Building the log cabin: logs, a sawmill, a roof, and a fireplace

And so we started. My man said, oh, not that little of a shandy. He said, we'll make it 18 by 20 or a little bigger if we can. And so he kept on measuring and stuff, and he cut the tops off and that.

And so we were ready. So he started with the first logs. And he pulled and pushed and everything until he got it. And he got the first two, and then the two criss -cross. He never built nothing like that.

I mean, he built nice places, things, but never out of logs. So then cornered things, he chipped out with his axe and everything. And it went pretty nice. He looked real nice. So he put about four high all around, four around the whole thing.

and we had to stop because my logs run out of logs and so he says okay he says we'll go cut some trees and we'll have to peel them and dragon so he did and he done a beautiful job and then he when it was raining he made a frame for the east and the west side and then a frame for the south side and quite a large frame for the north side and a frame where he's going to put the door and he had that all done in the barn while it was raining.

So then when we had the other logs ready, he hauled this up there and we had it all fitted up nice on top of these four high, you know. It was just right to look out of the window when you stand.

And so then he proceeded to drag the others with the tractor up the hill and he put the others on by that time was winter. So we had to stop. Well, he said, let's go look around some lumber yards and see where I can get so many, so many two -by -fours and so many two -by -sixes and so many boards for the top of the roof and so many for the floor.

Well, we went to two, three places, lumber yards in the vicinity around. We had to hogging one spot, Birchwood and Rice Lake. And they wanted so much for the lumber and the two -by -four. it would have cost me a fortune.

So I says, no, we ain't going to do that. I said, that costs too much. John says, yes, it would. So he said, you know what? He says, I'll go and cut 20 or 30 logs or 40. I don't know how many he cut.

Around 40, I think. And of our own trees, nice, big ones. And he went to work and had some friends of his cut it into 2x4s, 2x4s, and pretty boards. And they did it, that fall yet cut it, very close friends of ours, the Fouca brothers and their sister.

So, exactly on, so a day before the Halloween, here Helen Fouca, the sister of these brothers that had this sawmill, a phoan us that the lumberies all cut on big piles. So John, my husband, decide, well, let's go and pile it up real nice and put the criss -cross pieces between each layer of boards and two -by -fourths so that they will dry by spring, you know, kind of freeze out of whatever he called it.

So we've done that, and it took us till evening to, you know, make a pile of two -by -fours and two -by -sixths and then a pile of boards. And it took quite a time for John to do all this.

And so it was evening when we come, and it was kind of drizzly weather. But anyhow, we had that done. So then winter went by, and I went to see the sight of the cabin and with them four longs all around, you know, four on one side, four on the other and all that.

And he had the windows and the things all set and ready to put in in the spring. And so it comes about the first week in April, and it was a nice, sunshiny day, and John says, well, we'll just take our son's life.

little truck, pickup truck, and we will haul some of the lumber, and a little by little we'll haul it all up there. So we did. Now, we hauled it all up there, and John started to make floors, two -by -six floors, and then put other boards on top, and then he put the two -by, oh, then he finished the rest of the logs, because by that time they were dry enough, and we made it just so high as it was supposed to be, and then he came.

carried the windows in and the door and all that. And then he proceed to start to put the two -by -fours for the roof. He made the roof part of it. Then he put the boards on himself and made a trip to town and got the asphalt roofing, put it all on himself.

And so it was under roof, you know, so it wouldn't rain in there. So I was quite happy over the whole thing. So then he left a spot for my fireplace And he never was around Fireplaces too much And he didn't know how to go about it very much How to start or what to do Oh, but then finally he went to see a couple Two, three fireplaces And none of them was what I wanted or what he wanted So finally we settled on the way we wanted it And he made it real nice out of stones And cement and all that Then he bought

special kind of bricks to put in fire bricks, I guess he called him, to line the fireplace, so they would hold heat or whatever it was the cause of it. And then he made on top, he made out of wood stove tops, where the old -time ladies cooked on top of that stove.

Well, my neighbor gave me two of these irons, and he bought some irons to attach. hatch it real nice, and I can cook on top of my fireplace real nice. And he fixed it just beautiful. And then he went to Rice Lake and got a pipe, just the right kind and everything, and put it all together.

And so about three weeks later, we had it all complete.