Storm Squall

Inside the walls of that Courthouse was horror.

Outside a blizzard raged under the dusk skies.  Beyond that the beauty of our homeland still lay poised to heal all who experienced a side of their own race that no body should ever have to endure.

I will not write about what I heard and saw on the first floor of that building.  Rather, I'm trying to deal with those memories and forget the details.  A good night's rest would help too.  Instead, I write about the healing powers that our home place and the community around it can have on someone.

Even while restraining myself with the frustrating inability to help my friends upstairs: all I wanted to do was run.  My flight instinct kicked in.  There has never been a more grounding feeling than simply driving up our road that night.  Even though the wind and snow and darkness persisted outside,inside the walls that I built was home.  I was with my wife, growing baby and dog in front of the wood stove and warm.  I was alive and physically well.

The next day I drove further into the woods.  All around the wintry north woods accepted me for what I was thinking: as horrible of thoughts as they were.  The thoughts unraveled the various emotions I was reliving.  The horrific memories unwound like line off a fishing reel: still coiled with potential.  Besides having to pick myself back up I felt better with every rotation of tire on that lonesome forest road.  Pine trees and frozen streams all around.

I was suddenly surrounded by friends.  The end of the road that day was a dog kennel.  If there is ever a time to pick yourself off the ground and perform, it is while training dogs (except perhaps for parenthood).  The companionship they provided that day led to many miles of exhilarating dog mushing. Once again the world around me helped free my mind.

The sight of Lake Superior at the bottom of the Arrowhead Trail is like standing in the grandest cathedral you have ever stepped foot in.  Whether to you that place is in Rome or Yosemite that sanctuary for me is Superior.  My soul was healing with every storm squall that passed over her dark waves.

I've learned some cruel lessons lately.  But really, I've also been reminded of the grandeur that surrounds me.  And that helps...

Four Below Zero

Four below zero.  Dark Superior waves crash along the berms of yesterday's storms.  Ending the day under the moonlight of the lake.  Face bitter with frost.  A slow, deliberate walk home up the hill.  Inside the wood stove maintains the ambiance necessary for modern comfort.  The stillness of winter outside...

Falling Star Shoots from Orion

A falling star shoots from Orion as the hunter rises in the east.  The days are short.  The temperatures at night have begun to fall below zero. Trees creak in the cold breeze under a waxing moon.  There is a dusting of snow in the air and on the ground: another winter in the North.

Our thoughts have gone to shoveling, firewood, four wheel drive, long underwear, warm insulated boots, anoraks & choppers.  Across the globe, Northerners are passing long nights with food, cards, tea, wool sweaters and music.

Waking at light, we go to work and come home to dark.  I've almost forgotten some of the daily images of the property because I never see them during the daytime hours.  The reality is that we're middle latitude and only a few weeks remain before the winter solstice.  After that, the days only get longer.

I've spotted a number of fox recently.  It seems like their numbers are up.  An extremely rare wolverine was spotted outside of Lutsen.  The largest member of the weasel family, wolverines are tenacious carnivores.  Typically weighing less than 50 lbs they have been documented killing prey many times their size.  With large ranges and low population densities it is very uncommon to spot one of these animals.    

We are living on the land comfortably. In the past few weeks I've been busy doing wood chores, putting plastic on the windows, installing our bed frame, waging a war on mice to keep them out of our truck at night and planning our projects for the upcoming year...

Firewood

I burned a fire in the stove today.  Although there was certainly a slight nip to the North Shore air tonight; it is not cold.  I lit the fire to remind myself that this work is worth it.  The fire is burning to remind myself that my efforts, which have at times beat me to outright physical disrepair, is a commodity that will burn long and keep us warm all winter.

I'm not minimizing the situation.  The nights are getting longer and colder.  Most recent nights we've been honestly burning the stove to keep warm.

It's true: winter is coming.  To northerners this time of the year means but one thing; it's a time of chopping wood.  Doting wool and fleece for the first time since spring is occasion enough to dust off the splitting maul and get to work.  My job this fall is simple: split 3 cords of birch and one cord of poplar.  This should be enough wood to burn in our stove for the winter.

Splitting, however, is the last step in processing firewood.  One can pay to get their wood supply delivered split.  I for one am that that type of person (at least while I'm young) to do it themselves.  To me splitting wood has simply become another chore that I do that takes my mind off of the "normal" life qualms.  It gives me an opportunity to exert energy on something that doesn't think or feel or has the ability to tell me off.  In turn, I'm able to simply beat the snot out of it.  It's great anger management!  Don't get me wrong, I'm not an angry person.  Processing wood is just another activity that helps me direct the rest of my constructive energy towards the things in my life that merit it.

On the physical level, there's an old saying that processing firewood warms you twice.  I agree.  In fact I'd say that it warms you five times: felling, bucking, splitting, stacking, and burning.

First Snow

The ponds along the Gunflint Trail are freezing.  A blanket of snow has covered the Superior North Shore.  The gales of November sweep across Lake Superior.  Waves crash ashore in a thunderous applause along the cobble beaches.  Nightfall comes early.  My eyes are slowly adjusting to the prolonged darkness.

I just finished trimming out the windows.  There's not much better than working with quality pine.  There's also not much that makes a place look finished than cased windows!

One of our newly finished windows.

Luna sitting at her post on the top of the driveway.

First snow cover of the season...

Seven Billion

As of today, seven billion humans inhabit the earth.  That's almost 122 people per each square mile of earth's land mass!  Humans, like the growing number of snow buntings leading us down the early morning country road are growing swiftly in numbers.

This fact takes me back.  It makes me realize how finite of a planet we live on.  It reminds me that everyone, starting in our small community of the shore of Lake Superior, needs to be responsible and sustainable in our consumption and management of earth's resources.

The thought of seven billion people on earth leads me to reflect on the resources that I consume.  After all, my project continues.  I'm clearing and burning balsam fir.  I spend my early evenings racing sunset by splitting birch firewood and hauling water from the well.  There was a beautiful wolf on the Gunflint Trail this afternoon.  Rifle season on deer opens this weekend.  We have meat, fish and berries in the freezer.  I drive to town everyday for work.

