From time to time I like to look at videos and pictures of cottages for sale. Not because I am in the market to buy a cottage, but because I enjoy seeing what other cottagers have done to their lakefront hideaways. It’s always a treat to see the interiors, how the cottage layout is done, furnishings, windows, decks etc. I find looking at pictures of cottages and camps is always food for thought, a great way to get cottage decorating and cottage landscaping ideas.

With that in mind, here is a video of a Lake Elliot cottage in Ontario. This video has pictures of both the interior and exterior of the cottage, the lake, the surroundings and even some cute pics of a red fox who looks to be a frequent visitor to the cottage.

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Those of us with cottages and camps have a lot of things in common, you like to wear mini skirts, I like to see you in a mini skirt…no wait, that isn’t what I meant to say…Larry…take that mini skirt off…no…no…umm wait…put it back on…no…oh my…I do tend to digress…

Cottage Lanes

What I really meant to say is that cottagers all have similar issues, concerns and for all intents and purposes our places are very much the same. For example, we generally all have a gravel cottage road of some sort leading to our camps. I’m not referring to the municipal roads, I am talking about our driveways, lanes and the cottage road leading from the municipal roads to the cottage.

Sharing A Cottage Road and Driveway

In most cottage situations, these are gravel roads, or more appropriately, “lanes” and are quite often shared with a few of our neighbors.

Cottages, especially in my neck of the woods, began on old homestead properties that were subdivided in cottage lots with a collector road leading to all the cottages on the property. These roads are typically narrow, dirt/gravel roads and they are part of the charm of cottage land.

Road Work Ahead

Cottage roads do need a little maintenance. Gravel roads tend to develop some ruts and puddle holes over time, and almost all of them end up with a high center if they are not graded or raked off from time to time. So what do you do to maintain your cottage lane?

Maintaining a cottage lane is not rocket science, which is too bad, given my interest in rocket science, that’s the good news. The bad news is, unmaintained shared cottage roads can cause you trouble, can cost you money and can be a source of frustration between neighbors.

So here are a few things to keep in mind about cottage lanes.

Raking Your Cottage Road

Each year, after the frost has come out of the ground, it is a good idea to rake your lane, paying particular attention to raking the center crown off. It’s the crown that can “high center” your vehicle, get you stuck, or rip the muffler off your car. By raking it off the crown in the Spring, you fill in the tire ruts left from a season of driving the road in all kinds of weather, and you help to eliminate the chance of scraping the under carriage of your vehicle.

Vehicle traffic has a way of moving gravel from the tire portion of the road, pushing it to the middle or the edges of the road. A good garden rake will help to pull it back in place.

Raking your road also gives you an opportunity to see where the high and low spots are, where you need gravel and where the puddles of water form.

On our road, we have fairly good drainage, although in the part of the road with the most traffic, the shared part, we do have some recurring puddles. I have found that digging a small (less than 5 inch) drain in the lowest spot that allows the puddle water to drain off the road and into the ditch is helpful for removing water. I then fill the puddle depression with gravel. It stays for awhile.

Raking your lane is not quite as easy as it sounds. You need to bear in mind that a slight crown in the middle of the road is good for drainage, allowing water to flow to the edges of the road and off into the ditch.

Highway roads have an engineered rise in the center for that reason. For your cottage lane, ensure that the middle of the road is not lower than the shoulders.

Culverts

Speaking of water, if your cottage lane is built through a low spot in the land, and therefore has water on it or on both side of it, a culvert is a good idea. A culvert will allow the water to drain from one side to the other, reducing the water soaking under the road making it soft, soupy or muddy.

Culverts are usually steel or cement, and can be purchased from most building supply stores or concrete fabricators. This is typically not a one person job, and depending on the depth, the size of the culvert it may require someone with a backhoe to install it properly.

In cottage subdivisions the original contractor may have installed culverts when the road was built. Sometimes these culverts one or both ends get closed in with branches, mud or even beaver action, or subsequent road work.

It’s a good idea to inspect your culverts annually and make sure they are clear and water can pass through. If it cannot, you should clear the obstruction. I like to use dynamite, but that may be frowned on in your community….done wrong dynamite can be messy too. I learned how to do it from “Two-Fingers Pete” an old fella at the camp.

