Things to Consider When Looking for that Rural Alaskan Cabin (Part 2!) (LONG READ)
By Natalie S.
(Estimated reading time: 15-20 min)
Welcome to Part 2 of things to think about before finding that rural Alaskan cabin that you want to call home. Like anything thats a big deal in life, it's important to know what you may be in for, and to clarify your expectations about what you will likely experience transitioning to this life. That's what this article series is for! I'm not trying to deter you or tell you what to do, I am just offering my experiences and the things I've learned as a guide to help out!
Our cabin in late September with ice fog rolling in.
As I said in Part 1, these tips are not intended to be a deterrent, or a fully comprehensive "Buying Alaska" guide, they are simply to help you make an informed decision about some of the finer points of living rural in a dry cabin (no running water), off the grid and far from the road system. Even cabins on a maintained road qualify for alot of this information, so these things are good general knowledge for moving out here to rural Alaska! Please know that I am only giving tips regarding my area, which is Southcentral Alaska (below the Arctic Circle, north of Anchorage). Other areas of the state with differ when it comes to details and extremes, I will not be covering these.
In Part 1 we discussed access issues, and how to live with an ATV and a snowmobile as your daily driver. Now we'll move on to talk about two more very important things for a successful off-grid Alaskan life, water needs, and winter preparation!
Water should be your top priority, second to access, when looking for property in rural Alaska.
Water is LIFE. When it comes to getting homesteading land, I believe that a bargain is not a bargain if there is no moving water source or functioning well. Dry cabins are already alot of work, so if you also have to haul water to the cabin a long distance from a natural waterbody, local dispensary or purchasing it in gallons from the store, especially in winter, this can be incredibly stressful and might turn you off to the whole thing entirely. These sources are great in an emergency, but when you have to rely on them for daily life, it can be very hard, and costly.
Why property with a well is "well" worth it!
In many towns there is something known as a "community water source", which is usually a local well (that may be coin-operated) and disperses several gallons at a time. There you can fill potable water jugs, and often large water tanks. But those then have to make it back to your cabin, which if you are far out, will be a significant task, not to mention a frequent one. The bigger your family is, the more this need will increase, especially since dry cabins have no shower, flushing toilets, outdoor faucets to water gardens, etc.
Getting a well dug once you already have property, especially in the backwoods of Alaska, is an expensive, seasonal, and challenging task. Hauling your own water from a local source such as a spring, river, creek or lake is usually possible, but let me tell you it can be very physically challenging. And the Alaskan winters will always affect how challenging a task it is.
Our wellhead, dug 200 ft into the aquifer with heavy equipment by the previous owners, with a 220V/60 Amp cable to control the pump from the generator.
Property with an existing well tends to be more expensive, but it is worth it. It's already been put in, tapped into the best place into a good aquifer, and needs minimal maintenance. With what you will save in gas for trips to the outside world to get water, physical exertion & stress (and machine wear & tear) bringing water in, and the expense of getting a new well put in yourself, it will be overall much cheaper in the long run. Even if all you've got is raw land and you want to add outbuildings, if there's a well with a pump on the land, you'll be in awesome shape.
When you're off-grid and rural, your water security is very important. And having the ability to use a hose with water pressure behind it can be vital for fire-protection, and watering that garden you probably want to have! You will also need potable indoor storage for the water you will use too, such as the big blue 55 gallon drums, because any water stored outdoors will freeze (we only collect rainwater in summer because of this.)
You can live with a creek or pond nearby as a water source and no well, just be adequately prepared for the workload.
Next best thing to a well is a pond or creek (moving water is better because it doesn't freeze as easily!) that is within a very short walking distance to the cabin, where it isn't an arduous task to visit it. Using a sled in winter (and when there is thick mud), or a wagon in drier summer months, you can fill buckets and bring them back to your place (if you reference Tip #2 in Part 1 of this series, here's another task made easier by an ATV or snowmobile!). This water will absolutely need to be filtered before use, and if you plan to cook, wash with or drink it, you will need to sterilize it by boiling. Girardia bacteria, aka "beaver fever" is only one kind of microbe that can make you very sick from Alaskan waterbodies. Get that water clean and safe for use! If getting water from a pond during winter, you'll need to keep a path to your source and the gathering site clear of snow, and have tools to get through the ice when it freezes over.
There are plenty of Alaskans who are perfectly happy hauling their own water, and this is nothing against them! If you want to do it that way, I definitely don't judge. But if you don't want that as an added daily task, then consider an existing well!
