SanChiJeBaNoBe

White Chicken Chili

2011-10-27T09:35:00.000-07:00

This is Jeff posting. I promised I'd share my wife's recipe for white chicken chili which seemed to be somewhat of a hit. Here it is:

Ingredients: 2T olive oil, 4 onions (diced), 4 cloves garlic (pressed or chopped), 4 cooked chicken breasts (use a rotisserie chicken), 5 cans northern beans, 2t cumin, 2t oregano, 1 1/2 t cayenne, 2 cans green chiles, 1 32 oz package of chicken stock or broth, package of Monterey jack cheese (for topping), Bunch of cilantro (for topping), Sour cream (for topping)

Directions: Saute onion, garlic (about 10 minutes) in olive oil until translucent, add cooked chicken, broth, chiles, spices, bring to boil. Add beans. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes. Top soup with cheese, cilantro, sour cream.

Cabins Update

2011-09-20T16:43:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a while since I updated this blog. Seems like there have been a million things happening and I know with this update, I'm still missing a lot. At this point we have a functional cabin; beds, functional bathrooms and kitchen, and furnished to the point where we can sit down on chairs or a couch. We are getting there. It will take a while before the cabin is appropriately furnished. I think we have a great start but we'll need to go through a season to get into an appropriate rhythm.

These 31 pictures are from this past week. I've added captions where I thought they were appropriate.

Here's our washer and the dryer is in the entry. These are a full size stackable washer and dryer thanks to Bob and Verna Norland.

This is to show you our water softener and above and to the left is our water filter. The filter is thanks to Peggy and Floyd. Peggy also asked that Brad Glad install the filter and it seemed fitting that he installed the softener as well. This has made a nice change for showers, drinking water and coffee.

Sue has painted the kitchen floor and the main bathroom downstairs with this paint. We may not need it to last 20 years but it makes a great difference as compared to the cement.

The kitchen looking into the mudroom.

We cleared off this area to make room to host the firefighters with hot dogs, Polish dogs, chips, water, pop, and beer. We planned for 50 firefighters and about 15 showed up so we have lots of this stuff leftover for MEA or deer hunting.

The old Cabin Thursday Morning

The Bunkhouse Thursday morning

We had the Lancaster, Lake Bronson, and Hallock Fire Departments. Here you see them filling a canvas tank from the tankers for the water they needed to help fight the fire.

One of the tankers from Lancaster

They called this thing the Evinrude. It was placed on the pond. This charged an 1 1/2" line and ran the whole time they were fighting the fire. There was still lots of water in the pond when they finished.

Here they are going in with gasoline to start the process.

Throughout the process the firefighters were controlling the fire and providing protection to the power lines, the power meters and adjacent structures; the outhouse and the garage.

It didn't take long for this fire to get going.

You can see Chuck Olsonowski spraying down the outhouse. They also spent a lot of time spraying the trees; the oak trees on the right side of this picture and the Popple trees on the north side of the cabin/bunkhouse. They did tell us that these trees could get damaged.

More fire control and protecting trees/buildings.

The firefighters did a great job backing each other up.

Here's the cabin fire getting started.

Here two firefighters are controlling a small grass fire on the west and north side of the cabin.

This is Terry Kukowski (TK) who was instrumental in getting cooperation from Lake Bronson and Hallock and getting this coordinated so fast . . . like two days!

The cabin fully engulfed (I always wanted to use the word, "engulfed")

More engulfment.

I should know the name of this firefighter. He was in the old cabin with an SCBA during the early stages of the fire when they had a "rollover" fire which started the ceiling on fire and some of it landed on him. He and 2-3 other firefighters had to run out of the cabin. Here he was relating the experience to us. He was pretty, "amped". Buy the way, during this time Floyd was close to the old cabin and was ready to jump in and help if he thought he was needed.

You can see it was quite a job to protect the power line and the power meters. You can't see it but there's a water curtain to protect the meters. The only evidence of any damage was a slight wrinkling of the plastic around the yard light. We still don't know what happened to the webcam. As you can see in this picture, it was on the southwest corner of the garage and didn't show any physical indication of damage. Chris will be checking it out.

Some of the firefighters taking a break. They are a great and competent group.

Once all the walls were pushed into the middle the fire was left to burn itself out.

This is what it looked like Friday morning. The cement was still warm and there were still embers but you can see how complete the burn was. You can also see what a difference it makes to the property.

Thanks to all of the partners for their support of this activity.

Bob

Cabin Update - 4 February 2011

2011-02-04T08:10:00.001-08:00

Good Morning,

This past Wednesday (1/26) we went up north. On the way up Sue and I picked up a special order toilet (10" rough-in) and purchased the water heater (80 gallon electric) and a 26" sink. Thursday we went to the benefit for Bill in TRF Thursday evening and were joined by Dick. The benefit went very well. On Friday we went out to the camp. Tom and Billy Vig and a friend were mudding sheet rock. Mike Whitlock and Keith Schmeideberg were working on rough-in plumbing. On Saturday Dick and I went to Menards Grand Forks to pick up two 48" special order vanities, buy a 26" sink, and took them out to the camp. The following pictures were taken on Saturday.

This is the entry and is mostly for storage. This area will be insulated and sheet rocked. We will also have a baseboard heater. We didn't have to order any additional steel for this entry.

As you walk in the cabin, you notice the heat is on right away. All three zones are running and holding the temperature at 65 degrees. Here you can see the stairs going up to the loft and a little of the vaulted area.

This is the area under the stairs. We decided to enclose the stairs and add a door which should create a nice storage area. Tom Vig pulled a wire into this area so we could add a light for this closet if we wished.

This is looking south from the loft area into the vaulted area. We have six windows on the south side and for this picture, the top three are covered with translucent plastic and the bottom three were covered with sheet rock (they just hadn't cut the sheet rock out yet). This will be a very bright area.

From the previous picture I turned to my left and took this picture so you are looking east toward the "Tree Stand" area. By the way, the scissor trusses have really made this area feel large. Originally we talked about 7' ceilings and standard trusses. We changed to 8' ceilings and scissor trusses. These trusses are 6/12 on the top chord and 3/12 on the bottom cord so from floor to peak is 12'. It really feels spacious.

