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Alaska: The Last Frontier (TV Show)

Thing that struck me was the fact that they have some pretty nice heavy equipment and all their houses and outbuildings are half finished crap. One episode showed a house with exposed plywood walls. Your worth $5M and can't afford siding? Theres another clip of them moving a crappy hay barn worth $50 with an $80,000 machine.

Don't care how they live, just thought it was odd.
 
Artifact said:
They live 10 miles from a town with grocery stores. Fictional shit.
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Jim85IROC said:
So what? That invalidates their choice to live in a self sufficient manner?
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Yea, they are very clear they CHOOSE to live like this, not that they have to. They said many times they are trying to keep to the old homesteader traditions and pass them on through the family.
 
atz and otto both have a net worth of like 3 or 4 million, im guessing that is including the value of the homestead.
50 BMG said:
They must have some heavy cash, they have some expensive machines to do the heavy lifting.

An excellent book of a real homesteader is One Mans Wilderness. He used a ax to fall the trees to build his cabin, a saw to cut the logs to length for his firewood and the ax to split it. Its really a great book.

The show when they put up the barbed wire fence on public land? That must have gone over well with the Alaskan wildlife commission.

His farther did escape the German occupation of his country and moved his family there.

I often wondered why he raises cows for beef instead of Bison. Bison meat is far better than domesticated beef. Coastie correct, until they run out of fuel to run their tractors, generators, snow machines and chain saws.

I like the show for what it is but IMO its not really homesteading. They depend on the same things we do to accomplish tasks

I am sure I am going to get really dinged for my comments[wink]
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Let's not forget they live in Alaska they may have been receiving oil subsidies for some property they own too. I wonder how Eve is worth what she is though... I am sure Discovery TV paid them too..

I do like the show and they seem like nice people but I definitely wouldn't want Atz hunting with me he needs some target practice.
 
Just found out about the Jewel connection. Her mother was a prior wife and sounds like it did not end well between them. It's an entertaining show.

[video=youtube_share;rktZbb2Ia1I]http://youtu.be/rktZbb2Ia1I[/video]
 
You guys do understand the Kilcher homestead is only a few miles from a Subway and grocery stores and civilization? The whole we need to hunt to sustain ourselves for the winter is just for tv. Just like Ice Lake Rebels...they are like a few miles down the road from a city of over 10,000 (Yellowknife). It's all a farse. Lol.
 
Da_lucche said:
You guys do understand the Kilcher homestead is only a few miles from a Subway and grocery stores and civilization? The whole we need to hunt to sustain ourselves for the winter is just for tv. Just like Ice Lake Rebels...they are like a few miles down the road from a city of over 10,000 (Yellowknife). It's all a farse. Lol.
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uhm, yes. It doesn't diminish what they are doing though, does it? They also have net worth of over $1MM each, so really they don't have to do any of it if they don't want to, do they? It's a lifestyle and obviously none of them are going hungry.
 
Da_lucche said:
You guys do understand the Kilcher homestead is only a few miles from a Subway and grocery stores and civilization? The whole we need to hunt to sustain ourselves for the winter is just for tv. Just like Ice Lake Rebels...they are like a few miles down the road from a city of over 10,000 (Yellowknife). It's all a farse. Lol.
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I looked it up!

From:
Subway, 637 East Pioneer Avenue, Homer, AK 99603

To:
Kilcher Rd, Homer, AK 99603

is 11 miles and a 17 minute drive. Not much farther to a hospital or airport. And just for fun, 4,790 miles from Boston. They have a surprising number of neighbors but that 600 acres they have must be worth $$$.

Still like it the best of the Alaska shows which have become so popular. The Brown family is out there and the series about McCarthy seems even more "staged."
 
SteelShooter said:
uhm, yes. It doesn't diminish what they are doing though, does it? They also have net worth of over $1MM each, so really they don't have to do any of it if they don't want to, do they? It's a lifestyle and obviously none of them are going hungry.
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Well they sure do portray the whole "we need to fill our meat freezers before the chill sets in or we might be in trouble" shtick a lot don't they?

Sure it's a lifestyle but let's not pretend they are in a life or death struggle with mother nature every week.
 
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Da_lucche said:
Well they sure do portray the whole "we need to fill our meat freezers before the chill sets in or we might be in trouble" shtick a lot don't they?
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Atz (whose first name is Attila!) has made reference a number of times to "this is the way we used to live." I want to know who shot up their skiff, that's pretty low-down.
 
Da_lucche said:
You guys do understand the Kilcher homestead is only a few miles from a Subway and grocery stores and civilization? The whole we need to hunt to sustain ourselves for the winter is just for tv. Just like Ice Lake Rebels...they are like a few miles down the road from a city of over 10,000 (Yellowknife). It's all a farse. Lol.
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Yeah, in a number of shots at the 'head of the bay' you can see other houses/buildings and transmission lines.

