April

A chicken coop under construction, a freshly-milled front porch, and a sunset in the distance.

Even though there are still some snow banks lingering around, summer is here!

The second half of April has been hot and dry, which is good. The annual spring time pond which forms in our driveway is almost completely dried up. One morning, as Pete was heading into town to run a few errands, his truck got stuck in the middle of the driveway. He spent the remainder of the day digging it out of the soupy mud and then filling in the enormous ruts with logs and rocks, never making it into town that day. And that’s typically how it goes around here – sometimes you have plans for the day, and sometimes the day has plans for you!

Spring time here is different than what we were used to in the Mid-West. We don’t get the month long window of cool, pleasant working weather like we do in the fall. Instead, due to the frozen ground taking much longer to thaw and the intensity of the daytime sun greatly increasing as it climbs higher every day, it’s possible to be walking around in slush puddles and snow banks while needing to be mindful of sun burn and heat stroke. Having shady areas around to take frequent quick breaks to cool off is important.

There's a Bear out there!

Speaking of cooling off and taking breaks, we are really looking forward to getting our front porch built! Our initial plan involved a quick trip to the lumber yard followed by an afternoon of nailing together the framing and then an evening of relaxing on our spacious new porch. However, once we arrived at the lumber yard and saw the outrageous new prices, we decided on another option. We took a day trip up to our friends’ place near Talkeetna where we used our saw mill to turn some of their dead spruce trees into rough sawed lumber. We filled our whole materials list for the porch in an afternoon, making us very appreciative of our decision to invest in the saw mill two years ago. Next, we need to pour two concrete pads for the posts to stand on and let them harden for a couple days. Then, it’s just a matter of cutting the boards and nailing them together.

Making some lumber on a beautiful afternoon.

We also built our daughter a small kitchen play set. This gives her something to occupy her imagination and also gave mom and dad a little practice in cabinet building! We were happy to take on the project as a “quick” experience builder, and we are glad we did. It certainly didn’t turn out to the quality we would like in our kitchen, but it is good enough for a toddler with a short attention span! One thing we have learned over the past couple years is that doing a practice run before tackling a big project is usually well worth the extra effort.

The kitchen is now open!

Other big news is that Wild North Design has significantly upgraded it’s laser marking capabilities and can now do laser cutting as well! We are in the process of designing and producing new inventory which will allow us to fulfill more orders faster.

Testing some things with our new (not a toy) laser.

We have also begun a bit of work in the garden, which we have big, big dreams for. The plan is to add a new 20’x50’ planting area, divided into 4 rows, 4’ wide. Looking at the bare rocky field right now, it’s hard to imagine a lush green paradise, but I really can see it if I close my eyes!

Picking up a new water tank and some metal tubing for low tunnels.

Last season, we learned a lot about what not to do when building our garden, which is just as important to know about as what you should do. We learned not to bother trying to use the yucky ground water from the swamp. We learned our irrigation system worked about half as well as we hoped. We also learned what mulch is and why it’s important. This year, we are stepping things up a bit and treating the garden as more of an investment. We plan to make as much compost as we possibly can by collecting horse manure, grass clippings, sea weed, and all sorts of other types of organic matter wherever we find it available. We’re also getting a big water storage tank and filter so we can use our well water, trying new irrigation methods, building some plant protection and season extension structures, plus much more.

New tank in place, waiting to be filled.

We plan on sharing much more on this garden project in the near future, as we want to share the journey of starting with literally nothing and building a beautiful, healthy, thriving, garden oasis. Our hope is not that we won’t make any mistakes, but that by sharing the adventure others will be able to learn from all the mistakes we know we will make and to be inspired by the final product we know we will attain.

Well, that's about all folks. Check back next month as the saga continues. Take care and thanks for reading!

The humble beginnings of our composting operation.