This is what you see when you walk into the cabin. Three of the lower windows are covered. They are not quite done sheet rocking and none of the taping, mudding has started here.

Here's the view through the patio door

Here's the Kitchen. The door for the mudroom is on the left. The pressure tank and regulator are in the cardboard box and the opening to the vaulted area is on the right. You can see the framing for one of the two 30" pocket doors. This room looks nearly ready for paint.

Looking down the hallway and it looks like it is close to paint.

This is the mud room showing the boiler system. We have three zones; kitchen-mudroom-bathrooms, vaulted area-west bedroom, and the northwest-southwest bedrooms. In order to fire up the heading system we asked Todd Truedson to do this work. He installed the "off peak" meter in the box on the yard light pole and ran a run from the "off peak" panel to the boiler.

This the shower/bath for the main bathroom in the lower level. This bathroom will also have the 48" vanity.

This is a picture of the west bedroom.

This is the northwest bedroom.

This is the northeast bedroom.

This is the loft area where you can see the northwest bedroom, the hallway, and the northeast bedroom. We have to wait to complete rough-in electrical before we can sheet rock. We are wondering if we need to have framed closets in these two bedrooms. You can see they are framed but I think the cabin committee will decide which we will do. We are also considering if we have enough lighting in this open area. We currently have a fan/light planned for the center of the room but are wondering if we should add sconce lights as well.

This is to show the open area in the loft. In the future we could create a sixth bedroom. It's maybe a little hard to see but none of the ceiling has been taped yet.

The "tree stand" area. You can see the entry door to the bathroom on the left side. The triple combination window is currently covered with plastic.

A little more detail for the northeast bedroom in the loft.

Northeast bedroom

From left to right, you can see the doorway to the northeast bedroom, the north bathroom which will have the 48" shower and 48" vanity. The bathroom on the right has a 36" shower and a 26" pedestal/sink. On the right side you can see the edge of the "tree stand" area.

The notion of these pictures is to give you a sense of the current construction status for the cabin. The next activity is rough-in electrical for the loft area.

Finally, on Monday Sue and I were with Peggy and Floyd for Peggy's surgery to remove a small malignant tumor in her right lung. The surgery went really well. Peggy went home on Wednesday and is expected to have a follow-up appointment next week or so.

Hope you are all doing well. If you have any questions please let me know.

Bob

Rough-in/First Meal

2010-10-26T13:39:00.001-07:00

An interesting week. This is the weekend the electrical contractor, Glen Kemper and his brother, Shannon, were going to do the rough-in electrical for the cabin. Dick, Patrick, and Nathan were there along with Bob, Matt, Chris, and John. Glen and Shannon had left Melrose at about 4 a.m. and got to the cabin about 8:30 a.m. This was the first time many of us had seen the inside of the cabin and many of the partners have yet to see it. I'm hopeful that these pictures help you visualize the inside of the cabin.

When we started, we had extension cords from the old cabin. The power lines that had been trenched from the yard pole to the cabin site had not been touched. None of us knew at the beginning of the day what we would have at the end of the day.

Hopefully these pictures will help you see what we did.

Glen brought everything we needed for electrical rough-in. Chris and Matt brought all we needed for the low voltage stuff.

Just a picture of the shed roof. We plan to have an entry that would be about 8' X 12'.

Here's the south end of the cabin and a door which would lead to the 10' X 32' future deck.

This is the east side. The Tyvek covers the large window in the area above the kitchen. The OSB board on the lower left covers the area where the patio door will be. This has been left out so we can use sissor lifts for insulation and sheetrock.

This is the South end of the cabin. These windows really let in a lot of sun.

We are just getting started. Here you are looking through the kitchen into the mudroom. To the left of the mudroom is the full bath. On the back side of the mud room is a 3/4 bath.

This is the lower level and the bedroom on the northwest corner of the cabin. You can see here we have started pounding boxes in. Glen did a great job giving all of us jobs pounding boxes, pulling wires, etc.

This is the lower level west bedroom which is next to the stairs.

This is lower level northeast bedroom.

This is lower level northeast bedroom looking south into the mudroom.

As you walk into the cabin from the west, the stairs go up to the loft.

This the loft area called the "Tree Stand". The leftmost 2x4 is the area and you can see the size of the window that's yet to be installed (it came cracked and has recently been replaced).

This is the loft area. When we were starting the rough-in process we realized we really need to define the rooms in the loft to allow us to provide proper wiring. These three 2X4's roughly show the two 3/4 baths we will have in the loft.

The loft area showing where we put temporary bottom plates to outline a bedroom in the northeast corner of the loft.

You can see the pile of sheetrock in the loft area. They do this when it's easy to forklift it up to the loft. Behind this pile will be another bedroom in the northwest which will be a mirror image of the one in the northeast corner. There will be a hallway which will go between the bedrooms and out onto the deck.

This is an area next to the stairs. We decided to build a 48" stub wall and will leave this area open. The stub wall will allow us to have electrical hookups should we decide at a later date to convert this to a bedroom.

This is starting to show the wiring. We will have fan/light combinations in all the bedrooms. Each bedroom will also have electric baseboard heat in addition to radiant floor heat. Each bedroom has double hung windows along with electrical service to a room air conditioner. We also wired smoke detectors for each bedroom. These smoke detectors are interconnected so if one goes off they all go off. Additionally, we will have CO detectors in the hallways in the bedroom areas. Here you can see that Glen hooked the power up to the meter box on the yard pole and viola! we have some lights.

More lights

More lights. Not a lot of the breakers are in; I think just enough to allow us to have the inspection.

Here's the mudroom. You can also see the white low voltage panel on the right.

So if you look at the picture below we have fast forwarded a week. We decided we should have our first meal in the cabin. We set up in the kitchen area and although we didn't have heat, limited furniture, and lights, we had a great time.

Kyla and Paige waiting for food.

Nick, Leah, and Benjamin

We cooked a "Kenneth Berg" turkey. Years ago Kenneth showed us how to do a turkey on the grill. We implanted a half dozen slivers of garlic into the meat. Rubbed the bird with peanut oil and finally covered it with season salt. Along with this we had tin foil potatoes and onions and corn. But we are not done, Tom Baker wrapped some of last year's tenderloin chunks with bacon and cooked them on the grill. It was really good!

