the animal's journal

[theanimal]

I quit my job in early May. Even though I was only working some 10 hours a week, it became something that I dreaded doing. Looking at my coworkers and those in similar position elsewhere, I had no desire to end up like them. We become what we do, and I did not/do not want to become a cubicle drone, whether in my home or in an office somewhere.

Much of that time has gone to taking care of/spending time with baby animal. Mrs. Animal finished up the last of her training in May and is now licensed as a massage therapist. I’m still blown away by the crazy ROI one can get in such a short time period in that field. We spent ~$7k on her education and she will be able to earn $100/hour starting out. She already has a gig with one clinic and is interviewing with others for a more established position.

Summer of building
As I believe I mentioned earlier, the owner of the cabin I lived in/caretake in the Arctic agreed to let us put on an addition and is willing to finance the materials. Our plan was to spend a few weeks up there putting up a small addition on and getting things squared away within the original cabin. Since the town is 6 hours away from the nearest store, I made two material runs with a U-Haul before the whole Animal clan went up. We quickly discovered that the cabin was in worse shape structurally than we figured (listing to one side and logs continually rotting into the ground among other things) and had no desire to attach any type of new structure to it. I let the owner know about the issues and asked if we could build a separate structure closer to the river. In the interim, we fixed a hole in the roof, better sealed some of the walls, and installed a new door. He eventually agreed and we left early, for lack of materials and to finish projects off at our home in town.


Location for the new cabin. We stayed in this tent while we were there because there were too many mosquitoes in the cabin.


Baby animal LOVED the gravel bar

He's already reimbursed me for the materials I’ve bought and paid me an extra $1.5k. I’m not entirely sure what the initial payment is for, maybe the supply runs? But he/his assistant offered it. They will continue to pay for materials and labor going forward.

We will be building more or less this cabin there: https://drummondhouseplans.com/plan/gre ... in-1001168# We’ll likely do this next summer.

In town we also have a building project. We are putting an addition on our home, roughly 900 sq ft in size (!!). We’re hoping to build once and not have to build any further as our family expands. My mom and step-dad came up to visit us earlier this summer and he was trying to convince us to do something else. He’s a high end residential/commercial builder and was saying how we should move the house (with rollers or a crane) and just build something new that we want. His argument convinced us for a while, even to the extent that I reached out to a crane company but ultimately we decided to go forward as planned. I’m confident in our plan and am enjoying the building process so far. The foundation and subfloor is in. I’m finishing up a root cellar (partly above ground) and then will be putting up the walls later this week. This is a fun project as I'm more confident and familiar in what I'm doing having built the original house. We're also putting in some atypical things like the root cellar, radiant floor heating connected to the woodstove, and creating a remote wall for increased insulation. We'll also be putting our large water tank (1000 gal) inside, so we will finally have running water within our house and join the 20th century.

The book
My book sold 514 copies in the first 3 months. That fell short of my original goal of 1000 books but is still a strong start. For comparison, the average traditionally published book sells 250-300 copies in the first year and the average self published book sells far less than that. I’ve entered the book into some book competitions, notably Banff Mountain Book award and the National Outdoor Book award, and will find out in the fall what comes of those. Otherwise, marketing efforts have continued to be fruitful. The book has showed up in some trade magazines and I’m writing something for Paul Millerd’s (The Pathless Path) newsletter.

Pizza business
I’ve continued making lots of pizzas and am in the process of establishing some type of pizza restaurant, likely to open sometime this winter. There are many small coffee huts here in parking lots and my idea would be to operate within something of a similar style, with a small dine in option (6-8 people). I’d offer 5 pizzas, cesar salad, and ice cream. High quality food, at reasonable prices. I’ve tested all of the ideas on friends and acquaintances and have narrowed down the menu. I have no desire to run a restaurant full time and would only be open roughly four hours a few days a week or until I sell out of that day’s pizzas, whichever comes first. I’m planning on pitching a local bike/ski shop nearby and seeing if they’ll let me set up shop within their parking lot. It’s just off the busiest road in the area, so would get a good amount of visibility as well as traffic from the bike shop.

