My Cottage Life

I have been going to the Pickeral River ever since I was about 5 years old. My father James O’Donnell worked for the Canadian National Railway and the cottage that we went to was for CNR employees. They had a Rod and Gun Club, and families would go up there throughout the summer and fish, swim and just enjoy the north country. Because my Dad worked at the CNR we got free train passes. Our journey would start at Union Station in Toronto, Ontario and end at the old train station at the Pickeral River. The station is long gone now, but I would like to find photos of it, so if you know of anyone who might have one I would love to see it. Any time I tell people about the Pickeral River, they never know where I am talking about. But if you mention the French River , everyone knows where it is. There are tons of books on the logging history for the French and Pickeral River. It was always quite an exciting journey for us back then. My Mother would pack enough food for a couple of weeks and we would have to carry the food through the bush to our cottage. There is no road access to this place. You can imagine the mosquitoes, but Dad bought us those bug net hats so it made it bearable. Growing up and living the Cottage Life was great. We did not need much as kids to keep us entertained. We had a huge river to swim in, and spent a lot of time fishing from our dock or out with my Dad. This weekend I went through some of my Dad’s belongings at his cottage. I was so happy to find an old relic from my childhood, a small wooden bat. My father use to take us fishing for catfish in a place called Little Lake. Catfish can be pretty dangerous as they have those spikes coming out the side of their head. My Dad used a small bat to whack them over the head so they would not flip around in the boat and spear us. I can not believe my Dad would spend hours taking hooks from dozens of fish, then tackling our rods over and over. Sadly, my father passed away from Prostate Cancer in 2004. He made one last trip up to the cottage with his dog Rocky in May of 2004 but he only managed to stay a few days before the pain became to unmanageable and he came back home. I am so glad he made that final trip to the Pickeral River as he use to go up north from April to November every year. We spread his ashes in the River at a family gathering on his dock. It was very emotional, but I knew that he would want to be there. Now when I go up north I know he is still there.

This long weekend was to celebrate Canada Day, and the weather man said it was going to be a beautiful weekend with no rain. Thank God we never depend on their predictions as it was cloudy most of the weekend, and we did get rain. But I am not complaining, any weekend spent with family is a good one. We put up a new Canadian Flag, and also posted a Union Jack as my husband is from England. I just found this website that said how to dispose of the old flag, how to hang more than one flag. It is all under Flag etiquette

You just can not beat Cottage Life. Talking about Cottage Life, I just bought a subscription to the magazine. When my sister bought her Cottage there were some old copies of the magazine. Last summer we spent hours sitting on the dock reading great recipes, finding new products that would be useful for the cottage. We want to be able to use more solar energy up there, so it is great to find a magazine packed with so much information. A few years ago we went to a Cottage show in search of a composting toilet. I told my husband we just needed to get something that was more environmentally friendly and easier to use. We shopped around and found the Envirolet. Believe me I would not recommend something unless I was really, really happy with it. It took us a couple of days to install it (only because the bugs were so bad) and it works like a charm. We have no electricity so we used the waterless remote version. I remember when we went back to the cottage in the Spring to do our first clean out. My husband and I put on our rubber gloves, held our breath and opened the hatch. To our surprise there was no smell, and all that was left was a rich compost. What a relief, better than the old out house we had and a lot more environmentally friendly.

It has been a gradual progression for our Cottage Life. The year before we invested in a generator. Again we went to one of the Spring shows in Toronto, I think it was the Sportsmen show. We had a lot of friends who said how good the Honda generators were. They were quiet, fuel efficient and for me they were not that heavy. I have to say right now, that our cottage is more like a cabin - we are 30 mins from the nearest road, have no electricity and till now only had an outhouse. Right after we fired up the generator for the first time, we strung up some little Christmas lights over our rafters, a couple of lamps and a toaster and bingo…we had a cottage. And now my husband does not have to saw all the wood manually, we can re charge his battery operated drill and screwdrivers. We have been able to build a new outhouse for our Envirolet toilet , a tool shed, deck, and ramps for our dock. Life is good!