Dear Diary - Nov 7, 2014 Harris snowblower on tractor

Dear Diary - Nov 7, 2014
. . There were no mosquitoes at out cabin today. Went up to put the snow blower and chains and cab doors on the tractor, and some minor fixing at the cabin. Installing the 300# blower is a bit challenging, took us about 2+ hours. It was cold ... nice to have a heated workshop in the pole barn. Simon Pigeon was bored waiting for us.
. . Stopped and saw my neighbor Kevin. He's the one who fell off the 3 story farmhouse roof, broke his back (Would have died if not for his cell phone) and now mostly paralyzed from the waist down but is doing better and better each time I see him (He bought my old farmhouse and 10 acres).... ... . You and I have it made compared to him. The hardships and difficulties he has to endure just to exist. He lives there alone and happy, with his wonderful German Shepherd .. don't know how he manages staying there alone (Blog coming some day about this amazing guy Kevin).
. . Kaffee Stuga - We stopped at our favorite restaurant in Harris MN on the way back home to town. It was crowded. Two older fellows in bib overalls let us share their table. Interesting fellows. I love small towns ... so casual and friendly. Turns out they want to attend my next "Chicken Keeping" class. I have new friends now. BTW the $6.95 Clam dinner was delicious.
. . It's the Day before Deer hunting so the traffic heading north as we headed south was bumper to bumper for all 50 miles... commuters and deer hunters. Didn't see any deer at the cabin.
. . In two weeks going up again to help a neighbor clean a 3/4 mile drainage ditch that was entirely on my land. Over the years, there is nearly a forest along the ditch from the lake now. Must cut all the trees and clean out the 30 foot wide ditch. If a wet year, about 7 acres of my crop land and about 20 of his can get flooded. He's going to rent a gigantic backhoe.
. . So back home now again... recovering.
.
Picture is the two back 40s with ditch in foreground on the front 40 (trees off pic to right), Lake beyond the trees in back.

"The Point" - Central MN Tiny Cabin built 1995.

 The sole purpose of this 10x12 + loft (no permit required) Tiny Cabin is to provide year-round shelter, comfort and convenience not afforded by a tent (we used to tent "Camp" there)... It "could" be lived in ... we can stay there for weeks, winter and summer even at 25 degrees below zero. It's located by the creek on my Minnesota farm, 1/4 mile road down the hill from my Pole Barn to the cabin. We drive down in summer, snowshoe or snowmobile in winter. The cabin is located on a 2 acre wooded island / peninsula (a "Point"), surrounded by water except for the driveway, and the creek is right in front of the cabin. With the wrap-around windows there's a good view from the cabin, hundreds of feet up and down and across the creek. It's so isolated, even my neighbors don't know it's there. Once a deer walked by within 2' of the cabin, didn't see us ... lots of deer, geese, ducks, herons, cranes, otter, turkeys, pheasants, coyote, etc.

  
We buried (30" deep)  #6 wire from the pole barn to the cabin. It has a inside well and hand pump, but no plumbing. The cabin foundation is of 12"x12" creosote timbers from a railroad bridge.
. . The gambrel roof makes the cabin and the loft, with plenty of headroom and a queen sized bed, feel fairly spacious for it's small size.The wrap-around thermopane windows around the entire front also adds to the spacious feeling. The loft and lower windows all tilt inward from the bottom so give good ventilation even during rain. It has a 30,000 btu mobile home furnace. All the lower windows are shuttered with no glass exposed when we're not there. The front shutters bi-fold at an angle so do not block the view when opened.
The "kitchen" is like a closet, with bi-fold doors to conceal it. The swing-up stair allows unobstructed full use of the entire main floor during the day.
A couch provides additional sleeping if desired.

Sometimes we have to dig it out (The back door has a "porch").

Looking down the road back toward the Pole Barn.  

There was a pair of them for 2 hours, just 50' in front of the cabin. 

Simon Loves to be at the cabin.

The road off of the island, back to the pole barn.

Electrical trench from pole barn to cabin ... 30" deep, #6 wire.

View of road to pole barn, from cabin window. Sometimes we ski or snowshoe pulling toboggans, sometime snowmobile. The snowmobile makes a hard packed trail like a sidewalk by the next day.

It's very peaceful there... very very isolated but just 50 minutes from St Paul. Even my neighbors don't know I have this cabin here.

Simon always finds a spot in the sun.

At our Cabin 

Always looking for adventure and interesting things to admire. A Very Happy Pigeon.

"The Point" - Central MN Tiny Cabin built 1995.