In my opinion, every human on this planet has to honestly reflect on how they live.   Everyone needs to do what they can do to live as sustainable as possible.  It's the only way that the burgeoning human population is going to thrive on this finite earth.

7,000,000,000 people and 1 rock: the numbers say it all in this one...

Acclimating to the Cold

The sun shimmers off of Lake Superior.  I'm sitting with a cup of coffee in front of the crackling stove while the black cap chickadees feed in the spruce outside my window.  It's another gorgeous autumn morning in the northwoods!

There was no frost last night as there has been most recent mornings.  Luna found fresh pine marten scat on the road.

Over the past couple of weekends I've implemented another round of clearing.  This time the goal is to open the top acre and a half above our cabin where the home will someday be.  The expanse of the lake is showing itself with every balsam fir that drops.

I've learned to only cut a fast as you can burn.  I should, however, be able to burn a pile this evening since a few drops of rain fell last night.

To me this is the coldest time of the year.  Even though the temperatures are nothing in comparison to the sub zero temp that will persist in January, my body has yet to acclimatize to the weather.  The thirty degree air leaves me shivering and digging out wool sweaters from our cedar chest.  By the time the real winter cold is here I will be used to it and by March thirty degrees will be considered tee shirt weather!

Although the lense on the camera doesn't serve this view justice you can see Lake Superior along the horizon.  At this point I've cleared all the balsam fir in the view shed from the home site to the cabin.  This winter I'll knock the poplar trees that you see in the foreground to really open up this space!  

Changes in Trajectory

A shooting star drops through the atmosphere on a chilly autumn night.  Suddenly, without any apparent reason it changes it's trajectory and glows as bright as ever as it fades into the ink black sky.

It leaves me with a chill down my spine.  It's a metaphor for life.  As you move through time change is inevitable.  You don't know if that change in trajectory will be a bright or dull moment.  Eventually or rather inevitably, it all fades back into the elements.

The next morning an eagle soared a blustery autumn wind over the forest.  It's six foot wingspan casted a momentary shadow over me.  The fleeting shadow came and went as fast as this magnificent aviary soared it's thermal to new heights.

I now find myself under a midnight sky watching an iron ore freighter sail north along the shore of Superior.  It's deck lights floating in stark contrast with the horizon.

The change that my efforts bring to this place is one thing.  Cognisant of it or not, the natural elements provide the real energy for this land.  Although everything in life has energy of some form, the more I experience the more life encourages me to expose myself to the raw elements of the world.  I am ready for what that energy brings me.   I am willing to ebb and flow with it.  I am ready for the changes in trajectory that may come...

The weather has turned so we felt it was time to get into the season.  This year we carved two pumpkins.  Next year there will be a third little pumpkin to carve as well!!!!!!!

Post Peak

Paddled Ram to Poplar Lake last weekend.  The trip traverses the Misquah Hills through some of the highest lakes in the state.  It takes quite a bit of "puddle hopping" through small lakes and over long, rugged, seldom-traveled portages to complete this route but the views are well worth it! 

The hills lost most of their glitter in a single day when 50 mile per hour wind gusts scattered the foliage on to the forest floor. 

Moose and bear season close this weekend while small game and bow season on deer continue. 

We've been busy harvesting apples and stacking firewood. 

Three tenths of an inch of much-needed rain feel yesterday lifting the ban on fires.  Now that the trees have lost their leaves my mind has shifted towards my winter project of clearing the one and a half acre homesite.

We spotted a lone wolf trotting on the side of the road last night in the rain.

Poplar popping

A cold windy autumn day with occasional rain showers.  Trees are in full show right now.  Poplar and birch are golden yellows.  Maples are brilliant red.  The Sawtooth Mountains stand in full glory over the dark blues of the windswept Lake Superior.

We're busy getting the homestead ready for winter.  I've bucked most of the wood.  Now I just have a pile to split and stack.  About 2 cords are already stacked.

We installed the hand pump on our well this weekend.  Installed a bathroom door. Replaced our sheetrock countertops with butcher block.

The growing season is over. The buckwheat has been tilled back into the garden. We've been boosting the compost with greens from the garden.


Hawks and eagles are in the air.  Yesterday our morning drive into town was greeted by an immature Bald Eagle flying low over the Devils Track River gorge.  About 50 black birds were on the road a couple of evenings ago.  There was no obvious road kill around.  Bears are in season and in need of life giving calories.  A skunk has taken up residence in our neighbors culvert.  We're hesitant to bring the dog down there.   Despite an open small game season a grouse has been lingering close to the house.

The brisk evenings are spent reading with Poplar popping in the woodstove...

McFarland to Clearwater via Mountain and Moose Lakes

A guide to one of the most beautiful padddling trips around: 

The palisading linear hills first appear at McFarland.  Put in your canoe and gear at the end of the Arrowhead.

Paddle north through Little John.  In high water shoot the rumbling class one rapids into John Lake.  With another diabase bluff on left head east past a fine pine-studded campsite to the north.  The portage is on the right well before the back bay funnels into a river.  Easy portage.

Paddle the scenic Royale River east then northwest at opening of Royale Lake.

Notice the hills, wildrice, tamarack, cedar and balsam;  not to mention the muskrat lodges

On the left is the flat, longer but easy portage into South Fowl.  The river crashes over beaver dams and through the island chain that seperates South and North Fowl Lakes.  Long, linear diabase sills form the ridges all around you.

To the North is Canada.  A couple bites of bass on a chubbed-out jig head with a leech later you step up a  rock garden of a portage into Moose Lake.

At about four miles in length Moose is a good practice crossing for Mountain Lake.  There is a great historic ledge rock and pine stand form the west shore.  Moose Lake will produce walleye.  Not much luck for us this day as we made camp on a site eating soup about midway along the south shore.

Troll your way out for the early morning bite into Moose Mountain.  Near the end of the lake, cast off a small spinner tipped with some stink along the shores: particularily where those streams are coming in.

