How exciting! OH! To have a creek! Bugs or not, Id love it! Are you planning to buy in the u.p.? (I saw a t-shirt in ben franklin in Ironwood yesterday. It said something like " Upper pennisula winters where the strong survive and the weak get killed and eaten"...never did like pasties)! Youll have to post pics as you progress.
My escape is my room where I make my polymer clay stuff. It has the biggest window in the house and overlooks my back yard. I would love to own the house next door for a studio and new garage. Were very close, maybe 15 ft. so I could add a breezeway between and connect the 2 buildings. The first thing Id do tho is cut down his clothes line pole. Hes had an obnoxious old orange grill on top of it for about 2o yrs and hasnt put bird food in it for jsut that long. I can see it no matter where I am in my yard. Hes also the type of person who only paints the sides of buildings that he can see so I have his garage to look at which is half white and half cedar/orange something.
Anyway, please keep us posted on your Big Adventure! Im sooo jealous!!!

Hi Jel,
Well,my story could be a long one,but i will try to keep it short,lol
We owned a home in the town over from where we are now,a big house,counting the basement,3 stories,decorated Victorian.We had it built.
A subdivision was going to be moving in(we had 5 acres),a lot of houses on very small lots,we would have been the only 5 acre plot,so we sold this house,we looked and looked,we also,wanted a wooded setting.Every thing we looked at there was something wrong,so we put an ad in the paper,lookig for wooded 5 acers.The min,we walked this piece of property,we knew we would own it.
We bought it, put all out possisions in storage,rented a apt.just to keep freshened up now and then.
We cleared a spot for our house,pitched a tent,and camped out for 6 months while we built the house,my hubby,myself and a 70 year old friend.We cooked out side on a fire,made coffee on the fire,boiled water for our baths,put the tail gate down,and washed up every night,It got really cold in Nov.so we moved into a trailer,but that also was to cold,but by this time we had the furance in, so we got a mattress,put down a big sheet of that styrfome insulation,placed a mattress on top of it ( so we were not right on the cement )and sleept down stairs,while we continued to build.
We built a very,very,small house,our kitchen and front room are all in one,we have a large loft,24 x 20,that is our bedroom,a bath room of to the side that houses our washer and dryer,doors close it off so you can't see it.We have a large window,looking out from the bed,and the front of the house is all windows.
We put murphey beds in the finished basement for the kids when they come home.we still are able to use the space for living area when not being used as bed rooms.
All in all, we only have 1,200 square feet,3 bathrooms,1,500 square feet with the basement.
We heat with wood,and we use a lot of candels.
Whew!That was fun. :0)
Oh yea, we have cedar sidding,so it blends in with the natural setting.We put on a big porch where we spend all summer,i do not clean house during the summer, only do what has to be done ha ha

We have a cathedrial cieling (spelling ),all knoty pine inside,with very little painting serface.
All hardwood floors,execpt for the loft,we did put carpet in there.Forest green with a soft design that looks like ferns.And we love it all, and am thankful every day for what we have.

I hope you find your dream land,try an ad in the paper for what you are loking for.
I hope you will be able to camp out as we did, memories are just wonderful,and hopfully,you are a little younger than we are,that helps.lol
Keep your dream alive and it will happen,i wish you happiness in your pursuit,and fullfillment in the out come.Happy hunting.

Yes, i started with a few hosta, we put in a pond,right out side the front porch,and my garden just keeps growing bigger and bigger,i now have well over 1,700 hosta,i am in hosta heaven!You have so much going for you already,with you both wanting the smae things and a willingness to work hard, because it will be hard,lol

Carol

Carol and Joyce--I love your dreams and yours fulfilled, Carol!

We owned my parents home, in the mountains of N.C. for about 12 yrs. after they were taken home
in a head-on collision, and it was their dream home, too.

My mother was born in Fla., my father in Ala., and they met up and married in Florida!
After all those years--not sure how many, they fulfilled their dream of a home in the mountains.

It was 3 floors, counting the walk-out basement, which was a complete living quarters including huge kitchen, bedroom, small bath, walk-in closet, sitting room and the rest of the basement was the huge laundry area. The single car garage was on that level, as well. My grandparents lived on that level until each of them passed!

