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The first of many controlled brush burns. TAKEN: JUNE 21st, 2025 |

Sunday, June 22, 2025
FEEL THE BURN
Monday, May 19, 2025
WOODEN YA KNOW!
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The only good thing to report? We've opened up our view! TAKEN: MAY 17th, 2025 |
When the ice storm of the century hit Muskoka the final weekend in March, the damage around town was brutal. Fortunately, at the house, we escaped with a couple of days of cleanup and a handful of well organized burn piles for the fall.
Because we were leaving for Aruba the weekend following that storm, and with my getting pneumonia shortly after we returned, this past weekend was the first time we landed at the cottage to turn the water on and assess possible carnage.
When we pulled in the driveway, I had to hop out to move limbs so my travel buddy hubby to get up the lane. Once loaded up and headed to the top of the hill, nothing prepared us for the level of damage we would see. There was so many downed trees, we had a hard time navigating to the bottom.
We immediately focused on getting the water on (our lake intake was damaged by felled trees) and then I focused on a deep clean and getting beds made. Late in the afternoon I began cutting and moving the smaller brush (from the firepit area below) with my chainsaw; but it seemed hopeless.
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Hubby assessing the damaged plumbing stack and fascia damage. TAKEN: MAY 17th, 2025 |
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Pink arrow shows how healthy trees just snapped off from the weight. TAKEN: MAY 17th, 2025 |
A fancy name for a 4'x4' powered winch system to move items up and down the hill. Not all cottagers will want to climb that hill, like we have for the past 20+ years.
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The shed that won't die. (The tin boat remained all these years so I can reach my clotheslines.) |
Monday, September 5, 2022
A LABOUR OF LOVE
Nothing will work unless you do. ~ Maya Angelou
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A dark 9pm. Embracing the annual tradition of listening to Rock95 TAKEN: SEPTEMBER 4th, 2022 |
When I took this lakeside photo Sunday night at dusk, I can
confirm that I was generally feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. In one word - thankful.
In disclosing that, you would have no idea that my legs, butt, lower back, and shoulders were aching like hell from dragging felled trees down the hill all day then burning them, producing the glowing bed of coals seen here.
Summers have changed for us on Orillia Lake over these the last twenty years.
Gone are the days of diving off
the dock a midnight in the hope a neighbours' flashlight doesn’t catch a glimpse.
Here are the days where I walk the property wearing steel spiked shoes for the
fear I will fall and break a hip.
For the first time in long weekend memory, I cleaned the cottage and we came home.
Not because it wasn't going to be another great day, I just couldn't bring myself to work the land any longer.
So, we packed up, my hubby made a yummy dinner... and I curled up, feeding my squirrel friends on the deck, appreciating that I have the best of both worlds.
#feelingblessed
Thursday, August 20, 2020
A SNACK BRACKET
My very favourite client was in the office last week and he said to me… “Rhondi, just like you, I’ve had Covid-19.”
We burst out laughing after he continued with, “At the end of all of this, I’m not sure if it will end up being nineteen pounds, or nineteen kilograms!”
I don’t know about you, but as an emotional eater, I can generally peg the time of year when circus music begins to chime in my ear signaling me to buy stock in the most profitable potato chip company. And I can assure you, every fall, any and all are generously sampled; as part of my annual stock purchase evaluation.
What can I say. I was a fat toddler. I was power fed homogenized milk, and in those days the perception was the fatter the better. The good news is I shed that baby fat, the bad news is those formed fat cells follow you forever.
I have always been athletic and outgoing but when perimenopause clicked in everything changed. My body absorbed food differently and in one year my metabolism changed exponentially. It was in that moment I knew I was being put to pasture.
Kicking and screaming and the better part of a year later, I lost the excess weight and changed my lifestyle. That was in 2012.
Even with a major change in lifestyle, winters and my seasonal affective disorder in this harsh tundra have me pulling my gravy crutch out of the hall closet bringing the five or ten pound of weight gain that accompany it. The good news is those extra pounds were always shed before I ever had to appear in any sort of summer shorts or swimming outfit.
This year? We locked down. I filled up. The rest is history!
I want to shed the pounds I’ve gained yet I am a creature of habit.
If gravy has a crutch, my philosophy that if I share with the pups I am really only taking in 1/3 of the calories must be a motorized wheelchair. One chip for each of you, one chip for me. One jelly bean for each of you, one jelly bean for me; and trust me, I am always fair in the distribution department.
I guess you could say that the only way the dogs keep the upper paw on me is because they don't have to share their dog cookies with me. Though I must say, on occasion the label on the front of the box has made it cross my mind.
Not gonna lie.... Those gravy covered Milk Bone dog biscuits definitely land within my mid-winter snack bracket!!
#yagottalaughaboutit
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It would appear that Annie and I have similar snackage struggles TAKEN: AUGUST 7th, 2020 |
Sunday, July 5, 2020
VAYCAY STAYCAY
Tuesday, December 31, 2019
REMEMBERING 2019
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My year in the rear view! TAKEN: Throughout 2019 |
Monday, May 22, 2017
FINALLY... NOTICEABLE PROGRESS
(CLICK HERE TO READ: THE SKEETER/HACKSAW SAGA)
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LEFT TAKEN: JULY 21st, 2015 RIGHT TAKEN: MAY 21st, 2017 |
On one final note of trivia...
I read somewhere that if you chop your own wood it will warm you twice. If I throw in my unannounced hot flashes and the days I headed to that hill to work in the hot sun without deodorant, these logs should easily keep me warm for the next couple of years.
Tuesday, August 2, 2016
MY LONG WEEKEND LAMENT
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Were the hell does the time go? TAKEN: LONG WEEKEND IN AUGUST 2016 |
Like most empty-nesters, we have a busy summer calendar. Yet, for varying reasons, this particular long weekend landed us short on time. As I sit here looking up from my laptop, I find it hard to believe just how quickly the season's flying by. With our fall vacation booked and the summer nights getting cooler, I can’t help but start to shift my focus onto our plans to renovate the exterior of our home is September.
How the hell was your weekend? Mine seems to still be in full swing. Matter a fact, at this rate, it may last until the end of next weekend. First thing on the list for me to work on then?
A much better tan!
Monday, September 2, 2013
Tootsie n’ Me & Corey Hart Made Three!
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Sing it SISTA! ♪♫♪♫... We wear our sunglasses at night.... ♫♪♫♪ Taken: August 31st, 2013 |
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Lookin' Good Tootsie! Taken: September 1st, 2013 |
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Come On Baby Light My Fire...
Throw "PYRO" in front of the word and the police often tend to take a keen interest in your whereabouts on an ongoing basis!
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There really is a method to my madness of bonfire building. I am dead serious when I say 'it's taken me years to hone my craft'! TAKEN: February 23, 2013 |
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Teaching Goob the "CRAFT" Taken: March Break 2004 |
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Ringing In the New Year Taken: New Year's Eve 2006 |
One of my best ever! Taken: Labour Day Weekend 2010 |
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Enjoying a drink at the house with my friend Will... Taken: April 2012 |
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The last one of the BEST SUMMER SEASON EVER... Taken: End of August 2012 |