THE LEISHMAN FAMILY was puttering around on a sunny spring day in 2016 at their Dog Lake, Ont., cottage, about 60 km north of Thunder Bay, when an ear-splitting rumble filled the air and the floor tilted under their feet. “We were levelling the fridge, and shaking it back and forth a little bit,” explains Darren Leishman. It seems that the movement put just enough strain on the cinder block foundation to make it collapse. “We actually rode the camp off the foundation all the way onto the ground while we were inside.” The experience shook them all up. “It was horrifying,” says his wife, Kellie. “I felt like my legs were giving out beneath me. It was just so scary and loud.” By a stroke of great good luck, no one was hurt. Still, the resulting wreckage of the camp meant that their recent conversations about what to do about the aging building had a new urgency.
For 40 years, three generations of the Leishman family have spent spring, summer, and fall at their off-grid camp on an eastern bay of Dog Lake. They love the history behind the quirky 400-sq. ft. A-frame that Monika Leishman, Darren’s mom, had picked out from a book of plans. James “Big Jim” Leishman, Darren’s dad, had painstakingly built the structure over two summers, ferrying over each tool, nail, and board in a 16-foot aluminum boat. Big Jim passed away in 2014, and respecting the camp he built and loved was important to the Leishmans. (Darren,
