Shelters, Shacks and Shanties
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Title: Shelters, Shacks and Shanties
Author: Daniel Carter Beard
Release date: March 5, 2009 [eBook #28255]
Language: English
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Shelters,
Shacks, and Shanties
[Illustration: Hunter's cabin showing how projecting logs may be
utilized.]
Shelters,
Shacks, and Shanties
By
D. C. BEARD
With Illustrations by the Author
NEW YORK
Charles Scribner's Sons
1916
COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
Published September, 1914
DEDICATED TO
DANIEL BARTLETT BEARD
BECAUSE OF HIS
LOVE OF THE BIG OUTDOORS
FOREWORD
As this book is written for boys of all ages, it has been divided under
two general heads, "The Tomahawk Camps" and "The Axe Camps," that is,
camps which may be built with no tool but a hatchet, and camps that will
need the aid of an axe.
The smallest boys can build some of the simple shelters and the older boys
can build the more difficult ones. The reader may, if he likes, begin with
the first of the book, build his way through it, and graduate by building
the log houses; in doing this he will be closely following the history of
the human race, because ever since our arboreal ancestors with prehensile
toes scampered among the branches of the pre-glacial forests and built
nestlike shelters in the trees, men have made themselves shacks for a
temporary refuge. But as one of the members of the Camp-Fire Club of
America, as one of the founders of the Boy Scouts of America, and as the
founder of the Boy Pioneers of America, it would not be proper for the
author to admit for one moment that there can be such a thing as a camp
without a _camp-fire_, and for that reason the tree folks and the "missing
link" whose remains were found in Java, and to whom the scientists gave
the awe-inspiring name of Pithecanthropus erectus, cannot be counted as
campers, because _they did not know how to build a camp-fire_; neither can
we admit the ancient maker of stone implements, called eoliths, to be one
of us, because he, too, knew not the joys of a camp-fire. But there was
another fellow, called the Neanderthal man, who lived in the ice age in
Europe and he _had_ to be a camp-fire man or freeze! As far as we know, he
was the first man to build a camp-fire. The cold weather made him hustle,
and hustling developed him. True, he did cook and eat his neighbors once
in a while, and even split their bones for the marrow; but we will forget
that part and just remember him as the first camper in Europe.
Recently a pygmy skeleton was discovered near Los Angeles which is claimed
to be about twenty thousand years old, but we do not know whether this man
knew how to build a fire or not. We do know, however, that the American
camper was here on this continent when our Bible was yet an unfinished
manuscript and that he was building his fires, toasting his venison, and
building "sheds" when the red-headed Eric settled in Greenland, when
Thorwald fought with the "Skraelings," and Biarni's dragon ship made the
trip down the coast of Vineland about the dawn of the Christian era. We
also know that the American camper was here when Columbus with his comical
toy ships was blundering around the West Indies. We also know that the
American camper watched Henry Hudson steer the _Half Moon_ around
Manhattan Island. It is this same American camper who has taught us to
build many of the shacks to be found in the following pages.
The shacks, sheds, shanties, and shelters described in the following pages
are, all of them, similar to those used by the people on this continent or
suggested by the ones in use and are typically American; and the designs
are suited to the arctics, the tropics, and temperate climes; also to the
plains, the mountains, the desert, the bog, and even the water.
It seems to be natural and proper to follow the camp as it grows until it
develops into a somewhat pretentious log house, but this book must not be
considered as competing in any manner with professional architects. The
buildings here suggested require a woodsman more than an architect; the
work demands more the skill of the axeman than that of the carpenter and
joiner. The log houses are supposed to be buildings which any real outdoor
man should be able to erect by himself and for himself. Many of the
buildings have already been built in many parts of the country by Boy
Pioneers and Boy Scouts.
This book is not intended as an encyclopedia or history of primitive
architecture; the bureaus at Washington, and the Museum of Natural
History, are better equipped for that purpose than the author.
The boys will undoubtedly acquire a dexterity and skill in building the
shacks and shanties here described, which will be of lasting benefit to
them whether they acquire the skill by building camps "just for the fun of
the thing" or in building them for the more practical purpose of
furnishing shelter for overnight pleasure hikes, for the wilderness
trail, or for permanent camps while living in the open.
It has been the writer's experience that the readers depend more upon his
diagrams than they do upon the written matter in his books, and so in this
book he has again attempted to make the diagrams self-explanatory. The
book was written in answer to requests by many people interested in the
Boy Scout movement and others interested in the general activities of
boys, and also in answer to the personal demands of hundreds of boys and
many men.
The drawings are all original and many of them invented by the author
himself and published here for the first time, for the purpose of
supplying all the boy readers, the Boy Scouts, and other older "boys,"
calling themselves Scoutmasters and sportsmen, with practical hints,
drawings, and descriptions showing how to build suitable shelters for
temporary or permanent camps.
DANIEL CARTER BEARD.
FLUSHING, LONG ISLAND,
APRIL 1, 1914.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
FOREWORD v
I. WHERE TO FIND MOUNTAIN GOOSE. HOW TO
PICK AND USE ITS FEATHERS 1
II. THE HALF-CAVE SHELTER 7
III. HOW TO MAKE THE FALLEN-TREE SHELTER
AND THE SCOUT-MASTER 11
IV. HOW TO MAKE THE ADIRONDACK, THE WICK-UP,
THE BARK TEEPEE, THE PIONEER, AND
THE SCOUT 15
V. HOW TO MAKE BEAVER-MAT HUTS, OR FAGOT
SHACKS, WITHOUT INJURY TO THE TREES 18
VI. INDIAN SHACKS AND SHELTERS 22
VII. BIRCH BARK OR TAR PAPER SHACK 27
VIII. INDIAN COMMUNAL HOUSES 31
IX. BARK AND TAR PAPER 36
X. A SAWED-LUMBER SHANTY 39
XI. A SOD HOUSE FOR THE LAWN 47
XII. HOW TO BUILD ELEVATED SHACKS, SHANTIES,
AND SHELTERS 52
XIII. THE BOG KEN 54
XIV. OVER-WATER CAMPS 62
XV. SIGNAL-TOWER, GAME LOOKOUT, AND
RUSTIC OBSERVATORY 65
XVI. TREE-TOP HOUSES 72
XVII. CACHES 77
XVIII. HOW TO USE AN AXE 83
XIX. HOW TO SPLIT LOGS, MAKE SHAKES,
SPLITS, OR CLAPBOARDS. HOW TO CHOP
A LOG IN HALF. HOW TO FLATTEN A
LOG. ALSO SOME DON'TS 87
XX. AXEMEN'S CAMPS 92
XXI. RAILROAD-TIE SHACKS, BARREL SHACKS,
AND CHIMEHUEVIS 96
XXII. THE BARABARA 100
XXIII. THE NAVAJO HOGAN, HORNADAY DUGOUT,
AND SOD HOUSE 104
XXIV. HOW TO BUILD AN AMERICAN BOY'S HOGAN 107
XXV. HOW TO CUT AND NOTCH LOGS 115
XXVI. NOTCHED LOG LADDERS 119
XXVII. A POLE HOUSE. HOW TO USE A CROSS-CUT
SAW AND A FROE 122
XXVIII. LOG-ROLLING AND OTHER BUILDING STUNTS 126
XXIX. THE ADIRONDACK OPEN LOG CAMP AND A
ONE-ROOM CABIN 129
XXX. THE NORTHLAND TILT AND INDIAN LOG
TENT 132
XXXI. HOW TO BUILD THE RED JACKET, THE NEW
BRUNSWICK, AND THE CHRISTOPHER
GIST 135
XXXII. CABIN DOORS AND DOOR-LATCHES,
THUMB-LATCHES AND FOOT LATCHES AND
HOW TO MAKE THEM 139
XXXIII. SECRET LOCKS 145
XXXIV. HOW TO MAKE THE BOW-ARROW CABIN
DOOR AND LATCH AND THE DEMING
TWIN BOLTS, HALL, AND BILLY 151
XXXV. THE AURES LOCK LATCH 155
XXXVI. THE AMERICAN LOG CABIN 161
XXXVII. A HUNTER'S OR FISHERMAN'S CABIN 169
XXXVIII. HOW TO MAKE A WYOMING OLEBO, A
HOKO RIVER OLEBO, A SHAKE CABIN,
A CANADIAN MOSSBACK, AND A TWO-PEN
OR SOUTHERN SADDLE-BAG HOUSE 171
XXXIX. NATIVE NAMES FOR THE PARTS OF A
KANUCK LOG CABIN, AND HOW TO BUILD
ONE 177
XL. HOW TO MAKE A POLE HOUSE AND HOW
TO MAKE A UNIQUE BUT THOROUGHLY
AMERICAN TOTEM LOG HOUSE 183
XLI. HOW TO BUILD A SUSITNA LOG CABIN
AND HOW TO CUT TREES FOR THE END
PLATES 191
XLII. HOW TO MAKE A FIREPLACE AND CHIMNEY
FOR A SIMPLE LOG CABIN 195
XLIII. HEARTHSTONES AND FIREPLACES 200
XLIV. MORE HEARTHS AND FIREPLACES 203
XLV. FIREPLACES AND THE ART OF TENDING
THE FIRE 206
XLVI. THE BUILDING OF THE LOG HOUSE 211
XLVII. HOW TO LAY A TAR PAPER, BIRCH BARK,
OR PATENT ROOFING 218
XLVIII. HOW TO MAKE A CONCEALED LOG CABIN
INSIDE OF A MODERN HOUSE 230
XLIX. HOW TO BUILD APPROPRIATE GATEWAYS
FOR GROUNDS ENCLOSING LOG HOUSES,
GAME PRESERVES, RANCHES, BIG
COUNTRY ESTATES, AND LAST BUT NOT
LEAST BOY SCOUTS' CAMP GROUNDS 237
Shelters,
Shacks, and Shanties
SHELTERS, SHACKS,
AND SHANTIES
I
WHERE TO FIND MOUNTAIN GOOSE. HOW TO PICK AND USE ITS FEATHERS
IT may be necessary for me to remind the boys that they must use the
material at hand in building their shacks, shelters, sheds, and shanties,
and that they are very fortunate if their camp is located in a country
where the mountain goose is to be found.
The Mountain Goose
From Labrador down to the northwestern borders of New England and New York
and from thence to southwestern Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee,
the woodsman and camper may make their beds from the feathers of the
"mountain goose." The mountain goose is also found inhabiting the frozen
soil of Alaska and following the Pacific and the Rocky Mountains the Abies
make their dwelling-place as far south as Guatemala. Consequently, the
Abies, or mountain goose, should be a familiar friend of all the scouts
who live in the mountainous country, north, south, east, and west.
Sapin--Cho-kho-tung
I forgot to say that the mountain goose (Figs. 1 and 2) is not a bird but
a tree. It is humorously called a goose by the woodsmen because they all
make their beds of its "feathers." It is the _sapin_ of the
French-Canadians, the _cho-kho-tung_ of the New York Indians, the balsam
of the tenderfoot, the Christmas-tree of the little folk, and that
particular Coniferæ known by the dry-as-dust botanist as Abies. There is
nothing in nature which has a wilder, more sylvan and charming perfume
than the balsam, and the scout who has not slept in the woods on a balsam
bed has a pleasure in store for him.
Balsam
The leaves of the balsam are blunt or rounded at the ends and some of them
are even dented or notched in place of being sharp-pointed. Each spine or
leaf is a scant one inch in length and very flat; the upper part is
grooved and of a dark bluish-green color. The under-side is much lighter,
often almost silvery white. The balsam blossoms in April or May, and the
fruit or cones stand upright on the branches. These vary from two to four
inches in length. The balsam-trees are seldom large, not many of them
being over sixty feet high with trunks from one to less than three feet
through. The bark on the trunks is gray in color and marked with
horizontal rows of blisters. Each of these contains a small, sticky sap
like glycerine. Fig. 1 shows the cone and leaves of one of the Southern
balsams known as the she-balsam, and Fig. 2 shows the celebrated
balsam-fir tree of the north country, cone and branch.
Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Fig. 3. Fig. 4. Fig. 5. Fig. 6. Fig. 7.
[Illustration: Showing the use of the mountain goose.]
Balsam Beds
The balsam bed is made of the small twigs of balsam-trees. In gathering
these, collect twigs of different lengths, from eighteen inches long (to
be used as the foundation of the bed) to ten or twelve inches long (for
the top layer). If you want to rest well, do not economize on the amount
you gather; many a time I have had my bones ache as a result of being too
tired to make my bed properly and attempting to sleep on a thin layer of
boughs.
If you attempt to chop off the boughs of balsam they will resent your
effort by springing back and slapping you in the face. You can cut them
with your knife, but it is slow work and will blister your hands. Take
twig by twig with the thumb and fingers (the thumb on top, pointing toward
the tip of the bough, and the two forefingers underneath); press down with
the thumb, and with a twist of the wrist you can snap the twigs like
pipe-stems. Fig. 3 shows two views of the hands in a proper position to
snap off twigs easily and clean. The one at the left shows the hand as it
would appear looking down upon it; the one at the right shows the view as
you look at it from the side.
Packing Boughs
After collecting a handful of boughs, string them on a stick which you
have previously prepared (Fig. 4). This stick should be of strong, green
hardwood, four or five feet long with a fork about six inches long left on
it at the butt end to keep the boughs from sliding off, and sharpened at
the upper end so that it can be easily poked through a handful of boughs.
String the boughs on this stick as you would string fish, but do it one
handful at a time, allowing the butts to point in different directions.
It is astonishing to see the amount of boughs you can carry when strung on
a stick in this manner and thrown over your shoulder as in Fig. 5. If you
have a lash rope, place the boughs on a loop of the rope, as in Fig. 6,
then bring the two ends of the rope up through the loop and sling the
bundle on your back.
Clean Your Hands
When you have finished gathering the material for your bed your hands will
be covered with a sticky sap, and, although they will be a sorry sight, a
little lard or baking grease will soften the pitchy substance so that it
may be washed off with soap and water.
How to Make Beds
To make your bed, spread a layer of the larger boughs on the ground;
commence at the head and shingle them down to the foot so that the tips
point toward the head of the bed, overlapping the butts (Fig. 7). Continue
this until your mattress is thick enough to make a soft couch upon which
you can sleep as comfortably as you do at home. Cover the couch with one
blanket and use the bag containing your coat, extra clothes, and sweater
for a pillow. Then if you do not sleep well, you must blame the cook.
Other Bedding
If you should happen to be camping in a country destitute of balsam,
hemlock, or pine, you can make a good spring mattress by collecting small
green branches of any sort of tree which is springy and elastic. Build the
mattress as already described. On top of this put a thick layer of hay,
straw, or dry leaves or even green material, provided you have a rubber
blanket or poncho to cover the latter. In Kentucky I have made a mattress
of this description and covered the branches with a thick layer of the
purple blossoms of ironweed; over this I spread a rubber army blanket to
keep out the moisture from the green stuff and on top of this made my bed
with my other blankets. It was as comfortable a couch as I have ever slept
on; in fact, it was literally a bed of flowers.
II
THE HALF-CAVE SHELTER
THE first object of a roof of any kind is protection against the weather;
no shelter is necessary in fair weather unless the sun in the day or the
dampness or coolness of the night cause discomfort. In parts of the West
there is so little rain that a tent is often an unnecessary burden, but in
the East and the other parts of the country some sort of shelter is
necessary for health and comfort.
The original American was always quick to see the advantages offered by an
overhanging cliff for a camp site (Figs. 9, 10). His simple camps all
through the arid Southwest had gradually turned into carefully built
houses long before we came here. The overhanging cliffs protected the
buildings from the rain and weather, and the site was easily defended from
enemies. But while these cliff-dwellings had reached the dignity of
castles in the Southwest, in the Eastern States--Pennsylvania, for
instance--the Iroquois Indians were making primitive camps and using every
available overhanging cliff for that purpose.
To-day any one may use a pointed stick on the floor of one of these half
caves and unearth, as I have done, numerous potsherds, mussel shells, bone
awls, flint arrow-heads, split bones of large game animals, and the burnt
wood of centuries of camp-fires which tell the tale of the first lean-to
shelter used by camping man in America.
Half Caves
The projecting ledges of bluestone that have horizontal seams form half
caves from the falling apart of the lower layers of the cliff caused by
rain and ice and often aided by the fine roots of the black birch, rock
oak, and other plants, until nature has worked long enough as a quarry-man
and produced half caves large enough to shelter a stooping man (Figs. 8,
9, and 10).
Although not always necessary, it is sometimes best to make a shelter for
the open face of such a cave, even if we only need it for a temporary camp
(Fig. 10); this may be done by resting poles slanting against the face of
the cliff and over these making a covering of balsam, pine, hemlock,
palmetto, palm branches, or any available material for thatch to shed the
rain and prevent it driving under the cliff to wet our bedding.
Walls
It is not always necessary to thatch the wall; a number of green boughs
with leaves adhering may be rested against the cliffs and will answer for
that purpose. Set the boughs upside down so that they will shed the rain
and not hold it so as to drip into camp. Use your common sense and
gumption, which will teach you that all the boughs should point downward
and not upward as most of them naturally grow. I am careful to call your
attention to this because I lately saw some men teaching Boy Scouts how to
make camps and they were placing the boughs for the lads around the
shelter with their branches pointing upward in such a manner that they
could not shed the rain. These instructors were city men and apparently
thought that the boughs were for no other purpose than to give privacy to
the occupants of the shelter, forgetting that in the wilds the wilderness
itself furnishes privacy.
Fig. 8. Fig. 9. Fig. 10.
[Illustration: The half-cave shelter.]
The half cave was probably the first lean-to or shelter in this country,
but overhanging cliffs are not always found where we wish to make our camp
and we must resort to other forms of shelter and the use of other material
in such localities.
III
HOW TO MAKE THE FALLEN-TREE SHELTER AND THE SCOUT-MASTER
NOW that you know how to make a bed in a half cave, we will take up the
most simple and primitive manufactured shelters.
Fallen-Tree Shelter
For a one-man one-night stand, select a thick-foliaged fir-tree and cut it
partly through the trunk so that it will fall as shown in Fig. 11; then
trim off the branches on the under-side so as to leave room to make your
bed beneath the branches; next trim the branches off the top or roof of
the trunk and with them thatch the roof. Do this by setting the branches
with their butts up as shown in the right-hand shelter of Fig. 13, and
then thatch with smaller browse as described in making the bed. This will
make a cosey one-night shelter.
