Blogging from Beatons

This is my first attempt to blog from Beatons.

Being in the UP in not condusive to accessing anything remotely resembling a high speed internet connection. Yep, dial up is the only choice and at a whopping 24 kbps speed - it crawls at a snail's pace. Hence, there are no pictures with this post.

Today we got all the rafters in place on the sauna haus. Well, the guys are bolting them in still while there is some light left. But soon, we'll head over to Bonnie's for supper and an hour in her sauna to soothe the aching muscles.

My accomplishments today: 20 more ferns have been relocated, dodging the rain showers, 12 rafters painted, 1000 frisbees thrown for Mr. Teiko and my slow attempt to post to the blog.

Well, here's hoping the post makes it!

Going to put up more timbers this weekend

Heading back to Beatons tonight to continue the timber raising that we began last weekend. One of the reasons we choose to go with a timber framed structure, is it's enduring nature, durabilty and strength. While we'll get plenty of use out of the sauna and future cabin, we are really building it for the next generations.
Pictured above is a 400 year old timber framed building in Bremen, Germany. Nestled in with other centuries-old buildings, these buildings really stand the test of time. I so fell in love with the Altstadt (Old City) when Todd and I visited.

Driving the Keweenah Penisula

Wow, what a beautiful place. From flat lands to granite mountains to lake views that go for ever, the Keweenah is just beautiful. Tourism and outdoors activities are what you'll find now, but the past included heavy mining, forestry and manufacturing. Now that a majority of those resources have been extracted, all that's left is the natural beauty.

After stopping by the property, we continued forward around the pennisula and saw the amazing Lake Superior in all of her glory. Above is one of the many falls you'll see driving the high way. Nice picture of Teiko paying attention to Todd. (not that it happens all the time, but is nice to see....) This lake is so big that we decided that the word "lake" is not big enough to describe it

Gay Michigan visit

Left Beatons on Saturday and headed two hours further north to the Keweenah pennisula where Todd and friends have 60 odd acres of scrub land that conveniently holds a trailer (however no water or electricity) After hearing horror stories of this trailer for the past couple of years, I finally got the courage to check it out. It's definitely a trip... Actually, they guys have put a lot of work into cleaning the inside and it was quite habitable. Sorry, forgot to get pictures inside. THe outside area is all second/third generation growth. There are almost no old forest growth on this land - and since it was owned by forestry company previously that makes sense. The property is quite dense with trees, they just are not that tall and there are no pine trees, it's all birch and maple.

One of the highlights of this area is trip to the Gay Bar and Grill. That's right, the property is close by the Michigan city of Gay. It's basically a cross in the road by Lake Superior. We didn't make it into town on Saturday, choosing to cook out instead. But next time, I'll definitely check out the Gay Bar.

Up North, heh!

Spent a nice long weekend in the U.P. (Upper Pennisula, MI). The weather was wonderful on Friday where we spent the day on Beatons Lake, taking pictures, throwing Teiko's frisbee and plotting out the future cabin based on the architectural drawings.