. . The sole purpose of this 10x12 (no permit required) Tiny Cabin is to provide year-round shelter, comfort and convenience not afforded by a tent ...It "could" be lived in ... we sometimes stay there for weeks, winter and summer even at 25 degrees below zero. It's located by the creek on my Minnesota farm, 1/4 mile road down the hill from my Pole Barn to the cabin. The cabin is located on a 1-1/2 acre wooded Island peninsula (a "Point"), surrounded by water except for the driveway, and the creek is right in front of the cabin. There's a good view from the cabin, hundreds of feet up and down and across the creek.
   We buried (30" deep)  #6 wire from the pole barn to the cabin. It has a inside well and hand pump, but no plumbing. The cabin foundation is 12"x12" creosote timbers from a railroad bridge.
. . The gambrel roof makes the cabin and the loft, with plenty of headroom and a queen sized bed, feel fairly spacious for it's small size.The wrap-around thermopane windows around the entire front also adds to the spacious feeling. The loft and lower windows all tilt inward from the bottom so give good ventilation even during rain. It has a 30,000 btu mobile home furnace. All the lower windows are shuttered with no glass exposed when we're not there. The front shutters bi-fold at an angle so do not block the view when opened.
The "kitchen" is like a closet, with bi-fold doors to conceal it. The swing-up stair allows unobstructed full use of the entire main floor during the day.
A couch provides additional sleeping if desired.

From inside, the bi-fold doors are not visible when opened. That's a bird feeder at the top of the picture. I plan to build an enclosed back porch... the 12" timber foundation extends 5' beyond back of the cabin.

This is hi-water. A few more feet and it would flow over a highway 1 mile away downstream.... never flood the cabin. In spring, the 12' wide creek expands to 300' wide, to the woods on the far side.
Picture taken from the 30' viewing platform extending over the creek. 

Note the viewing platform just left of center, and also a dock just above water level.

NNE

Viewing platform. A few years ago, the only big tree nearby, fell and of course it fell directly dead center on the viewing platform, destroying it.

Looking due east from front door.

From viewing platform, dock below.

In spring, the creek floods over this entire expanse, 300' wide creek.

 1/4 mile road from Pole Barn to Cabin

Cutting a tree that fell directly in front of cabin. My Electric Truck (very handy).

 In spring, the 12' creek often floods to 300', lots of wildlife. 

Stair to loft in Up position, allows unobstructed use of main floor.

Cutting firewood... tree that fell in front of cabin.

The Kitchen has bi-fold doors to conceal the kitchen. Note blue hand pump in Kitchen. Stair swings up to maximize floor space lower level. 30,000 btu mobile home furnace behind stair.

Loft - Queen sized bed, plenty of headroom. Carpeted floor space on the left at foot of bed.  Dimmer light on left controlled from top of stairs. Dimmer light on right controlled at the light. Electric blanket nice and cozy warm.

The verticals are there only to keep me from falling out of bed. Didn't want to obstruct the view.

There's at least 2 multi-plug outlets on each wall. There's normally a couch where the chairs are, for additional sleeping. Simon Pigeon comes with us of course, He's in his cage for the night, sound asleep. During the day, Simon Pigeon enjoys gazing out the window, or exploring in the front yard.

The upper shade can be controlled via cord either from the loft or from below. The window can be opened/closed from below with a pole. Controls for ceiling fan are on the wall. 

Since the ceiling/loft does not need to be insulated, the space between joists is used for additional storage. Note porta-potty for night use, otherwise, latrine on N end of island.

50 miles from town, ... TV reception not that great. Fortunately, the Internet/cell phone service works ok (Netflix, etc).

All lights are on dimmers.

Installing electric cable. Rounding the sharp bend, final length to cabin.

Heading down driveway below the pole barn which is just a ways over the crest of the 80' hill.

Near the pole barn from the top of the hill.   My land extends into the woods 3/4 mile to the back. There's a lake just beyond.

Time for a shovel. View down road toward pole barn on hill.

Yes, there are fish in there... and otters, and geese, ducks, cranes, egrets... lots of deer and wild turkey, etc.. There's another smaller 1/2 acre "island" in view to the left.

Electrical trench from pole barn to cabin ... 30" deep, #6 wire.

View of road to pole barn, from cabin window. Sometimes we snowshoe pulling toboggans, sometime snowmobile. The snowmobile makes a hard packed trail like a sidewalk by the next day.

It's very peaceful there... very very isolated but just 50 minutes from St Paul. Even my neighbors don't know I have this cabin here.