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Off Grid Alaska


mooseoutfront

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Where did you move from? Were you an Eagle Scout and lived to camp, etc.?

Did you move straight to this setup, or just something rustic and you moved gradually "off the grid"?

Is your work truck your office or do you actually commute to an office or field site on the regular?

Have there ever been kids involved in this living arrangement?

I think this looks awesome but I couldn't do it.  Loving the thread!!

 

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This thread already kicks ass but I’m a little more than giddy thinking about the Off Grid Mexico topic
 
My family ranch in northern Mexico was off-grid.  Wadda ya wanna know?  Thick walls to manage the desert heat, water from a windmill-driven well, propane heaters for cold winter nights, and a propane stove and fridge.  Not unusual in that area, at that time.
Photo taken by my dad after climbing up said windmill:
 
03b9cc450a9af972f886fa55fcf10317.jpg

 
But, I won't derail this awesome thread any more than that.  I'm fascinated by cold-climate off-grid living, and will read everything our northern friend posts here.
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3 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

My family ranch in northern Mexico was off-grid.  Wadda ya wanna know?  Thick walls to manage the desert heat, water from a windmill-driven well, propane heaters for cold winter nights, and a propane stove and fridge.  Not unusual in that area, at that time.

Photo taken by my dad after climbing up said windmill:

 

 

But, I won't derail this awesome thread any more than that.  I'm fascinated by cold-climate off-grid living, and will read everything our northern friend posts here.

The inlaws still have a place like that in the outskirts of the big city of Ojo de Agua, Zacatecas. 

 

 

Abuelita is 86 but she still rides the bus down to visit 3 or 4 times a year and check in on her house and the extended family that are living in the area there now and prefers that lifestyle to the one she has here in Texas. Unfortunately for her all of her kids moved to the states and being 86 and illiterate (never spent a minute in a classroom in her life) makes it very difficult to live there alone. 

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22 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Seeing the amount of wood y’all need for the winter….Fuuuuuuuuck.

A couple of years ago, we were on a summer hike in western Norway. Walked by a nice cabin over a fjord, and saw this woodshed, that they were still in the act of filling for the winter. That’s a lot of f’n wood. How does it compare to what y’all put aside?

385a7f9aaca2f1017e33e5e1fb6ed9c0.jpg

We usually burn 8 cords of wood per winter.  We try to bring in 10 cords per year, because you can never have enough firewood.  It's like money in the bank.

From that pic I'm estimating that's around 5 or so cords.  That's not quite enough to get through the winter for us.

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3 minutes ago, mooseoutfront said:

Cabin fever is real and dangerous.  Alaska has an incredibly high suicide rate per capita.  Alcoholism and drug abuse and domestic violence all skyrocket in the deep winter.  It's not really the cold either.  Everyone up here has the proper gear.  It's the lack of light that gets in people's heads.  The lack of light leads to Vitamin D deficiencies.  That's the root cause of it all.  Take your supplements, get properly dressed and get outdoors when the sun is out.  The deep cold is beautiful to me. Winter is my favorite season.  On January weekends when the temp is regularly 30 below or colder we'll get suited up, make a fire in the fire pit, smoke a joint and watch the Northern Lights until we get cold.  Go in the cabin to warm up and then do it all over again.  The Lights fascinate me.  

Well, I imagine being high AF contributes to that.

And as for the lack of light, my daughter really leans on her UV sun lamp, but without power....I guess that's not an option for you?

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22 hours ago, Your Mom said:

A wife married to a bonafide Grizzly fucking Adams probably has less need for those devices than the rest of our wives. 

Someone upthread mentioned it, but I’d like to hear some of your scariest stories of times shit was going wrong. 

And thanks for what looks like it has the potential to be the best thread on surly.  Username checks out. 

Grizzly Adams is starting to get old.  Why do you think I have to take a battery brick to work to charge everyday?  It's not just her iPad and blue tooth speaker.

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20 hours ago, davidg said:

Did y’all buy or build your cabin? Any other outbuilding other than the shitter at the cabin? That one pic of the cabin looks like you are in a heavily wooded area. What does your regular garden look like?

