Cabin Quotes

“All too often, an average evening at home would consist of little more than sitting on the couch, phone in hand, letting my attention lazily ping-pong between Facebook and Instagram and YouTube and whatever happened to be on TV. Hours were spent like this. Days were spent like this. Weekends were lost to this behavior. Sure, there would be evenings spent cooking dinner with friends, Sunday afternoons doing laundry or other house chores that demanded some energy and time. But so many tasks felt like they required a Herculean effort to break free from the malaise of modern life. Maybe I was just incredibly lazy or mildly depressed or who knows. Whatever it was, it was just too damn easy to live like that. Worse was seeing so many others living the exact same way, making it almost impossible to justify the feeling that something about it was wrong.”
― Patrick Hutchison, Cabin: Off the Grid Adventures with a Clueless Craftsman

“I wasn’t worried about being defined as a copywriter, whatever that meant. What I was worried about was being defined as someone who didn’t have the courage or gumption or intelligence or whatever was necessary to get out of spending half his waking hours on a task and at a place that he didn’t enjoy or find fulfilling. I didn’t care if I was or wasn’t a writer. I was worried I was someone who let life just sort of happen to them. I was worried about being stuck, just like I’d been in the mud, and not following the instinct to fight my way out. The cabin offered a way to cope with those feelings because it felt like a version of fighting back, of resisting being bored, being stuck, giving up. Even imagining the cabin and its laundry list of projects was a worthwhile distraction from my daily routines. And in early summer, I got good news. I wouldn’t just be imagining cabin projects much longer.”
― Patrick Hutchison, Cabin: Off the Grid Adventures with a Clueless Craftsman

“Even before I owned one, I'd always taken issue with the casual way people throw around the word 'cabin.' It seemed that somewhere along the line, the definition of a cabin went from a primitive, basic-needs shelter to any structure that had more than six or seven trees around it. I'd once been invited to a friend's supposed cabin only to arrive and find that it had a basketball court. Cabins do not have basketball courts. Cabins have tetanus.

True cabins are hardly better than tents. They have limited amenities, basic comforts, and inefficient systems that make you thankful for the plush life you live 95 percent of the time. They are not anyplace with a sign above the toilet that says, "Life Is Better in the Woods."

Cabins are small, musty places. They are poorly finished, outfitted with the hand-me-downs of people's real homes. They are repositories for knives that are a bit too dull, furniture that no longer matches, and artwork showcasing anything but good taste. When you enter a cabin, there should be a sense of encountering how things used to be, not just a variation on how they already are.”
― Patrick Hutchison, Cabin: Off the Grid Adventures with a Clueless Craftsman

“It was like digging a hole and then stopping to wonder if it was too deep to get out of, then going right back to digging. The problem with that kind of reasoning and being the sort of person who buys into it is that the trap it creates only becomes stronger with each passing year.”
― Patrick Hutchison, Cabin: Off the Grid Adventures with a Clueless Craftsman

“I spent an hour and a half in Home Depot last night. I only left because they closed and kicked me out. Just so they didn’t think I was insane, I impulse bought a drill set at random. Now I’ve got a roomful of tools I’m too scared to open for fear of not being able to return them,”
― Patrick Hutchison, Cabin: Off the Grid Adventures with a Clueless Craftsman

“Logically, I knew that it was absurd to compare an entire life to the best 2 percent of someone else’s, but it was damn hard sometimes.”
― Patrick Hutchison, Cabin: Off the Grid Adventures with a Clueless Craftsman

“What’s not rare is the quiet, persistent voice that nags us into wondering what else might be possible, what change might be a bit better for us in the long run. This story is about what happens when we give that voice room to grow. It reminds me of the water thing.”
― Patrick Hutchison, Cabin: Off the Grid Adventures with a Clueless Craftsman

“What I was worried about was being defined as someone who didn’t have the courage or gumption or intelligence or whatever was necessary to get out of spending half his waking hours on a task and at a place that he didn’t enjoy or find fulfilling. I didn’t care if I was or wasn’t a writer. I was worried I was someone who let life just sort of happen to them.”
― Patrick Hutchison, Cabin: Off the Grid Adventures with a Clueless Craftsman

“Before the cabin, when I was desperate for some passion, some calling, something I could point to when people asked about life, I think I felt that pressure because the reality was, I wasn’t doing much besides going to work, coming home, and going to sleep. Sure, there were dinners with friends and weekend trips here and there, but the majority of time was spent in the monotony of a routine I could not find engaging. There’s a truth to the saying that your work doesn’t define who you are, but damn if it isn’t hard to believe otherwise when you’re in it. Plus, I think that saying sort of missed the point.”
― Patrick Hutchison, Cabin: Off the Grid Adventures with a Clueless Craftsman

“There’s a hopelessness that comes with reaching the peak of anything because once you’re at the top, there’s nowhere else to go. All you’re left with is the realization that the promise of reaching someplace higher was always the best part of climbing in the first place.”
― Patrick Hutchison, Cabin: Off the Grid Adventures with a Clueless Craftsman

“After a week or two or three under the fluorescent lights of my office, getting back to the cabin felt almost medically necessary, so much so that I often thought back to a time when doctors would prescribe “clear country air” to address the ailments of folks living in industrialized cities. I wondered how many people would still benefit from a prescription for cabin time instead of a bottle of pills.”
― Patrick Hutchison, Cabin: Off the Grid Adventures with a Clueless Craftsman