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Walking the Dogs

Walking the Dogs

March 22, 2013

There is a way to tell that it is spring in Muskoka. It is subtle, but encouraging because, you may know that we still have lots of snow here in Muskoka and we need encouragement. But we have light, more light, and I love light!

Steve and I walk the dogs late every afternoon. Until fairly recently we have had to outfit them with their special Muskoka walking lights. They fit on their collars and blink. Blinding for us, but safety for them. We march down by the cottages, leashes in hand. When we get to Chamberlain’s TimberMart, we can let them off their leashes. Chamberlain’s is gracious enough to let us walk our dogs offleash. And they have a wide dirt road, and a large forest. Good for everyone!

Peel out Boys!

Peel out Boys!

We are very proud of the fact that we walk our dogs daily. Caesar says that dogs need exercise first, discipline second and love third. So we are on it! Bentley is a little Muskoka boy through and through, and Askim is from Iqaluit. I will fill you in, in another post. Our dogs seem to love living in Muskoka and they look very fit and healthy. I, on the other hand, look a little less fit. Don’t worry about me, I am in good health, but my tummy just won’t budge from under my belt. It finally dawned on me why the dogs look so slim and fit and I don’t. They are constantly running in and out of the forest and playfighting all the way.

So – I am sure you can guess what is on the agenda for me. Steve???

Spring at the Cottage in Muskoka … not here, not yet.

March 20, 2013

Many times in the past, at work in Toronto, Chicago, Orlando, or Boston, I’d hear about spring equinox (night and day of approximately equal length) and begin to wonder how conditions were at our Muskoka cottage.

In case you are at work planning for spring at the cottage, I have an update for you. Depending on where you are, it may not be all that spring-like, and it isn’t here either.
On Lake Muskoka, I made this image less than 20 minutes after the spring equinox today (Mar 20th). It’s hard to tell, but it was snowing and the high today is expected to be -2C.

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Lake Muskoka from Muskoka Beach area. Mar 20, 2013, spring less than an hour old.

Here’s how the spring weather looks coming up this week:

forecast

If you are reading this a bit later here’s the current forecast.

And have a look below at the historic records for this date. Last year we hit 24.8C – much better than -18 in 2007!

records

We did have an “early” spring last year and cottage real estate, just took off for us.

Speaking of spring, we’re at the Cottage Life show on April 5th -7th, really getting the cottage season jump-started; actually we are there Sunday the 5th from 1-5pm, so come and say hello.

If you want tickets give us a call.

In Muskoka, better late than never; skating rink on the lake.

March 18, 2013

Most are anticipating spring now, but it seems to still be about a week away before any sort of warmup. Some folks though, are having way too much fun, still enjoying beautiful winter weather.

We were out yesterday, delivering Cottage Life Show tickets to some of our clients (now all friends actually) along with Catharine’s “Welcome Spring” cookies – this year they’re canoe and paddles.

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Among others, we found two by the fire on Pine Lake, two about to go snowshoeing on Lake Muskoka, two just getting back to Lake Joseph from lunch, and … two clearing the snow for a skating rink. That’s right, just days from when the fish huts have to be off Muskoka lakes because of ice break-up, they were making a rink! And having a wonderful time doing it!

The newest rink in Muskoka.

The newest rink in Muskoka.

There’s nothing quite like skating on the lake, at the cottage. Heading inside to relax by the fire afterward is pretty good too.

In 2003, there was virtually no snow in Muskoka until about a week into January. It was quite cold though, so I had a chance to enjoy a very large rink – really cool!

Winter 2003. Took up long distance skate training.

Winter 2003. Took up long distance skate training.

These sort of conditions don’t occur very often, so lake rinks are more a product of dedication and some degree of work(fun). If you want to get started right away, or want to file this away until December-ish 2013, here’s some good, mostly Muskoka stuff:
From Huntsville, someone really into rinks.
Some rink and safety info from a Muskoka cottage products web-retailer.
Keeping the rink smooth from Cottage Life magazine.
And one of many home grown methods to improvise a bodger Zamboni for the ultimate surface.

