Alaska Earthquake Effects at Remote Cabin

Alaska is VERY seismically active.  At our place, we feel the earth shudder several times a year.  On November 30, South Central Alaska suffered a 7.2 earthquake, followed, in the ensuing month, by more than 6000 aftershocks, some of which were strong enough (above 5.0) to cause additional damage. 

Ceiling earthquake damage

At the time, we were out of state, so we nervously contacted friends in Anchorage and the Mat-Su Valley – on either side of the epicenter – to see how they fared.  One man said that everything on any shelf, wall, or mantle came crashing down, and his house is now riddled with cracks.  He was particularly devastated that his sons’ clay mementos, like their hospital footprints, had been smashed to smithereens.  A woman lost only one wine glass… and an entire 30 gallon aquarium (on carpet, of course!).  An acquaintance said that her home was fine but that her father’s house was totaled and he barely escaped when his two story stone fireplace buckled, smothering  the couch on which he had just been seated, seconds before.   The closest school to us – some 20 miles by air – is closed for the rest of the year.

Frugal Organic Savings to Do at Home

 

 

as seen on www.survivalblog.com

 

When people jokingly refer to Whole Foods as “Whole Paycheck” to indicate the price points, I wonder if they conclude that all organic products and foods HAVE to be expensive.

I have learned that it is indeed more expensive to raise meat on a small homestead than to buy a rotisserie chicken at Costco.  But so many pricey organic foods and products are quickly and cheaply made at home.  A frugally organic minded person can save thousands of dollars per year.  Below are some examples and sample price points.

HYGIENE/BEAUTY/CLEANING: 

a)           FACIALS and HAIR TREATMENTS: Pay $100 vs.  < $1. 

Honey and Beeswax

I love feeling really clean, and have paid $90 - 110 for facials in the US (and $15 in India). But you know the ingredients and labor are highly marked up.  Now, I give myself two facial/hair treatments a week, right before bathing:  one with 2 tbs of bentonite clay (bought on-line) for a detoxifying face and hair mask, and another with 2 tbs of honey, diluted, as a moisturizer for face and hair.  A pound of the clay has lasted me about 2 years (about $12) How is that for a substantial savings?

b)          SHAMPOO and HAIR RINSE: $20 vs < $1.

 I make ours with a few drops of castile soap (vegan liquid soap.  A $15 bottle has lasted me 3 years so far) (bought on-line), 1/2 and 1/2 vinegar/ water, and a sprinkling of herbs of choice, like rosemary or sage for brunettes, or essential oils for scent.  My hair feels squeaky clean and my scalp feels tingly.  Very pleasant.  Just don't get it in your eyes.

c)                  CLEANING SUPPLIES:  $60 vs <1

I use vinegar, baking soda, and salt for all cleaning (house and clothes), sometimes boosted with borax.  No more space hogging, smelly cleaning supplies.

WINE:  6 gallons/30 bottles for $450 vs $79 - 129 and

BEER:  6 gallons/66 bottles for $330 vs $39 - 69

We harvest both wild and domesticated raspberries

We make our own wines and beers.  Most of the ingredients are sold at home brew supply stores, including very regionally specific grape selections, such as New Zealand sauvignon blanc.  We also ferment mead and wine from our bees' honey, berries, and birch sap.  Neither libation takes much time to make or age. Beer takes longer to make because the wort (sort of a tea) is heated and the heat maintained for 2 hours, but less time to age (about 3 weeks).  Wine is not heated so it takes about 30 minutes to combine ingredients and then takes 6 weeks to a year to age.  Some special equipment is required, which can often be found, used, on Craig's List, for less than $100 altogether.  Cost savings? We ferment ours in 6 gallon carboys (glass jugs), which compute to 30 bottles of wine or 66 bottles of beer.  A beer drinker can save 70-90% and a wine drinker can save 50 - 75%, presuming a $15 bottle of wine and a $5 bottle of micro-brewed beer. ($15/wine bottle x 30 = $450+. 

