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mooseoutfront

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Everything posted by mooseoutfront

  1. Only mode of transportation right now
  2. That wind was fucking cold. This is about the most bundled up I get.
  3. I'll get back to the questions later. Here's a typical example of this winter. It's been a tough one. Wife called me at work yesterday about noon to let me know we had a wind storm out of the Northeast. We rarely have wind in our area. Northeast is a bad direction for us because it drifts the road over. Wind was sustained at 40 mph. Gusts up to 70 and 80. Wind chills in the 90 to 100 below range. I went home and tried to keep the road open with the plow truck until about 10 pm. Couldn't keep up with all the snow, so we are now drifted in until Monday when I can get a piece of equipment out there to dig us out. Third time this has happened in the last calendar year. Number one summer project is to build a drift fence along the trouble spots. Only way in and out is by snow machine.
  4. $3.89 for gasoline $4.09 for diesel
  5. Brisket could totally live this way
  6. The roots of the trees here are all within 10 inches of the surface because of the permafrost. No such thing as tap roots here. The ground gave way and they tipped over. Aspen trees are notorious for tipping over because they are so top heavy. The white spruce don't really tip over because their weight is more evenly distributed. Those trees will become firewood this spring.
  7. The cabin, garage, and sauna are constructed out of 3 sided logs. They mill 3 edges of the log flat, leaving only one side rounded. Makes for easier, quicker construction.
  8. The Lights have always fascinated me. My Grandfather used to take me elk hunting. He wanted to live up here so badly. We would sit around the campfire and he would talk about Alaska and the Northern Lights. It always stuck with me. And being high af helps everything in my opinion. The "Happy Lamps" as they are called up here aren't really an option for us, but lots of people use them to combat cabin fever.
  9. When we want to spice things up we head to Fairbanks and spend the night in a hotel with electricity and running water. My wife usually takes at least 2 showers and soaks in the tub once. Hot running water is the shit when you aren't used to it.
  10. We were living in Leander when we decided to go for it and move up here. I couldn't stand the scouts...I lasted less than a month. We lived "normal" for two years, then got the off the grid bug. My friends back home in Texas say we went feral. The work truck is a perk. I use it as part of my job collecting water samples out in the field and the like, but I have an office and a lab. No kids. Never wanted them. It's the main reason I married my wife, she didn't want them either. It's pure serendipity she took to this lifestyle the way she did. She digs it more than I do. Don't sell yourself short, you could. It's all about adjusting your attitude and finding the system that works for you.
  11. It's expensive to live here. It's why so many people hunt. Getting a moose is a real big deal. One moose feeds a lot of people. $7 a gallon for milk is village or island price. I think the last time I bought some milk it was in the $4 a gallon range. Basically food costs about twice what you would pay in the lower 48. We only go to Fairbanks about once every 6 weeks or so. When we do we make poor eating decisions. A McDonald's #1 combo runs $12.
  12. Here's another pic of the Mrs. As a zipline guide
  13. Actually we do. It's cheaper to get paper products delivered via Amazon than to buy them at the store. For example, a big pack of family size paper towels will run you close to $40 at the store here. It's like $30ish with free shipping on Amazon.
  14. I haul gas in 55 gallon drums. I keep 2 drums in reserve at all times.
  15. Chugiak holla!! It's a cross between a local strain that's been grown in my area for years (Blueberry) and a Grapefruit Kush that I got from a seed house in BC. The Blueberry is supposed to have some MTF in it, but who knows? We named that plant Skittles. Not just because of the colors, but because it smelled like them...so fruity. She was stoney. I've never gotten a hold of any old school MTF. I hear it was the shit. MTF = Matanuska Thunder Fuck for those playing at home.
  16. Food, fuel, airline tickets, booze, and vehicle/cabin maintenance. Our goal is to live on 25% of my salary and save/invest the rest. We usually achieve that goal. This year we didn't quite do it because we had to have a new snow plow. Those fuckers ain't cheap, but I was tired of Southern engineering it every time I had to go out and plow the road. We have zero debt. We buy everything outright. I fucking hate paying interest.
  17. 1. I haven't, but I don't go looking for it. I know lots of people who do though. There are a ton of placer mines in my area. The saying up here is "Mining is the family farm of Alaska." 2. Fuck Russia 3. See #2
  18. Completely depends on the season. Spring and summer we basically grill all of our meat outside over charcoal. My wife keeps us in fresh greens. We eat a lot of salads during the warm months. We make our bread and tortillas by hand. In the winter it's slow cooked stuff. Roasts with potatoes, moose tips in gravy over rice, grouse and dumplings, soups, stews, beans, etc. It's illegal to trade wild game for something else in Alaska, so when we have extra moose we give it away as gifts. And guess what? When people have extra fish, or beef, or pork they give it to us as gifts too. I said in the other thread the only meat we buy regularly is bacon and the occasional beef ribeye. We eat a lot of moose. We process it ourselves. We make burger and chili meat and sausage and jerky. It's delicious, but it gets old.
  19. We bought it. It sits on 5 acres. In addition to the cabin, there is a log one car garage, a log sauna, and a storage shed out back. It was the first cabin for the guy who built it, so there are some mistakes he made the he and we have just lived with. It has kept us warm and dry. Here's the only pic I can find that sort of shows what you are asking about. The big bushy plants are potatoes. Her yield is usually between 150 to 200 pounds. The greenhouse is the veggie greenhouse, not the weed greenhouse. We keep that in the back. You can also see the garage and the sauna in the background behind the garden.
  20. Grizzly Adams is starting to get old. Why do you think I have to take a battery brick to work to charge everyday? It's not just her iPad and blue tooth speaker.
  21. We usually burn 8 cords of wood per winter. We try to bring in 10 cords per year, because you can never have enough firewood. It's like money in the bank. From that pic I'm estimating that's around 5 or so cords. That's not quite enough to get through the winter for us.
  22. Cabin fever is real and dangerous. Alaska has an incredibly high suicide rate per capita. Alcoholism and drug abuse and domestic violence all skyrocket in the deep winter. It's not really the cold either. Everyone up here has the proper gear. It's the lack of light that gets in people's heads. The lack of light leads to Vitamin D deficiencies. That's the root cause of it all. Take your supplements, get properly dressed and get outdoors when the sun is out. The deep cold is beautiful to me. Winter is my favorite season. On January weekends when the temp is regularly 30 below or colder we'll get suited up, make a fire in the fire pit, smoke a joint and watch the Northern Lights until we get cold. Go in the cabin to warm up and then do it all over again. The Lights fascinate me.
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