Discovering my freedom in Minnesota

Thanks Jim.
I will look into that.

Hi All,
I did not mean to go off with my last “Everything I try to do is regulated” post.
Really the wisdom I was trying to put forth is the same Dutch John discovered back when he inquired of agencies in the Netherlands about his first intneded-to-be-woodgassed vehicle.
“Don’t ask . . . and do not tell.” is the simplest pratical approach.
Without permission; if later asked - then ask for forgiveness.
Joel Salitin wrote a book about this from his Rural Virginia state experiences: “Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal!” 1) You must own your own land outright. 2) DO pay your property taxes promptly. Then you CAN: 3) Don’t ask. 4) Don’t self-report tell. 5) Refuse all on site inspections.
And usually get away with it.

Regards
tree-farmer Steve unruh

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No worries Steve about going off topic. Just like the weather, regulations from the West Coast drift our direction. In my opinion, regulations slow progress. It hinders new start up businesses. I understand some of them but really they are out of control. For an example, up until 2014, samples at farmer’s markets were forbidden. It’s hard to sell new products to people without a taste test. Why would that even be prohibited?
When I started building up here, I knew I needed a building permit to build my house. When I went into town to get a permit for my garage, They fined me for not getting a permit for my 6x8 chicken coop, a small outhouse a acquired from the neighbor that was 10 years old, the wood shed that I made from some poplar that i pushed over to make room from the house. They also fined me for each shipping container that I was going to use as a base for the garage. I attempted to explain how I didn’t build the shipping containers, I brought them in on a trailer. It didn’t matter. She said if it has a roof 3’ high or taller, it needs a building permit. The population of the town our mail goes to is about 3000. She only fined me for one building and registered the rest and I still had to pay for the damn permit for the garage even though it was going to sit on the 3 containers I just got fined for.
Now they do flyovers now to make sure nobody is building without permission.

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What is their criteria for a “temporary” structure, or don’t they do that? If I have a building here that is not fastened to the ground by anything other than gravity, not on a foundation, it is considered temporary. A pre-built garden shed bought at a big box store resting on the ground would be an example.

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You got fined for building an outhouse without a permit. Wow. Anything with a roof over three feet requires a permit. In my county anything under 100 square feet is exempt. I just built a 12x8 shed for storage. 96 square feet. Yep, no permit.

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We made the local paper this week.
They even caught me wearing my DOW t-shirt.

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“Wood engine” I’ll have to remember that one. :grin:

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Yeah, there are a few inaccuracies in this article. He was a bit taken back that people live like this on purpose.
When I can get a link to the whole article, I’ll post it.

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I have yet to make the paper when everything in the article is right and all the names are spelled correctly. Always something wrong. Looks good Bill

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Our syrups, jams and jellies have really received some notice this summer. The newspaper write up and now a fancy restaurant in a revolving restaurant atop the Radisson in Duluth, MN on Lake Superior.
The head chef put our syrup on the menu. Chamomile Salmon entree. The wild chamomile is also known as pineapple weed. Today we need to deliver a case of syrup to them as the menu comes out this week. Kind of cool considering it’s an invasive weed. We collect from our property because weed don’t use chemicals for weeds or plants.

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Wow, Bill!
For reference, see my post this topic #1375.
:blush::blush::blush:

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I got all my secrets from the internet. So really, not much of a secret. I just introduce people to what our ancestors knew but our current generations can’t find in the stores.

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I built a greenhouse this past week for firewood. It’s another 10’x20’ like I built last year except this only cost $100. A friend gave me the plastic for free. I can fit ½- ¾ cord in one row.

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Are you venting it some way to move wet air out so it will dry?

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I just leave the doors open.
Last year, freshly cut wood went from 40% to 20% in three months.

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I have 1 12 miles to plow in the winter. We’ve had 3 mild winters so far. The first winter I had a F150 with a plow. It was okay but really insufficient. The second year I had a 3500HD Chevy dump truck with a plow with duallys. It worked well on straight aways and down hills. More than 6" of snow it struggled even with chains. Last winter the 3500HD was broke so I used my tractor with a back blade. Worse than the first two options. This week I bought this. A 1962 Federal. It has a Cummins engine with an Allison tranny. This thing is a beast. I drove it 25 miles and by the time it got to our dirt road, It blew out 4 gallons of oil. Today the guy that sold it to me came to look at it. there are two lines that go to a lube finer. One gave out before our dirt road. We then removed the lines and the lube finer. We got it to my place without any problems. This winter I will resort to a vehicle inspection as I did when I was in the Army and had a deuce and a half and a 5 ton.

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Bill, that’s a beast. You could take on the interstate while the motor is warming up :smile:

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The GVW is 27,000 pounds. At 2100 rpm, it gets up to 40 mph. The blade is 13’ wide at the top. I have an extra wear blade here to fix this one.

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Just don’t get that thing stuck!

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Bill,

If your lane is not quite wide enough to accommodate this plow, it soon will be, on the very first pass!

It looks like it will lay waste to anything it comes in contact with!

Bryan

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