The Cedar Log Cabin

The Story of Living In & Restoring a Settler's Log Cabin



This is the story of the restoration of an almost lost settler's cedar log cabin, and the completely unexpected life that resulted from it.

I first got the idea of living an idyllic, simpler life in the country from a 1970's magazine called Harrowsmith. It was a do it yourself, back to the land magazine. I was taken by it, and felt the life it showed was the life for me. I still have almost every issue from the 1970's and 80's. By the time I was in my 20's, living with my partner Pamela in a downtown house built in 1880, I was still harbouring the dream of that life in the back of my mind, although I was having doubts it would happen.

In 2004, living alone in my house in North London with a cat that was found wandering out of a corn field, I made the decision to move to the country in Central Ontario. I wanted to be somewhere near the Haliburton area that I had fallen in love with as a child. I had visited there with my parents in the summer, staying at Deer Lodge on Kashagawigamog Lake. That lodge that is no longer there.

The job I had, which I quite liked at one time, had become less likeable after another company took over. I was also tired of living in the city, and wanted to finally try living in the country. It seemed to me, being in my 40's, that I had better do it soon, or it might be too late. But the reason that clinched it, was that Cornelius, the cat that came from the corn field, had serious breathing problems. One day, while at the vet with Cornelius because of his lungs, she said to me as an aside, that it was common to see cats in Southern Ontario that had breathing problems, but during her time in the country around the Ottawa Valley as a vet, it was very rare.

Pamela, to my surprise, wanted to come too, even though we hadn't lived together for over three years. It took months for my house to sell, and many more months to ready her house and get it sold. In April of 2006, I took a trip to the Bancroft and Haliburton area to scout out places that were for sale, but nothing came of it. In September 2006, after everything was cleared up in London for both of us, Pamela and I rented a cottage on Aylen Lake, on the east side of Algonquin Park, while we scouted for a place to buy. It wasn't exactly the area, but it was close enough to act as a base.

What we found and bought, was a century old white cedar log cabin that had not been lived in for 14 years. Interestingly, it was one of the places I had scouted out on the trip six months earlier. We had not set out to get a log cabin, it just happened to fit the bill as far as location, property size, proximity to town and price. It was south of Bancroft, Ontario. When I look back, what amazes me the most, is when I was younger reading the Harrowsmith magazines, what I really wanted was a log cabin.

My dream of living in a log cabin had come around on its own, and this is where the story of the pursuit of living an idyllic, simpler life in the country begins.


Cabin Interior

Picture of the Cabin Inside When Almost Finished.








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Originally the content in this site was a book that was sold through Amazon worldwide. However, I wanted this story available to everyone free of charge, so I made this website. The ads on the site help cover the cost of maintaining the site and keeping it available.





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