True!

agreed, our local ariens dealer is 5 weeks out for repairs, and that doesn't include ordering any parts after they get to your unit and diagnose it.

Goodness that's terrible

I agree on that. You'll have a backup machine ready to take over the Rapidtrak if for some reason it's out of service. Plus, if you sell it the wheeled one, you won't get it back at the price you pay because of inflation. Better off using it until it's no longer fixable.

2 is 1 and 1 is NONE@@nova9403

We should give them a try, they make a world of difference on the skid steer.

In our case, the skid steer with plow is the primary tool, snow blower is for backup. We still have both blowers but I'm not convinced the spare blower is worth keeping. We are just hobby/part-time KZfaqrs at this point, we don't need KZfaq to survive so we don't beg for money or tell people to subscribe, we are not needy. If the content is good organic likes, views, and subscribers will come. Thanks for watching 🙂

That would be great! We do hope to have a small heated building to work out of the weather in the future 🙂 Thank you!

Thank you 😊 we ended up taking the snow blower down the sides of it a few times! It was piling up quickly! Happy New Year!

Thank you 🙂 All is well! We hope you had a good holiday and are well too!

Thank you! 🥰 we may begin posting more often in the future 🙂

Thank you! We love living in this area ❤️

It does! Glad you enjoyed the scenery 😊 Happy New Year!

Thank you 😊

Thank you! ❤️

❤️ winter has slowed us down a bit for sure with our building projects, we will share as often as possible 🙂

You two are on the Kenai Peninsula?

Yes we are!

@@northtoalaska2022 is that amount of snow normal? I am in WA State and we have little to no snow.

@gb3450 according to the internet it should not snow that much here, but last winter we had over seven feet of dump on our property, and some of it did not melt till June in our valleys. We are at a semi-high elevation compared to most of Kenai which may be a factor. There are a lot of strange microclimates out here, we have driven 30 minutes from home and seen temperatures spike by 20 degrees higher.

You are most welcome! Happy New Year!

❤️

Thank you! Glad you are enjoying the scenery 😊 Happy New Year 🎉🎆🎇

Happy New Year! Thank you 😊 ❤️❤️❤️

Glad you guys are enjoying our videos 🙂

😊👍

Happy New Year! Some of the southern states in America shut down for an inch or so of snow too 😄 in Alaska it is just another day for sure, everyone just goes on about the day. Thanks for the good luck wishes!

Glad you have found us and enjoyed our videos! Thank you 🙂

Happy New Year!

Thank you Chuck 🙂 we do care a great deal for them! Happy New Year!

Thank you!

Thank you ❤️ happy New Year!

Hope you did as well! Happy New Year!! 🙂❤️

Happy New Year! That's awesome you are building a sawmill from scratch! I hope you are recording the process for KZfaq! Have you seen Don Diy? The guy has some very cool projects like this I am sure you have come across his channel. Which Kubota engine are you using for your mill? I have an unfinished log splitter project that I need to bring up from Pennsylvania one day when I have the place to finish it. Wish I had documented it but I fabricated a steel bell housing and flywheel to a Lovejoy adapter to hook up a 28gpm splitter pump to a Kubota 3-cylinder diesel out of a zero-turn. Still want to finish it up in the future for sure. I bet we share a ton of common interests. It is great that you guys are coming prepared with all the right equipment, I think that is so important for up here. Prices in Alaska on anything that you can't buy at a big box store are kind of ridiculous, as far as big equipment on the used market it is double or more compared to the East Coast. You will save a bunch of money and time bringing a tractor or some kind of machine to build up your property. If you want to share the info you found, the best way to reach us is our email which is in the video description. Thanks!

@@northtoalaska2022I have been trying to get ahold of you guys for a while. I sent you a email and a few pictures of the sawmills. My contact info is in there. Give me a shout.

