History of Farmer Bob
(April 17 1947 - November 18 2025)
I am talking to you now from the Great Beyond, ‘cause if you are reading this I have passed on.
I carry with me to eternity good family memories of an estranged yet devoted wife Susan and three fine kids I know mostly by their nicknames…Yogi, Spike and Sprague.
I was raised on a back road country farm …a place where time was tethered. We had woodstoves and outdoor plumbing…and that, it seems, defined me since I have lived traditionally on the land most of my life.
Spent some time getting an education as a young man though, and a while teaching school but got restless.
I went north into the bush off the Algoma Central Line and built log cabins on speculation …started with old tools, a clunker canoe, a bucksaw and axe. This went along all right and the robust life agreed with me…I learned how to walk a hard road down.
After four years I tired of sleeping beside a stump, was bushed, so I headed downtown, built and operated three wilderness themed clothing stores, which were wildly successful. I was cool, a media darling, an entrepreneur, was said to have a genius for thematics and marketing… makin’ way more money than I could spend on a Saturday night.
The great recession of 1982 busted me and I went back to the bush to start over.
The last forty years I have been homesteading here on Mockingbird Hill Farm. The Farm is a working horse drawn replication of a 1930’s farmstead. It was really gratifying to see how the canvas I had painted lifted the spirits of all who came to visit the Farm.
Homesteading is the most satisfying thing I have done in a lifetime. Sharing my love for the land with the community and being a touchpoint for educational, cultural and recreational values was the reason for keeping on with the Farm.
Loved the lifestyle, wild flowers and horses and so I stayed here right till the end…
Arrangements entrusted to Arthur Funeral Home - Barton & Kiteley Chapel (492 Wellington Street East 705-759-2522). Memorial contributions made payable online or by cheque to A.R.C.H. would be greatly appreciated. Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.arthurfuneralhome.com for the Cuerrier family.