Here you can see Juli cutting up the turkey and John dishing up his plate.

Do you remember our annual meeting when we gave the approval for the cabin and Peggy said we better hurry? I think she's happy with the progress we are making but I can almost hear her say, "but you are not done".

Nicole and Nathan dishing up.

Paige, Matt, Sarah, Kyla, and Leah

To think this started when Floyd told us there was an 80 for sale.

Jamie and Darin

Bacon wrapped venison tenderloins. Mickey, Tom, Tom Jr, and friend. (I'm sorry I don't remember his name).

Dick. Dick found the perfect guy to get the rough-in electrical stuff done. None of us imagined we would have completed all this work in one day! We had invited Tom Vig out for this meal but he worked all day and wasn't sure if he would be able to join us. He wasn't able to.

Jamie, Bob, Floyd, Nicole, Nathan, and Darin

Leah, Benjamin, Bob, Jamie, and Darin

The first supper.

Tom Jr, Tom, Floyd

So that's it. Lots of stuff left to do but lots of good work done already.

Cabin Updates

2010-07-21T15:05:00.001-07:00

As you can see it has been a while since this has been updated. The value of this update is to provide some pictures from the last three months. Additionally, Peggy and Floyd get hard copies of the pictures for the scrap book(s) they are putting together.

The more time you spend up around the cabin the more you see all the things like this Pink Lady Slipper. In this case these were growing in the ditch along the township road going north from the cabin.

Here's a shot of the east side of the cabin (the mud room) where we hand trenched the two power lines and the power from the well pump. Additionally we added an empty conduit to feed a future garage.

Here's one of the many smiles that happens at the camp. This is Sean, son of Nathan and Karen.

Here is the trenching crew (Floyd, Bob, Nathan, Sean, Dick, and Patrick). Somewhat bitten up, somewhat wet, but all happy that this job is done. We wanted to get up and do this before Tom Vig had to set up the forms for pouring the slab.

This is Tom Vig. We are lucky to have him for this project.

We used a string line to go directly from the old cabin to the new cabin. Dick had the tractor out to move some of the gravel piles to allow us to complete the the digging.

This was a busy day. Floyd, Sue, and I planted 71 pine and spruce trees thanks to Denise Westerberg. As you can see this was done May 21st. Last week when we drove by only one of these trees didn't make it.

Taking a little break.

These are called sonotubes and they'll be filled with cement and will subsequently support the slab. We added these four piers to support the load bearing wall inside the cabin. When I checked the bottom of the sonotubes yesterday I noticed they had a little moisture. We really did the right thing by elevating the building site.

Just a shot so you can see the 2" polystyrene which insulates the edge of the slab. You should also be able to notice the edge of the slab is roughly 12" by 12" which is typical for a floating slab.

Here you are looking east and can see the south end of the cabin on the right of the picture

Looking east again but here you can see the north side of the slab.

Here are Tom Vig and his brother Bill along with two of their nephews setting up the slab.

The new camera works! Thanks to Chris. Everyone seems to be happy with the result.

We were able to carry on a conversation with Pat Christenson with this camera.

Here's the township road on the way into the cabin. I think you are looking north about 50 yards north of our crossing.

Here's the road just before our crossing. Glenn Anderson hauled class five gravel and filled a soft spot by Israelson's crossing and a soft spot by our crossing. He charged us $65 for the gravel he used to fill the spot in our crossing.

This is the road looking south.

This is the road going south as you past Gay Allen's crossing.

Just a close shot of how the forms with the polystyrene foam.

Looking south with the west side of the slab visible on the right side of the picture.

How about this buck? Tom Vig gave us a tour of his deer farm. Pretty amazing.

Some of the pictures are out of order. Here they are starting with the forms

PKM came out and replaced the old transformer with this one. They also ran new power lines to the pole by the cabin. The removed the power from the yard lights so we will have to reconnect later this summer.

Hard to tell from the old one but this is the new Sanchicam

Here Dick is using the new plow on the 120 acres. It is very difficult to do this in ground that may have never been plowed but you have to start someplace.

I drove around the pasture to check to see if Mike Vagle had completed all the dozing we had asked. He did complete the dozing for Jeff and John but I didn't see any for Tom or Dick. As I was coming from Dick's 80 towards Tom's stand I saw this Tiger Lilly and thought I should take a picture of this as well

This is rough-in plumbing being done by Mike Whitlock and Keity Schmediberg(sp).

More rough-in plumbing as it is today. I think they need to add a couple more lines and add extensions to any verticle pipes to be above the level of cement.

Dick and I were out spraying CRP. It actually went well.

I hope a week from now we have a complete slab. I'd expect Bruce Steen to have complete his bid package (lumber, steel, windows and doors) from which we'll pick our supplier. In two weeks I would hope we are ready to start framing. This would mean the cement has been poured and has had a chance to cure for one week and we have signed papers for the construction loan and have money for this part of the project.

Bob

2009 Annual Meeting

2010-01-12T11:16:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures from the 2009 Sanchijebanobe Annual Meeting. The longest and one of the most important since this partnership was founded. The minutes from the meeting have been sent out to partners. The first meeting of the Cabin Planning Committee was held this past weekend (Sunday, January 10th) at John and Juli's house.

Left to Right; Chris Christenson, CEO Dick Christenson, Bob Christenson, and Juli Sanner

Heather Christenson

John Baker, Peggy Sanner, Alice Mae Jerome, Mickey Baker and Dan Baker

Alice Mae Jerome

Sara Christenson, Pat Christenson, Darin Christenson, Jamie Lunser

Juli Sanner, Sean Christenson (foreground), Matt Christenson, Karen Christenson holding Ellie Christenson

John Sanner, Sarah Christenson, Floyd Sanner

Nick and Leah Sanner

Front; CFO Russ Christenson, Tom Baker, Back; Nate Christenson, Jeff Christenson

Our partnership is growing along with our excitment for all the changes we are planning.

Additionally, Dick was recently at the cabin and put about 500 lbs of feed in the feeder by the cabin. He also carved a face in the lawn and "Happy New Year" that we can see via Sanchicam.

We are looking forward a very interesting year.

