Category: Homesteading

Dealing With Isolation And Alaskan Winters

by KatieFamily / HomesteadingLeave a Comment on Dealing With Isolation And Alaskan Winters

Dealing With Isolation And Alaskan Winters - SledDogSlow.com

One thing about living off grid and off-road is the isolation factor. I never thought of this as a problem before. In fact, I considered it a benefit in our move! When we lived in town, our door was never answered if Kyle wasn’t home. Part of our moving this far was to get away from the noise and distraction of city life. It is completely different out here, though. With so little human noise, we are always glad to have guests. There are also only two reasons for people to knock on our door; either they own a cabin in the area and know (or want to know) us, or they have an emergency. In either case, I am happy to answer the door here.

It probably helps that there is no pretending you aren’t home in 300 square feet with smoke pouring out of the chimney!

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Cooking On A Wood Stove

by KatieEquipment / HomesteadingLeave a Comment on Cooking On A Wood Stove

Before we moved to Alaska, I had cooked on a wood stove once, for practice. And it wasn’t even good practice either! Our wood stove in Washington was more decorative than for heating or cooking. Coming to Alaska was a huge change, as nearly everything we cook out here is done on the wood stove. We do have a propane stove that gets used occasionally, but I’m not particularly keen on cooking outside in negative temperatures. I’m also a relatively lazy cook. I used to be the queen of ‘let’s go out!’ rather than cooking dinner. Because of that, I love any fast and easy recipes and love one-pot meals. I cook quite a few things in just a 10″ cast-iron skillet (Amazon). I thought I’d throw together some tips and tricks I use for cooking on a wood stove. Continue reading “Cooking On A Wood Stove”

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Living The Off Grid Life As New Parents

by KatieFamily / Homesteading5 Comments on Living The Off Grid Life As New Parents
Living The Off Grid Life As New Parents - SledDogSlow.com

As many of you know, Kyle and I found out I was pregnant before we gave up everything to move to Alaska.

Starting a homestead from scratch while pregnant was not easy (post here). We didn’t want to try starting from scratch with a toddler, though. Luckily for us, our daughter Bellamy is what I would call an easy baby. She slept through the night nearly from day one, doesn’t have many fussy spells and is easy to comfort. That’s not to say life with a newborn baby on the homestead hasn’t been challenging, especially as new parents.

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Homestead Uses For 5 Gallon Buckets

by KatieEquipment / HomesteadingLeave a Comment on Homestead Uses For 5 Gallon Buckets

We use a lot of 5 gallon buckets here around the homestead, and we are always coming up with ideas we need more buckets for! Buckets of any size and shape are always good on the homestead, but here are a few inventive ways we’ve used our buckets:

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Emergency Preparedness

by KatieEquipment / Homesteading / Recommendations / Wild AlaskaLeave a Comment on Emergency Preparedness

Emergency preparedness is huge when you live as far from town, and the road, as we do. We ended up snowed in for nearly a month after bringing the truck back. Unfortunately, when we bring the truck back our 4 wheeler stays at our parking spot, so we’ve been without a vehicle this whole time. We prepared for the possibility of being stuck this winter before the snow came. These are the things we considered: Continue reading “Emergency Preparedness”

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