Cottage Memories

[Joey]

As some of you may know, Ralphie has lost all his vision and is not sleeping most of the night, so I stay up and take care of him, guiding him around, but tonight, as I lied on the floor with him, as he won't sleep in the bed anymore, I started thinking about the cottage my grandparents used to have. It was in Minden and we'd go up about 4 or 5 times a year. So there would be Grandma, Grandpa (on my mother's side), Mom, Dad, My sister Leslie, me, my brothers Adam and Lennard my aunt Pat and uncle Bob (mom's sister and her husband), and my Uncle Bob and Aunt Mary with their two children, my cousins, Scott and Andrew. We'd all arrive at the cottage on a Friday night and stay for a week or two, we'd even bring the cats, from a long drive from Flin Flon, Manitoba with the cats (4 of them, imagine that ride) and unpack and settle in. There was a cathedral ceiling with a stone fireplace that was huge and went right to the top. Three bedrooms with no ceilings to them and of course since me and my sister were the oldest, we slept in the living room while the fam damily drank and laughed by the fireplace. Grandma would come and put hot rocks, covered in cloth, at the end of our bed, to keep us warm. Every night the women went to the sauna, an old fashioned one with rocks you poured water on. Laughed and talked and then ran down and jumped into the lake when we got too hot, then it was the men's turn. We had a hammock and collected rasperries and watched the cows come down the road. It was the best of times. Trilliums and fresh air and fishing and dinghis and sailboats and a wooden boat we would drive down to the store for those wax tubes that had yummy fluid in them or the dip and dunk candy with the little stick and powder.

 

Man they were good times and we used to catch perch and bass off the dock and swim for hours. Anybody else have memories like that?

 

Joey

Edited October 3, 2015 by Joey

[Big Cliff]

Well, first of all I am really sorry to hear about Ralphie, it is so hard to watch the circle of life unfold sometimes!

 

I loved your story about cottage life; it brought back many good memories. We didn't have a cottage but we lived in a small town on The Lake of Two Mountains so all my summers were spent swimming and fishing, riding our bikes or just hanging out at one of the local gathering places. Life was so much simpler then.

 

Thanks for the wonderful read Joey.

[lew]

Morning Joey, Diane told me she was talking to you on the phone yesterday and how Ralphie wasn't adjusting to the blindness. That's lousy and I'm so sorry that it happened, he's such a nice little pooch.

 

Hopefully he'll learn to cope with it.

[fishindevil]

Hi Joey !!! . Sorry to hear about ralphie and I hope things get better for him ... Well my grandparents owned a fishing lodge while I grew up so I was fishing before I could ride a bike ...lol and learned everything from my grandfather how to fish how to operate a boat and everything there is to know about the outdoors spent every summer there and it was amazing swimming fishing you name it I still think about it everyday how lucky I was he had 5-10 rental boats and as I got older it was my job to make sure they were all filled up with gas & cleaned and ready to go for the next days customers !!! Most of the lodge guests were American and some were so regular I called them aunt & uncles even tho I was not related to them thay how close the people were back then by the time I was 13 I was acually guiding and taking lodge guests fishing long before GPS & fish finders and learned how to find fish & catch them .... It was awesome I also was the official fish cleaner ... And still to this day I can clean fish pretty darn fast !!!!! I got payed 25 cents a fish to clean them plus tips !!!! Lol ... I could clean walleye so fast it was unreal ... Ahhhh the memories my grandfather also won many big fish contests I have a photo album from the 60"s & 70"s with huge muskies that were caught and photographed some in the 35-40lb class yes from pigeon lake !!!! A 25lb Muskie was pretty common I still have pics of I believe it was a 35lb Muskie all of which were always caught on worm harnesses same as all the walleyes .... I also remember as a kid my gramps taking out the game wardens to net muskies and walleyes for tagging and scale samples .... Also used to rescue boats who would hit stinsons shoal and saved a man from drowning when I was about 12yrs old .... My gramp knew everything there was to know about fishing & wildlife it was just unreal how they knew all of this at the time we would camp out on Boyd island as kids for days and fish and make rafts .... Swim at the dam and collect fishing lures and baits too .... And my grandfather and a man named Paul from Ohio were to this day I was told by many back in the day that they pretty much invented the worm harness ahhhhhhh ..... Memories cottage life

[spincast]

Wow, sorry to hear about Ralphie, Joey - he's still pretty young to be afflicted with such a condition, isn't he? Given time and your care he will adjust, I have no doubts.

