Building The Love Shack

I’m not sure when it happened. One day we had two air-conditioners going and it was like the next day that the cool winds blew in and we had our jackets on and we were lighting up the fireplace.

It seems about that same time the leaves were changing to Fall Colors and started falling to the ground that the birdhouses that had been so active with feathered families went quiet. They had gone South, forgetting to say goodbye and leaving behind the sound of silence over cottage county.

The only sound they left behind was the lake which had changed too. The light sparking blue had turned dark and cold looking with white caps that broke against the rocks.

We took all of this as a subtle hint from Mother Nature that it’s time to start to prepare to close up the cottage. The process for closing is the opposite of opening. In the Spring you start on the inside and in the Fall you start on the outside.

With the birdhouses empty we started there. It was time to go back up on the ladder to take them down. The old nest were removed and they are now packed and ready to be brought home where they will have a good wash and have maintenance repairs done over the Winter and be ready to rehang in the Spring.

The second project was to take down the garden decoration and pack up the furniture on the back deck. The bar frig was emptied, and the windchimes and beach signs were put away. The table and chairs were plastic wrapped and we were ready to take down the dining tent.

I would have to say in the five years of packing up the dining tent, this year was the easiest of all as the wind had helped us.

Our neighbors tell us, we had a wind storm the past week, and the wind took out the center of the awning. The only the part of awning that was left was the part attached to the support poles. Where it went is a mystery as no neighbor had seen it and we never did find it. It too had traveled with the wind and was gone along with the birds.

We had one more project to do that day. We had another cottage that needed to be closed up for the Winter. The one for our friends who couldn’t come to Canada this year because of Covid, so we went over to close up their cottage for them. We are hopeful that next year at this time, we will be teaching them how to close for the Winter.

Today we seen our first snowflakes and are now wearing winter jackets and the fur babies are wearing theirs too. They still like going to the cottage. The laying on the couch in front of the fire part is their favorite part, but aren’t liking of the cold winds.

Over the past few weekends the Warriors have been up to collect their personal items and spend one more day before the Love Shack is closed. Wearing a jacket and sitting on the new deck looking at the Fall Colors and enjoying the purple and pink sky has not been a hardship on any of us.

We do all seem to hate closing time. I’m not sure if this is a good thing or the not, but each year we seems to have more to do and so closing takes longer. What was once done in a day five years ago, now takes about three weekends. We have certainly accumulated many more items at the cottage and therefore much to put away.

At this point in the plan, there are still a few projects left to finish and another cottage to close up, ours. But, we are happy to say, this is our longest season at the cottage as we usually closed up by now. The weather though chilly has not brought us too much rain like last year, or snow like the year before allowing us to keep going up and getting things cleaned up and finished up.

For this year anyways, it’s nice to not have been locked up in the house and still be at the Love Shack. I have a feeling this maybe a long Winter thanks to Covid.

My Grandmother would say everything travels in the wind. The more time I spend at the cottage and the more time I spend with Mother Nature, the more I’m sure that my Grandmother was right.

As the wind changes, the weather changes and both my birds and my dining tent went for sure. I might add so did my warm weather.

I’m not looking forward to the cold or the snow. But, on the upside of that once it starts to melt, I have two hundred bulbs I planted at the cottage that I’m looking forward to becoming crocus and daffodils.

We had an amazing year at the cottage this year. This Covid 19 gave us all a different preceptive. One that we are greatful for having the opportunity to have.

Because of Covid and limited restrictions the cottagers were left to having each other. And though we respected our space of six feet, we had each other to talk to and get to know better. This year we got to know more co-cottagers than we have in total of the past five years.

This also means, that closing will be even harder than last year, because we now have more people to miss.