Exploring the area

Yesterday was sunny and hot, 35 degrees before the humidex, but with a good strong breeze to keep us cooler. We are trying to take one day off a week to explore the area, and to enjoy a bit of this lovely summer weather.  After we dropped off our garbage and recycling (there is no curb side pick up here!) at the municipality office, we headed out along the lovely country roads, skirted around the top of Lake Dore, past Golden Lake and over to Killaloe. Years ago we rented a cottage with friends on Golden Lake, and every time we drive past we try to figure out where that cottage was! It was probably 25 years ago, so things have definitely changed a bit since then.
Killaloe has a farmer's market on Saturdays on the grounds of the Hoch Farm Museum. Driving up to it, we were amazed at the size of the old barn, and thrilled to be able to go into it, where there is a small flea market running. Amazing old beams inside this barn!

We checked all the wonderful vendors at the market, bought some pretty amazing dill pickles from Andy's Wicked Pickles and met one of the owners of Donegal Heritage Farm. Lots of other great vendors there of course, and we will make sure we take more time to meet them as we tour some of the local farmer's markets. We need to get used to this slower pace - we still have the feeling we have limited time and need to rush off !
After we toured the barn and vendors we took a walk through the Hoch Museum. We are definitely going to return for another visit. It's located in a 108 year old farm house, filled with all sorts of artifacts, and gives you a really good idea of life back then. We joined a group that were listening to someone giving some wonderful information about some of the history of the house. There are really informative writings on the walls that tell you a lot about what you are looking at, and how the family lived. I was really interested in the "summer kitchen" as I had read about them before. They actually had a room that was only used in the summer, and would move the wood stove into this room, (no small feat!) so they could cook there without heating up the rest of the house. And cook they did - as they would not only be feeding themselves but any additional farm hands, or the neighbours when they showed up to help bring in the crops. Not to mention the every day cooking, canning, washing, heating water etc.

Here is a photo of the summer kitchen.

We then bought a BBQ'd Bratwurst on a bun, and sat at a picnic table in the shade to enjoy it. We were joined by a local Pembroke resident, and his wife, and spent a very enjoyable time as they shared some of their stories with us about living in this beautiful area.  They will be celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary this month, so they had lots of good stories! We could have sat and listened to them all day, but it was time to get home to let Jet out of his crate, and give him some play time.

We took a nice drive home, stopped briefly to admire the view of the Ottawa Valley in Foymount,

(unbelievably hazy!) and drove around Lake Clear, wishing we had time for a quick swim in the clear and inviting water.

We arrived home to discover just how hot it was! So we hopped in the river with Jet for a while, splashed around, and then went for a good long walk to dry off in the breeze.

All in all a very lovely day.