Bob

Trenching and Graveling

2009-11-12T07:49:00.000-08:00

About 10 days ago I got a call from Bruce Gunderson asking when we were going to trench the water and power line in. The reason he called was because he was going out of town November 12th and would be out of town for at least a week. I asked him to call Glenn Anderson and one thing led to another and they said they could do it Tuesday, November 10th. This was really great news because getting this done now could make the difference between starting construction next year or the following year.

Here's a great picture of Peggy and Floyd toasting the new cabin. I believe they are as excited about the cabin as the rest of us are. And as you all know, it's all about legacy.

We started at about 8:00 a.m. We spent some time figuring where we should trench. Should we trench east along the fence to the path through the woods and go straight south, should we go along the driveway and through the yard between the garage and wood shed or should we go along the north side of the drive way, turn south by the power pole and along the east side of the driveway and then east behind the wood shed . . . which is what we did.

The significance of this picture is to show you the white flags next to the well. We aren't totally sure how they got there but however they did, we are greatful.

Here we are just getting started. This first part was kind of putsy since we had to expose the well pipe to install the pitless unit.

This is Bruce Gunderson drilling a hole in the well pipe where he will install the pitless unit.

Yup, this is what it looks like.

A steel band secures the unit to the side of the well.

Here's the finished product.

Here Bruce is installing the power cable. He also had to label this well. When you walk by sometime you can see the blue label secured to the top of the PVC pipe.

This is what the process looked like. Glenn's son Matthew ran the backhoe. The bottom of the trench is between six and seven feet down. To keep the dirt from filling in, Matthew also had to create three foot trenches on either side of the deep trench. When the trench was ready Floyd and I put the water and power line in the bottom of the trench and shoveled dirt on top. We did this in case during backfilling a rock wouldn't damage either the water line or the power cable. Since Floyd and I were able to do this, Glenn's other son, Pat, was able to haul gravel as you will see in the next pictures.

This is what Pat did all day. It takes about an hour per trip for each 8-10 ton load of class 5 gravel. Pat had to kind of hustle since the truck doesn't have headlights. We asked him to gravel the driveway and into the yard and to put 6" of gravel on the cabin site. You can see the piles on the site but I don't know if that's all of it or not. You can see the gate on the right side of this picture.

Looks pretty good, right? What beautiful weather!

I think we need a deer warning sign.

I tried to show how much was done before Floyd and I left.

As you can see we didn't have gravel at this end of the driveway when we left. You can see the direction of the trench. If you look closely, I think you can see the ID tag on the well.

This picture is looking west as the backhoe is moving east. We cleared out space south of the woodshed to bring the line straight into the cabin site.

You might remember seeing a water line on the west side of the cabin site. Here we've connected the water line from the well to the line that was poking out of the ground on the west side of the cabin. The shallow trench wa for the power cable.

Here's Floyd standing next to the trench. You can see the stakes to approximate the west edge of the cabin. I spooled off about 50" of power cable that will allow us to connect to the west side of the cabin. We thought this would be better than burying it under the cabin.

It really was a fun day. We got a ton of work done and another major step closer to the cabin.

Bob

Deer Hunting

2009-11-12T06:20:00.000-08:00

An amazing season! The weather was great and there were more deer than normal due in some part to not much hunting this past season.

Here we are hanging one of the eight deer shot the first day.

A short clip showing the team in action.

Up goes another deer. Since the weather in the 50s, we were pretty quick to get the deer processed.

And another deer.

11 of the 16 hunters

15 of 16 hunters

You can tell it is pretty warm, check John Baker in shorts!

I think we all had a good time. If anyone has more pictures they would like to add to this blog, someone can help me add them as a blogger to this site or you can send the pictures to me and I will add them.

Bob

Tom Baker's Cabin Layout Sketch

2009-10-24T16:43:00.000-07:00

This past Wednesday Tom was at our house for a Sanner Reunion planning meeting and brought these plans along so I thought I would put them on the blog. The footprint is the same as the gambrel style cabin. This cabin also has vaulted ceilings on the south 20'. First floor has three bedrooms, a full bath, a utility room and kitchen. Tom's logic is also to have space we can enclose and keep heated if necessary.

A couple of other things:

1. I received the bill from Bruce Gunderson for the well activities so far this year; $2545. I sent this on to Russ for payment.
2. We are still hopeful Glenn Anderson can trench the waterline and power cable from the well to the cabin before freeze-up.
3. I just sent dues notifications this afternoon.

Hope you are all doing well.

Bob

MEA Weekend

2009-10-20T11:54:00.000-07:00

We got back from Lancaster last night and I thought I would blog an update to Sanchijebanobe.

First, I brought up a 1000' spool of wire that will be used when Glenn Anderson trenches the waterline from the well to the cabin. We actually need about 550'. The balance we will sell to Bruce Gunderson. The cost of the spool was $311.95. Russ, I'll send you the receipt for this wire. I talked to Glenn Sunday night. He says he has two big jobs ahead of this small job. He's hopeful he can get the trenching done before freeze up.

Additionally, on Monday Floyd and I talked to Jamie Pearson to see if he would be interested in quoting the materials and construction of the shell including the concrete. He said he would try to do this for us. Today I sent him a copy of the materials estimate I have from Menards.

Earlier this year I asked Menards if they would provide a materials estimate for this structure approximated in the picture below. This quote ($23,609) includes the materials for the shell of this structure including engineered trusses. As you can see the windows and doors are likely not what we would end up using. Any additions would increase the cost; dormer, additional shed roof, windows, etc.

The goal of this process is to have a best estimate of the construction of at least the shell and concrete by our annual meeting in December. Also in our annual meeting we need to develop a plan to pay for any work we approve.

Menards building rendition.

Some of the Stands

Jeff's new stand in the northeast corner of the 80

Improvements in Matt's stand - insulation and OSB board along with a shelf (left corner, a hanger for his Mr. Buddy heater, and an indoor/outdoor thermometer.

Tommy Baker's stand - west end of pasture

Russ's stand in the middle of the pasture

Tom's stand

Tom getting ready to take a small tank of propane to his stand.

John's stand in the northeast end of the pasture.

Some game cam pictures

Here's a timber wolf in the northeast corner of the pasture who just happened by three minutes after the picture below this one.

