April 18, 2023 • 28 mins
Last week, we visited my brother Eric in Alaska. He made arrangements for us to visit the homestead of some friends of his from church. On this episode I talk about that visit and what I learned. Am I inspired to move to Alaska? Listen, and find out.
Enjoy!!
Brian
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brian (00:02):
I am your host, Brian Wells, and I'm a fourth
generation homesteader Since2008, my family and I have been
homesteading here in beautifulupstate New York.
In 2019, I launched theHomestead Journey Podcast to
help people just like you getstarted and find success on
their journey towardsself-sufficiency, self-reliance,
(00:24):
and sustainability.
This is the Homestead Journeyand this is season four.
Well, welcome, welcome, welcomeeveryone to another episode of
the Homestead Journey podcast.
My name is Brian Wells.
I am coming to you from three BFarm and Homestead back here in
(00:49):
beautiful upstate New York.
Now this is episode 152.
We are going to be taking aslight detour today from our.
Recent topic of conversation,which has been the Mediterranean
diet, and we are going to talkabout one of the adventures that
we embarked upon on our recentvacation to Alaska.
(01:14):
We spent last week up in Alaskavisiting with my brother Eric
and his family, and just gotback home yesterday, which is
why I am a day late and a dollarshort, uh, as they say in
getting this episode out.
Thank you so much for yourpatience, but I was just not up
(01:37):
to recording an episodeyesterday.
Now you probably can hear I'vegot a little bit of congestion
going on.
Not sure if I picked up someheebies on the flight or if it's
just the change in temperatures,but, uh, whatever it is between
that.
Kind of a little bit of jet lagand all of the things.
I didn't have any confidence inmy ability to be coherent in
(02:00):
recording an episode yesterday.
So again, thank you so much foryour patients, but we're going
to be talking about a visit thatwe took while we were in Alaska
to a real.
A real genuine Alaskanhomestead.
Not one of these fake Jakereality TV show Alaskan
(02:24):
homesteads, but an actual realhomestead.
It was such a privilege to visitthe homestead of Mark and Irene.
I didn't ask them whether or notthey have a homestead name or
not.
But it is an absolutelybeautiful place.
I'm looking forward to tellingyou all about it.
But before we do that, I didwant to jump on over to this
(02:47):
week's homestead happenings.
Now, we weren't here much of theweek, but.
There's a few things I did wantto share with you, some things
that kind of took place while wewere gone, and so let me bring
you up to speed on that beforewe jump over to this week's
charting the course.
(03:15):
So while we were gone this week,my dad came down and took care
of the chores here on thehomestead and I was very, very
grateful for that.
While we were gone,unfortunately, we did have, one
of the smaller pigs in the,group that I had combined it.
It died.
And I think what happened, itwas the runt.
And I had thought about maybeputting it over with the littler
(03:37):
pigs, the ones that, uh, wereborn, I think.
Was it August or September oflast fall, but they're
definitely much smaller than theother pigs.
And this one was maybe a littlebit more in their size.
I opted to keep it with thebigger pigs, and unfortunately I
think it just got crushed in apig pile.
So, that was unfortunate.
(03:59):
But, as my buddy Dave says, whenyou.
Livestock.
Eventually you have dead stock.
And so we did lose a pig whilewe were gone and we had some pig
shenanigans.
What would it be without pigshenanigans here on three B Farm
and Homestead.
My, my dad sent me a text and hesaid, uh, Brian Bear has gotten
(04:21):
in with the ladies.
What do you want me to do?
And I.
Leave him be, I'm done fightingit.
If he wants to hang out with theladies, he can spend a spring of
love with the ladies.
Boris has been in there, bear'sbeen in there, so I have no way
of knowing.
Who got who.
So whoever has been, impregnatedin there, well, it's gonna be
(04:43):
meat pigs.
There's no way we can registerthem.
Very frustrating.
But it is what it is.
And so we'll see.
Hopefully those pigs will beonto.
Greener pasture, shall we say,before they Pharaoh.
But it is what it is.
I'm not gonna fight it anymore.
So Bear is now in with theladies hanging out, living life
(05:03):
large, and we'll see whathappens in three months, three
weeks and three days.
But some positive things becauseI don't wanna be all negative.
There were some good things thattook place while we were.
The first thing is, is thatthese seed starting systems
slash room slash whatever youwant to call it, that we built
(05:25):
in the basement, it is workingout very, very well.
It's maintaining a great heat.
things are sprouting well, and Iam very, very happy with how
things are progressing in there.
Not everything sprouted that weplanted, but a lot of it did,
and I am very, very happy withhow things are progressing in
(05:48):
there.
The other thing I wanted tobring you up to date on is my
experiment with the currents andthe grapes.
Now the currents are doing, Thatthe current cuttings have all
leafed out.
I think that's gonna work outvery, very well.
But so far the grapes haven'tdone anything and so we'll see
(06:09):
whether or not they take off.
Maybe they're gonna be a littlelate to the party, we shall see,
but the currents right now are,are doing very, very well.
I think the next step in myexperiment, and I think I may
have mentioned this, is to findsome willow, because willow is
supposed to help things root andso I'm gonna get some willow
(06:30):
cuttings.
There's a lot of people here inthe area where I live that have
willow trees in their yards andso I'm sure it will not be hard
for me to get some willowbranches to put in to try to
encourage.
These cuttings to to take rootand that I'll be able to plant
them.
But so far, so good, at leastwith the currents, the grapes
(06:53):
not so much, but time will telland I will keep you updated on
that and hopefully this year,unlike last year, I will be able
to carry all of this tocompletion and I'm not going to
end up losing track of it andtapping out early.
That's my small quick homesteadhappenings update for this
(07:17):
episode.
