the animal's journal

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

Post by Kriegsspiel »

animal, didn't you used to be vegan? When did you start eating meat?

jacob
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by jacob »

@Kspiel - We fed him some chicken during an ERE meetup and he was being very polite/demonstrating adaption given how many years it had been---it might have turned him :-) ... Seriously, though, being this far north, it seems that adding meat and milk (and blood) is the way to go. Pretty sure @theanimal is just adapting to his environment.

Kriegsspiel
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by Kriegsspiel »

That's how it always works, isn't it.

theanimal
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by theanimal »

@Kriegspiel- Yes. I started eating vegan as of late 2012. Towards the end of last year, friends in this area started to give me a pretty decent amount of caribou and moose. Decent in the sense that it'd make up a meal for 1-2 days a week. I don't consume domesticated meats. Outside consuming that wild meat, I still eat vegan. I do not consume dairy products, nor do I plan on consuming them anytime in the indefinite future. I think dairy is the devil, meat I'm not so sure about. I don't consume any poultry either. Besides the stray attempts where people like Jacob and DW try to sway me to the dark side :lol:

Jacob's right in that I'm trying to adapt to my environment. You can be vegan or vegetarian up here but it's a lot more difficult. There's a reason why the Inuit people ate mostly meat. Gardening is limited and the season is short. The nearest grocery stores are 250 + miles away, so there's no fresh produce outside what you grow or gather yourself. Goods obviously can be imported from elsewhere but are $$$. If I was in an urban environment, I would not be eating meat.

theanimal
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by theanimal »

Here are photos for context:

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This is my cabin. 18 x 12 ft. There was someone who started an addition on the initial portion about a decade or so ago. I've been finishing up what they didn't complete. The original log structure was built in the 1930s. The roof is about 10 yrs old.

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A view outside the front door of my cabin. Taken 2 months back. None of those cabins are lived in year round.

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Some of the wood I cut for this winter. This is birch, but spruce is mainly used. Due to a one time event in this area, there was a surplus of birch. I scored the chunks to allow them to breathe without immediately splitting.

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A view of the living room and a peek into the front entry. There will be a kitchen table going in between those two chairs.

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A view of the kitchen, bedroom and living room. The large white rectangle is my solar panel. I haven't gotten around to installing it yet. On top of the desk it's leaning on is a propane stove. I plan to use a mixture of cooking with propane and off my woodstove. Ideally, transitioning to mainly woodstove by the end of the winter. In the summer, I intend to cook mainly outside.

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A couple spruce grouse from a successful hunting trip.

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Moose hanging up on my new meat pole. Poor picture but you get the idea. The bottom portion of the quarters is about 10 ft off the ground to prevent bears from getting into the meat. I had the meat exposed for 2 days to allow it to dry out. Now the quarters are all covered with sheeting as you can see with the one in the rear.

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A photo from last week of a mountain nearby. Birch in yellow with snow down to the valley floor.

cmonkey
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by cmonkey »

That looks great, thanks for sharing some photos. I really like that photo of the mountain.

How structurally sound is the cabin? It looks like the roof line might be sunk a bit. You probably get some pretty heavy loads of snow up there?

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GandK
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by GandK »

Great pictures! Love the remoteness.

sky
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by sky »

Looking at that moose leg, I would probably become a vegetarian. How many months of cold weather will you spend in the cabin?

theanimal
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by theanimal »

@Cmonkey- I think it is pretty structurally sound. One of my friends in the area who's skilled in this sort of thing came by and looked at it and he thought the roof was in good shape. I'll take a look again.

@GandK-Thanks!

@Sky- Well, winter should be starting in the next couple weeks or so. Temps are just above freezing in the day now and below at night. I'll be moving in next week. I'll be leaving for a few weeks to head to the Chicago area to visit family but outside that I'll be here. Winter should end in late April.

steveo73
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by steveo73 »

That looks freaken fantastic. It does look cold though.

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Seppia
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by Seppia »

This is the most fascinating of all the great journals here.
The wilderness is amazing.

IlliniDave
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by IlliniDave »

I know what you mean about grouse--I came up on several in my recent trip to the Great Lakes northwoods. In the summer they are pretty scarce, I suppose because they are raising young. But they seemed to be everywhere in September. I'd encounter them hiking/exploring and they'd just stand there and look at me, then walk off. I've never hunted them, but talked to a guy up there who has. He says there's not a ton of sport to it, but that they are tasty. Not sure if the grouse there are the same species as further west.

