Caribou lodge Alaska is a remote, fly in only, lodge. Our power sources consist of generators and solar power, our water supply is a gravity fed spring line. We hope to move more into solar power, especially as it is becoming more affordable. Joe recently experimented with a new type of hot water heater in our cabin, a wood stove hot water heater with copper coils around the stove pipe that carry a constant supply of hot water to a hot water tank through thermal siphoning. (eliminating the need for a propane heater.) Downside is you have to keep the fire going to have hot water, but living in a cold climate we usually have to keep it going  anyway. In the lodge, however, we have a propane on demand hot water heater and in the shower house a regular full size propane hot water heater.

We are still adjusting to the ever changing climate, the last couple summers have been very rainy creating new challenges in our gardening attempts. Our first year, we did really well with potatoes and radishes. The last two summers, they have been rotting in the ground before they are ready to harvest, due to all our our rain. This year, we are hoping to revamp our green house to help keep it a little drier ( vegetables were molding before ripening). This year, we experimented with strawberries, its a fruit we can’t seem to keep for more than a couple days. The strawberry plants did excellent, keeping our breakfast fruit trays filled with color. We are hoping  this year to do a lot more plants. We try to compost as much as possible, this year a black bear got in and tore up our compost bin, so we are hoping to develop a better one this spring.

Joe catching a King Salmon