Get back to nature with your own log cabin.
The first Swedish immigrants to America built simple, serviceable log cabins as quickly as possible to provide shelter for themselves and their families. Glass windows were a luxury in frontier log cabins until the Homestead Act of 1862 required them. (The Act gave 160 acres of surveyed property for a filing fee to adults who lived on the land, and cultivated it for five years, in a minimum 10-by-12 home with one glass window.) Cabins were primarily built from notched, ax-felled logs, so no nails were necessary, and they generally contained clay or dirt floors.
Instructions
1. Purchase or cut a minimum of 60 similar-sized logs for a 10-by-12-foot cabin. Cut the logs 2 feet longer than the desired interior length and width -- in this case 12- and 14-foot lengths. Place two 14-foot logs 10 feet apart from each other in the selected location. Cut notches 1 foot from each end of two 12-foot logs. Place the notched logs over and 1 foot from the end of the 14-foot logs to make a rectangle. Trim notches as necessary for a tight fit. Continue placing logs until a 7-foot wall height is reached.
2. Cut out any windows and doors and finish the opening edges with strips of wood fitted to the size of the openings. Glass was a high commodity, and original Swedish cabins covered openings with cloth, paper or handmade shutters and doors. Depending on whether you purchase ready-made windows and doors, either build a door to fit the opening and mount it, or place windows or coverings in their openings.
3. Build the roof by lying the 12-foot end logs as before, but place the 14-foot side logs, one-half to one log width further in than the preceding pair, until the logs meet at the peak of the roof. This requires the notches on the 12-foot end logs to be gradually chiseled further from the ends of the logs, to attach properly to the lessened distance of the closer 14-foot side logs. Once the peak is reached, trim the 12-foot end roof logs to the level of the roof.
4. Cut a 3-foot-high by 5-foot-wide opening in a wall of the cabin, if a fireplace is desired. Place and notch adjoining logs to fit against the logs of the cabin as before, to a height of 2 feet above the walls for the chimney, and as deep as you want it outside the walls (generally three to four feet). Create a flat stone hearth in the fireplace opening, packing clay around the placed stones. Caulk any gaps between all logs attached to the cabin on the outside with mud, moss, clay or a combination of each. Pack clay 10 to 12 inches thick on the inside walls of the fireplace and chimney. Finish interior walls as desired.
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