Where can I find...

[danielle_pm]

Originally Posted by blueflames50

danielle_pm...congratulations for putting so much work into preparing for you life move!!! Seasoned Alaskan will tell you that wilderness preparation will help you but it is totally different in Alaska...there simply are not the food..berries, greens etc in Alaska that are available in the lower 48's.
Best of luck in starting you new lives!! Stay on the forum as the long timers are a wealth of knowledge for what you are looking for in information.

Thank you. I figure the wilderness classes are atleast a place to start. The school we want to go to, Tom Brown Jr. Tracker School, has classes on arctic conditions too, and we have been collecting lots of books on AK and starting to read them.

I'm super glad to have found this forum and I do plan to stay around.

[JD2AK&ME]

I remembered seeing this a while back. Check out this link, it is from another poster who built his Alaskan Cabin. Thought you might like to see it.

Building a log cabin in Alaska, preparing the land and peeling logs.

[danielle_pm]

I've seen that website before, but thank you! I wonder why they built it on stilts? I didn't read too much of it.

[arctichomesteader]

Originally Posted by danielle_pm

I've seen that website before, but thank you! I wonder why they built it on stilts? I didn't read too much of it.

You want some airflow beneath the floor (and insulate the floor well), in the permafrost prone areas so you don't melt it and start sinking, and elsewhere, flooding can make it a good idea too.

[Marty Van Diest]

Originally Posted by danielle_pm

I've seen that website before, but thank you! I wonder why they built it on stilts? I didn't read too much of it.

You have to think about how you would build a cabin in a remote area. Would you just lay the logs on the ground, would you prop them up on rocks, would you make a bed of gravel and lay them on that?

In many areas the ground is frozen year around, (permafrost), If that is the case, you want it to stay frozen and not thaw under your cabin. That is a great reason to build it on pilings, (not stilts). that way there will be good circulation under the cabin to keep the ground cold. Some commercial buildings are actually built on metal pilings that have refregeration coils in them to keep the ground frozen.

Even if you aren't on permafrost pilings are a good way to go in a remote area. The pilings disturb the ground the least, you just make a series of holes and drop your pilings in rather than dig up all the ground. You can build on uneven terrain and still end up with a sturdy, level cabin. I could give you a lot more reasons why someone would build on "stilts"...and flooding might be one of them.

[danielle_pm]

Thanks to both of you. I hadn't thought about permafrost melting... What a misleading term. I've been in support of a wood floor on the cabin from day one, but the bf wanted to go with gravel like the guy in One Man's Wilderness. Of course we haven't yet bought the books on cabin building that we plan to.

Has anybody read either of these?

Amazon.com: Building the Alaska Log Home (9780979047039): Tom Walker: Books


Amazon.com: How to Build and Furnish a Log Cabin: The easy, natural way using only hand tools and the woods around you (9780020016700): W. Ben Hunt: Books