Unfortunately, for bear-proofing to work, everyone using the family property—and cottagers at neighbouring properties—must be as attentive as you, or the bears will never learn that the buffet is permanently closed.

Monica Nowierski, an aquatic risk assessment scientist with the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, says that, along with immediate, local effects to the lake—some dyes in the antifreeze may cause the water to change colour, for example—there are secondary effects. “Anything that gets into water undergoes a degradation process,” she explains. This degradation depletes oxygen levels in the lake, leaving less for the aquatic life. “It would be frightening if everyone on the lake started doing this,” she says.

Bob Eaton, the director of environmental services for Boating Ontario, suspects that boaters may feel that propylene glycol (RV antifreeze) is okay for the water because it’s less toxic than ethylene glycol (common in internal combustion engines). “It still shouldn’t go in the lake,” he says. “People say, ‘But it’s non-toxic!’ and I say, ‘Well, drink a glass of it, then.’” Good point.

Strangely, some people react dramatically to only one insect—mosquitoes or fleas, for example—or to several insects, or to all of them. Or to none of them.

“I don’t react to bites,” says Geary. “You can’t even tell I’ve been bitten.”

Well, that’s nice for him. But what causes these (unfair) immune system differences? Nobody knows. “Whether or not you react to a mosquito is not considered life-threatening,” says Geary. So, compared to, say, mosquito-borne illness, it hasn’t been studied much.

Plus, while it’s common to test for allergies to stinging insects (such as bees), allergy tests for biting insects (such as mosquitoes) are not standardized, explains Susan Waserman, an allergist and clinical immunologist at McMaster University’s department of medicine. Other diagnostic allergy tests use insect venom, but there is no good skin-test reagent developed to test for mosquito allergy. The only option is to test someone’s reaction to a “whole-body extract”—from, literally, a crushed mosquito—which isn’t as precise and makes diagnosis difficult.

Luckily, mosquito bites are rarely associated with any significant allergy or anaphylaxis, says Waserman. “It’s possible. It’s just not common.”

A prescriptive easement can be granted after at least 20 years of “continuous, open, peaceable, uninterrupted use of the land without the objection of the owner,” says Rob Kerr, a lawyer with Lee Roche & Kelly in Bracebridge. If the two brothers have been accessing the well for 40 years under these circumstances, a court may feel they can continue doing so. (It’s possible that another type of easement applies in this case, but without more details, it’s hard to know.)

If the two brothers think they have legal grounds for an easement, they could explain this to the middle owners, who then might agree to share the well. If so, says Kerr, the three parties should sit down and discuss: Who maintains the well, repairs it, or replaces it? What happens if one party draws too much water? “Maybe the middle owner has 18 bathrooms,” says Kerr.

On the other hand, the middle owner might say, “It’s my well now, so get lost.” Then everybody has to go to court.

Which is best? It depends on what you’re looking for, says Alex Fournier, owner of A.F. Wood Floors in Whitby. Oil gives the wood an old-fashioned look, while polyurethane has a more “refined” appearance. Polyurethane hardens to a film, is better for wear-resistance in general, and requires fewer coats than oil, says Fournier.

On the other hand, if it gets scratched or worn, polyurethane is harder to repair than oil, says Maxwell. With an oil floor, you just rub on more oil. Polyurethane requires careful sanding and multiple reapplications, or it may look patchy.

Ian McKay, co-owner of K & I Exclusive Pine Flooring in Collingwood, highly recommends staining the floor first, with an oil-based stain such as Minwax. “I harp and preach on this all the time,” he says. A stain will give the wood a “country look,” and scratches won’t appear out of place. “The key is in the stain. Then you can mark and mar the floor as much as you want.”

While Maxwell warns that you’d have to repair scratched areas of a stained floor with more stain, and Fournier argues against staining pine, everyone agreed that, in general, scuffs and dents can enhance the look.

“Hey, let your floors get worn out,” says Fournier. “Some people pay extra to get a hand-distressed floor.”

Before you do anything, ideally you’d know (through expert help) the type of beetle you’re dealing with, and how they got in. For example, were they in the new logs (possible, but not likely) or did they come from infested firewood you brought into the cottage? Also assess the extent of the infestation. There’s no sense in treating every stick of wood in the house if the beetles are confined to a few logs, which could be replaced.

Kathryn Nystrom, an insect identification officer with the Great Lakes Forestry Centre, thinks yours may be powder post beetles, the most widespread wood-boring beetles in Ontario. They attack hardwoods and softwoods, and push a fine, powdery sawdust (called frass) out of their exit holes. Seeing exit holes and frass doesn’t always mean the wood is infested; the beetles might have moved on or died out on their own. Unfortunately, says Nystrom, “if you’re just seeing it for the first time, it’s probably an active infestation.”

Treat the wood with a borate solution, such as Timbor, says Scott McClenaghan of Steve’s Pest Management in Chatham, Ont. It works against wood-destroying insects, plus acts as a fungicide. You can apply it as a liquid, foam, or dust, but the wood needs to stay dry until the product dries.

Leeches are adaptable, and some can survive just fine in fast-flowing water, says Jacqueline Madill, a senior research assistant at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, who studied leeches for 15 years. However, they may be more likely to seek you out in calm water, when your movement and splashing indicate that you’re there. Just because they attached to your skin doesn’t mean that they were after you. Madill suspects, based on the size, that they might have been bait leeches or turtle leeches, which generally don’t feed on people. And from time to time, some water-dwelling creatures—worms or the larvae of aquatic bugs—attach to you by mistake too.

Claire Healy, associate curator of invertebrate zoology at the Royal Ontario Museum, thinks your hangers-on were blackfly larvae, which are common in fast-flowing water. “We’re just a substrate to them,” she says. “Like a rock. We’re just there.”