Every magazine I pick up these days has the word “green” somewhere on the front cover. From “Green Cleaning and Cooking” to “Enviro-Friendly Homes, “green” is the “it” word. I must admit having seen the movie, An Inconvenient Truth, I am much more eco-conscious and am trying to walk more, drive less, particularly because I have a gas guzzling SUV.

Living up at the cabin for the summer, I am aware of how little energy we consume. Our “grid” consists of four six-volt, deep cell batteries, four solar panels, a generator and a propane tank, that gets filled once a year. This limited supply of power has had a dramatic effect on our behavior.

For example, at the cabin I only turn on lights when it gets dark, then never more than two at a time. We use low watt bulbs. At home, it is not uncommon for us to leave lights on day and night.

My lawn at the cabin consists of hearty weeds and a few scrawny blades of grass. As a result, I use the Weed Eater once or twice over the summer. Grass at home gets cut every 10 days, complete with leaf blower to keep things tidy, and semi-weekly watering to keep everything green.

When it comes to laundry, I have a high energy washing machine and a 20 foot clothesline strung across the front of our cabin. I don’t have a clothesline at home, or even a drying rack for that matter. As for dishes, we take turns washing up, but at home – you guessed it, everything goes into the dishwasher.

As for appliances, we have a propane fridge, stove and fireplace. In the city, we have the same ones and then some. Freezer, microwave, dishwasher, garburator, TV’s, stereos, alarm system, and fans to name a few.

We even have a low water toilet; button on the left for pee and button on the right for, well you know how it goes. But at home, we flush a lot of water down the drain.

How did our energy consumption get so out of hand? Was it modernization, laziness or accessibility?

I know I can live a simpler life and use a lot less energy. I am going to start off by turning off the lights until we really need them. Next week the dishwasher?

Here’s to going “green”.

Cheers,

Julie

If you vacation at a cabin that doesn’t have telephone service, getting Internet access can be costly and challenging. Driving into the closest town and trying to find a signal is also a bit tricky especially if the town doesn’t have a Starbucks.

There are several options for Internet when you cottage in remote areas, but how you use the Net, and what you’re willing to spend might limit your options.

For straight email - a Blackberry is a good, but somewhat pricey option. I have a Rogers Blackberry, and with a data plan and phone, I’m paying about $117 per month - ouch. It does have great coverage and I can send and recieve emails. I can also surf the web, but bare in mind the screen is tiny and it is a bit slow.

Option #2 Wireless Aircard. I simply take my sim card from my blackberry, insert it into the aircard and plug it into my laptop. Sending and receiving is a very slow process and costly. Not great but it works in a pinch. Sierra Wireless makes the aircard. They are also come in a USB model - check your computer before you buy anything to make sure it has the proper slots.

Option #3 Satellite. XploreNet offers satellite service throughout Canada. It costs $399 for the dish and modem Installation is extra and will run anywhere from $100 - $500 for installation. The satellite needs a clear line of sight and be south facing. You also have to run two cables into your cabin where the modem will reside. You plug your computer directly into the modem or you can connect your router into the modem for wireless access.

If you want to lower your costs and your neighbors are close by i.e. 150 feet away, you might want to share a satellite signal. Using a wireless router, you could share your signal. If you are both using it at the same time, your service will be slower.

The rates are based on speed and the length of your contract:

$59.99 will give you 512 kbps upload and 128kbsp download (so slightly faster than dial-up but not by much)

$99.99 will buy 1 megabytes upload and 256 kbps download

It’s not a perfect solution, but you can pay by the month and the speed is actually not too bad - just stay away from trying to send photos .

XploreNet is only for Internet access only, they do not offer television service - that requires different equipment and uses another satellite. They will be improving the service in the next several months for Voice over IP or Skype Internet calling.

If anyone else has any other solutions or suggestions, I would love to hear from you.

