Off Grid Alaska

[mooseoutfront 3646]

One positive about using an outhouse is that there is no water for old man sack to dip into…winning indeed

[luke duke 6445]

Here's hoping the shit stick is primed and ready.

Definitely. Get some shellac on it before it gets too cold.

[thunderlounge 8316]

3 hours ago, mooseoutfront said:

The bears are asleep, so there is no worrying about critter safety and protocols. 

What about the Majestic Møøse?

[ztejas 44114]

1 minute ago, thunderlounge said:

What about the Majestic Møøse?

Easy dude. That's a sore subject for him. A møøse once bit his sister. 

[Braff Zacklin 13675]

 

On 9/23/2024 at 8:47 PM, mooseoutfront said:

Had to light the wood stove for the season. There will be a fire burning until late April or early May. Time to slide into winter. 

Sorry if already addressed, but how much wood did you stockpile to last you through the winter?

 

3 hours ago, mooseoutfront said:

I love the winter.  The tourists leave, the seasonal workers go away, the bugs are gone, my job slows way down.  The deep cold fascinates me.  It's so foreign and other worldly.  The snow covered woods are beautiful.  The Northern Lights are a common sight.  I really enjoy getting out and exploring on a snow machine.  It's a lot easier to get around when everything is frozen.  Alaska is basically a swamp.  The bears are asleep, so there is no worrying about critter safety and protocols.  There are negatives, but the positives outweigh them in my eyes.  It's a very peaceful, very simple life.

London's "White Silence."

[mooseoutfront 3646]

9 minutes ago, thunderlounge said:

What about the Majestic Møøse?

Everything calms down in the winter. The animals are in calorie conservation mode. You still have to be wary of them, but a moose is not going to waste energy coming at you through the snow unless it feels it absolutely has to. 
 

Here’s a video I took a few years ago that kinda shows what I’m talking about. I was splitting wood and heard it meandering through the snow towards me. This was a young cow that was checking me out. Very calm, she hung around for 10 or 15 minutes then moved on. 

[mooseoutfront 3646]

14 minutes ago, Braff Zacklin said:

 

Sorry if already addressed, but how much wood did you stockpile to last you through the winter?

 

London's "White Silence."

We try to put up 10 cords a year. We usually only burn 7 to 8 cords. Can never have enough fire wood. 
 

London is a must read for me in the winter. 

[Brisketexan 106607]

1 minute ago, mooseoutfront said:

We try to put up 10 cords a year. We usually only burn 7 to 8 cords. Can never have enough fire wood. 
 

London is a must read for me in the winter. 

8X4X4.....times 8.  Damn.  That's a fair chunk of wood.  I'll see if I can dig up the pic of the wood that was stacked in the storage barn of a house in Norway we hiked by.  It was on a fjord, on the west coast, they obviously got some "winter" there.  Pic was taken in mid-summer, while they were still cutting and stacking.

[Braff Zacklin 13675]

2 minutes ago, mooseoutfront said:

We try to put up 10 cords a year. We usually only burn 7 to 8 cords. Can never have enough fire wood. 
 

London is a must read for me in the winter. 

How's that handled in Alaska? Do you permit for x amount of wood in a certain zone/area and cut up already prone deadfall, or are you allowed to fell your own timber?

[Brisketexan 106607]

Here it is.  It was along the trail on a hike to some waterfall.  Nobody on the trail, just looked inside the open barn and realized shit....they get COLD round here.

 

Edited September 25 by Brisketexan

[mooseoutfront 3646]

18 minutes ago, Braff Zacklin said:

How's that handled in Alaska? Do you permit for x amount of wood in a certain zone/area and cut up already prone deadfall, or are you allowed to fell your own timber?

If you cut on state land you are supposed to have a permit.  I've never done that, so I don't know how that works.  We cut wood around the "neighborhood."  We are technically cutting on private property, but no one is around or cares.  Most of the property around here will never be developed.  People bought 5 or 10 acres plots to have land in Alaska.  Most have never been up here to even see it.  We take problem trees, windfall trees, or standing dead.  If that's not enough for the season, we know a guy out here who owns several hundred acres.  He's given us permission to cut wood off of his property as long as it's for our private use.  He doesn't want us to cut wood to sell to other folks.

33 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Here it is.  It was along the trail on a hike to some waterfall.  Nobody on the trail, just looked inside the open barn and realized shit....they get COLD round here.

 

That's money in the bank for us Northern dwellers.

[Brisketexan 106607]

3 minutes ago, mooseoutfront said:

That's money in the bank for us Northern dwellers.

Huh.  I mean, if you can pull it off, I'd think there are other preferable methods of keeping warm...

But, you know, that's just my take.  You do you.

[mooseoutfront 3646]

I like the cut of your jib, but that's a unicorn in Alaska.  A Texas 7 is an Alaskan 10.

[Braff Zacklin 13675]

19 minutes ago, mooseoutfront said:

I like the cut of your jib, but that's a unicorn in Alaska.  A Texas 7 is an Alaskan 10.

You call her a unicorn, but I always thought of her as more of an Angel.

