A Guys Weekend

Posted on September 28, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….leaving me by myself in this big house

Don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that my husband is off for the weekend with one of his best friends. He doesn’t do it often and I’m so happy that he’s enjoying the cottage. Apparently so is the dog. It just feels weird being in this house by myself. K’s gone away before but he’s always left the dog with me so I’ve never felt alone.

I stayed late at work again tonight. Knowing that no one was waiting at home, I decided to unpacked more boxes of books. A lot of the books that the boys and girls were asking for were still packed away so with the help of 3 former students who came back to help me in the library we pulled out the more popular titles. We created some more space by using the top of the lower book cases. I know that the boys will be happy to see Star Wars, Captain Underpants and Wimpy Kid back in the library.

On the way home I stopped and did a little bit of shopping for dinner, picked up some supplies for my budgie birds and bought a lottery ticket for tonight’s draw. When I walked through the front door my husband called from the cottage. He’s having a great time with his friend D. They got some more work done on the staircase railing and they hope to finish tomorrow. They’re eating like kings and the sauna was warming up while we were talking. Frances, our wonder dog, has been in doggy heaven. There aren’t too many people up at Big Sand Bay this weekend so she’s had a lot of freedom. She’s had so much fun that she hasn’t even wanted to eat. She was sleeping when K called. She’ll be one hungry dog tomorrow.

My daughter, A called about an hour ago and we’ve made plans to get together tomorrow. We’ll be heading out to the farmer’s market in the Junction and we’ll see where we go from there. My husband’s birthday is next week so we’ll probably be looking at some potential gifts to buy. Unfortunately my vacuum cleaner stopped working this week so I might also be looking for a good sale on vacuum cleaners.

As I’m writing this post I’m watching the last two episodes of America’s Got Talent. This year’s show has some of the best talent I’ve ever seen. All of the six finalists are winners in my eyes. They all deserve to be there and I will be happy, no matter who wins (or won, seeing that the winner was announced earlier in the week).

I had planned to get some work done around the house this weekend but I think having fun with my daughters and friends is going to take precedent.

Cheers!

Breaking into D’s Car

Posted on September 16, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….it’s amazing what we pick up from TV

As we were packing to go home yesterday, D came to my cottage in a panic because she couldn’t find her car keys. She thought she might have locked them inadvertently in the trunk of her car. She rummaged through the garbage first but to no avail. The only explanation was that she accidentally placed them in the trunk while packing and then closed the lid.

Breaking the window was the last resort so we searched the deep corners of our brains where we store useless information looking for a solution. How many times have we seen TV shows where cars are broken into in mere seconds with the use of a crowbar and a hanger? We found a crowbar and managed to pry open the window just enough to stick a saw blade into the interior of the car. Unfortunately the blades we tried were all too short or they bent when we applied pressure to the lock.

Finally D’s daughter found a long metal rod that did the trick. The click of the lock was like music to our ears. If you know what you’re doing and have the right tools you can break into a car in a matter of seconds. Not that we’re contemplating a career change but it is a bit scary when you see how easy it is to break into one’s car. Now all we have to do is learn how to hot wire a car and we’d be in business; another skill that could have come in handy if the keys weren’t in the trunk, which they were.

Off to the Cottage for a Couple of Days

Posted on September 14, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….hopefully the bears stay away

Even though I’ve just returned from a 3 day excursion with some of my students I’m heading north to join my friend D and her daughter for a ‘girls weekend’ at the cottage. We had planned this before I knew about the Mono Cliffs trip. I was too tired last night to make the trip so I’m heading up after I write this post. It looks like it’s going to be a beautiful weekend, weather wise. My lessons for the week are planned and there isn’t anything I can do about the library on the weekend so I think I’ll be able to enjoy myself without worrying about school.

