Winter 2021

Cottage Life

Cottage Life offers valuable advice as well as profiles, how-to articles, recipes, essays, issues pieces, and lifestyle stories that help readers look after their cottages, entertain guests and, of course, kick back and have fun.

Cottage Life1 min read
S’more Stuff
You love to read the only-at-the-cottage questions that we answer in our Cottage Q&A column—now you can also watch Cottage Life Editor, Michelle Kelly, answer your burning questions. Check out a whole host of new topics that we just added: cottagelif
Cottage Life2 min read
Contributors
Journalist Christina Frangou grew up with a passion for writing. She went from earning a degree in journalism to working for daily newspapers to freelancing while pursuing her master’s degree. “I love the autonomy of choosing the stories I write,” sh
Cottage Life1 min read
Masthead
Editor Michelle Kelly Deputy Editor Liann Bobechko Managing Editor Megan McPhaden Senior Editor Jackie Davis Senior Associate Editor Alysha Vandertogt Assistant Editor Marie Waine Contributing Editor Martin Zibauer Editorial Intern Rubab Sarwar Art D
Cottage Life3 min read
Editor’s Note
WE’VE ALL HEARD the clichés about Canadians: We apologize a lot. We love poutine and double-doubles. We say “aboot.” These are stereotypes and often not at all rooted in reality. Personally, I do love a good poutine, but it’s certainly not the thing
Cottage Life3 min read
Your Letters
Thank you for sharing “Red Sky at Night? Could Be Right” (Oct ’21) on the various weather lores. I had no idea there were so many. I’d like to add another to your list—an original from my father. He trained as a navigator in the Royal Canadian Air Fo
Cottage Life1 min read
The Great North Gift Guide
But wait, there’s more! ■
Cottage Life2 min readRegional & Ethnic
Barbecue Coffee Cake Recipe
2 tbsp all-purpose flour1 ½ cups pecan pieces, coarsely chopped⅓ cup each granulated and brown sugar (lightly packed)1 tsp cinnamon½ tsp ground cardamom3 tbsp butter, melted 1 cup all-purpose flour½ tsp baking powder¼ tsp baking soda¼ tsp kosher salt
Cottage Life1 min read
Cottager Pays It Forward With Defibrillator Donation To Cottage Association
IN OUR MAY 2021 ISSUE, we ran a story about cottager Tim Dodd, who died suddenly from a heart attack at his Panache Lake, Ont., camp, and whose family then raised funds to buy portable defibrillators for the lake (“The Captain of the Cottage,” Waterf
Cottage Life1 min read
How Long Is Your Cottage Commute?
And even more!
Cottage Life1 min read
CNR Pleads Guilty To Pesticide Use Along Wetland Corridor
Someone’s on the naughty list. This September, the Canadian National Railway Company pleaded guilty to a charge under the Fisheries Act “in relation to the deposit of pesticides in or around waters frequented by fish,” said Environment and Climate Ch
Cottage Life1 min read
Journal Article Finds Ravens Are Allies In Habitat Restoration
A recent review in the journal The Condor: Ornithological Applications shows that members of the crafty corvid family—it includes crows and ravens—are ecosystem engineers thanks to their “scatter-hoarding” behaviour. These species routinely gather an
Cottage Life1 min read
Vanilla Ice Partners With Samsung To Promote New Refrigerator
Exciting news for anyone looking for an energy-efficient fridge to replace the hydro-hogging dinosaur in their cottage kitchen. Vanilla Ice (remember that guy?) has partnered with tech giant Samsung to promote—via song—the company’s new green “Bespok
Cottage Life2 min read
Fun Fact About How Birds Stay Warm In Winter
DOES THIS PLUMAGE make me look fat? Birds that overwinter in cold climates—such as cottage country, brrr—have the ability to fluff out their feathers and trap pockets of air, warmed by their own body heat, to keep themselves toasty. It’s like wearing
Cottage Life3 min read
Reasons To Consider An Inland Cottage
The backstory: Philip Preville’s fondest childhood memories are of skiing on the slopes of Quebec and Alberta, where he grew up. “Getting up early on a cold winter morning and grabbing my skis is part of who I am,” says the 53-year-old freelance writ
Cottage Life2 min read
Holiday Gift Guide For The DIYer In Your Life
Having kindling on hand is useful. Same goes for all of your digits. Load a log up to 8" in diameter into this cast-steel device, whack it with a mini-sledgehammer, and—ta-dah!—safely chopped kindling. $150, Canadian Tire Always at your side, the Win
Cottage Life1 min read
Outhouse Hack For Keeping Your Buns Toasty
RIGID EXTRUDED POLYSTYRENE foam (a.k.a. Styrofoam) is durable, moisture-resistant, and has an insulative value of R5 per inch. But all you really need to know is that when it’s -30°C, the instant your bare butt touches a piece of EPS foam, it feels w
Cottage Life2 min read
Avoid Tear-out With These Tips
UNSIGHTLY, FRAZZLED WOOD fibres left around the edges of drilled holes and saw cuts, known as “tear-out,” may be irrelevant on rough carpentry jobs, but you can avoid it in finer situations with a few effective tricks. If you’re boring holes ³/8" dia
Cottage Life2 min read
4 Ways To Fix Scratches On Furniture
For shallow scratches, I employ an old-school photographer’s trick. Be it a scratched film negative or furniture, a bit of body oil (which is oil and wax)—gathered on the side of the nose or behind the ear—makes scratches vanish. Just rub the oil int
Cottage Life2 min readArchitecture
Homemade Curling Stones
