Helping Nature Heal Inc.

Ecological Restoration and Living Shorelines

Bruce the Moose



Photos by Gary Smith



Meet Bruce the Moose. He’s made of scrap metal welded onto a framework of 370 feet of rebar and weighs in at approximately 500 pounds. He’s an assemblage of donations from friends and neighbours and pieces purchased at scrap yards: chain, steel traps, oxen and horseshoes, hinges, springs, railway spikes, tools and car parts. Look closely and you’ll see that his rear end is punctuated by a door knocker. Bruce is a serious collage of metal parts that took months to build, but your first reaction might be to smile.

If you feel like chuckling when you meet Bruce, his creator, Tim Freeman, won’t mind. In fact, he’ll be pleased. Bruce is the latest in a series of metal animals that Tim has created and they all share a sense of good cheer. For example, Ruby and Cubby are rebar grizzlies with “friendly faces” and Gail is a scrap metal fish, named for the “gale force wind that it would take to turn her.” Recently retired, Tim wants to create pieces that delight visitors to his woodland home on the Lahave River.

When Tim first started working with metal, he realized that metal art was his passion, but he’s not entirely comfortable with calling himself an artist. “I don’t look on myself as an artist. I make things out of steel. If someone likes it, that’s great.” When Tim sells a piece, he puts money aside for the cost of purchased metal and other supplies, and donates the rest of the money to the local food bank. Tim and his wife Anne are grateful for the success they’ve had in life and they want to give back to those in need.

Freeman Forest
Their woods, now known as Freeman Forest, are a work of art themselves. When Tim and Anne first visited Nova Scotia years ago, the beauty of the property gave them goosebumps; they knew immediately that this is where they would live. In the process of building their retirement home, quite a few trees were cleared to make room for the house and the driveway, and when their house was finished, it was surrounded by dusty gravel. “It was like a desert,” recalls Tim. To build a landscape that would match their house, they hired Rosmarie Lohnes of Helping Nature Heal Inc. Their goal was a natural landscape that would require minimal maintenance. When they moved from Ontario, they left behind a herb-growing business and a “manicured” property. This property would be different. They wanted nature “brought back up to the house,” and absolutely no lawn. Tim is adamant that he will not spend the sunny days of his retirement mowing grass. Retirement is his time to play.
The invitation to play and explore is exactly what you feel when you look around the landscape. HNH has created an impressive natural park that the Freemans invite friends and neighbours to enjoy. Nature snuggles up the house in formal foundation plantings, but these quickly give way to the ecosystem of a forest’s edge. Throughout the 8 acres there are also cushy woodchip trails, a waterfall and pond, a wildflower meadow, a forest labyrinth, a patio with a propane firepit, benches and a massive shale Inukshuk. HNH has also planted approximately 2000 saplings in the last 3 years; these native trees, planted in clumps that resemble natural seeding habits, ensure that the forest will thrive long after Tim and Anne are gone. Working with Rosmarie, says Tim, is a collaboration: “I have visions and she makes them happen. We talk things over and she lets me know what would work.” Tim has a background in horticulture but he appreciates that Rosmarie is an expert in nurturing ecosystems on the South Shore (“she knows what works here”). He also admires that throughout the landscape, Rosmarie has worked with natural, ‘found’ objects. Much like he works with scrap metal, Rosmarie works creatively with what’s available.
 

The restored landscape welcomes wildlife as well. Along with “tons of birds” that feed on seeds in the wildflower meadow, there are ducks in the pond, foxes passing through, deer coming right up to the house, and even the odd coyote. The Freemans have seen otters on the riverbank and osprey training their young over the cove. It’s all part of the dream of having the time in retirement to sit back, enjoy the beauty of the Lahave, and do what they feel inspired to do. Low maintenance landscaping has been the key to that freedom– “It’s huge! Anne can come out and putter in the gardens if she likes, I can pull a few weeds, but if we have other things to do, we can.” And now, Tim notes, they have had the “first moose sighting in years.” Of course he’s talking about Bruce, who looks alive and well at the edge of the rejuvenated forest.