Trees and Bushes

In order to maintain cottage roads it is a good idea to keep trees from growing up too close to the road. Spring is a good time to walk your road with a pair of branch cutters and remove any branches that are extending out to the road. cut them back to the base of the tree, don’t leave stubby branches. It looks bad and they can scratch wider vehicles.

Keep the edges of the road clear, it aids visibility, saves animals, gives children and walkers somewhere to go if a vehicle comes along the road and makes it easy for bigger delivery/service trucks etc to get in the road.

This is also a good time to inspect the trees growing alongside your road, look for any old, rotting or leaning trees that may fall down and pose a problem when you least expect it. Now is the time to cut them down before they become an issue. Just make sure you have the OK to do so from the person who owns the land.

Right-of-Ways

Speaking of owning the land, remember that many cottage lanes are shared, and they are some form of right-of-way. That means that although you can travel over the land to your cottage, you may not have the right to cut trees, change the road, or even park on it for extended periods. It can depend on local laws regarding right-of-ways and/or the wording in your property deed regarding the right-of-way.

The safest approach is to check with the person who owns the land, and your lawyer if there is any doubt or question of what you can or cannot do, or who is reponsible for road maintenance etc. (more on that later)

Grass and Shrubbery

Grass and shrubbery can become a problem on cottage lanes, especially narrow lanes surrounded by trees and woods. Once it takes hold, it can be hard work to get rid of it, but get rid of it you should. Or at least keep it in check.

An hour with a gas powered string trimmer will do wonders for keeping grass and vegetation in check, although, be warned, it will grow back, and cutting it may actually encourage it to grow. From a visual standpoint, grass on a cottage lane can look kind of nice, however, it can be slippery when wet, and flammable when dry.

Fire!!

When vehicles first started to be manufactured with catalytic converters, they were the cause of many a grass fire, forest fire, vehicle fire. That is because the vehicles didn’t have adequate heat shields over the converter, which get very hot. The driver would park the car and go in the house, only to look outside later and see his car on fire and the woods and grass on fire.

These days there are heat shields over the catalytic converter, but that doesn’t make them completely fireproof, especially if the shield has rusted and fallen off. So it’s important to keep grass from cottage lanes and parking areas, or if not, at least keep it cut very short.

Adding Gravel

Road maintenance aside, there will come a time when you will need to add gravel to the cottage lane. Over time the existing gravel settles down, spreads out and pushes off the road. When you start to have low spots, puddles and ruts too deep to rake, it’s time to add a few loads of gravel.

Order the gravel from a company that has gravel spreading trucks, sometimes called a “slinger truck” they can eliminate most of the manual labour of spreading gravel, and generally it doesn’t cost much or anything more to have the gravel spread when it is delivered.

The truck has a device on it that allows the operator to “throw” the gravel as opposed to just dumping it in piles that need to be spread by hand or with a backhoe etc. This usually works well, and saves a lot of work, although some minor raking to touch up some areas may be required.

Here is a picture of some gravel on our driveway spread by the gravel truck slinger operator. Sure beats doing it by hand.

Hills

Hills in gravel roads can be especially troublesome. The gravel has a tendency to wash down the hill in heavy rains, or get thrown down the hill by spinning tires on vehicles going up hill.

If at all possible try to lessen the slope of the hill by starting further back before the hill and gradually going up without placing too much loose gravel at the bottom of the hill…try to do that….Most operators of gravel spreading trucks will know how to do this well, but regardless, it will be bothersome, especially before the loose gravel settles down to a solid base.

Too much loose gravel can actually make it difficult for some drivers to get up the hill, especially towing a boat or travel trailer.

If possible, it’s not a bad idea to have half a load of gravel dumped somewhere out of the way, yet accessible that can be used for minor road repairs like filling in low spots and puddles with a rake, shovel and wheelbarrow.

Who Is Responsible For Road Maintenance?

OK…so the above all sounds very good, but I know what you are thinking…you are thinking, “Yeah right Rob, but who is paying for all of this? Who is responsible for all the grass cutting, gravel spreading and puddle jumping?”

