Loggers

Well folks, I must apologize for once again neglecting my blogging duties and leaving you all in the dark as to the status of Woodpecker Hollow. Here it is January of 2009. We have a new president, the market needs financial crutches just to keep from completely collapsing and the loggers have come and stripped my land of nearly all of the birch trees. This leaves me with -- and I am basing my calculations purely on visual guessing -- approximately only 5% - 10% of my total tree count.

At first glance, it looks pretty bleak, but there are some real benefits here that need to be taken into consideration. First of all, the areas we were thinking about clearing for various reasons, are now cleared--less work for us. Also, you can now see all the way across the property, making hunting lanes easier. We can now map out and make our trails and access roads as we like. And finally, it is easier to walk across the property with less brush growth to fight through.

Here is Panoramic image of the property from the southeast corner. For best viewing, zoom(Ctrl++) it all the way in and use the scroll bar to pan left-to-right and vice-verse.

John And Dad

John went up north to spent a few days and nights up at camp and Dad decided to join him for the first couple of days. They cleared the stumps from around the cabin, pulled out and cut up several trees that we had felled last year and built a lean-to to house the longer logs as they dry.

John also cleared a space for his own future cabin down near the big Red Pine. They also took the time to finish the loft floor and wrap the cabin in Gorilla wrap, not to mention seal the open cracks with spray foam. John reports that the cabin is now pretty air-tight and easily 10 degrees warmer inside than outside. They also managed to get some decent fishing in.

Finally, A Roof!

Well, we pulled a back-to-back pair of weekenders and the roof is on! We had enough 3-tab red shingle to do about 75% of the roof before moving on to other colors and then even other styles, but never-the-less, the roof is finished. We have soffit of a sorts to put in and we need to finish the Gorilla wrap in the peaks. Then, window trim and finally, siding and the exterior will be finished. But those things can wait until next Spring. The most important next task is insulation and interior wallboard.

The Big Blue Hoody comes off!

As the title suggests, Yippee! The Big Blue Tarp has been removed and we are finally moving forward with shingling the cabin!

Tom brought us a truckload of shingles, felt and nails, not to mention his log-splitter, and John brought his expertise. And while John and I were working on removing the tarp and doing all of the prep-work for shingling, Dad and Tom split our entire pile of logs and re-stacked them. Then they set about chain-sawing and splitting up the Big pine that had fallen over last Spring during a very nasty storm. On Saturday, John and I got the fascia up, the Gorilla Wrap on the cabin and some of the felt down.

In the afternoon, our neighbor Jeff came into camp on his 4-wheeler (Man, we've gotta get one of those!) and so we stood around and jawed for awhile. He's got some really great stories! Anyway, he told us about a spot on the Kettle river, just below us where we might find some pretty decent walleye fishing.

Toward the end of Saturday, Tom's splitter broke and he had to leave to get it fixed. Dad, John and I finished up and made plans for a small hike and fishing trip for the next day. These last pics show a couple of guys really enjoying the day and the beauty and bounty of the great north woods.

New Porch Swing

John, my youngest brother, and I decided that, at last we needed a front porch swing for our cabin. Earlier this year, Dad had helped me refurbish an old "A-Frame" style swing I have standing, at home, on my front deck. And, like I am commonly known to do, I, of course bought waaay too many materials for the task. In fact, I bought almost twice what I needed. So, since I only needed 1 or 2 other things to create a second swing, without the A-Frame, John and I worked together to build it modeled roughly after the first one. Then we bought about 20 feet of chain and some other hardware and made plans for a Duluth trip up north with Mom and her dog, Sheila.

We hung the swing, after learning we had made a bad cut and had to now use some of the chain from our front gate, and just as we were getting ready to finish it up, In comes my daughter Amanda and son Josh and Amanda's puppy Marley Moo. I use the term puppy very loosely.

Anyway, it was a big surprise they all had planned for my birthday, which they couldn't celebrate with me as I was on vacation over the week of my birth date. It was a great time of barbeque, hiking in the woods with the dogs. John, Amanda and Josh took turns shoting the 16-guage shotgun at targets, and of course, there was fishing.

After Amanda and Josh went home, that evening Mom, John and I (and Sheila) settled in for a cozy night over in the cabin. Then, the next day, it was off to Duluth and points north! What a fun weekend all around! It was one of my favorite times and I'll remember it always.

Take a look at some of the beautiful sights of the great Northwoods and the Superior basin.

