Happy Anniversary Mirkwood!

In 1980 5 families bought an inholding in the middle of the National Forest Wilderness Area in the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas. It is very REMOTE, and you have to cross a creek 9 times to get to the location. In 1982 they began bringing this pre-Civil War cabin in log by log. There wasn't a real road-a track of sorts. So a road had to be made. Even today, only very old, beat up, 4 wheel drive vehicles can get into the cabin. So with friends and family members, this cabin was completed eventually. It has become tradition that people come often and regularly to camp out, eat, and have fun. There are specific days that are always known that there will be BIG gatherings, and the last weekend in October is one of them. And this was the 25th anniversary, which means there were over 30 people there this weekend!There was half of a pig that was roasted. The rest of the evening meal was potlucked with enough food for an army!

There was music played and sung in the late evening by lantern light and fireplace light. My friend CJ and I spun facing each other right in front of the fireplace.


This was a faux gingerbread cabin created by one of the group of the cabin. The kids ate it all night long. She duplicated the front and back exactly, and included a stained glass window with melted lifesavers in the window over the loft.

It was Halloween weekend-so there were ghostly ghoulies everywhere. There were even ghosts on the pathway to the outhouse. The kids decorated Friday night before most everyone got there on Saturday.The kids trick or treated and dressed up.

And this young lady was estatic to find other knitters there! She was working on a scarf and hood combo, and brought it along to work on. She was so happy to see the two spinning wheels and knitting bags. So we had four knitters and that is enough to have our very own first knitting group meeting at Mirkwood.

So we all crawled into our tents last night, exhausted from the day and the food. Some from the drink. And I listened to owls, coyotes, snores from other tents, and all kinds of sounds. The dew was so heavy this morning that some of us thought it was raining. And this morning we all crawled out, some more slowly than the others, and we built the campfire, brewed the coffee, snacked on various cakes, and then cooked a HUGE breakfast to feed everyone. It was another successful, fun, and family-oriented weekend in the woods. After breakfast, groups broke up into hiking groups, sleeping groups, clean-up groups, and just talking groups. It was just like a family reunion. It was another successful Mirkwood reunion.