Orange & Blue

Wood Shed

Wood sheds are crucial to successful fire wood production.  Under the roof of a shed and not exposed to elements split wood will cure.  Cured wood burns hotter and cleaner than green wood leaving you warmer and the stove pipe cleaner and free of creosote.  

I tested out a new construction technique for this structure. It is the first time I've built a post & beam with local spruce posts.The frame was bolted together with lag bots.   The posts are peeled spruce all harvested within a few hundred yards from the site. 

Once the main frame is bolted together I fastened the rafter ties. 

The inspection process was grueling!

The roof rafters go on.  This really "pulls" the structure together.  Notice the "boss" inspecting my work!

I then roofed it with 1/2" OSB and rolled asphalt.  The two opposite corners are sided with one inch thick boards spaced one inch apart to allow ample air flow to dry the fire wood. 

I laugh because it took me three months to build this relatively simple structure.  Excuses aside, Penelope was born the week I started the project so I was a little preoccupied!  Now I have a dry place to make my cuts and dry our wood for the winter... 

Crisp and blustery.  Huge rolling waves are crashing over the Grand Marais breakwater.  Light rain throughout the weekend left a relatively lush and colorful forest.  The under story is ablaze with the vibrant reds of moose maple and golden ferns.  Poplar and birch began the season deathly brown from the drought but have regained their autumn glory!  Most nights the temperatures hover right around freezing.  

A broad-wing hawk literally flew into our living room window.  He survived the impact and perched himself atop a snag at the edge of the clearing to clear his lenses.  A grouse spooked Amy under the bird feeder.  We even found some very rare moose tracks down at the intersection of the County Road!

We harvested carrots, the rest of the tomatoes, onions and both of our apple trees before the blue jays could get all the fruit.  The apples taste great!  We are already planning to expand our orchard next spring...  

Our first freeze of the year left the air chilled and the apples about ready for picking.  Although the white spruce are stressed with browning boughs due to the lack of rain, the poplar trees are all brilliant yellow.    A much needed gentle cold rain washed over the shore yesterday.   Grouse season is open.  

We have officially begun our plumbing project.  I have left the County twice in the last week for the first time in years on material runs to Duluth.  Late night drives back up the North Shore is like running the deer gauntlet!  Last night I hit one on the highway just meters from where I spotted a wolf the other night before.

Cool crisp nights and sunny windy days.  With the wind, low humidity, and lack of recent precipitation the fire danger is very high for much of the state and the North Shore.  The temperature has been dropping into the forties at night leaving the poplar leaves with a tinge of yellow and maples red. 

The black bear hunting season has started.  The word around the town is that five bears have been taken from our area!  Grouse stir in the poplar stands during our evening hike.  It seems like there are plenty of birds in the woods this year for the season. 

We have had a fire in the stove most nights this week to bump up the house temperature. Our birch woodpile is all bucked. One of the three poplar piles is cut.   Preparations for winter have begun...

Warm, sunny days.  A small forest fire burns northwest of Ely.  Lake Trout have been caught in shallow as thirty feet of water around Five Mile Rock.  A few of the maple trees have begun to turn red.  Aster is blooming.

The fall bird migration along the North Shore has begun.  Each year hundreds of thousands of southbound birds are funneled along the prominant ridges of the Sawtooth Mountains to follow the shore of Lake Superior on their way to warmer winter grounds.  As the birds fly south they encounter the huge expanse of Lake Superior.  Instead of flying over it's hostile waters where there is no emergency landing or food the aviary wisely elect to fly along the shore.  As a result, the woods within a mile or so of the lake explode as a microcasm of a boosted food chain.  Fierce competition erupts around the ussually mundane pecking order of a roadkill feast!

Every day an unfamiliar bird call pierces the woods.   Huge Golden Eagle and Osprey to tiny warblers and sparrows pepper the sky.  Sometimes flocks of hundreds fly over at a time.  More often than not, however, a single kestral or Sharp-shinned hawk swoops through the meadows in search of one of our local rodents to sustain their journey.

This time of the year life on the homestead is filled with harvesting the garden, processing firewood, and preparing for the winter.  Onions and garlic are drying on the racks.  Carrots and parsnip remain in the ground.  Apples continue to ripen on the trees.  Bucked firewood is piled and awaiting the splitter.  

Weather Pending