Monday, October 19, 2015

Four log cabin kinda days - life is good.

 Early fall weather made a perfect Columbus Day weekend for getting some work done at the cabin.
The mornings were cool enough to warrant a fire.
Moms job was to tend to the fire.
 Had plenty of company.
This frog and one other.
 And this creature.

















I have been working on this little cabin. Trying to turn it into a play area for daughter, which will also serve as a quest cabin, if the need ever comes up.

 I have got all the old tools and stuff out, and both floors are pretty well empty now.

Inside I have been finishing up chinking on the top logs. . .
 And on the outside I have been replacing some stone in the foundation.

I got a lot done over the three day weekend plus one more evening out there.










This past Saturday morning, with wife and daughter not home yet, I got to spend the morning on a log cabin drive.

 This one I had stopped at before and posted a little about, but I decided to explore it once again.

It is a classic old Missouri farm house. And although no longer lived in seems to be at least taken care of.
The roof is in good shape and the property is mowed and looked after.

This is the front.
 The rear.

The part of the house at the very right, with the slanting roof is log.

 And it appears to be the only room that is. And it also appears to be only one story.

The center section of the house does not seem to be log.

But I do not know for sure about the west end. None of it is exposed.

The one room log section could have been the original dwelling with the house growing off of it.
I would be very surprised if the log section was added as an addition.
 Just behind the main house is this little gem.

It is very hard to tell what its original purpose was, and may have changed many times over the years.

Usually small building like this, if they were intend for animals would not have been chinked. Boards may have covered the opening between the logs, but chinking between the logs was usually reserved for building used by people.
What is very interesting in this view is the log gables. This usually indicates a very old building or that milled boards were hard to come by.



This view show an opening near the bottom, behind the plywood were a small fireplace may have been.
 It is a very rough hewn job, using very small logs. And as you can see in this image, at one time had barn siding.

This may have been used for animals, but could also have been a hired hands cabin or even a slaves cabin.
 The failed rood has really taken its toll on the corner.
 Only a couple of miles from the above farm sits this wonderful old farm house. Again, taken care of and maintained. The family no longer lives in it but is close by and still farms the land.
 Just out of view to the right in the above photo sits this wonderful barn. This wonderful single crib log barn. The entire center section is a two story log crib.
 I first discovered it as a log building by noticing these six exposed logs near the door. I then got permission to check it out further.





















Three doors, one above another.

 Although I was asked not to go inside because they didn't feel it would be safe, I did open the door and take pictures from the doorway.

It's one of those buildings you wish you could have permission to explore, not knowing what treasures may be hidden inside.
 Old tack still hanging on hooks from times when farmers still used horses to work the land.
 It is always interesting to see what is used to cover big holes to keep large critters out.

Old time siding or ceiling material.
 Look closely and you will see a lot of it used on the left side.

I kept a couple old pieces from and old cabin I took down once.
 Again, rooms of hidden treasures?

















The latch on one of the doors.


 This is under the overhang on the east or back side of the building. This is the exposed center crib section at the opposite end from the photo with the three doors.

Note here how the logs are only chinked up to the second floor. That means the lower part was used either for animals or as a work area for the warmer. The un-chinked upper section would have been used for a hayloft and would require better ventilation.
 Here you can see the unchinked logs even better.
 That rear exposed section would be to the right in this photo with the opening.
 This is the north side, or in the above photo, the extreme left.

Note how the logs stop part way across the top of the wall. This wood be to allow the farmer to drop hay down into the hay rails below and the livestock would eat it from between those narrow rails.
 This is again the exposed east end, but you can now see the door at the back of the crib.
 Old coats still hanging in the barn along with some tack.
 This is the back of the main house, and it was here I added another log building to my life list.

I would not have spotted it in the summer, and barely did today.


 But fifty feet from the main house, hidden by over-growth was another little log building.
 Here you can see how hidden it was.

 I could not walk around the building, nor could I open the door and had to settle for this picture between the logs.
I at one time had a window and has been chinked.
The logs have been hewn, but it is a very minimal, rough job which would indicate use by hired hands/slave or to be used for animals.

Once some of the summer growth goes away, it will be worth exploring again.
 After the above farm, I stopped by this place to see if I could take some pictures, but no one was home so I settled for this picture till I can go back.

I made one more stop at this home.
I knew the owner so had no worries about driving up.
He had taken a couple of old buildings and made a modern home for himself.
Just the front main section is log. . . .











. . . but he did a wonderful job making it very usable.

Barnwood Builders - The boys are back in town - well sort of. . . .

The second season of Barnwood Builders has started and one of the first episodes took place in Missouri. And one of the sites visited was one not to far from me. I wrote about it here.
My first impression from the episode was that they would not be doing anything further with the one near to me, but I don't know that for sure.

However, the rest of the Missouri episode was a lot of fun to watch.

Below is the cabin they worked on.

Still love the show, and daughter and I sit down together and watch it.

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

C.M.Russell's log studio.

CM Russell


Love the detail . . .

When a log was hewn there would be plenty of 'chips' left over from the work and much of this could be used between the logs to hold the chinking.
If put at an angle they could be hammer in tight.
I prefer using stones which not hold water and adhere to modern cement chinking better. But back when, chinking would have been made out of mud and horse hair or straw.

What else can we tell from this picture.

Although the door appears to be if not original, old. But the door frame is not. If you look closely near the top of the door you can see where at one time the cabin had a shorter door frames.

It's sided on the inside still, and at one time was sided on the outside also.
It is also on a new foundation.