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Post by starryskyranch on Jun 7, 2006 16:11:50 GMT -5
My husband was approached about a job at the base in Fairbanks. He is intrigued - always has been - with living in AK. We have a ranch on the raw high prairie of Eastern CO right now and have been trying to provide for ourselves with dairy goats and chickens. We were rank novices when we bought this place a few yrs ago. There are so many things we wish we had known about - water and mineral rights, water well longevity, the fact nothing will grow because of the altitude and wind......
Anyway, we would like to know what our options are to buy a decent chunk of land near Fairbanks where we could continue to raise our animals and a good number of children. <g> We have 70 acres here but would need a lot less if we had a tree or two and grass - both are scarse here.
Can anyone tell us what the *issues* are we should be aware of in regards to land parcels? What is the water well situation in this area? Most of the posts I have seen mention surface water only. How about septic? Sounds as if we can garden well enough there. Any other major issues we should know about?
Thanks! Kim
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Post by Washkeeton on Jun 7, 2006 17:15:42 GMT -5
The biggest factor is finding a piece of land that is not all permafrost. Most of the places that I have looked at had cyonide in the ground water because of the heavy mining in the area long ago. You would have to ask others on the problems with ground water. Weather will be a factor. Colorado with its wind chill may get down there but -50 to -70 is a might chilly if not appropriately dressed. You can garden up there with excellent gardens and plant life grown. I do have some links and have met some that know folks up there with even apple orchards. Will pm them if you like just say so. Lots of wonderful stuff up there fun place to be. I dont miss the cold just the area.
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Post by starryskyranch on Jun 7, 2006 17:28:37 GMT -5
Feel free to email me privately. So what's the deal with the permafrost? How does that affect drilling a well? One would assume negatively : / We grew up in WI so we are familiar with sub zero temps. Farming in subzero temps we havent done in a lot of years though. Mostly we just don't want to end up with a piece of useless land that cant be built on etc.
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Post by Washkeeton on Jun 7, 2006 22:23:43 GMT -5
You can grow some really nice gardens up and around fairbanks. I have a friend there and I will pm him and see if he will come over here and post and talk to you about the area. He is there now and can tell you much more than I can. I was there 10 yrs ago for about 2 yrs.
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Post by smwon on Jul 15, 2006 15:56:50 GMT -5
This would be a nice topic to be continued...
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Post by Washkeeton on Jul 16, 2006 0:01:19 GMT -5
Hey linda i asked rob to come over and talk to him about fairbanks. I guess he never did. Maybe if you asked nicely and smiled real nicely. lol.
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Post by smwon on Jul 16, 2006 0:52:48 GMT -5
Ok, who is Rob and where is he at? ROB! I am smiling  big ;D... Do I have to say PLEASE too? |
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Post by Washkeeton on Jul 16, 2006 19:09:45 GMT -5
Hey Linda, from HO, aka Ak Man. |
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Post by smwon on Jul 16, 2006 20:03:42 GMT -5
Hi Ak Man... are you who is supposed to tell me about the Fairbanks area? Or should I call you wash? |
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Post by marcie on Nov 6, 2006 16:01:27 GMT -5
Hi,
We spent two years trying to find a place in/near Fairbanks and discovered that the water supply problem varies a lot. Even on the fringes of town there may not be city water, and there are sometimes wells, but in some areas there is arsenic in the water, so in those cases they have to either have water delivered, or they drive to get some. There was a spring out in in Fox, just outside Fairbanks that people for miles used to haul water, and there may be others. I never heard of anyone using surface (stream) water in that area. For more information you can contact Prof. Richard Siefert at the Cooperative Extension office at UAF (University of Alaska Fairbanks there. I pulled this email address off the internet for him: ffrds@uaf.edu
About permafrost... in this part of Alaska it is here and there, of course, and any property would have to be checked thoroughly. Another problem a friend ran into when attempting to build in Fairbanks was that a tiny spot of what was described as "wetland" was discovered on his land, and he had to jump through a whole lot of hoops to be able to do so. We bought property in town and out at Two Rivers both, and didn't run into any insurmountable objects, but it took a long time to locate what we wanted in town. There are many owner built homes there that are not up to any code, and that have a whole lot of problems, that it sometimes makes things difficult.
We were happy with what we eventually found there, with the Lord's help.
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big ;D... Do I have to say PLEASE too?