Swedish Firesteel

Swedish FireSteel

Swedish Firesteel

Ever watch the reality game show Survivor? Every season the biggest obstacle for each tribe is starting a fire so that they can have clean water, cook food, and have some warmth during the cold nights. I purchased this flint stick thinking that when I go portaging I would be able to light a fire without a lighter or matches. Man was I wrong!

All you have to do is scrape the stainless steal against the flint and the sparks fly. It is very easy to use in that sense. But when I would put some paper, dried leaves, or wood shavings down the sparks would simply disappear before catching any of the material for a fire. That being said I am by no means a professional outdoorsman and I really didn’t know what I was doing other then to logically think the sparks would land on the leaves or wood and would create and amber. From there I could build around it, blow a little and the flames would come. Unfortunately nothing even close to that happened and my patience grew thin. I quickly grabbed the lighter and had a blazing fire going in minutes.

I would suggest that this is probably a nice little gift for a camping friend, but unless you really know what you are doing you will probably end up like me not having the patience for it and just use your favourite lighter or weather proof matches.

Swedish Firesteel

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The Drive To The Cottage Site

You’ve now found a number of cottage properties that meet your criteria and you want to go see them. First thing to do is contact the real estate agent. From my experience most of the agents do not respond to emails quickly. I’m not sure why, but it is usually a few days before you will get an email response if you get one at all. So the best bet is to give them a call even if it is long distance.

Once you are able to talk to the real estate agent the first thing you will want to ask is if the property is still available. There is usually a lag between when the property actually went on sale and when the listing was posted. The last thing you want to do is drive 3 hours one way to find out the property was sold before you even left your home. The next thing you will want to do is reiterate your requirements to the agent to see if the listing description is accurate. Again I have gone to many a property thinking this is the one only to find out that half of the lot is a bog and is unusable for building purposes.

Now you’ve got your list of properties that you want to see. Plan ahead by mapping out where the properties are and mark a route to drive that will reduce your travel time as much as possible. Commonly I would make a day trip to see 4 or 5 properties in a particular area and then make a reservation at the local provincial park to camp out for the night. This takes a lot of stress out of having to drive all day and all night. You will be able to relax for the night and reflect on the properties you’ve seen.

Before you leave to see the properties make sure you print off the listings that include some sort of address, description, agent name and contact info. If you find the property of your dreams you will want to contact the agent as soon as possible and consider putting in an offer.

What to look for and questions to ask when you get there in the next article.

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Blue Cheese Straws

Well folks, here we go again with yet another appetizer recipe from the LCBO. The ‘official’ weekend is coming to a close so you might want to try making these before tomorrow, but either way I’m sure these will keep your guests coming back for more. I think I love these more then the Baked Lamb Samosas – but it is close 😉

Anyways, don’t just take my word for it, try these out as I’m sure you’ll love them too – plus they’re super easy to make!

These crisp buttery cheese straws are positively mouthwatering. The straws will keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Blue Cheese Straws
By: Dana Speers

10 oz (300 g) Danish blue cheese, crumbled
1 cup (250 mL) all-purpose flour, sifted
6 tbsp (90 mL) cornstarch
7 tbsp (105 mL) unsalted butter, softened
Pinch kosher salt
1/2 tsp (2 mL) freshly cracked black pepper
1 tbsp (15 mL) black sesame seeds		 Delicious Blue Cheese Straws
  1. Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
  2. In a food processor fitted with a metal blade attachment, pulse blue cheese, flour, cornstarch, butter, salt and pepper just until dough comes together. Turn dough onto a board and pat it into 2 equal squares. Wrap squares separately in plastic and refrigerate 30 minutes.
  3. On a floured surface roll each dough square into a 12 x 6-inch (30 x 15-cm) rectangle. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top and press into dough. Cut each dough rectangle into 6-inch (15-cm) long, 1/2-inch (1-cm) wide strips (you should have 48 strips in total). Gently twist the strips into slight spirals (you’ll only be able to twist once or the strips will break). Arrange strips on the prepared baking sheets 1/2-inch (1-cm) apart. Bake straws for about 12 minutes or until golden brown and crisp, shifting the pans in the oven halfway through cooking time. Cool on the baking sheets.