The answer is easy. It all depends….

Some cottage lanes shared right of ways with serving access to several cottages are maintained on an adhoc-as-needed basis. When someone determines that load of gravel is needed, they talk to their neighbors and if everyone is in agreement, someone orders the gravel and pays for it. One of the group collects an equal portion of the cost from each of the cottagers sharing the road.

This usually works well, with a couple of caveats:
1) you don’t have someone who wants gravel all the time;
2) the road is not overly long, with a lot of cottagers and the need for a lot of gravel, therefore a high cost, even when spread among several families;
3) there is someone willing to take on this project, ordering the gravel and overseeing it’s delivery and spreading, paying the supplier and collecting the money from the rest of the group. (not always as easy as you might think)

In terms of other forms of road maintenance like tree trimming, grass cutting, that usually is done either by one or two guys who enjoy doing stuff like that, or a group gets organized for a Saturday afternoon and everyone pitches in. That can be kind of fun actually, a form of team building. Maybe you could have a competition with cottagers from another cottage lane to see who has the nicest lane…just kidding, don’t do that…it’s dumb.

Cottage Road Committee

In the past few years, cottage owners on shared private lanes and roads have begun creating “Road Committees” made up of representatives from each of the cottages. These committees, or rather, the work of the committees is paid for by an annual fee paid by each cottager.

Road Maintenance Fees

The annual road maintenance fee is used for road upkeep, gravel purchases, gas for chainsaws for tree pruning, winter snow removal, whatever is needed and agreed upon by the committee.

It doesn’t hurt to have a written agreeement drawn up and signed by all parties, so no one gets a surprised or the committee doesn’t exceed it’s agreed upon mandate.

Committees sometimes organize road maintenance work. They are a good way to ensure the road is kept in good repair and that the responsibility for the road maintenance doesn’t fall to the same person every year.

Not All Cottage Roads Need Formal Committees

While official road committees are good, they are not necessary in some situations and very necessary in others. They can also get carried away if not kept in check.

If you cottage lane has a lot of camps on it, more than 6 or 7, or if the road is long, or elaborate, requiring substantial investment to maintain. If there are a lot of cottages sharing the same road, a committee can take the strain off of one person trying to collect money from each person, as well as providing some written documentation that explains the responsibilities of each cottage owner in regard to the road.

Legal Issues

Road committee creation can also involve some legal issues as well, which of course, given the cost of over-paid-lawyers, (Ha-Ha that is an inside joke sorry) can add to the cost. A legal agreement has to be developed, agreed to, and signed by all parties.

This agreement needs to come into play everytime a cottage within the group is sold or changes hands, because the new owners have to be incorporated into the agreement etc. That can be troublesome and can cost money too.

The existence of a road maintenance agreement probably needs to be disclosed to potential purchasers if a cottage is put up for sale.

The Ugly Part

Then there is the ugly part of shared cottage lanes. What if someone doesn’t want to participate, i.e. pay for road maintenance, or sign an agreement?

What if someone is abusing their use of the right-of-way, i.e. constantly parking vehicles or building something on the right-of-way? Or perhaps they are doing something such as operating all terrain vehicles on the right-of-way in a manner that creates mud holes and ruts or chews holes in the gravel road base etc.

You have a couple of options in the above situations. You can choose to ignore it and hope it runs it’s course, which those things sometimes do, but depending on the situation, that can be difficult. It’s especially difficult if their actions are costing you money or reducing your enjoyment of your cottage.

Those are situations which require some tact, at least in the beginning, perhaps a quiet conversation with the offending party.

If that fails, you don’t have much option other than to contact the over-paid lawyer, (mentioned above LOL) a lawyers letter may enough to correct the problem, or further legal action might be required to resolve the issue. This kind of stuff has always been a source of problems with shared cottage lanes.

Sharing Of Cottage Road Maintenance Costs Equally

Because I know you are pretty smart, otherwise you wouldn’t still be reading this, you have probably been wondering, “How are road maintenance costs divided up, and does the person closest to the highway pay less than the person at the end of the road? Does owning vacant land on the road mean you have to pay more?

