROADS ARE FLAT-OUT dangerous for turtles, but a study of Ottawa’s suburban routes suggests a silver lining for life near the fast lane. For painted turtles laying eggs along roadsides, more traffic means fewer predators, fewer attacks on nests, and better egg survival. “Roadkill is a major issue for turtles…but predators are also negatively affected by roads,” says Rowan Murphy, who tracked the interplay of turtles, traffic, and predators for her Master’s degree in biology at Carleton University in Ottawa. She found that the whoosh of cars is scaring egg-napping skunks, foxes, and raccoons away from turtle nests, and improved hatchling survival could compensate for adult roadkills. Testing the concept in 2019, Murphy packed 2,400 quail eggs into 600 ersatz “nests” and distributed them in natural areas and roadsides on…

WHEN A GROUP of kids are engaged in a passionate conversation with their friends, it would be fair to assume they’re discussing video games. But when Sharon Langfield noticed four boys talking as they leaned against the fence of Waubaushene’s community garden one day, what she overheard was a debate about the merits of different varieties of lettuce. (One had a preference for curly-leafed; another insisted Romaine was superior.) Sweet moments like these are the fruits of an Indigenous community garden project, spearheaded by Sharon and her husband, Peter Cox, who were looking for a way to bring the Georgian Bay community together after the isolation of pandemic life. With help from the Talpines Property Owners’ Association, which secured funding from the township for building materials, and the guidance of…

The search Ruth McGuirl has fond memories of visiting her grandmother’s cottage on Three Mile Lake, Ont., in Muskoka as a child. “It was a tiny cabin with two bedrooms,” McGuirl recalls. “We were sleeping three kids to a bed.” Ruth and her four siblings would go fishing off the dock, climb the pine trees on the property, and roast marshmallows at the firepit. In the 1990s, Ruth’s grandmother sold the property to Ruth’s aunt (her parents were not in a position to purchase it). Meanwhile, Ruth—who owned a house—toyed with the idea of getting a cottage of her own. In the mid-2010s, Ruth envisioned buying a cottage where her parents could enjoy their retirement. She was determined to find a property on Three Mile to stay close to relatives.…

IS GOOD LIGHTING a perpetual problem at your home or cottage? Are you considering a skylight but don’t want to pay for costly roof alterations or spend time on maintenance? Luckily, you can increase the natural lighting of your space—without all the fuss—through artificial skylights, a new kind of LED lighting system. Artificial skylights combine nanotechnology, tempered glass, and adjustable controls to produce natural-looking light that is more affordable and DIY-friendly than traditional skylights. Unlike regular skylights, they can’t leak—water coming in or heat leaking out—and they can be installed on almost any ceiling or surface, just like any other light fixture. They mimic the east-to-west movement of the sun and render colour that’s very close to natural sunlight. Models vary from typical skylight sizes up to systems that gang…

IN THE FALL of 2017, I installed a unique, Canadian-made roof de-icing system on a cottage-country home with severe ice damming, and it’s worked perfectly ever since. The system is called Edge Cutter, and it’s made by the Muskoka firm Heat-Line. Each installation is custom-designed with costs ranging from $15 to $30 per foot. I like it better than conventional roof heating cables for three reasons. 1 I DON’T SEE UGLY WIRES There are no zig-zag cables on the roof. The system uses aluminum plates with a channel along one edge to house a self-regulating heating cable. Slip a row of the plates under your roofing, and heat gets conducted up and under the roofing to melt any snow or ice. The entire system is protected by a built-in GFCI.…

Q: “A friend of mine lets my family use her cottage for a few weeks each summer when she isn’t there. But every time I arrive, the place is a mess, and I feel compelled to clean up after her or whoever visited last. It’s weird to me that she makes zero effort, as an owner, and also never prefaces the invitation by saying something like, ‘Just so you know, I haven’t been able to tidy up after my last guests.’ Should I say something?” A: Your situation does sound a bit strange. In my experience, there is no time when cottagers are more hyper-fastidious than during the pack-out routines at the end of a visit. The foundational reasoning behind a thorough cottage tidy-up has always been a bone-deep terror…

