‘The numbers are in, I think I’m about to win! I hold my breath as I reach into the water...’
It may seem like a silly little game, but there one little ritual each member of the family has always taken part in after we arrive at the lake. Before, with, and post kids, every time we got to the lake property each person in attendance will get a guess as we play this game. Each person gets one guess to try and figure out what the lake temperature is according to our submerged water thermometer. After we get the boat unloaded, and we do the important routines, like sweeping the decks, like lighting the fridge and setting up the beds, opening the Loo, maybe pouring a bevie, and changing clothes, I would head down to the second dock, reach into the water and pull up the water thermometer that dangles there on a string. Before I would look at it, or clean off the lake algae from the strip to be able to read it, I would ask for everybody’s guess on what they thought the temperature is. There is never a prize for the winner, just the all-important bragging rights of winning the game. Off our second dock, on the inside, we have had a water thermometer dangling by a short piece of rope, and attached to the dock by a nail. Although we have had to replace the rope a few times and the thermometer at least once, we have had a thermometer hanging down there for years. Someone once gave us a little yellow rubber duckie with sunglasses on a temperature gauge, but I think he didn’t last long floating on top of the water.
Naturally, it is a fairly protected area and quite shallow on the side of the dock where the thermometer is dangling, so the water temperature would naturally be warmer than out off the deep side of the dock or elsewhere on the property. We are not into scientific accuracy, we just like to have an idea. As our little property is in its own private little bay, and then part of a larger bay, our water is warmer than many other cabin properties in the open channels and more flowing areas of the lake. We can be several degrees warmer off our dock. This is really a plus on the colder edges of cabin season, that is, for the early Spring and late Fall visits. Swimming is a given when we come to our cabin. If I can’t swim, I simply don’t go to the lake. I usually will come up to the property by about the May Long Weekend in the Spring, and then lastly late into September after Labour Day in the Fall. I will swim pretty much every day, unless it is really stormy, and even then, I like to swim when it rains (see my post, ‘Swimming in the Rain, Camera In Hand’). For me, it’s a quirk, if the water is on the cooler side, I have to keep my head out, I have an ear that is a bit of a baby if it’s too cold and will give me a little achy grief. Therefore, I keep my head out of the water in the really chilly times of the year. Cold water doesn’t keep me from swimming, but it certainly does take me longer to get in these days.
I have seen the water temperatures anywhere from the low 60’s F, (about 32 C), to up into the low 80’s (about 27 C), in the peak of summer, which makes a dip a little less refreshing and feeling more like a bath. However, every dip in our lake is a good dip, and well worth it. We have the freshest, and most beautiful clear waters. You can see the bottom for a long way down. We have less creepy, slimy things like weeds, though the logs will still get slippery, and so do the swimming ladder rungs on the swimming dock. I have a long-handled brush and a short hand brush that I use to clean up and scrub the ladder steps and the rocks where we swim and, where we stand on the bottom. It is nicer to give them a little brush so that they are clean and safer to use. When my kids were little we would also brush the rocks in the pond area so the kids could wander in there and not slip so easily. Out on the rocky point where we often snorkel and come up to stand off shore we have brushed the rocks there as well over the years, especially when there are a lot of youngsters in residence with us. We are the blessed ones, with such warm beautiful waters in our lake. Silly little rituals and family routines are just the little wonderful things we look forward to and do together to bring joy to our loves. Guessing-the-Temperature-Game is just one silly little routines we do after arriving at our lake.