The Scout-Master
Or take three forked sticks (_A_, _B_, and _C_, Fig. 12), and interlock
the forked ends so that they will stand as shown in Fig. 12. Over this
framework rest branches with the butt ends up as shown in the right-hand
shelter (Fig. 13), or lay a number of poles as shown in the left-hand
figure (Fig. 12) and thatch this with browse as illustrated by the
left-hand shelter in Fig. 13, or take elm, spruce, or birch bark and
shingle as in Fig. 14. These shelters may be built for one boy or they may
be made large enough for several men. They may be thatched with balsam,
spruce, pine, or hemlock boughs, or with cat-tails, rushes (see Figs. 66
and 69) or any kind of long-stemmed weeds or palmetto leaves.
To Peel Bark
In the first place, I trust that the reader has enough common sense and
sufficient love of the woods to prevent him from killing or marring and
disfiguring trees where trees are not plenty, and this restriction
includes all settled or partially settled parts of the country. But in the
real forests and wilderness, miles and miles away from human habitation,
there are few campers and consequently there will be fewer trees injured,
and these few will not be missed.
Selecting Bark
To get the birch bark, select a tree with a smooth trunk devoid of
branches and, placing skids for the trunk to fall upon (Fig. 38), fell the
tree (see Figs. 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, and 118), and then cut a
circle around the trunk at the two ends of the log and a slit from one
circle clean up to the other circle (Fig. 38); next, with a sharp stick
shaped like a blunt-edged chisel, pry off the bark carefully until you
take the piece off in one whole section. If it is spruce bark or any other
bark you seek, hunt through the woods for a comparatively smooth trunk and
proceed in the same manner as with the birch. To take it off a standing
tree, cut one circle down at the butt and another as high as you can reach
(Fig. 118) and slit it along a perpendicular line connecting the two cuts
as in Fig. 38. This will doubtless in time kill the tree, but far from
human habitations the few trees killed in this manner may do the forest
good by giving more room for others to grow. Near town or where the
forests are small use the bark from the old dead trees.
Fig. 11. Fig. 12. Fig. 13. Fig. 14.
[Illustration: One-night shelter. The fallen tree and the scout-master.]
Using Bark
To shingle with bark, cut the bark in convenient sections, commence at the
bottom, place one piece of bark set on edge flat against the wall of your
shelter, place a piece of bark next to it in the same manner, allowing the
one edge to overlap the first piece a few inches, and so on all the way
around your shack; then place a layer of bark above this in the same
manner as the first one, the end edges overlapping, the bottom edges also
overlapping the first row three or four inches or even more. Hold these
pieces of bark in place by stakes driven in the ground against them or
poles laid over them, according to the shape or form of your shelter.
Continue thus to the comb of the roof, then over the part where the bark
of the sides meets on the top lay another layer of bark covering the
crown, ridge, comb, or apex and protecting it from the rain. In the
wigwam-shaped shelters, or rather I should say those of teepee form, the
point of the cone or pyramid is left open to serve as chimney for smoke to
escape.
IV
HOW TO MAKE THE ADIRONDACK, THE WICK-UP, THE BARK TEEPEE, THE PIONEER, AND
THE SCOUT
The Adirondack
THE next shelter is what is generally known as the Adirondack shelter,
which is a lean-to open in the front like a "Baker" or a "Dan Beard" tent.
Although it is popularly called the Adirondack camp, it antedates the time
when the Adirondacks were first used as a fashionable resort. Daniel Boone
was wont to make such a camp in the forests of Kentucky. The lean-to or
Adirondack camp is easily made and very popular. Sometimes two of them are
built facing each other with an open space between for the camp-fire. But
the usual manner is to set up two uprights as in Fig. 15, then lay a
crosspiece through the crotches and rest poles against this crosspiece
(Fig. 16). Over these poles other poles are laid horizontally and the roof
thatched with browse by the method shown by Fig. 6, but here the tips of
the browse must point down and be held in place by other poles (Fig. 10)
on top of it. Sometimes a log is put at the bottom of the slanting poles
and sometimes more logs are placed as shown in Figs. 15 and 16 and the
space between them floored with balsam or browse.
The Scout
Where birch bark is obtainable it is shingled with slabs of this bark as
already described, and as shown in Fig. 17, the bark being held in place
on the roof by poles laid over it and on the side by stakes being driven
in the ground outside of the bark to hold it in place as in Fig. 17.
Fig. 15. Fig. 16. Fig. 17. Fig. 18. Fig. 19. Fig. 20. Fig. 21.
[Illustration: The Adirondack. The scout, the pioneer, and the bark
teepee.]
The Pioneer
Fig. 18 shows the Pioneer, a tent form of shack, and Fig. 19 shows how the
bark is placed like shingles overlapping each other so as to shed the
rain. The doorway of the tent shack is made by leaning poles against
forked sticks, their butts forming a semicircle in front, or rather the
arc of a circle, and by bracing them against the forked stick fore and aft
they add stability to the structure.
Bark Teepee
Or you may, if you choose, lash three sticks together at the top ends,
spread them in the form of a tripod, then lay other sticks against them,
their butts forming a circle in the form of a teepee (Fig. 20).
Commence at the bottom as you do in shingling a roof and place sections of
birch bark around, others above them overlapping them, and hold them in
place by resting poles against them. If your camp is to be occupied for a
week or so, it may be convenient to build a wick-up shelter as a
dining-room like the one shown in Fig. 21. This is made with six uprights,
two to hold the ridge-pole and two to hold the eaves, and may be shingled
over with browse or birch, elm, spruce, or other bark; shingle with the
browse in the same manner as that described for the bark, beginning at the
eaves and allowing each row of browse to overlap the butts of the one
below it.
V
HOW TO MAKE BEAVER-MAT HUTS OR FAGOT SHACKS WITHOUT INJURY TO THE TREES
Material
IN building a shelter use every and any thing handy for the purpose;
ofttimes an uprooted tree will furnish a well-made adobe wall, where the
spreading roots have torn off the surface soil as the tree fell and what
was the under-side is now an exposed wall of clay, against which you may
rest the poles for the roof of a lean-to. Or the side of the cliff (Fig.
23) may offer you the same opportunity. Maybe two or three trees will be
found willing to act as uprights (Fig. 24). Where you use a wall of any
kind, rock, roots, or bank, it will, of course, be necessary to have your
doorway at one side of the shack as in Fig. 23. The upright poles may be
on stony ground where their butts cannot well be planted in the earth, and
there it will be necessary to brace them with slanting poles (Fig. 25).
Each camp will offer problems of its own, problems which add much to the
interest and pleasure of camp making.
Beaver Mat
The beaver-mat camp is a new one and, under favorable conditions, a good
one. Cut your poles the length required for the framework of the sides,
lash them together with the green rootlets of the tamarack or strips of
bark of the papaw, elm, cedar, or the inside bark of the chestnut (_A_,
Fig. 22); then make a bed of browse of any kind handy, but make it in the
manner described for making balsam beds (Fig. 7). You will, of course,
thatch so that when the side is erected it is shingled like a house, the
upper rows overlapping the lower ones. Then lash a duplicate frame over
the browse-padded frame and the side is complete (_B_, Fig. 22). Make the
other side or sides and the roof (_C_, Fig. 22) in the same manner, after
which it is a simple matter to erect your shack (Fig. 22, and _E_, Fig.
22).
Fig. 22. Fig. 23. Fig. 24. Fig. 25. Fig. 26. Fig. 27. Fig. 28.
[Illustration: Shelters adapted to conditions. The beaver-mat and the
fagot shack.]
The great advantage of this sort of shelter is that it is much easier to
do your thatching on the ground than on standing walls, and also, when
done, it is so compact as to be practically water-proof.
Fagot Shack
The fagot shack is also a new style of camp and is intended for use in
places where large timber cannot be cut, but where dwarf willows, bamboo
cane, alders, or other small underbrush is more or less plentiful. From
this gather a plentiful supply of twigs and with improvised twine bind the
twigs into bundles of equal size. Use these bundles as you would stones in
building the wall and lay them so as to break joints, that is, so that the
joints are never in a continuous line. Hold the wall in place by stakes as
shown in Fig. 26. Use the browse, small twigs with the leaves adhering to
them, in place of mortar or cement so as to level your bundles and prevent
their rocking on uneven surfaces. The doorways and window openings offer
no problem that a rank outsider cannot solve. Fig. 27 shows the window
opening, also shows you how the window-sill can be made firm by laying
rods over the top of the fagots. Rods are also used across the top of the
doorway upon which to place the bundles of fagots or twigs. Twigs is
probably the best term to use here, as fagots might be thought to mean
larger sticks, which may be stiff and obstinate and hard to handle.
Roofs
After the walls are erected, a beaver-mat roof may be placed upon them or
a roof made on a frame such as shown in Fig. 28 and thatched with small
sticks over which a thatch of straw, hay, rushes (Figs. 66 and 69), or
browse may be used to shed the rain.
One great advantage which recommends the beaver-mat and fagot camp to
lovers of nature and students of forestry lies in the fact that it is
unnecessary to cut down or destroy a single large or valuable young tree
in order to procure the material necessary to make the camp. Both of these
camps can be made in forest lands by using the lower branches of the
trees, which, when properly cut close to the trunk (Fig. 121), do not
injure the standing timber. The fagot hut may be made into a permanent
camp by plastering the outside with soft mud or clay and treating the
inside walls in the same manner, thus transforming it into an adobe
shack.
VI
INDIAN SHACKS AND SHELTERS
WHILE the ingenuity of the white man may make improvements upon the
wick-ups, arbors, huts, and shelters of the native red man, we must not
forget that these native shelters have been used with success by the
Indians for centuries, also we must not forget that our principal
objection to many of them lies in the fact that they are ill ventilated
and dirty, both of which defects may be remedied without materially
departing from the lines laid down by the savage architects. The making of
windows will supply ventilation to Indian huts, but the form of the hut we
must bear in mind is made to suit the locality in which we find it.
Apache Hogan
The White Mountain Apache builds a tent-shaped shack (Figs. 29 and 32)
which is practically the same as that already described and shown in Figs.
18 and 19, the difference being that the Apache shack is not covered with
birch bark, a material peculiar to the North, but the Apache uses a thatch
of the rank grass to be found where his shacks are located. To-day,
however, the White Mountain Apache has become so degenerate and so lost to
the true sense of dignity as a savage that he stoops to use corn-stalks
with which to thatch the long, sloping sides of his shed-like house but by
so doing he really shows good horse sense, for corn-stalks and corn leaves
make good material for the purpose.
Fig. 29. Fig. 30. Fig. 31. Fig. 32. Fig. 33. Fig. 34. Fig. 34½.
Fig. 35.
[Illustration: Designs adapted from Indian models.]
San Carlos Shack
The San Carlos Apache Indians build a dome-shaped hut by making a
framework of small saplings bent in arches as the boys did in Kentucky
when the writer was himself a lad, and as shown in Fig. 30. The ends of
the pole are sunk into the ground in the form of a circle, while their
tips are bent over and bound together thus forming a series of loops which
overlap each other and give stability and support to the principal loops
which run from the ground to the top of the dome. The Indians thatch these
huts with bear-grass arranged in overlapping rows and held in place with
strings (see Fig. 69) made of yucca leaves (Fig. 31).
Chippewa Shack
Much farther north I have seen the Chippewa Indians build a framework in
practically the same manner as the San Carlos Apache, but the Chippewas
covered their frame with layers of birch bark held in place by ropes
stretched over it as shown in Fig. 32. The door to their huts consisted of
a blanket portière.
In the same locality to-day it would be difficult if not impossible to
procure such large strips of birch bark; but the dome-shaped frame is a
good one to be used in many localities and, like all other frames, it can
be covered with the material at hand. It may be shingled with smaller
pieces of bark, covered with brush and thatched with browse or with hay,
straw, palmetto leaves, palm leaves, or rushes, or it may be plastered
over with mud and made an adobe hut.
Pima Lodge
The Pima Indians make a flat-roofed lodge with slanting walls (Fig. 33)
which may be adapted for our use in almost any section of the country. It
can be made warm and tight for the far North and cool and airy for the
arid regions of the Southwest. The framework, as you may see by referring
to the diagram, is similar to the wick-ups we men made when we were boys,
and which are described in the "American Boy's Handy Book," consisting of
four upright posts supporting in their crotches two crosspieces over which
a flat roof is made by placing poles across. But the sides of this shack
are not upright but made by resting leaning poles against the eaves.
White Man's Walls
The principal difference between a white man's architecture and the
Indian's lies in the fact that the white man, with brick, stone, or frame
house in his mind, is possessed of a desire to build perpendicular
walls--walls which are hard to thatch and difficult to cover with turf,
especially in the far North, where there is no true sod such as we
understand in the middle country, where our grass grows thickly with
interlacing roots. Boys will do well to remember this and imitate the
Indian in making slanting walls for their shacks, shanties, and shelters
in the woods. If they have boards or stone or brick or logs with which to
build they may, with propriety, use a perpendicular wall. The Pima
Indians, according to Pliny Earle Goddard, associate curator of
anthropology of the American Museum of Natural History, thatch their
houses with arrow brush and not infrequently bank the sides of the shack
with dirt.
Adobe Roof
If you want to put a dirt roof on a shack of this description, cover the
poles with small boughs or browse, green or dry leaves, straw, hay, grass,
or rushes and put the sod over the top of this. If in place of making the
roof flat, as shown in Fig. 33, you slant it so as to shed the rain, this
sort of shack will do for almost any climate, but with a flat roof it is
only fitted for the arid country or for a shelter from the sun when it is
not expected to be used during the rain.
Navajo
The teepee-shaped hut used by the Navajo Indians _will_ shed the rain. To
build this shack interlock three forked sticks as shown in the diagram,
then lay other poles up against the forks of these sticks so that the
butts of the poles will form a circle on the ground (Fig. 34). Thatch this
with any material handy, after which you may cover it with dirt as the
Navajos do, in which case you had better build a hallway for entrance, as
shown in Fig. 35. This same teepee form is used by the California Indians
and thatched with wild hay (Fig. 34½).
VII
BIRCH BARK OR TAR PAPER SHACK
A DESCRIPTION of the Pontiac was first published in my "Field and Forest
Handy Book," a book which contains several shelters similar to the ones
here given, most of which were originally made for Caspar Whitney while he
was editor of _Outing_.
The Pontiac
The Pontiac, as here given, is my own design and invention (Fig. 36). It
is supposed to be shingled with birch bark, but, as is the case with all
these camps, other bark may be substituted for the birch, and, if no bark
is within reach and you are near enough to civilization, tar paper makes
an excellent substitute. Fig. 37 shows the framework of a Pontiac with a
ridge-pole, but the ridge-pole is not necessary and the shack may be built
without it, as shown in Figs. 36 and 39, where the rafter poles rest upon
the two side-plates over which they project to form the apex of the roof.
In Fig. 39, although the side-plates are drawn, the rafter or roof poles
are not because the diagram is supposed to be a sort of X-ray affair to
show the internal construction. The opening for smoke need not be more
than half as large as it is in Fig. 39 and it may be covered up in
inclement weather with a piece of bark so as to keep out the rain.
Cutting Bark
Fig. 38 shows a tree felled in order to procure bark. You will note that
the bark is cut round at the bottom and at the top and a slit is made
connecting the two cuts as already described so that the bark may be
peeled off by running a blunt instrument or a stick, whittled to the shape
of a paper-cutter or dull chisel, under the edge of the bark and carefully
peeling it back. If it is necessary to "tote" the bark any distance over
the trail, Fig. 38 shows how to roll it up and how to bind the roll with
cord or rope so that it may be slung on the back as the man is "toting" it
in Fig. 36.
Building the Pontiac
To build a Pontiac, first erect the uprights _E_ and _E_, Fig. 37, then
the other two similar uprights at the rear and lay the side-plates _G_ in
the forks of the uprights; next erect the upright _H_ and one in the rear
to correspond, and across this lay the ridge-pole. Next take a couple of
logs and put them at the foot of the _E_ poles, or, if you want more room,
further back toward where the roof poles _F_ will come. Place one of these
logs on top of the other as shown in Figs. 36 and 39. Keep them in place
by driving sticks on each side of them. Put two more logs upon the other
side of the Pontiac and then lay your roof poles or rafters up against the
side-plates and over the logs as shown in diagrams 36, 37, and 39. Fig. 36
shows the roof partially shingled and the sides partially covered, so that
you may better understand how it is done.
Shingling with Bark
Commence at the bottom and lay the first row with the edges overlapping
for walls; for the roof you may lay one row of shingles from the bottom up
to the ridge and hold them in place by resting a pole on them; then lay
the next row of shingles alongside by slipping the edges under the first.
When you have the two sides covered, put bark over the ridge as shown in
Fig. 36. This will make a beautiful and comfortable little camp.
Fig. 36. Fig. 37. Fig. 38. Fig. 39.
[Illustration: The Pontiac of birch bark.]
To Keep Out Cold
Built as here described, the cold wind might come through in the
winter-time, but if you can gather a lot of Sphagnum moss from the nearest
swamp and cover your roof with it and then shingle that over with another
layer of birch bark, the cold wind will not come through your roof. If you
treat your side walls in the same manner and heap dirt up around the edges
of them, you will have a comfortable winter camp.
In the winter-time you will find it very difficult to peel the birch bark
or any other kind of bark, but when the sap is flowing it is not so
difficult to secure bark slabs from many varieties of trees.
VIII
INDIAN COMMUNAL HOUSES
WHEN the French Communists were raising Cain in Europe they doubtless
thought their idea was practically new, but thousands of years before they
bore the red banner through the streets of Paris the American Indians were
living quiet and peaceful communal lives on this continent; when I use the
words _quiet_ and _peaceful_, I, of course, mean as regards their own
particular commune and not taking into account their attitude toward their
neighbors. The Pueblo Indians built themselves adobe communal houses, the
Nez Percés built themselves houses of sticks and dry grass one hundred and
fifty feet long sometimes, containing forty-eight families, while the
Nechecolles had houses two hundred and twenty-six feet in length! But this
is not a book of history; all we want to know is how to build shacks for
our own use; so we will borrow one from the communal home of the Iroquois.
It is not necessary for us to make this one hundred feet long, as the
Iroquois Indians did. We can make a diminutive one as a playhouse for our
children, a moderate-sized one as a camp for our Boy Scouts, or a
good-sized one for a party of full-grown campers.
But first we must gather a number of long, flexible saplings and plant
them in two rows with their butt ends in the ground, as shown in Fig. 40,
after which we may bend their upper ends so that they will overlap each
other and form equal-sized arches, when they are lashed together, with
twine if we have it, or with wire if it is handy; but if we are real
woodsmen, we will bind them with rope made of fibres of bark or the
flexible roots which we find in the forests. Then we bind horizontal poles
or rods to the arches, placing the poles about a foot or two apart
according to the material with which we are to shingle it. We make a
simple doorway with upright posts at one end and bind the horizontal posts
on as we did at the sides. Next we shingle it with bark or with strips of
tar paper and hold the shingles in place by binding poles upon the
outside, as shown in Fig. 41. A hole or holes are left in the roof over
the fireplaces for openings for the smoke to escape. In lieu of a chimney
a wind-shield of bark is fastened at its lower edge by pieces of twine to
the roof so as to shield the opening; this wind-shield should be movable
so that it may be shifted according to the wind. The Iroquois is an easily
constructed shelter, useful to man, and one which will delight the heart
of the Boy Scouts or any other set of boys.
