Well, louie, they went to a regular person up the road and got meat, the kids watched tv, etc. Yes that is cheating. If they wanted to live like a true homesteading family like the show is supposed to be, they wouldn’t have done that.
What the hell is the damn point if they are gonna
wuss out when they get hungry? It certainly does not lend credence to the show.
i checked the profiles on the pbs site. i wanted to get a sense of the ages of the men and women. it seems our mr brooks is a ringer!!!
father brooks was raised on a farm in calif. with no running water or elec. he said that being out there reminded him of growing up. nate has been to africa and lived in similar situations, as well as spending time at the farm in calif. so i think that the brooks men had a bit of an advantage there. i can imagine that when they collasped into the tent at night, dad told lots of stories.
the clune’s are without a doubt, the most clueless of what they were getting into.
it is sad to see the glenn family breaking down.
i was highly amused with everyone getting sheep. about the only thing people in my neck of the woods know about montana is that there are sheep.
they haven’t mentioned tangling with coyotes yet. hhhhmmm.
i am a bit amazed with how little research everyone seems to have done before going there. i’m sure if a member of the sdmb was on this show, tons of research would have been done, and chapter and verse would be quoted.
I was wondering if the Brooks got the site with no cabin at all because they had more experience with the rough life. Or was it completely random?
I like the new Mrs. Brooks – the preview thingy showed her complaining, but in the actual show, I was glad that she framed her comments in a much more positive manner. A big thumbs up for goat cheese!
Despite the fact that my loathing for the Clunes is as large as the Lousiana Purchase, I’m not bothered by the fact that he has a still. It’s the only half-way clever thing Gordon’s done so far. But it doesn’t nearly make up for the visit to the 2002 neighbors, or his wild claims of malnutrition. Glory be, that was a riot, watching him trot around measuring people. What a maroon.
While I was watching last evening, I had a morbid thought. Were our homesteaders getting any news from the present day? If I’m understanding this correctly, they would have been there for September 11. You’d have to tell them, right? I’m probably thinking about that because the Nova right before last night’s Frontier House was about the WTC.
I was thinking the same thing this morning. On the web site it says they did get a newspaper informing them of the events, but not much more than that.
It makes sense now that Nate and his father were chosen to build from scratch knowing more about their background.
Wow, I was trying not to pick sides but the wife seems to have turned into a bitter, judgemental know it all. Smug and dismissive to her poor husband (who probably deserves some of it- but jeesh). It was funny how much happier he was in the field with his dog. . . .
In the end, she wouldn’t even let him talk, but would talk right over him. Sad.
I was digging the little song our moonshining family was singing- while they have some issues- but by the end of the episodes last night I was warming up to them. Mmmm Moonshine. . . . .
-me
I think Gordo has had a psychotic break - running around in his underwear, kissing his moonshine still! What a hoot!
Nate’s brother – hubba hubba!
I about fell off the couch laughing when Mrs. Glenn, in her best judgmental tone, said she was glad she did everything morally, ethically, and legally right. She didn’t cheat, she could hold her head up in front of her Sunday School class. Somebody get me a bucket!
I find it interesting that the Brooks get very little screen time. They are definitely playing up the conflict. Makes you wonder what we aren’t seeing.
I liked Kristen’s comment about how she thought it would be a little community with everybody helping each other out – which is what I would have thought too – but really it’s turned into a dog eat dog free for all.
Love the show although I’m rapidly starting to despise all the adults with the exception of the Brooks.
My Fed-Ex delivery guy said something really funny yesterday as he unloaded a slew of PC components on the porch.
He asked if we were watching the show and then said: “I told my son that I delivered to people that were almost living like that (referring to my husband and myself)! I told him that I want you guys to be on the next show.” (I think that he thinks it’ll just go on-like Surviver)
I was very flattered.
I like that Gordon Clune was convinced he was getting no protein from bacon, ham, chicken, or beans. They were NOT running out of food at this point, they had doubled their previous stocks of food. They were just erroneously convinced that only steak would solve Gordon’s “problem.” The coup de grace was when the doctor told him it wasn’t malnutrition, it was dehydration. Water is FREE! hahaha Of course, you have to walk 150 feet to get any.
