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BRING ON THE BEST SEASON! Create a breezy bunkie • PLANT A TREE FOR SHADE • Build a better bird feeder • SERVE BOOZY ICE POPS Make friends with snakes (trust us) • EAT MORE BLUEBERRIES PLUS: Vintage vibes in Muskoka

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Your cottage, your coverage Visit aviva.ca/retreatlife or talk to your broker to learn more.

Cabin in the woods | Island property | Waterfront | Log construction

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Contents

Aug ⁄Sept 2021 VOLUME 34 NUMBER 4

Features 58 May Island Magic Among the fancy cottages of Lake Rosseau lies this charmer, home to a delightful collection of treasures and the king of puttering.

BY A N N VA N D E R H O O F

70 A Cottage for Every Body Making your cottage more accessible to people with disabilities or the elderly is easier than you might think.

BY L ES LIE GARRETT

76 Cold Comfort The days are hot and the snacks are cold: four refreshing ice pop recipes to help both kids and adults chill out.

BY EV ELY N CHI CK

80 They Are More Afraid of You Is there a more misunderstood cottage creature than the snake? Read our ID guide to “scary” serpants and you’ll fear no more.

BY JAC K IE DAVIS

84 A Snake in the Grass For this new cottage owner, learning to live with the resident rattlers was the easy part.

COVER: PEG MCCARTHY. THIS PAGE: DANIEL EHRENWORTH

BY SASHA CHAPMAN

On the cover:

53 Breezy bunkie 37 Plant a tree 34 Bird feeder 76 Boozy ice pops 80 Snakes 43 Blueberries 58 Vintage vibes

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cottagelife.com 3

Contents

Departments 10 Editor’s Note 13 Your Letters 19 Waterfront

Light your own way

20 Attack of the alien invaders! 21 Invasives list update 22 Red fox spotting tips 23 Group efforts for fire prevention; Plaunt cottage— where are they now? 24 Seven flavour bombs from Bob Blumer; Reporter 25 Buying a cottage sight unseen

29 Workshop 30 How to rewire an old lamp 31 Keep rot away from your outhouse 32 Step-by-step guide for replacing a toilet 33 Real tool: track saws; the difference between rails and stiles 34 Feed birds, not bears with our latest reader project

37 Cottage Q&A Aspens vs. yellow-bellied sapsuckers; antibacterial soap vs. your septic system; how to turn your RRSP into a cottage; mystery white marks on the basement floor; using straw bales as cabin skirting

29

BY JAC KIE DAVIS

43 Legacy Blueberries are the summertime blues that need no cure. Celebrating the sweetest little fruit of the season. Plus: a classic recipe for blueberry-peach crisp.

BY C HA RLE S WI LK IN S & JANE RO DM ELL

98

47 Zim Weighs In A familiar foe, the cousin who doesn’t pitch in, presents a tricky challenge to cottage sharers.

53 Style Ideas These two trailers are an affordable—and surprisingly chic—take on the cottage bunkie.

BY BETH HITCHCOCK

97 Nature Scrapbook The eastern red-backed salamander is all around you at the lake, but you’ve probably never seen it.

BY TIM TINE R

98 Before You Leave A guest book that honours the nautical nature of cottage living.

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97 37

L AM P : BR A D L EY R E I NH AR DT; PA D DL E S : C H R I S H E WI TT; HAND: ZACH ZIMET. ILLUSTRATION: CHRISTIAN FOWLIE

BY DAVID Z I MME R

The family room is where you capture life’s important moments in a whole new light.

Create a lifetime of memories in any space with a Napoleon Fireplace.

S’more stuff How you can read, watch, stream, share, and visit— Cottage Life is everywhere!

Follow us on:

Start your cameras Our annual photo contest is on—and the grand prize is a full bunkie kit, including installation!

No heavy lifting required. Pretty sweet, huh?

Turn to p. 50 for details.

What dreams are made of Looking for an escape? A new season of Dream Gardens will premiere on July 10 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on Cottage Life.

Find your channel at tv.cottagelife.com.

Listen up! New podcast episodes It’s season two! We’ll talk with writer David A. Robertson about his essay on cultural appropriation,“Navigation Tools,” (June/July ’21), and to Jody Allair of Birds Canada about our favourite pandemic hobby—birding! That and much more, coming June 30th. New episodes will be released every Thursday, just in time for your drive to the cottage. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

It’s the best way to stay in touch with CL between issues—straight to your inbox every week, for free!

For more information and to sign up, visit cottagelife.com/newsletters.

6 cottagelife.com

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TOP LEFT, HAL CHAPMAN

Subscribe to our enewsletters

COTTAGE LIFE PROMOTION

Embrace the Outdoors with a Backyard Boost Build your own backyard oasis with these DIY design tips from the Cottage Coach Even if you’re lucky enough to spend your summer weekends at a cottage, there’s no reason to waste week nights on the couch. The best memories are made outdoors (as long as the mosquitoes aren’t biting), so our very own Cottage Coach is partnering with OFF! to build the ultimate backyard oasis, featuring a kids’ rock-climbing wall, a serving table, and outdoor movie theatre.

For a little inspiration to embrace every inch of your backyard, follow the action at cottagelife.com/backyardoasis. And to help you along, here are Coach’s top tips for making the most of your outdoor space.

Watch these tips come to life at cottagelife.com/ backyardoasis.

Reinvent the wheel “If you’re building a moveable side table or serving cart to pair with your barbecue, remember that not all castor wheels are created equal.

While wheels that swivel in all directions might seem ideal, I recommend using two swivel wheels at the back and two ęČ ć² Ìî ö ö² ªêÛÔöƆ g² ö way, you can turn on a dime, but still push the cart in a straight line when you need to.”

Get a grip ƣ~Ûû Ô «¶Ô ² çƇ ÛÌÛûêªûÌ êÛ Éƛ Ì¶Ó ¶Ô¬ ²ÛÌ î ªêÛÓ çÌ Ôöč Ûª ÛÔÌ¶Ô îÛûê îƇ Ô čÛû Ô ėČ ö² Ó öÛ Ôčö²¶Ôfrom a fence to the side of your shed for a DIY climbing wall.

Just make sure there’s a soft place for kiddos to land beneath it. And if they’re too smooth, a once-over with forty-grit î Ô ç ç ê ć¶ÌÌ ¬¶Ć ̶ööÌ Ì¶Ó êî îÛÓ Čöê ¬ê¶çƋƤ

Bet on green

Dig the drape

“Gardening is both creative and therapeutic, and it’s the most obvious way to greenify your backyard. But if you’re dealing with a tiny city yard— or a bigger yard with bare fences—you can add even more green by going above ground. Accent your seating areas with hanging plants or small potted plants on shelves.

And for a true greenthumb adventure, a living wall is the ultimate way to surround yourself with nature.”

“If you’re hanging string lights, the key word is ‘hanging.’ Don’t overthink it by pulling the lines taut— they’ll look more natural with a little drape. And if you opt for strings of glass bulbs (which can often illuminate better than plastic), make sure you hang them before you screw in the bulbs. You’ll be surprised how easy it is to bash them against the posts of your pergola while you’re on the ladder.”

Adam Holman, Cottage Coach

Soak up the sun “We take great pains at the cottage to keep wires from ruining the view—or tripping us on our way down to the lake. So why run a bunch Ûª Čö Ôî¶ÛÔ Ûê î ö²êÛû¬² your backyard to add a little light? There are now plenty of solar-powered options that will charge all day and glow all night.”

Look into the light “Most projectors are made to be used indoors, where it’s naturally darker. But if you think you’ll be using yours outside during the day (a movie setup can be the perfect “chill out” area at a child’s birthday party), choose one that emits at least 5,500 lumens.

And to keep it from overheating, always situate it in the shade.”

Want to make the most of your time outdoors this summer?

Find an OFF! repellant that's right for you and ĆÔôã ª Ì´ÆĆ ï ÔĔƄ Ƅ

Contributors Editor Michelle Kelly Deputy Editor Liann Bobechko Managing Editor Megan McPhaden Senior Editor Jackie Davis Associate Editor Alysha Vandertogt Editorial Assistant Marie Waine Contributing Editor Martin Zibauer Editorial Intern Karin Salk Art Director Bradley Reinhardt Associate Art Director Taylor Kristan Production Artist Kathleen O’Hare Project Manager, Print Production Karen Evans

Ann Vanderhoof

Arden Taylor

Writer and editor Ann Vanderhoof

Illustrator Arden Taylor gradu-

has a long relationship with CL—

ated from Sheridan College in

she was the founding editor and

Toronto in April 2020 and started

led the team for 10 years. Now, she regularly contributes to the maga-

freelancing during the height of the pandemic. “It’s definitely

zine. “But this assignment was a whole new experience,” Ann says

been tough,” she says. But the young artist keeps experiment-

of writing about the museumlike cottage in “The Monk, the

ing with her work. “I’ve never been able to define my style.

Recluse, and a Message in a Bottle” (p. 58). Because of COVID restrictions, Ann wrote the feature without ever stepping foot in the cottage. “I was surprised how clear of a picture the family was able to create for me,” she says.

“It’s a time capsule. They love it.” Ann's books, An Embarrassment of Mangoes and The Spice Necklace, are both set on a sailing journey around the Caribbean, and are available online.

I’m always dabbling in different types of art.” Arden enjoys illustrating patterns, wallpaper, and architecture. “This was the first time I’ve gotten an assignment that is exactly what I love to do,” she says of her illustrations in “The Cottage is for Every Body” (p. 70). “I want to help people visualize information.” Arden sells her work as prints, T-shirts, and stickers through her website, ardentaylorart.com.

Behind the scenes Changing the social conversation As you read through the pages of this issue, you might notice our social media hashtags look different. CL’s new policy is to use a capital letter at the start of each word in all of our hashtags, on all of our platforms. After learning that uppercase letters help people with visual impairment to read and pronounce words, we knew we had to make this easy tweak. Want to learn more about accessibility? Check out “The Cottage is for Every Body” (p. 70) to learn how you can adapt your space to be more welcoming for all.

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Editor, Cottage Life Digital Roxy Kirshenbaum (on leave) Senior Videographer/Editor Adam Holman Subscription rates: Canada, $30.95 plus taxes for one year (6 issues), U.S., $45.00 for one year, and International, $75.00 for one year. Payable in Canadian dollars.

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Published June 24, 2021, for Aug/ Sept 2021. ISSN 0838-2395.

Mail Preference: On occasion, we share our subscriber and client list with carefully screened organizations whose products or services we feel might interest you. See our privacy policy at cottagelife.com/privacypolicy. If you prefer that we do not share your name and address, please contact us via the subscription inquiry information.

CANADIAN POSTMASTER: Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to Cottage Life, 8799 Highway 89, Alliston, ON L9R 1V1. Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement number 40050643. Cottage Life, USPS 009615, is published six times a year (February, April, May, June, September, and November) by Cottage Life Media, a division of Blue Ant Media Inc. U.S. office of publication: 4600 Witmer Industrial Estates, Unit #4, Niagara Falls, NY 14305. Periodicals Postage Paid at Niagara Falls, NY. U.S. POSTMASTER: Return undeliverable U.S. addresses to Cottage Life, Box 1071, Niagara Falls, NY 14304-0357.

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Cottage Life® is published by Cottage Life Media, a division of Blue Ant Media Inc. CEO, Cottage Life Media Al Zikovitz President, Canadian Media, Blue Ant Media Jamie Schouela SVP & Group Publisher, Cottage Life Mitch Dent VP, Content, Cottage Life Michelle Kelly Director, Lifestyle & Content Sales Rosemary Munroe Account Executive Mylène Tomkin Western Sales Manager Wendy-Ann Derbyshire Director, Consumer Marketing Travis Lunau Campaign Strategist, Consumer Marketing Jennifer Williams Consumer Marketing Coordinator Raynika Awotwi Retail Marketing Consultant Craig Sweetman Director of Marketing Aubray Boyd Marketing Manager Cynthia Mutheardy VP, Digital Media Sue Haas VP, Programming Craig Junner Director, Consumer Shows Greg McLeod Cottage Life 130 Merton St., Suite 200, Toronto, ON M4S 1A4 Contact us Advertising inquiries: (416) 440-7062 adsales@cottagelife.com Subscription or customer service inquiries: Canada & U.S.: (800) 267-0393 Toronto: (416) 864-3741 service@cottagelife.com Website: my.cottagelife.com Consumer show inquiries: (416) 599-2000 ext. 6597 clshow@cottagelife.com Editorial inquiries: (416) 599-2000 ext. 275 edit@cottagelife.com Copyright ©2021 by Cottage Life. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any article, photograph, or artwork without written permission of the publisher is strictly forbidden. The publisher can assume no responsibility for unsolicited material.

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Editor’s Note

I conquered a lifelong fear when I got up close and personal with this western hognose snake at the Fall Cottage Life Show a few years ago. My kids were far keener than I was, of course.

3 ways to amp up your summer

1 Boozy dessert? Yes. I’ll take my margarita frozen on a stick, please (or any other way you’re serving it, if I’m being honest). p. 76 2 Cottage kitsch. As a keen collector of weird old things, I’ve found a kindred spirit in Monk Marr, whose classic Lake Rosseau island getaway is full of dreamy treasures. p. 58 3 Dried chipotle powder.

Apparently, all that stands between me and cottage culinary stardom is this often overlooked spice. p. 24

What’s on your summer to-do list? Tell me at mkelly@cottagelife.com, or tweet me @mkonthedock.

10 cottagelife.com

SSSSpecial friends I N E V E R L I K E D S N A K E S . As a

kid, I mapped in my mind every location around our property where they liked to lie: the interlocking brick patio that ran alongside the cottage, the rock garden next to the boathouse, and, especially, beneath the boardwalk that led over the hill to the bunkie. Whenever I travelled through any of these areas, I did it at a full sprint so that even if a snake did slither out I’d be long gone before I could feel scared out of my skin.

But, occasionally, they would surprise me.

I’d be lost in my thoughts, nose in a book, and, out of the corner of my eye, I’d glimpse a slight movement before looking down and seeing a snake slither through the grass at my feet.

Then I’d scream and run for my life, like it was a grizzly bear four times my size and not a tiny, harmless reptile just trying to avoid getting stepped on.

Why are so many people terrified of snakes? As you’ll read in “They Are More Afraid of You,” on p. 80, when it comes to human-serpent standoffs in cottage country, we are the scary ones. Only four of the

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snakes found in Canada are venomous, and all the others have very few mechanisms with which to defend themselves should they need to. And sadly, they often have cause to defend themselves. From us. Some people are so misled about snakes that they think nothing of taking shovels to their heads or moving them away from their homes, which ultimately kills them.

Like so many things, with snakes, understanding leads to acceptance. If I had known all those years ago, while strategically sprinting around the cottage, that snakes have no interest in us, I might have been less frightened of them. It would have made trips to the bunkie less stressful as well.

If you are harbouring a fear of snakes, let it go—you are wasting your time. Also, it’s summer; you’re supposed to relax. Have at it.

@mkonthedock

PORTRAITS, RICHARD THOMPSON; ICE POP, DANIEL EHRENWORTH

This issue brings the fun in all sorts of ways. Here are a few don’t-miss highlights:

Home is where the bed is.

Get the comfort of Casper delivered right to your door. From award-winning mattresses to the coolest sheets around, now you can sleep better no matter where you call home.

Visit casper.ca

THE ALL-NEW

CROSSROADS COLLECTION WITH TUFFSKIN NYLON ®

Your Letters Canada’s best kept secret We’re long-time subscribers and look forward to receiving each new issue.

We were pleased to see the Atlantic provinces get represented in “Canada Room with a View” (June/July ’21). We locals know how wonderful living and cottaging in the Atlantic provinces is: changing tides, fresh seafood, and fresh salty air. Based on the record number of people who have bought real estate in Atlantic Canada over the past year, we expect there will be a lot more cottagers like the ones in your story ready to discover one of Canada’s best kept cottaging secrets. Shhh…don’t tell too many people!—Brian and Brenda Rendell, Northumberland Strait, N.S.

Disrobe and conquer In response to “So Close, Yet So Fair” (Zim Weighs In, May ’21), while my grandparents didn’t have a cottage, they did have a power boat that they would moor in what they considered to be their own private bay for much of the summer, year after year. Of course they had no claim to this piece of Pacific paradise located in a remote part of Jervis Inlet, B.C., but they saw it as their own private oasis and didn’t care much for any unknown visitors.

However, when they spied an unknown vessel headed their way, instead of reacting with aggression or entitlement, they employed a unique hospitable tactic—the two of them would quickly disrobe and stand on the bow of their boat stark naked, waving and yelling, “Welcome!” Invariably, the interlopers would turn their boats around, never to set anchor. In my teens I was mortified by their strategy, but now, as an adult, I celebrate its brilliance.—Kelley Korbin, Jervis Inlet, B.C.

This one’s for the birds I’m a long-time birder, nature lover, and science nerd. I read “We’ve Gone to the Birds” (Mar/Apr ’21) and noticed your birding bucket list—a great idea for quarantine. My pandemic birding has been focussed within eight kilometres of home, as a way to reduce my carbon footprint and to get to know local habitats and the avian neighbours who visit.

In 2020, I saw 181 species within my small area of Toronto. Astounding!

Nature has always been a place to find solace, but even more so this past year.

Birding has kept me sane and grounded throughout the COVID-19 uncertainty.

I’m so thankful that there are still pockets of nature to discover.—Laura Murray, Toronto, Ont.

After a year of isolation, it turns out cottagers have learned to love being on their own at the lake. We asked on Facebook, “ WH AT’S YOUR FAVOURI TE PART A B OUT BEING ALONE AT THE COTTAGE?”

“Just sitting watching the water. It’s mesmerizing.”

—Kendra Johnson

“A night outside in my pyjamas with a glass of wine, listening to the choir of frogs.”

—Donna Lochhead

“Sometimes the air is so still that it feels like a blanket.”

