Any one going to watch COLONIAL HOUSE tonight?

Alex,

You mention how much fun your homesteading life is and you think they should be that way.. but i think there is a big difference. you were watching the show on television.. a television powered by electricity. They had no electricity, no plumbing, no showers, no washing machines, no computers, no television, no phones, no modern conveniences or 'essentials'. And they were stuck eating oatmeal, peas, salted meat/fish, eggs and milk.. I think i'd be a little cranky too if i had to go poo behind a bush in the rain with only a wet leaf to wipe with. :haha:

Modern homesteading i'm sure is much better than colonial homesteading!

Jason

Just the same, where are the saints, and where is John Wayne, and Anne Oakly and other great women, and Henry David Thoreau (who went home to mamas for super).

Argh!

Real men and women can do it! They can work all day and pray and meditate all night and come back for more with smiles on there faces. Poo in the woods, have babies there too and get right back at it. No, coffee breaks, Starbucks and Cheezies (oops, did I let something out of the 20th century bag?) for them.

What's the big whimpy deal about taking a dump in the woods and wiping with some grass, get with the program, grow up, be a man or woman!

Get tough!, be strong, its only for a few months (or for a few years for the rest of us), don't whine about, go for it, appreciate it, be strong, attack it, go forward, don't let life come and get you, go after it! Charge ahead men and women of life!

Sweet gentle Alex

... hmmm ... I hate oatmeal (guess I need to work on that, oh well minor point)

__________________
Thou art That

They mentioned maggots in with the goats. They should run the chickens in there for a bit!

And flies are a problem? You need more chickens to run around and eat the flies!

Looks like they're having trouble with funky meat. Go hunting! I like the suggestion earlier that they should be using nets to go fishing.

__________________
.

[raising chickens] [diatomaceous earth] [permaculture] [rocket mass heater] [lawn care]

.

I suspect they have some real world limitations on hunting just like they did with Frontier House. The thousand acre parcel they're colonizing belongs to a local Indian tribe and they may not allow them to hunt or it may be the state won't allow it.

Not a perfect recreation, to be sure, but then they're not going to allow someone to die of a badly abscessed tooth either.

.....Alan.

Oh I get it now.

I would like a "how to" show better though!!

__________________
Cyndi (and sometimes Paul)

Muller's Lane Farm
"Lessons in Homesteading"

Could you afford to take off for 5-6 months?? My cow & other livestock would complain too much (at least for a while, until they croaked)!!

__________________
Cyndi (and sometimes Paul)

Muller's Lane Farm
"Lessons in Homesteading"

The political Correctness is what's killing me. Like everything on PBS -especially the kids shows, everyone has to be represented even in the most unlikely situation. So we have the white people, the black people, the native Americans the gay guy, and the new ship just dropped off an oriental guy. Haven't seen the red head with freckles yet...I see the disabled aren't yet represented either. But guess who'll be coming in on the next tide? Probably Long John Silver or some pirate with an eye patch. Which would then also mean that Parrots would be represented too...

Sorry I don't mean offence to any of these people it's just this PBS policy that drives me nuts!

This is Pigeon Lady I forgot to sign in.

OK the show is a bit lame. I mean Where is the Doctor? What "rich" English lord sends out servants without a doctor to keep them in working shape? And how about a Mid-wife? A Blacksmith and his forge to repair and make tools? Hunting by gun, snares, Fishing with nets, trot lines.

Why not log cabins instead of slab homes? Isn't threre any Canvas to make that new family a Tent home till something better could be made?

Ever heard of digging a hole and putting the Beer barrel with the meat in it to keep it fresher longer?

Why didn't the LayPreacher beat the crap outta his wife for disabaying the rules? Ain't he 2nd in command? Bad example for the others.

Gay Boy Kill him just like in 1628 (Ok banish him from the project/show)

That "Woman" is not a "wiccan" so they should veer off from hinting she is. I'd say she's a atheist at best. A wiccan would also be a herbalist and be contributing toward the medicinal end.

Church meetings "Couldn't that be divided into sections"? (service)(social)(town whining)

The guy that wandered into town should have been "put in the Stocks for a day"

Guess like Alex I'll watch the rest of it since I have already watched this far.

And yes Where Is The Soap? Either make some or bring a big cake from England. Just when was combs invented? Before 1628 I bet.

I know this is crazy but wouldn't the real colonist have had Oxen? and Ox carts? I thought that Oxen were considered the working edible animal.

Last peeve Is any of the women going to make clothes? Repair clothes? Quilt?

I agree with about everything all of you have said. I thought this was going to teach me about everyday life in colonial times but instead it apparently is a survivor type of program except instead of an island it's maine and they are wearing funny clothes.

I have never watched any of the reality shows and only know what they are from commercials and friends talking about them. If I had known this is what this one was going to be, I wouldn't have watched it. pbs fooled me once but they won't fool me twice. I'm not interested in *reality* shows.

Good thing I'm not the govenor! I probably would have banished the entire group by now and have the place to myself

I really do admire the texas family though, they all seem like very strong people who are confident in their faith, live it every day and aren't embarrassed to share it. The lay preacher is nice enough but not strong enough to be a govenor.

The voorhies, well while I appreciate the nude scene of the man I'd like mrs voorhies to take a long walk on a short pier. And I agree with what others have said, they signed up to join this project knowing that it was about living the life led by those in 1628. She knew the rules and what she had to live by and she still wanted to be part of it. No one made her or went after her, she CHOSE it. I have to believe that the producers knew this and deliberately chose a family like theirs just to stir up controversy. Like I said, pbs won't get the chance to fool me again with another show like this.

One thing this show has made me think about is how hard it must have been to be in charge of a group like this. If you were like me and banish them all from the community then you have no way of paying back your debt and the goal of establishing a community/society would have been a failure. I obviously am not governor material and at least this show has given me food for thought.

