Past*Life - North*2*Alaska

About the Poet*Carpenter

(A very brief history of my past.)

Born and raised in Seattle, Washington, I headed north in 1985 to escape the Information Age Invasion of my boyhood playground, the Cascade Mountains.

The Slana Alaska Homestead Settlement fit the bill for a young family seeking wilderness adventure, romance, and hard work. Carving a lifestyle and home from Alaska's heartland produced unparalleled experiences and memories. While giving me what I call a "Wide Angle Focus of the Universe".

Spending our first Alaskan spring and summer in a Teepee, we were welcomed to the Last Frontier by -40 below temperatures in mid March of 1986. Not "REAL" cold by far north standards, yet plenty "CHILLED" to keep my boys, (ages 2 & 4 at the time) and I on firewood duty for several weeks until 35 above weather arrived.

Gradually through seemingly endless summers, unpredictable winters, and the daily challenges of life, a guest cabin, 3000 sq. ft. home, a shop and ATV garage resulted from countless loads of material and supplies hauled to the wilderness homesite by snowmachine, boat, canoe, and even hovercraft. The hand dug full -basement took three summers to complete, driving a sand point 39 feet deep through clay, and sand centimeter by centimeter kept the constant ring of metal against metal in the air for 7 straight days, brought soar arm muscles and cold fresh water to the surface.

A home in the "Bush" is never finished, so the work continued on Alaska bush time. Meanwhile I enjoyed family, friends, writing, the world wide web, and sharing past, present, and future thoughts, dreams, and concepts with others.

"Alaska's mountains, lakes, creeks, rivers, four and two legged neighbors gave their very best and demanded only the same in return".

An even briefer history of the present....

"Dream another Dream".... My home in Alaska has passed*on...... taken by the fires of fear and greed..... by my*X.... yet Alaska remains my home of heart and spirit.... at present the beautiful realm of South Whidbey Island, WA is where the love of my*life and I choose to*be..... my life is now every*thing you will read on this site in All*ways..... each new change and path is more loving than I ever could have dreamed.......

Change is Inevitable*Struggle is an Option

Things All*Ways get Better.... If you Allow*It...

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• past
• life
• experience

[TEARDUCTER]

Wow I am speechless :)) May I ask how the mother of the children coped? I ask because I am a mother of 4 children with similar ideas except I reared mine in the hot tropics away from the outside influence. I found it very difficult but it was very busy and fulfilling as well. I would not do it again though because I love my solitude. Perhaps I am selfish!

[PeaceProfit]

@TEARDUCTER, Unfortunately there were issues, which she never spoke of from her past, which carried over into our life and eventually broke the relationship apart, and being a focused individual i*shared in the responsibility of not being able to cope with much of it at the time, though gave it the best a young working father could manage. No Regrets, though i*do miss the freedom of Alaska, even though cloth diapers were quite a hinderance ;) it was a Grand*Adventure & Childhood dream fulfilled,

[654aly]

thanks this brings back memories. Didn't live far out in the bush but did live way out of town father worked in the bush Parents built home from savings took about 10 years. I never felt I was missing something because we had no running water and used outhouse. And my mom never complained once that I can remember how hard it was.

[PeaceProfit]

@654aly A home we built among the trees above the lake our little hill catches the afternoon breeze Neighbors we have but few instead there is a tremendous view At supper time we cast for fish to place upon our dish With many hours of light in the summer days the garden sends fresh greens our way The land around with berries & wild fruit it abounds In winter the caribou come to live among the trees meat fills our cache with ease A home we built deep in the bush far from mans daily push ;)

[TEARDUCTER]

@PeaceProfit OMG Don't remind me of cloths diapers LOL I had them hanging wet everywhere in the wet season diapers diapers hanging every where but non dry enough to wear :)) That furthers my mind to remind me of my poor man I put him through hell over it and I bet he remembers the lesser tranquil times of the diaper issues as well. Seems funny now but not then and I am not even going to try to imagine it in the cold freezing snow :)) Hey as crazy as it seemed at the time it was an experience :)

[PeaceProfit]

Do some research dude, it cost a million plus dollars a mile to build road over permafrost, which then slowly sinks into the earth, requiring constant never ending construction & rebuilding, getting you to very remote areas hardly suitable for a small village, AK is a huge frozen sponge, and 90% of the trees are not big enough to make a 2x4 out of, there is nothing "easy nor quick" about living in the bush, no matter how "absurd" the debt... AK... Kicks Fools Ass, always has, always will...

[PeaceProfit]

it's cause there arent the requisite number of building sites that will not sink 100 feet into the permafrost, which melts as soon as its built upon, regardless of global warming, your "civilization" will be swallowed by the earth your so willing to destroy and desirable of to control, it's a losing, failing, unsustainable WET DREAM, the dominoes are in place and falling, the only option is to manage the colaspe... as nature offers he'r very best and demands only the same in return.

C.H.A.O.S.

[yanikv]

`thats cause there arent the requisite number of roads, 7-11's, and starbucks necessary to sustain civilization. Luckily for us, those things are easily and quickly transplanted. All we need are a few government appropriations fueled by absurd amounts of debt. I guess we'll see you soon than.

[PeaceProfit]

History has proven that 98% of those who try, can not handle the challenge of living in Area*907...

[yanikv]

perhaps we should all come up there.

All of us, with all our things, and all out ways.

What do you think?