appalachian sitting on the house

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Tom and Berkeley left with Aila to go on a visit to West Virginia the morning after a storm rolled in. Travis and I got to take care of their home.

Being alone in a cabin in the woods has been lovely. After so much time hopping from one place to another, staying with friends and family, it has been nice to have a place of our own. It has got me dreaming of how much i want a piece of land of my own. A place to come home to and a place to restore and build up. The weather here has gotten so warm and i am happy to have two wonderful Februarys in a row. Last year - Arcata and the red woods. This year - Homestead in the mountains.

Here in the mountains we had no contact with civilization for a few days. We did puzzles and drank hot toddies (thanks to the crown my mom gave Travis for his birthday) and stoked the two wood stoves. Our silence was only interrupted one afternoon as we were outside cutting back the blackberry bushes. Two unbelievably loud fighter jets passed over head and took over the trees with their deafening WOOOOOSH. Besides that i only hear the sound of dogs barking down the road and Buster, the ladies man dog, that we are watching over. That and the wind, trees creaking, and wood stove crackling.

There is an abandoned property next to us and Travis and i wandered over there for a break during our day. The animals must have used it as their store house because the floor is nothing but nut shells and the rafters had some fat squirrels staring us down. There is also what looks like a hunters cabin through the woods a little bit. i think it would be a fun place to spend a night camping out and maybe we will do that one of these warm nights.

We took a little trip to West Jefferson yesterday and stopped at Mount Jefferson State Park. We didn't have much time until the park closed so we hiked to the summit and stared at the full moon and the sun starting to set over the mountains.

Books being read:
My Side of the Mountain - Jean Craighead George
Root Cellaring - Bubel
The Appalachian Trail Reader - Emblidge

Movies Watched:
Death to Smoochy
Pixar Short Films

Things loved:
"Slowly we are carving a new lifestyle. To some it might seem to be one that is looking backward, for it cherishes the homely, the rude, the unpakaged, the unmechanized, the careful. We do not think of it as a blind shutting out of any vision of the future, but rather, for us, the right way to face the future. The carving is not easy. It is often painful. But in it are the seeds of sanity, of joy"
-MARA CARY
"Our children... should enter adulthood with basic knowledge of how to store food over winter without the cooperation of a nuclear power plant a hundred miles away. every animal in the forest is taught this skill; we owe our children no less."
-JERRY MINNICH
"Happiness belongs to the self-sufficient"

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Photos

P1020577
the puzzle we completed during the snowy days and nights

P1020583
abandoned barn on the next property over from tom and berkeley's

P1020587
beetle on an adventure

Comments

[Bethany D]

My Side of the Mountain
I LOVED THAT BOOK when I was little!! Oh my gosh, I have to go back and read it now...