My favorite rooms at my farm aren’t inside. Welcome to what I call my passementerie plum pit.

If you have even a little bit of land, whether it’s in your backyard or that of a willing neighbor, gather your dreams under some trees and create a spot in the open air.

It needn’t be complicated or expensive. I have a kitchen area that has an old sink surrounded by a counter built with wood salvaged from my house fire, and an older antique propane range that I cover with plastic if it looks like rain. Tony Roberts milled and sanded huge planks of wood from a large ponderosa pine tree that blew over in a windstorm. He made them into a folding table with benches big enough to seat 12 people. I have a couple of other little pine tables good for prepping food. I always have fresh flowers on the tables. Just off the kitchen is a hammock where guests can read and lounge or kids can swing and play and visit with me while I create food.

The part of my house my guests love the most is the fire ring in the living room. Everyone loves sitting around a campfire. It seems to reconnect us with primal summer pleasures. A few times last summer we even set up a little portable TV/VCR and watched some good movies as we sat gathered around our cozy fire. After the movie, my bed was only a few feet away.

My bedroom consists of an old iron bed my father claims came across the plains with my pioneering Mormon ancestors and a guest bed, again an old iron bed, that sits some distance from mine up on the second level. Both have white cotton sheets and dust covers that are always in motion because the air here is seldom still. From a distance my bed looks like a graceful dancer. They add panache to my farm, inviting me to lay back and dream. Again, if it looks like rain, out comes the plastic. I designed a vanity using an old pine table. Above it, hanging from one of the hundred or so plum trees, is a mirror made from an old sectioned window. My son made it for me by replacing the window glass with mirrored panels and adding a shelf at the bottom.

I decorate with potted planters, usually old crocks that contain shade-tolerant plants like ivy, begonia, fern, impatiens and primrose.

For relief from mosquitoes, I purchased two elegant canopy nets from MOMBASA, 1-800-641-2345. My version is a “Mombasa Majesty.”

For lighting after dark, I use old candle lanterns with traditional styling that Tony Roberts sells (see his article in Our Crew). You can call him directly to talk lanterns, 509-397-4447.

For me, the bogeyman out there in the darkness was the occasional porcupine, weasel, deer or moose. One moose in particular last summer dropped by with increasing frequency, looking for ‘mouscous’ dishes I suppose, so I took to sleeping with a BB gun. During the night when Mr. Moose came close enough for me to confuse him with the night sounds of my husband, I pinged his pelt and off he would gallop.

If you’re going to rough it, why not do it in a style that has a luxurious whisper ... without driving anywhere. Head out to the wilds of your own backyard, where dusky shadows await you.