My Blue Berries.


Looking up towards where the cottage will go.

Approximate dock location.


Me sitting in my yet to built kitchen.


View from the front of the cottage.


The location where the cottage will be built.


This is it.........right here!


We spent the morning meeting with the owner of the lot and the Real Estate Agent just confirming that everyone agreed on the boundaries of the property. When we parted company, Mark the Agent told us he would come by the trailer at about 8:30. It seemed like forever before he finally showed up at 9:15. I have never heard Colin do so much sighing and seen him check the clock so many times!

We got the lot for our original offer price of $125,000.00. It is 1 .4 acres with 183' of water frontage on Shanty Bay. It meets all of our list of requirements . We will close on the 16th of July and will try to immediately get a driveway put in.

OFFER TO PURCHASE

We got up and headed down to the lodge at the end of the road to have their Sunday Brunch. Not spectacular but good food and it filled us up for the day’s activities.

When we got back to the trailer we loaded up with a 100' hunk of twine, tape measure, GPS and bug spray. We headed over to the lot to do some measuring and figuring to make sure we could put a cottage where we would want it. It was a perfect day to do all this.......a nice breeze, not humid at all and a little cooler than it has been. There were bugs but I think some stayed home today! After spending several hours tromping around and taking in the view from the cottage site we left and went and talked to the neighbors.
The small Hamlet of Monetville is where the lot is located. There is not much there except a Marina and a Hotel Restaurant. All the neighbors on our road are decedents of the original Monett family . The whole road is owned by this family and it is a brother that is selling his portion to us. I guess we better stay in good standing with our neighbours or we will have the whole family on our back!

We met with Mark, the real estate agent at 7:00 and drew up the offer. We will know by 3:00 tomorrow afternoon if the lot is ours or not. More updates to follow.

The truck sitting in the drive to our new lot.


The tallest boat in the picture is the Sherri-Leigh.....Beverly and Joe Severin's boat.




Today we went out and drove around some more. An agent gave us directions on one more lot to check out. First we headed down Highway 69 and stopped in at Britt, just in case there was some spectacular deal there. We drove up the road as far as we could go but there was nothing new. We stopped at Wright’s Marina and visited with Beverly and Joe Severin, friends of ours from our boating days. They have been busy making some changes to the boat they got last year. It looks great and so did they. Colin and I both definitely suffered a pang of remorse as we were sitting on their boat talking. We will certainly miss not having a big boat.

But on to the next chapter of our life. We found the new lot and checked it out. It is a lot cheaper than the others we looked at but we figured that would be eaten up by the cost of putting in a driveway and Septic. Later on in the day we actually met accidentally with the Real Estate Agent that has it listed. His parents live next door to our campground. We had the lot orientation all wrong which made a big difference in the big picture. While I stayed back at the trailer to make dinner, Colin took a drive back to the lot to reassess things. With the new information the lot looks a lot better than we first thought and the driveway is actually already there. It needs some fixing up but it is there! We are meeting with Mark tomorrow at 7:00
PM to write up an offer. I can’t believe we actually found a lot that looks good and is within our price range. We will know more tomorrow........stay tuned!

Hay bale wrapping machine.


Today was not so good as far as finding anything,..... cottages or vacant land. We drove some new roads but found little of interest. We had decided earlier on in the day that we would have dinner in the Dokis Indian Reserve. They had a big sign at the end of the road advertising Pickerel Dinner at the Marina there. It seemed like forever to get down the road.....9 miles to be exact! We got to the end and looked around but couldn’t quite place where the Restaurant was. Finally in desperation I jumped out of the truck and asked some people that were loading their boat. He pointed to a big black spot on the rocks by the water........not a good sign! The Restaurant apparently burned down 2 weeks earlier.....unfortunately for us no one has bothered to take down the sign at the highway. That’s right.......9 miles back out to the highway and by this time it was starting to get late to go anywhere else. We decided to go to a little place right on the corner of the road heading to the park. As it was 7:30 we were the last people to be served for the night. The special was Haddock Dinner with salad or soup and choice of potato. We were glad that we ended up there because the food was very good and service excellent. We may go back for breakfast as they serve their pancakes with real Maple Syrup........don’t see that very often!

