Moving to ak to live off grid lifestyle (Anchorage, Homer: credit card, zoning)

[LadyAuke]

The University of Alaska offers (or at least administrates) wilderness first aid classes. They are pretty intensive- I know some of the nurses from our ER went and learned a lot. Something like that would probably be incredibly useful.

[kay4ford]

I will look into that class sounds like something I need to have. I have learned you can live off grid and still have a doctor you can go see if you need. We all have insursance, and I am currently looking for a doctor in Anchorage

[mikefullmounty]

Originally Posted by kay4ford

We are moving to ak this summer sold everything and right now in Bellingham wa
We are from Colorado where we lived off the grid with generator solar power wood stove
any advice on best way to do this

# 1. Get all you can get from the Social Assistance, and I mean EVERYTHING !!

# 2. Don't listen to Alaskan wannabe advice, when it comes to your life.

#3. Avoid all those "very friendly people" up here, stick to those who want nothing to do with you. Once they figure-out who and what you are, they will help you to live the way you want. And remember, Bears here will kill you but Mosquitoes will drive you to suicide.

[ThenewHMR]

Kay4ford: Getting the right off grid packaged system is very easy. Being able to install it is kind of hard to accomplish. Best advice ask Alaska's gas station store cashiers if they know any handy man that's good in the area your moving too. You should invest more in good longer lasting battery bank for storing power and even the gas generator can charge up the battery bank. Make sure your wood stove draws out heat in the recommended living area. Winters can be harsh. So buy the most loft down parkas. Remember it does not really rain in the winter time.

[kay4ford]

Thankyou for all advice we are closer and closer instead of me driving the hwy up someone else expericed will haul my trailer and i will follow in my truck. potential job interview next week at a fish camp. will keep you all updated plan to leave bellingham June 1 2012

[AnnieA]

Originally Posted by bortstc37

I love how everyone has to mention McCandless (or Treadwell) in these threads, yet nobody seems to want to talk about all of those who moved to (or already lived in Alaska) before the 1900s (or even the earlier decades of the 1900s).
How many people successfully lived "off-grid" back then? Tens of thousands, for sure. Many people are still doing it, yet it only takes a couple of well-publicized nutjobs for half of us to become armchair expert naysayers.
While I am also tired of seeing this same kind of thread over and over, the negative responses from Alaskans don't make it any better. Caution is good, but discouraging the few people who might still have pioneer spirit is a surefire way to make the state just like the lower 48.
If anything, they need honest advice about what it really entails. I suggest that we compile all of our best advice for folks like this and post it in a sticky with a title like "For all of you wanting to move up and live in a frontier lifestyle in a cabin and all that stuff..."

the best post of all. The negatives don't really do much to help. I suspect it just makes the poster think..."I'll show them...."

[Metlakatla]

Sorry, bortstc37, but I'm questioning whether "tens of thousands" successfully lived off-grid in the 1900s or earlier -- rather than Natives, that is. Maybe you're right and I missed something but...where were they? I know a few people who are descended from families who settled the upper Su valley as pioneers, and I'm sure that there were others in various parts of the state, but tens of thousands? Maybe during gold-rush times tens of thousands could have been said to be living off-grid, I guess.

[stiffnecked]

Yep, Nome alone had 20,000 gold rush participants that lived off the grid starting in 1889. Since they didn't have wifi or cable that should count as living off the grid.

[Metlakatla]

Originally Posted by stiffnecked

Yep, Nome alone had 20,000 gold rush participants that lived off the grid starting in 1889. Since they didn't have wifi or cable that should count as living off the grid.

The gold-rushers weren't really moving up to build cabins in the woods and live off the land--most of them didn't live off the land and many who tried to died trying. Nome had supply ships etc. to keep them going. No, i don't count the gold-rushers as people who came up to "homestead."

[kay4ford]

Lots of people have died to live the pioneer dream and many more will. Its up to the people, like me, like some of you, to make sure that we get educated enouph. Most people aren't willing to put in the physical labor needed to live an off grid lifestlye and again "off grid" means something diffrent to everyone.