The Great Cherry Portage is an uphill climb going west.  At 140 rods, it's not horribly long though.  Slow down and look for critter while traveling through the Lily Lakes.  Moose, beaver, water fowl, snakes in the water...

Mountain Lake is a gem.  Cliffs line most of the southern American shore.  The lake is more than 7 miles long.  Lake Trout reign in her depths.

Fish the east outlet down the Pigeon River shallow with a spinner for small mouth bass.
There's some decent camping mid way down the lake on a broad point.  The evening can be spent trolling with a white chub and leech along structure and the Lake Trout will feed.  Land at your camp, put up gear and start a fire.  Gut the fish and throw one fish on the fire per two.  There really isn't a better meal than fresh lake trout over a fire and instant puddling!

Connect the points west crossing this large lake.  The cliffs are impressive.

Jig your way out of the west side of the lake.  Trout have been had all around the distinct point the protects the portage trail climbing the ridge over to Clearwater Lake.  The Border Route trail intersects the portage at the top of the hill.  Keep dropping straight ahead but keep yours wits about you for some grouse; especially if it is small game season.

Clearwater Lake is a classic.   There are some great areas on the far east end of the lake.  The cliffs provide habitat for plenty of birds of prey.  Considering the increased mobility being a motorized lake, these cliffs begged to be climbed and the bays and narrows provide an excellent fishery.  Take out at the Clearwater landing.

The total trip is 20 some miles.  Gradual portages dispersed by moderate open water crossings.  Great fishing.  Give yourself a few days to enjoy.

Moving Rock

Let me preface this by first saying that I honestly like to work with a shovel.  I actually like moving earth around.  Some may say that I need an implement.  Someday I will.  However, while I'm young, I do not mind digging into a mound of material and hauling it away.
The "castle mout" is no more.  Over the past few days I've buried drain tile in the ditch upslope from the cabin.  It took me about 8 hours of wheel burrowing eight cubic yards of three quarter inch crushed rock to fill void.   The drain tile will allow the spring melt and rain water to travel unabated around the structure.
I don't mind this hard labor every once in a while.  As daunting of a thing it appears to look at a pile of rock 5 feet tall and think that you are going to move it all is; the reality is actually much easier than it first seems.  Focus on completing steps along the way, keep good posture and with a little time you will see results.  Those results can keep the mental momentum going until the task is complete.  In the end, you feel stronger and know that you can move that hill.
Besides moving rock I've hung an interior door for the bathroom, installed cans on the recessed light fixtures, put wall plates on all the switches and outlets and placed our bathtub into position for installation.
A new materials list is in my pocket for next week's worth of projects...

Cool Autumn Rain

A steady rain has fallen all day.  This is even better news to folks working and living around the Pagami Wildfire.  The burn has consumed around 100,000 wilderness acres.  With luck, this relatively constant rain will aid in suppressing the fronts of the fire that have crept outside of the wilderness and could potentially threaten private properties.  Fall colors are getting more colorful as the poplar yellows are becoming more prevalent.

Snowflakes & Fire

First snowflakes in the air for the year.  The sloshy mess fell on me at McFarland Lake and all the way down the Arrowhead Trail into Hovland.  Canadian Geese are heard headed south in the windy skies.  Lows tonight forecasted into the 20's.  Last of the tomatoes are able to fruit.  Sunflowers are still in full bloom.

Colder temperatures and mixed precipitation have held back the progress of the Pagami Creek wild fire.  The fire has grown to over 100,000 acres.  This makes it the largest wildfire in Minnesota since the 1918 Cloquet/Moose Lake fire.  It is larger than the 2007 Ham Lake fire that destroyed over 160 structures on the Gunflint Trail.

Phenology

Thick wildfire smoke still engulfs the upper North Shore.  The Pagami Creek fire has now burned over 16,000 acres.  The town of Isabella has been evacuated.  A strong thunderstorm yesterday brought hail, wind, rain and ash from the fire.  The sky has been a deep red for a couple of days now.  Spotted a Black Bear on the Gunflint Trail.  Freeze warning tonight. 

Smell of wild fire smoke

The Northwoods are in a drought.  Unseasonal warm winds blow.  A large high pressure system has dominated the upper North American continent for weeks now.

Because of this dry hot weather the surrounding forests are burning.  Several significant wildfires are burning to the west inside the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.  For the most part the fires have been able to burn out their course.

Wildfires are an important function of a healthy conifer forest.  Some species of trees like the Jack Pine only open their cones in fires.  Although the fires will burn a kill many of the large trees, it is the only way that the seeds of the pines are able to spread, germinate and survive.

Winds from the west are blowing blankets of smoke towards Lake Superior.  When the walls of smoke dance over the hills of the Gunflint territory sun pierces light rays through them and projects the beams of light down to the forest floor.

The smoke is soon pushed down into the cold, dense air of the Lake Superior basin.  Along the vast coast of Superior the smoke's eastern journey creeps to a halt before slowly dispersing itself over the largest freshwater lake in the world.

The clouds of wild fire smoke smell like nothing else.  The odor is a combination of thick wood smoke and a faint twist of garbage.  Banks of smoke randomly jet from over the hill and saturate the air.  Yesterday morning I awoke to this smell.  The sun was just waking world.  I was reminder of the constant energy of the many natural forces of the earth.  These forces dominate the end of another summer in the Northwoods:  Wildfire smoke in the air, Aurora Borealis in the full moon sky, golden yellow ferns, cluster flies and black bears.

Phenology

Cool, blustery autumn day on the North Shore.  Cloud bursts of rain rolled across the northwoods all weekend.  The leaves of moose maple have begun to turn red.  Birch, poplar and various ferns have begun to turn yellow.  The Mountain Ash berries are fully ripe.  These red berries provide an important food source for small mammals and birds in the lean months of the long winter.  With lows in the high 40's at night and the days getting shorter it definitely is beginning to feel like fall is coming.  We've begun to burn the stove most evenings...

