The incredible professionals that make cottage country work for us

Our playground is their office. Meet a few of the first-class professionals that make cottage country work for us!

The Fixer: Tammy Watson

What she does: Turn cottagers into DIYers

In 1986, when then 16-year-old Tammy Watson was in high school in Toronto, she likely never imagined that she’d use the skills she was learning in shop class to open up her own handywoman business in Ontario’s cottage country 34 years later. But that’s exactly what happened. As an adult, Watson and her wife, Mary, bought a property in the small hamlet of Fernleigh, in North Frontenac County.

They planned to use it as a cottage but, in 2018, when Watson was offered a buyout package from her long-time government job, she did what many cottagers dream of doing. She sold her house and moved into her cottage full-time. However, because she had taken the buyout package, she didn’t qualify for a pension, so she needed to find another way to make a living. Enter what is now known as the Canadian Handywoman, the business she opened in 2020.

She specializes in jobs that might be too small for a contractor, but still beyond the skill of some average cottagers, and she gears her business towards providing services specifically for women. Along with cottage maintenance services, she offers hands-on and online workshops, designed to build confidence and independence, covering the basics: how to tackle everyday home maintenance and repairs with ease.

“I believe in helping women feel confident, comfortable, and in control,” she says. “I want to give women the power to do these jobs again on their own.” One DIY tip she has for cottagers? Don’t ignore screen maintenance, she says. “It seems small, but a torn or loose screen is an open invitation for bugs—especially at the worst possible time,” she says. “Plus, a well-maintained screen just looks better, which makes your whole space feel better.”—Bob Sexton

The Researcher: Kaleigh Mooney

What she does: Help cottagers live with weeds

Researcher Kaleigh Mooney is on a mission: to share her knowledge about the importance of weeds in aquatic ecosystems. Now in her last semester of a six year ecological restoration university program, Mooney is effusive in her appreciation of aquatic vegetation. “When I’m down there with my goggles, spending so much time in those aquatic plant stands, I just see so much life!” she says. “To see the sunshine shining through the water, hitting the leaves and making them glow this beautiful green colour—it feels so good, healthy, and alive.”

When she first started her program, she asked her professor if he had any work for her over the summer. “He asked, ‘How do you feel about getting gross in mucky water?’ And I was like, fine, whatever it is, I’m okay!” She spent that first summer on Big Cedar Lake near Burleigh Falls, Ont., using benthic mats to help manage the invasive species Eurasian water milfoil.

“My job was to float these massive burlap mats on to the water over a bed of weeds, find some big old rocks, swim them over, and anchor the mat down,” she says. “We harvested native plants from other parts of the lake and planted them through the mat.” Weeds can certainly be an inconvenience, says Mooney, but they have important jobs. They provide habitat for fish and many beneficial insects that start their life in the water. They also help keep sediment where it’s supposed to be.

“We talk about erosion control on land with root systems in terrestrial plants, but that same function happens within a lake,” she says. “Weeds keep the banks strong and healthy.” Often, community groups ask Mooney to conduct lake surveys if they’re worried about invasive species, and she likes being able to provide information. “If and when they want to do some sort of management action, they can have a better sense of how to approach that.”

With respect to managing weeds, invasive or not, Mooney says that one of the best things that cottagers can do is become keen observers of their waterfront. “Spend more time getting to know the plants off your dock and notice the different types,” she says. “Be more aware and connected with your space. Build that relationship first. Then you can address concerns with a more holistic understanding.”—B.S.

The Instructor: Ryan Bush

What he does: Inspires a love for watersports

Ryan Bush was only two years old when he first got up on waterskis in 1979. His father, Jim, himself an avid waterskier, opened a ski school on Barrett Lake, near Bala, Ont., the same year. Flash forward several decades: Bush’s Watersports Park is still a source of summer fun in cottage country. Now 48, Bush has been giving lessons since he was 12.

