Alaska off grid living12/19/2023 ![]() You should see our neighbor’s gardens on the west side ! We enjoy extended sunlight in the summer, but we live under the east face of a ridge, so our garden gets shaded hours early. Outside, we manage a few small artichokes each year, and some asparagus. We have a small greenhouse that allows us to grow tomatoes and peppers. Kale is a huge staple, because it seems to survive everything, from sub-zero winters to marauding moose. MZ: We grow a lot of root vegetables and cold weather crops, cabbages, kale, spinach, potatoes, leeks, carrots, strawberries, beets. What do you grow in your garden, and does the climate in Alaska limit what and when you can grow? Photo by Mark Zeiger HH: According to your blog, you live a mostly-subsistent lifestyle. They’ll learn that Alaskans aren’t much different than other Americans, and yet they are - sometimes in the most glorious ways! If a reader wants to check out Alaska, they should come see it! Get on a Alaska Marine Highway, camp out on the decks, talk to people. ![]() Since I started responding to their queries with my “consultant’s” rates, they’ve largely left us alone. We used to get approached by “reality” television producers about once a month. We continually get inquiries from people thinking that Alaska is legally up for grabs. People have funny ideas about Alaska, and I find that way too many people think they can just waltz up here and stake out free land. MZ: If they think they know what it’s like to homestead in Alaska because they saw it on T.V., they are completely deluding themselves! What should people know about homesteading in Alaska that they might not learn from reality television? HH: Homesteading in Alaska is also something of a popular culture phenomenon with shows like “Alaska: The Last Frontier” on the Discovery Channel. Instead, we’ve built a reasonably-sized audience of like-minded people, both those who actively homestead, and those who dream of doing so. Ironically, very few of our family members actually read the blog regularly. MZ: We started the blog because we had so much to tell friends and family, but didn’t want to write the same stories over and over again in letters or emails. HH: Why did you decide to start your blog? ![]() We also installed windows in the front of the cabin, covered the tar paper wall with shakes and renovated the outhouse. MZ: Our first project was to reduce our belongings, move the essentials to the property by boat and on our backs, and clean the cabin so we could live in it. HH: What were your first homesteading projects? I tell people we fell ass-backward into this property. I’d always dreamed of owning a little cabin on the edge of the ocean, in the Alaskan forest, but assumed we’d never afford such a place. Michelle grew up wanting to be Laura Ingalls Wilder.
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