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Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Time is flying by
It dawned on me today that in 8 days we will be leaving the warm Southern climate of SC crossing many states to reach the begining of our dream. Things are pretty much in order which I am happy of. No running around at the last minute to make sure this or that is cancelled,or that address's have all been changed I started that at the first of the month and its over and done. We have the bear miniums in our home to live with,makes for easy cleaning for sure. We will have some last minute things to pack but other than that we are ready. AAA sent us some really neat travel guides and I enjoy sitting and looking at them. I can't wait to get started on our drive and take some really neat pictures to share with my family and friends.
Thursday of this week my daughters class is having a "moving to Alaska" day for her. It is pretty nice of them. They are going to talk about Alaska all day look at photos,talk about the animals there and some other special things just for her.
I wonder to myself what she is thinking about all this. She seems to be very happy about it and excited but I wonder in her mind whats she thinking. Is she scared,worried or happy.
I must say there are things here I know I will miss. People that I will miss not visiting. It will be strange not to be able to just hope up and run down the road to Wal-Mart or if I don't feel like cooking running out and grabbing a bite to eat.
But as much as I love the place here,the desire to return to a life like we had in NC is much more appealing to me.I love the outdoors,I love being more self sufficent. And lets face it with the way things are going these days it may come a point and time where more people will want to get more back to the basics or maybe I should they might have to.
The way we lived in NC is pretty much like that of an Alaskan home except for the fact that we were the only ones that I ever heard of that used alternative ways of doing things. Such as a power inverter,running water from a mountain spring into our cabin which we built ourselves by hand with only the help of a generator. The evenings spent playing games with our boys and telling them stories of us growing up. Gathering berries,watching the leaves change colors and just going for a long walk on Sundays through the woods. I remember my oldest sons teacher telling me what a wonderful immagination he had. How he could write down on paper with such creativity that she used some of his stories in her files to help other kids with writing prompts. And in the last 4yrs since we left there I have seen this same wonderful immagination disappear,guess he is growing up but there is a part of me that wonders if it isn't the change in lifestyle that caused it. I remember the hours on end that the boys would create traps for poachers that were going to come and steal their land or how they played like they were stranded in the wilderness and had to survive and all the other grand adventures they created.
I hope that they will experience life in a great way because of our move. I hope that they get a sense of belonging and being part of a community. A feeling of pride for the things they do with their own 2 hands. Things I think that in schools and in busy lives these days they may not get here.
Thursday of this week my daughters class is having a "moving to Alaska" day for her. It is pretty nice of them. They are going to talk about Alaska all day look at photos,talk about the animals there and some other special things just for her.
I wonder to myself what she is thinking about all this. She seems to be very happy about it and excited but I wonder in her mind whats she thinking. Is she scared,worried or happy.
I must say there are things here I know I will miss. People that I will miss not visiting. It will be strange not to be able to just hope up and run down the road to Wal-Mart or if I don't feel like cooking running out and grabbing a bite to eat.
But as much as I love the place here,the desire to return to a life like we had in NC is much more appealing to me.I love the outdoors,I love being more self sufficent. And lets face it with the way things are going these days it may come a point and time where more people will want to get more back to the basics or maybe I should they might have to.
The way we lived in NC is pretty much like that of an Alaskan home except for the fact that we were the only ones that I ever heard of that used alternative ways of doing things. Such as a power inverter,running water from a mountain spring into our cabin which we built ourselves by hand with only the help of a generator. The evenings spent playing games with our boys and telling them stories of us growing up. Gathering berries,watching the leaves change colors and just going for a long walk on Sundays through the woods. I remember my oldest sons teacher telling me what a wonderful immagination he had. How he could write down on paper with such creativity that she used some of his stories in her files to help other kids with writing prompts. And in the last 4yrs since we left there I have seen this same wonderful immagination disappear,guess he is growing up but there is a part of me that wonders if it isn't the change in lifestyle that caused it. I remember the hours on end that the boys would create traps for poachers that were going to come and steal their land or how they played like they were stranded in the wilderness and had to survive and all the other grand adventures they created.
