| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| RWW |
Posted - Jan 14 2005 : 12:37:42 PM
This magazine really hit home with me. I tend to be a picture person, and usually hit the 1) gardening section, then 2) the picture book section at a library. I'm always on the lookout for books about different parts of the country. I've traveled to Europe and enjoyed that immensely, but haven't ventured much in the US other than west coast states and one or two trips to east coast. But, I'll tell you what, I identify with everything portrayed in MaryJanesFarm magazine!
My family came "west" with the wagontrains, settling in the Wallowa Valley and eventually in La Grande, all eastern Oregon country. My mom and aunts attended school in Idaho and my husband's folks and sisters live in the Boise area. We (all of us) grew up in Alaska and, although every time I've left this state with the intent to settle in the open spaces of Washington, Oregon, or Idaho, I've always returned in less than a year. How's that for being a true Alaskan?! In our late-40s and early-50s now, my husband and I are looking at a warmer clime, some place where the dirt is warm between my toes, with a porch I can paint and dress with plants and flowers, and maybe a fence I can wander along on sunny days. We almost bought 40 acres in the Methow Valley of NC Washington, but upon hearing the statement "if we buy this, we won't be going back to Alaska," I chickened out and chose home. Five years later I'm wishing I had that land, but I'm sure there are still a few acres somewhere that will be just what we're looking for when the time is right (soon, I hope!).
Anyway, aside from growing up here in the land of midnight sun and mosquitoes, I used to live in a bay by myself on an island. Well, not really alone; my husband was gone working most of the time and the kids loved to leave and visit family elsewhere when a break from homeschool was in order, but winters were definitely "hermit" time - all the summer people were gone, fishermen stayed closer to their home ports, and my usual companions were eagles, mink, marten, and a faithful retriever. I was fortunate to have natural hot water, and electricity provided by an old pelton wheel. I was forced to become a "master" electrician, mechanic, plumber, and filled the role of harbormaster/mayor/postmistress by default! I ran a bathhouse where all the tubs were galvanized horse troughs, windows had no glass, and a quick dip in the bay to cool off was a 10 foot jump from the top of the dock. Bath/soap/towel for $5 - a great deal considering all my wash had to be done on a board and hung out to dry along the boardwalk. I was dumbfounded to discovery a framed photograph of my laundry hanging in an art gallery one day! Had I known people would pay (?!) to look at clothes drying on the line, I could have made a fortune!! Those were good years and I long to return to a lifestyle of simplicity once again.
This is the first topic on the forum I've looked at, and I'm looking forward to reading about the rest of you. I got in on the Premiere issue that was passed around, and have asked to be on it again! Having all the back issues and subscribed to those to come, I've waited a long time for something to satisfy my interests in a life without excess ~ I had no idea it would come in so complete a package as MaryJanesFarm magazine! Hoorah!! Hooray!! Can't wait for the next issue!
Rene'
Live, from remote Alaska! |
| 10 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| bramble |
Posted - Feb 28 2005 : 2:10:58 PM
For those of you needing an additional installment of Alaskan adventure check out The CounrtyLife.net and read Guy Grieves installments as a Scottsman determined to homestead in Alaska for one year. There are lots of other contributors as well and the other one I particularly enjoy is Rene Amundsen & family who have taken on a new posting as light keepers in BC. Truly enjoyable and I found it through Lehman's Hardware site. I look forward to each installment, hope you do too!
with a happy heart |
| katwings |
Posted - Feb 28 2005 : 12:54:54 PM
i so needed to read all of the alaskan posts, i want to go there this summer,and have web sites and books to read now. i am presently studing emt-b also, have a test tuesday, bye for now, will be back soon. smiles |
| RWW |
Posted - Jan 19 2005 : 11:35:04 AM
Clare, Dick Proenneke epitomized exactly the life I lived and long to return to. I had given away many, many copies of his book, One Man's Wilderness, as gifts when it was originally printed by Alaska Geographic. It has since been out of their print, and a new edition including a few more photographs is available for purchase, as well as the video. His place at Twin Lakes is more northwest and remote, a very long distance from Kenai.
