No really, here's the true story.....

I've always been one to follow my intuition.  Fortunately,  it knows more and is wiser than I am.  So one night when I was laying in bed my little voice started talking to me and said, "Lorie, you need to find a place to live that's further out.  A place where you can live completely off the grid in time".  

The next day I got on Craigslist and there it was, a place up in Central.  I passed my phone over to Raz and showed him the picture while telling him why.  He slapped his hands together and said, "hot damn, when do we go"?  Lol, he is always game for an adventure.

So, that's how we got here.  Now..... people have told me how skeptical they were when we posted that first picture of the cabin.  And I must admit that when I first saw it I was too, but i know what Raz can do and he admired how well built and sound it was and said that we could totally work with it.  And as you can see he really transformed it in those first two weeks we went up to put the roof on.  

Now that's almost all we think and talk about, lol.

My two bits.....

Well, let's see...... we bought a fixer upper in North Pole 3 years ago....... still fixing it up.   I told him he couldn't buy anything else..... now we have a plethora of vehicles on our lot (in all conditions).  We put so much sweat equity in the house that we were able to pay it off.  So of course a wild hair became stuck in his butt crack of dawn and he had to have another project.  So he bought an even higher maintence building project to tinker with.  I'm living in a house that isnt finished on the inside (with naught but a single closet) and now he wants to move up to Central in 18 months.  I said I wouldn't move into the new cabin until there are at least 3 rooms... finished ..... with curtains and pictures and closets and organization ......... what are the chances of that?  

let's all go to the pooper

In the last post I mentioned that we have a cabin on a good firm setting and that we have power to the house.  THAT'S IT!!!!  no well, no sewer, no plumbing, and yes  NO TOILETS
It is not uncommon to not have in indoor plumbing in Alaska. Dry cabins, as they are called, are everywhere. Outhouses can be seen everywhere, and water wells are very busy. We will start by hauling water and have a big tank in the house (at least 600 gallons) and then from there everything will work just like the house here. Well kind of. The cost of water is 5 cents per gallon. That water will be used for washing and doing dishes and laundry, etc. Most of that water since it has no waste will be filtered and use for gardens and other project or will be run into a gray water system.

Awe, the outhouse. Believe it or not, we really get by very well with and out house. The exception would be in the middle of the night or in the cold of winter. A composting system of some kind will be in the house to be used for those times. So a septic systems is now not needed.
It is our plan to try to develop the water that flows in what the locals call the slough. The channel for the slough borders our property and water is only about 50 yards from the house and runs year round although the top freezes in the winter cold. I am not sure if a sand point well will reach it but something for the future.
So as you can see, we have a small cabin (for now) with power and a toilet and heat and a small kitchen.  Its a start and I can't wait until summer to get to work.

Two more things.....
     We have met some of the greatest people that now are very good friends. Likeminded people if you will. Fred and Judy have a small saw mill and live with in a mile. We have already purchased lumber from him and will be doing more.

      And did I mention circle hot springs??  Lorie has a video and then we will add more about probably the biggest asset to us being there. Later my friends 

Just a final comment and then I am off to bed.  There is no power to Central.. The power comes from a diesel generator in town.  It seems to work pretty well although I have noticed some power spikes I think from the generator kicking in. So we buy our power from them. 

Also, THERE ARE NO PROPERTY TAXES IN Central   YAY!!!!!!

back to the story

We woke up this morning to a new foot of snow,  really beautiful here in Alaska. The forecast is for another 4 to 7 inches before tomorrow morning. I have the snow plow guy on standby for tomorrow. 
Lets Continue

Why Central????

I think it all started a couple of years ago. After being married for only a short time I found out that Lorie has always wanted to live an off-grid more self reliant lifestyle...  ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!
That has always been a part of my life as well. Patsy and I was going to get the bus done and hit the road off-grid   I had already studied a bit about solar and battery for the bus and we were getting ready when she left this world.
I think moving to Alaska was a start to living that way but we still weren't able to at this place. So we started looking. Central Alaska came into play.
We wanted a place where we could really ;live off grid and in the event that something were to happen that we would have a place of refuge for ourselves and our family or friends.
A place that has trees but a building site that is open to allow plenty of sun for solar. An area that has wind to power a wind generator. A place that has  available water source. A spot that we would be able to put up a dish and get tv and internet to be able to communicate with the out side world.

We got really lucky

In the picture you can see that we have about an acre of the property that has no growth except for yarrow plant which we are so excited about. The locals call this site a layer of schist. we are so lucky because most of Alaska is known more for the tundra and the rest of the property is like that.

This pic shows the rest of the property with the tundra and the moss.

So a great site to build on but we will have to do grow boxes for the gardening which we planned on doing anyway. we will haul some soil and  compost.  The next thing we were very happy about is that power was on the property and ran to the box in the house. Also, a phone line to the house. Every call out of central is long distance but at least we can call the locals.

Enough from me for a bit, here comes Lorie!!!!!!

Lets get started

Lorie and I are so excited about our new adventure and having all of you ride along with us is even more awesome. The picture of the cabin is what the cabin looked like when we bought it. A little rough but structure very sound.
SO NOW IT BEGINS

How did we get here??????

Lorie and I met on a dating site and it didn't take long before I knew we would be together.. I had a list of question that I would ask every gal I made contact with, everything from do you like Chinese food to what kind of music do you like.  But the most important question for me was whether or not she could pee in the woods.. it was a good question to ask to weed out the gals I didn't want to spend my time chasing.. Lorie answered the question like this------Yes, and much more!!!!  I was hooked.
I thought I had found a good camping buddy but it was not until later that I realized that she and I realized a much deeper need to live in the woods.
Lorie had a vending business that we traveled around and did shows and we had a blast. We came to Alaska to have Lorie meet my daughter Katy. We got off the plane and Lorie fell in love with the state and so we pack up and moved here.  LORIE MADE ME!!!!!  I got a job at the mine and we started a new adventure again, lol.
We were in Idaho I think for her sons wedding and she found a place in North Pole that was for sale. Why she was even looking was crazy but I knew we owned it. So we came home and bought the place.  Three years later we paid it off.  Its ours!!!! Now most women would be pretty happy owning their home and she is, but!!!!  There is still something missing..  She gets on the darn computer again looking for something more remote  CRAP  We found this cabin in Central Alaska and fell in love.. W

e bought it.
With the help from my son Chad, we did some fast work to get it ready for winter.

Central is a town about 130 miles from Fairbanks. The town has about 80 people that live there year round. There is a post office and a store/gas station /café/bar.
SO WHY CENTRAL 
Stay tuned  more to come