Thanks to Reform School Girl for this story.
Author Gwen Carpenter Roland has just published a book titled, Atchafalaya Houseboat: My Years in the Louisiana Swamp, about her eight years living aboard a barge in the Louisiana swamps. She and her boyfriend at the time bought a 105 foot long barge and built their dream house on top of it. They would wash up in the mornings by diving off the barge and swimming in the waters around it.
In the early 1970s, two idealistic young people—Gwen Carpenter Roland and Calvin Voisin—decided to leave civilization and re-create the vanished simple life of their great-grandparents in the heart of Louisiana’s million-acre Atchafalaya River Basin Swamp. Armed with a box of crayons and a book called How to Build Your Home in the Woods, they drew up plans to recycle a slave-built structure into a houseboat. Without power tools or building experience they constructed a floating dwelling complete with a brick fireplace. Towed deep into the sleepy waters of Bloody Bayou, it was their home for eight years. This is the tale of the not-so-simple life they made together—days spent fishing, trading, making wine, growing food, and growing up—told by Gwen with grace, economy, and eloquence.
Not long after they took up swamp living, Gwen and Calvin met a young photographer named C. C. Lockwood, who shared their "back to the earth" values. His photographs of the couple going about their daily routine were published in National Geographic magazine, bringing them unexpected fame.
Reform Girl offers a link to more details and photos from the book.
Beautiful, Peter.
That made my day.
;)
Posted by: Gwen | May 01, 2006 at 08:00 AM