Well, like everything in this world, we aren’t the first people to have these questions come up. I looked into these questions and found some good answers on The Ontario Federation of Cottage Owners website.

Essentially, it comes down to this, regardless of how far in the road your cottage is located, everyone gets the same benefit from the private access road. That is, everyone gets to drive to their cottage or vacant lot. Because the benefit is the same, that is, “cottage access”, the price, or “levy” is the same.

The fact that your place is at the beginning of the road and mine at the end, isn’t a consideration. Also, they add, and it makes sense to me, that the beginning of the road, where you are located, typically gets the most traffic, because everyone has to drive over your end of the road. Therefore, the end where I am will not require as much gravel or maintenance as the beginning of the road.

In addition to the above, there is also the consideration of road use. It is arguable that a full time resident with a big family and several vehicles at the start of the road is going to use their part of the road more than a summer seasonal resident at the end of the road.

However, how would you determine what the usage is, or what it is actually costing? Almost impossible. Therefore, one amount of money from all users regardless of location is the fairest process and ultimately results in the least amount of disagreements.

The same applies to people who own vacant land accessed by the same road, even if they are absentee owners who don’t come to the property regularly. They still have access to their property because of the access road and therefore should be included in the group paying to maintain the road.

Snow Plowing

Winter snow removal adds another dimension to shared cottage lanes. In many situations, the cost and scheduling of snow plowing is looked after by the cottage road committee, working on an agreement by all users of the road that it will be maintained year round and kept open.

In some places, cottages are not used during winter months and unless insurance companies require the road to be plowed, (and they often do) plowing is not done unless someone among the cottage owners chooses to use the road during the winter months.

In that case, it is my opinion that costs incurred for plowing the road are the responsibility of the cottagers who want to use the road in the winter. On the other hand, as more and more insurance companies insist a cottage road be kept accessible year round, snow plowing may become something that has to be shared among the cottagers much the same as adding gravel.

If your cottage is not part of a shared driveway, personally, I say, good for you. On the other hand, the shared cottage lane tends to build a sense of community, particularly if there are not too many cottages using the same lane. Many good friendships begin on shared cottage lanes. And not having a shared driveway means you incur all the costs of road maintenance yourself.

One final note on cottage and camp access roads and lanes. Although your cottage road might be a right of way over private property, or maybe a private road across your land to your camp, it can potentially be considered a public road for some applications of law. Without a gate and or signs advising people that your cottage road is private and not for public use, in the eyes of some legislation it can be deemed a highway if it is accessible to the public at large. Something you may want to consider.

How about you? How do you maintain and look after your shared cottage road?

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The Cottage Chronicles by Robert Dares is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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On the 15th of October, 2006, I wrote the first post of The Cottage Chronicles. Ironically, that first post was about “closing the cottage”. In hindsight, it was kind of an odd topic to choose to launch a blog about cottages and camps. I wasn’t thinking very far ahead at the time.

I should have been, because as of this posting, February 10, 2012, we are coming very close to a milestone, this is post number 996, four posts away from 1000.

Wow…not a good time for writers block to set in.

But it’s the middle of February, the dead of winter, not exactly a time of year condusive to cottage life or writing about cottage life. In fact, it is quite far away from what we generally perceive as cottage time.

Yes, I know what you are thinking. There are lot’s of folks who enjoy the cottage in winter. I am one of them, sorta… I enjoy a few days at the camp in the winter, it’s an experience, a time of solitude, clear skies and cold days and nights.

However, no matter what you and I pretend, the cottage in winter is not the same as the cottage in summer. In fact, that is probably why we often refer to our lakeside hideaways as “summer cottages”. They are after all, designed for summer.

In years past, cottagers didn’t go to the cottage in winter, except maybe to check on the place on a mild Sunday afternoon. I remember when many folks would close up their cottages on Labour Day in September, screw on the window shutters, drain the water pump, pack up their stuff and go home, not to return until the following May or June.

That has changed in the past decade as we expand our cottage time to include winter, thanks to things like four wheel drive vehicles, snowmobiles, ATV’s, cross country skiing, better house insulation and airtight woodstoves.

