Snowfort Redux

As work progresses on the new hacienda, my new closest neighbor Tom can be seen here running his sled dogs through my back yard.

        When I was a wee child I used to dream of someday growing up to be Sergeant Preston of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (with his trusty lead sled dog Yukon King). Well maybe I can't be Sgt. Preston, but it looks like I can live next door to him.

Snowfort

This is what the new house looks like today.

The Fires at Story Creek

The contractors are moving along rapidly now. Here's the framing of the wood burning fireplace that's going into the living room. The finished fireplace will be real stone, matching the stone floor.

        Stacy Sinner, the wife of my long time Army buddy Mike Sinner, is overseeing the finish of the house while I'm wintering (for my last winter) in Las Vegas. It's several degrees below zero up there in Minnesota. It's so chilly here in Vegas that I actually had to consider putting on a longer sleeved shirt the other night to venture outdoors.

        When she's not doing custom house completions, Stacy is the Director of Adult Corrections for Olmstead County. This makes her the second highest Olmstead County law enforcement official behind the sheriff. Mike is the Director of Juvenile Corrections for the same county. I'd like to imagine they first met during a prisoner transfer, when a dangerous juvenile offender who reached the age of 18 was being handed over to his new digs.

Story Creek

This is the creek that borders one long curving edge of the property. It's not actually named Story Creek by the way. It's one of the many branches of the Zumbro River. I'm told in the spring and summer its high enough for canoeing and such. We'll see. But there are fish in it. Getting to do some trout fishing without leaving one's property -- now that's a nice day. Just on the other side of the creek you can see a hint of the limestone cliffs that border the far riverbank. So, even though I will have neighbors, they're all up on top of the cliffs (access by a different road) and don't really impact on one's sense of solitude.

        This year's Clockwork Storybook retreat will take place here -- a week of writing, fishing, walking in the woods, outdoor bonfires in the fire pit, indoor bull sessions in front of the fire place.

The House at Story Creek

While visiting friends in the wilds of Minnesota I found the perfect house on some wooded acres bordering a river (I call it a creek, but my friends insist it's a river and I just haven't seen it at full swell), so I bought it.

        I'll be moving there after it's finished. The outside and major construction is done, but the builders left the floors and walls and such unfinished so the buyer could have it finished to suit.

        The yellow carpet things are burlap and straw coverings being rolled over the newly planted lawn to protect it from the coming winter -- which I understand is in full howl right now. I think I might call the property Story Creek, since I'm just enough of a fuddy duddy old romantic to think that houses, even modest ones, should have names.