We all were fire-building experts and every few days small lengths of wood cut specially for those tiny stoves would be delivered to our front porches in a cart pulled by a pony….
Image by @audreyhallphoto from American Rustic
I fell hard for cabins when I was young, first as a kid at camp (the swooping of the bats through the eaves once the lights were turned off, the view of the Tetons from the front porch) and then over three summers at a historic old-time guest ranch in a remote valley on the edge of the Greater Yellowstone region.
My cabin was tiny, just big enough for a single metal bedstead, a four-drawer dresser, a tiny desk and chair, a little clothes rod, hooks and shelf for a closet, and a wood-burning stove. (For decoration there was a horseshoe over the door a bottle-cap opener mounted on the wall.) But for three months it was all mine. During the day it could get overheated but even in summer, it was cold at night when I went to sleep and still in the morning, when wranglers had to drag themselves out of bed 4:30 to gather horses before breakfast. We all were fire-building experts and every few days small lengths of wood cut specially for those tiny stoves would be delivered to our front porches in a cart pulled by a pony. I’d fall asleep hearing owls, of course, and coyotes. I’d often be woken up at night from the bump of a deer bedding down on the other side of the wall. Six days a week I’d wake before dawn and feel my way along the mown paths through the cottonwood grove to the bathhouse by the light of the night sky.
I’ve lived in other cabins (including a tented cabin and a log home referred to as a cabin that was definitely too grand to be a cabin). But nothing will match the experience of those summers spent living in that tiny space, having everything you need within arm’s reach, and feeling so close to the nature outside the door. That’s why I love writing about cabins, and that’s why it was so fun to be a recent guest on The Cabincast, a podcast celebrating cabin life and a cabin-living ethos best described as ‘the simpler the better’.
Over two episodes, photographer Audrey Hall and I talked with hosts Kristin Lenz and Erik Torgeson about cabin living, our personal histories in the West, the creation of Cabin Style and our other five books, the role of the open range in our national lore, and, of course, our perfect cabin days.
The Cabincast Episode #55: American Rustic, Part 1
https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5idXp6c3Byb3V0LmNvbS82NDkzMTUucnNz/episode/QnV6enNwcm91dC05ODg3MDYw?hl=en&ved=2ahUKEwiZp_fcodz1AhX6IUQIHWfvBbcQieUEegQICRAL&ep=6
The Cabincast Episode #56: American Rustic, Part 2
https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5idXp6c3Byb3V0LmNvbS82NDkzMTUucnNz/episode/QnV6enNwcm91dC05OTI4NDA0?hl=en&ved=2ahUKEwiZp_fcodz1AhX6IUQIHWfvBbcQieUEegQICRAI&ep=6
From American Rustic; image by @audreyhallphoto