the animal's journal

Where are you and where are you going?
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theanimal
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by theanimal »

April 2016

We'll start off with the financials. Another great month for savings. 95% savings rate. I had to go into town for a week this month to finish up my CDL training. Everything went well and I'll be taking my road test to get my CDL license this upcoming week. Most of my expenses were work related. That being said, they were still very low. If I could figure out a way to get the books I wanted to read up here (that I can't access at the library) without buying them used, my expenses would essentially pare down to ~$0-25/month.

Yesterday, I set up my raised garden beds. I'll be laying the soil and germinating the seeds this week and likely planting towards the end of the 2nd week in May.

I have really gotten into the idea of developing multiple mental models. I was somewhat interested in it before, but now am going after it with great zeal. Reading books like More Than You Know, Seeking Wisdom, Investing:The Last Liberal Art and Consilience really helped to drive this point home. It's a long journey, I anticipate it'll take me at least a few years to get a grasp on most of the models intuitively, but I'm looking forward to it.

Spring is here in the Arctic. All the snow is melting, it doesn't get dark anymore and it is hot. Winter is over! I feel as if there's been a great weight lifted off my shoulders. Winter in Arctic Alaska is likely one of the toughest mental things I've gone through. Looking forward to next time..after summer though.

Here's a photo from an overnight hike the other day, from the top of a mountain. A look at some of the more iconic mountains in the area. This is around 11 PM.

Image

Dave
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by Dave »

I just caught myself up on your journal for 2016 - sounds like you are continuing to do amazing things. Keep it up!

I am interested to hear how hunting goes for you. Starting when I was around 5, I have hunted squirrel, rabbit, dove, pheasant, goose, turkey, and deer. Since I moved to Chicago and am now car-free, this is quite a bit harder to do than it used to be, so I haven't done it as much in the past year. Nevertheless, learning to hunt and process wild game has been a major part of my life, and is certainly an interesting skill to have!

Hoosier Daddy
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by Hoosier Daddy »

Thank you so much for posting animal! Your journal is so interesting and I'm thankful for being able to read your story. Can't wait to hear what comes next!

theanimal
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by theanimal »

Thanks Dave and HD.

Over the past couple months there have been some new developments. The first being that I now am a commercially licensed Class B driver. The test was successful on the first go and I've been using the license to do tours for my current employer in a large coach bus. I have a competitive advantage as I'm the only one with a CDL. The downside is that it is a bit more work, since I am dealing with a larger volume of people. But I also am making more money.

Hunting
In the beginning of May, I also purchased a .10-.22 Ruger American Semi-Automatic Rifle. For much of May, I just used it for target practice purposes, honing my skills with the gun. Eventually, one of my local friends suggested that I take it and look for some ducks and geese. I decided to do just that.

I went hunting on three different occasions before the season ended. The first time out, we (a friend came along) found quite a number of ducks but didn't have any success in getting close. I had one good shot and fired, yet missed. Too far away.

The next occasion was much more successful. We tried out the spots we had been before, with the same results. Getting fairly close, shooting and just missing. We then decided to check out a much larger lake in the area. Here my friend was successful as there were a pair of ducks that swam directly towards us as we sat on shore. As we were walking back, I decided to check out another lake before leaving. The topography was situated perfectly. Between myself and the lake, there was a small knoll. I inched up the knoll on my stomach hoping that there would be some ducks in the marsh along the coast just beyond the hill. My suspicions were correct and there were about 8 ducks idling on the side. At about 60 m, I waited for the right opportunity and fired away. This time I was successful. I killed a Greater Scaup, plucked the feathers, skinned it and had a nice meal a couple days later on. The season closed just about a week after that and time/weather didn't really cooperate to offer more opportunities to hunt. Next, I'm hoping to try for spruce grouse in the fall and if things are going well, after a caribou as well.

Gardening
I have been actively involved in starting and maintaining two gardens within the area. I'm growing potatoes, beets, turnips, lettuce, arugula, cilantro, kale, broccoli, cabbage and carrots among some other greens. I'll have to post pictures in the garden thread when I get a chance. Things are going well in this regard.