Now about the Hay Bales. Ever since they started making round bales of hay I always wondered how they get them wrapped so tightly in that white plastic. I figured that they shrink wrapped them like boats.......Nope......wrong! They have this round cage that they set the bale in, then there are two rolls of plastic , one on either side and these spin around the bale and work forward as the bale drops back. They don’t shrink wrap them at all. After wondering about this for years....today I saw them doing it in two different places......go figure! A mystery no more........

3 of the 4 babies coming out to check us out.


Two babies coing out from the undergrowth.


Today we headed up to the West Arm Narrows of Lake Nippissing. Our first find was a lot on the water with a driveway in and a dock. From everything we have seen thus far, this lot holds the most promise. There would be a lot of work clearing it but I think it would be worth it. Fantastic views and great waterfront. The cottage would have to sit up fairly high with a walkway down to the waters edge. There is also room to put the trailer there. While inspecting this property, Mexi found 4 baby racoons. She was most interested in playing with them but we picked her and Splash up and took some pictures. They were not at all shy and were quite willing to come out of their hiding place to say hi to us.


The second thing we found was very interesting and definitely bears some further investigation. It is a lodge which is being divided up and the cabins sold off......sort of. You are actually buying a 1/15th share in the corporation. The cabin we would be interested in is $149,000.00. The cabins have been well maintained and could be immediately usable. We would however want to make some changes. There is a separate part of the lot that would be perfect for parking the trailer. It is out of view of the cabin but still fairly close.

So much to think about..............

We drove a lot more little back roads today and actually found a few interesting spots. The problem seems to be in what we want and the price.......where have I heard that before? Champagne and Caviar taste on a Beer and Chips Budget!

We did find 3 lots that were perfect but as yet have to find out how much they are......if we like them they are probably expensive.

Tomorrow we are headed to the West Arm Narrows on Lake Nippissing, who knows maybe we will find something there.

Lupins growing at the side of the road.



Raging waterfall on the French River


Mr. Turtle going for a walk .......in front of the truck.


Frnech River Station.


The search for a cottage is apparently much harder than we first anticipated. We did find the perfect lot with the exact cottage on a great waterfront today.........it’s not for sale.....some people are just greedy and want to keep everything to themselves. We found a lot with a huge dock already in but the lot was crappy and they wanted $99,000.00 for it.....not! There was one more possibility and although the cottage was fixed up really nice and there was a great work shop, excellent waterfrontage and a gorgeous lot it was still an old cottage ........for $300,000.00. If we are going to spend that kind of money I think we would be better off starting from scratch.

We did see some other things today that were noteworthy, The old French River Train Station, alot of turtles, some really pretty Lupins on the side of the road and a waterfall that was thundering over due to the high water levels.

We ended our day with dinner at the Beau Motel. Nothing special but at least I didn’t have to cook.

The dock at the park.


Entrance to Fish Tale Park.


So after a week of cleaning and fixing and then a morning spent at the Rental Tribunal....(By the way we won both cases), it was high time to hit the road with our house in tow. As we were one of the last cases on the docket we were later leaving than we anticipated. We had a 6 hour drive ahead of us with a stop for fuel and a quick bite to eat. Once we cleared Barrie we made good time as the traffic had thinned down considerably. The shocker came when we filled the fuel tank in Parry Sound!!.....we had filled right up before we left Elora and not knowing the availability near the French River we thought it would be a good idea to top it up. $89.00 to get that far!!!! Ouch!

We arrived at the Fish Tales Camp and Trailer Park and paid our $150.00 for the week. The park fronts on the road and the back of the park is on the water. We are not on the water but it’s only a short walk to the water and the docks. The owners of the park are a very friendly couple.......as are the mosquitos who showed up in record numbers to welcome us in and help us set up.