I've always wondered if it was possible to create a society like the Amish have and live in modern america the way they do without the clothes and the strict religious rules. After watching this show, I think that's just a pie in the sky dream since I think both the colonials and the amish have the right idea in that they need some common, strong denominator that brings the group together and holds it together through stressful times. Religion did that for both of these groups I think, not sure it would be possible without it.

Mel-

Like I said before, the show was fine if you like silly "reality" shows. They are all over the TV schedule now. However, the disappointment with this one is that it was hyped as something it wasn't. One thing for sure - the hardworking men and women of strong work ethic and Christian character who came over and worked hard would have been mighty insulted at this "reenactment" or whatever it was. By virtue of looking at the character and personalities chosen for this show, you can see the producers weren't serious at all about a real portrayal of colonial life in that time period. The Canadian show, I hope, we willl all be able to find and watch!

point taken. I was just trying to say that it would be a much better show

I posted something like this over on Countryside Families, but I'm struck by how outraged people are that they aren't all obeying the rules. I actually think they are pretty accurate to the period in many ways (I teach the Renaissance - this is my period):

1. Pretty much everyone in the Renaissance drank like a fish - temperence was not a major part of Protestant theology. Daily rations for a man were close to a gallon of beer a day - not a pint every 4 days. Even the kids were given beer. Beer was a major part of most people's diet.

2. 5 out of 8 colonists was an indentured servant. Somewhere between 1/2 and 2/3 of the indentured servants were unwilling transports, convicts forced to go to the colonies against their will. They were not happy, willing servants - they were whores, pimps, thieves, poachers, etc... So the unwilling servants are pretty much par for the course. Those of you who tuned in to be uplifted by a happy reproduction of our Puritan forefathers should realize that a large number of our foremothers were prostitutes, and many of the forefathers weren't so principled either.

3. Even the radical Protestants were not all of one faith. Anne Hutchinson was kicked out of Massachusetts for preaching, uncovering her hair, and saying that women were equal to men in G-d's eyes. Despite the stupid narrator's voice, there were athiests and plenty of folks who resented the heck out of sitting through 3 hour sermons. Sabbath breaking was a tradition that got plenty of people in the stocks.

There's more, but all you have to do is read Shakespeare to see that everyone didn't follow the rules, and that the real colonists were no better at creating the city on the hill than these ones are.

Remember, PBS picks people who will cause trouble and melodrama because it makes for good tv. It isn't their fault that coming out (which I thought was sincere and appropriate) makes better tv to us than a how-to-make-gruel show. Pity, though.

I like the anthropologist (asst. govs wife) and John Voorhees - both of them are at least funny. Otherwise, they all take themselves and their opinions way too seriously.

The biggest problem is that there are simply too many people to get a sense of how each person developed within the experience. The real pleasure of PQ and FH was watching people turn gradually into homesteaders.

Sharon

I think this series is going to be a flop. It has nothing to do with the lives and the hard work that it took to survive in the new world. It's all about political correctness.

Frontier House was far better.

__________________
Joy at Secretplace Farm

From reading the various Colonial House threads on this and other forums I am reminded of something that came to me when Frontier House came out and that is the pre-conceived notions that so many people developed about what the show was supposed to be about without having first checked out what the show producers were actually doing.

Watch the show or not. It's your life. I find both of them to be of value, though perhaps not for reasons that some would understand.

.....Alan.

sharon,

thank you for posting that. now, why in the world didn't pbs have the narrator remark that the wayward modern colonists were not unlike their 17th century counterparts and give statistics like that about how many broke the sabbath? But all they stated on the show and their website was it was punishable by hours in the stocks and banishment from the colony. If it was that common, then I would think they didn't banish very often. What I was wanting or expecting was a show that tried to show 17th century life honestly and if lots of ppl skipped the sabath and accepted their punishment for it, I don't understand why they didn't make that point. I'm glad to have found that out!

So far as pre-conceived notions go, I only saw the commercials on pbs. I have not read any previews or reviews or whatever about this show (I don't watch entertainment shows or read that part of newspapers). What I was expecting was based on what their commercials seemed to be saying the show was about. I haven't seen any of the other *house* shows other than I think what was called the manor house or something like that, set in england during victorian times and I only saw part of one episode of it.

Like I said, I'm not interested in reality shows and won't be tuning in to any future *house* shows if this is what they are. I was interested in a true portrayal of history, with all it's warts and blemishes. The kind of thing Sharon just posted is what I want to know about my ancestors. I know enough about my modern whiney descendants of those ancestors. I'm not interested in watching any shows about THEM

mel-

did anyone hear the narrator on tonight's episode? She said that our Founding Father's would later seperate "church and state" in the Constitution. WHAT A TOTAL LIE! Seperation of church and state is not even in the Constitution

Could you not write God because of not wanting to offend anyone or because of disbelief or was that a typo? I'm confused.

Neither the Anglican church nor any other faith is the State Religion in the United States so in that respect that is exactly what the Founding Fathers did.

You may attend the church of your choice or not, as it pleases you, and no law is going to force you to do one or the other.

This was not the case in the seventeenth century where you could be fined, imprisoned, or otherwise punished for failure to abide by the Sabbath Laws.

1776 minus 1628 is 148 years. Considerable evolution in thought between the Colonial House time period and that of our Revolution.

.....Alan.

Ha! You probably went to school in Texas.

First Amendment:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

To be constitutional, laws must be proven to have a secular purpose, be neutral toward religions, and not result in battle between government and religion.

----! I forgot to watch it last night! What happened?

__________________
.

[raising chickens] [diatomaceous earth] [permaculture] [rocket mass heater] [lawn care]

.