Summer harvests

Subsistence: a source or means of obtaining the necessities of life.

Living off the land is a skill a lot closer to the current collective Alaskan memory than back down in the lower 48*. First off, there is the entire native population that has lived in the bush for thousands of years completely self sufficiently. Last summer I saw an exhibit at the Anchorage Museum on Yup'ik ways of living, and it was completely mindblowing. Then there is the homesteading tradition that is only 1 to 2 generations away from present time. As recently as the 1970's, the US government was giving away land here in exchange for promises to improve and develop it. Until 1950, you could only reach Homer by boat, and so homesteaders became experts at subsistence living. There is a wealth of local knowlege about the uses of native plants - which you can eat, which have medicinal properties...And far more people garden here than anywhere else I've been. Given the cost of living, it makes a lot of sense to grow your own food.

I adore living a "homesteader" kind of life. We just eat so well! I was harvesting strawberries the other day and let me tell you, while home grown strawberries may not be as red or fat as store bought strawberries, they are 100 times juicier and sweeter.

Last week, our ducks (who we keep for eggs) hatched FOURTEEN babies. Sooo cute!

I did always have dreams of living on a farm when I was growing up. Its pretty great.

*"Lower 48" seems like a self-explanatory phrase to me, but in talking to my friends, apparently it's not. Just think about how there are 48 contiguous States, then there is Hawaii to the west and Alaska to the north. Another common term is "outside," used to describe leaving the state (generally to the lower 48, where most people have left families and friends). As in "I'm going Outside for Christmas break" or "Is he from Outside?"