What a difference a couple of days make.

I have always liked a very white chinking between the logs I like the contrast between the grey logs and the white chinking. Just a personal preference.
We got most of the chinking down last weekend on the Adirondack Shelter.
I went out again today to check on the place and to see if our chinking had started to lighten yet.

 Last Sunday, still grey.

Today, much lighter.

 Sunday, still grey.

Today. Starting to look more like the main cabin in the back.

 Last Sunday, grey.

 Inside today, starting to lighten.

The long west rows. Getting much whiter.

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.

Mysteries, Clues and exploration - It's more than just a pile of logs.

Well I haven't been able to explore any new old buildings lately, nor have I been able to work on any projects out at our places.
But I did get out there last night and took some fun pictures.

Taking down and working on old cabins is about more than just the logs and what it can look like when it is done. That is, if it is a passion, it's about everything to do with the old building, inside, outside and sometimes underneath.

It's also about the things you discover and find throughout the process. Some will confirm what you think you know about the place, while others will just add a little mystery.

 First off. I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I used a few of the old window jambs as hat and coat racks.

Here is a coat rack.

This one used for hats and other stuff.

 In every log building I have worked on I have found holes in one or more logs that have no explanation for their purpose.

 The hole in the above photo is the hole on the left in this photo.
With a matching one way right just below the knot.

Both have wood pegs in them.
But when I took this cabin down these walls were covered with siding. So at that time these holes were not being used for anything.
Was it a shelf at one time.

This is just to the left of the front door.

In about the middle of this photo you can see another hole. This is in a second floor floor joist.

Again, what was it's purpose?

 This photo shows two circular saw cut boards on this beam.

I do know what these were for.

When I took down this building it had a ceiling of bead-board, which was also covering the walls.

These boards were nailed on to level out the ceiling before the bead-board was attached.

This is kind of related in that these notches do the same thing as the two boards above.

In this case these notches were made so furring strips could be added to attach clap-board siding to the outside. While the logs were pretty level, in places notches would have to be cut out of the logs, or boards used to build up spaces to make the furring strips level.

In this photo, from the take down, you can see the furring strips.

In the photo I have circled where wood has been placed under the strips if the log was either not as wide as the one above or below it, or had bowed a little.

I don't remember where this board came from, but I saved it because of the nice hand made mortises in it.
The wood is worn and weathered and has square nails in it.

This is the an interior wall of the Pitts Blacksmith building.

In this photo you can see burn marks on the wall probably caused by the smithy leaning hot pieces of metal against the wall as he finished with them.

This piece, not displayed in it's original place, came out of the old building I call the slave's cabin.

After it was supposedly used as a dwelling it was then used as a small barn or grain crib.

This was used at the bottom of a grain chute to channel the grain into a bucket or something.
Somewhere I have the door to the chute also.
The chute was on an interior wall.

It looks like much of the work was done with a saw and chisel, instead of just by axe or draw knife.

This bricked in hole is on the back wall of the Pitt's building and I do not know what its purpose had been. It is a notch in the top of one log.

Was it also part of a grain chute?

This photo is to show how you can even save a fairly bad notch if you brace the logs well around, above and below the notch.

This may not be something you want to do on a really large building or one that will become a full time home.

But on smaller less used building I have found that this works just fine.

Right next to the logs, before it is chinked you need to make sure the logs around the bad notch are supported with bricks or rocks, so that the weight is not carried by the damaged notch.

 These next three are of some of the beautiful notches in various logs.

This one is the pin hole in a top plate log.

 This is a different kind of notch also in a top plate log.

All done by hand.






















If you really love working with these old buildings, or just being around them, you will develop a passion also for all the things associated with them. And you will make some wonderful discoveries.

I never thought about it before. . .

I have always loved this door latch off of the old Pitts Blacksmith shop, which I saved and still use on the rebuilt building.
But as many times as I have used it, and indeed photographed it, I never really noticed that it is made with rough hand tools. Mostly made it looks like with an axe.

I will have to check next time to see if the notches the slide runs in have any saw marks in them or not.

