Moved here in March

[alaskarain]

Dusty, How far are you from Gastonia? I use to have a group where we would go to diffrent places and explore haunted places. NC is chalked full of these places, so took my group there and to Kings Mountain, I loved it there.

Tammy, are y'all driving here, Whats your plans for moving all your stuff?



McCallster

pro's, con's, unexpected expenses....

Pro's-As corny as this sounds, its the poet in me but to me the biggest pro about living here is living in such beauty, theres no haze that hangs in the air here, besides the clouds from time to time. The air is so pure you can actually taste it and it taste good, the water is so pure and it taste wonderful too. I don't care what direction you look its beautiful in diffrent ways everyday. The scenery never looks the same.

The moon here when its in full moon stage is so big, there is only few places in the world where you can see moon rainbows, moon halos, sundogs, cirrus rainbows, and triple rainbows. I never even knew triple rainbows exsisted until I seen one. I didn't know what I was seeing when I caught the cirrus I had to send my pictures to the local weather man to find out what I had seen. Its a very rare thing to see so I got lucky and caught it on film. There is so many sky color and phenomenas that happen here its like mother nature is always putting on a show.

Another pro is you can go any direction for 10 minutes and be completely away from everyone, the towns, the hassle of day to day life, and its free.

In the summer you have 18 plus hours of daylight to play in

Gas is cheaper here then anywhere else

No hurricanes or tornados, how ever I do really miss thunderstorms and lightening. If your at the right place at the right time and know where to look you can get lucky and see lightening from time to time.

No taxes and Permanent Fund Divident

Electric, gas, garbage and water is included in the majority of places to rent

Cons

Getting use to sleeping in the daylight is hard for most, but learning how to darken your bedroom window will fix that.

Everything is higher, food, and such. But its kind of a trade off because salary wages are higher here which after you get familiar with the area you learn where to go and when to go to find the bargens.

I miss some resturants that are not here, like olive garden, captain d's and sonic to name a few.

Not being able to find name brands im use to, or favorite foods, favorite department stores, things like that.

You can not let your guard down when you decide to take a walk in the park, even in downtown anchorage, you are on the food chain here, there is several types of animals who wont mind reminding you of this.

I really miss the sound of crickets and frogs, and june bugs.
However mosquitoes are hideous during certain parts of the year.
Its said there is no roaches, fleas or ticks, but I have heard some say there is. I have never seen any as of yet.

As far as unexpected expenses go, I was shocked to see how much studded tires was here, some people can get by with all terrain, but I had to have studs because of the places I go.

Of everything I planned out, thought about and read on, not one time did I find any information on window tint regulations. When I got my tag changed over, when I got my insurance changed over, when I got my emissions test, going in and out of both the military post, all these people did visual inspections on my car, no one said anything about it. I even read up on alaska laws because I use to work at a police department so I knew to do this. I never seen anything in the city codes about it, it was one of them real fine print things I guess I missed.
I got stopped and was given 2 tickets and a 300.00 fine and 5 days to have it removed.
Which wasn't happeneing because no one could do it that fast, so I was given a 2 week grace period. Because my rear defroster is in my window there is no way I could remove it myself without messing it up and its really handy here. That was another 250.00. So now I make sure I let anyone whos coming here to take note. My window tint was only a couple shades darker then it should be. So these 3 things was big time unexpected expensives and really upset me.

I guess that is about all I can think of now..if I think of any thing else I will be sure to write them down.

I have a yahoo group called Scarletts Alaskan Gazette (my yahoo handle is scarletts_song)

ScarlettsAlaskanGazette : ScarlettsAlaskanGazette

and I have my regular websites at http://www.rainsrealm.org

Y'all are so nice, thank you for your kindness.

[tammy63]

alaskarain, we are flying in May and will be there only a week. We cannot start the building process until a road is put into the new subdivision and the electric is brought up to lot. It isn't guaranteed to be done until December 2008 so we are just coming to check things out. When we do come to build, I will send my husband start the building process.. I know there will be a lot involved. Thanks for asking! I wish we were going to be there for good tomorrow!!

