Miles France

I have six kids (My Wife actually had them I was just a small part of the process) they range in age from 25 to 6 with the four younger ones still living with us. We are building a small homestead in Alaska and currently live in a 32 foot RV down by the river (its really a creek but its mine and its beautiful). Don't wait to have kids. The farm will never be done enough and you will never have enough resources. The pursuit of material things is an empty lonely endeavor. Kids raised on the farm don't care if their clothes come from the thrift store, they get to experience the joys of new life and the sadness of death, they know where their food comes from, they know what work means. Anyway don't wait to have kids.

It is a John Deere 510 it is a beast of a backhoe it came with all the manuals when I bought it, I don't know a whole lot about it but I can tell you if it starts making funny noises then something is about to brake lol. Its a good machine and so far has been very reliable.

Hi All, This summer we moved out to our property north of willow, the house site is 1.3 miles off the highway and took about three summers to build a road I could drive an RV on lol roads are alot of work, anyway here in a week or so I will be moving the chicken coop out and am building an enclosure for two little yaks we bought from Circle F Ranch in Kenny Lake. we are also in the process of planting 38,000 Rhodiola seedlings. The farm should be certified organic within a year or so. The house we are building will be earth bermed with a living roof, we are totally off grid. Because there does not seem to be a lot of info regarding proven permiculture and sustainable agriculture techniques for Alaska I will be testing as many of the different approaches as I can and will post here as things progress

Here is what I have found to work so far:

1. Get your soul tested. Most soil is low in nitrogen and acidic.

2. Remove the moss and roots. I have 120 acres north of Willow and cleared 3 acres this June and still had 18 inches of frozen ground under the r-30 moss where as the little bit that I had cleared the year before was dry and ready to work. The cold ground is also why we have low nitrogen in our soil, the soil microbes never get a chance to get working.

3. Choose a garden location that gives as much early season sun as possible.

Soupy soil could be a problem if the spruce and birch are big and health then I would say your ground is solid but if the spruce is stunted you may have a permafrost lens under the soil, walk around and dig down with a post hole digger to get a feel for whats under the surface.

The UA COOP system has a lot of resources for figuring out your soil

I have 120 acres north of Willow and am currently building home and farm. We are currently living in a RV and having a grand time.