We bought a camp!

[Farmer X]

I'd say your estimate of the stove's age is at least in the ballpark. I'd also agree that restoring it is probably not feasible. Chucking it off to the dump was the right choice. Glad you managed to get that done without major incident.

[LoopCutter]

Thank you so much for the update!

You have seem to have great weather for getting items squared away in the outbuilding and travel to and from the property.

A great project.

[Grant Lamontagne]

Glad to have you all along!

A bit of history of the property for you- that ring of large rocks was originally the shore of the lake. 

This lake is the water supply for what used to be the military base not far from here, called CFB Cornwallis.  It was shut down in the 90's (I think) but this lake continues to be protected (a lot of limitations, including no gas powered boats) because it still supplies water to the area.

Years ago the military decided to increase the size of the lake to have more water available, and they compensated the few people who had properties there at the time. 

So, according to the original deed, this property used to extend all the way to that ring of rocks that I am saying I can't get a canoe past.  Which means that even though I am complaining about how low the water is, it's not actually as low as originally, naturally would have been.

Still, it hasn't been like that since (probably) the 50's or 60's, so I am sure Mother Nature was perfectly happy to have it.

You will notice, if you watch the video that there are some remnants of trees sticking up through the rocks.  Ordinarily these would be under water, but they aren't currently.

Given that they are usually hidden, and I'm eventually going to have a dock there, I don't want people jumping off my dock and impaling themselves, so I think I am going to have to try and pull some of those tree remnants out.  It seems like it would be mostly manageable now, while the water is so low.

I don't know if being dead and underwater for so long is going to make it easier or harder to do that.... 

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

With all of the snorkeling and paddling threads I have started here over the years, it should come as no surprise to any one that I am a water guy.  I pretty much like doing everything in, on, around and under the water.

So, it shouldn't shock anyone that one of my favorite pastimes is skipping stones.

My mother used to enjoy it as well, and she used to encourage us to skip stones whenever possible when my brother and I were small.  At least half the time (probably more!) that we spend on our little beach I'm actively searching for good skipping stones.  Someone else must have done the same, because for such a rocky beach, the amount of good, flat stones are pretty minimal.

But, where there's a will....



These are far from my best efforts, but I have been wanting to shoot some stone skipping videos for a while, and this was an attempt to see what it would look like.  I may have been a little optimistic by how much area the drone is covering!   

Still, you get a good look at how clear the water is in our lake, and that's kinda fun too!

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

Oh, and regarding the earlier comment about getting a new wood stove installed.  Unfortunately that doesn't look like it's going to happen any time soon. 

If at all.

Since we have the place insured (many people don't insure properties like this) we have to play by some strict rules.  Currently our chimney (which is a relatively new steel model) is not something a certified wood stove installer wants to take responsibility for.  That means that we need a new chimney, straight from the wood floor, up through the ceiling, attic and roof, even though there is not likely anything wrong with what we currently have.   

All of this is just a little bit less than half the cost of a Hyundai Elantra.

That's a bit too much money, and a whole lot of work, so we are going to forego the wood stove and instead just get a nice electric fireplace.  We considered propane, but that's another consumable we can't be bothered with, and will require an exhaust... again, too much work, too much expense.

We will just clean up the old fire pit outside and enjoy that when we want to get primal.

While I will miss the whole traditional wood fire thing, there will be a lot of benefits with an electric unit- for one, in the winter when we are heading to the camp we can remotely turn the heat up long before we arrive, so that it's nice and toasty when we get there.  Also, as much as I love a wood stove, they are dirty and take up a crapload of space.  A nice electric unit will look like real fire, and maybe stick out six inches into the room, instead of four feet.  Overall, this should free up a lot of floor space.

As for the hole in the ceiling where the current chimney goes into the attic, Megan has vetoed my idea to get a mannikin head, put a Spider Man mask on it and have it sticking through the hole, as if Spidey was there keeping an eye on the place! 

Def

[Farmer X]

I'm not really a water guy. Fresh water is okay, but I draw the line at jumping into a lake or river. As for the ocean...let's just say that my time in the Navy cured me of any further desire to see salt water.

[Grant Lamontagne]

Yeah. I'd rather stay on the top of salsmurfer, or more preferably, beside salt water.  I was raised inland and as far as I'm concerned, oceans are unnatural and you won't convince me otherwise!   

As for jumping into lakes and rivers, well I have done much worse than that, but those are stories for another time!   

Def

[fullbreakfast]

I'm not really a water guy. Fresh water is okay, but I draw the line at jumping into a lake or river. As for the ocean...let's just say that my time in the Navy cured me of any further desire to see salt water.

Water’s OK for swimming in, but I wouldn’t drink the damn  stuff.

[pfrsantos]

I shot this video last weekend.

