July 27th: Fun with the kids and more renovation

 

We decided it was time for tubing. The kids went for a little while but the rope was causing the water to splash in their faces. An adjustment for the ski rope was planned.

Painting on the back porch

Niki brought some painting supplies for the kids. I had not finished my tree frog water color painting so we all spent an afternoon painting. Turns out Liam and Mea have an artistic streak!

One of the goals for the week was for Cindy, Liam and Mea to pass the Canadian Boat Safety Captain's license on line. A requirement is to go through an online boating course that was quite rigorous. It is designed so that a person must go through all of the course material and answer questions along the way. Randy and I already had our licenses. Once they pass the test, Liam and Mea could drive a boat up to 40 hp. (Age restriction limits horsepower) 

Nick brought up a 9 hp motor for the aluminum boat that came with the cottage. We put the motor on the boat and the next morning there was a lot of water in the boat. After some investigation it was determined the rivets in the front were leaking. The next day Randy and Liam put a marine epoxy on the bottom. It needed to dry 24 hrs. so the focus was on completing the captain's license test.

Cindy led the group through the lessons and testing over two mornings. There was a lot to it. All three passed! The boat went into the water and unfortunately there were still some leaks. That project was put off because Nick was able to bring a small boat, perfect for the kids to use, from home. He needed to fix the transom, which he did, and it was good to go. Lots of fun.

Liam's maiden solo voyage

There was also some electrical work progressing. Wiring the guest cabin was in order now that the solar panels were in full operation. Randy and Liam worked to install electrical outlets and overhead lights. It's a two person job to thread the wires through the walls and ceiling. Overhead lights were also installed on the deck ceiling. That required Liam to crawl into the attic crawl space again. He's a good and willing worker.

Cabinets back up, lights, outlets
 and light switch installed

Some kitchen cabinets had to come down which was okay because they were installed a little crooked. That was repaired in the process. 

Walking Taco

One night I learned a new trick for an easy way to make tacos. Cindy called it "Walking Tacos". She set out bowls with diced lettuce, cheese, onions, beans, tomatoes and beef. The process is to get a bag of Nacho Doritos, and smash the chips before opening the bag. Then open the bag, load in whatever you choose and shake it up. They were actually quite tasty and easy, except that Cindy had to chop everything up! But no dishes.

27 inch Pike

The fishing continued on and off throughout my visit. Several times a day we would cast a line off the dock and sometimes came up with a fish. I caught this quite nice 27 inch Pike. Nick had checked on line and found some filleting suggestions. It helped, but they are still challenging.

Randy and his broken fishing rod

We were still working with Randy on his fishing expertise. He seems to have difficulty with patience. A lure was snagged on the bottom. I was trying to walk along shore to get behind the line to dislodge it and save the lure. Randy decided he could get it out. I said, "Be careful, we want to save that lure." He said, "I think I can get it". Next thing I knew we heard a snap. I looked over and the rod was broken! I will admit, the line didn't break and we eventually did retrieve the lure.

Two bass, one lure

I had a new fishing experience. For the first time ever, I caught two bass on one lure. The lure has several hooks and after I was reeling in the first bass, another bass came over and also grabbed the hook on the other side of the lure. I decided they weren't that big so after thanking them for the entertainment and picture, they were set free.

Liam and Mea went home for the week so the projects moved into high gear. A major goal was to add a bathroom to the guest house. After some careful planning, Randy went to New Liskeard, the closest  lumber place, 90 minutes away, and picked up the wood that was needed. We got plenty of exercise hauling the wood up to the guest house.

Randy is an excellent builder. I was the helper and learned a lot. 

Removing siding

The first step was to remove the siding. The siding is in very good shape and we wanted to keep it for future projects. That meant a lot of careful screw and nail removal.

Step removal

Next the stairs needed to be cut back to allow for the wall to go up. 