I do hope things are wellwherever you are at.
So as you can see, one moretime, I am flying solo here in
the Homestead Journey PodcastStudios.
Bonnie is not joining me on thisepisode.
Hopefully she will be back withme next week as we begin
(07:39):
wrapping up our series on theMediterranean Diet.
But today we are deviating fromthat a little bit to talk about
a visit that we took last weekwhile we were in Alaska to a
real Alaskan homestead.
Now my brother has some friends,mark and Irene who are
homesteaders in Alaska.
(08:00):
And they were gracious enough toallow us to stop over and see
what they've got going on.
And it was certainly aprivilege.
It was a pleasure, it was anhonor, and it was so eye-opening
to see how they arehomesteading.
They have an absolutelybeautiful setup.
They're on 40.
Three or four of it, maybe fiveof it's been cleared.
(08:24):
But, the view, oh my goodnessfolks, the view off of the front
of their house is justabsolutely magnificent as
they're looking towards, uh,some beautiful mountains, just
these rugged mountains there inAlaska, just absolutely
breathtaking.
(08:44):
It was so beautiful there.
when they bought that property,there was no house.
There was no barn, there was nogreenhouse, there was no
generator house, there was nochicken run.
There was nothing like that.
It was raw land, and they havebeen working to clear it and to
set it up as a productivehomestead.
(09:06):
One of the first things Inoticed when we pulled onto the
property was this barn, we'llcall it, that they had created
out of shipping containers,Conex boxes that they had built
a roof over top of and then puta back on.
Now, I don't recall ever seeinganything like this.
I found it to be ratherfascinating and just an
(09:29):
absolutely wonderful idea.
If you are going to start ahomestead from scratch and
there's nothing there at all tolevel out a piece of land and to
bring in a few shippingcontainers, put a bit of space
in between them, put somerafters, a roof on top of it.
And, and to basically have abarn, but an easy way to secure
(09:53):
your tools and so forth.
I just thought it was brilliant.
And so now they have a spot inbetween the shipping containers
where they can pull theirtractor, where they can store,
gear.
They have a place to hang all oftheir shovels and things like
that.
They stored their chickenfeeders and all of those kinds
of things underneath there.
(10:15):
I, I believe they stored some oftheir feed in there.
I, I, I don't remember all of.
What they had there, butcertainly a nice open area, uh,
underneath that roof.
But then within the Conex boxesthemselves, they had storage.
On the one side, he had toolsand a workbench a little bit of
a workshop, we'll call it, setup there, so to speak.
(10:39):
He was able to secure that, lockit up nice and tight.
It's heated so we can go outthere and work in the winter,
which was really, really nice.
The other side is where theyhave freezers and they also
store their winter gear andtheir summer gear depending on
what season it is.
I just thought it was absolutelybrilliant and so certainly
(10:59):
something that I plan on keepingin the back of my mind if I ever
decide to do some kind ofhomestead from scratch.
Now, I highly doubt I'll ever doanything like that, but
certainly I thought it was abrilliant idea.
Next to the Conex boxes, theyhad a generator house.
Now they just put in a, a newKubota diesel generator.
(11:23):
I don't remember how big it is,but it certainly is big enough
to power their entire homestead.
Their plan long term is to putin solar, but they haven't
gotten there yet.
They're trying to figure outwhat direction they want to go
with regards to batteries.
So right now they have thisreally, really awesome.
Kubota generator and with a flipof a switch, if the grid goes
(11:44):
down, they can be powering theirentire homestead off of that
generator.
Really, really nice setup.
They had a wonderful, wonderfulgreenhouse there and it was what
I referred to as an Anna Whitestyle greenhouse.
And if you know, you know, um,if you follow Justin Rhoads, you
saw the greenhouse that theybuilt several years ago.
(12:05):
Very much in that same style.
I don't know if Anna White.
Develop that style, or if it wasmore that she came up with plans
for people to be able to buildthem easily.
She actually is from Alaska, andso I saw those style greenhouses
all over, all over Alaska.
(12:26):
Um, Very, very popular up there.
So I don't know if she took anAlaskan style greenhouse and
popularized it or if just AnnaWhite style greenhouses are now
popularized in Alaska.
It's kind of what came first.
The chicken or the egg, I don'tknow.
But they had this absolutebeautiful greenhouse and the
awesome thing was is I think itwas like 30 degrees outside.
(12:49):
Uh, there were still snow banksthat were like three feet deep,
and inside that greenhouse Icould see it was like 78 80.
I mean, it was, it was justbeautiful in there.
So definitely something very,very, doable from a home setting
perspective, to have agreenhouse of that style in
Alaska.
Certainly not, outside therealms of possibility.
(13:13):
Now getting into the greenhouse,well, being able to open up the
door, you're gonna have to dig alittle bit to do that.
They were actually in theprocess of digging.
To be able to get in there andget things going.
But, uh, that was really, reallynice.
Now they do the majority oftheir gardening there in raised
beds, and that is somethingthat, from my understanding, is
very common in Alaska becauseraised beds are going to, uh,
(13:37):
warm up faster than in ground,uh, gardens wood.
And so gardening in raised bedsis very, very popular for home
gardeners in Alaska.
And that's certainly what theydid there.
But they do some in groundgardening, particularly with
potatoes, I think he mentioned.
But the bulk of the gardeningthey do is in raised beds.
(14:00):
Didn't get to see them becauseas I said, there was like two or
three feet of snow on the groundwhile we were there.
I think the Monday that we werethere, there was like six to
eight inches of snow that theygot, and we got more snow
throughout the week.
Some places we visited, they hadsnow banks still over the top of
my head.