The biggest buck seen by any of the game cams this year and likely being trailed by the wolf.

Spike buck by Jeff's stand

From the gate cam, this is a button buck scratching his buttons.

This is also by the gate.

We put some apples by the pond. They didn't last very long.

All trail cams have been refreshed; clean memory and fresh batteries. We currently have six cameras out.

Hope you are all doing well.

Bob

Cabin Update - October 4th

2009-10-04T13:18:00.000-07:00

It was a fun time up in Lancaster and Bemidji . .

Sue and I decided to go up to Lancaster this past Wednesday and stay there until Saturday when we would go to Travis (Haskell) and Amy's wedding in Bemidji, spend the night and go home Sunday. We just got home and I thought I should update this blog with the recent activities.

The Lost Moose

On the way out to the camp Friday I saw this moose as I turned south on the road that goes to Lake Bronson. I happened to see the moose and happened to have the camera with me so I snapped some pictures. It's been about 5 years since I saw a moose in this country. It was very nice to see that there are some moose in the area. Byron Chrisopherson was coming from the south and the moose went east into the woods in front of us. Byron called the moose a "lost moose". He had never seen a moose in this country.

Looking for tracks . . .

During well drilling Floyd had noticed some very large deer tracks. In fact, Floyd said they were the biggest tracks he had seen in his life. .

We did find its tracks and took these pictures

The Well !!!!!!!!!!

Here's the picture of our well. Floyd will tell the story better than me, but after drilling three times unsuccessfully at depths from 165 to 253 feet, we found water at less than 40 feet. I think they started seeing hope at about 20 feet and they stopped drilling at 40 feet.

Floyd is so happy with this result. The well is 42 yards west of the power pole and about 160 yards from the new cabin site.

What is this??

Bruce Gunderson stopped drilling at 40 feet because the drill bit hit something hard . . . coal! Doubtful we can make a million bucks but we can say we have coal filtered water. The small rectanguar piece in the middle is actually petrified wood.

Our first bottled water

Floyd asked Bruce if he could collect some of our water in this bottle he had with him, and Bruce said, "sure". As you can see, the level is down a bit since Floyd, Peggy, Sue, Ray Johnson, and I had a taste. The taste was great! There was maybe a very slight iron taste and something that's easily filtered if we think that's necessary. You can also see how clear the water is. WooHoo!

So what's next?

Dick had a good idea. He suggested we should try to get the water and powerline trenched from the well to the cabin yet this year. With that in mind, here's what we decided to do:

1. We called Bruce to see if this would be possible from his vantage point and he said yes. He just asked Glenn Anderson to give him a call a day or so before he needed to install the pitless unit and the submersible pump. The pump, by the way is 220 volts and draws 4.5 amps per leg. Bruce said he would also call with the wire size required for the160 yard run from the cabin site to the well.

2. We called Glenn who is also very busy this time of year. He said he would try to get this done this year.

3. Finally, we called Gopher 1 to locate utility lines. The only utility that needs to be located is internet. This will be done Tuesday morning, either Peggy or Floyd will meet this person out by the cabin.

The flow from this well is somewhere between 10 and 20 gallons per minute which is more than we would need to service the cabin.

Hopefully, by our annual meeting we can define the cabin construction.

We had a great time at the wedding and reception. So fun to get together with folks.

Bob

Spring-Summer 2009 Update

2009-08-13T09:56:00.000-07:00

I thought it would be appropriate to update this blog with what's been happening these past four months:

Around Memorial day a friend of Dick's came up to the cabin site to "witch" for water. He's done a lot of it around Melrose and it didn't take him long to "witch" veins as well as his preferred site to drill the next hole.

Check these first set of pictures.

This picture is looking east. You can see part of the drain field and in the lower left and upper right you can see the white flags designating the width of a water vein.

This is a picture looking at the south side of the cabin site. This and the next picture will show you a rock in the center of the background. Near it are three white flags. This is the location suggested for a well site.

A closer picture of the flags and the rock.

Here's part of the crew that was up here; Matt with Kyla, John, Dick, Floyd, Nick, and John

Here a second set of random pictures from when Sue and I were up this past week. We were able to "ATV" anywhere we wanted, so the water has gone down significantly. I would still like to fly over the area from the west side of the county to our side just to look at the ditches and rivers draining this area. Maybe I can take some pictures as well.

We painted the locator rock orange so it can't be confused with any other. Since it is pretty dry in the area now, Floyd thought Bruce might be able to back his rig next to the rock and dig the third hole. I talked to Bruce last night. His daughter is getting married August 22nd and between now and then he has some work to wrap up. After the wedding he said he would give Floyd a call and they can go out to the cabin and decide when Bruce could get started. Assuming it was dry enough, Floyd thought Bruce would be able to back up to the site without moving any trees and without having to add fill/gravel . . . cross your fingers.

I reloaded the five trail cams; one by the crossing, one by the pond, one south 0f the cabin, one northwest of Matt's stand and one between Matt's and John's stand.

Here are some additional pictures:

This is looking southeast at the east end of the 80 looking towards Matts stand. I'm trying to show the food plot from last year. The vegetation is clearly different from what is on the rest of the area. I just don't know if it will attract the deer. The trail cam is on the right side of this opening as you are turning south so it should be able to show us.

Here's the rock with blaze orange paint. I just thought it be easy to describe for anyone not familiar with the area. I also painted the cabin corner stakes blaze orange as well thinking it might be easier to see with the web cam.

I took this picture for a couple of reasons. The first was it serves as a fair indicator about how much water is in the area. The second was to show all the tracks around the pond. These were mostly deer tracks.

Here's Susan on the ATV. Behind her is a trail cam looking south across the pond. It will be interesting to see what pictures we get from this. With regular batteries the camera will take pictures for about two months.

Here's Matt's stand and the progress of adding a stairs. We would also like to do this with John's stand. We are hoping two build one or two additional stands before deer season.

Sue and I also mowed the grass and put some oats in the feeder by the cabin. We mowed in front of the feeder to make it easier to see from the web cam.

So . . . that's the report. I'm hopefull that Bruce will soon be able to drill the third hole. I'm also hopeful, as I'm sure you are, that third time's a charm. If you have any questions, please give me a call or e-mail.

