Our Land Project

[Syph007]

I've been waiting for this for awhile and it just showed up!
 
100% made in Canada, any guesses?

[pfrsantos]

Some electrical tool to make more SAK mods?

 

[Reinier]

Some sort of rudimentary lathe?

[Don Pablo]

Hoist?
Maple syrup tapping machine?

[Syph007]

Out of the box

[Syph007]

Chainsaw winch. Rates for up to 8000lbs.  Will be testing that on the weekend.

[Syncop8r]

Is your chainsaw heavy? 

[Syph007]

Is your chainsaw heavy? 

LOL. 

For pulling things.   One sec I'll try to explain what I'm doing or trying to do with some pics.

[Syph007]

Ok I finally got this thing assembled and I guess I lied it now IS a multitool.  Winch OR saw.    Ok I gathered my pics so I'll explain from the beginning my crazy plan.

[Syph007]

Once upon a time some global pandemic started and the Lessard family was trapped in their home during summer of 2020 and feeling really restless and started wishing they had some land to go away to, to escape the city and have some freedom.

We really didnt have the spare money to actually buy land but we talked with family, (my sister in law and her husband) and together we maybe could afford something so we started looking.  Now people around Toronto area were buying up everything available in cottage country and overpaying for what was essentially swamp land.  So we searched further north (I grew up in the north so I knew the area anyhow)

We found a 20 acre plot of land with nothing on it and road access and put out an offer for under asking and I think we must have been the only offer made since it was accepted!  I'd like to thank the royal bank for taking a chance on us with a fresh line of credit, and the Realtor who listed the land since they didnt show any good pics AND the land actually does have lake access which the ad didn't even list and would have made it sell for MUCH more. 

SO here is an overhead shot of what we got.   Small rectangle on the right is the part that touches lake Nipissing.  This was last October.



And then....

[Reinier]

 

You're sort of living my dream

[Syph007]

So we bought the land without knowing exactly what it was like since we didnt have time to go up there to check it out.  First voyage out there at the end of October, I towed our camper up and planned on easily backing it onto the rough cut road that was already there figuring that would be no problem.... ya....

The 'road' was a slick as snot slip N slide of wet clay.  It fills up the tire tread in my truck tires super fast and you end up just sliding all over the place so backing up in this stuff and getting the camper all the way down the 'road' wasnt happening. 







I cut down enough brush and trees and just decided to say screw it and put it in 4X4 with diff locked and I did manage to at least get the camper about 20 feet into the land.  It was on a severe angle and some parts flew off the bottom but hey at least it was on the land! 

[Syph007]

Here are some pics of the 'road'  

This angle is me standing far into the land looking back at the camper.





We got to walk a little bit of the exposed rock (Canadian Shield Rock) and it look pretty nice and open up there, great place to maybe someday build a cabin on, but it was raining so we didnt get to explore too much.

[Syph007]

Now the night before, my sister in law and husband went up ahead of us and got really stuck on the mud road and ended up sleeping in their stuck car that night.  A tow truck got them pulled out the next day though, but it also was stuck for part of that time... 

The only other thing we accomplished on voyage 1 was to assemble and install the outhouse I built at home and brought up in pieces.



BTW it really sucked sleeping in the camper on a 30 degree angle but hey it still felt like a win to even get the thing on there. 

[Syph007]

You're sort of living my dream

I was watching people homestead land on you tube forever and couldn't take it anymore.  If it wasn't for the pandemic though Im not sure I would have went for it so its one positive thing from 2020. 

[Syph007]

So after that experience with the mud I decided I would put a winch on the truck so the next time I was prepared.  I did that install myself when I got back home and also finished the seat for the outhouse to bring up on the next excursion up there.

While we were back home, we also got a local company to install a culvert for us to eventually make it possible for us to make a proper gravel driveway at some point.  I would have done this myself but the township required contractors to do it and have it inspected etc so we played by the rules and got that part done proper.

[Syph007]

Excursion number 2 to the land was early December.  It looked much more pleasant this time with the mud frozen and covered in snow.







For some reason the company that installed the culvert left their excavator there for awhile after the job was done... free storage or lazy I dont know...

[Syph007]

I still couldn't drive my truck in far enough to actually hook up to the camper and pull it in so I figured now that I have the winch I could use a pulley and pull it that way with the truck behind the camper.

That started to work until the hitch post just dug into the ground and that was a fail.  Then my wife said, if only we had a front ski or something (pic to document her idea) so I cut a log into a ski shape and used the nose of the chainsaw to make a kind of hole for it to rest in.





AND it kinda worked!