Our tourism folks would have us believe that a winter festival in the north is much more funner (I said funner) than a week on a tropical beach. Who needs girls in bikinis when you can see women wearing one piece snowsuits. Slip on some down-filled winter clothes with Thinsulate insulation and battery powered heated socks and we’re good to go, laughing at winter. Who needs sun drenched Jamaica when you have frozen Canada?

As Canadians we are hard wired to pretend winter, the cold, and snow are all fantastic. We love to put on long underwear, heavy socks, parkas and touques, mittens, and mukluks and go outside in winter, marvelling at ice sculptures or riding a Crazy Carpet down a hill.

As Canadians we’d like you to believe that it really doesn’t get fun outside until the temperature drops below freezing, the lower the temperature the more funner it is…(yes I said “funner”)

Looking at tourism advertisements of us in the snow you’d find it hard to believe we aren’t having the time of our lives. There we are, the whole happy family, careening down a snow covered golf course hill on a wooden toboggan, laughing all the way, even with frost bitten cheeks and two frozen toes ready to fall off inside our muckluks. Tobogganing is a much better use of a golf course, much better than wearing plaid pants and spike shoes, trying to knock a small ball into a hole in the ground with a stick.

No matter had G-D cold we are, we always smile and wave to our neighbors at 6 in the morning as we scrape and scrape and scrape and scrape ice encrusted car windshields trying to get a clear spot to see through so we can drive to work. We laugh and curse the cold at the same time, just like we are in our right minds.

When it snows, we all gripe that the municipal snowplow hasn’t plowed our street yet, sometimes going so far as to call our city councillor’s office to find out why. Then we complain to our neighbor when the snow plow finally arrives and fills the end of our driveways with snow as it plows the street.

That’s why we are able to enjoy the cottage in winter. We have short memories. We forget how nice summer at the cottage actually is, we forget about wearing shorts and sandals, boating, swimming and warm evenings beside a campfire. We come to believe that we actually enjoy shivering beside a woodstove, looking through frost coated windows at snow and freezing rain, marvelling at the joys of winter.

We compliment ourselves on being able to withstand the cold temperatures, deep snow and hypothermia to go skating. Much better than swimming, much funner.(yes I wrote funner again)

But who are we kidding?

The best winter night doesn’t compare with a summer evening, stars twinkling above the lake, warm temperatures, the boat tied to the wharf, bobbing gently up and down in the moonlight.

We forget about those warm summer evenings, sitting on the screened deck as the sun goes down, still in our swimsuits, slapping Calamine Lotion on our sunburned backs, giggling at how our sandals left us with funny looking sunburned feet and laughing as another bunch of mosquitoes hit the bug zapper and come to an inglorious end.

For some reason, watching a boat cruise up the lake in the last light of day, it’s navigation lights reflecting against the calm waters is much more relaxing than watching a four wheeler cruise by on the ice, it’s headlights showing the way, the driver watching for the dangerous opening in the ice just off Rocky Point.

A summer night beside the lake is only made better by the sound of a loon’s lonesome call reaching us from somewhere out on the lake, echoing across the calm water.

C’mon Spring, you’re so much more funner….

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I love it when things work like they say they will work. In this case, it is the online boater exam I recently completed. I took the course through BoaterExam.com (see their advertisement on this page)

As I mentioned in my previous post about the boater course and boater exam, it was straight forward, interesting and not as difficult as you might imagine. All boaters in Canada are required to have a Pleasure Craft Operators Licence, or risk a substantial fine for operating a boat or personal watercraft without one.

When I completed the test and passed, I ordered two of the certification cards, because I have a tendency to misplace things. They arrived Friday, just like clockwork, the completion of a very well done process.

If you’re a boater or plan to become a boater, now is the time to complete the online course and get yourself certified so you will be ready for boating season. There is no time like the present.

As I mentioned, this is not nearly as daunting as it might sound. The lessons prepare you for the exam at the end, and it is an open book type exam, and you are not required to have someone monitor you while you are taking the exam. You can complete it in the comfort of your own home on your personal computer or laptop.

