“When I was a kid, I think that deep down I wanted the ‘Laura Ingalls’ life. You know -tying on an apron, taking care of chickens, doing that homesteading thing. But my life did not take me there.”
It is a bright morning in March. The sky is sharp and very blue. Fannie McFadden is standing in her sun room gazing across her snow covered field. At her feet are hundreds of onion seedlings. She’s decked out in a comfy pair of overalls.
“After college and university I had to build up my career. I had to climb the corporate ladder and all that stuff. So I forgot about that dream.”
At the height of a successful marketing career Fannie met Ken, the man she would marry. Beginning their life together, they searched for a new nest to call home. They found it in Desbarats -a small farming community in Northern Ontario, about 55 km east of Sault Ste. Marie. Both Fannie and Ken grew up in the North.