I received the call that I had hoped that I would never get. The owner of this roadside cabin had decided that this piece of local history had to go. He had his reasons, and all of them, were very logical.
There was no chance that I would ever get him to change his mind.
I was placed in a situation of either salvaging this cabin, as best as I could, or living with the fact that it would be destroyed if I did nothing about it.
If this cabin had been anywhere else in the world other than in my neighborhood, considering the poor condition that she was in, I would have let her go.
I have witnessed so many old places vanish over the years. It’s been heart wrenching, but after all, I am just one person, with a limited budget.
I know what I would do if I won the lottery… I’d have a house museum… but, I guess I need to play the lottery if I ever stand any chance of winning. Go figure.
In a way I understand what veterinarians must feel like when they have to put a family pet down. You just can’t save them all.
S we gently pulled off the siding to expose the logs on this cabin. In her day, and as seen from a distance on that day, she was a real beauty. Why, she had more charm and presence than anything being built in my area this year. For sure.
But, an up close inspection revealed my most feared suspicions. She was in too poor of a condition to reuse for anyone’s new home. She was an insect-infested, severely-decayed, pine log cabin.
Now if her builder of so many years ago had only used a different species of wood… oak, or chestnut, or poplar, the story would have ended differently.
But he didn’t.
I knew that if I took this cabin and stacked it somewhere while trying to figure out some unimaginable creative option that likely she would become a pile of mulch in just a matter of months. Time, for this cabin, was a luxury that it no longer had.
So, I took her to my place and put her up as an outbuilding, an outbuilding that I had no need for, but at least there she has lived on, and every day I was still able to pass by her on my way to work, and for that I was thankful.
Originally posted 2015-03-31 20:21:48.