Cool weather got me started . . .

Daughter and I headed out to the cabin today. With a slight drizzle in the forecast for most of the day, we headed out with no firm plans.
At one point we decided to go for a drive down one of my favorite eastern Missouri drives. Lots of creek crossing and a place where I had gotten stones from before to place between the logs to hold the chinking.

When we got back to the cabin with our bucket load of rocks we practiced placing some of the stones to see how many more we would need.

 If you wedge them in tight they not only give the chinking something to hold onto, but also help support the span of logs.

 Helper.

Two Home Depot orange buckets of rocks easily did three rows of logs (only two are done in this photo).
So that means it won't take many more rock trips.

Here is a picture of the Pitt's building where I explained the method.

I had left these two rows un-chinked so people could see the method.

B2R by the Fire - by Conrad E. Meinecke - "Your Cabin in the Woods"

 You are not going to learn a lot from this book. I don't think it was ever suppose to be a manual for 'How to build your Cabin'. I think it was suppose to be more for inspiration to get you started.

It was originally printed in 1947 and probably got lots of guys dreaming. Many probably kept this on their bed-stand so they could dream about their project a night.

It does however give lots of great ideas and I just love the illustrations.

These are the kind of books I loved as a child; ones that made you dream.

And I have always believed illustrations and art-work are better for dreaming than photos.

Conrad comfortably lays out how to go about getting started on your project, but it is not directed specifically to building a log cabin.
But his thoughts are worth taking in.

Like I said, I just love the illustrations and will proudly put this book on my log cabin bookshelf.

The book is available at most online booksellers.


The Illustrations are by Victor Aures.

The Patent for Lincoln Logs

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.