Winters at Pierce Pond back in the early 70s was purely survival of the fittest. My brother, Gary, his wife Betty and two children Jennifer and Andy, lived in a "semi" winterized camp. My sister, Judy, her husband Robert, and daughter Katherine occupied a nearby camp. There was no running water, no electricity, and the only access was to ride snowmobiles for ten miles.
The water source was lake water scooped into big buckets each day and transported by a bobsled attached to a snowmobile. Night light was provided by kerosene lanterns. Woodstoves burned 24/7 for a constant heat and life couldn't be better. A trip to the grocery store was an all day event and did not happen often.
Gary and Robert trapped beaver by day and built canoes by night. They built canoes of native cedar and finished with fiberglass. The cedar interior preserved the nostalgia of the old canvas covered canoe. They built a steam-bending apparatus to mold the ribs into place and did all their tacking by a gas lantern. There was no running to the nearest hardware store when you ran out of stock.
Betty and Judy fed their families by cooking from scratch. Everything had to be homemade. Their refrigerator was a "backroom" of the camp and the freezer was the front porch. They stocked the wood box each day, hauled water from the lake for drinking and "flushing," and spent quiet time knitting by the fire. The children were toddlers of two and three-years-old, and life for them was filled with a lot of fresh air--no television--and each other.
Some are envious of such a lifestyle, but it is not for everyone. No modern conveniences, shopping centers or conventional modes of transportation. It was, however, a life of choice. Living in an environment like that renews your soul every day and you soon forget the need for convenience.