Living in Alaska

It's all or nothing up here in AK, ain't no in-betwixt. The bears are big, moose are big, fish are big, Elk are big, Wolves are big, quantity of welfare recipients is big, the territory's big..

The deer are tiny, trees are tiny, mosquitos are tiny (but their bite is big, being bit by the little bastards pisses me off more than any 'outside' mosquito could ever think about!), income & sales taxes are tiny (nonexistent), the amount of quality medical care is tiny, the number of ethical political representatives is tiny..

Ya either get 22 hours of daylight in the summer, or 22 hours of dark the other 11 months. Fairbanks has the temperature extremes, normally 130-150 degrees between summer and winter.

One thing that's cool, for a $20 hunting license you can shoot: 5 deer, 2 caribou, 1 griz, unlimited blackies, 1 mtn goat, 1 dall sheep, and probably lotsa other stuff I can't think of. Puting in for special permits (buffaler, muskox..) cost you $5 apiece. For a healthy dude with a little bit of green, there's nothing in the country that can hold a candle to the adventure to be had up here. A couple years ago I was dropped off to go sheep hunting and there wasn't another human bein' within 70 miles of me and my partner.

Paychecks up here are darn near twice what they were in Montana, cost of housing isn't near that much more.

It's an awesome place for an outdoorsman to pull a stint. Make sure you bring your sense of humor, there's a lotta folks that have a lot of funny ways of doing things. :D:D
 
Big Al said:
See what happens when you live the life of a Westerner. Is there anything to the right of the Mississippi river?

You mean California still has something you left to hunt? Where are the animal protection people? :eek:
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CA is a funny state :) historically it's crazy as a junebug and full of fine folk but BECAUSE it's so good....... and the weather's so fine...... it's a little crowded.

They're still perty Western though, out of town. We had a Fish and Game guy over for a Hunter Ed class who'd grown up there and worked for CA Fish and Game back when they closed hound hunting for cats. This was a couple years back, when EVERYONE had banned running cougar with hounds. I asked him what the prognosis was for the future...... "Well, it'll take a few years but hound hunting WILL come back. The cats just have to eat a little more spandex." :D


Shore enough, it's back. And so's trapping. Trappers are enjoying banner years across the Lesser 48.

Now, what's gonna' happen with the wolf problem down here is still up in the air. I saw a stat yesterday that 2/3 of the great Yellowstone elk herd has been eaten....



al
 
alinwa said:
I saw a stat yesterday that 2/3 of the great Yellowstone elk herd has been eaten....
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Mission Accomplished! The reason that wolves were re-introduced in Yellowstone was to reduce the elk herd. For years there were way too many elk. They ate all the aspen and willows--white-tails and beavers disappeared as did some song birds. There were too many coyotes. Now, the aspen and willows have recovered, beavers are back, and the wolves reduced the coyotes. The grizzlies benefited by taking over some of the wolf kills. The elk avoid some of the more open areas and the browse plants recovered there--to the benefit of bison, moose and pronghorns. The Yellowstone wolf re-introduction is a conservation success story! The problems happen outside the park but there will be wolf hunting and trapping there plus federal trappers to handle livestock depredations.
 
Plus, before the wolves there were way too many elk coming out of the park to winter at Jackson Hole where they were too concentrated and subject to disease and parasites and had to be fed.
 
vicvanb said:
Mission Accomplished! The reason that wolves were re-introduced in Yellowstone was to reduce the elk herd. For years there were way too many elk. They ate all the aspen and willows--white-tails and beavers disappeared as did some song birds. There were too many coyotes. Now, the aspen and willows have recovered, beavers are back, and the wolves reduced the coyotes. The grizzlies benefited by taking over some of the wolf kills. The elk avoid some of the more open areas and the browse plants recovered there--to the benefit of bison, moose and pronghorns. The Yellowstone wolf re-introduction is a conservation success story! The problems happen outside the park but there will be wolf hunting and trapping there plus federal trappers to handle livestock depredations.
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Good call Vic, :) I stand corrected!

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, your assessment sounds perfectly sound. I've learned that GENERALLY the Dept Of Fish and Wildlife does a pretty decent job of managing our game supplies. I guess I got caught up in the rhetoric and hadn't researched this at all, just heard/read some stuff from the one side.