Outdoors
I leaped past a threshold recently. As those of you who have read my journal know, in the past I've had mental issues with pursuing some of my goals outdoor recreationally speaking. A couple weeks ago, I competed in a wilderness race within the area. 110 miles, off trail, self supported, human powered and away from any roads. I did very well and finished in 53 hrs 45 min. My only means of transportation was my 2 legs and feet. This event was something that I've dreamed about doing for the past three years and not only have I done it, but I completed it at a very high level. I debated about how much to share here, but if you're interested in reading more, there are places where I've written in much more detail..

Miscellaneous
I have been playing the ukulele quite regularly and am becoming decently skilled. I usually only play for about 30-45 min a day though so progress is somewhat slow.

I have also been learning Mandarin since I believe the beginning of May. In the winter, 90% of the guests up here are Chinese, so besides being an interesting thing to learn, it'll help to provide me another competitive advantage. I've dropped off in my studies the past couple weeks as I've been busy with the wilderness race and the ensuing recovery from that. I'm planning to get right back to it on Monday.

I am making fairly good progress on developing skills for the year. One thing that has been lacking has been attempts at bike maintenance. I have the book and I have the broken bikes. Time to get to work.

Finally, financially speaking things are still continuing to go as they have been. I've earned a bit more over the past 2 months than what was typical for me for the previous year. That should continue going forward. These past two months have included slightly higher spending, which I'm not very happy about. I've still been able to maintain a high savings rate though. 87% in May. 90% in June.

Matty
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by Matty »

Well done on the "race"! 110 miles is a lot of distance to cover on foot in 2 days. Have you ever covered that sort of distance in that time before? I guess having almost 24 hours of light in the middle of summer would be handy!

Nice work on the hunting success too! That's something that I have had on my project list for awhile. I have access to some hunting land so just need to purchase a firearm and work on my knowledge/skill, licensing etc. Something I hope to incorporate over the next year.

Good luck with the bike maintenance. I rebuilt an old mtb for touring last year and it was a nice hobby when the weather was average!

Dragline
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by Dragline »

That's really incredible stuff. Talk about making it "real" -- as in the quest for fulfillment that is; you are pretty much ruling the world. Especially that race. I'm going to go around saying -- "yeah, I know that guy . . ." But the duck is more my speed.

DW was just reminding me of a duck we had once where she fried up the skin as a kind of "duck bacon" and our dog was so entranced by the smell that she did a dance on her hind legs as it was carried to the table.

jacob
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by jacob »

WRT Misc ... I'm absolutely tickled that you're getting so much use out of the ukulele. If I could ask you one favour: If you ever get tired of it, pass it along and tell the story of where it came from, that is, the story of it, and tell whoever adopted it to do the same. And so on and so forth. #propagate

I like stuff to have stories. I'll try to do the same for a certain bow. I already have an idea of who is to be #3... Dude is a trapper. Looking to move to AL. This being a small world, I give it 30% you'll meet him/them some day.

EMJ
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by EMJ »

Looking to move to AL
Jacob: AL - Alabama, AK - Alaska

theanimal
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by theanimal »

@Matty- No I haven't covered that distance so quickly before. It certainly surprised me a little bit and made quite the impression on everyone else within the race. They all know who I am now. No darkness helps quite a bit. I was able to go for as long as I liked. Good luck to you on the hunting! I talked with some folks from Australia a couple weeks ago about hunting and it seems like you have some good opportunities down there.

@Dragline- I've been feeling like I'm on top of the world. I'm in control of every aspect of my life and things are going just as I planned. My dream is coming to fruition before my eyes and I'm living it. A partner might be a nice addition, but hey they say you can't have it all ;) . That duck bacon sounds interesting. I'll have to look into that for next time.

