July 20th: Plenty of action at the Island House

Being stuck at Randy and Cindy's for three days has given me ample time to catch up on the blog. 

Ross and his black bear skull

Ross's homemade beds

Randy, Cindy and I met our neighbor, Ross, on the island. He is in his eighties and still spends summers at his cottage. He has owned the cottage for many years and is very knowledgeable about the area. He invited us to come up the hill to see his place. It's a large cottage that can sleep 16 people. He is an excellent wood worker. He made the beds and built a lot of the additions over the years. 

He took us to his work shed to show us the moose rack above the door. He found them in the woods. The moose apparently were fighting and their antlers became locked together. He also showed us the black bear skull from the bear he shot on the island. The bear came looking for food when a neighbor was grilling steaks outside.

Ice Age moccasin

Ross also showed us a moccasin he had found. He knew it was very old so he had it carbon dated and discovered it was made during the Ice Age. It will someday end up in a museum.

Nick and Nicki's bedroom

We decided it was time to get the sleeping areas ready for the weekend visit by the kids and grand kids. Cindy prepared Nick and Niki's bedroom. It has a great view.

Guest house bedroom

We also replaced Randy and Cindy's double size bed with a king size bed we had brought from their home in Utterson. It's on the second floor of the guest house. It's a great room with lots of space. The double bed would be moved to the shower/sauna building for additional sleeping capacity. The shower room in the middle would remain as is. We would need to remodel that building to use it for sleeping areas when Nick's parents came but we wouldn't need it for the coming weekend.

I had already moved into the Bunky so no work was needed there. Same for the kids bunk room.

Sunset view, back porch

We relaxed with a nice dinner on the back porch. There are many widows overlooking the water and we had a fantastic sunset.

We had a couple days before the kids arrived so work continued the next day.

Wire from outside supply
panel

Outlet installation

A priority for the guest house was the installation of an electrical system with the use of a generator and solar power. Randy is an excellent builder and he went to work installing wiring. First he set up the electrical supply system in an outside cupboard. Next he installed a few outlets to make some power available. 

We fished a wire through the wall to the outside electrical set up. It went well and that night the generator side of the system was operational.

Next the solar panels needed to be mounted on the roof. I was quite concerned when Randy said he was going to go up on the sloped, steel roof. Bad idea! I was reminded of the T-shirt his daughter gave him. Fortunately, sanity prevailed and we planned several alternatives.

We decided the solar panels could be attached via the ladder and the window at the peak. It took some reaching and stretching by Randy while I held the ladder but all went well.

Randy picked the kids up by boat late Friday night. They were warned about the mosquitoes and Niki brought mosquito netting for the beds.

Mosquito netting
 over bunk beds

Solar panel batteries

The focus the next day was getting the guest house solar panels connected to the batteries and working. We now had Nick to help move the very heavy batteries from the truck to the closet on the side of the house.

Liam going into 
 the crawl space

A wire needed to be run through the attic crawl space to the closet where the solar panel batteries lived. Fortunately we had 12 year old Liam for the job. It is a very tight space and he had to be careful to stay on the rafters. He did a great job!

Randy connected the wiring and the solar panels worked great! Success!

We had a great dinner and then played a game of Can't Stop! I brought the game because I thought the grandkids would enjoy it. They did! Mea won!

Liam and Mea liked to fish when Linda and I were with them on the Trent. So of course we had to give it a try. We caught a few small ones but left the keepers for another day! It was a very pretty sunset. 

Nick, Niki, Liam, Mea and Nick's parents, Danny and Debbie would all be coming up next weekend. That meant getting the shower/sauna building converted to bedrooms. While Nick and Niki were here to help, a closet was removed from one room and screening attached to the ceiling to keep mosquitoes out. We would finish the job the next week because the Andrews family needed to head back home. The kids visit was short because Liam and Mea were still in school. In Canada, school is in session through the third week of June. And of course Nick and Nike are still working! 

Willa

They left their dog, Willa with us. Willa is a great dog. She always came to see me when I was at Randy and Cindy's and also came up to the bunky to find me. By the way, we learned that many cottagers have what is called a bunky. It is a separate cabin used for private, extra sleeping space. I like mine a lot and so did Willa. Mine is perched at the top of a hill overlooking the water. Very fun.

The bunky

So ended the first week at the Island. It was a good week. It was quite cool but good for working. We still were able to enjoy happy hour on the deck. Cindy decided it was time to break out the wool blanket! The mosquitoes were winning so far but we were learning and gaining on them.