Table Of ContentThe Real Log Cabin
The Real Log Cabin
Original Text by Chilson D. Aldrich
Expanded with Commentary by Harry Drabik
NODIN PRESS
Copyright© 1994 by Harry Drabik
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
reproduced in any form without the permission of
Nodin Press except for review purposes.
Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 90-92230
ISBN 0-931714-51-6
Nodin Press, a division ofMicawber's, Inc.
525 North Third Street
Minneapolis, MN 55401
Printed in the U.S.A. at
Printing Enterprises, Minneapolis, MN
Snail cabin drawings on page 156 reprinted courtesy
the Ministry of Culture and Communications,
Province of Ontario.
Additional drawings by
Alexander Rymarowicz, Krakow, Poland
This edition is dedicated with love and deep respect to
Tymie Randall
without whose support, faith, and trust this project
would never have seen completion.
THE RED GODS' CALL
'Tm tired of the rustle and hustle,
I'm sick of the racket and din,
I want to cut loose from the bustle,
Go out where the rivers begin.
I long to get up in the open,
'Mongst the cedar and tall tamarack;
I want to make camp on a lake shore;
In an old tumble-down lumber shack.
I'm tired of the pomp and grandeur,
I'm sick of the falseness and bluff;
I want to get up where the country
Is virgin and wooded and rough.
I long to awake in the morning,
And pull on an old flannel shirt,
And corduroy pants that are mended
And moccasins covered with dirt.
I care not a cuss where the place is,
Nor how far away it may be,
So long as it's up in the open
Where I can unleash and be free.
Where the odor of cedar and hemlock
Will greet me whene'er I awake,
And the moon casts its shadows at nightfall
Of the pine on the wind-rippled lake.
Just give me my pipe and tobacco,
Some coffee and bacon, and then
Turn me foot-loose away in the forest,
Far off from the pathways of men."
INTRODUCTION
We have decided to reissue The Real Log Cabin in a version close to its
original form, even where it was tempting to eliminate or streamline
parts of the text, in order to preserve the flavor of its time. Whether
Chilson Darragh Aldrich has much to say for our day will be settled by
his new readers, but after it was first published by Macmillan in 1928,
The Real Log Cabin became popular enough to stay in print for more
than two decades. Earlier generations began to admire and emulate rural
life as America became more urban, and Aldrich addressed that aspect of
the American imagination.
Reprinting an old book presents special problems. Some consider
this book "too male dominated." Others characterize the type of log
work that Aldrich describes as "too simple." I agree, but I have mostly
retained the warts and blemishes of this historic book. The Real Log
Cabin, like most things, is far from perfect. This new edition of The Real
Log Cabin includes most of Aldrich's text, plus my commentary in italic,
to update every chapter. Because many of the old photos were inade
quate, we've added drawings. With this expanded edition, I hope read
ers will find inspiration and a connection with the past, with an
improved understanding of what summer homes once meant and how
they have been transformed over the years.
I-Iarry F Drabik
October, 1993
FOREWORD
It is being increasingly borne in upon the members of the present
generation that they have lost much by not being pioneers. Much in the
stuff that goes to make character. Much of the downright exhilarating
fun.
With increasing frequency, therefore, one finds that the genuine
American is going back to the good old ancestral custom-bootlegging
his pioneer kick as it were-and building himself a log cabin away from
the honks of man. This "cabin" varies all the way from a modest little
one room (without kitchenette and bath) to a log house as many-cham
bered, as bespattered with baths, as piped and wired and garaged as a
townhouse of the most fastidious. Until it becomes the problem how to
camouflage these concessions to the softer life. How, in spite of them, to
present the appearance of the rugged pioneer home. This requires not
only the technique of the architect with his knowledge of residence
needs, nor alone the skill of the woodsman with his cunning craft in
selecting, cutting and fitting logs-but somehow a blending of the two.
Ruggedness must mean lines of strength, not mere uncouthness, and
beauty of structure must harmonize with the sturdy material in which it
is wrought.
Except for the knowledge of a few of our newly arrived citizens-to
be, fresh from the forests of the old country, log work is almost a lost art.
And then there are the architectural problems. For a novice to secure
even passable results in meeting the manifold problems that arise when
one starts to work in logs requires a lot of experimenting and a good
many baffling failures. For those who have not time to experiment and
possibly fail, this book is written.
It is not to be denied that the "I's," "We's," "My's," and "Our's" are
scattered with a lavish hand throughout the chapters. But be keen
enough and kind enough, You Who Read, to realize that these are not
egotistical signs. Quite the contrary. Herein are revealed ways of plan-
ning and building log cabins-ways learned by the perspiration of one's
forehead. There may be other ways. Therefore to make the grandiose
statement, "This must be done thus and thus," would smack of egotism
indeed. It would assume that the last word is writ herein. It isn't. We
meaning this time the human race-are only beginning to comprehend
the .beauty that can be wrought oflogs. The majority of people assume,
without overtaxing their gray matter by reasoning, that any brawny
woodsman let loose with an ax where there are plenty of trees can build
a log cabin.
Although I had not precisely that notion when I decided to build a
cabin for myself, I did hold to the opinion that an architect with twenty
years' experience of fine residence work back of him ought to know
enough to put up a one-room log cabin. So-I began to build our first
permanent home in the woods.
Well-to paraphrase Kipling, "I learned about cabins from her." In
fact, the paraphrase might be pushed into further stanzas with equal pre
cision, for in ten years of study and work devoted entirely to homes
which can be wrought of logs, each building has taught me something
about cabins which I did not know before.
If these experiences and suggestions of mine solve a few of your prob
lems for you, and thereby help you to build nearer your heart's desire,
this book has served its sole purpose.
CHILSON D. ALDRICH.
April, 1928
CONTENTS
BOOK ONE
PREPARATION
CHAPTER
PAGE
LET Us Go A-GYPSYING ...................................................... 15
II THE SITE .............................................................................. 21
III WHAT Is A "PIONEER" CABIN? ............................................. 27
IV CHOOSING YOUR TYPE OF CABIN ......................................... 33
v
GENERAL DISCUSSION OF Locs ............................................. 43
VI MATERIAL OTHER THAN LOGS ............................................. 51
BOOK TWO
CONSTRUCTION
VII UNDERPINNINGS-FOUNDATION WALL-OR BASEMENT? ..... 61
VIII How TO LAY UP YOUR LOGS ............................................... 69
IX GABLE ENDS, EAVES, RIDGE Loe, PURLINS AND RAFTERS ..... 75
x
FIREPLACES ........................................................................... 85
XI WINDOWS AND DOORS, CUPBOARDS AND FLOORS ................ 97
XII PORCHES, TERRACES AND BALCONIES ................................. 109
XIII IN WHICH ARE DISCUSSED VARIOUS ITEMS OF HARDWARE ... 115
XIV FINISHING THE LOGS AND THE WOODWORK ........................ 121
XV THE SOPHISTICATED CABIN ................................................. 127
XVI Loe CABIN FURNITURE ...................................................... 135
XVII THE CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER ........................ 143
XVIII SQUANTUM ......................................................................... 145
XIX POST AND SILL .................................................................... 149
XX 0RAWSKI ............................................................................ 151
XXI THE SNAIL .......................................................................... 153
