Let's call it late summer 🌞≠🍂

This update is going to be jam packed with photos and videos from the last month or so. I forge my own axe and we take a trip to Muskoka to visit the lake where Glenn spent time as a child.

One quick note: This email is a bit large so if you are reading in Gmail you might want to click the title up there ^^ and read this in your browser OR click the link at the bottom of the email that looks like this:

Onward!

Before we begin, check out this cool stormfront that I caught moving through our neighbourhood.

Life Pro Tip

I wanted to start off this update with something I have been doing recently that made a very noticeable change in my daily life.

Brushing my tongue! 

Perhaps you are already doing this and if so, that’s great to hear, but I wasn’t and since I started I can tell you it’s great. I noticed an impact to how my mouth felt every day from basically the first time I did it. The next time you brush your teeth, take 10 seconds at the end and give the ol’ tongue a scrub. See what you think.

Things We Did

I forged an axe! Jaime got me this awesome axe workshop for my birthday and I was able to attend in September. We took some roughly shaped blocks of carbon steel and, working in pairs, hammered them into our own custom axes.

Our footwear was a slight concern due to some meshy parts so we applied this fashionable metal tape. Stylish and safe!

Our axes cooling down after forging. They look like they might be cold enough to touch but they probably aren’t. The rule in the shop was “All metal is hot”.

Our axes in various stages of cooling as part of the finishing process.

In this video Dave is quenching his axe head in oil which hardens the blade but allows the other end to remain softer.

I also made my own custom sheath.

And, it got some use up at the cottage this week!

The cottage was in Muskoka near Baysville and Dorset. We were on a lake called Longline Lake but we were also very close to Lake of Bays.

Here is the view of the cottage from the water. Note the large number of stairs that provided a decent glute workout.

I recorded some interesting plant pods that we found in the garden.

Here is the view from the dock and the beginning of some nice fall colours.

The view of our end of the lake. This is where Glenn’s childhood cottage was located.

Here you can see some boats cruising around an island in Lake of Bays.

Jaime sitting out the dock.

A duck sitting on the raft.

A night shot looking down towards the water with the full moon reflecting off the lake.

We did some hikes. Here is a photo of the ox tongue river rapids.

We also hit some trails and climbed some rocky peaks.

Glenn meets Glenn at the Lake of Bays Brewing Company.

Random Bits

We found this little guy hanging out on Heather and Sanj’s railing.

We were lying on the dock and I had the odd idea to take a photo of the lake upside down.

If you have been spending a lot of time in Zoom meetings since 2020 perhaps you will enjoy this video (warning: plenty of cursing).