[thunderlounge 8316]

1 hour ago, ztejas said:

Easy dude. That's a sore subject for him. A møøse once bit his sister. 

Was she carving her initials on the møøse with the sharpened end of an interspace toothbrush?

[ztejas 44114]

1 hour ago, mooseoutfront said:

This was a young cow that was checking me out. Very calm, she hung around for 10 or 15 minutes then moved on. 

Sounds like closing time at the hometown bar over the holidays.

[Chad Fuck 18086]

Just found this thread.  

It is the BEST.

[thunderlounge 8316]

Guess you got some catching up to do. 

[Doc Holliday 199]

18 hours ago, mooseoutfront said:

I like the cut of your jib, but that's a unicorn in Alaska.  A Texas 7 is an Alaskan 10.

Truth!  There are some very beautiful women up there though that are 100% Alaskan weird and local. 

[thunderlounge 8316]

Sounds tangy

[shadow_operative2.0 16172]

Bear domestic violence. 

Quote

Fat Bear Week is back for its 10th anniversary, but the annual contest that celebrates brown bears and their healthy appetites was delayed after a bear in Alaska’s Katmai National Park killed another bear on a live webcam. 

Around 9:30 a.m. Alaska time Monday, the popular live webcam facing the Brooks River showed two bears fighting in the water. Bear 469, an older adult male, fought with – and eventually killed – Bear 402, an older adult female. 

"This is a difficult situation to witness," Explore.org’s resident naturalist Mike Fitz said in a YouTube video explaining the incident. "We love to celebrate the success of bears with full stomachs and ample body fat, but the ferocity of bears is real. The risks they face are real. Their lives can be hard and their deaths can be painful." 

Fitz said the camera didn’t show what, if anything, happened to cause the fight. After Bear 469 killed Bear 402, he dragged her body ashore. 

https://www.fox4news.com/news/fat-bear-week-2024-voting-bear-killed

[RPM 26557]

She wouldn't listen?

[shadow_operative2.0 16172]

He told her once. 

[mooseoutfront 3646]

The story I heard is that the male bear drowned the female bear

Bears are fucking metal

[SquishMitten 10493]

Guess I never knew males and females of wild species had rivalries. The more you know!

[SurlyGator 956]

4 minutes ago, SquishMitten said:

Guess I never knew males and females of wild species had rivalries. The more you know!

Bitches be crazy.  In every species.

 

**Ducks**

[CHIEF 5197]

Doesn't matter how much of a smokeshow she was to all of the other male bears, it only took one, to be sick of her shit.

CHIEF

Edited October 4 by CHIEF

[mooseoutfront 3646]

Snow finally hit ground level last night. It’ll be white until late April or so. The pic is me pulling out of my driveway this morning. 

[Native Horn 3569]

Glad you pulled out - we don't need any pregnant driveways.

[hookem2010 2699]

How many hours of daylight up there now?

[mooseoutfront 3646]

2 hours ago, hookem2010 said:

How many hours of daylight up there now?

We’re getting a little over 10 hours currently. We will continue to lose light until the winter solstice, usually around December 20. That is the shortest day of the year when we have about 3 hours of daylight total. 

[hookemATL 12228]

8 minutes ago, mooseoutfront said:

We’re getting a little over 10 hours currently. We will continue to lose light until the winter solstice, usually around December 20. That is the shortest day of the year when we have about 3 hours of daylight total. 

If I’ve learned anything from horror movies, this is the time to sharpen your stakes and prepare for the vampires to become more active and hungry. 

[mooseoutfront 3646]

Rivers are starting to get slushy, and a few tree hugger pics after the ice fog cleared and the sun came out

[DDD Dad 14570]

On 10/11/2024 at 12:30 PM, hookemATL said:

If I’ve learned anything from horror movies, this is the time to sharpen your stakes and prepare for the vampires to become more active and hungry. 

Anyone seen Fuchs?

[SurlyGator 956]

Beautiful pics, but just looking at them makes my testicles retract.

[mooseoutfront 3646]

The highway was a sheet of ice this morning. Winter rain sucks. 

[Guadaloopy 11130]

47 minutes ago, mooseoutfront said:

Winter rain sucks. 

[sidis 9990]

50 minutes ago, mooseoutfront said:

The highway was a sheet of ice this morning. Winter rain sucks. 

[Brisketexan 106607]

52 minutes ago, mooseoutfront said:

The highway was a sheet of ice this morning. Winter rain sucks. 

It's piss.

[parkavenueguy 15]

what are your opinions on ted kaczynski?

being semi-serious (the wildlife is absolutely beautiful btw)

[mooseoutfront 3646]

On 10/28/2024 at 9:26 AM, parkavenueguy said:

what are your opinions on ted kaczynski?

being semi-serious (the wildlife is absolutely beautiful btw)

Ted Kaczynski would fit it just fine around here.

