The Shala Property Before
Around 2007 Erin purchased the 2 acres the Yurt sits on Wolf Creek Road after graduating college from Virginia Tech. While in college she visited the New and fell in love with the climbing and the small community of wild misfits. A mobile home originally sat where the yurt sits now, which was removed prior to her purchase, but all the utilities were run so she had a blank canvas and dreams of creating a place to live that was unconventionally conventional. She studied permaculture, passive solar, gardening, natural building, homeopathic medicine, and of course she always had her eye out for a healthy recipe to bring it all together. At that time she was spending her winters in Telluride, Colorado and planning to spend the warmer months in Fayetteville.
She envisioned something unique, simple, and in balance with mother earth. The property went through many iterations over the years including camping, living in Cool Bus #1, then the Shed, and eventually the Yurt. In 2011 Erin and her partner at the time, Levi, built and moved into the Yurt from a kit with help from her step dad, Marty, Gene Kistler, and friends.
That December her mother, Diane, passed away after a long battle with cancer, she was in her early 50’s. As a part of her grieving process, Erin coped with it as only she could, she set off for India and Sri Lanka for over a month diving head first into her studies and travels. She returned in the early spring of 2012, living in the yurt, working as a nutritionist, health coach, and yoga instructor.
Erin lived in the yurt full time for the next few years, often leaving for periods of travel during the winter months. While she was gone, she would consistently have some kind of break-in incident due to the neighbor’s son and his associates. They stole copper, a family heirloom coffee table, personal items, a stackable washer and dryer, always just enough to cause considerable inconvenience and a deep violation of privacy while walking away with a sense of that could have been worse.
Given the annual challenges, when the opportunity came along in 2021 to buy the neighbors property we jumped at the chance. Erin did a cash out refinance of our house at an excellent rate and was able to purchase the property below the yurt where the Shala will be built. At the time, it had a dilapidated house and two trailers with a driveway that was a full on 4x4 descent into Wolf Creek. The property was beautiful but it was covered in decades worth of trash and detritus. Yet out of the ashes something beautiful began to emerge.
Over the course 2021, 2022, and 2023 Marty and I tore the main house down, made countless dump runs, rented equipment, and slowly but surely removed most of the mess. The road was repaired by Bill Fedukovic, a local heavy equipment wizard who helped us get a more manageable descent with better drainage. Erin and I would walk the property and discuss layouts and brainstorm about where to start with regard to our first building to be used as a rental. We almost purchased a variety of shed houses, cargo ship containers, and domes on several occasions, always opting to wait for timing and a good deal.
Our plan was to expand by one rental unit each year, which we did from 2019-2024, and the spring of 2025 would have been our foray into the property below the yurt. When Erin first moved to Fayetteville her dream was to build a retreat center for wellness, yoga, and meditation. This was very much a long term goal for her and I, we were simply planning on adding some fun structures to sprinkle around the property and eventually build a shared space where the old home site was. When we would travel we would take notes of how folks did it in other places always keeping our hearts open to the next big surprise inspiration.
Shortly after she passed away I was overcome with a sense of mission to build a structure in her honor to share with others and continue the work she was doing but also to maintain connection to her, our time together, and the impact she made on the world around her. I just didn’t want her to die in vain, and so a call to action was sounded. This led me to ask for her brother, Chris Larsen, to help me build a gofundme site which raised 36,000 to support this cause. The community answered the call and helped build the seed money to make this dream come true. We are still a long way off from being ready to break ground, but rest assured the Shala will stand and create a space for healing for us all.