Phenology

Warm breezes float off Lake Superior.  Highs in the mid 70's, lows in the 50's.  Ate our first tomatoes of the season.  Planted buckwheat to cover crop the garden until next spring.  Bucking and splitting birch firewood.  Plenty of bear signs in the surrounding hills.

Churning the Garden

The nights have been a little chilly.  It's hard to imagine that summer is already slowly giving way to fall.

We've had black plastic covering our garden site for about one year now.  Our hope is that this would kill a vast majority of the native seed bank.  Last week we uncovered the plot and with the help of our friend Jim we deep-tilled the area.  Tearing into a garden bed for the first time is full of surprises.  For one, you never really know what the quality of the soil will be until you dig into it.  It's the other surprises; like all the rocks and roots and other "artifacts" that make your first day tilling interesting!

The soil will work.  We have a manageable mix of silt and clay loam to work with.  The work we have ahead of planting is soil amending.  Amending soil is simply feeding the dirt the food that it wants in order to be at the optimal chemistry to grow plants in.  While most loam soils in the midwest are fertile enough to grow native species of plants, growing vegetables is another story.

We know that our soil is mineral rich and a little acidic.  As a result we are planning on amending the soil by adding compost and manure to put some organics into the mix as well as a little lime (a base) to help neutralize the acidic clay-rich soil.

Another important element in healthy soil is nitrogen.  Nitrogen is the most abundant element in the atmosphere.  Plants need nitrogen to grow as nitrogen is an important building block of many molecules that are essential to life.  Soil, however, is not always a good source of nitrogen.  To best way to get nitrogen into the soil is to plant legumes.  Legumes are a family of plants that fix nitrogen into the soil.  Roots of these plants contain bacteria that allow the plants to convert nitrogen from the atmosphere into ammonia.  Ammonia in the soil is then used by the garden plants as building blocks for growth.  With only a couple months before our first freeze we are planting buckwheat, a legume.  We will till this in next year before we plant our crops.

Height of the Land Route

The berries are ripe.  The fish are moving to colder water.  It' August.  To us this means the beginning of the paddling season.  Last weekend we paddled a classic border route through Gunflint-Little Gunflint-Little North-North-South-Rat-Rose-Duncan-West Bearskin Lakes.

In our ongoing quest to paddle all of the major canoe routes in the eastern Boundary Waters we've been marking our routes through the years on a regional map.  This winter we noticed something major was missing from the map: we haven't paddled a substantial amount of the Canadian border lakes.

These border lakes have a great historical significance.  Traversing the waterways from the Northern depths of Canada to Lake Superior, the "Voyageur Highway" was the route that Voyageurs traveled during the Fur Trade era of the 1630-1760's.  During this time fleets of birch bark canoes carrying beaver, moose, bear, caribou, fox and wolf pelts paddled and portaged the ancient trail. 

The furs were trapped in the winter by Natives.  They were then traded to representatives of the Hudson Bay and Northwest Companies for commodities like guns, traps and other supplies.  French Voyageurs packed up the furs into their canoes and made their way down the Voyageur Highway to the Lake Superior.  At Lake Superior, the "hivernants" (voyageurs who wintered in the north) rendezvoused with the "pork eaters" (voyageurs traveling in 30-40 foot canoes from Montreal). It was here, on the shores of Superior at the Grand Portage outpost that the two groups swapped their cargo loads.  After a couple weeks of celebrating the voyageurs turned around and headed back to complete the trade.  The Northerners carried their supplies North to spend the winter and trade with Natives for the next season of furs.  The large canoes carried the furs back to Montreal to be felted and made into hats for the robust European markets.

I call the route that we took the "Height of the Land route" after the portage between North and South Lakes that straddles the Laurentian Divide.  Geographically speaking, it's a major watershed divide (rivaled only be the Continental Divide of the Rocky Mountains): all of the water in North Lake flows to the Hudson Bay via the Rainy River watershed.  The water in South Lake flows to the Atlantic via Lake Superior and the rest of the Great Lakes through the St. Lawrence seaway.

Significant as this divide might be portaging it is actually very anticlimactic.  I've seen artistic renditions of this point being some great, steep and rugged ridge in the Northwoods.  The reality is that most of the portage is a flat wetland with balsam, cedar, various sedges and thimble berry.  No, we did not stop at the "top" of the divide and smoke a ceremonial pipe.  I couldn't even really tell where the watershed break was.  Nonetheless, it was one of those places where you could almost still the see the moccasin prints and hear the music of the countless french voyageurs who trotted that trail long before us.

Looking east across Rose Lake into Canada

Phenology

Height of the berry season.  Blueberries, rasberries, strawberries and thimbleberries are all out in full fruit.  A broad-wing hawk has been spotted for the past few mornings hunting on our road.  The broad-wing is one of the most common hawks on the shore.  Inhabiting the forests of most of eastern North America, the broad-wing are famous for the large flocks or "kettles" that they form during migration.  In 2003, over 100,000 broad-wings were spotted in a single day flying past Hawk Ridge in Duluth, MN!

Phenology

Another warm day on the North Shore.  Highs in the low 80's with lows in the upper 50's.  Cook County is under a "hydrologic outlook".  Apparently we should be expecting a storm tomorrow carrying with it 1-2.5 inches of rain.  After the massive 4 inch rain event a couple of weeks ago the area currently is at about 115% normal precipitation.  Meaning that we have received about 15% more rain that the average year.  The blueberries are ripe on the Gunflint!  Let the harvest begin...

Isle Royale

At nearly 50 miles long and 9 miles wide, Isle Royale is the largest of 200 some remote islands that make up of an archipelago situated roughly 20 miles from the Minnesota-Ontario north shore of Lake Superior.

The island itself is a series of SW/NE trending asymmetric linear ridges.  The rock on the northwest side of the island steeply drops into the cold waters of Superior while the rock on the south side gently slides into the breadth of the lake.  There are two main rock units found on the island.

