We migrated to Fairbanks, Alaska from Missoula, Montana in 2015.
We had visited the year prior, on a long and fantastic tent camping road trip from Montana in 2014, a glorious lifetime adventure.
That road trip fundamentally changed our lives, forever.
We could not shake Alaska from our minds and hearts. There was little doubt, we had to live there.
Stepping Into Fairbanks
After securing steady employment, we made the haul from the lower 48 to Fairbanks.
Our first couple years were spent getting familiar with things.
We rented a couple of homes during this time, both in the city and outside the city.
The first was a duplex up in the northern hills. The second was a duplex in Hamilton Acres.
This was our first home that we secured in Fairbanks. It was a fairly modern duplex. We truly enjoyed our experience here, even made some life long friends.
Our second home was a bit unplanned. Nonetheless, it treated us well. It was close to our community garden and our favorite memories were quick runs to the Chena river to cheer on Yukon Quest finishers.
After our second winter, we were pretty sure we wanted to throw down roots. Buy a house. Settle in. While the city was convenient, and delivered pizza is amazing, we knew we wanted to live outside of Fairbanks.
We thought we could do it. Being out there. Having to carve our paths in the bitter cold and deep snow. Quite literally, sometimes.
So we started house hunting for our rural Fairbanks home.
Day 1
This was going to be our homestead. Quite literally the day we moved in! It was charming. We were really happy with it. Fortunately, it was more or less move-in ready.
But, there was also certainly plenty to do!
A careful eye will observe we moved in with many plants, ready to go. Despite moving homes this year, we still had a successful garden at the Fairbanks Community Garden and the University of Alaska Fairbanks Community Garden.