JOHN MOWAT’S LOCAL fishing derby was small when it launched in 2016. First promoted through flyers posted at local businesses, the derby drew in 27 pre-teen anglers and their parents on the first Saturday of July. The families would soon discover it was as much a competitive activity and learning experience for the children as it was a social activity for the parents. “Nothing much happens on our lake, so I just thought this would be a good community event to get all the mothers and fathers sitting on the dock and chatting,” says John. Why not make the activity water-centric, he thought. “Fishing just seemed like the obvious choice.” The event isn’t so small anymore. With the sixth annual derby this summer, John and his newly formed committee, Friends…

HOCKEY SEASON MAY be starting, but until the lakes freeze solid, the best cottage hockey is indoors on an easy-to-build “crockey” rink. This all-ages game, a cross between crokinole and table hockey, is adaptable to different skill levels, and it’s surprisingly addictive. 1 The rink starts as a piece of G1S (good one side) plywood, cut to 16" by 24" (or whatever size you like). Measure 4" in from each corner to mark and then cut the angled corners. Cut an octagonal frame—the rink boards—from ½" quarter-round trim. Attach the trim with wood glue (plus a few brads if your players like to get physical). 2 Paint the game board with white gloss or semi-gloss latex paint for a smooth, slippery surface. There are different ways to paint the lines,…

WHEN IT’S TIME to pack away deck furniture, canoes, and other summer gear—or assorted junk your cousins won’t toss—you may be eyeing the overhead space in your boathouse or shed. But how much weight can you safely hang from those ceiling joists? And can you add a bed up there for the kids to sleep in next year? “All roofs are designed for self-weight—that’s finishes and insulation—plus snow load and sometimes wind. There isn’t really an allowance for hanging things, other than small lights and fixtures,” says Nick Smith, a structural engineer at Tatham Engineering’s Orillia office and a cottager in Grand Bend, Ont. Truss roofs in particular tend to be very tightly designed. “Any modification​—sometimes as little as a bolt hole in a wood member—may impact a truss’s performance,”…

THERMOCOUPLES PLAY A vital role in the safe operation of older gas appliances, such as water heaters, ovens, fireplaces, and fridges. These small yet indispensable devices ensure that the pilot light remains lit, which, in turn, allows the appliance to function correctly. In a gas appliance, the pilot light heats one end of the thermocouple while the other end remains cooler. This temperature difference creates a small electric current that keeps the gas valve open, allowing the flow of gas to the pilot light. If the pilot goes out for any reason, the thermocouple cools and shuts off the gas supply, preventing any potential hazards. Even though thermocouples are pretty tough and have no moving parts, they can sometimes become faulty due to debris accumulation, misalignment, or oxidation on the…

CALLIA AND MIRIAM Bickmore take a break from guessing the right word in a heated game of You Don’t Say at the family dinner table to look up at the tongue-and-groove ceiling and recount the war stories they earned during its installation. “You’re fighting with the board, and you’re pushing, and you’re 10 feet up in the air,” says Callia. “You’re pushing so hard,” interjects Miriam. “You’re pushing on the board with all your weight and waiting for the other person to nail it in so you can let go,” says Callia. “But then our nail gun was fussy, and it wouldn’t always fire. And you’re, like, leaning over the edge of the scaffolding—not over the edge, but you’re close…” “They’re leaning in the safest way possible,” chimes in their…

Truly this is sweet sorrow. That last walk along the waterfront. That last lure cast or flat stone skipped. For the brave, that last brief swim. That last look back as you drive up the lane through the leaves of autumn. The view over the stern of the boat as the wake spreads and the cottage dwindles in the ever-growing distance. This is closing the cottage, preparing for winter, putting away the joys of summer. Hating to see the seasons end but knowing that closing holds the certainty of return. I have snugged up a number of cottages in my life. When I was a child, we closed the old cottage on the Moon River, near Bala, Ont., on Labour Day weekend. Screens stacked on beds, shutters on all the…