@Jacob- Will do. I purchased a book with hundreds of songs that made it fairly easy to want to play. I just find a song that I want to learn or hear within the book and start going. After you gave it to me, I didn't play much at all for a little while. Things are much different now. And like EMJ, I think you meant AK? Because I have no plans to go to Alabama..but sounds cool. I'll keep an eye out in the future for a trapper with a familiar looking bow.

theanimal
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by theanimal »

As I mentioned last summer, I've been looking to secure my own place in this area and get some autonomy. With my employer providing for housing and food, I am living a fragile lifestyle. It's great on a financial basis, but if I lose my job or don't want to work here I can't live here anymore. That's not desirable.

Recently, I made this desire to find my own place known to a friend in a nearby town. He offered some suggestions on people I could contact for possibly renting out a cabin. There is very limited private property in this area and as a result it is often in high demand. I contacted two owners last week. One is a billionaire who has a functional, small cabin (which we'll call cabin A) that would need some work in a quiet section of town. The other cabin (cabin B) is a place that has been recently vacated and is ready to go with some light maintenance, yet near the entrance of the town (sees quite a bit of traffic in the summer) and near a noisy summer resident.

I finally heard back from both individuals within the past couple days. Owner of Cabin A would be thrilled to have me live there and work on the place as needed. He would not charge a thing and would give me a couple months notice if he came up with his family to visit for a little while. The owner of Cabin B is willing to rent me the place in exchange for some maintenance on the cabin from time to time for $100. Great news on both fronts!!

I'm leaning towards Cabin A. It's hard to beat free. My friend had a nice line about the deal, "billionaires don't worry about rent." The cabin is located in a significantly quieter spot, yet it is small and would need some work. It is livable now, the walls are solid, there is insulation, a new woodstove the owner bought a few years ago and a new roof that he put on. I would have to add a power setup (solar with battery bank), water well beneath the house and I'm thinking of adding a small addition on the back, for a separate room to sleep in. The cabin is currently somewhere around 14x15.

Cabin B is nice in the sense that it would take minimal work and is slightly larger. It has a main room that's similar in size to cabin A with a small additional room on the back for sleeping. It's woodstove is not as good and it's located in a noisier spot. I'd still have to install a power system and possibly a water well. There would also be the extra ~$1200/yr for rent.

Thoughts? Anything that I should consider?

saving-10-years
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by saving-10-years »

Cabin A. You'll get some skills and a lot more freedom (privacy). I am imagining that its only when you are not working that you will be there so the isolation won't be such an issue? In fact you might like the break. The Cabin B thing sounds like its a proper rental (and he could maybe up the rent when its fixed or change who he rents to, which affects your desired security). Cabin A sounds more like a home-sitting arrangement. As long as he needs the home there he will like to have someone care-taking it.

Congrats on having two options. Your are obviously persuasive/desirable as a tenant.

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jennypenny
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by jennypenny »

Cabin A sounds good and would give you a place to practice some construction skills (always better to practice on someone else's place ;) ).

If the owner is really a billionaire, he won't think in terms of rents and contracts and such. People at that level think and act differently. I wouldn't stress over that too much.

saving-10-years
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by saving-10-years »

If it's no biggie and you have a place to go if that happens it's a great deal. Hopefully he's a great guy and that won't happen. On the flip side, being a house guest doesn't give you much leeway if you're asked to leave, if that means freezing your ass off in an Alaskan winter it's worth keeping in mind.
Maybe Cabin A needs an 'in case' back-up plan? The amount you are saving instead of playing Cabin B rent will pay for something else if you need it. I know @TheAnimal is pretty creative and inventive and connected (he came up with not one but TWO options here and both pretty good). But also I am guessing that the billionaire needs some goodwill in an community which he visits infrequently. Throwing someone out at short notice seems unlikely for anyone.

Is it worth exploring whether house guests are allowed? If you are pretty isolated there then you may want someone to stay over sometimes. I agree that getting some take on the ground rules and expectations is key.

theanimal
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by theanimal »

Thanks for the thoughts everyone.