If you haven’t taken the course and obtained your Pleasure Craft Operators Licence, do it now, the cost of the course is minimal, especially compared to the fine you may get if you get caught operating your boat without one.

I you’re still not sure, try the sample quiz I posted here: Boater Quiz

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The other day Lonesome Larry took a spin on his four wheeler on the lake in front of the camp…he literally took a “spin”

He had to go home and lie down afterwards, made himself dizzy…..

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Nothing says “cottage” like an adirondack chair. A couple adirondack chairs on the deck or the lawn not only look good, they are functional and comfortable. Adirondack chairs are a great place to enjoy a cup of coffee while you watch the sun come up over your cottage lake.


Here are a few adirondack chairs that you can order from Amazon to add to your cottage. The first is the Ace Trading-Merry Prod Patio MPG-ACE10FR Reclining & Folding Adirondack Chair As the name suggests, this adirondack chair reclines and folds up for easy storage.

If your idea of solitude includes your favorite significant other, then what better way to enjoy your morning cup of coffee on the deck with an adirondack chair for two. This is the Astonica 50140699 Bench Adirondack Tete-a-Tete Table and 2 Chair Set that includes two chairs with a table in the middle to sit your coffee cup on.

If you want the look of wood without the painting and maintenance, then you should consider adirondack chairs like this Polywood Outdoor Furniture Classic Adirondack Chair made from recycled plastic materials.

This adirondack chair is assembled with stainless steel hardware and xylan coating, that means you can clean it with simple soat and water to keep your furniture looking good. These adirondack chairs are great, no need to paint or stain them, no maintenance at all, just sit on them and relax. They come in several colors that are UV stabilized reduce fading. They cost a little big more, but they will last a life time.

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The Cottage Chronicles by Robert Dares is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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This means you are free to use this work, but not for commercial purposes which includes not re-posting on sites with advertisments, affiliate links etc without my express written permission.

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One of our regular readers, Sharon Crowell, has put together a video slideshow of a vacation trip she made to Canada’s Great White North during the winter!

Now of course you need to ask yourself, why would someone go on vacation north in the winter? Well for one thing, it is worth the experience to live life without sun 24 hours a day. For another, Sharon has family living in Inuvik, in the North West Territories and what better way to spend a winter vacation than with family in one of the most beautiful places on earth.

Some of the highlights of Sharon’s vacation, besides visiting her son and daughter-in-law, was seeing the North during the dark days of winter, a drive down the Dempster Highway to the Artic Circle to see the sun come up at 2 p.m. and a three hour drive on the Ice Highway to Tuktoyaktuk, (pronounced like it’s spelled) and the opportunity to stand and drive on the Arctic Ocean. And that is without even mentioning the dogsledding…..this is winter cottage country at it’s finest!!!

This is a beautiful video, a testament to what makes Canada The Truth North Strong and Free.

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As a cottager, septic systems are always near and dear to my mind. It’s just one of those things that plays an important role in making cottage life…well…more comfortable.

Because septic systems are largely underground, doing their business looking after your business, without a whimper they are often the forgotten hero around the camp. Day after day it is working for you, doing what you need it to do and disposing of waste in a very efficient manner.

Even though your septic system is underground, not something you look at everyday, there is a certain measure of trust that you have to have, that your system is working. It’s not like you can dig it up every day and have a look.

Having a good understanding of your septic system, how it works and what can go wrong is a good idea, infact it’s a necessity for cottage owners. We all need to know what is going on down there to ensure it keeps working properly and doesn’t cause you any problems, which can be expensive and needless to say, messy.

Gerry Hartigan has written a helpful book about septic systems that should be on the book shelf of any cottage with a septic system. Written in a lighthearted, humorous style, with illustrations by Bob Vogel, this is a great book to read, useful, entertaining and well worth the money.

You can order a copy of this book here:Country Plumbing: Living with a Septic System

Caveat

This book is most useful to cottagers with older septic systems as it was written in the 1980′s. There have been a lot of advancements and changes in septic systems in the past few years, but unless your system is new, chances are this book applies to your current septic system.

