On December 2, 1963, we bought 44 acres on the Speed River, about 15 miles north of Guelph.
Our long-time friend, Ed Looker, was the real estate agent.

Aleta, then just turning twelve years old, was given the opportunity to name the property.
After a few days, she told us she had selected a name, which she would tell us on
Christmas day...Cedar Wild! It was an entirely appropriate name, since most of the land was
wild and wooded, and beautiful white cedars were abundant in the low land along the stream.
Our Christmas tree that year, and every year that we lived at Guelph thereafter, was a balsam fir --
cut at Cedar Wild and brought home with considerable ceremony.

Four of the 44 acres had been a cultivated field, which we planted in mixed hardwoods
and conifers.

During the first years that we had the property, we often camped in a grassy clearing on the
bank of the river.

Our first investment was a well ($800). Later we had a pond dug in the flood plain of the river
($3000). And finally, in 1968, we built a small log cabin beside the pond.