Yes, we in rural, northern Saskatchewan were never in dire straights. We really had so much of what we needed. Good garden soil, lots of wood for making buildings, for heat and cooking, plus cutting and selling cordwood in the winter to make some money. A tremendous amount of wild berries, including the very healthful wild blueberry, in unbelievable amounts, lots of water and such a variety of meat that no one I knew ate rabbits, except maybe for a short, fill in time.
The term dire straights fit the people who lived in cities, or a broad area of southern Sask. where the soil was litterally blown away. Many of those unlucky people stuck it out until nothing was left, then started for the north, about 300 miles away, with a skinny team of horses hauling a wagon with a hay rack on it. Mamma and the kids on the wagon along with the few bare nescessities and bringing what tiny bit of hay they could muster to last the horses and the cow tied behind, until they could find green feed for the animals. Families along the way often provided food and some sort of lodging for them, as they slowly worked their way north.
Many of these families ended up in our country, which was about sixty miles north east of Prince Albert and they were in their glory.
You talk of lots of deer and drinking moonshine. Now, let me think. A great belt of moonshine country ran from the Yorkton area north west and up past Wadena. Hmmm. Maybe you were some where in that area?
