The Hospitable Cabin

Tres Pinos.

The cabin was built in 1923 by my great-grandparents. It is where they went every summer to escape the heat of the Central Valley.

It was a Cabin. With a capital “C”. One room, a wood stove for cooking and heating, a kitchen sink and cupboards with curtains (no doors). There was running water from a spring. My mother spent summers at the cabin with her grandmother when she was a child.

There have been a few upgrades. It has electricity. It has indoor plumbing. It now has a bedroom and a separate kitchen.  All the comforts of home. Except there is no television, no radio, and, until recently, no phone. There is no such thing as cell service.

New front wall and porch. 2017

The place is stocked with very old books, picture albums of the family, fishing poles, flashlights and mouse traps. There is a granite…