Protect Your Muskoka Cottage Investment. Muskoka Lakes Association seedling sale; re-naturalize your shoreline this spring

March 14, 2013

The single most important thing you can do to protect the value of your Muskoka cottage waterfront property investment is to protect the water quality of your lake. One of the best ways to help sustain/improve water quality in your lake is to ensure you have a natural shoreline and a buffer zone; an area of natural vegetation running along your shoreline.

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The function of the buffer zone is to act as a filter for water flowing to your lake, and studies show that they greatly reduce water pollution. The plants and soil absorb runoff water laden with sediments, nutrients and pollutants harmful to the lake. Turf grass does not do an adequate job filtering water runoff, and is very attractive to geese and other nuisance species.

Native Plants … and lots of them!       “Ideally the buffer area is thickly covered with native vegetation. The higher the percentage of the ground that is covered, the better your buffer can work. A landscape made up of native plants is low maintenance. Once established, they can survive without extra watering, and without application of pesticides and fertilizers. Native plants are adapted to deal with local bugs and diseases and can get all the nutrients they need from existing soil.”

On the Living Edge Sarah Kipp, Clive Callaway
 

You can pre-order native plants from the Muskoka Lakes Association.

MLA

“The Annual MLA Seeding Day is scheduled for Saturday May 18, 2013 at the Port Carling Community Centre from 9 am to 12Noon. The emphasis this year will be on Muskoka native species. An order form (with pricing) is available from the MLA website here. We have a lot of seedlings available in some of the most wanted species including White Birch, Balsam Fir, White Spruce, Dogwood and Nannyberry among others.”

Order soon as quantities are limited.  Orders can be emailed to info@mla.on.ca, faxed to (705) 765-3203 or mailed to Box 298, Port Carling, ON, P0B 1J0

Signs of spring, or the health of your lake. What are you watching?

March 5, 2013

pussy willows

Many years ago my Grandmother won a contest with Toronto radio station CKEY (now long gone). I think you had to write in, and the best story about signs of spring won. The prize was a ride in the radio station’s traffic helicopter during a weekday rush hour.  Grannie’s story was something about the pussy willows growing up right out of the snow in front of the Sundial restaurant on the way up to Muskoka (also long gone). Anyway, she gave me the helicopter ride – that was cool!!!

Whether: “is the ice-out”, other signs of spring, habits of wildlife or indicators of a healthy lake, we are often asked about key things cottagers need to know – or go by, and we are happy to help!
But here’s an opportunity to get all the scoops on what to look for: plan to attend the Muskoka Stewardship Conference, put on by the Muskoka Watershed Council. This conference is titled What Are You Watching?

Planned, are talks on algae (identification and monitoring), loon surveying, water quality, landscaping for wildlife, NatureWatch programs and more. There’s even the opportunity to join naturalist Al Sinclair on an outdoor birdwatching session before the talks begin.

Taking place at Nipissing University in Bracebridge, the whole day is only $30 and includes lunch. Register, and get more info here.

Winter Issue of ShoreLines From the Muskoka Lakes Association Now Available

February 22, 2013

The winter issue of the Muskoka Lakes Association ShoreLines newsletter is available here.

In the winter issue there is a quick article on septic systems. If you are interested in more on this topic, just ask us, or the Muskoka Watershed Council’s website has lots on this and many more topics (enter septic in the search field).

Also in ShoreLines, is an important article on funding inequality for Muskoka at the hands of the McGuinty government, that negatively affects the Muskoka economy and keeps upward pressure on property taxes.

Cottage, not in Muskoka? Pity.

January 8, 2013

Just thought I would quickly add this one to the blog. From our recent trip to England and Scotland, it’s a cottage listed in Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds.

This one is not a waterfront cottage, but it is 17th century stone, has a thatched roof and is beautiful to look at.

Catharine checking out a property - even on holidays!

Catharine checking out a property – even on holidays!