—Barbara Julian

Are you a birder? The CL podcast is back for a second season starting June 30. You won’t want to miss our interview with Jody Allair from Birds Canada. Subscribe now at cottagelife.com/podcast.››

Cottager’s dictionary

Naturehood

(Noun) Any place you can connect with nature.

As in: “Let’s go out on a hike and explore the naturehood.”

Photo by @myforestwalk Want a chance to be featured here? Post your photo on Instagram using #CottageLifeSub.

AUG / SEPT 2021

cottagelife.com 13

Your Letters Cont’d from p. 13 Beaver for prime minister Aluminum Docks & Boat Lifts Made in Canada Floating and Stationary docks Easily Shipped Call for a Local Dealer

I first moved to Honey Harbour, Ont., in 1972 when my wife and I bought a small housekeeping cottage resort, which we owned for more than 28 years. We bought our cottage in the South Bay area in 1980 and summer there six months of the year. I’d like to think I know a thing or two about cottaging.

With that said, I just finished reading “The Great Canadian Creature Feature” (June/July ’21) and I want to know what brought up the question of the beaver’s reign being over. I truly believe the beaver will always be Canada’s national animal. The otter, wolf, coywolf, raven, and chickadee are nowhere close in my books.—Laurie Belsey, Honey Harbour, Ont.

A word of appreciation I finished reading “Navigation Tools” (June/July ’21) by David A. Robertson and it made me tear up. I’m a big fan of his work, and the messaging in this article is so important for everyone to read.—Leigh McKenzie, via Instagram

www.fendock.com

1-888-FENDOCK (336-3625)

April showers bring May... snowstorms?

I’m sitting here, on May 28, reading “Something to Chew On” (Editor’s Note, June/July ’21). The optimistic and inspiring closing message, “No matter what COVID does, it can’t stop summer,” is making me laugh too hard—I just glanced up only to see wet snow fall from the sky.—Andrea Merlin, via email

Guardians of this galaxy My cabin was featured in “The Cottage Unplugged” (May ’01) before my family took ownership. We became the new guardians and leaseholders of the Cache Lake, Ont., property last summer at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2001 story featured four different cottages all with unique off-grid lifestyles. At the time, the cottage on Cache Lake was powered by propane. Now it’s powered by the sun. We’ve maintained the rustic nature of the 1925 cabin, keeping it off grid. With three teenage boys in a society that’s all about keeping social, coming to the lake encourages family connections through conversations, puzzles, exploring Algonquin Provincial Park by foot and canoe, and enjoying time on the dock.

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Our cabin is the heart of our family.

We are very fortunate to be guardians of this amazing piece of history in the heart of an iconic Canadian park.

—Julie Reid, Cache Lake, Ont.

It’s going swimmingly Three years ago, I moved from the Kawarthas in Ontario to Alberta after meeting my wife, Ashley. Alberta is not known for having a lot of lakes and they were something I missed about Ontario almost immediately.

I’d say that most Canadians don’t think of Alberta when it comes to cottaging. However, we do have a few lakes and a cottage scene. Our little piece of paradise is just south of Red Deer, about

19 Bickley Country Drive Huntsville, ON P1H 1Y4 PLUMB | SQUARE | CUSTOM

90 minutes north of Calgary, on Pine Lake. We even saved our pennies and bought ourselves a pontoon boat.

Mid-May, Ashley decided to have her first dip in the lake. I managed to snap this photo at the exact right moment.

Her face is a good indication of what Alberta lakes feel like almost yearround. Cold!—Brad Owens, Pine Lake, Alta.

The value of a cottage As I look at the prices of cottages in the Kawartha Lakes, Ont., area, I wonder how high they will become. I guess as a cottage owner I should be excited about the equity that has been added to my personal financial portfolio. Then I remember that I did not buy our cottage to make money. I bought it to make memories with family and friends that can be cherished for a lifetime.

What adds value to our cottage is being able to have our grandchildren enjoy nature, the sound of the loon on our lake on a calm summer night, watching the brilliant sunsets from our AU G /S EP T 2 0 21

cottagelife.com 15

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Your Letters

a huge increase in the use of wakeboats buzzing through our lakes and not obeying the speed and distance regulations.

Thank you for bringing up this important issue.—Rod Stacy, via email

boathouse deck, and enjoying the smell of the pine trees. All this without turning on technology.

Yes, we love our cottage and everything about it, but without family, friends, and neighbours, what do we have? Life at the cottage is not about how much it has increased in value financially. It’s about how many lives have been influenced by the memories we have shared together.—George Baillie, Sturgeon Lake, Ont.

The CL fortune tellers I’ve been subscribing to Cottage Life since the beginning. Every time I need information on a project or item to buy, you print an article about it for me. Do you read my mind? Plus, this magazine has the best Canadian humour. Keep on making me laugh!—Susan Greig, Sturgeon Lake, Ont.

Dear editor Michelle, I remember the October ’20 cover of your mother and her husband posing for the big splash. We visited

Add this store to your list

Grand Bend, Ont., and we noticed that just outside the change rooms at the beach there is this life-size painting on the wall.—Irma Paquin, Bradford, Ont.

It’s time to slow down I read “A Bridge Over Troubled Waters” (May ’21), about wakeboats and the damage that the boat wakes do to our shorelines, and found the article helpful.

I’m the president of the Wellman Glad Lake Seasonal Campers and Cottage Owners Association in Duck Mountain Provincial Park, Man. We have also seen

Sullivan’s General Store in Ennismore, Ont., needs to be added to “For the Love of General Stores” (cottagelife.com). The family-run business has been serving the community since 1910. The gas station there is called “Passing Gas” and they have a leprechaun lawn ornament carved from a tree.—Emily Cretzman, Pigeon Lake, Ont.a Correction Our May ’21 issue had incorrect advice on cleaning your grill grate. Best practice is to use a bristle-free brush or, if a wire brush, follow by a wipe with a cloth. For deep cleaning, use a non-scratch scrubber on cast iron and porcelain; steel wool on stainless steel only.

Send us a note: letters@cottagelife.com.

Letters may be edited for clarity and length.

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Waterfront

Is it hot in here, or is it just summer?

Embrace the heat, and hit the lake.

H Y U N - S U K ( S U Z Y ) CH A E

Combining a dock jump with a sunset is one of our favourite ways to celebrate cottage season too!

20

Don’t freak out, but aliens are taking over the planet.

22

What colour is a red fox? (Nature loves a trick question.)

24

Overlooked staples and seasonings for your summer pantry.

25

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Buying a cottage sight unseen: how to make it work.

cottagelife.com 19

C OT TA G E L O G I C

DO YOU LIKE SCARY MOVIES? They creep.

They crawl. They destroy.

And they’re hungry. We’re talking about Canada’s non-native alien species, of course. Inspired by 1950s monster-movie posters, we decided to create a handful for some of this country’s most monster-iffic invaders. Get your popcorn.

Then run, don’t walk from… the invasives!

by Jackie Davis and Taylor Kristan

20 cottagelife.com

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Waterfront

ENVIRONMENT

ON THE NAUGHTY LIST the Ontario government launched a consultation process aimed at significantly expanding the list of invasive flora, fauna, and fish in the province. The move would increase the registry of regulated non-native species from 20 to 33; it’s part of a recent $2-million investment in research, monitoring, and management of invasives. Adding these new species to the list will give authorities more tools to prohibit or restrict them, says the government.

The clear priority in the amended legislation is ensuring that wild pigs—already a problem in many parts of the U.S. and in the Canadian prairies—don’t spread into Ontario.

“Ontario is right to be concerned about them,” says invasion biologist Peter Kotanen, a professor in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Toronto Mississauga. “This is a good time to be acting.”

While wild pigs tend to be found in agricultural areas, they can also thrive in wooded and rocky ecosystems, like cottage lake districts. Kotanen says the herds, which typically trace to escaped domestic animals, can grow to 300 and cause enormous damage through their foraging. “If you’ve seen pig grubbing, it’s like rototilling. They eat anything they can find.” Once established, they are extremely difficult to eliminate.

Besides wild pigs, the additional species on the proposed list include four fish/crayfish species, including the Prussian carp; six flora, including fanwort and three subspecies of knotweed; the New Zealand mud snail; and the mountain pine beetle, which has caused so much destruction in Western Canadian forests and is moving east.

According to Jeremy Downe, the senior invasive species policy advisor with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, the list consists of invasive species identified by broader organizations such as the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Governors and Premiers network.

When a fish species is on the invasives list, it cannot be introduced into other water bodies for the purposes of fishing.

(This is a common way for alien species to accidentally get into non-native waters; the Prussian carp, for example, was first introduced in Western Canada by angling groups.) Education plays a key role: with the proposed changes to the registry, conservation officers will be focussing on public education with anglers, cottagers, and other users of inland waterways.

In the case of the new flora on the list, the MNRF will be stressing to boaters that they must pay attention to the transfer of their vessels between bodies of water. The rule of thumb, says Downe, is “clean, drain, and dry” when moving boats between lakes and canal systems.

Any invasive—plant or animal—can trigger substantial changes in a local ecosystem. “The idea is to make sure that they don’t get here,” says Downe.

The public comment period on the proposed legislative changes was open until June. The government will review this feedback before making a final decision. — J O H N L O R I N C

THIS SPRING,

Invasive species are an ongoing threat (see “On the Naughty List,” opposite). To learn more, visit invasivespeciescentre.ca.

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MIGHTY MORPHIN’

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WHAT IS THE FOX CALLED?

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MEONE TIE-D

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Well, except when they’re black. Or brown. Or black and brown at the same time. “Red foxes come in a range of colours,” says Fiona Reid, the author of A Peterson Field Guide to Mammals of North America.

“But note the white tip of the tail: all red foxes have that.” About 10 per cent of red foxes have a glossy, bluish-to-slate-grey coat; they’re called “silver foxes.” (Not to be confused with Idris Elba and George Clooney. They don’t have a white tail tip.) — J A C K I E D A V I S

R E D FOX E S A R E R E D.

TO

T H AT ’ S W I L D !

THIS PAGE: MAIN PHOTO, JUKKA JANTUMEN; TOP SIDEBAR PHOTO, VACL AC SEDEK; BOTTOM SIDEBAR PHOTO, DAVID CRANE. OPPOSITE: COURTESY MIKE PA LMER

Red, in shades from light to dark, is the most common red fox colour “morph,” but there are many other variations.

GROUP EFFORTS

A flame plan has always been a priority for cottagers on Koshlong Lake, Ont. Known for their preCOVID-19 “Fundays” at YMCA Camp Wanakita, the Koshlong Lake Association also incorporates fire safety into their family events. Two years ago, the KLA even hosted their first successful lake fire drill.

But what happens when a real fire starts?

After a local cottage burned down last year, the KLA “learned some real lessons on what could have been done to improve response,” says Mike Palmer, the fire and emergency coordinator for the KLA. “The fire was at a cottage about 60 feet up, so the only way to get water to the fire was with a tanker truck. But it was too steep of an incline for the truck to drive to the lake, and back up loaded with water.”

In response to this event, the association is hoping to tour the lake with their local fire chief to scope out water access points for future use. Fire captains—cottager volunteers with access to pumps—will also play a key part in helping extinguish a potential fire before responders arrive. “What we can do is FIRE SAFETY AND PREVENTION

Spray on, sprayers! The Koshlong Lake Association uses cottage fun as an opportunity to also learn about fire safety.

pump water up from the lake and keep a reservoir filled—saving a tanker truck from having to disappear for who knows how long to refill,” says Palmer.

Improving emergency vehicle access by widening cottage roads to a minimum of 18 feet, with 14 feet of clearance, will make a difference too.

“But ultimately, the best thing we can do to prevent fires is educate cottagers,” says Palmer. Maintaining up-to-date,

accurate, accessible information is key.

The association publishes preventative guidance in their newsletter, Wavelength, has rebuilt their website with instructional videos on fire safety, and has invited their local fire chief to their virtual AGM to further educate cottagers on fire regulations. “The plan is to go forward and improve anything we can do to react to fires and emergencies,” says Palmer.— M I C H E L L E B A T E S

FLASHBACK

Whatever happened to…

W H E R E W E R E YO U I N 2 0 0 1 ?

The Plaunt family, campers on Pogamasing Lake in Northern Ontario, were in the pages of Cottage Life magazine. In our August issue, we featured their multi-camp compound for an extended family of 60 (“The Family Compact”). “There are still copies of that issue strewn at everyone’s camps,” says Laura Thomas, who married into the ever-growing Plaunt crew several years ago. “The hairstyles are amazing.”

Flash-forward: this summer is the Pog gang’s 80th anniversary. “In the last 20 years, the brood has grown to more than 90 members. We’ve built four more camps—plus countless bunkies, sheds, and saunas—and the traditional August long weekend celebration is still a big hit,” says Laura. “The teenagers in the 2001 article are now parents, with kids who run up and down the path barefoot all summer long.” Sure they do.

Cause some things never change. — J . D .

Have you been featured in CL? What are you up to now? (And do you still have the same hairstyle?) Email us: edit@cottagelife.com; we’re collecting stories for a special 35th anniversary issue next year.

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CUISINE

SEVEN UP Proper seasoning is what takes cottage cooking from Bland City to Taste Bud Town. But sometimes, salt and pepper alone just won’t do. We asked Bob Blumer, a Canadian chef and the author of Flavorbomb: A Rogue Guide to Making Everything Taste Better, for his must-have, flavour-boosting pantry items. Prepare to excite your mouth. And your cottage guests.

Harissa A combo of garlic, herbs, spices, and chilis; creates a more complex heat than plain chili flakes.

Use it In marinades, pasta sauces, egg dishes, or spread on sandwiches.

TRAIN TRAVEL, SKUNK SAVE & ALGAE UPDATE

ParmigianoReggiano Not just for pasta; it adds dimension to dishes.

Use it In salads and soups (grate just before serving) or in savoury baked goods.

Lemon A squeeze of lemon, or a bit of zest, adds brightness and zing; it’s a counterpoint to saltiness and fattiness.

Use it On seafood, smoked fish, and in cream sauces.

T H E Y C H O O - C H O O - C H O O S E YO U

All aboard! This spring, the Ontario government announced plans to launch a 13-stop passenger train service between Toronto and Timmins or Cochrane. At press time, the plan was to include stops in Langstaff, Gormley, Washago, Gravenhurst, Bracebridge, Huntsville, North Bay, Temagami, Timiskaming Shores, Englehart, and Matheson. Improved service “would provide people across Parry Sound-Muskoka with another way to travel both north and south to access services, and it would give visitors to our local tourism operators a comfortable way to travel to the area,” says Norman Miller, the MPP for Parry Sound–Muskoka.

LIQUID COURAGE

If we handed out a Cottage Life Hero of the Year Award (mental note: good idea), we’d give it to this man: Michael Jeffery, of West Kootenay, B.C. He had the guts to—very gingerly—remove a beer can stuck on the head of a struggling skunk that he spotted on the side of the road. “My heart was like, ‘Oh my God! I really need to help this guy.’

And then my head was like, ‘Dude, you’re going to get sprayed!’” Michael told the CBC. The heart won out: Michael was able to gently pry the can loose enough that the skunk could shake it off completely. Then Michael did what we’d all do: he ran—just in time. “He aimed his butthole directly at me and had his tail raised.” What, no thank you?

FEELING BLUE

Anchovies Not just for pizza; it adds intense salty, fishy, umami flavour. Use it In sauces and salads; fancy-up olive tapenades and crostinis.

Want recipes? Flavorbomb: A Rogue Guide to Making Everything Taste Better, $35; penguinrandomhouse.ca.

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Saskatchewan’s Qu’Appelle Valley chain of lakes is increasingly in trouble. According to recent research, toxic bluegreen algae blooms are showing up earlier, appearing in more intense concentrations, and lasting longer. Saskatchewan is the only province without a wetland conservation policy, says Aura Lee MacPherson, the chair of the Calling Lakes Ecomuseum, an advocacy group in the province. “We’re going to get hit with some wicked algae if we don’t start building policies and protecting our fresh water.”

T H IS PAGE : C U IS I N E P H OTOS , U N S P L AS H .COM , P E XE LS .COM , A ND P IX ABAY.CO M; S E QU E N CE GA ME : J A X GAM ES .

OPPOSITE: TO P, COURTESY SANDY HUNTER; INSET, CLEM MCINTOSH

Garlic Roasted, each clove is sweet and caramelized, not pungent like raw garlic.

Use it In soups, risottos, or on pizza; smear on toasted slices of rustic bread.

The idea for the original card-based board game Sequence came to its American inventor, Doug Reuter, in a dream. So not fair! Our dreams are never that lucrative.

REPORTER

Dijon mustard For a “nasal-clearing bite.”

Ow! But mostly, yum.

Use it On sandwiches and sausages; add to dressings.

Dried chipotle powder A couple of pinches adds a smoky heat.

Use it In chilis, stews, and eggs; add it to mustard or ketchup.

Kapow!

WHO KNEW?

Waterfront

B U Y T H E WAY

An eye for a buy The backstory: When he was growing up in Florenceville-Bristol, N.B., 46-yearold film producer and consultant Sandy Hunter spent time at his family camp near the St. John River, fishing and hiking with his father and brother. After moving to Toronto in 1997, Sandy regularly made the trek home to visit family and friends.

“But it was always my dream to get my own camp in the Maritimes,” he says.

The search: When COVID-19 struck, Sandy found himself trapped in his Toronto home for the first of many lockdowns. He’d heard of countless Ontarians escaping to the Atlantic coast—eager to do the same, Sandy drove from Toronto to New Brunswick in July 2020. After quarantining in his family’s garage, he prepared a detailed itinerary of 30 listings to tour and set about scouring the province for a cottage under $350,000.

“I wanted at least an acre near the water and some tree cover for privacy,” he says.

He viewed 22 listings, starting on the Bay of Fundy coast in the south before working his way north to Grand Lake, 40 minutes east of Fredericton. “It was fun, but by day five, I was running on fumes.”

