From one of my favorite blogs - A Rovers Cabin.

 

Read the whole story here;

Rovers Log Cabin story

Scouts don't often get to do that kind of stuff anymore.

It would be neat if the logbook became a book.

Some cabins from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon

 At one time there were about 150 cabins on the North Rim. Many built around 1928-1936. Not sure how many there are now, but here are some of them.

Just maybe . . .

Always doing a little family history research and came across this old photo on another persons tree that my have a link to my tree.
If so, maybe log cabins were in my blood all along.

Cleaning up . . .

 As I near the end of the Adirondack project I have started cleaning up the logs I have left over to see if any are usable for more than firewood.

Most have long, deep sections of bad wood. Some just have bad ends.
Some, actually most have only small areas of good wood.
But it is amazing after 150 years or more of being down and shaped how good some of the wood still is.

I still have one more big pile of
logs to go through and I hope I have enough for one small project of some kind.

As I go through the logs if I find any features I think are worth preserving I am cutting them out and will put them some where safe.

Some of the logs having some neat and well done notches that are worth keeping and using as a 'teachable moment' for anyone interested.

And for the most part I can remember where these logs were on the original building and how they were used.

This is a notch in one of the cap logs (the last log to go on).

 Another view.

 And this is that section cut out. I will clean it up and put it where people can see it, but where it is protected from the weather.

 Another view showing the other side.

I am also going to explore some of the old nails and see if I can find both hand forged and cut nails.

Under 'Log Cabins I have known' and More done on the Adirondack Shelter

Usually in the summer I don't get to much done on the cabins. The heat and bugs make it just a little too unpleasant to work out there. I do basic up keep and yard work and just generally keep an eye on the place.

But. . .

I did get to spend a week up in Maine in August and brought back some pictures of a writers cabin up there that I have posted about before. Hopefully a couple views I have not posted before.

This cabin belonged to Edmund Ware Smith.

Here is one previous post about him and the cabin.

And here are more recent photos.

 This is the first view you get when you walk up to it from the direction of where I worked.

 This view is close to the view in the old photo from the newspaper in the earlier post.

 I don't know why they have never rebuilt the porch on the lake side, but it sure would look nice if they did.

This past Saturday I got a chance to do more chinking prep out at the cabin on the Adirondack shelter.

Placing stones between the logs to hold the chinking or dabbing.

 This method of applying stones between the logs to hold the chinking or dabbing is a method that would or could have been used on early cabins. I have found it on several I have worked on.

I like it because not only is it a natural material, it also helps support the logs and the cement I use for chinking really binds to it.

Also, better than the modern wire and nail method, which is strong and secure, the stones between the logs makes it easier, if it ever gets moved again, to take down and reuse.

 Like fallen dominos.

 I got the two sides done and just need to return to finish the back three rows.

 Closer look.

From the inside.

This big guy greeted me when I arrived.

B2R by the fire (or if you live in Missouri, A.C.) The Log Cabin, an Illustrated History.

If you want to read a book that makes you feel warm and fuzzy about Log Cabins and that will inspire you to find or build your own,  this would not be a good book to start with.

And, I think the title is a little misleading.

The book isn't so much a history of the log cabin as much as a shattering of myth and romance built around our cultures love of the log cabin.

The book is very full of interesting facts, and does cover a little about the introduction of log cabin to the
American landscape.

But it covers much more about what the log cabin is not and how, it the authors opinion, the log cabin is become part of the American Dream and cultural landscape. And how much of that is misleading.

While the illustration do not usually reflect something that is being discussed on the page they are plentiful and interesting.

Andrew also covers many of the myths that surround many of the famous log cabins of our leading politicians. Debunking much of what was believed by the public for many years.

The book is as much a study of society as it is a study of the log cabin.

While I really enjoyed the book (and do recommend it) I think in some off-handed way it neglects a bit about all that is good about the buildings.

The log cabin represents much that is good about our society, as well as much that was bad.

The author at one point almost equates the log cabin to the rape of our American Wilderness.

If you have worked around old log buildings for a while you will have realized much of what is discussed in the book, but you will get some validation for what you have learned.

I don't get the feeling the book was written by someone who loves log buildings (I hope I am wrong).

But if you are going to study the history of log buildings this book should be on your bookshelf.