All success is ultimately derived from having at least one plan. Having Plans B & C create enjoyment in the journey. And as most of us learned when we were young, an outline is one way to keep on track. So, I will lay out my plan, and try to follow it, although being able to change course from time to time is also important.
Our Daily Duties were of utmost importance. To get into a groove - to follow a schedule, is extremely important. I know, living outside of society is supposed to mean freedom - and doesn't freedom mean having no schedule? Well - no! Freedom is something that is earned, and if all the necessary things are done, then there is freedom to pick and choose the fun, uplifting, and unnecessary activities! The ones that give hedonistic pleasure! So, I will detail what we did, and why they were important. Most interestingly are the systems that evolve to make the mundane efficient and fruitful.
Are the duties Pearls or Delights? Well - let's explore the words.
Pearls: they are creations from an irritant that become beautiful, valuable, and joyful. Duties can become this because they bring a certain pleasure to life. Imagine trying to manage your day without a water system - that wouldn't be fun! It would be extremely exhausting if you had to search for water every time you needed a drink or tried to wash your hands or prepare rice or pasta. So, when one finds an efficient system that brings about joy, value, and beauty - hooray! (Picture the aqueducts from the Romans)
Delights: they are products of discovery and can bring satisfaction, fun, and well-being. Systems can do that, too. An example is finding wood. You might have memories of going out and searching for the best small twigs or broken branches lying on the ground to use as kindling for a grand fire. Imagine having to do this on a large scale - you need to find trees, certain types of wood, and they have to be a useable condition. We would try to include an expedition where we could discover, photograph, picnic, or just plain relish. A mundane task then becomes a delight!
One other criteria for the duties is this: They need to be efficient. With finite resources, one must devise ways to conserve and produce. Often times multitasking was in order. The interesting thing was, we didn't actually consider the terms for this - it became a way to have more with less! The terms conserve, reduce, reuse, maintain, substitute, manage, compost, patience, practical, create, plan, respect, organize, and communicate all become buzz words for everyday life - even back in the 70's! These became our checks and balances to determine how well our tasks were performed.
And now - on to the tasks - our Daily Duties
Morning
Especially in the winter, the morning was the most energized time of day. We would make sure to squeeze in our most important jobs which required the biggest chunk of daylight. It was always easier to use natural daylight to perform and accomplish detailed tasks than to rely on the Kerosene lamps. They are romantic, but not necessarily bright!
Fire Stoking:
This was the first chore of the day. It would determine our rise and shine time. We would usually have to get up and take care of the little Baby Bear once during the night. Getting it going again in the morning was prime, especially if the cold winds were blowing. The importance of having small, dry kindling was key. Also, having wax-coated milk cartons was beneficial, too. (They would ignite almost instantly and burn well enough to allow the dry kindling to catch. Another trick was to roll up newsprint lengthwise and then tie it in the middle. This would allow the ends to catch easily and burn hotter and longer in the middle, insuring the kindling would catch.) After all was a-blaze, then the addition of larger diameter pine was added. After that was going nicely and had produced some coals, the logs were laid, with oak, birch or ash being the choice.
Water Hauling:
We would have breakfast first thing, and then start our water hauling. If the ice was thick because the night was cold, Russ would have to take the ice auger down with him. He covered up the hole with some styrofoam to insulate from the cold night, but the water is so cold that it freezes anyway. Our hole was ringed by ice that was nearly three feet thick! So - it wasn't practical to chop a hole each night. I would help him haul up the buckets (or the milk can) past the rocks on the trail. That was the worst part - sometimes the rocks were snow-covered or ice-covered. Sometimes we would slosh the water, which was a bit disconcerting, but we got quite adept with hauling it and walking very carefully!
