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magazine / apr08
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April 2008 issue |
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FEATURE
Hippie homesteaders of the Fundy Hills
Thirty years ago, I jumped aboard the back-to-the-land movement.
My friends and I set about building self-sufficient communities in the hills
of New Brunswick. Most of us, staggered by the hard work, eventually gave
up on the dream. What happened to those who didn’t?
By Ray Conlogue with photography by Brian Atkinson
In 1971, I bought a 100-acre abandoned farm for
$2,000 in the Fundy Hills of southern New Brunswick.
Drawn there by cheap land and the pretty countryside, I
planned to erect a 140-square-metre geodesic dome on the
broad shoulder of what locals called Vinegar Hill. I had built
nothing before. In front of me lay a field of oats, cut each
year by a neighbour under an obscure lease that apparently
ended with my arrival. Marking off a large circle in the
field, I noticed that a vigorous swatch of alder bushes was
already advancing into the oats. The collapsing stone foundation
of the vanished farmhouse stood nearby.
top
It was lonely. Nobody had lived on the land since the
Depression. For weeks, my only companion was a moose
that sometimes lurched down the slope to nibble the apples
in the gnarled orchard which gave Vinegar Hill its name.
And it was wet. My tent was nearly washed away by a
bucket brigade of oily clouds that seemed intent on emptying
the Bay of Fundy onto my hillside.
In mid-June, my neighbours, elderly bachelor brothers
Peter and Jimmy Cummins, came to the rescue. Their
deceased mother’s room — a shrine of quilts and sepia photographs
— became my bedroom. They fired up their homemade
sawmill, powered by an ancient Chevrolet engine. In
a few hours one afternoon, they cut tamarack girders for my
foundation. As the structure rose, they opined that a "doom"
would withstand the winter and that the devil would never
catch me in a corner.
For the rest of this story, visit your local newsstand or go to our store to buy this issue.
Online exclusive: Canadian
Geographic Photo Club
Join us for an interview with photographer Brian Atkinson and get
a behind-the-scenes look into a photo shoot for Canadian Geographic.
Share your stories!
Building a self-sufficient homestead was a dream shared by many in the 1960s and 1970s. If you lived that dream or know someone who did, share
your stories with us.
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