I’ve been reading about bears on some of the blogs that I follow. It seems like more and more bears are moving into communities that haven’t experienced them before. I know that they’re trying to fatten up before the winter hibernation but it makes me nervous to think that they might saunter by looking for food at my cottage. Hopefully they’ll find enough food at the dump, which is a few kilometres down the road from us.

Enjoy your weekend. I’ll report back on Sunday night.

Cheers!

We Have What????????

Posted on September 1, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….black widow spiders on Christian Island

If I hadn’t seen it for myself I wouldn’t have believed it.

Last week my neighbour at the cottage told me that we had to worry about black widow spiders. At first I didn’t believe her but then I saw the sign that was posted at the library in the village. Apparently they are very dangerous and if you get bitten you have to get to the hospital immediately because the venom can be deadly.

I’m not surprised that the spider has made its way to Canada in shipments of fruits and vegetables from the southern states but I am surprised that they can survive our cold and often harsh winters. It is especially cold on Christian Island in January and February and it would have been the last place that I would expect to find them.

Well last week DM came running up to my cottage to tell me that her brother came across one of these spiders while rummaging through one of his computer boxes in the loft of their cottage. He quickly took the box outside and the spider disappeared under their deck.

I can’t remember if it was the same day or the next but DM came running up to the cottage again, this time wrapped in a towel. Apparently there was another one in the outdoor shower. I went to investigate. Of course I took my camera with me.

Sure enough there was a ‘large’ spider crawling up the inside wall of the shower. DM and her brother were unsure what to do with this massive creature and they certainly didn’t want to squash it. I suggested that they find the insect spray or wasp killer while I took some photographs.

What amazed me was how this thing hissed at me when I came close with my camera. Every time I moved in closer with the camera it literally scurried behind a beam and then reappeared seconds later. The bug spray was useless but the wasp killer did the trick. Well at least we think it did. It curled up and fell to the ground between the wooden slats of the shower stall. I felt badly about killing the spider but I certainly didn’t want to be at the receiving end of its bite.

Later on we found out that it’s really only the females that are dangerous and the one I took pictures of was probably a male. We reported the sighting to the band council and they made a note of the location.

What next? First it was confirmed sightings of 3 black bears and now black widow spiders. One more thing to watch out for.

Baking in the BBQ

Posted on August 21, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..and wheat free doesn’t mean carb free

After reading Wheat Belly by William Davis, MD, one quickly realizes that eating gluten and wheat free foods doesn’t guarantee weight loss. There are more and more gluten free products on the market than ever, especially in the snacking and bakery sections of the grocery store. If you were to read the ingredient lists you would discover that many of these products are high in sugars, fats and alternative starches and the calorie count is high for what you’re getting.

I was feeling somewhat liberated when I found gluten free flour at Costco and I was somewhat disappointed when I couldn’t find a gluten free banana bread recipe in Dr. Davis’ book. After using a regular recipe and substituting the gluten free flour for regular flour it started to dawn on me that I don’t normally eat bananas, let alone banana bread, even though I love both. I’ve always known that bananas are high in carbs and the bread goes without saying. It was when I added the 2 cups of sugar, the 1 1/2 cups of butter and 6 cups of flour that I started to question what I was doing.

So why was I baking banana bread when I’m still trying to lose weight? It just so happened that we were going to celebrate my friend D’s birthday on Sunday and she suggested that we bake something special. Besides she had some sour milk that needed to be used and I had some very ripe bananas. I went through my cottage cookbooks and lo and behold I found a recipe that used both those ingredients.

As you know from previous posts I don’t have electricity and I do the bulk of my cooking on the BBQ, including any baking that I might do. Over the years D and I have developed a knack for baking muffins, cakes and breads in the great outdoors. One of the tricks is to use smaller pans so that dough cooks through to the middle in a shorter length of time. The bread in the bundt pan was finished first, or so we thought. If you look closely at the cut slices you can see that the middle is a little too soft.

