Category Archives: Muskoka Activities

Perhaps because Muskoka experienced more cottage sales in March, April and May 2012 than 2011, more cottages were listed, building something of a buyer’s market here.

Monthly Sales 3 Years (Muskoka Haliburton Association of Realtors)

Although the best way to sell a cottage quickly is to properly price it, there are additional things that can help: improve its condition, de-clutter, keep up with the maintenance, add staging and of course, market it well. There’s one more, ahem … “proven” … tactic that I didn’t know until we were sent a photo from a client of ours.

You can call on some divine intervention for help, but apparently “you have to believe.” As a seller you need to bury a statue of St. Joseph upside-down in the front lawn. Some detail on this at snopes.com.

Wow! In looking into this it’s unbelievable, at least to me, there’s even a st-josephstatue.com where you can buy a St Joseph Home Selling Kit, AND they’re all on sale at the moment – at either a “discount price” or a “super discount price” – how lucky is that?!

St Joseph Home Selling Kit (“nice” version)

A quote from the $9.47 unpainted statue description: “This product is a litle(sic) cheaper than the painted version, but always remember that the help from St Joseph has only to do with your faith in the saint, not what type of items you choose.” Ok, so good for them; there’s little in the way of hard pressure for the up-sell.

St. Joseph may not be the patron saint of spelling – or web typos – but hey, if you spend $3.00 more for the “nice painted statue” at a “super discount price,” it can’t hurt – right?

cottage life, Muskoka Activities, Stewardship

It’s not too late to catch the MWC lecture tonight.

26 July 2012 cottageinmuskoka

Admission is by donation to the Muskoka Watershed Council. Just head for the Port Carling Community Centre at 7:00pm.

Our Lakes: How they have changed over the last 25 years.

Dr. Michelle Palmer will discuss how recent climatic warming, changes in acidic deposition, and human-related activities such as road salting and the accidental spread of invasive species have altered the water quality of our lakes in south-central Ontario, with a focus on changes in lake temperatures and water chemistry since the 1980s.

Muskoka Activities, Muskoka Watershed Council, Volunteer

Emerging challenges and converging responses: Challenges and opportunities for conservation in an era of global change.

25 July 2012 cottageinmuskoka

Engagingly presented by Jeremy Kerr of the University of Ottawa, this is the 2nd lecture from the biennial Muskoka Summit on the Environment . On June 6th and 7th I recorded the presentations over the two day summit. Broadcast, in part, by CBC Radio’s Ideas with Paul Kennedy, (search for Buying Into Biodiversity), these were world-class lectures, presented here in Muskoka. I am delighted to be able to ensure these are available to the world.

This lecture is now available at the following link on Muskoka Watershed Council’s YouTube channel: Emerging challenges and converging responses: Challenges and opportunities for conservation in an era of global change.

Against the backdrop of difficult times, where governments are in fact, no longer relevant in the development of much necessary research and solutions, Jeremy presents some opportunities: “What if citizen scientists could fill part of the data gap left by federal purges of scientific and environmental capacity?”

Buying a cottage, client activities, cottage life, Lake Rosseau, Muskoka Activities, Muskoka Properties

Lake Rosseau “escape”

20 July 2012 cottageinmuskoka

We had another cottage closing for great people who, if you knew how much helping people is the essence of their “career life,” you’d really know that only Muskoka can truly offer them the serenity for the “escape” they’ve earned.

The request: was to look like Muskoka, need no renovation, be level, be peaceful, be private and be a good deal. We found them all this on Lake Rosseau!

Buying a cottage, Lake Muskoka, Muskoka Activities

Bliss on Lake Muskoka

15 July 2012 cottageinmuskoka

Last night we had dinner with wonderful clients who bought their cottage last year – after 4 years of searching with Catharine’s help.

They report this beautiful, beautiful property and cottage is enhancing their lives even more than they imagined it could. And, perhaps not surprisingly they took a long time to choose outdoor furniture. Looks like they got it right again.

Bicycles, cottage life, Lake Muskoka, Muskoka Activities

Gravenhurst Triathlon

14 July 2012 cottageinmuskoka 1 Comment

Hey! Chris completed the Olympic distance triathlon this morning in Gravenhurst; 1500m Swim | 40km Bike | 10km Run. It’s definitely the coolest of any triathlon because all competitors are taken out on the Segwun and the Wenonah II to begin the swim!

