Starting the Verandah of the Log Cabin_ LOG CABIN BUILD _ PIONEER LIFE CIRCA 1700's.

So I've, I know I've said this numerous times in since we started this project that this was my last log to peel off. This was my last log to peel. So I have my floor joists done. I've got my sill logs here, my uprights around the corner, and I started my first spire to melt some of the frost to dig the four holes I need for my uprights. So my next step here is to sort of eyeball that corner one. And that's going to work. That'll be a reference point. Now I'm going to stake out the balance and I'm going to get three more fires started. Frost in that ground. What I'm doing here is I'm squaring up the front using my first fire as a reference. The holes will be much bigger. So obviously, once you get the holes and pulls in, I'll have to square everything up again. But this will be a ballpark area of where to set my next three fires. And get our pickaxe out and start shoveling it up. So the thing I'm calling here is called a burden strap or a tump line. And next to the saw, my buck saw and my axe, it's probably been the most used tool on my cabin built here. From a living historian perspective, anybody that does living archaeology and ventures off into the hinterland using 18th century accoutrements, this is an item that they should carry. And I suspect pretty much everyone carried one. Its applications were almost endless. A primary use would have been used to bring in bundles of firewood. So you break your firewood off, you wouldn't use an axe so much to cut it takes too much energy. You break your firewood off, put it in bundles about four feet long, put the big bundle over your shoulder and bring it back to camp. And I use that frequently for my winter trekking. It can be used as a painter on a canoe to line it through rapids. You can use it to haul in big game. Obviously, you've seen me use it as a measuring tool on our build. Yes, applications are almost endless. It can be used as a strong back to string a tarp or a blanket over for emergency shelter. And I've used it for all those applications. The one I haven't used, it was commonly used in the turbulent time of the 1700s would have been as a prisoner strap. So I haven't found an application for that yet. Hope I don't have to. But anyway, it is a very useful tool and something that if you're doing living archaeology and trying to actually live the time period of the 1700s, 1800s, it would be an item that should be So this is probably the easiest job I've had since I started this project. I'm simply tending four fires that are melting the frost for my uprights for the veranda. Someone recently asked me what was one of the harder aspects of the build or would it have been like in the in the 1700s. And you might think it's like dragging these logs out by hand or peeling them or lifting them. The fact is that one of the hardest things was building it in moccasins. And Europeans that would have arrived in the frontier may have had European footwear of some style at the time, but they quickly wore out and there weren't shoemakers about to fix them. So they very quickly adapted the native moccasin. So I have taken a bit of liberty, I think, but I'm fairly confident that they probably did this. So between the layers, the two sole layers on the shoe packs of winter moccasins, I sew in a strip of birchbark. So the birchbark canoes that we built, they don't leak. And vessels that the natives used to hold liquids didn't leak. So it just made sense to me to help waterproof them. So I use bear fat to grease them, which helps make them water resistant. So as long as it's really cold, the moccasins stay dry. But if it gets warm, like today, it's warmed up pretty good and moccasins are getting a little on the dampish side. The worst part is the fact that they're slippery as heck. So moving around on the roof and what have you, one had to be pretty careful in the build. It's interesting that in that time period, on the frontier particularly, natives and settlers dressed pretty commonly. They adapted, well obviously the European moccasins, but not only that, they adapt things like leggings, even breech clothes. There's a number of first person accounts that would indicate that you could essentially, aside from their skin, not tell them apart. So the natives wanted wool and that wool was the number one. It accounted for about 70 percent of the trade industry in North America during that time. So yeah, they would wear long under shirts and we would wear their breech coats. So anyway, I just find that quite interesting. Anyway, I'm going to sit here for most of the day and keep nice and warm by these fires and hopefully by later this afternoon I'll be able to start digging out a hole. So yesterday I finished up with all my four posts so the fires were able to melt enough frost that I could etch a hole and that wasn't easy, but we got them in and I've got them plumbed just by eyesight both vertically this way and this way and I've got them braced in here temporarily. Sort of looks like a dog's breakfast, but it's made it rigid. I've got my four notches made here for the corresponding sill log and I'm working on my notches now for them. So they say a sign of a good carpenter is one that can hide his mistakes. Well, trust me, I've got lots of mistakes to hide, but I've got a sort of a very significant screw up at far end. My log tapered too much and so I tried to find a happy medium, but anyway, I might have to block up the far end, but I think the first three here are going to fit pretty tight. So I'm going to work on the next couple of notches and see how this fits. So it's rather a cold day today. The natives call it the month of February, the month of the snapping trees, and they're snapping and cracking all about me and I normally don't like to work with gloves on, but today's not an option I'm afraid.