But the trailer post kept falling off the small ski and it was alot of work to lever it up with a big log and get it going again, and we were tired.  We moved it about 30 feet further in but at least it was almost level this time.

[Syph007]

We never got down to see the lake the first time so we tried this time and almost got down there.  The snow was deep and the area was hard to navigate, but you can almost see the snow covered ice in this pic.

[Syph007]

Excursion 3 was a couple of weeks ago.  My plan this time, since the mud would still be nice and frozen and I figured most of the snow would be gone, was to just drive in and pull the darn thing all the way down the road, and if I got stuck just winch out....

Well I couldn't even drive up as far as I did the previous time.  The snow was deeper than I thought and icy underneath and I got really stuck only a short distance in. 

[Syph007]

So I said screw it and decided to order a chainsaw winch so I could just use that with a bigger camper ski and not need to get my truck in there at all. 

Since operation camper move was a fail again we just cut some firewood and had a relaxing time and my wife got a turn on the saw. 

[Syph007]

I liked this pic from the next morning of a sunrise coming up over the lake.



Excursion 4 will be this week sometime since I've got my winch ready I just need to build a big ski and this time I really do think we'll win the move the camper challenge. 

Oh also I told Grant he has to stop by in the summer when he drives back home to visit his parents.  Only about 10 minutes off his route.

Cheers

[Aloha]

  


Thank you for sharing .  Living the dream and good for you all for taking the opportunity.  I don't use the word chance as chance has nothing do with it.  You are living the dream. 

I've seen some folks with no outdoor or building skills do quite nicely remotely.  Its collaborative and enjoying to process with those you love. 

[Grant Lamontagne]

Bob has kept me up to date with much of this as it has been going, and I absolutely will stop in!  The big problem will be getting rid of me! 

Seriously Bob, I'd say that I am super jealous (which I am, and you know already!) but I am also super glad you guys managed to do this.  It absolutely is a dream for all of us, and you are living it!

Please keep this thread updated to keep us all drooling!

Def

[Syph007]

Bob has kept me up to date with much of this as it has been going, and I absolutely will stop in!  The big problem will be getting rid of me! 

Seriously Bob, I'd say that I am super jealous (which I am, and you know already!) but I am also super glad you guys managed to do this.  It absolutely is a dream for all of us, and you are living it!

Please keep this thread updated to keep us all drooling!

Def

By summer I should have more land cleared and driveway made better for guest parking.    You've got a jeep anyway though so you'll be fine.

I need to price loads of gravel soon and get that delivered too.  I want to talk to the people in person though and not over the phone and get charged the out of towner city guy sucker rate!

[Syph007]

 


Thank you for sharing .  Living the dream and good for you all for taking the opportunity.  I don't use the word chance as chance has nothing do with it.  You are living the dream. 

I've seen some folks with no outdoor or building skills do quite nicely remotely.  Its collaborative and enjoying to process with those you love.

Ive wanted to build a little cabin/shack thing for ages and if all goes well this fall I can do that.  Though with lumber prices so high I might have to wait another year.   Ive done lots of building but all amature stuff, but its so easy to learn how to do things now if you take your time I think just about anything is doable.

If Im really dreaming then I want a big garage/shop up there someday and I can build saks in the woods. 

[Aloha]

YOU CAN DO IT.  I was in no way suggesting you were not outdoorsy or didn't have building skills.  The folks I've seen go out and do it had little if any skills and they did it.  I think it was mostly due to collaborating with those that did have some skills be it online or locally.  I think that basics can get you pretty far especially with enjoying the process with those you love. 

I've no doubt you will do it.  It'll be one heck of a journey for you and the family.  I look forward to seeing whatever you end up with. 

[GearedForwards]

This is fantastic! It's great that you're pursuing your dreams and building a place that your family can enjoy for generations to come, I imagine when it's finished that lake access will provide priceless summer memories.

What's it going to be like for utilities hook up? Or will it be more like a solar panel/generator/propane situation?

[Syph007]

This is fantastic! It's great that you're pursuing your dreams and building a place that your family can enjoy for generations to come, I imagine when it's finished that lake access will provide priceless summer memories.

What's it going to be like for utilities hook up? Or will it be more like a solar panel/generator/propane situation?

I have solar and batteries for basics and a generator for higher draw stuff like running a microwave.  It woudl be expensive to have electricity brougjt in so no plans on that any time soon unless we ever decided to build a full house or something. 

I am going to build a log tower firewatch station style to mount the solar on to get it up nice and high though.

My dad has well drilling gear I can borrow to see if I can get water within 20 ft to use an old style hand pump with.  Lots of fun stuff to work in to keep me busy.  💪

[Aloha]

Solar would be awesome.  Propane?