Back towards the garden and fire
pit is the summer house - a screened room that accommodates guests in
warm weather, facilitates outdoor cooking, and is a welcome retreat from
mosquitoes when they are in season.
Cheryl’s studio is a ½ mile
stroll through the woods and around the wetlands. A straw bale
structure, it staunchly 'pooh-poohs" any notion that straw bale must
only be done in warm, dry climates - for northern Minnesota is neither.
The secret, we are told, is in the overhang - there MUST be enough
overhang so that the body of the building does not get rained/snowed on.
The thickness of the walls gives a muffled feel to the interior, calming
and relaxing, but uplifting and positive thanks to the light stucco
finish and large windows. A second vegetable garden, another
outhouse, and the earth sheltered greenhouse are also nearby.
The permeating aura of the
entire homestead is one of complimentary alliances - forest and garden,
structure and nature, self sufficiency and inter-dependence. And
at the heart of the homestead are the homesteaders themselves.
Bruce and Cheryl are one of
those truly great timeless couples that you must refer to together like
Fred and Wilma, Hansel and Gretel, Ben and Jerry. Singly they are
phenomenal - Bruce is explosive power and determination, constant motion
and mental wheels always turning. Cheryl is every bit as powerful
in a quiet, calming, gentle and deliberate way.
Together they are indomitable.
Together they have taken a
beautiful parcel of forest and gently molded it into more than a
homestead.
Once you pass through the gate
at Lilac Moon, beyond the silence, beyond the beauty, beyond the very
real workings of a homestead, is a quiet certainty that this is a home.