In August, work obligations called him back to Toronto empty-handed, but he’d narrowed down his search to the Grand Lake area. “It had plenty of tree cover and beautiful beaches,” says Sandy.

When Ontario went into another lockdown, travel restrictions prevented Sandy from resuming his search in the winter. “The market was heating up, and I knew I had to act,” he says. He enlisted his sister Patricia and his brother-in-law, who live in nearby Fredericton, to search on his behalf. In March 2021, Sandy joined Patricia via FaceTime on a tour of a 1,000 sq. ft. cottage on a 1.8-acre lot on French Lake. Listed for $225,000, the three-bedroom, one-bathroom secluded camp had a screened-in veranda in the front, large sliding doors overlooking the water 30 feet away, and a bunkie with space for three guests. “I couldn’t see the place myself, but my sister loved the property, and everything about it felt right,” says Sandy.

The silver lining: After his parents vetted the place and a property inspection, Sandy bought the camp for $220,000.

He plans to fix up the road and, eventually, replace the bunkie’s roof. But for now, he’s content with swimming and kayaking. “I’m hoping to spend my summers here and then rent in Toronto for the rest of the year,” he says. “Getting this camp felt like a full-time job, but I’m pretty excited to enjoy it.”— A L I A M A D

OWNER ADVICE

SANDY’S THREE TIPS TO BUY A PROPERTY SIGHT UNSEEN 1

Location, location, location

Doing your research on the area surrounding your property is just as important as researching the property itself. “Try finding out how far you are from the nearest town and what amenities that town has,” says Sandy, who adds that figuring out the road conditions around any given property was also on his checklist. “An 80-kilometre drive on a country road in rough shape is going to take much longer than an 80-kilometre drive on a paved highway.”

2

Boots on the ground

Find trusted family or friends in the area who know exactly what you’re looking for in your new place.

“My wonderful sister and brother-inlaw generously acted as my eyes and ears in New Brunswick,” says Hunter.

“Without them, I would probably still be searching for a cottage today.”

3

Wi-Fi check

Planning on working remotely at your new cottage? Double check the internet before signing the dotted line.

“The last thing I wanted to do was buy a place in an internet black hole,” says Sandy. “Once I was serious about the French Lake property, I had my agent and a trusted friend verify the internet quality.”

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cottagelife.com 25

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Workshop

Saving you from messy toilet replacements since 1988. (You’re welcome.)

Just because the cottage is where your furniture goes to meet the sunset doesn’t mean it has to be that way.

Turn the page to see how to easily salvage a lamp.

be?

31

Quick! Save your beloved outhouse from rot.

32

Replace a toilet without making a mess (yes, really).

33

A tool with the portability of a circ saw and the precision of a table saw.

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Man vs. wild: bird feeder edition.

Who will win?

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Workshop

SKILL SET

One hour lamp revamp can have a long life. But as they age, their three main electrical components—socket, cord, and plug—may need to be replaced. With a few simple techniques that make sure you do it safely, about $20, and an hour of your time, you can have a like-new, rewired lamp.

Start by unplugging the lamp and removing the shade and bulb. With a screwdriver or a strong pair of hands, remove the upper shell of the socket. The socket shell, the sleeve, and the base (which is usually secured onto a threaded rod with a set screw) can be reused if they’re in good shape. If the shell is metal, make sure that you check that the cardboard insulation sleeve inside is intact.

If you are just replacing a damaged lamp cord, unscrew the wires from the socket terminals. It’s probably best, though, to replace the socket itself while you’re at it, since the switch often breaks over time. In that case, unscrew the socket base from the lamp, leaving the old cord attached. You can use that old cord as a pull wire, attaching old to new, to get the replacement up from the base to the socket.

Whenever you’re wiring, it’s important to know which wire is which. The side of the new lamp cord with raised ridges or printing is the neutral conductor. That wire goes to the silver screw on the socket. The other wire, on the smooth side, is hot; it goes to the brass screw.

With the wires identified and threaded through the secured socket base, pull the two wires apart for a few inches to create two single wires. Then tie them into an underwriter’s knot.

If anyone pulls on the cord, this knot prevents damage to the wire or the terminal connections.

Strip the end of each wire, wrap it clockwise around the corresponding terminal screw, and tighten it. Everything else goes back together just as it was when you started.

You’ll save time (and often money) by buying a lamp cord with the plug already attached, but if you’re only replacing the plug, be careful that you attach the wires correctly. It’s the same principle as in the socket. The ridged, neutral wire connects to the wide prong on the plug. Those different-sized prongs mean you can only plug the lamp in one way—the safe way. — R I C K B R I G N A L L

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Tying an underwriter’s knot helps the wire absorb stress and prevents the cord from disconnecting.

THIS PAGE AND OPPOSITE, PHOTOS: BRADLEY REINHARDT. OPPOSITE, ILLUSTRATION: GR AHAM ROUMIEU

TA B L E A N D F L O O R L A M P S

Workshop

PRIVY COUNSEL

In the rot seat a new outhouse or renovating an old one, there’s a design flaw you should know about. In standard privy construction, the bench encloses the pit and separates the dung from the inside of the house, but it also keeps extreme levels of rot-causing moisture bottled up against the 2x4 framing of the walls.

I’m pretty sure it’s the reason why most outhouses collapse at the back over the pit. On outhouses with exposed interior studs, where the bench meets the exterior sheathing, only the studs below the bench are affected. But if the biffy has finished interior walls, moisture can travel the full height of the stud walls to cause rot and black mould all the way up.

Confine moisture to the pit itself by lining the inside of the stud walls below the bench with pressure-treated plywood, making sure that you’re butting the panels tightly to the underside of the bench. On a new build, this is easy. As an upgrade, it involves removing the bench and dangling over the open pit with an impact driver.

Just don’t drop your glasses.— D A V I D Z I M M E R I F YO U A R E B U I L D I N G

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S AT U R D AY P R O J E C T

PRO DE TOILETTE connection for water coming in and one drain heading out, a toilet isn’t a particularly complicated device. But replacing one often means working in a small, awkward space, manipulating heavy parts, and dealing with a job that can get, well, messy.

WITH JUST ONE

4 Remove the two toilet bolt caps on the base and the nuts and washers underneath.

If the nuts are corroded in place, you can wedge the toilet up a bit with a screwdriver and slip a hacksaw blade underneath to saw the bolts off.

2 Flush the toilet to get rid of most of the water, push more down the drain with a plunger, and sop up any remaining in the tank and bowl with a sponge.

3 Now, you can disconnect the supply line (with a sponge and bucket ready to catch drips), then unbolt and remove the tank if it’s a two-piece toilet.

N E E D A V I S UA L?

Watch the Cottage Coach’s mess-free toilet installation at cottagelife.com.

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5 Lift the old toilet up and off. The toilet seal surrounding the hole in the floor is probably a squished ring of sticky wax, embedded with bits you don’t want to think about. Remove it, and clean up the mess (a waxless foam or rubber gasket, in good shape, can be reused). If there’s old caulking around the base, like a chalk outline of the deceased toilet, scrape it off—it was a bad idea, since it only holds moisture in against the floor. Check the toilet flange, the plastic part under the seal, and replace it if it’s cracked or broken. (If you need to run to the building centre for a new flange, stuff a rag in the drain hole to prevent sewer gases from wafting up.)

THIS PAGE, ILLUSTRATION: JACQUES PERRAU LT. OPPOSITE, COURTESY DEWALT

1 First, put on rubber gloves and an air of determination; this ain’t gonna be pretty. Close the shut-off valve on the supply line. If the valve gives you any grief, has signs of damage, or seems unreliable, turn off the main water supply and take the opportunity to install a new quarter-turn ball valve.

Workshop

6 Now you’re just reversing the process, but with pristine, new parts. With the two brass toilet bolts (a.k.a. closet bolts) positioned in the flange, remove the rag and put the new wax ring over the flange. Carefully lower the new toilet bowl—straight down— over the bolts and onto the ring. Rocking or tilting the toilet at this point can create a gap in the wax seal.

REAL TOOL

A compact and portable saw and other sheet goods? Track saws combine the portability and flexibility of a hand-held circular saw with the precision of a table saw.

Just lay down the tool’s aluminum track wherever you want to cut, then clamp it to the sheet. Interlock the saw with the track and make your cut. The saw slides wiggle-free along the track, eliminating any of the side-to-side deviations inevitable with a hand-held circ saw. A replaceable, rubbery strip on the track edge presses against the sheet right next to the blade, so even chip-prone materials, such as melamine-coated MDF, cut with a perfectly smooth edge every time.

Although you could use a track saw to cut dimensional lumber such as 2x6s and 2x8s, the tool is really meant for plywood, particleboard, melamine, OSB, and similar materials. And while it can’t do everything a table saw can, a track saw is more portable and far more compact.

That’s not all. Table saws are great for multiple cuts that are parallel to one edge of the sheet, but track saws have the advantage for angled cuts. Say you need to cut a wedge-shaped piece of ply tapering from 20" wide at one end to 10" at the other. Place the track along the cutting line and go—no complex set-up or special jigs needed. I own two track saws—a Festool (about $900 for a saw and track kit) and a Dewalt model (about $800 for a kit). Both work very well. Other manufacturers are bringing out less expensive versions as track saws become more mainstream.— S T E V E M A X W E L L

N E E D T O C U T P LY W O O D

7 Slip the washers and nuts over the two bolts and tighten, switching back and forth so the pressure is even. Don’t overtighten any of the bolts on the toilet; the porcelain can crack, and that’s a very expensive mistake.

WAY N E ’ S D I C T I O N A R Y

8 If your new toilet is a two-piece model, attach the tank and gasket to the bowl with the supplied bolts, and then reconnect the water supply. Check for leaks, install the seat, and then do whatever you feel is appropriate to celebrate your new throne.

Rails/stiles the rails on a crazy train,” Ozzy admitted, but he wasn’t singing about cabinetry. To a woodworker, rails are the horizontal components of a door, window, or cabinet opening—almost anything frame-like—while stiles are the vertical pieces.— W A Y N E L E N N O X “I’M GOIN’ OFF

—MARTIN ZIBAUER

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Workshop

READER PROJECT

THE BIRDS AND THE BEARS Mark Kreger had a bird feeder, one that was strung on a wire between two poles about 10 paces apart to keep it out of the reach of local wildlife. But late one season at his cottage near Kearney, Ont., the feeder went missing. It reappeared the following year, about 100 metres away in the bush, with some obvious bear damage.

“I clearly had to think of something better,” he says. “Originally, I thought higher posts and a higher wire, but I didn’t want to have to use a ladder to refill it,” says Mark. He decided to try a feeder that pivots. “It’s like a teeter totter, but a vertical one.”

Mark first tried dangling his feeder from a wire on a 2x3 of spruce attached to a post he made from a small tamarack.

“An animal snapped it like a toothpick after a few nights,” says Mark. The next design was a metal conduit attached with two hooks and bolted to the tree, but an animal bent that too. As any loyal Cottage Life reader knows, humans are often no match for determined wildlife.

“I finally reinforced it with rebar, but the animals still bend it,” he says. “It’s been bent to such an extent and so often that I now remove the feeder every evening and replace it in the morning.” An avid DIYer, Mark isn’t fazed. “I enjoy the challenge,” he says. “But for now, the bears have won.”— A L Y S H A V A N D E R T O G T

Solved a cottage problem by building something?

SH OW US :

edit@cottagelife.com.

Though Mark loves to scavenge for materials, he bought the conduit and the rebar for about $30.

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Common visitors to the feeder include goldfinches, blue jays, and the odd hairy woodpecker.

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Cottage Q&A

The birds ate my aspen!

Now what?

CR I ST IA N FOW LI E

BY JACK I E DAVIS

Q: I have a row of Swedish columnar aspen that has been eaten and killed by yellowbellied sapsuckers. What could I replace them with that’s fast-growing but is not favoured by those woodpeckers?

—Julie Hink, Beaver Lake, Alta.

A: Let’s not throw the sapsuckers entirely under the bus: the reason that your trees died could be because Swedish columnars aren’t native to Canada.

“Native aspens have been dealing with sapsuckers for thousands of years,” says Chris Earley, the author of Feed the Birds.

“They know what they’re doing.” Since your trees probably didn’t evolve with yellow-bellied sapsuckers, it made them weak to this woodpecker’s onslaught; another species could have taken it.

That said, while sapsuckers will drill into “a very long list” of trees, they are

particularly fond of aspens, says Earley. So avoid those, and pick another native tree.

Jean-Mathieu Daoust, an arborist with the Calgary office of Bartlett Tree Experts, suggests poplar, American elm, or laurel leaf willow; they’ll grow two feet or more per year. Of course, trees that grow quickly get large quickly. “People say, ‘I want it to grow super-fast! But I don’t want it to get too big!’ ” says Daoust. Follow the tree-planting adage: right tree, right place. For example, you might not want to squash together trees with a wide canopy spread into a spot that suited the skinny aspens. (Columnar trees are column-like.)

Before you decide on a species, do as much research as you can, says Daoust.

You want to get “a true perspective on what impact the selected species will

have on the landscape over time.” Talk to local nurseries and arborists; look online; check out images; ask your lake neighbours: which trees have they had success with?

And the sapsuckers? You may have to accept that they’re not going to stop sucking sap. It’s kind of in their job description.

Soap vs. the septic Q: I was washing my hands at the cottage this morning using antibacterial hand soap after returning from a trip to town. While silently singing “Happy Birthday” to myself two times, I was also looking at a little poster prepared by the Redstone Lake Cottagers Association about the dos and don’ts relative to the septic system. Antibacterial soaps and other compounds are on the septic Don’t list, but such soap is now de rigueur in today’s COVID-19 environment.

Is there any amount of antibacterial soap that a septic can tolerate, or should we sing “Happy Birthday” three times with good old bar soap?—Kevin Lengyell, Little Redstone Lake, Ont. ›› AU G/SEPT 202 1

cottagelife.com 37

Cottage Q&A

Cash options for a cottage Q: Can I use money from my RRSP to pay for a cottage?—Violet Pearl, via email A: You can use money from your RRSP to pay for anything: a lambo. A year’s worth of Baby Duck. An expensive Shetland pony.

But you’ll be taxed on it. “You can withdraw money from your RRSP to purchase a cottage, but the amount of the withdrawal will be treated as a ‘payment of pension income’,” says Karen Slezak, a tax partner with Crowe Soberman in Toronto. “That means that there will be tax withheld at the time of the withdrawal: 10 per cent on the first $5,000, 20 per cent between $5,001 and $15,000, and 30 per cent on any amount 38 cottagelife.com

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above $15,000.” And, depending on your actual tax bracket, you may have to pay additional tax when you file your return.

Another, possibly better option, is to take advantage of the Canada Revenue Agency’s Home Buyer’s Plan (HBP).

“The plan allows for withdrawals of $35,000 or less from an RRSP as long as very specific criteria are met,” says Slezak. (It’s tax-free, and works a little like a loan: you have to pay the money back over a maximum of 15 years.)

And you have to qualify. “The main requirement is that the person has to be a first-time home buyer,” says Slezak.

You can meet that requirement if, in the four years leading up to buying the cottage, you didn’t live in a home that you, your spouse, or your common-law partner owned. So, “if you’ve been renting your accommodation, the cottage may be considered a first-time home.”

If you’re interested in using the HBP, talk to a tax expert to help determine if you’ll qualify.

A white marks mystery Q: Our cottage has a fully-insulated basement with a concrete floor. Thanks to a sump well and proper drainage, this basement has stayed warm and dry for years.

But in 2019-2020 there were record-high water levels on the Great Lakes. The water table rose to just under our floor. As the water table started to drop, a white powder appeared on the floor, and also around support pillars and internal block walls. What is this white powder, and how do we remove it? Once that is done, is there a product we could use to coat the floor?—Bob and Joan Bowman, Sauble Beach, Ont.

A: The white powder is likely efflorescence: the visible salts and minerals left behind when water evaporates. It’s not pretty, but it won’t hurt you.

Try cleaning it with vinegar and a scrub brush—that should remove it. If not, you could use a dedicated efflorescence cleaner. (Check hardware or home reno stores.)

As an absolute last resort, you could “upgrade to muriatic acid,” says Roger Frost of Napoleon Home Inspections in Barrie. (But PSA: it’s terrifyingly caustic stuff. The expert advice on using it ranges from “Cover every part of yourself in protection; consider installing an eye-wash station” to “Don’t touch it.

Don’t even look at it.” We’d rather live with the white powder.)

Our first guess was that this residue is ectoplasm from a basement ghost. But...it’s not.

After cleaning, you could coat the floor with an epoxy paint, but it can be prone to flaking, peeling, and blistering— that might look uglier than leaving the basement bare. And it’s not going to provide much waterproofing.

“Stopping water from coming in is the best solution, and that could be impossible if the water table rises again,” says Frost.

Still, you have a few choices to handle future dampness problems, says Don Fugler, a building scientist formerly with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC): regular cleaning to deal with any stains, a “false floor” to hide the stains, or installing a pump to work with the sump and keep the water several inches lower than the floor. “But

CR I ST IA N FOW LI E

A: Well, there’s good news and there’s… actually, there is no bad news. It’s all good news! You can safely wash your hands with any kind of soap. Studies haven’t found added health benefits from soaps containing antibacterial ingredients when compared to plain soap, says the CDC. Both are equally effective. More important is washing your hands thoroughly and correctly for at least 20 seconds. (But no need to sing Happy B-day a third time. Unless you just really like the song.)

“It’s also worth noting that while manufacturers happily add an ‘antibacterial’ label to things, the reality is that pretty much any soap has some antibacterial properties,” says David Evans, a professor in the department of medical microbiology and immunology at the University of Alberta. “But if you’re worried about the soap’s impact on the septic system, switch to something without the label. You’ll still be fine. And you’ll probably save some money.”

You’re correct that antibacterial products aren’t great for a septic tank; they can kill the “good” bacteria in there.

“How much negative impact it can have is hard to determine,” says Bill Goodale, the sewage system inspector for the Township of Tiny, Ont. “There are a lot of different variables from one cottage to another.” But if you switch to regular soap, “and you’re doing everything else right with the system, then the bacterial action should return to normal levels.”