Let’s face it, if you septic tank and septic system is working, all is right with the world, if it’s broke, all Hell can break out.

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Based on a work at thecottagechronicles.com.
This means you are free to use this work, but not for commercial purposes which includes not re-posting on sites with advertisments, affiliate links etc without my express written permission.

© 2012, Robert Dares Nova Scotia Canada . All rights reserved. The Cottage Chronicles / Robert Dares material is copyrighted, please contact me if you wish to inquire about reposting etc

©2012 The Cottage Chronicles. All Rights Reserved.

http://www.thecottagechronicles.com

Frequent readers know that I like to go hunting occasionally. While not as ardent a hunter as I was in the heady days of my youth, I still enjoy a walk in the woods chasing game.

One type of hunting I always enjoyed was ruffed grouse hunting, or as it’s usually referred, “partridge huntin” Of all the hunting I enjoyed, ruffed grouse hunting remains my favorite. The season starts in October, so the weather is usually pleasant, the fall foliage at it’s best, and the game…well it’s exciting.

At one point in my life I had become fairly lethal when it came to ruffed grouse hunting, and filled my game bag on more than one day in the woods. Those were the days before I had fancy pump action shotguns and interchangable chokes. Instead I had my grandfathers old single shot twelve guage Harrington Richardson shotgun and low brass number six C.I.L. shotgun shells.

Ruffed Grouse

Ruffed Grouse

But, they usually don’t fly far, and after a few minutes to settle down, will often go back to their business, giving the patient hunter a second chance. Sometimes it is better to just sit down and wait a bit instead of crashing off into the woods in the direction they flew.

Ruffed grouse used to be fairly numerous around the camp, but as the place has built up their habitat has diminished somewhat. That, and something called a “grouse cycle” seems to be have their numbers a little lower around the camp. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that coyotes may also be playing a role in keeping the grouse population in check.

But ruffed grouse were not really what I was thinking about tonight. I was thinking about a similar bird that hasn’t crossed my path in many, many years, the Spruce Grouse or Spruce Partridge.

Female Spruce Partridge

Similar in size to a ruffed grouse, and somewhat similar in appearance, that is where the similarities end. Spruce partridge are protected here in Nova Scotia. I was always told that was because they were not too bright and therefore easy pickings for someone lost in the woods.

I am not sure if that is why they are protected, or if it is because of low population, but it’s an accurate description of them. Instead of busting from cover and putting as many trees as possible between them and a hunter, spruce partridge often fly up to the nearest tree and sit on a low branch when startled. If they move at all.

As I mentioned, female spruce partridge can be mistaken for ruffed grouse, but their are some distinct differences. Spruce partridge have a dark tail with a pale band at the end, the opposite of ruffed grouse, nor do female spruce partridge erect their crown feathers when alarmed like ruffed grouse do.

Both of these birds can sometimes have similar color phases, between grey and brown, which adds to the difficulty in telling one from the other quickly.

Ruffed grouse like edges, for example, the edges of old farm fields bordered by woods, logging roads, and mixed forest, with an emphasis on stands of hardwood trees which provide a good deal of their sustenance.

Spruce partridge are more likely to be found in swampy areas, bordered by softwood trees, like spruce, which is a mainstay of their diet. They are not as likely to be found in the hardwood, but in the swamp. This is said to be what makes them a less than delicious tasting bird, especially compared to the ruffed grouse.

Because of their resemblance to ruffed grouse, particularly the females, it is important for hunters, particularly new hunters, to learn to be able to tell the difference between the two birds. The easiest way to do that is by observing what they do, and where you find them.

If you encounter a chicken sized bird that approaches you, or at least doesn’t run or fly away, it may very well be a spruce partridge. If it flies up to the nearest tree branch, it may very well be a spruce partridge. And, if you come across a partridge in swampy, low land, that is predominately softwood covered, such as where you might be hunting rabbits, it is likely a spruce partridge. If the partridge lands in a tree nearby and you can see it well, you may notice a little red patch close to it’s eye, if it is a male spruce partridge.