Hey, I just checked, and nothing in my email from you even in the spam bin... northtoalaska.kenai@gmail.com is the email, I will check to see if we misspelled it in the description. I am sorry about that I just saw these two msgs today from you in the comments, It takes a few hours to get through all of our msgs, we do try to keep up with them all, I have a a lot of messages in New reply that I have not seen yet I am sure that's how I missed yours. I usually forget to put on the filter for new reply messages in the KZfaq app and check the conversations.

@@northtoalaska2022 I’ll try again

You are welcome! We are Glad you found value in our video! Happy snow blowing with your rapidtrak when the snow flies 🙂

We did! 🙂 Happy New Year! I can imagine the warmth of New Zealand from here 🏝🌞

Thank you!

@@northtoalaska2022 UR WELCOME 🤗

Glad you found us! The straight-line performance in deep snow on tracks is hard to beat!

Thank you, glad you enjoyed the spring videos!

Happy New Year! 😊

You guys will have snow before long! Thank you! and Happy New Year! 🎇🎆🎉

Thank you! 😀

Yehaw!

It can be tough out here in the winter but as time goes on it will become easier. We will need a heated shed or building eventually to work in, where you guys need air conditioning to get out of the summer Texas heat 🙂. The cost of living here is noticeably higher for sure. It is more affordable to live here than our old home when it boils down to overall cost. Taxes were out of hand back east. Thanks for the good luck wishes 🙂

Happy New Year! 🎉 ✨️ 🙂

Thank you! ❤️ it is an unusually warm year, but I would imagine cooler weather is on the way!

❤️ wow! Snow should arrive soon now that we are in January, crazy weather!

Happy New Year friend! 🎉

Thank you Craig! 🙂 glad you enjoyed the video

Happy New Year! 🎉 🎆🎇

Happy New Year! And thank you 🙂 The high-flow skid steer blowers are amazing! I'm not sure that will ever be in the budget but we would like to find a used low-flow blower in the future to try out. They are a bit slow compared to the high flow, but some large snowfalls might make it worth having.

Congratulations on 25000 your channel is growing fast

Thank you 🙂❤️

Thank you Chris! And Happy New Year 🎉 🤗

🙂

Great to hear! We hope ours lasts for many years too! The spring is still working very well, the coldest temperature we have experienced here so far was minus 10°, at this point the water froze in a large stalagmite up to the water pipe but it never stopped flowing inside the ice. A hatchet made quick work of the ice debris in the way and we were collecting water again 🙂

Happy New Year!

It is surprising that Alberta has no snow right now, has it been unseasonably warm in your area? Glad you liked the video 🙂

It's a winter wonderland for us Pennsylvanians too! And we were not strangers to snow 🙂

Happy New Year! 😊

Happy New Year! 🙂

Happy New Year! 😊

Haha 😄 some Americans think Alaskans live in igloos too! It has been an unseasonably warm year for most of this winter. I am sure cooler weather is on the way!

We could have moved it inside the shelter logic to heat it but it was not necessary. If we had a big enough budget to build a shop and home at the same time we may have gone in that direction and had to have hired a contractor but we would rather build a cozy home to live in first and do it ourselves to save money. With the short building season here and our limited budget, our home is a priority. It may take several years to save enough cash to build a shop ourselves in the future because we are not interested in making loan payments and nothing is cheap to build in Alaska.

That is a shame about the brand, if ours does not hold up we will look into switching to Honda, we always had great luck with Honda power equipment in the past.

Happy New Year! 😊 🎆🎇🎉

Thank you! We are glad to hear you enjoy the videos 🙂

Keep an eye out for that video soon, now that winter is here a lot of our building projects have become difficult to work on so we will set aside time to make this video for everyone 🙂

Happy New Year! 🎇 🎆🎉

Interesting, will look it up thanks!

Great machine!

Goodness... luckily I was a mechanic for 15 years so the repairs are not an issue, but we have had to wait for parts to make it to our PO box for over two weeks. We still have both machines and will keep them at least until we can find a good deal on a used blower for our skid steer.