Be prepared to install your own plumbing & indoor storage for your drinking and grey water needs!
Even if the land has a well, they are not always plumbed directly into any existing cabins. In our case, it isn't. We use a detachable potable garden hose for our well, which we hook up manually to indoor PEX pipe that leads into two 55 gallon potable water drums upstairs, which then feeds down to our sink! You could keep smaller potable water jugs if that is all you have access to, they often have their own taps, and can be placed near the sink for ease of use.
Our indoor water storage tanks, plumbed to our fill hose and a pipe to lead down to the sink.
We run our well with our gas generator when we need to fill up the tanks, and our generator can support the correct voltage and wattage to run the wellpump. Be sure that the generator you have can support more than you think your needs are. (I will go into further detail about our off-grid power system in Part 3!) When it comes to our drinking water, we fill up our Berkey water filter container, just to make sure we stay safe from contaminates for drinking and cooking.
Greywater and drainage pipes can be tricky in an Arctic climate.
And many kitchen sinks in rural cabins, you may wonder, where do they drain to? Well, many just drain right out into the yard via a long pipe, or people stick a 5 gallon bucket under the sink, then just take it out and dump it. In rural Alaska, keeping external pipes from freezing is often such a pain in the neck that a bucket is necessary no matter what you do.
Our outdoor kitchen drainpipe feeding into a gravel-filled ditch we dug, with a straight tube open to the air to keep it from freezing (sticks up out of the snow.)
We created our own drainage system by digging a series of deep ditches filled with perforated drainage pipe and crushed gravel. It leads away to the lowest end of our property, which provides natural filtration for our sink water and any excess water runoff from the land. However this took us a long time to accomplish, and works great in warmer weather, but we often end up using a bucket in winter regardless. Out here my neighbors and us call really frigid weather "bucket time" because we all know our drainpipes are going to freeze and we will be toughing it out with buckets. We use food traps to keep food waste from ending up outside stinking and attracting wildlife & insects, and use biodegradable soap.
Showers and laundry are a whole new ball game when you're off grid, but not impossible!
When it comes to washing up and doing laundry, this is much more of a task in a low-tech dry cabin. In Part 3, I'll go into some ways you can manage these tasks efficiently, and know that if you're just starting out in rural Alaska, towns have outposts that have pay showers and laundromats to help make life easier!
Things like washing your face and brushing your teeth are easily relocated to the kitchen sink, since many of us don't have a bonus faucet and water supply in the bathroom area of our cabins.
We constructed our own gravity-feed shower in a back room of our cabin, which goes through a 5 gallon electric water heater, that can run when the generator is on. You can also find propane powered on-demand water heaters pretty easily, and some folks even have water heaters that are tagged into their woodstove (will not be as good an option in summer.) Before we got a cheap bathtub from a neighbor, we used a big aluminum tool box, and before that, a washtub (I don't recommend this lol). Some people use large animal troughs as well. Just know these all have to be plumbed to drain to an outside point that won't cause water damage, and kept empty when not in use so the basin and the drainpipe doesn't freeze!
Our indoor shower (plumbed to two indoor water storage tanks on the second floor), which uses a 5 gallon electric water heater for hot, and a mixer valve for cold water.
Outhouses and composting toilets will be your new normal.
Also? No plumbing or running water means no flushing toilet! So get excited, its all outhouses and composting toilets out here. Depending on the land, you may be able to put in a septic system, but its not certain if it would pass what's called the "perc test", and don't forget that septic systems have to be pumped eventually, so if you're off a maintained road no one will be able to service it, so it will be a DIY job you may not want!
(Source: NederlandLiving.com)
Using an outhouse can be quite a unique experience if you're new to it. People get used to it very quickly, and in dry cabins they can be preferable if you live in a small space. But if you want or need an indoor option, in that case consider a composting toilet. There are many ready-made models that work well, but some require a steady power supply to run a dehydrating fan to remove liquids, which your energy budget may not allow for. Some also have exterior drain tubes, which when they freeze, back up the toilet (this has happened to me UGH!)
You can construct a simple composting toilet yourself out of a small cabinet, toilet seat, a 5 gallon bucket with a some compostable liner (newspaper works) and some sawdust (which on an Alaskan homestead is almost always available) to put in with every use. The sawdust keeps the smell down, absorbs liquids, and assists the beneficial bacteria to break down the waste. It can be taken out to a designated place when it needs to be emptied, and will continue to compost down over time (goes slower in winter, make the composting area big enough and far from your drinking water source.
