May 4 – At The Cottage

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We solved one problem and discovered another.

The replacement Visa cards finally came at noon on Wednesday so after a last look around the house we hit the road around 1pm. There was very little traffic but it was a long 7 hour drive especially for the first real drive in 7 months.

After trimming some of the new growth along the driveway into the cottage we parked the RV. When we got the RV a few years ago, we built a gravel pad off of a branch of our driveway. Last year I installed a 30 amp outlet so we have a very comfy little landing spot.

We have a very nice beach here. My mother’s family has been using this spot since about 1912. At this spot the family have 6 cottages in a row belonging to various aunts, uncles and cousins.

Yesterday I tried to get the our TV set up. There are enough trees that the rooftop satellite dish is blocked. When I tried to get the portable dish set up, I just could not get a connection. I wandered around with my iPad looking for holes in the trees and tried 5 different spots with no success. I finally gave up.

This year Shaw Direct is putting up a new satellite. When I bought the new dish it came with a new 3 satellite LNB (the receiver on the end of the dish arm). My portable dish has the old 2 satellite LNB. I called Shaw customer service last night and they confirmed that the receiver can use one or the other but you can’t switch between them. So now I have to order a new LNB for the portable dish. They say it will be delivered by next Wednesday but I won’t hold my breath. Once I get the courier tracking number I will see what the projected delivery date and decide if we will wait. A few days of rest might be nice after the hectic time getting ready to leave. In the meantime I took the new LNB and installed it on the portable dish and like magic we have TV.

The cottage is on Georgian Bay of Lake Huron. In the past few year the the water levels have been very low. Each year we struggle with figuring out where to put the dock to find enough water depth for the boats. The first job is to put on the hip waders and wander out to check things out.

Our little bay is quite shallow. In the picture above you can see the change in colour as the depth drops off. This year the brown area is mostly about 2 1/2 feet deep.

The waves here can get kind of vicious so we have to lift the boat out of the water every night on this contraption which we will roll out into the water for the summer. The winter ice would destroy it if we didn’t pull it out.

We need at least 3 feet of water to get the boat on the lift which means we have to put the lift very near the dropoff, which in the picture, where I am walking out is about 160 feet. That makes for a long dock. We have about 190 feet of dock. Here is some of it waiting on the beach.

My Dad and I (and my brother’s dog Carly) are pondering where to place the dock.

It is a many person job to put the dock and lift in so it will wait for the Victoria day long weekend when there will be more people up here to help.

Here are just a few other pictures at the creek near the cottage on this beautiful day.