You journal is great. You are living the life that it took all the courage I could muster to make a half-a$$ed approximation to.

anomie
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by anomie »

+1 on comments of the wilderness photography! They are amazing.
Fresh reminders of the world around us.
wow! Keep them coming.

theanimal
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by theanimal »

Thanks for the comments all. My brief forays into civilization remind me how lucky I have it. My life and the conversations I have with others revolve around the natural world. Wondering if the creek has good ice for skiing? Or if anyone else saw the fresh wolf tracks on the river? What are the caribou, sheep and moose doing? I guess it's the simple things.

As evidence to that, this is an example of a pretty typical sunset at this time of year (taken a month or so ago).
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And this is only exhibiting the view to the south. To the north, the sky turns purple and pink.

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I have been living at my outpost on the edge of big wilderness for about 7 weeks now. It seems much longer than that as time moves slow in the Arctic, especially nearing the solstice as the seemingly endless nights encompass the landscape. The experience has been humbling, to say the least. Much of this time has been spent learning what I don't know. Stumbling in different tasks as I try to etch out a life that I can call my own.

One of the major tasks upon moving into my cabin was setting up my electrical system. The core of my system are two 6 volt 420 ah batteries. Electrical systems are usually pretty basic in design but it took me a while to comprehend what I was doing. I had the leash connecting the two batteries on the wrong terminal ends. I couldn't understand how the cables connecting the batteries to the inverter could fit in the inverter. Eventually, after setting up the inverter I blew the fuse for that portion of my system. I bought the wrong wiring for lights out of ignorance, leaving me without the ability to set up my lights. All of this resulted in a week of frustration without any electricity. Abundant use of my headlamp and crappy LED lanterns led to the rapid dwindling of my AAA battery supply that I planned to last for months. These are fairly basic problems to be solved, but 7 hours from the nearest hardware store and without internet access they became seemingly monumental challenges. Advice from others eventually led to a successful setup.

At this time of year, I charge my batteries by generator. I have a solar panel, yet to be setup, but since the beginning of November the sun has been too low on the horizon to generate any power. I got it into my head that the generator ran on diesel, so prior to moving in I stocked up on a winter's supply worth of diesel (about 17 gallons). I was uneasy about this for a little while as I had a nagging feeling that my generator actually ran on gas. One day after a couple previous successful uses, my generator refused to start. As the sole cheechako/greenhorn/newcomer to the area, I am surrounded by people who are at much higher competency levels than myself in many aspects of this life. Too embarrassed to say anything, I started to decrease my already low consumption of power. Laptop use was eliminated and my sole dimmable LED light was reduced from 10 to 5 watts.
It was a few days before I vaguely began to mention having issues with my generator. A couple more days pass before a friend helps me troubleshoot it. After checking out the spark plugs, fuel injector and a couple other engine components with no issue I let slip that I filled it with diesel. My friend confirms my suspicions that this is the problem and assures me I haven't damaged the generator. Later, I'm loaned a 5 gal jug of gas for my generator. Since that point, no opportunity has passed to rib me about my “diesel” generator. :P

When I first came to this cabin, it was engulfed in brush. Willows, white spruce and balsam poplar trees told the story of a somewhat abandoned dwelling. I spent time prior to moving in cutting some of these trees, but it wasn't until I moved in that I went at this task with full force. At first, I used a chainsaw lent to me by a friend, quickly felling trees, but spending what seemed to be too much time refueling, reoiling and messing with the chain. There was also a vague uneasiness I felt cutting down these trees with such ease. I eventually switched and finished the task with a crosscut saw. My work became much less hurried, partly due to the increased physical exertion and partly to the decreased level of noise. I'd pause to watch the gray jays or ravens pass by overhead or hear a squirrel chattering away on a nearby tree. My work became a lot safer as well. Much to my dismay, I was sometimes careless with the chainsaw, finding it way too close to comfort to one of my legs in some instance and on the worst occasion grabbing my jeans and tearing up the denim near my knee.

