Considering property (Anchorage, Fairbanks, Wasilla: relocation, housing, rent) - Alaska (AK) - Page 8 - City-Data Forum

English_Nurse · 04-08-2008, 03:30 PM

English_Nurse · 04-08-2008, 03:36 PM

Marty Van Diest · 04-08-2008, 04:03 PM

Wow...I'll be praying for your son and you.

I think you will be able to do it with that desire.

English_Nurse · 04-15-2008, 01:38 PM

2 Rivers Lumber Yard in Fairbanks do customized cabin kits which include the metal roof, flooring, insulation (everything except the doors and windows).
There is a guy who works there called Wade who lives in Manley Springs and knows people with cabins on Deadman Lake, he said "there are lots of ways to get to Deadman lake, getting a cabin kit in there won't be a problem".
Apparently there are lots of snowmobile trails and also the river access is used by the people who live on the lake.
The plan remains, snowmobile pilings in this winter.
Spring, get pilings into ground (whilst saving up for the cabin kit).
My son is discharged from hospital this Thursday and has made a fast recovery from his Stroke.
We talked about Alaska last night and I was trying to explain to him how big 5 acres is, which also entailed explaining what the word 'comparison' meant. "About as big as your school, except all trees and lots of snow."

eineye · 04-15-2008, 04:24 PM

English Nurse, it's nice to see your plans progressing so positively. It gives me a sense of pleasure to see you with your property and now finding a way to attain your cabin. I'll continue to follow your progress on this forum.

mitgreb · 05-31-2008, 07:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by English_Nurse

It's inspiring to hear how much interest this thread has attracted.
A month ago, my seven-year-old step son had to go to the Doctor. He had lost a lot of weight and had blood in his stool. The Doctor ran some blood tests and discovered he was very anemic. We took him to the hospital where he had an endoscopy which showed that he has diffuse Inflammatory Bowel Disease. An autoimmune disease which causes the body to attach itself, resulting in ulceration and infection in the bowel. No cure. He was given a blood transfusion and we took him home. The following day he woke up with a cold arm. Later, he lost the ability to grip things with his right hand. I took him to the Emergency Room and explained that I thought he was having a Stroke. They did a CT scan which showed he had a massive bleed on the left side of his brain. I accompanied him on the LifeFlight to Portland where he had further MRI's and CT scans which showed a clot had blocked a vessel in his brain causing the vein to burst and bleed into the surrounding tissue. He was completely paralysed down his right side, unable to speak, screaming in agony and hysterical. Every time they gave him pain meds he would drift off to sleep and then they would have to wake him up again within the hour to do neuro checks on him. This continued for several days. His mother and I at his bedside in a state of shock.
The past few weeks he has been in Legacy Emanuel Hospital in Portland getting rehab. He can now walk again, talk again, and regained some strength in his fingers. But the chances of him having another, potentially fatal clot are anywhere between 50 -80% over the next two years. They cannot treat him, because if they put him on anti-coagulants to stop him getting another clot then that will make him more susceptible to bleeding and subsequently more likely to have a flare up of his Inflammatory Bowel Disease, and the Doctors believe it is during these 'flare ups' that his blood clots irregularly.
My point is, perhaps it is selfish or escapist of me, I don't think so, but now more than ever I have felt the urgency of pursuing that dream of a cabin in Alaska.
My goal is to one day have my son there on the porch of the cabin I have built with my own hands, as we sit and watch the Northern Lights. Far away from the busy ugly cities and crazy self absorbed people. From abortion pills, pregnant men (Google search the transexual in Bend Oregon who was once a woman, had a sex change, is now a man, but is pregnant!), cellular phones and all the ugly messed up things that make this world such an oppressive, vicious place. Back to the purity of the snow, the wildness and wonder of nature. That is all I want. For him to know that before he dies. To share that dream.
I hope I'm not imposing my ideals onto him. Perhaps I am. Who knows for sure. But I do know that it is the one thing that keeps me strong and gives me a sense of direction. So that cannot be altogether wrong.
I sent off all the application forms and licensing fees for my Alaskan RN license last week. It will take a few months to process, but I am hoping to get up to Deadman Lake sometime this Winter, and snow mobile the sonotubes, cement, tools, etc into the site.
At some point in the future I may be able to live, simply, off-the-grid, in the cabin, and work a few weeks a year at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital to earn enough money for to live for the rest of the year how I've always dreamt of living.
Ever since I was a child I've always felt that the world was an odd place. Astounded how adults could carry on so calmly when things like death and infinity exist. Almost as if they were pretending to be stupid or ignorant. A complex masquerade. I ran away from Kindergarten when I was 5 years old. I made it 3 miles away.
I ran away from home when I was 16 years old, after planning my departure for the previous three years. I lived in Dublin for two years independently, then returned to England to get an education.
I left England for America and married my wife. A crazy, but passionate and caring woman.
Life is not for living in comfortable mediocrity. It is a rare opportunity to do something spectacular. To prove something to yourself. To be true to your sense of adventure. To renounce the things you know are wrong and leave them far behind.
For me, that's a cabin in Alaska. That's my family. It's finding somewhere I can get back in touch with my spirit without feeling I'm working for the man or supporting a society/culture that condones war, abortion pills, sexual depravity and all the rest. A society that is driven by consumerism and not compassion.
There are good people out there. But there are also many many evil people. I want a place where my friends can come and stay and just spend some quality time with each other without seeing a billboard for some cosmetic product or being cut up by some rich idiot in a sports car on the Freeway.
It's more complicated than this. And yet is is also very simple. It's a gut feeling I have.