While it looks great, bear in mind that where we are standing, we should be (at least) knee deep in water.

https://youtu.be/cAwxPbF8guA?si=VsyOalsPv68id73e

Def

Well, on the bright side, your property size is increasing!

 

[pfrsantos]

(...)
Given that they are usually hidden, and I'm eventually going to have a dock there, I don't want people jumping off my dock and impaling themselves, so I think I am going to have to try and pull some of those tree remnants out.  It seems like it would be mostly manageable now, while the water is so low.

I don't know if being dead and underwater for so long is going to make it easier or harder to do that.... 

Def

Don't spend too much time doing that...



 

[ThundahBeagle]

That place is shaping up to be real special

[lister]

As a wise man once said, better to buy a camp than to buy a farm. 

Nice place. 

Also: That house gives me Evil Dead vibes. 

[RobertMcc]

I forgot to post this- we were in the local town of Annapolis Royal last weekend and I saw this ad.  For some reason I figured folks here would appreciate it!   

Def

Yup that sums up Annapolis valley. You'll enjoy it. Why you think I moved from Halifax to here?

Be down next summer, since well we never got to enjoy ours.

Hoping soon that cell service gets better in the next couple years. Was told they power them down to switch to 5 G or something. But never did. I barely get cell signal at home. I got a 50 GB data plan and lucky to use 1 GB.

[Grant Lamontagne]

Yeah we are definitely lucky to have a signal at the camp.  Anyone who goes there is surprised and tells us how lucky we are.  It's a good thing I already had a halfways decent idea of where things are, because relying on Google Maps isn't really a thing there.

For some reason any time I try to use it at the camp it always selects a route going through Bridgewaddah.

Def

[RobertMcc]

Yeah we are definitely lucky to have a signal at the camp.  Anyone who goes there is surprised and tells us how lucky we are.  It's a good thing I already had a halfways decent idea of where things are, because relying on Google Maps isn't really a thing there.

For some reason any time I try to use it at the camp it always selects a route going through Bridgewaddah.

Def

Yeah you need to use google maps like map quest and print the directions off. Or make notes. Just like the 90s.

Just shocking, you're a little more rural than me. And I'm lucky to have 1 bar anywheres in my house. But probably because your area is more touristy.

It never used to be this bad. But people are shocked, that I have sewer, door to door delivery, high speed internet.

When amazon started to not use Canada post to deliver and use independant courier. I kept on getting drivers go 20 mins past my house. When they finally arrived, They told me it told me to go here. Im like this is why they have civic signs, you cannot trust GPS alway.


I was visiting a friend in Kingston, driving from Petawawa. I had a Tom Tom back then. Well it lead me down this dirt road and ended up coming out behind some guys house. I waved awkwardly.

[Grant Lamontagne]

We definitely have that problem.

Google Maps tells us to take Old Trunk 8 road once we get off the highway, but that's a couple of very hard corners, a steep hill and a very badly maintained road.

We plan to recommend that people keep going until they get to Lequille Country Store and then come back that way, but Google Maps won't update or a while and you'll probably be lost by the time it does.

Your options are:

A- get lost in the Annapolis Valley and maybe never be seen again, or

B- take a road that might destroy your car.

If I'm being honest, that was one of the selling features for the place!

Def

[RobertMcc]

We definitely have that problem.

Google Maps tells us to take Old Trunk 8 road once we get off the highway, but that's a couple of very hard corners, a steep hill and a very badly maintained road.

We plan to recommend that people keep going until they get to Lequille Country Store and then come back that way, but Google Maps won't update or a while and you'll probably be lost by the time it does.

Your options are:

A- get lost in the Annapolis Valley and maybe never be seen again, or

B- take a road that might destroy your car.

If I'm being honest, that was one of the selling features for the place!

Def

I've bent about 6 rims since moving up this way. Good thing about the 10#, it is well maintained. 

[Grant Lamontagne]

I'm hoping that won't happen to me, although hauling a trailer full of junk and garbage to the dump every weekend isn't helping.   

Def

[RobertMcc]

I'm hoping that won't happen to me, although hauling a trailer full of junk and garbage to the dump every weekend isn't helping.   

Def

Late winter to early Fall is pothole season. After we got  that tourist money, they got a budget to poorly patch the potholes, just for the plows to pull out the patches.

Welcome to the Valley.

[Grant Lamontagne]

Yeah, the Maverick has a feature where it senses if you drive erratically and it suggests you take a break because it thinks you are falling asleep.

It used to go off all the time when we first bought the camp because I kept swerving to avoid the potholes.

I may not have as much time in the valley as you, but I'm well aware of how that works!

Def

[Farmer X]

I kept swerving to avoid the potholes.

That sounds about like the Detroit area...

