In search of a simpler life
After getting rid of my television several years ago, life has gotten a whole lot simpler and much more real. I've not bought a newspaper since 1995. I get my news off the Internet and non-mainstream sources. Living free of all the propaganda and conditioning spewed out daily by mainstream media has allowed me to see the world in a different way. It's only when we step outside the box that we can see the false reality we're forced to live in. For me the world will never be the same again. We are continually spoon fed lies and false values by the media, religion, government and education to the point where most people can no longer think for themselves. People are being herded like sheep into cities because we are more easily controlled there. In the cities, just like sheep in a pen, we are dependent on others for everything we need to stay alive. What can we do about this? Well, in actual fact, there is quite a lot we can do. I'm not saying that living in the city is wrong in itself. I am saying that delegating to others everything we need to live and enjoy life certainly is. We must become more self-sufficient in every way. It's just that this is so much more difficult in the city than it is in the country. The temptations and distractions are too many. It's a lot easier to stop off at the grocery store on the way home than it is to plant a garden and look after it. But there will soon come a time when those shelves will be bare or the foods on them so expensive that most will not be able to afford them. I know people who have turned their whole back yard into a garden. I know people who have filled their flower gardens and decks with pots of vegetables and herbs. I also now people who grow pots of hanging tomato plants and fruits in their apartments. And they all live in the city. For me though, living in the country is so much easier. And it is so much safer. Home invasions are almost non-existent. Everyone seems to smile more. In the country you can build a life that is sustaining and healthy because you have time to. Following is a short story I'm going to enlarge upon in the near future. A perfect home for a Canadian artistIn 1973 Brad, Kent, Carol, my wife Sharon and I decided to move to the Shuswap Lake area of south-central British Columbia where we lived on the shores of Adams Lake for 15 years from 1973 to 1988. Where in all of the world could a Canadian artist find a better place to live? Especially one who painted the history of Western Canada? We purchased a half acre lot that had a roughly framed house already built. We vacuumed out all the dead files and moved right in, spreading our sleeping bags on the floor and setting up a camp stove for a makeshift kitchen. I'm sure about then Sharon was wondering what the heck she'd gotten herself into. But we all got to work and soon had a bathroom, kitchen, bedrooms and living room (sorta) all set up and working. Then we had the basement floor poured and installed a central propane furnace heating system by late October. Before the frost set in we put in a potable water system to pump our water directly out of the lake. We were all set for the winter. My dad, who was a lineman during the war, helped us move and stayed for a few months to help wire the house. He had been scheduled for open heart surgery in Calgary so returned in November for that. Then came one of the saddest times of my life. It was a critical operation and dad didn't make it. He was so enjoying helping us and he and Sharon got along so well that he was looking forward to coming back out after he recuperated and dig in to help us. He loved fishing and working with us. I'm sure he was still with us throughout the fifteen years we lived there. I'm sure he's still with us now. The following spring we began cleaning up the yard (it was a mess of weeds of every type) but it had apple trees, three of them, and the apples were big and delicious. We soon had a garden in and a root cellar set up. We built a studio right down on the lake above our dock. We set up an artist's print studio that any printmaker would be proud of. These were the days before the Giclée technology so I produced limited edition silkscreen prints. I often think that this location would have been absolutely perfect if we had had the Internet and Giclée technology so that I could not only correspond with my patrons and dealers via email but could also have produced limited edition Giclées and had a Web site like this one. I can only dream. Out in the middle of the bush and connected to the world. Wow. Sockey salmon spawned in the rivers and swam past our dock every fall. We caught lake trout, dolly varden and kokanee right off the end of our dock. Black bear, coyotes, bobcats, lynx, marten, mink, great horned owls, ruffed grouse, eagles and osprey to name a few passed through our yard. Loons could be heard thoughout the evening and early morning. One year we had a black bear cub spend the entire winter under my studio. I used to hear him moving over under the Ashley wood heater during a particularly long cold spell. He was company during many a long day when I was alone and painting. We were as self sufficient as we could possibly be. We had a few hundred miles of virgin country outside our back door stretching north to Wells Gray Provincial Park and beyond. We heated with wood in a fireplace we built from rocks we gathered from around the lake and brought back by boat. We designed and built a hydraulic log splitter from an old airplane landing gear and split logs up to 10" diameter 4 ways. We eventually built a wood-fired boiler outside the house in a separate 8' x 10' shed and stored hot water in an insulated 500 gallon propane tank. We piped hot water into the house and through an old radiator we installed in the cold air intake of the propane backup furnace to heat the house, all controlled by a second thermostat set 4 degrees above the propane thermostat. So when we were away for a few days the propane furnace kept the house from freezing. Burning garbage and scrap wood heated our home for spring and fall till the really cold weather came when we burned logs we bucked ourselves from up in the bush behind the house. Ocassionally when we could afford it we bought a load of birch from one of the logging trucks working in the area. We converted our 3/4 ton truck (GMC 350 small block V8 engine) to dual gasoline/propane and filled it from a 500 gallon residential propane tank. No road tax for us. Running on propane was the best decision we could have made. It started in all weather and, once adjusted to a different fuel, gave us as good mileage as gasoline with none of the problems. We also added a welder, an air compressor, and a 120v DC power supply with an AC converter alongside the engine where there was also enough room for a second battery. We did all of the above as a family. We moved to the lake in late August and a few days later Brad, Kent and Carol hopped on the school bus that stopped right behind our house. After school the bus dropped them off and they did their homework. Then they would pitch in and help with whatever their mom and I were doing. This was a family adventure and it was absolutely the best move we ever made. From a busy city of Calgary we had moved to a quiet place beside a lake where we actually became a family for the first time. There was always work to be done but we often hopped in the boat and went fishing after school. Many times both Brad and Kent water skied up to the head of the lake and back, a long round trip of about 85 miles. We often camped on small islands at the head of the lake. We explored the whole lakeshore together. Doing it again the RV wayI'm going to add to this section soon. I've now turned 71 and realize that if I'm ever going to do something I've wanted to do for many years, I'd better get to it. I'm going to buy an RV and live on the road. But it won't be any old RV. No, no, no. It will be a totally self-contained "extra large" Class 'B' RV. Even though it won't be more than 22 feet in length (so that I can drive it off road when necessary) it will be expandable, sleep 4 comfortably and be fully insulated for year-round use. Even the slide out and floor will be insulated. This RV will contain an all-in-one washer/dryer, a water-conserving, filtered/recycling shower and a one-pint RV toilet with grey-water flushing. It will drain the rain hitting the roof into a holding tank that will be UV treated and filtered to provide potable water. It will have a small hydroponic greenhouse for the basics, full kitchen setup and a good size fridge/freezer. Both captains chairs will swing around to provide back-facing seats for the evenings. It will have a table that makes down into a bed and a large bed above the cab. Additionally, it will have a two-way, high-speed satellite internet dish on the roof, external high-gain cellular antenna, several protection devices and GPS tracking built in. It will also have an 8-color proofing printer along with a large monitor for working on the photos I'll take long the way. Finally, it will have full-roof solar panels with deep cycle battery storage and a 12vDC/110vAC (inverted and direct) system. It will run on dual fuel propane/gasoline. This is going to be as much fun to set up as to live in. And no property taxes or problem neighbors.
John Crittenden
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