Enclosing the porch

While the porch was something that very much attracted me to this cabin, I really wanted some extra space to install a woodstove without sacrificing space I already had, though, as I mentioned before I could have simply eliminated the table and benches and used that space.  Other reasons for doing so was that I wanted a window facing south and while having the loft perform also as a roof to the porch came with a bit of a disadvantage, not only in limiting the height of the porch ceiling, but being that the loft only joined with the interior on one plane (the rest of the surfaces being exterior) I did at times have some build up of ice in the far corners (and it didn't help matters that when the cabin was built they neglected to place insulation in the corner bays of the front wall, perhaps thinking that since those areas were behind the small knee walls of the loft sides they were adequately addressed, but more than likely left to later and simply forgotten when the kneewalls went in).

All in all, the enclosure of the porch only added 12 ft of exterior wall, but it did greatly expand the interior volume.  The fully usable space, though, is reduced due to where the door was, and simply moved 6 ft forward, other than extra wall space, the walking space to the door still needs to remain open due to the steps for the loft being centred on the former front wall, which was eliminated on both sides of the steps.  Extra ceiling height was gained by removing the former porch ceiling and finishing it off as an open beamed ceiling.

What's funny is that despite going from a 2 ft wide window on the front (which was reused on the north wall) to a 6 ft window, is that from where I normally sit, my view out front hasn't changed much at all, just shifted a bit to the left and slightly down due to the extra distance to the window.

The porch is missed, and while it would be easy enough to add on a deck, the overhang really is not adequate to keep rain off the front of the cabin, so at the same time I may also add a small entryway so that I can replace the current door with a standard height entrance door exiting onto the replacement porch, which would also allow me to add a storm door without needing to make a special order or construct one.

The unexpected bonus

Of properties that I considered, though never actually got to the point of seeing in person, only one had a liveable dwelling on it, and another supposedly had something really run down.  On the budget I was considering, what I had planned, and then of course actually putting money down on a cabin, I really did not expect to get a piece of land with a structure on it, and certainly not one that despite all appearances was actually rather sound.

While it certainly was in quite a state of disrepair, most of the windows broken out or cracked, two uncovered openings for stovepipes, two old camp cots, a rear door that appeared to have come from a camper with the window broken out, and junk strewn around, I could see a lot more to the 12 X 28 cabin than the realtor's suggestion to have the fire dept. burn it down.

I didn't do much else to the cabin at first other than to cover over the missing windows and the rear door, and at first chance I got I also put steel roofing over the existing rolled shingles on the main part of the building (the overhang already being steel).  But for some time it just remained a place to store extra that I didn't want in the new cabin or in the shed. 

The job of cleaning it out, ripping up the ancient torn linoleum, and most of the interior wall coverings happened later when I was far enough along with the new cabin that I had the time to do other things, and it resulted in big piles of materials to get rid of, including the old linoleum, ceiling tiles from the front room, and lots of fibreboard that fortunately could be torn and folded into easily manageable pieces.  The actual bones of the cabin were quite well, built out of full sixed rough cut lumber with diagonal bracing at the corners, but what wiring there was in the cabin was more than substandard (although there had not been electricity on the property before, this cabin was moved in from elsewhere) with very old two wire romex haphazardly pieced together in the walls with a simple covering of electrical tape.  The two interior walls were of a different sort of lumber altogether.  Darker milled lumber with rounded corners that suggested it could have been surplus army lumber from wall tents or the sort, and an inscription of one of those walls had the name of someone that was fairly local and the date of 1960.  Putting the clues together it's very likely the two interior walls were a later renovation of the building as there were also two blocked up doorways on the wall facing the overhang that suggested the original layout might have been two rooms instead of three.  From how the older doorways were situated, and the amount of low windows in the front room, along with some other ties I was able to make with the name found in the wall, I often wonder if it had not been the original cafe building from cathedral creeks or something similar (the party in question also had an airstrip not too far out of Tok as well).  Unfortunately I've never gotten past the speculation mode of what history the cabin might have had as I've never encountered anyone that had any better information than a neighbour that remembers seeing it coming down the highway, but has no idea where from.

Over the years I have worked on it, replacing the windows, flooring, decking under the overhang, constructed doors for the middle and back rooms, rewired the place, and a number of other things, but that project and most others more and more were put on the back burner when my mother needed more and more attention towards the last years of her life and didn't get much past the back room being brought up to an acceptable amount of finish.  Hopefully this year the other two rooms can be finished out as well as each just need some more attention and time to get them to that stage as well, and at that stage I can get the kitchenette set up in the front room.

It's a work in progress, but it's progress nonetheless.

Tiny home or small house movement

It's certainly not a new thing, just rethinking and re-evaluating old values and trying to regain some independence, sensibility, eliminating many unneeded burdens, and saving some precious coin in the process.

It's really a shame how smaller homes have disappeared off the radar in most places, either being turned into sheds and garages or mostly torn down to make way for larger homes made out of chipboard and staples covered with plastic siding. 

In some places, they never went away, be it a community of second tier and third tier lake cottages that haven't yet fallen to the mc lake mansions sprouting up along it's shore, a small forgotten town that the highway bypassed, or the cabins in the woods that haven't been swept up in some movie star or singer's holiday ranch.  And Alaska one of the strongholds of smaller homes without all the bells and whistles.  Sure, in the cities most of what will be found will be large and modern, but even there, tucked in here and about you will still come across a smaller home or a cabin, some even quite historic, but yet abundant enough and not so noteworthy to call attention to it, make it into an attraction or move it to be displayed in a park.  When questions arise, for whatever reason, to describe one's home, it's still necessary to ask basic things, such as if a place has a full kitchen, indoor plumbing, how many rooms, number, if any, of bedrooms, whether it's heated by wood or not, and even if it has phone service or electric.  While the bulk of the people in the cities certainly live a very modern life, like anywhere else, just go beyond the city limits up here and that is often the exception rather than the norm the farther one goes. 

While I almost always refer to my home as a cabin, that's really just the vernacular up here to how people refer to anything smaller or that which varies from people nowadays consider to be a traditional house.  When most people down in the states think of a cabin, they usually think of some shack out in the woods or in the mountains that has none of the conveniences of the everyday world.  And in some cases they might be right, but there is a whole spectrum from basic shelter to elaborate homes that would often put their own to shame, but it's more the matter of where one lives and how they distinguish it from other places as to what name or label they put upon it. 

How did we ever get to the place that so many think that every child needs a separate room and a private bath, an eat in kitchen in addition to a fancy dining room that might be rarely used, a family room as well as a formal living room that is mostly off limits, a media room, an office or two, a gift wrapping room, and walk-in closets that rival bedrooms of the past (not to even mention bathrooms that are as large as a school locker room that can accommodate an entire gym class). 

