Mid Sierra Musings: The End Of An Era: Selling Our Cabin

Dale Matson

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About 15 years ago, Sharon and I were vacationing and spent the night in a small cabin on the Bay of Fundy. In the morning, I said to Sharon, “We should have a cabin like this.” And thus the dream became a goal and the goal became a reality. We looked for a year or two for wooded property and decided to go with an unimproved seven-acre parcel near Pine Ridge CA. After buying the property we began by hiring a douser named Eunice Weldon to find a good location for a well. We then hired a well driller who found water where she designated.

We decided to build on an area of the property below the well that also had enough room for a septic system. The area where we proposed to build was filled with lots of brush. We knew there was a great view along the Sierra Nevada foothills but it was completely obscured by trees and brush. We hired a logger who cleared out some of the trees for a view. He also had a man working with a Bobcat on tracks with a brush grinder.

When the house and septic area were cleared, I brought in a bulldozer and cut away the hill to create a flat area. I also graded a drive area and dug a trench with a backhoe for an 18” diameter culvert to divert runoff below the drive area. Sharon spent much of her time with a backpack sprayer for the poison oak since we were only about 4,000’ in elevation. Once the view was opened up we really began to enjoy the work experience too.

We worked a deal with our neighbor to bring in electricity and hired a trenching company to dig a trench from the well to our cabin location. Sharon and I put in the PVC pipe for the water and electric lines to the well. We didn’t know it at the time but the roots of the poison oak were as toxic as the leaves and we both got terrible poison oak exposure in the ditch as we laid the pipe.

We met with a builder and he came up with a design. Because of cost we eventually decided on a smaller single story cabin. He was able to begin in spring and had the cabin finished by fall of that year.

As I reviewed the photographs over the years, we spent most of our time working on the property and after the cabin was built we also continued working on the property. Sharon had the grandchildren there often and I spent time writing my sermons in front of our wood stove.

The game cameras have captured all manner of animals over the years and we always enjoyed reviewing the memory cards from the cameras.

Slowly it became obvious to both of us that we were “aging out” of our property. Our “work days” went from 8 hours to 2 hours. We had the energy to provide the sweat equity for the building phase but now lacked the energy to maintain it. I was diagnosed with heart disease last fall. It is a reality that wilderness life exacts a price as we age. I am now 73 years old and both of us made the difficult decision to sell our cabin property. Some of you reading this have already done the same or are near that decision. It is a sad reality that has to be faced. It is not just a logistical decision. It is also an emotional one.

The same Shaver Lake realtor that sold us the land originally found a young couple that purchased the property. I met with them today and we went over the ins and outs of the place. I am happy for this young family and hope they can enjoy their relatively new cabin for many years to come.

I have taken hundreds of photographs over the 13 years we had the property and have included some of those to illustrate the massive effort required to build on an unimproved lot in the woods.