See? Good news!

Cottage Q&A

be aware that, if you are trying to stem the movement of water from a Great Lake, that pump might be running continuously for weeks,” says Fugler. A more extreme option would be to change the basement into an isolated crawl space, he says. Excessive? Maybe, but cottage country could be in store for decades more of high-water levels.

“Who knows what eventually will happen with a changing climate?”

Straw bales as skirting?

Q: What are the pros and cons of using straw bales as skirting under a slightly raised cottage?—Name withheld, via email A: Straw bales have plenty of pros: they’re energy efficient, inexpensive, eco-conscious, DIY-able...

“But straw bale insulation really doesn’t sound like the best choice for this application,” says Deirdre McGahern, the owner of Straworks in Peterborough, Ont. “Usually using bales in a retrofit situation doesn’t work.”

The bales would need to be 12" to 18" off the ground and supported in some

way, she explains. “Chances are the floor wasn’t framed for them to fit between the joists. They would also need to be plastered on both faces to be effective insulators, and in order to be fire- and pest-resistant.”

Maybe you’re just looking for a quickand-dirty solution for the cold season: shoving some bales around the perimeter of the cottage. Sure, people do it, but unfortunately, cons come with this insulation strategy too.

If your goal is to ward off frost heave by keeping the ground around the piers from freezing and being displaced, straw won’t deliver. With exposed piers, and no heat source, cold air will still blow between the bales and cool the soil’s subgrade.

Plus, “the bales will collect moisture and start to rot,” says home inspector Roger Frost. They’ll also collect rodents.

“Over time, this can lead to an infestation in the cabin.” Also? The local fire department and your insurance company may not be wild about you sticking something flammable so close to your cottage.

“Straw bales can be made to work to some degree,” says former CMHC building scientist Don Fugler. “But it’s not really good practice.”

Seems like the cons win out this time.

Sad emoji. l

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Legacy

O R I G I N A L LY P U B L I S H E D I N T H E J U LY/A U G U S T 1 9 9 4 I S S U E O F C O T T A G E L I F E

Summertime blues The picking is part of the pleasure, even though eating them is the main event. Reflections from the berry patch B Y C H A R L E S W I L K I N S . R E C I P E B Y J A N E R O D M E L L to be made for the strawberry and raspberry; but in my own gustatory opinion—a bias derived from perhaps five million berries picked and processed—the tiny blueberry, Vaccinium angustifolium, is the queen of small fruit, the singer in the band. Its name alone is simplicity verging on poetry. And its shape is a teensy echo of the planet itself— which, as any spaceman can tell you, is mostly blue.

But it is on the palate, of course, that the little blue prodigy really comes to life. Biting into a mouthful of ripe blueberries is a tactile as well as a taste sensation, each berry releasing its inky, ambrosial load with a subtle pop, followed by a burst of muted tartness, then the inevitable rush of fruit sugar that evolves smartly onto the deeper taste buds, flushing sideways and backwards off the tongue and then down the hatch.

I prefer my berries fresh-picked, straight into the kisser in handfuls, right in the blueberry patch. But I’ll happily eat

KATIE HICKS

THERE ARE ARGUMENTS

them from a bowl with milk; on Cheerios, Shreddies, Bran Flakes; stewed (is there anything in the realm of culinary satisfaction quite like the smile of the stewed-blueberry eater?); reduced to jam, jelly, syrup; with ice cream or yoghurt; in pies and puddings; on cheesecake or flan; in pancakes; in muffins.

I have devoured them with gusto in chutney, and on salads in the form of blueberry vinegar.

The act of picking berries is, in its own right, a weirdly transcendent experience, a gateway both to wisdom and to idiocy. No emotion is quite comparable, for instance, to the hateful, delicious masochism of carrying on too long—say, into the fifth or sixth hour; the head aching from too much sun; the retinas imprinted with blue-dot psychedelia that will pursue you into the twitchy dreams of the wee hours; and the knees, the hips, the back, each by this time a manifest inkling of the galloping arthritis that will eventually catch up with AU G/SEPT 202 1

cottagelife.com 43

Legacy

you. And yet you keep on picking because there are still blueberries to be had, and as yet no one is showing clinical signs of having dropped dead.

Similarly, what can compare to the hopeful, agonizing self-delusion that, perhaps, if you don’t look at your basket or pail as you drop in the blueberries, or if you pick them into a cup and dump the cup as it fills, your basket will somehow be tricked into filling more quickly?

Or to the sensory vocabulary of the patch itself: the varying desiccation and swamp; the moss, rock, and lichen; the snapping pungency of the dry-wire twigs being consumed by the cook fire; or the redeeming cool of the lake.

Or farther north, the furrowed forestcuts left by the pulp-and-timber workers (prime ground for blueberries); the ubiquitous black spruce; the Precambrian ravens and rock.

My great-grandmother, a 4½-ft. tigress, thought nothing of putting up 70 or 80 quarts in late July. She stewed them in their own juices—no added water—because this was how it was done. I’ve been told that she once emerged onto the cottage porch at Clear Lake, carrying a quart sealer of freshly stewed berries. As she held them up for the family’s inspection, declaring proudly that they contained “not one drop of water,” the bottom fell out of the jar, and the berries hit the porch floor.

As kids during the ’50s and early ’60s we picked in the mossy uplands near the Connell railway siding at Torrance, Ont., a few kilometres south of Bala. The horrormeister, David Cronenberg, shot the final scenes of his movie Naked Lunch on the site. All I could think about while watching the scenes was blueberries.

It might please Cronenberg that, during the mid-’50s at Connell siding, I found a heavy metallic something— military green in colour and about the size and shape of a cucumber. I showed it to my mother who, believing it to be an unexploded mortar shell, ordered me to lay it gently on the nearby moss. It may still be there.

The berries, like the prospects for the future, were good during the ’50s. On most trips we’d come home with at least a six-quart basket filled. Some days, my 44 cottagelife.com

AU G /SE PT 2 02 1

BAKE A CLASSIC

Blueberry-peach crisp This is an absolute favourite cottage dessert, and the only chore is peeling the peaches (but you can make that simple too with the Tip, below). Serve hot or warm with a generous dollop of whipped cream, ice cream, or crème fraîche. Serves 6 (4 in some families).

1 cup blueberries 3 cups peaches, peeled and sliced Rind of ½ lemon, grated 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice ½ tsp ground ginger ½ tsp cinnamon ¼ cup sugar Pecan Crisp Topping (recipe at right) Toss all ingredients except Pecan Crisp Topping, and place in a lightly buttered 6-cup baking dish, about 8" square.

Cover with topping and bake at 375°F for about 40 minutes.

Pecan Crisp Topping: ½ cup flour ½ cup brown sugar Pinch salt ½ tsp cinnamon ½ cup chilled butter 1 cup pecans, chopped Combine flour, sugar, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl and cut in the butter until mixture forms coarse crumbs. Add pecans to mixture and toss together.

TIP To easily peel ripe peaches, cut an X in the bottom of each fruit, and drop them, one at a time, into boiling water for 30 seconds. Then immediately plunge them into chilled water for a few seconds and slip off skins.

dad would pick a basketful himself.

If there was a deficiency to his efforts, it was that he didn’t “pick clean,” and that the time he saved in not separating the stems and leaves from his pickings had to be made up later by my mother, who did it for him. My mother, I might add, once stared down a rattlesnake in the blueberry lands northwest of Gravenhurst, Ont. I had no comparisons for the seemingly bountiful harvests of those early years, until 1991, when I moved with my family to Thunder Bay. Last summer, my wife and five-year-old and I picked 12 six-quart baskets in the timber clearings out along the Armstrong Highway north of the Lakehead. An acquaintance of mine and his family picked a hundred baskets in two days near Ignace, Ont. Bring on Cronenberg.

Our own picking left my favourite jeans permanently stained in the knees, my fingers a fragrant ghoulish purple.

My wife, who was six months pregnant at the time, sat like Buddha amid the

bushes, and slept like him on the back seat of the van as she felt the need.

The operative word for good berries in these parts is “lovely.” Exceptional berries are “as big as grapes.” It is pleasingly symmetrical that the grapes grown north of Superior—the lovingly tended few that make it to maturity—are the size of blueberries.

When the berries are particularly plentiful—20 or 30 to a clump—pickers speak of “milking” them from the bushes…as we never could in Muskoka.

A local friend picks with a blueberry rake, an ingenious comb-like contraption with a litre-sized reservoir that traps the berries while allowing the twigs, leaves, and pipsqueaks to fall through. You can buy such an implement, hand-made from sheet metal and solder, for $35 at Lauri’s Hardware, a Finnish institution on Bay St. in Thunder Bay. Lauri himself told me that, at the current price of berries, a rake would pay for itself in one trip to the patch. I believed it, but didn’t buy one— perhaps because, for me, the pleasure of

Legacy

picking is only marginally connected to the number of basketfuls I bring home.

Certainly, I have little patience for people who say they wouldn’t waste their time scrambling around in the wilderness— not to mention wasting gas on the highway—when they can buy a basket of berries for $20 (around here). You can buy all the elements in the human body for $13 from a chemical-supply catalogue. But it just ain’t the same.

In my own arcane world, the only reason for buying blueberries would be that you couldn’t get them any other way.

And, of course, sometimes you can’t— even if you spend your summers in areas where they grow. Because sometimes they don’t grow. I have heard seasoned pickers expound ad tedium on the whys and wherefores of good and bad blueberry years. A good year starts with a warm spring, followed by a wet June and a sunny July. Or was it a dry June and a wet July? Too much rain kills ‘em dead.

Or too much sun. A late frost can apparently do them in. And if there are no bees around, the plants don’t get pollinated.

Whatever else is known about their comings and goings, a few things are certain: blueberries will inhabit an area for several decades, then disappear and show up somewhere else. Sometimes they return to an area where they were once plentiful. Clearing a patch of forest will often bring berries. A forest fire, too, will bring them on. Blueberries are one of the first plants to regenerate in the scorched soil. They like their soil acidic.

If you don’t find berries where you hoped to, look somewhere else. Ask other pickers. A boom year at Huntsville or Parry Sound can be a bust at Sudbury or Connell siding. And remember that no matter what the prevailing conditions in an area, there will be microhabitats that experience nothing of the rain, drought, frost, bees, or fire that affect the territory at large.

As a rule, a relatively mild spring, followed by a good mix of rain and sun, tends to produce berries.

But aspiring pickers should not be confused, much less impressed, by any of this pseudo-scientific speculation.

A good year is not one in which the rains or sun or frost come in textbook proportions at precisely the right time; or the berries are as big as grapes or grapefruits; or can be milked off the bushes by couch potatoes.

As much as any food on God’s menu, I love blueberries. But given a choice between the berries and the berry patch, I’ll always take the patch, with its implied freedoms, its wilderness and wildlife. In fact, at the risk of uttering a pomposity, I submit that a good year for blueberries is one in which you enjoy the patch as much as the berries—and perhaps have the good fortune to fill your baskets.

A really good year is one in which you really enjoy the patch…and get to eat blueberries on cereal and ice cream—and in pies and pancakes and muffins—for weeks if not months to come.l Writer Charles Wilkins has written more than 30 stories for Cottage Life since he started writing for the magazine in 1989.

His first feature for us, about Dunn’s Pavilion in Bala, Ont., was turned into a musical.

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Zim Weighs In

An unfair share Cottage co-ownership goes maddeningly pear-shaped if one family member simply refuses to pitch in at all, says Zim B Y D A V I D Z I M M E R

JACK DE T TM E R

Q: “I share a cottage with a sibling and two cousins. I’m the only ‘handy’ owner, but we all pull together for chores and big improvements—except for one of my cousins. He doesn’t lift a finger to help and avoids the work weekends that we have twice a year. He pays his share of the cottage dues, but that’s all he does.

The others don’t seem to think it’s a big deal, but I’m starting to get mad. How do other cottagers do it?”

A: A brilliant entrepreneur I know (my wife) has this to say about co-ownership situations: “Ideally, when starting any new venture, the only business partner you should have is the bank.” Wise words. And I think the same could really be said about cottage co-ownership which, with family or others, is a situation to be avoided at all costs.

If only to preserve your own sanity.

But for a great many cottagers, myself included, that perfect world does not exist.

I feel your pain because at one time I shared a family cottage with my three brothers.

We definitely experienced bumps along the co-ownership path, but work sharing wasn’t one of the problems, even though we had wildly varying skill sets. Like most cottagers I know, we each did our best according to our own aptitude. For example, one of my brothers had a physical disability, so he couldn’t build docks or hump asphalt shingles up a ladder. But he was a trained chef, and kept the chuckwagon open, turning out three squares a day so the rest of us could stay focused on the dirty job at hand. At the end of the business, he’d help clean up and pass out cold beer.

All in all, a full and fair contribution. ›› AU G/SEPT 202 1

cottagelife.com 47

Zim Weighs In Cont’d from p. 47

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But a distressing number of cottagers are so inept that they represent a liability and a menace when it comes to cottage work. They are afraid of heights, cannot decipher the markings on a tape measure, and regularly lose their grip on swinging hammers. These people are very real, and you probably know at least one of them.

The few that I know are well aware of their shortcomings in the handy department, but they compensate the oldfashioned way, with a liberal application of cash money. They spring for boat gas or buy an expensive new tool for common use. These bunglers are useless on the job site but will happily pay out-ofpocket for a new cottage sofa. Yes, they are buying their way out of work, but at least they try to contribute.

It sounds like this is not the situation at your cottage. To be blunt, your cousin seems like a complete jerk. Anyone who routinely shafts his co-owners—his own kin—with all the cottage grunt work, and does so knowingly, deserves a fiery eternity emptying Satan’s latrine with a sauna dipper. Maybe you could buy him out. Who knows? Your cousin might be happy to take the money and run, but I realize this could be impossible if the rest of you can’t afford to pay him to go away. (Plus, some sharing arrangements have legal agreements that lay out specific rules for buyouts and can include some sort of shotgun clause that could result in you losing your share of the place.) Your situation seems even more complex because it doesn’t sound like the other owners think your goldbricking cousin is a problem.

Personally, my go-to for these sorts of issues is public shaming. Start referring to the skiver as “my lazy-ass cousin” whenever he is within earshot. Make a sign for his bedroom that says “Count Slackula’s Den of Sloth.” At dinner, set out place cards for your co-owners.

Susan’s might have a picture of a pretty bird, Tom’s a cute chipmunk, but Braydon, who doesn’t help out? His says “Deadbeat Bum” beside a photo of a bloodsucking leech. You get the idea. The possibilities are limitless and this approach is really fun.

48 cottagelife.com

AUG / SEP T 20 21

That said, I have been repeatedly informed that public humiliation isn’t really “in” these days, so here’s plan B. The proper thing to do, the grown-up rational approach would be to seek consensus with the other owners before sitting down with Mr. Lazy Pants for a friendly and constructive meeting where you can talk about the subject in a blame-free, non-judgmental environment. Use powerful “I” statements: “I feel so frustrated with the whole situation” or “I just want to understand what’s going on here.” Maybe he will come to see your side of the issue and a new era of cottage cooperation will dawn under a halo of warm light, bringing hearts and hands together. You can certainly try this approach, but I think we both know that a habitual shirker like your cousin knows how to game the system and has done so for years. Clearly he is the kind of person who doesn’t bring wine or beer to a cottage weekend and selfishly eats all the pecans in the mixed nut bowl.

I am aware that it is impolitic to offend delicate sensibilities. Mustn’t hurt anyone’s feelings, right? Well, in this case I think you might need to employ some direct action towards your cousin by getting right up in his grill. Call it Plan B, Part 2, where you forcefully explain your side of things. Ask if there’s a reason for his behaviour. Don’t back down, and don’t let him squirm away. Make it very clear that the other owners are 100 per cent with you on this matter, even if they have never formally said as much. Explain that he is hurting your feelings (see what we did there?) and that the rest of you need his help to make this cohab a success. (“It’s tearing us apart!”) If you could squeeze out a few tears, that would be great. You need to use guilt as a power tool. (“Susan cries every night!”) I am convinced that you will get a powerful and emotional reaction out of him. And if you don’t, it’s a pretty good indication that he might be trending in the direction of narcissistic sociopathy so maybe you should lock your bedroom door and sleep with one eye open. Because when you share a cottage with blood relatives, it’s better to be safe than sorry.a

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Style Ideas

C A R E Y S H AW

“You see so many trailer renos that make everything white and clean,” says Prowler owner Carey Shaw.

“But mine is like a miniature cabin, it should feel nostalgic.”

A trailer-made fit How two RV owners found small-space solutions to take their campers from brown to beautiful B Y B E T H H I T C H C O C K

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cottagelife.com 53

Style Ideas

most trailers are dated at best, downright ugly at worst.

Enter two creative owners who were able to make their spaces sing on a tiny budget. Carey Shaw, a photographer in Saskatoon, uses her early ’80s Prowler as a “tin cabin” retreat that’s permanently parked near Saskatchewan’s Last Mountain Lake. Lija Skobe, a director of fundraising and events for a Torontobased nonprofit, treats her camper as a guesthouse addition to the cottage that she shares with her brother on Balsam Lake, Ont. Both prove that trailers are trending in the right direction.

LET’S BE HONEST:

Rustic cabin meets Palm Springs The story of this summer getaway begins with an offer that Carey Shaw couldn’t refuse. Her friend was selling his trailer and spot at a private campground where she grew up spending her summers. It’s a place where there isn’t a lot of changeover, and spaces tend to be passed down through families like a cottage.

So it’s no surprise that Carey jumped at the chance to carve out her own retreat away from Regina, where she lived at the time. She closed the deal for the trailer—a 1981 Prowler—for $500. In spite of the attractive price tag, it wasn’t love at first sight. “Every piece of fabric was brown or mustard,” she says. “But it had a good layout, and I knew I could make it my own.”

