Songbird Village: 5 Cabin Mountaintop Retreat

Summary:
🌿 Come as a group & get some breathing space!

Songbird brings together 4 handbuilt cabins around a shared pavilion, accommodating up to 16 guests for Airbnb bookings.

Cook, eat, play, & relax together, then head back to your own cabin when you’re ready for some space.

With colorful designs, handmade details, trails, & plenty of greenery, Talking Water gives your group room to enjoy each other & time outside, all inside Chattanooga.

The Space:
🌿 Gather Together, Keep Your Own Space

Bring your people to the mountains & make Talking Water your gathering place.

Our Whole Flock rental includes all five handbuilt cabins in the Songbird Neighborhood & private use of the central Songbird Pavilion. With room for **up to 26 guests in beds**, you can cook, eat, play, & celebrate together, then head back to your own cabin when you’re ready for some space.

Tucked atop Chattanooga’s mountains on 82 wooded acres, Talking Water offers a playful, earthy setting for:
- Retreats & wellness gatherings
- Weddings & celebrations
- Family reunions
- Corporate getaways & team retreats
- Friend getaways
- Religious, school, & club gatherings

Plan a weekend with shared meals, fireside conversations, trail walks, & enough breathing room to enjoy each other’s company. Whether you have a full itinerary or mostly want to see what happens after everyone puts their phones down, there’s space for that here.

🌱 A Venue with Roots

Handbuilt spaces, forest views, & room to gather make Talking Water a memorable setting for the things that bring people together.

Reserve the **Ceremony Hut & Amphitheater** for vows, retreat sessions, or a celebration surrounded by the woods. Add the **Cob Oven** for a shared meal that becomes part of the gathering itself. These spaces are made for scenic, earthy gatherings where you can get back to the roots of connecting with nature & your people.

The Songbird Pavilion gives your group a central place for meals, games, conversation, & evenings around the fire. Private earthbuilding workshops can also bring a little hands-on learning & shared creativity to your stay.

**The cabins sleep up to 26 guests, & arranged events can accommodate up to 60 people onsite.** Weddings, events, & additional daytime guests require advance arrangements. Venue reservations, activities, & event fees are separate from lodging unless included in your booking.

Tell us what you’re planning, & we’ll help you work through the spaces, sleeping arrangements, & gathering details.

🏡 Five Cabins, Five Personalities

Your group will have private use of:
- **Blackbird:** a moody exterior, colorful interior, screened porch, & double stone patio
- **Chickadee:** a colorful log cabin with porch rocking chairs & a built-in deck hammock
- **Goldfinch:** a handbuilt cordwood cabin with bottle-glass walls, hanging chairs, & a covered dining area
- **Meadowlark Bunkhouse:** a playful cabin with four queen beds in oversized built-in bunks, a suspended net loft, & a deep back deck
- **Whippoorwill:** a cozy cabin with a king-bed loft, stone patio, & small deck

All five cabins have:
- Private hot outdoor showers
- Indoor toilets & sinks
- Refrigerators & cooking supplies
- Outdoor grills
- Private outdoor lounging spaces
- TVs & Wi-Fi
- Handmade details & their own personalities

Blackbird, Chickadee, Goldfinch, & Whippoorwill have full indoor bathrooms & kitchens with stoves (no dishwashers).

Meadowlark has an indoor half bath, a year-round hot outdoor shower, & a kitchenette with a refrigerator & microwave. There is no indoor shower, traditional stove/oven, or kitchen sink. A utility sink is available next door in the shared guest laundry. Outside, Meadowlark has a 36" propane Blackstone grill (propane provided).

Sleeping arrangements vary by cabin. While 26 adults would be a snug fit, the mix of beds works well for families with children & groups comfortable sharing sleeping spaces. Please review each cabin’s bed details when planning your group’s arrangements.

🌿 The Songbird Pavilion

At the center of the neighborhood is your shared gathering space, with:
- Outdoor kitchen cabinets
- Electric griddle
- Cold-water sink
- Central firepit with chairs & benches
- Picnic tables for meals & games
- Nearby mini playground, slide, & tetherball

Gather for breakfast, spread out a puzzle, or pull up a chair by the fire. Everyone has their own cabin, but this is where your paths come together.

