Living Off the Grid in Delta (Delta Junction: house, buying, college)

[Aaron Lanmon]

Hello,
I'm currently 17 and will be turning 18 in May. I'm am going in the path of becoming a wild land firefighter. My goal is to be able to live off the land that God has provided for us by the time i'm 25, is that possible? I'm am looking at land in Delta Junction for two reasons. One, Delta is not in a barrow so I won't have to pay property taxes and two, I have friends that farm there and I want to farm. Now is Delta a place where I could farm and live off the grid? How can I began preparing myself right now to live that type of life style?
Thank you-
Aaron

[AKStafford]

Originally Posted by Aaron Lanmon

One, Delta is not in a barrow so I won't have to pay property taxes

First, its a borough, not a barrow.
Second, do some research. "Living off the grid" is a topic that comes up often on these forums.

[heathen]

Don't worry about something so specific as farming off grid in Delta Junction, Alaska. Assuming you won't be going to college, wildland firefighting is a good course to embark on, as is learning how to farm, if it's not something you've grown up with. I've known a few people who have done the wwoof work exchange thing (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms - WWOOF) and it seems like that can be a great experience.

I would recommend holding off on buying land for a while, and just use trades like firefighting and farm work exchange to explore a bit, so you can have a better idea of where you'd like to plant yourself, and perhaps pursue goals like subarctic off grid farming..

Also, seems like your friends in Delta ought to be a better source of local information than an internet forum?

[Frostnip]

Having both farmed and lived off-grid I can say there's a pretty steep learning curve on both. It's not an unrealistic thing for the right human being to do, but if you don't have experience, and you're not accustomed to near-arctic conditions, I would strongly recommend learning by doing with someone who already has a functional operation. Personally I wouldn't want to do commercial farming off-grid - a personal garden, yeah, but a lot of what makes commercial farming viable, particularly with minimal people working the land, particularly in cold dry conditions, makes significant use of electricity.

You're looking at a pretty big initial financial outlay on land (decent farmland around Delta isn't cheap, and clearing and conditioning land that's not already in farming use is pretty demanding), machinery, infrastructure. Maintaining an off-grid house or cabin is demanding, too, even though you're not paying utilities - heating alone is either a lot of work or a lot of money. If you plan to do solar panels that's quite a bit of learning and money up-front; if you don't, then you need to think about alternative ways to do everyday stuff that normally makes use of electricity. Keeping a vehicle running in winter, for example. Not impossible, but again, you're taking effort, money, and knowledge.

Remember that for making heavy use of hunting, trapping and fishing to supplement diet, you need to be resident for a year before you can get an in-state license. Additionally, the land in this region is much less rich in wild foods (such as berries) and has lower density of game than more temperate parts of the state.

Basically, it's possible, but if you don't already know how to hunt, fish, plant, tend and harvest crops, store food, care for livestock, gather and season wood, operate in extreme subzero temps, run and fix farming implements, et cetera et cetera, you'd better start doing these things sooner rather than later. If you're thinking of commercial farming rather than just growing for yourself, there's also the matter of learning the business side of things, which can be complex.

This is really just the tip of the iceberg to get you started thinking about the topic. What I would really recommend is getting with someone who is successfully doing what you want to do, and finding out the skills, knowledge, resources, etc. they use, and get a realistic picture of the workload of it.

[Aaron Lanmon]

Thank you all for the help.