When I first heard about the fire, I was devastated. But I am now incredibly thankful that it burned down the original cabin. That fire changed me for the better, though I certainly don’t want a repeat anytime soon…
This has been the greatest adventure of my life, and I’m lucky enough to continue living that adventure on a fairly regular basis. I love our patch of land more than any other place on Earth. I will never be able to adequately describe my ever evolving connection to those 20 Acres, but my best attempt would be to say that my soul resides there, and it has for as long as I can remember.
I cannot possibly express my gratitude for everyone that was ever involved in 20 Acres, but I’m going to try and express some of it now.
Thank you to the original cabin pioneers: Ray, Meriel, Ginny, David, Scotty, Herb, Jean, et al. Your legacy has brought immeasurable joy to dozens if not hundreds of people, and will continue to do so for many many years.
Thank you to Dick, the godfather of the new pioneers. I sometimes wonder if this would have ever happened without you. Maybe it would have at some point. Who knows. I will say though, with absolute conviction, that if it ever burns down again, we will rebuild.
Thank you Tim. You were once a feared uncle, and now you are a close friend and a trusted confidant. I have enjoyed every minute of rebuilding with you, and I’m grateful for the relationship we built in the process. And many thanks to all your Big Sur friends!
Thank you Jerry. We all learned SO MUCH from you. Your contribution cannot be overstated, and it was a pleasure working and laughing and drinking lunch-break-beers with you. You are the man! I talk about your style of teaching fairly often. You gave us general guidance and then slyly watched us from the corner of your eye. When you noticed that we were performing up to cabin code, you let us continue to do our thing as best as we had figured it out. When you noticed we were struggling, you gave us pointers in a very friendly “maybe you should try X instead” kind of way. Seriously awesome!
Side note, this is cabin code according to Jerry:
“It’s a cabin, not a fucking violin. It doesn’t have to be perfect.”
Indeed!
Thank you Dave. I can’t even count the number of times I said “Let’s drive for 10 hours each way to Big Sur this weekend and work on the cabin,” and you responded with “Let’s do it!” You are family and you are my brother. This is your legacy as much as it is any of ours. Although, your stubborn attempt to hammer nails into a redwood knot while the rest of us were on a lunch break during the deck build will always stand as your ultimate legacy. Just one more…
To all my wonderful cousins: THIS IS OUR CABIN KEEPER GENERATION. We’ve done great so far. Let’s keep it up! We are the keepers. And for those of you with kids of your own: they are the next generation of keepers. You can send them up with me or Dick or Tim or Ian or Cody or whoever else (including yourself) any time you want. I promise they will love it.
Thank you to our VERY GRACIOUS neighbors to the North for your incredible hospitality throughout!!!
Thank you to all the other amazing people that worked so hard to make this happen. I know some of you very well, while others I’ve only had the brief pleasure of meeting or have never even met, but you each worked your ass off. You build a cabin on a cliff in the middle of nowhere, you built a deck, you hammered thousands of nails and sawed hundreds of pieces of wood, you pickaxed and shoveled and McLeoded landslides to fix the trail, you carried and arranged thousand of pounds of materials during the two helicopter drops and also hiked up hundreds of pounds of supplies strapped to your back or awkwardly carried with bare hands, you carried giant rocks up steep slopes to build stairs from the deck to the tub, you trusted me when I took you on crazy off-trail adventure hikes, you regretted trusting me, you cooked and ate delicious meals with me, you watched dozens of sunsets with me up on the ridge, and sometimes you just plain relaxed and soaked in the nature with me. I love you all!
Special and very personal thanks to: Eric, Jason, Karen, Cindy, Min, Paul, and Nanya. You all worked so hard and have been delightful cabin companions for years.
Thank you to my good friend and Thursday Throwdown companion DJ Vu Do and his team at Syndicate Labs for all your help in making this website, and also for hosting it.
And last but not least, thank you to everyone else who contributed in their own way, whatever it was. We are all grateful for your support. You gave donations, you gave emotional support, you gave encouragement, you smiled at the pictures and stories we relentlessly shared, you asked about our crazy cabin building project and then listened to our ever expanding ramblings about how great our cabin in Big Sur is, you were told about how great our cabin in Big Sur is even though you didn’t ask, and you sent so many good vibes our way. You all rock!