Late Spring/Early Summer

Summer is here and the Spring storms are over. But not without some casualties. The big old Red Pine that I used in my 2004 Christmas Card has been blown down. I am sad to see it as I was truly hoping to save it. Oh well, that's how it goes in the woods!

Tom lent us his mower. And boy did we need it! Thanks Tom! We have about 700-800 feet of driveway to mow, not to mention the main yard around the cabin. As you can see, Dad is just tooling around finishing up the driveway. I ran the outside edges while he cleaned up the middle. All-in-all, a good days work! Then, more fishing!

Spring Fishing

Here it is March of 2008 and it still looks pretty bleak outside. Never-the-less, we endeavor to enjoy the "Great Outdoors" with an early year fishing trip. There wasn't much caught, but we saw some more eagles and quite a bit of wildlife. Mostly though, I think it was just the need to get outside again and get some much-needed fresh air!

Tree Stands

We caught sight of a pheasant in the area, but seeing as how it appears to be a loner, we are thinking to wait until we get more nesting in the area. I got it on digital film, but the images are too blurry. We fixed up a couple of the tree stands and did some hunting to no avail. We saw lots of sign of deer and even kicked up a small herd or 3-5 in the woods.

Fall Colors

Fall is one of the most spectacular times up in the Northwoods. The colors are extraordinary and the air has that clean crispness to it that makes you think of warm apple pie, hot cocoa or cider and something roasting on the fire. Mm mm-mm! Dad and I are beginning to get our supplies ready for the fall hunt. We are going deer hunting this year, for perhaps the first time in 30 years! But we are looking forward to it. I bought myself a nice 12-gauge, 5-round pump combo shotgun. It comes with both a slug barrel for large game and a longer bead barrel for birding or other small game. Dad got himself a new 30-30 rifle for hunting deer. He will use his old 16-gauge for small game.

Family Reunion 2007

Well, we did it! We had our first reunion of sorts up at the camp. Mostly it was a way of celebrating birthdays and family and just a darn good reason to get together. Uncle Al, Aunt Ruth and Rosie came out from Pennsylvania and Rob and Vikki came up from Michigan. Tom and Susie and his kids also stopped by and Deb and her kids William(and his girlfriend) and Janelle were there as well. My own kids, Amanda and Josh also made it up along with John a good friend of Josh's. Of course Dad and Ma (it was her 70th birthday, my 47th) were there and Mom brought Sheila up to join us.

On the evening before the big Saturday get-together, Uncle Al, Dad and Rob went up early to get the camp area prepared. Uncle Al and Rob wanted to throw in their own effort to helping with the camp, so due almost solely to their efforts, they virtually doubled the cleared area around the camp. A new picnic are was established. All of the logs were shortened and re-stacked in a neat stack. The grass was all mown and the fire pit relaid so it was more stable. The fire pit area was cleaned up and space for up to 8 cars was made! It was fantastic work and I am very grateful.

The party day itself was a huge success with food and music and stories and conversation all around! And the best part of it all was that no-one got hurt(which is often a common occurrence at family get-togethers)!

Green Green!

Here it is! Another beautiful green, green June day in the North woods. How wonderfully lush it is here. And how peaceful. This really is an idyllic place. We have decided however, to have some of the timber taken off the property as most of the birch is quite mature and we are getting far too many broken trunks. So rather than risk our newly built cabin, before it is even finished, we are going to have the birch and some of the poplar logged off the property. Have no fear, however. Birch grows like weeds out here and the woods will be full again before very long. And we are keeping all of the Pine, Oak, Basswood and much of the Maple. We will also be trying to plant some fruit trees here both for our own uses, and to attract more wildlife.

Loft Ladder

We finally found a good, sturdy loft ladder to put up in the cabin. We chose a loft ladder because it really gave us the best of all worlds. We could tuck it away when not in use to maximize cabin space in the daylight hours and then pull it down for easy access to the loft for the night. And, best of all, it doesn't take up so much room that we can't keep it down overnight.

Ahhh! Spring!

The snow is out and the creek is running! We hiked back to the meadow and found the pond full and running. It's nice to hear the bullfrogs at night again. I took some photos of some of our more prominent pines and we burned up some logs on he fire pit. We also got the loft window in this weekend. This composite shows some of these things and just what it looks like in the dark.

Woody

This weekend was a particularly clear and sunny Late Winter-early Spring weekend and the hairy woodpeckers were playing all over the place. We named this one "Woody", of course.

