Welcome to our web site. Tom and Mona live on a 40 acre homestead in the hills above Grand Marais (photo circa 1996), a friendly little resort and retirement town perched on the North Shore of Lake Superior.
Grand Marais is a premier tourist destination. It is a gateway to all the recreational opportunities of Lake Superior, the Superior National Forest, the famous Gunflint Trail, and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW). It’s a fabulous place to live, with friendly people and many cultural attractions. (WTIP radio, Grand Marais Public Library, Arrowhead Center for the Arts, North House Folk School, curling club, and even a Cook County Tennis Association!) There is also the stimulation of mingling with visitors from all over the world.
February 14, 2007 update:
Tom has spent the past year acquiring his Minnesota real estate salesperson's license and then working as a full time agent at the Cascade Property Sales office in Lutsen, MN. The work has been challenging and a great learning experience, but so far not very rewarding financially, as the real estate market slowed statewide in 2006.
Mona continues working hard and doing very well with her Traditional Chinese Medicine studies. An interesting side development: a reputatable West Coast publisher is negotiating with her to publish her two illustrated workbooks, which Mona created to help her remember TCM methods of diagnosis!
The winter of 2006-2007 will be remembered as one of extremes. December and January were exceptionally mild, with several periods of rain or freezing rain, and temperatures in the 30's. February has been a blast from the past, with night after night of temperatures in the teens below 0, or colder! It's enough to shrink the wood pile and make one forget about global warming. The forecast, however, is for a return to normal mid February temperatures in a few days. And with the sun sailing higher in the sky and lingering longer, spring can't be far off.
After many hours of chiseling in hard clay, Tom received approval last summer for his remote cabin's septic system--that is to say, for the outhouse *pit*. The county really doesn't care what is constructed over the hole. Tom plans to build a cozy little outhouse this coming summer so that cabin guests will be able to relieve themselves in comfort, unbothered by the weather or parasitic insects.
Speaking of which, last fall while raking leaves, we discovered to our considerable horror that the trail leading to the cabin is infested with , transmitters of Lyme disease. This was not good news. In order to minimize our chances of getting infected, we will need to shower and change clothes upon returning home from the cabin. Although May-August is the most active period for Lyme disease transmission, we will be at risk spring through fall and will need to take sensible precautions. Fortunately, the disease is usually not transmitted unless the tick has been attached to your skin for over 24 hours. Unfortunately, the immature deer ticks (nymphs), which are tiny and hard to see, may transmit Lyme disease just as readily as the adult ticks.
Our north woods paradise has its share of thorns.
December 6, 2005 update:
With snow on the ground and highs the past few days in the teens, summer is looong gone. Mona is nearing the end of her first year as a part time student of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) at the American Academy of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. Only 6 more years to go before she finishes school and gets her license to practice!
During the summer, I installed windows in our remote cabin near the border of Magney State Park, and carried in a bed and chair for the loft. Mona and I enjoyed a few idyllic days at the cabin in August. The small loft, at least, is comfortable--except for a hammock and a couple of tattered canvas chairs, the ground floor has no furniture. Next summer I’ll bring in more furnishings and build an outhouse.
May 9, 2005 update: After a very dry March and April, we’re finally getting rain in early May. Our lawn has turned green in the past few days, and the peas are pushing up in my vegetable garden. The 5 month “warm season” in Cook County has begun. We’ll have some chilly days during spring and fall, but at least there will be leaves on the trees and green grass. Summer, in spite of the bugs, is my favorite time here. As I get older, winter seems to get more dreary, and I’ve started thinking about spending some time in the South. Northern Arkansas looks interesting; it’s due south of Minnesota. (The giant Ivory Billed Woodpecker, thought to be extinct, has just been rediscovered in the Big Woods region of eastern Arkansas.) Mona, however, likes New Mexico.
Although we both love warm weather and gardening, it's hard to imagine us actually moving. We've put a lot of work and creativity into our homestead, and our roots have grown deep into this North Shore country and community.
Later this month, I’ll be spending some time in Walker, MN, helping my 81 year old mother get resettled in her home. For the past 7 months, she has been recovering from serious injuries suffered in an auto accident last fall. For almost 3 months she had to wear a head/neck brace called a “halo,” which was screwed to her skull. Thankfully, although she walks now with the aid of a cane or walker, she is almost completely recovered.