[Grant Lamontagne]

Detroit has nothing on NS.  Trust me.

Def

[RobertMcc]

Yeah, the Maverick has a feature where it senses if you drive erratically and it suggests you take a break because it thinks you are falling asleep.

It used to go off all the time when we first bought the camp because I kept swerving to avoid the potholes.

I may not have as much time in the valley as you, but I'm well aware of how that works!

Def

Yeah I just went down the 1 yesterday. All the cold patching they did a few months ago. It is back to being a goat pass. So between Wilmont and Kingston. Its only the east bound lane that is bad.

They fix it in a couple years when they collect enough money from tourist and get enough compliments.  But almost yearly the roads like this.

I still remember being airborn in the 4runner hitting a pot hole in St John.

[Grant Lamontagne]

As it's been a while since we went to our camp, and since Megan got a new fire pit for her birthday, we decided to take a drive out the other day in between storms to check on things.

We are on a main road, so we knew the street would be plowed, but we still had to park on the side of the road to clear enough of our driveway to get my little trucklet in.  If I still had the Jeep I wouldn't have worried about it too much, but the Maverick isn't the indestructible monstrosity the Jeep was.

The snow wasn't deep, but the stuff piled up by the plow had gotten a bit dense and heavy, but even so I was able to clear enough space to get the Maverick off the road in a reasonable amount of time.

While I did that, Megan cleared a path down the rest of the driveway, which is quite a ways!  Even though that snow was light, we didn't really feel the need to clear the whole driveway!

We expected to see lots of animal tracks int he snow, but we really only spotted one trail, and it was hard to identify as it was largely filled with snow, and obviously not fresh.

Still, as the snow was about a foot deep and there were no marks from a body it's obvious whatever made the tracks had long enough legs to not drag it's bum, so not a rabbit, porcupine, skunk or raccoon.

But, whatever it was walked under the corner of the camp, so not a deer, and the holes weren't big enough around for bear.  Our guess is either a large fox or a small coyote, and most likely the latter.

The fluffy white snow made for a real Wonderland feel, and there wasn't a lot of wind- occasional light gusts, that we were mostly protected from by all of the trees around us, but were pleasant even when they did break through.

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

We definitely did get a very pretty spot!

Megan wasted no time clearing a spot in the yard area to set up a couple of chairs and the fire pit.  Lunch would take a bit to cook, because Megan isn't the type to just fire a few hot dogs into the grille of a brand new fire pit- heck no!

We were having prime rib.

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

Naturally her other birthday present was put to good use as well, as she carved the prime rib with her fancy new Opinel #12 Explore.

After we'd disposed of the prime rib we puttered around the property and made sure nothing was damaged in any of the storms. 

Personally I was looking forward to seeing where my orange marker stick was in the water- we've had a few dumps of snow come and go and lots of rain since the last time we were at the camp, and I was looking forward to seeing how much the water level in the lake had rebounded.

Unfortunately the snowfalls and shifting ice seems to have claimed my marker stick, and the snow is obscuring where the lake begins so we don't have a great idea of what the water level is at, but I did note at one point that I was not standing on rock!

Where I was the lake wouldn't have been more than a couple of feet deep at most, so I wasn't in much danger, but even so, I made my way back to where I could feel the rocks under my feet!

We packed up shortly afterwards and started the long drive home.

We'd briefly considered spending the night but we had no blankets or pillows for the bed the camp has no water or washroom facilities, the heat inside is inadequate for sub zero temperatures and there was a freezing rain storm coming the next day so we decided it didn't make much sense.

It was a long day, but well worth it!

Def

[LoopCutter]

Wow, great trip by my simple measure.

Fire pit and a Opinel No12!  My type of lady!

The Coyote tracks will typically single file, one paw in front of the other, including front and back paw prints. Makes it difficult to determine the number in the pack.

A fox prints will be more offset, close together, but more side to side to deserve left and right as well as direction and pace.

Beautiful pictures of your setting.

A good day!  A very good day!!!

Plus your chariot appears to be serving you well.

[Farmer X]

Prime rib is quite the litmus test for the new fire pit. And the Opinel No. 12 and the sailing ship graphic on your license plate are awesome!

[Grant Lamontagne]

That's the Bluenose.  It is a famous sailing schooner that lives in NS (or at least the current version does) and it's one of many symbols of the country.

It's also on our dime.

Megan doesn't like to do things easily.  The first time I took her kayaking we did steak on a tiny camp stove and the first time we went camping she did lamb on the open fire.

The Opinel did an excellent job too!

Def

[BPRoberts]

Looks like a great time. We awlmost had a white Christmas, but a rain storm blew through a couple days before and washed it all out. We've gotten a bit more since then, but not enough to get a good cover.