As I started to open up the trailer and put out the slides there seemed to be a problem with the table that was sitting at an unusual angle. We must have hit one almighty big bump because we managed to break two of the table legs off. It’s a bad design and we have already fixed one before but to break two off at once was special!

We did not bring our satellite dish but settle in for the evening with a recorded movie and then off to bed.

This week-end was a mixture of good and bad. The bad part was having to finish the apartment we were working on and cleaning the carpets.

The good part was Cort and Sherri-Lyn came for a visit. We had not seen them since the beginning of May. They made a multi purpose visit to Fergus to visit with Colin's Mom and Dad, attend a friend's Stag and Doe and of course to visit us. We got to dog sit Phin while they made their rounds and then we dropped them off and picked them up at the Stag and Doe so they would not have to drive. They stayed over night with us at the trailer.

On Sunday after a wonderful sleep in we all went out for breakfast before they left to go back to Barrie.

The rest of Sunday was spent getting ready to pull the trailer out of the park as we are heading up North for a week for a little break. Can't wait for a little R and R!

Ya right! The weather has been cool and sometimes even cold. I have yet to water my flowers as it rains almost every day. As for time to relax in the sun.......haven't had time! The last week has been spent cleaning out a trashed apartment, rebuilding walls that were smashed and repainting and repairing everything that was broke. How fun is that! We have one almost finished and two to go.

We have 3 of our buildings up for sale but no takers yet. I think it's time to get rid of all this work and get to retirement.

Wow.....it looks like we really knew what we were doing!


So today was the "Big Shopping Day". Frances picked me up at 10:00 and we headed straight to Guelph. First,........and only stop Len's Mill Store. Frances asked me to go with her to help pick out some fabric for her TV Room drapes and for some stuff for her new trailer. We walked all the fabric aisles and came out with two choices, one for drapes and one for couch covers. Then we had to figure out how much we needed. We decided we could both use a cup of tea so we went to Tim Horton's to sit down and make our calculations. After many napkins with drawings and addition on them we came up with what we needed for the two projects. Back to the store to make the purchases. by this time we were done getting the fabric cut and paying for it, it was 2:00 and we needed some food! there was a little restaurant in the plaza so we went there and had lunch......I think the two of us were about ready to eat the table when we got in there! The food was very good and it hit the spot! Since we really had not done much more than look at fabric to this point we decided to got back in a third time and do the rest of the store. By the time we were done doing that it was time to head home.

It was a very fun day and I am looking forward to going up to Walkerton, where Frances lives to do the sewing.

This is such a fun new toy.....I can climb right through it!


All this playing makes me have to pant like a dog!


Aren't I soo pretty!


I left the trailer at 10:00 this morning and headed to Fergus to go do some cleaning and odd jobs for Colin's mom and dad. First on the list was trimming and rolling Mom's hair up in curlers. That done we moved on to changing the beds. I had alot of help from Amber the Cat! He was having so much fun and running around so fast that he started to pant.....never seen a cat do that before.

After all that fun I put up some nice new solar lights on the patio.....I think they look very nice! My last job was to clean the window inside and out. I had to keep the doors closed in the rooms where I was working so the cat would not try to jump out the window.

I was all done everything by 2:00 and Colin came by as we had an appointment at the bank. After all our jobs were done we had a nice dinner out at the Gorge Restaurant and then headed up to Arthur to pick up all my cleaning supplies so I can start cleaning the apartment we emptied out yesterday.

Somehow I don't think this was an accident!


Wednesday was a working on apartments day. We have a unit that has been pretty much trashed by the tenant and his friends. Colin kicked them all out on Tuesday so today we went to clean up the mess. About 15 bags of garbage, rotting food in the sink and fridge, a couch several chairs and some mattresses all had to be removed. There are two sections of wall where someone has smashed the dry wall in from the living room right into the bedroom........I think someone needs an anger management class here???? By dinner time we had taken a load to the dump and had reloaded the truck to take another load on Thursday. Everything was pretty much out and I was able to give it a quick vacuum to assess damage to the carpet......fortunately there was so little of it showing from under all that mess that I think it will clean up fine.

