Grown-Up Linclon Logs

In addition to getting the building site ready for the foundation, Ray and I have a laundry list of projects to finish up before winter. One of the most important ones is the new and improved Chow House. We have an old tent that we call the Chow House where we store all our cooking supplies, chairs, coolers, etc. It is located near the fire ring and far away from where we sleep, so if there are any critters looking for a snack in the night, they would be far away from us. The tent was pretty old to begin with and it is really on its last legs now. We knew that we would need a different set up next season and we also need a storage building to keep all our supplies in over the winter. We had been kicking around the idea of buying a shed, but the nice ones run about $1000 or more and that was just not in the budget right now. We came up with the idea of building a 3-sided Adirondack style shelter that can serve as the summer kitchen and also double as a storage building in the winter. When we are ready to leave for the weekend or close down for the year we will just tarp up the open side. This is what the building should look like when we're finished. The plan is to build in lots of shelves, storage pegs and a wooden counter top. The amazing sink Ray built will also live in it. We got the basic frame up this weekend (four corner posts and horizontals across the front, back and sides.) We are using felled trees for the frame and will side it with salvaged lumber. It will have a simple plywood roof covered with roll roofing. It certainly won't be 100% weather proof, but it should be a far cry better than the sad old tent we're using now. You can see said sad tent in the photo of our progress. We are basically just constructing around the tent and will dismantle it when the building is done. It's hard to see in the photo, but Ray carefully carefully cut notches in the logs with his chainsaw and a hatchet. The logs are fitted together and then we drove in huge metal spikes with a sledge hammer to hold the operation together. The corners are also braced and tied together with ropes. The roof and siding are really necessary to keep the whole thing solid, so I'm kind of nervous that we might find the whole thing on the ground next time we head out to work on it. Building with logs was an eye-opening experience. When we talk about the cabin, people often ask us if we're building with logs. After working with them for one day, I can say I am extremely glad that we are not. They are extraordinarily heavy and even the straight ones aren't really straight. It's kind of fun using materials off the land for this scale of building, but give me regular old 2x4's for anything much more substantial.