That lifestyle is an extreme one by current standards of comfort, but very satisfying. He recently passed away, and a nice farewell was written by our former Governer, Jay Hammond, at his passing. Friends for years, Mr. Hammond fondly recalled shared experiences and praised his friend for the honest pursuit of his dream. I cut the letter out of the newspaper and taped it inside the cover of my copy of One Man's Wilderness.
If there is any book that represents Alaska and my own personal dream, his is it. Reading your comments stirred an only too familiar tug on my heartstrings ~ thanks for making my day!
Rene'
Live, from remote Alaska! |
| Clare |
Posted - Jan 19 2005 : 09:27:20 AM
A big welcome to you RWW, from me too! I have been to several areas of Alaska and know the value you speak of in the beauty that surrounds you. I also know the spirit which drives you to stay there and to allow it to wrap itself around you.
My PBS station, and I think many of them, has been airing a special about the life of Dick Proenneke. It is called, One Man's Wilderness An Alaskan Odyssey. He chose to move to (retire to) a wilderness area, I believe in the Kenai, in 1967. He lived totally off grid, built his own log cabin by himself, and lived off of the land, with a few essentials flown into him about once a month. He continued to live there until 1998, at which point he was in his mid-80's and decided that the Alaskan winters were getting a bit rough for him. What he did was to document his whole life there in journals and on film. It is an outstanding documentary and book about his life. I hope everyone gets a chance to watch this as it is both beautiful and moving. Read the reveiws here at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0882405136/qid=1106154500/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/002-8173357-7846421?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
I purchased the book and video to share with my family from this Alaskan web site:
http://www.alaskanha.org/_details.cfm?ProdID=969
I think you are living in much the same spirit as Dick chose too.. and I commend you! Hope you'll join in with your comments and shared experiences! That's the way we enrich each other. 
****Gardener, Stitcher, Spiritual Explorer and Appreciator of all Things Natural****
"Begin to weave and God will give the thread." - German Proverb |
| MeadowLark |
Posted - Jan 19 2005 : 09:04:32 AM
Welcome Rene! First of all your writing takes my breath away! Your vivid and intuitive words really transport me to the the beauty of Alaska and for that I thank you! That is what is so great about the intelligent and strong women (and men) who post here about their hopes and dreams and place they are at in this day we live! I am 48, will be 49 in April and the older I get the less energy I am spending on a set pattern of thinking of consumerism or "taking in and throwing away what is left" and more on creating and preserving what is there for the future. Most on this forum if not all are along this mindset. Including the wonderful lady MaryJane and her people who got this started! I share your outlooks on not wanting the struggle roughing it affords...As a young woman and new wife and mother I have had that day... but where I am at now there is a different struggle...hanging on to tradition and being selective on the massive amount of information and stimulus that bombards me every waking moment. I think sometimes that is why everyone talks of simplicity and living simply...it is a struggle to do so. It seems our society is reaching some sort of peak or zenith and perhaps a backlash is going on against this info overload...thus the return to simple, homemade, heartfelt, home and family and "hearth". I panic when power goes off...but we have a generator that runs on gas...there is the oxymoron...And I am communicating to you and others I have never met through this power grid and cyberspace... How else would I know about jpBluesky's smiling alligator and your story of life in Alaska? It is all about being selective on what comes in...is utilized and what goes out with it...That is enough of my rambling...Again Welcome RWW! Jenny
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." Rumi, 13th century. |
| RWW |
Posted - Jan 18 2005 : 12:06:24 PM
There's truth in observing you can't go back (at least, not all the way) without expecting some changes. Neither of us wants to return to living in isolation, cut off from all civilization; however, being capable folks, we do intend to build a life away from dependence on supplied utilities and markets. It does not take acres and acres of land to live the way I'm discussing here, nor does it require a total retirement from the amenities of modern life. What it does is provide options, not dependence. Had we continued a life of living very basically and off the land, our bodies would have kept up with the demands you mention above. Instead, a return means an alternative to keeping up with neighbors, creating a refuge in home and surroundings, and a reliance on providing for yourself and your family by preparation and ingenuity, the use of talents and skills to maintain the sort of lifestyle that does not compete with high salaries and even higher expenses.
Simply put, we are self-sufficient people. Husband works for the USFS here and I volunteer as an EMT plus have my own healthcare-related business. We are upper middle income, yet still we long not to be encumbered by the dollar sign. Both of us have been self-employed and done very well, and I suppose after years of excess are making the informed decision to do with less and be quite content.