It is still mounted on the door I took off the original building.

And it has lasted all these years.

Happy unions - joining two logs together.

Yesterday's image and post and all its varied notch work got me thinking about two hewn cabins I have seen in the last couple of years.

Why join logs together?

Joining logs together in an old log building could have happened for many reasons.

This log building not to far from my home (and featured on Barnwood Builders once) is one example.

Now I know for a fact that these logs are not configured in the way that the original building was built.
At one time it was a much larger two story building and the central home on this farm.
Over the years the family has made several attempts to save as many logs as possible to keep some family history alive where the farm use to be.
Way left you can see the logs that form an interior wall. You can just make out the ends of the logs.
These logs have a 'V' notch in them. You could not add a 'V' notch to make an interior wall after the cabin was built. So these logs were either in this configuration when it was first built (I doubt it) or were notched in to make a second room during one of its renovations (which I believe happened).
The project was either something the Barnwood people did not want to take on, or it was going to be to expensive for the home owners. There are three sides of good logs, but the right most ones in this photo are pretty bad.

 Two other reasons to join logs are;

You may not have had logs long enough to do the walls with long logs (rare).

Or you need to add another room at a later date.

This cabin is one county away from where I live, and not to far from our cabin.
At one time it had two stories as you can see the second floor joists above the door.

But you can also see where a second room was added and logs joined at the 'V' notchs.

None of these logs are especially long, so the lack of long enough logs would not have been the reason for joining two logs together. At the most that is a ten foot span, and those logs would have been easy to find.
At some time the builder needed to add another room.
Or after putting up a small house when he first started farming, eventually he had more time to work on his house and was able to make it bigger.

On the logs running left and right in the picture they alternate between having the top 'V' removed or the bottom one. So that at least everyother log remained attached to the original structure.
If added later, these notchs would no longer be very secure if your foundation started to shift.

We can not see the sill log to tell how or if it was joined to the main house or not.

Dog-trot cabins are fun to explore because some are built with no logs connecting the two cabins and some are built with joined notchs connecting the two pens or really long logs running the whole span of both pens. That is really neat to see.

Mobile Homes? - Why move an old cabin and the use of Carpenters Marks.

  While reading an old house blog yesterday I came across an article on Carpenters Marks, like those pictured to the left.
  Most things you read about Carpenters Marks are a reference to how they were used in the construction of post and beam or timber frame construction. How these building were pieced together before they were ever assembled on site and marked so they could be reassembled on location.
  I have a different story on Carpenters Marks and how they were used.

 When taking down this cabin, which would become our main cabin, as I was removing the rafters I noticed Carpenter Marks on the top plates, the logs slightly cantilevered out for the rafters to sit on.

  This brought to mind a discussion I had had with the farmer who sold me the cabin.
  As I worked on the cabin one day he told me a story; he said, "In about 1960 two old ladies in their 80's stopped by to see the old place (this cabin). While talking they said they had grown up in that cabin. Then they said, 'Did you know, although we grew up in that cabin, it wasn't on the spot it is on now.' They pointed out across the field to the east and said, 'We grew up in it, but it was moved from over on the other side of the field.'"
  (This story is also how I started dating the cabin; If they were in their 80's in 1960 that would make the age of the cabin at least 1880.)

  This story brought to mind why Carpenters Marks were used in perhaps a different way on log cabins than they were used on timber frame construction; To mark rafters to be placed back where they came from after the cabin was moved at an earlier date.

  Building methods are different from timber frame and log cabins. Tools are the same; adz, axe, maybe chisel and saw. Skills required were the same; How to use the adz and axe to fell and hew logs.
  But construction was very different.
  Timber frame most times required a large group of people to construct and raise a building, usually barns.
  Hewn log cabins were often built by just a few people with maybe and oxen, mule or horse. Sometimes it would be just the family raising the building, hopefully with strong sons and/or a horse.
If you were very lucky, you maybe had some neighbors not to far away.

  In construction, as mentioned, timber frames would be fitted together like puzzles, numbered, taken apart and rebuilt on site.