The main floor above, was a good-sized living room, huge kitchen and eat-in area, very large master bedroom, walk-in closet and a good-sized bath with a large shower.

The top floor had a good-sized bath with shower, a smaller bedroom, a very large bedroom and another room that was quite large and served as her sewing/craft room!

It was quite large and beautiful and sat above a creek with rapids, which my Dad built a bridge across and a water wheel in the rapids!

It was so awesome and I hated letting it go on one hand and on the other, it was time to!

My mother learned to quilt, carve, paint and became 'one' with the community they chose---all on 9 acres of mountain, creek and meadow!

Go for your dream! My mother told me, about a month before they died, that it was the best 12 years of their lives spent there!!!

Janice,
What a beautiful story,your mother was right,we should all follow our dreams,sometimes we hold back because of fear,or emotion attatchment,i just went through all my childrens things i had stored from childhood,i found a cut our art projecy my son did in first grade,i framed it,and got rid of most of the other things,there was even a finger painting from kintergarden,BROWN, ha ha
At the time, i guess i thought it was beautiful.
I did keep their report cards and some stuff, but the rest is gone.
I have come to the belief that we all have to much stuff,i am trying to live simpler,we don't need a McMansion,with so many rooms, and then you have to fill the rooms with stuff.

Any way, this is My dream, and so far it is working,some times when i visit my best friend, and walk into her house, it seems so big, and i thik, wow, this is nice,i want Bigger,and she has it furinished so beautifuly,but then i come back home and know i have made the right choice,For Me.It is my dream now, to live simpler,for today.To not let life get in the way of living.

I bet you love having your mothers quilts and paintings,do you display them,or use them?

Look at what you have now, your home is lovely,and your garden the envy of a lot of us.

Isn't this nice, we really get to know each other,out dreams and hopes for the future,or just for today.

Carol

You're right Carol. I've been enjoying reading each post in this thread so much. And with each one, I do get to know someone better.

Upnort, we are planning to buy in the U.P., actually right here on the Keweenaw, which is the furthest north part that projects out into Lake Superior. We're actually further north then some of our Canadian friends on the forum. The parcels of land we're looking at are all within 20 miles of so of our home, so will be easy to get to. I love the idea of your polymar clay room and possibly having the house next door for a studio and new garage. I hope that last part comes true for you and you can cut down that darned clothesline pole!

Carol, I loved what you wrote about your dream home and the way you achieved it. We won't need to go quite so primitive during the building/developing stage, because we are buying so close to home and this place will just be our getaway rather than our main home. But I love the getting back to simplicity, although I'm not ready to part with my kids grade school art and other projects just yet :-) I have to admit, I'm way too nostalgic and tend to hold on to anything that was ever important to anyone in my family. I have a few treasures from the past that I intend to hold on to forever (my maternal grandmother's school autograph book, several books from my paternal grandmother who was a teacher on the Omaha Indian reservation back in Nebraska where I grew up, a pair of wooden kitchen chairs with caned seats that came from my mom's grandmother, an embroidered velvet crazy quilt that my paternal grandmother made, a calander from the year my dad was born). Things like that, that tie us to the past and where we came from are important to me. Going back to simplifying style of living though, now that's different. I had a beautiful home that I loved in Minnesota. I picked it out. I picked out nearly everything in it. For the first time in my life I had mostly new furniture that I chose because I loved it. And I was happy there. Then I met Gary. Gary loves antiques and lives simply. We bought a 100+ year old home here in Michigan, and have filled it with his antiques and a smattering of my newer furniture. The house is old and simple but very well kept up. Taken care of, and loved. You can see it and feel it. And you know what? I feel like I've come home. This place brings me back to a different me. The me I grew up with, if that makes sense. I belong in this place and with these people, even though I'd never been to Michigan or this town or this house in my life! Even though everything here is new to me. The only thing I'm missing is my kids. I do wish they were closer. And... I wish they would give me grandkids. Although I married several grandkids when I married Gary :-) There I go. Rambling again! But I am so happy here. Happy with my family, my home, and my life. And this new little piece of land, our getaway from our daily life, is just going to add to that.

