As a child growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, where the houses stacked upon one another, I found myself drawn to a small forest preserve three blocks from home. I’m not sure what started the attraction. My father and mother were not outdoorsy, nor were my friends. However, I always found myself wanting to get out in the woods. As an adult that desired to explore grew stronger. While studying at the University of Tennessee, I found myself hiking and camping in the Smokies. After graduation, I continued to explore and expand my outdoor sports to include whitewater kayaking and mountain biking. I wanted to get into architecture in school but didn’t realize you had to pre-register for the program. Having missed that opportunity, I ended up a Graphic Designer. Architecture and the outdoors never left me as I thought about outdoor shelters, remote cabins, and old Appalachian homesteads. I also drew several designs, and my favorite book was Walden.

After purchasing the farm, I now had the location to combine my interests and break ground on my first off-the-grid cabin. While my family was vacationing in Florida for spring break, I couldn’t bring myself to leave East Kentucky and used springtime days to build. It wasn’t easy, but it was a rewarding project. The biggest challenge was getting materials up the hill. The second biggest challenge was building it by myself, not because I lacked the skill, but because I had to lift, balance, and install large timbers myself.

Outside of the metal roof (the most significant expense) and the skeleton stick frame, everything else was milled from trees that I felled on the property. The entire project cost me less than $2,500. I decided to custom-build the windows in my Louisville woodshop using yellow pine that I milled and plexiglass for durability. Now that we have a multi-use mountain bike/hiking trail that passes by the cabin, I’d like to finish it up so that people can enjoy a bike or hike-in backcountry camping experience.

One of my top farm memories was getting my mother deep into the woods to visit my work. She loved the experience and called it my “shack.” The name stuck.