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.

Lucky 13

Thirteen years ago today, I married the captain 'o cheap.

He had more hair back then.

I had less.

Even then we were saving pennies by doing things ourselves. See the candle holders behind the party? Flower arrangement by my mom. See our bouquets? The bridemaids and I sat on the kitchen floor at Mom and Dad's the night before the wedding making our own bouquets after our "florist" backed out on us....that day. The cake was made by my auntie - it was gorgeous. Even my gown was lovingly and painstakingly made by my mumma.

Not much has changed.

Except the hair thing.

Happy anniversary, sweetie.

How do you lose a set of sheets!?!

I'm 90% sure I bought a set of single sheets for the bed out in Slanty (the bunky). I can only say I'm 90% sure, because the only reason I remember it at all is because I found a pillow case on the pillow in there (hidden under the pillow sham) that made me stop and say "Oh yeah!!! I did buy sheets for this bed. Where the heck are they?"

I looked in the linen cupboard at the cottage but didn't see them. Maybe I took them home for the winter to wash 'em? A cursory inspection of my slightly-less-than-tidy linen cupboard at home yielded no matching sheets. *sigh* I hate losing things.

This means two things:

1. I won't rest until I find those gosh-darned sheets. When I lose something, I become obsessed with finding the lost thing. It nags at me and makes me crazy. -er. Crazier. Every time I see a bed sheet I'll clench my jaw and say "Ooooo... those darned missing sheets! Where are they!?"
2. I'm going to have to empty out my entire linen closet, clean, and restock it to try to locate the missing sheets. 

I was perfectly content to turn a blind eye to the condition of my linen closet, but there's no avoiding it now. The sheets must be found.

Honestly. How do you lose a set of sheets!?

We make our own fun

One day this summer, Handy Dad and I decided to make kites. I have no photos of this event because my hard-drive died and took all of my photos from 2011 to a watery grave (although it wasn't responsible, let's blame the lake, shall we).

They were made out of vapour barrier, tuck tape (left over from the shower install), bamboo tomato stakes, and kitchen twine. We're very resourceful. The looked like real kites. Dad's was diamond shaped, mine was a delta wing.

They flew like bricks.

We had a hoot trying to get them to fly, though. Handy Dad even attached his death-spiral kite to a fishing pole to help hold it aloft in the hopes of catching a breeze.

Fast forward a few weekends to last week. We brought real kites up to the cottage. Hurricane Irene was making her way north, and strong winds were promised.

The only spot on the lake where they could get a consistent breeze was out on the dock. Did dad use the fancy store-bought kite we brought with us? No. He used the tuck-tape kite.

It spiralled menacingly over the captain's head before diving into the lake, after which it performed beautifully causing maximum drag as Dad tried to reel it in.

We make our own fun at the Lodge.

CUCUMBER

You have to say that with a giant's voice... like you would say "Fee.... Fi.... Fo.... Fum", ya?

CUCUMBER...

The garden is trucking along, madly producing all manner of veg and herbs.

Plants crave seaweed. Who knew?

We've already got a couple of cucumbers that are easily 6" long.

We also have many other gherkin-sized cucumbers on the way. I expect this weekend when we return, we'll have a handful of radishes to harvest, too. I wasn't sure there'd be enough growing time left for these veggies, but so far I'm very encouraged. As long as we don't get an early frost, we'll be enjoying our very own fresh produce.

I've got so much basil right now, I might have to can some pesto in the fall. (shucks darn).

I take it back...

Some cottage games are exactly how I remember them.

Take croquet.

This is not cottage croquet. Look at the neatly manicured lawn, tidy wickets, smooth playing field, and lack of obstacles. Those two over in the chairs aren't even heckling!

Cottage croquet is dirty croquet, best played on a steeply sloping yard with many hills, bumps, rocks potholes, and precipices. If there isn't real danger that your ball will end up in the water, it's not dirty croquet.

Our wickets are dirty wickets.

Handy Dad lines up a downhill shot that, if he puts a little too much mustard on it, will roll straight down the steps to the dock.

This would be my red ball under the chair. Please note the captain cleverly positioning himself to prevent any balls from rolling down the embankment into the water.

Please note my red ball at the edge of the embankment. Six more inches and it would've gone straight downhill.

I'm not sure which was worse: playing downhill or playing uphill.

I think we were all relieved when Handy Dad finally won.