The two breads in the loaf pan took a little longer but were a better texture. One of the differences with using gluten free flour is that the bread was much denser than a normal banana bread and for some reason tasted much sweeter. If I were to do this again (for my friends who are truly gluten intolerant) I would definitely add less sugar and maybe even experiment with some kind of substitute that isn’t aspartame or saccharin. I’ve heard that applesauce is a good replacement for sugar in some baking recipes.

I had one and a half slices of the bread on D’s birthday and I ate one slice for breakfast the next morning. I’ve always found that if I’m going to eat carbs it’s best in the morning and then avoid them for the rest of the day. Maybe I should clarify that when I say carbs I mean breads, pasta and primarily flour products. I still eat lots of healthy carbs in the way of vegetables, some fruit and dairy products along with lean protein and healthy fats.

I’m going to have to read the Wheat Belly book a little closer and try to figure out how to fit it into my daily diet without increasing my carb intake. Maybe some of you have a gluten free, wheat free recipe, low in carbs, fat and sugar that I could try. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

The following pictures are of D and D’s birthday/anniversary dinner that they kindly invited me to. Afterwards we relaxed around a beautiful bonfire as the sun set over Christian Island.

Delicious lamb, fresh tomatoes, green salad with avocados and Ontario corn on the cob. Yum!

Happy Birthday, D!

Canoeing

Posted on July 11, 2013 by Mama Cormier

This is the last of the stories I wrote on the weekend. In hind sight I’m glad I took the time to write then because over the last few days I’ve been very busy getting ready for our trip to Ireland. We leave tonight.

Canoeing to the Northern Most Tip of the Island

….to try our hands at fishing (casting style)

It was hot today but the lake was cool and calm. Perfect for a ‘long’ canoe trip. Well it seemed long for a novice like me. I was placed at the front of the boat and I paddled on my left. D was at the back, in charge of steering and her daughter was in the middle.

We packed the fishing rods, water and kneeling pads into the canoe and I put my trusty little camera into a ziplock back to keep it from getting wet. We all put on our life jackets (we were travelling over very deep water) and tied down the extra paddle, the bailing bucket and all our gear….safety first.

Getting into the canoe was a bit challenging. It was then I realized how tippy this vessel actually is. I started to worry about my camera. If we did tip it would go straight to the bottom of the lake. Once we were all in place the paddling began. There was a slight ripple on the lake on the way to Salt Cove (a name we made up years ago) and D had a bit of trouble keeping the canoe on track. The trip to the point took us over an hour to complete. As we got closer the water became very shallow and we had to look out for rocks sticking out of the water.

We were able to beach the canoe relatively easily and we walked over the stoney shoreline to an area where we thought the fish might bite. We were using casting rods today and artificial bait. I had never used either. The actual fly fishing was very relaxing and I can see why people like it so much. A few times I thought that something was nibbling on my fake worm but I think that most of the time I was getting caught up on the rocks. Both D and her daughter swear they saw fish in the water but all I saw were the reflections off the water made by the sun.

After almost two hours, we called it a day and got back into the canoe. By this time the water was as still as glass and the paddle home took only an hour. Empty handed and exhausted we pulled ashore and were greeted by D’s family. Funny how the fish stories of the ‘one that got away’ start.

No fish for dinner tonight but I was famished. It was almost 9:00 o’clock before I ate. I had a huge kale and cabbage salad with cold chicken. It was no fresh bass, pickerel or lake trout but it did the trick. Maybe we’ll have better luck tomorrow. D wants to go to the lighthouse side tomorrow and cast a few lines there. Hmmmm, isn’t that where the bears were last seen?

Going Fishing

Posted on July 10, 2013 by Mama Cormier

Written Saturday, July 6, 2013

…..I can’t remember the last time I did this

Today I’m getting into a canoe and paddling over to and around Salt Cove to go fishing. I think the last time I did this I was a child. I remember liking the experience, even putting the worms on the hook. Today I think we’re fly fishing, so we’re not using live bait.

