Roughing it in modern times.

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Did anyone hear about the project that they are doing out west? Alberta I think. Someone is doing a documentary on it. They are going to create the average family of the mid 1800's. They are going to give them a bit of info that a settler at that time would know. They give them all the things that the average settler would have had and then they put them in the middle of nowhere for a year. Sounds neat huh? Now it is not quite that isolated. They are near enough to a town that if someone is hurt or sick they can get medical attention. They can also get supplies once in a while, but mostly they must survive off there work on the farm. Like I said, this is all for a documentary. I wonder about hunting and things like that. Would they be able to hunt what they needed? It sounded like an interesting project.

Llywelyn

-- Llywelyn (Llywelyn_the_Great@hotmail.com), May 05, 2000

Answers

Llywelyn, it does sound interesting. There is also going to be something called the 1900 Family coming up on PBS. I'm planning on watching it. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), May 05, 2000.

They'd better give them more than a "bit" of info!!! Those settlers had spent their whole lives learning, at their parents' sides, the skills they needed in order to survive like that! Why do you think we all need this forum, and Countryside Mag.? It's because we don't most of us know everything we need to know, so we share our knowledge, and before long we all know more than we did, but still not everything our ancestors knew!! I guess I'd feel fairly comfortable trying an experiment like that, and maybe most of you would, too, but the vast majority of the people in this country wouldn't make it, at least not in very good shape. Maybe I'm just being too pessimistic, though -- any other opinions on this?

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), May 05, 2000.

You're right about needing a lot more than a "bit of info", people in our modern society are very specialized and interdependant, people go to school for years to learn how do something fairly specific and then completely rely on others to do or provide things necessary for their survival/well being/etc.

I think this leads to a very narrow world view, one that says "if it doesnt affect me, I dont care about it" which is why when people yell "help!" or "rape!" a lot of city dwellers will just turn up their TV volume so it doenst disturb their precious favorite TV show.

Back then people were in the country were generalists, they had to have a working knowledge of just about EVERYTHING in order to survive.

I have to admit that Im no exception though, Im probably more of a generalist than 85% of Americans. I'm pretty good at building things and general handyman projects. But if I had to rely on myself to grow/catch/raise/hunt all of my own food I'd quickly starve to death.

If you cant tell, Im pretty disgusted with our city dwelling society. Which is why when I retire Im moving to my land permanently so I can just absorb the peace of the woods and maybe decompress a little.....

-- Dave (AK) (transmach@hotmail.com), May 05, 2000.


That sounds fun ! We volunteer--just kidding. I'll bet it is worth watching though. I heard an old story in upstate New York( Adirondacks). I think it was in the 1940's. A man bet another man that he couldn't survive the winter in the mountains. The other gentlemen was let off by a mountain with a gun,knife and 1 weeks food supply. In the spring --he emerged with bear and deer clothing and no worse for wear. After examining his winter hideway though --it was discovered someone had brought him tools,food and the skins had been purchased. This might be an urban legend but I read it in Keene Valley area newspaper in New York.

-- Joel Rosen (Joel681@webtv.net), May 05, 2000.

The truth is none of us live (or ancestors have lived) in a vacuum. We all have neighbors/friends/family/acquaintances/community that might pitch in and help us with food, shelter, clothing. Or just jumping the battery on the tractor. Is the family going to have a community that they might seek help and advice from like they would in real life?

After all, Joel's (story about a) fella who "roughed" it had someone who cared how he survived.

-- Anne (HealthyTouch101@hotmail.com), May 05, 2000.



Dear L (I have trouble with those Welsh names, sorry)...Is MTV sponsoring it? (Just kidding about that, but I do wonder what's in it for the producers). I think it would be interesting in concept, but seems to me that a lot of what folk did in the "olden days" was routine and b-o-r-i-n-g...or maybe I'm just thinking of women's work (grin)! I would watch it though! Bet I would learn something, too.

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), May 05, 2000.

Hi, Llewellyn!!! We're "out west" (Saskatchewan). From the sound of it you're in Canada, too??? I haven't heard about this project, but it sounds REALLY interesting...I've quite often fantasized about having my family transported back in time (with AND without me!!!), but then think further and realize, I wouldn't be able to take my computer!!! That puts a swift end to the fantasy! I admire people who undertake these sorts of projects. They may fail dismally (the fact is, we ARE living in the year 2000, and some things are very much better than they were a century ago). I'm reminded of the biosphere project from years ago...

