Snags

Recently I've been having a conversation with the author of  Relaxshacx blog about one of his upcoming projects and it got me thinking about why I decided to try building my cabin the way I did. If you've been following along from the beginning you know that my original motivation was a result of having a load of dead trees creating a variety of hazards and no real need for more firewood. I was afraid one of them would fall on me and I was getting pretty concerned about the fire load that was building up in the woods.

A snag is another term for "dead tree". But  a snag also refers to trees that have become habitat for bugs, birds and other little creatures. Think of them as wildlife condos. I  thought now would be a good time to reassure everyone that I did not remove all the snags from the property. Most of the leaves are down  now and I can get a good look at what I left on the property. I'll  be honest, there were only three reasons I didn't harvest a dead tree for the cabin.

 1. Size - this is one of my favorite old snags on the property. It is a Sycamore and although it will fall someday in the meantime it is a favorite haunt for the local Barred Owls. I have seen as many as three baby owls at once perched in its branches.This tree is way too big for me to handle confidently.

 There are also some trees I left on the ground because they were too small to be of any use. These smaller trees create a barrier between young saplings and browsing deer. Deer are a lot like people, if they see a trip hazard they will avoid it and that gives green sprouts a place to grow.

2. Characteristics - This one is just too crooked and although its days are numbered it does give the squirrels a short cut from the ground to the higher branches of other trees they call home.

3. Condition - this Red bud has been on the ground for many years and I was originally planning to use it but upon inspection it became obvious that it had serious rot. Meanwhile it has become a nice shelter for rabbits and chipmunks looking for a place to hide from the Coyotes and Red Tailed Hawks that patrol the property day and night looking for tasty treats.

Over the course of building the cabin I learned a heck of a lot about what's out there in the woods and my interest in becoming a better steward has grown considerably. Now that the cabin is up my next goal is to learn more about intentional placement and construction of habitat brush piles to promote diversity of species reduce potential fire hazard and help control erosion.

I'm still working on sealing up the cabin for the winter. A co-worker brought an almost full gallon of stain into work over the summer and put it in the break-room with a little sign that read "Free" on it. The ego-maniac in me is sure that they have been reading the blog and brought it just for me but odds are just as good that it was a coincidence. Anyway, I used it to protect the bottom courses of logs from the snow that will be coming soon.

Gussy it Up!

A friend from the Forestry Forum asked me to post some photos of the interior so of course I had to gussy it up first.

Here is the Kitchen (So to speak). I decorated it with a map of my Hoosier home, my grill gear, a jug and mugs I made when I was a student at Vincennes University. The hand crank Ice Cream maker will see some action when the snow flies. Oh ... did I forget to mention the Perfection Oil Heater!

This thing is a beauty. My Grandmother's cousin, Orpha Wickersham, gave it to my cousin before she died in 1989. He saw the blog and asked me if I wanted it. It had been sitting in his shed unused for years. She was a homesteader in Wyoming. She taught school in a one room school house and I remember her telling stories about getting to school before the kids so she could warm the place up. This is very likely the same oil heater she used. While I was cleaning it I found a date of 1925 on the wick cap. The brochure linked above is dated 1920 something and has a picture of it on page 4. It still works like a champ and you can still buy wicks for it. It is one of the simplest machines I have ever seen. And you can boil water on the top in a pinch.

In the living area I give a "Tip-O-The-Hat" to the first European settlers of the Wabash Valley. For those of you who aren't familiar with Illinois history, it might be of interest to know that this area was once part of the French colony of Canada. Along with the fluier de leis flag there is a set of wrought iron chairs, purchased in Paris and sent to Granny Hawkins by her son Daniel. I have a dandy kerosene lamp from my mother and if you look closely at the shelf in the top center of the picture you'll see a Beaver skull. Our intrepid Husky found the skull along the river trails one morning last winter. The beaver are not only the reason the French colonized the Illinois Country, they also are responsible for killing several of the Hackberry trees I used to build the cabin.

Finally we have the washroom complete with basin, bucket and washboard. My sister gave me the washboard. She found it in the garage of her first home in New Albany Indiana. As you can see I still have a lot of work to do on sealing up the walls but I'll be warm, clean and well fed while I work on them. 

