Escape the city on a road trip within driving distance of DC 4.5hrs, Baltimore 4hrs, Pittsburgh 2hrs, NYC 6hrs, and Ohio. We are a 40-acre working homestead with animals, gardens, woodlands, and wildlife. To stay on this property is a treat for those who appreciate nature, Americana, and quietude. Fully vaccinated guests don't need a facemask. Nature is all around and is readily available to you mask free! Our homestead is on a chill mountainside just outside of Elkins. We live here full time with our farm animals, wildlife and woods, under the sun and stars. Good news, we have a generous cancellation policy that gets you a full refund a day before your trip, if you need to cancel. Your linens and bed coverings are fresh. You get your own hand drying towel, soap, and hand sanitizer. We have sanitizer for your use if you’d like to spray surfaces before and after your contact. If a guest becomes ill during their stay, there is a local hospital minutes away, as well as several urgent care clinics where virus testing is available. The fire department/EMT services our road. We are 10 minutes from Davis Medical Center hospital. We have outdoor furniture and two fire pits for dining and maximum fresh air away from the city. Prospective guests should look at our photos and read our description carefully. This is a long and detailed profile because we have a unique place, but it’s not for everyone. We want you to enjoy your stay, which means you are responsible for deciding if it’s a good fit for you. You will see, hear and smell our small and friendly flock of sheep if they are pastured up the hill behind the house during your stay. Ask us where they are before you book your stay, if that's important to you. Please ask any questions before booking, we are happy to answer. Overview of things that some people have commented on: 1) It’s a steep gravel driveway and some people are not comfortable driving up it. Parking is 200’ from the house or at the bottom of the driveway. It is safe, despite the connotations of the very big no trespassing signs and fence along the road when you turn onto our driveway 2) No air conditioning 3) No heat in the lavatory 4) Working homestead means farm animals and sounds, projects and activities, occasional volunteers and tours. We have a happy medium sized dog named Jozie and two friendly indoor/outdoor cats, Blue and Berry. Jozie only has access to the first floor 5) Bathtub for an old fashioned pour over bath is next to the kitchen. You get privacy to bathe 6) Nighttime woodland driving can be spooky if you’re not used to it 7) The bigger your suitcase/backpack, the harder it may be to get it up the ladder to your room. Some guests prefer to bring a backpack 8) The moon and stars through the big picture window can shine real bright on you as you sleep, making it seem like a light is on 9) Our guests enjoy complementary coffee/tea and homemade baked goods or fresh bread with our jam 10) In some winter conditions the driveway may be too slick vehicle. We offer a ride up with your things, but there are rare times when we all have to walk in from the mailbox to the house. In which case, we use an ice fishing sled to get your bags up and back If this sounds good so far, please continue reading for more details... Guests have the opportunity to explore and experience a partially off-the-grid homestead and property under renovation. Located at the top of a hollow on a 2,600 foot elevation hillside, the house is situated within a dramatic rolling landscape with dense biodynamic forests. This homestead was built during the American movement called back-to-the-land, in which young people left the cities in favor of a simpler lifestyle in a rural environment where they could grow their own food and raise their children. We are Margaret and David, this has been our home since 2017, after leaving Los Angeles and a year of traveling the nation. We consider ourselves stewards of this historically significant home and way of life. Guests are guaranteed a unique homestead experience that looks and functions different from typical homes. Depending on the time of year, we are baking bread, digging ramps (wild leeks), pressing apple cider, picking berries, cooking maple syrup, gardening, raising and occasionally butchering animals, canning food, tending bee hives, hunting for mushrooms, hosting nature programs, campfire cookouts and stargazing. Our small batch foods feed ourselves, friends and customers. We’ve been told that to sleep under the stars in our guest room creates a sensation of being in a planetarium. Indeed, there are no curtains up there, but there's no one around to peek in. You have woods on one side and open space on the other. On a nice clear night, the moon will bathe you in its glow. We have a tin roof, which you can hear when it rains. You may hear