Brooks Range
Since last November, I’ve been planning on going on the same trip in the Brooks Range that I attempted 10 years ago. The plan was to cross the Brooks Range (the northernmost mountain range within Alaska) by foot and packraft for 1000 miles over the course of 50 days. One of my PCT friends agreed to join me on the trek and after months of planning and figuring out logistics/strategy, we were set to go with a start date of this past Friday. A week before our start, my partner’s mom unfortunately had a series of strokes. For a while, he was still optimistic that we’d be able to continue as planned but ultimately we ended up having to postpone the trip until next summer.
It was kind of disappointing to have that happen after so many months of planning, but the good news is that his mom is now stable and we’ll eventually continue as planned.

An added bonus of staying around town is that I’ll be able to spend a lot of time with @AxelHeyst and @Sodatrain who will be here for all of August. I’m also looking forward to dedicating weeks to hunting this September for birds, moose/caribou, and bear. We've gone fishing two times so far this summer and have caught 22 salmon. With luck, we’ll fill our freezers this fall.


Dipnetting on the Copper River

[sodatrain]

Great update, @theanimal.

Super curious to see what you are building for your addition! Have any plans / photos you care to share here? Of course I will see it in a couple weeks so don't do it just for me.

Specifically I'm stoked to see your in floor heating and root cellar given the challenges of the land/permafrost.

Wicked fishing picture. I'm super excited to get my resident status so I can give the dip netting a try.

[delay]

Thanks for your journal update! Love the pictures. Those are some very wide tires on your bicycle. Selling more than 500 copies of your book is awesome. I doubt many authors do that well for their first book. I suppose it's not easy to live off the income you make from royalties.

[AxelHeyst]

I'm psyched to check out your (palatial!) addition and help swing a hammer if you could use it, and to generally hang out in your adopted habitat. See you early next week!

[Dave]

Lots of great stuff going on with the Animal clan! Quitting a job, Mrs. Animal getting to work with her new skill, book sales, building...

and VERY intrigued by this pizza business! A few weeks ago I floured my hands up for the first time in a few years and made homemade pizza. Forgot how much I missed it, and joked with with DW about opening up a pizzeria one day. We used to talk about that, with something of a similar format like you proposed - not running maximal hours, just a nice lifestyle biz. Excited to see where you go with this!

[Mousse]

This is so cool! Congratulations on all the books sold, and good luck with starting the pizza business. Really inspiring.

[Ego]

Wow. Lots of exciting news. I look forward to seeing how you incorporate your new carpentry skills into the addition. You must have so many ideas and plans. I am envisioning something like the Twelve Tribes bus. No pressure. The pizza restaurant sounds interesting. Would you build a trailer or truck? Maybe a converted schoolie pizza restaurant. Look forward to hearing more.

[Western Red Cedar]

Otherwise, marketing efforts have continued to be fruitful. The book has showed up in some trade magazines and I’m writing something for Paul Millerd’s (The Pathless Path) newsletter.

Congratulations on all of the significant lifestyle changes. If you and Paul are comfortable, I'd encourage you to repost the Newsletter writeup on the forum. I'm not subscribed, but am curious to see what you write and how you approach that audience. He's focused a lot in the past year on non-traditional parenting paths, so I think your story and message is probably of interest to him and a chunk of his audience.

[theanimal]

@sodatrain- Thanks! I'll post some pictures here eventually.

@delay- Thank you. That's my fatbike with 3.7" tires. They're very popular here for riding in the winter over the snow and ice on trails. I like to take it to this spot for fishing as the trail is a little rough. It is definitely heavier though, which I'm unfortunately reminded of when pushing up the hills with 80 lbs of fish in the trailer!

