Today!

The truck is almost loaded. We have to drive to Seattle and catch a freighter, then fly off into the not quite wild.

All our normal stuff, plus preps for close to the end of the supply line!

Thanks for the help and the interesting conversations. Some of you may have helped save our lives. Postings on topics like Oil Chat, refinery fires, scenarios, grocery store and pharmacy shortages, etc. have been widely disseminated by my husband and myself, and have done more good than the posters may ever know. We have gotten a lot of feedback from all sorts of people who had GId but not done much lately that they were redoubling their efforts. Oil Chat given to the nice young man who bought my Volvo caused him to GI in a big way; he called my husband from the other end of the state today for more info and general whoa! and yipes!.

Even the pollys and trolls have helped by making me sure want to get the heck out of Dodge.

Hope to be in touch, but moving is intense; my affection and prayers are with you all.

-- seraphima (seraphima@aol.com), December 03, 1999

Answers

Seraphima,

I've got a sister in Alaska. Don't know what part of that big state you're going to -- but if you want, drop me an email msg (this is, in fact, my real email address) and I would be happy to put you in touch with her.

Meanwhile, Godspeed and good luck. The prayers of all of us on the forum are with you and your family....

29 days to go.

Ed

-- Ed Yourdon (ed@yourdon.com), December 03, 1999.

Stay VERY warm... and dry. (And find an internet service provider a.s.a.p.)

Best of luck!

Diane

(Muttering aside... ALASKA!!! in the dead of winter?? Yikes! More "pioneer" guts than I've got).

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), December 03, 1999.

Best of Luck on You Journey!!!!!!!!!!!!!

;-)

-- northernlights (karlacalif@aol.com), December 03, 1999.

Ummm...what part of Alaska are you heading for?

-- Nelson Isada (isada@alaska.net), December 03, 1999.

seraphima

I have been in the Yukon, NWT and northern British Columbia for 6 years in my past. Hopefully you know folk and are used to it. Bit of an adventure ahead of you whether you have been up there or not. Best of luck to you. Wave at the northern lights for me, part of my heart will always remain in the north.

and keep your liners dry.

-- Brian (imager@home.com), December 03, 1999.

"Seraphima",

I will miss reading your posts. I cried when I read your post of your trip to visit Alaska last time. I think I might know how you feel. Alaska grabs you and doesn't let go. Spent a couple of months cooking for a crew of timber cutters in Southeast - still remember the sights, sounds and people from that isolated area and the small native village where I learned about the importance of basketball! Good luck, pack lots of dried milk, and the first morning you wake up to mist and crisp air and the incredible wildlife, do me a favor and shoot me a good thought and image of it. Who knows the magic of the place might work! Geez, crying now just remembering the beauty of it. May God continue to bless and watch over you and yours.

-- Kristi (securxsys@cs.com), December 03, 1999.

Seraphima,

Somewhere deep inside, I know that the connections made between the hearts and minds of this forum's contributors and readers will endure far beyond this space and time. The warm and appreciative thoughts of many go with you and yours as you embark on your new adventure. Do send word when and if you can. But know, too, that we're with you in thought and spirit whether tangible communication is available or not. Thank you for enriching us all with your many contributions.

-- Faith Weaver (suzsolutions@yahoo.com), December 03, 1999.

Off topic as hell, but here goes. The lunatic fringe notes that Alaska was not "sold" to the USA (according to the Russian view), but leased - and the lease is about up!

In either case, you could probably row a boat from Alaska to Russia (very close).

Y2K is only *one* risk.

-- Anonymous999 (Anonymous999@Anonymous999.xxx), December 03, 1999.

God grant you many blessed years.

. . . .

-- Magnolia (Magnooliaa@yahoo.com), December 03, 1999.

Anonymous999 wrote: "The lunatic fringe notes that Alaska was not "sold" to the USA (according to the Russian view), but leased - and the lease is about up!"...

