Brothers build homestead their grandfather never had chance to finish, using methods from 1910

When John Robinson was a kid, he used to sit and stare at a picture of an old sod house his grandfather built more than a century ago. Robinson and his twin brother, Frank, decided they would test their mettle and finish what their grandfather started.

"I think it's just going to be a chance to forget about 2023 and concentrate on 1910," John had told Shauna Powers, host of CBC's Saskatchewan Weekend a week before the build.

Their grandfather had built the sod home near Willows, Sask., but never finished a homestead shack, one they believe he would have constructed had he not died a few years after the home was built. They have been planning the homestead's construction for years.

Sod homes were a common style of home building in the Prairies in the latter half of the 1800s, cheaply built out of blocks of sod and basic house fittings.

The construction began Thursday. At the build site Sunday, John said it had rained over their scheduled construction schedule, forcing a halt to the build for a time, though getting the tin on the roof Saturday was a sense of relief for him.

"No matter what happens now, the building is safe and secure," John said. 

About 20 volunteers, from relatives to co-workers, are helping in what was planned to be a three-day build of the homestead shack on Frank's land in Lamont County, Alberta. When it's done, they plan to hang pictures inside to make it feel like it was their grandfather's shack.

John designs buildings in Regina, and built a cottage 14 years ago over a three-day span with more than 100 people. The blueprints for the 11-foot by 16-foot homestead shack are much different, though, including the lack of an electrical plan.

John was also dedicated to work within similar constraints his grandfather would have been under, even obtaining a wood-handled saw as part of his 1910-era tool set. He re-purposed old wood or got locally milled wood, and used Clydesdale horses to bring the wood from the mill to the site.

"When I thought about how long this building would take, you forget how long it takes to handsaw every board and nail every board and I'm used to living in a world with chop saws and air nailers," he said.

He estimates the 20 hours that went into the flooring could have been completed with a chop saw and an air nailer in about an hour.

John also planned to dress in century-old looking clothes, a time period he sometimes thinks he would be better suited for — though this build could change his mind.

The twins also had an elder and a pipe ceremony before they began to bless the land and to have a talking circle with people discussing what experience they would like to get out of the weekend build.

Frank said the ceremony, which included tying ribbons on the trees to represent the different directions, was very emotional and meant to honour those before them, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous.