Homestead mailing list

[Keith B <bartermn AT epix.net>]

Don Bowen wrote:
> Thanks to all of you for your comments.  I do believe I have a good grasp 
> of the requirements and methods of building but it never hurts to get some 
> more ideas.  You did give me some good ideas and some new things I had not 
> run across before.  Vertical log building looks like a good idea and may 
> one worth playing with.



Hey Don,
I wish you luck with your sandy plans. I read an article in Backwoods 
Home (I think) about a woman who built or was building a vertical log 
home. It was interesting but I never did learn how she fastened the 
bottom of the logs to the floor. I seem to remember a neat chainsaw jig 
she came up with to cut the ends of the logs square.

There are dozens of acres around my hilltop that were planted in red 
pine by conservation classes at our high school in the fifties and 
sixties. The logs of our cabin are some of them. Our soils don't go very 
deep and a lot of those trees are blown over every year. My brother had 
his ten acres cleared of the remaining pines not long after we took down 
enough for our cabin. He said they didn't bring much money, not enough 
to doze the place like he wanted. The stumps are hidden now by weeds and 
saplings but it looked like hell right after he clear-cut it.

I thought I had a book with a chapter on vertical log building but can't 
find it; maybe it was borrowed from a library. Anyways, do you have any 
recommended websites or books about it?