the animal's journal

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

Post by RoamingFrancis »

Looks like you've got a fun and interesting life! Are there a lot of Spanish speakers in Alaska for you to practice with?

theanimal
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by theanimal »

white belt wrote:
Wed May 05, 2021 10:45 am
I stumbled upon this article that I thought you might find interesting: https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2020/04 ... tures.html
That is interesting. Thanks! I am thinking that such a system would have to be well designed to avoid having trenches filled with water. That being said, it also couldn't be in an area with permafrost. I'll have to think about this more.
George the original one wrote:
Wed May 05, 2021 7:08 pm
Do juniper grow there so you could have juniper berries?
Yes they do. My understanding is that the berries are toxic after a certain amount?
RoamingFrancis wrote:
Wed May 05, 2021 11:43 pm
Looks like you've got a fun and interesting life! Are there a lot of Spanish speakers in Alaska for you to practice with?
Thanks! No, there's hardly any. But my girlfriend is fluent in Spanish. I speak to her in about 50% Spanish/50% English at the moment and trying to make it a point of getting to above 80%. I combine that with listening to some Spanish content for about ~2 hrs a day and taking hour long lessons with my instructor from Mexico 2-3 times/week. This has worked really well so far. I think I can progress even faster by increasing the percentage of time I talk to my gf in Spanish and increasing the amount of things I read/listen to in Spanish. I recently found a site that has over 400 permaculture books/essays etc in Spanish. I'm going to go through that as permaculture has been my primary reading focus lately.Basically, I am working towards creating an environment where I am drowning myself in Spanish.

George the original one
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by George the original one »

theanimal wrote:
Thu May 06, 2021 11:51 am
Yes they do. My understanding is that the berries are toxic after a certain amount?
All I know is you can dry them for food accents and they're used to make gin. A quick google suggests not eating them in large quantities...
Can I eat juniper berries off the bush?

Yes, but you must know which species you are eating from. There are approximately 60 to 70 different varieties of the juniper bush/tree. A small number of juniper plants are poisonous, and others have berries that are too bitter to eat.

Only the common juniper (Juniperus communis L.) plant yields edible berries, traditionally used for its flavoring in gin and other foods.

Isn’t juniper toxic to the kidneys?

No. In one study (using very high doses) juniper berries were found to be toxic, but according to many medical experts, it is safe for the kidneys in proper doses.

Can juniper oil be used directly on the skin?

Yes, juniper oil can be used topically (directly rubbed on the skin) for treatment of skin conditions such as eczema and acne. Be sure to observe for side effects such as irritation, burning, redness, and swelling.

It is a good idea to do a skin patch test by applying the oil to a small patch of skin, waiting 24 hours, and observing for an allergic reaction before using it all over the body.

theanimal
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by theanimal »

It's a lovely time of year in Alaska! Endless sunlight, the birds returning (and their accompanying songs) and rivers flowing once more. My gf and I moved into the house nearly 4 weeks ago and have been working to knock items off our list and make this place more of a home. We have been able to get everything in and organized, solar panels up on the roof, and compost bin built among other things. We had our first guest, one of my gf's friends stayed with us while she was taking a WFR course in town. Last night we had 15 or so friends over for a fire and some homemade pizza/ice cream as somewhat of a celebration. Many of the people who offered help at varying stages of the project were in attendance and it was great to thank them and get their thoughts on seeing the mostly completed project.

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My girlfriend built this lovely French drain for our graywater.

We have also had quite a lot to do outside. Mostly in terms of getting garden beds ready for planting. We are planting in hugelkultr beds this year and have everything mounded up and ready for soil. There are very limited options here for acquiring soil and we are still somewhat unsure of what we will do. For now we (honestly mostly my gf) are working to further break down the beds and get them closer to the ground so that we can put soil on top and then start planting.

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We also got pigs! 3 pigs of which 2 are ours and 1 of which is our friend's. Our friend's have a pig pen from prior years and we have gone in with them in a co-op style model. My gf and I are responsible for sourcing food and we have been trying to get creative in salvaging food from elsewhere and minimizing food cost. So far our greatest success is the food bank and a local bread bakery. The food bank has lots of food that they deem not fit for human consumption and if not for animals would otherwise be thrown out. We were astounded by both the quantity and quality of the food. It's the same as most of you are probably familiar hearing from elsewhere, there is one moldy strawberry or one bruised apple so all of them go. We ended up gleaning the highest quality stuff for ourselves and now have a ridiculous amount of frozen bananas. We also came away with some apples, berries, avocadoes and a mango. The pigs need grain now to supplement this bounty while they are growing but once they are a little larger we are going to try to feed them only from gleanings. If we can source a larger supply of bread/grain this may happen sooner. We will be killing them come late September.

