I grew up on an organic U Pick farm in Arizona. We grew organic vegetables like green beans, squash, sweet corn, watermelon, tomatoes, peppers, etc., and of course we had the usual menagerie of animals like geese, chickens, goats, sheep, horses. Hell, we even had some emus and a llama at one time. I have fond memories of that llama spitting on my father. I thought it was hilarious seeing all the foamy spit all over him. 
At any rate, over the years, just doing farm things, I learned a lot, from plumbing, irrigation, carpentry, woodworking, trapping, hunting, etc. You name it and I've probably done it, so I've always been relatively capable, but never really considered putting a lot of those skills to use, especially with homesteading.
Many years later, I worked as a bounty hunter and we had to go up into a small mountain town looking for a skip. When me and my partner got up there, wow, did the hairs on the back of my neck stand up,\. I was getting some serious spidey senses that we were NOT welcome. I mean, I'd prefer to be with a team in the mountains of Afghanistan hunting bad guys over this.
Folks wearing skins, women wearing what looked like old clothes that hadn't been washed in 5 years, no one had teeth. I mean, I could hear the banjos, so to speak. That was my first time seeing folks living the rough life in the US.
Sure, I lived without running water and electricity in my youngers years on the farm, but it wasn't like this! This was just crazy! There was no way I could live like that!
That all changed when I read the book The Final Frontiersman, the story of Heimo Korth up in Alaska, and then later watched the show that he was part of called the Last Alaskans. It showed me that people can homestead and keep their teeth, that they can wash their clothes, bathe and have a nice log home, albeit I'm planning on building a much nicer log home than most, but it didn't look bad!
I've always wondered what life might have been like 50,000 years ago, when mankind didn't have the stresses of life we have today. Where you don't have to worry about paying a mortgage, getting fired or laid off, or having to spend the day at the DMV, paying your taxes, etc.
What was life like?
What is it like when you can wake with your loved one, and your kids, and not send them off to school, or see your loved one go off to work? Where you can work on life together, whether it's gardening, etc. To spend a life together with your family instead of spending it apart is probably one of the most important and purest things in life.
Of course, there had to have been stresses to some degree, finding food, keeping your family safe. But still it nagged me, what was it like to just exist as a human being in the purest environment possible for us? Well, I know I'm proficient in farming, hunting, and providing in that way, and while I'm a pretty chill dude that would prefer never to harm anyone, I'm also extremely dangerous to someone who would present as a threat to me or my family, whether that's a bear or a another human. So I've got that covered pretty well. My past just makes me a perfect candidate for this kind of endeavor.
Still though, I knew I was unprepared in certain ways. For instance, I've never hunted a moose, nor squared off with a bear, much less dealt with a false charge. I don't know their behavior, and while I have cold weather training, surviving is different than thriving. I got to studying. I'd read books from anthropologists, who lived with the Inuit up in Alaska and lived daily life with them. I was a sponge, just learning everything I could, and I learned a lot, at least enough to where I feel confident making this happen. Being prepared is important.
I chose Alaska not because of the stories I read, or Heimo, or anything romantic, so to speak, but because it's the last place in the country that isn't covered with roads and fences. In a very real sense, it is still true wilderness. I can look at a mountain in the distance, and just start walking to explore it. I can hop in a boat and travel for a week on the river just to see what's past the next bend, all while never seeing another person.
It's wild. It's unforgiving, it's true wilderness, but in that, it's also beautiful... It's freedom.
Des and I are buying property this year, and I'll update with pictures and stories as the adventure of life unfolds itself.
At any rate, over the years, just doing farm things, I learned a lot, from plumbing, irrigation, carpentry, woodworking, trapping, hunting, etc. You name it and I've probably done it, so I've always been relatively capable, but never really considered putting a lot of those skills to use, especially with homesteading.
Many years later, I worked as a bounty hunter and we had to go up into a small mountain town looking for a skip. When me and my partner got up there, wow, did the hairs on the back of my neck stand up,\. I was getting some serious spidey senses that we were NOT welcome. I mean, I'd prefer to be with a team in the mountains of Afghanistan hunting bad guys over this.
Folks wearing skins, women wearing what looked like old clothes that hadn't been washed in 5 years, no one had teeth. I mean, I could hear the banjos, so to speak. That was my first time seeing folks living the rough life in the US.
Sure, I lived without running water and electricity in my youngers years on the farm, but it wasn't like this! This was just crazy! There was no way I could live like that!
That all changed when I read the book The Final Frontiersman, the story of Heimo Korth up in Alaska, and then later watched the show that he was part of called the Last Alaskans. It showed me that people can homestead and keep their teeth, that they can wash their clothes, bathe and have a nice log home, albeit I'm planning on building a much nicer log home than most, but it didn't look bad!
I've always wondered what life might have been like 50,000 years ago, when mankind didn't have the stresses of life we have today. Where you don't have to worry about paying a mortgage, getting fired or laid off, or having to spend the day at the DMV, paying your taxes, etc.
What was life like?
What is it like when you can wake with your loved one, and your kids, and not send them off to school, or see your loved one go off to work? Where you can work on life together, whether it's gardening, etc. To spend a life together with your family instead of spending it apart is probably one of the most important and purest things in life.
Of course, there had to have been stresses to some degree, finding food, keeping your family safe. But still it nagged me, what was it like to just exist as a human being in the purest environment possible for us? Well, I know I'm proficient in farming, hunting, and providing in that way, and while I'm a pretty chill dude that would prefer never to harm anyone, I'm also extremely dangerous to someone who would present as a threat to me or my family, whether that's a bear or a another human. So I've got that covered pretty well. My past just makes me a perfect candidate for this kind of endeavor.
Still though, I knew I was unprepared in certain ways. For instance, I've never hunted a moose, nor squared off with a bear, much less dealt with a false charge. I don't know their behavior, and while I have cold weather training, surviving is different than thriving. I got to studying. I'd read books from anthropologists, who lived with the Inuit up in Alaska and lived daily life with them. I was a sponge, just learning everything I could, and I learned a lot, at least enough to where I feel confident making this happen. Being prepared is important.
I chose Alaska not because of the stories I read, or Heimo, or anything romantic, so to speak, but because it's the last place in the country that isn't covered with roads and fences. In a very real sense, it is still true wilderness. I can look at a mountain in the distance, and just start walking to explore it. I can hop in a boat and travel for a week on the river just to see what's past the next bend, all while never seeing another person.
It's wild. It's unforgiving, it's true wilderness, but in that, it's also beautiful... It's freedom.
Des and I are buying property this year, and I'll update with pictures and stories as the adventure of life unfolds itself.
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