Monday, June 27, 2016

A Cabin... in the woods.... with a porch!








A cabin...in the woods..with a porch!

Why on earth would a couple entering the retirement phase of their lives build a cabin in the Hoosier National Forest?

For the last twenty five years, my husband worked in the "corporate world".  I, for the last 39 years, have been joining him at each new destination.  We have stopped in Wisconsin and Minnesota where he followed his childhood dream of becoming a large animal veterinarian.  Then we made a detour out of Veterinary Practice to a long stop in Ames, Iowa where he pursued a PHD in his second career as a Veterinary Pathologist. The end of this career will be soon...what to do?.....what to do?

During my college summers, I was lucky enough to have a job in the Rocky Mountains.  As a Home Economics major who loved adventure, what better job than to cook for 100 kids in a camp located on the Colorado River!  This was not your ordinary camp.  This camp was for the "rich and famous"  It was awesome....and I was one of their cooks!  (in the 21st century I would be called a Chef!!!)

After dinner, Cindy ( the other chef....love calling us that) and I would rest on the front porch of the massive log lodge and breathe it all in....the sky, the sunset on the mountains to the west, the rainbow to the east.  Sit'n and dream'n and plan'n our futures.  It was the.best.summers.ever!

I still do a lot of sit'n and dream'n on my back porch of my "city" home.  Dream'n that I had a front porch like the one from my youth!

So back to the question, why did we build a cabin in the retirement phase of our lives?  I would like to say that it is because of the election year.  We don't need to exit to Canada because  the state of our nation sucks.  We can just go 72 miles east into the forest!  But I can't say that! We did it as a compromise.  He wanted to go back to his dream about working the land...you know....being a farmer ( trees!) I wanted to sit on a porch dressed like a Hippy! I wanted to preserve food, make soap and sew quilts.  And another thought was to make lunches for the hunters in the fall of the year!....You know....like a food truck in the woods! I love to dream!

 We realized that in retirement, we would not be the couple who would travel extensively.  Don't get me wrong, I would love to be that couple who travels with the local priest to the far off reaches of the world. I still love adventure. We have our own adventure! What we have, that most folks in our age group don't have, is a teen age daughter, Hope, who just happens to have Down syndrome.  A teenage daughter who loves to stay home, who loves to be with JUST us, who is stubborn, predictable, unpredictable, sweet and mean all in the same minute! We are blessed! We are more than just a couple.  We have Hope.

 And..... we have a cabin.... in the woods... with a porch.



10 comments:

  1. I knew you would be good at this! And I love the ending!!!

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  2. And such a lovely porch! Looking forward to Tales from the Indiana Woods.

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  3. Lovely! Can't wait to read about your adventures.

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  4. A lovely, warm and tender story, filled with Hope. Welcome to blogging. I started in Aug, 2014, and I really enjoy connecting with people as I'm sure you will as well.

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  5. Your writing never gets old. >3

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