A New Jersey couple survived the Alaskan wilderness on a homestead

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240517-the-intrepid-new-jersey-couple-that-survived-the-alaskan-wilderness-on-a-homestead

by gds44 • 2 years ago

81 54 2 years ago

bbc.com

John238323• 2 years ago

They discuss eating bear, just a reminder for everyone that bear meat is a prime harbor for worms and parasites. On top of the fact that, like expressed in the article, it's frankly not good.

downrightmike• 2 years ago

All the toxins in the food chain end up in the apex predators

kibwen2• 2 years ago

This is why you should be careful eating raw fish.

stcredzero• 2 years ago

All the toxins in the food chain end up in the apex predators

Is there an analogy for media and information?

hentrep• 2 years ago

Your last sentence is subjective. I grew up eating bear sausage and it was delicious. Perhaps owing to differences in black bear diet/meat vs Alaskan bear. This article seems to corroborate my suspicions: https://www.outdoorlife.com/hunting/bear-meat/

porkloin• 2 years ago

Trichinosis is incredibly common in Alaska's bear population. As with any kind of game meat, thoroughly cooking to recommended temps is highly encouraged. Plenty of people get away with eating undercooked meat for years, but you don't have control over the randomness of what an animal you hunt was exposed to. Trich is no joke and can seriously injure you.

https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=disease.muscle2

All bear and lynx meat should be considered possibly infected.

rolph3• 2 years ago

yes your right, the time of year, dictates diet, and general diet influences the meat.

RcouF1uZ4gsC• 2 years ago

I grew up eating bear sausage and it was delicious.

Isn’t sausage the goto thing when you want to take meat that would otherwise be nasty and turn it into something palatable?

I don’t think you statement contradicts the parent post about bear meat being not good

John238323• 2 years ago

Your last sentence is subjective.

Sure. I think that's stating the obvious though.

rolph3• 2 years ago

that smell, when your yard dog, is soaked from the rain, after rolling in fishwaste. thats sorta the smell of cooking bear meat, theres a lot of grease, and fat.

! Dont Cook it in Your House !

it often ends up feeding sled dogs.

alfalfasprout• 2 years ago

Black bear that feeds on mostly berries, etc. during spring is actually quite delicious.

carabiner• 2 years ago

This is NSFL, but there are numerous pictures and videos of bears trailing tape worms from their anus.

cgh• 2 years ago

Your first point is much less of a big deal than you think. Cook it thoroughly (easiest way is to simply grind up the meat first) and you’re fine.

I don’t agree with your second point. It’s pretty good, especially spring bear. That said, I avoid bears that eat a lot of spawning salmon in the fall.

People have eaten bears for literally millennia, especially indigenous North Americans. It’s not some recent thing that we are wrong to do. They are a natural prey animal in eg BC, where they live in high densities.

John238323• 2 years ago

It’s not some recent thing that we are wrong to do.

Who said it was wrong? I said bears harbor parasites (they do), and that the meat is bad (which is my opinion, I guess).

maxerickson• 2 years ago

A reminder for all the people that are going to accidentally eat some bear?

kibwen2• 2 years ago

In April 1964, Alaska was struck by a magnitude 9.2 megathrust earthquake that devastated much of Anchorage.

This is a sidebar that I think is historically underappreciated.

Take a look at this incredible graphic, which goes up to 2005: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_earthquakes#/media/Fi...

For the period from 1906 to 2005, half of all the energy released by all recorded earthquakes came from just three events, one of which being the Alaskan quake.

Logarithmic scales are scary.

brianbreslin• 2 years ago

Indonesia having over 2000 earthquakes a year is wild!

canadiantim• 2 years ago

ring of fire, baby

grecy• 2 years ago

That earthquake in Alaska cracked swimming pools in California!

IncreasePosts4• 2 years ago

Sounds like they didn't survive the Alaskan wilderness on a homestead, and instead survived in a city or in a provided structure while occasionally heading out into the wilderness and wasting their time producing nothing much of a value.

fxtentacle• 2 years ago

Sounds like they divorced and then the father died in a car accident while trying to make life in the wilderness work. And the mother moved to the city and never came back, which helped her have a long life with her daughter, so probably that was the better decision.

justusthane• 2 years ago

Sort of tragically ironic that he died in a car accident while trying to live outside of modern civilization.

solardev• 2 years ago

Are there any successful tales of Alaskan homesteading? It seems like we fetishize those foolhardy lone wolves like this couple or Alex McCandless from Into the Wild, but where are all those people who moved out there and actually managed to live happy, simple lives?

One of my favorite book series is Woodswoman, about a lady who set out into Vermont to build herself a lakeside cabin from scratch and made a living off maple farming. The several books detail her trials and tribulations, but also her joyful swims and happy encounters with the neighbors.

I would love to hear about more encounters like that in Alaska, not just the people who trek out there but never make it.

GlibMonkeyDeath• 2 years ago

Two examples I can think of off-hand:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Proenneke

and

https://www.jeanaspen.com/about-us

slackfan• 2 years ago

Plenty. But here's the rub, most that do do not want to be seen, heard, and care very little for the internet. The life also is not simple.

tula• 2 years ago

Dick Proenneke is one of the more well-known ones. He built his cabin all on his own, filming the whole process, as well as his life there. He lived in his cabin for thirty years.

https://www.nps.gov/lacl/learn/historyculture/proennekes-cab...

Arrath• 2 years ago

These college friends did it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3NWdFll2X8

Not super long term, but interesting!

marssaxman• 2 years ago

There were ~3500 successful homestead claims in Alaska. My ex-wife's dad grew up on one of them, near Soldotna; she and I went out to visit once. It was not seen as an unusual experience in that area.

I don't imagine those folks spend much time writing about their lives on the internet.

s1artibartfast4• 2 years ago

Im honestly curious where this hostility is coming from?

Ideas of value are obviously subjective.

ramesh31• 2 years ago

There's an obsession with the old ways. As if they were better. As if sitting in a cabin in the woods and breaking your back every day to not die of starvation is some kind of accomplishment. It's not.

IncreasePosts4• 2 years ago

I would call it more of an honest statement about what happened there, as opposed to an overly positive one.

Having said that, I do have a long-standing issue with the relatively small group of people who try to go their own way from society without a modicum of understanding about what kind of work and skills will be required. As well as an issue with the larger group of people who cheer on these folks and either enable this behavior or become subject to this behavior themselves.

Where do my feelings on the subject come from? Well, "into the wild" was required reading my freshman year of college. And I was forced to engage in dozens of discussions treating McCandless as a tragic hero, instead of an idiot.

My issue isn't necessarily with people wanting to get away from mainstream society, but it is going about it in an absolutely boneheaded manner. I have an immense amount of respect for people like dick proenekke

pnathan• 2 years ago

wasting their time producing nothing much of a value.

they lived. that is not nil. it enriched their lives.

But, eh, I wouldn't say they lived and thrived there.

Some other people have done the very far out life. Here's one: https://hellscanyon.tours/2022/08/15/all-about-buckskin-bill... is one example.

I think its very feasible.... for people who know what they are doing. This probably requires basically an apprenticeship.

Turing_Machine• 2 years ago

Maybe their value system is different to yours.

BXLE_1-1-BitIs1• 2 years ago

Women are not as much attached to the backwoods life as men. I know two that went back to the big city after a few years.

A New Jersey couple survived the Alaskan wilderness on a homestead

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