@AH- There will be plenty of nails that need to be pounded in. It'd be great to have some extra help. We're looking forward to seeing you!

@Mousse- Thank you!

@WRC- Thanks! I'll see about reposting it here once it's done. He's particularly interested in the decision to go forward with the trip and how others perceived it.

@Ego and @Dave- Thank you. I've been going back and forth on the type of structure. For a while I was thinking of setting up as a food truck/trailer and came very close to buying a short bus about a month ago. On the other hand, little food and/or coffee huts are very popular in AK (see the photos below) and I've been leaning in that direction lately. Since they are so small, the cost is similar (if not less than a trailer) and the rent is lower since it's my own structure and is not the main business on the property. I think either one could work out well. It seems to me that the day to day operations within a more permanent base would be easier than more mobile operations. Either way, I plan on reaching out to some businesses in the near future about the possibilities of operating on their property.


10x10 Tamale Hut. The woman here sells tamales 4 days a week for 4 hours or until she sells out. She sells out every day! She's part of my business inspiration. Before she had the hut, she would sell out of the back of her minivan in parking lots around town. The police would chase her off so she would make posts on her Facebook page letting people know where she'd be, changing it each time.


This is a local thai food hut that is also very successful. In this case, the Thai couple who run the place actually own the land the hut is on and ending up building their home on the property a few years ago as well.

[Henry]

Pizza business
I’ve continued making lots of pizzas and am in the process of establishing some type of pizza restaurant, likely to open sometime this winter. There are many small coffee huts here in parking lots and my idea would be to operate within something of a similar style, with a small dine in option (6-8 people). I’d offer 5 pizzas, cesar salad, and ice cream. High quality food, at reasonable prices. I’ve tested all of the ideas on friends and acquaintances and have narrowed down the menu. I have no desire to run a restaurant full time and would only be open roughly four hours a few days a week or until I sell out of that day’s pizzas, whichever comes first. I’m planning on pitching a local bike/ski shop nearby and seeing if they’ll let me set up shop within their parking lot. It’s just off the busiest road in the area, so would get a good amount of visibility as well as traffic from the bike shop.

Are you offering slices or just entire pies? How large are the pies? Are they personal size or the normal larger size? Are you going to call the restaurant Animal's? I think that would be a good name for a pizzeria in Alaska. What about the ice cream, you making it?

[theanimal]

Are you offering slices or just entire pies? How large are the pies? Are they personal size or the normal larger size? Are you going to call the restaurant Animal's? I think that would be a good name for a pizzeria in Alaska. What about the ice cream, you making it?

Entire pies. Pizza by the slice isn't as common here but I think it'd be worth testing out and seeing if it's a good option. I'd offer one size and it'd be the normal larger size. For the pizzas I make now, I use the highest quality ingredients I can find. DiNapoli or San Marzano tomatoes, Antimo Caputo 00 flour, and toppings from the garden/local farm. I plan on doing the same with the business. That's not as common for restaurants around here, especially pizza places, so that will be a significant competitive advantage.

Yes, I'll make the ice cream. @AxelHeyst taught Mrs. Animal and I how to make it last fall and we've been busy making a lot since then. There are only a couple ice cream places around here that are crazy busy, but are very overpriced and the quality is just so-so. Like the pizzas, I'd offer a limited selection, for the ice cream say 3-4 flavors, at any one time.

ETA: Animal's would be a good name, thanks! Mrs. Animal has thrown out the idea of selling pies and coffee during morning/lunchtime. If that's the case, it could be Animal's Pies or Animal's Pizzeria and Pies. I'm open to suggestions if anyone has ideas.

[Henry]

I think just Animals. Not Animals Pizza and/or Pies. Put a pizza and a pie in a logo. Like a grizzly bear eating a pizza and wooly mammoth or an elk or whatever fucking roams around up there eating a pie. Just real Alaskan animals eating whatever is on your menu. So if you stop pies you don't have change your name. And the name is both yours and Alaskan. Double Entendre type of thing.

