The Basics of Living in the rural Alaskan "Bush"

Are we officially Alaskan Bush People now? lol 

I think the first thing you need to know if you want to work in rural Alaska, you have to be extremely flexible…

We ended up driving up to Fairbanks. It is 600 miles from the border in Haines to Fairbanks. We stopped in Beaver Creek for the night. The ride was intense. It was HOT and the sun would not go down. I also hated that there were no road signs for miles while driving through the Canadian wilderness. It made it really hard to gauge how far away you were. We stopped in Tok to eat at Fast Eddy’s Diner and we stopped in North Pole to see the Santa Claus House. Instead of driving to Circle to put the car on the barge, we opted to get a storage unit to put the car in and fly into Fort Yukon. We figure we will be back through in September (to drive down to Palmer to see the Alaska State Fair), October (For follow-up Medical appointments), December (We are trying to go somewhere warm… Anchorage has direct flights to Hawaii and Costa Rica/Puerto Rico are surprisingly “cheap” comparative to Mexico as a destination), and sometime in the Spring (Maybe in March to see the Ice Festival in Fairbanks) so it will be nice to have a vehicle. Some tips on storage: Use rubber-made tubs, they are a bit more expensive but they are made with rubber and oils so when the temperature reaches the negatives, they wont shatter like the cheap (usually clear) plastic totes. Also, when storing a car you have to take the battery out since the negative temperatures will kill the battery. (Another tip: Taxis will come jumpstart your car for $20) We stayed at the Golden North Hotel, which was walking distance to Fred Meyer. It was about $140 a night and was spacious but basic. Best Western is about $250. 

We also missed our flight because the first taxi didn’t wait 2 minutes for us while we were grabbing our luggage and the 2nd taxi never showed. The next morning, we almost missed the flight again when we went to the wrong airport. (We went to the Main one, but since we were flying Warbelows we were supposed to go to the other smaller one) If you fly, Ravn you take the regular airport. There is also Wright Air that service this area. You get 80lbs in luggage per person in the first flight and last flight of the day, otherwise it is only 40lbs. Freight is 0.60 cents a pound. 

Fort Yukon is small, but is not tiny. The school is next door to the AC Store, which is next door to the Post Office. 

Across the street is the Multi-Use Facility: Court Sytem/DHSS/DMV. There is also the Tribal Government Building, where the Cultural Center is (There is a fair at the end of the month). A Health Clinic. A City Government Building. There is also the Airport and a liquor Store. I think a fun project for my 3rd Graders will be for them to create a map of the town. It would be useful for new staff and tourists. 

We live in teacher housing (which is fully furnished) and a 20-minute walk to school (There is also a little community bus that runs M-F from 7am-6pm for $20 a month)  There are no paved roads (Everyone rides four-wheelers or snow machines in the Winter). There is construction for the new power facility. Oh, there is also a water plant too. We have nice drinkable running water and hot showers/on-site laundry. We put in requests for Cable & Internet (and were told it can be about 14 days) The TV does pick up PBS from the antennae, so I can watch fuzzy olympics in the meantime (Can’t believe that it has been 4 years since we were in Thailand… I remember watching fuzzy Olympics in teacher housing in Chiang Mai) Our AT&T cells do not work, but we got a GCI chip which has been working. We even can get really slow data on it! There was a treadmill in the unit, the District offered to take it out but we figure it would be nice to keep. 

I really love the windows at the housing. We live kind of at the edge of town, so there is just fields and trees. We have seen bunny rabbits in the backyard, there is a little ferret or weasel that lives under the storage container in the front yard, and we had 3 interesting looking birds “quack quacks” as my 2 year old calls them, by our front steps. Moose hunting has not opened yet, but my husband already has offers from locals to take him out when it does. 

We can call the Fred Meyer in Fairbanks and by pressing 0, you get connected to the “Bush Order” department. You give your shopping list to the lady who is personal shopper. She can either mail it to you if it is non-perishables or send it by plane (for meat and produce) I am told we can also order from Amazon to here. If you really want, you can get take-out sent on the plane. The local grocery store doesn’t seem as expensive as we kept hearing,  but we came from Southeast Alaska so things only seem $1 more than they would be there. Since things have to come by plane, the biggest mark-up is on things that weigh a lot ($14 for orange juice!)($6 for Milk, but thats what it was in SE) I think that is why powdered drink like tang/kool-aid are popular. Produce isn’t in the best shape, which is why canned or frozen fruits and veggies are popular. The trick to shopping there seems to just wait till something is on-sale. We got a Digiorna Pizza & Wings on sale for $8.99. A loaf of Tillamook cheese was $13.99 (I think I remember it being $5 for Pizza/$10 for cheese in Washington) The Store is an Alaska Commercial Store, so I wonder if i’ll be able to get double miles here like we did at the AC store in Sitka. 

There was a lady moving out next door when we were moving in and she gave us her pantry. We got introduced to “Shelf Stable’ Whipping Cream from Trader Joes. You can dilute it to use for milk and does not need to be refrigerated till opening. Its a good thing we like to cook! We will have to get creative here! She gave us two big bags of coleslaw mix. I will attempt to make a buerre blanc sauce with cabbage with it… maybe cabbage soup too… We have a nice full “Western” Kitchen, (When we were in Thailand, we survived without a kitchen with just a hotplate, microwave, and rice-cooker…) there is an Asian Market in Fairbanks so we will have to stock up on spices next time we are in town. We did manage to score a bulk bag of jasmine rice here ($50) Kind of amazed that it was Jasmine Thai rice and not that cheap rice. The lady at the store seemed to be surprised that they had it. One of the ladies who worked there had just come back from a trip to Thailand. 

The rest of Alaska is in the 60s, we are in the mid-70s. Temperatures are extreme here. Fort Yukon apparently has had the highest recorded temperature in Alaska. Its also summer, so its light out al the time. But as winter approaches it will be the opposite: negative temperatures and darkness (but we are supposed to get Auroras every day!)  I made my husband promise to make an igloo for me this winter. I have always wanted to make one. The people around here are Athabaskan not Inuit, so its not something that I think is traditionally done around here. Athabaskan are known for skin sewing and bead-work, I hope to pick up some beading while we are here. My husband wants to do some skin-sewing. 

Everyone in town is friendly and curious about us. The District goes out of its way to make sure we are comfortable. It should be a great year :)