How I Get My Cottage And Seadoos Ready For Winter
It's time to put on the boat cover and the Seadoo cover and generally get the cottage ready for the winter. For us a part of cottage life is closing the cottage. I likely won't totally close up the cottage until after Thanksgiving weekend but I like to get a jump start on some of the chores in the latter part of September. It's always sad to close the cottage but I actually enjoy the cottage closing chores as I know I can look forward to opening a clean cottage the next year.
Once fall hits, it is still great weather to enjoy the cottage, but I start to lose interest in riding the seadoos on the lake anymore. It's just more fun to putter around the cottage with a mug of coffee and work on packing everything away, rather than bearing the cold water and dreading every cloud in the sky that blocks the sun, preventing the last bits of summer sun from warming my chilly wetsuit. Anyway, it's time to pull the seadoos out of the water and give them the end of season scrub down to get rid of any lakewater. While washing them down, I take the time to fully inspect everything, and before they get packed away I'll fix up any scrapes or dings, or replace any worn or broken parts.
After everything is all shined up and fixed, now is the time to get out the seadoo covers and get them ready for storage. I store my pwcs inside for the winter so I can keep them like new as long as possible. My favorite part of coming to the cottage is riding our pwcs, so I take extra special care of storing them so they won't age prematurely. We have a few other boats, like a canoe and peddle boat, that don't get such special treatment - they are both washed off and stored upside down under the cottage so they get a little protection from the ice and snow.
Another job that I enjoy is finding and splitting deadwood. We don't use a lot of firewood to heat the cottage but we do have a wood stove and the first few weekends of the cottage season (just after Easter) can be chilly. It's nice to open up the cottage and have some ready wood to throw into the woodstove. We don't often come up during the winter but if we do the wood is ready.
I also like to chop back any perennials we have like hosta and flowering phlox. At the cottage we have what could be referred to as an English style wild flower garden. It doesn't take much care and tends to self seed. However, if the large hosta leaves are allowed to lay on the ground over winter they make great bedrooms for slugs and other undesirables. By getting rid of the hosta leaves in the autumn the garden will be ready to re-sprout in the spring.
There are a number of other chores that need to be taken care of in the fall but I will leave those to another article. I am going to enjoy that last parts of this years cottage life and go to find the Seadoo covers.
Once fall hits, it is still great weather to enjoy the cottage, but I start to lose interest in riding the seadoos on the lake anymore. It's just more fun to putter around the cottage with a mug of coffee and work on packing everything away, rather than bearing the cold water and dreading every cloud in the sky that blocks the sun, preventing the last bits of summer sun from warming my chilly wetsuit. Anyway, it's time to pull the seadoos out of the water and give them the end of season scrub down to get rid of any lakewater. While washing them down, I take the time to fully inspect everything, and before they get packed away I'll fix up any scrapes or dings, or replace any worn or broken parts.
After everything is all shined up and fixed, now is the time to get out the seadoo covers and get them ready for storage. I store my pwcs inside for the winter so I can keep them like new as long as possible. My favorite part of coming to the cottage is riding our pwcs, so I take extra special care of storing them so they won't age prematurely. We have a few other boats, like a canoe and peddle boat, that don't get such special treatment - they are both washed off and stored upside down under the cottage so they get a little protection from the ice and snow.
Another job that I enjoy is finding and splitting deadwood. We don't use a lot of firewood to heat the cottage but we do have a wood stove and the first few weekends of the cottage season (just after Easter) can be chilly. It's nice to open up the cottage and have some ready wood to throw into the woodstove. We don't often come up during the winter but if we do the wood is ready.
I also like to chop back any perennials we have like hosta and flowering phlox. At the cottage we have what could be referred to as an English style wild flower garden. It doesn't take much care and tends to self seed. However, if the large hosta leaves are allowed to lay on the ground over winter they make great bedrooms for slugs and other undesirables. By getting rid of the hosta leaves in the autumn the garden will be ready to re-sprout in the spring.
There are a number of other chores that need to be taken care of in the fall but I will leave those to another article. I am going to enjoy that last parts of this years cottage life and go to find the Seadoo covers.
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If you are interested in more information on cottage winterizing, take a look at this blog where all sorts of topics about summer, cottages, the lake and lake sports are discussed.
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