View from our porch

Northern Lights, Lunar Eclipse and laundry

Monday was a good day for the most part, Chrissy got a new Carhartt jacket that shes been wanting, we found some great stuff at the transfer site and generally just had a good time all day. We did however have to do laundry which has become one of our least favorite aspects of living without running water. I guess that its not really even that we don't have water, its that Fairbanks doesn't have a laundromat (that we've found yet) that is reasonably priced and has working machines. What we have is bad and worse from what I can tell. We spent nearly $40.00 to wash 4 loads of laundry, and partially dry them. By the time the money ran out, so had the time and they were closing so we packed it up and set up a line outside on the porch. Hopefully we'll have another bright sunny day today and they will all dry. Last night we stayed up to watch the lunar eclipse, it was sort of lackluster compared to what I remember from grade school, but I think that those memories may have been of solar eclipses, not sure. But as a side bonus, being out in the dark, cold night we noticed the Northern Lights dancing overhead. Its been a long time since I had seen them, and even though they weren't that bright (too close to city lights) it was really cool to see them.
Chrissy took a few photos of the eclipse, so I'm sure she'll post them on here later today.
64 and sunny, headed to work.
Justin

I love wild blueberries

Thoughts on living in the cabin

Yesterday I was talking to a friend about how much I love living in the cabin. Already it has taught me so much about preparedness and thinking ahead. It’s taught me about appreciation for the things that we take for granted on a daily basis. For example, I’m so accustomed to turning on the faucet and consuming an infinite amount of water, and now I use just a trickle to wash my hands. Before there was this unknown person or company supplying the water and now I have become the supplier. It’s me who has to go to the spring to get it and it’s me who has to carry it up into the loft. Trash is another issue. We’re also responsible for taking our trash to the dump, which has in turn made me acutely aware of how much we throw away. Cooking- in order to use the stove we have to have propane in the tank. The list goes on. Living in the cabin has raised my awareness of the present and at the same time has forced me to logistically consider the future.

Chrissy

63° and sunny

Fairbanks Skyline

Great weather

We have made the best blueberry milkshakes the last few days. There is a dairy up here called Northern Lights located out in Delta Junction, Ak. They make some vanilla ice cream that is truly delicious. Amazing stuff. We went out to Cleary Summit a few days ago and picked a bunch of blueberries. We need to get some more before they dry up. Alaskan blueberries are much smaller than the lower 48 variety that I have mostly seen, and much sweeter.
Hauled water tonight, got a bunch this time so we dont have to go back quite so soon. 4 x 7 gallon jugs and the regular 4 5 gallon jugs. We'll see how long this lasts. We have become very water conscious since we have been hauling it all and Im amazed at how much water I must have used in the past.
52 and a slight rain,
Justin

Blueberry bushes

Picking blueberries on Murphy Dome

Last night we finally went and picked wild blueberries at the top of Murphy Dome. They were fairly sparse this time around, but it was just as fun foraging for them as I had remembered. It’s so peaceful with no one else around and just completely focusing in on what’s in front of you.
Chrissy



We are supposed to be getting our own internet connection on Monday. I am really anxious to have a steady connection at home. Our landlord is building us a fence around the front porch today that will really make the house look nice, along with allowing us to leave the front door open and let the dogs run in and out. Its been hitting up in the high 70’s and maybe even the low 80’s here in the last few days, and having that front door open would really make it comfortable in the house. I think that the insulation in here is going to prove to be really good, seems like when it heats up in here the slightest bit, it stays warm until a window is opened. We’ll see.
72.7 and sunny
Justin

Hauling water from Fox

A little more on the cabin

Chrissy has been wanting me to write a bit more about the cabin on here.
As I said before, its a smaller building, 16'x20', two floors with a ladder in the middle. The upstairs is the same size as the downstairs, but the roof has a northward slant to it so one side slopes in. Were keeping the upstairs as an office for computers, bookshelves and clothes. The downstairs is our living area, with room for our (soon to be) bed, the toyo stove heater, and some chairs. We have lots of windows in here, probably about 15. We have a nice porch on the front of the place that looks out to lots of woods. Thats the best part, woods all around. The spot we live on is technically about 1 acre, but with woods all around us, you'd never know any better.
The outhouse sits about 20 paces away from the front door and is generally clean and free of bad smells. Our landlord seems to know a little bit about proper outhouse construction and this one is free of that smell that you might associate with outhouses in some of the National Parks in the Western US.
The walk to the outhouse will be cold in the wintertime, I can see this already, but I think that like hauling our water, we'll get used to it fast enough.
I am currently reading a book called Better Off, Flipping the Switch on Technology. Its an interesting book for sure, but as I live without some of the regular amenities that I was used to, I can see that living with out electricity and fully off the grid would be a far greater undertaking that what it might seem at first.
Not that I am considering this move, reading this book just makes me think about it. On the topic of hauling our water, we have been getting water from a spring nearby in the town of Fox. Its about 4 miles north of where we live and is undeniably the best water around. Its free too. We have 4 5 gallon jugs that we have been using to bring it home, but as soon as we get some money flowing in we'll up the ante to 10 jugs. This will save considerably in the long run. We have a gravity fed grey water system in the house for the kitchen sink, and have talked with the landlord about possiblying drilling a hole in the ceiling for a similar system for a shower. Currently we have only the sink to use for showering. Its not so bad once you get used to it. The grey water system is really nice, but it does require hauling all that water up the ladder to the holding tank on the second floor.
Enough writing for now, this counter is uncomfortable to type at without a stool.
Overcast and 57°
Justin

P.S. Chrissy promises that some photos are coming for the inside of the cabin.