nuts falling from trees or owls hooting and maybe our ducks and sheep up the hill. It all merges into a sublime nature soundtrack. Your room is the top floor of the house, an easy climb up a wooden ladder. It is all green and blue through the windows. The vaulted ceiling is lined with wood. Through a door is a small private deck, from which you can look out over our land and the mature tree canopy of the hollow (pronounced “holler” in Appalachia “Appa-LATCH-uh”). The guest room is up a ladder outside our room. Sound carries between the two. The guest room is approximately 8 feet by 10 feet with a vaulted ceiling and large picture window. It is simply appointed with two chairs, extra blankets, a lamp and a small cabinet to put your things in. The soft area rug feels good under foot. The floor is a nice finished hardwood. Your bedding is exceptional because we want you to have a great night’s sleep. Your queen size mattress is by Tuft & Needle. Sheets, pillow cases, duvet cover, and all season down alternative comforter are (mostly) by the award winning, eco-friendly and socially compliant California Design Den. There are 2 kinds of pillows to choose from. We strongly recommend that guests bring shoes or firm soled slippers to wear in the house. All the floors except the guest room may feel cold and/or dirty, and bare feet can be sensitive to the rungs of the homemade ladder. We have a modern appliances: propane fueled cookstove, refrigerator, dishwasher, and on demand hot water heater. However, the only running hot and cold water in the house is at the kitchen sink. Most guests wash their hands and face, and brushes their teeth at the kitchen sink. The ambitious three-story home is architecturally unique in its details and craftsmanship. Built piece by piece by friends and family of the previous owners, this home is framed and sided from local red oak. It features exposed beams, a second floor overlook into the kitchen below, hand carved switch plates, stained glass windows, two covered decks, a solarium and large picture windows for passive solar heating. The open floor plan on each floor is anchored by a central 4-foot-square chimney that runs the vertical height of the house. One entire floor is surfaced with flagstone collected from the property. The home has two wood stoves. One, a vintage cast iron Fisher stove that heats home and water. The other, a vintage Tirolia wood burning cook stove, great for cooking meals on. During cold months we also cook on the Fisher stove. After being largely vacant for more than a decade, forty years of work on the house and land resumed when Margaret and David moved in. This is not an active construction site. Rather, projects unfold as they do. The third floor, like the rest of the house, needs trim on the windows, repairs on walls with staining or a bit of damage, and new wiring on some of the lights. But it's the most finished room in the house! The pictures we’ve provided show the details. We’re slowly doing some work on the house, mostly on the outside. So the front deck right now is off limits. There are other great places to sit though. We take pride in our home, our buildings and animals, our gardens and our land. Wildlife thrives here and abundance is everywhere. Having said all that, welcome to West Virginia! Our neighbor at the bottom of the mountain does have a salvage yard. However, we like to think that we have heaven at the top. Contact us to book a longer stay than our published maximum. Check it out, we are mostly off grid and only a portion of our electricity comes from the grid. Spring water comes from a spring box below the big maple tree near the garden. Drinking water is filtered spring water, using a Berkey filter. We also have a gray water system and no septic, water harvesting, solar, passive solar and wood stove heating, flushless composting privy (bathroom), and very limited plumbing in the house. No air conditioning. The 3rd floor guest room is the most finished room in the house. In addition to the large picture window, it has 6 smaller windows that open and a door to a small deck that overlooks the hillside. There a screen on the door to help keep insects out during warmer months. Since the bed is right next to the big window, we added thermal curtains during the winter to help keep the cold at bay if you wish. Some guests close the curtains on nights with a full moon. Lavatory (shared): The compost privy is a small building located right next to the house, connected by a small covered deck. There is no plumbing and no heat in this bathroom. We have an eco-friendly flushless pit toilet. No water is wasted. It can be chilly in there during cold weather, so bundle up. Hand washing is at the kitchen sink, where the running water is located. You get your own "guest" toilet tissue, because, well these days, you