Kottage-tek - MP3 Edition Cliff Robertson and Bruce Hanson

We finally get a live audience and boy do they ever like us. Ok, so it helps that they are family and well bribed with food and liquor. My applause sign probably didn’t hurt either.





Everyone went snowshoeing today and it was nice to just go for a quiet walk in the woods and enjoy the peace and quiet of winter in the back country. Now most people don't realize that there are lots of different designs and they all serve a unique purpose. Largely determined by the aboriginal tribe, the area where they lived, and what they used them for. There is everything from bearpaw for maneuvering through dense bush to the traditional ones with the tail which were for traveling across wide-open country like crossing large lakes. The tail helps keep you walking in a straight line.





We also noticed that the couch family have their rink setup on the lake but this year they’ve gone overboard by installing lighting for night skating. All they need now is the beaver tail concession.




Of course we did get to our beer of the day Dark Helmut from Beau’s All Natural Brewing Co. in Vanleek Hill Ontario It's an extra strong version of a german black lager which comes in at 7.3% ABV. It uses only traditional, Aramis, and Hersbrucker hops giving it a IBU of 33. You can find more info at Beau’s All Natural Brewing Co.

I solved the sagging rain gutter problem by installing a rain chain. This is a concept from ancient Japan that became popular in North America during the Victorian and Craftsman eras. I did a Kottage Knowhow video on our YouTube channel.




I experiment with roasting my own coffee beans using a hot air popcorn popper and it worked out really well. I sourced some green beans from Ashanti Rostery Cafe in Elora. Then I dusted off the old Proctor Silex Popcorn Pumper. I dropped in about ¾ of a cup of beans and plugged it in. The whole process took about 12 minutes to get to a medium dark roast. All the way to second crack! Checkout our YouTube channel.




I had a problem helping Karen get the capsule off a bottle of white wine. After slicing open my finger I discovered it was a screw top bottle and not a cork with a capsule. This did give us the chance to perfect the “mandaid”. You cannot beat paper towel and duct tape to stop the bleeding.




Our beer of the day is Shoulders of Giants Imperial IPA. It comes from Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery in Barrie. This beer uses Galaxy, Falconers Flight, and Amarillo, hops to give it an IBU of 86. Be careful though, it comes in at a whopping 10% ABV in a 750ml bottle. Definitely not sessionable.

We had some serious storms with high winds come through the north end of the lake. Everyone thought it was a tornado that cut a path through the forest, but it was actually a “downburst” that flattened all the trees. Everyone had to literally cut their way down the cottage road but at least there will be lots of free firewood.


With all the trees down, power was out for quite a while. Hydro One has a pretty sweet mobile app that lets you see where the outages are and what the expected repair time is. Really cool..



Bruce mentioned “The Dam Grill” in Port Severn. It’s a great little restaurant right on the water. It has great food, cold beer, and a huge deck for those great summer evenings. A nice place to stop on the way up to Muskoka.




Our beer of the day is Red Racer IPA. It comes from Central City Brewing in Surry BC. IPA is a style of ale that was fashioned to survive the long voyage from England to India during the British colonization. Hops, hops, and more hops! This beer uses German Magnum, Centennial, Amarillo, and Simcoe hops to give it an IBU of 80. Be careful though, it comes in at 6.5% ABV.

We start out with a whole wheel of Oka cheese and nobody likes to cut the cheese more than Walter, Bruce , and I. Nothing beats Charcuterie at the cottage.


We mostly talked about one of the latest invasions in Muskoka. Its not party animals from southern Ontario, Its Eurasia Milfoil. A water plant that grows incredibly fast and can literally kill a lake if not controlled. This is definitely not a project for the cottage mower. Even with a snorkle.



We also touched on another invasive species in Muskoka. THis one is destroying beer fridges all around the lake. These are those "girlie beer" that come in silver cans or have fruit flavours to spoil the watery beer. Lets all support Ontario Craft Beer.




Of course we did get to our beer of the day from Collective Arts Brewing/a in Hamilton. It's Rhyme and Reason Extra Pale Ale. It’s not what I would call session beer at 5.7ABV but with four different hops coming in at 55 IBUs this is a very flavourful pale ale.

Boy when Bruce said Deb dragged her canoe from out east, he wasn’t kidding. There were some serious holes worn all the way through the fiberglass. Luckily, Walter has lots of experience repairing fiberglass boats, so we put him to work. .


After most of the prep work was done, we headed into Honey Harbour for the jazz festival. It was surprisingly impressive. It was a small festival, but the talent was fantastic.



Once we had our fill of classy jazz music, we headed over to Coldwater for the steampunk festival. It’s a bit like HG Wells lands in the Victorian industrial revolution. There was lots of steampunk related stuff and people in full costume as well a quite a few sweet ratrods. I am not even going to try to explain it to you. You will just have to google “steampunk” or “ratrod” to find out for yourself.




Of course, we did get to our beer of the day, its Georgian Bay Beer. A lite crisp beer, great for an afternoon on the dock. Its brewed by Hockley Valley Brewing Company in Orangeville. You can find more info at http://www.georgianbaybeer.ca/ or http://www.hockleybeer.ca/ There will be links to them on our website, kottage-tek.com.

We started the weekend by visiting Christie's Mill in Port Severn for a nice dinner together. There was a wonderful musician named R. G. Peever playing guitar that we thoroughly enjoyed. He seems to go by the name "JazzTEX". wonder what "JazzTex is up to now?.


We finally got around to installing the new vanity in the master ensuite and boy was it a challenge. We had to pull all the rabbits out of the hat for this one to get all the plumbing into a three-inch space behind the cabinet drawers.



Of course, we have been calling Bruce "squirrel" for years and now he has the T-shirt to prove it. I think we need more T-shirts myself.



Of course we did get to our beer of the day from Nickelbrook Brewing in Burlington. It's Naughty Neighbour American Pale Ale. Named after anundefeated Roller Derby Champ it is bold and in your face. It is sessionable at 4.9% ABV and 38 IBU.