  Hewn log buildings were constructed very near where the logs were harvested and each log moved into place one at a time with no pre-build some where else. Each log stacked one at a time, with the building growing as each new log was added. Each log individually cut, hewn, notched, then places with maybe even some adjustments once it was on the wall.
   And while you will find most hewn log cabins pretty level, they perhaps were not quite as perfect as a precontructed timber frame.
  What this would mean was that once the builders got to the rafters each one could be just a little off from it's neighbor in length.
  There was no need for Carpenters Marks as you constructed a hewn log cabin, only if you had to move it at some time.

  In many cases, because of additional land purchases, or a better location decide on, a hewn cabin may at one time have been moved.
  If you were not moving a great distance, it would be far easier to move your existing cabin than to start over and make a new one. They probably had no siding attached. Mine had no outside chimney, so no fireplace. Things weren't screwed or nailed together. Pegs could be easily cut and remade for window and door frames.
  And it would be much easier to move an original cabin than it would be to move one now that has been rebuilt.
  Logs were not attached to foundations or floors as modern codes require. Usually just built right on to of a stone foundation.
  There was no electrical wiring or plumbing running through the logs that had to be removed or worked around.
  The chinking was not cement or synthetic material attached to wire mesh.
  In the original builds the chinking was just mud and binding material (grass, horse hair) stuffed between the logs. So when removing an old building in, well, the old days, the chinking would just fall out as you lifted the logs. And once you rebuilt it on another site, it was easy to re-chink the logs with home grown materials again.

  However, because of the irregular nature of a hewn log cabin build and the not quite perfectly level nature of the material the rafters would have to go back in the same spot that they came from. That is why I found the Carpenters Marks on the top plates and the rafter logs. This way the rafters could be reused in the same spots and keep the roof line true.

  I found no carpenters marks on any other point of the construction. None in the logs themselves. They may have moved them one at a time so no number system was required or they may have had some form of tagging like we do now.

  So next time you hear about carpenters marks (you know, like when you are sitting around the bar or somethin') you can add another take on the conversation.

  Just like everything else in history, one story may not be the only story.

B2R by the fire - The Foxfire Books

 Mentally, I still believe I am of the age where most things are older than I am.

So, needless to say, I was a little surprised when reading about the Foxfire books that they are a bit younger than I am.

I thought they had been around for much longer.

Anyone who loves hanging around old things (and I guess that includes me now) or old ways knows about the Foxfire book series.

I recently ventured into them again because I wanted to reread the section, which is in the first book, on log cabin building.

As with everything in these books it is fantastic.

While not everything in the books will be of interest to everyone (like how to boil a pig), each book will contain something you will enjoy.

This, book one, had a very large section on cabin building and many of the things that go along with it.

But just as fun was the pieces on the people of Appalachia. Probably the last generation in this country to be totally self sufficient.

 The Foxfire book project started out of a need to reach High School students in an otherwise failing system. And like many grassroot startups, it took on a life of its own.

Some day I will have to take a trip to their museum to see the log cabins and such.

Pictured here are a couple from the museum site.

Before the invention of tractors, well sort a. . . . .

Way back in this post, I talked about having to eventually use the tractor once it got too high to push the logs up with a weak mind and strong back.

Well, I found one photo . . . .

. . . . of about the time that change was going to have to happen.

In this picture you can see that the second floor joist log is the next one to go up.
From the looks of it this is the one that will be rolled all the way across to the far wall.
I only took the logs up two sides to save having the maneuver around the cabin so much with the tractor.
And the back sides were much higher than these two sides which would have meant the ramps would have had to be longer.
I would push the logs up and my helpers, on this day, would hold the ropes tight so the logs would not slide back down as I went to the other end.
When by myself, I had placed pegs in the ramps to keep the logs from sliding back down.
In the photos we are using downed small trees as the ramps. The old boards, floor joists, at this point I would use to walk up as I pushed the logs up the trees.
The joists, up till the point I started using the trees would have been the ramps for the logs.