No two days look the same in the life of Kim McQuhae.

Whether it’s working on her farm, waitressing, setting up cable network connections, or making her award-winning jams and jellies, the Niagara-on-the-Lake resident says she’s always done things on her own terms and is rarely bored.

“I got a lot of things going (at) the same time,” she said, adding that she’s “probably forgetting a bunch of stuff” she is doing at the moment.

For two decades, she has also won numerous awards for her jams and jellies, including five first-place prizes for the 23 jams she entered at the most recent Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto — earning her the moniker “the Jam Queen” around town.

Born in North Vancouver, McQuhae spent the first year of her life partly in Winnipeg before her family moved to Oakville. She lived there until she was 13, when her family moved to NOTL.

She described herself as somewhat of a latchkey kid who got good grades.

As a teenager, she worked to save money for her first horse — even though she had nowhere to keep it. At first, she put the horse in her parents’ garage.

“I heard her leave the house, go out to the garage, open the garage door, came back down, she walked back into the house, and she sort of yelled at me,” said McQuhae.

“She goes, ‘Kim, what’s that in the garage? And I’m like … ‘Oh, it’s just something I picked up while shopping last night.'”

She later moved the horse to the tool shed. McQuhae joked that her father reacted so calmly that putting the horse in the living room might have caused more of a stir.

When she was 17, her father took a job in France. McQuhae decided to stay in NOTL because she already had her horse.

When she later asked her mother why she was allowed to stay behind, her mother told her she knew McQuhae had made up her mind.

She has supported herself ever since.

To keep her farm running, she has relied on multiple streams of income, working jobs that have included restaurant serving and construction.

“You always have to have plan A, B, probably C and D as well, right?” she said.

While working in construction, McQuhae often woke up around 4:30 a.m. to feed the animals at her NOTL farm, Gryphon Ridge Highlands. She would then head to a job site by 6:30 a.m. and work until about 3:30 or 4 p.m.

Some jobs took her as far as Burlington or Oakville.

After returning home to check on her animals and shower, she would start her night shift as a server at Zees Wine Bar and Grill around 4:30 or 5 p.m., working until closing time.

She would then complete her night chores before getting about four to five hours of sleep.

Over the years, she has worked on cabling projects at sites including Joseph Brant Hospital, Jackson Square and the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Stage in Niagara Falls.

As she approaches her 63rd birthday next month, she said she has started slowing down that work.

Without construction jobs at the moment, she now starts her day at a comparatively relaxed 6 a.m.

Much of her time goes to caring for the cattle, horses and chickens on her farm, where she also produces and sells her jams.

“Farm work is never done,” said McQuhae.

She still works afternoon and night shifts at Zees Wine Bar and Grill and also helps a neighbour across the street who had a stroke.

Despite the recognition her preserves have received, McQuhae said making jam is simply something she enjoys.

“It’s every year. It’s a different year, right?” she said. “And I like to create new things. I don’t like to duplicate any things … It’s just fun to compete.”

That fun now includes making about 200 different jam flavours.

McQuhae said she has sometimes had to prove herself in male-dominated workplaces, but she has remained fiercely independent. In fields such as construction, she said, women should not feel intimidated.

“I’m not easily intimidated,” she said. “If you’re good at your job, they’re going to respect you.”

She added that both boys and girls often showed interest in the work she was doing, and she realized she could inspire them.

“I think especially when I was in the schools, it was kind of cool,” she said.

She recalled a story from a visit to Dennis Morris Catholic High School in St. Catharines, in which she proved to be a hero to the students — simply by installing the school’s much-needed Wi-Fi.

“I was walking down the hallway with my ladder, and one of the three or four boys ran by me, and then they turned around. They said, ‘All hail the Wi-Fi queen.'”

“I said to my boss, ‘I need a T-shirt that says that.'”

She said young girls would sometimes watch her work on similar jobs, giving her the chance to offer encouragement.

“I said, ‘You can do this,’” she said.