Chores

Nick and I have started watching a show on Netflix called Life Below Zero.  It’s about people who live a subsistence lifestyle in remote areas of Alaska.  It something we like to watch while we’re enjoying a luxurious, civilized, lifestyle—cozied up on our couch, soaking in our hot tub, curled up in our California King sized bed.  It reminds us of how good we have it, how amazing our life is. 

That, and we’ve always toyed with the idea of moving to Alaska.  We’re not social people.  We kind of like each other and that’s it.  We joke all the time about how we’d really rather not have to deal with anyone but each other (ok, the kids too).  It’s a little strange given the line of work we’re in.  He deals directly with customers (passengers) and my job is all about relationship building.  Maybe that’s why, when we’re home, we just don’t want people around. 

There are usually four people/couples/family in a given episode (they rotate a bit so you get a full story on everyone)—the Hailstones (family), Glen (lives alone and REALLY off the land), Eric (a trapper who lives with his wife and makes a living taking people on hunting tours), Andy (kind of a jerk but he has a team of dogs that he uses to get around) and my FAVORITE, Sue.  She’s a tough old gal who, as she says, is so far north there’s no more “up” on the map.  She runs Kavic River Camp which, as far as I can tell, is an oasis in an incredibly remote area of Alaska.  I think Anchorage is something like 500 miles away and it’s the closes big city.  Sue is amazing.  She’s a “I’ll just have to figure this out” kind of person who admittedly doesn’t really like being around civilization.  But she wears these silly winter hats and braids her long hair in pigtails sometimes which tells me she doesn’t take herself too seriously.  She does what she needs to do to maintain her position and really seems to love what she does.  She’s made friends with a local fox and truly respects the wilderness around her.  She’s taken a few spills and gotten hurt (and attacked by a bear) a few times but she just keeps going and going and going.  I love her resilience. 

As you watch these people go through life with few links to civilization, you realize, they’re always working.  It kind of reminds me of Little House on the Prairie.  You build your house, plant your farm and are forever maintaining it.  The work is never done.  It’s like perpetual chores!  There’s never a moments’ rest!  You spend the summer hunting and storing up supplies for the winter and you spend the winter surviving until summer.  It’s awful! 

And yet, sometimes I wonder if I could ever what it takes to survive as they do.  Could I survive even a few months with no electricity or access to a store?  Could I shoot and clean animals and then eat them?  I suppose I could if I had to.  But most days, I’m really glad I don’t have to.  And I say that sitting in my house, sipping gourmet coffee with my Netflix streaming and my dishwasher humming in the kitchen.  I don’t mind watching someone else live like that but it is NOT the life for me.