On a Dime Pt. 1

The Name of my Blog is Homesteading on a dime..... So I guess I had better expound from time to time on that particular subject matter. In no way am I a person of means. At least not in the way I used to be.

My life has totally changed since I moved to Alaska. Although the changes actually started before I made the move up.

Living here, out in the sticks, I have kind of reverted back to an earlier time, though "that" is not exactly unique in this area. It is somewhat like depression era living. You think twice about throwing anything away, lest you find a use for it later. Tin cans are saved until you determine you have to many. Juice jugs become your water jugs for your backpack. plastic bottles with long necks become funnels for fuel and water transfer, etc. Sometimes I get somewhat self conscious about doing this. But I can't justify buying something whan a perfectly acceptable substitute sits right in front of me.

Once you get used to the reality of living on meager means you begin to shift your priorities. You become a cash and carry person. you would like to have a big bank account, but the reality is that you will begin investing in your needs almost immediately. You will prioritize your needs for the year and buy accordingly. Rarely will much money reach the bank. You will collect your payday, and head to the grocery store, hardware store, army surplus store etc. If you don't buy what you will need, you may very well find your money going to non essential items insead. (Ask me how I know)...

In the old day's people were more focused on buying a lot of staples at one time rather than the constant, nearly daily trips to the store. Going into town was an event, and you made the trip worthwhile. My personal recommendation would be to try and accumulate an amount of cash that makes a trip to the nearest bulk food or food warehouse feasible, and spend wisely. The bigger the lot of food the cheaper it will be.

Learn to cook from scratch. Avoid prepackaged foods and overly processed foods. Chips will be a treat, not nightly fair. Focus on what it takes to go the furthest for the leastest, if I may borrow, and adapt that famous civil war comment.

I focus on, beans, rice, potatoes, and flour first. I buy a variety of beans, primarily, pinto, navy, and garbanzo beans in bulk bags of at least 20lbs. Same with the rice, both white and brown. I stick with dark flour. Whole wheats, and rye flour.

Canned goods are next in priority. Your dependance on these, will lessen as your homestead gets establshed, but until you get a good garden and preserving process established you will need canned goods. I focus on tomato products, diced, and sauce, to make both spaghetti sause and adding to other dishes.

Canned peas, and carrots follow. I avoid canned corn or and corn product as 95% plus is GMO... I only buy these if they are labeled organic.

Every time I go to the local grocery for those small items, I'll add a box of baking soda, jar of yeast or bullion cubes etc. They won't break your weekly food budget and it will add up rapidly.

You will determine the amount of condiments you need as well.

You wait for sales, specials, and you will scan the end caps for clearances.

Daily durable goods, such as rubber knee boots, tools, etc, you will find at garage, and estate sales. While most garage sales seem to specialize in baby clothes you can still find man sales out there. So it it worth your while to inspect every sale you pass.

I am fortunate in that I have found a full time garage sale (during summer), where I have been able to find many items that I have needed. Everything from DVD's, to oil lamps, snow shoes, etc. The people who run the sale have become close friends and I get special deals...

Forming a network should not be underestimated.

The number and amount of items you will need to live a simple life is astounding.. And you won't get there over night. But you will find that gradually, you are doing more, for far less, and with far less, than you would ever have imagined. 

 

Now in reality you don't need to live in the sticks to adopt any of the advice I have mentioned here. Regardless of where you live, being frugal will at the very least put a few extra scheckles in your pocket.

If you determine you need a snowmobile to drag in your firewood from the back 40. Do you really need a brand new Skidoo scandic? Or will a several year old machine do as well, and save you a few thousand dollars. If you are more impressed with impressing the neighbors..... well.... there ya go....

Don't worry though.... That shiney machine won't look new for long!! And you'll wonder why you are making payments on a machine that looks like it's been nuked.... I'm not joking! The machines owned by people who live remote look like holy heck..

How will you make that money to keep the homestead going? Beats me! I'm still trying to figure that out myself.

What I do know is that I do have to leave the homestead in order to stay on it. I do some little construction jobs and make and sell items of leather in order to keep things going.

It can get interesting, and I'm always trying to improve. But I've had some very lean years. Having two dogs (now three), to feed is a big worry, and I have had long periods with little to eat but beans and rice, and buckwheat pancakes. One thing I can tell you about buckwheat pancakes... make sure you eat them while they are warm!

The vision of walking out into the woods with an axe and a frying pan and making it any length of time make a good movie. But you'll give up soon...

My suggestion, like anything else is to research your area well, before moving there and learn what the local economy is, and adapt! If possible travel there beforehand and make some contacts.

Dump as much debt as possible beforehand and don't acquire more in the move! In the poorest year I had so far I made approximately $3000 (maybe a bit more), in the course of a work season... It's not something I recommend. If you figure about $600 of that was dogfood. I was still able to buy the food needed and some fuel, kerosene, etc. But it wasn't easy and if something breaks don't even worry about getting it fixed.

Well, if you aren't worried by now, it should at the very least give you something to think about. Plan well.... do your homework..

And please!!!!!!! don't watch those TV reality shows!!!!!

