Coming Soon! A Bushwhacker’s Requiem
$30.00
Robert ‘Farmer Bob’ Cuerrier’s delightful, often rollicking, but always engaging memoir – a ‘Bushwhacker’ life now retold as his time on this Earth draws to its close. Builder, entrepreneur, farmer and family man, hunter, proud Metis, prospector, railway gang, trapper, woodsman — and a fabulous storyteller whose Mockingbird Hill Farm is both an icon and testament to another era. Beautiful new photographs by Bob McGauley and Fawn Jacko add another fine dimension to this Bushwhacker’ account.
Preface to the Second Edition
One day last summer I was reorganizing a bookshelf. I came across ‘Canadian Bushwhacker’ – a gift from my Robertson in-laws from at least 30 years ago. During our Sault Christmas visit in 1992, our families had taken a sleigh ride at Mockingbird Hill Farm – where I met its cheerful proprietor Robert ‘Farmer Bob’ Cuerrier for the first time. I loved the quirkiness and ‘old timey’ feel of the place then, and I remember reading the book with great pleasure.
Over the years I have often passed by the Farm. I particularly loved the rhythm of the seasons as they have played out across the hills and fields, fence lines and woods. I cut our Christmas trees there after we moved to the Sault – payment on the Farm honour system in our relentlessly digital age has its own joys. Over a weekend I re-read Farmer Bob’s grand narrative, thinking to myself, ‘What a fine story – a real testament to remaining true to oneself and one’s ambitions.’ And Farmer Bob’s peerless community reputation – he and Mockingbird Hill are true Sault institutions.
I am not a huge believer in karma, nor do I particularly accept the notion that some things are simply meant to be – but it was a pleasant coincidence to receive Farmer Bob’s inquiry concerning a republished, revised Bushwhacker and ‘would I be interested?’ He had been slowed by cancer and other maladies, Father Time catching up and getting ready to finalize Life’s ledger statements. A fine project and it is our Tagona Press honour to publish it.
It took some time to assemble this Second Edition. The first work remains intact, but fine new photographs graciously provided by Bob McGauley and Fawn Jacko bring a renewed warmth and roundness to Farmer Bob’s grand Bushwhacker account. A postscript confirms why the old adage, ‘a life well lived’ is perhaps the best descriptor of what this man and his Farm have meant to our City for so long. I am hopeful that we have done Farmer Bob proper justice.
Bryan Davies / Tagona Press
September 2025
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