Preparing for a Winter Trip to Cottage Country

November 20, 2007 By 1 Comment

Snow on tree

Winter’s coming! Here’s the evidence:

  • My sister is treasurer of the Highland Rovers Snowmobile Club north of Huntsville, and she’s reporting brisk sales in permits so far this year. Of course this could be because the price goes up on the first of December, but she says there is a lot of optimism for a good winter this year.
  • The Weather Network has snowflakes on its long range forecast for every day next week.
  • I’ve seen a dozen trucks towing trailers with snowmobiles, heading north.
  • My neighbour has his snow shovel handily placed on the front porch, ready for action. That is always a sign he knows something the rest of us don’t.
  • Canadian Tire has all its snow blowers lined up outside in a neat line like a platoon of soldiers ready for action.
  • Our snow plough man has been to collect his money for ten ploughs.
  • The road down to our cottage has been newly graded and there’s a fresh pile of sand by the side of the steep hill.
  • Sergeant Cam Woolley of the OPP says so!

Winter is inevitable and I look forward to it with anticipation of lots of outdoor activity, Tim Horton’s hot chocolate, and the smell of woodsmoke in the air. In cottage country, we prepare for it, expect it to be tough at times, and respect mother nature for the curve balls she occasionally throws. For visitors to the country, particularly those renting a cottage for the first time, it can be surprising how different conditions are, just an hour or so north of the city, particularly at this time of year.

Following these tips can help make your winter cottage rental a trip to remember – for all the right reasons:

Use winter tires. All season tires are OK in places, but many cottage roads are hilly, narrow and winding. You will need all the traction you can get and winter tires are the way to go. Canadian Driver writer Jim Kerr comments on all season tires, “These tires do provide traction on ice and snow if driven carefully, but these tires would be better named “three-season” tires. They work well in spring, summer and fall, but don’t provide the ultimate traction and handling that a performance tire will on dry pavement nor the traction of winter specific tires on snow.”

Keep an emergency pack in the car. Preparing for the worst is always good advice. Some cottage country roads are pretty remote, even if they are ploughed. Our cottage is 4km down a road that is ploughed by the township, however it’s the only winterized cottage. If you broke down or slid off the road, it may be days before someone found you. Environment Canada has a list of what you should have in your emergency car kit.

We rescued a couple last year who were renting our cottage and had driven up with all season tires on a sedan. They came off the icy road on a bend and were well and truly stuck in a snow drift. They had no boots or heavy jackets with them. “We were only going to sit inside the cottage and enjoy the wood stove, or take a dip in the hot tub. We weren’t planning on spending any time outdoors”, one of them said!

Tell people where you are going and when you expect to be there. This is one of those pieces of advice we give our kids, but often ignore as adults, but it’s worth the extra minute or two before you leave on a trip to cottage country to let family or friends know your plans. Give them the contact phone numbers you have on your cottage rental information sheet, the address and phone number of the cottage you have rented, and your planned time of arrival. Phone home and let people know you have arrived safely, or if you are going to be significantly delayed.

Plan your trip thoroughly and give yourself lots of time to get there. Snow squalls are frequent in the traditional snow belt areas, and its not unusual to leave the city in brilliant sunshine and find blizzard conditions just an hour or so north. Make sure you have a good map with you, and know where you are going. Check the Weather Network for severe weather updates – you can get these downloaded to your cell phone.

Trust the owner of your vacation home. If the owner calls you to say there is a problem accessing the cottage due to snow conditions, trust him and do not travel. These people know their cottage areas and won’t get you to curtail your trip unless there is good reason. If you do attempt the trip after being advised not to, you are taking a real risk.

Winter in cottage country can be a magical experience and it only takes a little preparation to really enjoy it.

Filed Under: Renters Tips, Winter Cottage Rental

Why You Should Book Your Summer 2008 Vacation Rental NOW

November 19, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Why you should book your summer 2008 vacation rental NOW

“I’m looking for a cottage rental for next summer and it needs to sleep 10 people, have a sandy beach and internet access. Oh, and I want to book for 3 weeks in August”. This was just one of many calls we received last week, and happily we were able to accommodate the family in a great cottage near Penetanguishene.

This lady was fortunate to find a property that met all her criteria as the savvy renters are booking early for summer 2008. Some of our managed properties are already fully booked and many of the larger ones have at least 70% of the weeks reserved.

