Not Really an Alaskan Mountain Man

Doug Fine's "Not Really an Alaskan Mountain Man" is yet another experiment of Doug Fine, this time seeing if he (Doug), a city dweller, can live like a true outdoors-man in southern Alaska.  In the first 30 pages of the book, Doug moves into a small cabin along Fritz Creek with his dog.  Doug finds out that his neighbors consider him to be a Cheechako: an impersonator of a true Alaskan, a con.  Doug makes it his goal to be considered a "true Alaskan", but for a city dweller who has never fired up a chain-saw, Doug has a long way to go before he can be called a "true Alaskan."  Doug's first step to rid himself of the name Cheechako is to properly heat and insulate his house, but the only source of heat Doug can use is a fireplace.  This means that if Doug wants to be reasonably warm, he has to chop down a tree, divide it into segments, and divide those segments into even smaller portions of wood, but for a New Yorker who is used to flicking a switch and becoming instantly toasty, all the work just to get some warmth seems like a stretch to Doug.  Although Doug is already thinking about returning home to a more modern part of the U.S., Doug's determined soul keeps him going through the brutal winter, desiring to become a "true Alaskan."