Newsletter



January 2009 Newsletter

Keeping You Connected To Your Home Away From Home

Vol. 13 No. 1, January 1, 2009
Hope to see you in 2009!!

The Gage family, once again, hopes that you and yours have had a wonderful holiday season and that the coming year brings you much joy & happiness. 2008 has overall been a good year for the Gages. Martin completed his university education and graduated with a degree in History and Education. He was lucky to gain a teaching position at Haliburton Highlands Secondary School for the first term and is still waiting to find out if he will continue there in the second term. Lisa bought a house in the Peterborough area and is happily redecorating it and loving living in the country again. Don had a knee replacement September 2nd, making life a bit chaotic this fall but, he is healing fairly well and we are hopeful for a good outcome. Thanks to all our good friends and neighbours who pitched in to help when Don couldn’t. It takes 6 months for full healing to occur and he still has to exercise regularly to ensure the best of outcomes. Marie stopped working as an Occupational Therapist at the end of May – life was just too busy balancing the work of the resort and the work of being a therapist! Good thing she did – with Don’s surgery it would have been impossible to keep up both.

Winter Vacation Anyone??
Winter has arrived early again this year – So why not plan a vacation in the north this winter and find out what it’s like to engage in winter activities such as dogsledding, downhill or cross country skiing and skating on the lake? Or perhaps you just want to kick back and relax in front of the fire and take walks outdoors. How about trying snowshoeing?

Luge Run
For the more adventurous you can learn to luge. Haliburton County is home to one of only two natural track luge runs in Ontario. The 900 metre natural track or 'Naturbahn' luge track sweeps down the side of the hill hugging its natural contours. For more information check out http://www.goluge.com

Free Day
For those of you who stayed with us during the summer months....remember you have a free night to use before the end of June! If you stayed with us during the summer and didn’t get your certificate for the free day please let us know and we’ll be happy to issue one to you.

Holding the Line on pricing
Due to the economic conditions in our country we have decided to retain the 2008 pricing for the 2009 year. Thus, the cost of a vacation at Willow Beach will be the same this year as last year. We hope this helps our dedicated customers to be able to afford another vacation at Willow Beach Cottages.

What’s New???
We once again had a very busy spring season. The following upgrades have been completed in the past year:
• Cottage #1 got a new double bed
• Cottage #2 got a new stove, a new mattress for the double bed and a new picnic table
• Cottage #3 got a new 30" stove
• Cottage #4 got a new front patio door and screen
• Cottage #5 got a new 30" stove
• Cottage #6 got a new mattress for the double bed
• Cottage #11 got a new fridge
• Cottage #12 was jacked up and had the main floor beam replaced as it was rotting and causing the cottage to be on a bit of a tilt!
• We added a second paddle boat to the non-motorized boat collection
• Lots of other more minor repairs were also done but, too many and too minor to mention in detail.

Possible Changes for 2009
1. Some of you know that the insurance company was making noise about putting in a CSA approved playground. We were able to resolve this by changing insurance companies. The new company has safety standards that we can meet by upgrading the equipment without replacing the whole set. Those upgrades will happen in the spring.
2. If anyone has any suggestions for additions or changes to the property or a particular cottage we are always happy to hear from you and to add the items to a list of potential changes – then comes the budgeting process that determines whether we can do it all or not.
3. We have been getting prices and looking at upgrading the wireless internet service so that it reaches all cottages with a strong signal. Once again it will be an issue of budget as to when we can do this. However, more and more of our customers find it essential to keep in touch when away on vacation and thus, we believe this is a priority item.

Summer Bookings
If you pre-booked a cottage for the summer of 2009 we have enclosed the reminder for the deposit, which is due February 1st, 2009. If you know before this date that you will not be confirming the booking we would appreciate a call or email to cancel the reservation – we have many people waiting to hear if there is space and your early notification would be appreciated by them.

Haliburton’s Frost Festival
On the Family Day long weekend in February Haliburton Village is hosting a Frost Festival! A feature event of the festival is the dogsled races but, this year there is much, much more!! There will be a torchlight parade, ice slide, snowmobile scavenger hunt, ice sculpture demo, snowshoe races, pancake breakfast, horse drawn sleigh rides, a giant bonfire and kid’s dogsled rides. What better way to spend some good quality family time. But, book early because it’s a popular weekend.

Minden’s 150th Birthday Celebration
2009 marks the 150th anniversary of the founding of the village of Minden. They kicked off the year long celebration with a New Year’s Eve party that included fireworks and free public skating at the arena. There are plans in the works for many more signature events throughout the year — keep an eye on http://www.minden150.ca/ website to find out more as the events unfold.

March Break Getaways
March Break is a great time to drop in on Willow Beach Cottages — we have a family special where you pay for 3 nights and get the 4th free! For those of you holding a certificate for a free day that means you can get 5 nights for the price of 3! What a deal. If spring is in the air you can check out the local Maple Syrup operations and just generally spend some wonderful family time communing with nature. Hope to see you then.