[alaskakahuna]

Hi Tammy

My wife and I moved here 14 yrs ago and built our home, let us know if you have any specific questions, we live in Sterling and have two kids. I built my home myself so any particular building question we can help you out with let us know. Do you have kids?

[tammy63]

alaskahuna, I'm sure my husband has questions so I will bring him in to start asking.. thanks!

Hello,
I am Bob, Tammy's husband. I appreciate your husband's advice on several questions I have. After we view the property this spring and decide where we might want to build, a few questions I have are 1- Where would be a good place to check with about putting in a well? 2- Also where would I check about having a well dug? 3- Would you suggest putting our living quarters on a slab floor, if not what would you suggest in place of the concrete floor. 4- Would you suggest running the electric underground or on poles. Is there much of a problem with ice on the wires?
I do not want to cover you up with questions, so when you get tired of me asking just let me know. Thanks so much for your time.
Bob

[RooHoo]

Okay, here goes....

Which comes first -- job, house or schools for your children??? How did you decide upon which area you'd settle? Did you take a trip to Alaska first and fall in love with it? Or did you research the area and fall in love with the "idea" of it? I'm assuming from your post, you have no family in Alaska. How are your children adapting to a new school, new friends, etc? Any info would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
RooHoo

[alaskarain]

In the span of one month my mom was raped and murdered, and her room mate who had been a life long friend was killed in the robbery to. My sister committed sucide and I was dealing with a serious cancer scare. As I fought my way through all this I was pretty much alone. I decided I was going to live and I was going to make the most of what ever time I had.

Every thing im my body screamed at me "have you lost your mind, you can't do this?" I had a few places in mind to go, but Alaska lured me the most. I talked with my sons about it, they was ok with it, was excited about it too.

Hardest part of it all was closing down my animal shelter and having to find homes for all our pets. But no way we could make that kind of trip with any of the critters I had.

Once here, school was top priority, not only because the kids missed a month of school but because after so much time in a car together we all had had enough of each other..lol

I did alot of research before I came and made a few online friends but never ment of them once I got here. I placed a ad on a dating sight and slowly starting new friends.

The schools here excellant and both are thriving. Next came housing, it was easy enough to find accomidation. Learning my way around Anchorage was kind of a challenge, the way its laid out, but thanks to my Tom Tom (my gps) I learned fast enough. Now I roam everywhere.

[Metlakatla]

whoa---you've been through hell.

The North does have healing powers...

you've got some talent there too.

[cobolt]

Kudos to you Alaskarain. You are the strong, resilient, type person that will thrive in Alaska and offer her much. My best to you!!

[alaskakahuna]

alaskahuna, I'm sure my husband has questions so I will bring him in to start asking.. thanks!

Hello,
I am Bob, Tammy's husband. I appreciate your husband's advice on several questions I have. After we view the property this spring and decide where we might want to build, a few questions I have are 1- Where would be a good place to check with about putting in a well? Depends on your property, it does have to be a minimum of 100 ft from a septic tank (yours or your neighbors) 2- Also where would I check about having a well dug? There are several in the local area I won't post names but when your ready let me know and I will let you know who did mine. 3- Would you suggest putting our living quarters on a slab floor, if not what would you suggest in place of the concrete floor. Slab works fine are you going with in floor heat (radiant)? Mine is built on a crawlspace and its heated and insulated, but if I build again anytime soon it will be on a slab with radiant in floor heat. 4- Would you suggest running the electric underground or on poles. Is there much of a problem with ice on the wires? It's up to HEA (Homer Electric) our power company my entire area is underground electric but several areas are still above ground. Expensive if it's far to the building site though.
I do not want to cover you up with questions, so when you get tired of me asking just let me know. Thanks so much for your time. Direct message me and I will give you my yahoo account and be glad to answer all I can.
Bob