the animal's journal

[jennypenny]

On another note, I may be coming across a chance to acquire a small parcel of land here in the community.

Would that make you eligible for the PFD? Someone like you could stretch that pretty far.

[tommytebco]

I just looked and property ownership isn't required. Just residency in the previous year apparently.

[theanimal]

@JP- It would. I would qualify as well if I stay where I am now but since my housing is currently provided by my employer I'm basically required to work to get that. I think I could stretch that PFD pretty far. With no property tax and no recurring housing expense, I believe I could get my expenses quite low. Especially considering that I would integrate hunting, foraging and gardening food into my life.

[theanimal]

Due to an unfortunate course of events, it looks like I won't have the opportunity to get property here, at least for now. The nearest neighbor to the land (besides the seller) I was interested in doesn't want any new neighbors. He said if he got a new neighbor he would move, so it's very unlikely for a sale to take place. The seller doesn't want to create any animosity in the community and that one resident has been here for a number of years. I was initially pretty upset by this. This area is starting to really feel like home, but I still feel like a slave working here. They own my time and therefore me. If I was able to acquire my own property in the area that would all change. I could work as little as I'd like and not have to answer to anyone if I chose to do so. Unfortunately private property rarely goes up for sale here and when it does it essentially turns into a bidding war. 1/4-1 acre lots are sold from around $35k-$105k. I've been thinking that the solution may be to build a tiny home on wheels. That way I can still live in the area here, have my freedom and work as little or as much as I want. We'll see..

As another aside, hot temperatures still continue here. Saw 90 degrees Fahrenheit the other day, 2 short of surpasssing the record for the region. Remember this is in the Arctic! Wildfires are ablaze across Alaska, approaching 300 in total. Today strong winds brought tons of smoke from fires further south up into the valley. Visibility is limited to 10 miles at best. I'm hoping the fires subside and smoke passes through quickly!

[jennypenny]

I'm sorry it didn't work out. At least, now you know that the idea excites you. I imagine in a place like that, putting the word out that you're looking and 'proving' yourself to the locals by working there and assimilating to the community would also help your chances of getting a deal done.

[theanimal]

Things are still going well for me here in the Arctic. Summer is quickly coming to a close and in the coming weeks, the people who are here only for the summer, as well as the tourists, will start to dwindle down. Not much has changed since my last update. I still try to get out hiking and packrafting whenever I can, but I don’t feel as if I’m going as much as I’d like to. This full time job still feels somewhat like slavery to me, even though I don’t mind it for the most part. As I’ve written elsewhere, I’d just like to have the freedom to do what I want, whenever I want. Whether that is reading, hiking, doing projects or just sleeping all day.

As Borsodi said in This Ugly Civilization:”For time unnecessarily spent in labor which we do not enjoy is a crime against ourselves and against civilization. While we live we have only one thing to spend; time.” Although I think my time is still necessarily spent in labor at this point in order to obtain leverage in one sense to get my freedom.

I’ve found out if I advance to certain positions at my current location, I could double my pay. And with the ability to work almost whenever you want, the ceiling for income would be very high. With outgoing expenses near 0. Certainly a fast track on the financial side of the equation. Something for me to ponder.

Speaking of expenses, for the 3 months I’ve been here my total expenses amounts to $289. It’s broken down as follows:

Gas: $122
Books: $91
Food: $32 (food from in town)
Gifts: $21
Phone card: $18
Miscellaneous: $5

Anyways, in the coming weeks I plan to collect 10-20 gallons of blueberries and lingonberries (low bush cranberries) for the winter time. I’m looking forward to that. Our coworker garden here has been doing quite well. We’ve been harvesting all different types of greens since late May. Carrots and sweet peas have come up in fairly good quantities lately and I just made some borscht out of some beets that I picked today.

I’ve also scored some nice tools that I found inside some abandoned vehicles/trailers around here such as a double bit axe, multiple saws, an old Yukon woodstove and some other miscellaneous items. I’ve been thinking of building a woodstove (a bigger one) soon, but I’ll see if I get around to doing that. If I do that I think I’m going to try to live in one of the tent/plywood cabins here (after installing the woodstove) throughout winter. I think that’d be a neat experience.

