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26 Articles

FREE PREVIEW TV GUIDE Todd Talbot’s Passive House New series coming soon! What is a passive house and how do you build one? Let Todd Talbot and his wife, Rebecca, answer these questions and more in this part-documentary, part-home reno show that chronicles the couple’s journey towards their lakeside oasis. Plus, what happens when a devastating wildfire destroys everything? Mysteries From Above New season | Thursdays, 8 p.m. ET/PT This series uses drones, satellite imagery, and aerial photography to showcase hard-to-reach locations. Viewers will explore unique geological occurances, man-made structures, and lost civilizations, all through never-before-seen footage. Unearthed New season | Sundays, 9 p.m. ET/PT Unearthed delves into mysteries surrounding some of the greatest wonders of the ancient and modern worlds. Through CGI animation, viewers can see how these iconic structures were designed, built, used, and, even in some…

Matthew Hague Writer Matthew Hague was on track to become an architect—until a spontaneous magazine internship changed his career course. “I always loved writing,” he says. “After that internship, I realized I loved it more than architecture.” That made going after a journalism job an easy choice. Over the years, Matthew has written for Toronto Life, Canadian House & Home, The Globe and Mail, and, you guessed it, Cottage Life. His piece, “Meet Her at the Lake,” p. 66, is his first profile feature for the magazine. “Carley’s books have been so successful. I hope people enjoy learning how she made it all happen,” he says. And narratives such as Carley’s are exactly what he’s in search of as a writer: “I’m always looking to tell positive stories, especially when it…

We’ve been answering your questions in the “Cottage Q&A” section of our magazine for 33 years now. While many writers have served as your cottage Q&A’er in that time, we want to shout out one of our senior editors, Jackie Davis, who has been your Q&A queen for 15 years. The first question she answered was about black walnut trees, in our April 2009 issue, and she hasn’t stopped solving your queries since. In fact, as we’re writing this, Jackie is on the phone with a contractor for an upcoming column. Thanks, Jackie!…

Editor’s Note: In butter tart eaters we trust

IF I EVER want to know where to buy something, I ask my friend Cait. She always “has a guy” who can do things quick, or she knows a hidden gem that makes the best whatnot, or she can recommend a good product or service that will make life easier and better. I’m not sure how she does it. I think it’s partially that she has great taste and is discerning, and she’s also a no-nonsense type who asks the right questions and insists on detailed answers. She does her research. So, her recommendations are always reliable. When we put together each issue of this magazine, we try to channel Cait. Making Cottage Life means thinking deeply about what our readers need and how we can deliver the most authoritative, relevant, and…

Editor’s Note: In butter tart eaters we trust

Your Letters: Murmurs and mumblings

Being present in the past I just finished reading “On the Shores of a Lake Like Yours or Mine…” by Katherine Laidlaw (Winter ’23). Many of us know of stories like this one, but this article is beautifully written and doesn’t sugar coat. As many of you are probably aware, we Jews right now are not okay. It is a dark era for us. Both world clashes and local events have led us to a place where our paranoias are coming alive. It is so important to highlight past immoralities, such as anti-semitism and racism, in order to project current thinking that these will no longer be acceptable. This type of story is so welcome at this point in time, and we thank you.—Dave Manson, via email I’d love to see more…

Your Letters: Murmurs and mumblings

A themed hammock made from discarded tug lines

IF THERE’S ANYTHING more cottagey than lazing in a hammock at the lake, it might be lazing in this hammock (far right). Mark Hurst, a Great Lakes freighter wheelsman, has been making hammocks—out of the nylon rope the freighter company uses as tug lines—for more than a decade. When tug lines break, they’re discarded; the hammocks are a way for Mark to repurpose the rope. And, of course, to showcase his DIY skills. He’s salvaged rings (to hang the hammocks) from old safety belts and collected wooden beads (to create patterns or lettering) from car seat covers. Why, after about 30 creations, make a shout-out to Cottage Life? Because he’s a CL mega-fan, obviously. Or maybe it’s because “I just thought it would be impressive,” he says. It usually takes Mark…

