Traveling Mudcatters:

Early this week, post-Getaway travelers tested out the Mudcat Attic Dorm I've been working towards for several years. I'm announcing it's open now till the end of the "season."

The "heatable space" season is:

March, chilly
April, cool
May - September, warm
October, cool
November, chilly

There are currently 3 twins, 1 double, 1 bedroll (and space for 2 sleeping bags on a hard floor). The 4 low beds are innerspring mattresses on good support. Accommodations are quite lovely and a tad rough-- it's a section of an old country house, and there is the choice of pee bucket or using a downstairs bathroom. Think hostel-- bring a sleeping bag to lay out, or change the sheets when you depart.

Yet to come is the downstairs picking/overflow sleeping area. Of course there are porches for warm-weather picking. (And, sometimes, Mudcatters picking in the main house's living room!)

Come for a night, come for longer, come for a retreat or a vacation. Even on short notice you will find the space waiting for you, beds all made up and clean towels laid by. Chairs for a little picking.

Free to cheap, depending how much you need from your hosts.

The furnishings in the guest space are made out of memories-- just about everything in it had a long and interesting life in someone else's house (or ours) before it went up there.

The management policies are based on two fine experiences I had on a regular basis as a child and as an adult.

"Camp" was an Adirondack fishing camp owned by elder family members, where anyone in the clan could go (for as long as the whole summer) for R&R. I was there often as a child. Hardi and I made weeklong visits several times not so long ago, seeing the adult side of keeping it going for us all. At Camp, you always arrive to find it cleanswept, all set for you to fire up the heat and turn down the beds, and several days' food left where the mice can't get it-- to tide you over till you venture out for supplies. And you always leave it that way for the next arrival unless you are physically unable. Anyone off on their own is assumed to be either sleeping or otherwise not desiring company. You do what you can do for yourself and ask help for the rest. Camp is always an adventure in being self-reliant and cooperative. And you can breathe there, and reflect.

"Pleasant Valley" was an outdoor education center and summer camp getaway for inner city kids, on a real working farm, where people learned how to live in the country, where milk comes from, what comes out besides milk, and to work together to live lightly on the land. I don't know if it's still there, but when I went to a workshop hosted there, and later when I managed the demonstration farm and presented programs, I found it heaven on earth. You left town concerns behind, because you met the concrete realities of life there. And you could stretch. And, if you needed to, you could work hard enough to sleep deeply. (Between hikes.)


Been here? Testimonials and Suggestion Box start here.

~Susan