It’s been the summer of archaic skill-sets for Emma Decker. I perfected my stick shift driving abilities, got my HAM radio license (catch KJ7EMA on the airwaves!), and recently spent a week in Wallowa County building a timber frame cabin. Nine of us old souls from around the country worked with the Prairie Mountain Folk School to put together a Japanese style timber frame—that means no nails or bolts, everything was cut into joinery using traditional tools and then the wood fits together like puzzle pieces.
The folk school is run by the craftsmen and women behind the historic Jennings Hotel. This poem is taped above the building’s stairwell:
I have decided to find myself a home in the mountains, somewhere high up where one learns to live peacefully in the cold and the silence.
It’s said that in such a place certain revelations may be discovered. That what the spirit reaches for may be eventually felt, if not exactly understood.
Slowly, no doubt.
I’m not talking about a vacation.
Of course at the same time I mean to stay exactly where I am.
Are you following me?