Inspired by her travels to California, Carey chose to work with the trailer’s existing wood cabinets and groovy wallpaper, adding new rugs, upholstery, and art, including many of her own photographs of the Golden State in white frames. Her budget for the makeover: between $1,500 and $2,000. “I was 54 cottagelife.com

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envisioning a mix of rustic cabin and Palm Springs style,” she says.

The kitchen banquette and sofa once sported mustard-coloured vinyl but found new life with grey upholsteryweight fabric that Carey scored on sale at Fabricland. She did the reupholstery herself for a total cost of $50. The kitchen runner is made from several

inexpensive jute mats that Carey sewed together. As for the original wallpaper?

“I guess you could say it grew on me.”

The overall look is very boho, seen in Carey’s selection of mix-and-match textiles with similar Southwestern motifs and in the row of houseplants above the window that offer visual relief from the panelled walls. Those plants

Style Ideas

TURN TO PEEK INSIDE!

T H I S PAGE , L E F T: C A R E Y S H AW; R I GH T A N D I N S E T, E R I N L E Y D O N . O P PO S I T E : C A R E Y S H AW

Modern retro with pops of colour reside in an area that originally housed a bed, but Carey converted it into muchneeded storage space. The couch below folds out to create sleeping space for guests, and Carey sleeps on the bottom of a bunk bed tucked behind a curtain.

Outside, Carey wanted the place to feel enveloped by greenery, so her brother-in-law built a planter that she filled with ivy to cover the trailer’s hitch.

With its shape and nautical-style lights, the planter resembles the prow of a ship.

Two wooden platforms, which Carey transformed with grey paint, define the outside living zones. “Grey contrasts nicely with the green and natural wood and makes the trailer feel more modern,” she says; she also refreshed the trailer’s red stripe by painting it black. Finally, she furnished the outdoor living room— fitted with screens for mosquito season—with Muskoka chairs from Costco.

Carey has learned to live clutter-free in the small space, though there’s a free-standing shed on the property that holds bulky items—such as landscaping tools—and an extra refrigerator. Since

she relocated to Saskatoon, going to the trailer has become less about getting away from the city and more about getting to see her family. “I couldn’t pass up only paying $500 for it,” she says. “This place is summer to me.”

We’ve said it once, and we’ll say it again Bylaws regarding using RVs as permanent extra sleep space vary depending on your location.

In fact, some places don’t allow them at all. How can you know for sure? It’s the old CL party line—call your municipality.

Lija Skobe knows a good thing when she sees it. She’d been scouring the market for a year for a trailer that she could use as extra sleeping accommodations at her cottage (“From Latvia, With Love, June/ July ’20). But the options were less than inspiring—until she spotted “Sofia” on Kijiji two years ago.

The four-sleeper was in pristine condition and only needed cosmetic touchups. “She was brown and beige all over, but she wasn’t dirty or musty, and the fridge, stove, and water all worked,” says Lija. “I’d seen some really crappy trailers out there, so I knew right away that this was the one.” The seller was moving, so Lija negotiated an excellent price— $4,500, which left about $800 in her budget for the makeover.

After giving the trailer a name—a nod to a recent trip to Bulgaria, plus her eastern European heritage—Lija set about giving Sofia a new look. Because the trailer is sometimes included when Lija rents out her cottage, she chose durable fabrics for the furniture and more forgiving, darker colours throughout. In AU G/SEPT 202 1

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Style Ideas

Tricks of the trailer Whether you’re transforming an

the kitchen, she painted the wood cabinets Orion Gray by Behr, a shade that helps disguise dust and fingerprints.

The main living and sleeping quarters got a new white and grey pattern on the floors, thanks to peel-and-stick tiles, and grey couch covers to match the cabinets. “Upholstery would have been too expensive, so I found elastic couch covers online that can be easily removed and washed,” she says.

Lija added decorative flourishes with a mix of solid and patterned cushions, ceramic accessories, multicoloured flags, and vintage postcards that she tucked into Ikea frames. Around the perimeter

of the bedroom is a storage nook with netting, to keep items secure when the trailer’s in motion: “It’s important to have a lot of storage so you can put everything flat, including the TV, when you’re travelling,” she says.

For now, Sofia sits by the cottage shed with a slice of lake view. “It’s cute, calming, and a great little place to escape,” says Lija. “I haven’t taken her for a full spin yet, but we’re hoping to head to the East Coast at some point this year.”a Beth Hitchcock is a design contributor to The Globe and Mail. She also wrote “Share to Join Us?” in our May ’21 issue.

RV or a bunkie, these design tips have a big impact on the flair and functionality of your small space.

GO FO R FAU X Lija sourced peel-and-stick decals from a company called Quadrostyle for the floor and backsplash. “It looks like tile for a fraction of the cost,” she says. Better yet, faux tile is a breeze to clean and won’t crack when the trailer moves or the weather dips below zero.

CHOOSE A COHESIVE PALETTE Too many colours and patterns in a small space can look chaotic. Lija stuck with blue as the predominant colour and layered in gold tones for a warm accent. “I purchased a bunch of inexpensive pillows and candle holders in those colours and they instantly freshened up the trailer, as did the $30 tables from Marshalls.”

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L I J A’ S T R A I L E R , E R I N L E Y D O N ; C A R E Y ’ S B E N C H , C A R E Y S H AW

T H I N K I N M U LT I P L E S Carey relies on multi-purpose furniture to get the most from her limited square footage.

“A bench can work as a shoe rack, extra seating, or a table for my laptop to watch movies at night,” she says.

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THE MONK, THE RECLUSE, AND A MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE How a lucky find led this unlikely cast of characters to fix up (but not fancy up) an old-school Muskoka cottage. A drama, in three acts

BY

A N N VA N D E R H O O F P H OTO G RA PH Y

PEG McCA RTHY

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THE SETTING: A modest, rustic-looking water-access Ontario cottage, tucked among birches and maples on the south shore of nineacre, four-property May Island, in Lake Rosseau’s Venetia island group; a 10-minute boat ride from the mainland THE CHARACTERS: Alan Marr, a semi-retired advertising copywriter, a director of TV commercials, and the cottage’s current owner; claims puttering is an Olympic event, and he’s in training for the Canadian team; a.k.a.

“Monk,” from the name of his long-ago high-school band, “Monk Marr and the Clergy Reserves” Sheila McCarthy, award-winning actor, Monk’s spouse, and self-confessed 100 per cent city girl Gillian, Meredith, and Andrew, Monk’s three grown kids Don Fairbrother, original owner of the cottage with his wife, Kitty, who died in 1989; Don is varyingly described by the other characters as a: “recluse,” “fuddyduddy, but very charming,” “gentleman,” “very quirky,” “really sweet old guy who hoarded everything” ›› Monk collected gems such as an old potty seat, the hutch, and the harvest table with a cottage in mind. Others, such as the Coleman kerosene iron (above the door), came with the cabin.

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“FROM WAY BACK, I WAS ACCUMULATING STUFF FOR A COTTAGE THAT I DIDN’T OWN”

ACT 1, SCENE 1

Remembrance of horrors past since Monk purchased Don Fairbrother’s very rundown, crammed-full (Director’s note: gross understatement) cottage. But his kids still gleefully recall the details of their first weekend:

IT’S BEEN 22 YEARS

Andrew, 38, a professional fishing guide: “It was like looking inside a hoarder’s house. You couldn’t move more than a foot or two in there because of the junk.

The dining room table was piled high with it: newspapers, unfinished projects, old-fashioned fishing rods, lures…”

Meredith, 41, a marketing consultant: “…Deer antlers. Mason jars filled with rocks. Set after set of salt-and-pepper shakers. He kept absolutely everything, all these nutty things: a chip of paint from their old canoe, a patch of their ’50s kitchen tablecloth, Kitty’s nighties…”

Gillian, 43, a freelance producer: “…Even cutlery labeled, ‘Kitty’s knife and fork.’

There was a fridge, but it wasn’t hooked up to the propane. He used it as a cupboard, to store his canned goods…”

Andrew: “…With a wire to keep its door closed. There wasn’t a working toilet either. Or even an outhouse. And you couldn’t see the lake from the porch because the screens hadn’t been cleaned in 20 years.”

Gillian: “…That first weekend, we were like a human chain, chucking things out—old mattresses, a hodgepodge of plates and clothes. We took two or three barge loads to the dump.”

Andrew: “…Anybody else would have walked away. But my dad was like, ‘No, we can work with this!’ He had a vision of what he could turn it into.” ›› The cottage has three porches overlooking the bay: a main one (top left), flanked by two small porches (where Monk and Sheila sit) that connect to the front bedrooms. Andrew’s room (bottom left) is home to his collection of lures and beers.

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MONK WAS AIMING FOR THE FEEL OF A 1940s FISHING LODGE

ACT 1, SCENE 2

Beauty from the beast It started as a simple, one-room wooden cabin with an open porch across the front. Don and Kitty gradually added a tiny kitchen, a tinier bathroom (nonfunctioning by the ’90s), and three small, identical bedrooms.

1948:

The exterior looks pretty much the same. Sure, the main porch has been enclosed and there’s a new deck off the kitchen. But otherwise the cottage hasn’t grown since Monk took possession at the end of July 1999: it hasn’t sprouted a second storey, sprawled along the shoreline, hatched a brood of bunkies, or seen a lavish reno. Monk calls it his Red Green special—making it a rarity among the big, showy, year-round places that the Marrs can see across the lake.

Says Meredith, “It’s still so rustic, so cottagey, that it sticks out like the Clampetts did in Beverly Hills.”

Inside, though, it’s no longer a packrat’s jumble of junk. Monk says he was aiming for the feel of a 1940s fishing lodge. Visitors say it could be a museum.

Gillian calls it a little jewel box. “My dad has done an amazing job of culling so much out of there that just didn’t work, but then preserving its true heart, making it better,” she explains.

It still has exposed stud walls, but the “Putter King,” as Sheila calls Monk, has fitted them with shelves of all sizes.

Among the treasures are Don and Kitty’s now-working Victrola; their Aladdin lamps; replacement mantles in their original packages (with price tags from the T. Eaton Company: $3 per box); and a kerosene iron from the ’50s. It was likely used by the Fairbrothers for sprucing up when they invited neighbours to one of their bashes, where Kitty entertained at the cottage’s upright piano.

Don’s old fishing rods hang above the doors to the porch, and the frame of a rowing skiff he was building—one of many unfinished projects—now houses the lights above the dining room table.

NOW:

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Monk, everyone agrees, was “a cottage waiting to happen.” He’d grown up spending summers at his grandmother’s cottage near Bala, Ont., “and it was always my dream to own a place in Muskoka,” he says. “From way back, I was accumulating stuff for a cottage that I didn’t own,” such as the brass bed and the vintage schoolkid’s chalkboard where he now leaves welcome messages for family and guests. To hear Sheila tell it, he can’t pass a dumpster or a pile of trash at the end of a driveway without slowing down for a look. “There was a reason he bought a cottage from someone like Don. The baton was passed.”

ACT 2, SCENE 1: FLASHBACK

It all started with a message in a bottle.

Really.

I N T H E L AT E ’ 8 0 S , Monk

began spending a month on May Island each summer with his kids in a cottage he rented from a friend. Out of sight next door was a place (“a shambles, actually,” says Monk) whose owner the Marrs spotted only sporadically: a reclusive man, who rowed out from the mainland—often late at night, without lights—and stayed for a few days at a time.

Son Andrew, then in his young teens, loved exploring the island, and one day hit pay dirt. “It was every kid’s dream.

I’m romping through the woods, and all of a sudden, I spot a bottle hanging from a tree.” With a message curled inside, one line of it visible: “If you are interested, open this bottle.” He raced back to their cottage to show it to his dad.

Illustrated with small sketches, the rambling pencilled note was written by the reclusive cottager next door, Donald James Fairbrother. After introducing

With its fantastic view, the north side of the island is the family’s go-to spot for nature hikes, and for watching sunsets, drink in hand.

“I WAS COMPLETELY CHARMED. IT WAS LIKE WALKING INTO ANOTHER TIME”

himself and his by-then-deceased wife, Kitty, it described their dogs; the island’s flora and fauna; and their May Island cabin, where he and Kitty had spent “a carefree honeymoon” in 1952. (“No running water, just a running bucket…and a privy by that big hemlock.”) “I hope your cottage is filled with love and mostly laughter, and that you enjoy it here as much as we did in our time.”

In response, the Marrs put a note in another bottle, inviting Don to visit their cottage, and hung it in the same tree.

It was the start of an ongoing friendship. “Don would come to our house in Toronto from time to time too,” Monk explains. “And after a couple of years, I finally got up the nerve to ask him if he would he keep me in mind if ever wanted to sell the cottage. He lit up like a Christmas tree, overjoyed. He had no children, was in his late 70s, and wanted the cottage to go to a good home.”

Sooner than Monk imagined, the call came—Don was ready to sell. A Port Carling real estate agent they both knew came to the island, gave them an estimate they both were comfortable with, and the deal was done.

Monk knew what he was in for. Before they met Don, “we used to peek in the windows when he wasn’t there.” But by this point, he had been inside the cottage multiple times. (Director’s note: Andrew had an even more in-depth preview of what lay ahead. He had a summer job on the lake, and lived in the cottage for the month before his dad took possession at the end of July 1999, with Don coming and going.) ›› AU G/SEPT 202 1

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“AT THE END OF THE DAY, WE JUST PUT EVERYTHING DOWN. WE PUT ON OUR SUITS AND GO TO THE DOCK”

ACT 2, SCENE 2

A minor complication.

Reality by the elements. No refrigeration. No toilet. No septic system. No outhouse. Some things needed to be changed, and fast. Enter the composting diva, “Violet the BioLet,” who graced the bathroom until, finally, five years ago (Director’s note: cue very loud applause from family members), Monk installed a septic system and hot running water.

He stabilized the porch. (Don never bothered with niceties like covering the screens over the winter; the closing-up checklist he gave to Monk focussed on other concerns, such as “have you got your hooch?” and “have you got Fido?”)

He took Don’s old fridge—the one he’d been using as a cupboard—and hooked it back up to propane. It lasted a few years before being replaced by an equally ancient Frigidaire, which lives on, completely at home next to the original 1950s porcelain sink. “One baby step at a time,” says Monk.

“My dad was always saying, ‘Hey, Andrew, we should have a guys’ weekend,’ ” his son says. “‘Do you want to invite a bunch of your pals up?’ In Dad’s mind, he could grab a case of beer, grill some homemade burgers, and have a bunch of young guys lift things. A lot of work got done that way.” ›› A P O R C H H A L F - D E ST R OY E D

Cue the laughter, above, from left, Gillian, Sheila, her daughter Drew Donaldson, and Gillian’s daughter Aidan share a joke in the main outdoor eating area, on the east side of the cottage. The red wood-burning fireplace in the corner of the deck was a gift from a friend who knew Monk was a relic hunter. Left, Jack shares a moment with his uncle Andrew.

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The Monk Marr Method

A few creative tools from the Putter King’s toolbox

Hung items: Anything. Chairs in the open rafters. The frame of a folding kayak suspended from the porch ceiling. An oversized “Law Office” sign in the kitchen (another curbside find). Instant art.

“If something doesn’t work, you can always take it down.”

Deadfall: The perfect (and free) material when you’re aiming for a rustic look. He’s used downed birch and maple branches to make: • tripod bases for standing lamps • the frame for the blue-and-white-striped sofa-cum-bed on the main porch (“I just winged the design, but so far, so good. It hasn’t fallen apart yet.”)

• his “official” cottage signs, like “Sheila’s Gym ‘n’ Spa” and “The west wind shapes the pine” (p. 61), an homage to a sign that was in the dining hall at the summer camp of Monk’s youth.

Discards: Other people’s trash is a prime source for his treasures, like the childsized picnic table on the dock. “A neighbour was throwing it out; a week later it was on May Island.” Reinforced and newly stained, it’s now a “destination” for the grandkids.

Words: Monk displays them too—preserving, showcasing, and creating cottage history. Shelves: Everywhere. Simple ones he He’s framed and hung Don’s original message in the bottle in the dining room (p. 61). And he recently unearthed a new “note” of Don’s that he’s added to the living-room wall: a discourse on bats, pencilled on a piece of 1x4…in a B-movie mashup of German and English.

makes himself—usually just a board, painted or stained and fit between wall studs—that hold everything from books to bottles.

INTERMISSION:

It’s beer o’ clock (Director’s note: Make it a long intermission. It’s time these people had some cottage fun.)

Nothing gets in the way of docktails, a sacrosanct daily ritual for this crew. “At the end of the day, we just put everything down,” says Sheila, “put on our bathing suits—or seven layers of clothing, depending on the weather—and go to the dock with a drink in our hands.”

“Sometimes we’ll go to the North Shore Bar & Grill,” says Gillian. (Director’s note: What? Commercial development on May Island?) Happily, it’s just her dad at work…this time with words.

The cottage is on the south side of their property; the sunset view and an easyentry swimming spot are over the hill and through the woods on the island’s north side. Leave a few cheap plastic chairs and matching loveseat on the moss-covered rocks, nail a board between two trees to hold drinks, give the spot a name, and a bar is born. They currently carry their cocktails with them from the cottage, although Gillian’s spouse, Mica, has bought Monk a gaspowered margarita mixer—a weed whacker engine with a blender on top— for future on-the-spot use.

D O N ’ T K I D Y O U R S E L F.

ACT 3, SCENE 1

Signs of the future when the kids and grandkids arrive, Monk likes to show them—usually, it’s a total surprise—what he’s done since their last visit. They’ve returned to find a swing in a tree for seven-year-old granddaughter, Aidan, floors painted cardinal red and, this past summer, a completely new window cut into a bathroom wall: a boat porthole, to be precise. (Sheila’s idea.)

“He does all these little things that make a big difference,” says Gillian.

“And once you see them, they’re so blindingly obvious.”

A N O T H E R C O T TA G E R I T U A L :

BACKSTORY #1

A man with a vision Tongue planted firmly in cheek, Monk named his small, rustic cottage with its fourboat fleet (one of them a canoe; another, an old wooden runabout not in working order) the “May Island Yacht Club.”