And where there were not snowbanks, just the depth of the
(14:21):
snow from the snowfall that theyhad gotten was up to the bottom
of, of stop signs.
It was, it was incredible.
Um, but.
Because of that, I didn'tactually get to see their raised
beds.
So I have to take them at theirword that they garden in raised
beds, cuz it was just a mountainof snow.
From my perspective, They dohave a lot of fruit trees.
(14:43):
They have perennials, they haveberry bushes, so all of that
grows up there.
A lot of cherry trees, I thinkthey had there.
Um, I think they had some appletrees there on their homestead
as well.
So doing a lot of perennial typethings in addition to their
annual gardening, which that wasvery, very encouraging to see.
(15:04):
Now, one of the things that Iwas thinking is like they've
gotta have a really, really,Short growing season, I mean two
to three feet of snow.
That's not gonna disappearovernight.
But what I found is thatactually their growing season up
there as far as last averagefrost date and first average
frost date is very similar tomine here in beautiful upstate
(15:27):
New York.
But the big difference for.
Is that they have the very, verylong Alaskan summer days where
they'll get 23 and a half hoursof sunlight.
And so because of that, theyactually can grow huge squash
and pumpkins up there.
In fact, I think it's like worldrecord.
(15:49):
Pumpkins and so forth are grownin Alaska because of the amount
of sunlight that they get.
So their growing season, whileit's very comparable to mine
because of the length of thedays there, they actually can
grow more stuff than I can growhere, which I just found
(16:10):
Absolut.
Fascinating.
I would've never thought that.
I had never thought about that.
And so that was just very, veryeye-opening to me.
Beyond gardening, they havechickens, so they have a nice
little coop.
I would call it one of thoseAmish style coops, where it's
maybe eight by 10.
(16:31):
Has the nest that sticks off theback where you can collect the
eggs from outside.
It's pretty well sealed up andthey actually have a hover
heater inside of it.
So he said it can get down to 30below and without hover heater
in there.
It keeps that coop at about 30degrees, which is plenty warm
(16:53):
for chickens.
While we were there, they werealso in the process of raising a
batch of Cornish Cross.
I think they've got about threeweeks, and they will be
processing their first batch ofCornish Cross Chicken.
So they're right about on thesame schedule is I would be up
here in beautiful upstate NewYork.
The big difference though isthat they are raising all of
(17:15):
these Cornish Cross in theirbasement.
And their basement isn't reallya full basement.
It's more of like a combobetween a crawl space and a
basement.
So basically what they did isthey went up, I think like two
blocks higher than a regularcrawl, crawl space would be.
(17:35):
So what that means is you cankind of get between two joists
and you can stand up, but thenyou kinda have to stoop down to
kind of move around.
But it's working out great forthem.
And they're raisin.
I think they had 30 Cornishcross in the corner.
No smell.
They're having to work at it, Ithink they use straw instead of
(17:59):
shavings.
They use chop straw, I think iswhat she said, instead of
shavings.
So they're having to clean itout very regularly, not to get
that smell up into the house,but they're doing the things.
They're raisin Cornish crossmeat birds, and I think their
plan is to do two batches thisyear, and they're hoping to sell
one batch, which should coverthe feed for both batches.
(18:22):
And you can't argue with that.
It's working out great for'em.
Also down in their basement.
They have a freeze dryer.
They have, uh, a place to storeall of their dry goods.
So they got a little bit of apantry going on down there.
They've got all of their cannedgoods down there, and when I'm
talking about they've got cannedgoods stored down there.
They do a lot of canning, theydo a lot of pickles and jams and
(18:47):
jellies and vegetables and meatand fish.
They can all of the things and.
So that was very, very excitingfor me to see that.
And that actually is somethingthat seems to be pretty common
in Alaska, um, is for people tobe involved in canning, in
particular fish.
(19:07):
They had some salmon that theyhad smoked and then they had
canned and they gave us a coupleof jars of that.
We took it back to my brother'shouse and we opened up one of
them and had that on crackersand I actually brought a jar.
With me here to beautifulupstate New York.
But while we were at mybrothers, he took out some of
his smoked salmon and we turnedit into a smoked salmon dip.
(19:31):
And oh my goodness.
That was kind of like, slap yourmama.
Good.
You know what I'm talking about?
Yeah.
I mean, it was good stuff.
Yes, absolutely.
But speaking of fish, That andhunting really seems to be a big
part of Alaskan culture and thatis to really ev avail yourself
(19:54):
of the resources that God hasgiven, has granted them.
That's something that I probablydon't do well.
In beautiful upstate New York.
I don't avail myself of as muchas I should have, and I
certainly don't talk about asmuch as I should here on the
(20:14):
podcast.
Things like foraging and thingslike hunting and fishing.
Now, to be frank with you, partof the reason why I don't talk
about them much here on thepodcast as far as the hunting
and fishing aspect of it is it'snot something that I really.
Doing and, and we'll talk aboutthat here in a second.
And then the foraging thing hasbeen something that's been very,
(20:35):
very interesting to me.
Something that I want to learnmore about, and it's something
that I'm looking forward tolearning more about at the
upcoming Southern AdirondackHomesteading Festival in May
when Rich Giordano does someforaging walks.
Very, very interested in that.
But because I haven't done muchof it and I don't know much
(20:55):
about it, I certainly haven'tcovered it much here on the
podcast, and that's probably afailure on my part.
It's probably an oversight on mypart, but the hunting and
fishing thing has just not beensomething that's been something
that I.
Have really ever enjoyed much,with the exception of when we
lived in Brazil.
(21:16):
When we lived in Brazil, thestyle of fishing that we did was
far more active than the fishingthat we have a tendency to do
here in the United States, whichis go cast and cast and cast and
drown worms.
