I belong to a Contemplative Prayer group up here in Cranberry that meets every Tuesday - except for the summer. The group won't resume meeting until September 20th. Except that this Tuesday I was invited to one of the member's homes for some "walking meditation".
In addition to the walking meditation on their 72 mountain top acres, I got to enjoy the home that Bernice and her husband designed and built with their own hands. Here are some photos.
They started building the house in 1996 (and are still working on it!)
I thought this looked like a nice little guest house but Bob said that it was just a shed.
This is the greenhouse. They grow all their own food, even during the winter. If the winter-type plants are 80% mature by November 10th, they can survive in this unheated greenhouse. Winter type plants like chard and collards. After November 10th there is less than 10 hours of sun a day, and that is more traumatic to growing plants than cold.
They've just started growing mushrooms up by the wood pile. These were gathered just this morning. They say that they melt in your mouth!
Inside of the house was charming. A lot of wonderful different kinds of wood, like wormy chester (or something like that). Two of the floors were made directly from a tree. Below, a swing that turns.
Sixteen year old Daisy ...
Wood burning stove. I forget the particulars about the stove.
Another view of the greenhouse.
Bernice is very interested in Buddhism so she set up the display below combining Christian and Buddhist symbols.
Office loft ...
View of the garden from the office loft ...
Kitchen ...
And some mushrooms growing in the wood pile. They have to be picked almost as soon as they appear.
Goodness, these folks have embraced a wonderful lifestyle! How do they support themselves?
ReplyDeleteWell, they do grow all their own food, they say. Other than that they're retired.
ReplyDeletePS - it did look like a lot of work, though. Even in the winter there was the road to plow (they were about 2 miles off of the main road). I think that at their ages they are starting to feel as if they have too much responsibility and would like to simplify, which seems a little ironic since their whole vision was to live a simple life on the land.
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