So what’s up at the Avon Hills Folk School? Quite a lot actually. This blog will be a bit of a laundry list, so there should be something for everyone.

Non-Profit Application Submitted!

In April we submitted our application to the IRS for our 501(c)(3) status. This would designate us in the eyes of the IRS as a non-profit. Why is this important? Well – the long-term (and short-term) success and viability of the Avon Hills Folk School will be our ability to attract financial support from our members, donors, foundations, etc. Being a non-profit will allow these individuals and entities to have their gifts be tax deductible. We should know sometime in August if we’ve received the designation.

We’ve pulled the taps, collected the bags, finished the syrup and retired (we hope) the old, worn out sap evaporator we’ve used for almost 40 years!

The old girl gave us tons of memories, burned more than a few pans of sap/syrup, and put a twinkle in the eyes of dozens of children AND adults. She started as a custom job – weighing over 500 pounds with I-beam sled runners so she could be pulled around and a 3/8 inch steel fire box.

Join Us March 11-19th!

Can’t afford the airfare? No swimsuits to wear? Nowhere to go? Need ideas for Spring Break this year?

Join me at the Avon Hills Folk School for Spring Cleaning. We are getting ready for our first classes in 2017. There is plenty to do, indoors and out. From hauling all manner of “stuff” out of buildings, to pulling down old chicken coops to wrapping up barbed wire if you want to get outdoors. And much more! We’ve got it all.

The frame is up and the roof is “dried in” and waiting for spring!

Winter will be spent finalizing the plans for the exterior elevations and final decisions on the metal roofing. To include finding it! The frame of the Sugar Shack is a traditional timber frame with the timbers being Basswood from the land surrounding the location of the shack.

Yesterday was the one-month anniversary of the “re-start” of our Annual Bouja Party.

The preparations began on Friday with the cutting of the vegetables and such. Last minute adjustments to the Bouja kettle and shelter were made.

Saturday was a great fall day, just cool enough for sweaters but no jackets needed. Matt Peters, official stirrer of the Bouja, showed up early and ready to take “the wheel”.

Here’s to a successful first Hand Camp at the Avon Hills Folk School!

The name is a bit funny – I found out that was purposeful, but the intent is true and good – bring people together to experience, learn and create by hand, likely something they’ve never done before.

Thanks to Ann Wessel and the St. Cloud Times for getting the word out to the Central MN Community about our fledgling school. See the article:

http://www.sctimes.com/story/news/local/2016/09/28/avon-hills-folk-school-plans-take-shape-aim-inspire/87455874/

I’d like to fill in a few details that space did not allow for in this article.

The barn is down – the site cleaned up and the timbers snugly stored in Mathew Hall’s shed east of St. Joseph. Thank you John Hall and Mathew Hall for agreeing to store the timbers.

When Ron from Mathew Hall came to pick up the timbers he said, ” I understand we delivered these?”

After a 17 year break the Annual Schellinger Bouja is celebrating it’s 24th year!

We held a Bouja Party every fall for 23 years on the first Sunday of October, ending in 1999. The tradition started innocently enough as a way for Francis and Karen Schellinger to invite all their “city friends” out to the country as a way to see them at least once each year.

Big thanks to those who came to “raise the walls”.

The heat and bugs did not deter the volunteers who arrived just in time – TWICE – to lift up the three completed bents (kind of like walls, but a timber framing term and actually they connect the walls of the timber frame).

Suffice it to say they are heavy and you only get one “shot” at manually raising them into place. We had help from the Big Fish Lake “Johnson” crew and an assortment of other neighbors from Collegeville – and even a neighbor from “out west” in Farming township.

My guess would be that he began seriously thinking about it on or about summer or fall of 1969.

His first wife had tragically passed away several years earlier, he was about to marry his second wife and begin a new phase in his life. Business was good and everything seemed to align in order to provide him with the opportunity or permission to make a drastic change.

The Avon Hills Folk School Sugar Shack is taking shape!

While Chris focused on the barn, neighbor Brian Smith dove in head first on the timbers for the Sugar Shack.

The timbers were originally sawn two years ago, from Basswood trees on the property. They dried for a year, were re-sawn last year and now this year the joinery is being done.

After a break for the 4th of July its back at it!

Last week the crane came and in just under 5 hours the timber frame section built 127 years ago by Joseph Schellinger came down.

The barn hasn’t looked like this since late November, 1889.

Mathew Hall Lumber, also founded in 1889, provided the materials for the barn. Mathew Hall’s Great-grandson John Hall was able to find the original hand-written ledger entry on page 65 dated November 5th, 1889 for Joseph Schellinger for $106.51 with a discount for paying cash.

A note about the third image: When Chris Schellinger was asked “what is it?” He responded “a thingamajig!” If you know what it actually is let us know!

This past Father’s Day weekend Chris Schellinger spent his Saturday and Sunday doing one of his favorite things, a big project. Specifically, he began the task of disassembling the Undersander barn. The first to come off? The siding. As I helped my dad with the barn on Father’s Day, I couldn’t help but wonder what Joseph Schellinger would think if he knew that his great-great-granddaughter was helping to save and preserve this stunning structure he built so many years ago.

The plan is made, the timbers are cut, and the joinery is in progress.

After nearly 40 years of maple syrup production the syrup operation will finally receive a home worthy of the history, potential and future plans for the home of the Avon Hills Folks School.

In 1889 Joseph Schellinger, recently arrived from Wisconsin, agreed to build a barn for John Undersander. They agreed the barn would be built for $100 and that every evening John would provide the men with a small keg of beer.

Together with the skills of German craftsmen, materials from the just formed Mathew Hall Lumber Company, and beer from the local brewery, the Undersander barn was built.