A Truly Remote Homestead

by Ron & Johanna Melchiore of Northern Saskatchewan

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in the wilderness? Well in 1999, after years of homesteading in Northern Maine, we decided to find out. Our pursuit of a wilderness homesite led us to Northern Saskatchewan where we have established a remote homestead on a lake in the wilds of Canada. Because there are no roads in or out of our location, we are accessible only by float plane and are truly on our own. We fly to town twice a year for supplies. These bi-annual trips to town are our only chance to send and receive mail and see other people. When we are home, we may not see another soul for 6 months at a time.

Once we found the site that met our criteria, we first had to clear the land of trees before any construction could begin. Armed only with a chainsaw and a come-along, this took weeks of hard work. Ron cut the trees down, limbed them and cut them into firewood. My job was to move the brush and firewood. Stumps were painstakingly removed one at a time with the come-along, pulling them first one way then the other until they were out of the ground. We eventually made a clearing about 75 feet by 150 feet, an area large enough for the 2 story house that we built, the woodshed and storage shed, as well as the orchard and gardens.

Because of our remote location, everything we have here had to be flown in including all the building materials. Chartering a bush plane is an expensive proposition. Therefore, careful thought and planning was required to be sure we never forgot an essential item during construction. If this had occurred, construction would have been halted until a plane flew in the item we needed. Fortunately, this never happened.

Because all planes have a maximum payload, weight was an issue that had to be considered when deciding what materials to use for construction. Our harsh climate also dictated that we build a well-insulated house. We usually have our first snow in late September and it is not uncommon to have a snow fall in May. Furthermore, we have seen winter temperatures drop to almost -60. With these factors in mind, Ron devised a unique construction technique that has resulted in a super insulated house with 10″ thick walls. Consequently we use only about 5 cords of wood for heat. Pretty amazing when you consider we burn pine and spruce, the predominant species of trees available.

Remote living presents many challenges. With the nearest stores being 100 miles away by float plane, we have a standing rule. When an item gets low, runs out or breaks, it is immediately written on our shopping list. Furthermore, we have devised an inventory master list of everything we need or want to have out here. A few weeks prior to our trip to town, we take an inventory of everything in the house using this master list and then develop our shopping lists. This process has pretty well assured that we don’t forget anything important.

With medical care also being 100 or more air miles away, we keep a supply of prescription meds on hand that includes antibiotics and pain killers. We also keep a drug reference manual on hand. We had to draw on our drug supply when Ron had an eye infection that wasn’t responding to home remedies. We called the doctor and she told us what drugs to use from our stash and how much.

Communication was an issue that presented a special challenge. Being miles from phone lines and well out of cell phone range, our only option was satellite. Initially our only link to the outside world was a satellite phone. This was adequate in case of emergency but was inadequate to maintain contact with family due to its expense. Monthly fees for service plus a usage fee of over $1.00 per minute made its frequent use cost prohibitive. Now we have a computer with satellite link so we can call family and friends, e-mail and take care of finances all on line.

A solar array and wind turbine generate power that enables us to run a frig/freezer, 2 chest freezers, TV, computer and various household appliances. When necessary, a small diesel generator serves as a back up. Water is pumped up from the lake to the house through an insulated, buried pipe. Despite our best efforts at insulating the pipe, we had an occasional freeze problem in the winter which we alleviate by installing a water heater cable in the pipe. The cable draws a lot of power but it allows us to have both hot and cold running water year round. We just have to be judicious in the heater cables use so we don’t drain the batteries too badly. Sometimes we end up running the generator so we can power the cable long enough to give the water line a good warming up. That usually gives us a number of days before the water line shows any further icing. We heat our hot running water with a thermosyphon system hooked up to the kitchen wood cookstove.