Three Years

January 5th marked the 3 year anniversary of ownership of Woodpecker Hollow. Unfortunately, I was sick for the third time this year. Twice, bad enough to bring on my Bronchitis. Plus, Dad was still recovering from his Fall and Winter-long illnesses first due to Shingles, then to Anemia brought-on by stress, diet and the medication he was taking for the shingles. Now, here it is February 10th, and finally we are both in decent enough condition to go up and see what we can do at camp.

Mom has moved into her new home in Blaine and has purchased some pre-made shelving kits for her library and craft room. Inside the kits the panels are padded with polystyrene (Styrofoam) blocks and sheets to protect the shelves. I got the idea and called Dad to see if we could use this to block off some of the holes in the cabin, at least until we can afford to get some real insulation. So we headed up north to pack in some Styrofoam and see if we can't get the cabin to heat up a bit.

When we set out, it was -18 degrees. By the time we returned home, it was 10 degrees above making the day swing a full 28 degrees in temperature. We had to buy some more Kerosene for the heater, but we still had troubles getting it started. So, we took it apart to see what was up and found that while it had been setting in the shed last winter, mice had managed to get in and build a nest up under it, hindering airflow and causing the unit to smoke very badly. Once we cleaned it out and put it back together, it worked just fine.

We built a fire out in the pit and did a little rifle shooting at which we both did fairly well. Dad tried the tractor, but it was plainly too cold for it to start. We managed to get the cabin to warm up inside so we decided to call it a day and head back. We found a nice quaint little hamburger shop in downtown Pine City that was fairly reasonably priced. Other than the cold, we had great weather and it was just great to get back out of doors again!

Christmas 2006

Sunset on the Kettle River is quite spectacular! I think most wild places share that same allure. Here at the close of 2006, one day after Christmas, our Minnesota branch of the family enjoys the gift of a visit by our youngest brother/son. John came out to spend some time with us this year and what a wonderful time it was! For the first few days, he spent some time with Mom and with Dad and Ma while I was away in San Francisco for a brief business trip.

When I got back, he, Dan and I spent a day at the Mall of America shopping for Christmas gifts and dining at the Rain Forest Cafe (Thanks John!). It was a blast! Christmas Day came and there was much ballyhoo and opening of gifts, food, fun and laughter. It was a great day. The next day, John Dad and I went up to camp and we happily showed him all around the area. He and Dad did some pistol shooting with Dad's Western style .45 and we hiked to the prairie meadow and took a tractor ride all the way back to Eagle Bluff where John became the first one of our family to walk out on the island. We took loads of pictures (too many to be added here) before going back to camp to settle in for some foil fried Hamburgers over the open pit fire.

In the insert at left are just some of the activities described above. First there is me wading through the meadow like a prairie prowler. Then Dad and I take turns at chopping up some logs for the fire. Next we see the little wooden bridge Dad and I made a couple of years back covered in snow. And then John, holding up the wall like a young Atlas! There is Dad and John checking out their bullet clusters, and Dad pulling another Paul Bunyan with the logs.

But the picture at the right is the money shot. While focally it isn't a terribly good picture, it does highlight one of the main reasons why we have this place and why we love to come up here. We watched two eagles hunting and fishing for food along the Kettle just upriver from the Sandstone Quarry Park area. And here through the trees you can see one of them, roosting for a moment in a tree across the river.

Man! What a day!

Autumn in the Hollow

October is almost here and there is a definite chill in the air. The leaves have begun to turn in the southern part of the state, while they have nearly all fallen away up north. Dad and Ma had gone up to camp last week and he took the opportunity to pack away the Gazebo and to get some of the other tools put away for winter, while I picked up a 26x40 tarpaulin for use as a cover for the cabin. Then, just this past week, Dad was able to pick up a really nice door that was being replaced and was going to be thrown away! I mean, sure it's a little old, but it still has plenty of life in it yet!

So, this weekend we hung a door -- a green door on our cabin. Also, we pulled an enormous tarp over the top of the building and tack-nailed and stapled it down as a protection measure against the coming winter. Then we cleaned up the camp even more, moving all of the remaining heavy tools to the shed and all of the camping supplies into the cabin. We spent a very cozy night in the Cabin by the heat of our KeroSun heater, even though a slight draft still managed to squeeze beneath the window sills. And, even though it rained for much of the night, we remained worm and dry and comfortable. What a fabulous thing it is to have a cabin!

