Thursday, May 14, 2009

Opening the Cottage

I got a good clickage today, so I'm happy. And today boys and girls, we learn what is going to be done to open a Canadian cottage. I'm writing in advance because you never know...

This is the marina webcam, taken today. The first thing you want to know is that the ice is out. My cottage is way in the distance, and there is no road. The geology behind my place looks like somebody raked solid granite (gneiss) with a comb. No road is possible, and it's quite a challenging hike!

And you notice the dark and fuzzy look of the photo. That isn't the weather, IT'S BLACKFLIES! Clouds and clouds of them. The plague only ends with the dragonflies come out, and gobble them all up.

So we jump into the boat, holding our breaths so we don't suck them down our lungs and we zoom over to the cottage. Then we run up and get our blackfly nets. Why I never remember to pre-load them in the fall in the boat, I'll never know. Must be a mental block.

The inside of the cottage will have a glorious carpet of dead blackflies. This is the weekend that I start the pump, which requres the kids to bring up buckets of water for the prime. It's a jet pump at the top, so both tubes need to be filled before the pump starts. When they're finally gone, I'll use my electric sump pump to prime, but don't tell them!

To install the pump foot valve, I may have to touch the water. It is still as close to freezing as you can get without walking on it! Deadly pain to all those who touch it!

If anything interesting happens, I'll write after, if I survive.

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