Gathering Logs (pt1)

Well, after a bit of a break, I'm back at the writing biz.. In the time since I last posted I have been quite busy with a mountain of tasks. Most of which will end up here, eventually.

Honestly, doing this homesteading thing often leaves me to fatigued to really care much about writing. Not to mention the extra use of fuel in the snowmobiles has made gas for the generator, and battery charging a bit more of a burden. I have had to shave my dime very thin this year.

However the purpose of this post is to chronical the cutting and hauling of logs for the big cabin and the outhouse/bathhouse (primarily). Not to say that you do not exploit every available piece of wood in a given area, since firewood is always needed as well as posts for other projects such as fence material, and furniture, etc. Tis better to run a good trail through an area and use it, than have to rerun it after a big snowfall, which is not uncommon up here in the far north.

To begin with you will need your dependable snowmobile and a good sled, capable of carrying the logs to the site. A distant neighbor of mine simply spikes his log into a half cut plastic barrel and has good results, however it digs a deep channel down the middle of his trail and causes some streering and balance issues on following runs. I rather like my trails as smooth and easy to use as possible.

My immediate answer was to inlist the use of my military surplus akio. These narrow sleds work quite well, though they can be a bit tippy. To keep the weight of the log off of the ends of the akio (think of it as a very shallow oval bathtub), I lay down two 4-6" diameter logs, 4 feet long in the bottom of the akio. This lets the weight of the log rest solidly on the bottom, and once strapped down keeps bending and flexing to a minimum. I really don't want to break my akio (it is built of fiberglass). My main snowmobile is a late 90's Polaris Widetrack, with a low range transmission. These machines are great for hauling, and the low range will let you work at the slow speeds you will be traveling, without fear of burning up your belt.

Trees of the proper diameter must be located. What you determine correct is totally up to you. I decided on going with a modified, two sided log, assembled in a "piece on piece" fashion. This is simply a log cabin comprised of both vertical and horizontal logs. This allows the usage of shorter, lighter secrions of logs.

The chances of you finding a bunch of trees in one small area to build the cabin is probably not going to happen. Some scouting will be needed. I found that a tree with a 12" diameter just past the flare would give me the following:

1, 7 foot piece to be used as a building pier. This is the butt and flared section.

2, 10.5' logs to be used in wall construction.

1 16' log to be used as beam, post, or perlin logs.

Then the top material, to be used as either firewood or project material.

The first step is to cut down the tree and do as much of the limbing as possible. There will always be limbs on the bottom, buried in the snow you won't reach.

Don't be suprised that you may have to drop a tree you don't want, in order to get the tree you do want, to fall. Dealing with a snag is not what you want to deal with at this time! Also be sure to try and drop the tree in the direction it is leaning. To try and do otherwise without the proper equipment and experience can be.... interesting....

After the limbing is done and you can access the tree trunk, I take measurements, so that I can get the best use out of my tree. I measure girth and length, so I can get at leat two wall logs from each tree. In my case my wall logs are running from 12" down to 10" with the bark on.. Making them two sided logs will reduce that even further.

The much dreaded limbing process.

The marking and measuring process.

After the log is measured and marked, it is simply cut to it's proper length. After the cuts are made it is much easier to try and turn the log and remove the remaining limbs. When these logs were harvested, I was blessed with a solid snowpack, due to a warm spell, which melted the snow down, then refroze..

It is now time to haul the logs to the building site. It is at this time that I snowshoe a trail to the tree. I do this by waling a looping trail that allows me to pull up parallel to the log, load it and drive off without having to resort to using reverse. It is simply easier to load and pull away.

I secure each log onto the akio using ratchet straps. The log sits easily ontop of the two bottom logs and pulled quite easily.

Here is the loading and hauling process. A 10 to 12 foot log 12 inches in diameter, pulls with no problems, and even a much smaller snowmobile would handle this operation as log as a good trail was made first.

Honestly it isn't so much the weight as the length of the log that causes difficulty. The 16 foot logs I haul make the inevitable turns through the trees a bit harder and they tend to drag when starting up hills, etc.

So far the longest run I have had to haul a log (actual trail legth) was 1/2 mile. Much shorter if I could have just gone straight. However, terrain dictates the route.

Once you get to the building site you will want to segregate your logs in piles. Wall logs in one spot, pier logs in another, etc. And you will take up a bunch of room as you will only be able to stack the logs just so high.

This pic is the beginning of the cabin "wall log" pile. Notice how nicely it sits on top of the hard crusted snow. Since this pic was taken it and many others have become buried under about 2 feet of snow. However the hauling continues 3 day's a week. The rest consist of fire wood gathering and the hauling of the bath house logs... which are much smaller in diameter.

The log piles slowly grow.. piles of logs for wall logs, piles for posts and perlins, and piers. Other piles are for other projects, as you will be needing an outhouse, generator shed, etc...

As I've said many times... Once you start hauling.... it never stops....

Here is a pic of the logs that will make up the piers and wall logs. If you look closely to the left and left rear you can see other small piles that are now covered with snow...

 

To be continued........