🐾 Bringing Your Dog

**Dogs are welcome in Chickadee, Goldfinch, Meadowlark, & Whippoorwill. Blackbird is dog-free, including during whole-site rentals.**

- Dogs must be leashed whenever outdoors.
- Inside the cabins, dogs must be crated whenever they are not directly with their owners.
- Dogs are not allowed on Meadowlark’s upper bunks or suspended net loft.

Please make sure everyone in your group knows these rules before arriving.

🥾 Explore the Property

Our onsite trails wind through the woods & along the bluff, with a steep mountain trail leading down to Suck Creek. Explore the creek’s shallows, look for crawdads, or sit & listen to the water.

Prentice Cooper State Forest borders the property, with more hiking & outdoor adventures nearby. Downtown Chattanooga is about a 15-minute drive away, making it easy to combine time in the woods with a group outing in town.

🌱 A Family Project Since 2022

Talking Water is our family-owned & family-operated retreat on 82 wooded acres inside Chattanooga, with nearly a mile of Suck Creek along the property.

Since April 2022, we’ve been restoring land damaged by decades of logging. We’ve rebuilt trails, planted hundreds of native trees, & worked to reduce erosion while creating places for people to gather, rest, learn, & play.

Across the retreat, you’ll find hand-plastered walls, salvaged materials, & inventive designs alongside cordwood, cob, hempcrete, & stonework. Some spaces are finished, some are still evolving, & returning guests often notice what we’ve been working on between visits.

🧺 Guest Laundry & Supplies

The shared guest laundry is beside Meadowlark, with daytime access outside cabin-cleaning windows. You’ll also find:
- Games, puzzles, & books to borrow
- Extra supplies & souvenirs for purchase
- Fresh eggs from our chickens when available

Pay-per-use EV charging is available beside Meadowlark.

🌿 Plan Your Gathering

A wedding weekend, a long-overdue reunion, a retreat with purpose, or a few days away with your team - bring us your ideas.

**Contact us with your dates, estimated guest count, & what you have in mind.** We’ll help you plan a gathering that fits your people & the place.

Guest Access:
Rental of the Songbird Neighborhood includes:

- All five cabins (Blackbird, Chickadee, Goldfinch, Meadowlark, & Whippoorwill)
- The Songbird Pavilion, including the firepit
- The shared guest laundry room (daytime access outside cabin-cleaning windows)
- The recreational spaces (hiking trails, slide, tetherball, & children’s climbing structures)

Use of the Ceremony Hut or Cob Oven, & hosting events, require advance arrangements & additional fees.

The Neighborhood:
Talking Water is a dream-turned-reality created by the Sonner-Such family (John & Karen Sonner, Ken Sonner, and James & Bobbie Such).

Together, we’re transforming an 82-acre mud-pit atop Suck Creek Mountain into an evolving sanctuary of living earth, eclecic creativity, and human connection.

We’re nestled in the rural Suck Creek Mountain community surrounded by nature’s best:
🌲 Prentice Cooper State Forest borders our southern end
💧 One mile of Suck Creek flows through our land to the east
🌊 The Tennessee River runs along our road at the base of the mountain

We’re doing our best to honor this powerful land with restoration, quirky charm, and a deep love for people and place.

Getting Around:
You will want a car - or at least a bicycle! It is a 10-12 minute car ride down the mountain to get groceries.

Interaction with Guests:
🌱 Talking Water is our family’s evolving dream, with three generations helping care for the land, animals, cabins, trails, & gardens. The Tatu (“armadillo”) building is home base for our family, the Sonner-Such crew.

🔨 Bobbie is onsite daily tending livestock, running the business, & getting her hands dirty on construction projects. You’ll see other family members around too, especially on weekends, usually building, planting, fixing something, or getting dirty with one project or another :)

Feel free to say hi or keep to yourself - we’re happy to chat but respect your privacy!

🧱 We periodically lead earthbuilding workshops, and you’ll see cordwood, cob, hempcrete, hand-plastered walls, stonework, & other natural building examples throughout the property. Salvaged materials, creative reuse, & innovative designs are part of how we build. Some spaces are finished, some are still evolving, & all reflect plenty of hands-on work.

🐐 Our brush-clearing goats help with landscaping, our chickens lay fresh eggs, & our working cats help control rodent populations. They’re part of daily life at this active, growing retreat. Expect animals, daytime projects, & our family tending to the place.

🐾 Pets are no longer permitted for Airbnb bookings.