And Janice, you know I said that I am nostalgic and cling (happily) to things from the past, especially family things. Your dream home, your parent's dream home, sounds perfect. I don't know how you were able to stand letting it go, but I think maybe it was that, at that time, it was time to move on to another part of life. I already feel like I've lived a number of different lives. And they are all me. Most of them I've been very happy with... a couple less so. I'm so glad that your parents got to live their dream life and enjoy it for so many years. The home and gardens you have now are so beautiful and I hope that you too, are living your dream.

hI jEL,Please don't get me wrong, i am a saver to a fault,as i said, i had all this art work from kintergarden,no less, and my Baby,is now 33oldest is 43.

I have my mothers things,tons of pictures that are priceless,and now my grandchildrens things,ha ha( i am 60 ),the things i did away with are things that were falling apart,or,as far as household items,i have down sized big time.
But i am a collector to a fault.I Still have two big hat boxes full of cardes i have received over the years,i just can not get rid of them quite yet,and they do not take up a lot of room,lol
I can hear it in your voice that you are where you should be,isn't it funny how you just "know" you are home?
My daughter moved up north, about a three hour drive form me,( to far),first time living out of state,she moved to a small town,but from the beggining, felt like she was home,she had a hard time making friends,but is all settled now.

We all live so many different lives over our life time,so very interesting,i have so many great stories,i have been blessed,and i have had tragedy beyond words.

I know what you mean when you said you picked out your furniture,i alway had used things,i was very good at picking out the best of the bad,ha ha,when we built our first home, i was able to buy all new things,but i did not know how to do that,i did not know what i liked,because i always had to have used, it's not easy when you do not know your style.I made a lot of mistakes,but learned eventually,lol

I love your story,and i just know you will find much happiness in your new chapter of living,i hope you get the land you are wanting.

Carol

Just thought I'd add that I'm right behind you Carol! My 'baby' will be 27 in a couple of weeks and my oldest will be 30 in the spring. Gary also has adult children, but we're doing it all over again with his daughter Emi, who will be 14 on October 27. They really do keep you young, I think. Either that or they make you old before your time. Which one of those I believe varies with what's going on at the time :-)

And yes, it is funny how you know when you are "home". I do, even though I hadn't realized before that I wasn't quite "home". I'm back now!

And thanks so much for the good wishes. I'll let you all know about the dream spot that we end up with.

And I'm sure there are still others who'll have good dreams to share with us, when they visit this thread. Can't wait to hear them!

My kids were grown (now 29, 33, 36)and gone when I met Steve 12 years ago.
We married on New Years Eve of '97. So I guess that still kind of makes us newly weds.
As Joyce knows, we are very active street rodders, thus the name. We would go on camping trips with the '57 all loaded down with the tent and all of the gear that goes with it.
As the years moved on we inhereted a 1960 Shasta travel trailer. Small for some, but at 16 feet, we had all of the amenities. I brought along a 3# coffee can on every trip. Well, fast forword to this past spring...
We bought a cabin on wheels. I found a motorhome in my price range and we bought it the day we looked at it.
We have loved the outdoors since we were both young. Now we can spend as much time as my schedule allows. We even go for one night. You see, Steve is retired now and living the dream, and I have a few (5)more years to go.
There is a state campground 3 miles from my door and we love it. The smell of a campfire and what else but beans and wienies cooked on a stick.

Reach for your dreams!!!

Congratulations on the new motor home, Sheila. And please tell Steve congratulations on retirement! One of these days we'll get there too (retirement that is). Sounds like you'll get there a little faster, as I'm looking at 10-12 years yet. I'd love to retire before 65 but will have to see. The campground being so close to home is a big plus, isn't it! I love camping too. My favorites are night time campfires, and lazy mornings sent sitting in my reclining lawn chair with an endless cup of coffee and some magazines or garden or bird books. There's been too little of this, the past couple of years, but next year is coming up and I'm going to make sure we have some of those times even while putting our getaway together.

boy .. you girls like to type ... lol ...

all the power to ya ...

but back to the original issue...

you want to attract and maintain both deer and hosta ...

as far as i know ... it wont work ...

i wouldnt plant anything but duplicates out in the wild ... and would probably stick to the usual suspects.. golden tiara.. undulatas .. lancifolia ... you know.. the driveway ones ....

and would NOT be surprised if nothing is left the next time you visit ...

ken

You're right Ken. We DO like to type.... sometimes! We've got it narrowed down to to parcels of land and will decide on one or the other within the next couple of days. But after walking around on one of them yesterday, we've kind of already figured out that we'll need bearproof bird feeders and artificial hostas! The photography opportunities, on the other hand, will be magnificant!

