I stumbled upon this article (below), and contacted this "whippersnapper" immediately after- and long-story short, this weekend I'm headin' out to hang with 18-year old Cameron Shorb, a guy who has now been living in a treehouse for well over a year- through the winter and all....which certainly takes some cajones!
So....new micro-video coming soon....as I'll be touring his place, and asking him a slew of questions related to his treehousin' lifestyle.
Lincoln —(from the Lincoln Journal via Wickedlocal.com)- article from two years ago....
Cameron Shorb likes trees so much, he sleeps in one year-round.
Shorb, 16, had the tree house built next to his house in Lincoln, MA and he spends nearly every night in the unheated 90-square-foot structure.
The tree house has windows without glass. During winter Shorb arms himself with long underwear, fleece pants and shirt, a wool hat, gloves, wool socks, a sleeping bag, and down quilt to fight off the cold.
“There are definitely winter mornings where I’ll wake up and I’ll have spent the night with my head buried inside my sleeping bag and when I wake up there’s a layer of frost from where my breath was getting out. Often times the snow will drift in and cover the lower half of my bed or all of it, just a light layer,” said Shorb.
The only force of nature that drives him out of the tree house is thunderstorms. He said that they are “hard to ignore” and “sometimes make me feel like I’m going to die.” His will has broken down a couple of times during thunderstorms and he has moved inside.
His love for the outdoors began 6 years ago when Shorb’s family lived in New Jersey. Shorb went to a wilderness camp called the Eagle Wilderness Adventures in Vermont where everyone slept in teepees. When he returned home he had trouble adjusting to living and sleeping in the house. When Shorb’s family moved to Lincoln, he slept in a tent at one point and then moved to the screened-in porch at another point. When Shorb’s parents were renovating the house, they decided to build the tree house.
“I am incredibly lucky. I am just so thankful for this opportunity,” said Shorb.
So why does he put himself through all these hardships?
“It’s also about learning my place in nature,” said Shorb. He wants to feel the heat and the cold and learn not to be bothered by it. “That connection to nature is so valuable to me.”
Despite the hardships of trying to acclimate to nature and its seasons, Shorb finds great joy in living in nature even during the winter.
“When you wake up and the first snow of the winter has fallen over night and everything is just white and dazzling and beautiful and fresh and you can smell it and you can taste the snow and the air, then it’s all worth it,” said Shorb. “That’s such a magical feeling and definitely one of my very favorite parts of living in a tree house.”
Shorb has also had close encounters with nature that people normally do not experience. He woke up one morning and “there was a distinct feel of two clawed feet and a beak pulling at my hair.” It was a titmouse looking for material to build its nest and it found Shorb’s hair.
Shorb, 16, had the tree house built next to his house in Lincoln, MA and he spends nearly every night in the unheated 90-square-foot structure.
The tree house has windows without glass. During winter Shorb arms himself with long underwear, fleece pants and shirt, a wool hat, gloves, wool socks, a sleeping bag, and down quilt to fight off the cold.
“There are definitely winter mornings where I’ll wake up and I’ll have spent the night with my head buried inside my sleeping bag and when I wake up there’s a layer of frost from where my breath was getting out. Often times the snow will drift in and cover the lower half of my bed or all of it, just a light layer,” said Shorb.
The only force of nature that drives him out of the tree house is thunderstorms. He said that they are “hard to ignore” and “sometimes make me feel like I’m going to die.” His will has broken down a couple of times during thunderstorms and he has moved inside.
His love for the outdoors began 6 years ago when Shorb’s family lived in New Jersey. Shorb went to a wilderness camp called the Eagle Wilderness Adventures in Vermont where everyone slept in teepees. When he returned home he had trouble adjusting to living and sleeping in the house. When Shorb’s family moved to Lincoln, he slept in a tent at one point and then moved to the screened-in porch at another point. When Shorb’s parents were renovating the house, they decided to build the tree house.
“I am incredibly lucky. I am just so thankful for this opportunity,” said Shorb.
So why does he put himself through all these hardships?
“It’s also about learning my place in nature,” said Shorb. He wants to feel the heat and the cold and learn not to be bothered by it. “That connection to nature is so valuable to me.”
Despite the hardships of trying to acclimate to nature and its seasons, Shorb finds great joy in living in nature even during the winter.
“When you wake up and the first snow of the winter has fallen over night and everything is just white and dazzling and beautiful and fresh and you can smell it and you can taste the snow and the air, then it’s all worth it,” said Shorb. “That’s such a magical feeling and definitely one of my very favorite parts of living in a tree house.”
Shorb has also had close encounters with nature that people normally do not experience. He woke up one morning and “there was a distinct feel of two clawed feet and a beak pulling at my hair.” It was a titmouse looking for material to build its nest and it found Shorb’s hair.
Read more: Lincoln student sleeps in tree house year-round - Lincoln, MA - Lincoln Journal http://www.wickedlocal.com/lincoln/archive/x1311828573/Lincoln-student-sleeps-in-tree-house-year-round#ixzz1OsP2lR57
-----
-Derek "Deek" Diedricksen
