My dh wants to move to Alaska?

[rebecca100]

Is there anyone here that is in alaska? If so I have some questions. 1. How hard is it to survive there? 2.Can you keep livestock-goats and chickens and such? 3. Prices of homes? Okay I googled some of it, but I want to hear from someone there. I am in AR and have never been up north other than being born in Idaho. My dh wants to live somewhere less populated and colder. I want to raise a garden and livestock. Is it practical up there?

 

[Teach97]

We have several folks up there...one raises if not several raise bunches of quail! If you go...can I visit? I wanna go hunting and fishing

 

[rebecca100]

Sure-if we don't end up living in a tent!!!

 

[wombat]

The coastal "panhandle" is a lot different from, say, Fairbanks.

Check out some of the major cities in Wikipedia and such for general ideas on climate.

 

[AkTomboy]

Rebecca

A few questions and then we might be able to help you out more.
1. What do you and the hubby do?
2. Where are you looking at moving we are a big state and the areas are very different.
3. How big of a house are you looking for and how much land?

Okay so with those you asked nope you cant keep livestock we have to butcher all our critters every year to feed the dogs and polar bears

Naw yes you can keep just about any animal up here. Goats, chickens, ducks, alpacas, sheep, horses, turkeys, just about anything and everything. Lots of people raise both beef and dairy cows, pigs, sheep, goats, horses, alpacas for a living.

The summers have lots of light so a garden is no biggie for those who like to do such work. We just have to start our seeds indoors so when break up makes it we are ready to roll.

Anything is possiable if you are willing to put the time, blood, sweat and tears into it.

Winters are hard for those who are and are not used to them. It does get cold and it does get dark early. But for those of us who love it here we will never be anywhere that can even begin to takes its place.

 

[fowler_chick]

that's ok so does my husband!!! all he's been talking about is alaska!!! my husband will need a room mate if your husband is still talking about going!!!!

 

[Mrs MIA]

What she said.

(AKTomboy)
It's quite a bit colder than AR here, and with the shortened season it is a challenge to garden or raise animals. BUT, it can be done with a little forethought, planning, and hard work. We raise pigs, turkeys, ducks, chickens, quail, pheasants, chukars and guineas. Our neighbor has a greenhouse with lovely vegetables. Housing is reasonable in the more rural areas. Big cities, more expensive. Cost of living is a little higher because a lot of stuff has to be shipped up, but there's a lot of wide open space up here still.

You need to make two trips, both about 2 weeks long... once in June, and once in late January/early February. You will then get the best of the land, and the harshest. Right after Christmas last year we dipped to -25 to -35°F for 15 days straight. Was it a challenge taking care of 200 birds? Yep. Water freezes pretty quick at those temps. Did we lose birds? Yep. But only a few very young ones that weren't quite ready for those temps.

I don't want to scare anyone away from moving to this great state, but it is not a choice to be taken lightly. It is COLD, and DARK in the winter. And winter lasts 6-7 months depending on where you live. But summer is gorgeous (I have a sunburn from today's stint at the KP Fair

) but short. But I think it is a great place to raise your kids. There's clean air, clean water, lots of fun stuff to do winter and summer, and it's the prettiest place I know.

 

[rebecca100]

We are DEFINATELY not afraid of something hard. I am a CNA and my dh is a truck driver and I did a search of jobs and found quite a few in what looks like towns that we would like. We are rural now and do not want a city, perferably a town with less than 5, 000 people.(ours now is 370 population) I also noticed the pay seemed considerably higher there, but I guess that is from the cost of living being higher. The only thing I am really scared of is that we don't know how to "live" there. The pics I have seen of ALaska seem to be very beautiful, and even the temp ranges don't seem too bad. It has gotten to
-12 here. Right now it has been in the 80's during the day and 50's at night. We own our own land and would keep it as a backup of course if we just couldn't make it there. I am afraid the darkness would be depressing though. I also did a search for homes and found a couple that I really liked in our price range, not as many acres as I would have liked, but still okay.

 

[mom'sfolly]

I would also caution that rural in Alaska is different from rural anywhere else. You may live in a town of 350, but I'm pretty sure that within a three hour drive there is a more substantial town, maybe even a city. I grew up in Haines and Juneau. Juneau is the capitol with about 30000 people. There isn't any place bigger in close to 1000 miles, and you would have to fly or take a boat and then drive a long time to get somewhere else. Driving would also invovle crossing an international border.

Haines is about 90 miles from Juneau. This translates into 1/2 hour by air, 2 1/2 hours by fast ferry or 5 hours by the traditional ferry. By road, the next big city is Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. Haines has a population of about 2500, I think. It is possibly the most beautiful place I have ever been, but I don't know if I could live there again. Haines has two small grocery stores, a hardware store, at least 6 bars and at least 6 churches. I think in many ways it is the quintessential Alaskan small town.

http://www.haines.ak.us/index.php

 

[rebecca100]

That is one of the places I read about. I saw a place for sale I really liked in Salcha on an acre lot. I wouldn't mind being off as long as we could get groceries. The next big town here is 10,000 and about an hour drive, smaller towns everywhere though. For years we lived with no neighbors here(well one a mile away, then none for several more miles) and then some people bought land right beside us and put in a vacation house. Talk about irritating, they were scared of our goats, chickens and kept calling our mule a donkey. Now we have four neighbors within a mile.