The Portage Lake volcanics formed during an episode of volcanoes that extruded flood basalts during the Precambrian (about 1.1 billion years ago).  The northern two thirds of the island is comprised of various textured basalts.  These textures (opitic, porphorytic, pegmatic, etc.) are a result of the environment that the rock crystallized.  Copper and secondary minerals like prehnite, greenstone and agate filled the voids that fractures and gas bubbles left.  

The southern third of the island is composed of a unit known as the Copper Harbor Conglomerates.  Deposited in streams, this sedimentary rock unit looks like a bunch of pebbles and sand compressed and cemented together.

To understand the origin of these two rocks we have to think big.  Over a billion years ago Earth was still "figuring itself out".  The beginnings of the North American continent had formed.  However, this mass was unstable and found itself rifting apart down the middle.  Magma from deep within the Earth began to dome upwards as the rifting thinned the surface.  This magma found its way to the surface and lava flowed on the surface and in shallow water (think about the volcanoes of Hawaii).

When billions of tons of heavy, dense iron-rich volcanic basalt oozed to the surface the weight depressed the crust.  The area around the rift began to warp downward.  Soon a syncline (basin) was formed.  Water, always opportunistic, found this relatively low basin and began to flow into it carrying sediment from the highland areas around it.  As a result conglomerates and other beds of siltstone and sandstone were deposited atop the basalts of the Portage Lake Volcanics waiting for us to explore.

Since then four major episodes of glaciation and closely associated changing water levels have carved out the Lake Superior basin and the landscapes that we see today.

Prehistoric people discovered the island and prized it for it's obvious copper wealth.  Over one thousand prehistoric mining pits have been documented on the island.  Apart of it's minerals, Isle Royale was also an important source of wild rice, berries and wild game.

Three major mining booms have since occurred on the island.  The hard work of "blast and dig" mining never proved economical successful and most operations failed without profit.  Many pits and abandoned equipment can still be found throughout the island.

Commercial fishing was also a vibrant part of the island's history.  Isle Royale's unpredictable topography and reefs are wrecked many ships on it's notorious shoals.  A hand full of lighthouses round the island's perimeter and light it's passages.

Isle Royale is now the stage of the dynamic saga for one of the most hailed predator-prey relationships in the world.  For more than 50 years, biologists have been watching the delicate interactions between the grey wolf and moose.  Moose probably swam to Isle Royale around the turn of the 20th century.  At any given year about 1000 individual moose have inhabited the island feeding on the plentiful vegetation of the the island's wetlands.  At one point, moose became too abundant.  The island's vegetation wasn't enough for the booming population.  A die off ensued.  Sometime around 1940 wolves crossed from the mainland on the winter ice.  Since then the two species have been tangled in a natural exhibit of capable predators killing the weak and old.  Today just under twenty wolves inhabit the island.

Now the least visited National Park, Isle Royale is an amazing place to visit.  80% water, one can sail, fish, hike or paddle it's beautiful landscapes.  My only qualm; it should be considered a part of Minnesota not Michigan!

 Sunset over Blake Point.  The northern most point of Isle Royale.

Flash flood!

One of the best things about living in the woods is the opportunity to experience the subtle but continual changes of nature.  Some things, however, aren't very subtle.

I'm lying awake at 2:30 am listening to the rain fall on our metal roof.  I'm anxious because in a couple of hours I'm getting up to drive to Grand Portage to catch a boat to Isle Royale to guide a backpacking trip.  What started as a calm rain shower soon becomes a down pour.  The down pour continues through the remainder of the night and into the morning when at 5:30 I drive down the road.  At this point the ditches are completely full.

Driving up Highway 61 to Grand Portage that morning was like winter driving in July.  As the truck was hydroplaning at every low point in the road I couldn't help but think about the homestead.  I couldn't go back.  I was committed to catching that boat and guiding a five day backpacking trip.  Rolling over 3-5 foot waves later that morning with lightening shattering the distant Canadian sky I knew that the situation at home wasn't good.  However, on the remote island and without any form of communication for five days I had to trust that Amy had the situation under control.

Needless to say the rain poured down relentlessly until mid morning.  Over four inches of rain fell.  Our ditch was scoured down to bedrock.  All of the rock in it was transported by the torrent down to the culvert.  The pipe soon clogged up and with no place to go the water rushed over the driveway and road. Within moments the road was washed away!

Amy headed back home after dropping me off to catch the boat.  Driving up the washed-out County road leading home she knew right away that things were bad.  Debris had covered the base of the driveway.  The culvert was no where to be found.  She was able to locate the outlet of the culvert, paced the line back up to where she thought the inlet would be and started to dig.  As long as the culvert was buried water would continue to run over the road and exacerbate the damage!  After a couple of hours of digging she finally found the inlet and was able to get the runoff to drain into the culvert.  She spent the next two days digging and filling in the freshly incised channels in an attempt to level out the road surface to make it passable.

Five days later I got home to find a place much different than I had left.  We have spent the last few days digging and and "patching" the base of the road of.  Right now we are just happy that we can get to our new home and thinking of ways to deal with the next time it decides to dump 4 inches of rain on us!  Once again we've found that it all comes down to water and how it interacts with the landscape; particularly at it's most violent moments...

Listening to the cicada

The temperature and humidity are dismally closely aligned in the 80's.  Fog blankets Lake Superior day and night.  Every once and a while a misty cloud bank is forced up the driveway by a cool blast of lake air.  The dog is panting on the cement.  We wake in the morning to the sound of cicadas chirping.

We are coming up on a month of living on the property.  Now officially out of our rental in town, every single one of our belongings are here in one place once again.  Slowly, we are steadily building shelves and storage to make sure that  everything finds a home.  Amy has most of the art collection on the walls.  In short life is simple and comfortable.

The chores have just begun.  Beyond hauling the daily water I have begun putting up the upcoming winter's firewood supply.  It's kind of ironic to be thinking about splitting firewood for the winter when the heat index is over one hundred degrees.  That is, however, exactly the direction where my mind and efforts have begun to go!  Last week one of our local loggers delivered three cords of birch.  The logs were delivered in 16' lengths.  It is now my task to buck the logs into 16" lengths, split it in half and stack to dry.  This birch will be supplemented with some poplar cut around the property.

