... You need an income to survive in today's world. You need to be able to pay your taxes, to have money to purchase those goods which you cannot produce yourself, etc. I have never been 100% self-sufficient, nor able to find a way to make sufficient money to live by homesteading alone. Since we are neither independently wealthy, nor retired, the first step in this Alaskan adventure, for us, is to land a job (or jobs) in Alaska. In this recession economy, we are not expecting this part of the journey to be easy. Indeed, it may end up being the most difficult part of our journey. But my philosophy is that one can do almost most anything if one is determined to do it!
Applications have gone out. And, they will continue to go out until one of us gets a suitable job offer. We are both talented and experienced people, and so it is my hope, my prayer, and my belief that we will eventually find a wonderful job for one or both of us that will allow us to pursue this dream.
Because we need to be flexible in a tight job market, we have not settled upon one area of Alaska. Right now, we are looking at rural areas that are connected to highways. While there is definitely a romance to the Bush, and to living in a relatively inaccessible and remote area, the chances of finding work in such an area is, well, REMOTE! And, the chances of finding work in such an area that would pay us well enough to move there is probably even more remote!
The Bush areas are not connected to highways. They are accessible by air and/or (in some cases) by water. Moving to such a location with our belongings would be extraordinarily expensive. The cost of living in such areas is very high for just that reason. We are not ready just yet to jettison all of our books, our tools, our canning equipment, our dairy equipment, etc.
Therefore, we are looking for jobs in areas that would be considered "rural" by Lower 48 standards rather than by Alaskan standards. They are rural, but still accessible by roads. Each area that we have looked at so far has a very different climate: the Kenai Peninsula, the Mat-Su area, and the rural Fairbanks area. While each is very different, homesteading is definitely a possibility in all of the areas. Where ever we go, we will have to learn whole new ways of doing things. And that is part of the adventure of doing this.
As we research jobs, we are also researching the areas of interest, trying to learn about the issues unique to each area, including climate, gardening, animal husbandry, real estate, and the over-all suitability of each area to our own lifestyle and personalities.
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