Although I think there is a lot of mindless drivel on television, I wouldn’t have know about your blog site if I hadn’t watched [the news story on CNN [that mentioned SurvivalBlog] yesterday. I was on the computer all afternoon yesterday reading information you have posted, as well as visiting the sites of some of your advertisers.
You are right on your opinion of Alaska, [regarding its unsuitability for most people as a retreat locale]. We live in a coastal fishing community (population under 3,000 year round, double that in the summer when the cannery workers & tourists come to town) and are not connected to the road system. Everything comes in by plane or water (barge and ferry). We have one gas station and have heard that gas just went to $5.42 per gallon and diesel is over $6 per gallon.(You know how gas stations have signs out with their prices on them? Not here – they’re the only game in town, so they don’t have to post prices. If you need gas you have to go see them eventually. Bread is $4.99 a loaf, a two pound block of Tillamook cheese is over $16.00 and a 32 oz. jar of Best Foods mayonnaise is $7.65 in one of the stores here. (We have three small grocery stores here, two of which are owned by a local person and the other by a Canadian company). We sometimes have to wait weeks for car parts, etc. to come in and some items are prohibited to ship from the lower 48, like ammo. We have a very short growing season and not much in the way of top soil (lots of muskeg) so raising our own veggies is difficult.On the plus side, we have one freezer full of seafood and another full of moose, as well as some I have canned.
I feel fortunate to have grown up learning from my grandmother who told me stories of raising six kids on a farm with no electricity or running water and what it was like to go through the Depression. (when they cleaned the soot out of kerosene lantern chimneys they’d save it and use it to polish their Sunday shoes). I learned to can from my mom and our family always had a frugal mindset. I worked in a health food store years ago and began to learn about whole grains, etc. as well as wild plants for medicine and food. Five years ago we moved to Alaska and I began to learn more about wilderness survival due to our remote location and travel by bush plane.
In my spare time I taught myself some skills that may come in handy, such as soap making. Skills are learned over a lifetime and it is an ongoing process.Also, there is a wealth of information rolling around in the heads of older people – all you have to do is ask them.
We will be returning to the Outside soon and your advice on locations will hopefully come in handy (we will have to settle in a location according to my husband’s employment).
We have some of the skills we need, have been stocking up for a while, but have a ways to go.
I will be a frequent visitor to your site now that I know it’s there. Thanks for the wealth of information. – Lonnie in Alaska