WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:01.600 Today, I want to tell you about a journey that 2 00:00:01.600 --> 00:00:03.879 I've been on for most of my life. Ever since 3 00:00:03.919 --> 00:00:05.799 I was a kid, I've heard tales of bigfoot and 4 00:00:05.839 --> 00:00:08.320 wild men while spending time with my friends and family. 5 00:00:09.039 --> 00:00:11.439 As I grew older and read more about the paranormal, 6 00:00:11.599 --> 00:00:14.679 my interest in encryptids and other things strange only deepened. 7 00:00:15.240 --> 00:00:17.160 That's why I'm so excited to share with you what 8 00:00:17.199 --> 00:00:21.640 I've personally become involved with the Untold Radio Network. The 9 00:00:21.719 --> 00:00:25.280 Untold Radio Network is a live streaming podcast network that 10 00:00:25.359 --> 00:00:29.359 airs a new show every day across all podcast platforms, YouTube, 11 00:00:29.359 --> 00:00:32.119 and more. They have eight different shows on all sorts 12 00:00:32.159 --> 00:00:36.119 of exciting topics such as bigfoot, cryptids, UFOs, aliens, and 13 00:00:36.200 --> 00:00:39.479 much more. I even have my own show called Weird Encounters, 14 00:00:39.479 --> 00:00:42.439 where I talk about all things strange. This is more 15 00:00:42.479 --> 00:00:45.280 than just a podcast network. It's a community that allows 16 00:00:45.320 --> 00:00:47.759 me to meet so many amazing people who share their 17 00:00:47.799 --> 00:00:51.520 stories and experiences with strange. If you're interested in hearing 18 00:00:51.520 --> 00:00:53.880 more of these stories and learning more about the paranormal 19 00:00:53.960 --> 00:00:56.679 and encryptids, make sure you check out the Untold Radio 20 00:00:56.759 --> 00:01:00.600 Network for all kinds of exciting shows. It's free to subscribe. 21 00:01:00.679 --> 00:01:04.400 So what are you waiting for visit www dot untold 22 00:01:04.519 --> 00:01:06.560 radionetwork dot com today. 23 00:01:06.760 --> 00:01:09.680 Now, what are your reporting? I got a screen going 24 00:01:09.719 --> 00:01:12.120 on here. Something just kid with my dog, something to 25 00:01:12.200 --> 00:01:15.280 kill your dog? My dog. We're flying through there over 26 00:01:15.319 --> 00:01:20.079 the tree. I don't know how it did it? Okay, Damn, 27 00:01:20.159 --> 00:01:22.640 I'm really confused. All I saw was my dog coming 28 00:01:22.680 --> 00:01:24.480 over the fence, and name was dead once you hit 29 00:01:24.519 --> 00:01:26.560 the grill. I didn't see any cars. All I saw 30 00:01:26.680 --> 00:01:45.120 was my dog coming over the fence. Sat, what are 31 00:01:45.120 --> 00:01:49.959 you reporting? We got some wonder or something crawling around 32 00:01:50.040 --> 00:01:58.640 out here? Did you see what it was? It was 33 00:01:59.359 --> 00:02:01.400 enough out here looking him. Knew the one down now 34 00:02:01.400 --> 00:02:08.840 and I don't need anything. I don't want to go outside. Hello, 35 00:02:10.439 --> 00:02:11.479 hit the boddy out here? 36 00:02:11.759 --> 00:02:12.199 What quin? 37 00:02:12.240 --> 00:02:15.120 I'm out there? I thought of a venus about te nine. 38 00:02:15.240 --> 00:02:17.719 I don't know easy ann out there? Yeah, I'm walking 39 00:02:17.800 --> 00:02:18.240 right heady. 40 00:02:19.039 --> 00:02:21.080 You know that feeling when someone's about to tell you 41 00:02:21.120 --> 00:02:23.479 something that's going to change how you see the world, 42 00:02:24.280 --> 00:02:26.919 That moment right before they open their mouth, when you 43 00:02:26.960 --> 00:02:29.879 can still pretend that everything you think you know about 44 00:02:29.919 --> 00:02:31.879 reality is actually true. 45 00:02:32.599 --> 00:02:33.479 This is that moment. 