-- Tracy (trimmer@westzone.com), May 05, 2000.

It sounds so....cool!!! That was the only word I could come up with. I've always wanted to do that, but everyone thinks I'm a little off the wall. I would choose to live in the mid-1800's. How about re-living medieval times? That would be neat, too. Speaking of medieval, have any of you heard of the SCA?

-- Abigail F. (treeoflife@sws.nb.ca), May 06, 2000.

Speaking of the mid-1800's, and medieval times, have you ever looked into the medicine/medical practices of those times?!? It's a case of survival of the fittest -- those that stay fit (and don't get doctored!) survive!! We look back through rose-colored glasses, sometimes, and forget the really horrid sanitation, nutrition, and medical conditions that a lot of people had. Yes, they had a lot of skills that we need to make sure don't get lost, but we sure don't want to slavishly reproduce their cultures and ways of life-- some things really are better now. (Though one wonders for how much longer.)

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), May 06, 2000.

Hey, look what I found. This is for the PBS program coming up this summer. This one was filmed in England. Hope the one being done in Canada airs here too. It would be fascinating to compare the two. Gerbil

http://www.pbs.org/whatson/press/summer/1900house.html

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), May 06, 2000.



Thanks for the link, Gerbil. The story lines sound really interesting!!

My favorite quote from the link:

"...the sobering fact that life, especially for women, is highly restrictive and achingly dull."

I am so glad I live now, and not then!!!

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), May 06, 2000.


I think it sounds like a terrific project! As for them needing more than a bit of info, remember that many of the people who went out to homestead were chasing a dream or running from a nightmare, and were lured out west by sharpie land developers, who misrepresented the terrain and climate. Many were completely ill-prepared for their new life. And they either figured it out and survived, figured it out and left, or died. So it seems a fairer representation than if these modern guinea pigs were well-skilled in homesteading. Often people ask "If you could live in another era, would you and when/where?" And the fact is that as a woman, there is no time which would be better, though many would be worse -- having been raised in this day and age & culture. We still have a long way to go.

-- snoozy (allen@oz.net), May 08, 2000.

I think that whether life seems restrictive and dull, to anyone in any era, depends to a large extent on their own internal resources. But remember that people of a hundred years ago were not as accustomed as we are to always being entertained by outside sources. I don't think it has done much for our internal resources to live in this culture of instant entertainment whenever and wherever we want it -- so perhaps we are not really able to judge whether a certain lifestyle would have been dull to those who lived it, just because it might seem dull to someone used to our culture. And along the same line, you will feel restricted only if you aren't satisfied with your lot in life, and you will only feel dissatisfied if you feel you could have done something else, or wanted to do something else. I know there have always been women who were dissatisfied with a "woman's lot in life", else we wouldn't have had the suffragettes fighting for a woman's right to vote. But I don't think it was a universal dissatisfaction -- it isn't universal even today, when we are encouraged practically from birth to be dissatisfied and envious and to desire to be a man instead of a woman. And when the skills and duties of the wife, home-maker, and mother are looked down upon, and no longer considered 'politically correct'. Yet there are still a few women who want to be women, wives, and mothers, who choose to do so in spite of all the pressure to compete and succeed in a career. I think that when it was accepted and expected that a woman would be a wife and mother, most women were pretty comfortable with that, and able to find pleasure and satisfaction in the little daily joys of everyday life.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), May 08, 2000.

Not only sounds like fun, but is absolutely acheiveable (I cannot accept the modern non-word "doable"!) There is, of course, a caveat. Will they be subject to the laws of 1850? And maybe the implements of 1850? With a mid 1800's black powder muzzleloader, and more importantly, the OTHER items in the bag of tricks those people employed, I am sure I could make it. However, my biggest meat producers would be the snare and deer trap. I am talking about snaring deer. As the ancient reprobate who showed me how stated, "The snare hunts all night for you."In a survivalist situation, I would never starve. Might get rickets, or scurvy, or beri-beri, but I'd have plenty of protein. Constricted to today's laws, it is a sham! But then, access to "modern" medicine is too, I suppose. Please report back! GL!

-- Brad (homefixer@mix-net.net), May 10, 2000.

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