“He wanted to make really elegant official letterhead,” explains Gillian, “and send letters to real yacht clubs and dignitaries, inviting them to visit.” And then, when their inevitable official regrets arrived, he would frame and hang them. “On the bathroom walls,” her dad says, adding, “I always got a kick out of rejection letters.”

The idea still remains on one of his many to-do lists. “Maybe I’ll resurrect it for our 25th cottage anniversary.”

When Sheila went to her gym one day (Director’s note: a small, open spot in the woods, with only rocks for equipment but a killer lake view), she was surprised to find a long 1x6 hanging over the “entrance,” giving official status to her island version of GoodLife. “Sheila’s Gym ‘n’ Spa,” it proclaimed, the letters pieced together from twigs. It’s Monk’s signature typestyle; call it Birch Branch Bold. Signs are one of his specialties.

Bird feeders are another—not making them, but keeping his extensive array filled. “Feeding the feeders can take hours,” Sheila says. To thwart the local red squirrels, Monk has suspended a couple of feeders between trees, devising

a pulley-and-rope system to allow him to retrieve and restock them easily.

Apparently, the squirrels remain unthwarted. “But the feeders bring traffic,” Monk says. And, importantly, the traffic attracts the grandkids. Even fouryear-old Jack has been turned on to the birds by Grandpa Monk.

Turning the grandkids on to fishing is still a work in progress. Long an avid fisherman, Monk has already equipped them with fishing rods, carrying on the tradition “of what I used to do with Andrew, when he was Jack’s age.” Given his son’s professional fishing guide career, the early training was obviously a huge success. Cont’d on p. 91 AU G/SEPT 202 1

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THE COTTAGE IS FOR EVERY BODY If you’re a person with a disability or you’re entering your golden years, cottages aren’t always the most accessible places. Here’s how you can adapt your space now (or plan for later)

for those of us growing older or who live with a disability, cottages don’t leap to mind.

They’re usually situated on rock or sand, neither lending themselves to stable footing. They feature decks and docks, which means navigating stairs or steep grades. Floors might bear the dips and divets of generations. For indoor visibility, we rely on lamps. Outside at night, we rely on moonlight.

When my 92-year-old father fell four years ago, the hospital asked whether it was safe for him to return home. What they wanted to know, of course, was the likelihood of another fall. His environment was mostly safe, thanks to my mother’s foresight when she and my dad retired to their cottage on Lake Huron. The renovations to turn it into a year-round home included anticipating what they might need to grow old there.

Consequently, they put everything on one level, but there were things that my parents, then in their late 50s, didn’t consider at the time. Things that, once addressed, meant that my father’s beloved cottage could remain his home after his fall.

We don’t often think about ensuring that we can not only access, but enjoy our cottages. “People hesitate until they need it,” says Geoff Fernie, a senior scientist at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute and a Clearwater Lake, Ont., cottager. “We don’t like to think of ourselves as disabled.”

Sometimes it happens quickly, as with my father. For others, like Aubray Boyd and her seven-year-old daughter, Phoebe,

WHEN WE CONSIDER ACCESSIBILITY

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changes are required for an existing disability. Phoebe has been blind since birth, and Aubray has a list of must-haves when she’s browsing rental cottages for her family. She’ll pick a beach with a shallow entry point over a dock, and it’s a deal-breaker if any stairs don’t have risers (“for her cane so that she knows when to step,” explains Aubray) or the owner refuses to let her move furniture for Phoebe’s safety.

Ideally, says Fernie, we should plan in anticipation of a need rather than a response to one. The good news is that making your cottage accessible doesn’t have to mean sacrificing style for function, says Moneca Kaiser, the lead designer at Moneca Kaiser Design Build in Ottawa. Many changes “can be invisible,” she says. “Your cottage doesn’t have to look like a hospital.”

If you’re starting from scratch, build adaptability and flexibility into your design, whether or not you think you’re going to need it. “Typically, a cottage is seeing us through many different stages of a family’s evolution,” says Kaiser. “We want to make sure that it’s able to handle all those stages.” Carla Berezowski, a certified aging-in-place specialist in Calgary, suggests simple accessibility assists such as plugs installed at a minimum 15 inches from the floor and switches at a maximum 48 inches; hallways and doorways wide enough for wheelchairs; and building drawers or pull-outs into cabinetry.

Retrofitting a cottage poses challenges but is doable, says Fernie. It’s a matter of knowing…

ICONS, OLEKSANDR PANASOVSKYI

by Leslie Garrett | illustration Arden Taylor

In the spotlight To avoid fading, choose plug-in LEDs or solar outdoor lights. And always aim light fixtures downwards to minimize light pollution.

J’ADORE DOOR No budget to widen doorways? Installing offset hinges can add up to two extra inches of clearance.

RAMPING IT UP Permanent ramps are subject to local building codes—check in with your municipality.

Do the twist Aim for hardware that you can turn with a closed fist or a loose grip.

...WHERE TO BEGIN

A guiding light Prioritize lighting any tripping hazards— you can buy outdoor lights in packs of 10 and program them with a timer.

At 72, Fernie has given considerable thought not only to what he will need at his place to keep it accessible, but to any cottage with an aging resident or one with a disability.

Start at the most obvious spot. “You have to be able to get into the cottage, preferably through the front door,” he says. If you use a wheelchair, this means an entrance wide enough to accommodate it. If you have steps to a front door, you may need to replace those with a ramp. A 1:12 grade is standard (for every one foot of rise, there’s 12 feet of run, but that can be tough to manoeuvre if you have a manual wheelchair; Fernie recommends 1:20). It seems long, he says, but you can add a turn, and landscape to focus attention away from the ramp. For those who don’t need a wheelchair or a scooter, at the very least, he says, ensure you have a sturdy handrail to navigate any steps.

Once you’re inside the cottage, after a drive from the city to the lake, your first stop will likely be…›› AU G/SEPT 202 1

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Life in LED Swapping out halogen bulbs for LEDs is a quick way to increase visibility.

...A LOO, WITH ROOM TO SPARE Like many cottages, your bathroom might seem like an afterthought. A toilet, sure. Maybe a stall-like shower. Enough room to turn around? Barely—which, if you rely on a mobility device, is a problem. “You’re probably going to have to expand the bathroom,” says Fernie—and you may have to sacrifice a room or put on an addition. “This is your highest priority. Everyone needs to be able to use the bathroom comfortably.”

Berezowski agrees, but assuming you either have or can create enough bathroom space, it’s pretty simple to ensure accessibility. Faucets should have a handle instead of a knob so that you can operate the taps with a closed fist in the case of arthritis or reduced strength.

In fact, she recommends lever-style handles for all faucets throughout the cottage, as well as on doors to make them easier to open.

Like Kaiser, Berezowski says there are safety options that don’t sacrifice style. “The grab bars that are available now are beautiful,” she says. Fernie is another devotee of grab bars, particularly if your shower requires you to step in and out. A shower stall—without a lip or curb—that slopes gently away so that water drains can be a safer option. And skip a tub altogether, he says.

If your cottage is summer-use only, Kaiser suggests an outdoor shower up against the cottage that’s fully accessible for a wheelchair. If space is available, you can construct a bathroom addition or even, says Kaiser, a self-contained accessible outbuilding.

Wendela Roberts, who, due to scoliosis and subsequent surgeries, relies on a cane and a scooter for longer distances, installed a “comfort height” toilet at her family cottage on Gull Lake, Ont. It’s a few inches higher than the typical 17-inch toilet, making it more comfortable to sit down and stand up. Wendela counts herself lucky that her cottage setup is ideal for mobility challenges because everything is…

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...ON ONE FLOOR Stairs are the enemy of accessibility. If you don’t have your bedroom on the main floor, figure out what room can be transformed into one, says Fernie.

If that’s impossible, consider elevators or lifts. They have become more affordable thanks to more suppliers and more demand; about $25,000 now compared to twice that in the past, a figure Berezowski calls “a pretty good deal if you’re looking at the rest of your life.”

Aubray Boyd doesn’t eschew stairs (though “there better be banisters!” she says). “The first thing we do when we walk into a rental is clear paths and create as much open space as possible.” And though she’s a firm believer in allowing Phoebe to adapt to the space rather than the other way around (“it’s really important to me that everything’s reflective of the real world,” she says), she does prefer tables with rounded edges and furniture that is against walls rather than “floating.”

With any visual impairment, Fernie suggests eliminating low furniture; it’s a tripping hazard. Purge any decor that isn’t absolutely necessary. And one more thing that’s crucial, both indoors and out, is…

ON THE HEIGHT SIDE Getting a hold These days, grab bars can also double as toilet paper holders or towel racks.

Installing a “comfort height” toilet makes it easier to stand up and sit down, a bonus for those with mobility issues and tall folks alike.

BE PREP-AIRED (GROAN…) An invisible part of an accessible cottage is air quality, particularly if you have asthma, COPD, or another respiratory issue. “As you age, your lungs deteriorate in capacity or sensitivity,” says Carla Berezowski. As much as we love a fresh breeze off the lake, you may need to keep windows closed when pollen is bad, or when there are fires, whether those are campfires or wildfires. Humidity levels play a big role in air quality, so consider a dehumidifier if your cottage is damp. If mold is an issue, call in the experts—it’s not a DIY task, says Berezowski.

LET IT FLOW Consider a vanity that’s open underneath so that a person with a wheelchair can approach to wash their hands.

GET A GRIP A mop-on anti-slip treatment is a good add for slippery tiles and floors— the wetter the surface, the more effective the slip-resistance.

...LIGHTING YOUR WAY Fernie loves dark nights at the lake that showcase a star-filled sky—nonetheless, while we want to minimize light pollution, Berezowski cautions that “by the time you’re 60, you need 50 per cent more light to see the same as when you were 30.” In other words, we need better lighting, both indoors and out —striking a balance, though, says Wendela, between safety and looking like Vegas. Indoors, Berezowski says, it’s as simple as increasing the wattage and adding dimmer switches so that you can control the brightness. Use LEDs, she says, because they offer power savings. Fernie also recommends LEDs both indoors and out. And get outdoor lights that turn off and on as needed, he says, such as a motion sensor light over your front door.

While additional lighting makes navigating around the place safer, some cottages still have another problem, which is...››

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Slip ‘n’ slide Make sure to clean up spills and keep floors free of obstacles in high-traffic areas to prevent slips and falls.

Handling the heat Smooth surface cooktops allow you to slide pots and pans on and off the elements instead of lifting them.

...FLOORING My family’s cottage is almost entirely carpet, thanks to my mother’s desire to hide the sand that we consistently brought inside. Hard surfaces are best for mobility devices with wheels, but wall-to-wall carpet is relatively safe, say the experts. Look for “very low profile, like the kind you’d find in a commercial building that doesn’t skid,” says Kaiser. And be alert to any buckling, which can cause tripping or interrupt smooth use of a walker, a scooter, or a wheelchair.

It was the uncarpeted kitchen, however, where my father fell, and though he doesn’t remember much, all it takes is a spilled glass of water to turn that vinyl floor into an ice rink. Fortunately, says Berezowski, there’s lots of flooring on the market that’s slipresistant. She particularly likes an invisible, water-based product called No Skidding, which can be added to floor tiles or shower and tub bottoms to create suction and make surfaces less slippery. Because, along with your bathroom and bedroom, it’s impossible to avoid the…

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EVEN PLAYING FIELD Build a boardwalk over or around rocks and roots to make a tricky pathway easier to navigate.

...KITCHEN, THE HEART OF THE COTTAGE Because a cottage kitchen is often the site of late-night snacks and rainy day board games, it’s worth the effort to ensure its accessibility. Drawers are better than cabinets, says Berezowski, so you can simply pull them out to access what’s inside. If you’re dealing with existing cabinetry, put your most-used items in a drawer so you aren’t having to reach into less accessible cupboards. And a simple hardware swap to a D-shaped handle can make them easier to open.

Use a contrasting colour for hardware, she says, so that it’s more visible. Similarly, a different countertop colour can provide a visual distinction because, as she reminds us, “our vision deteriorates as we age.”

Kaiser recommends adding an induction hot plate on top of a table so that, if you use a wheelchair or need to sit, you can safely cook. “Prep at the table,” she says, “and then cook at the induction hot plate.” A dishwasher is usually still easily accessible, making dish washing in a sink unnecessary. Or, perhaps, it’s someone else’s job while you...

...GET DOWN TO THE DOCK Given how much of her family’s cottage life took place on the dock, Wendela and her husband, Cottage Life founder Al Zikovitz, considered selling their Gull Lake cottage—with its stairs on a steep hill between the building and the lake—and purchasing somewhere with less treacherous terrain. But when a summer of searching turned up nothing as appealing as what they already had, they decided instead to install an outdoor lift. Not only has Wendela been able to enjoy the dock, “the rest of the family loves being able to hike cases of beer up and down.” The lift has served the family for roughly two decades. Wendela considers it “a godsend.” It’s maintained annually, a precaution that runs them about $1,000 a year. Once down at the dock, Wendela gets in and out of the water via a sloped removable wooden ladder (it was featured as a project in the July/Aug ’98 issue). Stairs from the dock into the water are another possibility, though you need to ensure they don’t get slippery. Roberts has abandoned any plans to get into a canoe or a tinny. Instead, her family shares a pontoon boat with a cottage neighbour, so it’s walk on, walk off, which means that being on the water is a pleasure that she hasn’t had to give up.

While each cottage will require specific modifications, keeping the outdoors accessible should be a priority, says Kaiser, who offers up some general rules. Install guard rails wherever possible, she says, and ensure there are lots of places to sit and rest. Seating can be incorporated into landscaping; for example, terraced garden beds. If you’re building steps outdoors, make them low-rise. “Six-inches high instead of eight or nine,” she says. If your family loves to gather around an outdoor fire, similar rules apply. Situate it so that it isn’t a tripping hazard and ensure easy-to-access seating.

STEP AND REPEAT You can buy self-adhesive anti-slip tape for outdoor stairs at most major retailers.

FINALLY…

A QUICK DIP Make swim stairs retractable (like the invention in Workshop, Early Summer ’18) to protect them from algae, ice damage, and zebra mussels.

While our experts encourage cottagers to plan what they can to ensure the enjoyment of their lakeside retreat as they age or in the case of a disability, Fernie insists that we not sweat the small stuff. Deal with the big issues—getting inside, putting everything on one floor, adding lights and no-slip flooring, landscaping so that you can still access your deck and dock.

Four years after my father’s fall, he continues to live at the cottage where he recently celebrated his 92nd birthday. His wish (the one he tells us all the time)? To keep enjoying the cottage for the rest of his life.a Leslie Garrett is a frequent contributor to Cottage Life.

She also plans to grow old at her family’s Lake Huron cottage.

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COLD COMFORT These four fun ice pops bring back summers past.

And with a few boozy options in the mix—it’s not all kid’s stuff R E C I P E S BY E V E LY N C H I C K PHOTOGR APHY DANIEL EHRENWORTH

Who doesn’t love tri-colour rocket pops?

Try this homemade version with flavours of vanilla, blueberry, and raspberry. They are non-alcoholic, so the whole family can enjoy. Makes about 12 small pops WHITE/BASE L AYER:

½ cup ½ cup 2 cups 1 tsp

lemon juice sugar cold water vanilla extract

RE D L AY ER : 1

⁄3 cup fresh raspberries, washed A few drops red food colouring BLUE L AYER:

1¾ cups blueberry juice ¼ cup lemon juice 1 tbsp honey A few drops blue food colouring (royal blue is best)

TRICOLOUR DELIGHT

1 For white layer: in blender, mix all ingredients on medium until combined and sugar is dissolved. Pour half the mixture into another container and chill in fridge until ready to use.

2 For red layer: blend raspberries with other half of the white mixture and red food colouring. Pour through sieve or strainer to remove any seeds. Chill mixture until needed. Rinse out blender.

3 For blue layer: blend blueberry juice, lemon juice, honey, and blue food colouring. Chill mixture until needed.

4 To assemble: fill moulds one-third of the way with red layer and freeze for at least 60 minutes, or until solid. Repeat with white layer. For the final layer, add blue mixture and add sticks (see ”This is a stick up,” below). Freeze until completely frozen, a few hours to overnight. ››

This is a stick up Open-top moulds, such as silicone ones paired with wooden sticks, give you more freedom to play with layers. To keep your sticks upright, once your layers are about ½ way up, let your next layer freeze for about 20 minutes to set slightly, then insert your stick and keep freezing. (3- to 4-oz moulds work well.)

Closed-top moulds have sticks with a drip catcher attached, which saves you from worrying about keeping your stick upright. Just make sure your last layer is at least as tall as your stick.

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ORANGE COCO LOVE These ice pops have orange and coconut flavours with the added complexity of a kick of ginger—and, bonus, they’re vegan.

Makes about 12 small pops O R A N GE L AY E R :

1 cup 1 cup 1 tbsp

orange juice vanilla coconut yogurt agave syrup or honey

COCO NUT L AYE R:

1 1 tsp 3 tbsp

398 ml-can coconut milk finely grated fresh ginger agave syrup or honey

1 For orange layer: in blender, mix all ingredients until smooth. Move to another container and chill mixture until ready to use.

2 For coconut layer: blend all ingredients on low blender setting until smooth, about 30 seconds.

3 To assemble: pour the orange layer into your moulds, filled about half to three-quarters of the way up. (See ”This is a stick up,” p. 77.) Freeze for about 20 minutes, then insert stick and freeze for another 1½ hours, until solid. Pour the coconut mixture over your first layer and freeze until completely frozen, a few hours to overnight.

Evelyn Chick is a certified beverage expert, bringing world class cocktail experiences to at-home drink enthusiasts one adventurous sip at a time.

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CUCUMBER & TEQUILA MARG These cucumber margarita treats taste as bright as they look, thanks to the fresh and citrusy combo of cucumber and lime.

