The Timber Frame Cabin Plans are Complete

After months of planning I have finally finished the plans for my Timber Frame Style Cabin. At first this was going to be a Timber Frame build but it has changed to one that also incorporates a log cabin style. The inspiration for this build comes from a few books and a video posted a couple of years ago on You-Tube by the Northmen.

If my latest video has sent you here then let me first explain the use for the logs in that film. The timber shown in that video was Walnut and Cherry. The logs were however too small to be sawed into lumber. Every board would have contained too much of the pith and sapwood to be marketable. The logs will make great cabin walls in this build, and will be better than making them into firewood which is where they were headed before I intervened. Walnut which is always sought after for furniture actually is very rot resistant and a great choice for logs in a cabin. Cherry is not very rot resistant but will fair OK if ground contact is avoided and a good roof is overhead. The Walnut logs have also been on the ground for just over a year so they should be nice and almost seasoned by now.

The cabin will be a workshop which will house all my sawmill sharpening equipment and a heavy duty wood planer. The building will be right beside of my dry kiln on the same existing concrete pad. The dimensions for the shop are

13 1/2ft in deep and 17ft long. This building will also have a second floor.

The corner post will all be made out of Hemlock with logs between them making up the walls of the cabin. As you can see in the photo below (northmen credit) this is how the joinery will work for the logs. The post have a groove cut into them that will accept a tenon on the end of each log. Every log also will be hollowed on its bottom face to accept the lower log which will produce a night tight fit.

For the walls I will be using the Walnut, Cherry and some smaller Hemlock. When the log supply for the walls runs low I will probably go to the farm and harvest some smaller White Oak.

This building will be a marriage of Timber Frame and Log Cain style construction.

Every since watching Richard "Dick" Proenneke's documentary video about building a cabin in the remote Alaska wilderness I have been wanting to take a stab at it. With the help from his books and others I am confident I will achieve this goal and build a one of a kind workshop. I also hope to incorporate some viking style construction as well on the inside of the shop. This building will be wired for electricity and have a small wood stove for the winter months.

I will document this entire build on this blog and via You-Tube over the next few months. I invite you to subscribe to the blog here as each video will have an accompanied blog entry. Thanks for stopping by.

Nathan,

Buying Logs/Timber

Thanks for checking out my blog. If this is your first time here be sure to subscribe. I post content here that sometimes never makes it to You-Tube.

Also before we begin I want to thank my patreons for their support. If you want to help support my You-Tube channel then consider making a donation through Patreon. You can give as little as 1$ a month. All proceeds go to toward improving the videos.

Link to my Patreon Page: https://www.patreon.com/outofthewoods

The Walnut that I am harvesting this coming Monday showed to be around 36in DBH. Now I anticipate that number to go up actually once the timber is on the ground. I have found that when measuring timber at breast height that the actual figure usually increases once I take a measurement after bucking the log. I hope the log comes in at around 38 to 40 inches. There should be about 5 saw logs out of that tree with the top one having a nice crotch.

Now on to how much I paid for that tree. I rarely buy timber, most is given to me. This was actually the first time in about 3 years that I bought a tree. This tree is on an adjoining farm that was featured in a video earlier this week showing me harvest several Walnut logs. I noticed the Timber as soon as I arrived to get the other logs. The tree stands in a fence line and is at the back of a pasture field. I offered the land owner $200 for this tree in which they accepted. Now you might think I got off cheap, but this tree is still standing and could be a big loss when I get it on the ground. For one it is in a fence line so the first cut will without a doubt contain metal. And there is a good chance that in a big Walnut like this for rotting/defects in the logs. So I am taking a chance here with this tree but I hope it will pay off for me very well. Metal I can deal with but rot/hollow logs I can not. I also agreed to clean up the top of this tree which also had to be considered when negotiation the terms of the deal. If this tree was in the middle of a forest/ or already harvested (bucked into logs) and graded then I would have offered a higher amount for the tree. I am betting that this is going to be an amazing one of a kind Walnut tree, I just hope the cards play out in my favor.

Monday they are calling for good weather so I should be able to get the tree on the ground and bucked into logs by lunch time. The land owner is out of town next week so I will not have the luxury of a tractor on site for moving/loading the logs.

The ATV and log arch will be traveling with me and I should be able to load at-least two of those logs on my trailer. If times allows they will be taken over to the sawmill and we will commence to hopefully have Christmas in August!

Nathan,

New Video

I uploaded a short video today that I wanted to share on here in case you didn't see it on You-Tube. It is a brief speech given by Scott Nearing while he worked in a small firewood pile on his farm a long time ago. It is some footage that I had obtained a few months ago. It seemed like a good time to share his message. I will post a link below to the video and also another one to the book about him that is a very good read.

Also note the photo above is not Scott, it is one of Dick Proenneke, one of my all time favorite authors/video makers.

Link to Scott Nearing Book:

https://amzn.to/2LKqmmi

Link to today's video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZPj254ktTE