For the Birds

Dan Shurey is nesting for the winter. He’s perched along a spare kitchen countertop in his kitchen—with an open view for miles over the surrounding woodlands. Rows of handcrafted ash cabinetry, sans doors, reveal a cache of neatly stacked pots, pans, dishes, and cooking equipment; one simple ash shelf runs the length of the room, displaying a clutch of hand-thrown mugs; wide-open windows offer an even wider vantage of the western Catskills. Shurey’s dog, Marfa, sits in a patch of sunshine on the white-washed floorboards, a crisp shade—Shurey refers to it as “polar white”—that extends up the wall boards to the ceiling. This polar-white-on-blonde-wood-on-silver-on-beige scenario is interrupted only by the occasional flashes of Shurey’s bright, color-drenched oil paintings.

Along with the gut renovation of his 2,000-square-foot log cabin, Shurey took on the rewilding of the surrounding 6-acre native meadow, and in the process, managed to rewild himself. The wild meadow is surrounded by forever wild forest and, even with the bare November view, there’s barely another home in sight. It’s just Shurey, Marfa, and the birds.