Well, we have
sold our home in the Lower 48 and will move to our little cabin in the woods of
Alaska as a full time home in six weeks.
The sale prompts me to consider two historical analogies. One is Cortez burning his ships in Latin
America, to ensure that his men would commit to their new venture, no looking
back. The other, which more likely
occurred to you, too, is Henry David Thoreau. But he only lived in his cabin on
Walden Pond (land owned by Ralph Waldo Emerson, by the way) for two years,
after which he moved back into town. My
husband’s goal is to live at our off-the-grid cabin F-O-R-E-V-E-R, but we both
realize that health and other matters (like wanting a real bathroom) may
trigger a future change. Now, while we
are both healthy, is a good time to embark on this adventure, and never say
never or forever.
Certainly we
have been working toward this step over several years of learning and actions
and increasing periods of time, both summer and winter. The cabin and outbuildings and some raised
gardens have been constructed and furnished and used and tweaked. The power systems of solar, wind, and lake
pumps have been tested and adjusted.
We’ve taken classes in welding, master gardening, flying, shooting, ham radio, and
first aid. We’ve bought books on relevant
“how-to” subjects. We’ve built up our
inventories of supplies with a healthy set of redundancies for every breakdown
of communication, power, heat, potable water, and food we could think of. Perhaps most importantly, we’ve read lots of
stories of naïve people moving up to Alaska to do exactly what we plan to do. I hope we have learned something from their
hubris and mistakes as well as their perseverance. Perhaps most usefully, we have also developed
a network of friends and service resources in South Central Alaska who are
knowledgeable, resourceful, and have a good sense of humor in general, and
about us!