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Oh Jel,
A Bear Paw????????????? Oh My.My biggest fear!Period!
And don't even know why.
Keep us posted,and good luck to you and Gary.

Ken,my brain workes faster than my fingers,takes me for ever to type.
No, i do not want to maitain deer,i love to see them, but i do not want them in my yard,but you can talk til you are blue,they do not listen.

I have however, found a product that will keep them at bay,called "Hinder"workes great on every thing you want to protect.

Carol

I read with some interest about all of ya'lls plans. Sounds intereesting,but,at my age it wouldn't be practical. We are living in the same mountains that Janice's parents lived in,about 50 miles east of there. I like our house very much and am constantly doing little improvements to it. It is a home on the side of a mountain,though not very high,(about 2100 feet). We love the mountains,and we have a small creek,down near my hosta garden,though right now it is pretty dry due to the drought conditions. You used to be able to sit down there and listen to the creek gurgling by,but there's not enough water to hear it now. There are black bear and deer in our mountains,though not here where we live. I agree,black bear have been know to absolutely destroy bird feeders around here! Most of my property is unusable for planting hosta,due to being too steep,and too shady,but I have plenty of nice places to plant. We have only half an acre here,but it's enough for us. I agree,we don't need a mansion,and these houses were originally built as mountain cabins,so they are not too big. We still have it in the back of our minds,to some day have our "dream house" but finances won't allow that,so we make the best of what we have. I guess I've probably told you more than you wanted to know,so I'll leave it at that! Phil

Phill,are you kidding,we Want to hear more.How else will we ever get to know one another,our dreams and desires,heart aches and triumphs.
When ever you post, i can "see"in my minds eye,your beautiful path way to your hosta,both coming and going,when you did not have any rain, my heart went out to you,when you got rain, i rejoyced!
My self, i like smaller,less work,and way cozy.

Where is every one,wake up! Sleepy time is coming way to fast.

Any news yet Jel?

Carol

Actually,Carol the hostas are still looking pretty good,despite the drought. We actually had some rain this month. Some hostas have gone completely dormant,while others are still hanging in. It was 51 here this morning,and fall is just around the corner! I love the springs and fall. The best thing about fall and winter is,we don't have to worry about the hostas any more,as they are gone to sleep for awhile. It doesn't get cold enough around here to frost-heave any plants,but we do have snow once in awhile,usually in January. Phil

Carol, we're getting close! We've decided on the parcel of land we're going to buy. The bank is doing the mortgage approval right now and we expect it to take maybe a week or week and a half to get through all of that. It will be delayed by a couple of days because I'm driving to Minnesota this weekend to meet up with my daughter and son in law (haven't seen them for 11 long months as they live 18 hours away). The bank sent papers in the mail today that I have to sign and I'll be gone before they get here and not back until Tuesday night so that delays the process a bit.

Anyway, back to the details :-) It's 5.6 acres of wooded land. There is a working well on the land, but no electricity. Shocker though, is that my cell phone actually showed 3 bars of service out there! The great majority of areas around here, other then in town, I don't pick up a signal at all!

I've even got a few pictures to show you.

View from the driveway where it enters the property:

Just 20-30 feet behind the site where we plan to put our cabin.
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My car parked at the cabin site:
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Gary walking down this huge rock hump:
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Tree leaves and branch from a tree that some nice folks on the tree forum helped me ID. It's a hawthorn Crataegus species:
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Paper Birch:
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Trees on the edge of the cabin site:
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Jack in the Pulpit seeds - I always wanted Jack in the Pulpits :-)
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There are nice sized aspen, paper birch, maple (yes, there are maples), and other trees here as well, some I'm not familiar with so will have to ID before I can name them. I love the ferns and the rocks and all of the mosses and the deep woodsiness of the area that is out and away from the cleared cabin site.