And honestly, probably thereason why I don't enjoy it is
cuz I'm not good at it, youknow?
But there are people that'll goout and walk rivers and fly fish
(21:38):
all day and if they don't catchanything, they're happier to pig
in mud.
That's not it for me.
If I'm going fishing, I want tocatch fish.
And if I don't catch fish, thento me, I've wasted.
Same way.
When it goes, when, when itcomes down to hunting, like for
me, I don't enjoy hunting justto go get out in the woods.
Like I can go out in the woodsand get cold and not carry a gun
(22:00):
with me.
To me, if I'm going hunting andI don't get something, I don't
bring back some game of somesort.
Then to me that was a waste oftime and I just don't wanna
waste time.
So for me, hunting and fishing,Unless I'm guaranteed to catch
something, it's just not my jam,which is fine.
(22:21):
Different strokes for differentfolks, but it does seem to me
that the hunting and the fishingin Alaska is much better, and
it's a little bit of a differentstyle of.
Hunting and fishing a little bitmore active than what I am used
to doing here in beautifulupstate New York.
So perhaps it would be somethingthat if I lived up there, I
(22:42):
would avail myself of more thanwhat I do here.
Uh, here in New York, my brotherhad freezers full of fish.
And in fact, he sent me homewith a, an entire cooler filled
with fish.
And, uh, my family and I will beenjoying that.
And he was happy to get rid ofit because it's coming up on
(23:04):
fishing season and he wants tobe able to go get more fish.
And so he's going to be able todo that in part because he
blessed us with a cooler full offish.
But that certainly does seem tobe a very, very important part.
Not just the, this homestead'sapproach to being
(23:24):
self-sufficient and self-reliantand sustainable, but it really
does seem to be a big, huge partof the Alaskan culture.
There's so much more I can sayabout the, their homestead.
They're just doing all thethings.
It was very, very impressive.
And again, I'm looking aroundhere, we.
Mid-April, two to three feet ofsnow on the ground.
And I'm thinking, how in theworld are you gonna raise and
(23:45):
grow any food here?
And yet they're doing all thethings.
And then as they startedexplaining to me about the
growing season and the impactthat the long sunny days have on
their ability to raise and growfood, I was like, oh duh.
Why didn't I think of that.
Now down the end of the roadfrom where my brother lives, uh,
(24:08):
is a couple, Mike and Missy, whohave kind of adopted my brother
and sister-in-law as their ownchildren and my nieces and
nephews as their own grandkids.
And they are big time into, uh,gardening as well, and they're
doing the whole fishing and thehunting thing.
I mean, Mike actually has agrizzly bear that he shot.
(24:31):
Mounted in his living room, likeit's, when I say mounted, it's
on its hind legs.
It, it's a full on grizzly bearmount.
I mean, it's beautiful,beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
But he's into all of those kindsof things.
But he also is a big timegardener.
And so my nephew Finley, hasbeen starting plants down there.
(24:55):
With Mike.
And so every day Finley wouldleave to go down to see if his
plants had popped up.
It was fun to watch him be very,very excited about raisin and
growing food, and I loved seeingthat.
While we were there, my nephewBryce, he's been wanting to get
some plants started, so they gothim a little Jiffy pot, uh,
greenhouse thing, um, with a.
(25:18):
Pete pods and he got some, uh,brassica started and I, I, I
think some peppers and maybesome tomatoes.
Um, Finley has some tomatoes andcucumbers and watermelon and I
think lettuce and Mike himselfhas tomatoes and peppers and I
don't even remember all thestuff that he's got started.
(25:40):
He's using rayd beds as well.
And so it's just very excitingto see my nephews and my niece,
uh, Bella, as well, be aroundthese people that are very, very
passionate about growing food.
And to see, Bryce and Finley inparticular get bit by that bug.
(26:01):
Um, hopefully it sticks and theywill be the next generation of
Wells's carrying on thetradition.
Of raisin and growing food.
So overall, certainly it was avacation.
We did some skiing, did somesight scene.
All of the things, certainly notthe best time.
If you're wanting to go toAlaska and look for a homestead,
(26:25):
um, certainly not the best timeof the year to do that.
And I, I will tell you that'snot why we went.
My brother said his mission wasto, um, convince me that I
needed to leave beautifulupstate New York and move to
Alaska, and while I found Alaskabeautiful, and I understand why
(26:48):
it has captivated my brother andsister-in-law the way that it
has, I would say that I'm stillnot convinced that I need to
move to.
Now I would love to spend aseason growing a garden in
Alaska.
I think that would be fun.
I would really love toexperiment to see just exactly
(27:10):
how these long days affect whatyou can raise and grow.
I, I would absolutely love tosee that, but I don't know as
I'm ready to leave beautifulupstate New York yet, maybe
someday, but.
I still love it here.
(27:31):
Beautiful Upstate New York.
Anyhow, folks, I hope you foundthis interesting.
It certainly was a privilege andan honor to visit the homestead
of, of Mark and Irene, and thenspend time talking with Mike and
Missy about how they raise andgrow food there in Alaska.
And I certainly came awayinspired.
(27:54):
I came away challenged, and Icame away with a little bit more
knowledge than when I arrivedthere in beautiful Alaska.
It's just, I, I can't say it'smore beautiful than upstate New
York.
I'm not gonna say it's lessbeautiful in upstate New York.
(28:14):
I'm just gonna say it'sbeautiful in its own right.
Maybe that's lame, but it iswhat it is.
I still love beautiful upstateNew York.
I do.
I do.
I.
Anyhow, folks, that's it forthis episode.
I hope you've enjoyed it.
Any questions at all, reach outto me, Brian, at the homestead
(28:34):
journey.net.
