Greetings, loyal readers, from the quietly bustling copper and fiberoptic network that connects each and every one of us. I never thought I would live to see the day that my humble publication went digital and thus free to access for anyone connected to this great World Wide Web. Our first digital issue is not quite ready but nonetheless, I thought a little context might set the stage and whet the appetite.
The alloy that is County Fence Bi-Annual was forged from curiosity and admiration for our great land back in 1973. One cannot travel the backroads of rural Canada without noticing the industry that pioneers and contemporaries alike put into erecting property boundaries. Whether it be the poor Irish immigrant who heaved half-ton boulders from their would-be field and created the famous stone fences that will shape our landscape for centuries to come or the humble page-wire ensuring good neighbours remain good, these under-appreciated architectural embellishments find appreciation in our pages.
I, myself, had just returned from a decade-long circumnavigation of the world aboard my beloved Bermudian sloop, Atlanta, and was pining to settle down and return to my roots. I took ownership of our family farm from my dear mother and set about building what I affectionately refer to as County Fence HQ at the back of the property next to one of our beautiful ancient rivers. When I say farm, perhaps that is an over-statement. Like many properties in my region it has not been worked for nearly a century and has more or less been reclaimed by the landscape, my great-grandfather was rather more successful in the distillery business than farming. There being few opportunities for a man of letters locally, I endeavoured to to create my own opportunity and County Fence Bi-Annual was born.
Boundaries have an allure few can resist but the fences of rural Ontario contain nuance that can truly be savoured. While a simple chain-link in a suburban yard signals the presence of a dog or a distrust of neighbours, a stone fence crawling through second-growth forest is a classic novel – often a tragedy. Boundaries themselves are the great Canadian tragedy. Our indigenous sisters and brothers did not draw such lines yet European-style farming could not take place until a first crop of boulders and split rails were harvested and used to highlight the once impossible dream of property ownership. A division taking such work to remove will be with us for millennia to come. Yet I cannot think of a place less in need of boundaries than rural Ontario, with our surplus of land and deficit of residents. Our humble magazine seeks to honour these stories. Though, when I say humble, I am proud to say that we have sent magazines to such exotic locales as Horta and Vailima.
While I cannot honestly say I’m lacking in leisure time, being Editor in Chief has been a full time job almost since day one. In those early days I wrote all the articles and took care of the business side but over the years we have had the privilege of various contributors gracing our pages – some who have gone on to great things.
That brings me to this digitization program. It has long been a dream of mine to get County Fence Bi-Annual to a worldwide audience but in the days prior to computers this was an amount of work our small office could not sustain. While I have been quite keen on the march of technology, I fear that it has marched a little faster than I. It would require talent greater than my own to create a website. So you can imagine my delight when I connected with some of our younger readers and they offered to help bring County Fence into the twenty-first century.
And so here we are – deep into the not-yet – eagerly preparing to share our award-winning reporting with this new digital world. Over my lifetime I have watched my neighbours change from the descendants of the original pioneers, to hippies looking for a closer relationship to the land, then retirees seeking to maximize their savings, and now to digital professionals seeking a richer home life after that blasted pandemic. While I have heard the voice of resistance to each of these emigrations, I must admit that I am eager to see the future and get to know my new neighbours. May this magazine make you feel welcome and help you learn the mythology of this great land I am proud to call home.
-Jules