Frontier House Application

Frontier House
OFFICIAL APPLICATION
Family Name: Thomson Family

Occupations/Schools: Student/Langley Middle School


Open answer questions (attach additional pages. All questions must be answered.):
What attracted you to this project?
I love the outdoors life. I've been on "survival" trips before in my school's Adventure Education class. The weather of Washington is unpredictable, just like Montana's weather, and I like weather like that. I'd also like an opportunity to see what it was really like back then.

What hobbies and interests do you have?
I like to draw, sing, write, hike, and climb. Hiking and climbing kind of go together, especially on rough trails and in the woods. Writing is a strong point, and so is singing. Drawing is fun when I have enough time to be focused.

What image do you have of pioneer living?
My image of pioneer life is that living in the wilderness was very hard to do. There was always something that needed to be done. If you were a pioneer, you always had a job to do: take care of livestock, plow a field, build a shelter of some kind. You had to build your cabin from the ground.

What's the most challenging thing you and your family (or group) have experienced?
I think that the most challenging thing my family and I have experienced was my father's issues with his family. We aren't very close to any of his family (except my grandmother and aunt) anymore. I miss them, but I never knew them very well in the first place.

If you were chosen what do you think you would most miss about modern life?
I think something that I would miss most about modern life is having my own space. I know that if we are chosen, we'll have to build our own cabin and that it will probably have only one or two rooms. That's okay though, because I'm used to not having my own space. My brother and I slept in a room the size of a medium-sized walk-in closet for seven years.

What qualities do you and your family have that make you suited to this experience?
I think that my family and I are very realistic thinkers. We face each challenge as it comes, and solve the problem logically. I think that my family is also good at working together and fixing things. My father is a carpenter, so he's good at working with wood and metals. My mother is good with numbers, so she would do the shopping (she can build things too), and my brother and I would be able to help them both.

What skills do you have that may help you?
I think a skill that I have that will help me is the skill I have with animals. My family lives on a farm, so there's always a lot to do. Most of the work I do has to do with the house and the animals. I knock challenges out of the way one at a time, and if I can, multiple problems at a time.

What would you hope to get out of the experience?
I hope that my family and I can come out of this experience getting along better. If we can develop some kind of system out there and incorporate it into everyday life in the 21st century, all the better. I also hope that we can come to some kind of understanding on the subject of chores.

What do you think will be the most difficult challenge of pioneer life?
I think that one of the most difficult challenges we would face in pioneer life is building our cabin. Every one of us would have to work together. Cutting hay in the summer would also be a challenge, since that requires some strength and endurance, but I think we would definitely be able to do it.

What skills would you like to learn from the experience?
I would like to learn some skills like carpentry and cooking. I would especially like to learn more cooking and cleaning skills, sine they would be nice to have in the 21st century.

We'd like you to tell us:
What interests you about this project?
I'm interested in this project because I'd like to know what it was like for people back then. Coming to the west had to be hard, but setting up a life here must have been extremely challenging.

Do you have any concerns about your participation?
One of my concerns about participating is illnesses that one could get while on the frontier. They could be very dangerous.

How much do you know about your family history -- do you have pioneer roots?
As far as I know, my father's family doesn't have pioneer roots. However, they had to get to the West Coast somehow. It's the same with my mother's family: we don't know how they got here, just that they did.

How did you hear about Frontier House?
My class watched Frontier House.