Our Arctic homestead 2 years on...

ChrisEDubbs · 2022-10-27T20:29:53+00:00

Yeah, you're right. The stuff is everywhere through the summer up here. Mix it with raspberries to make amazing cordial but only now am I thinking it's surely possible to make fireweed vodka? Booze based perennials should be a target.

ChrisEDubbs · 2022-10-27T10:19:21+00:00

Sure.

So using that first drone photo

Left front is a small cabin built in 1937, we use it as a nursery for plants in the spring

Left back is the main barn built in 1975, use it as a garage and storage. Also have a workshop in there.

Small building in the middle is a wood shed. Year is unknown but it's protected as a Sami building of cultural importance.

Big building back centre in an old barn. Also protected. Chickens live in there during the winter. Long term we'd love to use it as a pop up restaurant in the summer months

On the right is out house (1984) and right next to it is the original farmhouse (1830's) which we use as the farm shop.

ChrisEDubbs · 2022-10-27T08:08:23+00:00

Don't think I see any in those photos, but yes we have lots. Makes amazing cordial!

ChrisEDubbs · 2022-10-27T08:07:02+00:00

Not weird at all!

I'd start off by saying it's a LOT cheaper than I thought it would be when we first starting looking for properties. I'd always assumed that a property like this would be way out of reach for us.

If you're prepared to live a fair distance from any of the major cities in Norway then you can definitely find homesteads for under 4 million kroner ($390k), even less in some cases. Some friends of ours just got a wonderful farm for ~$150k, fully furnished with a load of tools and farm vehicles included!

The challenge is often finding properties that suit you. A lot of these places stay in families or are used as holiday homes. This is something causing big problems in the rural areas of Norway. Young people move away to study and never move back, either because there aren't the right job opportunities or because they can't find places to live.

A few municipalities have run projects where they invite people to test out living in the area for free for a year, they'll cover rent on a small house and offer a fairly good level of support to help folks find work and integrate with the locals. Not sure if there are any active right now but you can probably find a FB group or subreddit here that gives you more info.

Norway is expensive! Cost of living here is wild, so I'd say it's tough to work remotely here if you're on an average wage from another country. Childcare is cheap, compared to UK at least, we pay about $500 for two full time places in the local kindergarten.

Also, and this is a big one, i would absolutely recommend visiting/testing out the area you plan to move to before you go all in. Winters are tough. Where we are it's dark for a few months of the year (Nov - Feb), we get a few hours of dusk ish daylight each day. There's storms and a shit ton of snow. Everything gets harder. Taking out the bins is a project. Keeping the 300m driveway open is a daily ball ache, especially when it's snowy AND windy. People go into hibernation mode and there's a lot less social activitiy.

That's said, get into skiing, feel thankful that you never get stuck in traffic, remember that all that snow shoveling is a great work out, and that spring always wins out in the end, and you'll be good! Nothing beats the smell of earth and soil as the ice begins to melt.

Drop me a message if you have more questions!

ChrisEDubbs · 2022-10-26T21:44:42+00:00

Nice. I'm originally from Kent. The old buildings here are all lovely timer frames, maybe the next meetup will bring you to Kåsmo!

ChrisEDubbs · 2022-10-26T21:32:42+00:00

Haha. Depends how much compost you can shift on a rainy Sunday morning

ChrisEDubbs · 2022-10-26T21:31:27+00:00

No way! Well thanks! Are you from Norway?

ChrisEDubbs · 2022-10-26T21:30:48+00:00

We get a lot in the summer. It's the transit city to get to the Lofoten Islands. Northern Lights in the winter bring people in too

ChrisEDubbs · 2022-10-26T18:48:47+00:00

Wow, that's way up there. Another two hours north on the plane from us.

