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Pioneer Farm
 | | | | | Wind and solar power, along with wood heat, give Jim and Judy Bertling the comforts of home in the main house on their Pioneer Farm agri-tourism venture in Glenwood | | | | |
Whether you’re sweet 16, two or 82, you’ve never been kissed until you’ve had a silky, soft smooch on the cheek from Spirit.
This affectionate llama is one of the menagerie of cuddly critters that are part and parcel of Jim and Judy Bertling’s Pioneer Farm experience that allows visitors to immerse themselves in a homesteader’s lifestyle.
Also part of this semi-self-sufficient lifestyle experience is the fact that the Bertlings use only wind and solar power, supplemented by wood heat, in their Glenwood home. Wind and solar also provide much of the energy needs for their nearby guest cottage, which, like the nearby main house, boasts a breathtaking view of Egmont Bay.
“It’s not as though when we started this place that we had everything planned and everything mapped out,” Judy says of their Pioneer Farm homesteading/alternative energy venture which is open year-round to the public.
“I always feel it’s sort of like sitting at a potter’s wheel with a lump of clay, and you start moulding it, but it might change shape or you might add a handle or a spout, it’s an evolving thing . . . . It changes.”
Things have definitely changed for the Bertlings since they moved to P.E.I. from Ontario less than three years ago. Before that, the couple was living the typical suburban lifestyle in Guelph, Ont., with their two teenaged daughters. Their large home, complete with swimming pool in the backyard and in-law apartment for Judy’s parents, was something that would have the Jones’ striving to keep up with.
A retired military man, Jim had done well in the corporate world, working as a director of process management to help streamline companies. However, he became a casualty of downsizing in the company. He soon found another job in Toronto which required a long commute. When it looked like he was sure to be ousted once again due to downsizing, the Bertlings decided enough was enough.
“You just start re-evaluating everything,” says Judy, who was a chef before she became a full-time homemaker.
“Basically, I just lost the sense of meaning. What is this all about? What are we doing this for? So that we can get what? Another set of nice lights for the living room? Or so I can change the co-ordination of my (room) colours next year?”
Their goal was to downsize their entire way of living, but where and how were the two big questions. Because Judy has British citizenship, they considered exotic locales such as Portugal and India. After much contemplation, they decided to stay in Canada and directed their attention to the east coast where they thought they could best maximize Jim’s small military pension.
They bought their Glenwood, P.E.I., property sight unseen over the Internet. Located just east of the West Point lighthouse, the vacant 150-acre parcel featured 3,000 feet of waterfront and 1,000 feet of riverfront at a price far less than what they’d ever expected to pay.
Their joint dream of a small farm on the water was close to becoming reality. They sold their home in Guelph, rid themselves of much of their material trappings and took a position as house caretakers for a well-known Canadian artist so their teenaged daughter Jennifer could finish her schooling. Their older daughter, Victoria, had just joined the military so she was moving on.
The first time the couple saw the future location of their dream home was in March 2002 when they came to P.E.I. for a week.
“We came in, looked at the property, found a little hunting shack and decided we were going to stay in it. That was a real hoot,” Judy says.
“And I guess that’s when the first real image of myself as being able to do (the homesteading lifestyle). Because we had nothing (for that week). There was a little potbelly stove in the cabin. We had no water, nothing. So I knew then, if I can do this for a week . . . I can do it forever and it spurred me on.”
Willing to wait no longer, the Bertlings, with one dog, one cat and a couple of horses in tow, rented a house in the area and began to pull the pieces of their year-round tourist alternative energy farm concept together.
“Of course we needed to come up with funding to do it, and nobody would touch us. No ordinary bank or institution would even look at the idea of alternative energy (and) a small farm, and actually we were getting really discouraged,” Judy says.
Fortunately, Farm Credit Canada backed their dream.
The Future Farmer program offered by the provincial government which promotes the entry of new farmers into the industry also reduced the cost of borrowing for a period of time.
