Cottage Opening 2022 – Part 1

We’re out at the cottage on Wednesday afternoon ahead of the May long weekend. One of the perks of being retired.

May long weekend is the traditional weekend for opening up the cottage, turning on the water and getting everything operational for the 2022 season. May it be long, sunny, warm/hot, with lots of family and friends.

In over 40 years of opening up this cottage it’s always interesting to experience. It can go totally smooth to a total disaster. Well, maybe not disaster but some openings are a little more challenging than others. This year things are going quite smoothly.

Pretty much the number one concern is the water system. For many years this involved putting the intake line back in the lake and priming the pump. A few year back this started to be a real problem. Several attempts were made at fixing the pump, replacing the pump, coaxing the pump, praying over the pump. Finally we switched to a submersible pump. Best decision ever. You turn it on and it pumps, no priming required and it stays in the lake all year round so no pulling it out in the fall and putting it back in the spring.

Over the years cottage water systems evolve. A leak here, a burst pipe there, additions and adjustments everywhere. To solve many of the issues with water freezing in the lines over the winter numerous pipe disconnect points evolved which meant disconnecting and re-connecting every year.

A couple of years back I made a fairly serious upgrade to the plumbing to facilitate an easier shutdown and startup. Pex pipe to the rescue. In conjunction with ball valve drains all the disconnect points were installed. 1/4 turn and it’s opened or closed. All the under cottage water lines were upgraded to pex and all outside taps were changed to 1/4 turn ball valves that don’t leak the way taps with washers eventually do.

All in all with the upgraded plumbing and the submersible pump starting the water system is much faster and easier. However, not totally bullet proof! Somehow last year some dirt got on the pressure switch contacts causing the pump to not run. And not immediately but the next day after it seemed to have started up just fine.

This years “mystery” was the hot water tank. After it was full of water I turned on the power at the breaker. Normally, 20 minutes later you have screaming hot water. This year, ice cold. Lake water temperature is currently 5°C. Not the best temperature for a shower. So I reset the breaker and thankfully we have hot water. This could be an early sign of the breaker getting worn out as we turn it off when we’re not here. So, 40 years of spring/summer/fall weekends with it getting flicked off and on may be wearing it out.

This morning (Thursday) I tackle a few more “opening” chores.

• Move all the chairs and outside stuff out of the shop
• Reconnect the washing machine (separate post on that)
• Fire up the septic system by installing the air pump and connecting a few hoses etc. (uneventful, which is great as this is the Number 2 🤣 concern at the lake)
• Cut up a downed tree blocking the path to the dock.
• Unload the chairs and loungers from the dock storage shed
• Notice that the sail boat ramp is “gone” due to the high water. I’ll look around the bay for it this after noon.

Ok, that’s enough, time for a coffee break, perhaps some lunch and then heading out on the Oarboard to look around for that missing boat ramp.