 

Your trips sound great. Brought back memories for me. Probably the only times when we were kids that our Dad spent anytime with us.Every summer we would hop in the car and make the long drive from Baltimore up to Little Lake Sunapee in New Hampshire for week. We would fish off the dock, or Dad would get me and my brother in the row boat and find a bay with blue gills in it and we would fish till we had a good feed. Mum would always clean them - at least until until the last trip when she said we could have the honour A couple stand out memories - one day we had caught next to nothing, and my brother was in a pissy mood over it, so Dad started rowing home. Told my brother to leave his line in the water. My brother was miserable but did it anyway. About a minute later the rod almost takes off out of his hands and he ends up landing a beauty 6 lb walleye. I was out one by myself, maybe, 6 years old and I got caught in a strong wind, couldn't fight the winds and my brother came out to tow me back in. One year my Dad bet my brother he couldn't swim the lake to the other shore. Dad rowed next to him,and owed him a 5 at the end. There was store just up the road aways that made the absolute best salt water taffy. We would get a special trip there once during the stay.

Edited October 3, 2015 by spincast

[lew]

I had a great time growing up with cottages.

 

My family would book a cottage for 6 weeks every year, with my folks taking it for 2 weeks, my dads sister & her husband would take it for the next 2 week and my grandparents would take it for the 5th & 6th week and us kids would be there the whole time. The cottage was at the very north end of Penetang Bay and for anyone familiar with the area we were just down the beach from the big white cross indicating where some priests were killed my indians when the area was being settled.

 

That was decades ago but the memories are like it was last month and I guess that's the way it should be.

[limeyangler]

Poor Ralphie, gotta say he's lucky to have such a great Mum!

 

Thanks for the cottage memories Joey, really cool stories.

[bigbuck]

That sucks for Ralphie. Getting old is not what it is all cracked up to be. I remember going to our property that was farmland out near Port Hope and having picnics and bbqs while the adults tended to an obscenely large garden and then when we built the house there having dirt bomb fights with my brother, fishing in the Ganny which was up the road, swimming in it. Playing with my first dog..... riding my dirt bike all over...the memories are countless and precious.

[npt1]

Hi Joey,

Sorry that Ralphie is having poor health, he is lucky to have you caring for him.

 

Cottage memories for me was at a small village called Howdenvale, north of Wiarton.

I remember my feet feeling the cold of oilcloth floor in the morning, the crisp air on the

way to the "outhouse", the smell of the cedars are forever etched in my head.

Fishing was good for perch and bass, swimming was a daily way of having a bath

since the cottage had no running water.

Light in the evening was provided by lanterns, (naptha ) I think, that hung from ceiling hooks, no hydro

in those days at the cottage.

I recall going to the general store and getting blocks of ice that was harvested from Lake Huron and then

stored in the "ice house", covered with sawdust to insulate it.

Putting the ice in the trunk of the 1955 Chevrolet we had and us kids were allowed to ride in the trunk

with the ice on the way back to put the ice in the old ice box in the cottage kitchen.

They were good days and Im glad to still have some friends from there.

Life was good and we all had a safe time, we were out on the water all day and no one even came

to the shore to check on us. ha ha ha.

Great topic for this board.

[Joey]

OMG, such great stories here, thanks for the responses.

 

Ya, Ralphie is only 4 so I guess I have a long go of this with him. We'll make it through, but it has not been easy and me being so sentimental, I do tend to cry alot about it. Trying my hardest to manage, but at least, as I said, it has given me time to reflect on past good times as I lie there wide awake.

 

Sounds like I was not the only one with some great cottage memories

[misfish]

I thought this was a past of the past report til I read the first two sentences. I turned to Betty and told her and it was like, OMG. So sorry to hear about Ralphie J.

 

Not sure I can compare to what he is going through, but it sure is not fun not seeing. Is there nothing that can be done? They were able to make me see again, why not Ralphie. They have a tick juice for dogs but not humans. Crazy

 

I enjoyed the read after.

