Thought I would post a picture of my cabin. My Dad and I built it in '78 or '79. The picture is about 10 years old just after I added that lean to for storage. The wood shed to the left I built in '72 I think. I'm going to have to replace the roof soon.
It's 20x20 and has a second story I use for storage, stairway on the back.

it is a basic cabin. live in the right half, the left half is a sauna

photo in a cabin

Nice pictures, keep them coming.

Taiga man - tell us about your snowmobile. It looks like our Alpines, which you can't get any more.

My first cabin in Alberta. Unusual design and built in the 70's by the guy I bought line off of. As a carpenter I prefer framing up my cabins with lumber. Unfortunately a lot of log cabins are hard to keep mouse proof.

My friend carved this for me.

Brian a friend of mine, trapper/guide had three cabins like that at his main guide camp. Looks almost identical for size. They were frame and plywood construction. He built them like that as they were in deep snow country. Not sure if they are still standing but brought back a few memories. I'm going to inquire.

Although building a log cabin has always been on my bucket list it is probably not going to happen. I am more of a frame and plywood guy also.

Looks good.

This evening I walked through my pine plantations, looking for suitable trees for building, I think I have enough of the size I want , and I ned to thin it anyway. My dad planted the trees 50 years ago as a Christmas tree plantation, but we never got the chance to shear and harvest them.

Nice, we'll be waiting and watching what you do with them. The only cabin I built was when we were kids. My younger brother a neighbor boy and I built one out of popple logs. We used an axe and a large bow saw. We dragged the logs by hand. We tacked split saplings in the cracks and finished the chinking with some mortar my dad let us have. Dad gave us packing boards that he got at work to use for the roof and covered them with rolled roofing. We built it down by a small stream so all the log dragging would be down hill.

Looks like some fantastic cabin logs there Dale, nice young stand of trees. You may have to skid them out with a horse, they look pretty close together?

Great cabins, good read. Does anyone have any pictures of there sauna builds?

I'm going to wait till winter to skid them out, I traded off my Belgian mare a couple years ago, and will have to figure something out.
I am not cutting till next january or so, I have too many other things I need to do first, but I can get the site and foundation ready, cut the lumber for the floor and roof and get it dry, and figure out a system to move the logs up to the walls.

I have a gas driven capstan winch that I can yard the logs with, I just attach it to a tree and put a high sheave in front of it to stack the logs where I can get the tractor to them, I can figure out a boom system to move the logs where the building will be using the same winch. It is only limited by how many feet of rope I have. I need to get a whole roll of marine braided rope or stable braid or something that won't stretch or melt under some friction. No nylon for sure. I guess stable braid works good . I'll make a skidding cone too to make it easier to slide the butts.

Many of the trees are bigger than they look, and I am not taking the really big ones. Lots of small ones too, due to the close spacing. I'm going to cut ones 10-11 inches at chest height. They are plenty long for a 18 X 24 building.

Sauna and change room in the back, summer kitchen in the front , for canning veggies, processing and smoking meats and having a few beers with friends.
I have a helper that wants to build his own, and he will learn a bunch helping on this one.

You guys are going to think I'm nuts, but I will take my lineman gear and climb all the trees I mark and girdle them below the crown, the old Northern European way, the crown then uses up the starch and sugars in the trunk, the turpene levels go up in the wood, and it dries out on the stump. I'll do that in the next few weeks. I always wanted to try the old way. Maybe its a waste of time , but its my time.

This daylight savings time stuff has me up too early. And I am off work today.
I need to find a piece of graph paper and draw out the floor plan.

This Russian snowmobile "Buran" two tracks, one ski. LOL


video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VQ38wCEXQ8

I want one,bogie wheels and all.

Me too!!!

The Buran rocks.

Dale - I've heard that old timer's would also select their base foundation logs in advance and scar the entire one side of the tree. The sap all ran to that side of the tree providing a natural water and rot preservative. The logs were harvested after drying out for a year and placed sap side down. Ever see that?

Never heard of that, but it makes sense.

A friend and I were talking about cool Russian stuff, they have some awesome machines.
Too bad snowmobile manufacturers here make machines that are too fast , use too much fuel, too expensive and are to complicated to work on nowadays. Someone should sell some simple workhorse snowmobiles again.

Talking about cutting them in the winter makes me wonder how much longer you think that extends the logs life.
When my Dad and I cut mine we cut and peeled them in the late summer. The sap was still running and they peeled easy. I think we cut and peeled 3000 lineal feet in 6 days. I think I would trade a little less life for ease in peeling and I believe that log cabin is going to outlast me anyway.
They sat and seasoned 'till spring.

All the logs are cedar. Maybe pine or spruce it wouldn't matter so much?

I remember it cost $60 stumpage for the cabin logs. USFS permit.

I don't have time to cut and build now anyway. If I were retired, I think I would be building it of green logs.

Also I live in sandy ground and they will be easier to skid in the snow with my small equipment and they won't get full of dirt and sand.