Juniper Fields Cabin

Synthesis, symbiosis, and synergy, different  appear everywhere in nature. Synthesis. two different ideas or systems forming yet another structure or organism, like the sun shining on a plant and creating glucose, plant food. Symbiosis--two entities living close by and interacting together to the advantage of both. Symbiosis creates lichens. Synergy is just a bit different--two entities creating something greater than what either can create apart.  I think of the three sisters--corn, beans, and squash. Planted together they produce a complete protein that humans eat, and they restore the soil they grow in and protect each other from bugs. According to the book  Braiding Sweetgrass,  by Robin Wall Kimmerer, nature has much to teach us, if we will listen. One thing nature teaches is that collaboration--synergy, symbiosis, and synthesis--creates a healthy ecosystem, and brings serendipity.  Nature's principals have been tested a bit through the Juniper Fi...

  The cabin should be enclosed completely by Friday, Contractor Zane Czyck told me by phone today (April 15, 2020). The rounded logs, more than the construction of other homes, remind me that this cabin was once trees. And, as I near the end of the fifth week of Covid-19-induced hibernation, I can't help but sympathize with the trees whose limbs once blew freely in the breeze, reached for a sun lit sky, held tightly bird nests built on forked limbs, and provided shade for critters at home on the humus littered floor of a woods. Inspired by the book  Braided Sweetgrass, I think of the changes that will occur in the forest where the trees once lived.  Were they culled wisely? Will the cuttings provide opportunity for new species of trees, grasses, herbs, shrubs, flowers? As the sun heats the soil where the roots once grew, what will change? What happens to the critters that lived within the cold, dark earth? Have the birds and critters found a chance to re-home...

The southeast side of the house...crew is laying the porch floor, while waiting for cabin doors and windows to arrive. And, yes! it DOES face the juniper ridge, the border of the bottoms, where the deer run. Cabin with a view Cold, knock-me-off-my feet wind up here yesterday and today. The crew is working on the porch because it was too windy to attach trusses and roof. The far corner, the north corner, and far door is where The Nest, my bedroom is. In the middle is Scat Town (the bathroom) window, and the Werefesteria's door and window are the short and long openings closest  (where mystery will, we hope, lead to art and all sorts of creative projects). Far left window is the "Watering Hole" (the great room where I hope guests will gather for coffee, tea, snacks, and meals. The unusual names came out of brainstorming session with The Maggie. I hope that others will begin building homes with needs and usage in mind and less according to tradition. ...

 Workers raise the cabin walls, fully revealing what was once just a paper dream, and the well is in -- 600 feet and 8 to 10 gallons of water per minute. It seems workers inside the cabin are building sections for those at the outside walls to lay. I have requested the house be set so corners, instead of walls, face cardinal directions. The "back" doors, are therefore closer to the road and drive than the main entrance. So by phone today the contractor and I talked about making the main entrance clear through porch steps at the end of the porch closest to the road instead of the long side, as usually is done. He also asked for the color for the roof-- hunter green, like the juniper needles. He also needed guidelines for bath and kitchen faucets (Delta), kitchen sink and bathroom fixtures as the plumber will come once the roof is on. All these questions tell me we are making much quicker progress now. The NY kids were going to put...

In Virginia, besides rain and more rain, residents have been urged to stay at home unless employed within specific categories of work. This week Governor Northam made "stay at home" a law. Fortunately construction is an exempted category so cabin construction should continue so long as the workers stay healthy and the rain eventually stops.  That being said I am on Day 4 of Week 3 of "stay at home" social isolation. A friend was exposed to the virus. Since I had had face-to-face contact with her, my high-risk status went even higher.  Time to re-think and re-group. My temporary house has no Internet or phone (text only). I could install it but that makes little financial sense for the short time (we hope!) that I will need temporary housing. I am also job and client searching, but it no longer felt safe use public spaces for my work. So, on March 13, the kids and I decided I should move to their house, at least during the week days. The granddaughter's coll...