Originally Posted by
tygar
Everything the "Alaskans" said is right on (plus the other guys), but I think, unless I missed it, I'm the only one who has raised livestock when I lived up there almost 20 yrs total at different times.
I lived on a farm, small or large, even during my 28 in the military, except when stationed in DC & still had my horse, so I'm a real farm boy.
Forget the pigs! And I was in the pig business down south as well as cattle, sheep & horses. I had a fairly decent barn that was fairly well insulated & even though I know what I'm doing, my pigs didn't grow anywhere near as well as they should & feed amounts were a good double what I used down south & it cost a lot more than in the lower 48.
All animals costs are magnified due to cost of feed. To grain cattle & horses it takes a lot more & figure the animals weight in good hay per month, minimum.
I was good buddies with my hay guy & got a good deal on 1200# m/l round bales & would get truck loads & at a bale a month, per head, it cost! Now I lived in the MatSu so my costs were less than about anywhere else in AK for feed. Don't know what hay cost in FB.
It didn't take more than 2 or 3 yrs to get down to a couple horses & 1 or 2 head of cattle.
Oh, another thing, breaking ice or hauling water, really gets old fast. Even in the barn it sometimes froze up. Winching round bales into the feeder in feet of snow was no picnic either....etc. etc. you didn't get the chicken pen shoveled until break up.
On remote living, I had a friend that owns Willow Creek Lodge & owned a remote lodge on the Talachalitna River. My wife & I even stayed out there as caretakers for part of one winter. It's not to bad when someone else is paying for "everything", but just keeping it running, generator, wood, making sure the docks didn't get broke by the ice & making sure the the cabins were OK, clearing snow etc. Not for the faint of heart.
Now for the good part - it cost a fortune! I know some of the costs to keep that place going. In the summer running up river hauling diesel, gas, food, stuff to repair everything. Each boat trip was ove $100 in gas. In the winter after freeze up, snow machines with sleds or sno cats & in emergencies flying at big bucks.
Before you even think of living off the road system you better spend a number of years making sure you can do it.
Now if you live on the big rivers in the villages there is a barge that comes up once a year & you had better get your order for gas, diesel, food, sno gos etc right or you'll be paying "a lot" for it to be flown up. Friends in Igiugig at the mouth of Lake Iliamna, paid about 7 or 8$ for a gallon of milk in the village store & that was 25yrs ago with everything else correspondently high.
All that said, I loved Alaska! No better place in the world. Wish I could go back but got sick & needed to leave & can't take that cold, long winter, anymore.
Son, just called yesterday from Chena Hot Springs, & it was 20 below...And that ain't nuttin in Fairbanks. It'll go a lot lower.
So, you got a lot to consider.
Good luck.