It's the teepee that catches our eye, Highway 5 east of Waterdown.

We turn in and follow the winding drive, past the faded barn and sagging drive shed, up the grassy knoll to the frame farmhouse that sits atop it.

From here we can see the city coming. There's a new Tim Hortons next door.

Beyond that, the plywood rooftops of the latest survey. "Last chance -- only a few left!" the sign says.

But there will be thousands more, because planners have decided this area at Hamilton's eastern boundary is a preferred location for urban expansion.

So we want to know about this farm. Who owns it? How long does it have? And what's the story on that big teepee?

We meet Sherrey Roberts, who from this farm runs an operation called Sherrey's Sauces & Such.

Before that, she was an RN. She likes this life better.

She moved onto the farm 12 years ago. Partner Tim Ehler arrived a few years before that. He's out driving truck right now, as he's done most of his working life. His father started the haulage company.

Ehler and Roberts are tenants on this farm. Their landlord -- the Hamilton-based Salem Christian Mental Health Association -- wants them out. This matter is now in court.

That piece of Highway 5 out front -- also known as Dundas Street -- was blazed through the wilderness some 200 years ago.

It was then that this land was granted by the Crown to one Charles King. It's thought the farmhouse on the rise was there by the 1870s.

And several generations later, a vet from Holland named Heida bought the place. He was a bachelor and known for riding about on a motorcycle well into his 70s.

Thirty years ago, he severed a corner piece of the hundred-plus acre spread and the Bethel Christian Reformed Church was erected at Highway 5 and Kerns Road.

On his death, that Dutchman transferred the remainder of his land to the Salem organization.

The house was empty and set to crumbling. Then Ehler the hauler came along. He was really just looking for a place to park his trucks.

But after tromping about in the homestead, he figured it could be brought back. So he struck a deal with Salem to fix up and rent the place.

The lease got renewed every two years, and Ehler understood that if there were any plans for the property, they wouldn't be getting under way until the early 2020s.

Then Sherrey the sauce lady met Ehler and moved in. They started growing certified organic peppers, cucumbers, onions, tomatoes. And they watched the deer, coyotes, wild turkeys, foxes, possums, woodpeckers, great blue herons.

The couple planned to stay a long time, but a few years ago they were advised the property was to be developed as a retirement village with 1,239 units. The farmhouse would fall and the knoll it commands would be flattened.

Ehler and Roberts are fighting their eviction notice. They don't want to leave this sanctuary and don't think the farmhouse should be torn down.

They applied for a historical designation. Hamilton's Heritage Committee did a site visit and decided that "while the property may be of some local heritage interest ... many of the building's original architectural features have been disrupted or removed."

Sensing the end, the couple sold off their big greenhouse. Ehler thought the land there then looked awfully empty. He's interested in Native American history and decided it was time for a teepee.

Through the winter he debarked and smoothed and varnished a stand of 10-metre-long poplar poles and imported the canvas from Oregon. Up went the tent, which sleeps 18.

It will come down easily enough. But Roberts says they dread moving day, whenever it may be. "It breaks our hearts to see this place go."

Tom Riedstra of the Salem organization says the retirement village is based on one the Christian Reformed Church built in Brampton. There's already a list of people waiting to get into this one, he says. "They're saying, 'When, when, when?'"

He believes the planning and zoning delays are nearly over. As for removing tenants Roberts and Ehler, he predicts success. "You have to have more patience than I was born with ... but we'll get them out."

StreetBeat appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

pwilson@thespec.com

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