should. Bathing (private): Well, it's private in that when someone wants to bathe, everyone gets out. We go upstairs or we go outside. No big deal. Bathing is in a clawfoot tub, with hot water that you pour over yourself as you wash and rinse. We can provide soap and shampoo/conditioner that rinses easily. Plus it's better for our land. We have no septic and any water that goes down a drain (grey water) is water that goes into the soil. We prefer bio friendly cleaners for that reason. Water: Potable water comes from a natural spring on our land. Wise water use is important here, as during dry season our spring water may be limited. Rain water is harvested for watering animals and plants. The kitchen sink has cold running water only. We heat wash water on the stove. Drinking water is filtered through a Berkey filter. Meals: We gladly provide complimentary coffee/tea, organic half and half, and a couple kinds of sugar to choose from. Ask us about extras or a full breakfast. Your own light cooking is ok. We ask that preparing and cooking is limited to 30 minutes so we can make our meals too. Please remember that our water comes from a spring and is not unlimited. Also, no animal fats down the drain, for the sake of the gray water system. There is room in the refrigerator to store your perishables. Please no messy foods in the guest room. For those who plan on cooking, we have "guest" salt and pepper, and full access to cookware and such. Campfire ring, grill and firewood: Two campfire rings are available to you, along with camp chairs and tiki torches and other cookout equipment (such as cookware) that will enhance your experience. Tell us the day before your arrive what you will need. Outdoor features: You are welcome to explore the property, we can provide you with a map. We don’t have formal trails, but you’ll find remnants of old logging roads and game trails. They are beautiful wooded walks now. Sturdy shoes are recommended. Bees, sheep, chickens, ducks and the vegetable garden are protected from wildlife with electric fences. You may look but please don’t touch the fences. Homesteading activities: Everything we do is small batch, labor intensive and seasonal. Our chicken processing area is not visible from the house. We do not schedule meat processing during guest stays. We also do home canning, fermenting, dehydration, drying and baking in the kitchen and elsewhere. These activities may mean sounds coming from the kitchen in the morning or night (when it’s coolest). We grow food in our 2,000 square-foot garden and then high tunnel and we forage sustainably for wild foods. We are in the process of building a new off grid multipurpose 2-story building on the hillside. Our home grown foods feed us, our friends and customers. We thank each animal for its life. We like them to be happy, healthy and friendly. They are free range across our property as much as possible. Our ideal guests come to see how a modern homestead works, experience starry nights, enjoy birdsong filled mornings, and a simpler way of being. Our guests will use and waste less water. They breath fresh air. They find themselves immersed in a dynamic visual landscape with dramatic skies. Some walk a few stairs each day, others walk miles to and from the garden and the ducks and around the walking paths. Interaction: We are happy to do what we can to make your stay most comfortable. If you forgot something, please let us know, we will do what we can to make it right. We are on Air BnB experience to give paid tours, so there may be other people around. Please let us know how much or little interaction you want. Sometimes people ask for verbal instructions on how to bathe (pour over in bathtub). This may be a way different kind of experience for you, so tell us what we can do to help clarify how to do something. If you need a rain coat or umbrella because it's suddenly raining. These things are available! This is a small working homestead. Margaret and David live here full time with two friendly indoor/outdoor cats and a happy dog (they do not go in the guest room). We occasionally have volunteers living on the property. If we have a project that will impact your experience, we will let you know when you inquire about booking. Personal space: Guests have their own room, but there is no door/cover to the entrance in the floor. The master bedroom is below the guest room. Nearby is a simple outbuilding, called the Clubhouse. It is available for guests to have their own porch to sit on. During the summer, hammocks in the woods and a campfire ring in the orchard are available to guests. Let us know if you’re interested. Meals in general: There are some restaurants in Elkins, Thomas and Davis. You won't find Yelp much help but we can make recommendations. Or if you'd like, we are happy to prepare you breakfast for $15 