Phenology

Clear skies. High pressure dominating the weather for the next week. Highs in the upper twenties with lows in the single digits. The relatively strong spring sun continues to melt snow. Our culvert remains flowing and the driveway is drying out. White tail deer are crowding Highway 61 along the North Shore feeding on the freshly exposed grasses and vegetation after a long, hungry winter. Driving the road at dusk when they are moving to their bedding grounds is like "running the gauntlet". Yesterday outside of Lutsen we saw one run in front of a car. It narrowly missed a direct hit by jumping into the ditch and roll end over end (doing a headstand at it's apex) to recover and run off into the alders shaken but alive. 

Birthday Work Party

For David's birthday folks joined us during the day to help spruce up the homestead & clear more trees!

Alisa Berns and her boys came out and trimmed trees.

My Mom, Jean, hauled cut balsams to the bonfire.

Kelsy rocked the chainsaw!

Kelsy's son Carter and his friend manned the bonfire.  

Thanks for all the help everyone!

Amy

Osier Creek is running...

Part of the reason why I love spring so much is probably because of the fact that this is the time of the year that I was born!

It's my 29th birthday and Osier Creek is once again flowing.  This reminds me that with every year of life that passes, a birthday is as much a day to reflect on the past year as to celebrate the opportunity to live another. 

The water flowing through Osier Creek has been locked up all winter.  This spring the snow and ice has melted and is flowing into the creek.  The creek tumbles and cascades through the rock and soil all the way down to the great Lake Superior.  Spilling into the lake the water becomes part of an immense ecosystem that gives life to millions of invertebrete, plants, fish, mammals, and humans.

The water flowing down the incised channel of Osier Creek was once the snow that I skied, snowshoed and ran dog teams over.  It provided me with many of the highlights of my 28th year of life. Now it is flowing down into Lake Superior to help give life to the many millions of others whom I will share the earth during the 29th year of my life.

Phenology

Rain, snow, sleet in the air. The culvert at the base of the driveway is now open! It has been frozen for about two and a half months. A little bit more than 2 feet of snow on the ground. Spotted medium-sized "cat tracks" in the woods a couple of days ago. It is most likely a lynx but could be a bobcat or even a hybrid of the two. The elusive Canada Lynx is listed as a threatened species. It's population is almost entirely dependant on it's main food source, the snowshoe hare, which are abundant right now on the North Shore. 

Phenology

Very springlike. Highs in the mid thirties, lows in the mid twenties. The forest air is resonating with birdsongs. Mud Season has begun and the back roads are getting slimey. It's been a gradual, slow melt thusfar. The snow base has shrunk by about a foot. However, rain is in the forecast so the remaining 3-4 feet might dissappear pretty quickly! Trail conditions are as variable as they get: ice to powder to "perfect" and back to ice, etc... 

Pecking away at the list, one project at a time...

Lately I've taken a little bit of a breather from the homestead.  I've told myself from the beginning that this is kind of like a long wilderness trip or a marathon of some sort; you have to pace yourself to prevent tiring out.  With spring in the air I've spent a lot of time doing water/ice control and simply hiking around the ever-changing and thawing forest.

  

As a result, my work ethic follows the "turtle pace" rather than the hare.  Every now an then I'll crank away at a project for a complete day over the weekend.  However, for the most part I spend an hour or two a day working on the list of projects that, at this point, have kept me busy for well over a year.    Nonetheless, there is some progress to report.

Last week I installed the kitchen flooring.  We have decided to install permanant flooring only in the back third of the structure keeping in mind that one day this will be a garage space.  The flooring, however, will be a great surface for a woodshop.  Beyond the kitchen, the bathroom will have a tile floor and the rest will be covered in area rugs.

The flooring went in very easily.  I've only ever worked with oak and birch hardwood so this was a little change for me.  However, once the vapor barrier and underlayment are down you literally just snap the planks together, cut the end piece to length and carry the excess to the start the next row.  Very simple, fast and I think it looks alright!

In all, I feel great about my progress.  I'm currently working on the rough-in phase of wiring.  At this point I have all of the receptacle and switch boxes installed.  Our ceiling fixtures just arrived in the mail so they'll be installed in no time.  Beyond that I need to drill the holes for the wire, pull the wire and wire it all together.  We'll get the rough-in inspection done (hopefully without incident) and move on to drywall and insulation.

It stills seems like a realistic goal to be moving in sometime this summer!  Although the learning curve is still very steep; I'm taking my time, doing my homework, reading all the directions and pecking away at the list, one project at a time...

Phenology

Seasonably mild. Highs in the upper 20s, lows in the upper teens. Lake effect snow for 2nd consecutive day with about 9 inches of fresh snow on the ground and still falling. Spotted moose tracks! The shear size of the prints couple with the fact that you could see the result of it barreling through the snow banks leave no doubt of what caused it. This is very surprising to me as the property is not in typical moose habitat. Moose are the largest member of the deer family. An average male weighs anywhere from 800-1500 pounds and can be up to 7 feet tall to its shoulders (disregarding the height of it's antlers).