While we were up here, we took some time for a long walk down to the River and along its banks. I hope you enjoy the collage of images we made of our beautiful northland hideaway.

Labor Day

Well, it's Labor Day weekend and here is what we have accomplished thus far. On the weekend of August 26th, Dad and I went back up and put on 1 half of the roof. It was extremely slow and labor-intensive work as about 70% of it is wrapped up in building scaffoldings and moving ladders. As Dad is the lighter of the two of us, he ended up doing nearly all of the sheeting while I did the ground work which involved moving equipment, cutting wood, stopping and restarting the generator (to conserve fuel) running ladders around and handing up material. At the end of our weekend, we were both too exhausted to do the second half, however we did manage to retain enough energy to put in the two windows we have.

This weekend, we finished off the other half of the roof and laid the felt over it in as much as we had enough to cover all but the last 3 feet or so on either side of the cabin. We also cleared the campsite a bit to make it more presentable. We used an old 4x8 sheet of plywood to cover the door opening and just tacked it into place. Boy, I can't wait to get a door on the cabin and start using it for real!

Coming Together

On the weekend of the 11^th a bunch of us came together to spend the first night(s) in the cabin. Even though there was no real roof, we threw a couple of tarps over the open spaces and slept in the cabin for the first time. This was the weekend of the Sandstone Quarry Days so we went into town and watched the parade and shopped the booths at the street bazaar. Mom and I went back home on Saturday while Dad and Ma (Mary) stayed up for another night.

This past weekend, brother Dan joined Dad and I up at camp and together we put up the rafters. Since we only have two 6-foot ladders and no real scaffolding, we were forced to get creative. On a previous weekend, Dad and I had taken some of the rafter materials and used them to make a rudimentary scaffolding ramp to span the space from the loft edge to the back gable. We threw about 4 sheets of OSB upon this ramp to give us something to walk on. You can see it in the composite picture on the left. Then we made the decision to build the roof in 4 sections. We figured (and as it turns out correctly so) that that was about as big as we could handle by ourselves.

Dad notched the rafter bottoms to which we nailed 1x4 base plates so they would rest upon the wall top plate and then cut 45 degree angles in the rafter tops to receive a 1x6 crown plate. These we built up on the loft. Then while Dan manned the ladder below and Dad walked out across the scaffolding and I worked from the loft main, we walked the first of the back roof sections into place on top of the southwest-facing side wall and the back gable. Once we had it flushed down, we nailed it into place. Then we turned around and repeated the process for the northeast roof section. After that we had to make some adjustments to get things to fit properly and then we nailed the two 1x6 crown plates together. We did make sure to make 1 of the crown plates 2-feet longer than the other so we could create an overlap for the front roof sections. Finally, we dismantled our rudimentary scaffolding and created the 2 sections for the front repeating the process we had used for the rear roof sections. At last our rafters are up and ready to be sheeted.

Lofty Days

As part of installing the roof, we first needed to lay on the loft. This was no easy task for just two guys. We put together 9 2x6x10' joists plust 2 2x4x10' stabilizer beams and 2 16 foot 2x6's as front and back plates. This was the loft, weighing in at around 300-400 lbs. It took quite a bit of effort just to get it stood up against the front of the cabin. Then after a couple of aborted attempts at using a come-along to lift it up, we settled upon the fact that if it was going to get up there, we were jut going to have to lift it. And so we did. It took just about all we had to lift it up over our heads to where part of it was on the edge and part was still in our hands. Then Dad ran into the cabin and began cranking like mad to get it pulled up. Just when it left my hands, I reached down and grabbed a short 2x4 and used it to shove the platform up level so the come-along could more easily pull it along. Finally, after some body-wrenching jerks of movement, we were able to wrestle the loft frame into place so it could be nailed down.

As we were getting ready to put the sheet down, just overhead two eagles winged into view doing what I suppose was a sort of mating dance in the sky. The larger one would appear to stall out and fall tumbling and then catch hisself to ride the thermals back up to where the smaller one was soaring aloft. It was quite a site.

The next day we got the two gable ends framed and the rear one sheeted. Then we lifted them onto the loft where we then built a rudimentary scaffolding. After that we slid the rear gable end out to its position, lifted it up and nailed it down. Finally, we added some supports to hold it into place until the next build day, cleaned up and headed home for the weekend.