46 00:02:34.280 --> 00:02:37.199 The email arrived on a Monday, morning, buried in my 47 00:02:37.280 --> 00:02:40.680 inbox between a spam message about miracle weight loss and 48 00:02:40.719 --> 00:02:44.919 a reminder about my car's extended warranty. The subject line 49 00:02:44.960 --> 00:02:48.000 was simple, you wanted the truth about the strange stuff 50 00:02:48.439 --> 00:02:52.719 here it is. It came from someone calling himself Jeremiah, 51 00:02:52.759 --> 00:02:56.039 though I suspect that's not his real name. I'd never 52 00:02:56.080 --> 00:02:59.080 heard from him before, but somehow he knew about the show, 53 00:02:59.520 --> 00:03:02.120 knew about the books I'd written, knew that I was 54 00:03:02.199 --> 00:03:05.919 someone who took these stories seriously, someone who wouldn't laugh 55 00:03:06.039 --> 00:03:06.759 or dismiss what. 56 00:03:06.719 --> 00:03:07.439 He had to say. 57 00:03:08.280 --> 00:03:11.240 The message was long, longer than most people have the 58 00:03:11.280 --> 00:03:14.240 patience to write these days, and it started with what 59 00:03:14.360 --> 00:03:17.080 seemed like a pretty ordinary story about a middle aged 60 00:03:17.120 --> 00:03:20.919 guy going through a divorce, losing his job, escaping to 61 00:03:20.960 --> 00:03:23.840 the mountains to build a cabin and start over, the 62 00:03:23.960 --> 00:03:26.639 kind of midlife crisis story we've all heard a hundred 63 00:03:26.680 --> 00:03:31.039 times before. I almost deleted it, but something in the tone, 64 00:03:31.439 --> 00:03:34.280 in the careful way he laid out the details, made 65 00:03:34.319 --> 00:03:37.520 me keep reading. And I'm glad I did, because what 66 00:03:37.599 --> 00:03:40.319 starts as a simple tale of a man seeking solitude 67 00:03:40.560 --> 00:03:44.520 in the Georgia Mountains becomes something else. Entirely, something that 68 00:03:44.560 --> 00:03:47.439 will make you think twice about those dark spaces between 69 00:03:47.439 --> 00:03:50.719 the trees, about what might be watching from the shadows 70 00:03:50.919 --> 00:03:54.759 when you're alone in the wilderness. Jeremiah takes his time 71 00:03:54.800 --> 00:03:57.840 getting to the scary parts. He wants you to understand 72 00:03:57.879 --> 00:04:01.199 who he was before, what drove him to seek isolation 73 00:04:01.639 --> 00:04:04.800 in the remote mountains of North Georgia. He wants you 74 00:04:04.840 --> 00:04:07.199 to know about the cabin he built with his own hands, 75 00:04:07.759 --> 00:04:10.280 about the peace he found in that clearing by the creek, 76 00:04:10.879 --> 00:04:13.879 About the simple life he thought he was creating for himself. 77 00:04:14.680 --> 00:04:17.360 Because context matters when someone's about to tell you that 78 00:04:17.480 --> 00:04:20.759 everything you think you know about the natural world is wrong. 79 00:04:21.800 --> 00:04:24.560 The story he's about to share doesn't start with monsters. 80 00:04:25.120 --> 00:04:28.160 It starts with divorce papers and panic attacks and the 81 00:04:28.199 --> 00:04:32.079 soul crushing realization that the American dream had become a nightmare. 82 00:04:32.879 --> 00:04:35.639 It starts with a man so desperate for peace that 83 00:04:35.720 --> 00:04:38.800 he was willing to disappear into the wilderness to cut 84 00:04:38.839 --> 00:04:44.800 himself off from civilization Entirely, it starts normal, human, relatable, 85 00:04:45.319 --> 00:04:49.000 but it doesn't stay that way. What Jeremiah encountered in 86 00:04:49.040 --> 00:04:52.639 those remote mountains challenges everything we think we know about 87 00:04:52.639 --> 00:04:56.480 what lurks in the deep woods, about intelligence and intention, 88 00:04:57.000 --> 00:04:59.800 and the things that go bump in the night, about 89 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:04.600 preachers that understand psychology, that can wage systematic campaigns of terror, 90 00:05:05.160 --> 00:05:07.399 that can drive a rational man to the edge of 91 00:05:07.480 --> 00:05:11.720 sanity and beyond. He's careful to give you all the details, 92 00:05:12.240 --> 00:05:16.040 all the context you need to understand what happened. But 93 00:05:16.120 --> 00:05:19.839 fair warning, once you hear this story, you can't unhear it. 94 00:05:20.560 --> 00:05:23.079 Once you know what he knows, the wilderness will never 95 00:05:23.120 --> 00:05:27.639 look the same. So settle in, get comfortable, and prepare 96 00:05:27.639 --> 00:05:30.279 to learn why some places in this world are better 97 00:05:30.360 --> 00:05:33.959 left unexplored, why some secrets are better left buried in 98 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:38.480 the darkness between the trees. This is Jeremiah's story, told 99 00:05:38.519 --> 00:05:41.000 in his own words. He sent it to me with 100 00:05:41.040 --> 00:05:43.879 the understanding that I would share it, that people needed 101 00:05:43.879 --> 00:05:46.720 to know what's really out there. But he also made 102 00:05:46.759 --> 00:05:49.120 it clear that this is the only time he's ever 103 00:05:49.199 --> 00:05:52.120 going to talk about what happened to him in those mountains. 