Cottage philosophy: Do chores while looking up and out

Staining the deck that overlooks the lake

Without fail, something needs doing. If it’s not the door that won’t latch, it’s the deck that needs staining, or the eavestroughs that need cleaning. The trick is to do the task while keeping one eye on the view. Whatever the work is here at Clifftop Cottage, the view is the reward. 

Our home is in a just-off-city-centre neighbourhood, close-quartered to neighbours, so the expansive view across the lake at the cottage not only figuratively lowers my shoulders, it physically slows me down and opens me up. We are fortunate to have this place, and I am grateful for it. 

I knew nothing of the “cottage lifestyle” when I moved to Manitoba in 1989. Growing up, my family had tent camped, which I enjoyed, and, in our early years together, Val and I did that, too, and we enjoyed it. Once, even, we bike camped our way around a trail in Riding Mountain National Park — all our gear and ourselves on two bikes. But, eventually, we decided to trade that form of outdoor adventure for the cottage version. In this province, many decades ago, a government decided to make the cottage experience more accessible to “ordinary” Manitobans by opening up the land in some provincial parks via a lottery system. By leasing rather than buying the land, the whole enterprise did, indeed, become more affordable for the average family — this family included. 

Having a cottage is a lifestyle: a five-day off/two-day on lifestyle for at least a portion of the year. As a new Manitoban, I was mystified by the question often asked by workmates of each other on a Friday come summertime: “Are you going to the lake this weekend?” Manitoba is rich in lakes beyond the two Great-Lakes sized but not so classified Lake Winnipeg (the world's tenth largest) and Lake Manitoba (the world's fourteenth largest), so the question was more about getting out of the city than it was destination specific. 

Where people head on the weekend might be a cottage or a trailer or a tent-site, it doesn’t matter, the mindset is similar: “Going to the lake” means packing up, leaving the city behind, and enjoying the weekend outdoors. With only eight weekends in the prairies’ peak summer months of July and August, it’s no wonder we are so eager and so grateful for them — no matter where the destination is or what kind of shelter awaits us there. 

For sure, we can expect chores wherever we end up. Whether it’s doing the dishes in a washtub on the tent-campsite picnic table or crawling under the cottage to repair a section of plumbing (Val’s job), life in the great outdoors is about looking beyond the task to the beauty around us — the view, the wildlife, the sheer wonder of the natural world. 

In our early days at the cottage, the chores were challenges to be conquered (especially those plumbing jobs!); these days, they are still challenges but not quite so much fun, and the physical exertion required for so many of them is often more than we can happily handle. Nonetheless, the view remains the reward at the end of the day. And our enjoyment of it is no less. 

Using power tools was all new to me, and over the yeas I have discovered how much fun it is to wield them 

(judiciously and safely) to get a bigger job done. We have a battery powered chainsaw 

that is big enough for many jobs, but small enough for us to handle safely. 

I have become an adept handler of the trailer that we use to take brush to the dump; 

in fact, Bill, who used to manage the dump, called me his "best backer up". 

Wearing a hat up here is a requirement when doing outside chores. 

Mine is a reliable and sturdy Tilley hat that is 24 years old and counting. 

Staining the ramp that leads down to the lake was a tricky but fantastic job to do: 

Talk about having the view right in front of me! 

..............................................................................................................

To receive my weekly blogpost in your inbox, email fiveyearsawriter at gmail dot com. Simply put SUBSCRIBE in the subject line. 

Land acknowledgement: I respectfully recognize that I live on the original lands of Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene peoples, and on the homeland of the Métis Nation.