Keeping Warm in Northern Minnesota

I've been visiting friends in Tower, Minnesota, not far from the Canadian border during a stretch of  beautiful February weather.  The bright sunshine, blue skies, and clean white snow up here is perfect for snow shoeing, cross-country skiing, and snowmobiling.   Did I mention it's cold?   Well, they did have a thaw a week ago, but now it's back down to normal--temps around 0˚ Fahrenheit at night, 20˚ at midday.   Pretty reasonable for this area:  in 1996, the thermometer went down to an historic low of -62˚ Farenheit.  In other words, this is the Land O' Cold.   Frostbite's a real hasard.   But outdoor activity thrives and rural life here is vigorous and healthy.  The kids were out shooting baskets in the yard, sliding down a homemade snow hill, and hiking in the woods beyond the pasture.  

The family raises or hunts most of its own meat, keeps chickens for eggs, and tends a 2-acre vegetable garden in the summer.   Nearby Lake Vermillion provides fish then too.  Wild  berries are plentiful and there's homemade jam all through winter.   The house is heated by a locally manufactured hot air wood furnace that uses a smokeless combustion system and is over 90% efficient.

Wood is hauled up to the house by kids and horses.

     

In winter, you can snowshoe through areas too boggy to enter during the warm months.  After lunch we snowshoed down through a frozen cedar swamp to see the porcupine the kids had treed, and then walked along an old logging road.    When we girls returned from this strenuous outing, it was time to head for the family sauna house.   We  grabbed towels in the main house and stepped across the frozen yard to the red barn with the small white door.  At this point, my feet were so cold that I wondered if I still had toes.  

Sauna is the winter form of bathing here.   The traditional Finnish sauna house uses a lot less wood and water than individual showers, which is important when you have a large family.   Plus you get a lot, lot cleaner, and a lot more relaxed.   You push open the small wooden door to the outer room of the sauna house and dry heat hits your face.   Once undressed, you enter the cedar-lined sauna room to settle on one of the tiered wooden benches.   Our hostess feeds the stove, and after 5 minutes or so, it's dry and pleasantly toasty.  Ten minutes on, warm sweat is trickling down your sides.   When our lungs feel dry and our hair turns wet, we take turns washing off with soap and buckets of warm water.  Once dried and bundled up, I step outside and take a deep breath of the cold evening air.   Standing there under the starry sky, I realize that winter feels kind of wonderful after all.

Kuuma Vapor-Fire Furnace Systems are manufactured in Tower, Minnesota by Lamppa Mfg., Inc.:  1-800-358-2049 :  www.lamppakuuma.com