Agreed! I am unsure where home-free Alaska lives. They are farther north for sure with minus 23° Fahrenheit, the lowest we have seen at home this winter is minus 10° Fahrenheit. The minus 23° reading in our recent video was Celsius. It stays slightly warmer in our area because of the proximity to the ocean. Glad to hear you love our videos 🙂

Would love to find a used deal on one someday, great tool to have here! Thank you

I can understand that! The Track model takes a lot more effort to maneuver when not going straightforward compared to the wheel version. If I had to back up a lot I think the tire one is also easier. We found that the track model had a big advantage while blowing up steep hills when we had to clear our path to the water spring. They are both great and have advantages 🙂 I bet a snow blower on your Sxs is fun to use!

We have had many small storms too, it is starting to pile up in the mountains! Your snow is not far behind I'm sure 🙂 it is unusually warm this year.

We are very much leaning toward keeping both, the advantages are exactly how you describe them!

Hello 🙂 we saw a noreaster storm heading your way, you may have snow by now! The RV is working out well for us, it is not a lot of room at 300 square feet but we have what we need to be comfortable. Our biggest concern about living in it temporarily was not staying warm enough or having moisture issues, but so far all is well. The Toyo oil heater keeps it 68° without issue and it's a dry heat since it is vented. We run vent fans when we cook with propane or take showers and it has kept moisture levels low inside. I can say insulating all of the glass windows made a big difference in how much the furnace runs to keep it warm. We found the average in winter is about 120$ a month to heat so it is a good heating solution for the small space. Our winter is milder in Kenai compared to somewhere like Fairbanks AK the rv option might not work out that far north. We have had a lot of moose and rabbits outside! We also found lynx tracks just out our door but we have not seen it yet!

@@northtoalaska2022 Yes, it is snowing right now, expecting 9" to 12", of heavy snow,, all ready for it. The wheeled Airens is ready to blow. Being warm in your elements is very important and you all have it under control. Are you a hunter or trapper? Your in the right area for both. Thanks for the great videos, your both naturals in all explanations. I'm sure your both excited about building your home as we are all anticipating great building videos to come. Thanks again Richard.

Ahh the snowblower will be out by the morning! We do enjoy hunting! I have not done traping for many years but we may both dabble in it here for some of the larger species like lynx and wolverine. We were able to finally get resident hunting and trapping licenses on January first. Alaska will only allow non-resident hunting licenses until you have lived here for a full year, and non-residents need special expensive tags and require a hired guide to hunt most game here. It is cheap for full residents and no guide is required. This fall we will be working hard to hunt moose for meat. Will be an exciting new challenge, the only big game we have hunted on occasion prior is elk. We were fortunate to always have a full freezer of white-tail venison back in Pennsylvania, we hope to continue that tradition with moose meat here. We are very excited to finish our cabin! The weather has been rough but we are making slow progress and should have an update for everyone on it soon. Thanks for reaching out Richard!

Thank you 😊

Glad you are enjoying our content 😊 we both grew up in York County Pennsylvania!

We may give that a try!

That would be very beneficial, I believe our budget and time will mostly be for finishing a proper home to live in for the next year or so. Then we can re-evaluate our plans for out buildings.

They are!

Ahh yeah, I have used those too! This track model automatically lets one side slip when you start to turn for a zero turning radius. Ariens has a nicer contractor-grade track blower with individual hydrostatic transmissions like a real zero-turn mower, have not used one but I believe they are something crazy like five thousand dollars 🤑 I'm sure they are nice.

For sure! Haha, they sell them cheap on the East Coast. Maybe we can bring one back next time we drive down to visit family!

Happy New Year!

Thank you! We had a great Christmas 🙂 Happy New Year! 🎉🎇🎆

Thanks! That is a long list, we will have a video explaining some of this soon 🙂

Thank you and happy new year!

We still haven't listed one, it is very tempting to keep both! Wow, 100k seems so far away that would be wild! I think they give you a chrome plaque trophy if you make it that high, I have seen them on other folk's channels before!

