THE FAMILY FOLKS

Michelle Lattimore, Martin McKay, and his children, Dunrobin area

The bylaw forbidding backyard chickens has proven to be a disappointment, but for Michelle Lattimore and family, it’s one of the few downsides of life in the woody rural subdivision they call home.

Michelle bought the house on six acres not far from the Ottawa River with her first husband in 2007. Her main incentive: the quiet rural life she remembered from her teenage years east of Ottawa and, more importantly, the space to build an in-law suite for her parents, who still live there. “Having extended family here is very, very important,” says Michelle, who has since remarried. Both in their early 40s, she and her husband, Martin, are executives in the federal government. His children — Tenley, 12, and Duncan, 10 — live part-time with the couple.

The children love country life. “We can walk to the river, and in the winter, my dad builds a rink in the backyard,” says Tenley. Adds Duncan, “Even seeing dead porcupines on the road makes you realize how much wildlife there is here.”

The children also reap the benefits of the sprawling vegetable garden. Fenced to keep out the white-tailed deer that flicker through the neighbourhood, it produces more food than the family can consume.

Martin says that although the shared daily commute with his wife makes an after-work beer with his officemates difficult, “at home, I can put meat in the smoker and not have people complaining if it’s running for 15 hours.”

Says Michelle, “We can sit outside in the summer with coffee and not be looking into someone’s backyard. All we hear are the birds.”