The question was what could they produce and sell.
“So that’s when the idea of the (guest) cottage came up,” Judy says of their agri-tourism idea.
“If we want to do this, other people would like to come and see or take part in it. I know I couldn’t find anywhere to go (beforehand). I wanted to go to somewhere where I could stay for a week where I could learn to cook on a wood stove, those sorts of things, just to be immersed a little bit in it.”
The Bertlings focused on marketing some food-based items, such as free range turkeys and chickens, eggs, vegetables and homemade preserves. As a value-added attraction, they chose to offer wagon and sleigh rides, the opportunity for people to interact with farm animals and the chance to enjoy alternative energy information tours.
There are also kilometres of trails used for nature walks, cross-country skiing and snow shoeing. They hope some day there will be interpretive trails with marked signage identifying the flora and fauna there.
Judy envisions visitors using her llamas to carry a picnic lunch which they could enjoy at some point in their journey.
Back on the farm, Jim and Judy slowly journey toward the main barn that houses much of their farm’s occupants, most of whom are on a first-name basis.
“Come on over and meet the family,” says Jim, providing introductions to Jasmine the Jersey cow, Tom the wild turkey, Thumbelina the goat and three llamas — Coco, Simon and the spirited Spirit and one baby on the way.
Add to this, ducks, geese, rabbits, silky chickens, a peacock, kittens, cats and two dogs. In a nearby barn, there are also two horses and a horse-wannabe donkey called Moses.
“Most of it really was drawing people into the farm, especially children, and wanting to teach children about (the animals) and their place on a farm,” Judy says. “And now, homestead farms are (practically) nonexistent anymore. You used to maybe in the ’50s, go see your (relative’s) farm and they’d have a pig that they were raising for meat and they’d have some chickens or a goat, but children don’t see this anymore.”
Built atop almost the exact same spot of the shack that housed the last family that lived on the property from 1912 to 1924, the Bertling home was a hands-on job for the inexperienced two.
The house was built from trees harvested from the 150-acre property with towing help from their horses. They bought a portable sawmill and sawed much of the lumber themselves.
Inside, they have two wood stoves: one in the living room area purely for heat, the other in the kitchen which also heats the hot water and cooks the meals.
Although they have a small alternative energy storage system, it functions well for their needs because those needs have been pared down to the bare essentials to make their plan work. The visitor’s cottage is also powered by the main homestead’s wind and solar power, but also has its own propane supply for the fridge, stove, hot water heater and furnace.
The Bertlings don’t want people to think that their Pioneer Farm project is all about the past. Judy is quick to point out she has a portable DVD player so she can indulge in her love of movies, for example.
“It’s blending what I like to call good technology with old time common sense, the many things that they were able to utilize back then that weren’t such a stress on our environment,” Judy says.
“We always make sure that people understand that it’s not that we don’t have a television because we think it’s bad, it’s because I can’t turn it off . . . ,” Jim adds. “I would be there watching it, it’s that addictive.”
Living a mix of old style homesteader and modern agri-tourism operator is by no means an easy lifestyle choice.
“There are some days that you just want to tear your hair out because the horses have got out of the pasture, the tractor is broke and I’m trying to deal with this very sick llama and you wonder why you’re doing this because you’ve never worked so hard in your life,” Judy says.
“But then you have those moments of clarity. Actually, for me, they are when I’m milking and all of the sudden I hear the milk hit the pail and it is such a beautiful sound. It’s a connectedness . . . . It’s really into my soul.”
This connected feeling must extend to those in the Pioneer Farm’s personal animal kingdom because neither Jim nor Judy can venture too far without having a parade of two- and four-legged creatures following them like a loading lineup for Noah’s ark.
“Just watching them interact with each other is fascinating,” Judy says.
“They play and they fight and they’ll hold a grudge for awhile and then they’re completely as though nothing has ever happened and they’re schmoozing with each other. That’s my form of entertainment, that’s my television.”
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