The Unabomber Cabin

It was drizzling and cold today, and I had things that I had to do at the house, so did not go anywhere on this late fall Saturday.

While outside and heading down underneath the house to dig through boxes I took these pictures.

Someone at work many months ago started calling my rented Alaskan house the Unabomber Cabin (and then even shortened the moniker to UBC), and somehow the name stuck.

So.........I live in the Unabomber Cabin.

I loved the place right from the moment I saw it.

It was away from town and different from the many high density and beat up wanna-be homes for rent that I had looked at until I found this place.

The owners did not mind that I had a dog - no small feat for those trying to rent in Juneau with their beloved animal.

It was Out the Road and close to trails and rivers and harbors and coves and beaches and mountains and overlooks and pine trees.

It was away from people - a priority for someone who needs to deal effectively with people on the job but who also needs a good deal of alone and people-free time to regroup.

Someone who needs to retreat from the world on a regular basis.

It is close to town, but not too close to town.

There are no curtains on any of the windows. 

There is no need for curtains out here.

It has skylights in the livingroom and bedroom, and between all the large windows and these wonderful skylights, when I look out I see nothing but hills and pine trees.

The porch is too big.  The livingroom is too small.  The kitchen is too big.  The laundry room and bathroom and bedroom upstairs are all decent and workable sizes.

A water cistern system (which was a dicey proposition during a few periods this summer and fall when it did not rain for many continuous weeks), but this being Juneau, is not normally a concern as far as water level is concerned. 

It rains plenty.

Inside the place is all wood - ALL wood.  A beautifully built, aesthetically pleasing home that sometimes feels like a ship and sometimes feels like a tree house...............

Behind the house is the oil tank that heats the house, and a small structure that used to be a dog house in a former life but now holds yard odds and ends.

The little fenced area in front and to the left of the dog house contains beautiful wildflowers in the spring and summer, and lots of salmonberries.

I had never heard of salmonberries until I moved to Juneau, but they are everywhere - in yards, along the side of the road, in the woods, along trails.

Very very tasty and I ate a huge amount of them this past summer.........

A variety of buoys in the back yard that have been wrapped around trees to give an informal and colorful decorative touch to this area...........

Part of the porch is covered and part uncovered.

The uncovered section of the porch contains a very wide bench running the length of it. 

I took a nap on that bench sometime in mid-June - on a warm and very sunny afternoon a day or so after my Mountain Boy arrived here in Juneau.

The porch leads directly to the door to the inside of the house, and the livingroom.

The livingroom is ridiculously small (but thankfully full of large windows), and if I owned this house I think I would completely enclose the covered porch to make the livingroom larger...........

More of the back yard.  A wild and untamed area that contains blueberry bushes, wild flowers and more salmonberries during the growing season.

This is prime bear country, and my Mountain Boy saw a bear on the stairs leading the porch one night earlier in the fall.

I slept through all the excitement, waking only when I heard the bolt action of LC's rifle...........

View of the hills from the backyard.

We live (as they say in Tennessee) down in a holler.........

One of three angels I have in the yard.

LC brought them up from our yard in Tennessee.

This one is resting comfortably on a log by the steps leading up to the house.........

Another Tennessee transplant - now resting on a rock in the back yard...........

Even though Jamie keeps knocking her down, this angel sits in the yard at a place at the top of the walkway..........

Sarah had the bridge, and I have the trail.  The trail to nowhere.

Actually, it shoots off from the walkway and just ends up on the road........

The precarious stone walkway leading up to the house and leading down to where the vehicles are parked.

The rope lights that are strung around the trees are on a timer, and look very beautiful at night........

View of the house from the driveway.

In the summer the house is almost completely obscured behind the trees............

One more precarious little pathway that leads down to the driveway...........

A view of the bench and porch while I was making my way back up the walkway again..........

Kitchen windows and bedroom windows immediately above that.

There are bird feeders and wind chimes leading up the stairs and hanging from the porch.

One very large set of wind chimes hangs right from the doorway entrance and they play very beautiful music when the wind is blowing.

I said once that they played music to calm the savage beast. 

Soon I hope that is true...........

And my third angel in the yard.

A sweet, playful, welcoming figure that at first glance seems out of place among the isolated, rustic semi-wilderness of my Out the Road cabin.

But on second glance belongs exactly where she lies - at the top of the walkway welcoming me home..........