low tech

While up at the cottage with Terry, Katherine and Rob, I fell into another "craft/hobby": making homemade soap.

Katherine had commented that Castile Soap would have less of an environmental impact than the soap I use at the cottage. Of course, this intrigued me. I had heard of Castile soap, but did not know much about it. So I did some research.

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.

Terry and I took our annual Christmas trip to Montreal this past week, loaded down with gifts and luggage. Like years before, we had more baggage than I could reasonably fit into the Jetta, and was obliged to resurect the roof-top box. However, this year, we had even more than before, and the makeshift roof-top box that I had used previous years was just too small. It looked like it was time to go buy a bigger box.

While others may enjoy the freedom of letting someone else account for their expenditures, I learned money-management differently. I regularly balance my own accounts, confirming deposits and withdrawals, and derive my own running balance, independent of my bank's online tools. To do this, I use a "cheque register", a small booklet that mimics an account ledger, that my bank freely provides to it's customers. However, lack of demand has caused the bank to cut back, and they no longer make or distribute these "cheque registers".

This spring, the makeshift haul-out that I had installed two years ago finally decided to give me trouble. The float, an old boat fender, has folded in half, and the haul-out rope broke with the winter ice. It's time I put in a more permanent solution.

So, I bought a buoy, a length of anchor chain, and a few other odds and sods, and put together a proper haul-out buoy.

Last week, I closed the cottage for the 2013 season.

Now that I have the cottage on Kimball Lake, I want to add some of the "comforts of home". I don't want high-tech, power-hungry, electro-gadgets; I simply want some conveniences that can be accomplished in a low-tech, low impact, almost "back woods" manner.