It's a race to the finish line!


They must be crazy going in the water likie that......they are going to get wet!!


Bailey heading out to get her stick........she has not mastered get the ball in the water just yet.


Wait for me Splash!!


Colin trying to catch a quick nap......with ALL the dogs!


The Princess waiting for her company to arrive.


This is what is commonly known as a basket case.


The day started out with a trip to Guelph to attend a Rental Tribunal hearing. The tenant did not show so we got our eviction order. With that out of the way we headed to the grocery store to stock up.

Shelly and Luke arrived shortly after we did and left the dogs so they could go to visit Nana and Grampa.

While they were gone I got dinner all ready. When they got back to the trailer we took the dogs swimming. Splash and Bailey are right into the swimming thing. Mexi was having nothing to do with it as it was way too much like having a bath and Ginny was just not having any part of the whole swimming thing!

We had a great dinner of Kabobs, baked potatoes and green beans. I made homemade Oatmeal, Raisin, chocolate chip cookies and there were none left so they must have been a hit.

They had to leave early as Luke was expecting a friend to drop by from work later on tonight.

It was a short but good visit and the dogs had lots of fun.

On the left Jack Cole.....he and his wife Laurie are the ones that invited Frances and I.


This is one of the performers playing a "Dulcimer"



Allison Lupton and Geoff Somers.......she was a very good singer and played an awesome Flute.


On Thursday night this week my friend Frances called me and asked me to attend the "Chequegnat" Festival, described to me as a whole bunch of singers and musicians playing music in some backyards. Having never attending something like this and liking music I decided to go.

The yards of the houses on Pequegnat Street and Chestnut Street back onto each other. Since there are people on both streets that like to sing and play music, they decided to remove a fence from between two of the yards and have a place where they could get together. They decided then that a yearly event would take place and named it the "Chequegnat Festival" . This year was the eight annual of this festival and included 20 different groups and individuals singing and playing instruments. Due to the limited space, it is by invitation only. It started at 1:00 in the afternoon and ran till 8:45 and included a BB-Q supper break. Burgers, hot dogs and ribs were provided and everyone who attended brought either a dessert or salad. The whole thing was free although they did ask for donations to cover the cost of some of the picnic supplies.

There were some very good performers and some that were just getting their feet wet. Instruments ranged from Harmonicas and Flutes to Guitars, Bass Fiddles, regular Fiddles and a very interesting instrument called a Dulcimer. The music was a variety of Folk, Country, Ballads and some faster more modern stuff. Truly an interesting day.

Splash always manages to find a comfy spot.


The truck loaded ready to go to the dump.


The ugly blue bus next door to us.


My fire pit and nice new wood pile.


This fungus was about 2 feet across.....very cool!


The last week has been spent cleaning up! It is amazing how much junk accumulates at the different rental properties we own. It seems like when someone puts one thing out, it's like a big sign that says "Put your Junk Here" !! Since we have been back we have made 4 runs to the dump and we are not done yet.

Yesterday I had a productive morning. There is a small motor home.....very old and ugly beside us. The other day while I was cutting the grass, some guys walked in and took an air conditioner out of it. This seemed very strange as they were on foot and carried the thing down the road. As I was taking the dogs out this morning I saw the Boss of this park coming up with his truck and he parked at the ugly bus. As I was interested in what was going on I walked back to talk to him. He informed me that he could not tell me the whole story but the bottom line was they will be hauling the bus out and cleaning up the site. They had a nice big wood pile so I asked if we could have the wood for our fire pit. He said no problem, we could just move it over to our site. DONE!

The other day on our walk we discovered a huge fungus across growing out of a stump it was really very pretty so last night we drove back with the camera to take a picture of it.