A Builder’s Simple Shelter That Helped a Community Through Winter

Neighbors Mocked When He Built His Cabin 4 Feet Off The Ground — Until It Was Warm All Winter

When Caleb Turner first started stacking concrete blocks in the middle of his tiny piece of land outside Cedar Ridge, Montana, people assumed he was building a chicken coop.

He didn’t correct them.

He had learned a long time ago that explanations cost energy, and energy was something he couldn’t afford to waste.

Caleb was thirty-eight, broad-shouldered, quiet, and recently divorced. He’d moved to Cedar Ridge after losing his construction job in Billings when the company folded. The recession had chewed through his savings, the divorce had taken the house, and pride had kept him from asking for help.