Outland Gate Renaissance Faire

Tag: build-log

  • 2026 – January – Winter Is Here

    2026 – January – Winter Is Here

    Coming through the Christmas season, and into the New Year, outside work has obviously slowed down a lot. Even with the weather, we got out a few times to tackle some clearing and burning. Winter is definitely the best time for a good burn, and we very much enjoyed this work!

    The bigger thing that I got started is a transition from spreadsheets and manual processes into a proper tool. Over the last few months, I’ve been building a tool that will allow me to maximize my time, and helping me better organize everything from volunteers and vendors to the lore that the faire is built around.

    While it’s definitely boring and technical, my hope is that tools like this one will help make the renfaire a great place to be, and one you will all want to come back to year after year!

    Until next time, may you all have an awesome day!

  • 2025 – November – To Where The Cars Go

    2025 – November – To Where The Cars Go

    November was a quieter month, with myself and Jason getting out to explore more. As well, we focused the work we did on defining and clearing the parking area.

    Through this month, we got the perimeter set, and cleared a lot of the area, allowing us to really see the shape of it for the first time.

    Until next month, adventure on!

  • 2025 – October – Milestone Event

    2025 – October – Milestone Event

    Thanks everyone who came out for making the volunteer open house a fun time!

    After 4 months of hard work by myself and a team of volunteers on this site, it was great to celebrate the progress (and throw a few axes)!

    This event marks an important milestone for me. Just about two years ago, on a very long drive home from Columbus, I started thinking about what it would take to build a faire, and bring this kind of activity to our neck of the woods. Getting to this point has been a long process, and having y’all there to see the progress and share a meal was lovely!

    As well, with Jason, over the last few weekends this month, we worked on widening the driveway to the upcoming parking area, did some mowing, and did a deeper exploration and survey of the property.

    I look forward to this next part of the journey, and can’t wait to see what we can bring to life!

  • 2025 – September – A Big Push

    2025 – September – A Big Push

    Across 4 days early this month, with a hand from Jason, I managed to cut the full width of the driveway, as well as the space for the turn around area I was planning.

    All told:

    • 3.5 days of work on site
    • 3 chainsaw chains
    • 500′ of new trail
    • 3500 sqft of newly cleared area for parking
    • Pulled over 40 stumps
    • Cleared and leveled the entire entrance driveway, and spread 12 tons of gravel.
    • Cleaned up the ground and stumps in the turn around area.

    As well, I finally finished cutting the trail out to where I want to stage the event site, so now we can go exploring that area to see where it makes sense to potentially put things.

    This month was definitely a heavy one in terms of development, finally getting the entire site layout explorable and ready for our future village. Being able to take something that was an hour of bushwhacking on my first trip in, and less than 4 months later, be able to walk all the way in in 6 minutes is a huge reward for all the work put in.

    Thanks everyone who helped me get this far in the project!

  • 2025 – August – Hydraulically Powered

    2025 – August – Hydraulically Powered

    This month, with the power of hydraulics, and a really solid weekend, myself and Jason cleared, widened, and flattened 1140′ of trail, making it easier to get through the land, and getting us closer to the village location.

    • 12 hours of run time
    • 1 popped off track
    • 3 days of work
    • over 28 stumps removed
    • 1140′ of trail cleared, widened, and flattened

    As well, I managed to cut another 120′ of trail by hand.

    With forest fire season in full swing, we pivoted to more indoors work, working on some building some games, making banners, a sign for the village, and creating some other test props.

    All in all, a good month of development!

  • 2025 – June – The Land

    2025 – June – The Land

    This month, we close on a permanent site, located in Harcourt!

    This new location, at close to 150 acres, will allow us to realize the vision of building a permanent event right here in the heart of Atlantic Canada!

    This month, while waiting for the close, I’ve cleared the entrance, initial parking for a few cars, and over 110′ of trail.

    Along with that, we’ve gotten about 20 potential volunteers signed up, and a first look at the results of the survey we’re running. With over 200 responses in this first month, we’re starting to get a good picture of what people want!

    Until next month, adventure on!