I was preparing to catch Chris ride by on his bike when I snapped a photo of the guy, who managed to catch one of the pylons with the bikes on his bikerack. He must’ve been heading for the auditions for Canada’s Worst Driver, or I’m sure he would have stopped and picked it up.

Here’s Chris with just a couple of blocks to go to Muskoka Wharf and the dismount for a 10k run.

Chris said he may have walked 85% of the run, but he saved some energy for an impressive final kick: [wpvideo M9x9Opp3]

Muskoka Activities, Muskoka Watershed Council, Volunteer

Mothers, don’t let your babies grow up to be biologists!

13 July 2012 cottageinmuskoka

I am working on a project currently named the “Muskoka Minute”; after today we may have to revise the title. Today was quite a week.

Biologists track reptiles, fish, birds etc. – everybody knows that. I always thought that if they weren’t sitting in their office/lab chair looking at streams of perfect data, sent wirelessly from a creatures gizmo, they were tracking them. And tracking meant turning on the telemetry device and walking right up to a critter basking on a rock, picking it up and making some notes – then having lunch.

Working on communications for the Muskoka Watershed Council we are trying to enhance our own outreach and by extension that of scientists working in the field. We think that a quick, hopefully entertaining, look into what actually goes on in the field could be fun. We thought the goal should be to shoot and edit down to a minute or so, here and there in the field.

So today, thanks to Glenda Clayton (our Troubled Times for Our Turtles presenter), from the Georgian Bay Biosphere Reserve, I was able to join in on a day with three others from the MNR tracking a species at risk: Blanding’s turtles.

There is a lot of editing to do to distill down to a minute – or a few. For the record though tracking involved, in this case, hours of beating through deer-fly soaked woods and wetland in 30+ degree heat, only to then slog through chest deep bogs hoping to get a signal strong enough for just long enough to reach down and hope to feel the turtle and nothing … else.

I’ll add a link to this weblog when I do the 1st Muskoka Minute, but in the meantime here’s a couple of short clips:

[wpvideo fFwX1VPL]

[wpvideo xTLHcbXk]

Muskoka Activities, Muskoka Watershed Council, Stewardship, Uncategorized, Volunteer

Loss of biodiversity, is it important if we don’t see it?

12 July 2012 cottageinmuskoka

As a volunteer, as well as being on the executive of the Muskoka Watershed Council, I am the videographer. This gives me a great opportunity to ensure that truly wonderful ideas and presentations are not lost after the words are spoken and the video projector is turned off. I record, edit and post to YouTube, lectures and presentations at Muskoka Watershed Council events.

A most important event is the biennial Muskoka Summit on the Environment. On June 6th and 7th I recorded the presentations over the two day summit. Broadcast, in part, by CBC Radio’s Ideas with Paul Kennedy, (search for Buying Into Biodiversity), these were world-class lectures, presented here in Muskoka. I am delighted to be able to ensure these are available to the world.

The first is now available at the following link on Muskoka Watershed Council’s YouTube channel: Loss of biodiversity, is it important if we don’t see it?

It was presented by Justina C. Ray Ph.D. of the Wildlife Conservation Society, Canada. Justina raises some of the most important questions and current thinking on biodiversity and explores how our thinking has shifted over time, making biodiversity loss less apparent to us.

Gravenhurst, Lake Muskoka, Muskoka Activities

Muskoka Antique and Classic Boat Show

7 July 2012 cottageinmuskoka

I went Saturday afternoon after a cottage inspection to the Muskoka Wharf. If you missed the Muskoka Antique and Classic Boat show play the videos below for a really, really quick visit.

[wpvideo OVuLrnJp]

Then if you have another few seconds to waste, check out the kids in the boat race video below. The boats, made by the kids, were made of only cardboard and ducttape.

[wpvideo n35Cwdte]

You can see a real video of the show here.

Muskoka Activities, Muskoka Watershed Council, Stewardship, Uncategorized, Volunteer

Mice at your cottage – snakes may be your best friends.

4 July 2012 cottageinmuskoka

Don’t love snakes? They are harmless, all except the Massasauga rattler, which is virtually harmless; and 5 are in trouble in Ontario. Learning to live with them near your cottage, even going so far as to create some habitat for them may be the most effective and natural way to get rid of those rodents – that you really hate.

I just finished editing, and posted a video on YouTube. Rob Willson of Riverstone Environmental presented at the Muskoka Watershed Council‘s Muskoka Stewardship Conference.

In about 40 minutes you’ll learn a lot about squamites, including what that term means to impress your scientist buddies. You will also be introduced to the actor of the snake family…

cottageinmuskoka blog