104 00:05:52.879 --> 00:05:57.040 After you hear it, you'll understand why. The story begins 105 00:05:57.040 --> 00:05:59.560 with a man running away from his old life, but 106 00:05:59.600 --> 00:06:02.040 what he found waiting for him in the wilderness was 107 00:06:02.079 --> 00:06:06.319 worse than anything he'd left behind much worse. I've been 108 00:06:06.360 --> 00:06:09.000 a listener for years and I've read both your books. 109 00:06:09.720 --> 00:06:10.399 One thing I've. 110 00:06:10.240 --> 00:06:12.839 Always respected is how you talk about the strange stuff 111 00:06:13.399 --> 00:06:16.040 straight up, no hype, just honest. 112 00:06:16.720 --> 00:06:17.639 That's why I'm writing. 113 00:06:18.079 --> 00:06:20.439 I'm not trying to get attention, and I'm not looking 114 00:06:20.439 --> 00:06:23.240 for anyone to feel sorry for me. I just think 115 00:06:23.279 --> 00:06:25.240 people need to know this kind of thing is real. 116 00:06:25.879 --> 00:06:28.720 It happened to me, and if telling my story helps 117 00:06:28.720 --> 00:06:30.839 someone stay safe, then it's worth it. 118 00:06:31.480 --> 00:06:33.319 So here it is, all of it. 119 00:06:34.040 --> 00:06:37.160 Just know, once you hear this, you can't unhear it, 120 00:06:37.600 --> 00:06:40.279 and I won't be talking about it again. I guess 121 00:06:40.319 --> 00:06:42.040 I should start with why I went up there in 122 00:06:42.040 --> 00:06:45.279 the first place. The divorce had just gone through after 123 00:06:45.319 --> 00:06:48.920 two years of legal hell. Sarah took pretty much everything, 124 00:06:49.439 --> 00:06:51.639 the house we'd bought when we were still stupid enough 125 00:06:51.639 --> 00:06:55.000 to believe in forever, the kids half the time, which 126 00:06:55.040 --> 00:06:57.000 meant I got to be a weekend dad to my 127 00:06:57.040 --> 00:06:59.800 own children, and most of our savings, which had taken 128 00:06:59.839 --> 00:07:03.600 me fifteen years to build up. I was working sixty 129 00:07:03.639 --> 00:07:06.680 hour weeks at the caterpillar plant, coming home to an 130 00:07:06.720 --> 00:07:10.680 empty apartment that smelled like takeout containers and regret. The 131 00:07:10.720 --> 00:07:14.120 place had beige walls and beige carpet and beige everything, 132 00:07:14.720 --> 00:07:17.360 like they designed it specifically to suck the life out 133 00:07:17.360 --> 00:07:20.560 of whoever was unlucky enough to live there. My blood 134 00:07:20.600 --> 00:07:23.720 pressure was through the roof one forty over ninety on 135 00:07:23.759 --> 00:07:27.360 a good day. I was popping antacids like they were candy, 136 00:07:27.800 --> 00:07:30.839 going through a bottle of thumbs every week. My doctor 137 00:07:30.920 --> 00:07:33.759 kept telling me I needed to reduce stress. But how 138 00:07:33.759 --> 00:07:36.519 do you reduce stress when everything in your life is stress? 139 00:07:37.319 --> 00:07:39.439 I couldn't sleep more than three hours at a time 140 00:07:39.519 --> 00:07:42.519 without waking up in a cold sweat, thinking about bills 141 00:07:42.560 --> 00:07:45.560 and court dates and how I'd somehow become this hollow 142 00:07:45.560 --> 00:07:47.920 shell of a man who didn't recognize himself. 143 00:07:47.680 --> 00:07:48.720 In the mirror anymore. 144 00:07:49.519 --> 00:07:52.000 The thing that really broke me was sitting in traffic 145 00:07:52.040 --> 00:07:55.240 one morning on I two eighty five, watching all these 146 00:07:55.240 --> 00:07:57.920 people in their cars, looking as miserable as I felt. 147 00:07:58.759 --> 00:08:02.199 Thousands of us, all stuck in the same metal boxes, 148 00:08:02.519 --> 00:08:05.839 breathing the same exhaust fumes, all heading to jobs we 149 00:08:05.959 --> 00:08:08.439 hated to make money for things we didn't really want. 150 00:08:09.279 --> 00:08:11.920 All of us just rats in a maze, running the 151 00:08:11.959 --> 00:08:16.000 same path every day getting nowhere, I realized I'd been 152 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:19.360 doing it for twenty three years. The same commute, the 153 00:08:19.399 --> 00:08:22.879 same cubicle under fluorescent lights that gave me headaches, the 154 00:08:22.920 --> 00:08:26.800 same meetings about meetings where nothing ever got decided for what, 155 00:08:27.759 --> 00:08:30.279 A pension that might not even exist when I retired, 156 00:08:30.680 --> 00:08:33.759 assuming the company didn't move all the jobs to Mexico. First, 157 00:08:34.559 --> 00:08:36.759 a four to oh one k that lost half its 158 00:08:36.840 --> 00:08:40.679 value every time the market hiccuped. A gold watch after 159 00:08:40.759 --> 00:08:43.320 forty years of service, if I was lucky enough to 160 00:08:43.360 --> 00:08:46.840 live that long. I started having panic attacks at work, 161 00:08:47.320 --> 00:08:51.080 real ones, not just feeling stressed. My heart would start 162 00:08:51.159 --> 00:08:54.399 racing for no reason. My hands would shake, and I'd 163 00:08:54.399 --> 00:08:57.320 feel like I couldn't breathe. I'd have to lock myself 164 00:08:57.360 --> 00:09:00.480 in the bathroom until it passed, splashing cold water on 165 00:09:00.559 --> 00:09:02.919 my face and trying to remember how to breathe normally. 166 00:09:03.720 --> 00:09:07.600 My supervisor started making comments about my performance, about maybe 167 00:09:07.639 --> 00:09:10.519 I wasn't cut out for the increased responsibilities they'd been 168 00:09:10.519 --> 00:09:13.960 piling on me since the last round of layoffs. That's 169 00:09:13.960 --> 00:09:17.360 when I started looking at land, not vacation property like 170 00:09:17.440 --> 00:09:21.440 some rich guy's hunting cabin, I mean real land. Somewhere 171 00:09:21.440 --> 00:09:24.799 I could disappear completely, Somewhere I could build something with 172 00:09:24.879 --> 00:09:27.360 my own hands and not have to answer to anybody 173 00:09:27.360 --> 00:09:31.679 ever again. The idea started as just a fantasy, something 174 00:09:31.679 --> 00:09:34.639 to think about during those endless meetings, but it grew 175 00:09:34.679 --> 00:09:38.840 into an obsession. I'd always been handy with tools, learned 176 00:09:38.840 --> 00:09:41.639 carpentry from my dad when I was young, back before 177 00:09:41.679 --> 00:09:45.039 he started drinking heavy and we stopped talking. He taught 178 00:09:45.039 --> 00:09:48.000 me to measure twice and cut once, to respect the 179 00:09:48.039 --> 00:09:49.960 wood and let it tell you what it wanted to be. 180 00:09:50.960 --> 00:09:53.080 Those were some of the few good memories I had 181 00:09:53.120 --> 00:09:56.679 of him, standing in his garage workshop, watching him turn 182 00:09:56.759 --> 00:10:00.639 rough lumber into something beautiful and useful. The idea of 183 00:10:00.679 --> 00:10:03.240 cutting my own timber and building my own place from 184 00:10:03.279 --> 00:10:06.360 scratch started eating at me in a good way. For 185 00:10:06.440 --> 00:10:09.679 the first time in years. I'd lie awake at night 186 00:10:09.799 --> 00:10:12.840 planning it out. Where I'd put the cabin, how big 187 00:10:12.879 --> 00:10:15.879 it would be, what kind of roof would shed snow best. 188 00:10:16.720 --> 00:10:19.919 I started buying carpentry magazines and reading books about off 189 00:10:19.919 --> 00:10:23.639 grid living, about people who'd walked away from civilization and 190 00:10:23.679 --> 00:10:26.679 built their own little piece of paradise. I found the 191 00:10:26.679 --> 00:10:30.240 property online in March of twenty twenty, right when everything 192 00:10:30.320 --> 00:10:33.480 was shutting down because of COVID. The listing was on 193 00:10:33.519 --> 00:10:37.000 some backwoods real estate site that specialized in raw land 194 00:10:37.039 --> 00:10:40.559 and hunting properties. Forty seven acres way up in the 195 00:10:40.559 --> 00:10:44.399 mountains near the Tennessee border. The pictures showed thick forest, 196 00:10:44.840 --> 00:10:47.720 a creek running through the middle, and terrain that rolled 197 00:10:47.720 --> 00:10:51.679 from gentle slopes to steep ridges. The listing said it 198 00:10:51.840 --> 00:10:55.559 was remote and secluded, which was exactly what I wanted. 