We’ve just toured the homestead and as we sit down at the kitchen table to talk, Nina says “I wish we had done this twenty years ago.” “This” means picking up everything and moving from a Twin Cities suburb to establish a homestead in the Northwoods. Although they just moved here permanently two years ago, their journey started almost twenty years ago when Nina and Joel Ribar trudged through deep snow to take a look at this land. Fifteen acres of solid forest with a beautiful clear lake very close and lots of cedar. They bought the property, an old icehouse for temporary shelter, and started coming up with their three-year-old on weekends to create their dream, piece by piece. Back then there was no electricity or water and a very long and winding road to this secluded spot.
Today, it is Rustic Cedar Homestead, with running water, electricity, the basics of a homestead including, of course, a wood-fired sauna. Nina has recorded much of the progress over the past two years on the Rustic Cedar Homestead YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@rusticcedarhomestead ) The introductory video describes Nina, Joel, Kyle, Eric, and Owen as a “family of five who moved from a 2000-plus square foot house in the suburbs to a 384 square foot cabin in the woods.” The videos are entertaining as well as informative—and a great tutorial for anyone wanting to try homesteading. The cabin today has more rooms, in-floor heat, plumbing, and qualifies as a “house.” Now that they live here full time, the projects are moving more quickly ahead. A Facebook page keeps up with the progress too (https://www.facebook.com/RusticCedarHomestead ).
Other than the house, the largest (17x72) and most unusual structure is the “greenhouse in the snow.” It came as a kit, but the instructions were very vague. Luckily, Joel had some experience with things like this, and it has come together well. Parts of it are underground and it has a low profile above ground. The center is a trench four feet deep and about five wide that runs almost the whole length, with ground-level entrances and steps down at each end. On each side of the wide trench, retaining walls rise to ground level, and the two 72x6 feet growing areas extend outward to the transparent sides and top. The ends are corrugated metal, providing stability. The well nearby feeds soaker hoses that water the growing areas. And in the trench, Nina has potted plants and starter trays.
Down each long side of the greenhouse run multiple large rubber tubes eight feet underground where the temperature is a constant fifty degrees. The tubes open into the greenhouse at each end, so the air is taken in at one end and blown out at the other end, providing circulation at a constant fifty degrees during the winter. With the sun beaming in and the warm air circulating, it’s comfortable even in the coldest weather. The chickens call this trench their winter home and stay warm and cozy while the snow flies and the wind howls. Nina sells their eggs at the Virginia Market Square Farmers Market and at a new market in Cotton, not far from their home. Produce from the greenhouse is branded “Geothermal Growers,” acknowledging the uniqueness of the operation.
Outside the greenhouse is a large, fenced garden with all the crops you would expect to see here in northern Minnesota. Beyond it, this whole cleared area is part of a large hilltop which alters the angle of the sun in noticeable ways. One side of the hill slopes down toward the lake and the other toward the entrance. When I ask Owen, the youngest son, what his favorite part of living here is, he answers “the lake” without hesitation. It’s about 45 acres, very clear, good for swimming, fishing, and tubing, and the bog around it is a great place to forage mushrooms.
The largest moveable structure on the land is a chicken tractor, an insulated coop built on to a towing trailer and surrounded by a portable electric fence to keep predators out. Nina tells me that they just added an automatic chicken door to the coop that opens at 6am and closes at dusk, keeping the hens safe at night. The hens provide two dozen eggs a day, and the whole operation moves to a different area of the property about every six days. This not only gives the hens fresh grazing, but also serves to fertilize large areas in turn, building up the soil gradually. Pigs and sheep are next in the homestead’s plans for clearing land and building soil.
One of the sweet things about living in a rural area up north is the sense of community among local folks. Rustic Cedar Homestead is outside of Cotton, Minnesota, where Old School Lives (https://www.oldschoollives.com/) has revived an abandoned school into a thriving community center. There are apartments for rent in the building, a bunk room that folks can rent for out-of-town guests, a thrift shop, two gyms, a youth room with a pool table, a discovery center for little kids, a loom room where folks can take weaving classes, a coffee shop, and much more. It’s an amazing accomplishment for a community group to vitalize an old school building like this! Recently, Nina and a couple of friends started a small farmers market there too. See https://www.oldschoollives.com/about-4
Like most northern Minnesota growers, Joel has an off-farm job. Nina homeschools Owen and he is a vital part of the venture too. His next learning experience is in designing websites so that Geothermal Growers produce will have an online home. Eventually, they’d like to add a hoop house for season extension, almost a necessity in our short growing season. And maybe a CSA for close-by friends, but that’s about five years out. For now, harvest season has begun, and food preservation is underway. You can meet Nina and Owen at the Virginia and Cotton Farmers markets. Virginia 2:30-6pm Thursdays at Silver Lake and West Chestnut and Cotton on Mondays 12-2 at Old School Lives.