My Earlies days living off the Land
June 11, 2023 By: T00109988, Johanne Brar
Environmental History
HIST 3991
Johanne Brar
June 11, 2023
My Earlies days living off the Land
My family grew up in a small one-bedroom cabin with my family of 20, and had every space of the floor used for beds. During the day we would roll up our beds, and used the living area for a living room. Our family relied on the land for food, food for animals, and hunted for fur-bearing for extra money. My family relied on the seasons to make a good living didn’t have to rely on the local store for food, and what was needed. As I got older I eventually had to go to school, which was Residential School, which is another paper.
Every Spring my family make there way to our ranch which was located about 10 miles by horseback as we didn’t have a car for transportation. In the Spring my grandfather would hunt for moose, and deer which was scarce. My grandmother and mother would make a whole in the ice of the lake and put a net under the ice, and would catch abundance of fish. We had food all year long as my parents and grandparents made sure that there was meat on the table all the time, as we there were so many of us living under one roof. My father would hunt beaver, muskrat, squirrels, and other animals to harvest for meat, and sell the pelts for extra money. This extra money, we would go to Darcy Christensen Store, whose motto was, “If I don’t have it you don’t need it.” My family would go shopping for bags of potatoes, rice, sugar, salt, coffee, and Kerosene for our lamp.
In the summer my family would make our way to the next ranch that we owned, and set up camp for the summer. We always prayed that there would be good weather, so that we can harvest hay, and not fight with the rain which will spoil the crop. With an adequate water supply and more intensive management, it is estimated that 7,500 tons of dry forage can be produced annually. This involves intensive irrigation, the scientific use of fertilizers and careful timing of forage cuttings.[1] We would make hay manually all summer long for the horses, so that they had enough feed for the winter. We would work hard all summer, and my grandfather had a treat for us to go to the mountains and hunt deer, and goat for a feast. We would also fish right from our horse’s back, and had fresh fish for supper, if we didn’t get a deer. We would spend a day picking wild blueberries, strawberries, and one of my favorites black berries that grew on the ground. If was a short season within a month that the berries would grow, and we had to pick it fast. It was a lot of hard work in the summer, and it was something that we all look forward to, we had to harvest with the growing seasons. There was no running water, or hydro. He had to pack water from the creek, which was a great distance and had to pack wood for the fire, if we wanted bannock for breakfast. There was a schedule that was kept, so that we can keep up with the camp, and made sure we cut all the hay on all the meadows and put it away for the winter. This was one of my favorite times of the year, if we finish early in the fields, we got to go fishing. It was a competition to see who can catch the most fish, they were tiny little trout’s that were no more that a 3-4 inches only. They were so tasty, we use to consume about 10 each on any given night. My great-grandfather got some rhubarb from a friend, and planted it. Every summer the rhubarb would grow back, and we would harvest it and make pie, and jam. At the end of the summer, we had enough meat, fish, and hay to feed the family, and the horses throughout the winter.
In the winter, my family would hunt for moose that stayed near our stack yard full of day. On most days, my grandpa or father would get a moose to feed the family of 20 which didn’t last too long. This was also the time to get fur-bearing animals such as, lynx, fox, coyote, wolf, wolverine, marten, and mink, squirrels. Back in the 70’s you got $1000 for a lynx, and my grandfather use to get of least 10 throughout the winter, which provided us with vegetable and grains. We use to have to haul hay from our ranch to Nimpo Lake on the ice, when it was -40 below in the moonlight. These were some of the most enjoyable nights, we would see the Northern Lights, and spend hours on the sleigh that was pulled by our horses, and watching the lights flicker.
In conclusion my family relied on the land for food, food for the horses, and hunted fur-bearing animals for extra money for food, clothes, and kerosene. It was a lot of hard work, living in a small log cabin, and having to haul water, and pack wood from a great distance. We would only bathe once a week, as it was hard to pack water and fill a big tin tub to take a bath. Living in the Cariboo-Chilcotin was hard work, as the land wasn’t made for farming and growing vegetable as we were in higher elevation. My grandparents were very smart, as they knew when to hunt, make hay, make medicines, and they weren’t even environmentalist, or doctors.
Bibliography
[1] L.A. Leskiw, L. Farstad, and J.I. Sneddon., A Soil Resource and Land Use Survey of the Anahim Indian Reserve. Edited by : Dr. R. E. Carlyle.,( ‘RESEARCH STATION.’ Agriculture Canada. 1973.) 4