The Pawnee Hogan
The Pawnee hogan is usually covered with sod or dirt, but it may be
covered with bark, with canvas, or thatched with straw or with browse, as
the camper may choose. Fig. 42 shows the framework in the skeleton form.
The rafter poles are placed wigwam fashion and should be very close
together in the finished structure; so also should be the short sticks
forming the side walls and the walls to the hallway or entrance. To build
this hogan, first erect a circle of short forked sticks, setting their
ends firmly in the ground. Inside of this erect four longer forked sticks,
then place across these four horizontal side-plates, or maybe they might
be more properly called "purlins," in which case the sticks laid on the
forks of the circle of small uprights will properly correspond to the
side-plates of a white man's dwelling. After the circle and square (Fig.
42) have been erected, make your doorway with two short-forked sticks and
your hallway by sticks running from the door to side-plates. In thatching
your roof or in covering it with any sort of material, leave an opening at
the top (Fig. 43) to act as a chimney for your centre camp-fire. If the
roof is to be covered with sod or adobe, cover it first with browse, hay,
straw, or rushes, making a thick mattress over the entire structure. On
top of this plaster your mud or sod (Fig. 43). If you intend to use this
hogan as a more or less permanent camp you can put windows in the sides to
admit light and air and use a hollow log or a barrel for a chimney as
shown in Fig. 44.
Fig. 40. Fig. 41. Fig. 42. Fig. 43. Fig. 44. Fig. 45.
[Illustration: The Iroquois, the Pawnee hogan, the white man's hogan, and
the kolshian.]
The Kolshian
The camps thus far described are supposed to be "tomahawk camps," that is,
camps which may be built without the use of a lumberman's axe. The
kolshian (Fig. 45) of Alaska, when built by the natives, is a large
communal council-house, but I have placed it here among the "tomahawk
camps" on the supposition that some one might want to build one in
miniature as a novelty on their place or as a council-room for their young
scouts. The Alaskans hew all the timber out by hand, but, of course, the
reader may use sawed or milled lumber. The proper entrance to a kolshian
or rancheree, as Elliot calls it, is through a doorway made in the huge
totem-pole at the front of the building. The roof is covered with splits
or shakes held in place by poles laid across them, the sides are made of
hewn planks set upright, and the front has two heavy planks at the eaves
which run down through holes in two upright planks at the corners (Fig.
45). These with the sill plank bind the upright wall planks in place.
The kolshian is undoubtedly a very ancient form of building and may be
related to the houses built by the ancient cavemen of Europe. The first
human house-builders are said to belong to the Cro-Magnon race who lived
in caves in the winter-time, and on the walls of one of the caverns
(Dordogne cavern) some Cro-Magnon budding architect made a rough sketch of
one of their houses (middle sketch, Fig. 45). When you compare the house
with the kolshian the resemblance is very striking, and more so when we
remember that the kolshian floor is underground, indicating that it is
related to or suggested by a natural cavern.
IX
BARK AND TAR PAPER
TO further illustrate the use of bark and tar paper, I have made the
sketches shown by Figs. 46, 47, and 48. Fig. 47 is a log shack with an
arched roof drawn from a photograph in my collection. To keep the interior
warm not only the roof but the sides of the house as well have been
shingled with bark, leaving only the ends of the logs protruding to tell
of what material the house is really constructed. Fig. 47 shows a
fisherman's hut made with a few sticks and bark. Fig. 48 shows a tar paper
camp, that is, a camp where everything is covered with tar paper in place
of bark. The house is made with a skeleton of poles on which the tar paper
is tacked, the kitchen is an open shed with tar paper roof, and even the
table is made by covering the cross sticks shown in the diagram with
sheets of tar paper in place of the birch bark usually used for that
purpose.
Personally I do not like tar paper; it seems to rob the camp of a true
flavor of the woods; it knocks the sentiment out of it, and, except to
sailors, the odor of the tar is not nearly as delightful as that of the
fragrant balsam boughs. Nevertheless, tar paper is now used in all the
lumber camps and is spreading farther and farther into the woods as the
birch bark becomes scarce and the "tote-roads" are improved.
When one can enter the woods with an automobile, you must expect to find
tar paper camps, because the paper is easily transported, easily handled,
and easily applied for the purpose of the camper.
Fig. 46. Fig. 47. Fig. 48.
[Illustration: Showing use of bark and tar paper.]
Practically any form of tent may be reproduced by tacking tar paper to
sticks arranged in the proper manner, but if you make a wigwam of tar
paper, do paint it red, green, or yellow, or whitewash it; do anything
which will take off the civilized, funereal look of the affair.
X
A SAWED-LUMBER SHANTY
BEFORE we proceed any further it may be best to give the plan of a
workshop, a camp, an outhouse, or a shed to be made of sawed lumber, the
framework of which is made of what is known as two-by-fours, that is,
pieces of lumber two inches thick by four inches wide. The plans used here
are from my book "The Jack of All Trades," but the dimensions may be
altered to suit your convenience. The sills, which are four inches by four
inches, are also supposed to be made by nailing two two-by-fours together.
First stake out your foundation and see that the corners are square, that
is, at right angles, and test this with a tape or ruler by measuring six
feet one way and eight feet the other from a corner along the proposed
sides of the house marking these points. If a ten-foot rod will reach
exactly across from point to point, the corner is square and you may dig
your post-holes.
The Foundation
You may use a foundation of stones or a series of stone piles, but if you
use stones and expect your house to remain plumb where the winters are
severe you must dig holes for them at least three feet deep in order to go
below the frost-line. Fill these holes with broken stone, on top of which
you can make your pile of stones to act as support for the sills; but the
simplest method is to use posts of locust, cedar, or chestnut; or, if this
is too much trouble, pack the dirt tightly, drain it well by making it
slope away from the house in every direction, and lay your foundation
sills on the level earth. In that case you had better use chestnut wood
for the sills; spruce will rot very quickly in contact with the damp earth
and pine will not last long under the same circumstances.
All through certain sections of this country there are hundreds of humble
dwellings built upon "mudsills," in other words, with no foundation or
floor but the bare ground.
We will suppose that you have secured some posts about two feet six inches
long with good, flat ends. The better material you can obtain the trimmer
and better will be the appearance of your house, but a house which will
protect you and your tools may be made of the roughest lumber.
The plans here drawn will answer for the rough or fine material, but we
suppose that medium material is to be used. It will be taken for granted
that the reader is able to procure enough two-by-four-inch timber to
supply studs, ribs, purlins, rafters, beams, and posts for the frame shown
in Fig. 49. Two pieces of four-by-four-inch timber each fifteen feet long
should be made for sills by nailing two-by-fours together. Add to this
some tongue-and-grooved boarding or even rough boards for sides and roof,
some enthusiasm, and good American pluck and the shop is almost as good as
built.
First lay the foundation, eight by fifteen feet, and then you may proceed
to dig your post-holes. The outside of the posts should be flush or even
with the outside edges of the sills and end beams of the house as shown in
the diagram. If there are four posts on each of the long sides they should
be equal distances apart.
Dig the holes three feet deep, allowing six inches of the posts to
protrude above ground. If you drive two stakes a short distance beyond the
foundation in line with your foundation lines and run a string from the
top of one stake to the top of the other you can, without much trouble,
get it upon a perfect level by testing it and adjusting until the string
represents the level for your sill. When this is done, set your posts to
correspond to the level of the string, then place your sill on top of the
posts and test that with your level. If found to be correct, fill in the
dirt around the posts and pack it firmly, then spike your sill to the
posts and go through the same operation with opposite sets of posts and
sill.
Fig. 49.
[Illustration: Frame of two-by-fours milled lumber, with names of parts.]
The first difficult work is now done and, with the exception of the roof,
the rest only needs ordinary care.
It is supposed that you have already sawed off and prepared about nine
two-by-four-inch beams each of which is exactly eight feet long. Set these
on edge from sill to sill, equal distances apart, the edges of the end
beams being exactly even with the ends of the sills as in Fig. 49. See
that the beams all cross the sills at right angles and toe-nail them in
place. You may now neatly floor the foundation with one-inch boards; these
boards must be laid lengthwise with the building and crosswise with the
beams. When this is finished you will have a beautiful platform on which
to work, where you will be in no danger of losing your tools, and you may
use the floor as a table on which to measure and plan the sides and roof.
Ridge Plank and Rafters
It is a good idea to make your ridge plank and rafters while the floor is
clear of rubbish. Lay out and mark on the floor, with a carpenter's soft
pencil, a straight line four feet long (_A_, _B_, Fig. 49). At right
angles to this draw another line three feet six inches long (_A_, _D_,
Fig. 49). Connect these points (_B_, _D_, Fig. 49) with a straight line,
then complete the figure _A_, _B_, _C_, _D_ (Fig. 49). Allow two inches at
the top for the ridge plank at _B_ and two by four for the end of the
side-plate at _D_. You then have a pattern for each rafter with a "plumb
edge" at _B_ and a "bird's mouth" at _D_. The plumb edge must be parallel
with _B_, _C_ and the two jaws of the "bird's mouth" parallel with _D_,
_C_ and _A_, _D_, respectively. Make six rafters of two-by-fours and one
ridge plank.
The purlins and collar can be made and fitted after the roof is raised.
Set your roof timber carefully to one side and clear the floor for the
studs, ribs, and plates. First prepare the end posts and make them of
two-by-fours. Each post is of two pieces. There will be four outside
pieces each five feet eight inches in length, which rest on the end beams,
and four inside pieces each six feet in length; this allows two inches at
the top for the ends of the end plates to rest upon.
Examine the corner posts and you will see that the outside two-by-four
rests upon the top side of the end beam and the side-plate rests directly
upon said two-by-four. You will also observe that the inside two-by-four
rests directly upon the sill, which would make the former four inches
longer than the outside piece if it is extended to the side-plate; but you
will also notice that there is a notch in the end plate for the outside
corner piece to fit in and that the end of the end plate fits on top the
inside piece of the corner posts, taking off two inches, which makes the
inside piece just six feet long. This is a very simple arrangement, as may
be seen by examining the diagram. Besides the corner posts, each of which
we have seen is made of two pieces of two-by-fours, there are four studs
for the front side, each six feet two inches long. The short studs shown
in the diagram on the rear side are unnecessary and are only shown so that
they may be put in as convenient attachments for shelves and tool racks.
The first stud on the front is placed two feet from the corner post and
the second one about six feet six inches from the first, to allow a space
for a six-foot window; the next two studs form the door-jambs and must be
far enough from the corner to allow the door to open and swing out of the
way. If you make your door two and one half feet wide--a good size--you
may set your last stud two feet from the corner post and leave a space of
two feet six inches for the doorway. Now mark off on the floor the places
where the studs will come, and cut out the flooring at these points to
allow the ends of the studs to enter and rest on the sill. Next make four
ribs--one long one to go beneath the window, one short one to fit between
the corner post and the door stud not shown in diagram, another to fit
between the door stud and window stud, and another to fit between the
window stud and the first corner post (the nearest corner in the diagram).
Next make your side-plate exactly fifteen feet long. Fit the frame
together on the floor and nail the pieces together, toe-nailing the ribs
in place. Get some help and raise the whole side frame and slip the ends
of the studs into their respective slots. Make the end posts plumb and
hold them in place temporarily by a board, one end of which is nailed to
the top end of the post and the other to the end beam. Such a diagonal
board at each end will hold the side in place until the opposite side is
raised and similarly supported.
It is now a simple thing to slip the end plates in place under the
side-plates until their outside edges are even with the outside of the
corner posts. A long wire nail driven through the top-plates and end
plates down into the posts at each corner will hold them securely.
Toe-nail a rib between the two nearest end posts and make two window studs
and three ribs for the opposite end. The framing now only needs the roof
timbers to complete the skeleton of your shop. Across from side-plate to
side-plate lay some loose boards for a platform, and standing on these
boards let your assistant lift one end of the ridge plank while with one
nail to each rafter you fasten the two end rafters onto the ridge plank,
fit the jaws of the "bird's mouth" over the ends of the side-plates, and
hold them temporarily in place with a "stay lath"--that is, a piece of
board temporarily nailed to rafter and end plate. The other end of the
ridge is now resting on the platform at the other end of the house and
this may be lifted up, for the single nails will allow movement.
The rafters are nailed in place with one nail each and a stay lath
fastened on to hold them in place. Test the ends with your plumb-level and
when they are found to be correct nail all the rafters securely in place
and stiffen the centre pair with a piece called a "collar." Add four
purlins set at right angles to the rafters and take off your hat and give
three cheers and do not forget to nail a green bough to your roof tree in
accordance with the ancient and time-honored custom.
The sides of the house may be covered with tent-cloth, oilcloth, tin, tar
paper, or the cheapest sort of lumber, and the house may be roofed with
the same material; but if you can secure good lumber, use thirteen by
seven eighths by nine and one quarter inch, tongue-and-grooved, one side
planed so that it may be painted; you can make two sideboards out of each
piece six feet six inches in length. Nail the sides on, running the boards
vertically, leaving openings for windows and doors at the proper places.
If you have made a triangular edge to your ridge board, it will add to the
finish and the roof may be neatly and tightly laid with the upper edge of
one side protruding a couple of inches over the opposite side and thus
protecting the joint from rain. Additional security is gained by nailing
what are called picket strips (seven eighths by one and three quarter
inches) over each place where the planks join, or the roof may be covered
with sheathing boards and shingles. It is not necessary here to give the
many details such as the manufacture of the door and the arrangements of
the windows, as these small problems can be easily solved by examining
doors and windows of similar structures.
XI
A SOD HOUSE FOR THE LAWN
THE difference between this sod house and the ones used in the arid
regions consists in the fact that the sod will be growing on the sod
house, which is intended for and is an ornamental building for the lawn.
Possibly one might say that the sod house is an effete product of
civilization where utility is sacrificed to display; but it is pretty, and
beauty is always worth while; besides which the same plans may be used in
building
A Real Adobe
and practically are used in some of the desert ranches along the Colorado
River. The principal difference in construction between the one shown in
Figs. 50, 53, and 57 and the one in Fig. 55 is that in the sod house the
sod is held in place by chicken-coop wire, while in the ranch-house (Fig.
55) the dirt or adobe is held in place by a number of sticks.
Fig. 50. Fig. 51. Fig. 52. Fig. 53. Fig. 54. Fig. 55. Fig. 56.
[Illustration: A house of green growing sod and the Colorado River
adobe.]
Fig. 50 shows how the double walls are made with a space of at least a
foot between them; these walls are covered with wire netting or
chicken-coop wire, as shown in Fig. 53, and the space between the walls
filled in with mud or dirt of any kind. The framework may be made of
milled lumber, as in Fig. 50, or it may be made of saplings cut on the
river bank and squared at their ends, as shown by detailed drawings
between Figs. 50 and 52. The roof may be made flat, like Figs. 54 and 56,
and covered with poles, as in Fig. 54, in which case the sod will have to
be held in place by pegging other poles along the eaves as shown in the
left-hand corner of Fig. 54. This will keep the sod from sliding off the
roof. Or you may build a roof after the manner illustrated by Fig. 49 and
Fig. 51, that is, if you want to make a neat, workmanlike house; but any
of the ways shown by Fig. 52 will answer for the framework of the roof.
The steep roof, however, must necessarily be either shingled or thatched
or the sod held in place by a covering of wire netting. If you are
building this for your lawn, set green, growing sod up edgewise against
the wire netting, after the latter has been tacked to your frame, so
arranging the sod that the green grass will face the outside. If you wish
to plaster the inside of your house with cement or concrete, fill in
behind with mud, plaster the mud against the sod and put gravel and stones
against the mud so that it will be next to the wire netting on the inside
of the house over which you plaster the concrete. If you make the roof
shown in Fig. 54, cover it first with hay and then dirt and sod and hold
the sod down with wire netting neatly tacked over it, or cover it with
gravel held in place by wire netting and spread concrete over the top as
one does on a cellar floor. If the walls are kept sprinkled by the help of
the garden hose, the grass will keep as green as that on your lawn, and if
you have a dirt roof you may allow purple asters and goldenrod to grow
upon it (Fig. 62) or plant it with garden flowers.
Thatch
If you are going to make a thatched roof, soak your thatch in water and
straighten the bent straws; build the roof steep like the one shown in
Fig. 57 and make a wooden needle a foot long and pointed at both ends as
shown in Fig. 59; tie your thatching twine to the middle of the needle,
then take your rye or wheat straw, hay, or bulrushes, gather it into
bundles four inches thick and one foot wide, like those shown in Fig. 60,
and lay them along next to the eaves of your house as in Fig. 58. Sew them
in place by running the needle up through the wire netting to the man on
the outside who in turn pushes it back to the man on the inside. Make a
knot at each wisp of the thatch until one layer is finished, let the lower
ends overhang the eaves, then proceed as illustrated by Fig. 66 and
described under the heading of the bog ken.
If in place of a simple ornament you want to make a real house of it and a
pretty one at that, fill up the space between the walls with mud and
plaster it on the outside with cement or concrete and you will have a
cheap concrete house. The wire netting will hold the plaster or the
concrete and consequently it is not necessary to make the covering of
cement as thick as in ordinary buildings, for after the mud is dried upon
the inside it will, with its crust of cement or plaster, be practically as
good as a solid concrete wall.
Fig. 57. Fig. 58. Fig. 59. Fig. 60. Fig. 61. Fig. 62.
[Illustration: Ornamental sod house for the lawn.]
XII
HOW TO BUILD ELEVATED SHACKS, SHANTIES, AND SHELTERS
FOR many reasons it is sometimes necessary or advisable to have one's camp
on stilts, so to speak. Especially is this true in the more tropical
countries where noxious serpents and insects abound. A simple form of
stilted shack is shown by Fig. 63. To build this shack we must first erect
an elevated platform (Fig. 64). This is made by setting four forked sticks
of equal height in the ground and any height from the ground to suit the
ideas of the camp builder. If, for some reason, the uprights are "wabbly"
the frame may be stiffened by lashing diagonal cross sticks to the frame.
After you have erected the four uprights, lay two poles through the
crotches, as in Fig. 64, and make a platform by placing other poles across
these, after which a shelter may be made in the form of an open Adirondack
camp or any of the forms previously described. Fig. 65 shows the framework
for the open camp of Adirondack style with the uprights lashed to the side
bars; if you have nails, of course, you can nail these together, but these
plans are made on the assumption that you have no nails for that purpose,
which will probably be true if you have been long in the woods.
