WHO WE ARE
Our names are Steve and Janna Little.  We are the owners and builders of this cabin.  We would like to tell you a little bit about ourselves.  Steve was born in Selma, Oregon, lived in Seattle from as a youngster, then moved to Prospect. Steve’s dad was a timber faller and there was work in this area.  Janna was born and raised in Butte Falls, Oregon, then lived  in Ashland until her dad moved the family to Union Creek, Oregon in his job with the US Forest Service.  We both graduated from Prospect High School where we met & fell in love.  We married in 1969, Steve served his country in Viet Nam in 1970-71, came home and continued his career with the US Forest Service here in Prospect. We have lived on this property for 30 + years and raised 2 sons here who also graduated from Prospect High School.  Steve worked his entire career as a Wild land Fire Fighter in Prospect, retiring in 1999 as Assistant Fire Management Officer.  Janna began her career with the US Forest Service in 1984 as a fire lookout, worked in reforestation until 2001.  Since that time we have taken on many projects. One of the most rewarding one has been this cabin.

THE CABIN
It began as a dream to have a one story house to live in when we got too old to climb stairs!  It evolved into a place to showcase our love of wood and our woodworking skills.  Also, we felt that we wanted to share our love of this area with people who may not get to see it otherwise. 

Almost all of the lumber in the cabin (except the framing package) is from our 5 acres that the cabin sits on.  The cedar interior walls and the exterior siding came from several cedars that fell in a windstorm in 2002.  The interior blue pine is also from that same windstorm.  We were fortunate enough to be acquainted with a local lumberman who owns a wood mizer sawmill and was willing to mill our logs into the beautiful lumber you see around you.  You will find Harvey’s picture in a scrapbook at the cabin.  We couldn’t have had such a nice outcome without his help.  He also milled the white fir boards that make up the ceiling and the alder that we used to construct the kitchen cabinets.  The only ‘foreign wood’ is the flooring, a hardwood from Malaysia called Kempis.

The unique wood making up the bathroom trim and drawers and on the island in the kitchen is ‘cap wood’. That is a by-product of cutting a log into lumber.  Normally these caps are burned but we found a good use for them!  The drawer and cupboard pulls in the kitchen are pine roots dried for two years and fashioned into handles.  The stairway is a blend of several woods.  The treads are Ponderosa Pine that was originally cut on an Alaskan Sawmill (a chain saw on a frame).  We planed them and worked them into what we needed. The center log is an Oregon Big Leaf Maple left over from some of the local logging.  It was destined to be cut up into firewood but we rescued it.  The Lodgepole Pine railing system on the stairway is all natural bends. We gathered these during several days of traveling to the higher elevation near Crater Lake National Park where Lodgepole grows naturally. All of the inside beams including the massive overhead beam in the great room are Ponderosa Pine from Harvey.  The beams on all 3 porches are Douglas Fir we cut ourselves on our little band saw mill from trees on this property that were killed by borer beetles.

The bathroom countertop is a special piece of wood we have had for over 25 years.  Steve’s dad fell the Sugar Pine tree it came from and helped mill it up on an Alaskan Sawmill when we were building our log home in the early 1980’s.  It was leftover from that construction and has been in our barn since then. 
Steve has a talent for seeing the possibilities in all kinds of wood.  He has put his woodworking skills to great use in the many things he has made for the home.  He made the front door from locally milled Sugar Pine.  We used the same source for the window ledges in the living area.  When it came to building the log bed he used Lodgepole Pine from a load of firewood we had delivered and also added Lodgepole we had gathered.  He constructed the coffee table from a Ponderosa Pine that Harvey milled for us and the same wood is used in the entertainment center and the nightstands in the bedroom.  It was a pine from our property that had been struck and killed by lightening a few years ago. When it came to the dining table he used wood from several sources.  The top is Ponderosa Pine from Harvey (the same as the stair treads) but the legs are from a different source.  They are braces that had been used on an old canal system for hydroelectric power that has been in the Prospect area since the 1930’s.  The flumes were replaced last year.  All of the fences around the cabin are constructed from redwood planks taken from the original canal flumes of that system of canals.

Janna has been doing Scroll Saw Art for several years now and decided to put it to use in the cabin.  She created the wolves seen on the entertainment center as well as the eagle on the wall.  There is an eagle that can be seen at the top of the stairs on the end of the overhead beam. Steve helps her a lot with picking out the right wood and finishing it.  It’s definitely a joint effort.

OUTSIDE
The back yard has a unique structure we call the ‘Hut’.  The beams supporting the roof are Yewwood.  The two massive front uprights are from the same yew tree.  One of that size is very unusual.  It was found in an old logging site and brought in to Harvey who gave it to us.  The roof is the redwood from the flumes we mentioned earlier.  We truly enjoy using any kind of ‘found’ wood (big and small) in our projects.  We feel it’s a shame to see it go to waste after the loggers are done.

All of the rock found in the patio area and around the house has been gathered from Red Blanket Mountain and Red Blanket Creek.  As you can see, there are a variety of colors and types.  The front and on the north side where the hostas are is all LAVA rock.  This unique rock came from the eruption of Mt. Mazama, now Crater Lake.  Actually all of the rock and the soil, which we call pumie dirt came from that great mountain.  Pumie is pumice; the ash from the volcano. In some places in this area it is hundreds of feet deep and in others you can see the lava flows just below the surface.  In the flowerbed behind the ‘Hut’ we have planted a large pumie (pumice) rock.  They are very porous and lightweight.  Pumie rocks actually float when they are dry.

CURRENTLY
We currently live in a log home a few hundred yards behind the cabin.  We constructed it starting in 1979.  It will always be a ‘work in progress’.  We live there with our dog  Dooley…our black Labradoodle (Lab & Standard Poodle).   We will try very hard to keep him at our home but if he should show up at your cabin…please shoo him back home.  Thank You for understanding a puppy at heart!

One of the reasons we are opening the cabin for vacationers is to meet new people.  If you are interested in visiting we would like to come down and visit…only if you have time and want company.  We fully understand that you may want some very private time just to relax.

Please write about your stay on the stationary provided in a basket near the stereo so we can add it to the cabin scrapbook.