I thought the narrartor said his company (IRL) made it. That seems to be bordering on cheating (to me, anyway). Plus shipping it out there. He should have had to fit it into his wagon. What would he have dumped to make room for the still? More food?
I kept waiting for period-dressed lawmen to show up and arrest him. That would have been great. A little 1883-style Cops to go with their newfound white-trash lifestyle.
Gordon Clune is a complete idiot if he could be eating all that meat and think he’s not getting any protein. Stop playing with your illegal still and go get some water, dummy!
I finally realized who Mr. Clune reminds me of. Remember Larry on Newhart? “Hi, I’m Larry, this is my brother Darryl, and this is my other brother Darryl.” 
He looks just like Larry!
I don’t think the new Mrs. Brooks was complaining quite as much as the others. She was more aggravated with not being able to cook over an open fire. I can cook, but I know if I had to suddenly cook over an open fire or in a cast-iron stove, I’d probably burn stuff at first, too. Was she getting the baking soda and baking powder mixed up? They are completely different, and will act differently in baked goods.
Nate was so cute when he was pretending to ‘start up’ his hay thresher like a gas powered hedge trimmer.
Too bad there’s no prize in this, like Survivor. The Brooks’ would win, hands down.
I liked the Clune niece’s comment about watching MTV. “We only watched a few minutes, and we’re doing it to save our uncle’s life.” What? Um, okay, sweetie, whatever.
I swear I’ve seen her with some 20th-century hair cliips, those little plastic butterfly clips the teens wear.
I wonder if the Glenns are still together. What a controlling bitch she turned out to be. Sheesh!
Not a bad idea. Or maybe just send a period-dressed revenuer in to smash the thing with an axe. Or maybe extort some bribe money. All part of the real-life risk of running a still.
Ya all just knew this was going to be good!
A hearty Howdy To everyone who’s contributed.
On night two, I find myself strangely impressed with Papa Clune. Oh yea it might be a gritty life, but ya gotta love a guy who sets up a still. Exposing his children to alchol may offend our modern sencibilities, but I’ve seen nothing else bond this family together as well. His family, apparently blowing out of proportion his percieved malnutrition used an opportunity to go outside of Frontier Valley. I can see them trading for foodstuffs,(out of season or not) but going inside the modern house and watching MTV draws the line between survival and stupidity. It sure didn’t make me feel any better about them.
Poor Papa Glenn seems to be on the edge of a nervous breakdown. Super-Mom was perhaps right about not remarring.But, I’m glad he has found something his wife would be hard put to find.Peace. If he makes the divorce desision out there I hope he wait untill his return to the 21st Cent before going forward. I’d suggest they go to counciling, but how to you explain to the Counciler the circumstances that brought out such atrocious behavior? Mama Glenn has to be the most annoying personality on TV, non-fiction or otherwise.
I guess the reviews were right about the Brooks family getting lost in the shuffle. It is ashame as these folks are the only one who seem to be getting anything out of this. These folks are as close as one could come to thier possible Happiness on the prarie.I see partly why Kristen married into this family. Undeniably, If there were a Million at the end, give it to the ones who started out with the least, showed the most class and humor, and generaly made us wish we all had Uncles like Papa Brooks. Godspeed Pops!
Final installment tonight! This string has been a blast! Viewers like you, Thank You! 
I’ve been watching along both nights. What really slayed me was Gordon Clune’s certainty that he was suffering from malnutrition. Our society’s views of weight and fitness are so screwed up that he didn’t realize he was in good shape! I find that utterly fascinating because I’ve experienced it in my own life. I’m viewed as thin, but I’ve gained and lost a lot of weight in the past, during and after pregnancies. After I finally lost the last 20 after my youngest was born I couldn’t get AWAY from people going on and on about how I was “too thin.” Sheesh I weigh 145 pounds, which is in the upper range of normal for my height, which is 5’9". My husband, who lost quite a bit of weight several years ago, has expereinced the same thing. Almost as many people griped at him for being too thin as made snide comments when he was heavy.