Male Spruce Partridge, notice the red over the eye and darker coloration

I still love the sight of a ruffed grouse around the camp, a symbol of the woods and a reminder of days past.
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Partridge Pics: Wilkipedia Creative Commons

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The Cottage Chronicles by Robert Dares is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at thecottagechronicles.com.
This means you are free to use this work, but not for commercial purposes which includes not re-posting on sites with advertisments, affiliate links etc without my express written permission.

© 2012, Robert Dares Nova Scotia Canada . All rights reserved. The Cottage Chronicles / Robert Dares material is copyrighted, please contact me if you wish to inquire about reposting etc

©2012 The Cottage Chronicles. All Rights Reserved.

http://www.thecottagechronicles.com

The northern lights have seen queer sights, but the strangest they ever did see, was that night on the barge of Lake LaMarge, I cremated Sam McGee…..




My apologies to Canada’s best known poet, Robert Service, but whenever I am on the shore of a frozen lake in winter his words come to mind. They are words that stick in your head like an arrow, and occasionally something happens, you bump the arrow and are reminded it is there. I guess that is what made him famous. I’m apparently not famous, because I cannot remember what I wrote yesterday….

Tonight on our lake, the moon is full, I watched it rising above the tree tops on the opposite shore. It rose like a great white spotlight, and as it went higher in the night sky, the lake took on a ghostly white glow.

I spent a few minutes in the below zero cold, listening to the second greatest thing about being beside a frozen lake, the sounds of a frozen lake.

The ice is alive, it creaks and groans, and sometimes bellows. Sometimes the ice cracks with thunderous bangs, and other times a tinkeling whisper, and occasionally you hear the distinct zipping sound of a crack happening as one piece of ice splits free of another and a narrow opening shoots across the lake.

Temperature Changes

Science tells me that the sounds I am hearing are caused by temperature changes. As the lake freezes or thaws, it expands and contracts, and those expansions and contractions force cracks in the ice.

The sounds fluctuate. From long booming cracks to quick crackling snaps. The variation in what I hear depends on where the crack starts in relation to where I am standing, the depth of the ice, the length of the crack and probably the depth of the water beneath them.

Snow Muffles The Sounds

Today on our lake, there is little or no snow. That lack of snow, which acts as sound insulation is why I was able to enjoy such a wide range of loud sounds. I’m also in a place where there is a wide expanse of lake, probably close to a mile, which facilitates long cracks in the ice, resulting in particularly loud sounds.

Cracks and Booms

It’s interesting that we hear both cracks and booms. The higher frequency sounds are transmitted to the listener faster, and the sound we hear is “higher”.

The lower frequency, which is associated with the deeper booming sounds, travel slower and take longer to reach the listener and appear to last longer. What you hear can depend on where you are standing.

As the temperature drops, more ice is created, which rapidly expands, placing the ice under strain which results in a crack opening, the ice essentially breaks, and when it does, it breaks quickly, and that is the fast cracking sound you hear. If conditions are right and you are in the right place at the right time, that cracking will sound more like a long low rumble as the lower frequency sounds take a little longer to reach you.

On the other hand, the above could be all bunk. It is much more likely that the sounds are the bellows and cries of Lake Gods who are annoyed as heck that the water has frozen. I like that explanation better.

For you conspiracy theorists, the sounds could also caused by some kind of hi-tech scanners beaming sound waves down from satellites bouncing off the ice and controlling your thoughts….just saying.


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Remember, the ice is eventually going to melt and when it does, you will want to be out on the lake in your boat. Now is the time to get your boat operator card, I took the online course from BOATERexam.com to obtain proof of competency to operate a powerboat in Canada. Yup, got my new boat licence and you can too, do it today.

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The Cottage Chronicles by Robert Dares is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at thecottagechronicles.com.
This means you are free to use this work, but not for commercial purposes which includes not re-posting on sites with advertisments, affiliate links etc without my express written permission.

© 2012, Robert Dares Nova Scotia Canada . All rights reserved. The Cottage Chronicles / Robert Dares material is copyrighted, please contact me if you wish to inquire about reposting etc

©2012 The Cottage Chronicles. All Rights Reserved.

http://www.thecottagechronicles.com