Living on Loon Lake

This is the beginning of a series of short articles about living on Loon Lake. About one week ago, I was asked how long ago it was since I had permanently moved to Loon Lake. My answer was simply “just under 20 years”. My neighbours response was really quite interesting : He said “Just under twenty years of Winters … I couldn’t do it!”

While I appreciate what he said, there certainly is much more to living here than experiencing lengthy winter seasons. And the benefits offered by living here far outweigh any disadvantages.

Living on Loon Lake is complex challenge and I can see why it isn’t for everyone. While it’s somewhat difficult, it’s not like the drastic “settling” stories you might see on some of the “Alaskan” TV reality shows. But it’s definitely a more difficult lifestyle than living in an urban centre. 

I’ve done both and you actually couldn’t pay me to move back into a city! 

Up here, a portion of every day is always spent just making sure everything around you is working okay and not posing any kind of a problem. You are more acutely aware of your surroundings and what can happen with mother nature and how she can dramatically affect your life in a very short timeframe.

What this means is that to live up here, you must not only be observant, but be “handy” and be able to fix most daily problems that can occur around a home. This means getting involved with carpentry, plumbing problems, electrical problems, and even cleaning up fallen trees on the road. If you don’t have those traits, you must be able to have a reliable handyman or a contractor do the work for you. Or have a good knowledgeable friend or neighbour.

And those can all be a problem because handymen and good contractors aren’t always available. And I don’t have neighbours to rely upon most of the year. Trades that you can find are usually already booked. And if you can get one, they can be quite costly.

So generally, you are better off to have some skills, the necessary tools to do the job, and do it yourself.

“Looking after” your surroundings becomes second nature and if you keep on top of everything, living here isn’t that  complicated or difficult.