Peering Off the Beaten Path and Understanding Why There are Unfilled Jobs

There are jobs in Alaska. Some remain unfilled, and are re-listed in ads as the months go by. These jobs are in the very places that I have said I am not interested in going: the Bush. Those places, far away from the highways that lead to that Outer World, actually have jobs. And those jobs often go unfilled. So I took a closer look at Nome. Right now, in Nome, there are potentially job openings for both of us that have been open for quite some time.

Nome is not the Alaska of my dreams. There is no forest. Indeed, few trees survive there even when purposely planted, due to the permafrost. It is a land of tundra. It is flat. In photos, it appears rather desolate. As I peer at the photos, and as I read about the reality of the treeless tundra, I try to imagine living in a land without trees. 

I LOVE trees. And, trees - forests - have always been a part of my Alaskan dream. I'm not sure I could make the transition from my dream to a reality without trees. Could I leave the forest where I currently live in order to move to a treeless part of Alaska?

Still, I persisted. It is, after all, a bit of the last frontier that I am looking for, right? And, with the potential availability of jobs, perhaps it could be the answer we are looking for? With my research mode in high gear, I dove in to see what I could find!

So I went in search of real estate. There is, as one would expect, precious little for sale. Nome is a small town. And, like most small towns, there isn't a lot of real estate on the market at any one time. What I've found so far is not encouraging. Most is in town, on tiny, tiny lots, for stunning amounts of money (from a rural Illinoisan's perspective). I found one homesteading type property on an acreage outside of town. It has a chicken house and green house already in place. It is small and quirky in appearance, and it is unfinished. Due to being unfinished, the Realtor told me that we would have to put 40% down on the $170,000 property (which is quite cheap for that area). 

I asked about the accessibility of the property in winter, and learned that people who live outside of town generally ride snow machines (what we call snow mobiles) to work. 

15 miles on a snow machine in -40 weather with -80 wind chills. I've been out horseback riding in -50 wind chill, so I know that with a bit more gear the -80 is survivable. But still, I gotta think about that. Going on a ride in that kind of weather is not like having to do it every single day, twice a day. I realize that it is not that bad all the time, but it can be pretty intense for lengthy periods of time.

I guess that explains why there are so few people living outside of town. But why are they living cheek-by-jowl next to each other, then? I'd have expected larger town yards with at least some chicken coops and gardens and other means to live more self-sufficiently (like the small town my grandma lived in), rather than such tight living quarters as what I'm seeing.

That is particularly so when they seem to have large pantries in which to store their "barge orders" - those summertime shipments of goods from the Outside, so that they can survive the long winters. If one must rely so much on barge orders, why not utilize a bit of yard for self-sufficiency?

Perhaps, rather than focusing on chickens and gardens (and greenhouses), they are used to focusing on hunting, fishing, and foraging. It may be my Lower 48 mentality that is not allowing me to see the self-sufficiency possibilities inherent in their set-ups. But, if so, I'm probably not quite cut out for that type of self-sufficiency.

The prices of the housing might not seem like much to people moving from many high priced areas. To them, a tiny, quirky looking fixer for $170,000 might be a steal. But where we live, nice finished homes on land in the country sell for half of what they want for that work in progress, which is apparently the ONLY homesteading type of property for sale in the area. 

And it becomes clear why it is difficult to fill jobs in Nome. Few qualified people will want to move to such a remote location. Even fewer could afford to do so.

As I am scanning the available real estate, I cannot honestly see how we COULD move to Nome if we wanted to do so.

At least in my research I learned that it is possible to ship one's household goods in a container to Seattle and then from there on a barge to Nome (during the short summer season). The barges will also transport vehicles.

Getting animals there looks to be challenging. Animals would have to be flown to Nome. And the multiple flights to get there from here would be lengthy.