[theanimal]

A couple of years ago I read Vicki Robins book "Blessing the Hands that Feed Us" which describes her one month restricting herself to eating food within a 10 mile radius of her house. I was very intrigued by the endeavor, but found the means about which she went about it largely uninspiring. Her efforts in the challenge amounted largely to shifting where she got her food, from the large scale grocer to her neighbors and local farms. But her relationship remained the same, she was a consumer, albeit a local one with stronger community ties. I don't consider it very difficult to do what she did, and think it is limited in practice to those who can afford to do so, which I figure to be a minority percentage of the general population in the US.

Talk is cheap, so I decided to embark on a challenge of my own in response. For the month of September, I am exclusively* eating food produced on mainland Alaska. To combat the qualms I had with Vicki's challenge, I instituted a food budget of $55 for the month. This allows me to buy some food items that I don't otherwise have, but is low enough to force me to source the bulk of my calories via other means. Those means are primarily via hunting, fishing, foraging, and gardening.

*I have two caveats. I am allowing myself spices (mainly salt) and if someone cooks a meal specifically for me I will not refuse it. Part of this challenge is about building community and community resilience. I see the latter caveat as something that works towards that idea.

Despite Alaska's reputation as a land of homesteaders and people living off the land, the percentage of the state's population(13%) that holds a hunting license is lower than the national average (15%). The same is true for fishing. I don't know if such statistics exist for gardening, but I would imagine the same to be true. As old traditions and practices continue to wane, Alaska becomes more Americanized with its residents living more conventional lifestyles and getting the bulk of their calories from supermarkets like Fred Meyer (Kroger) and Costco. The sad fact of the matter (in my opinion) is that the average Alaskan is more likely to be a Costco member than they are a hunter or a forager. The harsh climate prevents farming from really thriving here and as a result, 95% of the food that is bought within the state comes from elsewhere. Alaska is extremely food insecure.

As longtime readers know, it is the traditional lifestyle that drew me to Alaska in the first place and one in which I continue to pursue. The challenge places an emphasis on that, serving as somewhat of a forcing function to get me out on the land and explore different opportunities to source food. For my purposes, I also consider this approach to also result in a far healthier food supply, without many of the mounting concerns that plague the typical grocery store diet.

With my budget, I have to date purchased chicken eggs from a friend of mine, some pork lard from a local mangalitsa farmer to render into fat, various types of barley (the only grain grown in Alaska), and a gallon of whole milk (from the only commercial dairy farm in Alaska). Already I have established some rapport with the pig farmer, connecting them to some friends of mine who run a prominent pig farm elsewhere. Next, I'd like to meet with the families that sell the barley and milk. Besides the above mentioned items, I can't think of anything that I'd buy. I've also realized that milk may be an unnecessary extravagance, especially at $11/gal.

I started the challenge on somewhat of a whim the morning of the first and as such, found myself very unprepared. Our freezers are very empty for this time of year and I didn't have much local food on hand. After a couple hungry (Mrs. Animal might say hangry) days, I got things sorted and it has been largely smooth sailing since. I just returned from a float hunt for moose (unsuccessful) but have been so far regularly successful in finding spruce grouse. I have plans to go hunting and fishing a few more times before the month ends. Hopefully I find some luck. If all goes well, I am very interested in pursuing the challenge for a year at a later date. I think the longer time period would create ebbs and flows, particularly in line with the seasons. Either way, I have a renewed appreciation for the food we are able to have here. Without modern options, this is a very hungry country.