Do I sometimes wish for more space, the answer to that is occasionally now and then, but on a weekend like this when temperatures could well hit 50 below, I'm more than giddy that I have very little to heat (I heat with oil and I use less than 200 gallons a year, and by no means do I scrimp on heating).  When I do install the cookstove that will cut that expense dramatically, but I'll still have the oil heat for backup, those times I may just not feel up to feeding a fire, and of course the flexibility should I ever want or need to be gone for the day or longer that I don't need to be concerned about things that should remain warm.

But as for bigger, do I really need a guest room for guests that come so infrequently that I don't even exactly recall the last time someone stayed overnight?  Even if I didn't have other options to put someone up, I could rent a whole lot of motel rooms for the cost of another room, the furniture in it and the heat to maintain it.  As for other rooms, well, let's face it, I can only occupy one space at a time, so where is the advantage to having so many other rooms for different purposes other than space to squirrell away more stuff and encourage spending more to fill those spaces. 

As it is, I have more than enough taking up space, and it really hit crisis mode when I had to move all of my mother's belongings over to my place when she wound up in a nursing facility and really could not do anything with it until after she passed away and I then had the daunting task of sorting through it, selling off what I could to satisfy the demands of medicare and the nursing home, which placed liens on her house for more than three times the value, and a couple of other creditors that likely will remain just as unsatisfied when her house finally does find a buyer.  But that's what happens these days when care facilities have free reign to charge $500 or more a day with most everything else an added cost, and laws that are ever increasing the noose to grab and squeeze every possible dollar out of a person and their belongings, and often things that a person grew up with or family heirlooms are nothing but dollar signs to the greed of those that profit from the misfortune of others. 

But coming back to the issue of storage, it is one of the reasons why I have remained in stationary accommodations, rather than the dreams I had when younger of having the freedom of life on wheels, and basically being a turtle with my house on my back.  Much as I plotted and schemed how I could live in an RV, I just couldn't figure a way to do so with all the must have treasures that I could not bear to be without.  Not to say I haven't done some drastic reductions in the past.  At one time I was set and prepared to take off for Alaska, down to the point of having everything boxed up and weighed, and pared down to what would fit, space and weight wise, in a box trailer that I had built upon a purchased frame.  That move did not happen due to my awaiting seemingly critical element that never did arrive, and four or five years later when the move actually did occur I did opt for professional moving, which did allow for more (2 seacrates, 8x6x4 foot in dimension) and whatever else I did pack into my 10 ft camper that was a semi-pop-up (but still leaving room of course to use the camper for the week-long trip).  What else that did sour my desire for a life in an RV, though having the camper, was how many of the campgrounds were bumping up the fees to the point where it really begged the question of if it could be done economically, and let's face it, RVs are notorious for being shoddily constructed with very little regard to insulating properties. 

Perhaps if the tiny house built on a trailer concept had been more prevalent than just the park model RV offings at the time, which at the time were rather expensive option, I might have gone that route.  But in reality, I do have those capabilities, it just requires hiring a truck with a lowboy trailer, just as it was brought here, rather than simply finding something with the strength to tow it.

Well, as I finish up this post, I see it has hit 50 below, the dog is in the other recliner taking a nap, the sun will be coming up in two hours (though the sky is already starting to lighten up) and January is half over.  Hard to say what the day might have in store, but I will be in my little home that is all my own.

Running water in a dry cabin

Yes, I do have a conventional sink like most people, with a regular kitchen faucet, sprayer and hot water.  The only difference is that I need to flip a switch to turn on the pump and water heater, and the tank kept filled by water toted in.

So many times in this big box world we seem to lose the sense of creativity or the ability to see beyond the box or the products offered up to us.  Many years ago I had a friend that ran a small coffee house type bookstore and at one point she decided to expand past the simple coffee maker, coffee urn and selection of teas and moved in a coffee cart to do such things as expresso and lattes.  Being that it needed to be self contained, to provide water for the drinks and a small sink to wash or rinse off things, the cart was outfitted with a water tank, a pump and a bucket to catch what drained from the small bar type sink.  Why this seemed novel to me is beyond comprehension, since sitting right outside the door was my truck with a 10 foot camper on it that had just such a system on it (though with the addition of a toilet and a holding tank rather than a simple bucket under the sink). 

Move forward many years to my living in the goldstream valley and as I was to find out most cabins in the interior even when they don't have water, are outfitted with sinks.  In this case, unlike the goldhill cabin which drained only into a bucket, the goldstream cabin's sink was set up so that one side of the double sink drained into a bucket, and the other side drained to the outdoors.  I'm sure one could think of many advantages to such a system, especially if they lived in a cold area where a drain could possibly freeze up or maybe saving clean rinse water to use for another purpose.  In any event, in both places I simply used water from a container set on the counter, and heated water in a kettle on the stove.  And at the gold hill cabin, since I really didn't want to deal with lugging a bucket around to empty it, I instead used dishpans in the sink which I considered to be a bit more handy to take outdoors to empty as needed, and not have to keep an eye on the bucket under the sink (though in reality, if one had appropriately sized water jugs or jerry cans to the size of the bucket, it would be a no brainer that one would empty the bucket when starting a new supply of water).  I did, though also, have an office type water cooler with a heated tap for drinking and cooking, as I would get water from various sources and really did not want to worry about the quality of the water (there were times that a certain spring I would use was closed off after testing) or how the source was used or abused by others (such as people hooking up to flush out a holding tank on a line that is marked potable water).  And in a way I still do that, although I have long ago traded away the water cooler (and not having a source of filtered water here as I did in the Fairbanks area) and instead use a Pur water dispenser that lives in the icebox.

When outfitting this cabin, though, I did want a better system, so carefully measuring the space I would need for drains, a pump, and a small water heater, I ordered the largest tank I could fit into the space from an RV supply store leaving just a bit of extra room around it for air circulation.  As I didn't want to deal with a 12v converter on the system, I elected to get a more expensive park model 120v pump, but the reality there is this does limit one to only a handful of different choices and sources, and my feeling as per not wanting to be powering a converter all the time really turned out to be unfounded since it is on a switched outlet that only needs to be on when wanting to heat water or to use the faucet.  The fist pump I had also required an accumulator (much like a pressure tank on a home system on well water, but only about the size of two large oranges) to even out the flow and keep the pump from cycling on and off rapidly, but this was easily mounted on the wall next to the pump (when I did replace the pump with another brand this had to come out of the system as the new pump controlled this issue by itself).