Makes about 12 small pops 1 cup ¼ cup 3 tbsp 3½ tbsp 1 pinch

cucumber juice (See Tip, below) lime juice agave syrup or honey blanco tequila chili powder (optional) Zest of 1 lime (finely grated)

1 In a medium bowl, whisk liquid ingredients until thoroughly mixed. Whisk in chili (if using) and lime zest.

2 Pour mixture evenly into your moulds and freeze for 1 hour.

3 After the hour, give each one a light stir, if you like, to keep the lime zest from falling to the bottom. Put in sticks, and freeze until solid, 6 hours or overnight.

TIP A mixture of cucumber and apple juice works too. If you can’t find cucumber juice, you can make your own by using a juice extractor (press two full cucumbers through and reserve the juice), or put two cucumbers through the blender and squeeze the liquid through a few layers of cheesecloth.

SALTED GRAPEFRUIT Grapefruit and salted honey gives this treat a fresh tart and floral taste—great with or without the addition of spirits. Makes about 12 small pops 1 cup ¼ cup 3 tbsp ¼ tsp 8 ¼ cup

grapefruit juice lemon juice honey sea salt (or 1⁄8 tsp table salt) grapefruit half-wheels, peel removed and thinly sliced gin (optional)

1 In a large bowl, combine the liquid ingredients (including gin, if using) and whisk until smooth.

Whisk in sea salt. Chill mixture in fridge.

2 Lay the moulds on their side. Brush one side of each half-wheel with honey and place gently on inside of mould. Freeze horizontally until grapefruit is stuck in place, about an hour.

3 Pour the grapefruit mixture into your moulds, put in sticks, and freeze for 6 hours or overnight. l AU G/SEPT 202 1

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They were just dealt a bad hand. They aren’t conventionally good-looking.

They’re the least anthropomorphic of all reptiles and amphibians— they have no legs. And when have you seen a good snake in fiction?

Even the jolly cartoons in Snakes & Ladders are to be avoided. They make you lose the game. Our fear, hatred, and revulsion sure hasn’t helped; snakes have had such a bad rap for such a long time that even today, human persecution is still a threat to their survival. Consequently, at least in part, about half of the snakes in Ontario alone— and plenty of others across North America—are considered endangered, threatened, or at risk. The Massasauga rattlesnake is gone from most of its historical range.

Blue racers are now confined only to Pelee Island. And we’ve lost the timber rattlesnake entirely—its only crime was existing in the world. (Human “hunting parties” in the 19th century searched for dens and killed every snake inside.)

But now we know better, so we can do better. “I firmly believe that education can help people to better understand snakes,” says Donnell Gasbarrini, the coordinator of the Adopt-a-Pond program at the Toronto Zoo. “It’s a difficult task.

It can be very hard for individuals to let go of their fears. But it’s necessary if snakes and humans are to share the landscape in the long term.”

We’re up for the challenge.

Are you? Start by arming yourself with more snake knowledge using this ID guide to some of our most unfairly maligned slithery friends.

Do you find snakes terrifying? Getting to know some of our scariest species will make you feel better. It worked for us by Jackie Davis

Leggo my eggo Not all snakes lay eggs.

Some give birth to live babies.

Look for the snakelet or egg symbol in this ID guide.

Snakelet Created by Sergey Demushkin from the Noun Project

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Egg

THIS PAGE: BRIAN MAGNIER. OPPOSITE: TOP, PAUL TESSIER; MIDDLE, BOB HILSCHER; BOTTOM, RLS PHOTO

SNAKES ARE NOT BAD.

1

Eastern foxsnake Foxsnakes are one of Ontario’s longest snakes—picture a line of 12 hot dog buns—and grow as thick as a vacuum cleaner hose.

Scary, maybe, but their puny, non-venomous bite can’t do much.

Foxsnakes are constrictors; instead of venom, they wrap around their rodent prey and suffocate them. Foxsnakes don’t suffocate humans! Or probably even foxes. They likely got their name because it was Reverend Charles Fox who collected the first specimen in 1853. Like some other non-venomous snakes, foxsnakes mimic rattlesnakes when threatened, shaking their tails in leaf litter to fake a rattle’s buzz. Nice try, snake. We see you.

2

Eastern milksnake

Created by Sergey Demushkin from the Noun Project

The milksnake has the misfortune of being easily mistaken for the venomous Massasauga rattlesnake. On top of that, early farmers slapped the snakes with another unfair label. Since they often found milksnakes in cattle barns, they believed the serpents were sucking the cow’s milk from their udders. Gross, and not true.

Obviously. The real story? The snakes were probably attracted to the mice in the barns, and were helpfully keeping the rodent population down. You’re welcome, farmers.

Snakes by the numbers

30 %

350 lbs

3,789

1

Amount of snake species that birth live babies

Weight of a record-setting huge python (her name is Medusa)

Number of snake species in the world

Number of snake muppets on Sesame Street

Created by Sergey Demushkin from the Noun Project

Northern watersnake Okay, yes. A watersnake bite could hurt. They have up to 40, very sharp teeth, necessary to hold on to slippery prey. Which is frogs, toads, and fish—not your leg. Watersnakes tend to be curious, like a long, legless chipmunk, and might approach swimmers—“Hey, what’s that up ahead?” But they rarely bite unless cornered. Sadly, watersnakes in the U.S. are sometimes mistaken for the native, venomous water moccasin (cottonmouth), and killed.

3

Massasauga rattlesnake Ontario’s only venomous snake now lives mostly along the eastern side of Georgian Bay and on the Bruce Peninsula. Massasaugas are stoutbodied, with triangular heads and tails that end in true rattles. Another ID tip? Massasaugas have vertical, cat-like pupils. Ontario’s other snakes have round pupils. Rattlesnakes don’t always deploy the rattle. That’s not to trick you, it’s because they’re trying to remain motionless, relying on camouflage to make you—a potential predator—lose interest and go away. Since these snakes are so shy and secretive, it’s difficult for biologists to even estimate their current (low) numbers.

5

Gray ratsnake Another big, harmless, endangered species. Ratsnakes tend to return to the same hibernation and nesting sites year after year; losing these sites—from human destruction because of development—has had a serious impact. They’re also slow to mature and reproduce. Even though adult ratsnakes don’t have an obviously blotched or patterned appearance like some rattlesnake mimics, the fact that they’re excellent tree climbers works against them. Seeing a two-metre-long snake draped across a tree branch is unnerving. But they’re up there to get at birds’ eggs, not to ambush you.

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Did we evolve to fear snakes? Maybe.

“There is some evidence that supports the evolutionary theory that we are biologically predisposed to fear stimuli that may be associated with danger, and this helps ensure our survival,” says Randi McCabe, a psychologist and the co-author of Overcoming Animal and Insect Phobias. “However, some evidence does not support it.”

Okay. But whether or not we are hardwired to be afraid of snakes— whether or not that fear was once useful—it isn’t useful now. Not for us, not for the snakes.

If you’re afraid of snakes, don’t avoid snakes, says McCabe. Instead, expose yourself to situations that make you uncomfortable: looking at photos of snakes; touching a rubber snake; putting yourself in places where you can encounter a snake. Examine your anxious thoughts: what’s the evidence that supports those thoughts?

What’s the evidence that contradicts them? “Work gradually on becoming less fearful,” says McCabe.

Keep in mind that a fear of snakes isn’t the same as a phobia. “For a snake fear to be considered a phobia, the fear must be excessive and triggered invariably by any cues related to snakes,” says McCabe. The fear is out of proportion to actual possible danger, and it’s persistent over time— it lasts longer than six months. A true specific phobia “causes significant distress and impairment.” It’s one thing to not want to pick up someone’s pet snake; it’s another thing to be so afraid of snakes that you can’t enjoy time outdoors. Or go to the cottage.

“If a fear is interfering with a person’s life, it’s worth them seeking assessment and treatment,” says McCabe. “Specific phobias are highly treatable.”

T H IS PAGE : TOP, JA M E S DE B O E R ; B OT TOM , FR O DE JACO BS E N. OPPOSITE: TO P, RYAN M. BOLTON; BOTTOM, HARRIS MOTION PHOTO

4

Facing the fears

Eastern hognose snake

6

Hognose snakes—both Eastern and Western—might be the biggest fakers of the reptile world. When threatened, they raise their heads and flatten out the skin of their necks, cobra-style. They’ll also hiss, and lunge (but not bite). Sometimes, as a last resort, they’ll roll over and play dead, complete with an open mouth and a hanging tongue, a little like a stick drawing with Xs for eyes. Hognose snakes do produce venom, but it’s so mild that it could only incapacitate small prey—mostly toads and frogs. These piggy-faced snakes are easy enough to ID if you see their heads: they have upturned snouts.

Is it really a rattler?

7

The likelihood of you seeing a rattlesnake IRL is incredibly low. Still, here’s how to tell if you've spotted one.

Does it have vertical pupils? ●

●

●

●

Yes

No

Yes

No

Does it have a distinct, segmented rattle?

Prairie rattlesnake

Experts only recently realized that Saskatchewan and Alberta’s prairie rattlesnake is a genetically different species than B.C.’s interior Pacific rattlesnake—both look and behave very similarly.

Like other pit vipers, prairie rattlesnakes have heat-sensing “pits” in their faces, vertical pupils, and a tail rattle. And like other rattlesnakes, they prefer to hide from people, and only bite as a last resort. A snake secret? They don’t want to get their faces anywhere near you. Ever. A striking snake is putting itself in danger; it can accidentally fatally injure its head or mouth. And venomous snakes? They need to conserve venom—they require it to capture prey and eat. This is why defensive rattlesnake bites, when the snakes attempt them at all, can be “dry.”a

Does it have a thick, squarish tail?

●

●

●

●

Yes

No

Yes

No

Are its blotches saddle-shaped?

Created by Sergey Demushkin from the Noun Project

Is it lying coiled up?

Are you even in rattlesnake habitat?

●

●

●

●

Yes

No

Yes

No

If you answered “No” to most of these questions, it’s probably not a rattlesnake. If you answered “Yes,” be cool. There is no reason to panic. Instead: 1 Don’t touch, pick up, or harass the snake. If it’s a Massasauga rattlesnake, that’s illegal. It’s also mean.

2 Listen for the “bzzzzz” sound of the rattle. If a snake is rattling, it wants you to get away from it.

3 If you have a dog, keep it on a leash. Dogs can’t read snake warning signs; you need to protect them.

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A snake in the grass

✺

Some of our cottage fears are easy to see.

Others sneak up on you

by Sasha Chapman illustration Mariel Rutherford

JUNE 2020

✺

The boat’s motor starts right away, but my heart is revving faster than the engine.

For the first time in my life, I’m in the driver’s seat of a boat. Proof of my new pleasure craft licence is printed and folded and carefully stowed in the Princecraft’s glove compartment. A recurring question on the tests concerned maximum load and carrying capacity. I am quite sure we have exceeded ours. I can barely see over the bow, which is piled with furniture and groceries and cleaning supplies.

What I remember most from that boat trip, from the day we took possession of our little log cabin on Georgian Bay, on the edge of the world’s largest freshwater archipelago: my heart banging at my ribs so hard I can barely breathe and a burning sensation in my right hand as I grip the gear shift. The bow tipped up, and the stern dragged down.

My eldest daughter, Emma, next to me, trying to calm me. My husband, Anton, and our younger daughter, Rowan, paddling next to us in the yellow Kipawa canoe that my father gave me for my 21st birthday, more than two decades ago. Anton and Rowan arrive at our new dock at the same time we do, I am driving that slowly. This fear—the force of it, the sheer physicality of it—takes me by surprise.

I have spent my life in boats. Scuba diving off protected reefs and further out on the high seas where poachers gunned across international waters. Gunwale bobbing on Lake Simcoe, at my childhood cottage; canoeing northern lakes and rivers. Anton and I once wrapped a canoe around a rock in fast water, hundreds of kilometres from any human settlement in the Northwest Territories. We spent five hours and all of our energy pulling the canoe off the rock with a system of carabiners and ropes.

And yet. In all those adventures, I never took the stern. I did not know how to paddle a J-stroke, the stroke used to steer a canoe and keep it following a straight line.

This was odd because my father, Francis, with whom I was particularly close, was an expert paddler. He could bring a canoe to shore in any weather, silently and precisely. He helped map the official portage routes for Killarney Provincial Park, where he knew all the old logging trails. Canoes often turned up in the documentary films that my father and his twin brother made about Ontario and the North. ››

I T U R N T H E K E Y.

MAY 2020

✺

on the bay are still shuttered. The dock in front of the log cabin that we are hoping to buy is floating, disconnected from the shore to protect it from winter’s crushing ice.

Dennis, our real estate agent, pilots the barge to the dock where Karl, the cabin’s owner, is waiting to greet us. We throw him a line, but the boat drifts away and pulls Karl with it. Now he is hanging off the side of the barge, feet dangling. His rubber boots fill with water before we can hoist him up.

“Never hold on, that’s the first rule of boats,” says Dennis. “It’s important to know when to let go.”

After the inspection, he hands me a stack of purchase papers. “Sign them when you are ready.”

Dennis’s wife is waiting for us at the marina. She has been in town, stockpiling groceries for their island home. We are in the midst of the first COVID-19 lockdown, and everyone is striving to be an island now.

We exchange a few words from a careful distance, wearing masks.

“Rubber boots,” she says, as they walk away. “Get your kids rubber boots. You can’t be too careful with rattlesnakes.”

M O S T O F T H E C O T TA G E S

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APRIL 2020

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into the first coronavirus lockdown. No March Break travelling, no Passover gathering, no Easter egg hunting. It is dark and cold, and there is nowhere to go. It seems strange, dangerous even, to be anywhere but home. And anyway, it is the middle of the night.

The fluorescent lights sting my eyes as I step through the unlocked door. I have been standing outside the veterinary emergency entrance for what seems like hours, watching bleary-eyed staff come and go, arriving by bicycle, taking smoke breaks, picking up lonely paper bags—Uber Eats— sitting on the pavement. I am wearing a mask; a woman asks me to put on a face shield and blue gloves too. Everyone would rather I was not here, but they understand why I have come inside.

I kneel down on the cold, hard floor next to our dog, Muddy.

The staff have wrapped him in blankets.

Oxygen blows at his snout, but his breathing is laboured. He has a mysterious respiratory illness that will not respond to antibiotics.

I pat the top of his head, the softest, smoothest patch of black fur. It still feels puppy-ish though he is in his middle age like me. Also puppy-ish: the way his muscles have relaxed because of the hydromorphine. As if he is slowly turning into a puddle on the floor, softening at the edges. The veterinarian primes the syringe. There will be two injections: one to block all feeling, another to stop his heart. I whisper and cluck and cradle him.

All this touch, all these sounds saying one thing: I am with you, here. You are not alone.

I have birthed two children and watched them awaken to the world, but I have never held a body as awareness left it.

I walk out of the clinic and toss the gloves and face shield into a garbage can. I am glad I insisted on being there. For Muddy’s sake and my own. For nearly 50 years I’ve been holding on, afraid to let go.

W E A R E O N LY W E E K S

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JULY 2020

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the exercise path and the nature path. The first one climbs steeply across open rock.

The second meanders through a forest of pine and hemlock and cedar and oak and poplar and maple and birch.

I am walking down the nature path, inhaling the heart-opening scent of pine, listening to the west wind sough through the needled branches, when my body stops. I spin around and start walking the other way before my mind can process what the rest of me already knows: there is a large snake curled in the middle of the path, shaking its keratin rattle. I nearly crash into Anton, who is walking behind me. “Rattlesnake,” I squawk. Anton looks at me in disbelief.

“Well, we did buy a cottage on the edge of Massasauga Provincial Park,” I say, my heart still drumming. “I think we’re going to have to learn how to live with them.” Massasauga means “mouth of the river” in Ojibwe; it’s also the name for Ontario’s only venomous snake. Early in his career, Anton worked in the emergency room in Parry Sound; he remembers the summer they ran out of antivenin.

There is perhaps no human fear more common or visceral than the fear of snakes. For years, scientists have debated whether or not it is innate.

In 1992, a behavioural ecologist named Lynne Isbell was running through a glade in Kenya. She stopped in front of a cobra before she could process why she had stopped. Isbell spent the next two decades trying to understand what had happened. She hypothesized that evolution has favoured primates with good vision to detect snakes; those living with poisonous snakes tend to have better vision. Lemurs in Madagascar, on the other hand, have terrible eyesight: there are no poisonous snakes on the island.

Neuroscientists in Japan and Brazil found brain-based evidence to support Isbell’s theory by studying the pulvinar, a cluster of neurons that may help us recognize potential threats and direct our attention.

Macaques that had never encountered snakes responded quickly and frequently to images of snakes—more quickly, even, than when they looked at faces. They seemed hardwired to detect them.

T H E R E A R E T W O P AT H S U P T O T H E N E W C A B I N :

Fear, it seems, helps us see things.

Quickly, clearly.

And yet. Only two deaths by rattlesnake have been recorded in the history of Ontario.

Massasaugas have far more reason to fear people: settlers killed thousands as they moved into their habitat and latticed the province with wider and busier roads.

Persecution has been widespread. Even the staff at nearby Killbear Provincial Park routinely killed the snakes when the park first opened in the 1960s; there were so many of them. The habitat is ideal. Killbear snakes can find good hibernation and gestation sites within a few hundred metres, a tenth of the distance they might have to travel elsewhere.

In the 1970s, staff stopped killing snakes: conservation-minded scientists argued that the park should be protecting all species, not just the cutest and the fuzziest. Instead of taking a shovel to snake heads, park employees would now move rattlesnakes away from campsites. Only later did biologists realize that this strategy was nearly as fatal.

Rattlesnakes, like most snakes, have a strong fidelity to the first hibernation spot they choose. Once they’ve chosen a site and survived the first winter, they will return to the same spot for the winters following. If you move them too far, they keep looking for their old place. They will freeze to death instead of finding a new place to settle in.

