à l'orée des bois... at the edge of the woods
Our family camp.
Funny how things come about. When my Dad and his brother Bob were young pups, they spent their summers helping out cousins who moved from Yonkers to farm in Bloomville. It was long enough ago that my Dad drove their team of horses since they did not have a tractor, perhaps in the later 1940s and into the 1950s.
As my Dad and his brother and their cousins grew older they would come up this way to hunt and at some point the idea of a cabin that could serve as a hunting camp as well as a place for family to gatherings took hold.
Here it is. Roots run long and deep ❤️
Many memories, many changes over the years. Once a woodlot for a diary farm, the land and the cabin on which it rests became my connection to the western Catskills.
My parents bought it in 1970 as their place in the country and set to work building a starter for what they imagined: an A-frame with a view of the hills and valleys. My brother and I stacked logs as my father cut down trees for the 1/4 mile drive to the tippity top of the ridge. Together with all sorts of relatives over many weekends driving up from downstate we built a kitchen with two tiny bedrooms and an outhouse using local rough cut lumber. Over time indoor plumbing and a great room with a fireplace built with stone from the ridge were added, and then a master bedroom and porch.
Sometimes what one imagines isn't what one creates, and in the living one realizes the tender beauty of what has become. All the while the trees kept growing along the ridge, embracing the cabin as they became the view.
In between all the work, we had lots of barbecues and bonfires and sing-a-longs and blueberry pies with cousins and friends. It was called 'the country' and 'the camp' and was my parents' summer home after my Dad retired and they moved to Florida.
Now it is being gently folded into our farm and our lives. We're naming it 'a` l'oree' des bois' which means 'at the edge of the woods' It is that literally, and it evokes my Mom, Lorre', who makes every place she is a home.
It will always be first available for our family and close friends when they come visit us and my Mom. In time we might decide to make it available for guests so they can create their own family memories in the country. Stay tuned.
