winter camp site clearing

Crisp but beautiful day! The black capped chickadees and bald eagles greeted us as we hauled our tools up to the property.

Today we focused on clearing the area for winter camp. The site started as an option for the home site. Like the home site, it sits on the back edge of the property about 75 feet from the forest service land. Just to the west is the highest spot on the property (about 910 feet, a little more than 300 feet above Lake Superior). I call this hill Spruce Knob for all of the 20-30 something year old white spruce that inhabit the area.

The camp site sits on a relatively level spot facing S/SE. The plan is to get the canvas tent on a platform and have a spot to relax "indoors" while we work on the garage, driveway and garden this spring. I'm thinking that we'll put a table with a couple of chairs and a radio in there. That way if we need a break we can fire up the stove for warmth, make some tea and play rummy 500 or cribbage while listening to WTIP.

We started by clearing a half dozen birch from the spot and bucked them into firewood length. Then the whole firewood location came back into question. The worst thing would be to end up moving everything multiple times. We want to get this right. So we headed down to the future home and garage sites. Basically the garage will be 12o feet from the house with the garden and garden shed in between it.

The shed location is going to be crucial because it will also be the location of all the tools and most importantly, the generator. Keep in mind that we don't have plans at this point to pull electricity in the 1500 feet to the home site. That just means that we are going to have to get used to fact that we will be off the grid from the start. Therefore the generator is going to be our lifeline. A lot of the initial work will undoubtedly revolve around the generator/shed. So we decided that the "main" wood pile servicing the garage and house will be in the vicinity of the shed.

That decided, we headed back up to winter camp. In order to make a platform for the tent I need to get some measurements. So we got the tent and the poles out to get an idea of what the footprint will be. That way I can figure what kind of materials I need to start looking for. (Anyone reading this in Cook County have a surplus of rough cut lumber that they are willing to part with?)

Tent dimensions figured, area cleared, wood stack location determined (for now), shed location pretty much determined, and (most importantly) the garden talk has begun. Good day.

As Amy said as I was punching out of 4WD hitting the pavement of Highway 61, "homesteading is going to be like running a marathon, you've got to pace yourself from the beginning".

the clearing has begun...

The 1,000' road from where Taylor Lane ends to the property won't be built until the spring. Last week I hauled in the winter camp (canvas tent and stove) via my 24" wide otter sled.

Got the Stihl fired up today. My plan this winter is to clear the garage site and driveway. It is turning out to be no small feat as our driveway will be 430 feet long.

The garage will be 24X28'. Basically I'm clearing out an area 52X44'. That will give us plenty of room to have the structure and turn around.

Today I started working at the hardwoods. I started by felling a few dozen small (2-4" diameter) poplar then moved onto a dozen or so decent (8-12") birch. I need to decide where to start the pile of 16" long birch that will be split for firewood. After limbing what I cut in such a short amount of time it's amazing how fast a burn pile grows!

Worked on limbing the trees until I ran out of light at about 5:15 pm.

Once I get the garage site cleared I am going to work my way down to the drive clearing a 20' swath. I think that our driveway will be 14' wide.

At dark the dog (Luna for those who haven't been mauled and licked to death) and I took the stroll down to the truck to head back into town.

A lot of decisions to make and even more work to do... Life is good!

intro

My entire life I've dreamt of homesteading the north woods. A couple of weeks ago Amy and I closed the deal on 5 acres 5 minutes east of Grand Marais, MN. We are 2000 feet from the shores of Lake Superior, 300 feet above it in elevation and surrounded by the Superior National Forest which fades deeply into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

The land is a mix of white spruce, balsam fir, birch and poplar. At least two major beach terraces of red, slaty rhyolite are found at 825 and 875 feet above sea level. There are a couple of small type 6 & 7 wetlands following two minor drainages. The shallow soil is roughly two inches of silt loam then 10-12 inches clay loam to clay to bedrock of porphyritic rhyolite. So far I have seen plenty of white tail deer, rabbit, red squirrel & grey wolf. There is a huge (200 lbs) black male wolf roaming the area. The word is that a large (12 strong) pack claims turf to the Devil's Track/ Wood's Creek watersheds. They can be heard many nights.

The plan is to build a garage with apartment setup. Live in that while we save our pennies to build the timber frame that we've always dreamt of. So here's where it all begins...