cottage

Over the past couple of years, I've neglected to note my progress at the cottage. Mostly, this has been because COVID-19, and other factors, have occupied my time, and I haven't had much to say. Last weekend, I closed the cottage for the 2022 season. I did not get up to the cottage as much as I had wanted, this past season; other opportunities and obligations took up a lot of my time. But, I did get some things done, some things started, and some things attempted this year.

This week, with the extensive and energetic partnership of Rob Adamson and Katherine Robbins, I we installed the long anticipated solar panels and made the final connections to the cottage solar power system.

As of 5pm on July 3, 2020, Fugawee has functional LED lighting in all the rooms, powered by a 12V battery which is recharged daily from electricity generated by two solar panels. Now, I can reduce my generator usage, and mothball the kerosene lamps.

COVID-19 has played havoc with schedules and intentions this spring, but it cannot stop me from taking time at my log cabin in the forest. I intend to, this year, complete the installation of my solar-electric system, and then take a much-needed break at the cottage.

So this is the year. I've cleaned out fifty years of cruft around my cabin at the lake, started some much needed repairs, remodeled the kitchen, and repaneled the bedrooms. This year, I add (drum roll, please) electricity.

OK, so it's not as dramatic as all that. After all, I've had a generator at the cottage for about a decade. But, what is dramatic is that, for most purposes, I'm about to replace that noisy, costly, polluting generator with silent, inexpensive, eco-friendly solar power.

Spring has started "springing", and I anxiously await my return to my log cabin on Kimball Lake. This year, I have a couple of largish projects in mind, and I can't wait to get started.

I have had an "odd" season at the cottage, this year. I opened the cabin late (after the May long weekend), and only managed to get up to the lake sporadically during the summer. Fall has now arrived, and I find myself planning for the cottage closing, sometime in October. I don't know that we really had a summer this year, and I certainly missed the cottage.

Cottage time quickly approaches, and I've got much to prepare. Part of that preparation includes the selecting of games and passtimes for those rainy days and lazy evenings. This time, I decided to be a bit frugal, and concoct my own chess, checkers, and backgammon games.

And so, I give you my 2 page (duplex printed) Chess, Checkers, and Backgammon set.

The end to the 2016 cottage season fast approaches, and I have done almost all that I can do this year.

Two long-standing components of my late mother's cottage are gone: a long-dead snowmobile, and an even-longer-dead iron cookstove.
I have cleaned out most of the junk (next year will complete the job) and started the much-needed renovations and improvements.

I think that my Mother would be very happy with the changes.

Another visit to the cottage, and more incremental improvements and repairs. This time, two jobs: painting the master bedroom walls, and rebuilding the deck at the waterfront.

In "Haul Out", I showed the float assembly for my haul-out. That float has been anchored with a temporary anchor (a "killick") for too long. I wanted a heavy anchor that couldn't be easily dragged or lifted from it's final resting place. A boat anchor wouldn't do; it would be too light or too expensive, and a heavy anchor would be very difficult to get up to the cottage to install. So, I made my own anchor from stuff I had around the cottage.