I was at our worksite in the Carlton County area over the weekend. The carpenters made good progress on framing the walls and roof of the new expansion on the lake cabin we are working on. A new room is extending out from the existing log cabin about 15′. This room has conventional wall framing that will join up to the existing log walls. The roof is being constructed from standard dimensional framing lumber. We are ‘over framing’ above the existing roof with our new roof. This allows the roof planes to tie together well while retaining the interior vaulted ceilings in the cabin. We’ve managed to keep the roof areas covered well to protect the cabin from rains.
While I was in the area I stopped in at Kettle River for ‘Ma and Pa Kettle Days’. Kettle River is a small town of less than 200 people just west of Moose Lake. It is a pretty town, right on the Kettle River. There has been so much rain this summer in the area that the Kettle River is really flowing along heavily. There were lots of people in the town for the festivities. I always like to see the old tractors and discovered that they were having a raffle for a nice little red International tractor—-a good draw to get people at the event.
One of the other things I like to see is old murals and signs. Kettle River has some great ones on the sides of the grain elevator in town. This part of Minnesota is also remembered from the huge Moose Lake-Cloquet forest fire of 1918. That was a terrible event that claimed hundreds and hundreds of lives of the early settlers. Transportation and communications were primitive and so many farm familes perished as the fires swept across the area. The historical society in Moose Lake has excellent displays about this sad event, and Kettle River has a memorial as well.