Nothing screams “winter at the lake” like a rousing match of cricket. At least, it does if you’re the Stone family, cottagers on Livingstone Lake, Ont. The gang of five is active all year long at the cottage, says Tim Stone, a gym teacher and cricket

The Kijiji ad gave the impression of a trapper’s shack that a tornado dropped on the site of an ancient ruin. Jeremiah Johnson meets Judy Garland meets Indiana Jones. Clad in faded half-log and all of 320 square feet, it hunched on a small rise betwe

HYDRO HIGH Much to the disgruntlement of cottagers, the Ontario Energy Board has eliminated Hydro One’s Seasonal Rate Class. The impact? Former seasonal rate customers could see their hydro bills more than double. Sorry, not sorry, said the OEB in it

COLIN MCALLISTER AND JUSTIN RYAN’S first Canadian cottage experience couldn’t have been more idyllic. “We stayed in a log cabin, there were bears outside, a moose on the road, and eagles flying overhead,” Colin recalls. In the 10 years since, the Sco

1 “Born and bred” in the Fenelon Falls area, Adam Kay works for the Trent-Severn Waterway, a division of Parks Canada. In summer months, he serves as a supervisor at Fenelon Falls’ famous Lock 34, allowing the movement of boat traffic—which at peak t

A slow cooker cooks food slowly. Good if it’s soup, potentially bad if it’s frozen flesh. The slow cooker can hold meat in the food temperature danger zone (between 5° C and 60° C), long enough for bacteria to rear their ugly heads. And then wreak ha

AS A KID WHO SPENT ALL SUMMER AT THE COTTAGE, the annual arrival of the Canadian National Exhibition carried double-edged significance. On one hand, it promised fun and excitement, unchecked gluttony at the food hall, and the terrifying possibility o

For cottage cooks looking for a new set of go-tos, this is the book. Cottage Life contributor Claire Tansey’s latest collection of always-delicious, never-fussy recipes provides answers to common cottage conundrums. Spent all day in the lake and need

“Distracted driving relates to handheld devices in the vehicle. There’s no charge in the Highway Traffic Act that covers eating or other distractions while driving. However, they would likely fall under careless driving because it relates to not havi

31 Why your gas engine might sputter; how to get it fired up. 32 Quick! Tune up your baseboards, and save money this winter. 33 Buy this, and you’ll never have a dead car battery again. ■

It is late September and the day is achingly beautiful. The sun is rising, the mist lifting. The wind is down and in my canoe I slide north along the shore. I have no destination except eternity. At this hour and this time I am the only boat on the l

More commonly called a “multi-tool,” don’t be fooled by its small size. Fitted with an abrasive triangle, detail sanders remove paint and finishes from nooks and crannies after you’ve sanded the flat areas with a larger machine. Many can be fitted wi

JAYNE PRIMEAU, LAKE CHIPICAN, ONT. Jayne Primeau hikes around Canatara Park on the shores of Lake Huron, Ont., almost every week when the weather is nice. She takes her camera with her 90 per cent of the time. “So often you’ll see birds far off,” say

We’ve all been there. We get back to the cottage in the winter and need to use a piece of gas-powered equipment, but it just won’t start. Properly draining and storing your machinery at the end of the season can prevent this inconvenience, but that t

Deep beneath the snow, largely unknown tiny rodents scurry through tunnels, night and day, in numbers sometimes surpassing any other furry creature in the evergreen forests across Canada. Even in summer, southern red-backed voles remain largely unsee

For a wholly functional outhouse upgrade, cast your eyes belowdecks, to the bulkhead in front of the seat of ease, where you should see an ingenious fixture. I call it the urine shield. You can call it a rain stopper or a whiz diverter or anything yo

Mathew Palmer and Melissa Mascarin are “not tchotchke type of people,” says Mathew. So they created a new kind of guest book and gave visitors to their Badger Lake, Ont., cottage an easy host gift idea to boot. “If it’s our guest’s first time staying

This one’s for you, all you people who have emailed us over the years asking for plans from a long-forgotten issue. Well, delete that saved draft—Cottage Life Project Plans are now available for purchase online. You can find some of our most popular

FROM THE ARCHIVES WINTER ’09/’10 Anything hampering a baseboard heater’s airflow reduces its efficiency and costs you money. That includes dust, dirt, and pet hair that builds up on the heating element and radiator fins. So before winter hits, clean

Automotive batteries don’t like the cold. A battery can lose up to 60 per cent of its cranking power at just -18°C, and it can drop even further as temps get colder. A battery that does just fine at home may have trouble starting the car after sittin

In my youth, a winter visit to the cottage was an infrequent adventure. Our place was at the end of a mile-long road that in those days saw no plow. The snow—there was more of it then, right?—came early and stayed late. Visiting meant walking through

We want to know if Zimmer crashed our wedding (“Married…With Hassles,” In Like Zim, Oct ’20). We don’t remember inviting him, but here are the similarities: we were married in November, at a reception hall, had a six-course meal, served flaming sambu

I have to confess when I heard my father, a retired doctor and amateur woodworker, was making mushroom-inspired headboards for one of the cottage bedrooms, I feared the kitschy worst. Although he’s spent a solid chunk of his retirement lovingly resto

Items in this section may appear larger, smaller, colder, and more athletic than they actually are. 20 Who in the heck plays cricket in winter? Or, ever, at all? These cottagers do! 21 You think that you’re not a winter person, but you just need to f

Q: Do you have any tricks for getting the smell of campfire smoke out of clothes and fabric without washing? In the winter, we do a lot of outdoor campfires at the cottage, and we’re finding that laundering bulky items like parkas and snow pants, etc