As the heater is not an instant type, this does mean if I want hot water I do need to switch on the power (above the sink I have a switch with a pilot light in it so that I am aware of when the system is powered and to remind me to shut it off when not needed), but it really only takes maybe 10 minutes for the heater to cook up a batch of hot water, and if I don't use much, the hater does retain the heat so there is often hot water hours later, and often still somewhat warm up to 24 hours later.  I do, though, have the hater set on it's hottest setting, so for some that would be a major issue for scalding, but in this way I can temper it with cold water and make the limited amount go much farther without needing to heat more.

This kind of system could most certainly be expanded to include other things, such as a toilet or a shower, but if a shower was included, it might be wiser to go with a 4 or 6 gallon heater depending upon what a person uses and what demands they put on a system.  For me, it's just the sink, and I do now also have a small dishwasher that actually saves water over making a sink full of wash water and more to rinse the dishes.

As for the water tank itself, it comfortably holds in excess of 20 gallons, it's filled via the green and white hose that fits over the spigot or spout on the water jugs (which are placed on the counter top to drain into the tank) and in winter I do leave one of the cabinet doors open to provide some warm ventilation, just to avert any problems with it getting too cold in the cabinet (though I could easily just replace one of the door panels with a stamped sheet metal type grill to the same effect) and as this was a box store assemble yourself sink cabinet (in other words made out of sawdust) I did also beef up the support under the tank by using some threaded pvc fittings that I could simply unscrew to the proper height needed (but wood blocks cut to the right height would have done just as well)

The saga of the modern icebox

I'm of the generation that grew up with people purchasing an appliance and taking it along with them if they moved since large appliances often lasted 20 years, and if something did go wrong, a service call did not place someone in the position of for just a little bit more, one might as well just throw it out and buy new.

Or better yet I can look back on the first electric appliances that my grandparents bought, for instance a 1956 Philco refrigerator that when they did move to a smaller newly built house in '68, those appliances wound up being a part of a second kitchen in the cellar only because the new house came with appliances, and couldn't accommodate the older style full sized stove (by this time stoves had shrunk to a 30 inch standard).  Up until the early 90s that Philco was still running down in the cellar when my grandmother sold the house and moved in with my brother, and the stove had continued to be in use whenever large gatherings required more cooking space, it was simply too hot to heat up the kitchen on the main floor, or during canning season.

I guess these days most people don't even give it a second thought, though, since many as a matter of habit and keeping up with ever changing trends simply always buy new every few years as they move and with all the renovation mania that television is constantly serving us up, but there are a few of us that are finding out that lifespan of these newer appliances is creeping downward at an alarming rate, and through this sour economic time, many more are finding that out as well.

With more and more frequency it seems to be sheer luck to get more than 7 years out of a refrigerator, and looking at the tons of complaints posted on the internet, it seems like many are even experiencing major repairs or units going out already by 3 and 4 years.  When my mother had replaced the original refrigerator in her condo that was very likely going on 20 years old, the new one didn't even make it 2 years before a $300 circuit board needed to be replaced. 

Of course for me, I bought a fairly expensive model, which in the past, and reputation of the brand, one would have expected to last at least 20 years as well.  I even went so far as to get one with a door freezer rather than a pull out drawer thinking of long term reliability, with less to break or go wrong in the future, but with all the mergers and buyouts, and corporations constantly striving to cut costs and increase production, I should feel happy now that I actually got 8 years out of it and had the privilege of paying twice the price of a bare bones model?

And of course the big question remains, just how green is it to buy a supposedly energy efficient model that is supposed to save you money when it's a throw away item with a marginal lifespan?

It's really making me think and rethink about getting off this merry-go-round of consumerism.  Though even in this, some of the old methods of saving money and energy are becoming difficult.  For instance, where people may have once used freezers outdoors, or in an unheated garage (refrigerators as well), more and more the allowable temperature range of operating these appliances is narrowing.  In fact I have seen some that should not be operated lower than 50 or 55 degrees, and one that even said it could be run in an area with no higher than 80 degrees in temperature, so in other words have a heat producing appliance in a carefully climate controlled environment and should summer come along, as it invariably does, you better have air conditioning running as well.

It really is a shame, especially since I live in an area that for half the year I could get away with keeping frozen things outdoors most of the winter, though these days it's not as consistently below zero as it used to be, and for refrigerated items I could likely do with just something that had temperature controlled fans to bring in cold air as needed.  And in that it does also beg the question of why in all this supposed move towards greener technologies that some major manufacturer can't come up with some easily installed unit that takes advantage of sending the extra heat a refrigerator produces to an outdoor coil where it doesn't add heat to the home, and in winter takes advantage of the cooler temperatures outdoors resulting in less use of the compressor, and certainly components could be made in a modular fashion so that they could simply be snapped out and new ones plugged back in so one didn't have to trash an entire unit when a major component failed.  But let's face it, corporations aren't interested in selling less, nor do they care how much the landfills are filling up with perfectly serviceable items that have one problem that should have been able to be fixed or made sense economically to be fixed.  And too, we have lots of people that have been greenwashed to the point that they think they are saving the environment by throwing away items that may still work because they believe in the hype over energy efficiency.  For example, how many people didn't throw away still usable incandescent light bulbs to replace them with labour and material intensive compact fluorescent bulbs that often didn't last near any of the claims of durability, and then had toxic garbage to throw away to boot, instead of at least waiting until the lightbulb they wished to replace actually burnt out?  The old depression adage of use it up, wear it out, make do or do without was a whole lot more environmentally sensitive than most of the green schemes of today.

Well, I'm  really not at the point where I can comfortably do something radical, or willing to just yet try something on the order like many are now trying by converting a freezer into a refrigerator with a simple thermostat change as there are still a few issues to be worked out on that front, like proper ventilation and some are raising some durability issues that are yet to be seen.  But I am really considering going to a compact refrigerator (which most unfortunately are notorious for energy consumption and very minimally insulated) and a separate chest freezer.  The combination of the two very likely would exceed by some the energy usage of a traditional combination unit, and I would have less refrigerated space (yet how much of what we keep in one isn't just taking up space and eventually is tossed out) but at anywhere from 1/2 to 2/3 the price of a combination unit (to replace what I have with a similar model which the low range seems to be around $900), the possible extra cost in electricity may not be an issue, and certainly would not if I then also did move things outdoors when temperatures warranted and shut off the freezer (and here would be a great reuse for the current one, if I made some vents in it, I could put it outdoors and just load it up when it was cold enough outdoors and only bring the frozen stuff back in if the temperatures got too high or at the end of winter when the chest freezer indoors would be restarted again)

Hard to say exactly what I will do, and for the time being the current icebox is limping along with the compressor giving me it's warning clicks of death, sometimes starting right away, other times taking 3 or 4 tries with long pauses in between before finally catching, and those occasions where the only remedy is to turn the unit off for up to 2 hours and then turn it back on.  Being winter I do have some options to make do if and when it goes out completely, but the decision is going to be made soon as to what it is that I'm going to do, and more and more it seems unlikely that I will simply plunk down $900-$1400 just to have this same conundrum in a few or several years again.  (and yes, there would always be the option of a much cheaper top freezer model, that likely my beagle would soon figure out how to open and help himself, but I really do appreciate the convenience of what I access the most to be at reach in height and away from a pesky nose that I'd really consider a smaller unit set on a countertop  before a traditional top freezer combination unit, plus then I'd only be facing the replacement of a single component in the $2-300 range when and if one or the other decided to give up the ghost).  For now at least, it will be weighing out all the pros and cons and seeing if any of it will be moving me towards a plan that has much more durability and overall cost savings.

