Adventure, hardship, heartbreak and ultimate victory are woven through this true story of one man's modern day Alaskan homesteading experience. After a series of disastrous events leads to a bitter divorce and destroys a prosperous mid-Western farming life, Travis hits the road in an old pick-up truck. Aimless and aching, homeless for several years, arrested in a string of small towns in the Deep South for being a vagrant and other petty 'crimes,' he finds himself on a downward slide until he reads of Alaskan homesteading in a 'Mother Earth News' magazine, and begins to dream of his own land. That dream comes to life in the shadow of Alaskan mountain splendor, where he creates a working homestead from little more than thin air and his own rugged determination and guts. Face-to-face encounters with bears, surviving 60-below zero winters in a tiny dirt-floored lean-to, learning to use dogs as draft animals to get the homestead work done - these are just a few of the challenges he must overcome to carve out a life in harsh sub-arctic Alaska. Interviews, original diary entries, photos and illustrations are an important part of the historical record of this homestead saga.

This book should prove most helpful as a "how to" guide for a man working alone to build a strong, yet simple log cabin made to last. It can be a log cabin that a man can be proud to call his home or for a getaway home away from home on the weekend. I built the 13 by 41 foot cabin shell, including cutting down the trees and peeling off the bark, in three months while camping out in a tent. Cutting down the trees and pilling off the bark took more than half of the time in completing the shell of the cabin. It was hard work, but by using the trees on my property I saved money and it gave me a more satisfying feeling of accomplishment as I lived my dream. After about three months work the cabin was up and we moved from our tents into the cabin, however, the electrical wiring, well and plumbing, septic system, interior walls, chimney, and 8 by 28 foot add-on, which are covered in varying details (less on the wiring and plumbing) in this book, were worked on as I got the time and money. Overall, to complete the cabin, it took about four to five months time. The 757 square foot cabin was completed in about four months by working long hours, six days a week. The long camping experience was an ordeal for my wife, but my son and I enjoyed it. We thank God for His help and guidance through it all. The plans contained in this book are designed to allow a man working alone to build a cabin in a short time that will last a life time. I include an additional chapter about building a pergola type patio cover out of red cedar. 48 pictures are included in this book. Happy trails!

Tammy Jones describes the experiences she and her husband undergo when they decide to build a cabin and live summers on an isolated Alaskan inlet.

Born in the dusty heart of Oklahoma in 1916, ten-year-old Melvin Owens dreams of living in Alaska. More than forty years later, to the astonishment of neighbors and friends, he single-handedly constructs the 47-foot Red Dog in his Arkansas backyard. After launching the boat in 1971, Melvin cruises along the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers to the Gulf of Mexico where, in 1973, he begins an amazing journey along the Caribbean coasts of Mexico and Central America, through the Panama Canal, then into the Pacific Ocean to Alaska. Thwarted by mechanical problems, nature?s fury, illness, thievery and loneliness, Melvin fears a deadly end before reaching the place of his dreams and returning to the woman he loves.A true story of courage and endurance, "South to Alaska" chronicles Melvin?s perilous 10,000-mile solitary journey through a watery world he knows little about, to a world he cannot forget.

This book is an illustration of the perseverance and endurance God allowed me to have during my trials and tribulations. I realized that the trials came only as a test to strengthen and mature me as a Christian. In the midst of it all, I am in My Father's Arms. God has given me some impossible assignments and placed me in situations that seemed unbearable, but this was only that I would learn to lean on Him. Writing this book has brought healing and a change in my life. Of the many lessons in life that I've had to learn, I can say that experience is the best teacher and in some situations it's the only teacher. As I share this book with the world, my prayer is that you will be encouraged and know that God is the only way, the truth and the life. In His Arm's he will strengthen you, bless you and keep you. With God all things are possible.

Leaving behind friends, family, and life as they know it, the Wards embark on a journey into the Alaskan wilderness that will change them forever.