Homesteading stories

[animalfarm]

Dad had this carved into the door of our outhouse.

Here I sit forlorn and grey,
While my City cousins get a nickel a play.


Someone had told him about going to the city and seeing a pay toilet.

 

[Beekissed]

Excellent! Your Dad sounds like a real character!

More!!!

 

[animalfarm]

Dad was a character in our younger years, but unfortunately, events happened in my parents lives which changed them forever and not for the better. We were not part of a cult or anything like that. My parents immigrated to Canada from Montana in 1963 to take part in Canada's last offering of homestead land. The area was very remote because of geography although it was only 30 miles off the Yellowhead highway but it did have some residents already in place.

Our closest neighbor, 2 miles through the bush as the crow flies, mentored all of the community kids as a matter of duty. He taught such things as how not to get lost in the bush and how to get home from 40 miles away in any direction. As kids, it was normal to be 5- 10 miles from home when out playing. If we weren't home for supper we didn't get any. If we wanted to visit a friend we had to trek cross country or we would never get there By road (dirt track) it might be 20 miles. I can only guess as mileage wasn't relevant back then.

If I don't bore you all to tears, I will probably talk a bit about Aunts and Uncles and a few Grandmas, not biological, but how people who rated particularly high levels of respect were addressed by adults and kids alike. Way beyond Mr. and Mrs. So and So.

In a community such as this, currency is not money, but respect is. Respect of the highest level is accorded to those who have skills, share them generously and never judge. They are never ever disrespected in any way, either their person, their family or their home. They are the gold standard. They were few.

One of the faults in a community such as this was the unwritten rule: mind your own beeswax. It sounds good in theory, but sometimes something should have been done by somebody.

So, if anyone still wants to hear any more after this quaint little missive, let me know or I will forever hold my peace.

 

[Wannabefree]

There will be comments made on a public forum. Some can't seem to help themselves I'm familiar with the want to get away from home myself as a kid Also all too familiar with the mind your own buisness :/ I have a lot of aunts and uncles that are'nt biologically linked too...and Daddy who is deceased and a couple I call second moms, so I know where you're coming from on that too

Does your life now seem like a totally different life? I have so many memories of growing up, but it just seems now like that was another person altogether...like I know exactly what happened but my mind seperates my definition of self from all of those memories. Just curious if I'm just weird or if that's pretty normal because I don't really know for sure

Anyway, I think I'd keep a lot of it to myself, and I do mine mostly. I just don't talk about the details much to very many people and some things...would never be for the public to know and/or discuss at all. Most folks can't/don't/won't understand IME so I generally keep my mouth shut.

 

[animalfarm]

There will be comments made on a public forum. Some can't seem to help themselves I'm familiar with the want to get away from home myself as a kid Also all too familiar with the mind your own buisness :/ I have a lot of aunts and uncles that are'nt biologically linked too...and Daddy who is deceased and a couple I call second moms, so I know where you're coming from on that too

Does your life now seem like a totally different life? I have so many memories of growing up, but it just seems now like that was another person altogether...like I know exactly what happened but my mind seperates my definition of self from all of those memories. Just curious if I'm just weird or if that's pretty normal because I don't really know for sure

Anyway, I think I'd keep a lot of it to myself, and I do mine mostly. I just don't talk about the details much to very many people and some things...would never be for the public to know and/or discuss at all. Most folks can't/don't/won't understand IME so I generally keep my mouth shut.

Actually, I already rethunk this and edited my post. I guess you are up kind of late too. I am a strange duck but I am made by the memories and I will probably die by them although the junk has lost its hold for the most part.

 

[Wannabefree]

There will be comments made on a public forum. Some can't seem to help themselves I'm familiar with the want to get away from home myself as a kid Also all too familiar with the mind your own buisness :/ I have a lot of aunts and uncles that are'nt biologically linked too...and Daddy who is deceased and a couple I call second moms, so I know where you're coming from on that too

Does your life now seem like a totally different life? I have so many memories of growing up, but it just seems now like that was another person altogether...like I know exactly what happened but my mind seperates my definition of self from all of those memories. Just curious if I'm just weird or if that's pretty normal because I don't really know for sure

Anyway, I think I'd keep a lot of it to myself, and I do mine mostly. I just don't talk about the details much to very many people and some things...would never be for the public to know and/or discuss at all. Most folks can't/don't/won't understand IME so I generally keep my mouth shut.

Actually, I already rethunk this and edited my post. I guess you are up kind of late too. I am a strange duck but I am made by the memories and I will probably die by them although the junk has lost its hold for the most part.

I saw that after posting I made my own memories, and took what I could from the past and leave the rest where it lies...in the past. We're all strange in some ways, but I never let that stop me from being myself

I got a long nap today...can't sleep now :/ Tomorrow is gonna be looooooooooong

 

[Beekissed]

I would love to hear more...particularly about surviving in that climate and what you all had to do to make your homestead work.

 

[Denim Deb]

I love to hear this type of story, both the good and the bad aspects of it. You can't get a true pic if all you hear is the good stuff. It makes it seem too idyllic, and doesn't paint a true pic of it.

 

[Big_White]

I would love to hear more myself, I come from the same walk of life as far as the respect aspect goes, and the golden rule here is stay outta there business. Difference is I still live it, and I am not as secluded as you were, but i would like to here more. I enjoy the stories of others and have not had much life experience myself so enjoy hearing and learning from others experiences. Thanks for sharin

 

[animalfarm]

In the olden days they first hopped a boat and crossed the big water. Later they loaded up the wagons and headed west. You can still find the standard supply lists suggested for that migration and they very closely resemble some modern preppers lists for hard times, minus the wagon wheels and axle grease.



Now its 1963. You are a young couple with 5 kids, the youngest a yr. old, living on dad's farm in Hell's back acres. (look up Scobey Montana, Daniels County) its a cactus patch these days. No future, no hope, no nothing. You have to bug out and dad only gave you 48 hours. The only asset you have is a World War ll war veteran who stands by you thick and thin; he's been a farmhand for your dad since you were knee high. He is an alchoholic. He shows up in 24 hrs. with an old green truck loaded down with boxes of supplies from somewhere, you don't know where he got them or whats in them. He says he'll be back in a jiff. Off he walks and comes back with a beat up pickup truck pulling a flatbed trailor loaded with an old farm-all steel wheeled tractor. The kids are packed in where ever they will fit and you are off just a few hours ahead of the sherriff.