D keeps saying we’re going to catch our dinner. I know there are fish in this lake but because it’s so big the only fish that I’ve ever seen caught were with a net. I’ve bought some great lake trout from the local fishermen. Until this week I’d never seen fish caught with a fishing pole. Both D and her daughter went out earlier in the week and came back with a 14 inch bass, well that’s what we think it was.

The only other time that I’ve ‘caught’ a fish in Georgian Bay happened several years ago. I didn’t use a net or a pole. In fact I just picked it up off the beach. D and I were walking along the shore when we spotted this beautiful fish. It was dead but the eyes were still clear, there was no odour and there were no marks on the fish itself. We just happened to have a plastic bag with us so I picked it up and took it to my neighbour to see what he thought of our find.

W was amazed at the size of this lake trout. We took it back to his cottage and he brought out his scales. It weighed in at 8 pounds. He opened it for us and gutted and cleaned it and cut it into numerous steaks. The flesh inside was clean and we couldn’t see anything wrong with it. We debated why it ended up on the beach and the best scenario that we could come up with was that it had been trapped in one of the fishermen’s nets, died in the trap trying to escape and then was washed ashore with the waves.

That night we shared our ‘catch’ with W and his family and we invited cottage friends over for a feast. My favourite saying of the day came from our friend C from down the beach when she told all her neighbours that she was going for a dinner of ‘road kill’. That lovely fish fed over 10 people and we all lived to tell the tale.

Sitting by the Dock of the Bay

Posted on July 8, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…...waiting for the ferry at Cedar Point

As I drove down Cedar Point Road I had 10 minutes to spare before the ferry departs; however, today there was no ferry waiting to take on cars or cruising through the waters towards the dock. Today the ferry is at least 30 minutes behind schedule.

On the way here I debated about stopping to get paraffin oil for my lamps at the local hardware store in Lafontaine. I knew that stopping was risky and it could mean missing the boat. It wouldn’t have been a problem today. Hopefully I have enough oil left in my lamps for the next few nights, otherwise I will be totally dependent on candles or my one solar powered lamp. Of course the other option is going to bed early. This might be a good opportunity for me to catch up on my sleep.

I decided to take my laptop with me to the island so that I could do some writing while I’m up here. I made sure it was fully charged and I’ll have to be extra careful to shut it down when I’m not using it. It’ll be interesting to see how much I can do on one charge.

I’ve had mixed messages from followers as to whether I should take the laptop or the iPad with me to Ireland. I’m still undecided. I’m sure my husband would rather that I didn’t take either. I’ll have to limit my time blogging, maybe setting aside 30 minute blocks of time first thing in the morning or last thing at night. I must admit that I’ve become a bit addicted to writing this blog, following other blogs and checking out new sites. I think I’ll have to forgo reading everyone else’s blogs until I return home.

Well, the ferry finally arrived. We all ‘backed’ onto the boat (my least favourite way to board the boat) and we finally departed, 36 minutes behind schedule.

Why was it so Quiet at the Cottage?

Posted on June 16, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..could this sign posted at the dock have had anything to do with it?

I’ve been going to my cottage for almost 30 years and we’ve never seen a bear, never mind two bears. One of the reasons is because the cottage is on an island and it takes 20 minutes by ferry boat to get from the mainland over to the island.

You can get a pretty good idea how far away the island is from this photo. The bear must have swum over in the fall. I can’t imagine her doing it in the spring with a young cub in tow. There was some speculation that she might have walked over on the ice but I always thought that bears hibernated in the winter.

Anyway, it was a beautiful day and even though it’s still early in the season there were very few people on our beach. I did hear that some of the cottagers with dogs purposely stayed away until the bear problem is resolved. I feel, however, that unless they become a nuisance, nothing will be done about their presence. It certainly made me think twice about going for a walk in the woods this weekend.

The view looking east and west down the beach, yesterday.