Thoughts on the Walkway

We were able to get our hands on some oversized shipping pallets which I think will work great for the wetland walkway. Ray deconstructed one and filled in the gaps on another to make a small deck. The wood is pretty rough and you definitely can't walk on them with bare feet, but that's ok. The wetlands are funny - because they are always changing, it is hard to determine what kind of materials and design will work for the walkway. I have a feeling there will be a lot of trial and error in this particular project but this feels like a solid first try.

It's Official.

I called the privy inspector on Monday to schedule an inspection of the outhouse in order to close the permit. Ray and I were a little nervous about this process because when we took out the permit, they sent us a list of regulations that we were supposed to follow. Unfortunately, we received the regulations after we had the pit dug and after we had begun construction on the building, so there are a few rules that were bent. One stated that the privy cannot be on a slope greater than 20 degrees. Our privy is located on a slight hill. We leveled out the spot as much as possible and I don't believe the location will negatively affect the privy in any way but we were concerned that the inspector might raise an issue with the location. The last thing we wanted to do was move the outhouse. Luckily, we had no reason to be concerned. At first, the man at the Barron Country Zoning office kept asking me who my plumber was. I explained I didn't have a plumber, just an excavator who dug the hole and submitted the soil test. Luckily, the zoning guy recognized his name. After he located my information, he just asked me if the privy we built met all the specifications listed. I wholeheartedly assured him that it did. He signed off on it and told me we were all set. I was thrilled. Looking back, I guess I am not at all surprised that guy didn't want to get in his truck, drive out to my place, shine a flashlight down my privy hole and make sure I followed all the rules. This bodes well for any permits we have to pull in the future. It seems like as long as we fill out the proper paper work and pay the fee, the zoning office is not terribly concerned with poking their noses in our business.

Highs and Lows

We finished the outhouse this weekend! I can't believe we actually have a bathroom! We're all really proud of the accomplishment. Ok, so it's not 100% finished, we still need to put some kind of siding on the outside. Right now it's officially a tar-paper shack. We decided to wait on the siding until we had made some more decisions about the actual cabin because ideally, we would side them both in the same material. I am leaning towards cedar shakes. They are a bit pricey, but I love the rustic look and they are less cliche than log siding. The tar-paper will protect the outside for right now and we can delay that decision. I have to call the privy inspector on Monday and have him come out to close the permit. I am a little nervous about that. If he says we need to make any changes, it will be a big set back. This has been a bigger job than we had expected and I really hope he just ok's it. It was a really pretty spring weekend and we had planned on staying for 2 nights. But after lows in the 20's, we decided to go home a night early. It was colder than I had expected and that was too bad because the daytime temperatures were in the 60's and sunny - perfect weather by my standards. Other than the outhouse, we installed the first hammock in "hammock grove," and did a few repairs on the army tent. It was a lot of work and now that we have the essentials (place to sleep and a place to do our #2's) we are vowing to slow the pace and enjoy ourselves. I think it's time to bring up some friends!!

Spring Opener

We took a drive out to Camp Freedom this weekend to see if it was still winter there or not. Definitely not! There is still some ice in the pond, but there was open water around the edges. I saw a bald eagle fishing in the shallows! There are many geese that live on the pond and something else that makes a very loud and strange call. We never knew what it was until now - cranes! They are so beautiful but LOUD! Sleeping in is not going to be an issue up there. The entire place is covered with some kind of wild onion and there is a very strong onion-y scent in the air. The snow is all melted and little onion plants are starting to poke out of the ground. Our goal for the day was to get the tent set up on the platform and put the outhouse together. We hauled the walls, floor, roof and seat up in the little trailer. We underestimated how much time both those jobs would take. We did get the tent standing, although it still needs some tweaking. We left it up there all winter in its storage chest. We wrapped the whole thing in tarps, but I worried all winter that we would unwrap it and find a moldy mess. Not the case - it was in fine shape. It looks quite at home there - much better than in my backyard. It took several hours, but now it can stay up for the rest of the season. We have shelter! But the outhouse is another story. We got all the pieces there which is a huge deal. Not having that in my garage anymore is great. Here is Thor putting the finishing touches on it the night before we moved it. We had the excavator dig the pit for us last fall, but we sort of forgot that we needed to reinforce the hole. We needed to build a simple frame to fit down into the pit to keep the walls from caving in over time. Luckily, there is a great hardware store 5 minutes away. (One of the selling features of the site - that and the emergency room!) We were able to buy the wood we needed and the guys there even cut it all to size for us. We put the frame together and got it in the hole, but we were out of daylight by the time that was done. We stacked up the outhouse and left it up there. Putting it together should be a relatively simple job now that this foundation work is done. All in all, not a bad day's work.

Target Practice

Ray went door to door this weekend collecting plastic bags from all the neighbors for the archery target. It could still use a bit more stuffing and a bulls-eye, but Guthrie demonstrated it for me this evening.

In Memorium

We said goodbye to our old van yesterday. It was really on her last legs (lots of shuddering) and we gave the keys to a used car dealer who claimed his "compadres" would send it down to Mexico to live out the rest of its years. Nice to think of it heading South. The old Mazda was a very reliable car for us for many years. Best van story - when we were putting the porch on the front of our house, we had to dig 4 foot footings for the foundation. We dug down a few feet and hit a huge boulder. We couldn't think of any way to get it out short of dynamite. We tried to break it with chisels and sledge hammers, pry it out with levers, nothing worked. We finally attached a tow rope on it, backed the van up into the yard, turned on the four wheel drive and towed the beast out of the ground. It now rests in the corner of our front yard. It was quite a triumph and I'm a little amazed no one got killed.

We bought a beautiful 2006 Honda Pilot. It's a large, irresponsible SUV and I love it. Those of you who knew me in the Austin days might remember my affinity for big black trucks. It's very roomy so we're excited to be able to transport lots of friends up to Camp!

Spring is in the Air

It hit 64 degrees in Minneapolis yesterday. The sun was shining and it felt glorious. After a week of rain, almost all the snow is gone. Spring in Minnesota is one of the reasons I live here. It feels like a miracle every year. It looks like we'll be able to get the season started sooner that I had hoped. We are going to head up to camp for a day sometime soon to set up the tent and get a feel for how soon we could actually be camping. I'm sure the snow will be on the ground up there a bit longer than here and even after it melts, the ground will be a muddy mess for a while. We've been working on a few projects around here in anticipation of the season. The outhouse is complete and ready to be transported. Ray and the boys are building an archery target. Ray found some instructions for making a target out of a plastic tarp. He doubled the tarp and stitched up the sides. Next, the whole thing gets stuffed with recycled plastic bags and then a bulls-eye is painted on the front. The whole thing is pretty big. We stuffed all the plastic we had laying around in there and now we only need about 4 million more bags. That's where my local readers come in! Do you have a bag of bags under your sink? Next time you're over, drop them off! Once the thing is more finished, I'll include a photo. It should be pretty fun. Ray and I decided to invest some time and energy setting up some fun things for the kids to do rather than spend all our energy on the building plan. If all we do is work up there, it kind of defeats the whole purpose of the place. The kids need to love it and they won't if mom and dad are just working all the time. Once the kids have learned how to entertain themselves there, we will have more freedom to work on our projects. Another thing we're looking into - zipline!!!