Cabin Fever

The library is a great oasis in the cold. The homeless kids hang out here and have lunch. No one is evicted during the day if they behave. My three favorite features of this library: the periodicals, the quiet room, the new books shelves. I've been to and even given programs in the library. When I got back from Japan, I gave a program there.

I went out to one of our cabins today and cleaned for about 1.5 hours. Paul and I built these cabins after he sold the boat. We built one a year for 4 years and put them on 4 acres of lowland. They are one room with a sleeping loft and none of them have been empty for more than a few weeks- ever. Building and living in a cabin sounds fun, but it's just plain work. The hidden work of putting in a foundation or insulating between the logs consumes most of the time. The actual stacking of the logs bring a satisfaction of seeing the phoenix rising from the ashes, but a cabin is not really done until the trim is on the window, the styrofoam seat is in the outhouse and the hooks are by the door.

Today while I was out there, I saw lots of moose tracks all around. When I heard a tapping sound, it did not match my vision of a moose head butting my little red car. It turned out to be a cheeky woodpecker who allowed me to take his picture. (Not shown because it was too small on my iPhone.) In order to be classified a cabin, a structure must meet all of these criterion:
A) no running water B) a loft C) an outhouse D) a dog and/or cat E) drafty floors F) be built of logs or recycled wood G) strike terror into the heart of the resident's mom.

Cabin options: a wood stove, an uneven floor, gaps between the logs, squirrels under the eaves, quirky neighbors. Should I charge extra for these?

There are lots of great cabin stories. One of my favorites is a friend of mine who went out on his porch to take a leak at about 2 in the morning. In -30 degree temps. Naked. And the doorknob came off in his hands. It could have been a disaster, but he managed to crawl in through the window.

Another person I knew shot mice from his loft with a bb gun.

Mostly though, there is nothing like a minimalist lifestyle in the woods. Occasionally friends fill a little cabin. Great food and spice smells linger in the logs. Candles flicker on the windows and logs casting wonderful shadows. Why don't I still live in cabin? Maybe I will again some day. It did lose some of its magic when I was hauling water to wash diapers by hand.

The news is depressingly economic lately. I thought an enterprising opportunity might be to teach some preteens a class in self-sufficiency. I figured I could teach kids how to can veggies, smoke fish, make mayonnaise, sew a sampler, darn socks, make soup from leftovers, balance a checkbook, change a tire, shop for bargains, and bake bread. The difficulty in this is that most kids are not interested in learning these types of things. Economizing is just something that many people don't consider when times get rough. The knowledge is leaving the brain bank. I wonder how it might look if it has to be reinvented. Could be that Darwin's "survival of the fittest" might have a social and economic application.