$5+/micro-brewed beer bottle x 66 = $330).  

  

We pay $79 - 129 for kits of varietal grapes (nebbiolo, pinot grigio, sauvignon blanc) and $39- $69 for the ingredients to make a Belgian style tripel, which I've seen priced at $13/one large bottle.

Bought Site Unseen - Two Remote Alaska Cautionary Tales

People believe scams of all sorts - Nigerian princes wiring money, Russian women that really want  you, resumes describing extraordinary accomplishments.  So I guess I should not be surprised by the naivete of people who buy remote land, site unseen, in Alaska and then plan to move there. Even if the long distance purchase is a legitimate plot, not set in a mucky bog or on an eroding river bank, the challenges of this sort of life deserves more research... and introspection ... than some people give it.

Below are two, recent cautionary tales of people - one from New York and the other from California - whose dreams of living in the Alaska bush came to a rapid, rude awakening.

1. 

   We live in a forest - fuel and construction

   The first story made its way into Alaska newspapers. A film student in New York City (a Russian national) bought a plot in the Interior of Alaska, north of Fairbanks. Somehow, he met or made contact with a man who had a little cabin in the vicinity. The two agreed to meet on site and help build each other's structures, which was a relief to the New Yorker. He flew to Alaska and bought supplies that he figured he might need (never having been there), including a satellite phone, a rubber raft (?), his first gun, a tarp, and some food. He did not bring a tent.
   When the air taxi dropped him off, he did not schedule a return flight or a fly-by check, because he figured he could call for it. Alas, his satellite phone never worked and the neighbor never showed up. The alleged cabin was just four walls of a shed with no roof yet. The increasingly disillusioned traveler quickly realized that the location lacked any sizable timber for construction (or fuel), and his only protection from the millions of mosquitoes was a meager tarp for a roof over the other shack.

Almost 2 winters of wood - a bit more to go

With food dwindling and humiliation growing, he inflated his raft and started down river, hoping for rescue. Finally, he succeeded in flagging down a pilot who sent help, just in time, since his raft was deflating on a river rimmed with bear tracks. He left the state and put his property up for sale. I wonder what stories he told when he returned to the Big Apple.

2. The second story was told to me by the air taxi staff that flew a California dad and his 18 year old son out to remote property they had bought about an hour's flight north of Anchorage. The family had loaded a U-Haul trailer with all the supplies they could think of and drove up the Alcan Highway. I can imagine their excitement, can't you? At Lake Hood, they chartered two beavers (airplanes) to transport both their cargo and themselves. Shortly into his return flight, one pilot realized that he still had some of their gear on the plane. When he returned to where he had dropped them off, he encountered the son in a total emotional melt down. Apparently some small sliver of reality had sunk in. Was it the remoteness? All the work? A plot of land far different than expected? Whatever the cause, the two men jumped on the plane for a back haul to Anchorage, leaving everything behind. They subsequently sold the land, complete with whatever supplies bears had not punctured or hauled away.

View from a plane - no neighbors

I have elsewhere described the profound ignorance I confronted as I struggled to live here. Even though my husband had visited our property summer and winter before buying, we STILL did not really understand what we had because the undeveloped property was covered with dense thickets of alders and devil's club, along with decades of fallen trees that obscured the natural lay of the land. Bit by bit, we cleared patches for gardens, orchards, and structures, but we clearly made some mistakes of placement that have required double work to rectify later.

Need more pike for dinner, ice fishing

My recommendation for people who think they want to live remotely is to visit several parts of Alaska first. Do you like the treeless tundra up North? The green rain forests and islands of Southeast Alaska? Or other ecosystems in this huge state? Next, return and rent a home in the region you prefer.  If your goal is a "do it yourself remote life,"rent a dry cabin (no running water) down a rutted dirt or gravel road some distance from municipal conveniences.  Get your bearings. Do you have to haul water? How much fuel do you need to cook and stay warm and dry? Some people can't take the silence. How long is your growing season?  Learn before you make a financial, physical, and emotional commitment to a very different lifestyle in a  land far, far away.