Serves 12 (4 straws each)

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St. Patrick’s Day 2007

St. Patrick’s Day

Irish CloverToday is St. Patrick’s Day. Many countries spend this day celebrating St. Patrick without really knowing anything about him. There is nothing wrong with that, but here is a little history and lore about the man. St. Patrick was born in AD 385. He considered himself a pagan and was placed into slavery at the age of 16. During that time he found himself closer to God. He escaped slavery and studied in a monastery for 12 years. During Patrick’s training he came to the realization that it was his duty to convert the pagans of Ireland to Christianity. Patrick went to Ireland and successfully converted many pagans and set up a number of monasteries as he traveled across the land. On March 17 AD 461 St. Patrick died and that day has been celebrated ever since. The lore surrounding St. Patrick, although cannot really be proven, says that Patrick gave a sermon from a hilltop and drove all the snakes from Ireland. It has been said that he could raise people from the dead and that he use a 3 clover shamrock in his sermons to represent the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So now when you are at the pub or participating in a parade today you can mesmerize some of you fellow drinkers with your worldly knowledge of the man and the myth.

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This Weekend in Sports (17-Mar-2007)

National Hockey League

Carolina Hurricanes vs New Jersey Devils Sat 7pm est
The ‘Canes and Devils finish up a home and home series this weekend. With only 11 games left in the regular season the Hurricanes are in a huge battle for the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with 6 other teams. Carolina will be in tough having to try and put the puck past Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur. Brodeur has 41 wins this season. In the last 10 years Brodeur has had no less then 37 wins and 6 of those years had 40+ wins.

Toronto Maple Leafs vs Montreal Canadiens Sat 7pm est
These two forever rivals go at it again this Saturday night. Montreal has the most Stanley Cup championships at 25 and Toronto has the second most at 13. This year Toronto and Montreal are two of the teams that are battling with Carolina for the last playoff spot. If Carolina were to lose, the winner of this game could take over the coveted 8th spot for the playoffs. This should be a good one to watch!

NCAA Basketball – March Madness
Well it is March and the Madness is upon us. This weekend will show the second round of the 64 team tournament. By the end of this weekend 48 teams will have been eliminated leaving many people shaking their heads with all the upsets that will take place. Some of these players will be future NBA stars and for some of them this will be the end of their basketball career. Either way all of them will give 110% which makes for a very exciting tournament.

NASCAR Sun 1:30pm est
This weeks race will be the Kobalt Tools 500, part of the Nextel Cup series held at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. Qualifying will happen tonight at 7pm est. After 3 races this year the Offical Drivers Standings has Mark Martin with his U.S. Army car in the lead, but only 6 pts up on Jeff Gordon in the Dupont car. It’s still early in the season, but watch to see these two battle it out on the oval.

2007 Cricket World Cup
The 2007 Cricket World Cup goes into its first weekend. Saturday will see India vs. Bangladesh; Pakistan vs. Ireland. Sunday will have 2 more matches on the schedule including the powerful Australians vs. The Netherlands, and England vs. Canada.

English Premier League
With Manchester United only 6 points up on rivals Chelsea they will be in tough against Bolton. While Chelsea should have a relatively easy match against Sheffield United. After this weekend we could see only a 3pt difference for first place in the EPL.

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Settlers of Catan

So you’re stuck inside on a rainy weekend with nothing to do. Why not play a board game? They are fun, time consuming, competitive, and bring friends and family together.
If you are looking for something new and refreshing, even though it is a 10 year old game, try the Settlers of Catan.

Settlers of Catan standard 3 to 4 player board game

The players in the game try to establish a colony on the island of Catan. The island itself is laid out randomly at the beginning of each game from hexagonal tiles of different land types each producing one type of resource: ore, grain, wool, lumber, or brick. One hex is desert which does not produce anything.
Each settlement can receive resources for its adjacent hexes. The resources, represented by cards, can be used to build more roads, towns, or cities, and to obtain development cards for later use. The building of a road, city, or settlement requires payment with a pre-established variety of cards. For example, a road costs one lumber and one brick card. When a player throws the dice, other players receive cards if they have a city or settlement occupying the hex with the same number as the dice.
Players are allowed to trade among each other the resources they have produced, and to trade “off the island” for a hefty price. Player interaction is further complicated by the presence of a robber, which is used to steal from other players and hinder their production of resources.
Various achievements, such as building a town or establishing the longest road, grant a player one or more victory points. The winner is the first player to accumulate ten victory points on his turn.
The game only allows for a maximum of 4 players, but an expansion pack is available to purchase allowing 6 players to play.

