Loon Patrol

Here's one of the great reasons to live where we're going to live. This will be our new front yard.

Inspiration

This past summer we went camping in Dunvegan. By the time we got the tent set up and some lunch cooked the skies had opened and we were completely drenched. My soggy kids eating their soggy veggie dogs in our soggy tent looked pretty sad. Luckily my dad was staying down the road in this beautiful house. Jody and I fell in love with it as soon as we pulled up. We had been trying to decide what we wanted our new house to look like. That is, we were trying to decide which version of the Cape Breton Farmhouse to build. This is a somewhat dressed up version often called Carpenter Gothic. This particular house belongs to friends of my dad, the Mancini family, and is over 200 years old. We're adding porches and changing the layout a bit but this is a pretty close approximation of what our house will look like.

Now that's a fire!

Lots of this going on. We're saving most of the large logs for firewood and lumber but there's so much brush and deadfall around that we almost always have a roaring fire going as we work.

Excellent help.

This land clearing business is tough. I'd never get through it without the help of a great crew of dedicated workers.

The Beginning.

We have a small piece of land on Blackett's Lake in Sydney Forks, Nova Scotia. Once we decided to build here I started the process by walking around the property with a small axe, making paths and small clearings. This enabled us to have a look at the lay of the land and decide where we might be able to plunk a house.

Clearing, clearing and clearing some more.

This is post number one of what will hopefully be our housebuilding blog. So far we've spent a good deal of time clearing our small piece of land on Blackett's Lake, burning brush, stacking wood and siting the house and shop. Our plans are in the hands of our draftsman and I'm still busy planning the specifics of the hybrid timber frame structure. We've also been tossing around ideas about the construction of the outbuilding that will be my woodworking shop. I'd like to try another building method with the shop. Maybe a pole barn? Maybe a recycled barn? Cordwood masonry? We'll have to wait to see what happens. I'll post pics soon and try to update often!