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["WF Smith" <WarrenSmith AT PalmettoBuilders.net>]

They were a little bit wetter than advertised, but not much. One of the guys
involved in the hunt club borrowed a moisture meter and measured the
content. If they shrink appreciably I'll let you know. They are installing
locally purchased windows and doors, and overall shrinkage as you describe
would probably cause them to fall out or burst. The logs themselves were
very good looking wood.

My younger brother had a good friend whose parents lived in a kit log home.
They were plagued by carpenter bees and other pests. After just a few years
the house really looked bad. I'm curious as to what kind of sealer and
preservative can be applied to repel pests and preserve the wood. My
Grandad's house had a smokehouse built of logs in 1825 in the backyard which
were sound until Granny tore it down in a landscaping project a few years
ago. I can say with certainty that no preservative of any kind was ever put
on that wood. I think old growth timber was denser and tougher

> Were the logs dry? When my cousin built his log cabin, he waited a year
> after the logs were all up and during that year they settled quite a
> bit--several inches as I recall--at the corners and door and
> window frames.
> At that point he tightened everything down with heavy all-thread tied to
> the foundation.

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