I moved to Alaska three years ago from an overdeveloped California. When I grew up in what I consider to be my hometown of Vista, California, we were country. I used to call us country Californians because we always enjoyed a rural lifestyle with lots of orange trees, lemon trees, a large vegetable garden and goats next door I dressed up as a kid.

My favorite store was the feed store where we could get all kinds of treats for my dog and bird seed, natural cures and everything you really needed for your garden. What changed in California? It became overpopulated and there were too many people interested in over modernizing our area. Some development is obviously good, however we must always preserve and protect a sustainable natural lifestyle which I call country.

We also used to go spear fishing in the ocean for tuna, that back then you could see hundreds of fish jumping in the waves as they curl upwards to crash and the adults would spear fish them, and as kids there was nothing better than fresh caught tuna. It has very little if any smell and is delicious. We would then go over to the lagoon and catch octopus for salad. My family and friends believed in the natural environment.

As I grew up, I knew all about the landscape and edible vegetation and studied what it would take to create a completely sustainable state, meaning one hundred percent water recycling which was very important for agriculture in drought stricken conditions. I also had developed water energy independent homes that I wanted to turn to net plus because people can work from home and generate income, agriculture already proves that and we can even improve on that further with travel and tourism options as well as opportunities to increase small businesses run from home. This empowers us to earn a better income and when you incorporate all that you can accomplish when you learn about subsistence, sustainability and small business with some use of technology you end up with net plus.

I have found a lot of what I believe in here in Alaska, and I would like to take the skills I have, what I learned from California, apply it to what I am learning more about here and help our state advance in sustainable ways or even better towards creating a flourishing economy for everyone.