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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