Synthesis, symbiosis, synergy, and serendipity!

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 Field Cabin project; and her counsel has not been found wanting.   





While Zane Cyzick Construction has been preparing the cabin site and, within the last couple weeks, laying the cabin walls, I have tackled the inside--turned vintage, antique, decrepit and stained standalone cabinetry into The Oasis (the Unkitchen (see March 26, 2020 post), and re-covering and repairing furniture for the inside.

This week I completed re-covering this 1900s-era couch, held together with square nails, salvaged wood, and burlap from a Buffalo NY feed mill. The tear down felt a bit like an architectural dig.


This settee, stuffed with excelsior, is also very old, but nothing in the tear down revealed an exact date.

When refinishing and recovering, I kept as many imperfections as I could live with. The couch and settee, it seems, have a right to tell their ancient stories.

These projects completed, I went to Juniper Field to see what's happening there.

Busy workers laying the back deck.

Framing is complete.

Zane, the contractor, knows this cabin is to be my forever home. The door levers (not doorknobs) symbolize to me his understanding of my needs and long-term goal. Levers are much easier to open!



And the serendipity?

The Cabin on Juniper Hill not only meets my needs; it looks far better than I could have dreamed or imagined.
Cabin kit is from: Dogwood Mountain Log Homes
Contractor: Zane Cyzick
Design: An Anieta McFamily Collaboration

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