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My girlfriend and I bought a 2013 16' Scamp camper for $5k. She thought the ad was fake as the listing didn't mention any major problems and these retain their value really well. We went out to see it and the guy had bought 2 of them from the military 2 years ago at an auction. He had revamped and modernized one for his family, but didn't have the energy or desire to do it again with this one. The only issue seems to be with the fiberglass around the door. All the lights work and everything else is fully functional. My girlfriend had one that she completely redid in the past so there won't be too much of a learning curve. In addition to fixing the door, we are looking to modernize it, adding leftover flooring from my house, reupholstering the cushions, adding some shelving, and an electrical system. For now we will have it as guest space, and then attempt to rent it out during the summer (similar go for $125-150/night) before trying to sell it next spring. I was skeptical of the value but I looked around and it appears that those in good condition without any modifications will go for $15k plus :shock: . Either way it should work out well.

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We went packrafting for the first time this year last week. We were planning on going for 3 days, looking around for bears and floating this river neither of us had been on before. However, once we arrived at the put in we realized this trip wouldn't be possible. There was lots of aufeis remaining and such a trip could potentially have been possible (albeit in a longer time frame) but not worth the mitigation and increased risk. Instead we floated ~30 miles on another river nearby and brushed off the rust of 8 months without paddling. We may try to do the same trip this week before my gf has to go back to work, but I'm not so sure ice conditions will have changed much. Otherwise we have been biking around a lot. My gf got a bike gratis from the dumpster and it is fully functional after a little tuning. I am likely doing a wilderness race mid June, but outside of that we do not have anything planned.

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Ego
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by Ego »

Wow! The place looks and sounds great. Nice work!

And the scamper. The perfect camper. Looks like a fun project. You could probably make it pay for itself in one season of AirBnbing it.

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mountainFrugal
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by mountainFrugal »

Great deal on the camper! 5000/125 = 40 nights (plus depreciation of use). 5K in rentals this year plus 15K selling next year with a few upgrades seems like a great deal and use of your time!

Frugalchicos
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by Frugalchicos »

Pretty amazing life what you have going on over there.

The cabin looks pretty awesome and it is great you guys found a way of making some passive income renting the camper in the near future.

Also, congrats on your progress in Spanish. Mucha suerte en todo!!

Western Red Cedar
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by Western Red Cedar »

Great job on the cabin! It looks like the homestead is coming along nicely. Very cool that you got to celebrate the space with the community who helped you along the way. And man - that is a ridiculous amount of free food. You should have some happy pigs over the next 6 months.

George the original one
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by George the original one »

Well done!

7Wannabe5
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

I love it! Let me know when it’s time for the barbecue home warming. I will bring a festive jello salad.

Miss Lonelyhearts
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by Miss Lonelyhearts »

God bless, man!

RealPerson
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by RealPerson »

It really is a pleasure to read how your already amazing life is coming together even better. Wish I was there to celebrate with you. Congrats! Me gusta leer de tus aventuras.

theanimal
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by theanimal »

Thank you all! You are very kind.

theanimal
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by theanimal »

Past few weeks have been incredibly busy with getting the garden up and going and everything planted. The first priority was with the annuals. As mentioned previously we are trying out hügelkultur beds. We were able to get some aged horse manure (3 years) from a local horse boarding setup and used that as our soil. 2 dump truck loads were dropped in the driveway and I spent the bulk of the week loading a sled, strapping it to myself, dragging it to the garden and filling the beds. Some 25 cu ft or so in all. All the beds were filled along with 2 extra beds for potatoes. All 11 beds are now planted and things have been growing slowly, but growing nonetheless.

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A view of the garden

Outside of that I have spent much of my time clearing a ½ acre to ready it for the planting of my food forest. Tomorrow a friend is coming by with his skid steer to pull up some stumps. I helped him with mulching some wood piles on his property and he is helping us with the stumps in exchange. After this is complete, I’m going to be digging a couple swales and then planting. I have a combination of winter rye, Siberian alfalfa and red clover as cover. Trees are Siberian/Korean/Swiss stone pine, some northern apple varieties, Manchurian walnut, Manchurian chokecherry, another type of chokecherry I don’t remember, and hazelnut (which is borderline and likely won’t do great). Then all kinds of shrubs like high bush and low bush blueberry, lingonberry, honeyberry, serviceberry, Nanking cherry, currants, raspberry and a few others. I recently did some mushroom logs, using birch. I did 300 plugs total, consisting of shitake, lions mane and chicken of the woods. I’m looking forward to getting everything in the ground and seeing what works and what doesn’t.