The back counter

After deciding to use the loft, instead of having the back wall be floor to ceiling cabinets (like a pantry unit) I decided instead to put in the extra counter (and in this picture temporarily the computer was set up on it, now only the printer lives on top of it, the other pieces have different homes)

I also placed the centre cabinet higher to provide a much easier accessed area than having that space on the top if the cabinets were in the same line. 

While I could have used full sized wall cabinets on the lower tier, I elected to have greater usable counter space by using bridge cabinets instead, which at this time works out very well since where the monitor and the printer are on this picture I now have a 4 place setting dishwasher (which is about the size of a full sized microwave oven).  That is something I really do appreciate having, and it uses less water than I would with a sink half full of water and rinsing the dishes, even on the heavy cycle.  (I do have running water in my sink, but only because I have a water tank, pump and small water heater in the cabinet below it.  The tank does have to be filled with water brought in from elsewhere)

Evaluate what you use and how you really live

I'll repeat that again, evaluate what you use and how you really live.  In other words, don't just put in something because it's what everyone else has and therefore you should as well.

The table for me was a nice idea, and the storage in the benches was very nice, but the fact of the matter was that I hadn't used a table to eat or work on for years, and having one didn't change that.  It and the benches just became more flat surfaces to set things on and stack them up.  Even later on, when I enclosed the porch to gain room enough to put in a woodstove (which actually could have simply been accomplished by abandoning the table and benches) I still moved the table into the extra space gained by the expansion.  Only fairly recently that the table was taken down and put out in the shed in anticipation of moving the cookstove in have I finally come to the conclusion that it may very well not be reinstalled once the cookstove is in it's proper place. 


As the plan for the other cabin is that the front room should be more on the order of a community room with a kitchenette, (and I do have a table to go in there), for the few times that maybe I would find reason to use a table, I could just very easily use that and rethink what I really want to do with that extra space the porch provides.  Either way, enclosing the porch wasn't a waste by any means, for example, what if at some time I needed to have the bed on the main level instead of up in the loft, I could do so without giving up any of the present living area, or what it I decided to get off the "you're lucky if you get 7 years out of a refrigerator these days' merry-go-round and elected to instead get a chest freezer and just a small countertop model for those things I don't want frozen and stop me from keeping more than I can use up before I throw it away as being too old (and it would be a whole lot cheaper to replace a small unit when it decides to give up)

Really do think through if you do need something, or is it because everyone else has one or you've been simply trained to think that way..  And if something doesn't work, or your desires or needs change, have the foresight to install things in a manner that they could be eliminated or moved in the future without creating an entire makeover (such as installing your flooring first instead of after things are in place)

Plans do change

The nice thing about doing things yourself is that you are a part of making drawings or computerised layouts become a reality, and get a good feel for what works or what could work even better.  While you certainly can imagine yourself in a sketch-up, getting a feel for something around you is all together different, and there is certainly the flexibility to change one's mind if need be.

My original thought was to recreate many elements of the layout of the goldstream cabin, on a much smaller scale.  I really didn't figure on using the loft other than for storage as this was just a fraction of the space of the loft in the goldhill cabin with very little headroom, so not considering a permanent ladder or stairs would maximise the floorspace of the cabin.  I had intended to virtually make it into two rooms by placing shelving on the order of an open bookcase as a divider, the bed on one side and the living area on the other.  To maximise storage, I had six 24 inch base cabinets to provide a platform for the bed, and that part I did set up.  I tried that out for a while and decided that it was very inconvenient to have the bed that high (needing to have a step stool by it), so I reconsidered using the loft.  I did choose to go with a set of steps rather than having to deal with a ladder, which would have taken much less space, and also decided to go a bit larger than needed to double as a storage cabinet.  In the end that unit took up 30 inches wide by 40 inches deep.  Here again, I considered many alternatives, such as an alternating step configuration which would take up much less space, but instead settled on a six step arrangement that turns against itself after the third step much like a staircase with a landing would.  As the door was to one side of this, it also left me with a similar sized space to the other side, which I then used to make a booth style table with storage in the benches.  It maximised the living space but at the expense of a good share of floorspace. 

I took three of the 24 inch cabinets and placed those on the back wall, so this would more than double the counter space, and then instead of floor to ceiling wall cabinets I just went with upper cabinets and bridge cabinets (the type one would have over a stove).  Later on I would also put wall cabinets on the other long wall as well, so I didn't lose cabinet space in the end.  The other three base cabinets then could follow along with the two burner cooktop to the other cabin, despite that I decided not to use them in the new cabin, it all fit in with other plans I had.

At this time, before anything had been fastened down (other than the heater) I also put down laminate flooring wall to wall, so if in the future if anything was to be moved, the floor was done under it (and not just the vinyl flooring that was installed in the cabin).  The laminate also went on the loft floor as well, and a mat type carpet runner was cut up and glued on the treads of the steps. 

A bit of deconstruction 

As this was a finished cabin, rather than a shell package, I did have to take apart a few things for the set-up I wanted.  First of all, of course, was to install the breaker box ( a sub box to the one on the pole ).  And while this picture is well beyond that point, it's still a good indication of the construction of this cabin.  It's based upon the Canadian envelope system, so for the most part, other than the entry point for the electric service, and any exterior outlets or fixtures, breaching the already installed insulation and vapour barrier was not necessary.  The cabin is rough cut 2x4 construction, with vapour barrier over the insulation, but then the walls are furred out by another 3/4 inch (the width of a 1 by board) and then 3/4 inch thick tongue and groove spruce provides the interior wall.  Outlets in most cases (except those that needed to be against a stud could be cut out type boxes affixed to the 3/4 inch spruce without any need to craft a pocket in the vapour barrier.  The large board on the wall was to provide a mounting anchor for the microwave that was to go over the stove and not needing to be concerned with where studs would line up.

