Merry
Christmas to all our Friends... December 2012
It is Christmas. The time of year we
pause to catch our breath before diving into the New Year, and to touch base
with friends both near and far. I am
writing this on December 12. 12/12/12 – that’s a confluence of dates we won’t
see again. The Winter Solstice is drawing closer. It will bring with it the
longest night, not to mention the Mayan End of Calendar, and then will herald
the welcome return of longer days. It is
a reminder that light is stronger than any dark, every night has a dawn, every
winter has a spring. That’s a message we can all take to heart, at this time of
year when we celebrate the greatest Light of all. “Be not afraid,” said the
angels, “for we bring tidings of great joy.” So in this darkest time of year,
we are reminded that Christ is the Light of the World, who came to us with
‘tidings of the greatest joy’. It is a
time of year when as we crawl through malls in search of material things, we
might be better to pause and ponder the real meaning of Christmas, and ask, if
that’s the line to see Santa, then where is the line to see Jesus?
2012 brought us a winter with plenty of
snow, but since that seemed not to be the case much south of Gravenhurst, a lot
of folk didn’t seem to realize it was winter. Up here conditions were great for
ski and snowmobile sports, despite a warm spell in January. We welcomed back
our skiers, snowmobilers and snowshoers. Brian and David had the ski trails in
superb shape. Something new, we hosted a Paintball Biathlon, combining skiing
with target shooting with paintballs! Guest sightings of Snowy Owls and Bald
Eagles made sure we all kept our eyes open, too. Spring came early – the ice
went out March 25. Our average ice-out is April 23, and in over 100 years it
has only happened in March three times – 1940, 2010 and 2012. Hello Global
Warming.
Seasons occasionally seemed confused. March
and April sort of switched places -- enough to trick the gardens. A lot of
crops suffered from the switched about weather.
 |
Sarah, David, Mike, Carol, James and Brian gear up
for Zip Lining in Mexico. |
In March, Carol, Dave, Brian and Mike
joined Carol’s daughter Rebecca for her 40th birthday cruise to
Mexico. Yep, they actually went on one of those floating cities. Unlike the
Costa Concordia, their boat stayed nicely afloat, and full marks go to
Norwegian Cruise lines. Dave and Mike, however, did discover the perils of
falling asleep on a deckchair in the Caribbean sun. Carol enjoyed catching up
with her family, some of whom she hasn’t seen in years, and reminiscing about
their childhood in Brazil.
Carol signed up for Fencing Classes this
spring, taking Mike and Dave along. Dave thought it involved barbed-wire, and
while they had a lot of fun, they found it tougher than they thought, and are
not quite Olympics ready.
Sometime in mid-June it stopped raining
and didn’t start again until into late August. New water toys were popular -
the lake was the place to be. The
Fire Ban that came with the extended drought put a small crimp into the making
of ‘smores at the Cookouts and saw a lot of irrigation pouring into Carol’s
lovely garden. Even so, crops suffered.. The corn ripened all at once it
seemed, keeping us busy picking and eating and freezing!
Mike Bechtel joined us again, his 5th
year working with us. He keeps Dave on his toes. And Dave repays the favour.
The pair of them keep the rest of us sharp. He’s a member of the family now! We
were also joined by Natalie this summer.
Come August, Dave has been out of college
for a year, and is enjoying working at the Resort full time. He was happy to be
home for the summer to reconnect with friends at the Resort. He’s wonderful
with our guests, if we do say so ourselves, and takes guests waterskiing, for
paintball experiences, manhunt and general activities. Carol is especially
grateful to have him here, finished with academics, and seeing his smiling face
every morning. His positive outlook is a joy. A trip to Niagara Falls and
whitewater rafting the Ottawa were also on his activities list this year. And yes, he is still with long time
girlfriend Megan.
He put his skills to use building a fish
hut and a ‘Hunt Camp’ on one of the tiny lakes on our land. It seemed timely. He and Mike took the gun
course and hunting exams this year and went deer hunting with our long time
guest Herman come autumn. With his guidance, they learned a lot about hunting,
not the least of which including carrying the 9-point buck out of the bush. They also learned about how to cook what they
caught, not just fish, and grouse, but venison.
Brian added a second solar installation
last year, so now we have two, plus a third that heats water. Both work well,
and add about 24,000 kwh per year of green energy to the grid. Brian thought
about adding another, but “when the weight of the paperwork equals the weight
of the project, the job is done.” Until the Government gets serious about
encouraging these, it’s not feasible to expand.
