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A Few More Cabin Thoughts

A Wilsonia cabin

The posts called Cabin Thoughts (Part One, Part Two, and Part Three), were popular among my readers, generating conversations through comments, email, snail mail, and in person. Now that our cabin is closed for the season, I’d like to share a few more thoughts.

A dear friend of many years, Natalie, sent these thoughts, titled “What a Cabin Means to Me”. (Nat, I did a tiny bit of editing – hope it clarifies rather than changes your intent.)

  1. Secluded from the general public and hard to get to
  2. In the mountains
  3. Small and rustic, having only basic amenities, and no room for isolation.
  4. Not a second home, but more of a make-do-and-relax kind of place where there is no television or phone service. A place where you interact with family and friends by sharing meals, playing cards and other games, sitting by a fire, hiking, and just cherishing the quietness of the outdoors.

Once again, mountains, small, rustic, games, firesides, food, outdoors, friends and family appear. I think Natalie’s ideal cabin would separate her family from outside influences, causing togetherness among themselves. This is a theme I found multiple times. . . a desire to unplug and simplify in order to focus on the ones who are most precious.

Our Mineral King cabin is definitely a cabin but varies from Natalie’s thorough and excellent definition in several ways.

  1. It isn’t hard to get to if you don’t mind the poor road, and it is highly visible if you hike a popular trail. (This is the World Wide Web, so I am being vague on purpose.)
  2. It is a second home to us, but not in the sense of a home with all the luxuries you may be accustomed to (our first home is purposely lacking a dishwasher, microwave, smart teevee, garbage disposal and heated towel racks, and we’re just fine but thanks for your concern).
  3. The cabin has a telephone; we turn it off at night and there is no answering machine, and no, you may not have the number.
  4. Neither one of us likes to play games; in the evenings we listen to the radio, Trail Guy reads out-of-date newspapers that friends bring up to him, I read library books and knit.

There is no single definition of “cabin”, but there is a feel to a place that makes it a cabin. I will share a few more ideas about it tomorrow. Then, maybe I will be finished with this topic. (No promises, because after all, my business is called Cabin Art.)

3 Comments

  1. 1. Thou speakest the truth! (Ours is very visible from said road.)
    2. My “city” home does have a microwave, but none of the other “amenities” you list that some would count as “necessities.”
    3. Ditto. But I do have it (and hope you have ours)!
    4. Similar lifestyle, but I crochet and use my smartphone as a music player (and camera when needed). That’s about all it’s good for up there.

    And I love every minute of it! If only I didn’t live 5-6 hours’ drive away. . . .

    • Sharon, perhaps the 5-6 hour drive makes your cabin even more precious to you. “Familiarity breeds contempt” and “absence makes the heart grow fonder”?

      • True–there are advantages to living “at the bottom of the hill” and disadvantages, too. Also, not having 1-1/2 full time jobs all year makes it tough to carve out at least 4 days to enjoy (2 of which involve travel time).

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