While it might seem like this was all a haphazard seat of the pants figure it out as we go along project, in actuality, I had been working on plans from the start.  I had even sent home depot over to North Pole to measure out the cabin while it was still being used as an office and work up a kitchen cabinet plan with me as they had a deal where you paid $50 or $60 dollars on the measure and estimate, but then got that as a reduction on the cabinet order, so a few more hands double checking my measurements and drawings.  It also helped greatly when I did make changes.  For example, I had originally planned to put in a two burner cooktop, which I had ordered, and had bought an over the stove microwave/convection oven.  But as I reconsidered selling my existing range or finding another use for it, that eliminated 30 inches from the cabinet design and very easily the adjustments could be made to the estimate.  (As I had envisioned putting a kitchenette in the other cabin on the property, I wasn't at a loss as to what to do about the cooktop)

This does bring up some observations from over the years.  I really rarely do ever use more than one burner at a time, and when I do most often it never is more than two.  I actually could use the extra counter space more than having four burners on the top of my stove.  As for the above the range microwave with convection, it's a fine size for a microwave, and of course having it on the wall saves much space, but using the convection heat bakes any splatters onto the walls and the turntable, and for some things it does limit the size of what could be baked.  Now much of this is a moot point when the wood fired cookstove is installed, and for many the size of the oven would not be an issue, but for some things I do like the flexibility of the additional space and of course the self cleaning aspect to the electric range is a great convenience.  When the cookstove is installed, though, I will leave the electric stove in place and should I determine that I can get along without it (winter and summer) then I could replace it with a 30 inch cabinet that I do have have placed elsewhere that I could easily replace with another project I have in mind for the space.

All during this period of running different electrical circuits and well through the winter, I was making trips back and forth to Fairbanks picking up supplies, the cabinets as I needed them, and whatever I needed from the old place, or could fit in beyond what was needed to continue, and for the most part I spent about a week give or take on either end, working on the new cabin, storing things either in the shed or the other cabin that would be in my way, and back on the other end shopping for or picking up materials, and packing up things from the cabin up there to be brought down.  A few times I stayed longer at one end or another if the temperature dropped too much, as I tried to limit the travel to when it was around 20 below or warmer, and only if really necessary if it was approaching 30 below, so if we got a cold snap I would just stay put.  Of course on two occasions I got back to the goldhill cabin only to find out that the heat had gone out, something that had I been there at the time I could have attended to, but I'll go more into detail about that situation at another time as it was a combination of factors most beyond my control that lead to those incidents.

By the beginning of December I was ready to hook up the main power lines and all that was left to do once that connection was made between the new sub-box at the cabin and the main breaker box on the pole was to unplug the extension cord powering the original circuit, reverse the outdoor plug into an outlet for another use (I later reused that line to run temporary power to the other cabin until the main could be run over there as well) and hook that last circuit into the new system. 

Just one little glitch

My next trip down I brought along the heater, as well as a small non-electric propane heater.  The electric service was installed, but no meter, so this would be a wasted trip if I didn't stay over at a motel for the night.  Other than getting the power company to bring over a meter and plug it in, it was just a matter of adding an outdoor outlet to the breaker box on the pole, move the wood that was brought down to be used for blocking under the cabin (in the assumption it would have to be raised above the ground) and some others that were already lying around the property to provide a visible barrier across the clearing from the power pole to the cabin and lay the 100 ft extension cord down along side that to provide temporary power to the cabin.

As this cabin was built for remote use, there were overhead fluorescent lights installed on the ceiling and about 6 outlets on the walls connected in one circuit to a plug that was on the exterior (this wire was tied to the railing for the move).  Very basic and set up so one could simply plug it into a generator, and for two months I ran it as such plugged into the outlet at the power pole until I was ready to hook up the mains to the cabin.

Part of the installation of the electrical service was to run wires underground from the pole, under the laneway to the side of the cabin, but only as far as the breaker box on the pole was to be completed and the underground portion just ready to be hooked up when needed. 

The installation of the heater was just a matter of measuring out the spot at which it would clear the sink cabinet and door, drill the hole through the wall for the exhaust pipe and one for the oil line to enter, hook those up to the heater, run the line over to the oil tank and install the filter, open up the shut-off valve, check for leaks, plug in the heater and presto, actual heat instead of the little propane heater. 

The Cabin itself

As I had mentioned in an earlier post that I had originally considered simply wintering over in this cabin and until I built something larger, and then using this as a guest house, as often, plans change, things evolve and even needs do change.

This was, after all, about half the space of the last two places (goldstream was 16 X24 and goldhill was 16 X 24 with a half loft) whereas this cabin is 12 X 16 plus a 12 X 6 porch with a small loft overhead.  But as I transitioned from goldhill to here it did become obvious that this was all I really needed.  When I was once again living alone at the goldhill cabin I stopped using the loft and the front of the cabin just wound up being a place to store things, much of which did not need to be in a heated space.  So essentially, besides where I hung my coat and some other clothing, and where I had the trash can, I was really only actively using a 12 X 16 foot area of the goldhill cabin, and mostly I was only passing through that extra area to go in or out of the place.  And when I look back to the goldstream cabin, even there, I mostly only used half of the place except for where I had placed the computer or the rare occasion that I decided to use the davenport instead of the bed.

As I spent time in the new cabin outfitting it, extending my stay due to weather, and just taking the time to get a feel of the place, I did scrap that idea of wanting or needing something larger.

The interior design certainly evolved a few times over the winter as my plans, wants and needs continued to change, but to some extent that is still happening especially since I'm looking forward to finally installing a wood cookstove, and what a daunting prospect that is since there are at least two places it could go, and in one, four different directions it could face (though one direction would seem a bit odd, but still quite functional and accessible).  But in this case, especially, once it is in place, it will likely not be moved ever again.  Thankfully the stove is already here, that in itself was an agonising project sorting through what was acceptable, what was out of the question, what had most of what was wanted and had the least unwanted features or requirements.  And of course then try to fit that all into a pricepoint. 