THE INDEPENDENT, London
8th July, 1999

RUSSIANS WANT PART OF ALASKA RETURNED

ONE HUNDRED and thirty-two years after selling the vast and mineral- rich land of Alaska to the United States for $7.2m - a mere two cents an acre - in one of history's least lucrative land deals, Russia wants some of it back.
To the annoyance of the Alaskans, Moscow has been pressing the US government to part with 40,000 square miles of the seas and fishing grounds that separate East from West along the International Dateline.

The issue is part of a broader territorial issue in the far north that centres on a barren island well inside the Arctic Circle, just below the point at which the polar ice never melts. Aptly, this patch of 1,700 square miles is known by the Alaskans as Wrangel Island.

The island, which is usually frozen and populated by polar bears, is one of eight rocks and islands in the Arctic Ocean and Bering Sea which, with their large and rich seabeds, ended up in Russian territory under an agreement struck between what was the Soviet Union and the United States in 1990.

Notwithstanding its own vast and rich 548,400 square miles of land - in which there is an average of less than one person per square mile - Alaska was infuriated by the deal, not least because state representatives believe there may be oil and other important natural resources in the region.

The state's MPs contend that Alaska was denied the right to participate in the negotiations with the Soviet Union by the US government. The talks were held in secret. Alaska is also pressing for the agreement to be declared null and void, as the Soviet Union collapsed before it could be ratified by Moscow. Despite that, Russia and the US have since agreed to abide by the deal.

State rights are a particularly sensitive issue in Alaska, which until 1959 was denominated as a territory under an unelected governor chosen by the US president. Equally, Alaska - which was under Russian control for 126 years, after its trappers poured across the Bering Straits in search of sea otters and fur seals - has long been jealously eyed by Moscow, which has yet to forget how it gave the place away for a song in the mid- 19th century.

The issue of the so-called 1990 US-USSR Maritime Boundary Agreement has been simmering away for several years, but disagreements took an abrupt step forward a week ago when Alaska's governor, Tony Knowles, signed a resolution from both houses of the state legislature, strongly urging the US government to renegotiate it.

Although non-binding legally, the resolution heightens the pressure on the US federal government. The state is threatening to follow it up with a series of hearings on the issue. It argues that if it loses its 40,000 square miles of water to the Russians, then with it will go a potential annual catch of some 300 million pounds of fish, with nothing in return.

Wrangel is the jewel in the crown of the disputed territories. Alaska has long seen it as its own partly because it had a fur-trapping company on the island until 1924, when the Soviet Union occupied it. Quite apart from its possible mineral riches, it is rich in history: several years ago Russian scientists found the remains of 23 dwarf woolly mammoths on Wrangel, which they believed survived the Ice Age by 6,000 years, before finally being eradicated by early man.

[ENDS]

-- John Whitley (jwhitley@inforamp.net), December 03, 1999.

We lived in Alaska for over thirty years. Don't forget: Alaska is now a strategic target. Valdez is toast early in any game with big marbles, as is Prudhoe Bay, and any settlement (although they are very scant and small, except for Fairbanks) along the 800-mile pipeline route. I'm warning my old friends in Valdez to GET OUT NOW.

-- Liz Pavek (lizpavek@hotmail.com), December 03, 1999.

Liz, your interesting post reminds me a lot of the early days of Gary North's 'relocation' forum. This was in early/mid 1998. At that time, there were a lot of panicked people writing to say that their present location, X, was incredibly dangerous, citing all kinds of (true and reasonable) factors, and that thank god they had just managed to (purchase land, get a job, have relatives, etc.) in Y, a greatly preferable, very secure part of the country. Whew ! Dodged a bullet that time!

However, you'd see, on the same board, the same day (but without any mutual acknowledgement) equally anxious posts from people currently in area Y, saying how unsafe it was there and how they just had to get out! Sometimes they'd even state that the just wished they had the (money, job, relatives) needed to relocated to X!!!