Book now if you want the following:

  • More than two weeks in the same cottage
  • A large property – with more than 4 bedrooms
  • A higher end cottage with a sandy beach
  • Hi-speed internet access
  • Two adjoining properties for multi-family use

Most agencies will be listing new properties right up to the early summer, however if you really want to secure your dream vacation rental for next year, do it now.  Check the cancellation policy as you will often find that if you change your mind you will only get your deposit refunded if the owner or agency is able to rebook the time, plus you will be charged an administration fee.   If you take out travel insurance at the time you book, you may be covered for change of mind so check the small print.

Filed Under: Cottage Renters, Renters Tips

Cottage Life Show update

November 3, 2007 By Leave a Comment

 I’ve had a few internet difficulties these past couple of days – not least of which was arriving at my son’s place in Port Perry for the weekend to find his hi-speed internet connection was down.  So, my series on geocaching got cut a little short and since I’m exhibiting at the Cottage Life Show this weekend, I will save the final posts for Monday. My business partner and owner of CottageLINK will be manning the booth on Sunday so I may get out to Durham Forest with the dogs and search for a cache or two myself.

 I met a lot of people at the Show yesterday looking for a cottage to rent for the entire summer of 2008. They are right to be doing their search now. Many of our best cottages already have several summer weeks booked – most of them with returning guests from this year. Having said that, one of the purposes of us exhibiting is to attract new owners and new cottages, and it sure looks like there will be a bumper crop for next year. Over the next few weeks our team will be on the road inspecting these properties, taking interior photos and preparing them for listing. This is always an exciting time as we’ll get to see lakes and rivers we have never been to, and add new locations to our ever growing inventory.

More from the Show tomorrow……………….

Filed Under: Renters Tips, Uncategorized

Wood Stove Safety

October 27, 2007 By Leave a Comment

With the cooler weather on the way, if you are planning a cottage rental vacation over the next few months, I expect you’ll be looking for a comfortable and cosy place with an open fireplace or a wood burning stove. We have a high efficiency stove at Osprey Cottage and our guests love it. In fact, we will generally light the fire an hour or two before people are due to arrive so their first impression on opening the cottage door is of a warm and welcoming atmosphere. 

 High efficiency wood stoves are designed to operate most effectively on minimal wood loads.  It is not necessary to load up the stove with as much wood as possible, keep the flue wide open and continue piling in more logs every half hour as if you are in-training to be a stoker on the Titanic!.

We’re aware though, that many of our guests have never had any experience of lighting or maintaining a wood stove or open fireplace, and so we leave full instructions on how best to operate the unit. These include advice on running it in the most economical and effective way, so we do hope our guests read and assimilate the information we leave for them. This is the gist of what it says: 

  • Overloading a wood stove can result in overheating and, at worst, a chimney fire. A fire will be much more effective with a couple of logs rather than a dozen.

  • If you light a fire when the flue and chimney are cold, you might find the stove becomes very smoky and this spills out into the room. The trick here is to warm the chimney by laying some newspaper on top of the logs and lighting this first.

  • Only use the firewood that has been designated for use in the woodstove. This is known as ‘seasoned’ wood which means it was cut and stacked many months before, giving it time to dry, and gives a slower and longer burn. Wood found around the cottage is generally damp and green, and will result in a fierce burn rate which can cause a build up of creosote in the chimney.

  • Watch the fire from behind the closed door. Although it is nice to hear the crackle of the burning wood, the wood stove works more effectively and the fire will burn longer if you keep the doors closed, unless putting more logs in.

  • You may be asked to clean out the fireplace before you leave the cottage. Only use a metal bucket and shovel which should be provided. If they are not, don’t attempt to remove the ashes. We had guests in our cottage vacuum out the ashes thinking they were cold, which burnt through the machine. This was quite a costly shortcut!

  • We had a chimney fire in our own home last year which was the result of a combination of errors. Using green wood, inadvertently leaving the flue open, using too much wood at one time, and failing to have the chimney cleaned regularly, all contributed to a near disaster. We learnt a lot from that and have been passing this onto our cottage owners who should be including instructions and warnings in their cottage guides, so please read them. 

A winter break in a cottage is a perfect time to kick back and relax with friends or family. But if you haven’t experienced wood stove heating before, do take some time to familiarize yourself with it, before you start loading up and lighting. Have fun and enjoy our cottage country lifestyle.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Renters Tips, Winter Cottage Rental

Notes from my vacation rental in Sedona

October 17, 2007 By 2 Comments

I have found it a real eye opener this week to be at the other end of the rental market. My days are normally spent helping people find properties to rent, matching them up with the cottage that meets their needs, and processing all the paperwork that will get them there with the minimum of stress. This week, I am at a rented cottage in Sedona, Arizona, taking some much needed down time, so I’m in the position of being a rental client.

