|
| Author |
Message |
CampCoyote
Member
|
# Posted: 29 Jan 2013 07:29pm
Reply
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/For-40-Years-This-Russian-Family-Wa s-Cut-Off-From-Human-Contact-Unaware-of-World-War-II-188843001.html
|
|
groingo
Member
|
# Posted: 29 Jan 2013 08:21pm
Reply
Just one word...Amazing.
|
|
rayyy
Member
|
# Posted: 30 Jan 2013 05:42pm
Reply
Wow,,,boy that's roughing it all right!
|
|
bugs
Member
|
# Posted: 30 Jan 2013 06:21pm
Reply
Quite incredible. The isolation would send most people around the bend.
But ya' know many of us are only a couple generations (for me my grand father and grand mother) from being "off grid" and self sufficient. I remember no indoor plumbing, a wood stove (fresh baked bread baking and from the oven is incomparable!!!), grew what you ate, wild fruits etc etc etc etc. (And I had to walk uphill both ways to school!! )
My great grand parents and grand parents homesteaded in SK in 1905 (I have seen their homestead records. See attached.) I suspect others from NA and Australia and elsewhere have similar connections. There were neighbours but it was horse and plow, alot of back breaking work and a few pigs, chickens and cows and a huge garden. And maybe 10 acres of wheat/oats and some hay Now they call it a mixed farm/self sufficient and is in vogue. Then it was survival.
Homestead page 1
| 
Homestead page 2
| 
the great grand parents "home"
|  |
|
|
Martian
Member
|
# Posted: 30 Jan 2013 06:23pm
Reply
Thanks.
Tom
|
|
ericfromcowtown
Member
|
# Posted: 30 Jan 2013 06:26pm - Edited by: ericfromcowtown
Reply
It's amazing that in our inter-connected, crowded world, even the world of 1978, there would be corners so isolated to allow for the Lykovs.
|
|
countryred
Member
|
# Posted: 30 Jan 2013 07:11pm
Reply
yep, amazing
|
|
hattie
Member
|
# Posted: 30 Jan 2013 07:20pm
Reply
What an amazing story! Thank you for posting this!
It goes to show that what we might think of as living a self-sufficient lifestyle, isn't really. People may generate their own power and use wood for heat, grow their own food and preserve it, but they really aren't totally self-sustaining. The people in this story were and you can see the terrible shape they were in. Their clothes in tatters from patching and repatching them. No pots and pans to cook in. No shoes to wear. They barely managed to live and most of their lives were in hunger.
So when we (modern day folk) talk about living a self-sufficient life, we need to remember that we will still need to rely on stores for items as they need to be replaced (clothes, tools, etc.).
Even our ancestors and aboriginal people relied on each other at times for items they couldn't produce themselves. They would trade or barter for these items. As this story told us, it is almost impossible to be 100% self-sufficient and if you do somehow manage it, your life will certainly not be very comfortable.
This was an amazing story!!
|
|
|
bldginsp
|
# Posted: 31 Jan 2013 12:25pm
Reply
I can't be that far from Starbucks more than a few days.
But really, without my propane cookstove, heater, shower, plumbing torch, gas chain saw, generator, not to mention the hardware and grocery stores two miles away, and of course, my credit card- I'd be totally lost.
|
|
CampCoyote
Member
|
# Posted: 31 Jan 2013 09:01pm - Edited by: CampCoyote
Reply
Thanks, Bugs. My Dad and his Dad before him grew up about the same way.
This is the house my dad (b. 1940) grew up in with his 8 brothers and 2 sisters. Built about 1900 on a Mtn top near Vansant, VA. Two bedrooms, a kitchen, a parlor, and a loft (about 800 sq ft). Got electricity in 1958. Never had an indoor bathroom. Around 1971 they installed a pump at the spring so Grandma had a faucet and a sink in the kitchen. I can barely remember visiting when water still had to be hand carried from the spring (200 yds horizontal, 100 feet vertical). To drive up the Mtn required a four wheel drive vehicle, but that didn't matter as they never owned a car or truck. They mostly lived off what the grew and what they could trade for.
They moved off the mountain in 1978. I didn't realize that I was seeing the end of a era until I was nearly an adult.
My family has roots in SW Virginia that go back to the 1700's (before it was legal to settle west of the Allegheny Mtns).
|
|
bugs
Member
|
# Posted: 1 Feb 2013 08:50am
Reply
CampC
What a great story and pic of the "oldhomeplace". That was just the way it was back then. And when I say back then it was really not that long ago. Just trying to "make ends meet" and survive. (For likely billions in the world things have not changed too much living from hand to mouth and subsistence living. ) I grew up on the homestead I mention above.Thankfully a bit modernized. Now the area is very depopulated,( 10 miles or more to the next neighbour instead of 1 mile) due to larger farms and people moving away to the "good" life of the city.
Your original story altho sad because of why the family became isolated due to religious persecution is fascinating and speaks of the adaptability of humans. Definitely a throw back to another age gone by. Makes the modern off gridders with solar/generators/atv's/insulation/on demand water heaters/etc etc and don't forget internet access so they can blog the world, seem really not all that unique.
|
|
Martian
Member
|
# Posted: 1 Feb 2013 09:15am - Edited by: Martian
Reply
Quoting: bugs For likely billions in the world things have not changed too much living from hand to mouth and subsistence living.
There is a line, from some book I read years ago, that pretty much sums it up:
"The 20th century is a matter of geography, not time."
This story pretty much validates that.
Tom
|
|
Cotton Picker
|
# Posted: 1 Feb 2013 11:14am
Reply
I can relate (at least partially) to the isolated, self sufficient Russian family in the article.
I was born in 1936 on a remote cotton farm in the delta flatlands of Southern MS.
I recall watching my Grandfather & Uncle plowing a field with a yoke of oxen.
In 1954 I enlisted in the Military for a 20 year hitch thereby "ESCAPING"
that life of drudgery & little pay.
We never had gas for heating or cooking. We had no running water, phone or television. We only had electricity during the latter few years before my "Great Escape".
We cooked & heated our house entirely with wood we cut from our farm.
A medium sized River ran through our farm which provided us with a variety of fish. It also served as a place for us to bathe (during pleasant weather) We used a boat my Father made from cypress wood cut from our farm.
The woods & fields provided us with game such as rabbit, squirrell & deer. We also got pecans, mulberries & wild honey from the woods.
We had almost an acre of orchard, mostly in peaches but also pears, plums & apricots. We always planted a large garden for immediate consumption & for canning.
We grew corn & peanuts. We put the peanuts (still in the shell) into old flour sacks & hung them from the ceiling by a wire (to prevent mice from feasting). We shelled the corn & had a local grist mill grind it into corn meal from which we made corn bread & crackling bread.
We cured hog meat by smoking & salting.
Cash was scarce but food was plentiful.
I estimate that 85-90% of the food we consumed was gathered from our woods, fields & River.
We were definately living off grid, although that term was not in vogue at that time.
We knew no other life & were happy & well adjusted.
People can adjust remarkably well to any type of environment.
Thanks for listening folks!
Cotton Picker
|
|
silverwaterlady
Member
|
# Posted: 1 Feb 2013 11:39am
Reply
That was an amazing read! Here is a photo of my husband at the logging camp he lived in one winter in 1949 when he was 10 years old. He is holding a rabbit he trapped.
|
|
|
