After spending almost a full year away, it’s good to finally be home. But, coming home to off grid Alaska means no time to relax! Since we’ve been gone so long we needed to bring quite a few supplies from town, just in case. And since we knew some things had broken before Kyle closed up, we needed some new things too. A new 4 wheeler and sled were top of the list. Can’t fit four on our Kodiak 450!

Things we brought out with us for our first trip out to the cabin:

• Oil for the generator
• Gas for the generator and log splitter (Amazon links)
• Clean water
• Fresh food staples like meat, cheese and fruit
• Propane for the cook top
• Our new 4 wheeler

Thankfully, we had some friends who had checked on our place for us while we were gone. We knew it was in mostly good condition, minus snow load taking out our porch roof! Luckily, we didn’t have any damage from the numerous earthquakes that have been hitting Alaska recently. And no animal damage either. I fully expected at least mice/voles to have moved in, or a bear to have chewed our empty gas cans.

On coming home, we had a whole list of tasks we needed to do:

• Fix 4 wheeler
• Oil change on generator
• Check canned goods for popped tops
• Check water system
• Re-pressurize well tank
• Collect water from creek
• Check for well tank leaks
• Check water filters for breakage
• Purchase extra filters (as soon as the local shop gets them in)
• Fix truck transmission
• Collect and chop wood
• And more I’m sure I’ve forgotten

Some of these we are still slowly working towards, trying not to overwhelm ourselves while getting re acclimated to our lives out here.

On top of all that… We got snowed in for a week! It dumped 2 ft over night and kept snowing that whole week. The snow was dry and powdery and refused to pack down, no matter how many snow machines came by. That meant no collecting wood or water. We tried more than once to get out and turned around before the first creek crossing. We ended up having Kyle drive the 4 wheeler and pull Bellamy and I behind him on the sled after a warm spell followed by a freeze. It was a bumpy ride, but we got to town!

Of course this kid falls asleep every trip to and from town 😆 And since we can’t afford not to get around, we stayed in town and purchased a snow machine the next day!

Now we have all the standard Alaskan toys, so we should have no problems getting around and exploring. And we can get chores done more easily too!

Finally, being home has been amazing.

Of course, there are way more chores and more work in our daily lives. But there is fulfillment and joy in the simplest things, from cooking on the wood stove to walking down to the beach. And we’re making progress on our spending our lives out here. From purchasing our commercial fishing permit to finalizing our dream cabin plans, we’re hoping we never have to leave again!