Land & Sea: Going back to a simpler time in Prowseton

[Music] hi everyone I'm bill Kelly welcome aboard tonight a fascinating story about two men from North Reading Bay who left home one day in search of better fishing grounds fully intending to return to their wives at the end of the summer well that was nearly 20 years ago and they're still not back preferring instead to live reclusive Lee in total isolation oh they do get to see their wives every once in a while but other than that they're completely on their own and they wouldn't have it any other way one guy even spends Christmas by himself a bit odd you say perhaps but the men are doing better at the fishery now than they could have ever expected and as Pauline thornhill reports there is happiest clams marching along to the beat of a very different drummer [Music] essentia Bay just after dawn in many ways it's a mysterious Bay often plagued with fog full of nooks and crannies [Music] the bay is peppered with tiny islands sanctuaries for seagulls and graveyards for old abandoned lobster pots tributes to past generations of lobster fishermen the lobster fishery still flourishes in Placentia Bay in early morning fisherman's boat still dot the waters around the island [Music] Carl Wheaton knows these islands like the back of his hand he's even put names on most of them he's fished lobsters here for almost two decades Carl is captivated by Placentia Bay see him so at home on these waters you swear he grew up on them but oddly enough he didn't Karl is a native of North Oh Jane Bay a bay he's long since turned his back on ice drove him out ice that constantly delayed the lobster season constantly destroyed hundreds of dollars worth of gear one year the ice date so long there was no lobster fishery at all Carl had it at that point he vowed he'd Fonda Bay where he could make a go of it at lobsters an ice cream a or he could fish and comfort it was a calculated decision when he made with this man his nephew Lloyd Wheaton also a lobster fisherman also from the order Dane Bay and totally up with in with ice the first year that I went lobster kitchen you think was seven times we have taken our traps always coming in and besides we last night together they set out to find the perfect Bay together they decided on Placentia Bay and they brought their wives out the next season that was 18 years ago Carl and Lloyd could have picked any one of a dozen places in Placentia Bay all ice-free all the flourishing lobster fisheries but they overlooked those instead they chose a place that had been forgotten by most a place people had long since abandoned [Music] they chose Croton [Music] about nine families once called his little place home they eventually buckled under the weight of life without a proper school without a telegraph office and eventually without even a coastal boat so they left like so many others in Placentia Bay isolation drove them out [Music] when Carl and Lloyd found Poston there was only one house standing and one family back to fish for the summer it's a place that touched Carl and Lloyd from the start they became endear to Poston it felt right the pace of life began to grow on them and the fishery was fantastic so both men started spending more and more time here less and less time with their wives and families in North ordained Bay Joyce had to get used to not having Carl around she doesn't thrive in Poston the way her husband does after a while she finds the isolation tiresome so she usually just joins her husband for the lobster season she's happy enough here for that length of time especially now that things are more comfortable that first summer things were rough there was no cabin for her and Carl only an old gear shed down on the wharf a tiny old gear shed in the evening you put in your video put it at your table and then you put in your bed pretty cold steep so in the mornings when you get up you put up your bidding you're putting your table and that's over there there's no one there was no one bridge to it there's only two pranks going on and I'm afraid wait so I didn't enjoy that pretty much just went a bit dirty with her because when you're only in one moving place after couple days dirty weather Luke please getting smaller and smaller so you just feel like you're gonna fall back then Joyce never dreamed Carl would take two Proust in the way he has that he would spend so much time here and that she'd still be baking bread here 18 years later Bernice didn't think she'd still be gardening here either but for her it's a pleasure like her husband Lloyd she's fallen victim to Proust ins charm she loves it here well I don't feel isolated it's never been too windy that you can't get out of here or don't you think that doesn't mean any time I've been here anyway I want leave well even though you don't feel isolated don't you feel lonely sometimes no I never feel lonely no it was just just yourself a light I feel justice seems a dozen here Bernice hasn't been able to spend as much time in Poston as she'd like to she and Lloyd have four children they're all grown now but when they were in school Bernice had to go back to Norte Dame Bay every fall but she'd never miss a chance to bring them back to Poston even when the girls were tiny Bernice his youngest daughter cut her first tooth here oh this is mrs. second home really is now even for children as well as Austin because now well they're all grown and they live in town so they just it's really good from the connect