Cottage Life Docks and Projects

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

Forget going to the cottage to relax ... unless your idea of relaxation
includes a lot of hammering, sawing, digging, sanding, and other
energy-demanding tasks. This compendium of activities from Cottage Life
magazine will make your days at the cottage more enjoyable, even if
making them leaves you with little time in which to do the enjoying.

There are 36 projects here. Many are of the hammer-and-saw variety,
such as building a dock, a deck chair, a flight of wooden steps, a bat
house, and an outdoor shower. Some have a pick-and-shovel orientation
(erecting a flag pole, installing a flagstone path, putting in a
horseshoe court, constructing a firepit); a few have a craft slant (hand
carving a canoe paddle, making a crokinole board); a few involve food
(making maple syrup, roasting a pig); some involve working with rope
(mat, hammock); and a bunch are for kids (willow whistle, toy boats,
whirligigs, snow hut). All the projects, from building a loon nesting
platform to making loon-shaped cookies, have a link to camps and
cottages. This means that the tools and materials involved are basics
and the directions are complete, easy to follow, and simplified as much
as possible.

For each project there’s a general introduction, a detailed list of
materials and tools required, and complete step-by-step directions. Most
of the projects are suitable for novices, although obviously some
woodworking experience would be an asset.

Photos of the completed project, cross-sections, and exploded drawings
showing construction details and assembly diagrams help walk the
do-it-yourselfer through each stage of the task.

The section on building a floating dock is especially detailed, with
considerable attention given to the various alternative materials,
planning, design considerations, ramps, anchoring the dock, and so on.
For anyone facing a dock-building summer, this section is a must-have.

One of the nice things about this book is that it contains so many
attractive projects that when you’re exhausted from working on this
summer’s project you can plan next year’s undertaking while you
relax by the lake.