Overhead cross cut saw

  Fortunately, we had excellent tools for this project. That included a very nice overhead crosscut saw, a sabre saw, a jigsaw, a circular saw, a multi tool, several power drills, a nail gun, (very nice tool) and a variety of hand tools and pry bars. 

This railing had to go.

Railing removed

The Tyvek needed to come down, as well as the insulated panels behind it. We saved the Tvvek but the panels had so many nails in them we couldn't save it. The nails were partially buried in the soft insulation. I spent over an hour breaking apart the insulated panels and removing the nails.  

Putting in the studs for the outside walls was next. Randy is clearly experienced at doing this. He put the wall up pretty much by himself very quickly.

Wall studs are in

The deck was quite a bit lower than the floor of the house. The new floor for the bathroom would be raised. That meant removing the deck boards to allow access for the plumbing that would be installed underneath.

Removing the deck boards

Once again, the boards were very, very well secured with screws. My job was to remove them all so we could save the lumber in the process. 

Randy was installing hangers for the new floor joists.

Working on the deck boards required a lot of leaning over and hands and knees work. Neither Randy nor I hold up for long doing that! Once I got the floor opened up it was a lot easier to remove the rest of the screws and the boards by standing on the ground. The new floor would be weatherproof fiber board so we just stored the old deck boards for future projects. 

New floor joist install

Now we were ready to install the new floor joists. They were 2 x 8s so plenty of strength. We left some of the old joists for added strength.

Floor is in

We needed to return some extra wood. That meant carrying the wood back down the hill to the boat, loading it back into the boat, then unloading it into the truck and driving to New Liskeard. We were also going to pick up insulation for the outside walls and some additional supplies. Randy determined how much we needed and told the desk person. He told us to pull around back. The yard guy said, "I don't think you can get all that in your truck!" He doesn't know Randy. We used a lot of tie down straps and ropes and felt confident we would make it back. We did!

When going the 90 minutes to New Liskeard, plus the boat travel, we always took full advantage of the trip. We hit the grocery store, Canadian Tire, the LCBO, the lumber place and a Home Hardware store. While we were in the truck we also stopped at the natural spring to fill our 5, 6 gallon drinking water jugs. At 48 pounds they are not light getting them from the truck to the boat, the boat to the dock and then the dock to the house.  It ended up being an all day affair. We unloaded the insulation and supplies on the guest house dock and left it for the next day.

Nick carrying the bathroom window

Nick and family returned. It was good to have Nick to help carry things up to the guest house. The insulation was quite heavy. Randy and I carried a bundle together. Nick carried one himself! He also carried up the double pane window he brought for the bathroom. As I've said before, Nick is very strong! Great to have him back.

The window was successfully installed. 

It is a nice big window which will let a lot of light into the bathroom and the cabin when the bathroom door is open

We placed the shower unit in the bathroom to finish planning the installation. The insulation was put in the outside walls and everything was sealed with Tyvek. 

Randy worked to build the final wall. Once that wall was in, he could cut the hole in the cabin wall leading into the bathroom without worrying about mosquitoes.

The first step was putting up a 2 foot recessed wall to allow space for the bathroom door to open from the cabin. He put it up in no time!

Bathroom wall

Then he completed the wall except for the very top. Everything was tightly sealed. It turned out great.

When Nick and family came we spent a lot of time playing. Nick researched a great hike a short boat ride away. It was a road leading to the Copperfield Mine. 

Copperfield Mine 

 History of Temagami mining

It was a long hike and a hot day but the way up was mostly shaded. We almost turned around before reaching the mine area but Cindy pulled up a map on her phone and we realized we were very close. Good job Cindy. 

Iron ore on magnet

The scenery and views from above the mine were beautiful. Nick learned that there was a great deal of iron left on the trail as a result of mining. His friend suggested we take a magnet to check it out. There was iron ore everywhere. It was fun to suck up the iron ore with  the magnets. Notice Liam is holding the magnet upside down.

Here are a number of pictures. We believe this entire area was carved out for mining and then flooded.