You can find us on all of thesocials.
The links will be in the shownotes, and until next time,
everybody, keep up the goodwork.
I am your host, Brian Wells, and I'm a fourth
generation homesteader Since2008, my family and I have been
homesteading here in beautifulupstate New York.
In 2019, I launched theHomestead Journey Podcast to
help people just like you getstarted and find success on
their journey towardsself-sufficiency, self-reliance,
(00:24):
and sustainability.
This is the Homestead Journeyand this is season four.
Well, welcome, welcome, welcomeeveryone to another episode of
the Homestead Journey podcast.
My name is Brian Wells.
I am coming to you from three BFarm and Homestead back here in
(00:49):
beautiful upstate New York.
Now this is episode 152.
We are going to be taking aslight detour today from our.
Recent topic of conversation,which has been the Mediterranean
diet, and we are going to talkabout one of the adventures that
we embarked upon on our recentvacation to Alaska.
(01:14):
We spent last week up in Alaskavisiting with my brother Eric
and his family, and just gotback home yesterday, which is
why I am a day late and a dollarshort, uh, as they say in
getting this episode out.
Thank you so much for yourpatience, but I was just not up
(01:37):
to recording an episodeyesterday.
Now you probably can hear I'vegot a little bit of congestion
going on.
Not sure if I picked up someheebies on the flight or if it's
just the change in temperatures,but, uh, whatever it is between
that.
Kind of a little bit of jet lagand all of the things.
I didn't have any confidence inmy ability to be coherent in
(02:00):
recording an episode yesterday.
So again, thank you so much foryour patients, but we're going
to be talking about a visit thatwe took while we were in Alaska
to a real.
A real genuine Alaskanhomestead.
Not one of these fake Jakereality TV show Alaskan
(02:24):
homesteads, but an actual realhomestead.
It was such a privilege to visitthe homestead of Mark and Irene.
I didn't ask them whether or notthey have a homestead name or
not.
But it is an absolutelybeautiful place.
I'm looking forward to tellingyou all about it.
But before we do that, I didwant to jump on over to this
(02:47):
week's homestead happenings.
Now, we weren't here much of theweek, but.
There's a few things I did wantto share with you, some things
that kind of took place while wewere gone, and so let me bring
you up to speed on that beforewe jump over to this week's
charting the course.
(03:15):
So while we were gone this week,my dad came down and took care
of the chores here on thehomestead and I was very, very
grateful for that.
While we were gone,unfortunately, we did have, one
of the smaller pigs in the,group that I had combined it.
It died.
And I think what happened, itwas the runt.
And I had thought about maybeputting it over with the littler
(03:37):
pigs, the ones that, uh, wereborn, I think.
Was it August or September oflast fall, but they're
definitely much smaller than theother pigs.
And this one was maybe a littlebit more in their size.
I opted to keep it with thebigger pigs, and unfortunately I
think it just got crushed in apig pile.
So, that was unfortunate.
(03:59):
But, as my buddy Dave says, whenyou.
Livestock.
Eventually you have dead stock.
And so we did lose a pig whilewe were gone and we had some pig
shenanigans.
What would it be without pigshenanigans here on three B Farm
and Homestead.
My, my dad sent me a text and hesaid, uh, Brian Bear has gotten
(04:21):
in with the ladies.
What do you want me to do?
And I.
Leave him be, I'm done fightingit.
If he wants to hang out with theladies, he can spend a spring of
love with the ladies.
Boris has been in there, bear'sbeen in there, so I have no way
of knowing.
Who got who.
So whoever has been, impregnatedin there, well, it's gonna be
(04:43):
meat pigs.
There's no way we can registerthem.
Very frustrating.
But it is what it is.
And so we'll see.
Hopefully those pigs will beonto.
Greener pasture, shall we say,before they Pharaoh.
But it is what it is.
I'm not gonna fight it anymore.
So Bear is now in with theladies hanging out, living life
(05:03):
large, and we'll see whathappens in three months, three
weeks and three days.
But some positive things becauseI don't wanna be all negative.
There were some good things thattook place while we were.
The first thing is, is thatthese seed starting systems
slash room slash whatever youwant to call it, that we built
(05:25):
in the basement, it is workingout very, very well.
It's maintaining a great heat.
things are sprouting well, and Iam very, very happy with how
things are progressing in there.
Not everything sprouted that weplanted, but a lot of it did,
and I am very, very happy withhow things are progressing in
(05:48):
there.
The other thing I wanted tobring you up to date on is my
experiment with the currents andthe grapes.
Now the currents are doing, Thatthe current cuttings have all
leafed out.
I think that's gonna work outvery, very well.
But so far the grapes haven'tdone anything and so we'll see
(06:09):
whether or not they take off.
Maybe they're gonna be a littlelate to the party, we shall see,
but the currents right now are,are doing very, very well.
I think the next step in myexperiment, and I think I may
have mentioned this, is to findsome willow, because willow is
supposed to help things root andso I'm gonna get some willow
(06:30):
cuttings.
There's a lot of people here inthe area where I live that have
willow trees in their yards andso I'm sure it will not be hard
for me to get some willowbranches to put in to try to
encourage.
These cuttings to to take rootand that I'll be able to plant
them.
But so far, so good, at leastwith the currents, the grapes
(06:53):
not so much, but time will telland I will keep you updated on
that and hopefully this year,unlike last year, I will be able
to carry all of this tocompletion and I'm not going to
end up losing track of it andtapping out early.
That's my small quick homesteadhappenings update for this
(07:17):
episode.
I do hope things are wellwherever you are at.
So as you can see, one moretime, I am flying solo here in
the Homestead Journey PodcastStudios.