Transportation is one category where I haven't had any significant issues. I am in no rush to go anywhere most of the time but for faster travel I purchased a bike. Due to more snafus, this time with regards to shipping, the bike I purchased ended up being sold to someone else. I was graciously lent a bike by a neighbor here. I rarely use it but on election day I decided to ride down and visit some friends at the other town 11 miles distant. I crossed the frozen river and took a trail to a service road that passes by the other town. From there I enjoyed riding through 4 in of snow towards the fading sun as it began to dip behind the mountains. Not wanting to watch the election, I rode back shortly after arriving. Night had fallen and with it a dropping temperature. I rode back on the main road this time pulling off into the ditch every 10 minutes or so when traffic would pass by. The temperature on the way there was 5 above and on the way back it was 5 below zero (F). I was way too warm on the way there and plenty warm on the way home. Arctic biking equals huge success.

One could say my biggest accomplishment so far during this time would be in regard to water. I live 300 meters from the river. My initial plan was to haul water from the river throughout the winter for my needs (This is normal in rural Alaska). After hauling water on a few occasions, the romanticism of this ritual began to lose its appeal. The rivers freeze up here in mid October and I found myself sprawled out on the edge of the shore ice, trying to time dipping my jug into the river with the coming and going of the large ice floes before hauling the water back in two 5 gallon jugs at 0 F (-17 C) So eventually, I decided to dig a well, underneath my root cellar. I thought this would be a quick and easy project and I'd be pumping water in a few days. After digging and maneuvering around frozen gravel for a few days I found out how wrong I was. Thanks to help from others,in the form of tools and muscle, the project involved less drudgery than it otherwise would have. Ultimately, we dug to 9.5 feet before driving the pipe another 6 ft. It took a day before water actually came out as dirt seemed to clog up the filters of the point. A couple hundred or so silty gallons later, I now have some of the purest water in the world on demand. And what a luxury that is.

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Method to getting water pre-well

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After

All that aside, my life here is simple. Most days follow a typical script of reading/ listening to podcasts, walking/skiing, and visiting others. And although I live in a “town” of 11 people (including myself), most of my time is spent alone. Do I get lonely? Sometimes, yes. The long nights can be hard at this time of year. The sun is down behind the mountains by 2:30 PM, it's dark by 4 PM and not light again until 10 am. A companion to break the monotony of the nights would be nice, but doesn't appear to be likely anytime soon. I make up a different demographic here than most. The rest of the residents either make up a couple or a family. The median age is in the upper 50s. This results in most evenings spent by myself. I'm not a hermit, I enjoy spending time with other people. I visit or hike with others often. Some days I spend all day with multiple people, other days it's just me.

This abundant time to myself provides for a lot of thinking yielding big questions with not many answers. A lot of it centers around defining success for myself, something that many on here wrestle with. I'm pursuing a life that is alien and undesired to most of the western world today, including many of my peers. Most of the world is running towards the cities, where I am about as far away from them as you can get. The western world is pursuing more ease and a Wall-E esque way of life, while I seem to be making things increasingly tougher for myself. I live without internet, phone or a car. For the most part, I dislike motors. I dream of building a sod igloo, sleeping on caribou skins and hunting, gathering and growing the vast majority of my food. I'm striving for a lifestyle that has been almost all but abandoned. I try to find reassurances where I can a midst the social pressures of the pervasive urban, consumerist life. As almost always, I'm not entirely sure where I'm going, but the journey is pretty enjoyable so far.

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A little ways up the valley from me

ImageThis was a really cool experience that occurred on a hike a few weeks ago. A friend and I were going to hike a distant mountain. Plans changed, and we went up a different mountain where we saw these sheep on top. As we approached the top, the sheep showed no signs of leaving and ultimately didn't. We made our way right to the top and got within about 30 meters of these 7 sheep. 2 adult rams, 4 ewes and a lamb. Quite the unique event

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C40
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by C40 »

WOW!!

Don't try to hide the mistakes you make. You are young, AND you're doing a bunch of new things. If you try to hide your mistakes/problems, (and especially if you also act like you know it all) you'll miss out on learning from people. Show that you're eager and that you're learning, and most people will be happy to help you with your problems and mistakes.

Your well is super impressive.

Your writing is wonderful.

That valley you live in is beautiful.

I have an urge to tell you something along the lines of "keep good journals, because you may want them for [whatever] later". This is a sign that you're living an interesting and impressive life.

What kind of clothes do you wear for biking in negative 5 degrees?

theanimal
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by theanimal »

@C40- Thank you. I realize mistakes are the path to learning and developing new skills. I occasionally feel embarassed by this, which is somewhat irrational as who is supposed to know/perfect everything? Although often hard to deal with. the fact that I'm the least skilled in my environment is a good thing, because as long as I'm open to it I'm constantly learning.