Fig. 63. Fig. 64. Fig. 65.
[Illustration: A simple stilt camp.]
XIII
THE BOG KEN
KEN is a name now almost obsolete but the bog ken is a house built on
stilts where the ground is marshy, damp, and unfit to sleep upon. As you
will see by the diagram (Fig. 66), the house is built upon a platform
similar to the one last described; in this instance, however, the shelter
itself is formed by a series of arches similar to the Iroquois (Fig. 41).
The uprights on the two sides have their ends bent over and lashed
together, forming arches for the roof. Over the arches are lashed
horizontal poles the same as those described in the construction of the
Iroquois lodge. Fig. 67 shows one way to prevent "varmints" of any kind
from scaling the supporting poles and creeping into your camp.
The protection consists of a tin pan with a hole in the bottom slid over
the supporting poles. Fig. 66 shows how to lash the thatching on to the
poles and Fig. 68 shows how to spring the sticks in place for a railing
around your front porch or balcony.
The floor to this bog ken is a little more elaborate than that of the last
described camp because the poles have all been halved before laying them
for the floor. These are supposed to be afterwards covered with browse,
hay, or rushes and the roof shingled with bark or thatched.
Thatching
Soak your straw or hay well in water and smooth it out flat and regular.
The steeper the roofs the longer the thatch will last. In this bog ken our
roof happens to be a rounded one, an arched roof; but it is sheltering a
temporary house and the thatch will last as long as the shack. While the
real pioneer uses whatever material he finds at hand, it does no harm for
him to know that to make a really good thatch one should use only straw
which is fully ripe and has been thrashed clean with an old-fashioned
flail. The straw must be clear of all seed or grain and kept straight, not
mussed up, crumpled, and broken. If any grain is left in the straw it will
attract field-mice, birds, domestic mice and rats, domestic turkeys and
chickens, and these creatures in burrowing and scratching for food will
play havoc with the roof.
Fig. 66. Fig. 67. Fig. 68. Fig. 69.
[Illustration: Details of bog ken.]
It is not necessary to have straight and even rafters, because the humps,
bumps, and hollows caused by crooked sticks are concealed by the mattress
of straw. Take a bundle of thatch in your hands, squeeze it together, and
place it so that the butt ends project about three inches beyond the floor
(_A_, Fig. 66); tie the thatch closely to the lower rafter and the one
next above it, using for the purpose twine, marlin, raffia, or
well-twisted white hickory bark. This first row should be thus tied near
both ends to prevent the wind from getting under it and lifting it up.
Next put on another row of wisps of thatch over the first and the butt
ends come even with the first, but tie this one to the third row of
rafters not shown in diagram. The butts of the third row of thatch (_B_,
Fig. 66) should be about nine inches up on the front rows; put this on as
before and proceed the same way with _C_, _D_, _E_, and _F_, Fig. 66,
until the roof is completed. The thatch should be ten or twelve inches
thick for a permanent hut but need not be so for a temporary shed.
As there is no comb to this roof the top must be protected where the
thatches from each side join, and to do this fasten a thatch over the top
and bind it on both sides but not in the middle, so that it covers the
meeting of the thatches on both sides of the shack; this top piece should
be stitched or bound on with wire if you have it, or fastened with willow
withe or even wisps of straw if you are an expert. A house, twenty by
thirty feet, made of material found on the place and thatched with straw
costs the builder only fifty cents for nails and four days' work for two
persons. A good thatched roof will last as long as a modern shingle roof,
for in olden days when shingles were good and split out of blocks, not
sawed, and were well seasoned before using, they were not expected to last
much over fifteen years; a well-made thatched roof will last fifteen or
twenty years.
Fig. 70.
[Illustration: Snow-shoe foundation for bog ken.]
But a real bog ken is one that is built over boggy or marshy places too
soft to support an ordinary structure. To overcome this difficulty
required considerable study and experiment, but at length the author hit
upon a simple plan which has proved effective. If you wish to build a duck
hunter's camp on the soft meadows, or for any other reason you desire a
camp on treacherous, boggy ground, you may build one by first making a
thick mattress of twigs and sticks as shown by Fig. 70. This mattress acts
on the principle of a snow-shoe and prevents your house from sinking by
distributing the weight equally over a wide surface. The mattress should
be carefully made of sticks having their branches trimmed off sufficiently
to allow them to lie in regular courses as in the diagram. The first
course should be laid one way and the next course at right angles to the
first, and so on, until the mattress is sufficiently thick for the
purpose.
Standing on the mattress, it will be an easy matter with your hands to
force the sharpened ends of your upright posts _A_, _B_, _C_, and _D_ down
into the yielding mud, but be careful not to push them too far because in
some of these marshes the mud is practically bottomless. It is only
necessary for the supports to sink in the mud far enough to make them
stand upright.
Fig. 71.
[Illustration: Framework of simple bog ken.]
The next step is to lay, at right angles to the top layer of brush, a
series of rods or poles between your uprights as shown in Fig. 70; then
take two more poles, place them at right angles to the last ones, and
press them down until they fit snugly on top of the other poles, and there
nail them fast to the uprights as shown in Fig. 70, after which to further
bind them you may nail a diagonal from _A_ to _D_ and _B_ to _C_, but this
may not be necessary.
When you have proceeded thus far you may erect a framework like that shown
in Fig. 71, and build a platform by flooring the crosspieces or horizontal
bars with halves of small logs, Fig. 71.
It is now a simple matter to erect a shack which may be roofed with bark
as in Fig. 72 or thatched as in Fig. 74. Fig. 72 shows the unfinished
shack in order that its construction may be easily seen; this one is being
roofed with birch bark. A fireplace may be made by enclosing a bed of mud
(Fig. 73) between or inside of the square formed by four logs. On this
clay or mud you can build your camp-fire or cooking fire or mosquito
smudge with little or no danger of setting fire to your house.
The mosquito smudge will not be found necessary if there is any breeze
blowing at all, because these insects cling to the salt hay or bog-grass
and do not rise above it except in close, muggy weather where no breeze
disturbs them. I have slept a few feet over bog meadows without being
disturbed by mosquitoes when every blade of grass on the meadows was black
with these insects, but there was a breeze blowing which kept the
mosquitoes at home.
Fig. 72. Fig. 73. Fig. 74.
[Illustration: Adaptation of a bark shack to the bog ken foundation.]
XIV
OVER-WATER CAMPS
NOW that we know how to camp on solid ground and on the quaking bog we
cannot finish up the subject of stilt camps without including one
over-water camp. If the water has a muddy bottom it is a simple matter to
force your supporting posts into the mud; this may be done by driving them
in with a wooden mallet made of a section of log or it may be done by
fastening poles on each side of the post and having a crowd of men jump up
and down on the poles until the posts are forced into the bottom.
If you are building a pretentious structure the piles may be driven with
the ordinary pile-driver. But if your camp on the water is over a hard
bottom of rock or sand through which you cannot force your supports you
may take a lot of old barrels (Fig. 75), knock the tops and bottoms out of
them, nail some cross planks on the ends of your spiles, slide the barrels
over the spiles, then set them in place in the water and hold them there
by filling the barrels with rocks, stones, or coarse gravel. Fig. 77 shows
a foundation made in this manner; this method is also useful in building
piers (Fig. 78). But if you are in the woods, out of reach of barrels or
other civilized lumber, you can make yourself cribs by driving a square or
a circle of sticks in the ground a short distance and then twining roots
or pliable branches inside and outside the stakes, basket fashion, as
shown in Fig. 76. When the crib is complete it may be carefully removed
from the ground and used as the barrels were used by filling them with
stones to support the uprights. Fig. 79 shows an ordinary portable house
such as are advertised in all the sportsmen's papers, which has been
erected upon a platform over the water.
Fig. 75. Fig. 76. Fig. 77. Fig. 78. Fig. 79.
[Illustration: Showing how to make foundations for over-water camps.]
My experience with this sort of work leads me to advise the use of piles
upon which to build in place of piers of stones. Where I have used such
piers upon small inland lakes the tremendous push of the freezing ice has
upset them, whereas the ice seems to slide around the piles without
pushing them over. The real danger with piles lies in the fact that if the
water rises after the ice has frozen around the uprights the water will
lift the ice up and the ice will sometimes pull the piles out of the
bottom like a dentist pulls teeth. Nevertheless, piles are much better for
a foundation for a camp or pier than any crib of rocks, and that is the
reason I have shown the cribs in Figs. 75 and 77, made so as to rest upon
the bottom supposedly below the level of the winter ice.
XV
SIGNAL-TOWER, GAME LOOKOUT, AND RUSTIC OBSERVATORY
IF my present reader happens to be a Boy Scout or a scout-master who wants
the scouts to build a tower for exhibition purposes, he can do so by
following the directions here given, but if there is real necessity for
haste in the erection of this tower, of course we cannot build one as tall
as we might where we have more time. With a small tower all the joints may
be quickly lashed together with strong, heavy twine, rope, or even wire;
and in the wilderness it will probably be necessary to bind the joints
with pliable roots, or cordage made of bark or withes; but as this is not
a book on woodcraft we will suppose that the reader has secured the proper
material for fastening the joints of the frame of this signal-tower and he
must now shoulder his axe and go to the woods in order to secure the
necessary timber. First let him cut eight straight poles--that is, as
straight as he can find them. These poles should be about four and one
half inches in diameter at their base and sixteen and one half feet long.
After all the branches are trimmed off the poles, cut four more sticks
each nine feet long and two and a half or three inches in diameter at the
base; when these are trimmed into shape one will need twenty six or seven
more stout sticks each four and one half feet long for braces and for
flooring for the platform.
Kite Frame
It being supposed that your timber is now all in readiness at the spot
where you are to erect the tower, begin by laying out on the ground what
we call the "kite frame." First take three of the four-and-one-half-foot
sticks, _A_, _B_, _C_ (Fig. 82), and two of the nine-foot sticks _D_ and
_E_ (Fig. 82), and, placing them on a level stretch of ground, arrange
them in the form of a parallelogram. Put _A_ for the top rail at the top
of the parallelogram and _C_ for the bottom of the parallelogram and let
them rest upon the sides _D_ and _E_, but put _B_ under the sides _D_ and
_E_. In order to bind these together securely, the ends of all the sticks
must be allowed to project a few inches. _B_ should be far enough below
_A_ to give the proper height for a railing around the platform. The
platform itself rests upon _B_. _A_ forms the top railing to the fence
around it.
Now take two of your sixteen-and-one-half-foot poles and place them
diagonally from corner to corner of the parallelogram with the small ends
of the poles lying over the ends of _A_ and the butt ends of the poles
extending beyond _C_, as in Fig. 82. Lash these poles securely in place.
Where the poles cross each other in the _X_, or centre, it is best to
flatten them some by scoring and hewing with a hatchet, but care must be
taken not to weaken them by scoring too deep. Next take your lash rope,
double it, run the loop down under the cross sticks, bring it up on the
other side, as in Fig. 83, then pull the two loose ends through the loop.
When they are drawn taut (Fig. 84), bend them round in opposite
directions--that is, bend the right-hand end of the rope to the right,
down and under the cross sticks, pull it out to the left, as in Fig. 84,
then bend the left-hand piece of rope to the left, down and under, pulling
it out to the right, as in Fig. 84. Next bring those two pieces up over
and tie them together in a square knot, as shown in Figs. 85 and 86.
Fig. 80. Fig. 81. Fig. 82. Fig. 83. Fig. 84. Fig. 85. Fig. 86.
Fig. 87.
[Illustration: Parts of tower for a wireless, a game lookout, an elevated
camp or cache.]
Make a duplicate "kite" frame for the other side exactly as you made the
first one, and then arrange these two pieces on the ground with the cross
sticks _F_ and _F_ on the under-side and with their butt ends opposite the
butts of the similar poles on the other frame and about five feet apart.
Fasten a long line to the point where the two _F_ pieces cross each other
and detail a couple of scouts to hold each of the butt ends from slipping
by placing one of their feet against the butt, as in Fig. 82, while two
gangs of men or boys pull on the ropes and raise the kite frames to the
positions shown in Figs. 81 and 88.
Be careful, when raising the frames, not to pull them too far so that they
may fall on some unwary workman. When the frames are once erected it is an
easy matter to hold them in place by guy-ropes fastened to stones, stakes,
or trees or held by men or boys, while some of the shorter braces are
fastened to hold the two kite frames together, as in Fig. 90, wherein you
may see these short braces at the top and bottom. Next, the two other long
sticks, legs, or braces (_G_, _G_, Figs. 89 and 90) should be held
temporarily in position and the place marked where they cross each other
in the centre of the parallelogram which should be the same as it is on
the legs of the two kite frames. The _G_ sticks should now be lashed
together at the crossing point, as already described and shown by Figs.
83, 84, 85, and 86, when they may be put up against the sides, as in Fig.
89, in which diagram the _G_ poles are made very dark and the kite frames
indicated very lightly so as to better show their relative positions. Lash
the _G_ poles at the top and at the other points where they cross the
other braces and secure the framework by adding short braces, as indicated
in Fig. 90.
Fig. 88. Fig. 89. Fig. 90. Fig. 90A.
[Illustration: Details of scout signal-tower or game lookout.]
If all the parts are bound together with wire it will hold them more
securely than nails, with no danger of the poles splitting. A permanent
tower of this kind may be erected on which a camp may be built, as shown
in Fig. 87. It may be well to note that in the last diagram the tower is
only indicated by a few lines of the frame in order to simplify it and
prevent confusion caused by the multiplicity of poles.
Boy-Scout Tower
If you desire to make a tower taller than the one described it would be
best, perhaps, to take the regular Boy-Scout dimensions as given by
Scout-master A. G. Clarke:
"Eight pieces 22 feet long, about 5 or 6 inches thick at the base; 4
pieces 6 feet long, about 3 or 4 inches thick at the base; 12 pieces 6
feet long, about 2½ or 3 inches thick at base; 12 or 15 pieces for braces
and platform about 6 feet long."
When putting together this frame it may be nailed or spiked, but care must
be used not to split the timber where it is nailed. With most wood this
may be avoided by driving the spikes or nails several inches back of the
ends of the sticks. To erect a flagpole or a wireless pole, cut the bottom
of the pole wedge-shaped, fit in the space between the cross poles, as in
Fig. 90 _A_, then lash it fast to the _B_ and _A_ pole, and, to further
secure it, two other sticks may be nailed to the _F_ poles, one on each
side, between which the bottom of the flagpole is thrust, as shown by Fig.
90 _A_.
The flooring of the platform must be securely nailed or lashed in place,
otherwise there may be some serious accident caused by the boys or men
falling through, a fall of about twenty and one half feet according to the
last measurements given for the frame.
An observatory of this kind will add greatly to the interest of a mountain
home or seaside home; it is a practical tower for military men to be used
in flag signalling and for improvised wireless; it is also a practical
tower for a lookout in the game fields and a delight to the Boy Scouts.
XVI
TREE-TOP HOUSES
BY the natural process of evolution we have now arrived at the tree-top
house. It is interesting to the writer to see the popularity of this style
of an outdoor building, for, while he cannot lay claim to originating it,
he was the first to publish the working drawings of a tree-house. These
plans first appeared in _Harper's Round Table_; afterward he made others
for the _Ladies' Home Journal_ and later published them in "The Jack of
All Trades."
Having occasion to travel across the continent shortly after the first
plans were published, he was amused to see all along the route, here and
there in back-yard fruit-trees, shade-trees, and in forest-trees, queer
little shanties built by the boys, high up among the boughs.
In order to build a house one must make one's plans _to fit the tree_. If
it is to be a one-tree house, spike on the trunk two quartered pieces of
small log one on each side of the trunk (Figs. 91 and 92). Across these
lay a couple of poles and nail them to the trunk of the tree (Fig. 91);
then at right angles to these lay another pair of poles, as shown in the
right-hand diagram (Fig. 91). Nail these securely in place and support the
ends of the four poles by braces nailed to the trunk of the tree below.
The four cross-sills will then (Fig. 95) serve as a foundation upon which
to begin your work. Other joists can now be laid across these first and
supported by braces running diagonally down to the trunk of the tree, as
shown in Fig. 95. After the floor is laid over the joist any form of
shack, from a rude, open shed to a picturesque thatch-roofed cottage, may
be erected upon it. It is well to support the two middle rafters of your
roof by quartered pieces of logs, as the middle rafters are supported in
Fig. 95; by quartered logs shown in Fig. 92.
Fig. 91. Fig. 92. Fig. 93. Fig. 94. Fig. 95. Fig. 96. Fig. 97.
[Illustration: Details of tree-top houses.]
If the house is a two-tree house, run your cross-sill sticks from trunk to
trunk, as in Fig. 94; then make two T-braces, like the one in Fig. 94 _A_,
of two-inch planks with braces secured by iron straps, or use heavier
timber, and bolt the parts together securely (Fig. 93), or use logs and
poles (Fig. 94), after which hang these T's over the ends of your two
cross sticks, as in Fig. 94, and spike the uprights of the T's securely to
the tree trunks. On top of the T you can rest a two-by-four and support
the end by diagonals nailed to the tree trunk (Fig. 94) after the manner
of the diagonals in Fig. 95. You will note in Fig. 95 that cleats or
blocks are spiked to the tree below the end of the diagonals in order to
further secure them. It is sometimes necessary in a two-tree house to
allow for the movement of the tree trunks. In Florida a gentleman did this
by building his tree-house on the _B_ sills (Fig. 94) and making them
movable to allow for the play of the tree trunks. Fig. 96 shows a two-tree
house and Fig. 97 shows a thatch-roofed cottage built among the top
branches of a single tree.
It goes without saying that in a high wind one does not want to stay long
in a tree-top house; in fact, during some winds that I have experienced I
would have felt much safer had I been in a cyclone cellar; but if the
braces of a tree-house are securely made and the trees selected have good,
heavy trunks, your tree-top house will stand all the ordinary summer blows
and winter storms. One must remember that even one's own home is not
secure enough to stand some of those extraordinary gales, tornadoes, and
hurricanes which occasionally visit parts of our country.
Since I published the first plans of a tree-top house many people have
adopted the idea and built quite expensive structures in the boughs of the
trees. Probably all these buildings are intact at the present writing.
The boys at Lynn, Mass., built a very substantial house in the trees, and
the truant officer claimed that the lads hid away there so that they could
play "hookey" from school; but if this is true, and there seems to be some
doubt about it, it must be remembered that the fault was probably with
_the schools_ and not the boys, for boys who have ingenuity and grit
enough to build a substantial house in a tree cannot be bad boys;
industry, skill, and laborious work are not the attributes of the bad boy.