I'm happy to report that there are a few wolves around here now too, but my friends in MN who own small farms are reporting depredation from the wolves. They're ready to shoot on sight.

al
 
Butch Lambert said:
. I was stuck between the 2 and had to pee on the coldest day that I remember-54deg below zero. I had several layers of clothes on and it was hiding. Yes, I did pee down my britches and yes it froze instantly.

Butch
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Bet it keep you warm though!

ML
 
Butch Lambert said:
I was stuck between the 2 and had to pee on the coldest day that I remember-54deg below zero. I had several layers of clothes on and it was hiding. Yes, I did pee down my britches and yes it froze instantly.

Butch
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Bet it keep you warm though!

ML
 
Alone in the Wilderness

Dave Coots said:
I just got done reading a book about a guy from Iowa who went to Alaska in 1968 built a cabin out in the middle of nowhere, and spent most of the next 30 years there. The name of the book is One Man's Wilderness and his name is Richard Proenneke from Primrose, Iowa. I'm sure there is lots of reading out there, and mabye some of the guys on this board from up there will give you a better idea.

Dave
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Dave,
There is a similar documentary about a fellow who did the same thing; might be the same guy. It will roll around on PBS every year or so and it's called 'Alone In The Wilderness'. It's about a really resourcesful and clever fellow who lives alone in Alaska for thirty some odd years. The only concession he made with respect to not using natural objects for his cabin construction was the layer of plastic he put over his roof before he covered it with moss. One of the most incredible documentaries I've ever seen and highly recommend it. As I said it might be the same fellow from Iowa.

Lou Baccino
 
chino69 said:
Dave,
There is a similar documentary about a fellow who did the same thing; might be the same guy. It will roll around on PBS every year or so and it's called 'Alone In The Wilderness'. It's about a really resourcesful and clever fellow who lives alone in Alaska for thirty some odd years. The only concession he made with respect to not using natural objects for his cabin construction was the layer of plastic he put over his roof before he covered it with moss. One of the most incredible documentaries I've ever seen and highly recommend it. As I said it might be the same fellow from Iowa.

Lou Baccino
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http://www.dickproenneke.com/alone_in_the_wilderness.html


Hmmm, I might just have to see this one.

After all of the blatant lies and fakes through the years both from publishers (Henry David Thoreau, Farley Mowat, and Bradford Angier spring to mind ) and from PBS ( Check out the "Frontier House", 1900 House, "Manor House" and "Texas Ranch House" etc series.. holy COW people are stupid!!! ) I'd sworn off of these fake "documentaries"....... I'm convinced that the last real homesteading documentaries are The Foxfire Books.


Maybe I'll try one more :)


al
 
There's no place I'd rather be.

I wish Mother Nature would get colder to run the rift raft out of AK.

Too darn many people here!!!!!
 
Wasn't there a movie about some kid who went up north, true story, with only a 10/22 and lived alone for a couple years? He ended up dead from starvation and froze to death. Thanks, Douglas
 
Douglas said:
Wasn't there a movie about some kid who went up north, true story, with only a 10/22 and lived alone for a couple years? He ended up dead from starvation and froze to death. Thanks, Douglas
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INTO THE WILD, Sean Penn Director. Book by John Krakauer.

He didn't last 2 years--only a few months.
 
Lou

chino69 said:
Dave,
There is a similar documentary about a fellow who did the same thing; might be the same guy. It will roll around on PBS every year or so and it's called 'Alone In The Wilderness'. It's about a really resourcesful and clever fellow who lives alone in Alaska for thirty some odd years. The only concession he made with respect to not using natural objects for his cabin construction was the layer of plastic he put over his roof before he covered it with moss. One of the most incredible documentaries I've ever seen and highly recommend it. As I said it might be the same fellow from Iowa.

Lou Baccino
Click to expand...


Yep-same deal. My Son gave me the book and 2 dvd's for x-mas.

Dave
 
vicvanb said:
INTO THE WILD, Sean Penn Director. Book by John Krakauer.

He didn't last 2 years--only a few months.
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Yeah, that's it good movie. If I remember right he killed a large animal (what I don't remeber?) with his .22 and the thing got rancid on him and he wasn't able to eat it. Didn't he eat some poison berries or something and die from that? Thanks, Douglas
 
It was a moose. Initially they thought he was poisoned by plants but later decided he starved.
 
They started that when I left. We got the first checks and that was the first year with no state income tax. It was a sad day when the court ruled that newcomers were entitled to the money also. It started with 5 yrs being a citizen of the state.
Butch
 
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