Switching to land

After a few years looking for our dream farm we gave up and switched to looking for land. We still wanted 40 or more acres but now we had to take into consideration building and putting in utilities. So it was looking like 20 acres would be all we could afford.

We also decided to concentrate in the Luck/ Frederic area. My mom is from Luck and my husband's mom is from Frederic. My mom also owns a cabin in Cushing, WI. She didn't want me to move far away so I thought if we were close to the cabin we could still see her a lot. I still have several relatives in the area and figured it couldn't hurt to have some contacts.

We would make a list of properties, go up to the cabin and drive around and look at land during the day. One weekend we were looking for a property in Bone Lake township. The directions from the Internet were horrible and we couldn't find the land for sale. I was working part time at an acupuncture clinic and had Mondays off. My husband went home Sunday night and I stayed over another day. My Husband called and told me he lost his front license plate and needed to come back up to get it.

I called the realtor listing the property and got better directions. We found the license plate and then we found 'our land'. The owner's had a 20 acre plot and a 40 acre plot for sale. We turned down the road and immediately saw it was a dead end dirt road. 3 houses were on the one mile long road. The 20 acre lot was first. It was next to the owner's house and it was nice. My husband wanted to look at the 40 acre lot. We drove down to the end of the road and pulled into an opening in the trees. We saw rolling hills with forest surrounding. One neighbor we could see. It was perfect.

I wasn't sure I could see a sunset and I was worried about the price. It just so happened we were there at sunset time and my husband said "get in the car". He drove right through the field and stopped on a hill. I got out of the car and turned around and there was my sunset and it was beautiful!!!! We both knew this was it.

We contacted our realtor and made an offer and while we were in negotiations we drove out there several times to check things out. I found the cutest church 3 miles away. It was a Lutheran church with a steeple bell tower and a cemetery next to it. We checked out how far from Luck and Frederic it was and picked which bank to use and grocery store and we started trying out the local shops and restaurants. Of course we visited the land every chance we could. Turns out 'the land' was almost exactly in the middle between Luck and Frederic.

On one visit, we decided to see if we could hear any noise from a nearby gravel pit. I sat on a bucket with a can of bug spray and listened for my husband to beep his horn. While I was sitting there I heard something snort behind me. I was too scared to turn around and look. I'm hoping it was a deer.

Quest for the country life...

We spent over a year doing drive-bys of properties in Minnesota and Wisconsin. It became apparent our wish list was too big. So we revised it to 40 acres instead of 80 and ended up concentrating in Wisconsin. We wanted to be between 1 and 1 1/2 hours from the Twin Cities. We figured that's where my husband would be working for awhile. I have a lot of relatives in the Luck/ Frederic area and spent my whole life visiting up there. It felt comfortable and I felt it couldn't hurt having relatives around in case of an emergency.

We looked at 4 properties on the inside. One in Grantsburg. It had a great barn 4 more out buildings and an American 4 square house. It wasn't on a dead end dirt road but we thought it was worth a look. The house had a huge kitchen and beautiful woodwork. It didn't have any heat upstairs just gravity heat. Open air vents in the floor. There was mold and mildew in all the corners of the upstairs bedrooms. The roof had been leaking for awhile. There was big rodent turds in the basement (rats I think). Last straw was an huge hairy spider in the kitchen sink. We were looking around outside and noticed most of the land was a swamp behind the barn. We could also hear traffic and I couldn't see a sunset. Cross that one off the list.

We next liked a farm in Prairie Farm. It had an OK house, huge barn, one out building and 5 acres with 20 more available. It was on a dead end dirt road and very quiet and beautiful. Then we found out the neighbors got to their house by driving right through our yard. I don't think so. Cross it off the list. We were bummed.

