We arrived at Hus OLAF (our cabin in MN) at the perfect time to see lovely fall colors.
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pulling into our driveway
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Parked at the side entrance.
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first night dinner (leaf decorations by Rusty)
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View out the window while we were eating
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relaxing in front of the Jotul after dinner
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We had many big projects in mind for this fall trip. Happily, we accomplished most of them.
We have an 8 x 10 room that is intended to be a bathroom someday. Right now it is just a storage space; Rusty calls it the UB, or unfinished bathroom.
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Rusty covered the future shower base and then built shelves above.
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One of the porch support logs exhibited a great deal of rot, so Rusty removed the damaged wood and then filled in the voids with epoxy resin.
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The cereal box is holding the resin in place while it dries.
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Next spring we intend to install caps on all the log tops to prevent them from damage in the future.
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Gretchen and I are enjoying the last rays of sun after a long day of removing volunteer trees.
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A trail goes from our porch, across state land, to White Iron Lake. It is about .2 miles.
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This trail is pretty rocky and not always easy to find. (I've gotten lost a couple of times.) In terms of walkability, I'd say it was a 5 out of 10 when we first arrived. Using a pry bar and a sledge hammer, we've moved many rocks to fill in the worst of the dangerous holes. I'd guess we're now up to a 6 or 7 out of 10, but we'd both like to get it up to an 8 or 9. Guess that will happen next year.
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When the trail gets to the water, it's a very rocky entrance.
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We have successfully launched from here a few times, but one time I got dumped in the water. After the winter, we'll see what we can do to make this easier too.
We took a 1.5 hour drive to Slumberland in Eveleth, MN to buy furniture for the cabin. We are expecting our new hide-a-bed and recliner and lamp to arrive when we are there in December.
Another one of our big projects was working on fire safety. Rusty installed smoke alarms in the cabin, and also a fire extinguisher.
We had many tall balsam trees that nearly touched the porch. We also had an 80-ft. red pine near the driveway that was riddled with woodpecker holes, indicating that it was rotting. If it fell, it most likely would fall across our driveway, across the road, or on the power lines. It needed to be removed safely.
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The big tree in the upper right (nearly twice as tall as the picture shows) needed to be removed.
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We also had this giant snag near the outhouse that was an eyesore.
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We hired this wonderful arborist, Brent Spink, to do the needed work.
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Brent removed trees and his partner, Eric, removed debris. The previous owner of our cabin left behind brush piles nearly as big as a semi, and quite unsightly. Now they are all gone!
Several times Rusty and I sat on our front porch and looked over the forest. We could see a huge fallen white pine and we commented that our grandkids would probably have a lot of fun climbing on it or trying to walk across it.
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A small portion of the tree is in this picture.
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This picture is from a different angle, but you can see several large chunks of tree that Brent chopped off the top of the fallen tree to allow him to remove felled balsam trees.
Then an amazing thing happened. The very large fallen tree resurrected itself!
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Once the top weight of the treetop was removed, the root and rock mass at the bottom made the tree stand up! It's hard to tell from the picture, but this trunk is more than 2 feet in diameter. Rusty calls it "the resurrection pine."
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We felt a need to check out the neighborhood bar.
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After all this we took a break and began another five-day BWCAW adventure.
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| Tent, sleeping bags, clothing, food, everything two people need for 5 days in 3 bags. |
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On the way "in" the trees were beautiful!
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After 5 hours of paddling we arrive at Shell Lake.
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View from our campsite.
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pulled ashore for a lunch break
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Uncle Jeff, I caught the bass.
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Steve cleans the fish after lunch.
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A gorgeous moon-lit evening.
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| Steve's new love, Kate, is always on his mind. |
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Rusty and I found a spot for our tent way back in the woods. It was so quiet back there!
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Rusty fell in one day. His clothes are drying in the background.
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We had a little snow a couple of times on this trip.
Our last evening we had a lovely campfire and a full moon.
When the trip was over we went back to Hus OLAF for a few more jobs.
We discovered that our stove worked (sort-of) and the oven did not work at all. We opted for a new stove and were advised to select a full-service propane company so that the new stove could be connected and any future gas issues could be easily addressed.
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When the lady at Range LP asked what size of tank we needed, I sent her a picture and said, "this size."
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In the meantime, the old stove was removed and the new stove wasn't yet hooked up.
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Rusty cooked our steaks on the small, gas camping stove.
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Here comes the new tank.
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Nice we could get one in Go Big Red colors!
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We had a 300 pound log, dog house that was double-wall insulated. Gretchen was having none of it, so Steve and Kate helped us remove it.
We had a sewer designer draw up a plan for a septic system and then the well diggers came out to our property to determine a place for the well.
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We cut down a few trees and now the stake indicates the location for a future well.
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We can't wait to go up north again in mid-December!