As a three-event skier (slalom, trick, and jumping), he’s won the Canadian national title 14 times and placed second in the World Waterski Championships three times. So, when his dad retired from the family business in 2008, Bush was certainly the most qualified candidate to take over. Today, he runs the park alongside his business partner, Steve Milgram, and the pair have expanded it considerably.

In 2013, they added the What Wake Park, which uses a unique cable system to pull wakeboarders without the need of a boat. It tows the student at a straighter angle than a boat does, getting them “up out of the water,” he says. “This makes it easier, for most people, when they start learning.” At Bush’s, novice skiers start by first holding on to a pole off the side of the boat, called a boom. Then they hold on to a short rope off the boom, and then they go on a longer rope out the back.

“It’s broken into stages so when you go home to try it on your boat, you’re ready to go,” says Bush. It’s as gratifying for him as it is for his students. Although Bush coaches elite skiers every morning throughout the ski season, passing on a love for watersports to the next generation—even newbie skiers—is a primary driver for him. “Seeing the happiness in people’s faces when they get up on skis for the first time is incredible.”—B.S.

The Craftsman: Karl Chevrier

What he does: Share his connection to nature through canoe building

Karl Chevrier is a proud member of the Anishnabe community of Timiskaming First Nation. His traditional name, Tanawta, translates to “busy man,” an apt description for a sculptor, a guardian of the land, a master canoe builder, and, at his core, a teacher. Chevrier serves as a cultural ambassador at parc national d’Opémican in Quebec, giving presentations on birchbark canoe-building techniques.

He also runs his own canoe-building courses that last up to a month; there’s no set end date, says Chevrier. Participants follow him into the forest, where he helps them collect wood and shows them how to split it. They bring the wood back to the workshop and, together as a team, they build a 16-foot canoe.

People who take the course “develop a greater respect for nature and learn how to see nature for the first time,” says Chevrier. In terms of the techniques he uses in canoe construction (and what he teaches), “I try to stay as traditional as possible, but at the same time, keep up with modern times,” he says. Learning about a birchbark canoe’s history is one thing, “but learning how to build it with your tools is another journey.”

Through the courses, he says that he’s building more than canoes; he’s building bridges between cultures, fostering connections, and paving the way for a more sustainable future that will benefit the generations yet to come. “I want my work to speak to all people, Indigenous and non-native,” he says. “I need it to change their relationship with Mother Earth.”— Jane Finn

The Barge Brigade: Armin Grigaitis and Kyle Scobie

What they do: Tricky builds and more

In 1975, Honey Harbour, Ont.’s Armin Grigaitis co-founded A&A Services and Marine Contracting with Andrew Nogy, a family friend—and he’s been making people’s cottage dreams come true ever since. The idea for the company came to him while he was helping his parents build their water-access cottage on the north bay of Honey Harbour.

“There was a lack of contractors that had barges in the area,” he says. So, they built their own vessel to transport the materials they needed. The barge worked out so well, they thought it could fly as a business, and with that, A&A was born. “In the beginning, we were doing barging, installing septic systems, dockwork, and things like that,” says Grigaitis. “We branched out into a full-service construction company a few years afterward.”

A&A is now known for being a one-stop shop for everything from renovations to complete builds. Grigaitis runs the business alongside Kyle Scobie, who started as an employee in 2011 and became a partner three years ago. (The company has 16 employees overall.) And though many of their projects are big, they’re always made to fit the land, says Grigaitis. Part of that philosophy means not removing anything you don’t need to.

“The natural features that we have, the bedrock, the trees, the boulders, it’s all free landscaping,” he says. His advice for anyone who’s thinking of building a cottage? Test drive the property for a year or two before you make any changes. “Once you’re on the property, you can better understand where the sun sets, where it rises, where the wind comes in, and where you might need a little more protection,” he says. “It’s better than ripping everything down and trying to fix it later.”—B.S.

