Is a cottage necessary to get away from it all?

So I’ve always wanted a cottage. We were a farm family growing up and so my summers were spent mucking and haying. Occasionally I’d get to visit my cousins at their cottages and get to swim and roast marshmallows. Then I’d head back to the farm and tattoo a calf. Such outdoor adventure you can’t imagine.

But I also went to camp. A glorious two week period in early July where I’d canoe, sail, swim and sleep outdoors. Deep in the heart of the Canadian Shield I learned how peaceful a one acre slab of granite was. How calming a quiet forest can be. I understood the energy a tree has and can pass to you if you just let it.

So as I entered adulthood with jobs, mortgages, wives, kids and stress I longed for the spiritual peace I remembered from those times laying on the shield. I saved my money in the hopes of one day buying a chance of granite on a body of water all my own. But that day always seemed a long way off. So what to do?

When we moved into our last house I surveyed the back 40 (feet to the back fence) and the ravine beyond, really just a fancy ditch, and dreamed of building an oasis of spiritual peace here in the ‘burbs. So what could I do that would recreate that which I so longed for.

Plant trees! Thats the ticket, and a damn fine idea at that. I lurked every garden centre in 50 miles for trees on sale. I dug ones up and transplanted. I seeded them. 103 all in all I planted within eyesight of my spread. Some where large, some not so much. My neighbours chuckled. And I dug many holes of all sizes!

Then one day sitting in the yard we decided something was missing. A shed. But not just any shed, a cabana shed! “What is that,” my wife asked? Just you wait and see, it will be amazing. Which means I have no idea but trust me and I’ll build something very over the top. Multiple trips to Habitat to Humanity later a finished product sat in our backyard that was truly a carpentry art form. Handmade windows and cabinets, granite counters and hardwood ceilings and floors. All covered in cedar. With electricity for hot tubs and any other electrical device necessary.

In the years since building the we shed in the back, many an evening has ended with a spot in the back relaxing beside the cabana. The trees I planted have grown to 40 ft in short order and truly the world is at bay in my yard. Can I get away while still at home? Yep! Sure can!!