Meet Willow, our new puppy

We are pleased to announce a new addition to our earth home family of myself, my husband and our cat Ozzy. We brought home a female english setter puppy named Willow yesterday, and after one long night of whimpering and whining we are in full puppy mode! We intend to train Willow basic obedience skills so she can become a great companion along hikes and upland bird hunts!

Our new english setter puppy, Willow, at 7 weeks old.

Though Willow slept most of 4 1/2 hour drive back home yesterday, she didn't give us much sleep last night!

Starting our raised-bed garden

There’s nothing I love more than fresh-from-the-garden peas. My father had a green thumb and every summer his fresh, tasty fruits and vegetables would prove it. My husband and I knew we wanted to have a garden, but when we moved into the earth home we were faced with a few predicaments.

First, the soil in north-central Minnesota is very sandy and typically holds little-to-no nutrients (with the exception of cattle fields). Secondly, our home is located in a swampy, pine-tree consumed area with a lot of shade. And third, we have a lot of herbavores, such as deer and rabbits.  After compiling a list of our main garden needs, it included the following three items:  1) sun, 2) fencing and 3) soil. This list didn’t sound too hard to do at first, but we quickly learned that starting a garden isn’t easy.

We had read of no previous caretakers who had planted a vegetable garden, so we have no tips of where or how to start one, so we are tackling one task at a time.

Sun

It finally occurred to us to put the garden as close to the house as we could, but in the sunniest spot, which  we found was on our roof. We figured it probably wasn’t a good idea to dig up the roof, since it already had leaking issues, so we knew it had to be a raised-bed garden. After doing a little research we bought un-treated cedar boards and made two 4X4-foot squares for our garden.

Fencing

After learning two 4X4-foot beds would be enough for us to start our garden, we had to figure out how much fencing to use. How much room do you allow to surround the raised beds? How thick should the fencing be? What size of fencing can’t  a rabbit squease itself through? We had so many questions! We calculated we would need 50 feet of fencing at about 4-5 feet high, along with fence posts.

Soil

Our outline is now complete, but how to get soil? I couldn’t believe how difficult it was to find rich, local top-soil. Of course, it is easy for anyone to find soil in stores such as The Home Depot or Menards out of bags, but it would’ve cost us an arm and a leg and we wouldn’t have known where it came from or if it is organic. Luckily, we met someone who was happy to give us top soil from her family’s farm fields about 40 minutes north of Bemidji. Next week we should have the soil in and then the fun begins!

Here is the frame (made of untreated red cedar boards) of our raised-bed vegetable garden. WE ARE VEGIE GARDEN ROOKIES SO IF YOU HAVE ANY ORGANIC VEGIE GARDEN ADVICE, PLEASE COMMENT! WE’D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU!!! THANKS!

A daring red squirrel

There are several red squirrels that find the earth home front lawn a suitable place to scout for food and other wildlife to harrass, but this little red squirrel, who we’ve come to know as “Little Red,” is one of the most daring red squirrels we’ve come across here! Trust me when I say this little squirrel has tried everything to get into my squirrel-proof feeder. As for now it’s surrendered, but every now and then it makes its way up the tree for another look at it!

Meet "Little Red," the most curious, in-your-face red squirrel we've met on the property!

Happy Earth Day! Welcome back loons!

Hear the enchanting call of the loon as we hear it every morning!

We were impressed to find half the ice melted overnight yesterday, but even more surprised when we found our loon pair had returned!

We watched one of the loon pairs from our canoe

An Easter Hike

We were lucky to have such a beautiful Easter day to enjoy, unlike previous years of either rain or eratic snowfalls. Because it was 59 degrees and sunny with a slight breeze, the trails were begging to be hiked. We started out on the eastern border and made our way to the northern end of Spearhead Lake. We saw a bald eagle flying overhead, a deer, several ruffed grouse, lots of red squirrels, a butterfly, a porcupine, and a variety of feathers. It was a great day!

A porcupine snoozes in a tree

While hiking along a trail we came across this feather hanging from a branch. We are puzzled as to how this branch managed to go through the middle of the feather's shaft!

 

This red squirrel didn't seem to mind us as we watched it nibble on pinecone seeds