The Alaska Off Grid Survival Series
Ordering my books on Amazon is easy. You can download and read on the computer, or order a printed copy. If you are in another country then the US, this is a great way to order, as the book is most likely able to be printed in your country, saving a lot on shipping! If you want a signed copy with personal note you need to order direct from me. Here is a link to that page > Autographed Books
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Book 1 - Going Wild
In 1973, I am 22 years old, and a city kid. I enlisted in the Navy and got out after the Vietnam War. I travel to interior Alaska, a ‘Cheechako’ (Greenhorn) by Alaskan standards. But I have been raised on Walt Disney and feel qualified to be a mountain man!
I arranged with a pilot to drop me off in the wilds of Alaska. I do not have everything I need and have things I do not need. I learn about guns, trapping, and the loneliness of living in the vast wilderness with no other humans around.
I do not see anyone for many months, then walk out of the wilds to civilization in the spring. After working odd jobs to make supply money, I return to the wilds in the fall and have a hard time my second winter. I almost die, and need to be rescued.
I decide to build a houseboat so I can travel around without having to build another cabin. I have to accept summer work in Fairbanks to pay for the boat materials and work under a builder. The boat takes much longer to build than expected.
I live as a street person much of the time to keep expenses down.
Book 2 - Gone Wild
I have many adventures on the houseboat and acquire a dog team. There are issues with the police, a bear on my boat, and a trip to see my family who live a civilized life.
My houseboat sinks. I get lost and learn other hard lessons. I start doing artwork and end up on TV. I win a land lottery and start my first homestead.
There are mail-order women, and I live with a woman and her kids. Ten people are murdered in a village we visit, and myself and the family are almost among them. Family life is more difficult than I imagined.
Fish and Game becomes a concern.
I head back into the wilderness, which leads into book 3.
Book 3 - Still Wild
I acquire a couple more homesteads and cut more traplines.
I give up sled dogs and enter the world of snowmachine adventures.
I winter in Galena and visit many native villages. There are bear encounters, and many survival situations to learn about.
I become a serious mammoth hunter and find fossils as part of my living. I work with a land surveyor specializing in homesteads and wilderness surveys, getting paid to use my boat.
My art sells well, so I do some big shows. I become more social and understand civilization better. I see the wisdom of being accepted by others. I learn. I grow. I try to change, as the world does.
The economy changes. It is less acceptable to be a trapper.
I never become totally civilized as a city person defines it, but maybe I do, relative to the life I had in book one.
Book 4 - Beyond Wild
I am getting past just survival and doing well, even prospering. I own more than the houseboat can easily haul. Gas gets expensive. I need a new houseboat engine.
There is a homestead and trapline that keeps me in one place now. There are more bear stories and adventures into the wilds, including a 300-mile boat trip looking for mammoth tusks, which has disastrous consequences.
I find where I want to live on the Kantishna River. A river 300 miles long with about five people on it. I hang out in the native village of Nenana, spending a lot of time here.
I get my first computer and learn to build a website. People are looking at the pictures and buying my raw materials and art. This is a chance to make a difference.
Life is beautiful. Life is precious. I Dare to live it.
Book 5 - Back To Wild
I acquire a home in Nenana and start a web store. I am forced out of my subsistence lifestyle, partly because of changes in the laws. I do some serious mammoth hunting.
Unstable power causes a lot of computer data loss. I learn by punching keys to see what happens. It takes a long time to get good enough to create a book.
I continue the Mammoth hunts. The Tucson fossil gem show and State fair do well for me.
This period of ‘being civilized’ that I am trying out, has advantages, but also a price to pay—a big change from the wilderness life and being alone!
I am a suspect in a murder investigation. Another trapper tries to move in on my territory. There are neighbors and infringements on my property.
I fear I cannot change who I am. There is difficulty blending the two lives and ways of thinking. There are mail-order women coming and going, as well as the usual adventures and situations I manage to get myself into.