As usual, there's plenty of work to be done.  However, for the time being I just going to sit at my desk, write, and listen to the cicada...

Phenology

Warm, humid.  It's not very often that the North Shore is issued an "excessive heat warning" but with highs in the mid to upper 80's and a humidity level of equal value we find ourselves laying around in the shade-too hot to tackle the projects that we had hoped to accomplish.  This may not sound "hot" to folks further south but keep in mind that the average annual temperature around here is 39.  Our tomatoes, however, are loving the heat.  This morning we noticed our first piece of fruit!

Phenology

Warm, sunny.  Highs in the low 70's and lows in the mid 50's.  Over three inches of rain fell in the last couple of weeks.  Despite this climate data ranks precipitation values about 10% below average.  Dew berries, strawberries and heal-all are in bloom.  Summer on the North Shore is in full swing!

Shoe Lake

Shoe Lake is nestled into the rolling white pine-clad hills of the "Greenwood country" in eastern Cook County.  It's shoreline is rimmed with black spruce, northern white cedar, labrador, sphagnum moss and the occasional tamarack.  Common to many lakes in the higher elevations of the Duluth Complex, Shoe Lake's outlet is bedrock controlled.  The means that the lake's water level is trapped behind bedrock.  The lake is shallow (just shy of 20 feet at it's deepest point) yet it supports a decent population of brook trout and splake (hybrid of brook and lake trout).  

Phenology

Warm, sunny.  Highs in the low 70's and lows in the low 60's.  The early summer bloom is in full show.  Wild rose, ox-eye daisy, hawk weed, columbine, bunchberry, clover, lady's slipper and even blue flag (wild iris) dot the forest floor with color.  The streams are flowing as a solid two inches of rain fell a couple of nights ago. 

Home

A rare late June thunderstorm is clapping over Lake Superior.  We are sitting in front of the churning wood stove as rain is pounding on our metal roof.  Our walls are painted.  The wires in our walls are energized.  I sit here, thinking of the last 18 months of countless hours of work, signing our homestead application on Amy's birthday.  Today it is official: we are moved in!

It started when the ditch that ran the length of the property was filled with a four inch thick piece of metal wire.  Within hours that wire was humming with electricity.  There is not much more exciting than successfully flipping a light switch for the first time on a project that has taken every ounce of comprehension, patience and practice that you can muster.  With that one act the generator was stored in the tool shed and the lights were lit late through the night.

With the help of Amy's moms Jean and Kelsy we painted all of the interior walls, stained the exterior siding, tiled the bathroom, wired the last of the lights, hung the kitchen cabinets in a single weekend.  We followed the next week by building the bedroom and entry way closets and moving our belongings one truck load per day.

Time to relax by the fire...

Cheers to Amy on her birthday and a new home!

Northern Light Lake

A cow moose greeted us right off the landing as we paddled down the Brule River on our way to Northern Light Lake.  Turns out that this calf had two calves that we spotted on our way back.  Apart from that we spotted another young cow just downstream. The water was high and the bugs were thick as a large low pressure mass loomed above.  Osprey and Bald Eagles quarreled over rights to the prominant pines.  Jigs and leeches in 5-10 feet of water produced four perch, three Northern (one decent) and only one "fingerling" walleye.  There were no filets on the grill at the end of the day but it was a great paddle nonetheless.

Looking upstream the Brule Valley towards the Misquah Hills

2nd of four moose

Amy demonstrating the perfect "J" stroke!

Phenology

Wind and rain.  Highs in the low 50's.  The North Shore has recieved two days of constant rainfall.  At last count we have had 3/4 of an inch of rain in the last 48 hours with more to be expected.  Wind gusts in excess of 45 mph have left many downed trees in the forest.  Large swells on Lake Superior have forced the iron ore freighters to follow the "Northern Route" close to the shore to avoid the large open seas.  Two ships visible from the property passed through the area yesterday afternoon.  Fresh wolf scat on the road announces the return of the Devil's Track wolf pack to the area.

Moths of Unusual Size

They do exist!

We spotted this huge moth on the side of the cabin the other day.  It is the size of my cell phone (about 4 inches wide!)  The problem is that we have no idea what kind it is.  Any ideas?

Phenology

Warm, dry.  Highs in the upper 60's with lows in the low 50's.  First wildfire of the season on the Gunflint Trail.  As of now the Forest Service will simply monitor this small 6 acre fire in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The fire is on Gaskin Lake which about 25 miles to the northeast from the homestead.  A bear tore down our bird feeder.  Spotted a firefly in the air last night.  Fireflies are winged beetles that produce light from their abdomen through a chemical reaction called bioluminescense in order to attract a mate.

Going underground...

Anticipation is running high.  If the nerves are going to get you at any point in a project such as ours it's now.  As I write there is a 2-3 foot deep trench running down the length of our property.  The trench will be home to the strand of wire that will soon conduct the flow of electrons to our lights and refrigerator; bringing us the luxury of modern appliances that I have taken for granted (until now). 

With the help of a friend we dug the trench in the course of a long June summer evening.  Minnesota code mandates that the conduit-clad wire must be no less than 24 inches deep.  Anything less requires a layer of concrete over it for protection.  This means more material which means more money so we dug as deep as we could.  The digging, however, was better than I had anticipated.  We hit bedrock at most of the predictable spots, but for the most part we dug through 6-9 inches of black silty clay loam, iron red clay loam and red porphyritic rhyolite.  

I have assembled the materials from which we will wire the whole mess together and some day very soon flip a switch.  Then we will be able to read under something other than a candle or oil lamp!  In the shot above you can see the spool of conduit and transformer in the background.  In the foreground is the socket meter (in the box) and the 4-wire aluminum direct burial service entry cable under the tarp.

