September 27th marked one year since Hurricane Helene ravaged western North Carolina, including our community and our home and property. It's been a year of hard work, determination, struggle and victory.

I love our little cabin at Linwell Falls. While it’s small, it’s the perfect size for us for now as we formulate plans for this place, including building out a larger (about 1800 SF) post-and-beam stable into a more substantial house. The soaring ceilings - 12’ to the top of the walls and 20’ to the peak of the ceiling make it feel much bigger than it is, and the 500 SF deck around it gives us lots of outdoor living space - and we live both inside and out when we are here. ~~

We have a strong sense of determination and that part of us immediately kicked in once we were finally able to reach our place after Hurricane Helene. the damage we saw was so immense in scale, and the work in front of us so looming, we knew we couldn’t get bogged down in despair. We aren’t afraid of work, so we dove in, first night back after making it in, and began figuring out what we had to do next. We work together well, we plan well, and we'd be put to the test. ~~ Joey

PART 2 OF 3 - Hurricane Helene rampaged through Western North Carolina, and directly over our home. She destroyed small town around us, changing the course of rivers and streams, and devastating our property, washing much of it away. It took us 6 days to finally get back in to survey the damage, this is that story. ~~ Joey and Scott