A recent picture of our cabin on October 28, 2006.
We've been able to add a few shingles here and there over the past year, and
when we worked in October, we were half-way done with the second side of the
roof. The main jobs that remain are chinking the walls and covering the gable
ends.
In January of 2002 we broke ground for a 10x17 log cabin. The cabin is being built on our Grandpa's 27 acres in Oregon City, Oregon, and we are driving in to his property one day out of every other week to work on it, as well as cutting firewood for our grandparents' wood stove. Our purpose is to have fun working together, learn how to use many of the tools that helped build our country, and have a period structure for our Civil War reenacting.
We are building the cabin with 19th century tools and methods, as much as possible. Our tools include an 8-foot, 2 man crosscut saw, axes, drawknives, chains, ropes, pulleys, skidding tongs, a peavey, a bucksaw, an adze, chisels, and a froe and maul (actually, quite a few mauls that are beginning to look rather "mauled" themselves).
Click on these links to see more pictures and learn about what we have done so far:
January - March, 2002 Ground breaking, Tree falling and bucking
May 9, 16, 2002 Bucked a cedar tree into 30" shingle bolts, and hauled them up to the road
May 30, 2002 Felled, bucked, and peeled one fir tree
June 27, July 11, 2002 Hauled the biggest logs out of the woods for foundation logs, peeled them, and put in place
May 15, 2003 Began notching and putting up the wall logs
June 26, 2003 Hauled the last logs out of the woods
July 31, 2003 Nearly all the wall logs have been raised!
June 18-25, 2004 Framing the windows and door
July 22, 2004 Building an ash ladder for building the loft and the roof.
July 13, 2005 After working on firewood for most of the winter, some of our friends came out and helped us put away all the wood we need for next winter. Now that we are ahead, we have been able to return to work on the cabin.
July 9, 2005 We put up the plate logs
August 11, 2005 We finished the loft boards
August 12, 2005 Raising the ridgepole and its supports
August 13, 2005 Putting up the first rafters
September 17, 2005 We completed the rafters, and now we have started putting shingles on. It's starting to look like a real cabin now!
October 28, 2006 (See current picture)
We hope to finish the cabin sometime in 2007.
Watch this page as our work continues!
Last updated November 13, 2006 by Daniel Forster
