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THE COUNTY LIFE
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Photo By: Joe Scully Joe Scully is a cowboy, rodeo announcer, drone pilot & real estate photographer from Flesherton, ON. www.showyourlisting.com
Let’s start at the beginning...
Before The County Life, there was Hello Country Magazine. Before that, the Etobicoke Lakeshore Press.
That’s a pretty good snapshot of what our lives have been like over the past few years. We’re one of the families who’ve given up the city life for a new, simpler one in the country.
I know we’re not alone in this pursuit.
The pandemic kicked into high-gear people’s desire for a more simple life - one with more space and further away from other people. We can attest.
We made the move in 2019; pre-pandemic. #blessed
We sold our bungalow in the quiet, lakeside neighbourhood of Long Branch in South Etobicoke and bought a farm just outside Flesherton.
Flesherton? Yes, exactly.
We wanted to live outside of a very small town not too, too far from Toronto. At the time, we thought I’d be commuting more since I still had an office in the city. A max, two-hour drive from home to office wasn’t too crazy. I can deal with that. Or so I thought.
Just as I was starting to loath the twice and often thrice-weekly trips to and from the city, the pandemic hit. I still remember where I was when Doug Ford announced the first province-wide lockdown. I was on my way to drop our eldest off at March Break camp when the Premier took to the radio.
Immediately after the announcement, I turned the truck around, dropped our son off at home, and drove solo to the Foodland in Markdale. I envisioned some apocalyptic scene unfolding as I pulled into the grocery store parking lot. Looting? Fires? Zombies? Nah! Just a bunch of unmasked people (remember those days), doing the same thing I was doing - well, not quite. I was the only one who needed two grocery carts to transport his first lockdown grocery shop from the checkout aisle to the truck. Yep, it’s kind of embarrassing now, but at the time it totally made sense. Two growing boys. A bag of milk a day just for the two-year-old. You get the picture.
My cart overfloweth.
Then all of a sudden, a woman walked up to me - as if to intervene on what surely looked looting - and said: “I’m a Farmer’s wife. I’ve been a Farmer’s wife for 60 years. We’re prepared.” And then she stood there and looked at me and then looked at my cart and then looked back at me.
Oh, snap (I grew up in Scarborough). What do I do now?
“I’m totally not prepared,” I said as I lowered my head and shook it slightly. “We’re new here. We just moved up from the city and we’ve got two young boys...yada yada yada...and so, yeah...” I gestured with my hands so as to imply innocence. To which she replied...
“We’re prepared.”
And then she smiled at me as she walked away carrying her tiny shopping basket.
