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M THETORONTO SIAR Manday, Malch 14, 1994 As many Tomntonians get ready to reopen their cottages -- prime the Mere motors, wave next door to fellow To- mntonlans Joan and Bob be- fore dropping the dock Into the lake - these rustic mwdies have been weeping all winter. They are weekender: that shun the cottage lifestyle for the privacy, beauty and a bit of DOWN HOME: Teacher Barry Brabant enjoys sdme fresh air with his dog, outside the farmhouse at his llo-acre Salt Creek Farm. weekends near Warkworth, a pretty village five minutes by dirt road from his country property - where only wind or the yipryaps of coyotes crack the nighes silence in March, The 25-year-old Toronto edi- tor for Northern Cards Pub. lishing is part of a steady trick. le of urban rebels, who every week split from big city board- rooms to their beloved barn- yards 1t.he cenly: . Theiis weekendéxs seek the best of both worlds, leaving their high-stress jobs for peace and modesty in the coun . there less impressed cg, .s?.eedlpats, than by spending Idle; dinners by candlelight] taking pride in the mm of weekend labors -- stripping n farmhouse down to its bare bones, spreading mammal or doing some serious gardening, Harrowsxnim 1tyle: . BY Bums NIKOLOVSKY SPECIALTO THE STAR Just after busy Toronto edi- tor J. P. Burchell bought a clap- board farmhouse and an empty barn on 100 acres of half-for- ested land last year, the well went dry. A week later, the pump broke.” . . . ' A Bit it's definitely been love since he started spending Busy urban folk are buying land to escape stress J""" w m _ _ "Conditions in the city are reaching the point where peo- ple yearn for it," says Pat Sturm, a local broker of Green. space Realty, who primarily ca- ters to city weekenders with enough cash and time to fill a craving for open spaces. City slickers flock to farms Other less hardmre types are happy with tive acres and a house tucked away in the woods away from it all, says Sturm, who left the Beaches 20 years ago and is proof of the cogntryside's attraction. Often, weekenders pmvide Jand tor lease to turmets forced by economies to farm more land without carrying the high cost of owning. Likewise, " most every weekender has been saved from the ditch or housican come cheap at 11IF der $150,000. NURSE PLAY: Editor J.1' “This is the way we were meant to live," says Steve Sta. cey, a Toronto investment deal, er who, with his wife, Stella, a teacher, runs a commercial deer farm an weekends, not far from Burchell’s property. yeitmiyrs. take care .of the animaTs during the week. Affordable even through the booming '?0s,.100y.cres of pic- heighbms who have farmed the_ [and for gy1eytior1s. .. Sunday poop-scooping in a comer of rural Ontario about $0 minutes east of Toronto, on dusty roads near specks like Morganston, Dartford, and Salt Creek: neighbor's tractor o? a licays rural wisdom. "Ks a totally different atti- tude here," says Burchell, aiter an afternoon horse-grooming Theft city srylrers live in LR Burchell gets ‘Whenevér I get a chance to leave the city, this is when: I cope," he SN?. . . But there's not only possible profit in his farm, but the re- ward of stewardship for the 'land, he says.’ Ju.st a few kilometres away is Salt Creek Farm, a mecca for Barry Brabant, a 49-year-old Toronto school teacher. A river snakes through his 110 acres of rolling land. "Once the spring comes, there’ll be a lot of work to do," says Stacey. He and bis family spent two years on a sabbatical from downtown Toronto, renovating their 12-mom farmhouse and setting pp the farm fyr venigpy. lesson - which was attended by the instructor, three geese, five goats, two dogs and sever- al neighbors - where else, but in the barnyard. Buxchell spends weekends pitching hay, mucking the ham and learning about the horses he bought last fall. This sum- mer, he'll cut posts in the weds for pasture .fencing. "I aleys wanted a place on a trout stream and people said, 'Dream On! " "And now look. All of a sud- den, here I am." S a sniirtrom one of his horses on his farm near w, FEEDING TIME: Investment dealer Steve Stacey fills up the trough with feed for the deer on his farm. BORIS N*soutmrr MR THE YQRDNTO STAR n: Warkwm'“ was Woman FOR TtiETOR0t00 s-a, rarka-t};