Oh congratulations Jel,
I can feel the excitment for you,i know that felling so well,you have some beautiful,colorful trees on your property,thats nice,and all the huge rock formations,very cool.
Do you know when you will start building?Do you have to worry about Bears when you go for a walk?
We do not have nice trees,but we have taken out so many,and have replaced them with some nicer ones,we do have Jack-in- the- Pulpit,i love it.
How nice that you already have a spot cleared out for your cabin,some work saved there,lol
How far into the wooods will you be building?
I am excited for you,congratulations again,can't wait to see more pictures.Have fun with your family this week end, i am spending time with my daughter also.
Carol

Hi Jel
Any thing new to report?
Just thinking of you,it is getting cool here,i would think it is up there also eh?
Carol

Oh Joyce--I hope you got that property!! I LOVE IT!!! Makes my heart sing,
just looking at your pics!!!

Is the rock hump on your acreage? That is too cool if it is!!!
I bet you won't get anything BUT HOSTA to grow on it!! LOL

I've slowed us down a little bit... I had a migraine that hung on all week after returning from my MN trip and just had an awful time trying to wrap my mind around ANYTHING that required thinking! But I do have the paperwork from the bank, and of course they wanted copies of this and copies of that and I had to dig (remember we moved in June) for last year's income tax return and look up bank statements and 401k summaries and all that good stuff they want to prove we can make the payments. I've got everything together now though and it should get mailed off tomorrow. We've been out just looking at and walking around 'our' place the last two days. Gary is champing at the bit waiting to start on the cabin. He'd so love to get it framed in before winter but we don't have much before winter time left. We're buying direct from a private seller (no real estate agent in between) but the seller used to sell real estate himself so he is drawing up the sales agreement tomorrow so we can get a copy of that to the bank too.

Carol, we had an almost 85 degree day on Thursday! But the high yesterday was in the low 60s and rignt now at 9:40 am, it's 37 degrees! Brrrrr..... But at least the sun is shining and it's a beautiful day!

My dad would call that "out in the bush". Got blueberries and sugar plums? How will I find you out in the bush, Joyce? Has Gary built anything before? Is he handy?

That made me chuckle maryann. Gary calls it "out in the bush" too. Must be a MI thing... or a UP thing :-) I'm pretty sure there are no sugar plums and we haven't spotted any blueberries yet on this piece of land, although there were on some of the others we looked at. We do have raspberries all over the place and a big patch of thimbleberries on the edge of one of the clearings! You'll be able to find me just fine! Just head north toward Copper Harbor and turn left at Pheonix.

Gary is pretty handy with home remodeling and I think he'll be able to handle this project just fine. He's so excited that he can hardly wait for the paperwork to be complete. He wants to be out there DOING! And so do I :-)

Wow, Phoenix is about as far out in the bush as you could get, amazingly on the same Route 41 that turns into Lake Shore Drive in Chicago.

My cell phone has been almost useless up there, no signal. An area south of L'Anse has the highest elevation in the U.P. So who do you call if no one else gets signal?

Had there been a settlement there before? A logging camp, maybe? Did you ever hear of clearings before you landed in Michigan?

Hope we have a long dry fall so you and Gary can get to the DOING. Sounds like you have a keeper this time, Joyce.

Yep, Phoenix is almost as far out as you can get.... 20 miles more and you'll hit Copper Harbor which is on the tip of the Keweenaw Penninsula!

I've had a lot of problem with cell phone coverage in the Keweenaw. I had T-Mobile when I moved here and have since switched to Alltel (which supposedly covers this area, along with AT&T). Alltel doesn't give me any better coverage than T-Mobile did. I'm find in Houghton, Hancock, Calumet, and Laurium. I don't get coverage in Lake Lindon, Dollar Bay, or anywhere down that side of the penninsula. NOBODY gets coverage in Copper Harbor that I know of. Other places are hit and miss. Oddly, I have three bars at the cabin site, but I figured that out when I found a cell phone tower up on a hill only a mile or so from there. I don't think there are any towers out towards the harbor. I don't know why! How many towers could it take to cover one small penninsula anyway??? I do hear that AT&T gets coverage in some of the towns that Alltel doesn't, but no one told me that until after I signed up on a two year contract with Alltel :-(