Wood Gathering:
This wasn't necessarily done each day, but we would work on this at least 3 times a week, depending on how easily it was to find a good source of wood. The winter weather could be challenging. The best days to to this chore were often the hardest to be outside. Cold conditions meant hard snow and ice and easy travel over the frozen lake and up onto the islands. Windy conditions meant the temperature was really cold and frostbite could happen. Driving fast on a snowmobile could also give frostbite, so we would have to dress accordingly. That would also make it harder to cut the woods and haul it back. Luckily we lived in a small place and had a small wood stove that heated up easily. If we needed Oak for the long nights, we had to travel farther to find the stunted oak stands. If we needed spruce or fir or pine, that was easier, because they were close by, and often we had some of the windfall already cut and drying. When we would set out on expeditions, we were always on the lookout for wood stands - and if we found birch or ash - that was a bonus. After cutting the wood into manageable lengths for carrying and using in the stove (about 3 feet long), we would load the wood onto the trailer behind the snowmobile. The trailer was designed for hauling over the snow and had 2 skis to help it glide over the snow smoothly and easily. We would lash the logs to the trailer so if we bumped over some drifts or down the rocks, we wouldn't lose the logs. After returning to our little place, we unloaded the trailer and stacked the wood neatly. Russ would sometimes have to wait until it got really cold to split it, because it splits so much easier when the sap and moisture is completely frozen (around -20 degrees Celsius). If you are interested in buying or building a hauling sled, here are several links:
http://www.northernsledworks.com/Northern_Sled_Works-Home.html
http://www.manytracks.com/Homesteading/Sleds.htm
http://www.motherearthnews.com/do-it-yourself/wood-hauling-ski-sled-zmaz79jfzraw.aspx#axzz2LqfXe0J6
Ok - that takes us up to Lunchtime - and with that, I will let you have a chance to catch your breath and dream about something delicious and rib-tickling for lunch!
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Saturday, February 2, 2013
IT ALL STARTED....
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| BABY BEAR STOVE |
a large 20 Gal milk can that we filled every two days with water, a propane stove for cooking, a battery operated radio, and a generator that we ran only 3 days a week.
My husband decided, after having been involved with a family-run fishing resort since the end of the 1960's, he wanted to live a complete year on the island, and was awarded an Ontario Arts Council Grant to photograph the Four Seasons on Lake of the Woods, in Sabaskosing Bay - 35 miles NW of Morson, Ontario and 40 miles south of Kenora, Ontario. (http://goo.gl/maps/ZCrpG). The Island is Spruce Island (http://www.spruceislandcamp.com/ ), which is still a family run organization for folks who love fishing, blueberries, wild-life, swimming, and just generally enjoying the best that life can offer. I had been living in Kansas City the previous winter, and decided that I needed to return North - to real winters, to real purpose, and to experience life in a real way. During my year after graduating from College, I was a music teacher and choral performer in several organizations in Kansas City, MO. It was fun, educational, and exciting, but there was something missing for me - the connection to the earth - to nature. And so, Russ and I reconnected on Spruce Island, decided to marry the following year, and spend our first year of marriage building an unshakable foundation by staying the winter on the Island, and finding out the secrets of Sabaskosing Bay. After all, when do you get an opportunity like this - to live with little money and search out your dreams? Perfect timing!
It is the winter of 1979 - almost the end of the 70's! Rewind back to those times. The movement toward communal life is at an all-time high, books abound with information about using solar energy: window design, special material construction, and insulation practices. We have been researching practices about putting up food, freezing meat, provisioning dry goods, baking bread, wood stoves, and accumulating medical books (just in case anything might go wrong, because we can't get to a hospital easily). Because Russ has grown up in this area: he knows the ins and outs of the land, the water, and the weather. He is also adept at motor repair and maintenance, generator functions, chain-saw use, snow-mobiles, chart reading, open-fire cooking, fishing, and hunting. I, on the other hand, have done a lot of back-woods camping, and enjoy being "off the beaten path", but I haven't lived on an island, run snowmobiles or fishing boats, or used a chain-saw. I do enjoy cross country skiing, snowshoeing, and exploring by canoe. So, Russ taught me the basics of running the small motors, getting around the bays, not hitting rocks, and where the good fishing spots are. Because his skills were so far ahead of mine, I ended up being the domestic chore provider (cooking, baking, cleaning, stoking the fire, journaling, and a few other things). I guess if this were occurring these days, I would definitely step up my skill level, and he would teach me more about the "manly" chores, and I would get him more involved with creative chores.
The main purpose of our being on the island was not to get away from anything, but to document and bring to people another side of life that is not experienced. Summer on Lake of the Woods is usually hectic and noisy. Boats zooming around, water fun, airplanes zipping about, generators running, and folks wanting to get so much activity into their week of a restful holiday, that they push extra hard and wear themselves out! After September, life changes. The colors become glorious, the skies deepen, the ducks gather, the geese honk, and the land returns to its natural rhythm. You can hear wolves howl, track moose, creep up on bears, and bask in the golden rays of the sun. Fall is such a wonderful time in the north - crispness in the air, crackling branches, and creativity starts flowing. And so, with the end of October, which we celebrated with a provisioning trip, snow fall, and ice forming, we settled into the rhythm of winter and photographing.