 

I too have been rethinking the past and have even driven some old routes as a kid that we did during camping days when I was a young lad. Nothings the same BTW. LOL

 

I LOL as what else is there to do? Dwell. Not I says I.

 

B

[chris.brock]

A lot of people are very attached to their cottage or the family cottage, me included. Great times and memories. Just curious, what lake near Minden? My parents started going to Gull Lk when I was one year old, been there ever since.

 

 

Sad to hear about Ralphie. I know he's in good hands.

[AKRISONER]

i couldnt imagine driving from Flin Flon all the way to minden just to go to the lake! haha

 

Could you just go in the back yard

 

Much the opposite my first cottage memories were at the old cabin in Flin Flon. Unfortunately we left manitoba when I was 7 so my memories are somewhat limited there, luckily my parents purchased another cottage when I turned 19 and Ive been making new memories ever since.

 

Flin Flon memories though, are playing on the giant sand pile that my neighbor who owned a trucking company hauled in...fishing with my family and limiting out on 25 eyes in an hour one opener

 

driving the old Ford Winstar down the ice roads in April

 

perch fishing with my brother and hooking into a 10lb plus pike that nearly pulled me in the lake.

 

taking the tinner across the lake after dinner to the marina to go get old dutch chips.

 

drilling the ice with a gas auger for our water supply in the winter and bottoming out the auger and having to punch the rest of the way through 6+ feet of ice.

 

my brother shooting my brother with a pellet gun across the road lol

 

and racing my neighbor on our quad while i got to steer and hit the throttle at 3-4 years old.

Edited October 5, 2015 by AKRISONER

[Joey]

I thought this was a past of the past report til I read the first two sentences. I turned to Betty and told her and it was like, OMG. So sorry to hear about Ralphie J.

 

Not sure I can compare to what he is going through, but it sure is not fun not seeing. Is there nothing that can be done? They were able to make me see again, why not Ralphie. They have a tick juice for dogs but not humans. Crazy

 

I enjoyed the read after.

 

I too have been rethinking the past and have even driven some old routes as a kid that we did during camping days when I was a young lad. Nothings the same BTW. LOL

 

I LOL as what else is there to do? Dwell. Not I says I.

 

B

 

Thanks B, they say nothing can be done. We've already seen a specialist. It's over, sight is gone

 

A lot of people are very attached to their cottage or the family cottage, me included. Great times and memories. Just curious, what lake near Minden? My parents started going to Gull Lk when I was one year old, been there ever since.

 

 

Sad to hear about Ralphie. I know he's in good hands.

 

The lake was Horseshoe Lake, near the rapids. Paul's parent's had a cottage on Little Gull we used to frequent, which I thought was funny as we met in our 30's and had cottaged so close to each other all our lives

 

i couldnt imagine driving from Flin Flon all the way to minden just to go to the lake! haha

 

Could you just go in the back yard

 

Much the opposite my first cottage memories were at the old cabin in Flin Flon. Unfortunately we left manitoba when I was 7 so my memories are somewhat limited there, luckily my parents purchased another cottage when I turned 19 and Ive been making new memories ever since.

 

Flin Flon memories though, are playing on the giant sand pile that my neighbor who owned a trucking company hauled in...fishing with my family and limiting out on 25 eyes in an hour one opener

 

driving the old Ford Winstar down the ice roads in April

 

perch fishing with my brother and hooking into a 10lb plus pike that nearly pulled me in the lake.

 

taking the tinner across the lake after dinner to the marina to go get old dutch chips.

 

drilling the ice with a gas auger for our water supply in the winter and bottoming out the auger and having to punch the rest of the way through 6+ feet of ice.

 

my brother shooting my brother with a pellet gun across the road lol

 

and racing my neighbor on our quad while i got to steer and hit the throttle at 3-4 years old.

 

Ya it was surely a drive, especially with 4 cats in the station wagon and 4 kids, ugh. But we made it and all came out unscathed

[Joey]

Morning Joey, Diane told me she was talking to you on the phone yesterday and how Ralphie wasn't adjusting to the blindness. That's lousy and I'm so sorry that it happened, he's such a nice little pooch.

 

Hopefully he'll learn to cope with it.

 

Thanks Lew, I really appreciated Di's call. She's a Gem. Don't let her replace you (wink, wink).