Bonnie is not joining me on thisepisode.
Hopefully she will be back withme next week as we begin
(07:39):
wrapping up our series on theMediterranean Diet.
But today we are deviating fromthat a little bit to talk about
a visit that we took last weekwhile we were in Alaska to a
real Alaskan homestead.
Now my brother has some friends,mark and Irene who are
homesteaders in Alaska.
(08:00):
And they were gracious enough toallow us to stop over and see
what they've got going on.
And it was certainly aprivilege.
It was a pleasure, it was anhonor, and it was so eye-opening
to see how they arehomesteading.
They have an absolutelybeautiful setup.
They're on 40.
Three or four of it, maybe fiveof it's been cleared.
(08:24):
But, the view, oh my goodnessfolks, the view off of the front
of their house is justabsolutely magnificent as
they're looking towards, uh,some beautiful mountains, just
these rugged mountains there inAlaska, just absolutely
breathtaking.
(08:44):
It was so beautiful there.
when they bought that property,there was no house.
There was no barn, there was nogreenhouse, there was no
generator house, there was nochicken run.
There was nothing like that.
It was raw land, and they havebeen working to clear it and to
set it up as a productivehomestead.
(09:06):
One of the first things Inoticed when we pulled onto the
property was this barn, we'llcall it, that they had created
out of shipping containers,Conex boxes that they had built
a roof over top of and then puta back on.
Now, I don't recall ever seeinganything like this.
I found it to be ratherfascinating and just an
(09:29):
absolutely wonderful idea.
If you are going to start ahomestead from scratch and
there's nothing there at all tolevel out a piece of land and to
bring in a few shippingcontainers, put a bit of space
in between them, put somerafters, a roof on top of it.
And, and to basically have abarn, but an easy way to secure
(09:53):
your tools and so forth.
I just thought it was brilliant.
And so now they have a spot inbetween the shipping containers
where they can pull theirtractor, where they can store,
gear.
They have a place to hang all oftheir shovels and things like
that.
They stored their chickenfeeders and all of those kinds
of things underneath there.
(10:15):
I, I believe they stored some oftheir feed in there.
I, I, I don't remember all of.
What they had there, butcertainly a nice open area, uh,
underneath that roof.
But then within the Conex boxesthemselves, they had storage.
On the one side, he had toolsand a workbench a little bit of
a workshop, we'll call it, setup there, so to speak.
(10:39):
He was able to secure that, lockit up nice and tight.
It's heated so we can go outthere and work in the winter,
which was really, really nice.
The other side is where theyhave freezers and they also
store their winter gear andtheir summer gear depending on
what season it is.
I just thought it was absolutelybrilliant and so certainly
(10:59):
something that I plan on keepingin the back of my mind if I ever
decide to do some kind ofhomestead from scratch.
Now, I highly doubt I'll ever doanything like that, but
certainly I thought it was abrilliant idea.
Next to the Conex boxes, theyhad a generator house.
Now they just put in a, a newKubota diesel generator.
(11:23):
I don't remember how big it is,but it certainly is big enough
to power their entire homestead.
Their plan long term is to putin solar, but they haven't
gotten there yet.
They're trying to figure outwhat direction they want to go
with regards to batteries.
So right now they have thisreally, really awesome.
Kubota generator and with a flipof a switch, if the grid goes
(11:44):
down, they can be powering theirentire homestead off of that
generator.
Really, really nice setup.
They had a wonderful, wonderfulgreenhouse there and it was what
I referred to as an Anna Whitestyle greenhouse.
And if you know, you know, um,if you follow Justin Rhoads, you
saw the greenhouse that theybuilt several years ago.
(12:05):
Very much in that same style.
I don't know if Anna White.
Develop that style, or if it wasmore that she came up with plans
for people to be able to buildthem easily.
She actually is from Alaska, andso I saw those style greenhouses
all over, all over Alaska.
(12:26):
Um, Very, very popular up there.
So I don't know if she took anAlaskan style greenhouse and
popularized it or if just AnnaWhite style greenhouses are now
popularized in Alaska.
It's kind of what came first.
The chicken or the egg, I don'tknow.
But they had this absolutebeautiful greenhouse and the
awesome thing was is I think itwas like 30 degrees outside.
(12:49):
Uh, there were still snow banksthat were like three feet deep,
and inside that greenhouse Icould see it was like 78 80.
I mean, it was, it was justbeautiful in there.
So definitely something very,very, doable from a home setting
perspective, to have agreenhouse of that style in
Alaska.
Certainly not, outside therealms of possibility.
(13:13):
Now getting into the greenhouse,well, being able to open up the
door, you're gonna have to dig alittle bit to do that.
They were actually in theprocess of digging.
To be able to get in there andget things going.
But, uh, that was really, reallynice.
Now they do the majority oftheir gardening there in raised
beds, and that is somethingthat, from my understanding, is
very common in Alaska becauseraised beds are going to, uh,
(13:37):
warm up faster than in ground,uh, gardens wood.
And so gardening in raised bedsis very, very popular for home
gardeners in Alaska.
And that's certainly what theydid there.
But they do some in groundgardening, particularly with
potatoes, I think he mentioned.
But the bulk of the gardeningthey do is in raised beds.
(14:00):
Didn't get to see them becauseas I said, there was like two or
three feet of snow on the groundwhile we were there.
I think the Monday that we werethere, there was like six to
eight inches of snow that theygot, and we got more snow
throughout the week.
Some places we visited, they hadsnow banks still over the top of
my head.
And where there were not snowbanks, just the depth of the
(14:21):
snow from the snowfall that theyhad gotten was up to the bottom
of, of stop signs.
It was, it was incredible.
Um, but.