But here again, so much of this is something for another day, the cabin is in place, electric service to be put in, and I'm having to deal with a problem caused by the expansion of the subdivision where I was living.  Over the last summer they had decided to expand the number of cabins.  Where up until that time there was really only one street with about 8 cabins, they started the rest of the subdivision, which meant extending the entry road, putting in the block to the east, and another to the west beyond the entry road, plus putting in cabins in any of the remaining lots on the street I was on.  All this activity and construction tore up the entry road to the point where it was a real challenge to get through a block or two of very soft dirt and mud, and consequently, unbeknownst to me it had thrown the front end alignment all out of whack on the van.  Upon getting back to Fairbanks the day the cabin went down, I was shocked to find out that the new tyres I had put on the van that summer had been scuffed down nearly bald on the front end, and the garage threw me another curve.  They claimed that they couldn't get it in alignment and that I'd have to take it to a body shop to have the frame straightened out, and just getting an appointment wasted the most time.  When finally they did take it in to work on it, they found nothing wrong with the frame and figured out that the garage had simply used the specs from a different model year while trying to align it and thus were not able to make the proper corrections.  So, weeks wasted and expense as well between the garage, body shop, a set of tyres that should still be on the van (as the replacements are) and all due to a land owner that ignored the conditions and problems his expansion was making on the existing tenants (and the bulk of the damage was actually between his subdivision and an older one, and that section was yet to be developed by whomever owned that parcel)

My next trip down, there would be snow on the ground and the electric service installed, with just one glitch.

And down the road

The move went well.  I had  met with the drive in the days before and he had rigged up an iron plate taped to the roof of my van so that the beacon and an antenna could be mounted (magnetic things don't stick well to a plastic van) as I was to be the chase car for the move since not only did I need to be down on the property when it arrived, but it also was a savings of $300 (and if we like to do voodoo math, one could even say with the $1000 reduction on the price of the cabin, the move really only cost me the $300 for the lead pilot car and the forklifts on the Tok end of the move).  The cabin and shed were loaded either the day before or very early that morning, heavy cardboard was nailed up over the front facing windows and everything in it's place and secure when I arrived.  The last afterthought was to throw a few more blocks in the shed just in case they were needed to set the cabin on when we got down there.

The 200 miles went well, even one particularly tight spot where one lane of the Johnson River bridge was closed down for maintenance work (though it was a bit nerve racking to see the cabin head through that space with what seemed like only inches to spare against the bridge trusses).  By the time the truck had finagled it's way into the laneway (and despite cutting down a few trees it was still just a bit too narrow to manoeuvre the long trailer back through a dogleg in the laneway to the clearing) it was decided to unload at the power corridor.  First the Shed was taken off and driven back to a spot where there was space, it was convenient, yet out of the way and at some time in the future could easily be moved again.  Then it was time to fork up the cabin and have the truck pull out from under it.  At this point I thought they'd set it down, and relift it from the ends, but instead they simply chained up the runners to one of the forklifts, dragged it down the laneway, and then pushed it right into the spot where it was to go and set up the oil tank (and for me to put on the shut-off valve, the fill and vent risers and the level gauge as I had enough of climbing a ladder to stick an oil tank to find out how much fuel was remaining and somehow winding up with diesel fuel on me somewhere).  The day went well enough that the driver went off to get something to eat and headed back up the highway as it was still early enough for him to do so rather than having to stay over for the next day (and since he no longer had the cabin on the lowboy he also no longer needed a second pilot car).  All that was left for me was to head over to the power company to give them the go ahead to put in the new service since the cabin now was in place, arrange for the oil tank to be filled and head back to Fairbanks myself.

As I mentioned before, there was a race to get things done, and one of those, besides getting the cabin moved from North Pole, closing on the land and such, was also to get this accomplished before there was snow on the ground and things had started to freeze up.  This was close, as this was on the 6th of October, and on average we have snow on the ground for the duration of winter right around the end of the first week of October, and there also needed to be time for the power company to get the service in place or it would have brought most things to a stop until spring.

After this trip, I did get caught up in Fairbanks for at least two weeks with some issues on the van, but that's a story for another time.

And away we go

It still was a bit of a race to get everything all tied up on time.  The title company muddled through trying to match up all the pertinent documents for a property that had been split off an original patented property, sold again, then passed back and forth between the former owner and another party and finally split one more time when the tower lot was deeded off, but closing went off without a hitch and it was just a matter of waiting for the executrix to sign off and for it to be registered with the state.


As I had already purchased a Toyotomi Laser 30 heater in August when one of the local building supply houses had their usual autumn sale, all that was still needed was the oil tank and the stand, which I had ordered from Greer Tank just a few miles up the road to be delivered before the moving date.  I also decided that since I had all that room on the truck to see if they had a shed available to go as well, which they did have one on the lot which they were storing extra trailer tyres in.  The rather last minute decision worked out well as the oil tank and stand would go in the shed where they could be easily secured. 

There was, though, one last change I made in the days prior to the move.  I had got to thinking about the four foot stand that I had ordered for the oil tank, and considering some issues I had with with fuel supply in very cold weather, I had already elected to get a more expensive filter system for the oil line with a spin on filter (rather than the less expensive wool insert type that had plagued me in the past), but I started to wonder if four feet would be enough for the tank.  Having lived on permafrost the last two places, I was really unsure just how high they would set the new cabin, and went out to North Pole to double check the measurement just in case it would be set higher than the four steps up that seemed to be quite normal in the Fairbanks area.  I decided that the floor level of the cabin was just too close for comfort to go with the four foot and hightailed it back to Greer to change the stand to a five foot.  Imagine my surprise when they set the cabin right down on the ground on it's runners without any blocking to raise it up (which we had brought along in the shed).  Fortunately it all worked out just fine, my oil tank is actually at the limit of how high it could be without needing a pressure reducer, which means I do have good flow whatever the temperature, but second guessing without knowing the ins and outs of the new area could have just as easily resulted in a tank that was too high.  Tok being in a very wide gravel based valley, despite the up to 1,200 ft of extra elevation over the lower areas around Fairbanks, does not have permafrost issues unless one is right up against the mountains and in their shadow.  (not to say all of the Fairbanks area is on permafrost, it's hit or miss, mostly in lower areas, valleys, shaded areas and north facing slopes, but it's common enough to make very sure what lies below and make appropriate measures to ensure one's dwelling isn't twisted to bits or sinks away into a mire, and often that means leaving an adequate air space below to ensure that the heat of a dwelling does not warm up the ground below it too much)

So for quite some time I had just one big step up onto the porch and the stair sat off out of the way, until one day I somehow tripped and my shin made quite an impact on the edge of the porch.  At that point I got around to cutting down the stairs and attaching them mighty fast.

In any event, the morning of the move came and we headed down the highway.

Now, if I were a house, where would I go?

That likely was one of the biggest decisions that had to be made.  Where did I want the cabin to be?  Maybe more importantly, did I want it facing east, west, or another direction, what would keep it out of view from the highway and what would be the least amount of work in cutting down trees (and saving trees from being cut)?

In the end it came down to two obvious choices, either on the west side of the clearing where perhaps the extra trees that would have to come out would mean maybe I'd lose too much of a buffer from the neighbouring property and my porch would face east, or place it on the east side so that I could enjoy the afternoon sun on the porch.  The site on the east side was near a perfect match as it had been where most of the overburden had been pushed through when the laneway and the clearing had been made long ago and only four small trees needed to be sacrificed. 