I think that, having lived two different lifestyles, we are valuing less as more as we get older. We see those around us stuffed into homes and becoming less and less active, depending on the media as a substitute for imagination, and have a hard time understanding the satisfaction in that. Before we end up just like "them," our hope and plan is to take a different road toward a different end.
MJF magazine is the first to pique my interest beyond the photographs. Having never tried the kind of foodstuffs MJ puts together, I'm tempted for the first time to give it a whirl to see if there really might be something just as good as homemade. I like the basic premise of healthy living, an honest work ethic, and the simplicity of open doors and windows to let life in, not keep it out. Not subscribing to television, the magazine fits right in with the rest of the books on a shelf beside the bathtub - and that's my real test of whether I suscribe to a publication or not - its ability to be read and reread in the comfort of a good soak!
Looking forward,
Rene'
Live, from remote Alaska! |
| jpbluesky |
Posted - Jan 18 2005 : 05:51:24 AM
Dear RWW -
I have discovered that as I age, the ability to "rough it" and live more of an authentic simple life becomes more difficult. The physical energy required to put up all your own food, and keep the fire going, etc. is much harder than it used to be. Do others here on this site agree? Therefore, I am trying to find ways to keep life simple and still work within my body's ability to achieve. That requires some concessions on my part. I like air-conditioning and sitting at my computer and it sometimes makes me feel sad that I get so exhausted after a day in the garden, or a camping trip.
But time outdoors with my camera brings me deep happiness. I am still a 35mm girl. Black and white film. Last Sunday, my hubby and I set off for St. Mark's Wildlife Sanctuary here in north Florida. I got some wonderful glimpses of Great Blue herons, eagles in their nests, and the largest alligator I have seen to date in the sanctuary. He was more than 10 feet, black as a piece of discarded rubber tire from a semi-truck and lying in the sun along side the trail. Eyes closed and completely happy himself. Life must be good for him there with a plentiful food supply. St. Mark's is a marshland park on the bay of the Gulf of Mexico. It has a lighthouse, too, and some wonderful photo opportunities. It was a clear, blue-skied cold and windy day.
I certainly enjoy your stories of life in Alaska! Keep them coming and we can all share the wonder of the parts of the country we live in.
jpbluesky
Love those big blue skies and wide open spaces. |
| RWW |
Posted - Jan 17 2005 : 11:30:32 AM
JPbluesky: I presently live near Juneau, and agree that southeast Alaska is one beautiful place. Your friend will enjoy living in Juneau as long as she is an outdoors enthusiast. I lived there in the 60s, and again for a short time in the early 80s. It is considered the most remote capital of all U.S. states, but as long as you don't mind access by boat or air, it's just another city, though a lot more scenic than most.
Eileen: No moose where I'm living currently, but up in Talkeetna (north of Anchorage), there are plenty. We still have property there, only an acre and a half left of a larger piece, but it certainly looks attractive when I get weary of the rain and cloudy skies of southeast. Despite -40 or colder temperatures in the winter, the skies seemed always to be blue and the chickadees peeping in the bushes and trees were a real pick-me-up.
Lorij: I like picture-taking with my digital, too. The results usually make their way via e-mail to family and friends, some familiar with my life, and others appreciative of what they consider vacation-fare only. My husband, on the other hand, really gets into his hobbies and has all kinds of fun getting shots of whales and eagles and bears. Once, while camping in our boat, we took a little 13-foot aluminum skiff out to a group of 4-5 whales. Dear, dear spouse was cackling gleefully while I was hollering to get out there as they came up (I thought) all around us as they were feeding. Actually, we were quite safe in retrospect, behind them in their travels upbay, but invigorating, nonetheless! He had been using an old 35 mm, but he recently purchased "his own" digital, quite a bit more deluxe than my 4-yo Olympus. He is a lot more serious about the potential of photography than I am, where my pursuit is purely to capture the moment for sharing with family and friends.
