We finally get a live audience and boy do they ever like us. Ok, so it helps that they are family and well bribed with food and liquor. My applause sign probably didn’t hurt either. Everyone went snowshoeing today and it was nice to just go for a quiet walk in the woods and enjoy the peace and quiet of winter in the back country. Now most people don't realize that there are lots of different designs and they all serve a unique purpose. Largely determined by the aboriginal tribe, the area where t...
May 31, 2020
I solved the sagging rain gutter problem by installing a rain chain. This is a concept from ancient Japan that became popular in North America during the Victorian and Craftsman eras. I did a Kottage Knowhow video on our YouTube channel. I experiment with roasting my own coffee beans using a hot air popcorn popper and it worked out really well. I sourced some green beans from Ashanti Rostery Cafe in Elora. Then I dusted off the old Proctor Silex Popcorn Pumper. I dropped in about ¾ of a cup of b...
May 20, 2020
We had some serious storms with high winds come through the north end of the lake. Everyone thought it was a tornado that cut a path through the forest, but it was actually a “downburst” that flattened all the trees. Everyone had to literally cut their way down the cottage road but at least there will be lots of free firewood. With all the trees down, power was out for quite a while. Hydro One has a pretty sweet mobile app that lets you see where the outages are and what the expected repair time...
May 19, 2020
We start out with a whole wheel of Oka cheese and nobody likes to cut the cheese more than Walter, Bruce , and I. Nothing beats Charcuterie at the cottage. We mostly talked about one of the latest invasions in Muskoka. Its not party animals from southern Ontario, Its Eurasia Milfoil. A water plant that grows incredibly fast and can literally kill a lake if not controlled. This is definitely not a project for the cottage mower. Even with a snorkle. We also touched on another invasive species in M...
May 18, 2020
Boy when Bruce said Deb dragged her canoe from out east, he wasn’t kidding. There were some serious holes worn all the way through the fiberglass. Luckily, Walter has lots of experience repairing fiberglass boats, so we put him to work. . After most of the prep work was done, we headed into Honey Harbour for the jazz festival. It was surprisingly impressive. It was a small festival, but the talent was fantastic. Once we had our fill of classy jazz music, we headed over to Coldwater for the steam...
May 18, 2020
We started the weekend by visiting Christie's Mill in Port Severn for a nice dinner together. There was a wonderful musician named R. G. Peever playing guitar that we thoroughly enjoyed. He seems to go by the name "JazzTEX". wonder what "JazzTex is up to now?. We finally got around to installing the new vanity in the master ensuite and boy was it a challenge. We had to pull all the rabbits out of the hat for this one to get all the plumbing into a three-inch space behind the cabinet drawers. Of ...
May 12, 2020
Well I think Bruce and I were in fine form this time. Our segment on Cottage Cheese finally aired on Cottage Life TV so that's our seven minutes of fame. We are going to have to do one more show and a commercial if we are going to get to 15 minutes. The snow has been so heavy this winter that it tore the snow guards off the new steel roof. Its black fly season again and they are swarming like mad this year. Either Deb is going to have to sacrifice herself to them or we need ten pounds of rotting...
May 10, 2020
It became blatantly obvious that beer belongs in glasses and not potato chips. And just to ice the cake, mother nature is keeping us snowed in well into the spring. Even the cottage road looks like it belongs in the winter Olympics. Thanks to the heavy snow pack the spring runoff is flooding the crawl space. We had to engineer some kind of floor drain to move the water to the sump pump well so it could then be pumped out to the still frozen lake. Skating anyone? Our beer of the day is from Great...
May 10, 2020
We started out with a project that we thought was going to be at least a three or four beer job. It turns out we were in and out in under an hour. Bruce has a “Greenway” UV light as part of the water filtration system and it fell apart and started leaking shortly after the warranty expired. Fortunately, Greenway stepped up to the plate and sent Bruce an entire new unit at no charge. Full marks for the excellent customer service. I also figured out that I could spin the fittings inside the PEX pi...
