Day 2.32 Big Project

I stand staring at the road's bifurcation. The classic Y. Only this time inverted to look more like a peace sign without the defining circle. The road, more a path is grassy, strewn with boughs blown down from the last storm. There are two well-worn tire tracks, but it appears that little traffic has come or gone recently.

The path is atop a hill about a mile from the paved road end. It would be a challenge for the pickup in mud.

We find the PRIVATE PROPERTY warning signs and a huge downed chain wrapped around a pair if fir sentinels. We trespass. We are authorized looking at the property because it is for sale. Five acres and a cabin, off the grid.

After a hundred yards, we see it.

Logs. Nice big bones fit together by a shipwright in the 80's but left abandoned when the couple split ways. It is in sad shape. The Northwest will do that. There is a raised cistern feeding a one inch flex pipe to the makeshift sink inside. Somebody put a lot of effort into this, I think as I carefully test the stairs leading into the cabin.

I would not want to be doing this at night.

But it is beautiful. Loft bedroom, wood burning stove and nothing to interfere with the views but hemlock and firs. A few twisting madronas add both color and wild chaos.

I envision felled trees to open up the sky. A huge garden and fruit orchard. Pens for goats and pigs. A two-story chicken coop. Two German Shepards dozing on the porch. I can almost hear that sound.

If this was 1970 I would call it Heaven.

But it is 2015 and I can't quite find the perfect descriptor. So much has changed.

I sigh deeply, make that 'I don't know' face with head tilting, and admit,

A big project.