The 2012 Pictures are In

Actually, they've been "in" since my last post.  I just didn't feel like sitting in front of my main computer for the last few days.  There's a new "Jim 2012" link at the bottom of the page.  I didn't bother making low-resolution email-able versions this year, since I didn't take quite so many pictures, and didn't upload so many of the near-duplicates.

Somehow I screwed up my left knee a few days in, and didn't get quite as much done as I would have otherwise.  The walk through the Detroit airport on the way home was torturous.  It's still a little stiff, "grindy", and swollen, but it's feeling better now that I can put in some significant couch-time.

I found the crock-pot in the Captain's Quarters (CQ), but it wasn't quite big enough for the batch of pea soup I wanted to make, so this was my solution:

I kept water in the frying pan most of the time, and only burned a tiny bit at the bottom of the pot.  It wasn't quite as good as the stuff I make out here with tomatillos and three kinds of peppers, but it was OK.  Pea soup is more of a cold weather food.  Except for the serving I saved for Eileen, we finished it somehow.

The iKeywaybeek music library didn't get updated this year.  I bought a bigger hard drive, and had all 29,000+ tunes loaded onto it.  The night before I left for Keywaybeek I was finishing up packing my suitcase and bumped the table where it was hooked up to my laptop.  The hard drive fell over, and stopped "talking to" my computer. D'oh!  We'll just have to get by for another year with the 25,000+ tunes that are at the cottage now.  If anyone goes there this fall, or has Toni close it up for the year; in the rush to get on the road, I forgot to close & cover the jukebox computer and shut off the power strip in back of it.

Regarding my previous email about the light for sale on eBay, I don't think the lighting at the cottage is a huge problem, just one that's easy and cheap to fix, given my competitive labour rate.  Bare bulbs near eye level can make for difficult searches for keys, wallets, iPods, socks, etc.  If we're looking for things elsewhere in the room, our own shadows tend to get in the way.  The following are just some observations and recommendations for cheap fixes.

Here's a picture of some of the "vintage" lighting crap I've got around my house.  It's all available.  The matched set of old "leaf" wall sconces would be cool, but are very rusty, and would need a LOT of restoration.  Obviously everything else would need some cleaning and/or painting.  Anything that includes glass would have to be mailed.  There's no way they'd survive a plane trip.

ROOM-BY-ROOM LIGHTING IDEAS:

PORCH:  The bare-bulb wall-mount light that's there now is awful, but it's a large enough room that it needs all the light it can get.  One of the 3 wall sconces in the above picture has to be better than the light that's there now.  It needs to have a shade or diffuser of some sort.  Some of us use the green (?) wooden lamp out on the porch table to light the other side of the room.  Dad and I tend to use that lamp on the fold down shelf in the corner of the living room, instead of or with the overhead light.  Maybe we could use another small non-fragile table lamp so both areas can be

lit.  With the way the attic is set up, it wouldn't be hard to put up a low-profile overhead light fixture in the middle of the porch ceiling, like the one at right ($20).  Wiring the switch would be the tricky part...maybe a double switch in the same box where the (single) light switch is now?  It wouldn't require any hacking into the wall.

BEDROOM NEXT TO KITCHEN:  The little light on the shelf behind the door has a bad switch and barely works.  The one over the bed is a little too high to be a good reading light, since we have to prop ourselves way up (or sit up completely) to turn it off.  This is the room I stayed in this year after my nights in the tent, and it's where I'd put the hanging lamp I found on eBay.  (It's still up for sale as of 9/7/12, and the vote so far is tied 2-2.)  I'd place it where the shade makes sure it throws no light into the living room, and since it would have to hang directly below a rafter, cheat it however much is necessary toward the dresser and entrance.  It's got a white underside to the shade, so plenty of light would get reflected around the room.  The switch and switch-box are already there in the back shed, or I could put a pull-chain switch in it.  One of the sconces in the picture above could replace the light with the bad switch.  They're made to go on an in-the-wall utility box, but can be converted to a plug-in on-the-wall fixture like the the new reading light in the CQ.  Let's move the light over the bed down about 6 to 10 inches, and stick with 40 watt (or equivalent) bulbs.  The 60 watt bulb is quite a shock to the eyes when it's first turned on.

CAPTAIN'S QUARTERS:  For some reason, the walls in this room seem extra-dark.  Isn't the CQ where the mystery drip in your notes is, Doug?  Hmm...  There's a mirror in there?  I've slept there multiple years and never noticed.  I think we should investigate whether the bed can be turned 90 degrees in there to open up some space, but that's a different subject...  An overhead light, cheated toward the entrance as the rafters allow, would make it much more accessible at night.  The area at the foot of the bed is where things that have gone missing over the years have turned up once the sun has risen.

MIDDLE BEDROOM:  The outlet low over the bed holding a nightlight that's bright enough to read by is perfect.  The room is open enough that the ceramic gray (or pink) lamp is sufficient.  I think this room's OK light-wise.

KITCHEN:  'Nuff lights.

LIVING ROOM:  Ditto.

