Sauna Completion on the Horizon….

As the weather starts to turn cold, wet and windy a nice evening in the sauna becomes increasingly enticing.   Several months ago we begin construction of a sauna with an accompanying deck over our pond (convenient cold plunge) and the end is in sight.  It took some time accruing the materials we wanted: all of the wood for the sauna (excluding the plywood) will be from local, sustainably harvested sources.  A large fraction of the wood coming from a fellow in town who takes down large often dead or dying trees that pose a danger to homes.  We will be installing large Port Orford Cedar slabs for the benches in the sauna, and there will be incense and deodar cedar for the walls, ceiling, and beams.  I’m anxious to smell the eclectic mix of fragrance they’ll be putting off.

At Full Bloom we’ve been blessed to have come into contact with a thriving natural building culture as epitomized by Matt Musselwhite the builder of our sauna.  Rather building some standard version of a sauna Matt is building in relationship to the topography, incorporating the pond, the views into the design.  He is also using local wood and displaying it in such as way as to provide any future sauna guest with a sense that this structure arose from the land and wasn’t just superimposed onto the land as many structures are these days.

Matt Musselwhite taking a break from building to pose for the camera.

I will keep you all posted as the sauna progresses, so that you can see the full extent of Matt’s artistry and the gift that it is to create structures embedded with relationship.

“Life without sauna seems to me impossible.”  Urho Kekkonen, former prime minister of Finland.