I hope that they will experience life in a great way because of our move. I hope that they get a sense of belonging and being part of a community. A feeling of pride for the things they do with their own 2 hands. Things I think that in schools and in busy lives these days they may not get here.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
The quite before the storm
As I sit her this morning after the kids are at school and the hubby is asleep I ponder everything to come. The house is getting pretty empty as things are being sold no kitchen table,no washer/dryer,closests cleaned out to the bare minium,cabinets empty. This weekend the stove,fridge and some other items go. Makes it easier to clean up for sure but not very home like.
I wonder what our new place will be like,how it will be to have a fire to warm by on those cold Alaskan winter evenings. I think about all the adventures my kids can have there,all the experiences that will be presented to them that they may not have been given. But I am also sad to think of them leaving friends they have made. My little girl understands some but at 5 she isn't sure of what is going on. She is excited by the seeing a new place idea,the snow and making more friends. She doesn't understand the leaving of her home and her current school and friends. We have tried to explain it to her on a level she will understand but it is hard and I know there will be some saddness there.
My boys are much older and are as excited about all this as we are. They will stay in touch with friends via the internet so things will be easier on them.
I wonder what our new place will be like,how it will be to have a fire to warm by on those cold Alaskan winter evenings. I think about all the adventures my kids can have there,all the experiences that will be presented to them that they may not have been given. But I am also sad to think of them leaving friends they have made. My little girl understands some but at 5 she isn't sure of what is going on. She is excited by the seeing a new place idea,the snow and making more friends. She doesn't understand the leaving of her home and her current school and friends. We have tried to explain it to her on a level she will understand but it is hard and I know there will be some saddness there.
My boys are much older and are as excited about all this as we are. They will stay in touch with friends via the internet so things will be easier on them.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
16 Days to moving date
Wow how time has flew by these last few days. With just a little more than 2 weeks left my stomach is full of butterflies. And to top everything off my husband's work got a huge cut back today he will go from 5 days a week to 3. I think that things are going to get worse before they get better there as one of the places has already starting laying people off and this hasn't happend in this company in over 20yrs so it is a big deal to the people that work there. I am beginning to think that this move is fate for us and hopefully getting us out of here before something happens and we end up in a bind and hubby is without a job.
This weekend is major tune up time for our Tahoe. Gotta make sure all is in perfect condition. We just bought new tires so we gotta do the brakes and all.
We had originally planned on leaving on the 28th but due to the change in work we are going to leave on the 27th,well actually late on the 26th.
Stay tuned for pictures of our journey.
This weekend is major tune up time for our Tahoe. Gotta make sure all is in perfect condition. We just bought new tires so we gotta do the brakes and all.
We had originally planned on leaving on the 28th but due to the change in work we are going to leave on the 27th,well actually late on the 26th.
Stay tuned for pictures of our journey.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
As the time draws near
Today I celebrate my 37th birthday.We are going to do cake this weekend with family. We have 24 days until we leave. We went yesterday and got some of our financial stuff in order so that we don't have to worry about that. We still need to get the change of address done because sometimes the mail here is a little lax and I worry if we don't set it up to start a couple of days before we go then some mail would get left in the box.
Temps here are in the 70's and my friend just emailed to say that her and someone else are going skiing today and to visit Manley Springs. I told her to take some pics for me so that I can enjoy skiing as well.
Temps here are in the 70's and my friend just emailed to say that her and someone else are going skiing today and to visit Manley Springs. I told her to take some pics for me so that I can enjoy skiing as well.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
A movie I should NOT have watched
I am always a big scary movie lover and so when I found out about the movie 30 Days of Night and it suppose to be in Alaska I had to watch it. Lets just say the movie totally freaked me out. The movie was suppose to be set in Barrow,AK and yes there is a town that is very remote named Barrow. I don't know if they have periods of darkness like they showed on that movie. But lets just say the sheer fact that they were so remote and all the snow just really played on me tonight.
