Milddogs Update: Things Change

Well, hello there! It’s been some time since we last spoke. Way back in England/Scotland, if I remember correctly. What’s new, you ask. Well, stuff. Recently Mrs Milddogs and I sold our cottage. For real! Yes, we loved the cottage. It’s not a money thing and no I have not needed to start my OnlyFans site.

Some history. When growing up I had use of the “family cottage”. This cottage is on an island on a relatively large lake not too far from where we currently live. It was purchased by my great grandparents after WWII. My memories include the only noise on the lake being us. My brother, cousin and I being the worst offenders. If you saw a boat come around the point, it was probably heading to visit us or the neighbouring island. This cottage experience shaped my expectations about what cottage life was like while also preparing me for “twice the work, half the time”.

During COVID lockdowns, it was amazing to have this as our sanctuary. I worked from the bunkie during the summer. It also reminded us that we might be the only rule followers. We watched neighbours have large gatherings of friends and family as they flaunted the guidelines.

Separately, we learned that “Cottage Life” is an ill-defined term and is interpreted along a large spectrum ranging from “get me to nature” to “party 24/7”. We are much closer to the nature end of the spectrum. It seems we are in the minority. It’s also true that the party 24/7 crowd annoys the hell out of me. Why, oh why, must your music drown out the loon calls?

Back in 2024 or so we started having discussions about whether cottage life, as we were living it, was right for us. As my knee got worse, sailing became a bit too painful so I sold my beloved Hobie Cat. I did hobby switch to cycling in 2025. The “twice the work, half the time” reality really started to kick in and I fell further behind on maintenance at both home and cottage. Worse, I was disinterested in doing many of the maintenance tasks and more disinterested in paying people to do them. There’s a conundrum!

In August of 2025 we made the decision to sell based on the above factors and some more recent changes in the neighbourhood. We almost had it sold in October of 2025, but that crazy pilot went past rationality and dropped out. Finally, in June of 2026 it sold and we moved out mid-July. In total, we owned the cottage for 10 years, 10 months and 9 days.

We had some great memories up there, but once it stopped being our happy place, we knew we needed to move on. So we did.

You might wonder what is next. Hey, so do we. But we are now free of one of our anchors and have some more flexibility so who knows. We don’t feel any pressure to figure that out. The family cottage is still in the family. We might take some day trips up there. It’s only a 4km paddle from shore.

Go ahead, build your memories and make the choices that are right for you and remember it’s always nice to be considerate of your neighbours.

Here is a gallery of some of my favourite shots. Odd that many of them are sunsets. Poetic?