Because of that, I didn'tactually get to see their raised
beds.
So I have to take them at theirword that they garden in raised
beds, cuz it was just a mountainof snow.
From my perspective, They dohave a lot of fruit trees.
(14:43):
They have perennials, they haveberry bushes, so all of that
grows up there.
A lot of cherry trees, I thinkthey had there.
Um, I think they had some appletrees there on their homestead
as well.
So doing a lot of perennial typethings in addition to their
annual gardening, which that wasvery, very encouraging to see.
(15:04):
Now, one of the things that Iwas thinking is like they've
gotta have a really, really,Short growing season, I mean two
to three feet of snow.
That's not gonna disappearovernight.
But what I found is thatactually their growing season up
there as far as last averagefrost date and first average
frost date is very similar tomine here in beautiful upstate
(15:27):
New York.
But the big difference for.
Is that they have the very, verylong Alaskan summer days where
they'll get 23 and a half hoursof sunlight.
And so because of that, theyactually can grow huge squash
and pumpkins up there.
In fact, I think it's like worldrecord.
(15:49):
Pumpkins and so forth are grownin Alaska because of the amount
of sunlight that they get.
So their growing season, whileit's very comparable to mine
because of the length of thedays there, they actually can
grow more stuff than I can growhere, which I just found
(16:10):
Absolut.
Fascinating.
I would've never thought that.
I had never thought about that.
And so that was just very, veryeye-opening to me.
Beyond gardening, they havechickens, so they have a nice
little coop.
I would call it one of thoseAmish style coops, where it's
maybe eight by 10.
(16:31):
Has the nest that sticks off theback where you can collect the
eggs from outside.
It's pretty well sealed up andthey actually have a hover
heater inside of it.
So he said it can get down to 30below and without hover heater
in there.
It keeps that coop at about 30degrees, which is plenty warm
(16:53):
for chickens.
While we were there, they werealso in the process of raising a
batch of Cornish Cross.
I think they've got about threeweeks, and they will be
processing their first batch ofCornish Cross Chicken.
So they're right about on thesame schedule is I would be up
here in beautiful upstate NewYork.
The big difference though isthat they are raising all of
(17:15):
these Cornish Cross in theirbasement.
And their basement isn't reallya full basement.
It's more of like a combobetween a crawl space and a
basement.
So basically what they did isthey went up, I think like two
blocks higher than a regularcrawl, crawl space would be.
(17:35):
So what that means is you cankind of get between two joists
and you can stand up, but thenyou kinda have to stoop down to
kind of move around.
But it's working out great forthem.
And they're raisin.
I think they had 30 Cornishcross in the corner.
No smell.
They're having to work at it, Ithink they use straw instead of
(17:59):
shavings.
They use chop straw, I think iswhat she said, instead of
shavings.
So they're having to clean itout very regularly, not to get
that smell up into the house,but they're doing the things.
They're raisin Cornish crossmeat birds, and I think their
plan is to do two batches thisyear, and they're hoping to sell
one batch, which should coverthe feed for both batches.
(18:22):
And you can't argue with that.
It's working out great for'em.
Also down in their basement.
They have a freeze dryer.
They have, uh, a place to storeall of their dry goods.
So they got a little bit of apantry going on down there.
They've got all of their cannedgoods down there, and when I'm
talking about they've got cannedgoods stored down there.
They do a lot of canning, theydo a lot of pickles and jams and
(18:47):
jellies and vegetables and meatand fish.
They can all of the things and.
So that was very, very excitingfor me to see that.
And that actually is somethingthat seems to be pretty common
in Alaska, um, is for people tobe involved in canning, in
particular fish.
(19:07):
They had some salmon that theyhad smoked and then they had
canned and they gave us a coupleof jars of that.
We took it back to my brother'shouse and we opened up one of
them and had that on crackersand I actually brought a jar.
With me here to beautifulupstate New York.
But while we were at mybrothers, he took out some of
his smoked salmon and we turnedit into a smoked salmon dip.
(19:31):
And oh my goodness.
That was kind of like, slap yourmama.
Good.
You know what I'm talking about?
Yeah.
I mean, it was good stuff.
Yes, absolutely.
But speaking of fish, That andhunting really seems to be a big
part of Alaskan culture and thatis to really ev avail yourself
(19:54):
of the resources that God hasgiven, has granted them.
That's something that I probablydon't do well.
In beautiful upstate New York.
I don't avail myself of as muchas I should have, and I
certainly don't talk about asmuch as I should here on the
(20:14):
podcast.
Things like foraging and thingslike hunting and fishing.
Now, to be frank with you, partof the reason why I don't talk
about them much here on thepodcast as far as the hunting
and fishing aspect of it is it'snot something that I really.
Doing and, and we'll talk aboutthat here in a second.
And then the foraging thing hasbeen something that's been very,
(20:35):
very interesting to me.
Something that I want to learnmore about, and it's something
that I'm looking forward tolearning more about at the
upcoming Southern AdirondackHomesteading Festival in May
when Rich Giordano does someforaging walks.
Very, very interested in that.
But because I haven't done muchof it and I don't know much
(20:55):
about it, I certainly haven'tcovered it much here on the
podcast, and that's probably afailure on my part.
It's probably an oversight on mypart, but the hunting and
fishing thing has just not beensomething that's been something
that I.
Have really ever enjoyed much,with the exception of when we
lived in Brazil.
(21:16):
When we lived in Brazil, thestyle of fishing that we did was
far more active than the fishingthat we have a tendency to do
here in the United States, whichis go cast and cast and cast and
drown worms.
And honestly, probably thereason why I don't enjoy it is
cuz I'm not good at it, youknow?
