Living in Alaska

[Glory]

I like the winters. Gives me a break from feeling like I need to go 24/7. Plenty to do too and the time with family is awesome. Summers are an absolute blur.

 

[Akwoodchuck]

I always say we only have two seasons...Go Time and Slow Time...

 

[AK Troutbum]

I always say we only have two seasons...Go Time and Slow Time...

Reminds me of a couple sayings we have here. In Alaska you never loose your woman, you only loose your turn. And my personal favorite when someone from the lesser 48 asks, "Alaska, what the hell do you do in Alaska?" "There's only two things to do in Alaska, fishing and f*****g....in the winter time we don't fish".

Sorry if I offended anyone....sort of.

 

[full choke]

I spent nine days with a bad tooth waiting to fly out of Dutch Harbor one winter (no dentist in town). I watched RATNET on a 10" black and white tv all day. I saw every episode of "Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego" ever made. Twice.

 

[Akwoodchuck]

Reminds me of a couple sayings we have here. In Alaska you never loose your woman, you only loose your turn. And my personal favorite when someone from the lesser 48 asks, "Alaska, what the hell do you do in Alaska?" "There's only two things to do in Alaska, fishing and f*****g....in the winter time we don't fish".

Sorry if I offended anyone....sort of.

Ha...I've got an 80-year old friend who lives in a fly-in village...she always says, "what's there to do in this town? Mildew...."

 

[lyle_destroys]

I really like listening to Tyler Freel talk about living in alaska on the Tundratalk podcast. If I could talk my wife into it we would be headed up there.

 

[SpannerAK]

Everyone loves the Alaskan summer, so no need to really sell anyone on it. Winter you have to embrace, buy a snowmachine and get out, it's nice to chase down ptarmigan while out riding, its really cool if you get into one of the rare winter hunts. Also, ice fishing help to get through winter. Bottom line is to embrace it. On the hunting side things, it's going to be harder if you're used to hunting in the lower 48. Game density is much lower than what you are used to.

 

[AK_Skeeter]

I moved to Alaska from Idaho 27 years ago.
Alaska is a diverse state...I live outside of Fairbanks.
I don't think I would like living anywhere near Anchorage or on the Kenai...too crowded for me compared to interior AK.
I don't think I would like living in southeast Alaska...too wet and gray.
In interior AK, our annual precip is 12 inches, with about half of that as snow.
No traffic lights driving 200 miles from Tok to Fairbanks,
No traffic lights driving 100 miles from Denali National Park to Fairbanks.

I like where I live because I can see hundreds of miles of wilderness right outside my back door.
I like that I can put on a backpack, hike the hilly roads of my neighborhood with one of my labs, and maybe see one vehicle in a 8 mile hike.
There is a strong sense of community and we know all our neighbors well.
Houses are on 2-10 acre parcels in aspen/spruce forest so there is privacy,
yet neighbors watch out for each other. I usually see someone I know at the
grocery store or when boarding a plane at the airport.
There is also a tolerance for diverse viewpoints and life styles...vegans get along with trophy hunters for example., conservatives tolerate liberals and visa versa.
Anti hunters are very rare.

My wife is from North Dakota and she says the winters are way worse there due to the wind.
Our cold snaps are calm with low humidity. I can split firewood for an hour at 20 below with a polarfleece shirt and a shell.
We live on a ridge out of town so when the temperature is -40 at the Fairbanks airport, it can be near zero at our house (elevation above 1,000 feet).
You have to love snow to live here (interior Alaska), we typically have snow from November to mid April.
Most folks either snowmachine, cross country ski, mush, trap, ice fish, etc. all winter long.
Two woodstoves in our house keep me busy and I enjoy wood heat.
I like skijoring with my labs on snowmachine trails 5 minutes from my house.
It is usually sugar snow so easy to plow and driving is fairly safe most winters.
The only thing I do not like about winter is the short days in December....less than 4 hours.
By now we are back to normal...I was outside this morning at 9:30am with plenty of light and hiking until 5pm with enough light.
Northern lights (auroras) can be amazing on any given night from Sept to April,
and the neighborhood facebook page has posts like "the lights are out now..."

The summers are typically wonderful with long warm days.
It is light constantly from late May to mid August.
Excellent gardening...
One problem is all friends and relatives want to visit then and its also
time for getting any outside construction projects done.
Wildfires are common and some summers can have dense smoke for weeks...
sort of like the Missoula area in 2000.