Debbie's Apple pie

Nick's mom, Debbie, came with Nick this trip and fortunately brought an apple pie. I was told her pies are legendary. Crust made with lard, old fashioned recipe. A special trip was made to the small grocery store in Temagami to get ice cream. It was delicious!

Nick had brought up a very nice inflatable raft that Randy and Cindy used on their boat Margaritaville.  It was fairly hot so that sounded good. But the pump was missing. There is a small compressor but the hose that was supposed to attach to the tank didn't have the right connections.  Others gave up but I was determined I could figure out a way to make it work. I disconnected the hose from the tank and connected it directly to the pump. It didn't pump very fast but it worked. Once again persistence paid! We had a lot of fun with the raft.

More "Stuff" Nick brought

Randy and Cindy's daughter Erica and grand daughter Eve were scheduled for a visit soon. Debbie had a bunk bed set that she donated to the cause. Randy brought it over from the marina.

We discovered we had to take the bed apart to get it in the door of the Shower/sauna bldg. We wanted to turn it sideways to make more open space. We measured it and realized it just fit. It took quite a bit of planning and doing, some unusual screw assembly, but it worked. There is now a queen size lower bunk and an upper twin bed.

Paddling the raft to sea!

It had been a late night and a busy morning so I went up to my Bunky to take a nap. I no sooner fell asleep and heard a lot of yelling and laughing. The surprising thing was that I could hear it because the Bunky is out into the lake on the East end. I looked out and saw our crew paddling the raft out to sea! Certainly sounded like they were having fun. Turned out they were paddling out to reset the floating markers which marked rocks for boaters. But I'm sure it was mostly for fun.

You might remember Cindy rode 2.5 hours up to the cottage, the first time we came, with her tomato plant between her legs. Her efforts paid off!

Also, her flower box efforts worked out great. Here's a good picture of the flowers, Nayla and Cindy! Looks like cottage life agrees with Cindy.

Cottage life provides opportunity to enjoy past fun and games. We found an old badminton game in one of the closets. There were actually two. One was clearly a collector's item No one wanted to damage it as it seemed like it was never used. The shuttlecocks had actual feathers. But the second set was newer so Nick set it up and Liam in particular enjoyed beating most of us, but not always! I know Cindy won at least once!

My visit was coming to a close. I have always loved my time in Canada and this was finally an opportunity to return. And time in Canada had become synonymous with time with Randy and Cindy. It was great to be back. 

I loved the island but I will admit the creature comforts offered by my California home sounded pretty enticing! I was riding back with Nick and Debbie to stay at Randy and Cindy's house overnight and then flying home Monday. That flight was cancelled and I ended up staying at Randy and Cindy's house until Friday. There were many delays and a 15 hour travel time but I arrived in San Diego at 3:15 AM Canada time. I was very happy to be back home. 

After possibly too long pondering, I am selling Yesterday's Dream. I had been away from my California home since January. I really do now consider Encinitas my new home. I think it took my trip to Florida and then Canada for me to recognize how much I love the whole California beach environment, and being close to Wendy, Matt, Rebecca, London and Trevi, as well as my great California boating friends Craig and Karen. I also realized, as much as I enjoyed it, I am finished with the Banana Bay part of my life. Linda and I travelled 25,000+ miles on Yesterday's Dream. We bought the boat in 2005 and spent the next 3 years renovating it. Not that the renovations ever stopped! It became "Home" in 2009 when we sold our house and retired to the boat. But I know things change and sitting at the dock in Florida for many months has never been Linda's and my plan. We loved the cruising but were definitely at the point we felt, "Been there done that. Time for something different." I'm moving forward knowing Yesterday's Dream is going to Mychael. He loves that boat and has told me I am welcome to come and visit/cruise any time. As Cindy once told me, "There's a reason people find each other." Mychael is a good example of that.

Yesterday's Dream at anchor

In case you are wondering, I am keeping Guppy. I already have people lined up to help me travel  on Guppy next summer.