Mona has completed her first trimester as a part time student at the American Academy of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine in Roseville, MN, and passed all her courses with flying colors. Her summer 2005 schedule will involve 4 days of classes and study, plus 2 travel days, every other week. During her “at-home” weeks she’ll be busy studying, working two 12 hour shifts at the hospital, and tending her flower gardens.
My own summer plans include the usual handful of painting and other homestead improvement projects, as well as working on the remote cabin. Got to get those windows in, as well as build an outhouse that will pass the inspection of the county sanitarian. That means digging a deep pit in clay and rock, and hoping I don’t hit water!
Mona will have some time off in August, and we plan to spend some time at the cabin enjoying the solitude and wild nature of our wilderness retreat. We expect to show the place to some of our extended family members, too. I think they’ll be surprised at how remote the site really is. Unless our access road is improved this summer, it could be a 3 mile hike in, and 3 miles out!
We pray that the summer of 2005 is one of light and love for the world, for you, and for us. Peace.
~Tom (and Mona)
December 2004 Update: Tom’s major project, begun in the spring of 2003, is a small 12’ x 12’ one room cabin that he is building in the maple woods on our 40 acre parcel of land bordering Magney State Park. The cabin has walls that are over 10’ high, which provides space for a sleeping loft. All construction materials have been carried in by hand over a narrow ˝ mile long foot trail.
Summer 2004 was a good one for cabin building, with plenty of dry, sunny weather. The cabin is now enclosed and almost completely painted. The roof has been shingled with 35 year archetectural style shingles, and the chimney and woodstove have been installed.
The stove, a well used Waterford 104 that heated our home for 13 years, works well to take the chill out of the air.
The interior of the cabin is not insulated or finished, and may not be finished anytime soon. The only remaining item on the “must do” list for 2005 is to install the windows. Once that is done, we’ll be able to relax in a dry, sunny shelter; free of bugs and with a wonderful view of maple woods marching up the south-facing hillside. With the addition of a few chairs, a table, a bed and some bookshelves, the cabin will be ready to enjoy.
In April 2004 we decided to escape the lingering snowdrifts of Cook County by driving to Utah, where the grass was green and flowers were blooming. We visited scenic Arches National Park and Capitol Reef National Park, both in southeast Utah. Temperatures were in the perfect 60's most of the time, only turning cold on the day we left. The fruit trees were blossoming! By the time we returned to Grand Marais on April 13, much of the snow in our yard had melted.
We can recommend the Aquarius Inn in the small, quiet town of Bicknell, Utah (population 353), for friendly service and inexpensive rates. You can find them on the web at www.aquariusinn.com. We also recommend the bookstore/coffee shop (Robber's Roost?) in the pyramid shaped building on the main road through Torrey, Utah (population 120). Torrey is a picturesque, funky little town that we wish we'd had more time to explore. There's information on the web at www.torreyutah.com.)
2003 was another year of repetition and change for us in Minnesota’s Lake Superior highlands. Mona continued her service to the community as a half-time RN at the Cook County North Shore Hospital, and Tom continued his long time service on the boards of Cook County Whole Foods Co-op (CCWFC) and Boreal Access, our local Internet service provider. Both of us will continue our work in 2004, though Tom has vowed that, after ~10 years on the CCWFC board, he will not seek re-election next October.
We are very fortunate that our simple lifestyle and freedom from debt allows us to spend a relatively small portion of our time working for money. Most of our time is spent maintaining and improving the homestead, gardening, and in other creative projects that are meaningful to us. We are also fortunate to be in reasonably good health, although physical labor causes more stiffness and soreness than it did 10 years ago.
Last fall Mona’s Butterfly Basket, a large sculpturesque multi-chambered sweetgrass basket incorporating wooden partitions, quill work, bead work and colored ink drawings, won third prize in the Fibers and Textiles division of the MN State Fair’s Fine Arts Competition. Mona has also been working assiduously on her woolen projects, which are knitted of hand spun, hand dyed yarns. Her current (Jan. 2004) project is a large, subtly textured blanket that she expects will keep her busy for the next month or two.
You can find out more about the attractions and culture of Grand Marais and the Cook County area by clicking on the Boreal Access link at the bottom of the page.
These links will take you to other pages on Tom & Mona's web site:
Our Homestead
Boreal Access home page
The Nature Conservancy
The sun - earth environment
NOVA - science programming
Shambhala books
Consumer Reports online