Book 6 - Surviving Wild
Iris is my partner. Business grows, with money coming in, but causes ‘complications.’ I understand why I left for the wilds in the first place.
I get better at fossil hunting and have some exciting trips getting mammoth tusks and other ancient treasures. I am viewed as an expert on a few subjects and Discovery TV and reality shows contact me several times.
The new life in town causes legal issues that have been nipping at my heels off and on throughout my time in Alaska. Fish and Wildlife ask, “Why are you alone out here where we cannot keep an eye on you? We know you are up to something. What is it you have to hide? We will find out!” This mentality is that different is bad and of concern. I end up being investigated. A SWAT team shows up at my property with a dozen cars and 20 cops.
My arrest makes headlines. I’m sentenced to Federal Prison for six months as a felon. This is a stark contrast to ‘Book 1-Going Wild,’ where I have as much freedom as it is possible to have.
How did I get from there to here?
Book 7 - Secretly Wild
I am a convicted felon, describing life in prison from the viewpoint of someone used to freedom and wilderness life. The same feather in the hat I wore on the cover of Ruralite magazine in 1979, is now worth five years in prison.
What do I need to do to survive here? There are classes to take, books to read, farm work to do, and people to help. There are interesting felon stories.
I observe more crime within the prison system by the system than I am accused of committing. “The prison could not survive if we operated legally,” I am told by officials. I do my time. Now what? Am I a better person? I see the error of my ways. I am saved. Society is safer now.
Book 8 - Retiring Wild
I talk about news relevant to living off the grid as an individual in the wilderness that few citizens are aware of. I adapt my business, and still have adventures, depending as much as I can on the subsistence life I love and understand that is now becoming illegal as a white man.
I ponder whether the end of my life is in agreement with the views I held dear from the beginning. I have hope that even in times of control and suppression, I can still focus on the plus side, and continue to find ways to enjoy personal freedoms and individuality.
I continue to explore choices, how to have better control of my destiny, happiness, and success. I refer to this as ‘Survival.’ I have few regrets, and hope my life’s path as written can provide entertainment and insight.
As someone who is interested in being different, not one of the sheep, I look realistically at the rewards that choice offers, but also the price that has to be paid.
In 1973, I am 22 years old, and a city kid. I enlisted in the Navy and got out after the Vietnam War. I travel to interior Alaska, a ‘Cheechako’ (Greenhorn) by Alaskan standards. But I have been raised on Walt Disney and feel qualified to be a mountain man!
I arranged with a pilot to drop me off in the wilds of Alaska. I do not have everything I need and have things I do not need. I learn about guns, trapping, and the loneliness of living in the vast wilderness with no other humans around.
I do not see anyone for many months, then walk out of the wilds to civilization in the spring. After working odd jobs to make supply money, I return to the wilds in the fall and have a hard time my second winter. I almost die, and need to be rescued.
I decide to build a houseboat so I can travel around without having to build another cabin. I have to accept summer work in Fairbanks to pay for the boat materials and work under a builder. The boat takes much longer to build than expected.
I live as a street person much of the time to keep expenses down.
Book 2 - Gone Wild
I have many adventures on the houseboat and acquire a dog team. There are issues with the police, a bear on my boat, and a trip to see my family who live a civilized life.
My houseboat sinks. I get lost and learn other hard lessons. I start doing artwork and end up on TV. I win a land lottery and start my first homestead.
There are mail-order women, and I live with a woman and her kids. Ten people are murdered in a village we visit, and myself and the family are almost among them. Family life is more difficult than I imagined.
Fish and Game becomes a concern.
I head back into the wilderness, which leads into book 3.
Book 3 - Still Wild
I acquire a couple more homesteads and cut more traplines.
I give up sled dogs and enter the world of snowmachine adventures.
I winter in Galena and visit many native villages. There are bear encounters, and many survival situations to learn about.
I become a serious mammoth hunter and find fossils as part of my living. I work with a land surveyor specializing in homesteads and wilderness surveys, getting paid to use my boat.
