Nice documentary about living off the land and off the grid-check it out

brewcitymike

brewcitymike

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I'm sure some of you have heard about this if not seen it but for any who haven't, I like spreading good movies etc. Its about a guy from WI(just like me:D) who moved to Alaska in the late 70's and now, along with his wife, is the only person living in the Arctic Nat'l Wildlife Refuge which takes up about the entire northeast corner of the state. He hunts, fishes, and is a seasoned trapper. So he's well off when it comes to meat(you'll see what I mean) and they basically do all the other things that one would do to get by when that far out in the wild-alone. Where he lives, they can hardly even land bush planes. He keeps a SAT phone because he was pretty much told that if an emergency arose, the only timely help would be a chopper from the military:o Its a good movie, I've not yet finished the last 10-15 mins but I still highly recommend it. I first heard about this while talking films on a trappers forum. Between this and the film Happy People you can get an amazing view into the world of modern day frontiersman and true to life survivalists/woodsmen. One who's in Alaska the other in Siberia.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIzrw0jsAJw
 
I wonder if the military makes you reimburse them for their help? I know that the U.S. Military occasionally lends its service out for private parties (like renting their big cargo planes, etc.), but they charge with a heavy markup for their service, since they're not really a commercial organization and they don't really like doing it. I wonder if you call the military and they provide helicopter and first aid for you, whether or not they charge you. I would guess they might...
 
Thanks for the heads-up. My kind of documentary. I enjoyed watching first 1/2 (looking forward for last 1/2). Food for thought while stuck in traffic here in so-cal...
 
What trappers forum do you go on? I'll watch this tomorrow, sounds really cool. Um where's the knife you want me to handle?
 
arcadiaknives said:
Um where's the knife you want me to handle?
Click to expand...

Sorry buddy, I got hit with some personal stuff a couple weeks ago and I just got over being sick too so it just fell by the wayside. I plan to do it pretty soon though. I also bought a Condor Bushcraft and they have very plain wood handles but they are epoxied on if I'm not mistaken so if you think you can still rehandle one of those I might opt for that with some buckeye burl that I got. It's not stabilized but it will be okay for a $30 knife,lol. I am still somewhat hesitant about using the acrylester, but it looks sooo cool:D I'll try giving you a call in the next couple days.
 
Interesting. They had a few more modern pieces of equipment and supplies than I figured they would being that remote. Takes a lot of skills and determination to even attempt that kind of lifestyle.
 
Saw a similar documentary on PBS a while ago about a fellow named Dick Proenneke. Truly amazing and he made so much of it seem so easy.
 
thanks for posting! i watched it last year and forgot all about it. like nozyk posted, dick proenneke's "alone in the wilderness" is also really nice. les stroud and his wife also made an off-the-grid video (weird seeing him with long hippy hair! haha) similar to that but they were even more extreme - they started off not having any metal cutting tools but it got so extreme that they relented to having an axe, or was it a saw.
 
I got Les Stroud & his wife's dvd for Xmas this past year:D Its called Snowshoes and Solitude and the Dick Proenneke series is Alone in the Wilderness parts 1&2, then the same director/producer guy made two more called The Frozen North and Silence and Solitude. There also a NatGeo documentary I've yet to see called Braving Alaska that's about some homesteaders(it might even be Heimo's family but I can't say for sure). These films make me want to live there sooooo bad once my daughter is grown up an out on her own. I'd love to live in the bush in the interior but close enough to say fairbanks to get there be atv/snow machine.
 
Hey thank you. I really enjoyed this. I remember years ago a special on national geographic I watched with my dad called braving Alaska. These two and their oldest daughter were on it back then.

Great watching.
 
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