spacegold
has rocks in the head
Member since September 2006
Posts: 732
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Post by spacegold on Oct 1, 2006 21:26:32 GMT -5
The leaves are falling, the sandhill cranes have been seen veed up, there has been frost on the windshield, and Ninilchik is down to a gas station, general store, and post office. Must be time for me to follow the 35 degree isotherm. I feel myself metamorfing. Within about two weeks I will have turned into a desert person for another winter. By 10/14 I'll be in AJ, AZ again. My tumblers are silent until about mid-April. I was planning to leave today, but I did not get everything done. So I'll blow down the water system tomorrow morning and then hit the 185 mile black ribbon to Anchorage. Wednesday I'll board the big bird for places south. I'm ready; It's been the soggiest summer on record for this area.
I'm awfully glad offbeat bill put me onto this site. The pictures, the people, and the information are fantastic. I hope I have made at least a small contribution. Though I am not a rock person in the winter, I will be checking in from time to time and probly poking my 2c in here and there.
All, have a great winter.
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Post by ladyt on Oct 1, 2006 21:34:57 GMT -5
We have internet in the south! Bring your computer and stay in touch. Tumblers work pretty good down here to. Ship them to your winter address. When you get there, they will be waiting or soon follow your arrival. At any rate, keep in touch!! Stay safe!!  Tonja |
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Post by docone31 on Oct 1, 2006 22:25:34 GMT -5
Dude, you are leaving Ak for the winter. That is the best time there. Every body has gone south, and the land comes alive.
I spent four years living off the land, between Alaska village, Barrow, and in the dead of summer, Nunavut. Some of the villages did not have names I can spell. I spent most of the time avoiding bipedal humanoids. If my wife was not a die hard Valley Girl, we would be still north right now.
I miss home. I am from the Barrow area. I used to go as far south as Fairbanks. I have been through Ninilchik, having the unfortunate pleasure of living in Anchorage for a spell. Got to know some of the tent folks from pre statehood who still lived there.
Maybe we meet some day up there. I found 2016 acres northeast of Fairbanks for 20,000$. Might just sell the home here, and live again. If people want my jewelery, they can find me.
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beechcomber
spending too much on rocks
Summertime!
Member since March 2006
Posts: 345
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Post by beechcomber on Oct 1, 2006 22:52:19 GMT -5
Have you seen the show, Men in Trees? Is it really like 10 men to 1 woman there??
I worked for a company that had a base in Anchorage Alaska, and the sunsets they would email back to our home office were breathtaking. I hope to vacation there some day!!
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stefan
Cave Dweller 
Member since January 2005
Posts: 14,113
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Post by stefan on Oct 3, 2006 12:46:12 GMT -5
Ahh Alaska- The promised land! I often dream of alaska- Living there- Just packing what I can carry and going there- Walking of course- Figure it should take me about a Year or so to walk there- then to just sit in the snow- Watch the endless nights- and the nightless days- and live! It is a dream of mine- someday I'll just go-
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Post by docone31 on Oct 3, 2006 16:14:10 GMT -5
Exposed human flesh freezes solid at -47F human urine freezes at -45 before it hits the ground.
I was caught outside in -65 without windchill for 7 or 8 days with two shirts, sweatshirt, jeans, and my boots. I did not fare so well. I lost my left eye, my sinuses erupted my right temple, my teeth froze into the jaws and shattered. My tongue froze, and the upper palate. I still do not have any feeling in my hands, legs, and the scarring is getting tighter. That was from leaving "civilization" behind.
I had gotten my Phd, and I thought everybody was an alien life form. I took a Buck knife General, denim jacket, and walked east and north from Anchorage. I came out 4 yrs later.
I was diagnosed with fatal hyperthermic shock. Today, my body core temp still can deviate 5 degrees in a 24hr period.
Would I do it today? Absolutely! But now, I live in "paradise", have a wife, students, a shop people come from Seattle to have me work on their jewelery.
When my wife finally views "civilization" for what it really is, I am ready. Older, and much more sensitive to thermal changes, but ready.
I felt as alive in Greenland, and Iceland as Alaska and Nunavut. Alaska is closer and easier to live in my freeze dried state, so Alaska it is.
Who needs it? What traffic jam, chain store, or asphalt ribbon can replace the smell of being alive. You should see my regular customers. It feels like a David Lee Roth video where tourists get off the tour bus. Here, I feel like an outsider, there I had earned the companionship of the Inuits, Aleuts, and learned their ways. At least what they would let me learn.
I miss the People of the Arctic.
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earthdog
Cave Dweller
Don't eat yellow snow
Member since June 2006
Posts: 2,731
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Post by earthdog on Oct 3, 2006 16:46:19 GMT -5
Doc, you buy that land, I'll come live up there and you can teach me a few things about living off the land and about making jewelry
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rallyrocks
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since November 2005
Posts: 1,507
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Post by rallyrocks on Oct 3, 2006 16:50:20 GMT -5
Ok doc, I think that explains things- more than a few things...  |
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Post by docone31 on Oct 3, 2006 18:00:24 GMT -5
Earthdog, if I can convince the wife, you will indeed be welcome.
Remember,
Alaska, you don't learn from your mistakes, you die.
Know the rules, you know how to play the game.
If you ever be vacationing in Floriduh, c'mon down. I show you some tricks. An irony. I have been a jeweler for a bit. I am planning on going back to school. I am sending the wife for general repair, and I am going for specialty diamond setting.
How the daylights, did I end up here? I spent my entire life avoiding people. I ended up with three masters, one Phd, and I repair broken pretty things, and make jewelery for public people. I know for a fact, all of you have seen my work on different notarieties on the silver screen. I have made jewelery for Rockers, movie personalities, Country stars, Opera singers, the list goes on.
Does anyone want to purchase a jewelery store, with clientele and training? 250,000$ gets the shop and limited inventory. I watch over you like a mother hen for three months.
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