Here's a sampling of what I've eaten the first 10 days of the month:
-Spruce grouse (hunted) with Thyme from our garden
-Salmon (jerky, roe, filet, fishhead soup) (fished)
-Chicken eggs (bought)
-Whole milk (bought)
-Barley flour and hull-less barley (bought)
-Lard (rendered from Mangalitsa fat)
-Cracklins (from lard)
- Potatoes (from our garden)
-Plums (gifted from a friend who works at the university's experimental farm)
-Apples (same as above)
-Tomatoes (garden and same as above)
-Kimchi (made with vegetables from our garden)
-Carrots (garden)
-Kale (garden)
-Lettuce (garden)
-Zuchinni (garden)
-Cabbage (garden)
-Kohlrabi (garden)
-Blueberries/low bush cranberries/crowberries/high bush cranberries (foraged)

[AxelHeyst]

This is so cool. Following with interest.

[theanimal]

I finished up my eating local experiment. It was a success in that I stayed under budget and ate exclusively local foods with the exception of 3 meals (2 where @sodatrain cooked for us and on baby animal’s birthday). I ended up spending $54.92 for the month on food, sourcing just about everything else I ate myself. That breaks down as follows:

$15 for 3 lbs of pig fat that I rendered into lard
$14.92 for ~2 lbs of hullless barley and 4 lbs of barley flour
$14 for 2 dozen eggs
$11 for 1 gallon of milk

The reality of the experiment was that I was frequently hungry and often felt like I didn’t have enough to eat. I ended up losing weight, dropping to my lowest belt notch yet. I don't think I got as emaciated as the PCT, but one of my good friends did remark unprompted that it looked like I lost a lot of weight. Much of this is due to poor planning and not giving the challenge the time it required. That was largely due to working on our house addition, which tied up most of my time on non-rainy days as I tried to race around and get everything buttoned up for the winter. As such, I did not end up going hunting again. I did not fish as much as I would’ve liked either as lots of rain (for us) in September meant high water levels and likely poor fishing.

I did get a spearfishing permit for whitefish for a nearby river and have gone out two times at night. I wade into the water with a bright light and wait for the fish to swim by before trying to get them. The first time I went, fish were abundant, the sky clear, and the northern lights danced overhead. It was idyllic. The second time I went, the wind was blowing strong, there weren’t much fish, and I was very cold. Idyllic it was not. I may go one more time before my permit ends in 2 weeks.

The experience was paradigm changing in that within a month I went from not having a problem with buying food from outside Alaska in supermarkets, to looking down upon it for myself. My experience was likely further colored by my readings of “The Third Plate” and “Good Energy”, which discuss growing and sourcing local, regenerative food and metabolic health respectively. Traditionally, the go to phrase for health and spending when it comes to food is that you should shop on the perimeter of the grocery store. My thinking now is that you should largely not shop within a grocery store (Albertsons/Kroger/Wal Mart) . Beyond the health front, communal and personal resiliency seems to also be a sticking point, further emphasized by the current port strike.

I’d like to try for a longer period at a later date when I’m able to allot the proper time it deserves. In the meantime, we’ve figured out how to expand our garden, cultivated some mushroom logs, and are planning out future hunts. I was ecstatic to return to a greater variety of food, but I think the ideal remains working towards the point where we’re able to source the bulk of our calories (say 80% or so) ourselves.

Early last month we discovered a new business that takes non-moldy discarded food from local grocers (exclusively Costco at the moment) and turns it into compost via the bokashi method. Before composting the food, they offer the food up for "animal feed" to the local community for $0.25/lb. We are the animals, so good enough for us. The first time we went we came away with 70 lbs worth of food and 2 massive pumpkins for $20. We have since gone two other times getting some 60 more pounds of food for ~$16. There is a decent variety and we have been able to get things like 10 lbs of oats, large bags of mozzarella cheese, eggs, baking chocolate, organic chickens, coffee, collagen, and dehydrated coconut among other things. The business model is somewhat unclear to me as they don't seem to be selling compost yet but as of two weeks ago, they had already processed 100,000 lbs of food . Food waste is a crazy thing. Between this and our own food efforts, our food spending is likely to drop significantly.