OUTSIDE:  More low-priority ideas:  If I'm going to do any work on wiring in the Captain's Quarters, putting a light in the back shed would be easy.  The immobile flashlight I put in there 3 or 4 years ago is obviously a flop.  It gets left on, and nobody wants to buy batteries for it.  I could also put up another floodlight for the parking area back there, but I have no idea where the switch would want to be.  Just some possibilities -- I figure these will probably stay flashlight territory.

I also talked with Toni about putting a turbine vent onto the roof where the passive vent is now.  That's the "whirlygig" kind that spins from both the wind outside and rising hot air from inside.  He seemed to think it would be a good move, if it's installed right.  Always the salesman...  It would provide a lot more ventilation, and he said it wouldn't let in any rain or freeze up in the winter, which would be my concern.  (I put one on the tool shed I built here.  It stays about even with the outside temperature, and I haven't had a single drip or squeak in 13 14 years.  But then, we don't get too many ice storms locally.)  I got up in the cottage attic and cleaned out the vent's inside screen with a broom.  There couldn't have been much air getting out as clogged up as it was with cobwebs and dead bugs.

Toni's advice on the lower cabinet finish mishap was to sand it all down and start over.  That seems drastic, but he's probably got a power tool that would do it in a few minutes.  We could try some acetone (AKA: nail polish remover).  It might dissolve the white film into the wood a little.  I think the cheapest way to fix it would be to go over it with a brown crayon, rub it around a little, then repeat until it matches.

For now, I'll stay neutral on the boat and bunkhouse situations, and will wait and see where the chips & opinions fall.  I will say that I've broken the frames on my prescription sunglasses twice, 3 or 4 years apart, and the blue beater boat was involved both times.

I almost forgot...  Here's the list of "on the way" grocery stores in Ontario that probably have much better prices than the Sundridge Foodland or the store at the south end of Burk's Falls:

ORILLIA:

Giant Tiger - 130 Atherly Rd. (Coldwater/12 exit)

Food Basics - 975 West Ridge Rd. (Coldwater/12 exit)

BARRIE:

Giant Tiger - 320 Yonge St. (Hurst or Tiffin exit)

Food Basics - 555 Essa St. (Mapleview exit)

GRAVENHURST:

Giant Tiger - 1190 Muskoka Rd. South (Muskoka/169/18 exit)

We didn't go to any of them, but I looked at some online ads before we left and they seemed to have some OK deals.  As a comparison, the $4 to $5 whole chickens we brought from Michigan were more than $10 at Foodland.

Sorry this is so long.  I figure it's better I get these ideas out while I've still got a fresh picture of the place in my head, rather than waiting 'til next spring.  Other than the knee boo-boo, it was a good trip this year and it was nice to see some of you.

-Yeem

P.S:  As I was digging out the lighting stuff around here, I came across the lamp in the pictures below. An old roommate left it behind about a decade ago.  I guess I stashed it because it's so hideous, I thought it might be worth trying to make something weird out of it.  Never happened.  I remember it used to work, had a big ugly lampshade up top, a replacement plastic baby-doll left arm and a toilet paper turban over the hat.  It was just a little creepy.  If anybody wants it, let me know.

Jim's 2012 Cottage Notes

Donations and Whatnot:

• There's a piece of plywood under the cushions of the sofa.  It helps keep us from being "swallowed up" by the sagginess it had before.  In testing, my butt only fell asleep once.

• There's a "new" blue, green, or blue-green flannel sheet rescued from Dad's barn.  It's pretty comfortable on warmish nights.  (I'm not too good at identifying greens and reds.)  There's also a black BBQ cover from the barn that's a good for short term coverage of the new BBQ.

• Also from the barn collection, there's a "new" rug along the wall next to the bed in the Captain's Quarters.  It's a pretty nice fit, and is sitting on top of the rugs that were already there.

• New spices in the cabinets:  Mustard powder, fennel seeds, celery salt, sage (grown in my backyard), and some dried hot peppers I can't remember the name of called chiles de arbol.  There should be enough to last for a few years at least.

• The CA Modern mags in the biffy have been updated.  There's also a special section from the LA Times about the Kings winning the Stanley Cup this year.  There's a 1982 Hockey News yearbook in with the real books (probably of interest to hardcore hockey fans only), and a sci-fi short novel compilation I accidently ordered a duplicate copy of when I was in a book club.

• There are two small camping-size propane canisters in the flammables shed.  Use 'em up if you can.

• There's a huge new BBQ spatula thing in the kitchen.  I've been given at least four BBQ tool sets for Christmas or birthdays over the years.  There's more where that came from if we need them...

• The 1935 Ontario license plate is over the entrance to the kitchen.  I triple-checked.  It looks crooked, but it's level.  It's the top of the doorway that's crooked.  That's the ceiling fan before it went up in the background.

• I brought an old thermometer / barometer / humidity meter and put it near the dining room table.  The barometer proved to be impossible to calibrate accurately, but it will still register changes in pressure that will tell what the weather is likely to be.

• There are 2 "new" tarps, one blue at 9'x11', and one white at 6' 8" x 19' 8".  They're in the biffy shed.

