THE ROADS TO HOODOO LAKE
(Page 3 of 7)
January/February 1971
By George Bumpus
I've also watched quite a few folks purchase land that is rich, beautiful . . . and over a water table that is so deep it costs a fortune to drill a well. Consequently, they have to haul water from as close a source as possible. By contrast, other homesteads have plenty of water from a dug well only 11 to 25 feet deep. In our case, nearby Hoodoo Lake provided us with water until I could dig a well. Now, the well—20 feet deep—furnishes us with all the water we can use.
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WE HOMESTEAD
It was late in April when we moved onto our property and a few inches of snow still lay on the ground. Luckily, there was a 75-year-old trapper's cabin on the place in the trees overlooking a large meadow only 200 yards from Hoodoo Lake Road. The cabin was little and needed repairs and cleaning to make it liveable but it was a serviceable temporary home and we were happy to have it. We unloaded our belongings, moved in and started building a permanent log cabin.
The construction of our new house was a big job for amateurs and we worked hard finding straight trees, cutting them, skinning bark, notching, fitting and lifting. It was worth it. We were rather pleased with the finished product and I hired a fellow with a D-8 Caterpillar tractor to clear some land for a vegetable garden and driveway. When summer arrived, we took time out to do some fishing and swimming.
Most of the lakes in the area are well stocked with trout and the fish are easy to catch while trolling from a small boat. Spence Lake is a little different and, usually, we catch only squaw fish there. This fish is rather bony but the meat is white and quite tasty. We intend to devote more time to this pastime in the future.
Our first summer near Prince George convinced us that we had picked a good location for our homestead. Except for mosquitoes, the season was very pleasant . . . beautiful, in fact. The spruce, pine, birch, berry vines, ferns, flowers and light green poplar trees with greenish-white trunks grew everywhere. The air was fresh and the days—allowing an occasional rain shower were sunny. The night sky was filled with stars (a sight rarely seen in the big cities from which we had come).
We didn't have any electricity that first year (in fact, we still don't) because the power lines end three miles from our place. This hasn't been any problem at all; we now consider electricity of little importance and I won't bother with a light plant because of the unnecessary expense. We use a mantle-type kerosene lantern for lighting, a transistor radio for outside news and a 12-volt, battery operated television set to receive the one station from Prince George.
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After getting in the winter's supply of firewood that first fall, I decided to take a job in town for a few months. The long drive over mostly gaveled roads was hard on our car until after the freeze-up started. Then the roads became packed with snow and were comparatively smooth. I made arrangements with the Highway Department to have our drive opened by the snow plow whenever it was out that way and there were only a few times that I could not get to work that winter.
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