With high gas prices and a job loss, travel away from home is out; travel near home - just across my lawn in fact, is in. I turned the old workroom behind my small barn into the adirondack camp I remembered from my childhood.

I reinstalled a woodstove, bought inexpensive furnishings like those from my grandfather's fishing camp and added artifacts from the camp itself. My last purchase was an old deer head from an old shop near here that approximated the one that used to be in the camp. His name is "Clyde."

So all I have to do is walk from the house to the barn and I am transported - and so are my friends who I can't get out of the place. One  neighbor wants to bring her kids over for an overnight.  Ah, well.

I'll bet you have a room or a shed you could turn into a place you love. I did. And at very little cost.