It's been awhile

It's been way to long since my last update.  Over this past year my family and I began a new adventure.  We decided to relocate and plant a church in Jackson, Michigan.  This transition has been our focus for the last year.  This is why we have not been up north for a while.  In fact we thought we were going to need to sell our property that we loved.  We even gave away our camper thinking we wouldn't be able to keep the place due to the income adjustment.

The good news is it looks like we are going to be able to keep the property.  So we drove up this last Saturday to check on the property.  All is well.  However with the camper being gone it inspired us.  It look so beautiful without it.  It got us thinking we should really build a tiny cabin.  A cabin would fit the woods better.  The camper was fun.  It got the job done... but it never felt cozy.  It was out of place, not natural looking in the woods.  I thought we would be bummed out not having the camper on our visit but it inspired us.  I took a few pictures of the fall colors while visiting.

Colors of fall.  Trail to the river.

We found out this year the bridge to get to our property has been closed.  

The river we own.  It's high for this time of year.

Another trail on our property.

Joey climb up to me tree stand.  Still good.

Notice the camper missing?  Looks like there needs to be a cabin.

This lake is on the state land near us.  We stopped at it before we went home.

We Built A Deck

This year has been quiet up north for us with only a few visits.  Our boys are getting older, which makes things a little busier for us.  We did get a few weeks up north this summer.  And in June, out of the blue, we decided to build a deck.  After breakfast we drove to the nearest big town, Gaylord, purchased the materials, came back and built a deck.  It's 12x12.

The "ghetto" part of me thought I could eventually put walls, a roof and make a three seasons room attached to my camper.  Just to create more gathering space on rainy days.  Our goal is to someday build a few small cabins, so I'm not sure that is the best idea in the long run.  But this is working for now. 

We spent about $300.00 in material.  It has helped cut down the amount of dirt we track into the camper.

We've only been able to make it up 2 or 3 times since we built this.  It was wonderful sitting out on the deck in the cool fall morning, staring off into the woods.  We are heading up this coming week for deer season and looking forward to hanging out by the fire pit.  Hopeful one of my sons or myself will get a deer.  Until next time.  

A Winter Visit

Jennifer and I went up for a winters visit back in February.   We took a short weekend, getaway trip.  Winter is a beautiful season in Northern Michigan.  We enjoy seeing the trees draped in snow just like Narnia.  The snow was really breath taking.  Pictures don't do justice.












The trip ended up being an adventure due to our rear wheel drive going out on our all wheel Equinox.  We were going through about 6 inches down our easement and I heard the axle snap.   I wasn't sure if we would be able to make it back to the property the rest of the way but we did.  However is was a bit of a challenge to get out.  Snow fell during the night and we ended up needing to dig our way out.











As you can see we spent more then an hour digging.  Once we made it to the road we kept the Equinox parked at the gate.  Our road is a seasonal two track about a mile into the wood before we get to the gate.  Thank God our neighbor had plowed.

We ended up hiking everything back to the car a 1/4 mile to in about 9 inches of snow.










We did get a chance to go out to hike our property.  We made it back to the river.  Quiet, peaceful.

Fire pit covered in snow.  It's like the land is asleep, resting, waiting for the spring sun to wake it up.  I loved spending the weekend up in the winter.















Jennifer all loaded up for the hike back to the car.  The walk was beautiful.

We made the weekend an adventure.  Enjoying the snow storm the 1st night, shoveling our way out, hiking to the river, playing cribbage and watching movies in the evening.  Love it and can't wait to go back up again.

Siding The Outhouse

We were up at our property the last weekend in September to take Joey on the Youth Deer Hunt.  (He did get a shot off, but we lost the blood trail.)  Since we were going to be up there I decided to haul up some reclaimed hickory lumber to side the outhouse.  The goal was to reside it with old lumber after it was built.  I didn't get around to it until now because I never had the free space in the trailer to haul the lumber.  It took me about 4 or 5 hours to do three sides.  The door took the longest.  I still need to do the back side.  That won't take long because there are no angle cuts.  It gave it a rustic look, which, we love!

Our gas furnace died on us while after the 1st night.  It won't ignite.  I'm not great at working on furnaces so, we made a fast trip to Walmart and picked up a nice electric heater.  I'm hoping it's something I can repair easily.  I'm gonna need to google it and see if what the issue is. 

Last Visit For the Summer

The family and I spent 4 days at the property this last week.  We mostly rode trails but I did get a chance to work on driving my well.  It is froze up solid and won't drive another inch.  I tried jetting it with water and it still won't drive down.  I'm not sure if I hit clay or hit a rock.  My father-in-law, a retired well-man, thinks it's clay.  His suggestion is to pick a new spot and start over.  He gave me some ideas on how to have more success next time.  Right now I've given up on a well until next year.

