After procuring land suitable
to build a cabin, one must be careful in choosing an elevated
spot. Do not locate your camp at the base of a hill or near
marshy and boggy ground. Be sure that good drinking water can
be had near at hand. After
selecting a place for your cabin, you must decide upon the
style and size to build it. These must be determined largely
by the size and amount of timber
you can procure. The picture is of a plan for a
cabin simple in design and structure.
Most of the material for the
cabin can be secured in the woods; but for a good roof, floor,
and the finishing of the door and window openings, some boards
should be taken along. There is no rule for the diameter of
the timber to be used, but logs of small diameter are to be
preferred for a small cabin. Cut all the logs about two feet
longer than the inside dimensions of the building. If the plan
here given is followed, the logs should be twelve and fourteen
feet long. Leave the bark on the logs.
To start the cabin, stake out
its length and breadth upon the ground; clear the space of all
trees and brush, and make the ground as nearly level as
possible. It will be unnecessary to have a foundation for a
cabin of this size. Select two fourteen-foot logs for sills
and lay them upon the ground, parallel to each other and ten
feet apart.
There are several ways of
joining the logs together. Probably the most simple scheme is
what is known as the lock-joint. A notch is cut in the logs
one foot from each end. After cutting the notches in two
twelve-foot logs, fit them over the sills one foot from the
ends.
If you intend to have a wooden
floor, you must lay the floor joints at this point. Cut
straight poles for these and gain and tenon them into the
sills, placing them about two feet apart.
After fastening the joists in
place, continue laying the logs, placing a fourteen-foot log
on each side and then a twelve-foot log on each end, until the
height of the doors and windows has been reached. This should
be about six feet eight inches from the floor. Cut out the
openings and finish them with jambs.