A themed hammock made from discarded tug lines

How this cottager started a new scholarship program

AN ONTARIO COTTAGER and animal lover has cashed in thousands of empties to finance a new veterinary scholarship at the University of Guelph. “Student book expenses are very high,” says Jill McDowell. “This is a chance for a future vet to work hard on the books and not have to have a job.” The Kahshe Lake, Ont., cottager has lived with animals for all her life: her mother bred Irish terriers through Jill’s childhood, and Jill has fostered dogs for many years as an adult. So, when she met an elderly woman who couldn’t afford her dog’s vet bill a few winters ago, not only did Jill pay for it in full, she started researching other ways to support pet owners in need. “At my island cottage, I began to notice that people…

How this cottager started a new scholarship program

Recipe: Cheesy beer bread

AH, OPENING UP. After all the hauling and cleaning, and then even more hauling and cleaning, you want a snack. Or a beer. Or both at the same time. That’s why we’re sharing this simple, cheesy beer bread recipe from Fraiche Food, Fuller Hearts by Jillian Harris and Tori Wesszer (Penguin, 2023). “We have loved beer bread for as long as we can remember,” they explain in the recently published cookbook. “In fact, Jillian’s mom, Peggy, owned a home decor store in Peace River, Alta., called Beyond the Picket Fence, and she always carried beer bread mix in the store. Jillian would whip up a loaf in the little kitchen in the back. This recipe has long since replaced the old bread mix, but the nostalgia and joy we feel…

Recipe: Cheesy beer bread

The origin of seven wild-species-inspired idioms

“WE HAD A WHALE OF A TIME!”; “SHE HAS A BEE IN HER BONNET”; “CAT GOT YOUR TONGUE?” You’ve all heard these animal expressions, and you—for the most part—probably understand what they mean. But do you know where they came from? (That last one, according to one theory, originated because in the Middle Ages, liars and blasphemers were punished by having their tongues cut out and fed to the king’s cats.) Check out the origin stories of these seven wild species-inspired idioms! Don’t worry, they’re less gross.— J.D. Red herring Allegedly, this term comes from fox hunting. Smoked herring turns bright red and smells especially fishy. Apparently, dragging some across a fox’s trail would confuse the hounds (and prolong the hunt). Actually, back in 1686, fox hunters preferred to use a dead cat…

The origin of seven wild-species-inspired idioms

A community group rallied together on Facebook to save this fox’s life

ON JANUARY 9, a young, male red fox was taken to the Sandy Pines Wildlife Centre in Napanee, Ont., after being discovered on Bath Road in Kingston, Ont. He had been hit by a car and was almost unconscious. When the fox arrived at Sandy Pines—a rehabilitation facility for injured and orphaned wildlife—the team quickly got to work assessing his injuries. After conducting a few X-rays, Leah Birmingham, the facility’s medical director, realized that, along with head trauma, the animal had sustained multiple jaw fractures. Birmingham sent the X-rays to veterinarian Andrew Winterborn, the director of animal care services at Queen’s University and a regular volunteer vet at Sandy Pines. She hoped he could complete the surgery in-house, rather than Sandy Pines having to send the fox to a different facility,…

A community group rallied together on Facebook to save this fox’s life

Reporter: Phrag fight, eco cops & call stall

A STAKE IN THE GRASS Great news for groups battling the dreaded invasive phragmites. The Invasive Species Centre recently reported that, thanks to an investment of $250,000 from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, 21 Ontario community projects aiming to eradicate the grass will receive funding this year. The projects will boost the province’s ability to battle what some experts consider to be Canada’s most destructive invasive plant. Among the groups getting the cash? The Lake Wahnapitae Home and Campers Association, the Lake Bernard Property Owners’ Association, and the Long Point Ratepayers’ Association. Go get ’em, guys! DAYS OF THUNDER As if earth doesn’t have enough biodiversity loss problems already. Late last year, Environment and Climate Change Canada announced the results of Operation Thunder 2023, a month-long crackdown to “dismantle criminal…

