My Tiny Home “The Far North”

| By Janis Gingermountain |

A weeklong writing residency in a tiny cabin on the shore of Lake Superior many years ago cemented my desire to have a writing cabin of my own. My Amish friend Peter had an old 10’ by 12’ red shed he wanted to get rid of. Excellent! And so “The Far North” was born.

Why “The Far North?” That’s the name often given to unknown lands up toward the North Pole. Writing is like trekking to the place where the road ends and you make your own path, going on into uncharted places. On one wall of my cabin hangs a huge poster of a fur-trimmed teepee erected in deep snow in Quebec, symbolizing the stark, solitary life of the North, and also of the writer.

Cozy is the word for my little cabin. On the floor is a red and gray Navajo rug. There’s an orange easy chair draped with a blanket and pillow of Native American design. A Zen garden sits on a small table, ready for meditative musing. A jaunty wooden coyote howls at an imaginary moon. Bookshelves line the walls. Best of all is my mile-long desk made from an old door. Before it sits the world’s most comfortable desk chair. On the walls hang a barbed wire “YAHOO!” and a poster about saving loons, a “CREATIVITY” reminder, and a needlework design proclaiming “SIMPLICITY.” Each wall has a window that looks out into lovely woods.

My little cabin is not equipped for permanent living – only for my two-hour-a-day sacred writing habit. If I were to move in for good, I would only have to exchange my space heater for a small wood stove and my porcelain chamberpot for a porta-potty, and schlep in several gallon jugs of water from a nearby spring. Since I have electricity I could add a toaster oven, electric skillet, and perhaps a small refrigerator. A radio and small TV set would be perfect. A computer? I guess so. I would then have to pare down my other possessions to the barest minimum, to what really matters.

My tiny cabin shapes my days, my work, and my dreams. It forms who I am becoming as a writer. Every afternoon I go there to meditate, write in my journal, and work on poems and essays. Notebooks full of ideas are scattered about. Travel journals line one bookshelf. Poets and Writers and The Writer magazines are there for inspiration. I start my time each day by lighting a candle, sitting in silence for five minutes, and writing for one minute in my minute journal. Then, I’m off and running, pondering and scribbling.

The sojourner in a tiny cabin could find inspiration to be and do whatever she chooses: a visual artist, monk, quilter, designer, family history collector, cookbook creator, naturalist or photographer… who knows? Such a tiny space could help shape a number of worthy pursuits. As for me, I choose writing. And I choose “The Far North.”

---

Janis Gingermountain has a cabin in the mountains and also a little writing cabin, “The Far North.” She writes poetry and essays, and enjoys hiking, gardening, genealogy, and vegetarian cooking.