Extreme Rural Living

[hermit]

Anyubody catch the PBS reality show "Frontier House" last night? Had to check it out as we used to spend a lot of time in that country a few years ago.
Interesting comments and observations on todays society and lifestyles. When they were trying to plow their garden plots with the horses anybody know if they were using an original John Deere plow?

 

[dmccarty]

I caught bits and pieces of the show.

I assume its from the same producers who did a show where a family
went back to a live as Victorians.

The problem I have with these shows, and they kinda interesting, is
it really fair to expect a modern family from the 21st century to be
able to suddenly live like an 19th century family? Or conversely would
it be fair to take a 19th century family and throw them in the 21st
century?

There are different sets of skills needed to live in either century and to
expect a family from one century to go back in time and be successful
I think is somewhat problematic.

On the other hand one of the family can seem to think one step ahead
and I was trying to figure out how they made all their money in the 20th
and 21st century. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Later...
Dan

 

[Golfgar4]

My wife and I watched it. My problem with this, and other similar shows (such as that Victorian one), is the complaining and whining the participants do. It's hard for me to believe that these people didn't figure out how hard things would be. They seem to think that they were going on a vacation or something.

Actually, the father and son team, Rudy and Nate, I thought really handled it better than the other families. They seemed to be "mentally" prepared for what they were getting into and handled it well.

The concept of these shows is interesting, but I just think that regardless how the show is set up, there are things that can't be done now that could've been done in the past, or vice versa. For example, they do not allow any of these people to do any hunting. I understand the reason for this, but the one family that's having trouble with the food situation could easily have solved it if they could have done some hunting. Isn't that actually making it harder for these people than what the people in 1883 experienced?

The point is, no matter how hard they try, the producers cannot make the conditions the same as they were back in 1883. So is it really fair to put these people through all of this when they don't have the exact same things available that the pioneers did?

 

[gws]

MY wife and I got the first two shows last night. It was interesting but I would have prefered all family start he same with no home. Let each of them try to build a complete homestead. THe snow storm was interesting. I wonder when MR LA dad is gong to get around to cheeking his log cabin.

It is a bit misleading. I am betting that a TN family moving west in the 1800 would have been pretty
well set. Most of the work the ladies did would be pretty much the same regardless of being in the west or east.

Maybe Survivor show can start period pieces.

 

[Boondox]

My wife and I watched it last night. We agreed about the hunting thing and thought a one-shot (no second chances) marksmanship contest with meat as the prize might have been a way around the game laws without taking away the food source hunting would have provided.

We couldn't believe how important makeup was to some of the women. Thought that woman who smuggled in the toilet paper was a realist! And when are those two teenaged girls going to start pulling their weight?

Pete

 

[RanchMan]

I caught a couple of pieces of it as well (was on TBN & it was on in the background /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif).

Anyway -

<font color=blue>There are different sets of skills needed to live in either century and to expect a family from one century to go back in time and be successful I think is somewhat problematic.</font color=blue>

I agree, but think that is kindof the point of these type shows - in that I think most people today don't have a clue regarding the difficulties and hardships of the past. After all in todays society, "Meat" comes from the supermarket, traveling 30 miles takes less than half an hour, and when "you" "build" a house, it means you pay some contractors/company to do all the physical labor.

Life "back then" was much more of a struggle - today we have firemen, EMS, plentiful food, abundant housing, and all sorts of "programs" to "help" if you don't have the income to pay for it. Sure, you had the "good neighbor" factor, but if you didn't put food on the table, you didn't eat; if you didn't make it, you did without; etc. Although a show like this definitely has issues with not being "quite accurate", I find it kindof refreshing that some "soft" folks get a taste of how hard things were back then.

Quite frankly, I think that if people were required to live like this today, a lot of the "progressive" ideas a portion of the population has seemed to embrace (hunting is "evil", sense of entitlement, etc.) wouldn't be as prevalent.

Just my $.02 /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Mosey]

I haven’t seen the show you’re talking about, but I’ll watch for it. I drove through some Amish country (south of Fort Wayne, IN) last weekend. It’s easy to spot their houses because there are no power wires going to them. I was told by a guy who travels around with teams of Belgium horses and plows with them (they have a big get together every summer near the farm in MI where I grew up). Some of the plows they use are still manufactured today and the Amish use them. I can’t remember the name of the manufacturer. It was fun to watch and definitely gives you an appreciation for how hard it was in the 1800’s. My parents told me that my grandfather used to walk from Lansing, MI to Detroit, MI (about 100 miles 1 way) to get parts for his plow. That’s a long walk!

 

[MDNick]

Mosey,

Not only is it a long walk, but the back haul would get tiring. Plow parts are HEAVY. 100 miles lugging a moldboard, no thanks. I like my F150./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Nick

 

[Egon]

My Grandparents as well as many of yours probably started out the same way when they first emigrated to the " New Land "
I can rember my Grandmother telling me of making bricks, having soup as a main diet, drying turnips etc. Her family did not own a gun but did trap rabbits. The land was all cleared by hand with the help of horses. Useing raw wool, carding, spinning and knitting were were the norm. Heck, I've even had the pleasure of churning butter. It was just plain hard work that most of us are used to or conditioned for today. An hour in the gym everyday just does't equal a complete day spent at hard labour involved in frontier life.

Egon

 

[dmccarty]

RanchMan,

You certainly are right about the "progressive" ideas going down the toilet,
or should I say outhouse, /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif, if the holders of those ideas had to work
without the benefits of modern life.

I don't normally watch "reality TV shows" and I think this show is kinda of a
more higher brow version. I was hoping to learn more about the tools,
technology and techniques used by the people of the time. I really don't give
a rats a.. about the petty problems these fruit loops seem to complain about.
Its sad that the two families with children don't get along. The CA wife seems
to be a ditz on how to handle food and proper nutrition even though I thought
she had a degree in nutrition. CA father, who prior to the show, had not mowed
his lawn in 16 years is a wimp who just does not understand hard work. The CA
family just seems very spoiled. While they are doing the TV show they are having
a 7000+ square foot house being built. The little thread about the still really
shows the families character. I don't think I would want to do business with
his company.

I really feel sorry for the TN families father. His wife is just a nagging witch
with a very sharp, pointed tongue. I think she is really responsible for the
"feud" between the TN and CA families.

The east coast couple seem to be the only "normal" family. They seem to
really have their stuff togather and have a realistic idea of what has to be
done and what will happen in the future. They would survive the winter.
The TN couple likely could but the wife has blown up the family. I'm sure
that has been brewing for many years prior to the TV show but the stress
of living this close all the time and the team work that is required has
blown that marriage out of the water. The CA family would be dead by
spring.....

I get the Smithsonian magazine and the May edition has been sitting at home
for a week or so. Last night I opened it and there was an article about this
show. The producer was involved with the 1900 Victorian show. They article
does mention what happens to the people in the show after it ends. Not any
suprises really. They people do say that the experience really changed them.
The CA family's mom says she wished they had built a smaller house and she
would not have minded if much of their material goods had been stolen from
storage. They all seem to appreciate modern appliances but I think two of the
families no longer use the dish washer. The really like the time it takes to
do the dishes....


The one thing that has suprised me is that the families aren't really that
squimish about killing animals for food. I'm still trying to figure out how
they got the idea of sticking a finger up a chicken's a.. to get it to lay eggs....
/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Later...
Dan