Winter comes quickly in the northwoods. The frost was heavy last weekend at Beatons. As we've been doing almost every weekend since August, we have been working on finishing the sauna haus or at least getting enough done so we can safely close if for the long winter.

Click on the box below to see the latest photos of the build-out

Beatons_October4_2008

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.

Weekend at the Keweenaw

We had a great weekend up in the Keweenah penisula in Michigan this past weekend. We stayed at the now waterproofed trailer by Lake Superior. It was actually quite cozy with electricity and heat - we managed quite nicely. Fresh coffee in the morning, the rocking Wolf radio station and snow, snow, snow!

Todd and Raine skied both days. Since Mt. Bohemia is just a bit too severe for me as a skier, I spent time working on genealogy, touring around the Keweenah and hangin' with Teiko. The weather was fabulous over the weekend, sunny, cold but warm with the sunlight. Each night we went to different towns to dine - Saturday night we went to Quincy's in Dollar Bay and on Sunday night we went to The Michigan House in Calumet. The history of the U.P. is fascinating and we need to spend more time learning about the mining and industry that took place there. Of course, it ended upruptly in the '40s and the U.P. has spent the past 50 years trying to recover. We're doing our small part to add to the economy - or at least have a damn good time trying....

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.