Today I visited a man in the wilderness!
I heard about the old recluse living in the forest above the village of Oyama, but I had never met him. Two years ago a friend told me about the old German immigrant who lives all alone in the forest.
Three weeks ago the recluse came to my office by recommendation of the same mututual friend, to consult me on a tax matter. The recluse had been executor for anold man, who died. The estate was divided and paid to the heirs. Now the tax department presented a bill for taxes deemed payable on the sale of the dead man'
s house. It was more than $10,000 and the recluse was most upset.
After getting all the facts of the matter I was able to present new evidence to
the tax department and the result was no tax needed to be paid, no interest and
no penalty. Needless to say, the recluse was overjoyed and gladly paid my fee. It was not small because I had to travel by car to another city one hour south ofhere.
He wanted to show his satisfaction and invited me to have lunch with him today at a Golf Club in Winfield relatively near to where he lives. He also wanted to
consult me on some Real estate matter do to with his property.
I met him for lunch at the club. I ordered a Caesar salad with shrimp and he chose a buffalo steak. I asked him: "Is it really buffalo??" He answered: "Yes, we have a butcher in the village who specializes in buffalo. Brings them by the truck load from Alberta Province and then keeps them on his ranch until he needs
to butcher one. They have no hormone injections, no stress, and the meat is lean
."
We both enjoyed our lunches and I asked him about his life. He was born in Eastern Prussia and came to Canada as I did. But where I was a suitcase immigrant (I
had a case but no suit) he came later and was a container immigrant. Container immigrants are late comers who already have their possessions and arrive by airplane, and the container comes later by ship; whereas the suitcase immigrants cameby ocean liner which took 12 days.
He was an entrepreneur and tried importing backhoes; later he was a pioneer in bottled drinking water, but about eight years too early and lost the spring and business for not having enough capital to see it through the years to success.
Finally he settled down on eighty acres (40HA) of forest land overlooking Kalamalka lake. Kalamalka is an Indian name that means "lake of many colours." The lake's colours range from deep blues to shades of turquoise and greens. It is spectacular!
After lunch we traveled through the orchards in the beautiful countryside until
finally the road climbed higher and orchards gave way to pasture land. At last je stopped at a metal gate and he unlocked it. I left my car there, and we went on for two kilometers in his car on a narrow private mountain road to a clearing.
We traveled over Crown land, (that means it is owned by the Government.) In the
forest clearing stood a charming log house made of hand-squared logs with a balcony overlooking the green valley and two large lakes. Simply peaceful, the view
absolutely magnificent.
He served coffee on the balcony and then showed me through the whole house, all
built by himself, (with some help from trades people, of course.) Like our house
, it was his own design and supervision. There are no services like there are in
town such as electricity, gas, water, telephone or cable tv.
His water comes from a well on his land, by gravity; his house is heated by
his own wood in winter in 2 iron stoves. One is in the basement, another one in
afireplace. The upstairs fireplace has an elevator next to it to bring wood from downstairs. He only uses a small refrigerator in his kitchen. His electricity comes from a solar panel on the roof. For winter when the sun doesn't shine much he has a gasoline powered generator. He uses propane to cook and to heat his bath water. This comes from a 2,000 liter tank which he fills every November and lasts him more than a year.
Finally, for a phone he uses a cell phone. He is 80 years old and stays in touch with a friend in the village. Besides his car he has a tractor with a snowplow blade which he uses in winter to clear his roads after it snows. He has
no dog, but animals visit him. Bears walk by. Right now a doe,(female deer) comes at dusk with her three fawns. She had triplets this year. This is quite unusual as usually they only have two. He showed me where the doe lays in his car port on very hot days to enjoy the shade and the cool floor surface.
This man is completely self contained in his home and does not need to go town very often. He has his books and his love of nature and is truly happy. I found it a privilege to be shown all this by such a private person.
I am sharing it here with you to give you a view of yet another aspect of life in Canada.
With my best wishes to all, Uncle Ben