199 00:10:56.240 --> 00:11:00.279 No neighbors for miles, no cell service, no internet, no 200 00:11:00.399 --> 00:11:03.840 power lines, just me in the woods and the silence 201 00:11:03.840 --> 00:11:06.120 I'd been craving for so long I'd forgotten what it 202 00:11:06.200 --> 00:11:09.879 sounded like. The land was cheap because nobody else wanted it. 203 00:11:10.559 --> 00:11:14.360 Too far from civilization for most people's taste, twelve miles 204 00:11:14.399 --> 00:11:17.679 from the nearest paved road, accessible only by a logging 205 00:11:17.799 --> 00:11:20.159 road that turned into barely more than a deer path 206 00:11:20.200 --> 00:11:24.320 for the last few miles, too steepened places for conventional building, 207 00:11:24.960 --> 00:11:28.399 too wild, the realtor admitted when I called him, perfect 208 00:11:28.440 --> 00:11:31.159 for what I had in mind. I drove up to 209 00:11:31.159 --> 00:11:33.679 see it on a Saturday in late March. Took me 210 00:11:33.759 --> 00:11:37.399 four hours from Atlanta the last hour on increasingly rough 211 00:11:37.480 --> 00:11:40.919 roads that made my truck groan and complain. When I 212 00:11:40.919 --> 00:11:43.399 finally reached the property, I sat in the cab for 213 00:11:43.480 --> 00:11:47.240 a long time, just listening to the silence. Real silence, 214 00:11:47.759 --> 00:11:49.759 not the kind you get in the suburbs, where there's 215 00:11:49.840 --> 00:11:53.639 always some background hum of traffic or air conditioners or lawnmowers. 216 00:11:54.480 --> 00:11:56.480 This was the kind of quiet that makes your ears 217 00:11:56.559 --> 00:11:59.879 ring at first, until you adjust to it. I hiked 218 00:11:59.879 --> 00:12:02.960 the property for three hours that day, following the creek 219 00:12:03.039 --> 00:12:06.559 up through stands of oak and pine and rhododendron. There 220 00:12:06.559 --> 00:12:09.279 were deer trails everywhere, and I saw fresh bear scat 221 00:12:09.360 --> 00:12:12.879 near the water. The creek was clear and cold, running 222 00:12:12.919 --> 00:12:16.039 fast with snow melt. From higher up the mountain. I 223 00:12:16.120 --> 00:12:19.399 found a natural clearing about two acres in size, perfect 224 00:12:19.399 --> 00:12:22.519 for a cabin site, with good drainage and southern exposure 225 00:12:22.559 --> 00:12:26.399 for solar panels. Standing in that clearing, I felt something 226 00:12:26.440 --> 00:12:31.080 I hadn't felt in years. Peace, Real peace, not the 227 00:12:31.159 --> 00:12:35.120 exhausted numbness i'd been calling peace. For the first time 228 00:12:35.159 --> 00:12:37.919 since the divorce started, I could breathe all the way 229 00:12:37.919 --> 00:12:40.840 down to the bottom of my lungs. The stress that 230 00:12:40.879 --> 00:12:43.879 had been living in my shoulders for months just melted away. 231 00:12:44.799 --> 00:12:46.759 I used what was left of my savings for the 232 00:12:46.759 --> 00:12:50.480 down payment and signed the papers the following week. Forty 233 00:12:50.519 --> 00:12:53.559 seven acres of Georgia Mountain forest for less than what 234 00:12:53.600 --> 00:12:56.879 most people spend on a car. The loan payments were 235 00:12:56.879 --> 00:12:59.799 manageable even on my reduced income. I'd taken a pay 236 00:12:59.799 --> 00:13:03.120 cut when the plant downsized, but up there it wouldn't matter. 237 00:13:03.639 --> 00:13:07.039 I'd be living on almost nothing. I gave my two 238 00:13:07.080 --> 00:13:10.919 weeks notice at Caterpillar on April first. My supervisor acted 239 00:13:10.960 --> 00:13:13.720 like I was having a nervous breakdown, kept asking if 240 00:13:13.759 --> 00:13:16.440 I'd thought this through, if I understood what I was 241 00:13:16.440 --> 00:13:21.960 giving up, pension, health, insurance, steady income, the respective working 242 00:13:22.039 --> 00:13:25.759 for a major corporation. I told him I understood perfectly, 243 00:13:26.120 --> 00:13:29.639 and that's exactly why I was leaving. My coworkers threw 244 00:13:29.679 --> 00:13:31.879 me a going away party at a sports bar near 245 00:13:31.879 --> 00:13:34.960 the plant. Everyone got drunk and told me how much 246 00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:37.679 they envied me, how they wished they had the guts 247 00:13:37.679 --> 00:13:40.159 to do what I was doing. But I could see 248 00:13:40.159 --> 00:13:43.240 in their eyes that they thought I was crazy, walking 249 00:13:43.320 --> 00:13:46.759 away from a secure job in uncertain times, going off 250 00:13:46.759 --> 00:13:48.759 to live in the woods like some kind of hermit. 