When we "went back to the land" in 1972 we moved from Vancouver to the Slocan Valley in British Columbia. We lived in a fairly rustic manner. No running water. No electricity. No refrigeration. Wood heat. We had a hand pump on our sink that brought water from a nearby stream, an outhouse, used kerosene lamps, had a root house where we kept apples and pears, and used a wood cook stove (which we brought with us to Alberta two years later). We essentially lived in a fairly airy two room rented garage where water in a bucket on the floor would produce an ice crust overnight. We had an old uncared for orchard and our very first garden. We ate fresh, preserved or stored foods.
One of our staples was sausage. We would return to Vancouver now and then, visit friends, then go to the second hand sausage store. These were sausages that had been pulled from the shelves in grocery stores because they had reached their "best before" date and they were sold for about 25 cents each. We hung them from our kitchen ceiling where they got dryer and dryer, occasionally releasing a wee drop of fat to the floor. These sausages usually made their way into a soup where they would plump out and reconstitute. We insulated our kitchen area with egg cartons which did cut down on the interior breezes somewhat.
We knew we wanted to make our move to the country a permanent lifestyle. The place we were living was not for sale so we drove to many beautiful but expensive places in BC in search of our dream. When I was 8 months pregnant we decided to check out Alberta, found a quarter section of trees and hills and fell in love with it.
My son was born in May but I still remember it being pretty cold when I'd get up in the night to nurse him, sitting on a chair wrapped in a quilt. It didn't take me long to tuck him in bed with us - much easier and warmer just rolling into position to accommodate his hunger. But he only lived in the Slocan Valley for two weeks. Dick left for Alberta with our friend Bill; Owen and I caught a plane to Madeira Park, BC. We stayed with my folks there until he was six weeks old, then we took another plane ride and began our Alberta adventure.
At first we didn't even have an outhouse - we'd just walk into the bush with a little shovel. The gents didn't seem to mind this arrangement but I did. A neighbour brought an outhouse over one day - a welcome upgrade in living standard. We still have that outhouse, out behind the shop, but it's usefulness has run its course - leaking roof, tilting precariously.
For 10 years we lived in our original 25' square log home, bit by bit making little improvements. From May through September we bathed in the beaver dam. In colder weather we used an old wash tub, eventually getting one you could actually sit in. I remember one time using the smaller tub to catch the drippings from the front quarter of a moose, a gift from a Newfie friend. We hung it from a purlin to thaw enough to cut it into manageable portions. We used the great outdoors for a freezer all winter; had an old fridge for an insulated box. It was colder in those days; worked pretty good most of the time. We did occasionally have to hustle meat off to a kind neighbor's freezer during a January thaw.
At first we hauled water from the lake in buckets or melted snow, but soon we developed a "water-in" system. We put a stock tank above the bedrooms, filled it from the lake using a pump and fire hoses. Most of the organic debris settled in the tank, the mosquito wigglers would rise to the top and, since the outlet on the tank was a few inches above the bottom, the water coming from the garden hose to my sink was fairly clear. We did strain it for drinking though. Filling the tank was tricky. I would stand in the rafters holding the nozzle and observing the water depth, my son was the runner and my husband ran the pump. When the water was near the top I'd yell, Owen would run to the edge of the lake and shout, and Dick would turn off the pump. In winter he had to auger a hole in the ice first. When finished pumping the fire hose would begin to freeze within seconds of the stopped water flow. So it had to be wound up - quick. We only ran the water over the top of the tank once - when I failed to see it creep up to the rim in time.
We dug our cellar the summer after we moved in using a line and tackle attached to a purlin, 5 gallon pails, and lots of muscle. It's not very big, has a dirt floor with planks over it, shelves for canned goods and bins for potatoes. It's cribbed like a well using Tamarac poles and rails and it has served us well for over 40 years now. It is on that "list" for refurbishing; we may get to it some day.
When we built the modern second half of our house in 1985, we changed the shape of the 2 downstairs bedrooms, making ours a bit bigger, the other much smaller, and added a dumbwaiter down to the cellar. This is our second fridge now. It keeps things at about +3 to +5 (Celsius) in winter, +12 or so in summer.
We used our parents for our excuse to upgrade into the 20th century. My poor, father-in-law, so modest he'd never pee outside and at the age where peeing becomes an issue with men. When he and Dick's mom would visit, he'd "Oy, yoy yoy!" his way out to the outhouse in the middle of the night, come hell or high water. And Mom - for her it was a fear of bears. So we took the plunge. Getting more logs from Swan Hills we added on, put in a bathroom and septic system, got a gas range, solar electricity, a propane fridge, an in-line hot water heater, a nice big kitchen, an upstairs bedroom for my son, and a storage room in which we installed the components for our solar system including the batteries.
We decided on the solar electric route for two reasons. First of all we felt it was a good idea. It fit in with our "tread lightly on the environment" philosophy. Secondly our farm was 2 miles from the nearest electric pole which made it very costly to bring grid power in. It was six to one, half dozen to the other. Both installations were nearly identical in price and being off-grid won out. We have since upgraded our solar system multiple times, now it's all pretty automatic. We also upgraded the septic system and the water system. Now, with the exception of being off-grid, we run things pretty much the same way as any other farm. We even put a propane space heater in the living room/bedroom area which will heat the whole house sufficiently if we're away, and we supplement this heat with a wood heater/cook stove we got from Australia (called a Baker's Oven cook stove) which has an oven on the bottom, fire box on the top and removable cooking plates, all fitting into about a 2' square in our kitchen.
We were in the middle of these renovations while we were hosting the Alberta Open International Sheepdog Trials in Fort Assiniboine and a stockdog training clinic here on the farm. The incredible undertakings of youth, so much energy. Sometimes I find it difficult to believe we ever did all these things.
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