May 10, 2020
Well this time we had to deal with a leaking hot water heater. Somehow the pressure release valve failed and sprung a leak. We also discovered that not all presure release valves are the same so you may want to take the bad one with you when you go to town to get a new one.. We also talked about wild turkeys. These have to be the ugliest bird ever to grace the fields and forests of Canada. Apparently they are rather good eating because hunters keep shooting them. Either that of hunters hate ugly...
May 10, 2020
Its "SNOWMAGEDON"! We’ve have had so much lake effect snow this year that the temporary garage Bruce puts up for his car has collapsed under the snow load. Everything else is buried under several feet of snow. The first priority is digging out the Muskoka chairs, so we can get in some serious deck time. Leave it to Bruce to gamify clearing the deck. It did let us build an igloo though. I’m sure it won’t pass inspection, but it works. We also talked about other winter survival techniques includin...
Nov 04, 2018
Bruce picks up an eight-pound splitting maul but it didn’t come sharp from the store, so I had to grind an edge onto it before we could use it. This was to compliment the six-pound maul that has done years of service at the cottage. Bruce also picked up a new ax handle to replace a broken one and I’m glad he went with the hickory rather than the fiberglass. Wally Canoe gives us a good tip about soaking the end of the ax handle in glycerine or linseed oil to prevent it from drying out and shrinki...
Oct 13, 2018
Bruce and I were supposed to build a new woodshed this week but he got called back to the city. How convenient. That left me all alone to get the job done. I enlisted several cheap/free apprentices to help. This was definitely a 24 beer job.
Aug 06, 2018
Mother Nature gets “Turkey of the Day” for raining on our parade this weekend. The rains were biblical at times and confirmed our belief that a metal roof, although not as quiet as regular shingles, isn’t as noisy as some people will say. We did get a few small breaks in the rain, so we did squeeze in some dock time. We were even visited by a very small snapping turtle. These guys can live to be over 100 years old with a shell diameter of almost 24 inches, so he has lots of time to get really bi...
Mar 25, 2018
Hydro One has been in to brush the hydro right of way for over a week now. It's slow going because of the rough terrain but they sure came equipped. They have a big orange articulated boom truck that is well set up for the task. Complete with chain saw holsters, a couple of Stihl ms260s, a hydraulic pole pruner and a cherry picker it's pretty unstoppable. It's like the ultimate ATV. Bruce worked so hard hauling firewood that he had to do a few Kahlúa shooters to kill the pain. Really Bruce? Seri...
Feb 28, 2015
We started out with pump problems again so we made our usual trip into Parry Sound to the Home Depot for a new pump and other assorted parts. OF course we were all decked out in our finest kottage-tek T-shirts from our swag shop and we actually got some attention from a couple of hunnies. Wow! I also picked up some 2"quick disconnect couplings. These are intended for gas lines but I'm tired of having to use the big ass monkey wrench whenever we disconnect the pump. These worked like a charm and ...
Jan 05, 2015
I can’t believe Bruce even considered swimming a cinder block more than 50 feet out into the lake where it has to be about 15 feet deep. At least he plans on taking a life jacket along next time. I think I'll stick to using something with a bit more buoyancy like a boat. Even the paddle boat is a smarter idea. Peter Couch also stopped by this time and definitely took some shots at our beer selection. Now our beer of the day is Muskoka Dark Ale from the Muskoka Brewery in Bracebridge. It’s a gold...
Sep 22, 2014
We got a lot of small chores done today but the biggest was taking down the temporary garage. It's been up for two years so it's about time it came down. Bruce should know that you just can't stop the demolition man. Especially when he is fueled by beer. We did finally get it taken apart and packed up the way he wanted it, but it did cut into dock time a bit more than I would have liked. The up side is that we had sustenance in the form of "Kraft Easy Cheese" also known as cheese in aerosol cans...