Some New York City boys built a house in the trees at One Hundred and
Sixty-ninth Street, but here the police interfered, claiming that it was
against a city ordinance to build houses in shade-trees, and maybe it is;
but, fortunately for the boys, there are other trees which may be used for
this purpose. There is now, or was recently, an interesting tree-house on
Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn; a house so commodious that it was capable of
accommodating as many as fifteen people; but it was not as pretty and
attractive a tree-house as the one located at the foot of Mount Tamalpais,
in Mill Valley, San Francisco, which is built after the plan shown by Fig.
95. This California house is attached to the trunk of a big redwood tree
and is reached by a picturesque bridge spanning a rocky canyon.
Tree-houses are also used as health resorts, and recently there was a
gentleman of Plainfield, Mass., living in a tree-house because he found
the pure air among the leaves beneficial; while down in Ecuador another
man, who feared malarial mosquitoes and objected to wild beasts and
snakes, built himself a house on top of an ibo-tree, seventy feet from the
ground. This is quite a pretentious structure and completely hides and
covers the top of the tree. It is located on the banks of the Escondido
River; and in this tropical country, while it may be a safe retreat from
the pests enumerated, it might not be so safe from lightning in one of
those violent tropical storms. But it is probably as safe as any house in
that country, for one must take chances no matter what kind of a house one
dwells in.
Primitive and savage men all over the world for thousands of years have
built dwellings in tree tops. In the Philippines many natives live in
tree-top houses. The Kinnikars, hill-tribesmen of Travancore, India, are
said to live in houses built in the trees, but in New Guinea it seems that
such houses are only provided for the girls, and every night the dusky
lassies are sent to bed in shacks perched in the tree tops; then, to make
safety doubly safe, the watchful parents take away the ladders and their
daughters cannot reach the ground until the ladders are replaced in the
morning.
The most important thing about all this is that a tree-house is always a
source of delight to the boys and young people, and, furthermore, the boys
have over and over again proved to the satisfaction of the author that
they themselves are perfectly competent to build these shacks, and not
only to build them but to avoid accidents and serious falls while engaged
in the work.
XVII
CACHES
THE difference between tomahawk shacks and axe houses reminds me of the
difference between the ileum and the jejunum, of which my classmate once
said: "There is no way of telling the beginning of one or the ending of
t'other 'cept by the pale-pinkish hue of the latter."
It must be confessed that some of the shacks described in the preceding
pages are rather stout and massive to be classed as tomahawk shelters,
but, as indicated by my reference to physiology, this is not the writer's
fault. The trouble is owing to the fact that nature abhors the arbitrary
division line which man loves to make for his own convenience. The
tomahawk shacks gradually evolve into axe camps and houses and "there is
no telling the beginning of one and the end of t'other." Hence, when I say
that all the previous shacks, sheds, shelters, and shanties are fashioned
with a hatchet, the statement must be accepted as true only so far as _it
is_ possible to build them without an axe; but in looking over the diagram
it is evident at a glance that the logs are growing so thick that the
necessity of the woodman's axe is more and more apparent; nevertheless,
the accompanying caches have been classed with the tomahawk group and we
will allow them to remain there.
Wherever man travels in the wilderness he finds it necessary to
cache--that is, hide or secure some of his goods or provisions. The
security of these caches (Figs. 98-111) is considered sacred in the wilds
and they are not disturbed by savages or whites; but bears, foxes, husky
dogs, porcupines, and wolverenes are devoid of any conscientious scruples
and unless the cache is absolutely secure they will raid it.
Fig. 98. Fig. 99. Fig. 100. Fig. 101. Fig. 102. Fig. 103. Fig. 104.
Fig. 105.
[Illustration: Simple forms of caches.]
The first cache (Fig. 98) is called the "prospector's cache" and consists
simply of a stick lashed to two trees and another long pole laid across
this to which the goods are hung, swinging beneath like a hammock. This
cache is hung high enough to be out of reach of a standing bear.
The tripod cache (Fig. 100) consists of three poles lashed at the top with
the goods hung underneath.
Another form of the prospector's cache is shown by Fig. 102, where two
poles are used in place of one and an open platform of sticks laid across
the poles; the goods are placed upon the platform.
The tenderfoot's cache (Fig. 105) is one used only for temporary purposes
as it is too easily knocked over and would be of no use where animals as
large as bears might wreck it. It consists of two sticks lashed together
at their small ends and with their butt ends buried in the earth; their
tops are secured by a rope to a near-by tree while the duffel is suspended
from the top of the longest pole.
The "Montainais" cache is an elevated platform upon which the goods are
placed and covered with skins or tarpaulin or tent-cloth (Fig. 99).
The "Andrew Stone" cache is a miniature log cabin placed on the ground and
the top covered with halved logs usually weighted down with stones (Fig.
101).
The "Belmore Browne" cache consists of a pole or a half of a log placed in
the fork of the two trees on top of which the goods are held in place by a
rope and the whole covered with a piece of canvas lashed together with
eyelets, like a shoe (Fig. 103).
The "Herschel Parker" cache is used where the articles to be cached are in
a box. For this cache two poles are lashed to two trees, one on each side
of the trees (Fig. 104), and across the two poles the box is placed.
We now come to more pretentious caches, the first of which is the
"Susitna," which is a little log cabin built on a table with four long
legs. The poles or logs composing the legs of the table are cut in a
peculiar fashion, as shown in the diagram to the left of Fig. 107; this is
intended to prevent animals from climbing to the top; also, as a further
protection, pieces of tin are sometimes tacked around the poles so as to
give no foothold to the claws of the little animals.
Fig. 106 shows two other methods sometimes adopted to protect small caches
and Fig. 108 is still another method of using logs which have the roots
still attached to them for supports. Such logs can be used where the
ground is too stony to dig holes for posts.
Fig. 109 shows another form of the Susitna cache wherein the goods are
packed in a box-like structure and covered with tent-cloth tightly lashed
down.
The "Dillon Wallace" cache (Fig. 110) is simply a tent erected over the
goods and perched on an elevated platform.
The "Fred Vreeland" cache is a good, solid, practical storehouse. It is
built of small logs on a platform, as shown by Fig. 111, and the bottom of
the building is smaller than it is at the eaves. It is covered with a high
thatched roof and is ornamental as well as useful.
Fig. 106. Fig. 107. Fig. 108. Fig. 109. Fig. 110. Fig. 111.
[Illustration: Cabin caches.]
These caches might really belong to a book of woodcraft, but it is another
case of the "ileum and jejunum," and we will rule that they technically
come under the head of shacks, sheds, shelters, and shanties and so are
included in this volume; but there is another and a very good reason for
publishing them in this book, and that is because some of them, like Figs.
107 and 111, suggest novel forms of ornamental houses on country estates,
houses which may be used for corn-cribs or other storage or, like the
tree-top houses, used for pleasure and amusement.
XVIII
HOW TO USE AN AXE
THE old backwoodsmen were as expert with their axes as they were with
their rifles and they were just as careful in the selection of these tools
as they were in the selection of their arms. Many a time I have seen them
pick up a "store" axe, sight along the handle, and then cast it
contemptuously aside; they demanded of their axes that the cutting edge
should be exactly in line with the point in the centre of the butt end of
the handle. They also kept their axes so sharp that they could whittle
with them like one can with a good jack-knife; furthermore, they allowed
_no one_ but themselves to use their own particular axe. In my log house
in the mountains of Pike County, Pa., I have a table fashioned entirely
with an axe; even the ends of the boards which form the top of the table
were cut off by Siley Rosencranz with his trusty axe because he had no
saw.
Both General Grant and Abraham Lincoln were expert axemen, and probably a
number of other Presidents were also skilful in the use of this tool; but
it is not expected that the modern vacation pioneer shall be an expert,
consequently a few simple rules and suggestions will be here given to
guide the amateur and he must depend upon his own judgment and common
sense to work out the minor problems which will beset him in the use of
this tool.
Dangers
All edged tools are dangerous when in the hands of "chumps," dangerous to
themselves and to any one else who is near them. For instance, only a
chump will use an axe when its head is loose and is in danger of flying
off the handle; only a chump will use his _best_ axe to cut roots or
sticks lying flat on the ground where he is liable to strike stones and
other objects and take the edge off the blade. Only a chump will leave an
axe lying around on the ground for people to stumble over; if there is a
stump handy at your camp and you are through using the axe, strike the
blade into the top of the stump and leave the axe sticking there, where it
will be safe from injury.
Remember, before chopping down a tree or before using the axe at all, to
see that there is enough space above and around you to enable you to swing
the axe clear (Fig. 112) without the danger of striking bushes or
overhanging branches which may deflect the blade and cause accidents more
or less serious.
Do not stand behind a tree as it falls (Fig. 115), for the boughs may
strike those of a standing tree, causing the butt to shoot back or "kick,"
and many a woodsman has lost his life from the kick of a falling tree.
Before chopping a tree down, select the place where it is to fall, a place
where it will not be liable to lodge in another tree on its way down. Do
not try to fell a tree against the wind.
Cut a notch on the side of the tree facing the direction you wish it to
fall (Fig. 113) and cut it half-way through the trunk. Make the notch, or
kerf, large enough to avoid pinching your axe in it. If you discover that
the notch is going to be too small, cut a new notch, _X_ (Fig. 116), some
inches above your first one, then split off the piece _X_, _Y_ between the
two notches, and again make the notch _X_, _Z_, and split off the piece
_Z_, _W_, _Y_ (Fig. 116), until you make room for the axe to continue your
chopping. When the first kerf is finished begin another one on the
opposite side of the tree a little higher than the first one (Fig. 114).
When the wood between the two notches becomes too small to support the
weight of the tree, the top of the tree will begin to tremble and waver
and give you plenty of time to step to one side before it falls.
Fig. 112. Fig. 113. Fig. 114. Fig. 115. Fig. 116. Fig. 117. Fig.
118.
[Illustration: How to "fall" a tree and how to take off the bark.]
If the tree (Fig. 117) is inclined in the opposite direction from which
you wish it to fall, it is sometimes possible (Fig. 117) to block up the
kerf on the inclined side and then by driving the wedge over the block
force the tree to fall in the direction desired; but if the tree inclines
too far this cannot be done.
There was a chestnut-tree standing close to my log house and leaning
toward the building. Under ordinary circumstances felling this tree would
cause it to strike the house with all the weight of its trunk and
branches. When I told Siley Rosencranz I wanted that tree cut down he
sighted up the tree, took a chew of tobacco, and walked away. For several
days he went through the same performance, until at last one day he
brought out his trusty axe and made the chips fly. Soon the chestnut was
lying prone on the ground _pointing away_ from the house. What this old
backwoodsman did was to wait until a strong wind had sprung up, blowing in
the direction that he wanted the tree to fall, and his skilful chopping
with the aid of the wind placed the tree exactly where he wished it.
Fig. 118 shows how to make the cuts on a standing tree in order to remove
the bark, which is done in the same manner as that described for removing
the birch bark (Fig. 38).
XIX
HOW TO SPLIT LOGS, MAKE SHAKES, SPLITS, OR CLAPBOARDS. HOW TO CHOP A LOG
IN HALF. HOW TO FLATTEN A LOG. ALSO SOME DON'TS
LOGS are usually split by the use of wedges, but it is possible to split
them by the use of two axes. Fig. 119 shows both methods. To split with
the axe, strike it smartly into the wood at the small end so as to start a
crack, then sink the axe in the crack, _A_. Next take the second axe and
strike it in line with the first one at _B_. If this is done properly it
should open the crack wide enough to release the first axe without
trouble, which may then be struck in the log at _C_. In this manner it is
possible to split a straight-grained piece of timber without the use of
wedges. The first axe should be struck in at the smaller or top end of the
log. To split a log with wedges, take your axe in your left hand and a
club in your right hand and, by hammering the head of your axe with the
club, drive the blade into the small end of the log far enough to make a
crack deep enough to hold the thin edge of your wedges. Make this crack
all the way across the end of the log, as in Fig. 119. Put two wedges in
the end of the log, as in the diagram, and drive them until the wood
begins to split and crack along the sides of the log; then follow up this
crack with other wedges, as shown at _D_ and _E_, until the log is split
in half.
While ordinary wood splits easily enough with the grain, it is very
difficult to drive an axe through the wood at right angles to the grain,
as shown by diagram to the left (Fig. 120); hence, if the amateur be
chopping wood, if he will strike a slanting blow, like the one to the
right in Fig. 120, he will discover that the blade of his axe will enter
the wood; whereas, in the first position, where he strikes the grain at
right angles, it will only make a dent in the wood and bounce the axe
back; but in striking a diagonal blow he must use care not to slant his
axe too far or the blade of the axe may only scoop out a shallow chip and
swing around, seriously injuring the axeman or some one else.
If it is desired to cut off the limb of a tree, do not disfigure the tree
by tearing the bark down; trees are becoming too scarce for us to injure
them unnecessarily; if you cut part way through the limb on the under-side
(see the right-hand diagram, Fig. 121) and then cut partly through from
the top side, the limb will fall off without tearing the bark down the
trunk; but if you cut only from the top (see left-hand diagram, Fig. 121),
sooner or later the weight of the limb will tear it off and make an ugly
wound down the front of the tree, which in time decays, makes a hollow,
and ultimately destroys the tree. A neatly cut branch, on the other hand,
when the stub has been sheared off close to the bark, will heal up,
leaving only an eye-mark on the bark to tell where the limb once grew.
If it is desired to chop a log up into shorter pieces, remember to stand
on the log to do your chopping, as in Fig. 122. This will do away with the
necessity of rolling the log over when you want to chop on the other side.
Do not forget to make the kerf, or notch, _C_, _D_ the same as _A_, _B_;
in other words, the distance across the notch should equal the diameter of
the log. If you start with too narrow a kerf, or notch, before you finish
you will be compelled to widen it.
Fig. 119. Fig. 120. Fig. 121. Fig. 122. Fig. 123. Fig. 124. Fig.
125.
Fig. 126. Fig. 127. Fig. 128. Fig. 129. Fig. 130. Fig. 131. Fig.
131A.
Fig. 131B.
[Illustration: How to split a log, chop a log, flatten a log, and trim a
tree.]
To flatten a log you must _score and hew_ it. Scoring consists in making a
number of notches, _C_, _D_, _E_, _F_, _G_, _H_, _J_, etc., to the depth
of the line _A_, _B_ (Figs. 123 and 124); hewing it is the act of chopping
off or splitting off the pieces _A_, _C_ and _C_, _D_ and _D_, _E_, etc.,
leaving the surface flat, as shown by Fig. 125, which was known among the
pioneers as a puncheon and with which they floored their cabins before the
advent of the saw-mill and milled lumber.
Perhaps it will be advisable for the amateur to take a chalk-line and snap
it from _A_ to _B_ (Fig. 123), so that he may be certain to have the flat
surface level. The expert axeman will do this by what he calls
"sensiation." It might be well to say here that if you select for
puncheons wood with a straight grain and wood that will split easily you
will simplify your task, but even mean, stubborn wood may be flattened by
scoring and hewing. Quoting from Horace Kephart's excellent book on
woodcraft, an experienced man can tell a straight-grained log "by merely
scanning the bark"; if the ridges and furrows of the bark run straight up
and down the wood will have a corresponding straight grain, but if they
are spiral the wood will split "waney" or not at all. "Waney" is a good
word, almost as good as "sensiation"; so when you try to quarter a log
with which to chink your cabin or log house don't select a "waney" log. To
quarter a log split it as shown in Fig. 119 and split it along the dotted
lines shown in the end view of Fig. 126.
In the Maine woods the woodsmen are adepts in making shakes, splits,
clapboards, or shingles by the use of only an axe and splitting them out
of the billets of wood from four to six feet long. The core of the log
(Fig. 130) is first cut out and then the pieces are split out, having
wedge-shaped edges, as shown by the lines marked on Fig. 127. They also
split out boards after the manner shown by Fig. 128. In making either the
boards or the shakes, if it is found that the wood splinters down into the
body of the log too far or into the board or shake too far, you must
commence at the other end of the billet or log and split it up to meet the
first split, or take hold of the split or board with your hands and deftly
tear it from the log, an art which only experience can teach. I have seen
two-story houses composed of nothing but a framework with sides and roof
shingled over with these splits. In the West they call these "shake"
cabins.
It may be wise before we close this axeman's talk to caution the reader
against chopping firewood by resting one end of the stick to be cut on a
log and the other end on the ground, as shown in Fig. 131, and then
striking this stick a sharp blow with the axe in the middle. The effect of
this often is to send the broken piece or fragment gyrating through the
air, as is shown by the dotted lines, and many a woodchopper has lost an
eye from a blow inflicted by one of these flying pieces; indeed, I have
had some of my friends meet with this serious and painful accident from
the same cause, and I have seen men in the lumber fields who have been
blinded in a similar manner.
There are two sorts of axes in general use among the lumbermen; but the
double-bitted axe (131 _A_) appears to be the most popular among
lumberjacks. My readers, however, are not lumberjacks but campers, and a
double-bitted axe is a nuisance around camps. It is always dangerous and
even when one blade is sunk into the tree the other blade is sticking out,
a menace to everybody and everything that comes near it. But the real
old-fashioned reliable axe (131 _B_) is the one that is exceedingly useful
in a camp, around a country place, or a farm. I even have one now in my
studio closet here in the city of New York, but I keep it more for
sentiment's sake than for any real use it may be to me here.
XX
AXEMEN'S CAMPS
The Stefansson Sod Shack
NOW that we know how to wield the axe we can begin on more ambitious
structures than those preceding. We may now build camps in which we use
logs instead of poles. Most of these camps are intended to be covered with
sod or earth and are nearly related to the old prairie dugout. The sod
house is used in the arctic regions because it is warm inside, and it is
used in the arid regions because it is cool inside. You will note that the
principle on which the Stefansson is constructed (Fig. 135) is practically
the same as that of the Pontiac (Fig. 36); the Stefansson frame, however,
is made of larger timbers than the Pontiac because it not only must
support a roof and side of logs and sod but must also be able to sustain
any quantity of snow.
First erect two forked upright sticks (Fig. 132), and then steady them by
two braces. Next lay four more logs or sticks for the side-plates with
their butt ends on the ridge-pole and their small ends on the ground as in
Fig. 133. Support these logs by a number of small uprights--as many as may
be necessary for the purpose. The uprights may have forks at the top or
have the top ends cut wedge-shaped to fit in notches made for that purpose
in the side-plates as shown by Fig. 133 _A_. The shortest uprights at the
end of the roof should be forked so that the projecting fork will tend to
keep the roof logs from sliding down. The roof is made by a number of
straight rafters placed one with the butt in front, next with the butt in
the rear alternately, so that they will fit snugly together until the
whole roof is covered. The sides are made by setting a number of sticks in
a trench and slanting them against the roof; both sides, front, and rear
of the building should project six inches above the roof in order to hold
the sod and dirt and keep it from sliding off.
Fig. 132. Fig. 133. Fig. 133A Fig. 134. Fig. 135.