Settlers of Catan has won the game of the year in Germany in 1995 and United States in 1996. It was recently voted into the Gamers Magazine Hall of Fame in 2005.

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Searching For Real Estate

In Canada we are lucky enough to have a national real estate listing website. It’s called the Multiple Listing Service or MLS. Going to the website and entering your search criteria will return any number of postings from numerous agents across the country. But if you don’t know what you’re searching for, then it is going to be hard to specify the criteria. Here are some things to consider when looking for a cottage.

  • Cottage
    • How many rooms
    • Will you use it in the winter
    • Septic/Holding tank or Outhouse
  • Waterfront
    • Lake or River
    • Beach or Dock
    • Swimming or Fishing
  • Lot
    • Grass or Treed
    • Over or under an acre
    • Private or Open
  • Location
    • 1, 2, 3, or more hours drive
    • On a main road or side road
    • Electricity on the site
    • Telephone
  • Other
    • Is there a garbage pickup
    • Are there alternative routes to the property
    • How far is the next major town
    • Is there a hospital near by
    • Will the value of this property appreciate in this area

Different requirements will have a greater importance to different people. For me I wanted a treed lot so I didn’t have to worry about cutting grass. I wanted a good swimming shoreline, and I wanted it to be within a 3 hour driving distance from our house. Oh, and of course I had to be able to afford it.

Think about what is important to you. Prioritize these requirements and ask yourself what must I have and what can I give up if I had to. Once you’ve done that, you will have saved yourself a lot of time when searching for a cottage property. You will know right away if a listing falls in or out of your requirements.

In the next posting I will give you some tips of where to look for your cottage property and how to save time doing it.

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Building A Cottage

Hello, my name is Tim. I’m 32 and live about 35 minutes outside of Toronto, Ontario Canada. For anyone reading this outside of Ontario, owning a cottage is a very common thing here. It’s to the point where there are almost no more decent waterfront lots available within 3.5 hrs of Toronto. Trying to head north on the weekends in the summer is madness. The highways are packed with SUV’s and trucks towing their boats behind them. The stress level on the highway is through the roof as everyone is trying to get to their cottages as quickly as they can knowing full well that in about 32hrs they will have to do the same thing all over again heading south to get back home.

This migration happens every weekend in the summer and as much as us folks that don’t have a cottage laugh at the stupidity of the whole situation, we are secretly envious of all these cottage owners. To have a cottage means relaxing, playing, eating and drinking. It means getting together with friends and family. It means campfires and roasting marshmallows. It means everything that I would love to do and I would be more then willing to sacrifice a few hours in traffic each week to have my own cottage.

I set a goal when I got out of university that I would own a cottage by the time I was 35 years old. I found a girlfriend that shared my enthusiasm for camping and cottaging so I married her! And so together we started to look for a cottage we could afford. Quickly we found that we couldn’t afford to pay for a house and a cottage so we refocused and decided we would buy a vacant waterfront lot and build a cottage on it some day.

After 3 years of searching we found a lot and we are in the stages of having building permits approved for our cottage. Over the following months I will talk about searching for a vacant lot, setting your cottage requirements, things to look for, things to avoid, how to put a bid on a lot, mortgage options, cottage building packages/plans, do-it-yourself considerations, septic systems, and alternative power supply systems.

I expect to be building some time in May or June 2007 so I will also be doing a weekly photo journal to keep everyone up to date on my progress. Hopefully this will be a lot of help to people considering buying a lot and building a cottage themselves. I’m sure there will be lots of pitfalls that I won’t see coming, but I’m excited about this and look forward to sharing it with you!

Tim

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