Throughout my life I have had this bizarre dream of conquering the old west, the frontier trails that were blazed by the cowboys so long ago. So when my uncle and I started talking about what it would be like to live in rural Alaska, off grid idea’s started running wild in my head. A farm was a dream we shared, with a house built with our own two hands. I like to think I’m the brawn and he’s the brains in the family when it comes to building or fixing things.
What was it going to be like to move up there? The costs involved would be? My job made it possible for me to work anywhere in the world as long as I had a stable internet connection, but wait, will I have a stable internet connection? I’m an internet marketer by trade, specializing in the gaming industry, although for how much longer, I don’t know.
Eight years previously my father had sold the small farm I grew up on and all the livestock associated with it, to chase the dream. The milk goats I grew up milking were sold and I set off for big city living. Now eight years later I’ve lived in the big cities, spread across the east coast and I found myself missing the lifestyle my father had tried so hard to instill in me as a boy.
My father now lives 20 or so miles north of Fairbanks, in a dry cabin a mile from the road. I’m told it’s a nice hike up to his cabin. His only source of heat is a wood burning stove, and if it doesn’t stay fed, he gets cold.
Although, what seemed like thousands of questions ran through my mind, a peace came over me and questions were paired with answers. Things that I didn’t understand previously, were in my head like road maps. Anyone that knows me know I am a very analytical thinker. Everything is supposed to be in spreadsheets, planned out months if not farther in advance and accounted for. So when obstacles come in my way, there is a plan to deal with them.
One of those obstacles was a 4 wheel drive pickup, since my little 2 wheel drive half ton wouldn’t cut it on roads that aren’t well maintained. I bought a 4 wheel drive pickup from my uncle, the family mechanic and was now the proud owner of my first F-250 with a 460 motor. Coming from a little half ton F-150 it took some getting used to, no longer was I getting the 18-20 mpg, instead it was cut in half and exchanged for more power and towing capacity.
I think the biggest thing to get my head wrapped around is what am I going to do once my Aunt Wendy, and Uncle Jerry’s cabin is built. I’ve started looking around online and have found several pieces of land I’d be interested in buying. I think being outside, clearing land and then selling the wood would be a decent income for the summer months, coupled with my internet job. But, then what?
More and more I began to research farming, and the way that farmers in Alaska are producing for their own communities. It seems like fresh vegetables are hard to come by from what I read online. Although I’ve never grown more than an acre or so of vegetables before in my life, and even then that was with my father’s guidance and the limited patience that was available to him.
I think the biggest shock was the fact that the majority of farmers I read about don’t plant their crops directly into the field in seed form. Instead, they begin growing them in green houses for transplanting. Some things like carrots and potato’s can be planted directly into the field, but for someone that’s used to plopping a seed in the ground “so-so deep” and “so-so far apart” it will be a big change.
I grew up fishing as well, there wasn’t a day of my childhood when I couldn’t walk into the kitchen, and put my hands on something from the ocean, river, or lakes in Florida that my father and I had caught, dressed and prepared. We constantly fished, sometimes 3 or 4 times a week when certain species were in at our favorite honey holes. In reading and researching it appears that the majority of individuals that live ‘off-grid’ in Alaska rely heavily on nature to provide the meat that hits the table. It’s not stuck in a feed lot and pumped full of GMO corn. It’s raised and killed as it should be, in the wild, just the way God intended it.
So as I begin this next addition to my life, I find myself full of excitement. For the first time in my life I have spent hours upon hours under the hood of my truck, bleeding brakes, replacing a brake master cylinder, replacing power steering fluid, ensuring lines are tightened, bolts fastened and all in working order for the long journey ahead.
I’ve never been a ‘mechanically’ minded individual, my father could fix anything that had an engine. I on the other hand inherited my mother’s gift for numbers and a thought process that ensured organization. Previously, when something broke I merely ran to one of the mechanically gifted men in my family and asked them with a smile; “Can you fix this for me?” (Normally, my father or Uncle Jerry after my father moved to Alaska.) However, now I find myself wanting to learn to do more things mechanically. Engines, and farming equipment has begun to fascinate me. From my limited understanding, they really are modular, with everything having its place, purpose and running order.
I have always loved learning, as long as it wasn’t in the class room. I hated school, and always learned by doing it. I’m glad that I have once again found something I am actually keen on learning about, and thankfully God has blessed me with a patient teacher that doesn’t mind repeating himself a few different ways until I understand.
Many that I have told about this move have looked at me like I’m a crazy person that belongs in a mental institution. Why would you give up your plushly 2 bedroom, apartment? Your nuts, you’ll never succeed! You’ll lose everything!
My response? Hide and watch.
Our Simple Alaskan Life...... 