Journaling is something that I've had on the good idea but procrastinate implementing list. I've been crossing things off that list over the past month like meditation, tightening up my diet and reducing the hours per day in which I consume food. Journaling is my next task.

Biking in the cold isn't as bad as it sounds. The major focal points are the hands and feet as they are the portion that isn't moving. Upper body I was wearing a t shirt, light fleece pullover and a light/medium weight synthetic jacket (unzippered). I could have done without the jacket but I didn't feel like stopping and putting it in my pack. Bottom layer was simply long underwear and a pair of wind pants. The key for footwear is an overboot. I have whatever NEOS most insulated overboot is. Under that I was just wearing a pair of trail runners and wool socks. That was too warm at 5 above. Just fine at 5 below. If I was biking 15 below or colder, I'd swap out my trail runners for my ski boot liners. That would take me to -40...maybe even much colder. Glove wise I had a pair of lobster gloves. If it's any colder, I spent way too much on a fancy pair of poagies. Last but not least, I think I was wearing a hat, but probably could have gotten away with a headband.

cmonkey
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by cmonkey »

theanimal wrote:This abundant time to myself provides for a lot of thinking yielding big questions with not many answers. A lot of it centers around defining success for myself, something that many on here wrestle with. I'm pursuing a life that is alien and undesired to most of the western world today, including many of my peers. Most of the world is running towards the cities, where I am about as far away from them as you can get. The western world is pursuing more ease and a Wall-E esque way of life, while I seem to be making things increasingly tougher for myself.

This is a great update. Thank you for writing it up.

I really get where you are coming from with this, I seem almost magnetically opposed to many of the Wall-E esque others take for granted. DW's cousin is staying with us currently and she does things that are insane from my perspective. Eating out for breakfast and lunch, huddled in a blanket with a space heater in her bedroom all night doing nothing but staring at her phone complaining that we need to turn the heat up (its on 64*). Driving 20 miles to go to a tanning salon at 10 PM on a Thursday when she has to be up at 6 am. Then she gets sick and wonders why.

She thinks I'm crazy for walking to the bus stop in the winter. I was thinking about my walk yesterday and I realized that I really love this part of my day and that I will miss it when I quit work. I guess I'll just have to get up at 5 am for the fun of it. ;)

The plain truth of it is that she is a weenie and most of western civilization are weenies. We had a fire drill today and everyone was complaining that it was cold outside. I got outside for walks 2-3 times each day, why is it such a problem for others?

I guess I think that purposely doing things that are considered 'hard' toughens you up and that if I were ever forced out of my semi-Wall-e esque life (warm home, good food) it wouldn't be as bad. I also simply enjoy it.


Regarding the 'activities in the cold' (biking for you) I have found it isn't that bad either. Imagination would tell you its a horrible experience, but I spent all of Saturday digging in the garden and I had 2 coats on with hat and gloves also. I was sweating a lot even though it was 30 and extremely windy. Even down near 0 I would have been alright.


*I really would have it on 55-60 if I didn't have DW living with me, I get quite warm even in low 60s. Oh the compromises. ;)

Hoosier Daddy
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by Hoosier Daddy »

I love this journal so much! Thank you so much for sharing! Very cool water setup! Any concerns the deep winter could freeze deeper than you dug the pipe?

theanimal
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by theanimal »

@cmonkey- Agree on all fronts. The more we expose ourselves to challenges, the more we evolve. Most people try to circumvent this nowadays and choose to seek comfort over any challenge. Cold? Turn up the thermostat? Hungry? Buy convenience food. The list goes on. Jacob has a good post on this (based off Herman Hesse book's Siddartha (also good)), called Can you wait, think and fast? Part of the key to a good life IMO.

@HoosierDaddy- Thanks! Generally no concerns. The water table is flowing so it's constantly moving. And with regards to the pipe, that goes beneath the cabin so the surrounding ground is thawed out (due to the heat within the cabin). I'm away now visiting family and I pulled the check valve so that the water drained back to the water table. Shouldn't be any problems!

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Seppia
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by Seppia »

A project you could get behind if you have lots of spare time is definitely to write some sort of book/journal, I definitely agree on this.
Your writing is excellent, it transpires the love and passion you have for everything you're doing.
Plus, you're really doing something exciting.

I'm not hyperboling, when you post here, it's always the most fulfilling reading I experience in the week.

Keep it up and thanks for sharing.

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