You will want to get farther out than Deadman for what you are looking for.

mitgreb · 05-31-2008, 07:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by English_Nurse

Looks pretty nice to me.
There's a free campground on the lakefront with a boat ramp, so even if you don't have 'lakefront' property, you can still get to the lake on the State owned campground. So there's basically public boating access. No property taxes.
I pay $1670 a month for my mortgage right now. Which is insanely depressing. To think I could buy 5 acres of land somewhere as beautiful as this for the price of two mortgage payments isn't something I feel I can pass up lightly.
Plan: Buy the land. Build the cabin. Sell the house (with the expensive mortgage payments...). Move their for good. Work in Fairbanks doing travel nurse contracts every once in a while to get some cash.

I don't know where you got the info that there was a free campground with a boat ramp? There is no such thing there are 15 or so privately owned Cabins on the lake. No public facilities at all.

arctichomesteader · 05-31-2008, 08:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mitgreb

I don't know where you got the info that there was a free campground with a boat ramp? There is no such thing there are 15 or so privately owned Cabins on the lake. No public facilities at all.

Well, there is still state owned, public land here and there around the lake, so free camping there and access to the lake for all the owners in the area (obviously, one needs to know where they are to avoid trespassing) but there's nothing really developed on the public lands there that I could tell...but there is another Deadman lake, that is more easily accessed and has a more developed public area on it, in Alaska, which I think has caused some confusion...in fact when I considered Deadman Lake, and searched for some info., I kept getting information on that other lake, so it made for a pretty difficult/confusing job of researching it...

Iksgiza Lake seemed a little better to me, but I went with neither, for other reasons though...

mitgreb · 05-31-2008, 08:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by arctichomesteader

Well, there is still state owned, public land here and there around the lake, so free camping there and access to the lake for all the owners in the area (obviously, one needs to know where they are to avoid trespassing) but there's nothing really developed on the public lands there that I could tell...but there is another Deadman lake, that is more easily accessed and has a more developed public area on it, in Alaska, which I think has caused some confusion...in fact when I considered Deadman Lake, and searched for some info., I kept getting information on that other lake, so it made for a pretty difficult/confusing job of researching it...

Iksgiza Lake seemed a little better to me, but I went with neither, for other reasons though...

I see after reading more posts.... Yes there is state land that could be used for camping. As one of the locals that has been at Deadman for 20 years and helped several new comers and watched Cheechacko's come and go we are a friendly bunch but we are tiering of flyby night land buyers and people you aren't prepared.

Here is a web sight that will be helpful to hopeful Alaskan's.

Alaska Outdoors Swap n Sell Forum - Alaska Outdoors Forums

English_Nurse · 06-15-2008, 02:11 AM

I hear the concerns about fly-by-nighters who are ill-prepared buying up local property.
I've lived in rural Maine before. I realize it's not comparable in winter coldness, but it prepares you a little for being self sufficient, ready for transportation problems like your car breaking down 50 miles from anywhere in a blizzard and a rabid moose out to trample you.
But... the State of Alaska Dept of Land seem to be selling off quite a few remote parcels of land, I can only guess that they want to encourage people to move in from out of state. You're bound to get some fly-by-nighters among the land buyers, but you'll also get a healthy mix of people who end up staying and hopefully contribute something valuable to the community.
The fly-by-nighters will hopefully just move on after they realize their error.
Anyway, I've made some progress in my own attempt to get up to Alaska.
I've been offered a job at Providence Anchorage (I currently work for Providence Medford in Oregon, so I will be staying with the same organization, which is handy for me). I've also applied for a job at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, but they don't have a cancer ward and cancer is my specialty so I may take the job in Anchorage. If I do, I'll be moving up there over the next few months. I will be working 3 twelve hour night shifts a week, and I figured every other week I could trek up to Deadman Lake to work on building a cabin.
So, Mitgreb, you may see me up there this Winter roaming around and looking lost!

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