[Steve]

my earliest memories weren't cottage life, rather camping / portaging life with my dad.

 

i can't believe dad, at about age 26, with me being around age 6, would take me waaaaaaay back in the woods...five or six portages deep (wilson / duck lake backlakes).

 

I remember trying to help dad portage, while he carried so much of the gear. I had to help with the canoe, but I couldn't lift it on my own. So dad would lift the back up, then I'd walk under it, and he'd lower it on my shoulders. Then he'd lift the front and off we'd go.

 

All we did was troll around the lake...catching SO MANY pike and bass....I didn't know you could catch a pike by any other way but trolling.

I remember one particular pike burying a treble hook from his trusty bomber long A deep into his finger....he tried and tried to get it out...blood all over the canoe (square stern sportspal). After no luck, me basically in tears, he took out his trusty buck knife, cut into his finger until he reached the hook, and pulled it out. Took some vodka, and dipped his finger in it.....which he quickly drank from....and lots of it.

 

I remember the first time dad let me take the canoe (which had a 2hp 1973 'rude) out on my own...we camped on an island...had to stay within eyesight of the island....each pass around I slowly went out further and further...testing dad's patience.....finally I was away far enough to get to where a good fishing bay was....

 

Tried trolling on my own, but snagged the bucktail spinner in the weeds....or so I thought....tried my best to get it out only to find a 6lbs pike on the other end....couldn't get the hook out on my own, so me, the fish, the weeds, all motored back to dad...I was scared he was going to yell at me for going too far away...instead he had tears of joy....first and only time I've seen dad cry.

 

he was so proud.

 

I'll NEVER EVER forget those days.

 

We went back to the chain of lakes when I was 16....things sure had changed in the previous decade...but the fun times with dad still remained....

 

Got into my late teens and fishing became something that wasn't cool to do anymore....mom said the first time i told dad I wanted to spend my birthday (june 28th, bass opener) with friends instead of fishing was really rough on him......

 

But around age 21 decided it was time to revive the tradition....and haven't changed a thing since....

 

Fishing with dad is the greatest thing on earth...and hope we can continue to do it forever.

Edited October 6, 2015 by Steve

[Steve]

Joey, I got so wrapped up in the memory I forgot to mention Ralphie.

 

My old boy Ziggy, before he passed, he had his last two or three years of blindness. It was tough on the family, and of course, it wasn't easy on Zig either.

 

We found setting trails around the house of familiar toys, so he could smell them, and follow the familiar smells, he learned his way around the house.

 

Beds were tough for him to get onto....but we put the little stairs, and again, his toys on each step so he could smell his way around.

 

He learned his way around....who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks :)

 

Ralphie is a great dog, I know he'll adapt.

Edited October 6, 2015 by Steve

[Moosebunk]

That cottage life sounds like heaven on earth Joey... but that drive would be something from straight outta Hell. lol.

 

 

No cottage... my parents instead traveled with my brother and I.

 

In earliest memory we camped out. First a big tent, then a tent trailer. Sandbanks, Presquille and Lake Placid. At Sandbanks I had a Honda 50 dirtbike at ten years old. My seven year old brother and I would rip around all over on that bike. Through campsites, down the roads, on the beach, nobody cared where we were. The parents would laze on the beach. Some tunes playing on the radio at the time, Sweet Dreams - Eurythmics, Sad Songs - Elton John, Raspberry Beret - Prince. Every winter we'd go to Killington Mt. Vermont, Whiteface Mt. New York or Mont Tremblant Quebec to ski. Families would group up and it was a riot. Staying at the Hojo's at White Face was the best with all the kids playing together in the pool each evening after skiing all day. When I was 11 we started going south in the summer too. Virginia Beach and Myrtle Beach, and Orlando. We also went to Europe for a couple weeks to Holland, Germany, Italy and Austria, when I was in grade 6. Still remember much from all those trips. The family trips ended for me at 15. When turning 16 and getting a license, come summers I was all over the map. Returned to a love for camping out or staying up in Quebec at a friend's father's remote cottage. Would tour to the cities too, Quebec city, Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto.

 

A father whom surely loves to travel, he passed that on to me. Although my mother would possibly like the idea of cottage life, dad wouldn't be caught sitting still in one place for too long. Although we don't have cottage life memories, our family has plenty memories from traveling.

