Birthday week at the cabin

Since it rained all week, I spent most of my time at our cabin. And because it was so dark the photos aren't terribly good, but hopefully they will give you a sense of it. It is in the southeastern Catskills in a very economically depressed area (it seems like every fifth house is for sale and has been for the past three years). It's one big room inside with a little bathroom walled off, with only a curtain for a door so you better be comfortable with other people's sounds. And yes, there is a tree that I decided I simply had to have inside.

It was built as a boy scouts' fishing cabin in the 50's, overhanging a big creek—which is totally illegal these days, to build that close to water, so we are lucky it was grandfathered in. We have 38 acres which sounds like a tremendous amount until I divulge to you that 35 of those acres are across the creek, we've never built a bridge, so mostly we have a nice hill to look at that no one can build on. But one thing we discovered when we brought in a professional arborist is that we have old red oaks, hundreds of years old, and one almost never sees them so large anymore. We have land that has never been deforested. He said "You are custodians of the woods".

Custodians of the woods. My eyes gazed into an unseen distance. It was like hearing you have entered a fantasy story and there are adventures to be had just around the bend.

And no fear, it is not so far from the road and the neighbors that I need to fear my car dying when an axe murderer is running after me or anything like that. The up the hill and across the way are Eddie and Betty Budd. Their daughter Darleen lives next door, and son Georgie across the road. I looked at the deed to our cabin and apparently the land was originally separated off in the 1700's from ye olde Budd family. I believe it says that "The land will extend from the Budd farmland to the large rock approximately 3 acres downstream.