each, or dinner for $20 each. We live on a typical West Virginia rural road. It is single lane in many places and you will encounter deer in the road. Drive slow in case you come upon them. It's a narrow road, homes are modest, and the tree canopy is lush. Snow is plowed in a timely manner by the County in the winter. Cell service is unpredictable in West Virginia and at our place. In fact, it is intermittently available as you travel all around the state. Depending on your carrier, you may lose service shortly after turning onto Poe Run Road. We do have WiFi at the house. Please don’t stream videos or download files, we have limited data. Elkins is located on the edge of the Monongahela National Forest in the Allegheny Mountains of the multi-state region called Appalachia. We are 2.5 hrs driving distance from Pittsburgh and 4 hrs from Washington, DC. We are within easy driving distance to many scenic outdoor recreation hot spots including Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area, Blackwater Falls, and Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge for fishing, mountain biking, hiking and camping. We are just six miles from downtown Elkins, the home of Augusta Heritage Center and Davis & Elkins College. Augusta offers year round concerts, dances, a festival and other heritage arts events. One of the biggest annual events in the state, the famed Mountain State Forest Festival, takes place in Elkins, too. If you forget something, the town of Elkins is about 8 minutes away and you can easily get it there. You'll find Walmart, Kroger grocery, liquor stores, a few restaurants, a health food store, Tractor Supply, Ace Hardware and more. Urgent care and a hospital are just minutes away if needed. The fire department services our road in the even more unlikely event they are needed. We are located 6 miles from town. Map to this name “Poe Run Craft and Provisions.” We will also provide detailed driving directions once a reservation is confirmed. The town is ELKINS, not Leadsville as you will see on the Air BnB address. We’re trying to get that corrected. West Virginia roads are often narrow, winding, tree lined experiences. Please drive accordingly and watch for deer and oncoming vehicles, especially on Poe Run Road. If you meet an oncoming vehicle, pull to the side as best as you can and they will too. UPHILL GRAVEL DRIVEWAY: The 600 foot long gravel driveway is uphill. The first part is the steepest. If you are not driving an all wheel drive vehicle, you have the option to park at the bottom of the driveway next to our mailbox. The neighbors' salvage yard is across the street, with junk cars. It is a safe neighborhood, despite the look of it all. We are on a dead end road, with good neighbors. A fiat and a mini cooper have recently done the drive up though! Stay to the left up the first steep hill and you're fine. WALK TO THE HOUSE: You have a 200 foot long steep uphill walk to the house. Wear proper shoes and bring a flashlight if you are arriving after dark. FUNKY HOUSE: The house may not be for everyone. It is partially off grid, the floor plan is unusual and there are a fair number of stairs to navigate. You climb a ladder up to the 3rd floor guest room. The bathroom is unheated. ROLLING HILLS: The property has a hilly terrain with a 400+ foot elevation change top to bottom. You will walk hills if you choose to explore the grounds. MOODY WEATHER: We are in a temporal rainforest. They say if you don’t like the weather in Elkins, wait five minutes. The land is green in the summer, wet in the spring, white in the winter. Wet weather means slippery terrain for vehicles and guests. Uneven footing, hills, tall grasses, brush, thorns, fallen trees and trees that fall. We have it all. We also have deer, turkey, grouse, owls, hawks and the occasional bear. ALLERGENS: We have two cats that are on the first and second floor of the house. Our blue healer dog is on the first floor only. The 3rd floor guest room is generally pet free, except on the rare occasions that our cat climbs the ladder to sleep on the bed for a while. If you are sensitive to poison ivy, please be mindful, it is present on this property. We have not encountered poison oak, poison hemlock or similar irritants. NO AIR CONDITIONING: And the lavatory is not heated during the winter either! The house is passive cooled, we open doors and windows to cool it off at night. We don't lay around inside during the day when it's too hot. That's why there's lots of outdoor seating options. When it’s cold we wear a sweater or even a coat to the bathroom. A NOTE ABOUT FEES: Randolph County charges 6% hotel and occupancy tax. Your room rate includes that tax. It is not charged extra. The cleaning fee helps us clean your bedding and your room. We use nontoxic cleaners and unscented bio friendly laundry detergent.