-- Count Vronsky (vronsky@anna.lit), December 03, 1999.

Seraphima, granted there are a # of pluses for a GI in Alaska, have you fully considered the issue of Y2K vis-a-vis living a LONG way from any significant grain production? This issue is discussed in the article "Serious Voluntary Relocation" on my website. If you do go, as it sounds like you will, here is a Y2K contact in Alaska for you:

http://www.ptialaska.net/~dolmar/AKy2kAwareness.html

my site: www.y2ksafeminnesota.com

-- MinnesotaSmith (y2ksafeminnesota@hotmail.com), December 03, 1999.

Life in Alaska is HARSH under the best of circumstances, let alone Y2K and its attendant problems. If you are in the Interior, water is a problem, because permafrost means surface water is brown and undrinkable. Wells can be 300 feet deep. Closer to the mountains, drinking water is no problem--Alaska's drinking water is so pure, rumor has it they were ordered to add impurities to meed EPA standards! Food: Cabbages, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, peas grow well in most gardens south of the arctic circle. Greenhouses a necessity for just about anything else, since 99.9 % of Alaska's food has to be shipped in on barges. Fresh produce, milk, fruit, etc. are extremely expensive. Powdered milk, dried fruit, etc., is more the order of the day. Distances are staggering. Alaska comprises 586,000 square MILES. It's a six-hour trip from Valdez to Anchorage over winding 2-lane highways. Fairbanks is further, and the frost heaves in the road will make you seasick. Juneau, Ketchikan, Sitka, etc., are all reachable only by air or water. A good place to be FROM. On the coast, when it's not raining, it's snowing. Snowfall in Valdez averages around 50' per season. Rain, rain, rain is the order of the day. Bugs. BIG bugs. GAZILLIONS OF BIG BUGS, and even more little, teeny ones that bite even harder than the big ones. Winter in the Interior and parts north is COLD AND DARK! Minus 50 or 60 not uncommon. In the south, it gets daylight about 9:30 or 10 am, gets dark again around 3 pm. Dreary, depressing, and leads to psychological problems. Just so you know. Valdez is still a strategic target. There are 18 gigantic storage tanks in the tank farm there that contain millions of barrels of crude oil. A BIG bang.

-- Liz Pavek (lizpavek@hotmail.com), December 03, 1999.

Liz

You paint such a nice picture of the north :o) If the weather doesn't drive you crazy the bugs will.

You did forget to mention the summers which provide daylight for 24 hrs. A most remarkable mental shift. But during the winters you pay for it.

For the "want to be survivalists" I would recommend checking it out to understand the real meaning of survival. Alaska would not be my first choice to ride out the rollover.

Keep your liners dry folks.

-- Brian (imager@home.com), December 03, 1999.

Ah!Sour grapes, Alaska has cities ,towns ,villiges and all permit a short trip to fish,fowl and game. SE Ak temp avg. 48---colder further north.Most towns have fuel storage(long term) Lots and lots of wood for the barrel stove.Most rural dwellers already have everything put by to cover themselves until spring breakup.y2k preps are a regular yearly institution. Seraphina, You will LOVE it! I spent 24 years homesteading in SE on Prince of Wales Isd. and it has been the high point of my life. Relocated on the big island (Hawaii) but still summer on the old homestead during summer. The people are great and self-suffecient.Never ate better in my life when huntergathering. The Tlingits of SE. have a saying"when the tides out the table is set!" and this is no folktale.For those poo-pooing Alaska as a y2k destination,you have no clue. The oldtimers felt no affects of the great Depression. And for youngsters there is no better place to build a life. GO for it and great good luck. Ed Mura, Lord high Admiral,The Rice Bag Navy.Pres.Nation of the Tongass.

-- merek e.mura (merek@aloha.net), December 03, 1999.

I wish I were going with you. Good Luck.

-- Linda A. (adahi@muhlon.com), December 04, 1999.