Radical Life Change- From Southern City to Rural Alaska

My book, Log Cabin Reflections, is available on Amazon.  Each chapter includes pictures of our off-grid, off-road life in remote Alaska.

 

About 15 years ago, my husband and I embarked on a radical shift in our lifestyle.

Our first of two fine outhouses

 

We moved from a high-rise urban condo in Houston, TX to a 2 room log cabin in Alaska… with an outhouse.

Because there are no roads where we live, we sold our Mercedes and Honda and bought snowmachines (called snowmobiles in the Lower 48) to travel 3.5 hours to the closest community, and a plane, with floats and skis, to fly there in 20 minutes.  However, twice a year, when the lake transitions from water to ice, we have no transportation at all.

Instead of weekly trips to the supermarket and restaurants, I raise and forage 65 foods.  We make most foods and cleaning supplies from scratch, such as dog treats, shampoo, home remedies, beer, wine and bread.

Since we live so remotely, we receive none of the municipal utilities or services that I took for granted in a city.  To heat our home and tub, we cut 10 cords of firewood each year.  For water, we were on a 3 year wait list to have a company dig a well , because they had to get enough customers on our side of 2 rivers to justify transporting their heavy and valuable equipment across frozen water and snowy landscapes by sled.   For our modest electricity needs, which top out at 2000 watts, my husband built a 120 foot tower for a 1 kw wind turbine and several solar panels that we supplement with 4 hours of a small generator on snowy or rainy days.  

How and why did we do this?

Freshly hand-cut spruce boards

In the early 2000’s,  we made the decision to live very intentionally.  We started to scrutinize all aspects of our lives.  How did we want to spend our time and money?  Which people did we really value?  What was the overhead of charities we supported?  I asked healthcare providers why I needed this or that test or procedure.  It was liberating to purge clothes we did not wear, books we would not read again, sports equipment gathering dust. We donated our TVs.  I got rid of many chemicals and small appliances and furniture.  

Through this process, it was obvious that we could live in a much smaller home, with no debt.  We could do without a lot of business networking, socializing, and THINGS. We saved time and money and space. 

 

When my husband got serious about moving to Alaska, I was quite intimidated.                                   

There was nothing in my background that prepared me for this rigorously, self-reliant lifestyle.  I was a mediocre Girl Scout.  I am still afraid of daddy long legs. 

So I climbed a STEEP learning curve to gain skills and knowledge.I created a curriculum of courses I needed to learn and, in person and on-line,  took courses in permaculture, master gardening, master naturalist, furniture building, herbalism, ethnobotany, wine and beer making, mushroom foraging, the chemistry of medicinal plants (that one was HARD! for me).   I sought out mentors on the many skills I lacked.     

 

Bad weather overhead, no flying

Emotionally, I was equally challenged.  I felt overwhelmed by doing everything ourselves, such as clearing space, with hand and gas powered tools, in virgin forest for a cabin, a garden, a shed, an outhouse.  At first, I was intimidated by the silence, in which self-recriminations bubbled up, without all the noise and entertainment of a city to keep them at bay.  

But over time, this intentionality changed me. As I gained competence and confidence, I developed a stronger sense of agency in my own life.  There is no one-upsmanship, or keeping up with Joneses or virtue signaling living like this.  I cut wood, tote water every day.  My routines have shifted.  I read the weather to determine when to plant or harvest or travel.  Instead of favorite neighbors, I have favorite trees that I look forward to seeing throughout the year as I walk the property, and favorite bushes that pop up out of our deep snow after a season hidden beneath. 

Living very simply and self-reliantly has granted me the gifts of personal humility and awe of the strengths and generosity of Nature and has taught me a thing or two about myself, as well.

 

 Find my book for $5 on Kindle here,  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BZN1FZR9/ref=sr_1_1