WorK on the Mountain Homestead Cabin Progresses

Our first post on this blog celebrates work completed over the past year at the Mountain Heritage Homestead, our flagship project-based, placed-based educational initiative. Local Studies students have made significant progress with the cabin, working under the direction of former Local Studies student Dakota Etheridge, our construction coordinator. Mountain Building Supply of Blairsville generously donated lumber for porch railings and steps. Students have built the steps. Lumber for the cabin ceiling and floors has been sourced with the help of the Woody Gap Sports Club and  is now sawed and drying, thanks to community member Jerry Wood. We tremendously appreciate the help we have received from all of our generous supporters.

Four windows for the cabin were purchased this year out of Mountain Heritage funds. Those dollars, stretched by a discount through Mountain Building Supply, reflect generous donations and many, many student-made apple pies and jellies sold at the Local Studies Mountain Market during the Indian Summer Festival each fall. Mr. Etheridge helped students install the first of these windows in the cabin, with three more to go this spring.

Local Studies students have also researched chinking recipes as they have prepared the cabin for chinking day, when the whole school will gather to get the job done. Staff and students alike  look forward to putting on old clothes, getting messy, and seeing the cabin transformed. From that point on, we'll see the light of day through the cabin windows rather than through gaps between logs. Current and former students always enjoy being able to say, "I helped build that!"

Stay tuned for updates on the cabin and other adventures in learning and doing at Woody Gap School.

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