Just some photos
The first picture is of the side of our house
2nd is of our wonderful luxuy bathroom
3rd is aeral of our house it is the far right one.
4th is aeral of just the area where we will be.
Time is drawing near
Shortly after Christmas we knew it was time to buckle down and get serious. We started cleaning things out and getting things packed. We purchased a generator,power inverter and wood stove to take with us. Things were really busy from then on between cleaning out boxes,closets,etc to having yard sales to just getting our paperwork all in order.
As of now we have 28 days left. I don't know what my feelings are right now excited,scared,worried,sad you name it I have had the feeling.
As of now we have 28 days left. I don't know what my feelings are right now excited,scared,worried,sad you name it I have had the feeling.
Whats it like at our new home
Well that was a question that we were asking and thanks to a wonderful person named Dawn we got to watch the town in pictures during the different months. We got to see pictures of the autumn time with the moose walking around,got to see snow fall and what our place looked like all dressed in white and now we are getting to see what it looks like as it peeks through the white winter snowy blanket.
The school was a big question for us. Was there a school? Was there kids the same age as mine? How many kids were there? These are all questions we had. Thanks to email my sons got to correspond with the kids their age at the new school and I got to talk to the principal and get information. The school has approx. 11-14 students in grades K-12 quite a change from the school here.
Not only was the size different but there were different things at the school. Like instead of Football,volleyball was a big sport. And also there was only 1 school bus.
What will it take to make the dream come true?
Lots and lots of hours of reading for sure. This isn't the first time we have lived off the grid,or without traditional power so that part didn't bother us. We did want things to be easier this time so I started reading about power inverters,battery banks,generators,solar panels and I joined a wonderful group on City-data.com for Alaska. The information that I received from people on that group would turn out to be priceless. I also done some searching and found a wonderful lady online that actually lives in the town of Central and her help has meant so much to us.
We knew we would be driving so we had to get a 4-wheel drive something.We knew we were going to go through Canada which meant paperwork. And we had to figure out what time of year would be best for us to arrive there.
We set the date of 3/28/2208 and in 28 days we will be leaving SC heading out.
We found that the chances were good we would need passports so that was the first thing we went and did. Didn't know it would cost around $550 for all of us to get them but we didn't figure we had a choice. Now wouldn't you know it but they decide to hold off on making it mandatory. We also found out that post 911 they have really started enforcing the laws that restrict entry into Canada and we remember that my husband had a misdemor on his record over 10yrs old. We have worried for months that it would keep him from crossing but now know that it won't. The fear of having to drive almost 3 days across Canada while he flew almost made me say lets forget it. But it was something we just had to work through and thanks to many many calls to the Canadian Government we now don't have to worry.
We knew we would be driving so we had to get a 4-wheel drive something.We knew we were going to go through Canada which meant paperwork. And we had to figure out what time of year would be best for us to arrive there.
We set the date of 3/28/2208 and in 28 days we will be leaving SC heading out.
We found that the chances were good we would need passports so that was the first thing we went and did. Didn't know it would cost around $550 for all of us to get them but we didn't figure we had a choice. Now wouldn't you know it but they decide to hold off on making it mandatory. We also found out that post 911 they have really started enforcing the laws that restrict entry into Canada and we remember that my husband had a misdemor on his record over 10yrs old. We have worried for months that it would keep him from crossing but now know that it won't. The fear of having to drive almost 3 days across Canada while he flew almost made me say lets forget it. But it was something we just had to work through and thanks to many many calls to the Canadian Government we now don't have to worry.
Where it all started
Back in the fall of 2007 my husbands sister was very ill with cancer. His father came down from Washington to pay a visit. This is where our adventure started. We thought it was a joke when he offered us his place is Central,Alaska. We had always wanted to go but this was a chance to own something there and I think we all accepted the offer without a second thought.
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