A gaggle of blue jays and some funny comments

@bostonbilly14 Haven’t seen this many Blue Jays in one spot since Spring Training! @patricia ruggia That's a lot of corvids! @designby desta I’ve never seen that many together before. @jerumball Team building exercise before the playoffs!! Go Jays go!! @jason_from_ontario Wow, that’s the most blue jays I’ve ever seen in one place @kecke_mehrkens That’s quitea party! @sellingscotia realitygroup Here’s to hoping they make the playoffs! @muskokagirl forever LET’S GOBLUE JAYS! @lynnieis mindful @bird.cardinal Blue Jays celebrating the World Series.…

A gaggle of blue jays and some funny comments

In Town: Carley Fortune’s favourite spots in Barry’s Bay

On p. 66, we profile Canadian novelist Carley Fortune, who grew up cottaging in Barry’s Bay, Ont., in the Madawaska Valley. She drew inspiration from the town for her first book, Every Summer After. Now, Barry’s Bay draws many fans, trying to find the actual places that inspired Carley’s book. Here are a few of her favourite spots—they make cameos in the novel. V&S STEDMANS DEPARTMENT STORE 19559 Opeongo Line, Barry’s Bay, Ont. Carley used to buy supplies to make friendship bracelets here as a child. In Every Summer After, it’s where Percy goes to buy a new bathing suit to do a big swim across her lake. WILNO TAVERN RESTAURANT 17589 ON-60, Wilno, Ont. The restaurant, in a neighbouring town, is the wood-beamed structure that inspired the Tavern, where Sam and his brother work as…

In Town: Carley Fortune’s favourite spots in Barry’s Bay

Buy the Way: This cottage purchase took a leap of faith

The search When real estate agent Alexis Victor set out on a day trip from her Washago, Ont., home in February 2021 with her husband, Patrick Fay, and their young daughter, MacIntyre, the family didn’t intend to go cottage-hunting. But, on the way to Huntsville, Ont., while Patrick was driving, Alexis was casually looking at listings online and spotted a three-bedroom, two-bathroom property on Henshaw Lake, listed for $1,200,000. “It was a ‘stop the car!’ moment,” she recalls. The cottage, built in 1967, hadn’t been updated in decades. But Alexis loved its mid-century modern vibe. “It looked like the set of The Brady Bunch,” she says. The family already owned a three-bedroom, 700-sq.-ft. cottage on Lake Simcoe, which Patrick bought in 2008. But the Henshaw Lake property was three times the size, at…

Buy the Way: This cottage purchase took a leap of faith

Portable power station buyer's guide

PORTABLE POWER STATIONS deliver backup electricity when you need it, without the noise, fumes, and fuel of a gas-powered generator. They’re an ideal solution for off-grid cottagers or anyone with unreliable electricity, but understanding how to pick the right one can be a challenge. “A power station would make sense for us, given the number of outages we get,” says Huntsville, Ont., cottager Fred Faber. “But I can’t find anyone to explain the technology.” Portable power stations have three main components: a high-capacity battery, an inverter to deliver 120 volts AC going out, and a charge controller to handle incoming power to recharge the battery. Small, portable power stations producing less than 1,000 watts of AC output are only really useful for charging phones and running a lamp or two. But with 1,500…

Portable power station buyer's guide

A Finnish-inspired reader project

HARD WORK AND thoughtful planning guided Danielle Morrison’s latest DIY venture: a cozy Finnish-style sauna for her cottage on Lac Patterson in Quebec. The project drew on more than three decades of Danielle’s building and fixing experience, all self-taught with some help from the internet. On previous projects, the “60-years-young handywoman,” as she describes herself, learned how to replace carpets, fix drywall, and make epoxy river tables with live-edge boards. Three years ago, she even spearheaded the construction of her family home. “I was on site every day,” she said. “Sometimes, the contractors wouldn’t do things, so we would have to roll up our sleeves and do it ourselves.” And so, after admiring her neighbour’s sauna, she decided to build her own. “Why do we have to wait till we’re invited?” she…

