By Freddie Noble
A woman who lives in a remote cabin in Alaska where temperatures drop to -40°F says she “loves it” – despite having no running water or heating.
Karma Wilcox, 19, moved back into her childhood home in Homer, Alaska, USA, in March 2023, as she was craving a sense of “freedom”.
California-born Karma had lived in the cabin with her dad, Luna, 43, who is the creator of the Altruist Relief Kitchen Project- working with people in war-torn areas across the world.
When she turned eight, she moved back to San Francisco, California, with her mom, Misty, 38, a life coach, but also lived in central Hollywood, Los Angeles.
But after turning 18, Karma decided to head back to the cabin, which is over 100 years old and has no running water or heating.
She says she loves it and wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.
Karma, a content creator, said: “The insulation is not the best, the logs are cut down and layered around the cabin with moss with sticks nailed in between to keep some warmth in.
“My main source of heating is firewood which is on 24/7 and I go through about a cord of logs a day.
“When it snows, I go snowboarding pretty much every day which is so fun and I’m very lucky to have an endless garden around the cabin.”
Karma enjoyed growing up while living in the wilderness.
“The cabin is such a good place to grow up as a child because you have no worries,” she said.
“We used to play in the garden and go on really long hikes and ever since coming back it’s been nice to relive the memories.”
Luna’s godfather rented the cabin to people in the area and Karma’s dad convinced her to move into the cabin when she was old enough.
She added: “The cabin itself is owned by my dad’s godfather, Tom, and he is who I pay rent to each month.”
Karma moved back to the cabin when she turned 18 in 2023 – for a sense of freedom.
She now pays $275-a-month in rent.
She added: “It’s a two-story cabin – the downstairs is the living room, so it has the kitchen and the lounge area and the upstairs has two bedrooms.”
Karma uses 5G to connect with others and doesn’t need to pay for Wi-Fi as she gets a good signal – despite being out in the sticks.
She said: “People think Alaska is really off-grid but it’s actually not – my 5G works just fine.
“It’s such a lovely place to live and I’m loving it.
“The cabin looked very different when I lived there before and my dad has fitted a new roof but I’m more of an interior designer than him.”
Despite loving her current lifestyle, Karma doesn’t think she will live in the cabin forever.
She said: “I can’t live with no running water for my whole life but I’ll probably stay in here for another year before I go to med school.”
“I don’t want to stay in Homer, but I would like to go back there in the future.”
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