251 00:13:49.519 --> 00:13:52.879 Maybe they were right, maybe I was crazy, but I 252 00:13:52.960 --> 00:13:55.480 was also done pretending that the life I'd been living 253 00:13:55.559 --> 00:13:58.720 was worth living. I sold everything I couldn't fit in 254 00:13:58.759 --> 00:14:03.080 my truck, an tools I wouldn't need, books i'd never 255 00:14:03.120 --> 00:14:07.120 read again, kept the essentials, and donated the rest to goodwill. 256 00:14:08.120 --> 00:14:10.600 Sarah got mad when she found out. Said I was 257 00:14:10.639 --> 00:14:14.840 having a midlife crisis and abandoning my responsibilities. But my 258 00:14:14.919 --> 00:14:18.399 child's support was automatically deducted from my bank account, and 259 00:14:18.440 --> 00:14:21.399 I'd be making enough from some freelance carpentry work to 260 00:14:21.480 --> 00:14:25.120 cover my few expenses. The kids could visit during school 261 00:14:25.120 --> 00:14:28.279 breaks if they wanted, though I suspected Sarah would find 262 00:14:28.320 --> 00:14:31.960 reasons why that wasn't practical. By the middle of April, 263 00:14:31.960 --> 00:14:33.960 I was living in a tent on my own land. 264 00:14:34.559 --> 00:14:37.639 I'd never been so happy to wake up in my life. 265 00:14:37.679 --> 00:14:40.960 Those first few months were like being reborn. I'd wake 266 00:14:41.039 --> 00:14:44.679 up with the sun, no alarm clock, just natural light 267 00:14:44.759 --> 00:14:47.960 filtering through the tent fabric. The air was clean and 268 00:14:48.039 --> 00:14:51.559 cold and tasted like pine needles and running water. I'd 269 00:14:51.559 --> 00:14:53.919 make coffee on a camp stove and sit by the creek, 270 00:14:54.200 --> 00:14:57.480 listening to the water flow over the rocks, watching mist 271 00:14:57.600 --> 00:15:00.679 rise from the surface as the sun warmed it. I 272 00:15:00.720 --> 00:15:03.759 spent the first month just learning the land. I walked 273 00:15:03.799 --> 00:15:07.519 every acre, following deer trails and old logging roads, mapping 274 00:15:07.559 --> 00:15:10.240 it all in my head. I found the best spots 275 00:15:10.240 --> 00:15:13.480 for a garden, identified which trees i'd harvest for lumber, 276 00:15:13.960 --> 00:15:17.679 located natural springs that bubbled up from underground and flowed 277 00:15:17.679 --> 00:15:21.639 into the creek. There were wild BlackBerry patches and stands 278 00:15:21.639 --> 00:15:25.360 of young chestnut trees, apple trees gone wild from some 279 00:15:25.519 --> 00:15:29.840 long abandoned homestead, still bearing fruit. The work was hard, 280 00:15:29.879 --> 00:15:32.320 but satisfying in a way i'd forgotten work could be. 281 00:15:33.200 --> 00:15:36.200 I cleared the cabin site by hand, cutting and removing 282 00:15:36.240 --> 00:15:39.360 trees with a chainsaw, pulling stumps with a come. 283 00:15:39.159 --> 00:15:40.480 Along and a lot of sweat. 284 00:15:41.240 --> 00:15:43.960 I leveled the ground with a mattock and shovel, building 285 00:15:44.039 --> 00:15:47.159 up the low spots with rocks from the creek. Every 286 00:15:47.240 --> 00:15:49.679 muscle in my body ached at the end of each day, 287 00:15:50.159 --> 00:15:53.720 but it was good pain, honest pain from honest work. 288 00:15:54.720 --> 00:15:57.279 I lost thirty pounds that first summer without even trying. 289 00:15:58.039 --> 00:16:02.000 The combination of physical labor and simple food, mostly canned goods, 290 00:16:02.039 --> 00:16:04.759 and what I could catch or forage, stripped away the 291 00:16:04.799 --> 00:16:08.120 soft layer of middle aged fat i'd been carrying. My 292 00:16:08.200 --> 00:16:11.039 hands got calloused again, the way they'd been when I 293 00:16:11.120 --> 00:16:13.480 was young and still believed that working with your hands 294 00:16:13.559 --> 00:16:17.240 was something to be proud of. Stay tuned for more 295 00:16:17.279 --> 00:16:18.240 sasquatch ot to see. 296 00:16:18.240 --> 00:16:19.120 We'll be right back. 297 00:16:19.200 --> 00:16:26.679 After these messages, I built the cabin slow and careful, 298 00:16:26.960 --> 00:16:29.639 the way my dad had taught me. Started with the 299 00:16:29.679 --> 00:16:33.159 foundation concrete piers set deep enough to get below the 300 00:16:33.200 --> 00:16:37.200 frost line, level and square and built to last. Then 301 00:16:37.240 --> 00:16:41.879 the floor joists and subflooring, checking and rechecking every measurement. 