He is actually a billionaire. There are interviews where he talks about his trust fund and his family also used to own an NBA team. There are some factors in my favor that limit the possibility of him kicking me out on short notice. He has a wife and 2 kids. The cabin is ~220 sq ft. And the last time his wife came here she wouldn't go in the cabin and slept in their camper van outside. That was 11 years ago, he hasn't returned since. He said he's planning on coming next year or the following year but we'll see. It'd be just to visit anyways. It seems highly unlikely that he'd live here full time.

I do have at least two areas I can go in case I do end up getting kicked out on short notice. I won't be stranded out in the snow.

I've been cutting quite a bit of wood the past three days. I now have about 2.5 cords. The cabin doesn't take much to heat, only about 3-3.5 for a whole winter. The roof was replaced a few years ago and is in great condition, the walls are solid and well insulated and I just adjusted the door. I could move in now if I wanted to. What is holding me back is lack of power and water. Those are the top 2 tasks on the agenda for the next month or so. Other than that, I'll finish cleaning up the inside, clear up quite a bit of brush from the surrounding area and lots of trash from a past resident. Lots to do!

In non cabin news, blueberries are out in abundance. I've started picking those and have slightly over a gallon so far. Ideally, I'd like to get 10.

arebelspy
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by arebelspy »

Take Cabin A. Sounds way better, and save the difference in rent in case you need to go rent a hotel for a week or two while they use it, no biggie.

theanimal
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by theanimal »

Summer is over in the Arctic and we are well underway into fall. Colors are changing on the leaves and it's finally dark again. I haven't seen them but we the first stars, since the end of April, were able to have been seen as of the 10th this month. Things are plodding along. I spent much of July still recovering from the race in June and am happy to say that I am back to about 99% of full health. Financially, things are still going OK. I saved 90% of my pay in July. I've also picked and stored just over 10 gallons of blueberries in the past few weeks. I'd like to get a few more but we'll see. I'm tired of picking berries.

Image
It doesn't get much better than this.

I find myself at a crossroads. I'm burnt out on my current job. The work is repetitive and basic. There hasn't been any growth in this department for some time. I don't think I place much identity in my work, but I'd like to do something that provides value if it takes up a good portion of my days.

Under my current plan, I'd live in this area in the cabin mentioned above, but only work for about a month or so over winter during the busy aurora season. I'd have lots of time for reading, learning and enjoying the surrounding area. I'm also planning on going on some longer ski trips and a bigger trip next summer. There are some downsides to this plan that I've somewhat sidestepped.

1.Limited financial viability going forward. There is not much economic opportunity available up here. Everything essentially centers around tourism, with a fairly decent sized number of people travelling through the area for about 5 months of the year (4 busy mos in summer, 1 in winter).
2. Social isolation- The area I currently live is somewhat of a shared living situation. There are about 40 people living here in the summer. Everyone lives close by and there are opportunities to eat and socialize with others whenever you want. In the area where the cabin is, there are 12 people divided into 5 different households. It's much more individualized. Everyone knows each other and is generally friendly (and I get on great with a few of them) but social interaction is limited. I'd imagine that most days living there it'd be interaction with others for maybe 10-15 min/day with some days potentially being 2-3 hrs. This thought has worried me since the guy agreed to let me "rent" the cabin. There's potential for dissatisfaction and interpersonal regression, which I am worried about.

So the idea that has been going through my mind is moving to Anchorage. I think I'd pursue an electrician apprenticeship with work on the side in different fields. Try to find and buy a fourplex, live in one unit and rent the rest out. The advantages of this idea (in moving) would be a greater likelihood of finding a community/others to participate in outdoor activities with, ability to learn new skills and greater financial success than in my current position. The cons would be leaving this area to live in an urban setting and having to give up the idea of longer outdoor trips for about 4-5 years.

