From this inventory I have the impression that life in and around the Smith cabin was really quite good, despite its simplicity!
If Clark was able to chop off the chickens' heads, then I am forever convinced that he was a genuinely and thoroughly practical man. But I doubt it. I can't picture him doing that. Also I remember reading somewhere, if it was in Farmer's memoir, that the chickens were kept for eggs.
The Auburn climate is truly Arcadian. I can imagine the long sunsets there, filling the glens with golden elfin light. It must have had an important impact in the shaping of his fiction. I'm sure there were fauns scurrying in the bushes and dryads flitting between the trees, normally unconcerned with humans, but stopping to curiously observe this remarkable man as he penned down his otherworldly visions in the shade of the leaves.
(This is my singular favorite image of a bucolic scene.
Link. In the distance a man is driving an ox. There is plenty of time to finish work, pace of life is slow. The young shepherd (Endymion?) resting in the arbour, without worries.
The English Romantic painter Samuel Palmer's (1805- 1881) work reminds me, by the way, somewhat of CAS's drawing and painting style.)
I was amusingly half-expecting that the walls in Smith's cabin would have pictures of dragons, trolls and faries. Like many of today's fantasy fans have. But NO, of course not! Inane. But old calendars? That sounds decrepit, unless they featured pretty pictures. Didn't Clark's paintings grace the walls?
Were the rooms divided into a larger common room with the stove, and three smaller bedrooms (or former bedrooms, for each person in the family)? How was Clark's room arranged where he sat and wrote?