My biggest complaint about hunting is that it is a fairly short season.
Ducks open Sept 1 and end when the marshes freeze solid in mid-Oct.
Some units moose is Sept 1-15 or Sept 8-25.
Sheep season is longer Aug 10- Sept 20, and residents can go every year at no tag cost.
Caribou is variable with some herds declining (Arctic, Mulchatna) while others are stable (40-mile, Nelchina,Porcupine)
After October, my last hunt is for Sitka blacktails and that is a 5 deer limit, usually we go during the rut in November.

Since there are so few roads, hunting can either be very crowded anywhere near the road system (everyone has an ATV), or expensive requiring a plane to transport for either a float hunt or a DYI ridgetop hunt (at least $2k). Hunts are typically 10-14 days, not "weekend hunts".
Also when you turn 60 you get a free hunting and fishing license.
Tags are generally free for residents...caribou, sheep,moose, black bear, deer, goats, etc.

Alaska's population has declined every year for the past three years as oil production and prices has declined and 85 percent of the state economy is based on oil.

There is no income tax, no sales tax, and moderate property tax.
Property tax is moderate relative to other states.
That goes down when I turn 65 as the first 160k is not taxed.

The annual oil dividend averages about $1k depending mostly on the stock market 5 year average,
and that is a dividend for every member of the family that is an Alaskan resident.

Three things I do not like:
1) It takes forever to fly to most places in the lower-48 and that can be expensive also. For example to see relatives in Viginia we fly Fairbanks--Anchorage-Seattle--Atlanta---Richmond and that can take ~20 hours.

2) Short days of December when even at noon the sun is low...just barely over the Alaska range to the south.

3) Can not drive across the border to hunt like I could when I lived in Idaho and hunted Montana, Idaho, Washington with long seasons from Sept 1 - Jan 31.

 

[AK Troutbum]

I moved to Alaska from Idaho 27 years ago.
Alaska is a diverse state...I live outside of Fairbanks.
I don't think I would like living anywhere near Anchorage or on the Kenai...too crowded for me compared to interior AK.
I don't think I would like living in southeast Alaska...too wet and gray.
In interior AK, our annual precip is 12 inches, with about half of that as snow.
No traffic lights driving 200 miles from Tok to Fairbanks,
No traffic lights driving 100 miles from Denali National Park to Fairbanks.

I like where I live because I can see hundreds of miles of wilderness right outside my back door.
I like that I can put on a backpack, hike the hilly roads of my neighborhood with one of my labs, and maybe see one vehicle in a 8 mile hike.
There is a strong sense of community and we know all our neighbors well.
Houses are on 2-10 acre parcels in aspen/spruce forest so there is privacy,
yet neighbors watch out for each other. I usually see someone I know at the
grocery store or when boarding a plane at the airport.
There is also a tolerance for diverse viewpoints and life styles...vegans get along with trophy hunters for example., conservatives tolerate liberals and visa versa.
Anti hunters are very rare.

My wife is from North Dakota and she says the winters are way worse there due to the wind.
Our cold snaps are calm with low humidity. I can split firewood for an hour at 20 below with a polarfleece shirt and a shell.
We live on a ridge out of town so when the temperature is -40 at the Fairbanks airport, it can be near zero at our house (elevation above 1,000 feet).
You have to love snow to live here (interior Alaska), we typically have snow from November to mid April.
Most folks either snowmachine, cross country ski, mush, trap, ice fish, etc. all winter long.
Two woodstoves in our house keep me busy and I enjoy wood heat.
I like skijoring with my labs on snowmachine trails 5 minutes from my house.
It is usually sugar snow so easy to plow and driving is fairly safe most winters.
The only thing I do not like about winter is the short days in December....less than 4 hours.
By now we are back to normal...I was outside this morning at 9:30am with plenty of light and hiking until 5pm with enough light.
Northern lights (auroras) can be amazing on any given night from Sept to April,
and the neighborhood facebook page has posts like "the lights are out now..."

The summers are typically wonderful with long warm days.
It is light constantly from late May to mid August.
Excellent gardening...
One problem is all friends and relatives want to visit then and its also
time for getting any outside construction projects done.
Wildfires are common and some summers can have dense smoke for weeks...
sort of like the Missoula area in 2000.