My wife and I discovered a new trail to the  north, east side of Tomahawk flooding area while out riding dirt bikes.  I took this picture next to the boat launch.  There was an old abandon state campground there that is no longer in use.  That was kind of cool, a ghost camp ground.  We drove back to our camp and then me and the boys rode back to go swimming in the lake. 

My three sons with their riding gear back on after our swim.  The swim was short and sweet.  They are not used to swimming in a lake and didn't enjoy seaweed or the mushy dirt in the toes.  My oldest, Mikey, only went ankle deep.  Curt and Joe at least manage to dive in once.  This was our last ride of the week.  We rode everyday for three days and still were discovering new trails to ride on. 

Every morning I would get up before the family to read, pray and enjoy the beauty of northern Michigan.  On this particular morning I walked out to a potential cabin site on our property.  I'm trying to get a feel for each spot before we begin to build.  I like the openness of this location.  It was a rainy morning so it had a cloudy feeling but still I sensed a lot peace just sitting, watching and listening to nature.

I grabbed a picture of this sunset on our last ride of the week.  Curtis pointed it out on our way back to camp.

This was taken on our ride back too.  I think Michigan produce beautiful sky pictures as good as any other place in the world.

Our last night we roasted marsh mellows and talked into the evening.   I honestly could have stay a few more days but the boys were starting to get home sick.  We had a great vacation.  Can't wait to go back up.

Bears and Cabins

Took the last week off in June and spent it up at the property.  We didn't do anything except enjoy the woods and rode the trails all week.   It seemed we had the state land all to ourselves.  We only passed two others riders the whole time we were there.

Not sure what will be the next project for our property.  I'm putting things on pause until we come to a solid plan.  We are enjoying our camper but we are wanting to put up a cabin of some kind.  Jen and I found a couple of nice locations.  My favorite is tucked on the edge of some hard woods looking into a 5 acre field.  The other location is right on Thunder Bay River because we have about 130 feet of it.  Both maybe.  If we build in the field we are only about 600 feet away from our electricity, if we build on the river we are about 1200 feet away.

My neighbor whose property is kitty corner from ours just had an Amish built cabin put on his property.  They poured a cement slab on Memorial weekend and had two 12x30 cabins delivered last week.  They only paid around $12,000.00.  That's a really good deal.  I've priced these out online and they can run from 16-25,000 for this size of cabin.

Our last night there a small bear paid a visit.  I was coming out of the outhouse and when I shut the door I heard him run.  He was about 60 feet away.  It was just past dusk so I shined a flash light.  Seen it's eyes.  At first I thought it was a raccoon but when I seen the size of it's body I knew it was a bear.  The family was at the fire pit so I yelled for them to get inside.  I think he was making his way to our trash in the burn barrel.  He took off to the west.  Needless to say I burnt our trash right away.

My crazy wife was upset that she didn't get to see the bear.  She's been wanting to see one since we bought the property.  She keeps telling me she going to leave food out for them so she can take a picture.  Of course I won't allow it because of the danger that it could create.  The next morning she found it's foot print.

Nice Shed for Cheap

I was poking around on craigslist and found this 7x8 shed for only $25.00.  I wasn't planning on purchasing a shed but it was so cheap I couldn't pass it up.  I also didn't plan on taking a trip up north but I wanted to have it up there before our next trip in a few weeks and Sunday was the only day I could make that happen.

After church my oldest son and I strap the shed down and headed up.  The trip normally takes about 4 1/2 hours but with hauling a shed it took us 8.  We couldn't go over 55 mph because the shed was on a 4x8 trailer and I didn't want to take a chance of it flipping off .  Also, the leaf spring collapse after we went over railroad tracks and it took about an hour to jack it up and rig the leaf spring with 2x4s.  Eventually, we got back on the road, traveled all back roads to the property and stayed off the highway.  We arrived at 11pm that evening.

We got up the next day, leveled out bricks for the shed to sit on and then lowered it down on the pads.    We have been putting miscellaneous stuff under the camper.  Stuff like, shovels, buckets, boards and so on.  The more expensive items I've been putting inside the camper but now, we can throw it all in the shed.  Also, I can keep my motorcycle up here now.  Before I would need to haul it up every trip.  This is going to be a great addition to our property.

 Strapped down and ready to go from Battle Creek on a haul of over 280 miles.  This was crazy, it wobbled most of the trip but it was fun.

 I used the level app on my iPhone to level out the pads.  I put a 2x4 between the pads and set the phone in the center.  Not the best approach but I was grateful that I downloaded that app today.

 I hooked a come-along to the bumper on our camper and ratcheted the shed down onto the pads.