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The cleared half acre in all its glory. Completely south facing

The pig experiment is still going strong. We are still getting ridiculous loads of food from the food bank and are still able to supplement our food with this. I have spent $0 this month on food and think I will make it without spending anything. That’s cool. We are operating from a feeling of abundance and have been putting aside a good bit for social situations and surprise/semi-regularly gifts for friends here. The pigs are doing well too and growing right along. We have only had to buy a few bags of food for them (Hog 40), once they reach 100 lbs we will taper off the commercial food and just go with the free stuff. We have been trying to source a protein source, like dairy, but haven’t had much luck.

Speaking of free stuff, many of our friends/neighbors have offered us a wealth of goods recently. Two friends both offered us downed logs as firewood from their properties, both very high quality. Another friend offered us a large collection of tiles that we will likely use in the Scamp and perhaps in the shower. A neighbor offered us as much scrap lumber as we wanted from his milled logs. We have taken advantage of both and used the scrap lumber for siding on the outdoor structure for the composting toilet and may use some for trim inside the house. The composting structure (outhouse more or less) was a fun project as I didn’t have to buy anything. I used the scrap material as well as a pallet (free), leftover building material from the house and moss from the yard. We are getting better at sourcing stuff alternatively and buying as a solution is drifting further back in terms of how to source things.

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Outhouse version 1.0

I had a friend from childhood visit with his brother for a week. They were the first to visit me in AK outside of my family. They had a really good time and left feeling very inspired about non-urban/ non corporatized ways of living. They went through what they dubbed as a “How to be a man camp.” They learned how to use a chainsaw and cut a tree, drive stick, shoot rifles, float a river in a packraft, and how to scavenge and cook up a beaver tail. They also helped establish and plant a potato bed. It was a fun week, we went hiking around some places I hadn’t been before and some I had. My girlfriend and friends think I could commercialize this idea and teach people skills/character. Something to think about I guess, but I don't feel any great urgency at the moment towards this area.

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On the last day of their trip, we went and floated a river a little ways outside of town. One of my girlfriend’s best friends joined us and we made our way down the river. At one point a tree had fallen across the river and we had to get out and portage around. We stretched our legs and my girlfriend went off to the shrubs to go to the bathroom. My friends wanted to take some pictures together. After, I told them, “keep the camera rolling, I’m going to propose.” My girlfriend had told me just prior to us dating that if I ever proposed to someone I should sing Justin Timberlake’s song, “My Love.” It had been a running joke between us and I was banned from singing it. Anyways, she returned and I began to recite the lyrics. I pulled out the ring and proposed. She said yes! My lovely girlfriend and I will be getting married! How times have changed from not too long ago. I feel blessed.

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My mom and her husband are visiting in 2 weeks. We will be staying in some remote cabins and hiking around. I’m looking forward to that. Otherwise just trying to get more things organized around the house. I am planning on putting a fence around the garden (to keep out moose), a rainwater catchment system once we are able to come across a water tank, a retaining wall for the building pad, and close up the ceiling above the deck and add some supports for the roof in that area. We just went dipnetting for salmon in southern AK but didn’t have much luck, only coming away with 3. We will likely go back in July and perhaps look for some bears. Mid July is also the time for fishing up on the Yukon for king salmon and I’ll head up with my set net. So much to do…good problems to have :)

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Ego
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by Ego »

Congratulations!!!!!! You found a great person to spend your life with. Such wonderful news!

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Seppia
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by Seppia »

What a great update!
Huge congrats to both of you.

RealPerson
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by RealPerson »

Congratulations! You have built up an amazing life and it keeps getting better and better. And we get to enjoy the beautiful photos!

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mountainFrugal
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by mountainFrugal »

So many congrats!

2Birds1Stone
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

Congrats on this wonderful development!!

The path less traveled has paid off for you in many ways, keep inspiring :)

AxelHeyst
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by AxelHeyst »

Awesome! Congrats animal! Thanks for sharing all the inspiring news and pictures.

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