Cheers,

Julie

(Thursday Afternoon - Deck Partially Painted)

Today’s blog is dedicated to all the cottagers who are in the midst of a “renovation or “cottage project.”

Our “little project” started a month ago with my husband staining part of the deck. As you can see from the picture (our cabin on Horne Lake), we have a fairly small outdoor area, approximately 450 square feet, but the lattice, which wraps around 3/4 of the cabin, goes on for miles.

With part of the deck stained, and friends arriving in two days for the long weekend, I decided to get busy and finish the job. Well one thing lead to another and now in addition to staining the deck, I’ve decided the lattice needs to be beautified too. What started off as a three hour project has mushroom into a three day project.

I have never actually stained lattice before and at about 2 p.m. on Wednesday, I realized I’d made a big mistake. ‘Oh my God,’ I thought to myself, ‘I am never going to finish this before the weekend.’

Maryann, our quiet but very cheerful nanny, cautioned me, “Once you start, you have to finish,” she said in the same voice she uses on our children. The two of us slugged away all afternoon barely making a dent on the deck.

By day’s end, we had mercifully ran out of stain. Standing back and surveying the damage, I knew I’d sunk us. The lattice trim went on forever, sucking up paint like water in the hot desert. The trim around the glass was slow, time consuming work. With only 48 hours to go before the weekend, I picked up my cell phone and dialed for help.

My older sister, Natalie, is a pretty good sport. She has come to my rescue on numerous occasions. After several urgent messages, I finally tracked her down. She admitted to getting my call but was pretending to be out of town. After some coaxing, she agreed to pitch in.

At 2 p.m. yesterday afternoon, she arrived with my birthday present, a Wagner Power Painter Lock and Go -model 242. Hugging her I declare, “This is the best birthday present you’ve ever given me!” It takes about 10 minutes to hook up the sprayer, and despite the wind, we manage to get most of the stain onto the lattice. What would have normally taken all afternoon to paint, only takes about 20 minutes of spraying. The Power Painter is a define must have for anybody with a lot of painting to do. It costs about $100 and can be found at Canadian Tire.

Thanks for a great present, Nat.

Cheers,

Julie

It’s 4:30 p.m. on a hot Friday afternoon. Easing my exhausted body into a soft reclining chair, I start to relax. I can hear the sound of water running and assume someone is having a shower. Slowly, my conscience tells me that no one is taking a shower, and I shouldn’t be hearing water running. Shaking off my fatigue, I run to our bedroom closest and am shot in the face with spraying water.

The pipes that my husband “ducktaped” in the spring have sprung a leak and are now soaking our bed linens and everything else within three feet. Frustrated and overwhelmed, I call my husband’s cell. ‘We do not have a phone book or any plumber’s numbers,’ I think to myself as I’m dialing, ‘Who is going to come all the way out to our cabin on a Friday afternoon?’

Explaining to my husband over a crackling cell phone connection what has happened, he informs me that he is on his way into a meeting, and I will just have to deal with it. ‘Deal with it?,’ I fume, ‘Deal with it?!!!! How am I suppose to deal with it???’ I am stomping around our soggy bedroom in a snit, when suddenly I have an idea.

Setting the women’s movement back 25 years, I put on my red bikini top and head out to our neighbor. Sensing my distress, he springs into action and has the leak plugged before I can finish mopping up.

The reality is, I don’t have to wear a low cut bikini every time something breaks at our cabin. In fact, it’s better if I don’t. We are surrounded by wonderful people who are always willing and eager to lend a hand. I don’t know what it is about my cottage neighbors that makes them so different from the folks back home, but it s this tightly knit community that makes cabin living so enjoyable.

If you have a special neighbor story you would like to share with us, please post it in the comment box, or drop me an email at julie@cottagedaily.com. We will send you a Tim Horton’s Gift Card to treat them to a cup of coffee.

Cheers to great neighbors.