Mailboxes

Justin installed our new mailbox today because the tenants before us had used a P.O. box and there wasn’t one in existence prior to them. So you may wonder what setting up a mailbox entails… well, in Alaska you get a 4x4, some gravel from the road, and notify the post office so that they can put you in their system. Our landlord also warned us that the lady who delivers the mail to this area is about 90 years old and that it sometimes ends up in the snow instead of the box where it belongs. There’s an element of uncertainty on our part so Justin and I plan on sending ourselves a postcard to be sure that we show up on their radar. We’ll see.

Chrissy
62° and overcast

The Cozy Outhouse

Our new cabin

We got a cabin, its a great size, two floors, 16'x20', ladder between the two floors. No H20, but it has a greywater system for washing dishes. Outhouse outback. Moose, wilderness, outdoors.
Its going to be a really nice place to live.
Justin

Views of and from our new cabin

Last night was our first night in our new cabin. I absolutely love it. All you see is trees when you look outside, and not just a tree here and there- I’m talking about dense trees. It’s the kind of privacy I’ve been wanting for a long time. It feels good to call it our home. We’re still unpacking and settling in, but the transition has been virtually seamless. I am so happy to be here. I love this town.
Chrissy

Arrival in Fairbanks

We anxiously arrived in Fairbanks this afternoon after a long night on the road. We met up with Cindy and Jason and decided to have a picnic together at the campground before they headed back to Anchorage. It was so good to catch up and spend time with familiar faces. We will sleep here tonight and look for a place first thing in the morning.
Chrissy

Yukon Territory/Alaska

Waking up in Kluane

Blasting cliffs in Kluane National Park at midnight

Late night

So tonight we are posting this stuff from the last few days at around midnight in Fort Nelson, British Columbia. We saw a black bear a couple miles out of town earlier tonight and it really snapped us both back into the fact that we are in the far north again. We walked the dogs for a bit earlier and began the search for the illustrious wireless signal in another small town. Finally, the Woodlands Inn came through and had a parking spot waiting and wifi ready.
Now its back on the road for some late night driving trying to trim down our time to Fairbanks so we can hopefully look at some cabins this saturday or sunday.
Burning the midnight oil
-Justin

Alcan Highway

Today we reached mile marker one on the Alaska Hwy and I’m pretty sure we have a little over 1,500 miles to go before we reach Fairbanks. So far we’ve cracked our windshield twice and only hours within one another. At first we were pretty angry about the whole thing and then all we could do was laugh when the second rock hit. Apparently the Alaska Hwy is notorious for cracking windshields. I guess we just got lucky the first two times we drove it. We just stopped a few minutes ago to let the dogs out and I noticed bear tracks by the roadside- big bear tracks and baby ones next to them. I’ve noticed myself tuning back into wildlife since we’ve crossed over into bear country. Moose are really just as much of a concern because they can be as dangerous if not more. One of my fondest memories of Alaska is that it is WILD in every sense of the word, and that your surroundings are bigger than you. The mountains are bigger, the animals are bigger, and the weather is bigger. It’s very humbling. Even though I have a healthy respect/fear of some Alaskan animals, it feels good to be back in it.
Chrissy

So we got a hotel finally. This picture shows the view we paid for. Well, its much more of a motel than a hotel, but it will do for tonight just fine. We want a shower, and the $82 price tag doesnt even seem so bad after this long on the road. They dont even mind the dogs. We are in Fox Creek, Alberta which seems to be an oil workers haven. We've been seeing alot of remote oil field equipment through the last few towns, Edson and Whitecourt were the last two. We took a roundabout way to get where we are tonight, today we drove from a campground about 80 miles outside of Calgary through Banff National Park, then up the Icefields Parkway to Jasper National Park. We've been around this area a few times before, but even having seen so much of this stuff before, it never gets old.
Stopped at the Athabasca Falls in Jasper which has to be one of my favorite spots to see. I love this place, its all power and water and energy. The silty water just cuts holes in this rock around there like crazy and at the falls you can see it all.
Drove on through the park from there, stopped in Jasper and hopped from block to block looking for an open wireless network. Finally found one and sat for an hour in the Jasper United Church parking lot.
Tomorrow we will be driving on into British Columbia and moving on down the road.
Until we get internets again,
Justin

Outside Jasper National Park at Talbott Lake

In Jasper National Park

In Banff