While I'm not exactly pursuing the "farmgirl" role, I do long to return to a life in tune with my surroundings. I still have a treadle, many lanterns, and a lot of memories keeping me hoping for a return to that life. I commented to a friend the other day that I was beginning to feel town closing in on me, especially my clutter of plug-in appliances, clotheslines strung around my laundry room, a ceramic-top stove that always seems to need scrubbing, and city garbage service. Where before, my meat came from hoof to sink to jar by my hand, and my largest grocery bill was $150 one month when I had hotdogs and chips flown in for visiting relatives, and the big decision of my day was choosing between wringing out jeans or towels or lightweight clothing by hand, I now find refuge in long workdays at my computer in my home office. I recognize my discontent as turning away from what is really important to me, a lifelong goal of living on and with the land, the betrayal of having set that aside until "later"...successful at that once, I no longer clearly see a return date. At 47, I feel an urgency to get away from city water pipes and electric furnaces and (my biggest dislike) wall-to-wall carpeting, and return deliberately to inner-tubing and baling wire, so to speak, to keep me busy and fulfilled.
One beautiful summer day, with sunlight glinting off the water of the bay, my old woodstave water pipe blew a geyser. Our state senator at the time was in port on his fishing/sail boat and gathered 2-3 other fishermen to come help me fix the problem. It was a real comedy to stand back and watch them work on what I had become used to fixing on my own. Amidst the cussing and laughing, and a good old-fashioned soaking, the lot of them managed to patch things up to where that particular section of pipe would NEVER leak again, and we all traipsed back down the boardwalk toward my general store, coffee pot waiting atop the barrel stove and a platter of cookies on the wooden barrel next to it.
Winters were spent trapping; me running the skiff and my husband trekking in for the fur. Summers were for fishing halibut and shrimp and camping and sightseeing and 5-hour trips to town via Boston Whaler. Early of a morning, I would hear the bell tinkle when the door to the store would be pushed open, a fisherman in to grab a towel for one last soak before heading out for a day on the water, or some other crewmember dropping of a bag of king crab legs in exchange for a free tub or two the week before. Days were when an old salt would radio from hours away to see if I had cinnamon rolls baking and, if not, if I had the makings for a pie he could enjoy when he finally got tied up to the dock. Occasionally, summer passers-through would see what they termed a "cute little garden" and proceed to raid my strawberry patch or pick a flower or two.
These remembrances are what sustain me while living in town, the realization that my life is still waiting out there. It's not so difficult to attain if only you take that first step back - or forward. There is satisfaction in kneading my bread, making my clothes, and really appreciating visiting with those who cannot imagine doing without, but are envious, still, of the peace you enjoy. Hurry the day when my journey takes me full circle and I am back once again in my old wooden rocker, feet propped in front of the stove, and a nice book on my lap. I'll be looking at my dog laying across the threshold of the open door at twilight, and knowing the day was a good one…
Live, from remote Alaska! |
| jpbluesky |
Posted - Jan 15 2005 : 11:17:13 AM
Welcome, Rene. I have a good friend in Juneau who is getting married and settling down there soon. She was born and raised a Floridian, but is now an Alaskan, much to all our surpise. She writes often of how beautiful it is there and of the wonderful day trips she makes to forest and woods.
I look forward to hearing more about Alaska from you. Your writing is very intuitive and I bet we will all learn a lot about your "world" by reading your posts to come!
jpbluesky
Love those big blue skies and wide open spaces. |
| Eileen |
Posted - Jan 15 2005 : 08:38:12 AM
Good morning Rene,
We are so glad you decided to join us. I missed out on the premier issue of the magazine but did get in on the tour. Never thopught of asking to go again. Sounds like a fun thing to do, Might be the only way to see what others wrote inside it.I was in on the first tour and about 5th in the list so there was not a lot in the diary yet. Had a visit with Cindy Lou last week and she said the tour has snowballed. There are so many people who want to get in on it. It is almost a full time job on its own. I sure wish MJ would do a reprint of this issue.
I also love photography and do a lot of it in my own garden. I think the best birthday gift I ever gave myself was a digital camera. I bet where you live there are a lot of wonderful things to photograph! Do you get Moose in your yard? I have a very good friend who lives 6 months of the year in Cordova. She loves it up there too but also loves the pacific northwest so has a home in both places.
Well Welcome aboard.
Eileen
songbird; singing joy to the earth |
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