Julie

I would like to talk about CottageDaily today. Slowly the word is spreading about its existence, and I am getting lots of great emails (julie@cottagedaily.com) from you folks. Thank you very much for the delicious recipes, suggestions and great story ideas.

Some of you may not know that CottageDaily.com is actually a blog - a website that uses client managed software (CMS). This means that you don’t have to be a geek to be able to have a website, although it really helps if you know a geek who can so some of the programming. Blogging has become really popular; it’s estimated that there are over 70 million of us, and the number grows by about 125,000 a day.

The software I use on the site is called WordPress. Aside from being free, it is one of the most popular open source blogging platforms. It is also supported by a great network of volunteers.

There are a couple of features I would like to draw to your attention. At the bottom of every article appears the word “Comment.” Clicking on this word, typing in your email address, your website address(only if you have one) will lead you to the comment box, where, you can add your own thoughts and experiences. It is a great way to keep me honest, and it provides a different perspective.

If you have left a comment and wondered why it didn’t appear right away, it’s because I approve all comments. This is done to block spam. I am thinking of removing it so you can have instant gratification.

The other feature I would like to mention is the “Subscribe” key. Again, if you hit this button and type in your email address you will receive an email every time an article is posted. You then can click onto the link and it takes you right to the site.

With any email addresses or information you provide, I will respect and honour your privacy. It will not be sold or used for anything other than it’s intended purpose.

Over the next week, the site will be modified ever so slightly, I was challenged to think of things that you “Must Have” so I have decided to make the previous articles easier to find. I also want to showcase our video clips. If you missed the Crash Reel - please go back and view it - it is hilarious.

Tomorrow, “Oh So Tasty Potato Salads,” will be featured. If you have a any great spud recipes - send them in and I will add them.

The sun is back - it is time to head outside. Have a great day everybody.

Cheers,

Julie

PS - if CottageDaily does not appear on the centre of your screen, hold down the Ctrl key, the Shift key and hit the reload key (blue arrow at the top of your screen) this will restore everything back to it’s original place.

You can never have too much power, especially this summer. With seven days of straight rain, my batteries aren’t the only things to be strained. It’s been proven that the sun makes us happier and life just seems easier, particularly if you’re living off the grid. We need these golden rays to flush our toilets, run our lights and power our DVD player.

Currently, our hydro system consists of one solar panel and two deep cell six volt batteries. This generates approximately 70 amps of power for us each week (assuming it’s not raining). While this amount is enough for a weekend, after about five days of cabin living, our batteries run dry. It’s not nice waking up with no running water.

I recently went online and calculated that we need approximately 120 amps/of power for the week. Well that explains our shortfall, now what do we do about it.

Costco. Yes the big name retail box to the rescue again. Costco sells solar panels ($299 Cdn). Made by Coleman and packaged in threes, combined, they provide 54 watts. The packaging on the box states that we will get up to 1,560 watts a week. Does this mean we can make toast?

Before I get too carried away we still need to get the batteries, sold separately. Deep cycle 6 volt golf batteries are the ones most solar dealers recommend. They handle heavy loads and can be drained without damaging the batteries unlike car batteries.

Ken Webster, owner of Webster Solar Energy, Burnaby, BC, recommends two batteries per panel. He cautions it’s a good idea to sit down and map out how much power your family will need. “Don’t heat, cook or do hot water,” is his rule of thumb when it comes to solar.

Are we there yet? Once we get the batteries squared away, we will need to make sure the charge controller or regulator will be adequate. The regulator is used to prevent the batteries from being overcharged. The Coleman kit comes with a 4A charge controller (I’m not sure what this means and if we can use it or if we will have to upgrade)

As far as maintenance goes, Webster states, “Aside from the batteries: checking their electrolyte levels; adding distiled water if you have deep cycle ones, there is not much to worry about. ” He recommends washing them off occasionally and make sure any tree branches are not blocking them.

