When you walk into a home, or more to the point, a cabin, what should you see? Clearly it sets the pace for the home and allows you to see into the soul of the people who abide there. Are there fluffy teddy bears or psychedelic paintings? Do you witness plush carpet, lush drapes and the finest damask tapestries, or do you find stone, wood and iron? They are more than merely design choices. 

Are you greeted by a welcoming fire, so you can dry off if you’re snowy or wet? Is the “mud room” just dry wall and linoleum or is it a place where you hang your coat, your hat and your chaps? Do you smell the aroma of a hot apple pie melding with a bar-b-que’d steak or must you pull a TV dinner from a freezer and nuke it? Is the air you breathe scented with pine, sagebrush and hint of wood smoke, or is it industrial pollution mixed with diesel and gasoline fumes?
Does the fire invite you to read and doze in the evening before you retire, or are you compelled to watch bad news and blatant lies on the television where an evil clown and a black ringmaster try to keep you distracted?
Is the kitchen the heart of the home?
And when you walk outside in the early morning do you see elk grazing in the fields or deer browsing, with the only noise being a breeze through the pines? Or can you hear distant trains, the constant background rush of traffic and people rushing to work? Can you actually cook your bacon and eggs with homemade toast or do you drive-through and order from a speaker, in a rush to get from here to there? Do your chores include grooming the horses and milking the Jersey? Do you even KNOW what fresh whole milk from a Jersey cow tastes like? (If you don’t, you have missed out, my friend.)

Do you fall asleep as the logs crumble into coals and lose their light? Do you wake to cold, fresh, dry mountain air and just want to snuggle deeper beneath the goose down quilt? Or do you awake to the shrill quacking of an alarm, and turn on the business channel to see what’s happening to your stock portfolio?

These are the questions that I ask myself.

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26 COMMENTS

  1. That's a mighty manly looking log home, LL. In that last photo, the bedspread looks a bit girly, perhaps throw a mountain lion rug over it.

  4. You may think that I'm joking but I want to get a buffalo tag and shoot one. Yes, I'll have the meat properly butchered and will put it in the freezer, but I want the buffalo hide tanned and turned into a blanket – a proper buffalo robe.

  6. Yes, a buffalo blanket would man up that girly looking bed in a righteous manner. Or a bear, that would work, too. And not a little baby Boo Boo bear, I am talking about a huge man eating grizzly or polar bear. Now THOSE are a man's bear.

  9. Most places are a lot of work. There is no yard work, though, in a home with a natural yard. No nosey, pokey, annoying association weenies deciding whether or not I can plant begonias.

  11. You can opt for the crude city, it's reminder of where you are and what you are missing, constant. It's a choice.

    I just found out that there is a school bus stop out there in the area. The school is about a 40 minute bus ride away in Strawberry, AZ. The road to the White Wolf mine is not marked by any sign and there is a locked gate, so to get there, you have to know precisely where you are going. The paved road school bus stop marker is small and I've missed it. My sense is that most people in that area would homeschool because of its remoteness but there is a school option.

  12. The bear skin rug needs to go down in front of the fireplace.

    The state does hand some trapping permits out for beaver and I've thought about setting my hand to that during winter months when the pelts are more lush. There are also wild mink/marten in the woods. I have seen them about twenty miles away from the White Wolf Mine. I was fishing, had the fish in the creel and the wicker top was open. I noticed a marten creeping up and remained still. It took one of the fish and ran off. The next time I was in the area, the same thing happened. About a month later, she showed up with a couple pups and they took two fish. I didn't mind the loss of the fish and the encounter was unique and fun.

  14. Nice place, but hope there is a acre or so to put in some veggies. Ya know, Chuck Norris has a bear rug. The bear is still alive, just afraid to move. Good luck with your buffalo hunt.

  15. Warning…satellite internet stinks! Never so happy than when ATT finally got out to my house…in spite of the inconveniences I wouldn't trade living in the country for anything and I'm not really that far out…you may have some unique challenges where you will be living. I always thought a small plane would be a good idea if we moved to a more remote location. Have fun!

  16. There is no cell service. Too far out. I'll use the Motorola sat phone that I use for work and buy minutes, but I don't plan to endlessly chatter on the phone. Satellite bandwidth is the only option.

  17. I could clear cut an acre for a garden, but that's more work than my lazy buns are willing to do. The store is an hour away but I can do that once a week. If the world really goes to hell, I'll put the chainsaw to work.

  19. Good luck. I hope your offer gets accepted.

    We'll be out og here in less than a year. I just hope it all hangs together that long….

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