Wife and I rolled in last Saturday after a long week's drive up from Dallas (we left Texas behind in our dust, ready for a brand new adventure ).

Renting a place for now, something low maintenance (hopefully) so we can spend most of our time exploring the state and enjoying life outside. Start researching how to go about hunting here, probably a bit different from Texas, albeit on a non-res license for now

If my boss lets me stay here (he really wants me in Atlanta), we'll be looking a little later this year for a property to purchase. I keep getting an itch to just buy one of these plots of land people have up for sale, just to call my own little getaway, use it for weekend escapes, hunting camp, something along those lines. But we'll see about that once we've been here a bit.

See ya around!

I figure in about 2 years you can buy anything you want at your price!

Congrats! You're going to love it.

sorry to have to correct you so early.. but "outside" when you are in Alaska means, anywhere else other than Alaska.


suggestion: put in for the Denali Road lottery right away (it is open only in May to enter, for September pass to drive in using your own vehicle... enjoy. I had 6 great years up there!!

Noted

I was actually just talking with one of the ladies at the realtor about the lottery, sounds like that would be pretty cool to be able to drive that far in. Right now, with the weather and the buses not running yet, they've opened the road up to mile 30. So we'll probably give that a run as well in the meantime.

Today is moving in day though, thankfully we just have what fit in our cars, should be a relatively short ordeal.

dang, you are 4 years and 7 months ahead of us.... have fun!

Left Texas in the dust? I thought you were from Dallas. Sure ain't no dust at this time.
A winter will tell if you stay. Not the cold, just the short daylight. If you are not an outside person in the winter you will have a hard time.

thast probably why carolyn at a minimum will have to come home like a snowbird for a few months every winter...

I'm staying the first year. I just hope we can adapt to it. There certainly is no other place like it that I"ve ever been.

Bugs are one thing. Lots of dark is the other thing. I think I can deal with cold. Plus that should be an ideal time to load ammo etc....

Yup, I think Dallas is mud and squishy grass right now with all the rain that came through just as we left.

We caught some of the short days when we visited back in January, but yeah, a full winter will definitely decide it.

What do you guys like to do in winter to get out of the house? Thankfully I am off work at 1pm, so that should give me a little time before dark.

Where abouts did you relocate to? I'll be rolling into the Homer area later this month.

Wasilla for now. Kind of middle ground, smaller town (than Anchorage anyway), but still has everything we need. Also easy access to get north or south to all parts of the state relatively quickly.

Now that we're here, have some place to live for the next 12 months, we'll be keeping an eye on properties, prices, economy, all that fun stuff. And trying to convince my boss he doesn't really need me in Atlanta

Close ...closer....now..….Drive 1 hour north or east ....ahhh , there it is ...Alaska.….beers to ya

relatively quickly becomes an interesting term in alaska.

my brother-in-law lived up there for a few years, here in upstate ny an hour drive for dinner isn't bad. my brother-in-law said there were days he would take a road trip for dinner, 3 hours each way generally had a hike or something thrown in to justify the exploration but he would hear about a good place and go for it

Wasilla is way to big for our tastes, but then again its still close to Alaska. LOL. Great scenery around as is most places in AK. Just have to look up a bit. And many marshes filled with ducks, moose all over etc...

Enjoy, we see Wasilla for a few hours or more every fall to visit great friends we consider family. Will be so nice to be able to drive over and spend a weekend or more with them now and again in about 4 years and 7 months.

Enjoy!

I'm thinking you're gonna be a bit 'surprised'

I fully expect to be.

I don't know your wife from Adam, but I wish you luck with it. I've seen many a people 'fail' after the first winter.


Damn near anyplace can seem groovy for 3 weeks

She will have a problem with it. Thats why she will snowbird it for a few months of the winter time back at home.

Unless it works better for her.

Just having the desire to do it, does not make it such that all will be fine.

In a perfect world I'd live in Alaska March, April, May, August, September, October and leave before Thanksgiving.

Yep, that wouldn't be bad.

I'm good easily through thanksgiving. But I'll be coming back some in December to hunt here. Though I"d like to hunt blacktails there in December.