I must say after all this, I still don’t know how much power we are going to end up with or if I will finally be able to make toast. One thing is for sure, if we don’t figure out how to get them mounted onto our roof, I will be back to hauling water out of the lake by bucket. Any suggestions?

Cheers,

Julie (praying for sun)

My head is buried in a wall of water. I can’t see anything in front of me except the wake, which I am plowing through like a human submarine. Fighting my way to the surface, I see my water ski sticking straight up and down. My shoulders feel like they are being ripped from their sockets. My nose, filled with water, is burning. ‘What the heck is going on, why is the boat going so slowly, why am I not popping out of the water,’ these thoughts and a few obscenities are racing through my mind.

“Faster! Faster!” I croak, barely audible above the boat’s roar. Finally after a slow aching struggle, I manage to get out of the water and I’m off, skiing into the sunset.

Back at the dock, I give my husband the look. “What happened out there?” I ask. Actually, it sounds more like a demand. Bill returns my look with one of his own. “The boat was wide open,” he replies, “Wide open.”

Having just spent another $800, our second of the season, I am beginning to wonder when we call it quits and walk away. Our boat, a used Sunray, was purchased from the previous cabin owners. Wanting to ensure that I would be able to go waterskiing the moment we had the keys to the cottage in our hot little hands, I insisted on buying their boat.

Bill, the calm prudent voice of reason, wanted to shop around and get a newer model. Now, having lost the battle and the war, I am conceding defeat. I wish we’d waited, at least then I could blame Bill, versus the other way around.

Calculating the costs of our Sunray, including insurance and gas, I figure we’ve sunk at least $2,000 into it this summer. Assuming I ski 20 times, that’s roughly $100 a ski or $20 a minute. A new boat is only going to drive up the cost of my favourite sport.

At this point I am open to any and all suggestions and offers on our boat. Hey, I’ll even throw in a generator, used of course.

Cheers,

Julie

It’s a good thing we cannot see into the future. If I had known last week that everything from the CottageDaily blog, to the dog was going to break, I might have curled up into fetal position and stayed in bed until it was over.

They say bad things happen in three’s but I beg to differ. Standing there in the hot sun, watching the tall, bald, tow-truck driver with the black snake neck tattoo hook my Jeep up to the wench, I knew this was no ordinary week. In fact, loading the boat onto the trailer for the second time in less than 24 hours because it required additional repairs, I started to feel a deepening sense of doom.

‘I wasn’t expecting this,’ I thought to myself. ‘This is our only week of holidays and it is not going well.’ It would be really easy to list all the “unexpected” events that occurred over the last seven days, but I will focus instead on the positives, and share with you what I learned.

You cannot get Internet access on Horne Lake unless you have a satellite or a Blackberry. Rogers Portable Internet service does not work, no matter how many times you say, “please, please, please.”

Libraries are a good place to go for free Internet, but be warned, seniors can be very territorial where terminals are concerned.

There is an excellent veterinary hospital in Parksville. The Bellevue Veterinary Hospital is open seven days a week including holiday Mondays, just in case your dog removes her stitches before her gaping wound has healed.

BCAA is a good thing to have, especially if you don’t know how to change a flat tire, or your husband breaks a bolt while trying to change yours.

Family holidays are not actually a holiday, at least not the kind where you sleep-in, hang by the pool, enjoy spa treatments or go for nice long relaxing dinners. No, I’ve discovered they are more like a week-long marathon of running from activity to the next, usually determined by the children. Eating takes place in restaurants where you line up and everything is made of plastic including the table. Cell phones and GPS are a must for these family get-togethers.

Oh, and one final note, I would like to thank the great staff at Nanaimo Regional Hospital for the gentle care my daughter received. We were all relieved that her wrist wasn’t broken. My husband has vowed to be more careful when shutting the Jeep door.

It’s good to be home.