Our main systems back then were very simple: wood for heat, propane for cooking, a generator for power three times a week, and hauling water for drinking and using. We used an outdoor biffy until it got too cold, and after that we used a small porta-potty for our toilet. Light in the evening was kerosene lamps, which were bright and warm but required vigilance in cleaning and care. We also had a battery operated radio, which brought in a very few stations. This part of the world used to be known as radio wasteland, due to all the granite around, and the distance from any transmission tower. Our main listening stations were CBC AM (Thunder Bay) and CBC FM (Winnipeg). Our bath times were an event, because we would have to haul extra water, heat it on the Baby Bear stove, and then take turns in the hot water. After we finished (luckily you don't get too dirty in the winter), we would add laundry detergent, and soak the clothes in the tub for a few hours (sometimes overnight), and then wring them out, rinse them in a tub of hand-hauled water, and then hang out to sublimate. Hopefully the wind would not change during the 4 days it took to dry them, because then the clothes would smell of smoke. Russ was a great firebuilder, even back then, and we learned which woods to use for starting a fire, and then keeping a fire going. We would search different islands for birch and oak. Sometimes we would get lucky enough to find ash, too. The pine that was so prevalent was great for starting fires, with the pitch, and the needles being especially explosive. We saved any and all of our cardboard for starting the fire. Generally in the deep of winter, we tried to not let the fire go out.
One luxury we had was a snowmobile. Once a week after freeze-up, which took about 5 weeks, we would head off on Fridays to another island about 10 miles away - Oak Island, MN. (http://goo.gl/maps/ZCrpG). There were people, a store, mail, and life! We would arrive, after traveling about 45 minutes across the frozen lake and through back woods trails, in time for the mail plane, visit with folks, and then have lunch with the store-owners, Buck and Ducky. It was a great time. I gave Buck dulcimer lessons, and in return we received lunch, a 6-pack of Olympia beer and a 6-pak of Diet cola! After about 1pm, we would head back to the island, and stoke up the dwindling fire. Dark came early, and it was always a challenge to make sure we were ready for the darkness. That involved having super planned, kerosene lamps cleaned and ready, and water on the stove heating.
All in all, our chores must have taken at least 6 hours a day, including cooking, washing, and the basics. When it was generator day, that involved more water being hauled, because those days were also for Russ' photographic work. He had a darkroom, and would develop and print pictures being readied for the exhibit. We even had a small TV that we watched the infamous series "Dallas" on, and also took in the Calgary Olympics! What a great time that was!
And so, back in the winter of 1979-1980, we lived off-grid! We didn't even realize it, but this would be the beginning of a way of life for us. We had no high-tech things, but we were comfortable, happy, and thrilled to be living where we could listen to the wolves, listen to beautiful radio broadcasts, find out about the moose and deer, ski across the miles of open water, hike the land where few seldom go, and observe the eagles and otters while they fought for survival. We learned respect, integration, observation, and independence. Little did know, but this decision would shape how we viewed the world for the rest of our lives.
WELCOME AND HEARTY GREETINGS!
Welcome to our new blog - our new life- and our new focus! We have been on a unique journey for several years, and just recently discovered that this journey actually began several decades ago, back in the 1970's! This blog will include suggestions for living more simply, more in-tune with the environment, and more connected in may ways. Russ and I have spent so much of our lives creating a space that is like a hub of a wheel, with spokes extending to the outer circle which is life. We have lived authentically. While that may sound like a "wishful" phrase, we have discovered, through our destinations and relations, that our lives are authentic. We have adopted a unique philosophy, and are at the point of wondering how we should decide our next 20 years of life. These posts will discuss our immersion in living full, simple, and authentic lives. Discussions will consist of reviewing the merits of particular off-grid systems, evaluating technologies best suited for you, and repairing, maintaining, and installing the systems that have worked best for us. We hope you will join us for the ride and contribute with your comments, insights, and experiences to help this blog attain a relevance to many others out there embarking on a more complete way of life.
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| Celebrating Russ' Birthday Milestone |
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