The Wolf Whisperer: Marena Wigmore

What she does: Shares a care for canids

One of Marena Wigmore’s fondest childhood memories was accompanying her grandparents to the Haliburton Forest & Wild Life Reserve every summer. She learned early on that “experiencing nature with your family and loved ones strengthens your bonds as much as playing a board game on a rainy day. Now, in my job, I facilitate those moments.” In 2014, Wigmore landed a summer position at the Haliburton Forest reserve’s wolf centre.

Part of her job was to educate visitors about the wolves. There was a lot of misinformation about the animals, which made people fearful. When visitors saw the wolves—through the one-way glass of the observation areas—napping and sunbathing, their fears started to decrease, says Wigmore. “Seeing wolves helps people understand them better and connect to the species a bit more.” Now, Wigmore is the Wolf Centre and Experiences Manager at the Haliburton Forest; part of her job is to guide the centre’s once-per-week public wolf howls in July and August, first leading the group—sometimes, as many as 200 people—on a short, silent hike along a gravel road.

Then, “we’ll call to the wolves a couple of times, and wait and listen,” she says. Sometimes, only one wolf calls back. Other times, the whole group may call back, or they may howl multiple times. “It could last only a few seconds, or as long as two minutes on and off,” she says. Even though a “howl back” is never guaranteed, the odds of getting one are pretty good, she says.

“Howling is a natural part of life for wolves.” (They vocalize to communicate with other wolves; howling is meant for long-distance communication.) One of Wigmore’s favourite parts of her job is witnessing visitor reactions when they first experience the magic of the evening wolf howls. “Imagine, it’s starting to get dark, and dusk is settling in. You’re not looking at your phone or worried about what’s going on in your life,” she says. “You’re in the moment when you hear that beautiful call. You feel it.”— J.F.

The Storytellers- Katy McNabb and Ed Boutilier

What they do: Document cottage history

A registered interior designer with a love of people, cottaging, history, design, and good conversation, Parry Sound’s Katy McNabb combined all of those interests in her Rewind Design podcast (rewinddesign.podbean.com) in 2022. Her goal? To shine a spotlight on cottage country, including cottage design history. She got the idea after spending time at her family’s place in Georgian Bay’s south channel during the pandemic “I thought, The cottages around us are all so amazing. Some of them are really old. How is it that they’ve been here this long?”

She started investigating close to home—one of her first episodes featured an interview with her father, who grew up cottaging near Parry Sound. “He was digging up photos and talking about all these crazy things he did with his brothers,” she says. “Once I did his episode, I had so many cottage neighbours who wanted to tell their story,” she says. “I love cottages, I love being up here, I love our environment, and I love people,” she says. “The podcast is the best thing I’ve ever done.”

Caledon, Ont.’s Ed Boutilier shares a similar interest in documenting cottage history—but through a different medium. He became fascinated by Muskoka history shortly after buying his own cottage on Lake Joseph in 2004. To post his findings and observations about the area, he created muskokablog.com in 2008. Boutilier started the site in part to explore the area’s past in general and in part to tell the stories of the old cottages he saw while touring around in his boat, his kayak, and his PWC.

Boutilier retired in 2015 after selling the industrial computer company he founded, and, since then, has shifted his focus away from the blog to his Instagram page (@edboutilier). Now with more 64,000 followers, the page features video reels that Boutilier captures on his summer sunset jaunts. “Because I’m getting close to some of these properties—it could be near a rock cliff or in a shallow bay or corner bay—the best access I can get is usually by a Sea-Doo,” he says.

Boutilier is particularly interested in documenting the changes happening in Muskoka, especially with respect to old cottages being torn down and replaced with modern buildings. “I’m not against the change; I understand it fully. I’ve been to some boathouses that are over 100 years old, and someone spends millions of dollars buying that property because it has the greatest views,” says Boutilier. “I understand that they want to put in a kitchen and sleeping quarters, but it can be unbalanced in some ways.”— B.S.

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