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Moose Rutting Season in Alaska

It is axiomatic that hunters always see their target AFTER the conclusion of hunting season.  We have found that to be true of bull moose in our yard.

At twilight earlier this week, while my husband and I were thinking amorous thoughts, we heard a moose beyond the trees with the same idea.  He was repeating a gutteral “huh, huh, huh” sound which is apparently supposed to make nearby females of the species go wild with excitement.  Sure enough, a few minutes later, a large cow (moose) and her yearling calf emerged from the woods beyond our chicken coop, east of where we heard the bull.

Cow with calf this spring

The mother led the two of them on an ambulatory buffet, leaning down to the cranberries and reaching up toward birch and ash branches.    She seemed absolutely uninterested in the “come hither” sounds of the male in the woods.  The young calf, though, was curious or attracted.  She took a few tentative steps toward the sound, then looked back at her mom, and then a few more, reminding me of a teenager who is torn between a desire to date the bad boy in town and wanting her parents' approval.  She reached the edge of the trees and slipped among them before chickening out and trotting back to the cow.

Moose in game camera

Suddenly the bull appeared in the yard, like an actor making his appearance once the audience has anticipated it.  He was young, and smaller than the cow.  He halved the distance to the females and then displayed his manliness by swiping elderberry bushes with his paddles and pawing at the ground. The mother watched him out of the corner of her eye, while her calf peeked shyly from under her belly.  Then, with what struck me as absolute disdain, the two of them turned and slowly walked away from him up the hill into the darkness, leaving the bull alone, with no conquest for the night.   He trotted after them, in a half-hearted sort of way, maybe hopeful but without much confidence.  Any budding romance would transpire out of view.

Alaska Honey Harvest: Raise your own sweet

For the past few years, our four hives have produced a total of 11-17.5 gallons of delicious and useful honey each summer (depending on weather and hive population). And to my delight, each year's harvest tastes different:  2016 tasted deliciously like caramel and 2017 offered a wonderfully floral flavor.  This year's low production (because of all the rain?) is tasty but without the extra quality of the prior two years. What will next year bring?

Lots of bees making honey!

To someone who thinks of honey as a topper only for an occasional biscuit, our homestead production volumes may seem excessive.  Me, too, at first. The harvests inspired me to find many uses for that delectable golden syrup.  I learned that food is only one end product.  Below are various frequent uses as well as information about the bees we raise and how we extract the honey.

Hygiene:
Honey is a humectant, so it attracts water molecules in the air, as a natural moisturizer. It can soothe sunburn or windburned skin as well as dry hair.  I give myself a honey facial and hair treatment 2 or 3 times a month.  Imagine how lovely that smells!  I simply dilute a few tablespoons of honey and slather it all over my head and face, letting it rest for about 20 minutes.  It rinses out (easily) in a bath or shower, leaving soft skin and fluffy hair with healthier looking ends.  I have made moisturizing bars with honey, beeswax, and lanolin for friends, but at home, it is easiest to spoon the honey straight out of a jar. If you have a pint in your pantry, give it a try.

Medicine:  Honey tempers the sting of a burn or bug bite, and its anti-microbial properties have  been known for thousands of years to protect cuts and scrapes from infection.  Many people add it to hot liquids to calm a cough or sore throat, and to render strong tasting medicines more palatable. For example, some people soak garlic cloves in honey and pop those to ward off pesky colds.

Regular hive check

Alcohol:  I have made several batches of mead.  For some reason, the straight honey/water/yeast mixture ferments less reliably for me than those mixed with wild plants and their natural yeasts. So I favor the latter.  Raspberry mead is my favorite.  The results have been dry with a gorgeous color, a fruit forward scent and a lingering nutty aftertaste. I have also flavored mead with elderflowers which impart a delicate flavor.  Maybe I will try a cranberry mead this fall.