Here are some more photos from the area:






Hope everyone is well!

[cmonkey]

Amazing photos thanks for sharing.

I am totally jealous of your blueberry prospects. Our planted fruit garden produced about 2-3 cups this year which is the most we've ever gotten.

The thought of gathering wild food has been growing on me of late. The DW discovered falling fruit and we found there are wild pecans, hazels and butternuts in our area and we are planning to check them out this weekend. They ripen in late September so we'll try to make a haul then.

[theanimal]

@Cmonkey- Blueberry prospects are dismal. We had a crop failure this year. A number of cold snaps in June really hurt the blueberries. Fairly good low bush cranberry prospects though. I have 1.5 gallons so far. Haven't been picking for the past two weeks due to almost constant rain but hoping to get some more now that it has stopped. Good luck with getting your own wild food!

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Winter is quickly coming here (or has it already arrived?). We are at peak color now with the leaves on the trees and yesterday we had our first snowfall. It's been snowing on top of the mountains for the past 3 nights. I got official word that I'm here at least through next May so that was good news to here. Now it's time to hurry up and try to supply for winter, getting both food staples and a few cold weather clothing materials that I'm missing. Speaking of which, anyone have long sleeved base layer(size M) or wool socks that they are looking to get get rid of?

I saw my first major aurora borealis display 2 nights ago and it was quite magnificent! We are located right underneath the auroral oval, so if there are clear skies we see aurora 100% of the time. It's 80% cloudy in the fall time though, so won't be many nights where I'll be able to see large displays until it clears up in the latter part of winter, when it's 80% clear.


Poor photo but you get the idea.


I had an interesting encounter on one of my hikes about a week and a half ago. I was charged by this black bear while climbing a local mountain. As I walked up and around a rock outcropping, the next thing I knew, the sow was running directly at me from the top of the hill above me. She didn't stop until she was about 10-15 feet away. She stood there for about 5 seconds before turning around. She ambled back, stopping to glance over her shoulder at me a few times. And as she was doing so I noticed, a tiny cub running across the top of the ridge. They ambled over the top of the hill and out of sight. I retreated back down the mountain. A very cool experience. Remarkably, I was calm both during and after the experience. Quite proud of myself in that regard! I've made quite the transition to being spooked by black bears walking by my tent to this.




Another photo from the area...

Hope everyone is doing well!

[Dragline]

Your journal reads like a novel, but with better illustrations.

Looking forward to the next chapter.

[cmonkey]

Quite incredible about the bear! Is it normal for a bear to charge and stop, or would an actual attack be more expected?

[sky]

Will you be working over the winter?

[theanimal]

@Dragline-Thanks! I'm glad you find it enjoyable.

@ffj- Thanks. It's quite the sight to see. My pictures don't even come close to doing it justice. It's taking up the whole sky and I'm only able to photograph one portion of it at a time.

@Cmonkey- Yes, it's quite common for the bear to charge and stop. It's known as a bluff charge. It's a lot more common with grizzly bears though. Black bears usually tend to scurry up trees, but I was way past the treeline so not many options for that startled bear. For the most part they'll come running to you (especially for grizzlies) check you out and once they realize what you are, in the vast majority of cases they'll take off and run the other direction. Wild bears are afraid of humans.

@Sky- Yes, I will. I'll be mainly guiding doing aurora borealis tours and will also hop around and fill in other positions when needed. I'm also hoping to get the postmaster job. As you can likely imagine, the post office doesn't get too busy in this part of the world. So you basically get paid to read .

[steveo73]

Great journal. Its interesting how you can live on so little and so differently. Well done.