• There's a "new" set of itty-bitty screwdrivers in the tool bin in the kitchen cabinets.

• The black clock is officially dead & gone.  The potential replacements at Home Hardware were all outrageously priced and hideous.  We need an alarm clock right?  Does it have to be battery powered?  I may have an old clock-radio to donate, although it sucks as a radio and takes up too much horizontal space for the bureau.  eBay maybe?

• A wine glass bit the dust.  The shelves over the hot plate aren't a good spot for glassware & gravity to coexist.

• I intercepted Ray's rusty old BBQ on the way to the dump and set it up as a wood burner instead of propane.  It's next to the flammables shed.  DON'T THROW IT AWAY!  I used the Futura-Wood tarp to cover it up.  (Doug, see the note about the "new" tarps above.)

• I thought about putting the solar shower thing behind the biffy, but it wasn't a good fit.  I thought the biffy was bigger.  Maybe next year I'll find a spot for it.  It's still good for a nice warm late afternoon shower.

• I checked out the front door weatherstripping vs. rug situation, and still don't see why a rug needs to be there.  True, it looks like crap, but a little patching and paint on the floor would fix that.  There's no need to paint the whole floor I would assume, just the part near the door.

•The Canadian and U.S. flags are really looking shabby, and I didn't feel like sewing them again.  I know a website where the lightweight ones can be ordered for 6 or 7 dollars apiece if the order's for six flags or more.  Cuba or Texas, anyone?  How about a U.S. Civil War era 35-star flag?  They also have the Canadian provincial flags.  Nice job on the caber...er, I mean new flagpole.  Hopefully it'll dry out and get lighter one of these years.  I put a lightly oiled piece of rope on it below where the bark is peeled off, with the knot on the low side.  It seemed to deflect quite a bit of drizzle from getting into the base.

• The pump is working fine.  Some were thinking it was leaking.  Toni checked it out, and said the sock on the end changes the flow so that it tends to splash out of the top of the pump-head, then down onto the counter.  Pumping too fast and too hard also contribute to this.

• We saved a ton of $$$ by bringing most of our groceries from Michigan.  I did the shopping at three different stores, and I'd guess we saved about half of what things would have been at the Sundridge Foodland.  I left a printout of the Canadian rules for bringing food into the country on the bureau, along with our grocery list for the customs officer, which he never asked for.  The import rules are also on the jukebox computer.  We brought up four chickens that were still frozen solid by the time we got here.  I also made a list of on-the-way grocery stores in Orillia, Barrie and Gravenhurst that I'll put on the blog.

Projects:

CEILING FAN:

It's in, it's quiet and it works great.  The only "gotcha" is that it needs to be turned off whenever someone climbs the ladder to the attic.  It's within a half foot of the climbing path.  I thought the blades had a wood coloured side, but I was wrong.  If someone wants a different colour, it wouldn't be difficult to take the blades off and paint them.  We may also want to buy a length of pull-chain, to replace the cheesy looking rope that's on there now.  I don't have all the receipts, but I think the total for the ceiling fan, including wiring, lumber and the support / safety cable came in under $60.  Toni contributed the wire.

READING LIGHT:

I took one of the leftover light fixtures and the switch from the ceiling fan, and combined them with a part I brought from home and a piece of the floater chair that fell apart two years ago to make a reading light for the Captain's Quarters.  Now we don't have to get out of bed to turn off the light in there.  There's also a new board to widen one of the ledges over the hooks on the wall -- not by much, but every little bit helps.  There are three more of the light fixtures from the ceiling fan in the back shed we could potentially use around here.  A few of the rooms could really use lighting upgrades.

GUTTER ON BACK PORCH ROOF:

It works pretty well.  The water tends to run toward the lake, and if the wind is blowing in from there, some of the water blows back onto the bottom step.  The gutter over the front door is letting the water run behind it again, so the plastic I put under the shingles last year must have fallen out.

EXTENSION CORD HOOK:

One of the old hooks that used to hold up the porch shutters has been repurposed as an extension cord (or whatever) hook on the back porch.  Looking at it now, I can see we need to turn it a little so it doesn't have the potential to impale anyone.

SMALL BUCKET:

It's been fixed (for now).  The trick is to put the sticky stuff on the inside of the bucket, not outside.  It's rusted, so it's days are likely numbered.

(ANOTHER) CRACKED GREEN CHAIR:

It's fixed, but we'll soon be in need of more wire hangers.  Watch out for the wires when sitting down in the sun.  They get hot.

"SUN CHIME":

It's made from a stick, some wire and some old useless CDs.  If anyone wants to donate useless or unplayable CDs or DVDs, I can make more.  The ones that are shiny on both sides are the best.  It's sort of a low-rent disco ball. 

The weather was pretty good.  Only a half day of rain, and lots of sun.  I might have gotten more done around here, but I screwed up my knee about three days in.  Because of that I took one of the Ace bandages from the toiletries drawer with me.  I'll bring it back next year or mail it to someone if it's important that it's here.

-¥eem