Here is a log barn painting by one of my favorite modern western painters. . .

Joshus Been

Since a theme seems to have developed - Artists and Log Cabins.

Wikipedia describes Phillip R Goodwin this way; "Philip R. Goodwin (September 16, 1881 – December 14, 1935) was an American painter and illustrator who specialized in depictions of wildlife, the outdoors, fishing, hunting and theOld American West"

I love the art of this period. Colorful, usually picturing a rather tense outdoor situation. But much of his work also focused on the quieter times fishing.

Here is some of his work with log cabins in them.

This photo is of friends C.M.Russell and P. Goodwin together.

Russell is seated and Goodwin is standing.
Goodwin died much to young at the age of 54 but had been very prolific and much of his artwork can still be seen.



















And if you remember from a previous post, C.M. Russell's studio was in a log cabin.

Russell's Blue Head Lodge on Lake McDonald

Some great photos of Russell and
Goodwin can be found here.











Several of Russell's works also include log cabins.

Russell's 'Smoke of a .45'














And while I don't like Frank Stick's other works as much as Goodwin's, I do really like this one by Frank Stick (1884-1966).

And having once had a confrontation with a moose, I can really appreciate this one by Goodwin.

And one last one by an unknown artist,

One of my favorite New England (Maine mostly) artists did a log cabin painting

Maurice 'Jake' Day

Illustrated some of my favorite books about Maine.

Worked for Disney (Bambi) among others.

And had a wondeful cabin on Grand Lake Matagmon in Maine.
(Some day I will dig up a picture of that cabin.) (Here it is.)

So. . . I should have remembered he did this log cabin painting.

Have not been able to find out who the artist is yet. . . . .

. . .  but I like this painting of a log cabin.

Old post card of a place called 'The Wigwam' Hayden Lake Idaho

Wonderful old photo - said to be from 1895

Source

and along the same lines from the same source.

Probably won't be long now.

As I wrote in this post, I feared the first log cabin I ever completely built would not be around for very much longer. And that I may not get a chance to show my daughter it.

While in Jan. of 2014 it still didn't look to bad, and was not beyond repair, I did indeed need some work but nothing unmanageable.

This is how the exterior looked in Jan. of 2014, two years ago.



Even the inside didn't look to bad.



But I can not say the same now.

So, this past weekend I figured if I was ever going to take her to see it, I needed to do it soon.
So off we went.

While on first appearances the outside didn't seem to have changed much. However, a closer inspection showed the lack of caring and up-keep the present owners have for the place.

Here is how it looked in about 1979 shortly after it was finished.



And how it looked the summer of 1978 when it was being worked on.



"We started after the last snow in April, and finished before the first snow in November."

And it's first snow.



I have lots of great memories of the place ( we even had a couple of Thanksgivings down there ) and I gained an incredible amount of experience working on it. It has been there now for almost forty years, so I guess I can't complain.

But most importantly I got daughter by to see it once and that makes anything else okay.

Hugging the big tree next to it.

A wonderful restoration!

I had the opportunity this weekend to check out an restoration I have been wanting to see for a while.
And it gave me a chance to add one more log cabin to my life list.
This past weekend my daughter attended a Girl Scout  weekend in Innsbrook Mo.
And for several years the local historical society has been restoring one of the original homes found on the property. Details can be found here.
What follows are photos from my trip to see it.

 The house still sits in its original spot, half way up a hill, looking out across the valley towards fields and a creek. Wooded slopes all around.

 This is a very old picture of the house before restoration started.
As can be seen here, the front porch at one time had been closed off to make two more rooms.

 This is how it appeared shortly after work started. The two rooms on the porch have been removed and the dog-trot and log pens can now be seen.

This is roughly that same view now.
The workers put in a wonderful new foundation of stone. The porch faces west.

The view from the south end.
Showing the excellent foundation.
The gable ends look much like they did in the earliest photo.

This is the same side before restoration. To the right, in the back is the old smoke house, which we will get to in a moment.

This photo shows the back of the house very early in the work process.
Here clearly can be seen the two separate pens of the log cabins. The smaller one to the right.
Some indications in the larger of the two cabins suggest that it had at one time been located some where else and had been moved to this spot at some point in time.
This was not an unusual practice.

This photo show the back of the cabin a little further along in the restoration with many of the bad logs having been replaced.

This is how the back looks now.
The doorway was placed, as it would have been, in the dog-trot.
New metal roof and six-over-six windows.

The back from the south-east corner.

The back from the north-east corner.
I am not sure way they brought the siding down a little further on this end, but it does not take away from the appeal of the place.

The front, west, porch with some very comfortable rockers.

Also on the property is a log smoke house.
This image shows how it looked before restoration and rebuilding.

This is approximately the same view now. As with the main house, they did a fantastic job with the new foundation.

 This shows the north-east cornier of both the house and smoke house.
Notice the uneven boards closing in the gable end of the smoke house.

 This is the north west corner, and you can start seeing how well they did on the foundation work.

 The south-west corner showing the cellar under the smoke house.

 The notching suggests it was never intend to ever be more than a utility building. The corners were not cut even like it would have been on the main house.

 Excellent view of the fine foundation work and sill logs.

 Planking between the logs suggest it was never chinked and they were happy with boards serving the purpose.

Again, the uneven corners.

Inside are still the beams and meat hooks for hanging meat to be cured.

 They have also done a wonderful job on the interior, adding many fine period pieces that although probably not from this dwelling represent well the period.
The stairs up to the second story are behind the left hand door, and are accessed from the front porch.

 The center table displays photos from the project as it went along.

 Nice period stove.

 Some kitchen gadgets.

It was a pleasure to take a tour of this place.
The volunteers who worked on it did a wonderful job in all they did.

I will add more information as I learn more about this place.

They have also finished one of the two upstairs rooms to look period.
My daughter would love this room.

View from the front porch of the new pavilion and the valley out front.


Excellent work by all involved.

And what is really cool is that this place is not to far from my cabin.

Pictures were taken of the photos of the cabin before and during restoration and can be found at the cabin.