The end of another year is upon us, and the only thing sadder than not being able to come out to the cottage every weekend, is the thought that I have to pack up my seadoos for the winter. These last few weeks of the summer lake season are spent doing all the closing up tasks, and cleaning and fixing that the cottage and all the lake toys require after another fun summer. It's not all that bad though, because the cleanup and fixing that is done in the fall just means an easy job of opening the cottage in the spring.
Once the days become too chilly to enjoy our personal water crafts, I start to take them out. I take out the least popular or least used first. As I take each out of the water, I take the time to give it a good cleaning and make any minor repairs. Sometimes I need to sand and re-varnish paddles while other times the canoe or peddle boat might need a small fiberglass patch.
After each PWC has been cleaned and fixed, they get towed to their winter storage spot. I have a great oversized garage where there is room at the end for me to store my trailer with the pwcs on it for the winter. At the cottage I get the seadoo covers on for hauling back to the house, and then they are set for the winter (unless of course it was a wet day when I hauled them back, then I need to dry them out and recover them later). As for the other boats at the cottage, the canoe has a little frame that it sits upside down on under the cottage, and all the paddles get brought into the cottage so the animals don't decide to use them as toothpicks over the winter.
Another job that I enjoy is finding and splitting deadwood. We don't use a lot of firewood to heat the cottage but we do have a wood stove and the first few weekends of the cottage season (just after Easter) can be chilly. It's nice to open up the cottage and have some ready wood to throw into the woodstove. We don't often come up during the winter but if we do the wood is ready.
The garden gets some attention in the fall as well - we have a lot of perennials that seem to do better if they get cut back now. Especially the hostas at the edge of the lawn. If I clip the leaves in the fall they are all ready cleaned up in the spring, not to mention the fact that the slugs won't have an easy home in the leaves over the winter. All the clippings are added to the compost pile, and then the ready compost is sprinkled over any perennial beds to give them a vitamin boost in the spring.
I never find any shortage of jobs to do in order to get the cottage ready for the winter, but it makes me happy knowing that the work I do at the end of the season means less maintenance and cleanup work that I will have to do in the spring. First thing next year I'll be able to bring out the pwcs, unpack the seadoo covers and head straight out to the lake.
Once the days become too chilly to enjoy our personal water crafts, I start to take them out. I take out the least popular or least used first. As I take each out of the water, I take the time to give it a good cleaning and make any minor repairs. Sometimes I need to sand and re-varnish paddles while other times the canoe or peddle boat might need a small fiberglass patch.
After each PWC has been cleaned and fixed, they get towed to their winter storage spot. I have a great oversized garage where there is room at the end for me to store my trailer with the pwcs on it for the winter. At the cottage I get the seadoo covers on for hauling back to the house, and then they are set for the winter (unless of course it was a wet day when I hauled them back, then I need to dry them out and recover them later). As for the other boats at the cottage, the canoe has a little frame that it sits upside down on under the cottage, and all the paddles get brought into the cottage so the animals don't decide to use them as toothpicks over the winter.
Another job that I enjoy is finding and splitting deadwood. We don't use a lot of firewood to heat the cottage but we do have a wood stove and the first few weekends of the cottage season (just after Easter) can be chilly. It's nice to open up the cottage and have some ready wood to throw into the woodstove. We don't often come up during the winter but if we do the wood is ready.
The garden gets some attention in the fall as well - we have a lot of perennials that seem to do better if they get cut back now. Especially the hostas at the edge of the lawn. If I clip the leaves in the fall they are all ready cleaned up in the spring, not to mention the fact that the slugs won't have an easy home in the leaves over the winter. All the clippings are added to the compost pile, and then the ready compost is sprinkled over any perennial beds to give them a vitamin boost in the spring.
I never find any shortage of jobs to do in order to get the cottage ready for the winter, but it makes me happy knowing that the work I do at the end of the season means less maintenance and cleanup work that I will have to do in the spring. First thing next year I'll be able to bring out the pwcs, unpack the seadoo covers and head straight out to the lake.