INSPIRED BY THE Vancouver Olympics, Brian and Louise Bonnell wanted a new outdoor activity to help them enjoy winter with their neighbours Rein and Kate Varik at their cottage on Redstone Lake, Ont. “We weren’t really into curling before,” says Brian
Cottage Life1 min read
The Mysterious Shoe Thief
Q: This summer, a fox had been coming unusually close to our cottage (and we had been shooing him away). We leave our flip-flops on our deck. One morning, we found many of the flip-flops gone. They were scattered all around the property, and some wen
Cottage Life2 min read
What Is Happening To My Cedar Tree?
Q: At my cottage, there is a mature cedar tree standing on the shoreline. My father built the original cottage in 1961, and from old photos, I can guess that this tree was just starting to grow back then. Today it must be more than 50 feet tall. Over
Cottage Life2 min read
Are Tankless Water Heaters An Option For Our Three-season Cottage?
Q: We need to replace the hot water tank at our cottage near Burk’s Falls, Ont. We are interested in tankless-style water heaters, but we wonder if they will get the water warm enough. We use the cottage mostly in spring, summer, and fall, but do mak
Cottage Life2 min readArchitecture
Help! My Toilet Vent Stack Keeps Breaking Off
Q: I have been searching for a solution to the almost annual breaking off of my toilet vent stack on our metal roof due to significant winter snow accumulation. Yes, having the snow removed is the right thing to do. However, I offer up options to ult
Cottage Life2 min readCrime & Violence
Can We Post A No Trespassing Sign On Our Private Road?
Q: I’m the president of a property owners’ association and we are looking at posting two signs at the entrance to our private roads. (The municipality does not maintain our roads. They’re maintained by the association dues we collect annually from ea
Cottage Life4 min read
Is Having Christmas At The Cottage A Good Idea?
Q: “My husband wants to have family Christmas at our three-season island cottage, like we did a few times when our children were young (they are both married with their own kids now). He thinks bringing the family together after Covid separation woul
Cottage Life4 min read
Transform Your Cottage With Chairs
IT CAN BE A head-scratching moment for any cottage owner when you look around an empty room and wonder, “how am I going to furnish this space?” The good news: you might already have all the furniture you need. All that’s missing is some know-how to g
Cottage Life5 min read
How Skating On Wild Ice Is Life With No Limits
ELLADJ BALDÉ KNOWS ICE. One of Canada’s top figure skaters spent much of his life performing high-flying jumps and heart-stopping backflips on ice surfaces tailor-made for his skills. But Baldé, who retired from competition in 2018, wanted to know wh
Cottage Life3 min read
7 Ways To Make The Best Rink On The Lake
HAVE YOU EVER CLEARED a patch of lake ice at the cottage for a weekend skate? Most likely, you put in a whole lot of shovelling for the brief joy of skating or shinny—only to have your rink obliterated by the next snowfall. That was the pattern Helen
Cottage Life3 min read
The Magic Of Skating Outside
WE DIDN’T CARE IF it looked silly and sounded awful—there was only the dog there to stand witness. My son Gord and I stood at attention in the middle of the bay in the only time of year you can actually walk on water—in this case, skate—and we belted
Cottage Life9 min read
How To Get Water All Winter
OUR 800 SQ. FT. log-and-frame cabin two hours outside of Whitehorse was never designed to be lived in from November to March. In our first winter, plummeting temperatures and frozen pipes regularly set us scrambling for every space heater, hair dryer
Cottage Life5 min read
Cottage Life Photo Contest 2021 winners
Jesse Villemaire, Lake of Bays, Ont. One morning after a rainfall, Jesse Villemaire was out in his backyard, tending to his garden, when he spotted something moving amongst the lilies. “Needless to say, my gardening ended, and my camera came out inst
Cottage Life5 min readRegional & Ethnic
Your New Favourite Comfort Dish: Spatzle With Bacon And Gruyere
BY LYNN CRAWFORD AND LORA KIRK If you have never made spätzle, get ready to make it rain! This tiny, tender egg noodle is made by grating the dough into boiling water. At home, we use a perforated hotel pan, but using a colander or sieve yields the s
Cottage Life2 min read
A Curated Collection Of Winter Beers
One of the great joys of winter is making the switch from light lagers to rich, malty beers such as Paulaner Salvator Doppelbock, an amber lager from Germany known as “the father of all strong beers,” or even “liquid bread.” Paulaner is also one of t
Cottage Life7 min read
How To Make A Handmade Canoe Paddle
WHEN IT COMES to the holidays, we never learn from our mistakes. Every year, millions of us loudly denigrate the crass commercialism of the yuletide season. “Not this year,” we tell ourselves, “I’m not going to spend a fortune on shallow gifts. This
Cottage Life2 min read
The Star-nose Mole
THE STAR-NOSED MOLE may be the strangest looking mammal on Earth. It’s certainly the most sensitive and the fastest eating. Largely subterranean and semi-aquatic—and virtually blind—it’s almost never seen alive. Yet it thrives across eastern Canada t
Cottage Life1 min read
The Sky’s The Limit
When Jon Turner received a giant tower of tumbling blocks for Father’s Day, his wife, Anne, knew immediately what to do: use the pieces as a canvas for a guest book at their cottage on Dog Lake, Ont. The Turners picked up painting as a hobby during C

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