The Willow Beach New's Vol. 12 No. 1, January 1, 2008

Keeping You Connected To Your Home Away From Home

Hope We'll See You Again in 2008!

The Gage family, once again, hopes that you and yours have had a wonderful holiday season and that the coming year brings you much joy & happiness. 2007 has, overall been a good year for the Gages with the exception of the death of our beloved cat, Keesha. Keesha was an unfortunate victim of the Menu Foods pet food poisoning scandal. She is dearly missed. The arrival of Lisa’s new puppy, Tux(edo) has taken the edge off the loss of the cat. He’s a cute and cuddly little guy and lots of fun to be around. Lisa moved to Peterborough after accepting a job with Kinark Family Services, so now she’s closer to home and can visit and bring the “grand-puppy” with her.

Winter Vacation Anyone??
Winter has arrived early this year – Don & Marie came back from their late November vacation to a foot and a half of snow!! Thanks to Gord and Lynn who spent much time shovelling while we were gone. We’ve never seen this much snow at the beginning of December in the 12 winters we have spent here...and it just seems to keep on coming. We got another foot on December 16th!!

So.. Come on up and spend some time falling in love with winter. We can set you up with a cross country ski or dogsledding package .... Or perhaps you just want to kick back and relax in front of the fire and take walks outdoors and make snow angels? Whatever your choice give us a call and we’ll help you arrange the details.

Carefree Cottaging
Are you one of those people who would love to own your own cottage but, either can’t afford it or just don’t have the time or the inclination to keep up with the maintenance and repair? Then our Carefree Cottaging option is made just for you. Carefree Cottaging is a package of days or weeks, or combination of days and weeks, at Willow Beach Cottages, in a private cottage you can call your "own". It is an alternative to cottage ownership or fractional ownership that saves you money and gives you more options! Check out our website for more details: www.willowbeach.com and click on the carefree cottaging page.


Don’t worry, the availability of this option will not in any way affect the services to those of you who do not choose this option....it is simply an alternative for those who wish to be frequent visitors to Willow Beach Cottages or the Haliburton region

What’s New???
We once again had a very busy spring season. The following upgrades have been completed in the past year:
Cottage #1 got a new couch, new curtains and had kitchen floor repaired
Cottage #2 got new laminate flooring in the kitchen and new patio door drapes
Cottage #3 got the double bedroom redecorated, a new kitchen counter top and new living room chairs
Cottage #4 got a new laminate kitchen floor, new kitchen counter top, & redecorating in kitchen and bedrooms including new carpet in bedrooms. In the fall it was also levelled and a brand new patio door added!
Cottage #5 got a new side chair
Cottage #6 got a new side chair in living room
Cottage #7 got a new pull out couch and decorating of the double bedroom
Cottage #8 got new living room chairs and a wardrobe for one bedroom
Cottage #9 got new carpet throughout and new verticals in living room
Cottage #10 got new single beds and a new wardrobe in double bedroom
Cottage #11 got new single beds and a new wardrobe for one bedroom
Cottage #12 got a new bathroom floor
New roof on shed near Rec Hall
Many cottages got new fireplace screens
Two BBQs were replaced

Possible Changes for 2008
We’re just starting to think about renovations and additions for the 2008 year .... So, now would be the time to let us know what you’d like to see in “your” cottage.

The insurance company is making some “noise” about having a CSA approved playground. We are looking into this but, it is a very expensive endeavour! Not sure what the outcome will be so stay tuned.

Summer Bookings
If you pre-booked a cottage for the summer of 2008 we have already mailed this newsletter and the confirmation request to you, with the deposit being due February 1st, 2008. If you have not received this please let us know immediately. If you know before this date that you will not be confirming the booking we would appreciate a call or email to cancel the reservation – we have many people waiting to hear if there is space and your early notification would be appreciated by them.

Midweek Senior’s Discount
Seniors (over 55) now qualify for a 10% rate reduction on midweek reservations occurring in Winter, Spring or Fall seasons – so, tell all your mature friends to come and see us midweek and save!!

Launching of a New Look for Our Website
Our website was created 10 years ago and needed an updated look in order to be functional in today’s market place. So, we engaged the services of Techwyse to develop the new look .... At the time of writing of the newsletter we are in the final stages of development and hope it will be there by the time you receive this ... check it out at www.willowbeach.com and let us know what you think. We now have a better set up for our resort blog and would love to have you send us submissions .... All about the fun time your family had while here, including pictures. Help out our marketing efforts by choosing to bookmark the site using one of the social networking programs (you’ll find the links on the blog).

New Spa
The Wind in the Willows Day Spa has undergone both a transformation and a relocation during the past year. It is now located a bit further down the road but, is much larger and capable of providing a bigger variety of services. Check out our website to see a picture of the new couples massage room!! Wow ..... What a great place to relax and reconnect with a loved one www.willowbeach.com/spaservices.html