mooseoutfront

$3.89 for gasoline $4.09 for diesel

Brisket could totally live this way

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

As my skinner

Here's another pic of the Mrs. As a zipline guide

Hard no

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.

I haul gas in 55 gallon drums. I keep 2 drums in reserve at all times.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The vehicles have block heaters and heaters on the oil pan, transmission, and battery. We can plug them into generators if we need to. Our personal truck, the beat to shit red Dodge in the first pic in the thread just barely fits into a log one car garage that we have. The garage has a wood stove in it that we fire up when the temp gets to 40 below. Vehicles will start in the zero to 10 below range, but cold starts are not ideal for vehicle longevity. The garage usually stays about 30 degrees warmer than ambient, which is why we only need to fire up the stove at 40 below or colder. The plow rig only gets run in the winter when there is plowing to do. It's warm when it snows, so there is no problem getting it started. My company truck has an auto start on it that is hooked into the truck thermometer some way. I've got it set to auto start when the temp hits 20 below and run for 30 minutes every 2 hours. The plan is 10 more years in the woods, then retire down to the Pacific coast of Mexico and become ex pats. We could never live in a big city again, or in the lower 48 for that matter. We'll find something small and simple and laid back.

We have been very, very fortunate. We keep an abundance of food and fuel on hand for the oh shit moment that hasn't come yet. But we are prepared. The closest I've ever come to getting bit in the ass was on a muzzle loader moose hunt with a buddy. Muzzle loader season is late November early December. We went 90 miles out the Rex Trail on snow machines (that's what they call snow mobiles up here for some reason). It was 30 below when we left. By the time we got to the Wood River, the thermometer my buddy had on his parka zipper had bottomed out at 70 below. We knew it was cold, but we didn't realize it was that cold. He looked at me and told me whatever I did to not let the snow machine die. It took us 6 hours to get back. It's the coldest I've ever been. Danger cold, beyond shivering. The only reason my fingers didn't freeze was because of the hot grips on the snow machine. When we finally got in cell range I called my wife and she said she could hear it in my voice. She had warmed blankets and towels ready for me when I got home. It was 68 below when I pulled up to the cabin. The last few hours of the ride home are basically a blur. It was all I could do not to pass out. I was on the verge of hallucinating. It was other worldly. My buddy thought he froze his feet. It took him 4 hours to get the feeling back in them. We were both very lucky and very stupid for not turning around sooner.

Greenhouses are a must, but I do quite well.

Lulz. She's still a Texas girl. She keeps it knocked back pretty well, but we all have our moments don't we?