Power Generators and Misc (Fairbanks: houses, buy, standard of living) - Alaska (AK) - Page 2 - City-Data Forum

arctichomesteader · 06-14-2008, 09:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by warptman

That sure isn't bush Alaska in my books. You will have access to the road system. We are 400 miles from the system. Come out and pay $5.76 a gallon for a while, better yet, go out to one of the local villages and pay $8 a gallon and no running water. Then you'll know what I'm talking about. Don't go praising about living in the bush when you are a mile from the highway system.

Never claimed it was, in this thread or in others I've posted on, but it's a start in that direction. I've got experience gardening and hunting and such and could definately do well in VT if it weren't for the taxes and high property prices and regulations and such, but it'll definately require some more learning in a new place. Not always best to jump into too deep a hole at first. Getting more experience (and money too I suppose) and then moving on is sometimes a good plan, you know, to avoid being on the front page of some newspaper somewhere about a rescue...

My goal, as I've stated before, is to be as self-sufficient as possible. I have no plans for running water or electricity or such. I have little interest in burning up a bunch of gasoline, when I can do the job by hand, such as using a crosscut saw rather than a chainsaw for firewood, just as an example. You mentioned bread earlier. Even while in a city now I don't buy bread, I make my own, including grinding the wheat myself, and use sourdough for the yeast, just as another example. I don't use much milk and could do without it if I needed to. Raising a dairy cow doesn't strike me as particularly practical in AK. Better uses for resources. Just as another example...

Don't take this as an attack or insult or anything, but instead of worrying about how much gasoline costs, or a loaf of bread at the store, or whatever, find alternatives to get what you need...for example, a crosscut saw, or making your own bread, etc.

RayinAK · 06-14-2008, 09:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by warptman

So, you're moving to a suburb of Fairbanks, nice.

I can think of quite a lot of things one would need to survive in the bush:
-nails
-hand tools
-saws
-candles
-tarps
-water barrier under a moss roof
-firewood (available out there, but must be cut and split sometimes)
-buckets (to gather water, snow, ice, or to catch the roof leaks, etc., or even a toiled when too cold out)
-first-aid kit
-pain medicine after one's teeth rot
-the right antibiotics if one gets "bear hands" when working on a bear
-lots of Metamucil after the age of 48 or so

-thread, needles (to saw clothing or a large cut on one's leg or something)
-insulation for the cabin, or spend all winter, hours and hours cutting wood to heat the air around the cabin at -45
-pots, pans, spoons, a non-breakable plate or two
-stove (wood, propane, whatever), stove pipe
-gun (s) and ammo for it
-hunting permit or license
-quite a lot of firewood next to the cabin if not insulated

I mean cord and cords (cut with a handsaw?)
-cash to buy land for the cabin
-seeds to grow in the garden
-ax, wood splitter, etc.
-knives (to skin/quarter a moose, for example)
-canned food
-canner
-canning jars
-garden tools
-clothing and shoes
-some way to keep perishables cold (unless it's not raining in the interior and one can smoke/dry all the meat and fish)
-a way to keep all that meat and fish dry during the summer (can't keep it in the smoker all summer)
-matches, lighters, etc. to light the firewood, wood in the smoker, candles, lanterns, or to just burn the cabin and get out of there
-nylon and hooks for fishing, a net for dipping illegally, a boat for reaching the fishing spot, or ATV, or snowmobile for winter use, plus lots of gasoline, lamp oil, wax and whatever stuff is needed to make candles, and so forth

AND, if some kind of companion is there, double all that stuff,plus one of the two must be neutered or be of the same sex to avoid a pregnancy. JUST KIDDING FOLKS! Also, if the cabin burns, there goes the idea of not going to a store to buy stuff...up in smoke it went!

warptman · 06-14-2008, 09:47 PM

I see, good luck on that.

arctichomesteader · 06-14-2008, 10:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RayinAK

plus lots of gasoline, lamp oil, wax and whatever stuff is needed to make candles, and so forth

AND, if some kind of companion is there, double all that stuff,plus one of the two must be neutered or be of the same sex to avoid a pregnancy. JUST KIDDING FOLKS! Also, if the cabin burns, there goes the idea of not going to a store to buy stuff...up in smoke it went!

I'd just burn some animal fat in one of my lamps:

No more reliance on the oil companies for light, these lamps will burn about any soft fat, grease or vegetable oil I put in them (I imagine someone in Barrow or such could find some whale oil for the second one, as it's a whale oil lamp...). There's nothing like 1850's technology.

Already ahead of you on if the cabin burns down, I plan to build a small workshop that'll serve as a backup cabin, well away from the main cabin...