The home we have rented is lovely. It’s in a residential area but has a fenced in yard so no-one overlooks us. Most places here are on one level so there are uninterrupted views of the famous red rocks from the living area and the garden. This is a pet friendly property so our golden retriever is with us enjoying the hiking as much as we do.

I really should practice what I preach though. Our website at CLRM has a master packing list that all our rental guests can download, along with a few notes to make sure nothing is missed. But, I totally forget it was there and arrived without my favourite knife. Rental properties are notorious for be equipped with blunt knives by the way. The villa is very well equipped though and there are a few things I will be passing onto my cottage owners at CLRM that I think would make their homes more user friendly for guests.

Here’s a few tips I have picked up this week:

  • If you plan on cooking something special like a paella or casserole that you need a specific pan or dish for, bring it with you
  • Pack essentials such as toilet paper, dishwasher tabs/soap, foil, clingfilm and garbage bags, just in case these are not provided.
  • Don’t plan on barbecuing the first night, or have a standby option, in case the BBQ fails to work or is out of gas.
  • Read the property manual as soon as you have arrived and get settled. There’s usually a lot of useful information that you will need to enjoy your stay.
  • Read the guest book – there’s often a wealth of information on local attractions and places to go with candid testimonials and recommendations from previous renters
Filed Under: Cottage Renters, Renters Tips

Recycling on vacation

October 15, 2007 By 1 Comment

Blog Action Day

 

Today is Blog Action Day and it is the blogging communities’ way of strengthening the environmental message across the world. Bloggers worldwide will be posting on environmental concerns to raise awareness of what we can do to address what’s happening to our planet. Here’s my contribution…..

It’s easy to slip back into the old ways when you’re on vacation. You eat all the stuff you know you shouldn’t; have the extra glass of wine or two; replace the morning run with a lie-in, and forget all about recycling.

The first three can be forgiven – a few days of indulgence won’t do much harm – it’s the recycling one that can really cause an issue. If everyone who routinely separates and recycles their garbage at home, decides not to bother while on vacation at a cottage, the impact could be pretty damaging to the environment.

In the vast majority of cottage country areas, there is no kerbside pickup and it is the cottage occupants responsibility to take their garbage home with them or to transport it to the local dump or transfer station. Thankfully, most dumps are run professionally with recycling policies strictly enforced; some however are more lax, so it is up to residents to act responsibly and separate all garbage.

It’s easy to think it doesn’t matter for a few days or a week while you are on holiday, but if everyone takes that little extra time, the impact could be huge.


Filed Under: Renters Tips

Test drive a cottage rental before booking for next year

October 6, 2007 By 1 Comment

I like the idea of ‘try before you buy’. In the past year, I have test driven a few cars, bought a pair of glasses from the store that lets you exchange them if they don’t feel right, and taken up trial subscriptions to new magazines. It’s a concept that makes you feel good about a decision to buy – you’ve had the chance to evaluate the pros and cons before parting with the big bucks.

Given that the annual vacation is a major expense and all you usually have to support a decision is a webpage, or a brochure, any opportunity to take a look beforehand must be good. When you’re considering vacation rental, why not try it out first and take an off-season weekend break. Although you won’t get the summer experience, you will find out a lot about the place and the surrounding area that a web page doesn’t tell you.

This, of course, will only work with cottages that are available for use year round, or at least three-season, but it is sure worth checking whether the place you are interested in for next summer, offers weekends in, say November. Some may offer a discount on your summer rental as a bonus for booking a weekend break. For example, take a November weekend at Osprey Cottage in the Kawarthas, and you’ll get $150 off the high season rate for booking a week in the summer.

Seems like a great idea to me.

Filed Under: Renters Tips

Ways to make your cottage rental search easier

September 26, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Navigating the web to find the best cottage rental can be a frustrating process. There are dozens of sites and thousands of cottages, and finding accurate availability data can have even the most patient of people banging their heads on the wall. Then of course, remembering where you found the best ones is a real challenge unless you’re really well organized.

Google Notebook

I’ve been researching ways to organize cottage searches and haven’t come across anything that is much better than Google Notebook. This free service offered by Google provides a simple way to save and organize clips of information when carrying out research online. You can write notes, clip text, download images, and save links from pages during browsing.  This means when you find a cottage you like on one site, all you do is click on the notebook icon which sits in a corner on your desktop. The link will be recorded and you can make notes on the selection.