302 00:16:42.600 --> 00:16:45.720 I was in no hurry. This wasn't a weekend project 303 00:16:45.799 --> 00:16:48.440 or something I was doing to save money. This was 304 00:16:48.480 --> 00:16:52.320 my life. I was building board by board. The lumber 305 00:16:52.360 --> 00:16:55.000 came from my own land. I hired a guy with 306 00:16:55.039 --> 00:16:57.320 a portable sawmill to come up and cut the trees 307 00:16:57.360 --> 00:17:00.879 i'd marked, mostly oak and pine, with some poplar for 308 00:17:00.960 --> 00:17:01.840 interior work. 309 00:17:02.679 --> 00:17:03.759 The mill operator was. 310 00:17:03.679 --> 00:17:05.960 A mountain guy named Earl who'd been doing this for 311 00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:09.519 thirty years. He looked at my plans and nodded approvingly, 312 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:12.119 said it looked like a house that would stand long 313 00:17:12.160 --> 00:17:15.920 after we were both dead. Eighteen by twenty four feet 314 00:17:16.160 --> 00:17:18.920 with a steep metal roof and a stone chimney, I 315 00:17:19.000 --> 00:17:22.319 planned to lay myself big enough for one person to 316 00:17:22.359 --> 00:17:25.759 live comfortably, small enough to heat with a single wood stove. 317 00:17:26.680 --> 00:17:30.640 The design was simple and functional, no wasted space, no 318 00:17:30.759 --> 00:17:35.079 unnecessary decoration, just a solid, well built cabin that would 319 00:17:35.079 --> 00:17:37.480 shelter me from whatever the mountains could throw at it. 320 00:17:38.359 --> 00:17:40.880 I framed the walls with two by eights on sixteen 321 00:17:40.920 --> 00:17:45.480 inch centers, using traditional joinery where I could mortise, and 322 00:17:45.519 --> 00:17:49.400 tenin joints for the major connections. Everything fitted together like 323 00:17:49.440 --> 00:17:52.839 a puzzle. I'd work from first light until my hands 324 00:17:52.839 --> 00:17:55.839 were too tired to hold a hammer safely, then sit 325 00:17:55.880 --> 00:17:58.839 by the campfire, eating beans from a can and planning 326 00:17:58.880 --> 00:18:02.200 the next day's work. The chimney was the hardest part. 327 00:18:02.720 --> 00:18:05.559 I'd never laid stone before, but I found an old 328 00:18:05.599 --> 00:18:09.000 timer named claud who lived about ten miles down the mountain. 329 00:18:09.720 --> 00:18:11.599 He came up on weekends and taught me how to 330 00:18:11.640 --> 00:18:14.359 read the stone, how to find the face that wanted 331 00:18:14.359 --> 00:18:16.960 to show and the side that wanted to carry weight. 332 00:18:17.799 --> 00:18:20.720 We built that chimney one rock at a time, mixing 333 00:18:20.759 --> 00:18:23.799 mortar by hand and checking every course with a level. 334 00:18:24.680 --> 00:18:27.480 Claud was probably seventy years old, but he could work 335 00:18:27.519 --> 00:18:30.519 circles around me. He'd grown up in these mountains when 336 00:18:30.519 --> 00:18:33.119 people still built their own houses and grew their own 337 00:18:33.160 --> 00:18:36.720 food and fixed their own trucks. He told me stories 338 00:18:36.759 --> 00:18:39.799 while we worked, about the old days, when every hollow 339 00:18:39.839 --> 00:18:42.279 had a family in it, when people knew how to 340 00:18:42.319 --> 00:18:45.519 live off the land and take care of themselves. He 341 00:18:45.559 --> 00:18:48.640 also told me other stories about things he'd seen in 342 00:18:48.680 --> 00:18:51.079 the deep woods when he was hunting or cutting timber. 343 00:18:51.799 --> 00:18:55.240 Tracks that didn't match any animal. He knew, sounds that 344 00:18:55.279 --> 00:18:58.920 came from no creature in any book. Trees broken off 345 00:18:58.960 --> 00:19:03.119 eight feet above the ground, snapped clean like toothpicks. He'd 346 00:19:03.119 --> 00:19:05.720 tell these stories in a matter of fact way, like 347 00:19:05.759 --> 00:19:08.200 he was talking about the weather, but something in his 348 00:19:08.279 --> 00:19:11.880 eyes suggested he wasn't joking. I didn't pay much attention 349 00:19:11.920 --> 00:19:15.240 to those stories at the time. Claude was old, and 350 00:19:15.319 --> 00:19:18.960 