A Finnish-inspired reader project

Repair strategies for those leaky fridge and woodstove seals

Stove heating inefficiently? EVERY AIRTIGHT WOODSTOVE and fireplace insert has braided fibreglass rope installed around the door edge for a tight seal. Eventually, when it gets brittle or starts falling out, or when closing the air vents won’t throttle back your fire anymore, it’s time to replace the rope. You’ll pay less than $20 for a new rope gasket and high-temperature adhesive at hardware stores and building centres. Buy more than enough rope to go around the perimeter of your door. When the stove is cold, pull the old gasket out of the groove, then use a putty knife or a slot screwdriver to remove any remaining adhesive. Get help to hold the new rope in the door groove without glue. Then, with scissors, cut the rope precisely to length so both ends…

Repair strategies for those leaky fridge and woodstove seals

A Leopold bench you can build in one weekend

A CLASSIC OF American utilitarian furniture, the Leopold bench is named after Aldo Leopold, a conservationist, author, and educator who helped establish the field of wildlife management. While it’s not 100 per cent certain that he designed this bench himself, he built and used many of them. A keen birdwatcher, he often sat backwards in the seat, using the back to support binoculars or a sketchbook. Most versions of the bench are quite boxy and not really built for human comfort. Jamison Rantz, a DIY blogger and a furniture designer at rogueengineer.com, made a few smart refinements to the proportions and angles for a bench that’s both more elegant and comfortable. To build Jamison’s version, you only need four 8' 2x6s—cedar or pressure-treated lumber—about 36 2½" deck screws, and some exterior wood…

A Leopold bench you can build in one weekend

These materials will lower your cottage's carbon footprint

INSULATING YOUR COTTAGE saves energy. But what about the energy that went into manufacturing that fibreglass or extruded polystyrene in the first place? If you’re trying to reduce energy use and carbon emissions as you travel to the cottage and use it, you should also pay attention to embodied carbon—the emissions from manufacturing, transporting, installing, and disposing of building materials. Cement and concrete, metals, and plastics are generally high-emissions building materials, but there are alternatives with lower embodied carbon. Portland limestone cement Producing concrete and Portland cement contributes up to nine per cent of all human CO2 emissions. But there is an easy alternative to standard Portland cement. Portland limestone cement just has more limestone—it costs the same, performs the same, and is widely available. Plus, making it emits 10 per cent less…

These materials will lower your cottage's carbon footprint

Cottage Q&A: Best mattresses for humidity; gray fox or red fox?; a mysterious rash from the lake; capital gains and selling the cottage; how many wildfires do trains cause?

Q: We have a cottage up on the south Bruce Peninsula, and it is very humid and damp. We’re replacing old mattresses, and I’m wondering, what is the best type of mattress that will not hold moisture?—Caroline MacDonald, email A: Sadly, mattress-makers don’t create versions that are specifically designed for damp, humid environments. That said, Stan Stadnyk, the owner of Mattresses of Muskoka in Bracebridge, Ont., suggests that you go with coil mattresses over foam. “You’ll get more airflow.” On the other hand, Rolands Oskalns, the owner of Vivid Cleaning, a steam-cleaning company based in Toronto, believes that a conventional foam mattress—not a memory foam mattress—could work fine in a humid environment. “It’s synthetic, lightweight, and easier to clean,” he says. Either way, covering the mattresses with waterproof protectors could help. Or it…

Cottage Q&A: Best mattresses for humidity; gray fox or red fox?; a mysterious rash from the lake; capital gains and selling the cottage; how many wildfires do trains cause?

A super structure

PAUL KARIOUK HAS had a thing for bats since he was a kid. “I was Dracula every year for Halloween,” he says. So when Paul, an Ottawa resident who’s an architect by trade, was designing his own off-grid cabin on Lac Brochet, Que. (located about half an hour outside of Wakefield), he felt compelled to make space for more than just himself and his partner, Tony Gioventu, who is the CEO of a non-profit. The cabin would be perfectly positioned to provide shelter for up to a thousand of the tiny creatures, thanks to bat boxes attached to the support system underneath the 20-metre-high structure. Brown bats can eat up to 1,000 mosquitoes in an hour, which can contribute to significantly more comfortable summer evenings. “Anything we can do to…