---------
Work on the house addition is going well. I have 80% of the main roof sheathed and will proceed to the smaller connecting roof after laying metal sheeting on the main structure. It’s slow going but I’ve been able to make consistent progress. I’m able to work on it for a little bit before/after Mrs. Animal goes to work, but my main work period is when baby animal naps. She helps sometimes too, she likes hammering nails in. I’d share more pictures, but I dropped my phone off the roof a couple days ago and it split in half.



The main challenge throughout the building process has been prioritizing time. I am not lacking ambition and there is a lot I want to do outside of building. However, I am consistently reminded that I can be a poor allocator of time in trying to take on too many big projects at once (see last month for example with the food experiment). I’m noticing it more often now and am trying not to overextend myself for the time being. I started reading the Renaissance Soul lately, which seems to be a promising source for dealing with this. In the end, all good problems to have and I'm very pleased to be in a place where I don't have to work.

[delay]

Thanks for sharing. I'm impressed by your food experiment and building your own house extension while raising a kid! Even just one of these looks like a full time job to me. May you enjoy "not working" for a long time.

[thef0x]

Awesome update. When I read your journal I keep saying "that sounds awesome" to myself, this time about spearfishing in the dark. As my father-in-law says, "they don't call it catching for a reason". Sounds like a blast.

Your reflections on AK surprised me re hunting licenses and self sufficiency. Having watched a few homesteading videos shot there, it feels like everyone is eating road-kill Moose (awesome, imo) and fighting hawks away from their chickens. I'm sure there's plenty of that but your reflections made me realize just how much proximity matters.

Good on you for sticking with the local food experiment, sounded hard. Glad the Animal pack is being fed well for reasonable prices, all while making (perhaps a tiny) dent in that insane amount of food waste. Sure it's not local but to me at least it seems an equally moral stance.

As Slevin put it in his journal, there's something amazing about living close to the waste stream of a city. I wish there wasn't such a taboo around it in the USA; we're too proud to reuse, recycle <-- maybe more of our parents generation, though (I hope).

To your continued progress on the house.

[theanimal]

Thank you @delay and @thef0x.

Your reflections on AK surprised me re hunting licenses and self sufficiency. Having watched a few homesteading videos shot there, it feels like everyone is eating road-kill Moose (awesome, imo) and fighting hawks away from their chickens. I'm sure there's plenty of that but your reflections made me realize just how much proximity matters.

Yeah, the local reality can be a lot less romantic. Consider that about 2/3 of the state's population lives in the Anchorage metropolitan area, which is by just about any measure just about on par with metro areas throughout the country elsewhere in terms of services offered. Most people there are living very similarly to to the average American elsewhere in the country, working 9-5 jobs, getting food from the grocery store, and so on. The same is largely true for Juneau and Fairbanks, but there is a larger contigent of people who are living more with what would be identified as the traditional Alaskan way of life. For example, 1/3 of households in the Fairbanks area do not have running water (ours included). As you keep moving away from urban centers and off the road system, the balance only continues to shift. The beauty and spirit of what I'd call the real Alaska is found on the land and in practices that bring one closer to it. It's possible to do and find in the urban areas, but much, much harder in my experience.

-----

Balancing work on a house with raising a kid (along with everything else) has been a huge thorn in the Animal household's side since the summer. In part, it is a system failure because extended family for Mrs. Animal and I is far away making any consistent help with baby animal distant and nearly non-existent. For better or worse, we don't want to outsource childcare, placing the burden squarely on our shoulders, which often results in a lot of frustration and stress. This is only exacerbated by the building project and again once Mrs. Animal began working in August. Given the extreme climate and short building season, I was working very hard to get the addition closed up. After my last post, I spent the next 2 weeks on the roof, trying to beat freezing temperatures (unsuccessfully), trying not to slip on the slick metal sheathing, and working around early snowfall. My dad and stepmom visited for a week in the middle of the month which allowed me to put in a lot more work and get everything closed in before the first major snowstorm of the season dropped 10 inches of wet snow and some rain roughly a week ago. With things largely dried in (I still have to make a door), I've taken a more relaxed approach and took a few days off from working on the house. My schedule leaves much to be desired and I've started to explore alternative means of structuring my days in order to get better results (ie more fun and contentment). The project so far has had to sacrifice time I've put into relationships (mainly with friends, occasionally within my own house) and that is far from ideal.

