Canadian Homesteaders

Wr, yeah it was pretty cold here for awhile, but we stayed pretty cozy in the house. I actually find it too hot upstairs in the bedrooms at night. Our only problem with moving out here when we did, is that we had to hurry and haul as much wood out of the woods as we could before the really cold weather hit and before the snow got too deep to get the truck in and out. So far we've made it through the winter fine, I'm hoping for this warm weather to stay, but knowing Alberta we have at least another blast of cold and snow before spring.

We actually got quite abit of snow so far this year, at least a foot and a half if not more, we defenitely could use as much as we can get.

There are soo many old farmhouses and buildings out here. The man who owns the land we are living on gave us some good advice about these buildings. He told us that most of the farmers who owned the land and the buildings have no use for them and would be more than happy to sell us the building and a couple acres on which to start our own homestead. He said to look for a decent building thats sturdy of course, with a power pole and a good well and offer the farmer $2000 and acre. It doesnt take much to put in windows and fix it up. So thats our plan as of now, well save for a couple of years and look around in the meantime.

If the BSE issue keeps going the way it is, you may not need $2000/acre, there's already folks selling off land and generally just trying to jump ship in any way they can. When you do get your land, look around, there's a lot of lovely old churches that are for sale for $1 as long as you move them and some of them are plenty big enough for a family. Another thing to look for (a sign of the times but a benefit to someone like yourself) is the old grain elevators that are being sold off to make way for the new super elevators. The old buildings are made so sturdy that they can withstand anything and some have been made into lovely homes. My father built a wonderful little barn out of discarded telephone poles that would make a lovely little home but it would be small cause you're restricted by the lenght of the poles.

Hi all

I'm in the north of Ontario, about 3 1/2 hours north of Toronto, not far from where the Dionne Quintuplets were born. I have laying hens and ducks, and meat birds in the summer. Hope to do some turkeys this year as well. We live in an old farmhouse, heat stricktly with wood, gas stove in kitchen though, so we can still cook when the power goes out. We have approximately 50 acres, with about 5-6 clear, part of which is a very large pond. Next door neighbours live in a stack-wall house made of cordwood, they're off the grid and use solar with backup generators. They have a petting farm so there are llamas, goats, horses, cows, sheep, rabbits, assorted poultry (all my extra hatchlings go there), pigs both regular and pot bellies, and whatever else shows up. My hubby won't let me have goats either - says the only old goat I'll ever get is him! I keep saying "but what about a young one?" I get THE LOOK, and told if I need to pet a goat to go to the neighbours.....

And Tracy - I was down to Toronto for Canada Blooms last week and waved to Gravenhurst for you on the way by....

Bernie