That's it, I'm out

I'm officially out of blog fodder.

I could really start scraping the dregs and give you photos of things that I rejected as posts earlier in the summer, but that wouldn't be kind to you or to me.

I had hoped, at least, to be able to show you the new pillows I made for the sofa tonight, but rather than spending my evening in front of my sewing machine, I spent it in the kitchen washes dishes because I had run out of counter space. I've not been known for my dish washing efficiency.

It might be time to slip into post-a-week mode here at el blog.

I'll have to see what I can come up with.

As always, thanks for continuing to read.

-C

A tour, in 5 parts

I had a request a while back for a video tour of the cottage to help you get your bearings. Since digital video files are massive, I've broken it into five videos. Hopefully it won't be too disjointed.

Please forgive my asthmatic narration as I wheeze around the property.

Video 1: the lake, the dock, and the stairs up from the water:

Video 2: heading from the dock stairs up to the deck of the main cottage:

Video 3: The main cottage

Video 4: Slanty

Video 5: Peaky (aka the Junky Bunky)

I hope you enjoyed the tour!

Videos are a'comin'!

I'm gradually getting the videos uploaded for the cottage tour but I'm only about half way done. If you're lucky, I'll have a post for you later today. Worst case you'll have something tomorrow.

You'll survive, I promise.

In the meantime you can get cracking on ideas about how I can demo/renovate the junky bunky, because you've been annoyingly quiet on that subject.

chop chop!

*sniff* I miss this

This weekend is the first time in months (no exaggeration) that we have been home. I felt a little lost on Friday night because I wasn't scurrying around like a squirrel on speed trying to get everything ready by the time the captain walked through the door.

It's going to take some getting used to.

I miss this:

The cooler temperatures are also going to take some getting used to. It feels like August ended (ok... .let's call it Labour Day) and life slammed the book shut on Summer.

*sniff*


Did you hear that?

I think my cucumbers miss me.

Do you have one of these?

Mum and Dad donated a strange little thermometer to the cottage this summer. Dad picked it up at a yard sale for a few coins.

It's pretty neat to look at, and it's surprisingly accurate. I like that I can look at the number of floating spheres and know the temperature, without having to find my glasses or squint across the room at the digital thermometer. When all the spheres are floating, it's cold. When they're all at the bottom it's stinky hot. And when they're nicely divided, some up, some down, then the temperature is just about right. The bottom one has a gold-coloured tag that says "18" on it, and they go up in 2 degree increments, which means the blue one at the top is the "26" tag.

I like it.

Sorry for the short post tonight. I attended my first "Adult Jazz/Hip Hop" class tonight and I am beat. Oh, and I suck. A lot. But I'll keep working at it and maybe I'll improve!

It's Log!

♫ It's Log! It's Log! It's big, it's heavy, it's wood. ♪

♪ It's Log! It's Log! It's better than bad, it's good! ♫

The wood pile on the far side of peaky was starting to lean precariously towards our neighbours' yard.

Rather than have it topple at an inopportune time crushing some wee person playing in the vicinity, Handy Dad and the wee lad set to work relocating it closer to the fire pit.

The wee lad is glad for any chance to wear his work gloves. And look! They match his outfit!

"Hmmm," says the captain, "I wonder why there's a downspout down the side of the building that's not actually anywhere near the eavestrough."

First rule of Hodge Podge Lodge: DON'T ASK WHY. We're still not sure why. I'm trying not to think about it as I write this.

It took many trips with the wheel barrow, but we now have a very safe wood fire-break alongside the fire pit.

Oh, yes.

Very safe.

Big pile of wood, right next to the fire. Oh well,  If it catches, we'll have a spectacular bed of coals for roasting schmallowmallows, and the firepit will be much tidier.

Of course, we'll have no eyebrows left, either, but they'll grow back.

I got my data baaaaack!!

Somebunny lurvs me - and it's the Captain! For my anniversary gift, he paid to have the data salvaged from my borked hard drive.

♥ ♥ ♥

I was so happy tears were welling up. I'm such a sentimental fool. Nothing says lovin' like Data. It wasn't cheap, either. If you have photos you don't want to lose, back them up! Burn a CD, copy to a USB drive, something.