[Illustration: Details of the Stefansson sod shack.]
Up in the north country one must not expect to find green, closely cropped
lawns or even green fields of wild sod in all places. Although in some
parts the grass grows taller than a man's head, in other places the sod is
only called so by courtesy; it really consists of scraggy grass thinly
distributed on gravelly and sandy, loose soil, and consequently we must
secure the sod by having the walls project a little above the rafters all
around the building. Of course, in summer weather this roof will leak, but
then one may live in a tent; but when cold weather comes and the sod is
frozen hard and banked up with snow the Stefansson makes a good, warm
dwelling.
The same style of a camp can be made in the temperate zone of smaller
trees and shingled with browse, or in the South of cane or bamboo and
shingled with palmetto leaves, or in the Southwest of cottonwood where it
may be covered with adobe or mud. Fig. 134 shows a Stefansson shack roofed
with sod. The front is left uncovered to show its construction and also to
show how the doorway is made by simply leaving an opening like that in a
tent. In winter this may have a hallway built like the one described in
the Navajo earth lodge (Fig. 35) or in the Pawnee hogan (Figs. 42 and 43),
and in milder weather the doorway may be protected with a skin. An opening
is left in the roof over the fireplace, which answers the purpose of a
chimney.
The author aims to take hints from all the primitive dwellings which may
be of service to outdoor people; the last one described was arbitrarily
named the Stefansson because that explorer built himself such shelters in
the far North, but he did not invent them. He borrowed the general plan
from the natives of the northern country and adapted it to his use,
thereby placing the official stamp on this shack as a useful building for
outdoor people and, consequently, as deserving a place in this book.
XXI
RAILROAD-TIE SHACKS, BARREL SHACKS, AND CHIMEHUEVIS
NO observing person has travelled far upon the American railroads without
noticing, alongside the tracks, the queer little houses built of railroad
ties by Italian laborers. These shacks are known by the name of dagoes
(Fig. 136) and are made in different forms, according to the ingenuity of
the builder. The simplest form is the tent-shaped shown in Fig. 136, with
the ends of the ties rested together in the form of a tent and with no
other support but their own weight (see the diagram to the right, Fig.
136). I would not advise boys to build this style, because it might make a
trap to fall in upon them with serious results, but if they use a
ridge-pole like the one shown in Fig. 139 and against it rest the ties
they will do away with the danger of being caught in a deadfall trap. Of
course, it is understood that the ridge-pole itself must first be secure.
Railroad ties being flat (Fig. 137), they may be built up into solid walls
(Fig. 137) and make neat sides for a little house; or they may be set up
on edge (Fig. 138) and secured in place by stakes driven upon each side of
them; or they may be made into the form of an open Adirondack camp (Figs.
139 and 140) by resting the ties on a ridge-pole supported by a pair of
"shears" at each end; the shears, as you will observe, consist of two
sticks bound together near the top and then spread apart to receive the
ridge-pole in the crotch.
Fig. 136. Fig. 137. Fig. 138. Fig. 139. Fig. 140. Fig. 141. Fig.
142. Fig. 143.
[Illustration: Railroad-tie shacks, barrel shack, and a Chimehuevis.]
All of these structures are usually covered with dirt and sod, and they
make very comfortable little camps.
In the Southwest a simple shelter, the "Chimehuevis," is made by enclosing
a room in upright poles (Fig. 141) and then surrounding it with a circle
of poles supporting a log or pole roof covered with sod, making a good
camp for hot weather.
Fig. 142 shows a barrel dugout. It is made by digging a place for it in
the bank and, after the floor is levelled off, setting rows of barrels
around the foundation, filling these barrels with sand, gravel, or dirt,
then placing another row on top of the first, leaving spaces for a window
and a door, after which the walls are roofed with logs and covered with
sod, in the same manner as the ones previously described. The dirt is next
filled around the sides, except at the window opening, as shown by Fig.
142. A barrel also does duty as a chimney.
Shacks like this are used by homesteaders, miners, trappers, and hunters;
in fact, these people use any sort of material they have at hand. When a
mining-camp is near by the freight wagons are constantly bringing in
supplies, and these supplies are done up in packages of some kind. Boards
are frequently worth more a yard than silk, or were in the olden days, and
so the home builders used other material. They built themselves houses of
discarded beer bottles, of kerosene cans, of packing-boxes, of any and
every thing. Usually these houses were dugouts, as is the barrel one shown
in Fig. 142. In the big-tree country they not infrequently made a house of
a hollow stump of a large redwood, and one stone-mason hollowed out a huge
bowlder for his dwelling; but such shacks belong among the freak shelters.
The barrel one, however, being the more practical and one that can be
used almost anywhere where timber is scarce but where goods are
transported in barrels, deserves a place here among our shacks, shelters,
and shanties.
XXII
THE BARABARA
THE houses along the coast of the Bering Sea are called barabaras, but the
ones that we are going to build now are in form almost identical with the
Pawnee hogan (Figs. 42 and 43), the real difference being in the peculiar
log work of the barabara in place of the teepee-like rafters of the said
hogan.
To build a barabara you will need eight short posts for the outside wall
and six or eight longer posts for the inside supports (Fig. 145). The
outside posts should stand about three feet above the ground after they
have been planted in the holes dug for the purpose. The top of the posts
should be cut wedge-shaped, as shown by Fig. 144, in order to fit in the
notch _B_ (Fig. 144). The cross logs, where they cross each other, should
be notched like those of a log cabin (Figs. 162 and 165) or flattened at
the points of contact.
Plant your first four posts for the front of your barabara in a line, two
posts for the corners _B_ and _E_ (Fig. 145 _A_), and two at the middle of
the line _C_ and _D_ for door-jambs (plan, Fig. 145 _A_). The tops of
these posts should be level with each other so that if a straight log is
placed over them the log will lie level. Next plant the two side-posts _F_
and _G_ (Fig. 145 _A_) at equal distances from the two front posts and
make them a few feet farther apart than are the front posts. The sketch of
the framework is drawn in very steep perspective, that is, it is made as
if the spectator was on a hill looking down upon it. It is drawn in this
manner so as to better show the construction, but the location of the
posts may be seen in the small plan. Next set the two back posts, _H_ and
_K_, and place them much closer together, so that the bottom frame when
the rails are on the post will be very near the shape of a boy's hexagonal
kite.
Fig. 144. Fig. 145. Fig. 145A. Fig. 146. Fig. 147. Fig. 148.
[Illustration: The details of a Barabara.]
Inside erect another set of posts, setting each one opposite the outside
ones and about a foot and a half or two feet farther in, or maybe less
distance, according to the material one is using. Next set some posts for
the hallway or entrance, which will be the door-jambs, and you are ready
to build up the log roof. Do this by first setting the rail securely on
the two side-posts on the right and left of the building; then secure the
back plate on the two back posts at the rear of the building, next resting
a long log over the side rails at the front of the building. The
door-posts, of course, must be enough taller than the two end posts to
allow for the thickness of the log, so that the front log will rest upon
their top. Next put your two corner logs on, and your outside rail is
complete. Build the inside rail in the same manner; then continue to build
up with the logs as shown in the diagram until you have a frame like that
in Fig. 145. Fig. 147 shows the inside of the house and the low doorway,
and Fig. 148 shows the slanting walls. This frame is supposed to be
covered with splits or shakes (Figs. 147 and 148), but, as in all pioneer
structures, if shakes, splits, and clapboards are unobtainable, use the
material at hand--birch bark, spruce bark, tar paper, old tin roofing,
tent-cloth, or sticks, brush, ferns, weeds, or round sticks, to cover it
as you did with the Pawnee hogan (Figs. 42 and 43). Then cover it with
browse, or thatch it with hay or straw and hold the thatch in place with
poles or sticks, as shown in Fig. 146. The barabara may also be covered
with earth, sod, or mud.
This sort of a house, if built with planks or boards nailed securely to
the rafters and covered with earth and sod, will make a splendid cave
house for boys and a playhouse for children on the lawn, and it may be
covered with green growing sod so as to have the appearance of an
ornamental mound. The instinct of the cave-dweller is deeply implanted in
the hearts of boys, and every year we have a list of fatal accidents
caused by the little fellows digging caves in sand-banks or banks of
gravel which frequently fall in and bury the little troglodytes, but they
will be safe in a barabara. The shack is ventilated by a chimney hole in
the roof as shown by Fig. 146. This hole should be protected in a
playhouse. The framework is a good one to use in all parts of the country
for more or less permanent camps, but the long entrance and low doorway
are unnecessary except in a cold climate or to add to the mystery of the
cave house for children. It is a good form for a dugout for a root house
or cyclone cellar.
XXIII
THE NAVAJO HOGAN, HORNADAY DUGOUT, AND SOD HOUSE
IF the reader has ever built little log-cabin traps he knows just how to
build a Navajo hogan or at least the particular Navajo hogan shown by
Figs. 148 and 150. This one is six-sided and may be improved by notching
the logs (Figs. 162, 164, 165) and building them up one on top of the
other, dome-shaped, to the required height. After laying some rafters for
the roof and leaving a hole for the chimney the frame is complete. In hot
countries no chimney hole is left in the roof, because the people there do
not build fires inside the house; they go indoors to keep cool and not to
get warm; but the Navajo hogan also makes a good cold-country house in
places where people really need a fire. Make the doorway by leaving an
opening (Fig. 150) and chinking the logs along the opening to hold them in
place until the door-jamb is nailed or pegged to them, and then build a
shed entranceway (Fig. 153), which is necessary because the slanting sides
of the house with an unroofed doorway have no protection against the free
entrance of dust and rain or snow, and every section of this country is
subject to visits from one of these elements. The house is covered with
brush, browse, or sod.
Log Dugout
Fig. 152 shows how to make a log dugout by building the walls of the log
cabin in a level place dug for it in the bank. Among the log cabins proper
(Figs. 162 and 166) we tell how to notch the logs for this purpose.
Fig. 149. Fig. 150. Fig. 151. Fig. 152. Fig. 153. Fig. 154.
[Illustration: Forms of dugouts and mound shacks.]
Fig. 151 shows one of these log dugouts which I have named the Hornaday
from the fact that Doctor William Hornaday happens to be sitting in front
of the one represented in the sketch. Fig. 154 shows a dugout with walls
made of sod which is piled up like stones in a stone wall. The roofs of
all these are very flat and made of logs (Figs. 54, 55, and 56), often
with a log pegged to the rafters above the eaves to hold the sod. All such
houses are good in dry countries, cold countries, and countries frequented
by tornadoes or by winds severe enough to blow down ordinary camps.
The Navajo hogan is an easy sort of a house for boys to build because the
lads may use small poles in place of logs with which to build the camp and
thus make the labor light enough to suit their undeveloped muscles, but
the next illustration shows how to build an American boy's hogan of milled
lumber such as one can procure in thickly settled parts of the country.
XXIV
HOW TO BUILD AN AMERICAN BOY'S HOGAN
THE first time any working plans of an underground house for boys were
published was when an article by the present writer on the subject
appeared in the _Ladies' Home Journal_. Afterward it was published with a
lot of similar material in "The Jack of All Trades." Since then other
writers have not hesitated to use the author's sketches with very little
alteration; imitation is the sincerest compliment, although it is not
always fair, but it does, however, show the popularity of the
underground-house idea.
The American boy's hogan may be built like the preceding shacks of the
material found in the woods or it may be constructed of old boards and
waste material to be found in village back yards or on the farm, or, if
the boys have the price or if they can interest their fathers or uncles in
their scheme, it may be built of milled lumber procured at the
lumber-yard.
Frame
Procure some good, sound planks and some pieces of two by four with which
to build your frame. The hogan should be large enough to allow room for a
table made of a packing-case, some benches, stools, or chairs, and the
ceilings should be high enough for the tallest boy to stand erect without
bumping his head.
Furniture
One funny thing about this house is that it must be furnished before it is
built, because the doorway and passageway will be too small to admit any
furniture larger than a stool. Select or make your furniture and have it
ready, then decide upon the location of your hogan, which should be, like
the Western dugouts, on the edge of some bank (Fig. 158). In this diagram
the dotted line shows how the bank originally sloped.
Foundation
The real hard work connected with this is the digging of the foundation;
one Y. M. C. A. man started to build one of these hogans, but he
"weakened" before he had the foundation dug. He wrote the author a long
letter complaining of the hard work; at the same time the author was
receiving letters from _boys_ telling how much fun they had in building
and finishing their underground houses.
Caves
Ever since "Robinson Crusoe" and "Swiss Family Robinson" were written cave
houses have been particularly attractive to boys; no doubt they were just
as attractive before these books were written, and that may be the reason
the books themselves are so popular; at any rate, when the author was a
small boy he was always searching for natural caves, or trying to dig them
for himself, and so were all of his companions. One of the most charming
features of the "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn" stories is that part
connected with the cave.
Fig. 155. Fig. 156. Fig. 157. Fig. 157.A. Fig. 157.B. Fig. 157.C.
Fig. 158. Fig. 159. Fig. 160. Fig. 161.
[Illustration: The original American boy's hogan or underground house.]
Dangerous Caves
The trouble is that with caves which the boys dig for themselves there is
always serious danger of the roof falling in and smothering the young
troglodytes, but a properly built underground hogan is perfectly safe from
such accidents.
Framing
After you have levelled off the foundation erect the rear posts of
two-by-fours _A_, _B_ and _C_, _D_ (Fig. 156). These posts should be of
the same height and tall enough to allow the roof to slant toward the
front as in Fig. 155. The front posts _E_, _F_ and _G_, _H_, although
shorter than the back posts, should be tall enough to allow headroom. One,
two, or three more posts may be erected between the post _A_, _B_ and the
post _C_, _D_ if additional strength is required. The same is true of the
sides, and in place of having only one post in the middle of each side
(_M_, _N_ and _O_, _P_, Fig. 156), there may be two or three posts, all
according to the size of the house you are building; the main point is to
make _a compact and strong box_ of your framework so that in the wet
weather the banks surrounding it will not be tempted to push in the sides
and spoil your house.
Decaying Wood
Locust, chestnut, and cedar will last longer than other varieties of wood
when exposed to contact with damp earth, but common wood, which rots
easily, may be protected by preservatives, one of which is boiled
linseed-oil with pulverized charcoal stirred into it until a black paint
is produced. Some people say that a coat of charcoal paint will preserve
even a basswood fence post for a lifetime, and if that is true a hogan
protected by a coating upon the outside of paint made by stirring fine
charcoal into boiled linseed-oil until it is as thick as paint will last
longer than any of my readers will have occasion to use the hogan for a
playhouse. Erect the frame (Fig. 156) by having some boys hold the
uprights in place until they can be secured with temporary braces like
those shown running diagonally across from _B_ to _E_ and _A_ to _F_. You
may then proceed to board up the sides from the outside of the frame by
slipping the planks between the frame and the bank and then nailing from
the inside wherever you lack room upon the outside to swing your hammer.
The door-jambs _I_, _J_ and _K_, _L_ will help support the roof.
The Roof
The roof may be made of lumber, as shown by Fig. 160, or it may be made of
poles like those shown on the Wyoming Olebo (Fig. 236), or it may be made
of planks and covered with tar paper (Figs. 296, 297, 298, and 299), or it
may be shingled, using barrel staves for shingles, or covered with bits of
old tin roofing tacked over the planking--or anything, in fact, which will
keep out the water. As for looks, that will not count because the roof is
to be afterward covered with sod.
Cliff-House Roof
If you wish to make the roof as the cliff-dwellers made theirs, put your
biggest logs crosswise from _A_, _M_, _E_ to _C_, _O_, _G_ of your house
for rafters, and across the larger logs lay a lot of small poles as close
together as may be, running from the back to the front of the house. Fill
in the cracks between with moss or calk them with dry grass; on them
place a layer of brush, browse, or small sticks and over this a thick
coating of clay, hard-pan, or ordinary mud and pack it down hard by
tramping it with your feet until it becomes a smooth and tightly packed
crust; over this you can put your sod and weeds to conceal your secret.
Passageway
To make the frame for the underground hall or passageway (Fig. 156), first
nail _Q_, _S_ across the door-jambs to form the top to the doorway, after
which put in the supports _Q_, _R_ and _S_, _T_. Next build the frame _U_,
_V_, _X_, _W_ and join it to _Q_, _S_ by the two pieces _Q_, _U_ and _S_,
_V_ and put in the middle frame support marked _ZZZZ_.
The passageway should be about six feet long and the front doorway (_U_,
_V_, _X_, _W_, Figs. 156 and 157) of sufficient size to enable you to
creep through with comfort. The bottom piece _W_, _X_ can be nailed to a
couple of sticks driven in the ground for that purpose. The next thing in
order is the floor, and to make this firm you must lay a number of
two-by-fours parallel to _B_, _D_ and _F_, _H_ and see that they are
level. You will need a number of shorter pieces of the same material to
run parallel to _F_, _H_ and _W_, _X_ for the hall floor, as may be seen
in Fig. 157. Across these nail your floor securely as shown in Fig. 155.
There are no windows shown in the diagram, but if the builders wish one it
can be placed immediately over the entrance or hallway in the frame marked
_I_, _K_, _Q_, _S_ (Fig. 156), in which case the top covering of dirt must
be shovelled away from it to admit the light in the same manner that it is
in the dugout shown in Fig. 142 and also in the small sketch (Fig. 154).
The ventilator shown in Fig. 155 may be replaced, if thought desirable, by
a chimney for an open fire. On account of the need of ventilation a stove
would not be the proper thing for an underground house, but an open fire
would help the ventilation. In the diagram the ventilator is set over a
square hole in the roof; it may be made of a barrel or barrels, with the
heads knocked out, placed over the hole in the roof, or kegs, according to
the size of the roof. When your house is complete fill in the dirt around
the edges, pack it down good and hard by the use of a piece of scantling
two by four or four by four as a rammer, then cover the roof with small
sticks and fine brush and sod it with growing weeds or grass.
The Door
You should have a good, stout front door (Fig. 157) and a padlock with
which to secure it from trespassers.
Aures Hinge
A rustic hinge may be made by splitting a forked branch (Fig. 157 _C_) and
using the two pieces nailed to the sides of the door-jambs (Fig. 157 _A_)
to hold the round ends of the rod (Fig. 157 _B_) run through them. The
middle of the _B_ stick is flattened to fit on the surface of the door to
which it is nailed. This hinge was invented by Scout Victor Aures of
stockade 41144 of Boy Pioneers of America and a description with neat
diagrams sent by the inventor to his chief. When all is completed you can
conceal the ventilator with dry brush or by planting weeds or shrubs
around it, which will not interfere with the ventilation but will conceal
the suspicious-looking pipe protruding from the ground. The top of the
ventilator should be protected by slats, as in Fig. 161, or by wire
netting with about one-quarter-inch mesh in order to keep small animals
from jumping or hopping down into your club-house. Of course, a few toads
and frogs, field-mice and chipmunks, or even some lizards and harmless
snakes would not frighten any real boy, but at the same time they do not
want any such creatures living in the same house with them.