This autumn, with great sadness, we said
farewell to Walter Hadden, who left us in his 89th year. Along with
his wife, Evelyn, Walter has been a cornerstone of our summer, with their
combined families visiting us for 51 years in an unbroken chain. The whole
premise of our resort is to see so many familiar faces and families return,
providing a place to build their best memories. Walter and his family have been
a big part of that.
Every year we update and upgrade. Usually
it’s stuff you see – renos, floors, beds, curtains... The big rebuild project
for the resort this year has been one you won’t see. It’s not glamorous, and in
fact, not visible. The MOE has updated its requirements, regardless of how the
current systems function, resulting in our re-doing many of our septic systems and
although it was not in our build plans for this year, in order to comply, here
we go. We will be the most up-to-date resort in the area when we are done!
November saw Brian, Carol and Dave in
Florida for a week. It was cool, but sunny, and they filled the time walking
the beach, shopping and yes, although they were the only hardy types out there,
swimming in the Ocean.
Brian never gets enough air time with his
plane – either the weather or the work seem to be in the way, but he still
logged enough air time to get some fantastic aerial photos, many of which were
posted on our Resort Blog. That Blog won a Muskoka
Technology Achievement Award for Best Web Presence this year. The Blog has become a Journal of life at
Bondi, for ourselves and our guests, and the readership is quite astonishing.
It was not our only award, as it turns out, when Brian went to Gravenhurst to
accept a Stewardship Award for Bondi
from the Muskoka Steamship and Historical Society. In their words, Bondi
has maintained the look and feel of the traditional family operated resort, and
today is one of only a few that fall into that category. It’s nice to be recognized. The
only upside we find to Social Media is that it helps us stay in closer touch
with our friends, so please do join us on FB and follow our Blog.
Nancy, recovered from her eye issues of
last year, was happy to be back in the saddle, figuratively and literally. Her
work on the Council of Lake of Bays, and as chair of the Heritage Committee are
taxing, but there is good work coming out of it so it must be worth it! As usual, she is followed by a parade of
animals – the horses all had a good year, with Abby winning the Provincial
Championships. This lovely mare is for sale, ready to move to a new rider now,
solid and experienced. Napster, our painting cat, reached more milestones in
his career – with one of his paintings coming to rest in Rideau Hall. He is now
sold worldwide. In the fall, he
developed glaucoma and had to have one eye removed, resulting in a rather
Piratical look, but he is doing well, and painting again. He is still
fundraising to help off-set the formidable vet bills, if you are considering
acquiring some of his art. Taffy, at
two, is considering perhaps occasionally settling down, has her own fan club,
and is a great joy and Nancy’s shadow. We had some wildlife encounters this
spring with foxes in the hen house that caused much trauma, and resulted in the
construction of a state-of-the-art chicken containment system. The deer
continue to ornament the lawns, and eat the gardens if we are not
vigilant. And the wolf pack was again on
the property this summer for the Dark Skies and Wolf Howl programs we offer.
The high point of that experience came when Nancy was up near our gravel pit
with several guests hoping to have a ‘successful howl’ – and the big alpha male
opened up in song less than 200 yards away in the dark. That was an experience
our guests will never forget! This Spring, we had a plethora of newborn fawns
on the property, including one tiny creature who’s mom had been killed, whom we
rescued. Testing the theory that newborn fawns have no scent, when she was
discovered, Taffy managed to stand directly on top of the fawn and keep right
on walking, while the fawn never flinched. Such is the fawn’s faith in its
world. It is a troubled world right now.
Keep sight of the promise of Christ, for Whom the season is named.
Best
wishes for the coming year from all the Tapleys at Bondi!
Sam tells us that this unicycle, with its very wide 'mountain bike' tire, is intended to use for trick riding.
Hiking trails abound here as well -- which in winter become ski and snowshoe passages. Stubbs Falls is a particularly picturesque trail. The Falls and the river provide plenty of opportunites to get the cameras out.
Come the end of the day, our guests were happy to come home to Bondi, to a warm fire, and a fantastic view across our Bay, watching the sun set. This time of year the colours across the ice are pretty darn impressive.
Uri and Yaara were here for several days over Christmas, with their family and friends -- some visiting from Israel! They were looking for Canadian Winter, and they sure found it! Yaara sent us these photos, taken on Boxing Day, of the family enjoying time at the Haliburton Forest Reserve, visiting the Wolf Centre and going out with the Sled Dogs.
There are few things out there that are more friendly than the Haliburton Sled Dogs. They love their job. Huskies are born to run and love the cold. Controlling a team of dogs takes more than a little skill, strength and balance, but these dogs are very co-operative, and most of the group had the chance to try their hand at the 'driver's wheel.'
