Chad and I lived in southern Ontario – Toronto and Ottawa – for a dozen years after graduation before moving back to Thunder Bay in 2016. We didn’t know at that time exactly what we wanted, but we definitely wanted a better quality of life than driving over an hour each way to work every day. Having grown up in Thunder Bay (Lauren) and attending university here (Chad), we both knew that moving back to ‘the Bay’ could give us what we wanted.

We bought a house with the idea that we could take our time fixing it up while looking for property or an existing farm. After three years and numerous open houses/property visits, we came by our future home by chance.

On a Sunday drive in the country, heading back from our favourite country road, we noticed a small private “for sale” sign behind some grown-over bushes. The property was only about 8 kms from our current house, and had been sitting vacant for some time – it just wasn’t listed anywhere! We walked up the overgrown entrance and into a beautiful field...and saw potential!

A few phone calls, an offer, and some negotiations later, and we had our slice of paradise! Now, we just had to design a house, create a new entrance, dig a well and septic, build a house, sell a house, move our stuff, clear the land, build a fence, till a garden, gets some bees, plant some flowers, electrify some fence, set up irrigation, and watch the flowers grow! Easy peasy right?!