Getting your drinking and washing water resources, along with your toilet solutions, all secured when finding your place to live, will help you succeed at your goals and enjoy life in Alaska!
This is the big one: winters in Alaska are NOT to be underestimated, plan everything around it!
I can't possible state this enough, take winter seriously if you decide to move here. Many places can have extreme winter conditions with snow, freezing rain, frigid temperatures, and deep subzero cold too. But in the far North, we deal with these things for a much longer duration, often at further extremes that can change on a dime, and we have significantly more darkness. And when you're rural and off-grid, this can be even more overwhelming to deal with, because you have more responsibility on your shoulders. And our winters START in October, yes you heard right, October, and end around the beginning of May. So summer is no time to dilly-dally when it comes to getting ready for it!
Firewood is a year-round job in Alaska!
I won't be the first Alaskan to tell you that you're gonna cut ALOT of wood, and not just in summer or fall. It seems wise to cut as much wood as you can all summer, then sit back and relax all winter enjoying not having to do it anymore. Well that's kind of a myth when it comes to living up here!
Our Blaze King woodstove. Some of the most efficient woodstoves are "catalytic", meaning they reburn unspent smoke as fuel, and often have blowers with a fan to distribute heat throughout the cabin.
Get educated on chainsaws, woodstoves, axes, and log splitters
There are several reasons Alaskans constantly cut wood. Obviously the main reason is that you can never have enough stored. After a sudden cold snap for a couple weeks where the temp drops to -40F, you could blow through more wood than you think, and then be short for the rest of the season! Also there are many cabins that come equipped with old or inefficient woodstoves, which are like gas-guzzling cars in how they just devour wood.
No two woodstoves are created equal, and if you've never used one before, there are many helpful YouTube tutorials on getting familiar with them, and how to know which one will work for your needs. I suggest educating yourself on this now! There is a way to load a woodstove properly, which starts with cut kindling and firestarting material such as birch bark, plain cardboard, etc., then once that is lit you begin adding more wood. Stove pipes need to be cleaned and inspected before and after winter, and you'll want to make sure you have working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, and fire extinguishers for your cabin.
Also make sure there is ventilation for your woodstove, often there is an air duct for outside oxygen supply that is installed below the woodstove. If there isn't one of these, a window will have to be opened in order to keep you from suffocating!
I also won't be the first to tell you that you will need to learn safety, maintenance, and proficiency with a chainsaw. Even if you plan to use alternate heating such as oil, propane, a boiler, or have enough power to support electric heaters (ALOT of power is required for that believe me), you should still know how to cut wood and keep a stockpile.
Knowing how to use an axe properly is also very important, we have back-up ways of doing everything out here just in case one method of solving something doesn't work! Keeping extra chainsaw chains and knowing how to sharpen them is crucial as well. When it comes to splitting wood, you will need a maul and/or a woodsplitter.
Many cabins do not come equipped with a woodsplitter, and in my experience, heavy-duty hydraulic splitters tend to work better for the heavy loads of wood we have to split, and are more up for the frequency of the task. They can be more costly than the cheaper splitters, but can save you alot of physical labor splitting wood. Using a maul is an important physical skill and you should do it when you can to stay in shape. But trust me, you don't want this to be the only way you can split wood if you want to protect yourself from injuries, or if you have a limiting factor with your health where this heavy task is not possible for you.
Chainsaw safety is paramount, especially the further out you are. So start learning about it now, including what is involved felling a tree. Taking down trees is a dangerous task, and should always be taken seriously, and I don't recommend doing it alone if at all possible.
(Sticker source: Ardueno vs. Evil)
The good news is, cutting firewood in winter can be ALOT easier than doing it in summer! Why? Because snowmobiles and dog sleds can go places you couldn't dream of accessing in summer, allowing you to take wood from further away from your cabin, instead of depleting your closest trees. There are also no mosquitoes! Mosquitoes can make cutting wood in summer pure hell, especially in the deep woods.
How to obtain good firewood in Alaska and stay warm & prepared!
Also, if you already have a good stockpile for the current winter, you can use all of the above to your advantage to prepare for next winter. That way, your wood has enough time to dry out all summer, then all you're doing is cutting and storing extra!
