Sparta’s Grapevine Log Cabins come with a working dairy farm on the side
Ole and Janice Knutson bought their farm several miles south of Sparta in 1968, they spent the next decade or so milking cows and raising their three children.
But in the early 1980s, Janice began making and selling quilts, wall hangings, grapevine wreaths and other crafts from their home on Jade Road at the mouth of a Driftless Area coulee. Around 2000, Janice — who will turn 80 this year — got the itch to open a bed and breakfast that the couple could run along with their dairy.
So Ole, who is handy the way many farmers are, built a small cabin using 6-by-8-inch timbers hewed by Amish sawyers who live and work near Ontario. He began in the spring of that year and by fall had built a rustic, 12-by-18-foot cottage — with the aid of his son Glenn — that included a sleeping loft and a small front porch. Janice named it Moose Lodge.
During the next summer, he built a second cabin Janice dubbed Bear Lodge. It, too, had a loft and was slightly larger than Moose. Each time a beam was laid down, Ole laid down caulking and then drove in big metal spikes with a maul to hold the timbers together.
The following year, he put up a cottage Janice called Little House on the Prairie, named for the Laura Ingalls Wilder book that was set in Kansas after the family moved from their home near Pepin.
Ole wasn’t done, though. The next summer, he built one more cabin that Janice used to sell her crafts and artwork.
For 15 years, they ran the child-and-pet-friendly Grapevine Log Cabins, which have a dark-brown hue and are decorated with quilts Janice made. There are also lighted grapevine wreaths on the interior walls, from which the retreat takes its name.
Today, Ole and Janice are retired. But the cabins remain in the family, run by Glenn and his wife, Patty. Their son, Cody, helps them run their 160acre farm and milk their 34 cows twice a day.
My grandparents farmed in eastern Iowa, so when I read about Grapevine Cabins and learned that it was a working dairy, I jumped at the chance for a visit. That the farm also included 30 acres of hilly woods with more than a mile of trails leading to a ridge made it all the more appealing.
A friend and I got the Little House on the Prairie cabin, which was essentially one large bed- room with a dining area, a couch and a separate bathroom. It was cozy, thanks to the gas fireplace, and had more than enough room for two humans and a dog.
We went for a hike that first afternoon as the sun set over the wrinkled landscape to the west. Parts of the trail — on the north side of the ridge — still had six inches of snow and we saw plenty of turkey and other animal tracks.
But where the sun had reached the ground, we walked through piles of crunchy oak leaves that had only recently fallen from their branches. Elsewhere on the trail, we strolled under birch and evergreen trees.
Early the next morning, I walked around the farm and found a pair of round corn cribs — similar to ones on my grandparents’ farm — made of galvanized wire covered by a metal roof. I also made friends with a half dozen young dairy cows, who were disappointed that I’d brought nothing to feed them. I also chatAfter ted briefly with Cody, who was working in a huge barn that was filled with hay.
Glenn said he prefers to run his dairy the way his dad, who will be 82 this year, farmed with his father back in the 1950s. (They no longer use horses, though, as Ole did growing up in the 1940s.)
“We have cribs full of corn on the cob that we feed to the cattle,” he said. “They are good roughage for them and help make heat for their bodies in the winter as they digest them.
“As you can see, I don’t really like all that modern farming stuff. But we also have some huge dairies near here milking 3,000 cows, which I think have hurt the rural economy. Then on the other end are the Amish, who really do things the old-school way.”
Glenn and Patty said many of the guests who stay in the Grapevine Cabins during the winter go hiking, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing in regional parks or downhill skiing at nearby Mount La Crosse. During the warm months, many ride on the 32-mile ElroySparta bike trail. Opened in 1967 on an abandoned Chicago and North Western Railway bed, it features three tunnels and was the country’s first rail trail.
Other things to do include visits to the Deke Clayton Memorial Space and Bicycle Museum in Sparta, Amish farmsteads, antique stores, car shows or just kicking back in the yard in front of the cabins and barbecuing, playing games, watching the cows amble to and from their pasture or doing as little as possible, Patty said with a grin.
More information: Rates are $95 a night for a couple in January and February, and $135 a night the rest of the year. Dogs are an additional $15 a night. See grapevine cabins.com or call (608) 269-3619.
Getting there: The Grapevine Cabins, 19149 Jade Road, Sparta, are about 190 miles northwest of Milwaukee via Interstates 94 and 90.