In the first half of my life, there were two things I feared most: losing my father and losing Romany Wood, my family’s summer property. Really they amounted to the same thing. I could not imagine who I was without my father, my family history, and the storied place I’d grown up in. One hundred years ago, my architect grandfather designed and built three cottages on the south shore of Lake Simcoe. The cottages looked like something out of a Tudor fairy tale: half-timbered and stuccoed white with lead-paned windows. Each had its own name. The tidiest and smallest was called The Bears after the Goldilocks tale; the grandest, with a moth-eaten tapestry, moose antlers in the great hall, and a large bell at the peak of its roof, was called Pendragon after the castle built by King Arthur’s father. Outside, a massive oak tree grew up from an acorn my grandmother had planted.

When you come to really know a place, you see time moving through it in subtle changes of growth and decay. There I had watched moss and ferns colonize old tree stumps over decades and meadows grow into forest. I knew where to find the remains of the old sugar shack hidden among the maples, which trees had housed honeybees before they swarmed or died off, and which diseased apple trees still yielded sweet fruit.

My father felt this deep connection to the land as well. He said he didn’t need a flashlight to walk the winding paths through the dark woods at night. His feet knew the way.

Growing up, I imagined that we’d lived on the shores of Lake Simcoe forever. There were six generations of Chapmans planted at a neighbouring church that overlooked the lake. But the tree roots challenged my fantasies of permanence: they pushed up the oldest Chapman gravestones and made them list to one side.

My fear of losing our place on Lake Simcoe sharpened when my father was forced to sell our home in the city, where four generations of family had lived. Trying to hold onto it nearly bankrupted him. Even at 13, I knew he regarded letting go as a failure, and I internalized this feeling. ››

✺✺✺ My father was older and had a full life as a filmmaker before settling down to have a family at 44. There were stories of him exploring the north shore of Superior, of crash landings in the Arctic. He and his twin, Christopher, had sailed on the Bluenose II’s maiden voyage, documenting a search for lost treasure on Cocos Island off Costa Rica. In the 1950s, he’d driven from England to the Congo Basin with an anthropologist to record the lives of Ituri Forest people. He recalled walking through the dark jungle and suddenly finding a small hand in his, guiding him through the night.

The last vestige of that adventurous life—before marriage, before children—were the canoe trips he ventured on each spring and fall that he continued to take into his 70s.

The older I got, the stranger it seemed that he had never taught me to paddle, nor taken me with him on a camping trip. Something in my father must have thought it was strange too. Out of the blue, he gave me a canoe for my 21st birthday.

The J-stroke is not so difficult to master: you pull your paddle towards you and then turn the blade outward to “correct” the stroke— to prevent the nose of your boat veering to one side. I could have easily asked a friend to teach me or tried to learn it myself. But I was too embarrassed to admit that I needed instruction. I was also afraid— afraid to move forward, afraid to take the helm.

In my 20s, I invited myself on an early spring canoe trip with my father and his 60-something cronies. I came home with stories about how the wind shifted and drove the ice against our campsite’s shore. How we paddled anyway, through ice that looked uniform and thick but broke magically into hexagon candles that bobbed out of the way when we pulled our blades through them.

But I did not like to admit that this man I idolized, this expert canoeist and wildlife documentary filmmaker, had not taught me how to stern. ✺✺✺ In 2017, the Chapman family sold a third of Romany Wood. My father fell that same night. He hit the corner of a bookshelf on his way down. It punctured his lung and he developed pneumonia. He very nearly died.

“Do you know why you’re in the hospital?” a nurse asked in the loud, nasal voice people reserve for foreigners and old people deemed unable to understand them.

“I had a fight with a piece of furniture,” he replied dryly, even when he was in the midst of his most terrifying hallucinations.

“And the furniture won.”

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My father had developed Parkinson’s.

The doctors said it was why he lost his balance. People with Parkinson’s lose their proprioception—the ability to sense the place they are in, where their body is located in space. The neurological disease progressed more quickly after he fell and kept him in the hospital for nearly three years. At first, he suffered terrible hallucinations. He imagined himself on a narrow ledge, about to fall. He was sure that the curtains at the end of the hospital bed were the floor—as if his bed had been set vertical and was about to pitch him forward.

He had lost his sense of place in the world. It did not seem coincidental that he had lost it so completely on the closing night of the sale. ✺✺✺ My father held on. Two years after his fall he was still lying in hospital, now unable to regulate his blood pressure. He would faint if he sat up or tried to stand. The rest of Romany Wood was sold. I told myself I was finally ready to let it go. There were too many memories, too much history weighing me down.

Then COVID hit. My father’s hospital was locked down. No visitors would be allowed for the foreseeable future. Now I was losing my father too.

My fears shifted and became more concrete. I was not so much afraid of my father dying now. Instead, I was afraid I would not be with him.

When he first arrived in hospital, in the days when he was constantly lost in fear and hallucination, I’d held his hands for hours.

We were on the narrow ledge together, I’d say, squeezing his stiff, taloned hands. Now we are stepping down to safety. When he stared in terror at the curtains hanging at the end of his bed, imagining them to be the floor, I’d ask him to feel the cool sheets at his back and the railings on either side.

It felt good to be able to do this, to allay his fears. I began to realize I had always wanted to protect him. If not from death itself, then from the many fears that are the dress rehearsal for it.

AUGUST 2020

to all visitors but one: an essential caregiver, who, in this instance, is my mother. So we do video calls twice a week instead. I walk him through the forest at our little cabin, pointing out the different trees. “Are there birches?” he’d ask, thinking wistfully of spring canoe trips, before the trees leafed out, when the branches had a soft purple hue. “Yes,” I’d say, walking over to a little stand to show him. Together, we looked at the wildflowers that seemed to grow everywhere, and examined a baby snake in the garden.

I told him we’d named the first rattlesnake we saw Herbert, to make it seem less scary. Since then, we’d heard snakes buzzing under our deck and found another one curled up by the bunkie. We were getting used to the idea of living with them. After all, this place had been their home first. We were the trespassers.

My father and I often talked about how everything was interconnected, a subject that fascinated him, and one that took on a more personal meaning as he moved closer to his own end. As his body got weaker, he said, he felt like he was opening to the universe. It was harder and harder to imagine the boundaries between him and the rest of the world. He felt they were dissolving, and he was being absorbed back into the system he had always been a part of.

Before the pandemic, we had a long conversation about ecology, which translates literally from the Greek as the study of home. “The problem with thinking about the environment as something separate from us,” said my father slowly, his blue eyes now half-hooded, “is in trying to determine what surrounds what. It’s a problem of where you draw the boundaries.”

This observation kept repeating in my head after COVID hit.

We were all trying desperately to draw boundaries around ourselves and around others to keep each other safe. I thought of it, too, each time I encountered a rattlesnake. If you’re going to live next to nature, you’ve got to take the whole thing, a biologist once told me. Nature can be scary and dangerous, but it’s beautiful too.

“You have a responsibility to be a steward to all the creatures that live there,” says Jonathon Choquette, a biologist who leads a rattlesnake recovery program for Wildlife Preservation Canada. Building fences is useful sometimes—to protect the snakes from the dangers of crossing roads and from the people who feared them turning up in their suburban gardens—but fences can only do so much. Too many can lead to fragmentation of habitat, turning smaller and smaller snake populations into islands of genetic homogeneity. There’s something in nature, as Robert Frost remarked, “that doesn’t love a wall, that wants it down.”

In Killbear, staff had solved this problem by building ecopassages— openings in the snake-fencing—that tunnel under the road and let light and warmth in, facilitating safer snake crossings from one marooned habitat to another. ››

M Y F AT H E R ’ S U N I T I S S T I L L C L O S E D

✺✺✺ When Anton and I decided to buy the little cabin on Georgian Bay, I thought I would be ecstatic. Here was a sweet, tidy, well-kept log cabin in the landscape I loved best in the world: a landscape shaped by ice and west wind, where the pine trees grew in strange and beautiful ways in response to the harsh conditions of their environment. My father also loved the Shield. Although he had held onto Romany Wood with a quiet fierceness and tenacity that seemed out of keeping with his ungrasping nature, he often expressed a wish to have a little cabin somewhere wilder. A cottage, he said, should only be a launching pad for exploring the world. Nothing more.

Instead of celebrating, I burst into tears: I knew how much my father would have loved the place. As closing day loomed, I found myself in an almost constant state of panic. I had a vivid feeling that I was being strangled. I began pulling at my crew neck T-shirts constantly. Eventually I switched to wearing buttoned shirts. I could not stand to have anything near my neck.

✺

SEPTEMBER 2020

✺

A few days before my father contracted pneumonia again, I went to visit Killbear. I wanted to see how a small town—4,000 visitors are typical on a summer day—manages to co-exist peacefully in perfect rattlesnake habitat with only four kilometres of fencing and four ecopassages to direct snake traffic.

On one of the walking paths, staff had set up pylons to direct foot traffic across the open rock barrens: there were gestating females and dozens of juvenile rattlers on the other side of them. Campers walked blithely past. A few stopped and asked if we’d seen any snakes.

Kenton Otterbein, the chief park naturalist, answered vaguely. Rattlesnakes are the “ginseng” of the snake world. You never knew who might be a poacher. I knelt down to look at a baby rattler, curled up next to a stick. Its siblings had all moved on.

“It’s fully loaded,” said Otterbein, warning me not to get too close, “but 25 per cent of the time it’s a dry bite anyway.”

I picked my way even more slowly and carefully through the landscape after that, seeing things I would not otherwise see—the various textures in the sphagnum moss, the occasional tiny green leaf turned bright red by a virus of its own. Crevices in the tabled rock where a snake might hide. ✺✺✺ During our next call, I tell my father about the trip to Killbear and about the two little pines down by our property’s shore. The two pines stand side by side, close enough to interlock their branches, but far enough apart to keep pace with each other and grow out. The way the branches intertwined reminded me of the black and white pictures I’d seen of my father and his twin as children. In so many of them, one of them has his arm around the other in an easy embrace. As adults, the two brothers were less demonstrative, but they always mirrored each other in their body language. When my father and uncle were standing down by the water, it was impossible for me to tell them apart.

I’d also discovered an island called “Francis” and another called “Georgina”—our old township on Lake Simcoe. I wanted him to know that I was not going to let go of him or our family’s past.

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This time, he chooses comfort over treatment. I am finally allowed to visit. This time the hallucinations are no longer shot through with fear. But this time his speech is garbled; the Parkinson’s makes him difficult to understand.

At first his inability to communicate is frustrating. Then it is irrelevant. It is only important to be there, and to feel each other’s presence.

I talk and sing and read him poetry.

I squeeze and rub his stiff hands and listen for the gaps between his breaths. The palliative care doctor says he might not last the night.

But he does. The gaps grow longer with each passing night. Now he stops breathing when I stop singing. He starts breathing again when I resume singing. I hold his hand tightly but tell him it is the season for letting go. The trees will soon lose their leaves. I remind him of the two pines down by the water. I tell him I have nicknamed them “The Twins.” He squeezes my hand. Shortly after, he stops breathing altogether.

M Y F AT H E R C A N B A R E LY B R E AT H E .

✺✺✺ To survive the winter, a Massasauga must choose its hibernation site carefully. Enough snow must fall to insulate the hibernacula and keep the groundwater from freezing. There must be an air pocket so the snake can breathe.

Rattlesnakes used to survive best by returning to the same place each winter, but overwintering is becoming harder. Snowfalls and the cycle of freezing and thawing are less predictable, more extreme.

A site that ensures survival one year may no longer guarantee survival the next.

As a documentary filmmaker and writer, it was my father’s job to collect stories and build an archive. To preserve. He was a rescuer—of broken things and people, of stories that would otherwise disappear.

But you can’t hold onto everything. What was in him, what drove him to hold onto Romany Wood when it was no longer a reasonable option?

In spring, I scatter some of my father’s ashes, and his brother’s too, and wait for the snakes to emerge from their winter homes. The more time I spend with the Massasaugas, the less afraid I am. They rattle their keratin tails politely if I come too close and remind me to pay closer attention to my surroundings. They remind me there are no walls between us. This is what makes us so vulnerable, but also more connected—to each other and to the place we choose to land.a Sasha Chapman is a Toronto writer and avid paddler.

The Monk, the Recluse, and a Message in a Bottle Cont'd from p. 69 ACT 3, SCENE 2: FINALE

The ghost of owners past

BACKSTORY #2

City girl meets cottage boy They were introduced eight years ago and married two years later. He was headover-heels about her…and his project cottage. She was resolutely urban, with an acting career (two Genie Awards, two Geminis, two Doras, and an ACTRA Award so far) wiring her to city life, and zero cottage past.

No surprise, Monk’s heart was in his throat. “We’d only been dating a month, and here I am, taking her to this cottage with a composting toilet and no proper shower or even hot running water—crossing the lake in an unreliable old boat, knowing that if it conked out, I was screwed. But we made it over and she walked in and…” “…I was completely charmed,” says Sheila. “It was like walking into another time.

Very quickly, even Violet (the toilet) became my friend.”

Turns out, the cottage is a great place to dig into writing and directing projects and to learn lines. “I love to take Tess”—their Llewellin setter—“and walk around the island talking to myself,” says Sheila.

The first Christmas after Monk bought the cottage, Don gave him a gift: a fat bundle of notes about the place, handwritten in pencil with small illustrations, most in the form of reminders to himself or to the cottage owner who’d come after him. (Director’s note: They were rambling and eccentric, of course.)

They included operating instructions for a long-gone stove; a map of the old fuse box; and various checklists, including one entitled: “Where to find it…or where it was the last time I left it,” providing the location of everything from his pencil sharpener to the bedding. “I’m still sorting through them,” Monk says, “and eventually hope to put them in a cottage album. Just one more puttering project.”

A year or so before Don died in 2002, Monk invited him to visit the cottage.

By that point, it had been completely cleaned out and spruced up. Though the heavy, old piano had been sent to a new home (Monk gifted the long-neglected beast to a local contractor), other treasures from Don’s days remained, and the place was still, as Gillian puts it, “super old-school rustic.” “Don was over the moon,” says Monk. “It was what he had hoped for.”

After Andrew’s long-ago discovery, the Marrs never found another bottle in a tree. But they did uncover a glass jar with a message—and more—in an old hutch inside. “An encapsulation of things long gone,” Don wrote, meticulously ID’ing the quirky objects it contained: a disc of blue plastic, from Kitty’s cottage “bathtub” in the ’60s; a piece of Cello tape (“not made anymore”), which was used to frame the instruction sheet for his gasoline-driven water pump; bristles from their 1951 cottage broom. “Please look, and put back in the earth somewhere.”

Sweet synchronicity. Don’s time capsule, to go with the time capsule that Monk has preserved—the cottage itself.l Award-winning writer Ann Vanderhoof likes her wineglass full, her lakes and beaches empty, and her kayak right side up.

AU G / SEPT 2021

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By eating invertebrates that break down leaf litter, red-backed salamanders help the soil sequester carbon, keeping it from escaping as greenhouse gas.

You’d have to turn over 30 logs to find one tiny redback, baby or adult.

It’s a dirty job, but someone’s gotta do it Like the red-backed salamander, these unsung heroes of the animal kingdom deserve a shout-out: E Y V U LT U

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Hide and go eat When they’re not tucked under logs or rocks, or in subterranean burrows, these wee salamanders are stalking forest-floor creatures B Y T I M T I N E R

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RED-BACKED SALAMANDERS

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For eating half their body weight in pest bugs (mostly mosquitoes)

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PHOTOS: MAIN, KEVIN COLLISON; SIDEBAR, ZACH ZIMET. ILLUSTRATIONS: HEY RABBIT

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forest floor shredders and munchers, salamanders slow litter decomposition, moderating the flow of nutrients in the ecosystem and locking more carbon into humus. Each year, they’re reckoned to prevent hundreds of kilograms of carbon per hectare from entering the atmosphere.

B Y E AT I N G S O M A N Y

are the only amphibians in eastern Canada that don’t live part of their lives in the water. After wintering beneath the frost line, females usually lay six to 10 white eggs in a damp log or stump cavity in late spring or early summer, then curl around them until they hatch in August or September.

Mothers continue to protect their minuscule charges up to several weeks longer and generally don’t mate for at least another year. a

For consuming diseased animal carcasses

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are the dominant predators in their domain, often far exceeding by weight the total heft of all birds in the forest. They thrive on hordes of beetles, mites, and other leaf litter- and microbe-feeding invertebrates; these creatures are among the organisms of decay that collectively consume more than 90 per cent of the energy produced by trees and plants.

RED-BACKED SALAMANDERS

more than a metre from home. In dry weather, they keep to moist bastions beneath stumps and logs, which they may fiercely guard against intrusion by others of their kind. During breeding season, in September and October, mates often cohabitate and join in home-ground defence. Their extraordinary sense of smell, used to track prey and identify other salamanders and their turf, also enables them to assess the fitness of potential partners from their pheromones.

REDBACKS SELDOM VENTURE

TS

in eastern Canada’s temperate forests, abounding by the billions, is almost never seen. Emerging only on very damp or rainy nights, the tiny eastern red-backed salamander tips the scales at under a gram but is an ecosystem heavyweight.

T H E M O S T U B I Q U I T O U S V E R T E B R AT E

For killing nearly 95 per cent of the ticks they encounter cottagelife.com 97

Before You Leave

Paddle on

Share your guest “book” photos on Instagram with #CottageLifeSub or email us at edit@cottagelife.com.

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CH R I S H E WI T T

Ten years ago, Chris and Jim Hewitt—cottagers on Six Mile Lake, Ont.—started asking visitors to sign a canoe paddle as a way to incorporate a guest book into their nautical cottage decor. The proudly displayed paddles act as a reminder of the special memories made at the lake. “My parents signed the paddles years ago and have since passed,” says Chris. “I love being able to walk by, see their signatures, and think of them.” The couple recently sold the cottage but are building a new place on the same lake. “We can’t wait to hang up the paddles again and keep them going,” says Jim. “We have a 20-year supply of paddle racks waiting to be filled.”

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