The recovery of my lost data [happy dance] means I have a few more old posts that I can share with you, now that the photos have returned.

I want to show you the day Dad and I decided to build our own kites from vapour barrier, tuck tape, butcher twine, and tomato stakes. Of course, it became a "who can make a better kite" contest. For me it did, anyway.

For starters, this is my kick arse Delta Wing:
It's pretty sick, I know.

Here's Dad's retro diamond kite.

It looks like it's flying, but really he's just winging it around with his fishing rod.

OK. Maybe it caught a little bit of air, but mostly it caught ground.

Clearly MY kite was the vastly superior kite.

Bounty

Behold! Our bounteous... bounty!

Ya.

The wee silly garden is still spitting out veg like a Pez dispenser. (ok. maybe not like a Pez dispenser. But that would be cool).

This weekend we had a near-ripe tomato that I plucked before the herbivorous chipmunks sank their teeth into it, as well as five or so near-ripe cucumbers. I'm still astonished that anything had a chance to ripen considering we were so late putting it all into the ground. The baby carrots are still premies, so we'll leave them a while longer before trying to harvest them. I figure we've easily got a half dozen cucumbers still to go. I don't know when we'll next be at the cottage, or if there will be an intervening frost.

Frost + cucumbers = cucumber goo.

If we make it back to the cottage again before the frost hits, we should have 3 or 4 more tomatoes, too.

All things considered, the garden was a very successful experiment. We're already talking about expanding the garden next year to include more space for the tomatoes and to include sweet peppers next time as well. Maybe some green or yellow beans, too, if we have the space.

Cucumber salad, here we come!

What's under that?

The captain got adventurous this weekend and decided to find out what's hiding under the hideous vinyl-soffit ceiling in the living room/kitchen area.

He's lucky a raccoon didn't spring out at him and maul him.

Here's what we found:
Insulation, and plain old plywood. It's much better than I thought, actually, assuming the roof is the same across the whole room - and let's face it, in this cottage that could be a stretch. If it is all the same though, in theory... in theory I could rip down the ugly stuff, slap a coat of white paint on the rafters/roof and call it a day.

The captain's unconvinced. He's thinking the insulation is a good idea, to keep the heat out during the summer.

My thinking is that a can of paint is a whole lot cheaper than a whole new ceiling (it would run us at least $300), and worst case, if we need that insulation, we can cover it over again later. Am I right?

What's your thought? Leave a note in the comments to let me know. (You can leave anony mouse comments if you like, it's ok.)

I keep drooling over these "inspiration" photos, and I love the look of the exposed roof.

'Course, they've got nice slats up on their roof, so maybe it wouldn't look as good with painted chip-board?

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(p.s. Did you just read this? Do me a favour and click on "yay" below so I can see how many people are still reading - sorry to those of you reading via RSS, you'll need to visit the blog to help out. According to Bloggers stats, I've only got 2 to 3 readers a day, and as much as I enjoy entertaining you, it's not worth keeping up for two people. Thanks!!)

Weekend round up

I have a handful of photos to share with you, but none of them are spectacular enough to warrant their own blog post. So instead, I give the first ever "Weekend Round Up!" (aka. my leftover photos.)

Enjoy!!

First up: Radishes! These are insanely hot. We're not friends yet these radishes and I.

Next, some icky things:

A big, juicy spider *shudder*

And a photo of the algae bloom that was occurring in the lake. Makes you feel like you're swimming in pea soup. Bleh.

What else is there.... Oh! I've been crafting in the evenings, and I made this purdy bracelet. I have lots of shirts this dark turquoise colour, and it looks smashing with them. Plus it jingles. It reminds me of the charm bracelet of my Mum's that I used to pine for as a kid.

And lastly... we added a bit of trim in the back hall. I'm presently stymied over finishing the trim because I need to find a solution for surrounding the linen closet that will cover the holes, not impede the function of the hinges, and that will still let me fit trim around the hallway door. Until I get that resolved, I'm stuck. I need to troll the aisles at the despot to see what my options are.

That's it for today's round up! I hope to have enough photos to carry me through this coming week. After that posting might start to become sporadic; a lack of time at the cottage = a lack of subject matter to write about. ("about which to write"? I hate leaving my prepositions dangling). Dangle dangle.

