Cabin Quirks - The Brandegee Blog

Ramblings on Crafting Useable Art (and other things that I find interesting)

Cabin Quirks
Posted on March 12, 2013
We discovered odd details about our log cabin and how it had been occupied as our restoration progressed. Even before he began work on the cabin for us, Jim Whisner pointed out a slim trickle of spring water as he and I first stooped under the flooring in the crawl space under the first floor to inch around and poke at the cabin logs to gauge their condition. The trickle ran from upper corner diagonally to exit under the lower foundation wall.  The hollow between two slopes where the cabin sits beside the stream is dotted everywhere with springs.  While the stream swells sometimes to worrisome levels, particularly after a sudden snow melt in the spring, the springs run evenly non-stop year round.  Across from the cabin, its first source for drinking water still faithfully performs, a spring now feeding the stream from beneath a cowl of stones.

The discovery that most fascinated us came after we peeled away later boards nailed to one end of the cabin and found no logs underneath; and the mystery deepened when we realized that there was no original floor boarding at that end.  Jim postulated an answer:  the farm animals of the original settlers came indoors in winter, warming themselves and sharing their body heat with their human family.  Mystery solved!

We “restored” that wall with logs scavenged from other log cabins in the area.  Though we are nutty about the many period log buildings fairly close by, many long term residents are not.  So, when our work began in the mid 1990s, early log cabins could be found and purchased.  The dismantling, moving, and reworking of those ancient hewn woods inspired many of my furniture designs since.

This piece echoed the design of the First dining table, but with one of the long-side lower stretchers set out front to anchor the canvas modesty panel.

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