We looked at a farm next door to my cousin. It had a creek running through it and a bridge going over it to drive into the yard. The house was pretty beat up. There were holes in walls and the skinniest bathroom I've ever seen. The barn had one whole wall knocked out. It had 40 acres. Dead end dirt road. But there was a mountain in the way of the sunset. There was a really scary room in the basement and some toxic waste had been dumped on the property. Cross it off.

The last one we looked at had a really cute house. The barn was excellent. The only out building was in bad shape and if we rebuilt it we would have to move it because it was on the neighbors property. It had 25 acres with more available. It was on a paved road and busier than we wanted. This one probably came the closest to being the one. But no sunset either. The sunset was really important to me and a decent pole barn was important to my husband. If we got this property we wouldn't have had any money to fix the pole barn for quite awhile and I lived 20 years without seeing a sunset in No. St.Paul and wasn't going to live the rest of my life without one. So we decided to star looking at land for sale....

Animals in the country cont.

I forgot pheasants and the dreaded skunk in my list of animals we've seen. Skunks are the only animal I will slightly swerve for. I hit a skunk the first night I did my route. I couldn't get rid of the smell for 2 weeks. Skunks do not play fair. Both my husband and I come across skunks walking down the white line in the middle of the road. Very sneaky buggers. You notice them at the last minute.

One of my neighbors raised and released 100 pheasants last year. There are pheasants everywhere. They are not the brightest of birds and they love to hang out along the roads. I've come across 2 males having some kind of Mexican standoff in the middle of the road a few times now. They don't even care a huge car is about to squish them! They do this little dance thing with each other. Probably seeing who is tougher. It's funny to see.

I never swerve for deer or any other animal. Just skunks. If a deer runs in front of me.... I firmly press on the brake, grab the wheel with both hands, and pray I don't kill it. If you swerve you can go off the road and roll your car and as beautiful as deer are, they are not worth my life. I've never killed a deer. I've hit 8-9 though. I always make sure they get up and run away. My husband has hit 12-13 deer and killed one. He did so much damage to his first country car he didn't have any headlights left or outside mirrors or grill and his windshield was severely cracked. It took him awhile to figure out you have to constantly scan the ditches for eyes glowing.

When I first started my paper route, I could see up to 29 deer a morning. And that was crossing in front of me. Now the most I've been seeing is 10-12 a morning. The last few years the DNR issued too many hunting licenses and really thinned out the herds. The DNR also has underestimated how many wolves we have now. Each pack probably kills a deer a week. I have the most problems with bucks during rut season in the fall. I've actually had bucks ram into the side of my car several times. I've had them standing in the middle of the road looking like they will charge me!!

I have killed a few rabbits and a couple squirrels. There is a reason rabbits are the bottom of the food chain. They run right under your wheels. I say they are committing suicide. When I do kill one or come across a dead animal in the road, I say "Rest in peace little critter". I used to get my husband to do it too when we were driving together. That was funny.

Animals in the country

Between both of our paper routes and our homestead we have seen just about every mammal in Wisconsin. I'll try to name them all.... cougar, bear, wolves, coyotes, fox, bobcat, lynx, badger, wolverine, beaver, gopher, fishers, minks, weasels, rabbit, squirrel, eagle, assorted owls, hawks, trumpeter swans, sand hill cranes, wild turkeys, geese, ducks, a lot of birds, and many many deer. I'm sure I've forgotten someone.

Most days I'll keep a count of how many animals run in front of my car on the route and compare the amount to my husband's count. I almost always beat him. My route is more wild and woolly. I won't drive over 45mph and always use my brights when possible.

Two summers ago I was driving on an old logging road early in the morning and there was an huge bear in the road and in no hurry to move. I bet he was 600lbs. I got so excited and wanted to take his picture. I took out my cell phone and aimed it at him and pushed the wrong button and put my phone on vibrate instead of taking a picture. I got the camera working and by this time he was walking away. I said "Excuse me Mr. Bear, can I take your picture?" He turned around and gave me a scary look and I said "Never mind" and got the heck out of there.

