Green Gate Projects
Building the Solar Behemoth- a slideshow chronology
We’re very pleased that our solar heating project is getting so much attention- thousands of hits on our construction blog tells me that the interest in renewable energy is there! One of the goals of the project was to demonstrate the feasibility and performance of do-it-yourself solar heating projects in extreme climates like northern Minnesota. … Read more
Coffee sack curtains
Check out our “new” curtains in the silo. We got some burlap coffee bean bags from a friend in the coffee business and upcycled them into rustic window treatments. My mom and Grandma did the sewing (they even made handwoven tiebacks from the same material), and I made the hangers from wooden dowels. The earthy, … Read more
Things to do, places to go….
The Iron Range Tourism Bureau (funded by lodging tax revenue), has developed two impressive internet sites to help you plan your next trip to our area. There’s lots of great information on things to do nearby, so check them out at http://ironrange.org/ and http://www.explore.ironrange.org/
Building the dream…
We get a lot of questions about our unique guest house and how exactly it came to be, so we put together a slideshow chronology of the entire process. 4 years and 10,000+ manhours of labor compressed into about 2 minutes! You can see the deconstruction of the original hay barn, construction of the ‘new’ guest house, … Read more
Let’s Ride Bikes!
One of the reasons we live here is for the fantastic cycling routes, both on and off-road. For starters, we are just a few blocks off the Mesabi Bike Trail- one of the longest paved bike trails in America. For years, we have been the end-of-the-line, as the trail terminates at Giant’s Ridge Golf and Ski resort … Read more
Dining in a silo
To accomodate seating for 6-8 people in the small silo, I created a booth-style dining room. The seat is made from thin maple strips formed into a curved butcher block arrangement. The table was built using a cedar tree trunk and pine lumber salvaged from the garage we deconstructed last summer. The dining room is ready for … Read more
Welcome to our new Website!
We are mobile device friendly and we look better! We will be open soon, so make sure to continue following our story. Hope to see you soon.
Running on the sun.
The mega solar array has been active for a couple of months now and I am pleased to report that the everything has been working very well. I designed the barn foundation as a high mass sand bed storage system, capable of receiving the heat from the solar collectors during the day, storing it in the … Read more
