Cottage Visit

13 Aug

Life’s a dock!

FLOATER’S BLOG: River Date, August 13th, 2025

Earlier this month I was able to visit some good friends at their home in Muskoka. As a Torontonian, I would refer to this as the heart of ‘cottage country’, but it is their permanent home, on a large riverfront property, just a few hundred meters from a nice lake.

This was my first visit since some recent renovations so I thought it prudent to bring a ‘House Re-Warming’ gift. Considering the fact I had just written about animal floats being perfect for cottages I brought up a moose shaped floatie.

They have the perfect locale for leisurely floating, right off the dock, which has an easy access ladder in and out of the water and a beer fridge in the boathouse mere steps away for replenishment. With a light breeze blowing up river and a gentle current flowing in the opposing direction there is no work required to remain almost stationary in a buoyant paradise.

Although our hottest summer days seemed to have passed by I had no problem getting in the water with my beverage in hand and my holey (or holy) vinyl seat under me.

I tethered the moose to the dock in hopes one of my hosts would join me as there was no way I was going to christen the gifted virgin moose. (Is that a band name?)

As it turned out no one jumped on board as we decided to boat up river through the locks to Huntsville for a light meal (read alcoholic beverage, but not the captain – of course) at a local favourite, On the Docks Pub.

The next day the weather had turned so we didn’t make it on the floats again but they promised to send me some photos after one of their daughters and others were to visit the next weekend.

I’m still waiting for pics - maybe they are having trouble getting them developed?

In lieu of an actual photo, this is what it would have looked like…

…except this dude is a lot better looking!

So, no moose float christening but I did take the opportunity to be first to take my intestinal confessional to a new outhouse which they had dug in outside their bunkie. Never been in an outhouse that smelled that good before.

What else did we get up to?

Well, naturally we caught up on what was happening with various friends and family members, we definitely ate well and we made a visit to the neighbours’ late night bon fire for a ceremonial burning of a storied picnic table which was on its last three legs. (They had a fire permit – of course!)

Also, we somehow came upon a factor which should come up for certain people when choosing where they should own or rent - how far to Wal-Mart? It seemed a lot funnier at the time.

And of course at the end of the night we did what all good old friends do; we had too many drinks and watched Tom Jones music videos until the early hours of the next day. Obvi.