Let me tell you about my neighbor Ken.  I have no idea what his last name is.  We've lived in our cabin about 14 years.  I've seen Ken twice.  Only ever spoken to him once, and it was a very weird conversation.  My wife saw him for the first time last winter.  It was like seeing Bigfoot for her.  Ken is nuttier than squirrel shit, but he keeps to himself and doesn't cause me any problems.  So Ken is alright by me.  I have no idea how he lives alone back there, but he does.  We had another neighbor named Mark who was also a hermit.  No one had seen or heard a word from him in a couple of years, so a wellness check was called into the Troopers.  They found his badly decomposed body on the floor of his cabin.  They figured he had been dead for over a year.  I expect to hear a similar story about Ken one of these days. 

[hookemATL 12228]

3 hours ago, mooseoutfront said:

I expect to hear a similar story about Ken one of these days. 

You mean if your plan to steal his shitstick via murder goes right.

just like Mark…

[Blotto 23974]

17 minutes ago, hookemATL said:

You mean if your plan to steal his shitstick via murder goes right.

just like Mark…

I envision a wasteland where backwoods Alaskans battle it out a la Highlander with their shitsticks. There can be only one. 

[ztejas 44114]

On 10/23/2024 at 11:49 AM, Guadaloopy said:

Love that GnR song. "It's still fucking 90 degrees outside" rain. 

[HeHateMe 913]

8 hours ago, mooseoutfront said:

Ted Kaczynski would fit it just fine around here.

Let me tell you about my neighbor Ken.  I have no idea what his last name is.  We've lived in our cabin about 14 years.  I've seen Ken twice.  Only ever spoken to him once, and it was a very weird conversation.  My wife saw him for the first time last winter.  It was like seeing Bigfoot for her.  Ken is nuttier than squirrel shit, but he keeps to himself and doesn't cause me any problems.  So Ken is alright by me.  I have no idea how he lives alone back there, but he does.  We had another neighbor named Mark who was also a hermit.  No one had seen or heard a word from him in a couple of years, so a wellness check was called into the Troopers.  They found his badly decomposed body on the floor of his cabin.  They figured he had been dead for over a year.  I expect to hear a similar story about Ken one of these days. 

So does marks firewood and shit stick become first come first serve in this scenario?

[mooseoutfront 3646]

Actually, in a way it does. It breaks down like this…Woodsies, as they are called, are their own tribe. There are fringe woodsies like me and my wife. I have a steady job, but we live woodsie. We are in the same “neighborhood,” which stretches 20 to 25 miles off the highway. I know of them and they know of us. Most of them piece it together as they go. PFDs are mailed out in October, so they are flush with cash right now. They truly live old school…you can smell a true woodsie

Anyway, they sorta keep track of each other. When the woodsie grapevine finally figured out no one had heard from Mark, that’s when the wellness check was called in

His cabin was raided once the body was cleared. Things weren’t necessarily “stolen,” people have dibs on things around here. We have dibs on some of our buddy Bobby’s stuff, and vice versa. People know it

What’s awesome about the neighborhood is that there is zero theft. We don’t lock our cabin or our garage. We leave keys in the vehicles and equipment. I don’t even think about it anymore

51 minutes ago, HeHateMe said:

So does marks firewood and shit stick become first come first serve in this scenario?

 

[baboso 6101]

9 hours ago, mooseoutfront said:

Actually, in a way it does. It breaks down like this…Woodsies, as they are called, are their own tribe. There are fringe woodsies like me and my wife. I have a steady job, but we live woodsie. We are in the same “neighborhood,” which stretches 20 to 25 miles off the highway. I know of them and they know of us. Most of them piece it together as they go. PFDs are mailed out in October, so they are flush with cash right now. They truly live old school…you can smell a true woodsie

Anyway, they sorta keep track of each other. When the woodsie grapevine finally figured out no one had heard from Mark, that’s when the wellness check was called in

His cabin was raided once the body was cleared. Things weren’t necessarily “stolen,” people have dibs on things around here. We have dibs on some of our buddy Bobby’s stuff, and vice versa. People know it

What’s awesome about the neighborhood is that there is zero theft. We don’t lock our cabin or our garage. We leave keys in the vehicles and equipment. I don’t even think about it anymore

 

I thought somebody stole some shit out of your truck?

[BabaYaga 15532]

9 hours ago, mooseoutfront said:

What’s awesome about the neighborhood is that there is zero theft. We don’t lock our cabin or our garage. We leave keys in the vehicles and equipment. I don’t even think about it anymore

Was that way growing up with my small-town, W. Texas g-parents.  Town had maybe a few dozen living in the city limits.  You had to rely on your neighbors as there was no cavalry coming to save the day.  I assume it's like that to some extent out there.  

[mooseoutfront 3646]

35 minutes ago, baboso said:

I thought somebody stole some shit out of your truck?

Yeah, that’s what pissed me off so much about that incident. The plow truck was parked up on the highway at a gravel pit when we had to evacuate due to a fire. There were some meth head squatters in the area at the time and I’m positive they’re the ones who tried to steal the truck. If it was back at my place, it wouldn’t have been touched. The squatters stayed up around the highway and stole mail out of mailboxes and such. They didn’t venture back into the woods. They knew better than to do that. 

[Gatorubet 30626]

1 hour ago, mooseoutfront said:

The squatters stayed up around the highway and stole mail out of mailboxes and such. They didn’t venture back into the woods. They knew better than to do that. 

It’s almost as if there was more than one place to hide a body…