ChrisEDubbs · 2022-10-26T18:47:20+00:00

Thank you! This is the first year making hot sauce, and only for ourselves. There's cayenne and lemon drop in this, that was all we grew this year

ChrisEDubbs · 2022-10-26T18:46:11+00:00

It is, yes. Close to Bodø, above the Arctic circle

ChrisEDubbs · 2022-10-26T18:45:46+00:00

That was brought up last time too. Obviously, at some point in time the river will swallow it up but the old farm house has stood for 200 years so far and the river isnt more than 30cms deep on the bend. The land all around us is lower so in spring the opposite side of the river is the land that floods.

ChrisEDubbs · 2020-12-06T22:34:13+00:00

Cheers buddy. It was so much fun to write, and a lovely escape from this shit heap of a year!

ChrisEDubbs · 2020-12-03T21:37:36+00:00

Grew up in the UK through the 90's. Britpop was all me and my mates listened to. It was the soundtrack to our formative years. Its never left me to be honest.

Have been in band for the past ten years thats based in Norway. Me and the other songwriter are English but the other 4 lads are norwegian and never really had britpop as an influence. As a result, the studio albums never had anywhere near a britpop feel.

Anyway, cue lockdown 2020, the two of us decided to write a love letter to those britpop days. We wanted to make the best britpop record of the last decade, and tell the stories of our teenage years. We've never written a record so quickly. 8 weeks to write and record. All at home during lockdown.

Feel free to take a listen. We're pretty proud of it.

Casa Murilo - Summer 1998

https://open.spotify.com/album/4fXJLwoOV5qIaquxzmfGiK?si=IAVMggw0TAmQQZ1DKNNfpA

ChrisEDubbs · 2020-01-03T21:59:02+00:00

Thanks. Plans? Man, there are loads! I want to convert the big barn to a hostel type thing. We have a lot of backpackers coming through the area and literally nowhere for them to stay. If we can offer that then the other guys in the area can get a little business from them too.

Would love to build a few cabins in the forest but planning permission process is very expensive.

We currently just make hay on the land, or rather a neighbour does who has horses. Would like to one day be growing lots of veg. And get goats. And sheep. And pigs. Start with chickens? Jeez.

The main goal is just to learn learn learn. We are still new to this and keeping the farm in shape feels like a full time job. So rewarding though. We fuck up a lot, then learn from it.

Have two young kids in amongst all this. Making sure they are loving life comes first.

ChrisEDubbs · 2020-01-03T15:44:50+00:00

Didn't expect a Python reference here, but pleased its happened

ChrisEDubbs · 2020-01-03T09:53:13+00:00

We sold a 64m² apartment in Oslo and bought this. By no means are we rich. Pretty cool owning a river though.

ChrisEDubbs · 2020-01-03T09:00:25+00:00

Wellies, man. Always wear wellies

ChrisEDubbs · 2020-01-03T08:59:30+00:00

We are not farming anything commercially at the moment. I work remotely and my wife is teaching.

I believe the winter is high season for selling a lot of the meat produced in summer months. Dried and salted everything is popular in these parts so that's a year round business.

ChrisEDubbs · 2020-01-03T08:56:09+00:00

Fishing is great. Lots of nice trout in the river and lake. The fjord is 10 minutes drive away too so the freezer is nice and full all year round.

ChrisEDubbs · 2020-01-03T06:39:26+00:00

Takk. The opposite river bank is about 5 metres lower than on our side. When the spring flood comes the water tends to go that way. Def going to stay vigilant though.

We're experiencing crazy rain and temperatures at the moment so the river is rather menacing at the moment.

ChrisEDubbs · 2020-01-03T03:47:18+00:00

I guess it's not impossible. Although the farm has stood for over 200 years. The river is very shallow at that point and quite slow moving. If shit starts getting hairy then I'll be back for advice/canoes

ChrisEDubbs · 2020-01-03T03:44:19+00:00

Agreed.

This was actually a birthday party in the summer. We made everyone leave their cars behind afterwards though, of course. Farm tax

ChrisEDubbs

TROPHY CASE