"It was on the dream list," said the Savary resident, who wears his hair long and tied back in a pony tail.

But before Dobson picked up a hammer, he picked up a book. He studied up on the building code and volunteered to work with experienced builders on the island. He learned about Savary's sand-based soil, about the problems with vapour barriers in cabins with no central heating, about using the rough cut lumber from mobile mills.

At the beginning, his construction know-how was "very low - I had a bad shop experience," he joked. "Woodshop was not my thing. I was into metal."
But within a year, a 16-foot-square, two-storey cabin had replaced the trailer he had started with.

"And the rest of it just sort of accumulated," he said. "I started out with the simplest thing, which was a box, and I guess I don't like boxes."

Like the trees that surround his cabin, other structures have sprouted up around the original building. Near the road sits a two-storey shake-covered water tower made with beach logs and featuring picturesque old windows. The tower provides a gravity feed for Dobson's 1,000-gallon rainwater catchment system that supplies almost all of his water. Occasionally he has to borrow from the well of a friendly neighbour. ‘I just didn't bother (putting in a well) at first, and now I realize I can get away with it."

Guarding the entrance is one of the figures Dobson carves out of log boom ends with a chainsaw. He doesn't try to define them, instead leaving it up to visitors to see likenesses to Inuits or hooded druids, arms crossed across their fronts.

A more recent addition links the tower to the original cabin, creating an L-shaped structure. A fence of log boom ends runs along the front of the property, enclosing a courtyard filled with roses, tomatoes running wild, squash, beans and grapes.

He can eat for months off the pickings - another example of an independent, alternative lifestyle that sees Dobson kayaking to the mainland for groceries, using wind-blown trees for lumber and rescuing bricks dumped into a reef by a grounded barge for use as walkways and such.

"This is very much the art of the possible," he said.

Of course, there's still plenty of work to do, like completing the roughed-in master bedroom, a sauna and plenty of interior finishing work. Dobson, who sits on the Savary Island Committee, has noticed a general shift towards better building practices. Rustic as his place looks, it's solid and has a proper foundation, he said.

"I got a little creative with it here and there, but I tried to stay within the building code."

Peter Jones also retired to Savary Island 12 years ago to escape city life and its omnipresent rules.