old mountain people were known for their tall tails. Besides, 351 00:19:19.319 --> 00:19:21.440 I was too busy and too happy to worry about 352 00:19:21.480 --> 00:19:24.640 whatever might be lurking in the forest. I was building 353 00:19:24.680 --> 00:19:27.240 my dream, and nothing was going to interfere with that. 354 00:19:28.279 --> 00:19:30.440 By October I had the walls up and the roof on, 355 00:19:31.119 --> 00:19:33.400 the chimney was drawing clean, and the wood stove was 356 00:19:33.480 --> 00:19:36.519 keeping the place warm. I'd put in a hand pumped 357 00:19:36.519 --> 00:19:39.640 well using a kit i'd ordered online, and after three 358 00:19:39.720 --> 00:19:42.839 days of hard digging, I hit water at thirty five feet, 359 00:19:43.559 --> 00:19:46.640 sweet cold water that tasted better than anything I'd ever 360 00:19:46.720 --> 00:19:50.359 gotten from a tap. I built an outhouse using plans 361 00:19:50.359 --> 00:19:54.480 from a nineteen forties homesteading guide, positioning it downhill from 362 00:19:54.480 --> 00:19:57.839 the well in the cabin. It wasn't glamorous, but with 363 00:19:57.960 --> 00:20:01.839 lime and proper ventilation, it didn't smell too bad. I 364 00:20:01.920 --> 00:20:04.240 was prouder of that simple toilet than i'd ever been 365 00:20:04.279 --> 00:20:06.640 of the marble bathroom and the house Sarah got in 366 00:20:06.680 --> 00:20:10.720 the divorce. The solar system was more complicated than I'd expected, 367 00:20:11.039 --> 00:20:14.119 but I figured it out through trial and error. Four 368 00:20:14.200 --> 00:20:17.200 panels on the south facing roof connected to a charge 369 00:20:17.240 --> 00:20:20.880 controller and a bank of deep cycle batteries, enough power 370 00:20:20.920 --> 00:20:24.279 for LED lights and a radio, maybe a laptop computer 371 00:20:24.359 --> 00:20:26.519 if I ever decided I needed one. 372 00:20:26.599 --> 00:20:27.119 I didn't. 373 00:20:27.839 --> 00:20:29.799 The whole point was to get away from screens and 374 00:20:29.880 --> 00:20:34.119 constant connectivity. I had running water gravity fed from a 375 00:20:34.160 --> 00:20:37.240 tank I'd installed in the loft, filled by the hand pump, 376 00:20:38.000 --> 00:20:40.920 a propane refrigerator in stove i'd bought used from a 377 00:20:40.960 --> 00:20:45.519 dealer who specialized in off grid appliances, enough firewood stacked 378 00:20:45.599 --> 00:20:48.559 under a lean to to last through the winter, everything 379 00:20:48.599 --> 00:20:52.200 I needed and nothing I didn't. Winter was hard but good. 380 00:20:52.799 --> 00:20:55.920 I'd stockpiled food and supplies, but i still had to 381 00:20:55.960 --> 00:20:59.720 work for everything. Water froze in the line sometimes, and 382 00:20:59.759 --> 00:21:02.480 I'd have to thaw them out with a hair dryer powered. 383 00:21:02.160 --> 00:21:03.279 By the solar batteries. 384 00:21:03.880 --> 00:21:06.839 The woodstove needed feeding every few hours day and night 385 00:21:06.920 --> 00:21:10.359 to keep the cabin warm. Snow made the access road 386 00:21:10.480 --> 00:21:13.559 impassable for weeks at a time, which meant hiking out 387 00:21:13.559 --> 00:21:15.200 to my truck when I needed supplies. 388 00:21:15.920 --> 00:21:16.640 But I loved it. 389 00:21:17.319 --> 00:21:20.359 Loved the simplicity of it, the way every task had 390 00:21:20.359 --> 00:21:23.640 a clear purpose. Loved the silence of snow falling in 391 00:21:23.680 --> 00:21:26.759 the forest, the way it muffled every sound until the 392 00:21:26.799 --> 00:21:30.200 whole world seemed wrapped in cotton. I read books I'd 393 00:21:30.240 --> 00:21:32.559 been meaning to get to for years, The Row and 394 00:21:32.640 --> 00:21:35.880 Abby and Annie Dillard, writers who understood what I was 395 00:21:35.920 --> 00:21:39.240 trying to do. I wrote in a journal, recording the 396 00:21:39.279 --> 00:21:43.160 small details of each day, what I saw, what I built, 397 00:21:43.640 --> 00:21:46.799 how I felt. I was sleeping eight hours a night 398 00:21:46.880 --> 00:21:50.279 for the first time since college, waking up refreshed instead 399 00:21:50.279 --> 00:21:54.240 of groggy. My blood pressure dropped to normal levels. The 400 00:21:54.319 --> 00:21:57.559 constant anxiety that had been my companion for so many. 401 00:21:57.400 --> 00:21:59.079