Bringing power in, though, meant some added cost with this configuration.  The closest pole to the site would have meant cutting in a wide swath that would have exposed the cabin to the power corridor as well as to the radio tower on a small half acre up front that was deeded off from the original property.  While this would have saved some money, especially since it may have been able to be run off the same transformer (which might have resulted in my microwave oven being possessed by KJNP), I instead elected to run from the far pole bringing the service and meter as far as possible, and then going underground the rest of the way to the cabin.  The end result was worth it, though, and up until the time I moved the shed over by the power pole, even from the power corridor it wasn't obvious that anything was even back here with the exception of a pole and a meter that very well could have been installed for a home that never got built.

The land

While this property was smaller than the 10-20 acres I had hoped for, it was well wooded that provided more than ample privacy and not only hit the items on my list of 'must haves', it also had a number of the 'it would be nice to haves' as well.

Had I found this property before laying money down on the new cabin, I could have easily fixed up the existing cabin well enough to use as temporary or permanent residence, but being that the wheels were already in motion it just came along as a bonus.

In fact, the realtor suggested I just have the fire dept. come in and burn it down.  Cosmetically it did appear to be more of a hindrance than an asset.  Styrofoam sheets on the ceiling that gave the impression that the roof was caving in, more than half the panes of glass broken out, junk strewn throughout, ancient torn linoleum on the floor, and evidence that at some time or other an animal (or animals) had gotten trapped inside and desperately scratched around openings trying to find a way out.  I saw it in a much different light, and getting rid of it was not something I considered.

The listing on the land was in error for the size, and overpriced, but to tell the truth, there isn't much in the way of cheap land in Alaska as less than 1% of it is in private hands, and easy access is something that speaks volumes.  It had been owned by a well driller that lived in another community that used this as a local base of operations when he was in the area, and he had trucked the cabin in from elsewhere to have a roof over his head with the idea of renovating it (from what I could gather from the notes scribbled on the wall).  As by this time he had passed away some time ago, it was one of a few loose ends remaining to wrap up the estate, which had the advantages of them wanting to get this property sold, but the disadvantage of dealing with parties in another location that would have to run it by others with a stake in it.  Based on what I thought was the size of the property, I lowballed it and offered a little less than 3/4 of the asking price, but as I had some funds coming in at a yet to be determined date, I also put 3 year terms on paying it off.  Being that they wanted this done, they came back with an unexpected response... drop the terms and offer less.  I then resubmitted the offer for 2/3 of the listed price and it was a done deal.

The actual size of the lot turned out to be 7.09 acres, so I did wind up paying more per acre than what I thought my initial offer would calculate out to, but in all, just over $2,500 an acre with highway frontage, road frontage on the back side, power and telephone accessible at both ends, and only a mile and a half to the grocery store (more or less to other businesses and services) I feel it was reasonable and since I had very little time to dinkle around I sure couldn't afford to be playing the deal of the century game or risking offending the executrix and the heirs. 

Through it all, the realtor really put some effort in making this deal happen, many times she met me at my shop or in town to get papers signed or offers submitted, all things that would have eaten up so much of the precious time I had to get this accomplished and was like the difference between night and day from the interest I got out of the realtors in Fairbanks or Delta.

The New Cabin

At some point in the future I'll backtrack to the goldstream and goldhill cabins and  go into more depth about those places, but as for now onto the new cabin.

The summer of 2003 a number of events and changes occurred and it was time to shut down the shop I had at an historical park and find some land to call my own.  For a number of years I had set up a tent with another vendor at the state fair, and this year was no different in that respect.  There was one exception, and that was I no longer was simply casually batting around an idea to finally get a place to call my own.  Though at this point it was still very vague as to what would happen, and little time to set much into motion.  That time would come in September and later on after I no longer had to deal day to day with the shop, or so I thought.

I had gone over to a local sawmill's display at the fair to check out shell packages and pricing with the idea that would be the best route for me once I found a piece of land and finish one of those out with the most difficult part done for me.  I happened across a an offer they had of $1,000 off this finished unit.  As they were moving the base of their operations from the sawmill to their location in North Pole where they sold trailers, they had brought this unit in to use as a temporary office until they had constructed permanent offices in the building behind it.  The reduction in price due to they would be using it for the two months until the offices were ready.

Yes, it was very much 'cart before the horse' and changed what plans I had made by then, here was a move in ready cabin ready to go a good 60 days down the road.  Even if I just wintered over in this place and did follow though on the idea to build something else, I could then put this to use as a guest house and be that far ahead of the game.  So, I did go check it out and wound up putting a deposit down on it even though I still had no place to put it.

I had been already been looking around for some land, and felt if I could just step it up I could get that accomplished as well since it's not beyond reason that a piece of raw land could be closed upon within 30-45 days given the right conditions.  So the search was put into high gear despite another month before I could close down the shop for the season.

I did find a few possibilities, which were somewhat limited as I wanted to get a place outside of the organised borough where I didn't have to deal with a taxing authority, zoning or ordinances, and I also wanted to be on a main highway if possible not only for easy access, but also because I had the idea to eventually do something along the lines of a B&B or campground, which would be more difficult hidden away where some might have difficulty finding it.  What really surprised me is how unmotivated the realtors in Fairbanks were with their attitude to raw land and remote properties, to the point where they simply dropped the ball on answering questions or simply told one to go out and look at what we have and if you find anything of interest then we can talk about it.   One realtor in particular was so hands off that other than publishing a catalogue of his listed properties, talk was that he would tell a seller upon hanging up a sign that they would likely never hear from him again until he had an offer on the place.  I did consider a few parcels up around Circle and Central, but as most of what was available in that area was First Nation lands, they had such strict covenants on them that it seemed more like a person was leasing the land, needed to get permission from the council to do anything on the land, and perhaps even restricted in how one might resell the land, so that was pretty much out.  One property that might have worked was way up on the Elliot Highway, 10 or 20 acres with a well fenced in dog yard (for sled dogs) that would have made an idea garden site, but on the down side, it would have meant many miles of gravel highway and travelling either to limited supplies at Manley Hot Springs or all the way back into Fairbanks for most all of what might be needed.  I did pose a number of questions on the property to the realtor, most importantly if the generator shed contained a working generator and never received a response to the questions so I set that idea off on the back burner.  I did also come across a parcel near Big Delta and Delta Junction, which supposedly had an abandoned structure on it, but I could not get much out of that realtor either, including whether the property could be subdivided or not as it was really too much land and at a higher cost than was practical.  One property that I actually did take the time to go out and view was along the Park's Highway between Nenana and the Denali Borough line (within sight of the sign).  This property was the front 10 acres of a 20 acre parcel, overall a fairly decent piece of land with a drive cut in, but two things that struck me is how far off the highway it sat (due to the very wide highway easement, so much so that the highway could not be seen through the overgrowth) and more importantly, the intertie that ran behind the parcel.  One does have to question the safety of living so close to high tension lines and power pylons, and there was also the question of the easement to the back 10 acres and would that also be constantly used by the power company to access the lines.  The location of this and any Delta properties also were a matter of concern.  Nenana is classified as a city, and therefore has set up some taxing authority (being at the junction of the Alaska Railroad and the Tanana River which leads to the Yukon River, it is the state's largest inland port), there is only about 20 miles on either side of it that are unorganised, and Delta is at most 30 miles beyond the Fairbanks North Star Borough as well, so in either case both could very easily be annexed as a source of additional revenue and one would wind up paying property taxes without receiving any services in return being so far out.