My biggest complaint about hunting is that it is a fairly short season.
Ducks open Sept 1 and end when the marshes freeze solid in mid-Oct.
Some units moose is Sept 1-15 or Sept 8-25.
Sheep season is longer Aug 10- Sept 20, and residents can go every year at no tag cost.
Caribou is variable with some herds declining (Arctic, Mulchatna) while others are stable (40-mile, Nelchina,Porcupine)
After October, my last hunt is for Sitka blacktails and that is a 5 deer limit, usually we go during the rut in November.

Since there are so few roads, hunting can either be very crowded anywhere near the road system (everyone has an ATV), or expensive requiring a plane to transport for either a float hunt or a DYI ridgetop hunt (at least $2k). Hunts are typically 10-14 days, not "weekend hunts".
Also when you turn 60 you get a free hunting and fishing license.
Tags are generally free for residents...caribou, sheep,moose, black bear, deer, goats, etc.

Alaska's population has declined every year for the past three years as oil production and prices has declined and 85 percent of the state economy is based on oil.

There is no income tax, no sales tax, and moderate property tax.
Property tax is moderate relative to other states.
That goes down when I turn 65 as the first 160k is not taxed.

The annual oil dividend averages about $1k depending mostly on the stock market 5 year average,
and that is a dividend for every member of the family that is an Alaskan resident.

Three things I do not like:
1) It takes forever to fly to most places in the lower-48 and that can be expensive also. For example to see relatives in Viginia we fly Fairbanks--Anchorage-Seattle--Atlanta---Richmond and that can take ~20 hours.

2) Short days of December when even at noon the sun is low...just barely over the Alaska range to the south.

3) Can not drive across the border to hunt like I could when I lived in Idaho and hunted Montana, Idaho, Washington with long seasons from Sept 1 - Jan 31.

I was going to make a smart ass comment and ask, so what’s the temperature right now in FB? Then I looked and saw that you were only about 10° colder than us here in South Central, so I got nothin’!
I do love living down in the banana belt though!

You forgot to mention the non-stop, 5 1/2 hr. flight between Anchorge and Maui, for those times when you absolutely, positively, just have to get the hell out of here and feel some warm sun on your face.

Taken last week!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[fatbacks]

I moved to Alaska from Idaho 27 years ago.
Alaska is a diverse state...I live outside of Fairbanks.
I don't think I would like living anywhere near Anchorage or on the Kenai...too crowded for me compared to interior AK.
I don't think I would like living in southeast Alaska...too wet and gray.
In interior AK, our annual precip is 12 inches, with about half of that as snow.
No traffic lights driving 200 miles from Tok to Fairbanks,
No traffic lights driving 100 miles from Denali National Park to Fairbanks.

I like where I live because I can see hundreds of miles of wilderness right outside my back door.
I like that I can put on a backpack, hike the hilly roads of my neighborhood with one of my labs, and maybe see one vehicle in a 8 mile hike.
There is a strong sense of community and we know all our neighbors well.
Houses are on 2-10 acre parcels in aspen/spruce forest so there is privacy,
yet neighbors watch out for each other. I usually see someone I know at the
grocery store or when boarding a plane at the airport.
There is also a tolerance for diverse viewpoints and life styles...vegans get along with trophy hunters for example., conservatives tolerate liberals and visa versa.
Anti hunters are very rare.

My wife is from North Dakota and she says the winters are way worse there due to the wind.
Our cold snaps are calm with low humidity. I can split firewood for an hour at 20 below with a polarfleece shirt and a shell.
We live on a ridge out of town so when the temperature is -40 at the Fairbanks airport, it can be near zero at our house (elevation above 1,000 feet).
You have to love snow to live here (interior Alaska), we typically have snow from November to mid April.
Most folks either snowmachine, cross country ski, mush, trap, ice fish, etc. all winter long.
Two woodstoves in our house keep me busy and I enjoy wood heat.
I like skijoring with my labs on snowmachine trails 5 minutes from my house.
It is usually sugar snow so easy to plow and driving is fairly safe most winters.
The only thing I do not like about winter is the short days in December....less than 4 hours.
By now we are back to normal...I was outside this morning at 9:30am with plenty of light and hiking until 5pm with enough light.
Northern lights (auroras) can be amazing on any given night from Sept to April,
and the neighborhood facebook page has posts like "the lights are out now..."