Sep 14, 2014
This time Cliff talks about his travels to Yellowknife. It may not be "the cottage" but there's lot of roughing it and being outdoors that they both have in common. Everyone should try to spend at least a bit of time there. Everything from incredible fish that are pulled from Great Slave Lake, to driving on ice roads and Ragged Ass Road. The magic of the Aurora Borealis is a must see. Even on one of its dull nights it's spectacular. The trip made quite an impression on CLiff and we don't think h...
Apr 12, 2014
Bruce had a good friend named Walter Martindale join us this time for a boys weekend. It turns out Walter is a master knife sharpener. We of course put him to work sharpening every knife in the place. He also brought along a few interesting ones to show us as well. One of them has quickly become my favorite for when I feel like sitting on the deck cutting the cheese. It's known as the "Original Woodman's Pal" from Lee Valley Tool Company .This ushers in the first entry into our new Kottage Know-...
Feb 17, 2014
The first project this time was replacing some of the trashy novels that were holding up the furniture with actual legs. We left a couple of books under the corner of the sofa because we figured nobody will want to read them anyway. WE also played with a Belkin WeMo. This is like a high tech timer switch that can be controlled across the web. We set up IFTTT to control the switch using text messages. Smart idea if only Betty-Boop would stop texting "# off" to her son. I can only imagine what he ...
Jan 26, 2014
It's Christmas time in Muskoka and there's no better time to get all the old skis, snowshoes, and other paraphernalia off the floor, out of the hallway, and up onto the walls where it belongs We also got to poke fun at Bruce's Dr. Seuss Christmas tree We also followed up on the water purification system and it appears that human testing is in order.
Jan 19, 2014
Cliff installs LEDs into a clear acrylic electric guitar And we come full circle with the LED guitar playing Smoke On The Water so close to the Whatta reserve.
Dec 04, 2013
Blue Ant Media comes to shoot a segment for the upcomming "Cottage Cheese" show. on the new Cottage Life Television channel Now we know how George Clooney and Brad Pitt feel. Or maybe it's more like Steve Martin and Martin Short!
Nov 17, 2013
We talked about the history and traditions of cottaging in Muskoka as well as most other places in Canada We told stories about moving the outhouse, cooking on a real wood stove and of course the town pump which we still use today. If that's roughing it, I'll take it any day of the week.
Aug 14, 2013
Bruce finally pulled the trigger on a water purification system. Paul Godwin Plumbing took care of the project and boy does it make a difference when professionals do the work We put in three "Big Blue" 20 inch filter canisters and a Greenway GAUV-12H UV Disinfection System which uses a 35 watt UV lamp to kill bacteria. We also upped the water pump from a half horse to a three quarter for more flow.
Jul 04, 2013
This time we get into a bit more detail about pouring cement. We covered scribing forms to the uneven rocks which is a handy skill to have. We also talked about mixing cement. We discussed different kinds of cement and just what makes it concrete. Bruce went with the old wheelbarrow method which was fine considering we only mixed three bags. That man loves to watch people work. Anymore and I would have wanted the big boy toys. Maybe even the big cement pumper truck.
Jun 26, 2013
Bruce is finally installing a water purification system so we don't have to keep hauling water from the city or at least the town pump. We did a bunch of cleanup in the crawlspace and prepared a place for the installers to set the new pump. We did this by scribing a plywood for to the un-even rock and poured 3 bags of cement.
Jun 26, 2013
Bruce and Asis, aka The Montreal Crew show up imediately jumped in to help with cleaning out the beer fridge. Their years of training and experience pays off as we actually had to re-stock before the visit was over. We also announce the grand openning of "The Kottage-tek Swag Shop over on Cafe Press
Jan 13, 2013
We talk about a couple of big projects at the cottage like the bathroom vanity and a new steel roof We also talk about the loons amassing on the lake in preparation for their winter migration.
Dec 25, 2012