There aren't many people that I can relate to and would understand the different aspects of my life that would play into a decision like this, which makes a decision like this fairly difficult. I love the area I'm in now and have a good amount of social capital built up, but it's not looking viable at the moment. I feel like this is a somewhat similar situation that Mike from LackingAmbition faced after his year in the desert. I've found somewhat of an ideal area, but not from an economic perspective. Is it worthwhile to go away for a few years and be able to come back in a better position later? Will I want to come back? Will I still want to do longer trips then?

These are all questions that I'm trying to wrestle with at the moment. Human feelings and attitudes are somewhat of a wonder. During and after the race for a couple weeks I felt as if I reached the pinnacle of life. The peak of fulfillment. That has waned down and now I find myself in search of fulfillment again. Such is life I guess.

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Viktor K
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by Viktor K »

That really is how life goes. It has been great reading your journal. Best of luck in figuring out what to do next :)

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Seppia
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by Seppia »

just finished reading your journal from start to finish.
What a powerful experience!
Thanks for the great read

Matty
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by Matty »

Hey mate, I can appreciate the point you made about not having many people to relate to regarding big life decisions. Lucky we have these forums, with so many people treading their own path, to inspire and motivate us!

I’d say getting a trade would be a good investment. Once qualified you would have a lot of flexibility in terms of income – full time work to boost the savings, short term contracts between adventures, odd jobs for cash, starting up your own business etc.

Why not take one of those longer trips with some of the money you have saved up and then come back to an apprenticeship once you’re done?

I look forward to hearing about what’s next!

theanimal
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by theanimal »

Thanks for the responses everyone. I'm going to go forward with things as planned.

More of the same over the past couple months on my end. I spent some time cutting wood for the winter and probably have around 4 cords, more than enough for my needs. Otherwise life has been filled with work, getting my cabin ready and trying to enjoy the surrounding area. I'm moving into my cabin in about a week and a half from now. Just about everything is in order. The outhouse is all set, logs are dusted and cleaned, insulation is where it needs to be and some decorations are in place.

I went to town last week and stocked up on food and some supplies for the winter. It was a reminder of how much I hate going to town. I felt pretty frazzled after a few hours and scrambled out of there. It is unnerving now to be in such an artificial environment.

Hunting season is in full swing up here and coming to a close in a few days for some of the animals. I've been hunting small game again and went hunting for spruce grouse. They are much easier to hunt than the ducks and I had a lot more success. I feel somewhat bad for them because it really doesn't involve much skill at all in killing them, but it is what it is.

At the start of hunting season, I left a message with the local trooper saying that I'd take any meat if he acquired any he needed to discard. Yesterday, he came looking for me with some meat. He had confiscated a moose from hunters who killed it in a closed area. Score! So I now have almost an entire ~5 yr old bull moose minus the head, neck, some ribs and some meat the hunters left in the field. It's a ton of meat. One of my friends in the area helped me construct a meat pole behind my cabin and we hung up the quarters. I tossed the other pieces in the freezer as they'd been out too long to really hang up and dry.

My natural bank account is pretty large right now.. a few hundred pounds of moose meat, 10 gallons of blueberries, ~3 gallons of lingonberries, and ~4 cords of wood. Not bad at all.

The only significant project I have left to do is finish setting up the electrical system. I have two 6v deep cycle batteries (420 ah). I have to connect them to an inverter and I'll also be running my lights right off the battery. I have a 140 watt solar panel as well that I have to set up but I'm in no rush for that yet. I'll be able to power with solar from Mid February to mid October. The other 4 months I have a generator I'll run every other day or so for a couple hours to charge up the batteries.

Outside of cabin work, I went on another multi day trip towards the end of August. A packrafting trip on 2 of the most intense rivers in the nearby area. It was a ton of fun. Just beyond my comfort level so I learned a lot during the experience, without swimming as well! Bonus. I have more longer trips planned throughout this upcoming winter.

Work has been really busy the past few months which isn't great, but it allows me to keep squirreling away funds. I haven't had much in terms of time off over the past month or so but that will change here shortly. I'm finishing work on October 3rd and won't be working again until sometime in January. I'm looking forward to it.

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