But there are people that'll goout and walk rivers and fly fish
(21:38):
all day and if they don't catchanything, they're happier to pig
in mud.
That's not it for me.
If I'm going fishing, I want tocatch fish.
And if I don't catch fish, thento me, I've wasted.
Same way.
When it goes, when, when itcomes down to hunting, like for
me, I don't enjoy hunting justto go get out in the woods.
Like I can go out in the woodsand get cold and not carry a gun
(22:00):
with me.
To me, if I'm going hunting andI don't get something, I don't
bring back some game of somesort.
Then to me that was a waste oftime and I just don't wanna
waste time.
So for me, hunting and fishing,Unless I'm guaranteed to catch
something, it's just not my jam,which is fine.
(22:21):
Different strokes for differentfolks, but it does seem to me
that the hunting and the fishingin Alaska is much better, and
it's a little bit of a differentstyle of.
Hunting and fishing a little bitmore active than what I am used
to doing here in beautifulupstate New York.
So perhaps it would be somethingthat if I lived up there, I
(22:42):
would avail myself of more thanwhat I do here.
Uh, here in New York, my brotherhad freezers full of fish.
And in fact, he sent me homewith a, an entire cooler filled
with fish.
And, uh, my family and I will beenjoying that.
And he was happy to get rid ofit because it's coming up on
(23:04):
fishing season and he wants tobe able to go get more fish.
And so he's going to be able todo that in part because he
blessed us with a cooler full offish.
But that certainly does seem tobe a very, very important part.
Not just the, this homestead'sapproach to being
(23:24):
self-sufficient and self-reliantand sustainable, but it really
does seem to be a big, huge partof the Alaskan culture.
There's so much more I can sayabout the, their homestead.
They're just doing all thethings.
It was very, very impressive.
And again, I'm looking aroundhere, we.
Mid-April, two to three feet ofsnow on the ground.
And I'm thinking, how in theworld are you gonna raise and
(23:45):
grow any food here?
And yet they're doing all thethings.
And then as they startedexplaining to me about the
growing season and the impactthat the long sunny days have on
their ability to raise and growfood, I was like, oh duh.
Why didn't I think of that.
Now down the end of the roadfrom where my brother lives, uh,
(24:08):
is a couple, Mike and Missy, whohave kind of adopted my brother
and sister-in-law as their ownchildren and my nieces and
nephews as their own grandkids.
And they are big time into, uh,gardening as well, and they're
doing the whole fishing and thehunting thing.
I mean, Mike actually has agrizzly bear that he shot.
(24:31):
Mounted in his living room, likeit's, when I say mounted, it's
on its hind legs.
It, it's a full on grizzly bearmount.
I mean, it's beautiful,beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
But he's into all of those kindsof things.
But he also is a big timegardener.
And so my nephew Finley, hasbeen starting plants down there.
(24:55):
With Mike.
And so every day Finley wouldleave to go down to see if his
plants had popped up.
It was fun to watch him be very,very excited about raisin and
growing food, and I loved seeingthat.
While we were there, my nephewBryce, he's been wanting to get
some plants started, so they gothim a little Jiffy pot, uh,
greenhouse thing, um, with a.
(25:18):
Pete pods and he got some, uh,brassica started and I, I, I
think some peppers and maybesome tomatoes.
Um, Finley has some tomatoes andcucumbers and watermelon and I
think lettuce and Mike himselfhas tomatoes and peppers and I
don't even remember all thestuff that he's got started.
(25:40):
He's using rayd beds as well.
And so it's just very excitingto see my nephews and my niece,
uh, Bella, as well, be aroundthese people that are very, very
passionate about growing food.
And to see, Bryce and Finley inparticular get bit by that bug.
(26:01):
Um, hopefully it sticks and theywill be the next generation of
Wells's carrying on thetradition.
Of raisin and growing food.
So overall, certainly it was avacation.
We did some skiing, did somesight scene.
All of the things, certainly notthe best time.
If you're wanting to go toAlaska and look for a homestead,
(26:25):
um, certainly not the best timeof the year to do that.
And I, I will tell you that'snot why we went.
My brother said his mission wasto, um, convince me that I
needed to leave beautifulupstate New York and move to
Alaska, and while I found Alaskabeautiful, and I understand why
(26:48):
it has captivated my brother andsister-in-law the way that it
has, I would say that I'm stillnot convinced that I need to
move to.
Now I would love to spend aseason growing a garden in
Alaska.
I think that would be fun.
I would really love toexperiment to see just exactly
(27:10):
how these long days affect whatyou can raise and grow.
I, I would absolutely love tosee that, but I don't know as
I'm ready to leave beautifulupstate New York yet, maybe
someday, but.
I still love it here.
(27:31):
Beautiful Upstate New York.
Anyhow, folks, I hope you foundthis interesting.
It certainly was a privilege andan honor to visit the homestead
of, of Mark and Irene, and thenspend time talking with Mike and
Missy about how they raise andgrow food there in Alaska.
And I certainly came awayinspired.
(27:54):
I came away challenged, and Icame away with a little bit more
knowledge than when I arrivedthere in beautiful Alaska.
It's just, I, I can't say it'smore beautiful than upstate New
York.
I'm not gonna say it's lessbeautiful in upstate New York.
(28:14):
I'm just gonna say it'sbeautiful in its own right.
Maybe that's lame, but it iswhat it is.
I still love beautiful upstateNew York.
I do.
I do.
I.
Anyhow, folks, that's it forthis episode.
I hope you've enjoyed it.
Any questions at all, reach outto me, Brian, at the homestead
(28:34):
journey.net.
You can find us on all of thesocials.
The links will be in the shownotes, and until next time,
everybody, keep up the goodwork.
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