Building Alaskan Dreams


Book Description

Adventure, hardship, heartbreak and ultimate victory are woven through this true story of one man's modern day Alaskan homesteading experience. After a series of disastrous events leads to a bitter divorce and destroys a prosperous mid-Western farming life, Travis hits the road in an old pick-up truck. Aimless and aching, homeless for several years, arrested in a string of small towns in the Deep South for being a vagrant and other petty 'crimes,' he finds himself on a downward slide until he reads of Alaskan homesteading in a 'Mother Earth News' magazine, and begins to dream of his own land. That dream comes to life in the shadow of Alaskan mountain splendor, where he creates a working homestead from little more than thin air and his own rugged determination and guts. Face-to-face encounters with bears, surviving 60-below zero winters in a tiny dirt-floored lean-to, learning to use dogs as draft animals to get the homestead work done - these are just a few of the challenges he must overcome to carve out a life in harsh sub-arctic Alaska. Interviews, original diary entries, photos and illustrations are an important part of the historical record of this homestead saga.




Building a Log Cabin in Alaska in Four Months


Book Description

This book should prove most helpful as a "how to" guide for a man working alone to build a strong, yet simple log cabin made to last. It can be a log cabin that a man can be proud to call his home or for a getaway home away from home on the weekend. I built the 13 by 41 foot cabin shell, including cutting down the trees and peeling off the bark, in three months while camping out in a tent. Cutting down the trees and pilling off the bark took more than half of the time in completing the shell of the cabin. It was hard work, but by using the trees on my property I saved money and it gave me a more satisfying feeling of accomplishment as I lived my dream. After about three months work the cabin was up and we moved from our tents into the cabin, however, the electrical wiring, well and plumbing, septic system, interior walls, chimney, and 8 by 28 foot add-on, which are covered in varying details (less on the wiring and plumbing) in this book, were worked on as I got the time and money. Overall, to complete the cabin, it took about four to five months time. The 757 square foot cabin was completed in about four months by working long hours, six days a week. The long camping experience was an ordeal for my wife, but my son and I enjoyed it. We thank God for His help and guidance through it all. The plans contained in this book are designed to allow a man working alone to build a cabin in a short time that will last a life time. I include an additional chapter about building a pergola type patio cover out of red cedar. 48 pictures are included in this book. Happy trails!




One Man's Wilderness


Book Description




The Sun Is a Compass


Book Description

For fans of Cheryl Strayed, the gripping story of a biologist's human-powered journey from the Pacific Northwest to the Arctic to rediscover her love of birds, nature, and adventure. During graduate school, as she conducted experiments on the peculiarly misshapen beaks of chickadees, ornithologist Caroline Van Hemert began to feel stifled in the isolated, sterile environment of the lab. Worried that she was losing her passion for the scientific research she once loved, she was compelled to experience wildness again, to be guided by the sounds of birds and to follow the trails of animals. In March of 2012, she and her husband set off on a 4,000-mile wilderness journey from the Pacific rainforest to the Alaskan Arctic, traveling by rowboat, ski, foot, raft, and canoe. Together, they survived harrowing dangers while also experiencing incredible moments of joy and grace -- migrating birds silhouetted against the moon, the steamy breath of caribou, and the bond that comes from sharing such experiences. A unique blend of science, adventure, and personal narrative, The Sun is a Compass explores the bounds of the physical body and the tenuousness of life in the company of the creatures who make their homes in the wildest places left in North America. Inspiring and beautifully written, this love letter to nature is a lyrical testament to the resilience of the human spirit. Winner of the 2019 Banff Mountain Book Competition: Adventure Travel




Alaska Bound


Book Description

Tammy Jones describes the experiences she and her husband undergo when they decide to build a cabin and live summers on an isolated Alaskan inlet.




How to Build Your Dream Cabin in the Woods


Book Description

Here is the ultimate resource for finally turning your dream into reality. With photos, blueprints, and diagrams, Fears thoroughly covers the process of constructing the cabin you’ve always wanted. From buying land, construction materials, deciding on lighting, the water system, and on-site constructions—such as shooting ranges, an outhouse, or an outside fire ring—this is a book filled with nuggets of wisdom from a specialist in the field: J. Wayne Fears is a wildlife biologist by training who has organized big-game hunting camps, guided canoe trips, and run commercial getaway operations. He built his own log cabin in the early 1990s and has been enjoying it ever since. Now you can build and enjoy the cabin you've always dreamed of, too.







Winds of Skilak


Book Description

Leaving behind friends, family, and life as they know it, the Wards embark on a journey into the Alaskan wilderness that will change them forever.




My Life in the Wilderness


Book Description

Robert Hilliker was born in the southern Lower Peninsula of Michigan, in the late 1920's, just before the Great Depression of 1929 and the 1930's. As a young boy, the tales of Daniel Boone, Jim Bowie, and the stories of the Mountain Men who roamed the great Rocky Mountains in search of beaver struck a chord deep down inside that he could neither understand nor explain. They did, however, produce in him a strong desire to experience such a life for himself. In the following years, almost every decision he made was in accordance with an "inner compass" which pointed steadily to the Northwest. "To go into the wilderness, build a strong and warm log cabin with my own two hands, and hunt for my food. Trap fur bearing animals to sell to the fur buyers for money to buy the things I couldn't produce myself, get my water from the creek, cut the firewood I would need to cook my food and to keep me warm through the long cold winters of the 'North Country, ' could I do something like that?" This is his story.




South to Alaska


Book Description

Born in the dusty heart of Oklahoma in 1916, ten-year-old Melvin Owens dreams of living in Alaska. More than forty years later, to the astonishment of neighbors and friends, he single-handedly constructs the 47-foot Red Dog in his Arkansas backyard. After launching the boat in 1971, Melvin cruises along the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers to the Gulf of Mexico where, in 1973, he begins an amazing journey along the Caribbean coasts of Mexico and Central America, through the Panama Canal, then into the Pacific Ocean to Alaska. Thwarted by mechanical problems, nature?s fury, illness, thievery and loneliness, Melvin fears a deadly end before reaching the place of his dreams and returning to the woman he loves.A true story of courage and endurance, "South to Alaska" chronicles Melvin?s perilous 10,000-mile solitary journey through a watery world he knows little about, to a world he cannot forget.




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