Twelve Live Gifts that Keep on Giving, by Mrs. Alaska

In the spirit of the season, I offer a “Twelve Days of Christmas” list of LIVE gifts that keep on giving to us here, at a remote homestead in Alaska.

1- Gallon of red wiggler worms, divided among my food gardens. They eat the kitchen scraps I toss there and rapidly improve the soil.

2 – Years’ worth of seeds (many degrade after that: check with a float/sink test each year).

3 – Rabbits (1 buck and 2 does). They can be mated at about five months and over the year, fill our larder. (In the photo at left, can you see all three?) They do breed…

4 – Months of summer (yes, we have a short but glorious growing season).

5 – Hens (Dominiques and Jersey giants are very reliable egg layers for us – almost one egg per hen per day except in the darkest and coldest weather). As free-rangers in summer, they are terrific at reducing flies and other pests as well as weeds at the base of bushes.

6 – Varieties of fruit bushes, plants, and canes Wild berries grow well in our boreal forest setting, so, in addition to wild ones that we harvest (cranberries and blueberries), we also planted six domesticated ones: haskaps, saskatoons, currants (red and white), strawberries, and raspberries. Other than strawberries, these plants can produce fruit for decades and some plant leaves are tasty in teas (I favor raspberry and strawberry). I let the strawberry plants naturalize as a pretty ground cover.

7 bee hives (only a few of ours are shown here)

7 – Beehives when they overwinter. Fewer when they die. (We raise Buckfast. We use honey instead of sugar in all food, including beer, which, FYI, is called a braggot when made with honey, and in medicines and for facials and hair treatments).

8 – Raised bed gardens (about 8 x 4 each, for food production.

9 cords of wood

9 – Cords of year-old dried wood to heat our home and hot tub for 12 months.
We burn spruce for the outdoor hot tub and birch inside the cabin. We cut most of it in March, and let it dry (cure) for a year in an open sided but roofed building before burning it.

10 – Foot deep lake. Our lake is shallow and lined by trees (shown, at left), but a daily gift. In the summer, we kayak and fish on it and land our float plane. It reflects the mountains and clouds and gently slaps the shore. In winter, we can travel across it by walking, cross-country skiing, snowmachining, and landing the ski plane. As it freezes, we hear “gun shots” and gurgles, and as it thaws we hear “snap, crackle, pop.” Its beauty and sounds in both warm and cold seasons give it a personality that we enjoy every single day.

11: Gallons of water per day was the least I could get by with for drinking, cooking, washing, and caring for a minimum number of animals. For several years, we relied on lake water and snowmelt. Then we had a well dug by professionals. “Well” worth the price!

12 + : Edible and medicinal wild plants for which I forage in my yard: plantain, yarrow, dandelion, birch, alder, spruce, rose, chaga, chickweed, chamomile, clover, and elderflower.

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My sense of gratitude and appreciation has grown immensely since embarking on a remote, simple, intentional life. May you find joy and thanks in your life choices, too. Best Wishes.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mrs. Alaska blogs at alaskauu1.blogspot.com. She is also the author of Log Cabin Reflections, a Kindle book