The Labour Day weekend was perfect. No one wanted to go home. All my relatives live close enough to come upon the weekends if September continues from it’s fantastic beginning. I’m a bit envious as living too far from here will prevent us from doing so.
Just the same I’m happy to say that I’ve been here this year in the months of June, July, August and September and have gotten reacquainted with Cottage County to the extent that the massive amounts of rain let me.
Alice
We went on a final canoe ride today–all the way to the south side of the lake. Its was perfect. We saw some photo-shy loons and I got some nice snaps of St Peter’s Church.
Now we are packing and closing up for the next nine months. Real life duty such as work, child rearing, and more work call and they take precedence. We leave a bit of our hearts behind here at Maple Lake though.
I was just mulling over how when we go to Maple Lake, we are much more aware of our environment and how we impact it and visa-versa.
For example, cleaning products. At home I live in a condo in a big suburb and really don’t put much thought into what my cleaning products are made of. At the lake it’s a different story entirely. Any waste water that runs off does so just feet from our lake. Being aware of this, we go out of our way to use products that if somehow they do get into the lake won’t do significant harm.
The product I found myself using a lot at the cottage for older stains on ceramic and tile was baking soda. It was gentle but very efficient–even removing stains that I’d scrubbed with harsh cleansers that I’d previously used in desperation.
Another eco-friendly product I brought up to Maple Lake especially to keep at the lake was my sun jar. The cottage gets plenty of sun so the solar cells quickly powered the rechargeable battery which is then used to power the low-energy LED lamps.
My intent was to have another source of light if we were to lose power to the cottage which is quite common with severe weather. It did happen that the power went out one late afternoon, not returning until 11 p.m. and the sun jar was enjoyed greatly not just as a light source but as a object of beauty.
Spouse has been following the Haliburton Highlands weather forecast like a hawk as he is concerned about his grass seed getting enough water.
Our gardens here at home look the worse for his being gone three weeks. Spouse says they are at the end of their life cycles but I think they got both too much water and too much heat.
So Maple Lake looks great this week, like much of the Haliburton Highlands!
Hurrah for a stretch of good weather. I’m still undecided about staying up there longer in September. With his dad working 7 days a week, I’m a tad concerned about leaving Chris essentially on his own at the beginning of Junior year.
Current Forecast: Haliburton Highlands
And the Long Range Weather Forecast for the Haliburton Highlands through the first week in September:
That looks really good until just after Labour Day weekend-then ZMOG! Freezing again!
My favourite rock has been on this beach a very long time.
Now it is the bottom step.
Cool, no?
Both sets of stairs are wicked awesome. Spouse is very industrious and exacting whenever possible. This is repurposing these rocks back to what they were doing long ago.
Very pretty and through manual labour–lots of it–the steps have been re-built. I think they look great.
It’s rather quiet here though we’ve had a brief respite from the storms. I even managed to get myself in a bit of a fix going out on the Lake as a novice canoeist yesterday!
Just the same it’s going to be hard to leave on Saturday but leave we must. Spouse returns to work and school starts for son on his birthday–August 20th!
He chose to take a couple friends to Gameworks the day before and I’m the chaperone so I cannot very well miss it. I am however considering coming back up for a couple weeks in September depending on if the current forecast for “drier than normal” weather pan out. Here’s how the current long-range forecast looks. BTW, bugs are really a non-issue as it’s been so cool.
A hail storm with high winds hit Maple Lake Thursday afternoon leaving many folks without power throughout the evening. As I write this, the power has still not been restored with the hydro repair personnel reporting that they cannot find the source of the outage.
They explained as night fell that they would cease repair attempts at sundown and resume again Friday morning.
The storms came on suddenly with high, gusty winds and hail, blowing deck furniture around and tearing branches from trees.
After the storm passed there was a thin white sheet of ice on the ground with the air temperature having dropped significantly.
See the video I’ve included for a taste of this early August weather event.
Though the sun is shining and I’m grateful, it is in no way warm. The water, after many sub-normal temp weeks simply never warmed up–so swimming has been less than a daily activity. But as they say you take what you get when you come up here–and there is still much here to savour.
A walk in the woods
Lots of nature–any time of the year–any weather!
My spouse, who is a much earlier riser than I, took these out in the back field area.
I’d forgotten that Monday is a civic holiday here in Canada so this weekend is a holiday weekend in every sense of the word.
Lots of people but so far not too many motorboats. Yay! Side benefit to the fuel fiasco.
I visited a bit with my Uncle Bob yesterday, sharing some really old photos of family with him and his daughter. He was able to clarify a couple things about places and people and I’m really grateful. He seemed particularly happy with some photos of some of his children when they were small so I’m going to scan them and email them. It’s nice to share.
In the spirit of sharing I have some photos of Maple Lake from yesterday and today when I made my inaugural attempt at underwater photography. I was so nervous about water leaking and ruining my camera but the seal held tight and if the water hadn’t been so choppy I may have gotten some stellar results. Also I have to figure out how to not float up as I’m taking the shot. I intend to practice as my ultimate desire is to get some underwater ocean photos.
This is what it’s looked like a lot here at Maple Lake this week past~
I wasn’t unhappy to miss the weekend revelry in favour of getting things set up for spouse, son, and dog’s arrival. They got here around 11 p.m. last night. As always (lol) it took 13 hours out of a start about 25 miles northwest of Chicago. Accidents, construction, the usual–but an easy border crossing which is always appreciated!
The cottage is sinking noticeably this year. I don’t think the rains helped much.:( Filing down the doors just isn’t a long-term or permanent solution. It’s pretty worrying because it needs to be addressed, then the siding!
To the weather and bugs! /EDIT
Black flies are officially out of season here! I wonder if they know that? (See bug report below for the day before.)
Well folks, it’s t-minus about 64 hours and the clock is ticking down to my momentous leave of my entire family for a week at Maple Lake (they’ll join me for three more weeks at the end of week one).
It’s a bit unnerving and I can feel the anxiety starting to creep in–not about a week alone (are you kidding?–nirvana!) but of leaving the guys behind. With the youngest being almost 16 y.o. no one really needs me but I’m a control freak so I’m completely beside myself that they’ll forget to do all the things that I always do–and then what? Probably no big disaster–but tell my itchy brain that!
My main concern is the additional three weeks when spouse and younger son and our dog, Raven will join me at the lake. I’m afraid that eldest son, who does not have the vacation time to use so is staying here, will let my plants die.
I should be getting anxious about the near-700 mile drive there–but I’m not as I’ve done it so often–either alone or with a kid or two.
Moving along.
I stopped by Maple Lake Ontario today to check on the weather and the bugs and before doing so I checked on the the sun setting in Ontario and what a beautiful sunset it was!
I have a number of really pretty sunset web shots to share, then long-range weather, then bug forecast.
*About the webcam shots. It’s quite hard to obtain a good webcam shot due to factors including that most webcams are outside so the lenses get dirty, the webcam gets skewed to a strange angle, and bug juice collects. What I do is grab the shot and most times or in the case of the Dorset and Haliburton webcams, always clean them up and try to bring out as natural a photo image as I can.
Kincardine Harbour~ from Lighthouse One
Kincardine Channel overlooking the Penetangore River which connects to Lake Huron.
Silver Lake Resort~
Dorset Sunset, July 15~
Haliburton Sunset (enhanced)~
Once again the goofy neon car image at the top right area is where the road turns sharply, avoiding a plunge into Head Lake. I used to love going around that as a kid. Still do.
