Two years ago we bought some land in far northern Minnesota.  It was on the bucket list and we were ready.  We thought we’d do a slow build and then move up there for retirement.

Well … our grown children have increasingly become uncomfortable with that idea – too far away from them, too far out of the nearest town …  Indeed – it is a location for the more hardy.  Our trail cams consistently show bears, wolves, coyotes, bobcats, besides deer and rabbits.  I recently put up a bird feeder and left seed in it upon our departure.  Bad idea.  The bears discovered it, took it, bent the shepherd’s hook way over, took the solar light on the other hook, and then kept visiting for a few days to see if more fun might reappear.  No sir-ee!  That’s a quick lesson in “Don’t do that!”

Here’s them seeing if maybe something closer in to the camper might have appeared.  (The bird feeder was farther out.)  Yah.  No.

The garden I tried to grow up there quickly got overrun by those famous northern ferns.  Thousands and thousands of ferns on the property – literally, and they are tall and grow fast!  Nix the garden.  Some of it survived – asclepias, some iris, asparagus … but it is now naturalized, and will stay that way.  Maybe in late fall we will try to remove the metal frames from the raised bed hugelkulture experiment we did.  Maybe.  Right now – no way.  Too overgrown.

We are working on a plan B for retirement – still up north, but in a city.  It is consistent with our continual downsizing plan – an older home with a very small footprint.  Outside it has an old lawn (my favorite – low maintenance) and absolutely no landscaping or garden.

So the fun begins.