A number of
our colleagues and friends have asked about living in
We live
outside of Palmer (pop. 4,500), which is about an hour drive north of
Yes, it’s
cold in the winter (-22 F this past winter), but pleasant in the summer (highs mainly
in the 60s and 70s). No, we do not have
total darkness in the winter (or total light in the summer). We get about 5.5 hours of daylight in
December and 19.5 hours in June. Yes, we
have moose! (See below).
Yes, we do
get “paid” to live here. A lot of money
from oil sales has gone into a fund from which each resident (regardless of
age) gets a check. The Permanent Fund is
~$34Billion and in 2005 disbursed about 600,000 checks for $845 each. There is no income tax or state sales tax,
but property taxes are about the same as in
Contrary to
popular opinion, we do live on a paved road (it was paved summer 2005)
Pictures!
Good morning!
This is
about five miles from home. We take a
short local trail from our house to reach millions of acres of public and
native owned land.
The Knik river valley; about eight miles from home.
It looks cold, but when winter winds blow down this valley, it warms up
to 40F at our house (and the snow melts).
One day I’ll find out why it blows so warm.