Bonne nuit les amis!

Sheddies

“A yerde in which was a shadde where in were five grete dogges.” - William Caxton, 1481

This was the first printed use of the word “shed” in English. There is perhaps no finer example of botanical artistry than a proper English garden. After all there was a time when the sun never set on the British Empire and the result of that early globalization was that many of the finest horticultural treasures in the world can still be found in the gardens of the United Kingdom. The soul of the garden is of course the shed. Not only is a proper garden shed the wellspring of ingenuity its a place where friends can roll up their sleeves and share a pint on a hot summer day. Over the centuries a subculture of devoted garden "Sheddies" has spread throughout the world and thrives to this day!

No where is this tradition more alive than in England. Don't believe me? Take a look at The Shed Blog

I found this blog a while back and I still can't get over the incredible variety of ingenious designs by Sheddies. Every year there is a competition between Sheddies to see who has the "Shed of the Year". The competition for 2011 has begun. The winner will be announced sometime in July. I was delighted to learn that the competition includes an "International Shed of the Year" for Sheddies living outside the UK. So of course I've entered The House of Fallen Timbers in the Cabin/Summerhouse category. Please take a minute to visit the Shed Blog and leave a comment so the judges know which shed you think deserves to win. I know you'll enjoy your visit.

Stuffing it

I used up the last of my workable cement mix yesterday and only covered a little more than half of one short wall. By my estimates in order to daub the entire cabin this way would require an additional 800 lbs of dry cement mix. Not very encouraging.

On the interior I have been experimenting with canned spray foam insulation. I bought three cans and sealed up part of two walls with it. I know this is terribly unauthentic material but something tells me if Daniel Boone could have gotten his hands on this stuff he would have been on it like flies on honey. The color is not great and the bead can be very uneven.

I put some of this on Thursday evening and trimmed it up Yesterday morning. Once it has been trimmed and or sanded it will take stain. 

I did a quick test with some stain to see what it would look like and I have to say for reasons of time and economy this will probably be the way I go to finish sealing the cabin. At least temporarily for the winter. I may still panel the interior with barn wood eventually and I may still mud the exterior someday but for now I'm going to concentrate on sealing up the interior with this stuff.

Ridge cap, daubing and paneling

First project this weekend was to put a ridge cap on the seam of the roof. $20.00 investment but should prevent water from damaging the ridgepole.

Next up was a test of the cement mix and unfortunately moisture has contaminated it over the years. It was more like gravel than cement mix. I pulverized it with a hammer and mixed it up just the same but it doesn't have the right consistency anymore and doesn't appear to be drying well. Also, a quarter of the mix only filled the gaps between six courses of logs on one short side of the cabin. Another solution may be necessary to seal up the cabin.

Knowing that the hardest part of daubing would be the gables I returned to the rafters of the garage and found some old floor boards that had been squirreled away years ago. I trimmed them up and used them to panel the interior gables. This will at least reduce the amount of daubing needed to seal up the gables.

Despite the disappointment of the cement mix the cabin is in practical terms, very close to finished! Most of what I have left to do is cosmetic. I may decide to panel the interior walls if I can find enough old barn wood or other satisfactory paneling to do it.

Chinking

I spent the better part of Saturday and Sunday wedging sticks into the gaps between courses of logs. For the really large gaps I split small Sassafras logs into quarters. Sassafras is very soft wood, splits nicely and smells like root beer!

As you can see I also got the door and shutters for the window hung. Nice bug and rot resistant Ceder left in the rafters of the garage. I used some old cupboard hinges to hang them. After getting the wood chinking, door and shutters finished I decided it was finally time to check out the bags of cement that have been living under the workbench for the last eight years. I had been putting it off because I didn't really want to know if it was unusable.

Turns out the cement wasn't the only thing living under the workbench! A nice healthy Black Rat Snake had taken up residence in one of the open bags of cement. Looks like some mice had been living in it before him. I chased him off with a broom stick and low and behold the cement is still workable. There are three part bags and one unopened bag, all together probably 200 lbs of dry cement mix. Next weekend I'll start sealing up the chinking.

Today I raised my colors to celebrate the beautiful weather and the fact that the snake didn't bite me. Happy  Labor Day!