Dreams VS Reality

Our house sits on the edge of about 60 acres woods that rarely has other people in it, so I affectionately call it 'my woods'. I like 'playing' in my woods. Thats what Erika calls it. 'Playing' consists of doing anything from collecting firewood, to moving dirt ect. I just like spending time out there, it gets me away from the computer and it always peaceful. Since we moved in about 5 years ago, I've been wanting a place to sit in the woods. A place to read, a place to sit and just enjoy the woods. Ideally there would be some sort of shelter. So after years of pondering, and a year sitting under a crappy tarp... this picture below is what I dreamed of. Beautiful huh?

Ok, not so fast. Here comes the reality part. Late summer of 2006 I finally decided to move forward with the plan to build something for real. Up until this point I had a big tarp strung from some trees that gave me a nice place to read when it rained, but beyond that... it wouldn't have survived the first snow fall. So I called my good buddy, jack-of-all-trades, Dan. I shared with him my dream (see above) and he was all for it. Fast forward to Oct 18th. Some might know, that is when Erika told me that she was carrying my child. As soon as that happened, plans changed a bit. To build something like the pictured above would be very costly. At least more than I was really willing to spend, especially with child on the way.... So lets just say the plans were changed a little bit...

Welcome to my reality... my harsh reality.










This is my shelter in the woods. Basically a lean-two. It sits right on the corner of my property, the opening facing North. You'll notice I still have a tarp for a roof. The roof is a spring project. In the first picture you'll see the winter configuration, with a place for a fire and fire wood. It actually gets nice and toasty in there. Second picture is looking at the corner of my property, beyond the rock wall is the oodles of woods. Turkey territory. Third picture is just another angle at the utilitarian-hut. Its very basic, but does what it is suppose to. Someday I'll have something like the picture we started with... someday....