Winter was a long slog this year, and had me put off a lot of work that would have normally been completed by this point.  We’re mid-May and it feels like everything is a month late.  I was only able to take out my backyard rink last weekend, as I had snow up until then.

Cottage Work

We went up for the weekend to finally open it up.  Ice had melted in nearly all the spots, though still some areas frozen underneath the cottage.  Put the dock in, cleared out the shed, laid out the outside.  All great.

Water pump worked pretty quick, then filled the hot water tank.  Which caused the sink line to explode.  When we bought the place, the previous owners had retrofitted the main lines to PEX (the plastic lines) which are much better in the cold weather than copper.  They kept the main attachments as copper lines, since they were soldered to the taps.  Finally busted.  A trip to the local hardware store, 20 minutes before closing, got me what I needed.  Of course, the actual PEX lines were short, with no shut off valves… so some 10 creative minutes later, we had hot water.

Now I need to re-examine all the lines.  And it further motivates me to think about the next step of cottage building.

Outdoor Work

My yard is a mess.  The neighbor had an outdoor pool, a yard of sand, and 2 dead trees.  The pool came out, the trees were cut to stumps, and the sand blew all over.  Every year there’s a field of yellow on that side of the fence, and it slowly makes its way across to our side.  Weed management is like half the yard.

So I’m going to take a different approach and choke out the weeds with stronger grass.  Fertilizer, watering, overseeding…I’ll give it 2 years to see what comes.

Plumbing

A theme it seems.  In the winter my washbasin taps were leaking, and my shut off valve for outside was the same.  The washer gaskets were too old I guess.  The basin taps were easy enough, but the shut off was in a closed area making access quite tough.  A surprising amount of water in a shut off line, truth be told.  Thankfully the swap took all of 2 minutes.

Aquarium

And more water woes.  I have 10 gallon aquarium for some guppies.  Looks like a seal busted overnight since the tank was empty this morning.  Was able to save 5 of the fish, which means it happened near 6am.  Lucked out in that all the water was absorbed by a nearby carpet.  Cleanup was pretty quick, but it does mean that I have to get some acetone and silicone to make the repair.

The Weekend

It’s May24 this weekend.  Fishing season opens, though the water is still ice cold.  We’ll be heading to the cottage for some (hopeful) sun.  That means getting the boat from storage, spring cleaning, battery charging, pole posting, and general maintenance for the next few nights.

Interestingly, my wife is a Royal watcher and wants to stay in town to see the wedding on Saturday morning.  Ehh…I really like waking up with a cup of coffee and staring out at the water.  We’ll see how it turns out.

Would be nice to just be able to fully relax without a pile of work to do.