Last fall I saw what I thought was a wolf cross the road. I rolled down my window and asked him "Are you a wolf or a dog?" He turned and looked at me and it was very apparent he was a wolf. They have really long legs and are a lot taller then I thought. I have seen wolf tracks in our woods also and it's amazing how much bigger the paw print was than my 100lb dog's. We hear them howling quite often at night. Sometimes they are so close the howling wakes me up even with the windows closed!

When we were just camping on our land on the weekends, one night we heard a bobcat quite close screeching. It was dark out and we were just star gazing and talking when the bobcat screeched. My husband's eyes about popped out of his head and he said "What the h**l was that?" I told him I thought it was a bobcat and he thought we should go in right away. I told him I didn't think it would run across the field and attack us. We sat and listened to it screech away from us. They have a really spooky cry. That was kinda cool.

The beginning of country loving

Both of my grandparents lived on farms. So I have always visited country life. When I was 14 years old, my cousin broke her arm and needed help taking care of her new baby. She lived on a dairy farm. I liked babies well enough and I tried to help out as much as I could in the house. But I was really drawn to the cows and the barn. By the time I left that summer, I was letting the cows in the barn, locking their stanchions, feeding them, putting the milkers together and then waking up my cousin. I helped with milking and cleaned the barn. I loved every minute of it.

In 1990-1991 I had a good friend who worked on a dairy farm. I was invited to visit many times and when I finally did I was hooked again. I started going down to Red Wing every weekend and helping with chores. By the time I stopped helping, I was milking 40 cows by myself and feeding them and the calves and cleaning the barn, washing the milkers etc. My friend and I had a huge fight mostly about how some of the animals were being treated. I missed the country so bad!

I finally convinced my husband we needed to move to a farm. He wanted nothing to do with cows etc. But he was interested in having his own pole barn/shop and maybe a 4 wheeler. We lived in the Twin Cities in a small house with a good sized yard and a park behind it in a really quiet nice neighborhood. I bought the house 20 years earlier and never refinanced. My husband and I were both working and not too far in debt. So we started looking for a farm...

Our original wish list was 80 acres in Minnesota or Wisconsin with an old farm house (preferably an American 4 square or a Prairie L design), a barn for my animals, a pole barn for Tom and maybe a garage, chicken coop etc. I would scour the Internet and the newspaper for properties and on Saturday or Sunday we would take the lists and Atlas map books and go out for breakfast and map out our itinerary. We packed a cooler and a lunch and usually a good book on tape and off we went. We did drive bys and took notes. If we liked what we saw, I would follow up the next week with phone calls and a few times we did a walk through. It became apparent our wish list was a tough one and 80 acres was going to be impossible to find in Minnesota and expensive in either state.

My job

I deliver newspapers everyday of the year. I've been doing this for over 3 years and I've only had one day off for kidney surgery. I have what's called a motor route. I drive 80-100 miles everyday no matter what the weather or road conditions. I have to drive sick, tired, scared of the road conditions etc...

My pay has been cut twice in the last year and if they cut it again, I might as well quit. They say it's for the newspaper. So it can avoid bankruptcy blah, blah, blah. I spend a lot of money on gas. My husband is a mechanic and keeps my car running. I have a 4 wheel drive truck to use in really bad weather.

My husband also drives a route everyday. We have 2 routes. I take care of all the paper work and billing. I took on an extra route over a year ago and I don't have enough time to do 2 routes by myself in the amount of time I'm allowed between the paper drop off time and 6am. We really needed the extra money when we took on the second route and now we are kinda stuck. I told my husband when we were offered the second route, he would have to commit to help me no matter what.
We deliver to 2 small towns and mostly to farms. I have the more rustic route. I drive on 29 dirt roads a day and I have a lot of flat tires. We see a ton of wildlife. Between the two of us we've seen every mammal known to Northern Wisconsin except a moose. I'll list them later.....