A view from the transformer looking at "the castle".  Notice the bobcat parked behind the truck.  This piece of equipment did the real work.  Also note the trailer.  The trailer houses a blower that we used to blow cellulose insulation into the attic.  This worked very well.  One person kept the blower full of material as the other handled the hose and deposited a uniform blanket atop the ceiling. 

The spool of conduit and transformer.

Meanwhile inside the humble abode:

With the walls and ceilings all painted we finally unwrapped the appliances and started to get the kitchen situated.

It's starting to come together. Since the attic is insulated we have begun to move storage items out to the property and are beginning to switch gears into "move mode".  Now let's just hope the underground work goes as planned...

Phenology

Gorgeous summer day on the North Shore.  Highs in the upper 60's/low 70's with lows in the  low 50's.  A black bear tore down the bird feeder last night.  The first hatch of black flies and mosquitos as come and gone (awaiting the next round).  The summer flora is in full bloom.

Phenology

Stormy.  Small, swift bands of uncommonly intense storms have swept over the North Shore in the past few days.  A tornado was spotted just 60 miles away down the shore!  Streams are still running high as a result of the rain.  Highs in the upper 60's and lows in the low 50's.  Blue bells and columbine have taken to flower.  Wild strawberry has sprouted along the road. 

Insulation & Drywall

Now that the cabin is wired it is time to finish out the walls and start thinking of really making this place home.  Although I ended up really enjoying wiring I was eager to get back into projects that I am a little more familiar with.    

In northern Minnesota, a well insulated home is absolutely crucial to a comfortable winter.  The day we passed our rough in electrical inspection I hit the ground running and was able to get all of the exterior walls insulated. 

Before we could drywall the ceiling, I needed to build the storage platform in the rafters.  I first framed cross members atop the trusses to build the platform on.  From there we heaved sheets up and placed them down the center of the entire structure.  We now have almost 400 square feet of storage!

Notice the black pieces along the walls.  Those are plastic sheets that allow air to flow from the soffit vent up towards the vent that runs along the ridge.  They prevent the blown-in insulation from clogging the vents.

  

A plastic vapor barrier is then stapled tight on the ceiling and walls before the drywall is installed.  Once the vapor barrier is "tacked in", the first step in drywalling is to lift the ceiling panels.  These 5/8" thick sheets made of gypsum (a soft mineral) are 4x8 feet.  Needless to say they are quite heavy.  To lift them I enlisted the tallest, strongest friends that I have.  Without a mechanized panel lifter, the easiest way to hoist these sheets 8 feet in the air is to build two "T's" out of 2x4 lumber.  Two people each take a "T" and lift the sheet on either end while the third person fastens the drywall screws into the joist with a screw gun and counter sink bit.  The counter sink bit drives the screw into the sheet so that you can put a layer of mud over it to make it flat.

Measuring out receptacle boxes and windows take time.  You have to be very precise.  The last thing you want is to cut a hole in the wrong location!  In the end, I only screwed up one cut.  The good news is that it happened in the beginning so I was able to use the sheet for other smaller "scrap" pieces.

Once the ceiling is complete (24 sheets), we then moved on to the walls (47 sheets).  The walls are thinner (1/2" thick) and made of lighter material so they are much easier to work with.  The ceilings must be thicker in order to prevent the sheets from sagging under the relentless force of gravity over time.

Amy's dad, Bill, gave us a hand for a few days.  We quickly "got in synch" and were able to finish out the walls in just one and a half days of work!

The next step is to tape and mud the joints between the sheets.  While lifting the panels is very physically demanding, mudding is mentally trying.  First you put a thick layer of mud over the joints.  You then put wet drywall tape over the joint followed by another layer of joint compound.  The idea is to meld the junction of the two sheets into one continuously smooth wall surface.  Any irregularities in the mud must be sanded down and followed by another layer of compound until the surface is smooth.  This kind of tedium can drive folks crazy!  Me, I kind of like it.  You just zone out and make it look pretty.

Fully taped and awaiting another layer of mud.

Our place, fully "rocked"!  It's amazing what a difference it makes...  

The other day while at the store we found ourselves with the rest of the crowd in the paint aisle.  While I kind of missed the relatively empty lumber yard, there was a great sense of satisfaction to be at this stage... 

Phenology

Warm.  Highs in the mid 60's with lows in the high 40's.  Spring flowers spotted today: Lady fern fiddleheads, large leaf aster leaves, miniature burgundy sarsaparilla, wood anemone blossoms and nodding trillium buds.  Marsh marigolds and wild strawberry flowers are abound.  Bugs are in the air.

Phenology

Clear skies and sunny.  highs in the low 60's and lows in the upper 40's.  The walleye season opened last week.  Caught two 10-12 inchers.  Spotted a black bear crossing the highway south of Duluth.  First leaves have sprouted from poplar trees.  Despite the grasses "greening up", the forests are drying up quickly.  Fire danger "high" on the Gunflint Trail.

Phenology

Highs in the upper 50's and lows in the mid 40's.  Low pressure has dominated weather patterns for the last week or so with frequent light spring rains.  Ice is out on the lakes of the Gunflint Trail.  Spotted two moose feeding on submerged vegetation in ponds.  The hare are now completely brown for the summer.

"Yard" Projects

While we are making great progress inside finishing out the cabin there still is plenty going on outside as well.  We try to do at least one chore outside at the end of the day when it is too dark to work inside without light.  

The south side of the cabin stares south down the driveway to Lake Superior.  We thought that this would be a great location for a fieldstone patio.  Here you can see the local rock landscaping and the sand that we have tampered down in preparation for the 2 inch thick fieldstone that we are collecting from the property to set and complete the surface.  

We have rock "issues".  This outcrop is preventing the water from our "castle moot" to flow down the ditch.  However, like any geologist I know exactly what to do about that!  Here I am with my drill hammer and rock chisel banging away along the fracture sets of the rhyolite trying to cut a channel for the water to escape.  It's not the most glamorous job in the world but actually kind of fun if your a "rock-licking geologist".

This picture pretty much sums up spring on the North Shore.  We're prepping soil to plant our seedlings next to the churning wood stove.  