We raise all our own vegetables, a year round supply, and a good portion of our fruits organically. However, before we could have a productive garden, we embarked on a soil building program to improve our poor boreal forest soil. Originally the topsoil was 1/2″ to 1″ at most and very acidic. Ashes from our 2 woodstoves have been used to raise the pH from 4.5 to an appropriate level. Bone meal, blood meal and composted manure have been flown in and rototilled into the soil. A yearly ritual is the collection of copious amounts of organic matter from the surrounding forest which is also tilled into the soil. Additionally, we make and use compost. The end result is a productive topsoil that is now 8″ deep.

Gardening above the 56th parallel presents challenges that most gardeners don’t have to cope with. Our climate makes for short summers with changeable weather. More than once we have seen the temperature drop from the 80’s one day to the 40’s the next, after a cold front passed through. Frost can occur at any time. Once, during a brief trip to town in July, we had frost while we were away. However, the long hours of summer daylight help to compensate for these short comings. We have also devised techniques that extend our growing season substantially. As a result, we can grow everything from asparagus to zucchini.

A greenhouse attached to the south side of the house extends our season by as much as 12 weeks. In April, we pick our first salad greens from there before the snow is off the ground. Tomatoes, peppers and melons are grown in the greenhouse during the summer months. And finally, in the Fall, mature brussel sprouts and cabbages are dug up from the garden and replanted in the greenhouse to hold them an extra month or two.

In the garden, we have 5 beds 57 feet long. Bed width varies between 3 feet to 6 feet. To get things off to an early start in the spring, the beds are covered with a systen of plastic hoop tunnels and garden blankets. Ideally, we set up the plastic hoop tunnels well before planting time to help heat up the soil. But some years the weather doesn’t cooperate and the tunnels are set up at planting time. Regardless, our system protects plants from the vagaries of our spring weather. We have had tender seedlings of squash, pumpkin and corn survive late season snows and temps of 20 degrees with no losses using our system. Beans, peas and root crops such as beets, carrots, potatoes and Belgian Endive are direct seeded, while onions and garlic are grown from sets, However, the majority of our seedlings are started inside, even corn and vine crops like melons, squash, cucumbers and pumpkins. This head start assures a harvest even in a poor summer

We grow a variety of small fruits including raspberries, gooseberries, red and black currants and saskatoons. Wild blueberries, along with our cultivated blueberries, are a significant part of our diet. Wild cranberries are quite plentiful most years and make an excellent juice and sauce. But our most abundant fruit is cultivated strawberries. We got 109 quarts this year!

All fruits and vegetables are enjoyed when they are fresh and then preserved for winter use by either canning, freezing, drying or root cellaring as appropriate.

Summer thunderstorms, with their accompanying lightning strikes, make forest fires our biggest worry. We have been threatened 4 times in the 8 years we have been living here. The worst scare was 2002 when a fire that started 25 miles away showed up at our doorstep after burning for 2 weeks. The fire got to within 75 feet of the house. Our only casualty was an apple tree that got scorched. Upsetting though this was, it could have been much worse. We could have lost everything. But thanks to the efforts of the fire crews and the equipment they flew in that supplemented our own fire suppression apparatus, the fire was diverted by the dome of humidity that was created by several water pumps and associated sprinklers.

One of the positives of living in the bush is the wildlife. We feel priviledged to be able to work in the garden and hear loons calling or see a group of caribou in the winter on the frozen lake. Both of us have experienced numerous interactions with otters, mink and marten. We even have some Canada Jays that will respond to our call and come to our hands to eat. However, not all encounters with wildlife are good experiences. Because snowshoe hare are a persistent pest that would demolish the garden and orchard, all our plants are fenced with chicken wire to keep them out. We have put up an electric fence to keep the destructive black bears at bay. Prior to installing the electric fence, we would have several bear intrusions each summer. One bear even destroyed the seat of our snowmobile and poked holes in the gas tank with its claws. Fortunately the electric fencer has significantly improved the bear problem.

Wilderness living has its challenges, but we feel we have obtained a harmonious balance by blending life in the bush with what modern technology has to offer.