The Cabin

After 15 years, we had finally made it happen. We were moving back home. The home where both the hubby and I grew up, went to school and fell in love. I had imagined being able to move back for so long. I had hated coming home only once a month or for holidays only. Every time we were home I noticed how much more I missed my family, how much greener the grass seemed, there were more hills, even the snow was better and more frequent (right up my alley) I had been craving being back in the country, and living close to the family I hadn’t been with in so long, for so long. (Sure, we left as fast as we could when we were 18, but that tug of home eventually got to us)


In the fifteen years away, the hubby and I had gone to school, worked, married, had three children and made amazing friends and memories, but it was time to move. Once we made the decision, things moved quickly and we found ourselves on a quick day trip having to decide between three houses to move into. It was like the TV show House Hunters, (but we were renting and the choices weren't as exciting, and I did not complain about the little things! )

 In an eight hour trip we chose a log cabin in the woods that we saw for less than thirty minutes. Thirty days later, I had a van full of everything we would need until the moving truck arrived, an 8, 5 and 3 year old. I drove excitedly home, leaving the hubby behind to wrap things up. (He was thrilled to be left with no pillows, no bed, in a freezing cold house because I had shut off the utilities a few days too early - whoops!)

It was early March, snowing and pitch black by 5pm. I pulled into the driveway almost two hours off schedule suddenly panicked by what I was doing. I didn’t remember it being so dark and off the beaten path. Even though I had lived in the area 15 years prior, it felt completely foreign to me. My sister in law was going to meet me with her kids and we were going to spend the night getting the cabin ready for us to live in. She had not seen it yet and was excitedly waiting for our adventure to start. (she really IS THAT NICE)

I decided waiting for her in the car was getting a little odd, so I took the kids out, we trudged through the snow and looked for the key with a flashlight. When walking into the cabin, you walked directly into the main room that is all the living space in one. Without any furniture it seemed massive. The four of us just stood there and looked around – I couldn’t believe how high the ceiling was, and how big the room was. As we got our bearings, still all of us holding hands, (I was scared in that house in the dark being the only one over the age of 10) I heard a small voice say: “Mommy, what is that head coming out of the wall up there?”
Yes, the cabin came with a mounted Deer head. It’s still there to this day. I figured it was worse to take it down and throw it out, plus I was not about to ever touch it. For months, I did a really good job of never looking it directly in the eye. Within ten minutes the kids were over their trepidations and were running all over the cabin.

I love that one of the items I brought in the van was a decorative tea kettle - LOSER

Within hours, we had the house lit up, the kids were settled in make-shift beds, and my sister in law and I tackled every job we could until we dropped dead tired onto air mattresses in the main room. (I knew the fun for her was going to wear off quick so I had to take advantage!)  About an hour into sleep the loudest thunderstorm I have ever heard blew through. I thought for sure the rain was coming into the house with how loud it sounded on the roof, the tall pine trees outside were going to come crashing through any minute and ever ghost or spirit was going to start coming out of the nooks and crannies. Every single time that lightening struck and lit up the room, my eyes were on that damn deer head too.

We tried to to block the Boogey Man from looking in with those curtains like that.....

Eventually we slept peacefully convincing each other we were not scared and everything was fine. ( We kept asking each other if we were OK, should we check on the kids, but neither of us wanted to move off of our air mattress oasis.

For six years we made the most amazing memories in our cabin. I will miss this house that saw the kids go from 3, 5 and 8 to 8, 11 and 14. I had three different jobs, the hubby five. We lost a guinea pig, a few fish and gained two cats. We witnessed ice storms, downpours, blizzards, days without electricity, and massive heat waves.  We camped in the backyard, swam in the store bought pool, played endless hours of SORRY, sat on the deck, and enjoyed a menagerie of Deer, Groundhogs, Turkey, Birds, Snakes, Raccoons, Skunks, and Wolf from our windows.

The cabin on Neal was good to us and will forever be in our hearts.

Critter Spying

Seriously!

Camping in the backyard - yes, we drove there.....

6 years later....