Veterans Day -2008

2008-11-18T17:52:00.000-08:00

What a special day!

This Veteran's Day program was held at the Hallock School and included all the grades in the recognition of veterans. From art projects to essay's about what freedom means to the students. Most important to us was a late addition to the program. This addition started earlier this year when Bob Cameron requested Floyd's WWII ribbons and medals that he wanted to put in a display case. At the time we didn't know how this would be presented until a few days before this program.

It wasn't until recently we were able to be aware of Floyd's acts of heroism. Carrie interviewed Floyd a number of years ago when he shared these events with her. As Floyd was presented with this display case, Bob Cameron read the citation that went with the presentation of the Bronze and Silver Star. It was a very emotional moment for all of us. When I asked Floyd what he was thinking about during this presentation he said he was thinking about all the soldiers who didn't make it back.

After the program, we were invited to the VFW in Kennedy for a very nice lunch.

The Display Case

Bob Cameron not only presented the case but also discussed each of the ribbons, medals, and insignias.

TheProgram

As you can see, the program was held the gym of the Hallock School. We had selections by the band and choir along with the winners of the essays. Here they are getting ready to present Floyd with his medals.

Don't know who the guy on the left, but the person at the podium is Bob Cameron, the Veterans Services Officer for the county.

Showing the medals to the audience

Bob & Floyd

After the program

Here's a picture of family present during the program.

Glenn, Floyd, and Bob Cameron. We sent three pictures to the Kittson County Enterprise and they sent copies of their pictures to us. Additionally, they asked to interview Floyd to put a piece together for the paper.

Floyd and three of his 13 grandchildren

Breanna, Chassity, Floyd, and Nick

It was such a special Veterans Day program. What a wonderful community to take the time to remember and pay respects to our nation's veterans. And finally what a special and appropriate recognition of Floyd.

MEA to Deer Season 2008 - Trail Cam Pics/video

2008-11-18T12:51:00.001-08:00

Sorry this has taken this long to post. Most of it has to do with learning YouTube and how to convert a trail cam video clip to a "YouTube" video and connecting that to the blog. Thanks to Lonnie's patience, I developed a new skill.

So what's the takeaway from the pictures and video? I think if you plant habitat, the deer will come. We just looked at three of the trail cams. The camera on the north end of the 120 acres still has the San Disk with the pics. The most active camera between MEA and deer season was the pond stand with 18 of the 72 pictures of deer; most were at night. Second was the gate camera with a number of video clips and a few still shots of deer. The most significant video during this time was of a Timber Wolf! Finally, the least active camera was the one by Matt's stand. Although we had some deer activity, we had lots more people activity. During the opening weekend, however, this area was one of the busiest.

I think next year we will be moving some of the cameras and maybe adding one or two. I would also expect we will be adding more habitat.

The Pond Trail Cam

I included this picture since it shows a nice young buck that might be the one that has been rubbing on the spruce tree and willows northwest of the cabin.

I couldn't see what was causing the ripple in the pond, it is interesting to note that something besides Tom Baker swims in the pond

Just thought this was a cute picture of a doe wondering what's going on. Again, most of the pictures during this time were at night.

I liked this picture

Another night time picture

The Gate Camera

Ok, this was the only thing I took from the gate camera. We had some nice pictures of deer along with a few nice videos, but they were all "trumped" by this video of a Timber Wolf walking east on our driveway early one morning.

The Camera by Matt's Stand

The most significant picture was the one I loaded in a previous blog showing John and Nick Sanner dragging their doe from Matt's stand back to the cabin.

The 2008 Deer Hunt

2008-11-15T13:35:00.000-08:00

Due to the rain and the weather, there were fewer hunters for opener. Dick and his sons and Mike were there along with Tom Baker and three of his sons; Micky, Tom, and Dan. John and Nick Sanner came up Monday afternoon. Bob and Tyler Norland were hunting today, Saturday, November 15th.

This is a nice buck Tom Baker shot out of his stand on the opening day. Tom said it was close enough he could have thrown the bullet at it.

This was a team effort. Mike and Jason shot this fork horn out of Matt's stand and as you can see below, the meat we had from this deer was delicious!

The mud, the blood, and the deer

This is a nice doe John and Nick Sanner shot out of Matt's stand Monday afternoon. This picture was taken by the Trailcam by Matt's stand and although it is of poor quality, you can see John and Nick are dragging this deer using John's belt; probably the toughest drag we have had in a long time. We have been using ATVs since 1983 and this is the first one I can recall where they did it the old fashioned way.

Probably the best food we had all weekend; some ribeye and tenderloins from Mike and Jason's buck. They cooked it on the grill and used butter and garlic salt. There was no gamey taste to the meat at all.

You can see Patrick, Darin, and Nathan enjoyed the meal. Seems that beer also helped digestion.

Here's another picture with Peggy at the table.

The Well

2008-11-15T10:24:00.000-08:00

We asked Bruce Gunderson from Karlstad to drill a well for us. Bruce has been drilling wells in the area for a long time; he drilled Israelson's well years ago (hit water at 33 feet). The first well by the cabin was drilled to about 250' with no water. The noticeable event from the first well was drilling up some wood from about 100'. We wondered how old that wood is. I'm not sure how expensive carbon dating is but it would be nice to know the age of the wood.

The second location you can see from the pictures. It's near the disk and the fence along the north side of the 80. Again, no luck. I think Bruce was as disappointed as we were. When I asked him what he thought we should do next he said, "Go home". That was because he has three or four more wells to drill before winter sets in and since we didn't have that urgency, he moved his stuff. This gives us some time to plan what we do next.

One of the pictures shows Floyd trying his "hands" at witching for water. Actually we both tried it with no response from the coat hangers other that our hands got really cold.

I'm not sure what Bruce's bill will be for these two dry holes. He's going to talk to Floyd and send the bill to him. I think the cost for a dry hole is about $5/foot which for us would be about $2500 for the two dry holes.

Hard to build a cabin with no water so this seems to be our highest priority.

This is the second location for a well. At this point the rig is down about 170 feet. The tub you see in the foreground is used to hold water that is used as a lubricant for the drill. Since it is also pulling up clay and ground up pieces of rock, it needs needs to be shoveled out.

