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Beryl Novak has lived alone in his one-room deer shack for 44 years. That's the way he likes it
duluth news tribune ^ | 5 Nov 2021 | John Myers

Posted on 11/05/2021 8:50:33 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT

GREANEY, Minn. — Beryl Novak bought 40 acres of forest here in 1966 for $700, eventually moved an old one-room shack to the site for a deer hunting cabin and then liked it so much he moved in for good.

That was 1977. He hasn’t lived anyplace else since. He hasn’t slept in any other bed, not a single night away, since May 1993.

“I’m kind of a homebody,” Novak said.

Novak, 71, shot his first deer at age 10, in 1960, hunting alone. He still has the paper hunting license and aluminum buck tag pressed between pages in a photo album. Since then, Novak figures he’s shot 75 deer in these woods northwest of Cook.

Through his military service, he would come home on leave scheduled around hunting seasons.

There's a gas range for cooking, a bed in the corner and a small TV that gets three stations over the airwaves. “Why would you need any more than that? Everything on TV is all so damned depressing anyway,” Novak said.

Novak formally “retired” in 1995, meaning that’s the point he stopped trying to earn a living and focused on the living part.

“It doesn’t cost much to live up here. I get by pretty cheap,” he said.

His last car broke down in 2005 and he hasn’t driven one since

“I’ve been social distancing out here for 20 years,” he said.

He hasn’t shaved or had a haircut since 2001,

“If people would read what Thoreau wrote in the 1800s it might help them today,” Novak said. “Simplify your life. That’s what I’ve done. … People out there working to make more money are just chasing their tails.”

(Excerpt) Read more at duluthnewstribune.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Gardening; Outdoors
KEYWORDS: deerhunter
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To: Reddy; moder_ator

It’s not you. FR seems to be broken, again. Every thread I’ve read this morning has a double/triple/quadruple post.


61 posted on 11/06/2021 6:27:46 AM PDT by Pollard (PureBlood -- youtube.com/watch?v=VXm0fkDituE)
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To: who knows what evil?

As all the poo pooers sit 14 deep at one red light of the 15 they will sit in today, lock the 17 items they need to lock or try to recall one of the 734 passwords that control their life, ponder all this man is missing out on.


62 posted on 11/06/2021 6:31:11 AM PDT by riri (Hope is not a strategy at this point- Sam Andrews)
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To: caww
Cities that you don't need to drive in, IMO, tolerable. Even enjoyable if you can avoid the rif raf.

Cities like where I live (Phoenix) that need driving have become pure hell.

63 posted on 11/06/2021 6:33:16 AM PDT by riri (Hope is not a strategy at this point- Sam Andrews)
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To: caww

I would kill for a walk in closet.


64 posted on 11/06/2021 6:49:41 AM PDT by telescope115 (Proud member of the ANTIFAuci movement. )
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To: Redleg Duke

Haha...My husband is probably neater than me. But, I have my limits.


65 posted on 11/06/2021 6:49:42 AM PDT by goodnesswins (....pervert Biden & O Cabal are destroying America, as planned.)
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To: goodnesswins
I've seen worse. At least he makes his bed. Unless he doesn't sleep in it at all as another poster suggested.

My grandmother in northern Alabama had a neighbor like that down the road. We knew him only as "Mr. Hayes" and he lived alone for over 40 years in an unpainted building that looked more like a barn than a house. He was never married so when his parents passed away, he just stayed on the property. His siblings had long moved away and lost contact with him. He had no telephone anyhow, so my grandmother and other neighbors would check in on him now and then and bring him groceries.

As kids (this was back in the 1970s) we would walk down there and he was always nice enough to us. He had yellow teeth and drank Coca-Cola non-stop. His entire place was in fact full of empty Coke bottles. The old fashioned glass ones. He wore the same frayed coveralls every single day, like the farmers of the Depression era used to wear. He lived to be well into his 90s. Rumor had it that he was mentally impaired but he always seemed sharp as a tack to us kids and always had good stories to tell.