[theanimal]

A lot has occurred in the past month in my part of the world but nothing too revelatory. I’ve still been guiding and hiking/packrafting as much as I can. I’ve had quite a number of animal encounters this past month. I’ve seen a muskox (!! Rare for them to appear this far south), more moose, Dall sheep (within 10 ft) and a band of at least 2,000 caribou. Not to mention numerous other smaller mammal species. Quite the activity for an area that has low population densities for large mammals. We also had a week of clear skies which offered excellent aurora viewing. The aurora when we have seen it this fall has been very red (indicating high activity) and has moved rapidly. Unfortunately as I mentioned earlier, 80% of days in fall are cloudy so we haven’t had too many opportunities to witness this natural phenomenon.

Fall has quickly come and gone, we have been in the beginning stages of winter for about 1.5 weeks or so now. There is about 3 in of snow on the ground, more at higher elevations and in the next couple days temperatures will go permanently below freezing. All lakes and ponds have a thin layer of ice on them. The rivers have started to freeze at the edges.

My berry picking results were quite disappointing. There were literallyno blueberries or lingonberries(low bush cranberries) in the Brooks Range this year. Huge crop failure. I was able to scavenge together about 5 gallons worth. I’m hoping that this will last me a bit into the winter. I am storing them out of the light and elements in my closet right now. No need for any fancy preservation methods. They have antiseptic properties and they don’t spoil. Just toss them in some type of bag (Ziploc, pillowcase etc.) and keep them out of wet areas and light.



The company has decided to pay for me to get my CDL (commercial driver’s license). The only things I have to pay for are the various permits and fees associated with getting the certification from the DMV. That only amounts to about $150. And since they’re paying me for training I’ll be net positive after the whole process. Big savings over learning on my own! This will open up all kinds of employment opportunities.

Another major development is that I was able to figure out a way to receive library books. Juneau libraries offer library services for remote Alaskan communities. All I had to do was fill out a one page application with personal info and what books I would like. I received them in about two weeks. I only have to pay for return postage. ~$9 for 11 books. 2 month loan period. Not bad if you ask me.

Still no major expenses. I’ve realized I could live in this area and this lifestyle for less than $500/year. I purchased a pair of boots for winter. The infamous military bunny boots. Most of the Alaskan sourdoughs have a pair of those. They’ll work quite well. They weren’t expensive either. $70 for a brand new pair, which isn’t terrible for boots considered by many to be the best cold weather boot out there.

Hope everyone’s fall is going well… It’s winter time here!

[Dave]

Sounds like a good month. I am glad you are able to access the library system. That will go a long way towards keeping yourself entertained and learning! Also good news about the CDL, that will definitely open some doors for you.

As always, beautiful pictures.

[cmonkey]

Glad to see you are doing well. $500/year is pretty incredible! How does that compare to your income?

Temperatures are starting to fall down here as well, we are in the 40's at night in the Midwest. 60's during the day. My favorite month starts in 12 hours.

[Dave]

My favorite month starts in 12 hours.

October is indeed wonderful!

[Ego]

Great news that they'll pay for you to get your CDL! I've been wanting to get that for years but have been too frugal to pay for the school myself and unwilling to get myself hired by a bus company that will pay for training, knowing I have no intention of working for them. You already work for your company, they respect you enough to keep you on for the winter and to pay for your training. That says a lot. Nice job!

Which other certs would you get if money and time were unlimited?

[theanimal]

@Dave- Thanks! I'm really excited about the library development.

@Cmonkey- I've found it quite easy to save on expenses with housing and food provided! If I was living in this area without those it'd shoot up but still be on the lower end of the scale. Similar to @riparian's, likely somewhere between $2,500-$4,000. My income is on the lower side of things. Roughly in the $20-25k range at the moment. That is the biggest thing that is holding me back. I have been working to try to find ways to increase my income over the past few weeks. Currently, the major task is negotiating a raise due to training for (and eventually obtaining) my CDL.

@Ego- Yes, I was hesitant at first but then I thought that I couldn't not take this opportunity. It saves me $5-10k or whatever driving school is going for these days. Off the top of my head, the other certifications I am interested in all pertain to nature/wilderness and wilderness travel. I would be interested in getting certified as a Wilderness EMT, Swiftwater rescue technician and in avalanche training. I'm sure there are others out there that I'm not remembering at the moment.

[jennypenny]

I'm glad you're blogging again.