I just found it incredibly interesting that Mr. Clune demonstrates how screwed up we are about weight and health, when from all appearances, we’re a culture consumed by weight-consciousness. Yet a third of us are overweight.
As interesting to me as the Clune guy’s preoccupation with his malnutrition is how often women comment on their appearance, specifically how much they look like shit. I thought Kristen, except when her hair was all wild, looked really good. Mrs. Bitch, I mean Glenn, looks sort of haggard, but not the repellant monstrosity you’d expect from no makeup AND on television. I’d like to think it wouldn’t bother me much – after all I’ve camped and hiked and entirely ignored makeup and hair for days at a time – but something tells me I’d probably be wailing about how ugly I was, too.
I’ve really enjoyed everyone’s comments! And who posted they worked at a PBS station? Me too! 
LOL:p
Omigod - you are so right!
Now I will be thinking about that the whole time I watch it tonight!
i think that instead of pbs fund raisers they should rent out the cabins. i can just see the advert. for it.
lose 40 pounds in 8 weeks!!! fantastic exercise plan!!! be in the best shape ever!!!
spend your next vacation at frountier house. live like grandma and grandpa, look like grandma and grandpa.
I think Nate looks like Woody Harrelson, except, well, a bit darker, haha.
**
Those gals are a real piece of work, aren’t they? They also said it shouldn’t count because it wasn’t even GOOD tv. :rolleyes: They did the same thing with the shampoo and makeup. “It shouldn’t even count, because, like, ohmygod, we hardly used ANY! Like, totally, only like THIS MUCH.” I can see them a few years from now going “Ohmygod. It’s so totally not fair to get pregnant when I hardly had sex at all. I mean, maybe like, TWO minutes, and it wasn’t even GOOD.”
I think Nate is brilliant to stock up on way more hay than he needs because it’s bound to be a “hot commodity” come winter. That’s deliciously diabolical.
(BTW, I thought he was starting out pennyless, so where’d he get the money for that wedding dress? Wouldn’t that have cost WAY more than the credit he had at the store?)
AND – where did the fence poles and barb wire come from? Kind of magically appeared, didn’t they?
Am I the only one seeing the show tonight? I just started seeing this tonight (and the last part yesterday). So who is the future divorcing couple? The Clunes or Glenns? Looks like a family will leave the place before the winter…
My question is wether or not Kristen got any training like the other two women did. If not, I think that she is doing surprisingly well. The other two spend all there time bitching about how hard it is to do the laundry and cook in these conditions. At least they had trainging. If Kristen didn’t have any training then I am really impressed, although I had to laugh when she put tthe baking soda in with the vinegar. I mean, didn’t she ever make a volcano when she was a kid 
nope, karlgrenze, you are not the only one watching tonight.
well now, the clunes looked a lot better tonight. this family should get the “most improved” award. i think the longer mrs clune was in the wilderness the more irish she started to sound.
as expected the brooks did very well. being the youngest and smallest family is a big advantage. having kids out there with all the dangers, must have been such a worry.
i was glad to see how they all readjusted to 2001 life.
so whistlepig, how was the winter out there? would gordon clune have been able to “make a deal” with old man winter?
Gordon Clune, you big fat cheater!
Finding that box spring and trying to justify it? Sure, in 1883 you could use whatever you found, but an 1883 homesteader would not have found a nice comfy 20th-century box spring and matteress.
What an ass.
And his wife. Her new house is “10 times” the size of the cabin? Try 100 times the size. And those girls. “We’re bored. It’s boring going to the mall and hanging out in this pool overlooking the ocean all day.” Would you like some cheese with that whine? I’m sure your mom has some expensive imported cheese in her fuilly-stocked Sub-Zero. :rolleyes:
And what was the deal with showing us your freezer full of meat to get you through that rough Malibu winter? WTF? I guess it’s hard to get the Land Rover through the snowy Malibu weather to the gourmet grocery store. Ugh. Sorry if I sound ranty, but those people make me sick.