Dogs running are fast. Until you've been clinging on to the back of the sled, you don't really realize just how fast they can travel. And while there is usually a lot of singing and howling going on before the start, once the dogs start to run, they are pretty quiet... which gives an unparalleled opportunity to really come to grips with the winter woods.
Their very happy faces -- both people and husky -- tell the story.
And the dogs were very willing to return the thank-you hugs.
During the winter months, there are several Sled Dog Derbies that run in the region, where you can watch them racing. And there are several providers that will take you out for a day like this. Or overnight ... or even an extended trip of several days for those who want to try winter camping. If the nights get too cold, you can always toss another husky on top of the sleeping bag !
The Haliburton Forest Reserve does more than offer great sled rides in winter. They are also home to the Haliburton Wolf Centre, a fifteen acre compound tht houses a pack of wild timber wolves. The Centre features a movie theatre, museum and gift shop. More importantly, it boasts a fantastic viewing area, with one-way glass and full sound-proofing, where visitors can watch the wolves, without the wolves being disturbed.
I didn't join them this go round, because I had a group of guests with me from the Resort, and two of them requsted something shall we say, less hilly. So we tramped out through the sugarbush. We found all sorts of cool things, as one does, whenever one gets out into Nature. Taffy was happy to be tour guide, pointing out the tree that the hairy woodpecker had been carving up.
And no sooner where we back at the Resort office, waving and shouting up to Brian and Dave on the mountain top, than David phoned me. "Eagle alert," he said. "He's circling just to the left of you, over Longside cottage." And so he most beautifully was. This time several of our guests also had the chance to see him.
Bondi Bay has now frozen all the way across. That is not water now gleaming around Clover's dock, but clear, hard ice. Almost enough, but not quite... Keep fingers crossed, we could be skating on our bay very very soon!
There were lots of visitors at the stable today too, to meet the horses and collect eggs from the hens. And speaking of the hens, it was a mild day today, so out they ventured -- in fact, we got a picture that proves that sometimes, just sometimes, we can get all our hens in a row.
This is a lovely week to look up at the sky at dusk. Talk about a "Star in the East" -- Jupiter, lovely bright big Jupiter, is sitting right next to the full moon.
It is hard to photograph a bird in flight, when taken by surprise like that. I leapt nimbly through the snow in pursuit, (you would have been proud of me) but he curved west and cruised across the front of the Resort well out of my camera range.
Today was the first day the BMD had the sleds out. They were able to pack in the Ski Trails -- not skiable yet, they need another fall of snow on top of the base, but close, oh so close. 
We welcomed our first guests of the Christmas season home to Bondi today, in a cold day drenched with sunshine, and with the resort looking like a Christmas card.
Even the bay is freezing over fast. It will need some more cold weather to make any ice up here safe for people -- or snowmobiles! Every year somebody jumps that gun, and often discovers that thin ice is truly bad news, so just a reminder that even if the water looks to be frozen, you must KNOW BEFORE YOU GO. Unless you are sure of the ice thickness, just stay off. That goes for dogs, too, Taffy...
There are so many ways to enjoy winter. Some folk like to go out and try to catch snowflakes on their sleeves, mittens, tongues -- or noses. Taffy demonstrates the latter technique.
Other folk prefer to spend a lot of time outside -- the best way to ensure you are going to enjoy an outdoor experience in winter is to be appropriately dressed, in several layers. Abby and Bailey demonstrate this for us, stylin' in their winter rugs.
Skiing is popular -- we are hoping to have our ski trails open soon. Hidden Valley Highlands Ski Centre IS up and running, with almost every hill open and the terrain park very popular as well. Snowshoeing, and tobogganing -- they are all good to go.
This photo has not been reversed. You are looking at the reflection of the hill and the sky beneath the edge of the ice.
and this tree is just a reflection of the real thing, in very slightly rippled water. The Bondi Bunch will recognize this as the huge willow in front of my house.
Taffy and I weren't the only ones enjoying a stroll along the shore.
We also found this fragile ice shelf formed around a tiny stick, and doing its impersonation of a floating leaf.
These are slower moving, and this year, pray for clear skies because with no moon it could be quite the show. The Geminids have been intensifying every year and recent showers have seen 120 to 160 meteors per hour in the 2 to 3 a.m. time frame.
With the snow comes the chance to track animals -- both wild and more familiar. I was tracking Taffy back to the house, only to discover she was very enchanted with tracking the squirrel. Ah, winter in Muskoka... something for everyone.