66 posted on 11/06/2021 7:06:17 AM PDT by SamAdams76 (I am 25 days away from outliving Holly Dunn)
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To: lee martell

—”A Paywall has fenced me in.”

Worker well yesterday, today not so much.

FULL TXT HERE:https://archive.vn/fF0Rk


67 posted on 11/06/2021 7:19:11 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT (("The enemy has overrun us. We are blowing up everything. Vive la France!"Dien Bien Phu last message)
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To: goodnesswins

—”It’s a pigsty”

The true artist sees order in chaos.


68 posted on 11/06/2021 7:24:28 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT (("The enemy has overrun us. We are blowing up everything. Vive la France!"Dien Bien Phu last message)
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To: goodnesswins

—”It’s a pigsty”

The true artist sees order in chaos.


69 posted on 11/06/2021 7:24:29 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT (("The enemy has overrun us. We are blowing up everything. Vive la France!"Dien Bien Phu last message)
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To: MAGA2017

—”A sound purchase. I wish I owned a chunk of land like this.”
Don’t we all.


70 posted on 11/06/2021 7:25:59 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT (("The enemy has overrun us. We are blowing up everything. Vive la France!"Dien Bien Phu last message)
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To: MAGA2017

—”A sound purchase. I wish I owned a chunk of land like this.”
Don’t we all.


71 posted on 11/06/2021 7:25:59 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT (("The enemy has overrun us. We are blowing up everything. Vive la France!"Dien Bien Phu last message)
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To: riri

Amen...


72 posted on 11/06/2021 7:26:07 AM PDT by dakine
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To: grey_whiskers

—”Not the end of the Earth, but you can see the end of the Earth from there...”

That is a feature!
They charge extra for that.


73 posted on 11/06/2021 7:28:59 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT (("The enemy has overrun us. We are blowing up everything. Vive la France!"Dien Bien Phu last message)
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To: DUMBGRUNT

Nothing wrong with the way he is living. I knew a man whose house burned, so he moved what he had left to his well house and lived there.


74 posted on 11/06/2021 7:37:46 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar (4th time in FB prison this year. Reason? I wrote a quick synopsis of why I was in the last 3 times.)
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To: Prole

—”He reminds me of Richard L. Proenneke.”

I remember him well, a fascinating story.

I sent one of his many videos to my father in law and he watched all he could find! A former Navy ships Doc and he enjoyed seeing his Sailors do well.

The last time I looked only a few of the videos were available, someone had purchased them and they were pay-per-view???


75 posted on 11/06/2021 7:39:54 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT (("The enemy has overrun us. We are blowing up everything. Vive la France!"Dien Bien Phu last message)
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To: MAGA2017

Land, at that time, in the backwoods of the Ozarks was more expensive than that! He made out well!


76 posted on 11/06/2021 7:40:34 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar (4th time in FB prison this year. Reason? I wrote a quick synopsis of why I was in the last 3 times.)
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To: goodnesswins
-- ...but if you are going to allow pics inside...wouldn't ya want to pick up a little BIT? --

he did!!

77 posted on 11/06/2021 7:42:20 AM PDT by Cboldt
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To: Prole

“Life below zero” has some examples of similar. Alaska peeps who choose to live away from others. Some are ealthy (airplanes, easy living), others are poor (no power tools at all). Fascinating to me.


78 posted on 11/06/2021 7:43:56 AM PDT by Cboldt
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To: Openurmind

***If the dems get their way, a whole lot of folks who do not want to will have to live this way.***

True. But they won’t be individual houses. They will be a part of a “hive” of apartments. Chicago’s Cabrini Green and Stalinist apartments comes to mind.


79 posted on 11/06/2021 7:46:21 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar (4th time in FB prison this year. Reason? I wrote a quick synopsis of why I was in the last 3 times.)
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To: DoodleBob

He doesn’t look like he’s missed any meals.


80 posted on 11/06/2021 7:51:40 AM PDT by AF_Blue (My decision-making skills closely resemble those of a squirrel when crossing a road)
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