Ask Kfander

[kfander]

**Starting Info**

Username: kfander
Age: 63
Gender: M
Location: Maine
Family: Yes
Favourite foods & drinks: Upper Peninsula Pasties & Moxie
Favourite bands/music: My answer would change from day to day
Hobbies: Building a cabin in the woods

 

[mav3n]

What do you like most about Maine?

 

[kfander]

The four seasons, although I'm generally ready for the winter season to end long before it does. I grew up in snow country (UP of Michigan) but then spent most of my life in Southern California and South Texas, so it's nice to have snow again.

It's also nice to live in such a rural state. Our largest city, has a population of 66,000, and the next largest is just over half that. We've only got four cities with populations above 25,000. In Maine, you can actually get to know people, in that my wife and I have had lunch with our last two governors, both of whom would know us by name, and our representatives will return our calls personally, and sometimes stop by the house, none of which ensures that any of of these people will do what we'd like them to do, but it's much different than Michigan, California, and Texas, in that a citizen might at least have the opportunity to argue with them about an issue.

 

[+Justice]

What's your favorite animal to photograph and to see/watch?

 

[kfander]

The bears. There is one who always shows up on camera. He follows me through the woods sometimes; although I have only actually seen him twice, I know he's there because he shows up on camera within minutes of my leaving.

 

[+Justice]

Bears are awesome!

I also do know the more you go North, the bigger the wildlife gets/are, and that's very true about bears... The bears up North gets huge due to winter and them preserving their fat to stay alive and warm...

Have you ever been threatened by a bear or any other wild animal?

 

[Deleted member 7467]

How many cabins in the woods have you built?

 

[kfander]

Have you ever been threatened by a bear or any other wild animal?

My cat threatens me whenever I try to trim her nails.

No, I've never been threatened by a wild animal. I have only seen the bear twice, and each time it was just a glimpse as it disappeared into the underbrush.

I have a hundred acres of wooded land about two miles off of the nearest road, which is only accessible by foot at some times of the year. I have felt threatened a couple of times when I delayed back there too long and had to walk back in the dark. A moose went crashing through the woods one time, making more noise than I wanted to hear but no, nothing actually threatened me.

-- 10 Nov 2014, 00:46 --

How many cabins in the woods have you built?

Just the one. The cabin itself is built, complete with doors, windows, a roof, and a ceramic floor. This spring, I hope to have a well, a wood stove, and be able to start finishing the interior, which I can build myself.

 

[+Justice]

I hope you keep yourself protected when you go out and about by yourself...

Do you go by any other method other than by foot? Maybe a four wheeler?

 

[kfander]

I can drive back during the late spring and summer when the road is dry. It's actually an ATV trail in the summer and a snowmobile trail in the winter. Since I don't yet have a snowmobile and there is a period in the early spring when it's too wet and muddy to drive, that's when I walk. I have snowshoed out there as well, but that's a lot of work.

Here it is in the winter. There are actually windows on the other three sides.

 

[+Justice]

Looks cool...

Is that your man cave? 😉

 

[Graffiti]

Do you watch anime?

 

[kfander]

Looks cool...

Is that your man cave? 😉

My wife likes it too, or thinks she will once I have it completed, with a well, heat, and furniture.

Do you watch anime?

No, I don't get it.

 

[+Justice]

So, a little home away from home type deal?

Are you going to stop at one or build another one?

 

[kfander]

I'd like to try building an earth bag building further out in the woods. Mostly, I'd just like to build an earth bag building, but I'm sure I could find some purpose for it. The further out in the woods part is because it's tough getting a permit for alternative construction. I suppose I could just say it's not really a building; I was just stacking these bags of sand that I happened to have lying around.