What is eating all the sweet corn?

Something has been eating all the sweet corn at night and we wanted to find out what was behind it. So we set up a sting operation. We planted a motion detecting camera to catch the thief. I was sure we would see some racoons, deer or Maybe some turkeys. But I never would have guessed what we actually caught!

My 4 children



Nathaniel is our oldest son. He is 12 and is a great kid, he is a little skeptical of moving to Ogilvie (he calls it Hobovie)  but he already has a friend there. He liked the idea of exploring the new land and the ability to ride the 3 wheeler. He keeps trying to take my hat, proving that I am still cool. LOL

Caleb is our second boy he is 6. This kid is full throtlle all the time. He loves to go to the land and help. He asks every day "Dad are we going up to the land tomorrow?". I am excited for him to be here, he will do well with some space to explore.

Madelyn is the third child and the only girl (so far, #5 is due in July) she is 4 and alot of fun. She loves to be at the land with her brother Caleb. Those 2 will be inseparable up here. She is so excited about having baby animals. 

Cole is the baby for now. He is 2 (but tells you he is 3). He is such a smiley kid. The other day he was hiding in the grass and I could not see him. This picture was taken after he stood up.

I look forward to the life these kids will have here. All the new experiences. I hope that I can become self employed or go to working part time soon so I can be a bigger part of there schooling and day to day life. They are my motivation to make this life style change. I don't think that kids really care how much money we have in the bank or what kind of car we drive. What they will remember is if I was there or not. My kids are only going to be little once and I feel like I am missing it. I need to stop this crazy cycle that we all seem to live and once I do I am going to teach others to do the same. I can change this. I will change this.

WOW!!!

Ben gave me his shed

Ben, a good friend of mine told me that he had a shed that he no longer needed and I could have it if I wanted it. I had been looking for some form of storage at the land to hold supplies and he knew this. I went and looked at the shed, measured it and lifted one corner. Deciding that it would fit it on my sled trailer I made my plans to load it. The shed was on skids so the plan was to use a come along to winch it onto the trailer. It was a little work but it went really well. When I got it to the land I tied it to the steel frame, tilted the bed of the trailer and drove out from under it.









Ready to hit the road.



My Future Wood Shed

This spring the company that I work for decided to purchase a large CNC lathe. When it got delivered it was in a large crate made of 1"x1" steel tube with 2"x4" steel tube floor. It was 21'x10'x10'. When I measured the crate I instantly though "wood shed". Those dimensions will hold roughly 16 cords of stacked split and drying fire wood. I talked to the owner of the company and he told me that if I thought that I could haul it I could have it. It saved him from haveing to pay someones labor to cut it up for scrap.

The crate in the parking lot at work.

The plan will be to put a clear roof on it so I get a green house effect and canvas sides so that I can roll them up when the drying will be good. The challenge came when we were ready to move it. Laying down this is considered a wide load. So we had to stand it up. This was not to hard at my work due to the use of a fork lift but I was not so sure how we were going to unload it at the land.

A.J and Nathan holding the floor pannel from swinging while I drove the fork lift.

Ready to roll. I hope?

 Long story short we traveled slow and drove carefully and got to the land (about 50 miles) without trouble. At the land we untied the pieces and pushed it off the trailer. There was some stressfull moments but it went well.

Floor and side pannels ready to be bolted together.

This is how they will sit untill the fall.

Later A.J.(different A.J. than help load) and the boys helped me bolt the pieces back together and that is as far as I am planning on going with this project for now.

Digging Frost Footings

This far North in Minnesota it is recommended that you place your footings at a depth of 60" to stay below the frost line. Since the house will have a 6' high berm around three sides we only had to dig the front and 13' of each side to frost depth.

 The beggining of the day.

 The bucket is 3 feet wide.

Caleb in the trench (note the water seeping out at about the 48" deep line. This seems to never stop)

Caleb getting the ground water to run to the sump hole that we dig so that we could pump it out.

Ready to start building forms.