The Alaskan dream-this will be the greatest adventure of my life. At 60 yrs of age, I am planning the move from Central Eastern Utah Desert to Alaska – the final frontier, over 3 thousand mile journey.
I began by looking at properties for sale in AK, and in the very beginning stumbled onto a floathouse. What is a floathouse you ask? Basically, a house floating on logs. It was bad to the bone; all kinds of floating ramp additions and storage sheds.
But my daughter had ‘grave concerns’ about wintertime on the water. OMG! average winter temp was 32°. HERE it gets down to the minus temps every year and one year it was minus 23…but I didn’t hear that ‘grave concern’ then, because as it turns out, her safety factor is tied into “how close is a WalMart?” lmbo
I told her I would be happy to move inland closer to a WalMart where the avg winter temps are a balmy minus -30 to minus-60° Lol
So after a bit of grumbling I started looking at houses on land…and then continued to send her pics of all the cute guys living on boats who want to meet me….hee hee
I had it narrowed down to 12-15 homes in varying places in AK and then I’m texting one of the dating site guys and I find out that “Dry Cabin” does NOT mean that it is on stilts to keep away the melting snow from leaking in. NNnooooooooo, it means you are headed out back to the outhouse. Cross 6 more off the list; not that I haven’t or couldn’t do that, but I need to be more handy with a gun before being that ‘out there’.
I have it narrowed down to half dozen with 2 favorites, of course in two diverse areas. One is near ocean waters where I would have salt air and fog *sigh* I miss those soooo much. And it has a HUGE greenhouse. The other one is more inland near a river and is a uniquely shaped house. There are a few other back up properties. The thing is, I now know I can afford a place up there, and that lit my AK fantasies right up.
Some of the things I’ve tried to pay attention to when house hunting-covenants/restrictions, water, gas or propane? solar or electric? bathroom? how much acreage? If its near water, I’ve investigated the floods in the area. Doing this all solo with no help is a bit intimidating, but exhilarating too. I have a local contractor friend who I’ve been able to ask questions-like, what does it mean when they have a 300 foot well, but not hooked up? or septic is there, but not hooked up?
Anywho, while all this online searching is going on, I am still maintaining the garden + trying to downsize and sell anything not absolutely necessary.
The garden harvest is in full swing and this year I am getting about 17-20 pounds of tomatoes every few days and about the same in chiles, not to mention all the different squashies. I decided not to can/preserve anything for myself this year (as it would be impossible to transport) and just sell the produce. It will help add to my AK coffers.
I have 5 large ticket items- vehicles, trailers, and such, and am waiting for one of them to sell. It will be my sign from the universe that all is go and I will then book the flight to AK and go look at properties for a few days.
I am constantly reminded of the seasonal changes happening, and feel a bit antsy that things aren’t progressing as fast as I’d like….but I keep pluggin along, step by step. Today I got my passport, another step done.
Until I have more to report,
Cindi