We bought it.  It sits on 5 acres.  In addition to the cabin, there is a log one car garage, a log sauna, and a storage shed out back.  It was the first cabin for the guy who built it, so there are some mistakes he made the he and we have just lived with.  It has kept us warm and dry.  Here's the only pic I can find that sort of shows what you are asking about.  The big bushy plants are potatoes.  Her yield is usually between 150 to 200 pounds.  The greenhouse is the veggie greenhouse, not the weed greenhouse.  We keep that in the back.  You can also see the garage and the sauna in the background behind the garden.

Inkedpic22_LI.jpg

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20 hours ago, Neonmoon said:

What’s the typical meal situation like on a weekday? What’s on the menu?

Completely depends on the season.  Spring and summer we basically grill all of our meat outside over charcoal.  My wife keeps us in fresh greens.  We eat a lot of salads during the warm months.  We make our bread and tortillas by hand.  In the winter it's slow cooked stuff.  Roasts with potatoes, moose tips in gravy over rice, grouse and dumplings, soups, stews, beans, etc.  It's illegal to trade wild game for something else in Alaska, so when we have extra moose we give it away as gifts.  And guess what?  When people have extra fish, or beef, or pork they give it to us as gifts too.  I said in the other thread the only meat we buy regularly is bacon and the occasional beef ribeye.  We eat a lot of moose.  We process it ourselves.  We make burger and chili meat and sausage and jerky.  It's delicious, but it gets old.

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19 hours ago, RDCanecutter said:

1. Have you found gold yet?

2. If the Russians successfully reclaim Alaska, will you even know?

3. And if you do know, will you turn on us?

1.  I haven't, but I don't go looking for it.  I know lots of people who do though.  There are a ton of placer mines in my area.  The saying up here is "Mining is the family farm of Alaska."

2.  Fuck Russia

3.  See #2

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19 minutes ago, GhostOfTomJoad said:

So what happens in the dead of winter when it's -60 and dark as a miner's ass and you can't help but think that you would kill a moose with your bare hands to get a hot plate of enchiladas with a side of rice and borracho beans? Do you eat a potato, smoke a joint and just make believe?

Cheese enchiladas, rice, and beans, are actually easy cabin meals.

Tortillas, American cheese, chili gravy (made with moose!)

Rice - easy.

Pot of beans - easy.

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12 hours ago, Grippe said:

MTF?  I grew up in Chugiak and it was always the strain of choice.

Chugiak holla!!

It's a cross between a local strain that's been grown in my area for years (Blueberry) and a Grapefruit Kush that I got from a seed house in BC.  The Blueberry is supposed to have some MTF in it, but who knows?  We named that plant Skittles.  Not just because of the colors, but because it smelled like them...so fruity.   She was stoney.

I've never gotten a hold of any old school MTF.  I hear it was the shit.

MTF = Matanuska Thunder Fuck for those playing at home.    

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11 hours ago, RexWilson said:

Do you get Amazon Prime delivery?

Actually we do.  It's cheaper to get paper products delivered via Amazon than to buy them at the store.  For example, a big pack of family size paper towels will run you close to $40 at the store here.  It's like $30ish with free shipping on Amazon.

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17 minutes ago, GhostOfTomJoad said:

Since you're living in an extreme cold, what are the products/manufacturers that you swear by? Your life literally depends on what you wear, what starts, what just fucking works. Give us your top 5 "Alaska proven" items.

I am interested in this too, if you would indulge us sometime. 

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21 minutes ago, GhostOfTomJoad said:

Since you're living in an extreme cold, what are the products/manufacturers that you swear by? Your life literally depends on what you wear, what starts, what just fucking works. Give us your top 5 "Alaska proven" items.


this is going to sound so fucked up, but moose would be a real money making TikTok

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When skinning out and processing an animal like that, does one person stand guard to watch for bears at all times? 

No shit. Especially with that big ass grizzly bear in your neighborhood. I assume you do that away from your house but it still must attract attention
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7 hours ago, mooseoutfront said:

Actually we do.  It's cheaper to get paper products delivered via Amazon than to buy them at the store.  For example, a big pack of family size paper towels will run you close to $40 at the store here.  It's like $30ish with free shipping on Amazon.

This is the craziest thing yet that's been posted in this thread. 

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