Features of Fern Hollow
What’s Special About this Place?
See what it’s like to stay in a fully restored 1850s Norwegian log cabin. It’s furnished with antiques, old books, and textiles, but you can LIVE in it – you don’t have to tiptoe around as though you were in a museum. Though it’s been made very special by the passing of time and the changing of the world, in its time the log cabin was a home for the common person.
You can visit one of the many great eateries in Decorah, or you can make your own food in the log house kitchen. There are basic pots and pans and dinnerware there, and if there’s something else you need you can walk up to our place to borrow it. You are welcome to harvest food from our garden for meals that you are preparing in the cabin.
Are you interested in sustainable living practices? Here you’ll see many eco-house features: solar electricity, rainwater collection, local wood harvesting, solar food drying, gardening and food preservation, and more.
Here there are many ways to be outside: there are walking trails, and Canoe Creek, just a few minutes’ walk, is perfect for wading and dipping. The woods are rich in hardwood trees, native wildflowers, and songbirds. In the summer you can have campfires and watch fireflies. In autumn you can gather black walnuts and take as many home with you as you’d like!
It’s a short drive (or bike ride) to many well-loved local destinations:ReRooted Connections, Seed Savers Exchange, Vesterheim Museum, and more.
Depending on when you come, you might want to participate in some of the goings-on around our place: apple cider pressing, maple syrup boiling, gardening/food preservation, wood splitting, carpentry, seasonal celebrations, music nights…
Are you interested in history? The place is rich with family history, and Decorah itself nurtures your passion for stories of the past - and not only Norwegian history!
We live in a house very close to the cabin. If you want to be alone, it’s easy to accomplish. If you want to mingle with our family and its outdoor doings, that’s easy too! There’s plenty of space for setting up tents. If you’d like to bring more people than you want to share the cabin with, some of you might like to camp.
We can give you a tour of our home. We can tour you around the woods anytime. We can connect you with the people or places you might want to know about in the Decorah area, because we’ve lived here for 40 years and know a lot about this place.
If you have a question that we can’t answer, we’ll find someone who can.