Planting seeds in trays.  Once they have sprouted we'll put the plants in the cold frames to grow and harden off before being planted outside. 

Three trays all planted and ready to sprout.

We built cold frames out of old windows and lumber scraps.  Cold frames are a great way to extend our short growing season as they create a microclimate for not only sensitive seedlings but full grown lettuce and spinach.

Beyond these projects we have roofed our shed and cleared a spot for our winter firewood supply that will be delivered in 8 foot lengths in June.  One of the best things about developing a property from scratch is that it truly is a "blank slate".  There are so many things to do on a daily basis that you never get bored of doing the same thing (except maybe for cutting down balsam fir).

Phenology

After a few days of a gentle spring rain the sun is slowly showing itself.  Highs in the mid 50's and lows in the upper 30's.  First bugs out for the season.  Lettuce has sprouted in the cold frame.  First ticks on the dog.  The snowshoe hare has almost entirely lost it's white coat and is now about 75% brown.

Wiring

It' official: we passed our rough-in electrical inspection!  Mainly due to my inexperience, wiring has been by far the most intimidating aspect of this project.  I knew absolutely nothing of the trade walking into this project.  And now, in lieu of passing my first inspection, I can say that I know the basics. 

The beauty of electricity is that it works simply.  Energy flows from a big wire to little wires to a outlet or receptacle that a switch controls.  The hard part is making sure that your circuit allows the energy to flow without any interruptions (and according to code).  

Planning out the design was by far the most difficult part of the job.  For one, you actually have to follow a code.  For another, the end result has to make sense.  There has to be some kind of logic to how you wire the place otherwise you end up with a spaghetti noodle looking mess where the switches don't turn the right lights.  But the real motivating factor to come up with a solid circuit design for a frugal Norwegian like me is money.  The last thing that I want is to double back copper wire over itself because I didn't think it through!  Needless to say that even with the help of friends, neighbors and a good "how to" book it took me over a month to completely design our circuits.

Although it took me a while to figure the design and amass materials, once I actually started wiring things went pretty fast.   The first step was to place the receptacle boxes.  Next I drilled holes in the studs for the wire to go through and pulled the wire.  Now that the wire is pulled through the wall or up and over the trusses from the service panel to the receptacle boxes the actual wiring begins.  

I really enjoyed wiring up the boxes and panel.  The work requires a great deal of precision but when you are wiring a new construction there is a great deal of leeway in the respect that you can make it up as you go.  With a little bit of common sense (knowing what each of the wires is doing) I wired up the boxes.  

My attention then turned to the panel.  In any home, electricity flows from the main service line into a panel.  Once in the panel the energy flows through a circuit breaker and then on through each of the individual circuits.  Circuits breakers are a good thing.  Each circuit has it's own breaker.  Breakers protect that circuit by cutting off the flow of energy if it detects any change in the electrical flow (overload or short).  Code specifies what kind of breakers are used based on the amperage of the circuit and what the circuit is energizing.

 

Once the panel and boxes were wired I made sure that everything looked nice and organized for the inspection.  When spring road restrictions are lifted our utility company with pull the main power in from the base of the driveway.  We will then connect that power source to the panel, get the final inspection and energize the system.

The learning curve was certainly steep.  However with the help of friends (Special thanks to Dan, Joe and Isaac!), a good book, and some common sense the castle is now wired.  

I'm now back on familiar grounds: carpentry! 

Time to insulate and drywall...

Phenology

Windy, cold, mix of rain & snow.  Highs in the upper 30's, lows in the upper twenties.  Low pressure will dominate the weather for the rest of the week.  This should melt the rest of the snow.  The rivers are all open and roaring at bank full.  Steelhead (rainbow trout) have not quite begun to make their way up the Cook County streams to spawn as cold water temperatures have led to little luck for anglers.  However, anglers lower down the shore have had decent luck this run.  The smelt run is in full tilt.  Smelt are small, bony fish that also ascend the North Shore streams in order to spawn.  Folks use a net to land these fish by the bucket-full.  The snowshoe hare is almost completely brown again.  Deer are still plentiful.  Juncos are feasting on our bird feeder daily.

Still wandering. Done melting.

The confluence of the Wood Mountain Road ditch and Osier Creek at it's finest.  

The winter snow has melted away.  Within a just a few weeks four feet of snow melted and flowed it's way down our new ditches.  I'm very pleased with how things went this spring.  We haven't had any major incidents.  The snow just melted and rolled down the hill just as we imagined it would.

Now the forest is once again alive with the sound of juncos, robins, black-capped chickadees and woodcocks.  Bears will soon awaken from hibernation.  The ground has thawed out to a point where we have begun to work the soil once again!

There's been a long standing joke between Amy and I on how often we've found ourselves wandering down some lonely remote dirt road.  Now that lonely remote dirt road leads us home...

Phenology

Cold, windy.  Highs in the upper 20's and lows in the teens with wind chills in the single digits. A strong low crept across the midwest over the past couple of days.  About 1.5 inches of fresh snow fell along the shore with amounts up to 8 inches further inland.  First sighting of an American Robin (actually a flock of Robins).  With an extensive range of most of North America, this member of the thrush family will be among the first to breed and lay it's distinct blue eggs.

Phenology

Clear skies, highs in the low fifties and lows in the high twenties.  The sugarbush is in full swing for maple syrup.  Local folks have been well situated in their sugar maple stands for a few weeks now as taps have been flowing like gangbusters.  Recent cold nights and warms days have led to large volumes of sap flowing into buckets across the county.  The sap is then boiled down to produce rich maple syrup.  Osier Creek "crested" with it's peak flow yesterday (4/11).  Water volumes dropped by half over night.

Phenology

Warm spring air.  First thunderstorms of the year.  Highs in the low 50's and lows in the mid 20's.  Intense rain showers have swells all the drainages to near flood stage.  Rivers have not opened up yet the small streams are rushing!  Large numbers of bald eagles and small hawks migrating along the shore.

Castle Moat

No castle is complete without a moat to protect you from dragons....