This rig can drill to about 300'. If you need to drill deeper, there are other folks around that can do this. Many times when you do drill deeper in this country, you find brackish (salt) water.
On November 12th, Floyd and I spend most of the day helping Bruce finish drilling to 253 feet. You can tell the hardness of the soil by how fast the drill goes down. At one time we did hit something softer but it didn't last long.

For both dry holes, Bruce is required by the state to "grout" the holes closed.

The tank of water is required to lubricate the drilling system and to pull debris up from the bottom of the hole. When we started drilling this past Wednesday, it tookus about 2 hoursto deal with ice and frozen pipes before we could start.

Yep, this is water witching. We cut a coat hanger and created two "L" shaped pieces and held one in each hand. You can see Floyd holding the one in his left hand below the elbow of the hanger. There are folks in this country that swear by this process. We left a message with Glenn Anderson to try witching for us but didn't hear back from him.

MEA 2008 Trail Cameras Pics

2008-10-21T12:51:00.001-07:00

We currently have five trail cams. The pictures here are from three of them. The trail cam by the gate had a defective chip and the trail cam just north of the cabin on the fense had no pictures. Below are three sets of pictures. What you can see is where we had food plots, we had deer eating.

Matt's Stand - The trail cam is basically looking north and taking pictures from the intersection of the south end of the 80 and the southeast end of the dozing.

Cabin Pond

120 Acres - We have a small food plot on the East side of the 120 acres just North of the trail that goes into the state land.

We are feeling pretty good about our success with food plots this year and are looking forward to adding more plots next year.

MEA 2008

2008-10-21T12:28:00.000-07:00

What a fun time! MEA is the time to be at the cabin; enjoying company, the outdoors, planning for the fall hunt, and telling stories.

Dick was up with Jason and Madison, Patrick and Sara, Darin and Jamie. Tom was up with Tommy, Dan, John, Micky and a friend. Bob & Sue were up with Chris & Katie, Caleb and Hannah, Mat & Sarah, Paige and Kyla, John and Jeff.

Some of the activities were:

Sighting in rifles
Tom put up a big stand on the West end of the pasture.
John Christenson put up one by the pond in the Northeast corner of the pasture.
Dick put up one on the North central part of the 120 acres.
Dick also refurnished Watertower at Maryland
Campfires
Starting a fort in the woods; the start of Moose Scull Lodge II?
Catching Frogs
And so on and so on . . .

The weather was beautiful. The recent rain had left things pretty wet so the ATVs got really muddy.

Here's Peggy and Floyd on their ATV. What an amazing couple.

Caleb having the time of his life.

Although this might be hard to figure out, Madison, Kyla, and Paige are taking down some small, live trees using nothing but their hands and determination.

Funny how much fun you can have with a frog!

Part of Dick's crew. They took his ATV (in this pic), his trailer also in this pic and loaded it up with crew, furniture, and supplies and went to Watertower . . . and they made it through all the mud and water. I think they only had to winch themselves out once.

Here's John's new stand next to the pond on the Northeast corner of the pasture.

Here's the view from the East side of John's stand. Would be a pretty cool screen saver.

This is a picture of Peggy and Floyd's house. The weather was like this the whole time we were up north. This was Monday morning, October 20th. On Sunday night they had a pretty hard frost and as we were taking these pictures, the leaves were falling like crazy.

If any of you have pictures you would like posted, please send them to me.

Bob & Sue

South of the cabin is seeded

2008-09-10T13:59:00.000-07:00

This is really a short update

Sue, Floyd and I went out to the cabin this morning. We stopped in Lake Bronson to buy some rye (56 lbs for $11.00). At the cabin we hooked two harrow sections one behind the other and worked up the area south of the cabin. We then seeded the whole bag of rye and followed up with the harrow.

We are supposed to get rain tonight. It probably would be good for the area we seeded but the farmers don't need it. The crops currently look great!

We are also looking for a "Spring Tooth" implement which will help us work up more food plots. It would be nice if we could find one near the cabin but if we can't we will trailer it up.

Today we also put fresh batteries in the 5th trailcam and mounted in on a post on the fence line just north of the old cabin. The camera is looking southeast across the clearing.

I called Glenn Anderson to see if our bills were paid and they are.

Hope you are all doing well.

Bob

"It's a little bit of heaven out here." - Floyd Sanner- 9/9/08

2008-09-09T18:03:00.001-07:00

Sue and I just arrived in Lancaster late this afternoon. Before supper, Floyd said, "Why don't we run out to the camp to check on the seeding." We loaded the ATV and went out there. Tomorrow Floyd, Sue, and I will go out and seed the area south of the cabin.

This is at the Northeast corner of the pasture looking east along the south end of the 120 acres.
Floyd and I checked for tracks along the way. We saw lots of track but I would expect to see more as the stuff grows more and as it get later in the fall.

This is the stuff coming up by the pond; looks good. Floyd said it all looks "fabulous".

This is just northwest of Matt's stand. Looks awesome!

This is about 150 yards east of Matt's stand.

Down by the pond on the northeast end of the pasture. I did this picture to get a close-up of the clover type plants.

By the pond stand.

On the right side of the picture you can look down the east side of the 80. On the left side you can see the southeast end of the dozing.

Pretty cool,

Bob

Trail Cam videos of deer

2008-09-04T21:18:00.001-07:00

These are more videos from the trailcam west of the cabin. The trailcam was placed by Bob so we could all see what goes on at the cabin when no one is around. I think I did better at this last night, we had happy hour last night and it was easier. Tonight we skipped happy hour and now I am trying to show Bob how to do this, well it seemed to take twice as long, but maybe it just hazy last night. Enjoy!

Sandhill Cranes on trailcam

2008-09-04T05:41:00.000-07:00

This video is from a trailcam that was put out near the enterance of Sanchijebanobe to monitor the area for intruders and wildlife. Pretty neat stuff. Now that I know how to do this, you will be able to view more action from the several trailcams posted throughout the property.

The rye is up!

