We are 3 months into owning our kennel in Minnesota, and what a wild ride it has been! We purchased 65 acres from my mom over the summer. The land holds an old hunting shack, turned house, that we live in. It is rustic with half-sawn maple beams for joists and cedar slab siding. Upstairs, the a-frame ceiling is unfinished and bolsters R-38 insulation behind a clear vapor barrier. We spent the first month evicting the last of the autumn mice from the upstairs ceiling. At night

Ever since I was young, I dreamed about living off in the woods. I probably imagined a small cabin with a couple of dogs, a wood stove,...