Dec 3-6 - arrived and settled in

 It was a relatively easy drive, weather-wise.  Traffic-wise, not so much; there were more trucks than usual.  We stopped in Wytheville VA and the Buffalo western outskirts.

The border was quick.  We could have been bringing anything in but they are only concerned about covid.  The ArriveCAN app has changed in that you submit; before there was an exchange of codes at the booth.  Now they know you're coming.  Pre dawn yesterday we received our first check-in email.  I don't know whether we get an email per day or whether we're simply supposed to go to the website each day.  I'll find out shortly.

There's a lot of snow here.  I had to shovel a good 16-18" on the stairs.  Al had done the driveway.  It was above freezing but expected to drop overnight so I did the deck as well.  By now it's rock hard.  I put the car in the barn and it'll be there for 2 weeks.  

I busied myself with some electronics work for the first two days, cameras and such.  I'd picked up an inexpensive wifi range extender that seems to work well but the cameras want to be wifi attached to the device that issued the lease.  The echo doesn't care.  I'll do some more playing around but at this point the camera at the garage works off the router in the loft.  If I simply setup the router as an AP, it doesn't work.  

Late yesterday the wind dropped to zero and we could see the lake skimming over.  Right now, 4am, it's 9F outside and I'm expecting to see more ice, assuming that it stays windless.  We've never seen "the freeze" before so this will be interesting.  Right.  It's like watching paint dry :).

We lost a tree out front, the birch right in front of the pine.  It dropped straight into the lake.  If we get enough ice then I can clean that up somewhat. It'll be easier to do that on the ice than from a boat in the spring.

The cottage was warmer upon arrival than ever before.  That's because I installed the smart thermostats last year and have more flexibility with setup.  In the basement, with those thermostats attached to relays, I can also control the electric heat.  The cottage was 68F (by design) when we arrived, vs the usual 60F when I could only regulate the one thermostat via the telephone line and only choose among two pre-planned temperature settings.  All this depends on having an internet connection of course !

Officially this is day 4 of 14.  Friday, our arrival day, counts as day 1.  We should be able to go grocery shopping on Friday next week (not this week).  Kylie handed us milk in Barrie on the way through; Annemarie brought veggies.  Before long we'll be frozen veggies only.

Onward !