It’s time to close down the cottage for winter. Here’s a step-by-step checklist to smooth the process.

If you spend your summer in a house, a cabin or an RV, then winter elsewhere, you probably face the annual task of winterizing the summer dwelling. Some of the unpleasant results of poor planning or delayed timing can be, and are, very expensive. From burst water lines, cracked toilet bowls, ruptured hot water tanks, and infestations of mice and rats to major problems with sewer and septic systems, mould, mildew, and other not so nice revelations.

We have been leaving our home in Manitoba to fend for itself during winter for over 10 years. With temperatures often lower than –40 C (same as –40 F) the likelihood of damage is very real. We have had our share of problems but we now have a “system” that works and makes springtime revitalization a snap.

Since we pump our water from a well and discharge into a septic system we have to protect both from freezing. In Manitoba it is not unusual to have our septic pipes freeze even though they are 10 feet below ground level. I should point out that we do not utilize a septic field but rather a septic ejector system which pumps effluent out to the “back 40” where it is used to feed and water our tree plantation. In such severe conditions as we experience, even if we winter there, we must use electric “heat tapes” to prevent the lines from freezing. On more than one occasion we have had these tapes fail during cold weather resulting in frozen pipes.

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