How life off the grid in Cape Breton lured families
WHYCOCOMAGH, N.S. — This is how Brett Walkins recalls the three years he spent living in B.C.’s Fraser Valley: Nights of teeth-grinding and swearing in his sleep.
He would leave for work at 4:30 a.m. and spend up to three hours commuting to his job managing construction of water treatment plants. He owned a big house, but spent little time there. He and his wife didn’t really know their neighbours, and when he lost his job they had no reason to stay.
“But I’ve put that behind me now,” the lanky 34-year-old says, “and a weight is off my shoulders.”
Walkins and his young family now live near Whycocomagh, N.S., a small village in rural Cape Breton where two sisters made international headlines when they started offering free land to anyone willing to work at their understaffed country store. Over the past three months at least 100,000 people — equivalent to about two-thirds of the island’s population — have applied to work at Farmer’s Daughter.
That includes Walkins and his wife, Kerry. She got the job and he works part-time, while also helping look after the couple’s two kids, 18-month-old Nolan and five-year-old Halle. While the offer of free land piqued the interest of the Walkinses they agreed to come to Cape Breton in search of something far less tangible.
“It was really more the opportunity to live an awesome life and be involved in a tiny community where everyone looks out for each other.” The store owners, sisters Heather Coulombe and Sandee MacLean, say their unusual incentive has proven to be so successful that they’re now offering more free property in a bid to hire up to a dozen people over the next two years.