by Mark Zeiger

Created on: November 23, 2008   Last Updated: February 06, 2009

If you were to ask me how versatile a homesteader must be, I'd invite you to come see for yourself. Hike across the tidal basin and over the ridge to my homestead, perched on the ocean's edge in southern Alaska.

Strictly and legally speaking, this is not a homestead. The Federal Homestead Act that allowed Americans to claim 160 acres by "proving up" the land over five years ended in 1976 in the U.S. except in Alaska, where it ended in 1986. Now "homesteading" means living off the land as independently as possible.

Here we are. The previous owner built the cabin by hand. That's a James washer, we use it to wash clothes. It's purchased, but we modified it to make it safe to use. That's not an open pit outhouse; we use a home-built composting toilet system. The contraption over there is a pulk, a harness-pulled sled. I built it myself to haul firewood and supplies.

Come inside for coffee! It won't take long since we installed the propane stove. I'd never used one before. I had to learn how to hook up the tanks with the proper couplings. Before that, I was happy to use the wood stove. We've gotten pretty good at cooking on it. You like the hearth? We built that ourselves when we installed the wood stove, choosing rocks from the beach and mortaring them with cement. Beside it is a wood-heated hot water tank. We used to have a larger one, but we couldn't patch it anymore, and had to tear it out and replace it with this one. I had to change the plumbing and re-sweat the fittings to the new equipment. We rebuilt the drains in the sinks and replaced the shower spigots at the same time.

Would you grab the coffee jar? It's under the sink. The hose under there is our fire hose, it's tied into the plumbing. You'll also notice fire extinguishers everywhere, and smoke alarms in all the buildings. All three of us have practiced knocking down a fire with an extinguisher at the Fire Department. Can you imagine a municipal fire department responding to a fire on this side of the ridge? We're completely on our own in that case. Same with injuries, unless we can hike or boat out. We've got some first aid training, but we intend to get certified in back country emergency response next time it's offered. It's one of the few trainings available anymore that go beyond how to stabilize an injured person until 911 sends the ambulance. That's not going to happen here.

A guest broke her ankle two years ago. She had a green-stick fracture. We made a poultice out of plantain, that flattened plant

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