Great question, we are still working on our cabin 🙂 we talk about the old abandoned cabin in episode one and show building the chicken coop inside it in an older video too. It is a very old dilapidated log cabin on our property that we will need to dismantle in the future. It has a failing foundation and can not be saved.

A lot of people sell everything before moving to Alaska, and a lot of people also don't make it here and end up leaving. We could not afford to replace what we had prior and what we needed here, so we brought it with us. Fuel costs to transport it up is cheap in comparison to replacement. Everything costs more in this state and can take longer to acquire. Coming up unprepared and attempting what we are is not a good idea and would lead to many hard times. Since it took us 15 years of working long hours to have what we do today, it would be difficult to start over with nothing and try to replace it at 3x inflation costs and exorbitant Alaskan prices.

Happy New Year!! There was a lot edited out because it took a ton of time... The hydraulic hoses were not fun haha, the new ones we had made were arctic rated to -50 and slightly thicker than the originals so they did not fit in the tight spot without a lot of persuasion. But we got through it and good until the next time 😅 the pocket dog likes to sleep on the couch by the toyo stove all day, he won't stay outside for long when it gets below ten degrees!

Thank you ❤️

We should!

Very true!

I can see how a utility UTV would come in handy for small-scale work for folks who do not have any tractor-based equipment or a truck/ trailer and want a luxury item to drive around a wide-open area like a farm. I have to ask what would we use one for? Most seem to use them for plowing snow and gathering firewood, but the small scale they do it at is not adequate for our situation, it would be a novelty. It seems a lot of UTVs are used as glorified golf carts. Tractors or heavy equipment seem to be a better option to invest in and will be useful in more ways, they can plow snow more efficiently and carry firewood in the bucket or on a trailer through the forest as well if needed just like a UTV but on a bigger scale. We have our SXS for a hobby to drive out to remote areas where regular vehicles can not go (the glorified golf cart role). The money saved from not buying a UTV would be better invested in a truck, tractor, attachments like a plow for truck or tractor, and trailer but we already own these for those roles. Snowmobiles are the only equipment we are missing that we could use at this time but they would be an inappropriate investment because we do not have proper shelter to store them or a finished home for us to live in. Hopefully, this explanation of our situation helps. It is great to hear you are enjoying our channel! My previous career was running a heavy equipment repair shop, Katie worked in corrections.

We are going to give chains a try on it! They do work so well on our big machine.

I agree it would help for sure!

Happy New Year! Thank you for the well wishes 🙂

Thank you for the tip!

That would be great! 🙂

If we were to get a blizzard the blower would be ideal. The plow is hard to beat for a lot of small snows like we seem to get in this area, it's just fast. The prices up here on skid steer blowers are too high but we may purchase a used one next time we visit the lower 48 to have it on hand in case of deep snowfalls.

We run ours a on little negative angle this time of year at our off-road cabin. The sun is only up 6 degrees at noon now so even reflecting off the snow helps. By keeping them a little negative we don’t get frost on them either.

We plan to move them to higher ground eventually. They are on a very temporary structure that we are not able to move without major disassembly. In the future, we will build a new stand that can tilt for the season, and we also need many more panels this time of year. This setup is adequate in summer, but with how tall the trees are, we are lucky to get 1 hour of unobstructed light for about 3 months this time of year. Please keep in mind that a lot of what we have here is temporary, we are working on a cash budget to build up the property and it will take us some time to get everything where it needs to be for a good quality of life. The panels will need to be moved closer to our cabin once it is completed.

@@northtoalaska2022 I used unistrut to tilt our panels, it wasn’t cheap. Our remote cabin we don’t get sun from the end of October to the beginning of February at all due to terrain. We have to run our generator a few hours every other day. Where we live we get the sun all day with our eastern horizon 20 miles away and the western about 100 miles. We have power to the house.

Well figuring the northpole would be 90 degree angle Alaska would be somewhere around 75-80 degree and the snow would slide off easier and you'd get more sun.

Correct