William Brothers and the Wild Ones Homestead
As we have spent the early half of 2022 settling into our new family home, we have slowed down our lifestyle, and increased our interest in the little things. Nestled into a hillside in a valley in the Canadian Rockies on Canada’s west coast in British Columbia, this is a view we hope to spend a lifetime taking in. My husband Bill and I have talked about owning a small homestead and owning a business of our own together since we met in 2014. While I will not sugar coat our rocky journey to this place where we are at now, I will say we have both built up some character, and we are on our way to where we want to be, reveling in the journey and doing our best to savor all the moments. All these ordinary days with our young children are what dreams are made of. The good ones, the proud ones, the uncomfortable ones, the lessons. We are making changes towards an entirely mindful, and intentional unconventional lifestyle together.
As we look back on our families heritage in B.C., both Bill and I came from farm families who left the farm in the 90’s and 2000’s. I have Swedish, Norwegian and British heritage, and Bill comes from Indonesian, Metis, British, and Irish Heritage. Bill’s family were farm owners in the small village of Rolla, just outside of Dawson Creek, BC. My maternal Grandfather’s family was also from Dawson creek. Eventually settling in a spiritual community ranch in the 70s in Kamloops and 100 mile house BC. When I was young, my family moved from the farm to the city. Bill spent longer on the farm as a child than I did, but eventually his family moved away from the farm life to spend time traveling the world and eventually come to Kamloops. For my entire life I have known that I would raise my own family where there are wide open spaces, and by the grace of god, and with help from our families, and friends we have accomplished that life long goal, we got here. With that being said, where one goal becomes us, many more new goals have filled that space in our hearts.
Bill’s father William Sr. Owned an Equipment business since the 80’s. When he passed away, Bill wanted to carry on that legacy, and build on it for our boys. It’s from this place that we recently founded William Brothers Equipment and Services. Many of the men in our families are Williams. My paternal grandfather was William (Willy). Bill’s father was William (Billy), My brother’s middle name is William, Billy’s name is a short form of William, I have an uncle who’s middle name is William and William also has a lineage in my step-mothers family. Our sons Odin, Jameson, and Dawson, all have the middle name William. There was no other name choice for this faction of our business. William is a legacy in our families.
Bill was a heavy duty mechanic in his 20’s, before he had a serious accident that almost ended his life, landing him in a hospital rehab for years. After he survived the accident, he changed careers, first working as a wildlands firefighter, before becoming a landscaper. Landscaping allows Bill to use all kinds of equipment to shape a job, as well as getting in the dirt hands on and planning out a sustainable landscape for individual projects. Factoring in the level of maintenance a customer is willing to put in, as well as giving ideas for self sufficiency, and increasing property value and useability. This is work that is very rewarding for us.
We have a stall at the local Kamloops Regional Farmers Market, where for now, we are sharing the fruits of the farm. Growing isn’t new to us, but on this scale it presents new challenges. I have renewed respect for farmers, and the farming community. And new concerns for the future of the related industries, because truly sustainable farms are few and far between it seems. Getting food from farm to table in a more direct fashion is an issue many are tackling and we want to jump on that bandwagon, and really make efforts to promote more direct routes for consumers and farmers to bring food to the table. And to promote healthier lifestyles through the foods and consumer products we all choose to consume. We want to help people make informed decisions, and intentional lifestyle choices.
Our children are involved on some level with everything we do. We want to create generational security for our family. We want them to know how to grow and raise their own food, how to work for themselves, how to fix something broken, how to find solutions to problems they don’t know the answer to, to overcome disagreement and how to regulate themselves both physically and emotionally. In this way, we hope to set them up for success in their personal endeavors, knowing they always have a strong family foundation.
We want to make intentional decisions for our family and our business and know the full weighted impact of each single choice. We considered long and hard what we should share, and what direction we wanted to take Wild Ones in. Being someone who is very multi focused, I wanted to be very mindful in how we put William Brothers and the Wild Ones Homestead together so it is built from the ground up on a good foundation that is making decisions with the full impact of them in mind, as well as transparency. We aim to make an impact on the lifestyles of people everywhere, from our humble spot on a mountainside in Canada.
Be Kind. Be Well. Be Wild.
Hannah