[Joey]

Thanks Steve, great memories/stories and it helps to know I'm not alone in my future dog blindness endeavor Appreciate it !!

[Joey]

That cottage life sounds like heaven on earth Joey... but that drive would be something from straight outta Hell. lol.

 

 

No cottage... my parents instead traveled with my brother and I.

 

In earliest memory we camped out. First a big tent, then a tent trailer. Sandbanks, Presquille and Lake Placid. At Sandbanks I had a Honda 50 dirtbike at ten years old. My seven year old brother and I would rip around all over on that bike. Through campsites, down the roads, on the beach, nobody cared where we were. The parents would laze on the beach. Some tunes playing on the radio at the time, Sweet Dreams - Eurythmics, Sad Songs - Elton John, Raspberry Beret - Prince. Every winter we'd go to Killington Mt. Vermont, Whiteface Mt. New York or Mont Tremblant Quebec to ski. Families would group up and it was a riot. Staying at the Hojo's at White Face was the best with all the kids playing together in the pool each evening after skiing all day. When I was 11 we started going south in the summer too. Virginia Beach and Myrtle Beach, and Orlando. We also went to Europe for a couple weeks to Holland, Germany, Italy and Austria, when I was in grade 6. Still remember much from all those trips. The family trips ended for me at 15. When turning 16 and getting a license, come summers I was all over the map. Returned to a love for camping out or staying up in Quebec at a friend's father's remote cottage. Would tour to the cities too, Quebec city, Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto.

 

A father whom surely loves to travel, he passed that on to me. Although my mother would possibly like the idea of cottage life, dad wouldn't be caught sitting still in one place for too long. Although we don't have cottage life memories, our family has plenty memories from traveling.

 

That's awesome Drew, I remember one time mom flew down with the boys and me and my sister drove down from Flin Flon in the station wagon with dad. Dad was on a mission, get to the cottage as fast as possible (dad's can be like that). We drove 2000 miles in two days. We stopped for one night somewhere, not sure where it was, the three of us slept in the back of the station wagon and when we woke up, there was a moose right near the car, it was so cool.

[Whopper]

Sorry to hear about Ralphie Joey, he's in good hands.

 

As a kid going up our family always vacationed to Upstate New York every summer for a week or two every summer. It's where my father was from.

[DanD]

Sorry about Ralphie condition; but he's a young dog and he'll learn how to deal with his new life.

I found this article and it seems to have a number of good tips, on how to re-train a dog and help them learn new ways.

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+2085&aid=3620

 

No cottage memories; my Dad was a tobacco farmer and from April to October, we were in the fields. It wasn't all work though, every chance Dad had or I should say the crop allowed; he'd take us 5 kids and Mom on day trips. I can't count the number of times we went to Niagara Falls for the day. That was when (mid 60's) the parks commission still had all those charcoal BBQs set up in the parks and free for all to use. We'd take all our favorite foods for the BBQ; stop along the way up the QWE at the different fruit stands and pick up the best tasting fresh fruit I ever had. Mom, Dad and my eldest brother John are gone now; but when my 2 sisters and brother get together we have a good laugh and a cry remembering those summer trips.

 

Dan.

[lew]

 

Thanks Lew, I really appreciated Di's call. She's a Gem. Don't let her replace you (wink, wink).

 

Another week or so will be our 49th wedding anniversary Joey so I spose she's gonna be keeping me now LOL

Edited October 6, 2015 by lew

[Big Cliff]

Joey, I don't know if this is an option or not for Ralphie but I can understand him not wanting to get up on the bed if he can't see, could you imagine the stress of stepping off into nothing every time you took a step?

 

When our Andy started to go blind and his hip problems stopped him from getting up on the bed with us, I build a set of stairs for him. he had to sort of feel his way around but it didn't take him long, he'd follow my voice and feel his way up (and right between Sue and I) LOL.

 

I am not suggesting stairs for Ralphie but perhaps a ramp would work for him. A dog has a highly elevated sence of smell as previously mentioned perhaps he can be trained to follow scent trails.

 

I'd also talk to McCanns dog training, they are wonderful and perhaps they can help you find a way that Ralphie can learn to cope.

Edited October 6, 2015 by Big Cliff