Another neat feature of Google Notebook is that it has sharing and collaboration capability, so if you are planning a vacation with family and friends outside your household, you can share your notes with them.

Del.icio.us

The bookmarking service del.icio.us is also a useful tool as a search organiser. Once you have found a property you can give it tags such as ‘sandy beach’, ‘spacious’, ‘big lake’, or whatever descriptive term you like. Then when you come back to look at your saved cottages, you’ll be able to see all those in each tagged category. It’s a little hard to explain but since this is a free service, why not just give it a try.

These two tools should make your life a lot easier when you start hunting for your 2008 cottage rental.  Happy hunting!

Filed Under: Cottage Renters, Renters Tips

5 Reasons to book your vacation rental early

September 24, 2007 By Leave a Comment

We are already experiencing a high demand for cottages for next summer, so is now the time to book your vacation rental?

A lot of owners will not decide on their own use of the cottage until early 2008, but many properties that are wide open for rental are already booking up. Since there are always new properties coming onto the rental market and many of these won’t be appearing in the listings until later this fall and early winter, there is a good reason to hang on for a bit to find the one that’s right for you. However there are some situation that make early booking advisable.

  1. If the cottage you wanted this year was already booked

    Savvy renters know that booking early is critical if you want to get the pick of the vacation rental properties. Many families go back to the same place year after year which is usually a good indicator of popularity, and you can find that a beautifully located and attractive property is fully booked by the end of December. If the cottage of choice was booked by the time you found it this year, chances are it will be again,  so you’ll need to get going soon.

  2. If you want a sandy beach

    A sandy beach and shallow walkout to the water is high on many renters’ criteria list and  good waterfront of any type will draw the early birds. Make sure you are getting what you expect though and do your homework thoroughly. A ‘sandy beach’ could mean anything from a shared area at Wasaga, to a tiny stretch of fine gravel leading into a weedy bay. Be sure you do your research thoroughly if a sandy shoreline is a ‘must have’, then get it booked.

  3. If there are more than 8 people

    Large cottages are in high demand, so if you are planning on vacationing with your extended family get your search underway now. Properties with five or six bedrooms are very popular and if you want somewhere that will accommodate more than 8 people, leaving it too late will mean you’ll have a lengthy and frustrating search. For example, Cherry Hollow which is a 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom cottage on Horn Lake near Burks Falls, was fully booked within two weeks of listing. Several of this years guests have rebooked already, so if this is what you are looking for, get going!

  4. If you have special requirements

    The later you leave booking your cottage rental, fulfilling all your ‘must haves’ becomes more challenging. If those criteria include such things as high speed internet, or finding a cottage that will accept more than one dog, you’ll have your work cut out to find just the right property. Get the family together and discuss what makes your perfect cottage vacation, what you cannot do without, and those extras that would make it really special. If your list is long, look now for your dream cottage!

  5. If you want more than two consecutive weeks

    Bookings of more than four weeks should be made now as families looking for an extended stay always book early.  You may get a small discount on a longer  booking but don’t anticipate too much of a deal. Attractive cottages with good waterfront are in strong demand, so owners will be able to rent all their summer weeks without discounting. All they will be saving is a trip up to the cottage for a changeover, or a charge by their management company, so that is the most you could expect to save.

Filed Under: Cottage Renters, Renters Tips

The best Banoffee Pie recipe

September 23, 2007 By 2 Comments

I never used to like desserts. As a child I was rarely offered anything sweet after a meal as my parents generally rounded off a good dinner with a variety of cheese and fruit. It’s only in the past few years that I have developed a bit of a sweet tooth and this new interest was furthered when I was given a copy of a book called ‘Secrets of the Hungry Monk’. The Hungry Monk is a great pub and restaurant in East Sussex, England and is birthplace of Banoffee Pie, that glorious concoction of caramel, bananas and coffee flavoured cream that has been copied and served around the world.

Here is the original recipe for Bannofi Pie (and the original spelling) and the one that is absolutely the best. It can be made quicker by buying ready made caramel, but if you have the time to boil up the cans of condensed milk for the required hours, it really is worth it. The recipe calls for 5 hours of boiling, but I have always had a great result in 3 hours.

A tip here: I boil several cans at a time then I always have ready cooked caramel in a tin to take with me to the cottage. You can also use a graham cracker base rather than pastry.


Filed Under: Cottage recipes, Cottage Renters, Renters Tips
« Older Posts
Newer Posts »