Adding to their mischievous ways was the story of how the original Cozy Cabin property was purchased. Having been cheated out of a portion of logging wages, Jules and Max went to a prime piece of land their employer owned and logged the entire area in secret, as quickly as they could. They then sold the timber to a nearby mill and used the proceeds to purchase the same land at a price their employer couldn’t resist. The original parcel was 160 acres and was purchased for the prime price of $800.

Jules and Max spent most of their time logging in camps around BC, but would return during break-up to trap in the area. Later there was a third man who came to live with the 2 bachelors named Jean-Paul Gosling, also an avid logger and trapper.

After a number of years, Max Torent passed away and Jules worked to buy out his share of the land from Max’s family, leaving Jules the sole owner. Jules continued to live and work in the area, hunting and trapping as often as time allowed.

One fateful day Jules was guiding a bear hunting trip and met a wealthy german client named Hildagard who harboured a suppressed love for the wild. Although they were separated by almost 20 years there was a connection between the two. Within a year Hilda had moved onto the property and the shack that Jules called home.

With what can only be described as the touch of a very determined woman, Hilda began transforming the property into the gem it is today. Whereas before she had led a more relaxed life, Hilda was now faced with the challenges of living in the Canadian wild with an eccentric frenchman. Hilda began to get involved in all aspects of country life from logging to chicken raising. With the finances she brought into the project she convinced Jules to begin upgrading the ‘shack’ to the timber frame house that sits on the property today. The entire house was constructed from trees on the property, with some of the beams being so long that they had to be freehand cut with a chainsaw rather than put through a mill. Much of the work on the house was done by Jules and his lifelong friend Jeneu Urcullu. One other man involved in the project was a proficient builder named Reynold Mazu. The ‘shack’ that Jules had lived in for so many years now serves as the living room in the completed house. The living room still has the original fireplace with baking ovens built into it from its pioneer days.