Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Enjoying cabin life naturally

By ELIZABETH BETTENDORF
Published September 30, 2006

HUDSON - If you had to find your way without directions you probably couldn't. Imagine for a minute, a hand-built log cabin on nearly 4 acres of tamed, oak-canopied wilderness in what was once the most rural swath of northern Pasco County, not far from the Hernando County line.

A turpentine mill once stood in the woods near here and a railroad ferried goods back to civilization. Coyotes still wander the trails, as does the occasional bobcat, rattlesnake and armadillo.

Bryan and Laura Clark love these woods. They also love the cabin that Bryan built by hand nearly 30 years ago. It's a two-story structure of cedar and pine, three bedrooms, two baths with leafy views that rival Swiss Family Robinson's.

Bryan Clark , who works by trade as a long distance truck driver - he's an independent owner-operator - didn't cut down any trees to clear the land, save for one small pine that stood in the way.

It has no central air and is heated partly by a wood stove in the winter. It is decorated with inherited antiques from Bryan's grandmother's tearoom as well as old photos of Laura's paternal grandparents: turn-of-the-century Vaudevillian actors who tap-danced, juggled, told jokes and twirled on the trapeze.

The charming little cabin is all about family and memories, nature and solitude.

"I feel like I'm in a tree house sometimes when I'm up in the master bedroom," said Laura one coolish afternoon in late September as she took a visitor on a tour of the 2,500 square-foot cabin. "I live in my favorite place. It's my heart."

And who wouldn't like it?

A home-baked applesauce pie sat on the kitchen counter and scented candles burned in the cabin's cozy, tree-shaded interior.

Through the front gate and up the garden path, a tour of the cabin and its yard feels like a vacation from grid-locked, road-raged, over-developed Florida. The property, which has been designated National Wildlife Backyard Habitat and received a Florida Friendly yard certification, blooms a quilt of eye-popping color: Mexican petunias, pink pentas, yellow dewdrop, Turk's Cap, porterweed and milkweed all grow around the cabin with its welcoming front porch bedecked with Adirondack chairs and a porch swing.

A tea table for two perches under the live oaks and an old Radio Flyer wagon heaped with pine cones stands by the front door, a sentimental childhood relic belonging to their 17-year-old son, Nathan.

An avid gardener with a natural sense of color and proportion, Laura got solid advice on a number of her plantings from Environmental Equities, a Florida native plant nursery on Denton Avenue.

"I got so tired of bringing plants in over the winter. I wanted something that fit easily into our lifestyle," she says. "I had a mentor there and she really helped me."

A sign in front says: "Spoiled Cats Live Here," a reference to Laura's habit of bringing home animals, including a small menagerie of dogs and cats, even a pet rat named Lila who was once almost dinner for a family snake. The Clarks own two paint horses, two shy rabbits, and a friendly miniature horse, who lives in a spotless miniature barn out back and a collection of birds including a family of beautiful white doves.

For years, the family has been able to trail ride on 100 acres of privately owned adjoining property that Laura says was recently sold and is being turned into a housing development.

Though there are neighboring houses, the cabin feels tucked away and isolated, as if it floats on its own private raft miles from civilization.

"It was wonderful for our son to grow up here," says Laura, 55. "It's upsetting to see all the development that's going on around here, to see this area destroyed. It really makes me appreciate what we have, but it makes me sad at the same time."

Inside the house, Laura mixes antique china - also family heirlooms - with earthy pottery, creating simple tableaus that please the eye. A colorful quilt draped over a wooden chair creates interest in the stair landing. Groups of paintings of the woods and nature, many painted by friends, blend neatly into the log walls. Lace curtains decorate the windows and frame views of the purple and pink blooms in Laura's beautiful, informal gardens around the cabin.

Nathan grew up roaming the woods and bringing home finds including the most recent treasure: a sculptural chunk of what looks like old cypress bark. He's arranged it on the back screened porch with its wooden rocking chairs, birdhouse collection and serene view of the property, that includes a horse paddock and barn, a tire swing hanging from a giant tree limb, and a guest cottage where Nathan can entertain his friends.

An avid horseman who excels at Western pleasure, he's won many awards over the years. Nathan spent years riding the trails around the house. He also learned the woods with his father, exploring the site of the old turpentine mill, unearthing old track stakes from the long-gone railroad, watching what nature does to fallen trees in the swamp.

"It was a pretty fun childhood, having the woods and open spaces," says Nathan, who is a senior at Bishop McLaughlin Catholic High School. "I couldn't live on a postage stamp, one-eighth of an acre lot."

His mother, Laura, agrees: "It was the greatest growing up place, a great place for a little boy. I don't know what we would do without this place."

Elizabeth Bettendorf can be reached at ebettendorf@hotmail.com.

[Last modified September 29, 2006, 23:10:59]