Trap-Door
In place of a ventilator or chimney a trap-door may be placed in the roof
and used as a secret entrance, access to inside being had by a ladder. A
description of an appropriate ladder follows (Figs. 169 and 170).
Fig. 159 shows a rude way to make a chandelier, and as long as your
candles burn brightly you may know that the air in your little hogan is
pure and fresh. When such a chandelier is used pieces of tin should be
nailed above the candles to prevent the heat from burning holes through
the roof.
XXV
HOW TO CUT AND NOTCH LOGS
BOYS you have now passed through the _grammar school_ of shack making, you
are older than you were when you began, you have acquired more skill and
more muscle, and it is time to begin to handle the woodsman's axe, to
handle it skilfully and to use it as a tool with which to fashion anything
from a table to a two-story house. None of you is too young to learn to
use the axe. General Grant, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Billy
Sunday--all of them could wield an axe by the time they were eight or nine
years old and do it without chopping off their toes or splitting any one
else's head open. Remember that every time you hurt yourself with an axe I
have a yellow ribbon for you to wear as a "chump mark"; but, joking aside,
we must now get down to serious work of preparing the logs in order to
build us a little cabin of our own, a log club-house for our gang, or a
log camp for our troop of scouts.
Notching Logs
To make the logs hold together at the corners of our cabins it is
necessary to lock them in some manner, and the usual way is to notch them.
You may cut flat notches like those shown in Fig. 162 and this will hold
the logs together, as shown by 162 _E_ or you may only flatten the ends,
making the General Putnam joint shown in Fig. 163. This is called after
General Putnam because the log cabins at his old camp near my farm at
Redding, Conn., are made in this manner. Or you may use the Pike notch
which has a wedge-shaped cut on the lower log, as shown by Fig. 164 _J_,
made to fit into a triangular notch shown by 164 _H_. When fitted together
these logs look like the sketch marked 164 _F_ which was drawn from a
cabin built in this manner.
But the simplest notch is the rounded one shown by _A_, _B_, and _C_ (Fig.
165). When these are locked together they will fit like those shown at
Fig. 165 _D_.
Away up North the people dovetail the ends of the logs (Fig. 166) so that
their ends fit snugly together and are also securely locked by their
dovetail shape. To build a log house, place the two sill logs on the
ground or on the foundation made for them, then two other logs across
them, as shown in Fig. 168.
Handling the Logs
That the logs may be more easily handled they should be piled up on a
skidway which is made by resting the top ends of a number of poles upon a
big log or some other sort of elevation and their lower ends upon the
ground. With this arrangement the logs may be rolled off without much
trouble as they are used.
Chinking
A log cabin built with hardwood logs or with pitch-pine logs can seldom be
made as tight as one built with the straight spruce logs of the virgin
forests. The latter will lie as close as the ones shown in Fig. 162 _E_,
while the former, on account of their unevenness, will have large cracks
between them like those shown in Fig. 165 _D_. These cracks may be stopped
up by quartering small pieces of timber (_Y_ and _W_, Fig. 168½) and
fitting these quartered pieces into the cracks between the logs where they
are held by spikes. This is called "chinking the cabin."
Fig. 162. Fig. 162E Fig. 163. Fig. 164. Fig. 164F. Fig. 165.
Fig. 165C. Fig. 165D. Fig. 166. Fig. 167. Fig. 168. Fig. 168½.
[Illustration: Showing how the logs are notched.]
To keep the cold and wind out, the cracks may be "mudded" up on the inside
with clay or ordinary lime mortar.
Models
Study these diagrams carefully, then sit down on the ground with a pile of
little sticks alongside of you and a sharp jack-knife in your hand and
proceed to experiment by building miniature log cabins. Really, this is
the best way to plan a large cabin if you intend to erect one. From your
model you can see at a glance just how to divide your cabin up into rooms,
where you want to place the fireplace, windows, and doors; and I would
advise you always to make a small model before building. Make the model
about one foot three inches long by ten inches wide, using sticks for logs
a little less than one inch in diameter--that is, one inch through or one
inch thick. I have taken these dimensions or measurements from a little
model that I have before me here in my studio, but, of course, you can
vary them according to the plans of your cabin.
XXVI
NOTCHED LOG LADDERS
EVER since man learned to use edged tools he has made ladders or steps, or
whatever you may call them, by notching logs (Figs. 169 and 170).
Fig. 169. Fig. 170.
[Illustration: The pioneer log ladder.]
A few years ago I took a splendid trip among the unnamed lakes and in what
is known as "the unexplored country"--that is, the unmapped country of
northwestern Quebec. We travelled over trails that had not been changed by
man since canoes were invented. The forests were untouched by the axe of
the white man. There were no roads, no houses, no fences, no people except
a few wandering Indians, no cattle except caribou and moose, no dogs
except wolves, and we slept at night on beds of balsam and paddled by day
through rivers and lakes or carried our luggage and our canoes over the
portages from one body of water to another over centuries-old trails. At
one place the trail led up the side of a mountain to the beetling face of
a cliff--a cliff that we had to climb with all our canoes and luggage, and
we climbed it on a couple of notched logs, as shown in Fig. 169. By the
way, boys, the Indian with the big load on his back is my old friend
Bow-Arrow, formerly chief of the Montainais, and the load on his back was
sketched from the real one he carried up that ladder portage. This old man
was then sixty years of age. But all this talk is for the purpose of
telling you the use of the notched log. Our pioneer ancestors used them to
ascend to the loft over their cabins where they slept (Fig. 170). It is
also a good ladder to use for tree-houses and a first-rate one for our
underground hogans when we have an entrance through the top instead of one
at the side shown by Fig. 156. Since you have learned how to use the axe
you may make one of these primitive ladders to reach the hay-loft in your
barn, if you have a barn. You may make the ladder of one log if you set
the pole or log upright and notch it on both sides so that you can clasp
it with your hand and, placing one foot on each side of it, climb up in
that manner.
XXVII
A POLE HOUSE. HOW TO USE A CROSS-CUT SAW AND A FROE
Pole House
FIG. 171 shows a pole house--that is, a house, the walls of which are made
by setting straight poles up on end with sides against each other and
nailing a beam across the top (Fig. 172) and toe-nailing them (Fig. 173);
that is, driving the nails slantingly down through the poles to the sill
beneath. Fig. 172 shows how to nail them to the top beam or side-plate. To
build a pole house, erect the four corner-posts and any intermediate posts
which may be necessary, nailing the plates on top of the posts to hold the
frame together (Fig. 172), afterward fitting the other posts in place, as
shown in the sketch.
We have not yet arrived at the part of the book where we can build as
extensive houses as the one shown here. The drawing is only inserted at
this place because it naturally comes with the use of the cross-cut saw.
You can, however, without much trouble, build a small pole house without
the veranda, and after you have learned how to build the big log houses
you can turn back to this page and try a pole house like Fig. 171.
Fig. 171. Fig. 172. Fig. 173. Fig. 174. Fig. 175. Fig. 176. Fig.
177. Fig. 178. Fig. 179.
[Illustration: The use of the saw in log work.]
Sawing on an Angle
Fig. 174 shows how to saw off poles on the bias, as a woman would say, or
on an angle, as a man would say. Suppose, for instance, you want to cut
the poles to fit the dormer over the veranda shown in Fig. 171. Measure
off the height of the middle pole, then the distance along the base from
the middle pole to the corner at the eaves. Next fit the poles you are
going to use closely together to cover that distance; hold them in place
by nailing a plank temporarily across the bottom ends; then place another
plank at the point marked for the height of the middle pole, run it down
to the bottom plank, and nail it temporarily along this line. Now take
hold of one end of the saw, as the fellow does in Fig. 174, and let
another boy take the other end of the saw; then by working it back and
forth along the line you may saw off the protruding ends of the poles.
Proceed in the same manner along the base-board. You will then have half
the dormer poles all nicely tacked together and cut in the right shape so
that they may be evenly fitted in place, and after they are secured there
the marking planks may be knocked off. Fig. 175 shows two boys at work
"pit-sawing." They are sawing planks from a log, which is rather hard work
but not unpleasant. I know, for I have tried it when I was up among the
moonshiners in the mountains of Kentucky. Fig. 176 is from a sketch I made
up in Michigan, where two men were sawing down a tree as they frequently
do nowadays in place of chopping it down with an axe; this tree, however,
was first notched with an axe so that it would fall in the right
direction. Fig. 178 shows the peculiar teeth of one of these two-handled
saws. It is not necessary for you to be expert on the sort of teeth a saw
should have; any saw that cuts well for your purpose is the sort of saw
you need.
The Froe
Fig. 179 shows two forms of the froe, an implement used for splitting
shakes and shingles and clapboards like those on the roof of Fig. 171. The
froe is held by the handle with the left hand and hammered on the top with
a mallet held in the right hand. Fig. 177 shows two boys sawing a log up
into sections, but for our work in cabin building the woodsman's axe is
the real tool we need. The saw is all right and may be used if you have
it, but it is a little too civilized for real woodcraft work. You cannot
throw one of these saws over your shoulder as you would an axe and go
marching into the woods with any comfort. The saw is also a more dangerous
implement around camp than even a sharp axe.
XXVIII
LOG-ROLLING AND OTHER BUILDING STUNTS
OF course my readers know all about geometry, but if by the rarest of
chances one of them should not it will not prevent him from using that
science to square the corners of his log cabin. Builders always have a
ten-foot measuring rod--that is, a rod or straight stick ten feet long and
marked with a line at each foot from end to end. Make your own ten-foot
pole of as straight a piece of wood as you can find. With it measure six
feet carefully on the log _C_, _G_ (Fig. 180) and mark the point at _O_
(Fig. 180); measure eight feet on the other log _C_, _A_ (Fig. 180) and
mark the point at _N_. If these measurements have been carefully made from
_C_ to _O_ and from _C_ to _N_ and your corner is "square," then your
ten-foot pole will reach between the two points _O_ and _N_ with the tips
of the pole exactly touching _O_ and _N_. If it does not exactly fit
between _N_ and _O_, either the corner is not square or you have not
marked off the distances accurately on the logs. Test the measurements and
if they are not found true then push your logs one way or the other until
it is exactly ten feet from _O_ to _N_. Then test the corner at _H_ in the
same manner.
Fig. 180. Fig. 181. Fig. 182. Fig. 183.
[Illustration: How to square the corners, roll the logs of cabin, and make
log steps.]
Log-Rolling
In the olden times log-rolling was always a great frolic and brought the
people from far and near to lend a helping hand in building the new house.
In handling logs, lumbermen have tools made for that purpose--cant-hooks,
peevy irons, lannigans, and numerous other implements with names as
peculiar as their looks--but the old backwoodsmen and pioneers who lived
in log houses owned no tools but their tomahawks, their axes, and their
rifles, and the logs of most of their houses were rolled in place by the
men themselves pushing them up the skids laid against the cabin wall for
that purpose; later, when the peddlers and traders brought ropes to the
settlements, they used these to pull their logs in place. In building my
log house in Pennsylvania we used two methods; one was hand power (Fig.
181). Taking two ropes we fastened the ends securely inside the cabin. We
then passed the free ends of the ropes around the log, first under it and
then over the top of it, then up to a group of men who, by pulling on the
free ends, rolled the log (Fig. 181) up to the top of the cabin. But when
Lafe Jeems and Nate Tanner and Jimmy Rosencranz were supplied with some
oxen they fastened a chain to each end of the log (Fig. 182), then
fastened a pulley-block to the other side of the cabin, that is, the side
opposite the skids, and ran the line through the pulley-block to the oxen
as it is run to the three men in Fig. 182. When the oxen were started the
log slid up the skids to the loose rafters _N_, _O_, _P_ and when once up
there it was easily shoved and fitted into place.
Log Steps
Sometimes one wants front steps to one's log house and these may be made
of flattened logs or puncheons, as shown by Fig. 183.
XXIX
THE ADIRONDACK OPEN LOG CAMP AND A ONE-ROOM CABIN
Adirondack Log Camp
NOT satisfied with the open brush Adirondack camp, the men in those woods
often build such camps of logs with a puncheon floor and a roof of real
shingles. The sketch (Fig. 184) is made from such a camp. At the rear the
logs are notched and placed like those of a log house (Figs. 162, 163,
164, 166), but the front ends of the side logs are toe-nailed (Fig. 173)
to the two upright supports. In this particular camp the logs are also
flattened on the inside in order to give a smoother finish, as they often
are in old Virginia and Kentucky log houses. In Virginia they formerly
hewed the logs flat with broad axes after the walls were up, but that
required a workman of a different type than the ordinary woodsman. The
broadaxe is seldom used now and may be omitted from our kit.
Cabin Plan
A one-room log cabin with double bunks at one end makes a good camp (Fig.
185) with room for two or four sleepers according to the width of the bunk
(Fig. 186).
Fig. 184. Fig. 185. Fig. 186.
[Illustration: The lean-to and one-pen cabin plan.]
The Bunks
The bunks are made by setting the ends of two poles into holes in the logs
bored for that purpose (Fig. 185) and nailing slats across the poles. Over
this a bed of browse is laid and on this blankets are spread and all is
then ready for bedtime.
XXX
THE NORTHLAND TILT AND INDIAN LOG TENT
Log Tents
SOME years ago in the north country the Indians built themselves log tents
like the one shown in Fig. 187. These were the winter houses in the north
country. A ridge-pole was set up on two forked sticks and the logs slanted
up against each other and rested upon that pole. Smaller poles were then
laid up against this frame, both front and rear, all of which could then
be covered with sod or browse and made into a warm winter house. My boy
readers may build a similar house by using small poles instead of big
logs, or they may make a "northland tilt" (Fig. 189), which is a
modification of the Indian's log tent and has two side-plates (Fig. 188)
instead of one ridge-pole. The log chimney is also added, and when this is
connected with a generous fireplace the fire will brighten and warm the
interior of the tilt and make things comfortable. The chimney may be made
by first building a fireplace of sod or stone, as shown in Figs. 269 and
270, on top of which a chimney can be erected in the same manner that you
build a log house.
Fig. 187. Fig. 188. Fig. 189.
[Illustration: Log tilts of the North.]
The front of the northland tilt is faced in with small logs set on end, as
shown in the unfinished one (Fig. 189); this makes a substantial, warm
winter camp. If the logs fit close together on the roof they may be calked
with moss and dry grass. If the cracks are too wide on account of the
unevenness of the log, cover them first with grass, fine brush, or browse
and over all place a coating of sod or mud and you will have a house fit
for a king to live in. To tell the truth, it is much too good for a mere
king and almost good enough for a real American boy--that is, if anything
is good enough for such a lad.
CHAPTER XXXI
HOW TO BUILD THE RED JACKET, THE NEW BRUNSWICK, AND THE CHRISTOPHER GIST
THE "Red Jacket" is another camp; but this, you see, has straight walls,
marking it as _a white man's camp_ in form not apparently borrowed from
the red men. It is, however, a good, comfortable, rough camp and Figs. 190
and 191 show how it was evolved or grew. To build the Red Jacket one will
first have to know how to build the more simple forms which we call the
New Brunswick, then the next step will be the Christopher Gist, and last
the Red Jacket. We will now begin with the New Brunswick.
The New Brunswick
By referring to Fig. 190 you will see that it is practically a deep,
Adirondack, open-face camp with a wind-shield built in front of it. To
build this camp, make the plan about six feet by twelve on the ground; of
course the back logs must be something over six feet long to allow for six
feet in the clear. Notch about four or five back logs with the plain,
rounded notch already described and illustrated by Fig. 165. Then lay the
side sill logs and erect two upright forked sticks for the front of your
cabin to hold the cross stick which supports the roof rafter. Now build up
your cabin as you would a log house, notching only the small ends of the
side logs and saving the larger ends for the front; between each of these
chink with other logs shaped to fit the spaces or with pieces of other
logs so as to make the front higher than the rear. When the logs meet the
rafter pole all the cracks are chinked up with small pieces of wood and
the crevices calked with moss. Then the roof of bark is put on, shingled
as described for the Pontiac, and illustrated by Figs. 36 and 190 _A_. The
bark is kept in place by laying sticks or poles over it to weight it down,
as may be seen by the plan of the roof (Fig. 190 _A_), which is supposed
to be the way the unfinished roof would look to you if you were looking
down upon it from the branch of a tree or an aeroplane. After you have
your open-faced camp finished take some green logs from the fir-trees if
they are handy and split them in half by one of the methods shown by Fig.
119. Then leaving enough room for a passageway, erect your wind-shield of
green logs, resting them against a pole laid between two forked sticks. Be
sure you have the green, split side of the log facing the camp and the
bark side facing outdoors, because the green wood will not burn readily;
and as the camp-fire is built close to the wind-shield, if the shield is
made of very inflammable material it will soon burn down. Some woods, you
know, burn well when green and some woods must be made dry before we can
use them for fuel; but the wood we want for the fire-shield is the sort
that will not burn readily; the good-burning woods we save to use in our
fire.
Christopher Gist
The next camp is the Christopher Gist, named after George Washington's
camping friend. This camp, as you may see by Fig. 191, is built like a New
Brunswick except that the side sill logs are much longer as is also the
log which extends over the doorway. Then, in place of having a wind-shield
built by itself, the wind-shield in Fig. 191 is the other end of the cabin
built just the same as the rear end, but it should be built of peeled logs
as they are less liable to catch afire than the ones with the bark upon
them. If you feel real lazy it will only be necessary to peel the bark off
from the inside half of the log. Above the door at the end of the roof of
the Adirondack camp part of the space is filled by logs running across,
with the lower one resting upon the top of the door-jamb; this closes the
shed above the wind-shield and leaves a little open yard in front wherein
to build your camp-fire.
Fig. 190. Fig. 190A. Fig. 191. Fig. 192.
[Illustration: The stages in the evolution of a log cabin.]
The Red Jacket
The Red Jacket continues the suggestion offered by the Christopher Gist
and extends the side walls all the way across to the wind-shield, and the
latter now becomes the true end of the log shack. The side walls and end
wall are built up from the top of the shack to form a big, wide log
chimney under which the open camp-fire is built on the ground. The Red
Jacket is roofed with bark in the same manner as the New Brunswick and
Christopher Gist and occupies the important position of the missing link
between the true log cabin or log house and the rude log camp of the
hunter. If you will look at Fig. 184, the open-faced log camp; then Fig.
190, the camp with the wind-shield in front of it; then Fig. 191 with the
wind-shield enclosed but still open at the top; then 192 where the
wind-shield has turned into a fireplace with a chimney; then Figs. 271 and
273, showing the ends of the real log cabin, you will have all the steps
in the growth or evolution which has produced the American log house.