I think part of my struggle is coming to terms with factors outside of my control along with a deluded sense of what's possible on short term horizons. For example, I spent much of today with baby animal in my lap/arms who is somewhat sick, grumpy, and constipated (going on 2.5 weeks, yahoo). Instead of bemoaning my circumstances, i focused on what I could do given the constraints, reading a book, catching up on articles I wanted to read, working out, and making the most of the time she was napping. Some structure and scheduling (? still unsure about this. How much can I schedule as primary caregiver of a toddler) worked to keep me from straying off the rails and into my worse, discontented self who succumbs to political entertainment BS, trivial facts. and the outrage of the day. It's a work in progress, but I do feel like I'm gaining some traction on what to do.




Even with the anchor system, there were plenty of dicey moments up high


The connecting roof was the biggest pain in the ass, trying to meld together both roofs and figuring out many different angles to make things come together seamlessly.

All that said, it has been very rewarding to do such a large project almost entirely on my own, from the initial plans to where it is now. In the sense that I can achieve a large project and find success (especially with others saying it wasn't a good idea) and in bringing the vision to reality. This project has been a serious level up in terms of skills, much more so than our original house. I'd consider that a basic introduction, akin to a high school course whereas this "house" serves more as an undergraduate project. The interior will only continue that journey. I've been working to incorporate many of Christopher Alexander's principles and ideas and it has been fun figuring out how to apply them in a way that is appropriate for our circumstances, lifestyle, and locale. On that front, I scored massively recently, finding someone who is looking to get rid of about 1400 bf of 5/4 birch boards for $2/bf(!!). I'll be able to use these for trim work, cabinets, furniture, and just about any woodworking project I'd like within the house. Quality and local hardwood, for about the same price of mass produced dimensional lumber. Not bad!

And to end on a positive note, I just paid off the last of my student loan debt. I am now debt free for the first time since I was 18. It'd probably be more climatic if I didn't have six figures stashed away, but it's still a good feeling nonetheless.

[Ego]

Wow! Building a complex house single-handedly with fat beams of local hardwood while learning skills .... all with Baby Animal on your hip, abundant friends to visit and a beautiful wife with whom you can enjoy the evening fire. Imagine what that young NOLS student who first ventured to Alaska would think of the man you've become.

It is almost as if you've taken the Heinlein quote and set it to hard mode.

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

[ffj]

Your roof construction looks good, all of your cuts are tight on the transition. Not everybody can do that so pat yourself on the back.

As a veteran of remodeling while living in the same space I have found the main advantage is that you are always near what you need to do and you can work in 15 to 30 minute blocks if you have some spare time. It's kind of impressive really what you can accomplish in a high intensity focused time-limited frame. And conventional work hours don't really matter. Of course the down-side is that you never escape your work as it is constantly staring you in the face. Haha.

Those roof anchors are great but have a plan if you actually do fall and are hanging off of the rope over the edge. Those metal roofs are treacherous if there is any moisture. I still have a dent in my roof where I fell . Thankfully it was on a shallow slope and I didn't go over. Anyway, if the fall doesn't kill you then the prolonged suspension in a shitty harness may so think about step two. You are physically fit so you should be fine. Another factor to consider is if you fall and the rope is dragged over the edge of the metal in a pendulum motion as your body seeks center of mass. It could easily cut your rope. You solve that by not creating a pendulum motion should you fall, as your anchor needs to keep your body in line with a potential slip.

Congrats on being debt-free. That is a big deal that will pay you guys dividends hugely going forward. Happy Halloween!