First off, we miss people. Family and friends that we don’t get to see very often now that we moved to Alaska. But beyond that, there are a few things I miss about living back East – and other things that I don’t miss. Here are a few of them.
Things I Miss
1. Food prices
With the short growing season not much of the produce in the grocery store is Alaska grown. Much of the food is shipped up from Seattle. This adds to the cost of groceries. Plus, there aren’t any discount groceries up here. I really miss those bulk food stores and discount groceries! Up here I shop at Walmart or Fred Meyer (like a Kroger or Target) and their prices are around a dollar more per item. We’ve had to have a bigger grocery budget since we moved up here!
2. Shade trees
Most of the trees up here are spruce trees. There are some birch and cottonwood trees, but we don’t have very many of those on our place. I miss the big maple and oak shade trees.
3. Farms
There aren’t very many farms or animals up here. Lots of people try to raise animals, but it costs an arm and a leg. Keep in mind that all the equipment to make hay or harvest grain either has to come up by barge or hauled up the Alcan Highway. A small square bale of hay costs around $20.00.
I miss having chickens and a milk cow, but I’m not sure if we’ll ever add animals to our homestead. It would be expensive milk and eggs! Maybe we can bring our own equipment up and make hay here on our own land. We’ll see.
4. Thunder storms
We don’t get summer thunderstorms! Sometimes I miss that. I remember how the air would get so heavy with humidity and heat and then a summer storm would clear the air and make things blessedly cool for a few hours.
Things I Don’t Miss
1. 90 degree heat
I love Alaskan summer! It feels a lot like fall weather all summer long. 75-80 degrees during the day with intense sunshine that lasts almost all night, and then it cools off over the two-three hours of darkness. Best of all, there’s no humidity! If you go in the shade it feels chilly.
How well I remember the suffocating summer nights when it was too hot to sleep. You wake up and coffee isn’t even appetizing since it’s still 85 degrees and humid. Nope! I don’t miss it! I love hot drinks all year round.
A hot summer is all well and good if you have AC, but we never did. Besides, if you have AC then you’re stuck inside where it’s cool.
2. Crazy road systems
I really don’t miss the roads in PA. Driving 20 minutes required a dozen different turns. Up here, one main road services the entire Kenai peninsula. The Kenai Peninsula is a third of the state of Pennsylvania. Our small gravel road is at mile 149 on the main road, the Sterling Highway. Matt Snader’s live at mile 114, and church is at mile 103, and the town of Soldotna (where we get groceries) is at mile 98. We go off the mile markers on that main road a lot up here.
3. Snakes
I was never the kind of girl to scream about snakes but even so, it’s nice to not uncover them as we clean up around here, or have to worry about them as we walk through the tall grass.
It is simply too cold over the winter for them to survive.
Overpopulation of Mennonites
Maybe I’ll get hate mail for saying this, but it’s true. It’s honestly a relief to be away from an area that has so many different stripes of conservative people because it often felt like everyone was watching everyone else and criticizing the way they interpreted scripture.
Up here I haven’t felt any of that. Our small church is one of four conservative Mennonite churches in the entire state. And, shocker, we don’t even all dress alike at our church. The strange thing is, even with less conformity we are more unified as a group. Or maybe that’s not so strange. Maybe that’s what makes us stronger in our love to one another.
If we are to be salt and light in the world, how does that work if the only people we see at church, work for, and get our groceries from, are all Christians too?
Living here in Alaska without family close by has helped us not only get to know, but also rely on our neighbors and people we know from the community. It has been good and stretching for us as we learn to show Christ and witness to the people around us.
There are many other things I miss about living back East, but more and more I am falling in love with Alaska. If we would ever move back to PA I know I would desperately miss the ocean, the mountains, the fishing season, the culture, our neighbors, the church up here.
In a word, Alaska has become home.