Terron Dodd lives down a couple of dirt roads on a backcountry property in central Cape Breton and dreads nothing more than the thought of being forced to go to a nursing home.

The 75-year-old, who has multiple sclerosis and uses a wheelchair, is now turning to the buy-and-sell website Kijiji to find a paid personal-care worker willing to share his home rent-free and enjoy his rustic country lifestyle.

However, there are a few quirky qualifiers: The person also needs to take care of chickens, stack wood and have an interest in gardening.

The idea to advertise online came from his daughter, Miranda Dodd, who said living in a nursing home is not an option for her father.

"I think it would kill him," she said. "Maybe not overnight, but it would be a slow, miserable decline."

Terron agrees.

"That's not my environment," he said. "I'm used to looking out and seeing trees and leaves and grass and the sky. I don't want to see bricks and asphalt."

Terron Dodd's new home has electricity and running water. (Joan Weeks/CBC)

Terron grew up in the United States. He visited Cape Breton with a friend in the 1960s and loved the landscape. When he learned land was cheap, he bought 40 hectares.

He has lived most of his life in Cape Breton without electricity or running water. In the 1970s, he built a 3½-by-5½-metre cabin, hauling the logs out of the woods on his back.

Since 2009, he has lived in a new two-storey home, about a 15-minute drive from Whycocomagh. It's built just up the hill from the original cabin and is equipped with most modern utilities.

Miranda currently lives with her father, but will soon be moving with her children to Chéticamp.

​Her father has passed out and fallen from his chair several times. He also needs help preparing meals, getting in and out of his chair and driving to appointments. While he has a daytime worker provided through an agency, he can't afford anyone 24 hours a day.

The hope is that free rent and beautiful rural Cape Breton will be enough enticement for just the right person.

"I think there is a movement of people to go back to the land and want to be able to grow their own vegetables, know where their food came from," Miranda said, "and be part of the sort of social connectivity we have in rural areas."​

In the foreground is the cabin Dodd built for his family in the 1970s, with his new home in back. (Joan Weeks/CBC)

Terron spends much of his time in his workshop and is well-known for the wooden spoons he crafts and sells at fairs across the province.

As the Kijiji ad notes, the job "isn't for everyone" and the person needs a "certain philosophy on life to be able to thrive here."

Many of the requirements for the paid position are standard: a capable personal care assistant (a continuing care assistant certification is a benefit but not required) with a valid driver's license who can cook and do housework.

Other job requirements are not so typical: "Skills or an interest in gardening," the ad reads. "You'll want to care for chickens. You're a bit of an odd jobber, handy, and more importantly, interested in all kinds of projects. You enjoy a rural setting. You can lift 50 lbs. (stacking firewood, shovelling snow etc). You are a non-smoker. You can manage without a television (but I do have the internet)."

The ad was posted last week and by Sunday it had received about 27,000 views with several responses.

Miranda said she and her father are confident the right person is out there.

"They can learn something from him, and connecting with the music and the language and the history we have in Inverness County and Cape Breton Island is something that would be a real draw for certain kinds of people."