The summers are typically wonderful with long warm days.
It is light constantly from late May to mid August.
Excellent gardening...
One problem is all friends and relatives want to visit then and its also
time for getting any outside construction projects done.
Wildfires are common and some summers can have dense smoke for weeks...
sort of like the Missoula area in 2000.

My biggest complaint about hunting is that it is a fairly short season.
Ducks open Sept 1 and end when the marshes freeze solid in mid-Oct.
Some units moose is Sept 1-15 or Sept 8-25.
Sheep season is longer Aug 10- Sept 20, and residents can go every year at no tag cost.
Caribou is variable with some herds declining (Arctic, Mulchatna) while others are stable (40-mile, Nelchina,Porcupine)
After October, my last hunt is for Sitka blacktails and that is a 5 deer limit, usually we go during the rut in November.

Since there are so few roads, hunting can either be very crowded anywhere near the road system (everyone has an ATV), or expensive requiring a plane to transport for either a float hunt or a DYI ridgetop hunt (at least $2k). Hunts are typically 10-14 days, not "weekend hunts".
Also when you turn 60 you get a free hunting and fishing license.
Tags are generally free for residents...caribou, sheep,moose, black bear, deer, goats, etc.

Alaska's population has declined every year for the past three years as oil production and prices has declined and 85 percent of the state economy is based on oil.

There is no income tax, no sales tax, and moderate property tax.
Property tax is moderate relative to other states.
That goes down when I turn 65 as the first 160k is not taxed.

The annual oil dividend averages about $1k depending mostly on the stock market 5 year average,
and that is a dividend for every member of the family that is an Alaskan resident.

Three things I do not like:
1) It takes forever to fly to most places in the lower-48 and that can be expensive also. For example to see relatives in Viginia we fly Fairbanks--Anchorage-Seattle--Atlanta---Richmond and that can take ~20 hours.

2) Short days of December when even at noon the sun is low...just barely over the Alaska range to the south.

3) Can not drive across the border to hunt like I could when I lived in Idaho and hunted Montana, Idaho, Washington with long seasons from Sept 1 - Jan 31.

Makes me miss home! Flying back home to Fairbanks tomorrow and it looks like it might be bit chilly this week

Agree with everything above. Interior Alaska is an awesome place to live, albeit not a place for everyone. The cold and dark keeps a lot of people out.


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[AK Troutbum]

Makes me miss home! Flying back home to Fairbanks tomorrow and it looks like it might be bit chilly this week

Agree with everything above. Interior Alaska is an awesome place to live, albeit not a place for everyone. The cold and dark keeps a lot of people out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Good news is, looks like you guys are going to have a warm front coming in!

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[AK Troutbum]

Of course it could always be worse.

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[Akwoodchuck]

Just saw this job posting, two months running a chainsaw in SE...room, board and airfare provided, $25/hr, 6/10s a week...could be a perfect opportunity for someone to get a foot in the door and check out the area:

Experienced Chainsaw Operators

Looking for experienced chainsaw operators for a pre-commercial tree thinning government contract in Petersburg, AK. Project is scheduled to begin 5/1/2020 (starting as early as 4/15, weather...

kenai.craigslist.org

 

[fatbacks]

Good news is, looks like you guys are going to have a warm front coming in!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Oh sweet. Can’t wait to haul a load out to my cabin this week...


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[AKDoc]

I was going to make a smart ass comment and ask, so what’s the temperature right now in FB? Then I looked and saw that you were only about 10° colder than us here in South Central, so I got nothin’!
I do love living down in the banana belt though!

You forgot to mention the non-stop, 5 1/2 hr. flight between Anchorge and Maui, for those times when you absolutely, positively, just have to get the hell out of here and feel some warm sun on your face.

Taken last week!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Exactly....I’m in HI right now with the family!

 

[Eddiem0nster]

this was super helpful for everyone that posted, i'm making my way there one way or another to be a firefighter

 

[OXN939]

2) Short days of December when even at noon the sun is low...just barely over the Alaska range to the south.

If it makes you feel any better, I hunted the Alaska range in 2017 and have thought about it literally every day since then and that train of thought generally results in seething jealousy of you guys who actually get to experience it on a regular basis.