Pressure washer makes things CLEAN

The Captain got a pressure washer for Christmas last year. He finally popped it open and put it together, because I asked him if he could wash the green sludge off the side of the cottage.

I don't even know what that is. What is that green stuff? Moss? Algae? Ick.

So he washed.

And he washed and he washed and he washed.

And it really did a GOOD job. So good that the deck next to it looked grubby and green, too. So he washed that as well. A lot of the paint flaked off, but it was already flakey, so I'm not terribly crushed. I'll need to add "paint deck" to my list of things for next summer.

Then, we got to looking at the narsty old muskoka chairs that have been sitting out on the lawn since we bought the place. I certainly wasn't going to sit in them - they were filthy, mossy, and suspiciously rotten looking.

Away he went again with the sprayer, and dang it if they don't look a lot better! They're still punky in spots, and the grain of the wood didn't enjoy being pressure washed so they need a bit of sanding, but I think with a small amount of elbow grease and some paint, we might be able to get them to a useable state.

Then he quit on me, and said "if you want the other chair done, you'll have to do it yourself." Quitter. Of course you always see something else that could use some washing when you're roaming around with a pressure washer in your hand.

As the captain put it, "When you've got a hammer in your hand, everything looks like a nail."

(isn't that a cute little spot right there, with the hammock and the gardens and the grass and the water? ♥)

Cucumberivores

The Captain put "cucumber salad" on the menu at the cottage last weekend.

I've been dying to use this photo

Captain, how could you? What have you got against our little green friends that we've been coddling and nurturing these past few months?

The Captain is a hungry beast.

I sent him off into the wilds with a paring knife to hunt for a suitable cucumber for dinner. It was something I couldn't bear to watch.

In the end, he selected this fine specimen.  It probably would've been happier if we'd let it grow a while longer, but it didn't get a say in the matter because, well, it's a cucumber. The recipe called for 3 medium cucumbers. We had one piddly cucumber. I scaled down the salad recipe accordingly.

I would've used a mandolin to slice it up really fine, but I don't have one at the cottage. I DO have a "Mouli" that came with the cottage. It's like a Moulinex, but without the electricity. Why "nex" = "electricity" I can't say.

I figured I'd give it a spin [knee slap!].

It didn't cut very well. The cucumber came out looking masticated. Mangled, yet tasty.

Giving up on the Mouli, I switched to a sharp knife and finished the cutting.

Then I chopped up a few sprigs of dill.

Added some salt (oooo blurry. I wasn't using the display on the camera to preview my shots because my battery was dying)

Vinegar

Sugar

And "salad oil" - as you can see I used olive oil because that's all I had at the cottage

Then I stirred it all together with a measuring spoon because I'm the one who has to wash dishes at the cottage. The End.

I didn't get a decent "serving" picture for two reasons:
#1: my camera battery died and I forgot my charger at home.
#2: The salad got hoovered by the family so quickly that there wasn't much to photograph!

Here's the recipe I used, if you're interested. I'm looking forward to hunting more cucumbers again really soon!

Unexpected entertainment

There was a racket on the lake last weekend. The cool thing about the cottage is that you can sit watching the lake all day and never know what you're going to spot.

At first I thought I was hearing a BIG fishing boat with a very noisy motor (because, you know, those bass swim  f a s t  and you have race along to catch 'em.). They've been known to tear around the island to get to their fishing spot  r i g h t   a w a y.

Turns out it was a float plane!

It taxied towards the island, turned around, gunned it, and flew off into the afternoon sky. The kids were very impressed. I think one of them might even have said, "That's sick!", which in the lingo of today's youth is a good thing. ;-)

That plane reminds me, I have to make arrangements to book Mum and Dad's sight-seeing flight that I gave them for Christmas last year. [makes a note on the eternal/infernal to-do list].

Back to school!

This Tuesday marked the kids' return to school.

The princess is in Grade 4 at a new school. She's been thrumming with excitement to start back to school for weeks now. Kids just don't realize how good they've got it! She's learning French for the first time, and already has bunches of friends in her class.