It’s £1,365,000, that’s approx $2,100,000.

It is surprisingly poor from an energy efficiency standpoint, coming in at 2nd from the bottom on the scale used in the UK; it isn’t broken down but I suspect that the thatch is equally as poor as the stone.

The circa 1600 exposed beams/rafters are rather unusual by Muskoka standards. See below…

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Back to winter at a cottage in Muskoka

December 5, 2012

Up to Tasso Lake off Limberlost Rd. for a home (cottage) inspection early this morning.

We had 12 degrees C yesterday, back to a more seasonal -12 degrees C tonight. But have a look at how beautiful Tasso Lake is on a winter morning before freeze-up.

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Tasso Lake, soon to ice over.

Tasso Lake is only about 2 kilometres from Algonquin Park.

As we have mentioned before, information about the water quality of lakes in Muskoka is available on the Muskoka Water Web; here’s the page for Tasso Lake.

Muldrew Lake Cottage Update

October 9, 2012

We are happy to say that there will be a new family on Muldrew Lake. Particularly exciting to us is that this family is new to Canada, has never cottaged before, but really want to live a “classic Canadian lifestyle,” and they decided, what better way than to cottage in Muskoka.

More details on their beautiful property here.

Catharine is always happy to add the SOLD sticker. Bentley sneaked in to the photo.

Spotted in a Muskoka Cottage: Bonnet Chest

October 4, 2012

I’m sure the Bonnet Chest isn’t only a Canadian phenomenon. But, if you Google it, you will get lots of Canadian, and only a few US links. Even Wikipedia doesn’t know about them; searching for bonnet chest there will get you nothing. They are not mentioned in the otherwise excellent: The Heritage of Upper Canadian Furniture by Howard Pain. It seems that they may have been a Mennonite piece designed, of course, to protect bonnets. The design made its way into Canada from Pennsylvania and seemed to have become more popular here.

I have always liked their shape. Especially the ones with the upper section projecting out a few inches (chest on chest), highlighting the oversize drawers; makes me want to pull one open and look inside. There’s just something about the lines and the substantial size. So, a bonnet chest has been on my list of things to make for a long time. Recently I saw a fairly good example of what was once a lovely chestnut piece at a cottage we sold. Unfortunately our seller was keeping it, and it moved away.

Now recently, in that case, was more than two years ago. I went out the same week and bought some 4/4 curly maple. It took a couple of weeks a bit at a time to process the rough sawn wood into useable boards. But, it took over a year to build it. Not just because furniture making is done in my spare time. It’s because I was designing my bonnet chest based on ones I liked, while looking at pieces for sale on the local Kijiji and Craigslist.
And while looking, I saw one that I had to buy in Beeton. Over the years it had been pretty much reduced to a pile of water-stained boards, it was 90% apart, had had some type of birds (chickens maybe) living in the lower drawers and all the upper drawers and backsplash were gone – years ago and nobody knew where. But, it was only a hundred bucks or so, what was left was all made of butternut, and the money went to support Beeton hockey so I bought the pile of parts, headed to a sawmill and bought some rough-sawn butternut to replace the missing pieces and took it all home.
It was winter so we weren’t too busy with cottages and within a week or so it was done.
I feel great about saving this one; it could go on for another century or more, rather than rotting away.

Original (mostly) Bonnet Chest

We are VERY busy in the summer, and pretty busy the rest of the year, so I got back to the new chest only from time to time. I am fairly slow with carcass pieces to begin with. In addition to turning some 8/4 maple on the lathe for the legs, which took some time to get around to, I knew I wanted to hand-cut dovetails, front and back in all the drawers. This turned out to be 100 dovetails in all, which makes the piece cool in the builders mind, but added a couple of months to the project in “eked out” time.

Anyway, the bonnet chest is complete now, just as the summer is drawing to a close. We don’t have any bonnets, so we keep dog-leashes in one of the bonnet drawers of the old one, and not much at all yet in the new one.

My take on the Bonnet Chest, in curly maple

100 hand-cut dovetails.