If you’ve read my latest memoir about starring on Discovery Channel’s #1 new hit series TREASURE QUEST, you’re already well aware of my views on the reality TV industry and how it has led to the NWO global corporate-owned media to lead the world down a road of self-destruction, through the dumbing down of society.
With all the Discovery, History and Natgeo fake-oramas like Alaska: The Last Frontier, Life Below Zero (have you gotten fed up with the Hailstones crippling just about every animal they shoot, in the name of subsistent hunting?), Mountain Men, there’s been a much more dastardly effect: the wannabe homesteader dropping everything and moving to Alaska to live the fantasy even the stars of the fully scripted dramas don’t live.
Just a few weeks ago, my neighbor told me about a family that had escaped the craziness in California, by purchasing a few acres of land past his and driving their SUV up to him on his private driveway, asking him if his driveway was the easement to their property they’d just purchased sight unseen—they had this crazy idea that they were just going to drop everything and strike out on a homesteading dream with nothing than an outdated idea, amplified by the smoke and mirrors of the reality TV industry, of what it takes to make a good life in the country.
There is no easement to their land. The driveway that placed them on my friend’s land doesn’t even go directly to he and his family’s home: he truly lives off-grid and has been building his home over the last four years since first arriving after retiring from the US Navy. Before he dragged his lumber and supplies to build his cabin he had to cut his own access just to be able to bring supplies behind an ATV.
I’d say this is just an “Alaska thing,” but I’m hearing more and more nightmares like this from people moving away to middle America states, running from the economic and violent mayhem put upon the American people by the present administration that seems hell-bent on destroying the United States through economic destruction and increasing civil strife due to destruction of law enforcement, disarmament of the citizens and gutting and “woke” indoctrination of the military.
First of all, the romanticized view of the Alaska homestead hasn’t been a reality since the late 1950s. People forget that once you have a lot of people moving into an area, those people start shooting all the game they can to stay fed, and as those numbers of incoming wannabe homesteaders multiplies, so does the demand on the resource.
Not only are escapees from the Lower 48 running up here buying land sight unseen, but they’re also coming up to their properties late in the season, as if they don’t really know how short our summers are: Alaska isn’t Colorado or Utah where the winters are mild or light. There’s a reason if you want to live off the land on an Alaska homestead, you better have a couple high tunnels running, especially with the latest non-summer that’s occurring in this part of Alaska, on the Kenai Peninsula.
There’s a lot of information a new homesteader needs to know about purchasing your land in Alaska, Montana, Kansas or wherever you fancy yourself living for the long haul.
The question is whether you’re ready. Many are not. It’s like a revolving door up here in Alaska every year. That’s why many who come up to Alaska aren’t quickly brought into the community: why hire someone, or become friends with someone, who will likely leave during, or just after winter?
It’s also one of the reasons full residency, for where it really matters to the homesteader and subsistence hunter, doesn’t start until after having resided in Alaska for one year.
On another level, and most especially when the conversation comes to the purchasing of land, is that you can’t really make an educated decision unless you’ve seen the land you’re interested in unless you’ve seen it during three important seasons: spring, summer and winter.
Spring is when you have an opportunity to see what “spring breakup” is all about. This is when you can see some of the most destructive effects of the seasons in your area in Alaska, or anywhere you have four seasons: spring, summer, fall, winter. This comes in the form of ice break up on the rivers and also soaking and muddying up of the roadways and heavily used trails. Some trails into your prospective land could possibly be impassable.
How would you like to buy land that you can’t even reach because most of the year it’s either blocked by ice or mud. Or the best one is that there’s no road to your new purchase in the first place, and you have to work a deal with the surrounding properties for easement—many states don’t guarantee easement!
Summer is when most people arrive at their dream site, looking at it as a newborn babe. The flowers are out along with the sun. The roads are dry. Whatever flooding that may have occurred during spring break up, or the following rains are now likely dried and everything looks so lush—what could be wrong?
Most of the freeze has gone into the ground as water, and aside from the hordes of mosquitoes breeding in that standing water, and it’s normally warm, things aren’t so bad.
This is the time of year in which most who check out their proper only once before purchasing, make their decision to purchase. It’s the root for which then leads to their running back to the city, never to come out again, and be at the mercy what living in the city and the suburbs will entail in an economic collapse.
Fall is probably the worst time to make a decision to buy in a boreal area, whether that’s in northern states of the United States, or Canada, because that’s when nature is at it’s best. It’s the time I enjoy most of all the seasons in Alaska.
Late moose season is truly my favorite, if for no reason than that all the beautiful colors are out as the leaves turn and haven’t fallen—reds, yellows, golds contrasting intensely against the blues of the skies, greens of the grasses, spruce and white of the snow-capped mountains!
While out during the most revealing seasons of the year in northern climes, these are the most important points to check off your list: during the growing season is the land arable; can you get onto your land at all times of the years (snowmachine, ATV, 4-wheel drive street vehicle, bush plane); will I get enough light through the year and especially during the winter and growing season?
If you can answer these in the positive, you’re good to go!
The ultimate way to purchase land in the country is to move to a small town near the area in which you want to live rurally. This way you’ll be able to take weekend trips to check out properties and see at various times of the year. Also, by being a local you’ll be offered properties that might never even be put on the market, and because the locals like you and want to keep you in the community, they’ll make the property available to purchase to you, specifically…
For more in-depth information on preparing for dire times coming at www.5acresandamoose.com, be sure to sign up at my youtube.com and patreon.com channels. To find out more about the author, please visit www.corkgraham.com.