The camp really isn't so far 'out there' unless you call the whole penninsula out there :-) It's less than a mile to the town of Eagle River, which I admit, is pretty darn small. But that means less than a mile from Lake Superior and a beautiful public beach too! Then a mile the other way takes you to Pheonix. There hasn't been a settlement or cabin on our spot before, although there are a couple of houses along the highway that we turn off of to get into our camp. And we are bordered all around by Superior Timber (or whatever that logging outfit is called). That means no neighboring camps. And yes, I've heard of clearings before, although back where I'm from (Nebraska originally and the Rochester Minnesota area recently) it's pretty much all 'clear' and only spots of timber. It did take some getting used to here.... almost all wooded timberland, but it is just so beautiful!

Thanks for the wishes for the long dry fall. We'll take you up on those! And yes, I've got a keeper this time. I explained this to my daughter just the other day and I'll share it with you too. Except for the fact that I moved further away from my daughter and son-in-law (Tulsa OK) and away from my son and daughter-in-law (Rochester MN), I feel like I've come home. Part of it is Gary and my step-daughter Emi, part of it is this house here in Laurium, and part of it is the Keweenaw. It's different then the farm country I grew up in back in NE, but it is home. Hopefully, you understand what I mean. It's inside of me and hard to explain. What I've just said is the best explanation I can give.

Here's a link for Laurium (the town where I live):

Laurium link

And below is one for Eagle River:

Here is a link that might be useful: Eagle River - camp is about a mile from here

Just had an email from my mortgage guy at the bank saying he ordered the appraisal and title work today! YES!!! (insert picture of my fist punching the air in excitment here)

Michigan backroad near our place, no wonder you love it~

Hi Jel,
Well, it lookes like it is happening fo you, :0),
how exciting!
I was getting a little worried for you with all this mess in our country,loans and all,so nice to know you are going to be able to fill your dream,and nice to know things may be on the up for the rest of the country eh?
Your land is beautiful,do have in your mind how long it may take you to get your cabin built?You can do al lot in the cold,execpt for the foundation i think.
You will need to let us all know the min.you get the "keys".:0)I am so happy for you and Gary.
Last time we talked(here)we were both on our way to see our daughters,my trip was wonderful,as i know yours was, funny, we both got migraind headachs when we got home, the body does not know good stress from bad does it, i can count on getting a migrain at any given time in life that has stress,good or bad!
My poor daughter is the same way.
We will be watching for more updates from you,hope you can get "Doing" soon.
Carol

Maryann, your backroad could be any one of many we've driven the past several weeks. It really is beautiful.

Carol, Gary worried constantly until we got the call, just yesterday, to set our closing date. He was just so worried something would go wrong. I just knew all along that it would work out and now he does too. We close next Wednesday (Oct 15) at 1:30 pm!

It's gotten a little bit late, so we don't know if we'll get a start on the cabin yet this fall or not. If not, no worries, as we've got a pop-up camper we can pull out and stay in until the cabin is built. We might even do a night or a weekend out there yet this fall, if the weather cooperates. Who knows? Maybe weekend after this one, once we've closed!

My trip to meet up with my daughter and son in law was great too. The only things that could have made it better is if it was a time when Gary and Emi cold have gone along to meet them and if it had been longer! We're hoping to make a trip to visit them over Christmas/New Years though, so that will be ok. Poor Emi says 'She's my step-sister and I haven't even met her yet..'.

And I agree 100% on the migraines. My daughter has them too, as did my mom, and as do a few other family members. Guess it's in the genes....

I'll let you all know when we get the 'keys' and when we start DOING! :-)

WE CLOSED!!!!! Then we did this...

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Ok... I admit... it was a little bit staged......

We took the camper out last night (after the 1:30 pm close) and unless it's really really nasty weather, we're probably going to stay out there Saturday night :-)

*****************CONGRATULATIONS YOU TWO***************

Now the real fun begines,,i am so happy for you guys,i hope the weather is just perfect for you this wek end.Have fun,i also hope there will be a clear sky,the stares are amazing when it is so black out.

**********************ENJOY*****************************

cAROL