Cheers,

Julie

Our dog, Daisy, knows the way to the cabin.  It takes four hours and includes crossing the ocean, but once we pull off the 19A highway and hit the gravel road, her ears perk up; her stubby little tail points north; and she starts scratching at the window.  Once the engine is turned off, she makes a mad scramble over the kids, desperate to be the first one out.  Opening the door, I stand back, making way for the hurtling flying ball. 

Daisy loves the freedom that comes with cabin living.  Her 50 foot yard is suddenly expanded to 800 acres, and includes: A lake, a forest, and unexpected treats from neighbors. But if your pet, like Daisy, is allowed to run lose at the cottage; you need to protect them from the elements.  Dr. Clark from the Granville Island Veterinary Hospital recommends the following:

• Rabies – make sure your cat and dog have their rabies shots.  Vaccination is done every three years.

•  Fleas and other things that tick:  Parasite protection is also important, especially if you have children.  If your dog is pooping where the children are playing, internal parasites, like round worm eggs, can cause blindness.  Dr. Clark prefers to use a topical parasiticide like Revolution.  It not only eliminates fleas, but also works on internal parasites like: hook worms, whip worms, and round worms. You should also check your pet frequently for ticks.

• Water –dogged:  Some dogs love the water; others avoid it.  Dogs that spend a lot of time in the water are more susceptible to ear infections, particularly if they have floppy ears.  Dr. Clark suggests using a drying and cleansing agent for the ears like Epi-otic.  But how do you know if your dog has an ear infection?  Your dog will scratch the infected ear a lot.

• Skunks:  there is nothing worse than a dog who’s been sprayed by a skunk.  It’s times like these you wished you had fish.  Dr. Clark recommends this simple remedy should you find yourself faced with a stinky pooch.

De-Skunking Recipe:

1. 1 quart (600 mls) 3% hydrogen peroxide

2. ¼ cup baking soda

3. 1 tbsp scented pet shampoo or any other non-medicated shampoo

Mix the ingrediants together and shampoo the dog, being careful to not get it in their eyes.

Here’s to happy healthy pets this summer.

Cheers,

Julie

When the barbeque repair man shakes his head and avoids making eye contact, you know you’ve done something wrong.  It’s the same disappointed look the dental hygienist gives when you admit to not flossing.

The reason the repair man, Adam, was fixing our que was due to a recent fire.  A fire, I was unaware of until Bill arrived just in time to see his cherished Weber Silver Series engulfed in flames.  Now looking at the charred gray knobs melted to the metal plate, I could tell Adam was clearly disgusted with the carelessness we had shown this once majestic grill.  “Grease fire,” he stated.  “You need to clean out the tray underneath or in extreme cases,” ours being one of them, “They will catch fire.”  

Well there’s just is not arguing with facts.  I wanted to explain to Adam that cleaning the grill is a blue job – a Bill job.  I do pink jobs or indoor jobs, and the person he should be disappointed with, was Bill.

In an attempt to lighten the mood and bolster my self esteem, I cheerily asked what kind of barbeque he had, “Weber, and it’s 18 years old,” he replied, making it very clear that he looked after his barbeque.  For the next half hour, I was given a maintenance seminar on how to properly care for our Weber.

The first lesson I learned is to regularly clean your grease tray or catch pan.  It is important to keep this clean as it will attract animals looking for a late night snack.

The second most important area to keep clean, and this is likely where our fire started, is the bottom tray.  To clean this area, take out all of the grills and grates.  Scrape the sides and base with a 1″ putty knife and push the debris out of the hole into a trash can.

Next, using a brass wire grill brush, gently brush the burner tubes, this is where the propane comes out.  The tiny holes on these tubes becomes blocked and results in uneven cooking.

The cooking grates are usually cleaned by preheating the grill to high; this will burn off any accumulated debris. You should occasionally brush the bars with a brass grill brush. 

The above instructions are geared to people who own Weber gas grills.  To find out how to properly clean your appliance, I would recommend going to your barbeque’s manufacturer website. 

Here’s to a great grilling season.

Julie