In Alaska we have a huge Spruce bark beetle epidemic, and because of that there are literally millions of standing dead dry trees. Even though this is sad, the advantage is that it is already dry seasoned firewood. It can be cut, split, and burned right away, if the needles are long since gone and it's very dry looking. What this also does is kill dormant beetle larvae so it doesn't continue to spread, and helps with wildfire protection by removing potential fuel.
We use trees that have been blown down by storms, dead dry Spruce, dry branches, and even scrap wood to make fires in the woodstove. Well-seasoned birch burns very well, and the bark is very useful for starting a fire. But when the trees are taken green (alive) it has to be split and dried for up to 6 months before its usable. Burning wet wood often doesn't work well or at all, builds creosote in your stovepipe (which increases the risk of chimney fires), and you don't want to be worrying about that when you need to get warm fast.
Many cabins for sale often are sold with a woodshed full of wood, that's a great way to get started, and you won't have to build a woodshed! Storage for your wood to keep it dry and out of the snow is SO IMPORTANT. If you're looking at an ad for a cabin and there's no woodshed, you'll have to build it yourself. It will need a high pitch on the roof to shed snow properly. So putting this on your land-checklist is really crucial! Don't underestimate how much wood it will take to keep you warm all winter, and it will be much more for a larger space.
Note: There are cabins that are well-insulated in the walls, but not in the floors. This will make you have to use your stove much more often. Ask about floor insulation, or if you can inspect the property in person, check out the underside of the cabin for this.
You'll need winter clothing appropriate for exceedingly cold temperatures.
Doesn't seem economically sensible to suggest this, but buy your winter clothes in Alaska! Expect this to be pricey. But, you'll have more options for the correct clothing with the right temperature ratings for what you need to be prepared for, and you can try things on. Many products sold in the Lower 48 may not cut it up here. I have an article in the works about how to dress for extreme cold. We do alot of layering and synthetics. More on that soon!
Additionally, firewood won't be the only physical challenge in winter. Snow removal and grooming will be the other big one. In a new article in the works about what an off-grid rural winter is like, I will go into more detail about this. But just know that it is an almost daily task, especially when we have a big dump of snow, and can be very physically intensive.
Taking good care of yourself in winter is about more than just survival!
Besides keeping on top of staying warm, having a good water source, and dressing correctly, you will also need to take care of your physical and mental health! I advise eating more protein & whole-grain rich foods, fresh or canned vegetables/fruits, and use supplements. In our months of darkness, don't underestimate how this can affect you!
Where I live it doesn't get completely dark like it does in the Arctic Circle, but from late December to mid-February, the days are 4-5 hours long and the light is like perpetual dawn. The dark, the constant extreme cold, and manual labor are a drain on the body and mind, and things like happy lights, Vitamin D, proper sleep habits, learning new things and maintaining existing hobbies, and getting outdoors with daily exercise can really help. Seasonal Affective Disorder needless to say is alot harder up here! Its about 6 months of cold and snow, which can feel like forever when you're new to it. But once that first spring starts to hit, you will feel so triumphant that you did it!!
Also, Winter in Alaska is BEAUTIFUL. You will see sunsets unparalleled to anywhere else, the different states of snow and ice, the quiet of a snowy day, and moose wandering through the woods! It's worth being prepared for.
Bottom line, I recommend NEVER buying land sight-unseen in Alaska if you can possibly avoid it, because you may not be getting all the details! If you can manage to visit Alaska first, it's always better, then you can see firsthand if a place is really a good deal for all these reasons. If you keep all these tips in mind, you will be saving yourself unnecessary grief and money, ensure that you will reach your goals, and have the Last Frontier experience that you've been dreaming of.
A Part 3 is in the works about power sources! Thank you for reading, follow more of my Alaskan off-grid journey on Instagram!
Helpful Articles by others:
•Tips for Maintaining a Healthy Woodstove (Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium)
•Off Grid Water Systems (Family Handyman.com)
•Surviving Winter in Alaska With the Right Gear (Anchorage Daily News)
•Non-Electric Composting Toilets (EnviroMom)
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Disclaimer: I am not an expert, do not have professional training, and have only experienced rural life inside Southcentral Alaska. These articles are based on my personal experience of the last 5 years in this part of the state. The contents of this article are intended to assist those seeking more information about off-grid life in rural Alaska year-round. I always advise due diligence, do not rely on my sole opinion. Enjoy and thanks for reading!