My art sells well, so I do some big shows. I become more social and understand civilization better. I see the wisdom of being accepted by others. I learn. I grow. I try to change, as the world does.
The economy changes. It is less acceptable to be a trapper.
I never become totally civilized as a city person defines it, but maybe I do, relative to the life I had in book one.
Book 4 - Beyond Wild
I am getting past just survival and doing well, even prospering. I own more than the houseboat can easily haul. Gas gets expensive. I need a new houseboat engine.
There is a homestead and trapline that keeps me in one place now. There are more bear stories and adventures into the wilds, including a 300-mile boat trip looking for mammoth tusks, which has disastrous consequences.
I find where I want to live on the Kantishna River. A river 300 miles long with about five people on it. I hang out in the native village of Nenana, spending a lot of time here.
I get my first computer and learn to build a website. People are looking at the pictures and buying my raw materials and art. This is a chance to make a difference.
Life is beautiful. Life is precious. I Dare to live it.
Book 5 - Back To Wild
I acquire a home in Nenana and start a web store. I am forced out of my subsistence lifestyle, partly because of changes in the laws. I do some serious mammoth hunting.
Unstable power causes a lot of computer data loss. I learn by punching keys to see what happens. It takes a long time to get good enough to create a book.
I continue the Mammoth hunts. The Tucson fossil gem show and State fair do well for me.
This period of ‘being civilized’ that I am trying out, has advantages, but also a price to pay—a big change from the wilderness life and being alone!
I am a suspect in a murder investigation. Another trapper tries to move in on my territory. There are neighbors and infringements on my property.
I fear I cannot change who I am. There is difficulty blending the two lives and ways of thinking. There are mail-order women coming and going, as well as the usual adventures and situations I manage to get myself into.
Book 6 - Surviving Wild
Iris is my partner. Business grows, with money coming in, but causes ‘complications.’ I understand why I left for the wilds in the first place.
I get better at fossil hunting and have some exciting trips getting mammoth tusks and other ancient treasures. I am viewed as an expert on a few subjects and Discovery TV and reality shows contact me several times.
The new life in town causes legal issues that have been nipping at my heels off and on throughout my time in Alaska. Fish and Wildlife ask, “Why are you alone out here where we cannot keep an eye on you? We know you are up to something. What is it you have to hide? We will find out!” This mentality is that different is bad and of concern. I end up being investigated. A SWAT team shows up at my property with a dozen cars and 20 cops.
My arrest makes headlines. I’m sentenced to Federal Prison for six months as a felon. This is a stark contrast to ‘Book 1-Going Wild,’ where I have as much freedom as it is possible to have.
How did I get from there to here?
Book 7 - Secretly Wild
I am a convicted felon, describing life in prison from the viewpoint of someone used to freedom and wilderness life. The same feather in the hat I wore on the cover of Ruralite magazine in 1979, is now worth five years in prison.
What do I need to do to survive here? There are classes to take, books to read, farm work to do, and people to help. There are interesting felon stories.
I observe more crime within the prison system by the system than I am accused of committing. “The prison could not survive if we operated legally,” I am told by officials. I do my time. Now what? Am I a better person? I see the error of my ways. I am saved. Society is safer now.
Book 8 - Retiring Wild
I talk about news relevant to living off the grid as an individual in the wilderness that few citizens are aware of. I adapt my business, and still have adventures, depending as much as I can on the subsistence life I love and understand that is now becoming illegal as a white man.
I ponder whether the end of my life is in agreement with the views I held dear from the beginning. I have hope that even in times of control and suppression, I can still focus on the plus side, and continue to find ways to enjoy personal freedoms and individuality.
I continue to explore choices, how to have better control of my destiny, happiness, and success. I refer to this as ‘Survival.’ I have few regrets, and hope my life’s path as written can provide entertainment and insight.
As someone who is interested in being different, not one of the sheep, I look realistically at the rewards that choice offers, but also the price that has to be paid.