and I could do feel it's much at all near as we do cutting up fate for the next morning part of the routine of early summer in Houston part of the way of life Carl and Lloyd have so comfortably fallen into and part of the lobster fishery that's treated them so well Carl and Lloyd did better with lobsters here than they ever dared imagine they came in hopes of a better fishery to do as well as they had in North ordained Bay without losing any gear turns out they did better much better the last season Lloyd was in order Dane Bay he made $700 at lobsters his first year here he made seven thousand but Carl and Lloyd had to work for their success especially in the beginning well we were working more stood in from daylight to deck whatever but every time daylight came when overtime back then no standard eight-hour days they're never there never is in the most most places where a fisherman or two that the government builds the walls for them and you know I'll build a strip play and so we had to do a lot a lot of extra extra work there you know we're doing ourselves you know the government didn't do anything for us it wasn't worth it oh yeah oh yeah yeah oh look Pat would appreciate every every moment oh yeah there must have been some point sometimes and you look back said you shouldn't have come no not for me no oh my dear no no I'll never I'll never help what lloyd on the water now and he's the picture of contentment especially when there's lobsters on the go but it wasn't always like this back in order Dane Bay there were sleepless nights lots of them Lloyd never made enough fat lobsters to keep his family fed he always had to go away in search of other work sometimes it was truck driving sometimes it was construction work but he always needed something to see him through to the next year it seemed Lord could never count on lobsters like this one back in order Dane Bay and it got to the point where he didn't know where the next job was coming from it was a heavy burden to carry a burden he happily left back in order Dane Bay here boy doesn't have to look beyond the next lobster pot he strikes jackpot with this one for lobsters all's big enough to keep [Music] the Wheaton's don't just work on the water they play there to its supper thereafter now Scotland Carl and Lloyd discovered this place ages ago at low tide is almost a saltwater pool tucked away around an oak into Sencha Bay teeming with scallops I'll calm evenings when the tags are right the Wheaton's can't slip in here and literally pick their supper from the ocean floor good one yeah yeah oh my god that's a dummy you'll never find scallops as fresh as these in a restaurant and you'll certainly never eat in a place with this kind of atmosphere a little hideaway one of the Sencha bays many secrets everything is so peaceful and quiet the natural that's the only way I can describe it you can see something that's beautiful every day every day you get off the road or you can see something good [ __ ] if you like nature that is you like the Eagles and there's a moose there's always something to see and then you can do your day's work this is a really beautiful spot lobsters are also under supper menu there's nothing to boil them in out here they're just thrown on the open fire before long they steam in their shells there's no frying pans here either dollops are roasted like marshmallows these bounteous for those who know where to look oh gee is that ever good mmm just right now the fog is going whenever they have a big pot of tea that's going to touch everything it does indeed the perfect ending to the perfect meal it's the kind of summer's evening most of us would remember forever for Karla Lloyd it's just the end of another day part of a way of life they've rediscovered in Proust n' and have come to cherish will show you more after the break [Music] welcome back to Proust in' you know it may not seem that unusual that people would come back to an abandoned community to fish for the summer even though few come from as far away as the Wheaton's did but have you ever heard of people coming back to an abandoned community to live permanently that's exactly what Carl and Lloyd Wheaton have done roastin is no longer just a place to fish in the summertime Houston is home it didn't take long before Lloyd and Carl decided they were staying in Poston year-round it wasn't a hard decision for Lloyd he stays for peace of mind there are no sleepless nights in Poston he goes to bed knowing he has a job to wake up to knowing he can make a living from the seed Houston gives him that that and the tranquility of isolation you're living the same sort of life that your parents would have lived I'm living the same kind yeah the same time my parents you used to live and not that much from the way I used to live because I was brought up with no electricity when didn't get electricity with 1963 before sure I saw a light bulb saw just bring back all times to me that I can relate to these people who are living in cities what are the things that you feel that they're missing the things that you have that they don't well just freedom start with I guess that's their way of life and they wouldn't be able to accept just wear lace that I got here but when I leave here and go in the city I feel like I'm in a jungle dentist lemon jungle so did you think ever imagine that when you first came here 18 years ago you'd be living here now no one ever actually I never thought I'd ever be living here for five