I'm thinking whenever she decides to head south I wont' see her until March again is my guess.

I"m fairly sure I could be good year round.

But like the answer to the question, would you shoot someone attacking you or invading your car or house? I like to think I know that answer, but in the end, you won't know unless you have to.

I notice that June and July are out. Tourists? Heat? Bugs? All of the above?

That sums it up after 30 years!

Tourists, heat (of course it will be hotter in the south). There ain't nothing to shoot in July and not much I want to shoot in June.

Steelhead/rainbows are great in the spring, along with bear. August is great for salmon/hunting.

Really not much I want to do in June/July.

In fact, I found June/July and February the worse months.

December is really too late for blacktails. On Kodiak they start dropping antlers by about the 10th. Days are also too freaking short for much hunting. First three weeks of November are best, getting into the rut and finding good bucks.

June is one of my favorite months here. Just getting the black bears out of the dens up high and the smolt migration with the lake trout and rainbows tearing them up.

July is sockeyes...

Easy for me to get away from tourists...

December, January, and February are my three longest months...

Yeah, December deer are all rutted out, I don't want them.


December/January ain't bad if you're running a trap line. We didn't really have many sockeye in my part of SE, though the cutt fishing is great in the lakes.

One of the big problems after you turn 65 up here is our health care rates are too high for Medicare, my tentative plan is to play outside for few months and get my health care done outside at a lower cost.

Just heard our medical costs are 2.76 times higher than nat. average!
And some of the non profit Hospitals make the most profit! Some thing to consider when AK is your home.

Our reasons for staying in AK seem to be eroding fast!

INteresting on the deer, had done them on Montague just before Thanksgiving and it was getting good... figured move it forward a bit and would be better.

Good to know that info.

Hate to hear about medicare costs and such, but being we'll likely be out a month or three in the winter I suspect we can make it work.

I'm just hoping I can find a fairly close EMT job when we get up there, close to the Delta area anyway and if have to run into FBKs, that I can at least manage to find a 48 hour shift instead of 24s...

Wahnsinn, you might check this Alaskan site for information about many things, especially hunting, fishing, recreation, etc., in Alaska. Almost all the people who post there are Alaska residents and most are very helpful.

http://forums.outdoorsdirectory.com/index.php

L.W.

Sadly, that website imploded from a ridiculous dose of over-moderation from the way left-wing owner/idiot. The few remaining posters are GIs new to AK looking for advice, but posting their own "great" advice anyway.

Absolutely truthful negative feedback on anything is verboten...

Nailed it ....

But, but....they gots a ballistic engineer!

lol...

A couple of weeks ago marked my 48th year here. The secret to Alaska is to get into Alaska. Summer is easy; fish, clam, Kayak, hike, camp or Get yourself a boat, UTV, quad or airplane. Before you know it- it's hunting season. In winter XC ski, downhill ski, Snowmachine or put your Bird on skies. That way, you are always looking forward to your next upcoming adventure. If you happen to have some "real money" you can get some horses. If you are a shooter, there is lots of that up here too. Rifle, Pistol and scatter gun. You just have to keep an open mind.

lol....

And he is almost as real as their Moose Whisperer Poster of the Year!

Between someone claiming to be a ballistics engineer while proving to know nothing and someone claiming to make moose die where he wants them to die it is hard to pick a bigger loser...

I didn't know that, Sitka Deer. I look at that site about once a month, mainly at the Hunting Forum and the Float Forum. Hadn't noticed much else. I've always enjoyed the pictures of the hunting scenes and the beautiful Alaskan scenery.

L.W.

LW
No problem, just pointing out the killing of a site. There are some serious idiots over there. Some have strolled through here and tried the same stuff but their boats failed to float when they actually had to answer real questions.
art

Hospital care in Alaska is one of the worst and most expensive in the nation. It's pretty bad in Fairbanks, specially heart issues. Alaska is a great place for younger people who can work hard and are in relatively in good shape, but not so great for retiring-age folks unless they have lots of money or a good health insurance that allows for traveling to the lower-48 for medical care. Not a bad idea to have Medical evacuation insurance.