Great Weekend at the Cottage
Mar. 18th, 2007 01:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dagibbsgabriel_le and I went up to the cottage for much of this weekend. We headed up Friday after work, and came back this morning, giving us two nights and a full day up there. We got away in reasonable time, leaving Ottawa around 5:30pm, and get as far as was plowed for about 6:30.
There, we found that one of the two pins that hold the foot harness to gabriel_le's snowshoe had come out. This required an emergency repair that using a pair of pliers I just happened to have in the car and cannibalising a bungee cord, and some duct tape. This actually held up pretty well, getting us to the cottage (about 1/2 an hour) as well as most of our wandering around on Saturday. We got to the cottage a little after sunset, but it was still dusk, rather than dark. Thank you daylight saving time. The evening was spent with board games, food, and cuddling and snuggling in front of the fire.
My parents have a wood stove at the cottage for heating, and it can be damped really low, which is nice, cause with two or three big pieces of wood this generally means the fire will last all night. It will be embers in the morning -- but still generally have enough heat to just re-light, rather than needing to be re-set. Still, I did add a couple logs over night. We had enough blankets, and enough shared warmth, to not be overly cold. It also started to snow Friday evening, and continued throughout Saturday night, only stopping Sunday morning. This was quite nice.
Saturday we had a lazyish morning, breakfast (and a game), then out for an afternoon snowshoeing around the lake, on the fresh snow. We went up the east arm of the lake, climbing over one island (where I broke a pole), and also clambered around on the far side of the lake for a bit. Just after we reached the far end of the lake and climbed up a bit, while talking about heading home. Just after we turned around, gabriel_le noticed that the temporary repair had fallen out. This clearly decided we'd take the flat route home, directly accross the lake. Other than swinging a bit, the broken snowshoe seemed ok -- but it wouldn't have had nearly as much strength for any serious climbing. I did a better temporary repair, since I had two pairs of pliers to work with and could bend things better -- this time destroying a clothes hangar. (We couldn't find the already attacked bungee cord.) I BBQed steak & veggies for dinner, then some more boardgames and a fairly early night. (We were tired.)
Sunday morning, we were up shortly before 8am, had breakfast and packed things up. Then headed out. Got to the car, and were happy to see that the road nearby had been plowed on Saturday, so we'd only be driving through one night's accumulation, not two. As we drove away, gabriel_le realized we hadn't packed the garbage. Oops. We'll have to go back before it gets too warm.
There, we found that one of the two pins that hold the foot harness to gabriel_le's snowshoe had come out. This required an emergency repair that using a pair of pliers I just happened to have in the car and cannibalising a bungee cord, and some duct tape. This actually held up pretty well, getting us to the cottage (about 1/2 an hour) as well as most of our wandering around on Saturday. We got to the cottage a little after sunset, but it was still dusk, rather than dark. Thank you daylight saving time. The evening was spent with board games, food, and cuddling and snuggling in front of the fire.
My parents have a wood stove at the cottage for heating, and it can be damped really low, which is nice, cause with two or three big pieces of wood this generally means the fire will last all night. It will be embers in the morning -- but still generally have enough heat to just re-light, rather than needing to be re-set. Still, I did add a couple logs over night. We had enough blankets, and enough shared warmth, to not be overly cold. It also started to snow Friday evening, and continued throughout Saturday night, only stopping Sunday morning. This was quite nice.
Saturday we had a lazyish morning, breakfast (and a game), then out for an afternoon snowshoeing around the lake, on the fresh snow. We went up the east arm of the lake, climbing over one island (where I broke a pole), and also clambered around on the far side of the lake for a bit. Just after we reached the far end of the lake and climbed up a bit, while talking about heading home. Just after we turned around, gabriel_le noticed that the temporary repair had fallen out. This clearly decided we'd take the flat route home, directly accross the lake. Other than swinging a bit, the broken snowshoe seemed ok -- but it wouldn't have had nearly as much strength for any serious climbing. I did a better temporary repair, since I had two pairs of pliers to work with and could bend things better -- this time destroying a clothes hangar. (We couldn't find the already attacked bungee cord.) I BBQed steak & veggies for dinner, then some more boardgames and a fairly early night. (We were tired.)
Sunday morning, we were up shortly before 8am, had breakfast and packed things up. Then headed out. Got to the car, and were happy to see that the road nearby had been plowed on Saturday, so we'd only be driving through one night's accumulation, not two. As we drove away, gabriel_le realized we hadn't packed the garbage. Oops. We'll have to go back before it gets too warm.