2008-08-31T18:47:00.001-07:00

Good Morning,

Sue and I are at Lon and Mary Jo's house and I have a few minutes to send some of the trail cam pictures from earlier this year. When I initiated this post I was hoping to send one or more of the video clips. When I discussed this with Lon last night, he sent an e-mail to Lonnie who told him to use "U tube" first and then pull this into Blogger and Lon made it work.

So . . . the rye is up! Floyd had been out to the cabin and noticed it was up about 2". We wasn't able to get to any of the other areas but we can expect the others to be similar.

The pictures below are some from the trail cam by the cabin earlier this year.

Two deer

A buck and a doe. The doe looks pretty skinny, but this was in the spring time.

Here's a deer trying to decide if it want's to take on the raccoon that's in the feeder. This spring we had two raccoons climb to the top of the power pole just to the north of the feeder and electrocute themselves.

Just a nice picture at dusk.

This is an ATV we've noticed; probably some curious kids. We have two additional pictures, one nighttime and one daytime.

We are looking forward to more and better pictures and video clips. As we've mentioned earlier, we've moved some of the cameras and are anxious to see what happens as the rye and deer specific stuff starts to grow. Would also be nice to see a bear, wolf, etc.

Bob

Pictures by Chris

2008-08-26T21:43:00.000-07:00

Sunrise again on the east end of the original 80

Sun Rise over Lake Sanchijebanobe

Cody & Ole at the camp

Sunset over the new cabin site

Bob, Kayla, Paige, Jeff chill'in at the camp

Seeding, Trail Cams, Hunting dogs, Next Gen Hunters

2008-08-26T05:40:00.000-07:00

Sorry this has taken me so long to post. As I've thought about this past weekend I've been thinking how much Floyd has been involved in Sanchijebanobe. Also this past weekend we had four generations of partners and families associated with this growing partnership. Who would have imagined when we started 22 years ago what we would have today. Can you imagine what this will look like in another 20 years?

It was about 22 years ago when Floyd said there was 80 acres for sale south of Israelsons and as a group of 10 we decided to buy it and start Sanchijebanobe. In this picture we were at the End of the Line Cafe having lunch after seeding at the camp.

Here are Floyd and Sue standing on the new cabin site.

Here are Floyd and Sue checking to see where we could seed. They are at the north east corner of the pasture moving west. You can see the dozing on the south end of the 120 acres behind them.

Seeding included an ATV with Dick's pull behind seeder and Floyd's ATV where he's pulling a harrow section. This worked really well. We seeded rye along with a deer mixture of perennial clover, and other annual seeds. Seeding this time of year gets the plants started this year.

Here Chris is loading some deer type seeds. From left to right are Kyla, Sue, Chris, Floyd, and Jeff. The cabin site was seeded with both rye and deer candy. This day we seeded the cabin site, the east side of the 80, the area around Matt's stand and two worked up areas east of Matt's stand, and finally a plot worked up towards the north end of the 120 acres north of the trail into the state land. In this picture we have four generations represented.

We unloaded pictures from five trail cams. We got a lot of nice pictures including some video clips. When I tried to attach a a video clip of a family of Sand Hill Cranes, I couldn't do it.

Here' s Jeff with his new Browning Citori. He is anxious to start hunting pheasants (as are all of us). There's also a discussion of a fall trap league in Blaine.

Here's Paige learning how to shoot. Matt bought a B-B gun and both Paige and Kyla had a fun time learning from their dad.

Matt & Jeff with Jeff's shotgun.

Here's Kyla holding the BB gun in a safe position.

Matt and his hunting crew.

This is Matt's hunting dog, Cody. While we were out here a ruffled grouse walked out and Cody came to a beautiful point. I think Matt is pretty excited about hunting with three dogs this year; Jeff has Ole, Matt has Cody, and Chris has Jack.

Ole has been trained for hunting. Here Jeff is demonstrating how Ole retrieves.

Here are Ole and Cody each listening to their masters.

Here's the start of a campfire. The dogs are playing and you can see the old cabin in the background.

Here's Paige making sure the fire is ok. This was the end of a very busy Saturday. Sunday morning was for putting fresh batteries in the trail cams and relocating them if necessary.

Pictures from Chris

2008-08-24T20:02:00.000-07:00

Sunrise on the east end of the original 80, really cool shot Chris.

Here is a buck from the trail cam, not very clear but you can see it's a nice Buck.

Lake and food plot preparation

2008-08-20T19:35:00.000-07:00

Now here is a fine example of a food plot ready to seed, this plot was originally worked up by Dick and Floyd and this week by Floyd and Lon, and I must say it looks ready for seeding.
Great Grandpa Floyd, Alice Mae, Lonny & Jaime's daughter and Grandpa near the new cabin site.

Standing on new cabin site looking NW toward existing cabins

Grandma Mary Jo, Alice Mae and Great Grandpa Floyd enjoying a lake view. Please note, the area around the lake has been disked and harrowed and ready for seeding.

Grandma Mary Jo and Alice Mae posing in front of the lake.

View from SE corner of Lake Sanchijebanobe looking back toward new cabin site and old cabins.

First Swimmers in Lake Sanchijebanobe

2008-08-20T19:30:00.000-07:00

Micky and Tom Sr. Baker were the first people to swim in Lake Sanchijebanobe last weekend August 15th & 16th! I don't have any pictures to post however. Maybe next time.

New Cabin Construction, August 2008

2008-08-16T11:21:00.000-07:00

We started clearing a site for our new cabin after many years of talking about having a permanent cabin where we could all go and enjoy with our families, not just a hunting shack, so on August 3, 2008, we have begun our quest for decent living quarters at SanChiJeBaNoBe that can be used in comfort 365 days a year, not just for deer season.

Creating the mound for the new cabin site

Looking east from old cabin across new cabin site

North side yard of the new cabin site

Original cabin, bunk house, garage and out house, the new cabin will be east of here

Looking west from the new cabin site to the old garage

Lake SanChiJeBaNoBe

Digging the hole for the septic tank

Installing the septic tank

Connecting the septic tank to the drain field

Installing the drain field for the septic system for the new cabin

Looking north on the east end of the original 80.

Looking south on the east end of the original 80

Looking east on the north end of the original 80 acre site

Glen Anderson Construction clearing the south end of the 120

Clearing the south end of Bob & Dick's 120 acres almost a mile east of the cabin site.