years I thought I might be didn't take long he mrs. Burney's terribly when she goes back to nor to Dane Bay but even then Lloyd is happier here than anywhere else he's found a kind of peace in Houston a peace he never knew in order Dane Bay karl has carved out a life style that fits him like a glove he's even more content here than Lloyd if you can imagine that he spends more time alone than Lloyd but that's not a problem for him he just as soon do things his way with no distractions so naturally he's learned to fend for himself over the years especially when it comes to food the only thing I bought was lobsters but the only thing I bought was everything else yeah rabbit turn ducks and bottle trout salmon you even bought with cod tongues don't you worry about cod tongues yeah yeah yeah and the Cape don't do dope capelin and put them in sauce and I'm gonna store for nothing hardly now what's your grocery bill like Carl well but whenever when I'm by myself ten dollars a week max huh that's it Carl's gone back to the diet of his grandparents he enjoys living off the land he trusts the food he prepares himself it might seem basic but Karl believes it's healthy throwing a cube of salt beef for flavor and the fish is ready to go there are no other additives and no chemicals sprayed on everything apples you name it the oranges grapes no matter no matter what it's always scrape the chemicals no a lot was not to keep the bugs off is it just to make the thing look nice you know and I don't think they should ever be Karl believes the trick to bottling is in the boiling he boils everything for at least three hours only then is he secure enough to leave the food on the shelf for any length of time not the cover shelf behind you the root cellar shelf Carles root cellar is his pride and joy it's blocked with all the different types of foods he prepares himself enough to feed an army there's no fear of anyone going hungry and Proust in the codfish takes its place next to the moose do another ready-made meal in a bottle if you poke around you'll even find dessert down here those are bottled grapes there in the corner months of meals in a jar Carl is dug in here now you couldn't blow him out of Houston with dynamite he even plans to retire here in fact he's gone further than that he's actually built himself a retirement home it's this on the hill above the cabin he lives in now empty waiting for him to turn 65 Carl refuses to move until he's 65 he figures he'd only dirty the place up if he moved while he was still fishing he built this place from scratch it took three summers then a lot of thought if I do it over again I don't think I'd I'd like change one board Oh could you see all this in your mind before you started building it or did it take shape after you started no I could see it all over mine it was you know it was all all the urban school it gives out chill sort of thing it was all of mine everything yeah the den fittings up there every board is different a different shape so you know you couldn't make a pattern so everyone had to be done with the pocketknife every one was every one of them was there I uh I spent probably what half a day doing that much there every edge was cover the pocket yeah every age of a couple of pocketknife ours took me you but half a day to do that little space there so this is the house you want to retiring yeah deserves what retiring I wouldn't change this place for a no place on earth not on earth I mean her around the globe this is it you talking on your radio you you were able to put so much corruption on hillsides you know when you hear that look you know that I said no oh I'm certainly blessed to be here you know then I look out the window go to the door it was in the night or something out of news you know take my binoculars look at the moon North Stars oh isn't it peaceful quiet well you know we're working to find a better place in the world an air that's what I say to myself and I I do that quite often in the run of the year quite often Carles reached the point now where he doesn't even leave houston for christmas it sounds hard to believe anyone preferring to be alone Christmas Day but it suits Carl just fine if the weather's good you'll find him on the water Christmas Day Christmas dinner is usually fresh fish he insists he's not lonely when Joyce isn't here he has his radio and his magazines for company he has a mobile phone he has a ten days the pie is penicillin for emergencies Carl Wheaton wouldn't change the thing I got what millionaires haven't got you know that's the way I feel this is the quietest place that I know that I can live here now this might be many more places but this is where I got my own - and this is where I'm used to now this is all [Music] carl and lloyd wheaton count themselves among the privileged they're among the few who are satisfied with their lives among the few who found their niche they came here looking for a better fishery and they found it but at the same time they stumbled on something much bigger than that and much more precious they found a whole other way of life one that's brought contentment and peace of mind essentia bay has given them those gifts [Music]

Channel: CBC NL - Newfoundland and Labrador

Views: 133,781

Keywords: Newfoundland, Labrador, CBCNL, CBC, NL, Land, and, Sea, land and sea, newfoundland and labrador, prowseton, lobster fishery

Id: qfs_4C7qw94

Length: 25min 25sec (1525 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 04 2018