A super structure

Our totally debatable, not-at-all logical, completely unscientific best of all things cottage country

EVERY COTTAGER HAS a little-known, familiar spot they claim as their own: the side-of-the-road chip truck on the way up north where the owner knows their order by heart, the shortcut to the lake (with the best view at sunset, of course) that shaves off a few minutes of travel time, or the tiny general store that sells the best homemade fudge in existence (and exactly one of everything else you could ever need). Along with these under-the-radar spots are small, time-tested rituals that cottagers hold on to so dearly: cracking open a chilled beer upon arriving on Friday night, or teaching your kid the outhouse hack you learned from your dad, who learned it from his dad, who learned it from…heck, who knows! In an attempt to uncover these insider…

Our totally debatable, not-at-all logical, completely unscientific best of all things cottage country

Meet Her at the Lake: How bestselling novelist Carley Fortune got her start at the cottage

NOVELIST CARLEY FORTUNE resides in a mid-century modern home in Toronto, but it’s in a little cottage three-and-a-half hours away where she does her best writing. The place, a rental she secures from a family friend every summer, is perched on concrete blocks at the bottom of a long, bumpy driveway at the end of an unpaved road. Inside, the knotty pine walls are rustic. On brisk nights, even in summer, you need a heavy sweater and a fire in the cast-iron woodstove. There’s no Wi-Fi, and the cell signal cuts out. At first glance, the place doesn’t scream “romance,” but to Carley, it’s what the cottage represents that’s deeply romantic. It’s here where she’s written two bestselling romance novels that have become something of a cultural phenomenon. Sometimes, she writes…

Meet Her at the Lake: How bestselling novelist Carley Fortune got her start at the cottage

Our handy guide to mastering seven key knots (while maintaining the life of your lines)

TIP Some ropes are better suited to certain tasks than others. You can still find natural fibre rope, such as Manila or cotton, but it will rot if frequently wet. For most cottage uses, synthetics, such as double-braided polyester, nylon, or polypropylene, are better. Nylon is relatively stretchy and ideal for dock lines and anchors; the rope takes the strain of a sudden pull. TIP Double-braided polyester rope is strong, durable, and holds knots well; it’s good for lashing a canoe to a car or for the lines of your sailboat. Polypropylene is only slightly more stretchy and cheaper, but it breaks down in sunlight and can fail. It’s also slippery, with a tendency to let loose knots. Never use it for dock lines, anchors, or hoisting heavy objects. On the other hand,…

Our handy guide to mastering seven key knots (while maintaining the life of your lines)

Here’s how wildlife babies learn to navigate the world

A FEW YEARS AGO, someone broke into my family’s cabin. They came in through a window, and rifled through the fridge. They ate some butter and carried a litre of milk outside. They drank the milk and tossed the empty carton on the ground. Pfft. Not only did this person steal from us, they littered in the woods, which felt like an extra kick in the pants. Except, we later found out, from chatting with others on the lake, that the intruder was a young bear—it had been pulling the same fridge-opening, food-stealing stunts at other cottages. If you’ve been reading this magazine for a while, you know that bears—and other cottage-country wildlife—can learn all kinds of skills if doing so gets them what they want (usually food). Operant conditioning, where…

Here’s how wildlife babies learn to navigate the world

The snow is still on the ground when spring beauty bursts to life

Dainty bouquets of spring beauty often constitute the most bounteous blossoms beneath early spring’s still bare-limbed forests, from Newfoundland to northwestern Ontario. Delicate stems thread up through the leaf litter on open patches amid melting blankets of snow. Within a few days, a single or pair of lance-shaped leaves unfold and photosynthesize at turbocharge, even in temperatures just above freezing. In the scant weeks before the tree canopy closes, the leaves provide carbohydrates for an entire year of growth. Beckoned by the sun, the early bloomer soon opens its petals, closing again at night or under cloudy skies. Over a couple of weeks, a single stem unfurls as many as 11 flowers, each lasting up to eight days. Pink, candy-cane stripes guide myriad bees, flower flies, and a few butterflies towards…

The snow is still on the ground when spring beauty bursts to life

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