If your house is not to be laid directly on the ground (called a mudsill construction), you may rest your bottom logs upon posts or stone piles; in either case, in the Northern States, these footings should extend three feet below the ground, so as to be below frost line and prevent the upheaval of the spring thaw from throwing the structure out of plumb.

Stake out the inside lines of the cabin.

Lay the ends of the logs over each other, and secure them with notches at the corners. Cut each notch deeply enough to allow the edges of the logs to meet. Lay the first tier of logs, bracing them into position with stakes along the outside of the proposed cabin.

If the cabin is to have a floor, cut three straight logs about ten inches thick in their center and twelve feet long. Bed these snuggly into the ground, one along each of the longer walls and one in the center. They must be of an even height. If one rests too high in spots, dress it with an axe or hatchet. Planking the floor can be completed once the main structure is accomplished.

Continue building the walls until all the logs are used, and you will now have four sides, a little over six feet in height.

The place for the door should now be selected. The uppermost log should form its upper outline and the two sides should be cleanly and straightly cut with a crosscut saw. The window openings, one or more, can next be cut, starting beneath the second log from the top and taking in three beneath it. Replace the logs above, and on the ends of those cut, in windows and doors, proceed to spike a heavy plank, driving two nails into each log, about five inches apart, one above the other. This will hold them firmly in place and offer a close-fitting jam for the door, as well as a neat receptacle for the window sashes.

The gable ends should next be built up on the smaller sides of the cabin. Start by laying a long log (notched as before) across the top of the structure at about two feet inside the edge. This should be done on both sides, after which they should be overlapped with logs at the corners.

Next lay two more long logs parallel with the first two and about a foot inside them, notching as before. The ends of these should be spanned with beams eight or so feet in length. Two more long logs are next in order—let them be one foot inside the last two. Overlap these with beams five and a half feet in length, and in the exact center of these last pieces chop notches for a heavy log for a ridgepole. The gable outline, direct from the ridgepole to the eaves, should now be cut off. This may be done either while the pieces are in position or the line may be marked, and the logs taken down in order to accomplish it.

The Cabin Roof

This may consist of either strips of bark or the rounded sides of logs split off and hollowed into troughs. The latter method is preferable, on account of its greater strength and durability, but the bark will answer the purpose very well and is much more easily obtained.

The first row is laid on with the hollow side up; securing them at top and bottom by nails driven through each into the ridge pole and eaves-log, care being taken that one of these pieces projects well over the gable, on both ends of the cabin. These pieces are now overlapped by the second row and with the addition of the large piece which covers them all at the ridge pole, the roof is complete and will stand a heavy rain with little or no leaking.

All crevices should now be stopped with moss, dried grass, or clay. When a bark roof is made, additional poles ought to be inserted beneath as props. They should be three or four inches in diameter and run parallel with the ridgepole at intervals on the slope, notched and nailed to secure them.

A chimney may be constructed if desired, but this necessity may be done away with by using a small camp stove and making a small opening in the gable end of the hut for the passage of the stovepipe. If a stove should not be at hand, you can build the fireplace and chimney as follows.

Log Rolling

In handling logs, lumbermen have tools made for that purpose: cant-hooks, peevy irons, lannigans, and numerous other implements with names as peculiar as their looks, but the old trappers and traders owned few tools but their tomahawks and axes, and the logs of most of their cabins were rolled in place by the men themselves pushing them up the skids laid against the cabin wall for that purpose. Two methods were used.

Pulling by Main Force

Take two ropes and fasten the ends securely inside the cabin.

Then pass the free ends of the ropes around the log, first under it and then over the top of it, then up to a team of men who, by pulling on the free ends, roll the log up to the top of the cabin.

Block and Tackle

Fasten a chain to each end of the log, and then fasten a pulley-block to the other side of the cabin. That is, the side opposite the skids and run the line through the pulley-block and back to a team of men, a horse or mule or a team of oxen. When the oxen were started, the log slid up the skids to the last completed log tier and muscled into place.

BUILDING A STONE CHIMNEY

Dig the foundation for your fireplace and chimney at least three feet deep; then fill the hole up with small, broken cobblestones until you have reached nearly the level of the ground. If you fail to dig this foundation the cold will work the ground under your chimney and the chimney will work with the ground, causing it to upset or to tilt to one side or the other.

In erecting the fireplace for your cabin, the stone-work should extend into the cabin itself, thus protecting the ends of the logs from the fire. It will be necessary to cut away an opening in the logs at the gable end, as was done for the door and windows. This should be about three feet square, and the fireplace should be built of stone and clay or mortar, to fill the opening and project inside the hut.

In gathering the stones for your chimney, remember that it makes no difference how rough and uneven it is on the outside. The more uneven the outside is the more picturesque it will appear, but the smoother and more even the inside is the less will it collect soot and the less will be the danger of chimney fires.

Nowadays we lay our chimney stones in cement, but in the era of the first mountain men, the mortar was most commonly a mixture of clay and fire ash.

See that each stone fits firmly in the bed and does not rock and that it breaks joints with the other stone below it. Breaking joints means that the crack between the two stones on the upper tier should fit over the middle of the stone on the lower tier; this, with the aid of the mortar, locks the stones and prevents any accidental cracks which may open from extending any further than the two stones between which it started. If, however, you do not break joints, a crack might run from the top to the bottom of the chimney causing it to fall apart. Above the fireplace make four walls to your chimney. Be certain the top of the chimney extends above the roof at least three feet; this will not only help the draught but it will also lessen the danger of fire.

Fill whatever gaps or spaces that may exist between the logs with a mixture of clay and moss.

Inside the cabin there will be plenty of room for the hanging of the skins and any number of cross-poles may be rested across the beams.

SOD HOUSE CONSTRUCTION