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There wasn't much I could do on the
property during the winter. The goal was to wait until the firmer snow
conditions in late winter to pack and trail and haul in my
telephone poles and the material to build a small shed.
Hauling big and heavy materials is best done in the winter, when you can
do it with a snowmobile with a cargo sled. It is easier to slide
stuff over snow than drag it through mud! That and it is easier on
the trials too!
As time went on, plans changed. I decided to
use the telephone poles might best be used as pilings for a cabin
instead of laying under a shed. I figure with 3 twenty foot poles
I could make 6 ten foot pilings, which would be a firm foundation for a
16 x 20 foot cabin floor.
By March of 2004 I had a nice firm snowmobile
trail into the property. Patty and I purchased the materials to
build a 16 x 20 floor frame complete with floor decking, and hauled all
in.
Steve dug our telephone poles out from under a
winters worth of snow, and then hauled them in with the help of a log
hauling sled, and lots of pole wrestling. (It's interesting
handling and dragging 20 foot telephone poles!) I think we had a
total of 16 poles between us, so it took a couple of days haul them all
in on the 3 mile trail.
With the poles and floor framing & decking
hauled in, it occurred to me that we would still need a small shed
to store stuff out of reach of the local bear population. I would
need a generator to run power tools, and various other tools and
supplies, which is not the type of stuff I want to leave for the bears
to play with.
Snow on the trail was getting thin, which meant I
didn't have much time remaining in the snowmobile hauling season.
I found a packaged 8 x 10 foot cedar shed kit at Home depot for a
reasonable price, and also spotted a nice 5500 watt generator discounted
at Home Depot, so I purchased them both. I took the generator,
snowmobile, and a few other supplies north, and hauled it all in to the
property. Then I left my snowmobile near the parking lot and
headed back to Home Depot to pick up the shed package. The shed
was packaged and wrapped in one big bundle, which weight at least 1500
pounds! I had Home Depot set it on my cargo sled which was on my
snowmobile trailer, to make getting started down the trail easier.
With spring weather the snow was melting and getting soft in the
afternoons, but freezing to an icy crush at night. I waiting until
first thing in the morning while the snow was still hard and icy to haul
the shed in as one load. My old Bear Cat did the trick, but I definitely
knew I was hauling some weight! (Many thanks to my friend
Harry Caldwell, who was there to help, and who I couldn't have unloaded
the shed from the sled without.) Getting the shed off the
sled required a come-a-long hand hoist. We tied on to the shed
bundle, then winched it over on it's side far enough to get the sled out
from under it, which was a task!
By the end of the snowmobile hauling season, the heavy stuff I hope
to use the following summer and fall was hauled in. I now had
material to build an 8x10 shed on blocks, and frame & deck a 16'x20'
floor on 10 foot telephone poles! I had also
spent my first nights winter camping on the property in my Arctic Oven
tent, which was nice! |
Digging out the telephone poles
Steve & I hauling poles
Hauling the shed kit in
Harry helping unload the shed
Unloading the shed
Winter Camp
Material Pile
More Material |
