The kennel is off the grid, no power, no water, no well. I make it work by collecting rain water and heating with wood during the cold months. A small solar panel charges a deep cycle battery which can power a laptop, charge our phone, and play the radio. Life is simple but lots of work.

I’ve added a generator for dog house building projects and charging items too big for my solar powered system.

Harvesting, hauling, splitting, and stacking fire wood is a year round job. You have to think two years ahead to make sure your wood is dry and seasoned so you can never cut too much but can cut too little! I found that out the hard way my first year living off the grid.

Off the Grid Articles

Part 1 – Firewood

How to Remove Stumps with Fire

Off the Grid Videos

Check out our YouTube Page

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Moose Poop
Having some fun in the driveway!
Our two – 275 gallon rain barrels ready to install one on the house gutter and one on the shed gutter
A Wolf Spider in the outhouse
Toivo and a Moose Antler
Custom made door on the new puppy kennel
Hand splitting firewood is a spring, summer, and fall project.
Filling up the wood shed with a mix of pople, maple, birch, and ash
I swear I spend more time grooming trails than I do running dogs!
Our Can-Am grooming machine aka commercial vehicle
Toivo brings home lots of carcasses and animal parts that he finds in the woods. This nice whitetail rack is one of his finds.
We have a variety of forest birds that come to visit our feeder.
Quartering logs for a new puppy kennel
Fresh wolf tracks in the mud. A large animal with a walking stride longer than three feet.
Seems fitting 🙂
Snowmobile repairs in the dark. The means for knowledgeable and timely repairs is a must.
Deer ticks and wood ticks are everywhere up here. More than half of our dogs have had lymes disease it’s not fun to deal with.
Chickadees helping with the dishes. These little guys really love meat leftovers!
Tree frog
Rachel chopping a 50# frozen block of meat for the dogs.
We live on a logging road in the St. Louis Co. Forest Management area. This is a timber sale headed to the Sappi paper mill in Cloquet.
Found this little guy while out for a little hike in the woods..
Heating with wood in the winter keeps the cabin nice and warm! It feels good after being outside most of the day to come in an thaw out.
A young red squirrel in the middle of the kennel, the dogs really love that!
Woodcock Eggs
Painted Turtle
New a-frames for dog houses
Chipmunk below the bird feeder.
Harvesting firewood