EDITOR’S NOTE: Manitoulin is being transformed with the influx of new residents and business owners who bring with them fresh ideas, experiences and perspectives that are enriching the area. Some individuals and families are still unpacking boxes, having only moved in the past month or two, while others made the move over the last few years and are now comfortably established in their new communities. Here are some of their stories.
by Heather Marshall
Growing up in Mount Albert north of Toronto, Jaimie Geist had never given much thought to military life nor even remotely considered bow hunting for deer. All that changed with her decision in 2013 to attend Laurentian University in Sudbury, where she studied bio-medical biology. The university was a logical choice for post secondary education, as her grandparents had a camp in the Sudbury region and she had spent summer vacations in the area most of her life. What wasn’t expected was that Jaimie would dramatically alter her original career plans and forge a future unlike anything she had ever contemplated, a life-changing decision that would eventually see her Manitoulin bound.
While still attending Laurentian Jaimie volunteered with St John Ambulance for several years. One of the people she met through this activity was involved in military recruitment. Despite having absolutely no military background in her family, Jaimie was herself recruited when she began working part-time in the reserves with the 2nd Battalion The Irish Regiment of Canada, part of the Canadian Army Reserve. Following graduation, it became a full-time job. It was while there that, in late 2016, she met Nathan Farquhar-Kay who had been posted in from the Canadian Armed Forces where he’d been in the Infantry with the 1st Battalion Royal Canadian Regiment in Petawawa since 2008. Nathan took on the position with the reserves in Sudbury to be closer to his mother, Peggy, who then lived on Manitoulin and was in failing health.
To hear the couple tell it now, it wasn’t love at first sight. “When someone from the regular Force was posted in for several years, they sometimes came with a work pace and culture that was unlike the reserves, and I assumed Nathan was one of them,” explains Jaimie. For his part, Nathan’s first impressions of Jaimie were that “she was the person who slammed on her keyboard really loudly and had an erupting laugh” After a month or two, the duo reassessed and decided the other wasn’t so bad after all. Within a few years they were engaged and married. Jaimie already owned a home in Sudbury, and they bought another property together as an investment.
Nathan had been in the military since finishing high school, specializing in the infantry which entailed reconnaissance and repelling. Prior to that, he had divided his life between spending time on Manitoulin – first, from birth to eight in Providence Bay and then again during his high school years in Gore Bay, living with one or other of his parents – and living in North Bay for a period as a child or, later, in Petawawa as an adult.
One of the things the couple discovered about each other early in their relationship was that they both hoped to some day make Manitoulin their permanent home – Nathan because he had spent so many of his early years here and Jaimie because she fell in love with the Island the very first time she visited. They took the first step toward their dream of Island life with the purchase of land mid-way between Spring Bay and Gore Bay that they planned to use for hunting and eventually build on.
Nathan had shared his love of hunting with Jaimie and the pair took up bow hunting as a hobby. “I’d shot a lot of guns in the military so gravitated to bow hunting as it has more of a surveillance aspect to it, and I like getting closer to the animal.” Jaimie quickly picked up the technique, bagging her first buck within seven minutes of the season opening her first time out.
They got the chance to further refine their hunting skills when a job opening became available working at the Ontario Court of Justice in Gore Bay in 2022. Jaimie applied for and got the position. As a result, Nathan accelerated his plan to leave the military, originally intended to be in 2023, and was medically released due to a slew of injuries incurred during his career. The couple took advantage of a then hot housing market to sell both their home and investment property in Sudbury to move to Manitoulin.
Around the same time, Nathan started an online clothing business called H-Hour Apparel. Nathan’s latest online venture, known as Nate in the Woods, is a YouTube channel documenting his experience building the couple’s new home on their land. While working in Gore Bay Jaimie started her own side hustle called The Lake Life Company, which provides cottage and camping theme products in a box for shipment to clients throughout Canada and the US. She also set up a small seasonal shop with the same name in the Pavilion at the waterfront near the Gore Bay marina.
Jaimie’s career took another turn in late October 2022 when she became the new Office Manager for Community Living Manitoulin in Mindemoya, a non-profit organization offering residential, vocational and community services to adults with developmental disabilities, where she supports the management team and board of directors.
The couple is extremely happy to be able to live their dream at such an early stage in their lives. They continue to advance their ambitious careers while also having time to pursue hobbies such as bow hunting.
“It’s everything I thought it would be and more,” says Jaimie. “I love my work and the people I have come to know on the Island. I am a home body and enjoy being in our new home surrounded by the forest, a very peaceful, special place to live.” After an absence of roughly 14 years from Manitoulin, Nathan enjoys reconnecting with old friends and family. “It’s great to have our quiet place back in the woods given our fast-paced lifestyle online. When we disconnect, we are in our own little piece of heaven.”
Heather Marshall and her husband worked as journalists and consultants in the National Capital Region for more decades than they care to admit before making their Sandfield cottage their permanent home. A lifelong learner, Heather loves discovering new things and people and relishes the opportunity to write about newcomers to the Manitoulin. If you would like to share your story or know of recent arrivals we should meet, send a message to HAMarshall@proton.me