At that point I set my sights even further out, and that's how I ended up on Tok,  The realtor down here gave me some leads on a few properties and along with another vendor at Alaskaland we took a day to travel down and look things over.  Somehow I got the directions to one of the properties mixed around and we ended up on a lot that if was up for sale would have been totally unacceptable, and one other we looked at was on an area that had burned over years ago but still had not recovered very much.  So those were rather disappointing, though he saw one that he would have liked that was different from what I was looking for.  At that point we took some time to poke around, like going into the grocery store, and at this point I felt it more than deserved a second chance, so we dropped in unannounced on the realtor.  She pointed out a few other possibilities that I could research later, and directed us to the first property that she had suggested that we didn't find, so starting to head back we stopped to see it.

We drove down the laneway, parked in the clearing, I got out of the truck and knew then and there that this was the one and Tok was the place.

Small home on the hill

When the time came to search for a new place, my preference was to stay in the valley.  Despite being in a low area that usually was 10 degrees cooler than in Fairbanks, it was nice having a big ridge between as a barrier.  I did receive some pressure to move to a cabin that was in an even colder pocket of the valley, but that one would have been quite difficult.  It was a very small two level cabin with an oil drip stove, but it was well more than a mile off the road with no other traffic using the drive, no electricity near, and would have proven near impossible and expensive to maintain and use a vehicle for trips into town, at least from the standpoint of me being there all alone and not having a snowmachine, atv, or a sled to tote things back and forth.  I also looked at a place that was on the end of a drive that likely would have become impassible in the spring, and besides, it was no better than a run down farm shed.  Another possibility was a small subdivision of cabins that were being sold on land contract for $1,500 down and they would carry the note.  Being on permafrost, as most of the valley was, there had to be a workaround for outhouses, and in this case they had above the ground holding tanks and perched on top reached by a flight of steps was the outhouse, kind of resembling some odd sort of throne, which would need to be pumped out every so often.  For the owners of the development it was pretty much like rentals without any of the headaches as most people there seemed to stay for a couple of years before moving on to another place, so the payments they received on the places were no different than getting rent, but with a nice move in bonus and not having to make any repairs with minimal maintenance to the subdivision.

I expanded my search, looking at places near the university, and to the west, not quite finding something that felt right or could compare to what I was leaving.  One in particular was just off a small aeroport with a landing strip and float pond on a side street with quite a few other cabins.  Across the street was a bathouse with showers and laundry, so that would have been quite a convenience (instead of having to drive into town or elsewhere to go to a laundromat with showering facilities).  What was odd about this cabin, was that it was rather narrow, kitchen along the back wall and a loft overhead with a big picture window facing the street.  While it was certainly nicely constructed, I just couldn't get over the impression that it would be like living in a department store display window.

I looked at a cabin up by Curry's Corner, that would have had water, but it was much like a tourist court, just one row a cabins set side by side that had all the charm of living in a motel without common walls.  Another subdivision, on the south slope of gold hill had smaller cabins that were packed in fairly well, but at least in this case they were along a winding lane that made it a bit less crowded feeling, but from coming from a place where the next neighbour was 1/4 mile up the highway around a corner where mostly all one saw was cars zipping past usually unaware that they passed by a cabin or teams of dogs pulling sleds and snowmachines going past on the trail, this too was still a bit much of a change back to the city life of condos and apartments of the past. 

In the end, I settled on a subdivision of 16 X 24 cabins with half lofts all on quarter acre lots on the north slope of goldhill, and picked one that was situated so that one couldn't look directly into the windows of another.  I still was on permafrost here as this was on the edge of the goldstream valley, but here there were large trees instead of the little bush sized ones that grew on the valley floor.  And here I would stay for 3 years.

Small home in the valley

While most of my adult life I pondered, planned and ate up anything I could find on simple living,  the closest I could get was living semi-rural, in a smaller city, or even in a renovated cabin on a lake, but always still being a member of the rat race and piling on the bills rather than getting any closer to what I really wanted out of life.  In fact I kept pushing myself farther from achieving any of it while just adding to the baggage to be dragged around on every move, which seemed to happen about every year and a half.  After a few attempts I finally did leave the upper midwest in '96 for Alaska, and even though I did dump some of the baggage, that rat race was still following along until the summer of 2000 when fate really stepped in and started changing things around.

To put it mildly, there are two big stumbling blocks for those wanting to evolve to a more simple life, one being land, and the other trying to figure out how one can exist without all that we have grown up to believe are necessities.  There of course are others, like money, bills, responsibilities, companionship or lack of, fear to follow dreams or set out on them by ourselves, or leaving what is familiar for that which in our minds is only the absence of those things, and maybe just as much, what others think or don't allow us to do.  We've also been so trained as to want everything right away, and or scared to take a leap, and perhaps we do forget that a journey can be taken one step at a time and just have patience and perseverance.

In any event, that summer I suddenly found myself living in a 16 X 24 cabin in the goldstream valley north of Fairbanks without running water or electricity and by the end of September it would be just me there.  Even though I had long thought about such things, it really was a culture shock that I hadn't expected at the time and some things did take me some adjustment time.  While I did have the electricity turned on and installed an oil heater as winter was coming on, the one thing that really hit me and stuck was that running water was a luxury rather than the necessity that a generation or two has taught us to be.

I was only in that cabin through the end of January, when I needed to move to another, and for all that the place lacked, and what it was in dire need of, the new place never did measure up despite being brand new, having more space due to a half loft, and an outhouse which the other place did not have.  Perhaps hardships can endear us to a place, but in all honesty, there was a lot of good there and lessons learned.  11 1/2 years later I am still living in a dry cabin, though with many improvements over the last two places.