The wee (gosh.. not so very wee anymore!) lad started Grade 6 at his usual school just around the corner. He's allowed to ride his bike to school now AND he has signed up to be a safety patrol... patroller. (escorting little kids from the kiss-n-ride to the kindergarten yards, directing traffic at the kiss-n-ride, etc.) He's very excited, and I'm pleased to see him take an interest in extra-curricular responsibilities at school.

Both kids had very successful first days. They both really like their class and the teachers. Mostly I think they're just happy for summer to be over so they can spend their days with their friends again.

Next week our fall schedule kicks in, which means we'll lose our ability to spend Saturdays at the cottage. From now until closing (Thanksgiving?) we'll be lucky if we get there to spend a day on a Sunday. *sigh*

Summer screeched to a halt altogether too abruptly this year.

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Mum... to save copies of these pictures, click on the picture to view it bigger. Then right-click on the bigger picture and choose "Save Image As..." 
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What would you do?

I went out to the bunky with a tape measure this weekend.  I wanted to plug the dimensions into my handy-dandy floorplan software and do some scheming about which direction to take the bunky.

My initial plan is to essentially turn it into a dorm with maximum sleeping capacity (think room for 6). I'm giving some serious thought to including a self-contained composting toilet (I know, I know, you would think we'd have learned our lesson by now. I firmly believe that if we had a NEW unit, and maintained it properly, everything would be ducky. Plus, it would only see occasional use, as we don't have guests up very often. When we do have guests, it strains our already wheezing poo hole so the "overflow" toilet would help.) I also have a small stainless bars sink to incorporate for hand washing  (the water still wouldn't be potable in there).

So, now that you know my requirements, what would you do?

Here's the bunky design as it stands right now:

The main entrance is on the lower right. You enter into an 11x9' room (ish) with two windows. At the top left is the toilet-to-nowhere (yes, it's a flushing-with-water toilet, but we have no idea where it goes as there's no septic on the lot. *shudder*) and at the top right is the icky mouldy sauna (definitely will be ripped out. It gives me the heebies.)

And..... go! (seriously - i'm interested in what you come up with)

Fast Track

Interesting tidbit of trivia: this is my 400th post!

Aye carumba. That's a lot of blathering about nothing.

We had a quiet weekend at the cottage this week; no guests, and few of the island's inhabitants made the trip. This surprised me a little, what with it being the last long weekend of the summer. Maybe it's because it was promising to be a cool and wet weekend? I dunno. Maybe they were dropped on their heads as kids. I know I wasn't about to pass up a weekend at the cottage.

It was a little cool, and there was the occasional sprinkle of rain. Just enough to send us inside for a board game.

We played a lot of Fast Track. This is a Fast Track game board made by handy dad (he stole the idea from someone else). It's a fairly simple game, easy for everyone to pick up - including the kids, and yet wildly frustrating. You need the board, 4 pegs per player, and a deck of cards for each player.

The rules in a nutshell:
The board is a circuit, around which your peg-dudes move. They start out "in jail" as we call it (like the purple guys in the photo). Once they get out of jail, they work their way clockwise around the board to their coloured "home" (like the orange, or green guys in the photo). If you land exactly on one of the points on the board (coloured triangles) your "dude" is in Fast Track, and can jump from point to point, rather than taking the long way around.

On your turn you flip over the top card of your deck to see how you move. Different cards effect the way your little peg-dudes move:
- To get a peg out of jail, you need an Ace, a 6 or a Joker.
- All cards let you move your peg according to their face value (A, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10). Face cards and Jokers are move 1.
- Aces, 6s, jokers and face cards also let you "go again" to flip over another card.
- The evil 4s make you go backwards by 4, however.

The first one to get all of their guys into their "home", wins. You can't leap frog your own pegs, but you can jump those of other players, and you if you land exactly on another players peg, they get sent back to jail (the frustrating part).

Oh, and if you can land on the centre spot exactly (i.e. land on a fast-track+1), you can jump back out at the fast-track point of your choice when you flip any face card.

That's it. It's stupid fun. The kids are completely hooked.

I don't even know if you can buy these boards. I've seen 4-player variants, as well as a version that used marbles in place of pegs. It's all really the same game.

You should come and play with us. It will make you swear.