# So, you prefer to live without neighbors



## Pappy (Aug 16, 2014)

Well, this home in Iceland might be right up your alley.


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## Falcon (Aug 16, 2014)

What if you need a cup of sugar?


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## Meanderer (Aug 16, 2014)

Funny....I thought I was looking at a slab of asphalt....until I spotted the house in the middle.    A little too remote for me.


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## Meanderer (Aug 16, 2014)

"The island was inhabited roughly three hundred years ago by five families that subsisted by fishing, hunting puffins, and raising cattle. By the 1930s, however, the last permanent inhabitants had left. Some speculated that the island had been donated to famous Icelandic singer Bjork (which it wasn’t), while others thought it was home to an eccentric billionaire (which it wasn’t). The pedestrian truth is that the cabin is a shelter and sauna for a local hunting association, which uses the cabin to hunt puffins on the island".


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## Pappy (Aug 16, 2014)

Meanderer. Thanks for the update. I thought it was a little funny to live out here.
A couple more:


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## Meanderer (Aug 16, 2014)

...wouldn't want to clean out the gutters on that place....course they wouldn't get too many leaves!


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## MrJim (Aug 16, 2014)

Though seemingly not as remote as the house in the OP, this cabin in the Alaskan wilderness, hand built by one middle aged man all alone & using only hand powered tools (no electricity there) & with no assistance from anyone else, was home to a man named Richard "Dick" Proenneke for over 30 years.

For those of you who may not have heard of him, Dick Proenneke was a mechanic who, in 1968, decided in mid-life to move into the Alaskan wilderness to see how long he could last.

He began the project when he was in his mid to late 50's & lived there completely alone (occasionally going to the mainland to visit relatives) until he was in his 80's & could no longer do so.

The cabin is now a designated landmark & maintained by the state of Alaska.

And to make it all even more impressive... he brought a 16mm movie camera & tripod with him & filmed himself building the cabin!!! As a result, there was an utterly fascinating documentary made about him, entitled _Alone in the Wilderness_, using mostly his own film. It shows him hewing & laying the logs, cutting the openings for the windows & door & laying in the stones for the fireplace & chimney, putting on the roof, etc. etc. He even hand cut the planks for the front door, lengthwise & perfectly straight, out of one log, then hand carved the wooden hinges. And of course, he hand carved all his tool handles, dishes & eating utensils.

One could literally use this film as an instructional tool for how to build a log cabin, it is that detailed.

Anyway, the basic story about him is here on Wikipedia, if anyone is interested...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Proenneke

...and here's a 10 minute segment of the documentary from YouTube






If you ever get the chance to see the entire thing, do so.

It's great!!

MrJim gives it two thumbs up!!!


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## Meanderer (Aug 17, 2014)

Thanks MrJim!  That was great to watch!  I think I remember reading about this guy about the time he moved out.  It's so rare these days for one person to devote their life to one goal, in isolation and alone, by choice.  Kinda makes "Survivors" wimpy in comparison!  (Had to use the link)


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## Pappy (Aug 17, 2014)

Talk about living off the grid, this guy nailed it. Thanks, Mr. Jim.
Did anyone notice that he sounded just like Ronald Reagan?


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## MrJim (Aug 17, 2014)

That was actually not Proenneke narrating. I think it was a friend of his, possibly the producer of the film.

If you guys ever get the chance, try to see the entire film. I think it's about an hour long.

Might be at your local public library if they have a DVD section like ours does.


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## Meanderer (Aug 17, 2014)

Pappy said:


> Talk about living off the grid, this guy nailed it. Thanks, Mr. Jim.
> Did anyone notice that he sounded just like Ronald Reagan?


Maybe it was RR!


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## Jackie22 (Aug 17, 2014)

Interesting thread, I'm going to check Netflix for the Proenneke film.


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## Rainee (Aug 17, 2014)

The one at the other side of the bridge would do me that I think is in Newquay in Cornwall I love it there so its pretty close to town if 
I needed groceries .. but the pictures are lovely .. thanks for sharing them.. and the story attached is extra good ..


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## GeorgiaXplant (Aug 17, 2014)

Oh, there once was a Puffin
 Just the shape of a muffin,
 And he lived on an island
 In the bright blue sea!He ate little fishes,
 That were most delicious,
 And he had them for supper
 And he had them for tea.But this poor little Puffin,
 He couldn’t play nothin’,
For he hadn’t anybody
 To play with at all.So he sat on his island,
 And he cried for awhile, and
 He felt very lonely,
 And he felt very small.Then along came the fishes,
 And they said, “If you wishes,
 You can have us for playmates,
 Instead of for tea!”So they now play together,
 In all sorts of weather,
 And the Puffin eats pancakes,
 Like you and like me.

Guess they fished all the fish and hunted all the puffins, and when they and their cattle had nothing more to eat, they left​


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## Meanderer (Aug 17, 2014)

Thanks for the poem GXP!  Sounds Dee-licious!


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## Denise1952 (Aug 17, 2014)

OMG Pappy, that is the most amazing place I've seen in a long time!  Talk about getting away from it all.  That would be horribly lonely unless you had a big family, but where the heck would they catch the bus, LOL!!


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## Denise1952 (Aug 17, 2014)

These are both amazing too Pappy!  I love the internet and all we get to see.  Hey, I wonder if the guy in Iceland gets internet


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## SifuPhil (Aug 17, 2014)

"Alone in the Wilderness" is one of the movies I have that I watch over and over and probably will until I die. 

I'd love to live on that great rock with just puffins as company. I would be known as the Puffin Man.

"Oh, have you seen the Puffin Man, the Puffin Man ..."


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## Ralphy1 (Aug 18, 2014)

Lighthouses are another possibility...


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