SteelShooter said:
uhm, yes. It doesn't diminish what they are doing though, does it? They also have net worth of over $1MM each, so really they don't have to do any of it if they don't want to, do they? It's a lifestyle and obviously none of them are going hungry.
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But how much of that net worth is their land? I"ve wondered how they get money for stuff like gas for their equipment and such. Sure, they each get the Alaska oil payment thingy, but I wonder if they have other income (apart from the show, now)?
I still enjoy the show, though.
 
OCB said:
Yeah, in a number of shots at the 'head of the bay' you can see other houses/buildings and transmission lines.



But how much of that net worth is their land? I"ve wondered how they get money for stuff like gas for their equipment and such. Sure, they each get the Alaska oil payment thingy, but I wonder if they have other income (apart from the show, now)?
I still enjoy the show, though.
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Don't have time to look it up right now, but if I remember correctly they are pretty liquid. Some of them were not always living like they do now. Even the cute girl married to Ivan? she's worth like $2.5MM. I could be wrong though.
 
OCB said:
Yeah, in a number of shots at the 'head of the bay' you can see other houses/buildings and transmission lines.



But how much of that net worth is their land? I"ve wondered how they get money for stuff like gas for their equipment and such. Sure, they each get the Alaska oil payment thingy, but I wonder if they have other income (apart from the show, now)?
I still enjoy the show, though.
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they mentioned they send some of their cattle to market.
 
garandman said:
I looked it up!

From:
Subway, 637 East Pioneer Avenue, Homer, AK 99603

To:
Kilcher Rd, Homer, AK 99603

is 11 miles and a 17 minute drive. Not much farther to a hospital or airport. And just for fun, 4,790 miles from Boston. They have a surprising number of neighbors but that 600 acres they have must be worth $$$.

Still like it the best of the Alaska shows which have become so popular. The Brown family is out there and the series about McCarthy seems even more "staged."
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I lived in McCarthy for a summer and know most of the people on the show. It is staged, but there is a ton of anti Neal sentiment in that town. He really is ****ing it up...
 
Was reading about Atz's fall off the cliff, terrible, the guy should probably be dead. 27 broken bones, 4 surgeries so far. Broke, should, arm , leg, ribs, hip, punctured lungs - really bad.
 
Ultrarunner said:
I lived in McCarthy for a summer and know most of the people on the show. It is staged, but there is a ton of anti Neal sentiment in that town. He really is ****ing it up...
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He does seem to b easy to dislike.

What about Jeremy Keller? They seem to make him out to be a powderkeg.
 
garandman said:
He does seem to b easy to dislike.

What about Jeremy Keller? They seem to make him out to be a powderkeg.
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The "fight" between those two is staged. They probably didn't like each other before the show, but Neal made the entire thing happen. So I imagine there was a sit down between them before filming discussing what the show would look like and a very attractive compensation offer.

Some of the other locals that don't like the show or Neal's development vision likely won't appear on the show no matter the payout.

You take one of the most beautiful, remote towns left in America and attempt to commercialize it and it is surprising there isn't bloodshed yet. The outskirts of McCarthy has its fair share of felons and folks that have no interest in society...

There was a man up there that served two years prison time for Federal tax evasion, and was somewhat of the Patriarch of the town before he passed two years ago. He walked the walk....one of the dying breed of real men, and real Alaskans. If he were alive today there is a very real chance this show would have never aired.
 
In other Alaska reality show news.....

Two stars of Discovery Channel’s “Alaskan Bush People” pleaded guilty on Wednesday to submitting falsified residency documents in order to collect money from Alaska’s Permanent Fund dividend.

Billy Brown, 62, admitted he claimed in Permanent Fund applications from 2009 to 2012 that he was living in Alaska when he was really residing outside of the state. During that time, he collected thousands of dollars from the state.

"By submitting falsified PFD applications for myself and my children, I stole $7,956 from the people of Alaska," Brown wrote in a signed statement for a proposed plea deal, according to the Alaska Dispatch News.

Similarly, his son Bam Bam Brown collected $1,174.

The proposed plea deal, which a judge will evaluate on Thursday in court, stipulates that the Browns will pay back the money, be on probation for two years and each complete 40 hours of community service. The judge noted that the community service work cannot be filmed for their hit reality show.

Juneau Superior Court Judge Philip Pallenberg emphasized in court on Wednesday the seriousness of Permanent Fund fraud.

"It's a theft from everybody, every resident of the state of Alaska," the judge said, according to the Alaska Dispatch News.

If the plea deal is accepted, Brown family members Amora Brown, Solomon Brown, Gabriel Brown and Noah Brown will have to complete 20 hours each of community service and each pay back $3,000 in dividends. According to the terms of the deal, all charges against them will be dropped.
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