XXXII
CABIN DOORS AND DOOR-LATCHES, THUMB-LATCHES AND FOOT LATCHES AND HOW TO
MAKE THEM
PERHAPS my reader has noticed that, although many of the descriptions of
how to build the shacks, shanties, shelters, camps, sheds, tilts, and so
forth are given with somewhat minute details, little or nothing has been
said regarding the doors and door-latches. Of course we have no doors on
the open Adirondack camp, but we have passed the open camps now and are
well into cabin work, and all cabins have some sort of a door. All doors
have, or should have, some sort of a door-latch, so the doors and
door-latches have been saved for this place in the book, where they are
sandwiched between the log cabin and the log houses proper, which is
probably the best place for them. The "gummers" who collect spruce gum in
the north woods and the trappers and all of the hermit class of woodsmen
frequently come home to their little shack with their hands full of traps
or with game on their shoulders, and consequently they want to have a door
which may be opened without the necessity of dropping their load, and so
they use a foot latch.
Foot Latch
One of the simplest of the foot latches consists of a piece of wood cut
out by the aid of axe and hunting-knife to the form shown by Fig. 199; a
hole in the door cut for that purpose admits the flattened and notched
end and upon the inside it fits the round log sill. The owner of the
shack, when reaching home, steps upon the foot latch (Fig. 199), which
lifts up the catch (on the inside) and allows the door to swing open.
Trigger Latch
Fig. 200 shows a more complicated form of latch with a trigger protruding
from the lower part of the door, which is hinged to a wooden shaft, and
the shaft in turn is connected with the latch. The fastenings of the
trigger to the shaft and the shaft to the latch are made with hardwood
pegs or wire nails which move freely in their sockets. The latch is the
simplest form of a wooden bar fastened at one end with a screw or nail on
which it can move up and down freely; the other end is allowed to drop
into the catch. The latch itself is similar to the one shown in Figs. 193
and 194. The trigger is also fastened to a block on the outside of the
door by a nail or peg upon which it moves freely, so that when the weight
of the foot is placed upon the trigger outside the door that end is forced
down which pushed the end attached to the shaft up; this pushes the shaft
up and the shaft pushes _the latch up_; thus the door is unfastened. The
diagram to the left in Fig. 200 shows the edge of the door with the
trigger on the outside, the shaft upon the inside. The diagram to the
right in Fig. 200 shows the inside of the door, the end of the trigger,
the shaft, the latch, and the catch.
The Latch-String
In the preceding locks and fastenings, no matter how generous and
hospitable the owner may be, his latch-string never "hangs on the
outside," but in this one the latch-string literally hangs outside and any
one may enter by pulling it (Figs. 193 and 194). But when the owner is in
and does not want to be interrupted he pulls the string in, which tells
the outsider that he must knock before he can be admitted. This simplest
form of latch has been here put upon the simplest form of a door, a door
with a wooden hinge made by nailing a round rod to the edge of the door
and allowing the ends of the rod to project above and below the door. In
the sill log below the door a hole about two inches deep is bored to
receive the short end of the hinge rod; above a deeper hole is bored to
receive the long end of the hinge rod. To hang the door run the long end
up in the top hole far enough to lift the door sufficiently to be able to
drop the lower end of the hinge rod in the lower hole. Your door is then
hung and may swing back and forth at your pleasure. Notwithstanding the
fact that such a door admits plenty of cold air, it is a very popular door
for camps and is even used for log houses.
Fig. 193. Fig. 194. Fig. 195. Fig. 196. Fig. 197. Fig. 198.
Fig. 199. Fig. 200.
[Illustration: Foot and thumb door-latches.]
Simple Spring-Latch
A simple form of spring-latch is shown by Fig. 196, as you may see, _A_ is
a peg driven into the door-jamb. It has a notch in it's outer end so that
_B_, a piece of hickory, may be sprung into the notch; _B_ is fastened to
the door by a couple of screws. By pushing the door the latch will slide
out of the rounded notch and the door opens. When you pull the door to
close it the end of the spring strikes the rounded end of the _A_ peg and,
sliding over it, drops naturally into the slot and holds the door closed.
This form of latch is also a good one for gates.
Better Spring-Latch
Figs. 197 and 198 show more complicated spring-latches but this latch is
not so difficult to make as it may appear in the diagram. _A_ and _D_
(197) show, respectively, the wooden catch and the guard confining the
latch. _C_ is another guard made, as you may observe, from a twig with a
branch upon it; the twig is split in half and fastened at the base with
two screws, and at the upper end, where the branch is bent down, is
fastened with one screw. A guard like the one shown by _D_ (Fig. 197)
would answer the purpose, but I am taking the latch as it was made. The
lower diagram (Fig. 198) shows a side view of the edge of the door with
two cotton spools fastened at each end of the stick which runs through a
slot in the door. _E_ is the cotton spool on the outside of the door and
_F_ the cotton spool on the inside of the door. The upper left-hand
diagram (Fig. 198) shows the slot in the door and the spool as it appears
from the outside. _B_ (Fig. 197) is the spring-latch which is held in
place by the spool _F_. The stick or peg which runs through the spools and
the slot also runs through a hole made for that purpose in the
spring-latch, as shown at _F_ (Fig. 197). After the stick with the _E_
spool on it has been run through the slot from the outside of the door,
thence through the spring-latch _B_ and into the spool _F_, it is fastened
there by driving around its end some thin wedges of wood or by allowing it
to protrude and running a small peg through the protruding end, as shown
by _F_, _G_ (Fig. 197, lower diagram). The thin, springy end of your latch
is now forced down by a peg or nail in the door at _H_ (Fig. 197) and the
tail end of it forced up by a peg or nail at _K_. When this is done
properly it will give considerable spring to the latch and impart a
decided tendency to force the latch into the wooden catch, a tendency
which can only be overcome by lifting the spool up in the slot and thus
lifting the latch and allowing the door to open. Fig. 197 shows the inside
of the door with the spring-latch, catches and all complete; it also gives
details of the wooden catch _A_ with guards _D_ and _C_ and the fastening
of the stick in the spool by a peg driven through the end of the stick at
_F_, _G_. This last one is a good jack-knife latch to make for your camp
or cabin.
XXXIII
SECRET LOCKS
SECRET locks are more useful than strong ones for a country house which is
left alone during the winter months, for it is not so much cupidity which
causes such houses to be broken into as it is the curiosity of the native
boys. But while these lads often do not hesitate to force or pick a lock
they will seldom go as far as to smash a door to effect an entrance;
hence, if your lock is concealed your house is safe from all but
professional thieves, and such gentry seldom waste their time to break
open a shack which contains nothing of value to them. The latches shown by
Figs. 193, 200, and 201 may be made very heavy and strong, and if the
trigger in Fig. 200, the latch-string hole in Fig. 193, and the peg hole
in Fig. 201 are adroitly concealed they make the safest and most secure
locks for summer camps, shacks, and houses.
If a large bar (Fig. 201½ _B_) be made of one-by-four-inch plank, bolted
in the middle of the plank with an iron bolt through the centre of the
door and fastened on the inside by a nut screwed on to the bolt it will
allow the bar to revolve freely on the inside of the door and bar the door
when resting in the _A_ and _C_ catches. But if a string is attached to
one end it may be unfastened by pulling the string up through the gimlet
hole in the door.
To conceal this lock, draw the string through the gimlet hole and fasten a
nail on the string. When it is undrawn the door bar is horizontal and the
door consequently barred. Then push the nail in the gimlet hole so that
only the head appears on the outside and no one not in the secret will
ever suppose that the innocent-appearing nail is the key to unfasten the
door. When you wish to open the door from the outside, pluck out the nail,
pull the string, and walk in.
There are a thousand other simple contrivances which will suggest
themselves to the camper, and he can find entertainment for rainy days in
planning and enlarging on the ideas here given. In the real wilderness,
however, every camp is open to all comers--that is, the latch-string hangs
outside the door, but the real woodsmen respect the hospitality of the
absent owner and replace whatever food they may use with fresh material
from their own packs, wash all dishes they may use, and sweep up and leave
the shack in "apple-pie" order after their uninvited visit, for this is
the law of the wilderness which even horse thieves and bandits respect.
The Tippecanoe
The Tippecanoe latch is worked with a wooden spring and when properly
made, of well-seasoned wood, will probably outlast a metal one, for wood
will not rust and cannot rot unless subjected to moisture.
The position of the spring in Fig. 201 shows the latch with the bolt
sprung back. The fact that the bolt-hole in the catch is empty also tells
the same story. The drawing of the outside of the door (Fig. 203) shows by
the position of the peg that the door is fastened. To open the door, push
back the bolt by sliding the peg to the opposite end of the slot. From a
view of the edge of the door (Fig. 202) one may see how the peg protrudes
on the outside of the door.
Fig. 201. Fig. 201½. Fig. 202. Fig. 203.
[Illustration: The Tippecanoe. A jack door-latch.]
Although the Tippecanoe latch is made of quite a number of parts, it is
really a very simple device, but in order to display the simplicity of its
construction to the ambitious jack-knife latch maker I have drawn all the
parts but the spring stick natural size (Figs. 204 to 207), but since the
original diagram is drawn too large for this page and was reduced by the
engraver there is a scale of inches at the bottom to give the reader the
proportions.
There are no fixed dimensions for this or any other lock, latch, or catch,
but the proportions here given are probably the ones that will fit your
door. The foundation block is shown by Fig. 204. Upon this the latch rests
and is securely nailed or screwed to the door. Figs. 205 and 206 are two
wooden clamps which are fastened to the door and also to the foundation
block (Fig. 204). These clamps must be notched as in the diagrams to allow
for the movement of the bolt, but since the bolt (Fig. 207) is larger and
thicker at the butt the notch in Fig. 205 is made just a trifle larger
than the butt end of the bolt and in Fig. 206 the notch is made a trifle
smaller than the opposite end of the bolt. The object of the offset on the
bolt (Fig. 207) forward of the peg is to make a shoulder to stop it from
shooting too far when the spring is loosened.
Fig. 204. Fig. 204½. Fig. 205. Fig. 206. Fig. 207.
[Illustration: Detail parts of Tippecanoe door-latch.]
The Catch
Figs. 201 and 204½ show the catch which is to be securely fastened to the
door-jamb. The spring, of course, must be made of well-seasoned, elastic
wood. Hickory is the best. This stick may be quite long, say half again as
long in proportion as the one shown in Fig. 201. It must be flattened at
the upper end and secured by two nails and it must be flattened at right
angles to the upper part and somewhat pointed at the lower end so as to
fit in a notch in the bolt (Fig. 201). A well-made lock of this sort is a
source of constant joy and pride to the maker and he will never tire of
springing it back and forth and extolling its virtues to his guests.
XXXIV
HOW TO MAKE THE BOW-ARROW CABIN DOOR AND LATCH AND THE DEMING TWIN BOLTS,
HALL, AND BILLY
FIG. 209 shows the inside of the door with the wooden latch in place. You
may use planks from the sawmill for the door in place of splitting them
from spruce logs, as the ones here are supposed to be.
The battens (_A_, _B_, _C_) are made of birch, but you may use any
material at hand for them. The hinges (Figs. _E_, 211 _D_, 210) are made
of birch sticks whittled off at the top so as to leave a peg (Fig. _E_,
211) to work in a hole in the flattened end of the horizontal battens (_A_
and _C_, Fig. 209).
The batten _B_ is in two pieces. The top piece serves as a brace for the
spring (Fig. _G_, 209) and the bottom piece as a support for the bolt
(Fig. _H_, 209 and 212). The battens may be made of a piece of board. The
bolt (Fig. _H_, 212) works free upon a nail in the left-hand end and rests
in the catch (Fig. _K_, 215) on the door-jamb.
The guard (Fig. _J_, 216) fits over the bolt and keeps it in place. The
notch in the guard must be long enough to give the bolt free play up and
down.
The spring (Fig. _G_, 209) is fastened with a nail to the door in such a
manner that its thin end rests upon the top of the bolt with sufficient
force to bend the spring and hold the bolt down in the catch (Fig. _K_,
215).
The thumb-latch (Fig. _L_, 213) is whittled out in the form shown, and
fastened in a slot cut in the door by a nail driven through the edge of
the door (Fig. _M_, 213) and through a hole in the thumb-latch (Fig. _L_,
213). On this nail the latch works up and down.
Fig. 217 shows the outside of the door and you can see that by pressing
down the thumb-latch on the outside it will lift it up on the inside, and
with it the bolt lifts up the free end of the latch and thus unfastens the
door.
The handle (Figs. 217 and 214 _N_) is used in place of a door-knob. It is
made of yellow birch bent in hot water.
The Deming Twin Lock
E. W. Deming, the painter of Indian pictures, the mighty hunter, and
fellow member of the Camp-Fire Club of America, is a great woodsman. Not
only is he a great woodsman but he is the father of _twins_, and so we
have thought that he possesses all the characteristics necessary to
entitle him to a place in this book, and after him and his twins we have
named the twin bolts shown by Fig. 208.
The lower or Hall bolt is shot into a hole in the door-sill, and the upper
or Billy bolt is shot into a hole in the door-jamb above the door. The
holes should be protected upon the surface of the wood by pieces of tin or
sheet iron with holes cut in them to admit the bolt. The tins may be
tacked over the bolt-hole in the sill for the Hall bolt and on the
bolt-hole overhead for the Billy bolt, and it will prevent the splitting
away of the wood around the holes.
Guards
Two guards, _A_ and _B_ (Fig. 208), made as in Fig. 216, protect the bolts
and act as guides to keep them from swinging out of position; two springs
_C_ and _D_ (Fig. 208), made of well-seasoned hickory and attached to the
battens on the door by nails or screws, force the bolts down and up into
the bolt-holes (Fig. 208). To release the bolts, the spring must be drawn
back as shown by the dotted lines in Fig. 208. This may be done by means
of a string or picture wire, which is fastened in the ends of the bolts
and runs through a hole in the ends of the spring and is attached to the
lever _E_ (Fig. 208). When the end of this lever is pushed down into the
position shown by the dotted line and arrow-point, it lifts up the Hall
bolt at the bottom of the door and pulls down the Billy bolt overhead,
thus unfastening the door.
Fig. 208. Fig. 209. Fig. 210. Fig. 211. Fig. 212. Fig. 213.
Fig. 214. Fig. 215. Fig. 216. Fig. 217.
[Illustration: Jack-knife latches suitable for Canada and America.]
But, of course, if one is outside the door one cannot reach the lever _E_;
so, to overcome this difficulty, a hole is bored through the central
batten of the door and the latch-string is tied to the top end of the
lever and the other end is run through the hole bored in the door (Fig.
208).
The end outside of the door is then tied to a nail; by pulling the nail
you pull down the lever _E_, which undoes the bolts and opens the door.
When it is desired to leave the door locked, after it is closed, push the
nail into the latch-string hole so that only the head will be visible from
the outside. When the nail and string are arranged in this manner, a
stranger will see no means of opening the door, and, as there are many
nail-heads in all rough doors, the one to which the latch-string is
attached will not attract the attention of any one who is unacquainted
with the Deming twin bolt.
XXXV
THE AURES LOCK LATCH
THE Aures lock differs from the preceding ones in the use of metal
springs, but wooden ones may be substituted; for instance, a wooden spring
like the one in Fig. 209 may be put under the bolt or latch shown in Fig.
219, which is practically the same latch; that is, if you turn the latch
in Fig. 209 upside down it will make the latch shown in Fig. 219; also, if
you take the bolt or lock _B_ in Fig. 219 and make it of one piece of wood
with a spring to it, like the one shown in Fig. 208 or Fig. 209, or make
it exactly like the one shown in Fig. 201, the Aures lock can be made
altogether of wood. But with this lock, as described below, metal springs
were used (Figs. 219, 220, and 221).
The Door
The door shows the two strings _H_ and _K_ coming through gimlet holes
near the top. Fig. 218 represents the outside of the door. The strings may
be concealed by covering their ends with a board as shown in this diagram,
but even if they are not concealed, one unacquainted with the lock will
not know how to work them in order to open the door.
_A_ in Figs. 219, 220, and 221 is the latch which is made of a piece of
wood about eight or nine inches long by about one and one half inches wide
by an inch or three quarters of an inch thick. A hole is drilled near the
centre of the latch and a screw placed through which is screwed into the
door so that the latch will extend about two or three inches beyond the
end of the door.
_D_ (Figs. 219, 220, and 221) is a catch or stop which is fastened to the
door-jamb and keeps the end of the latch from flying too far up to lock
the door.
_B_ (Fig. 219) is the key which is made of the same sort of wood as the
latch; a hole is drilled in this also but it is here placed about one inch
from the top. A screw is run through this, as in the hole in the latch,
and screwed into the door (Fig. 219).
Fig. _C_, 219 is a small block of wood on which a steel-band spring has
been screwed to keep the key in its proper place. The block is screwed to
the door a short distance above the top of the key.
Fig. _J_, 219 is a nail or peg placed in the door close beside the key
when the key is vertical; this is intended to prevent the key from being
shoved over too far by the force of the band spring _F_.
Fig. 219 _L_ is a steel wire spring (a window-shade spring will answer the
purpose), fastened to the door at one end and to the latch at the other
end, and serves to keep the latch down and in place when locked.
Fig. 219 _K_ is the latch-string, one end of which is fastened to one end
of the latch and the other end run through a hole near the top of the door
and extending outside the same as the latch-string (Fig. 218).
Fig. 219 shows the positions of the latch and key when the latch is
locked; to open the lock from the outside it is necessary to pull the key
string first (_H_, Fig. 220), which releases the key; then pull the
latch-string, thus lifting the latch while still holding the key string.
The key string is now let go; the spring forcing the key into the position
shown in Fig. 221 will keep the door unlocked.
When leaving the room, all that is necessary is to pull the key string
which lifts the key, then let go the latch-string, and the latch will
spring back to its locked position and the key will also fly back into its
position as in Fig. 219. Any one not knowing the combination will be
unable to open the door.
Fig. 218. Fig. 219. Fig. 220. Fig. 221. Fig. 222. Fig. 223.
Fig. 224. Fig. 225. Fig. 226. Fig. 227. Fig. 228.
[Illustration: Home-made cabin door-locks.]
The Compass Lock
This lock is made on the same principle as the combination safe lock, but
it is a lock any bright boy can make for himself. In the first place,
instead of numbers, use compass divisions; that is, use a disk with the
points of the compass scratched on it and an ordinary door-knob with an
index mark filed on its base, as shown by Fig. 224 where the finger is
pointing.
Hunt up three old door-knobs like those shown in Figs. 222, 224, and 225.
When you take one of the door-knobs off one end of the shaft you will find
several small screw holes in the steel shaft (Fig. 222). Over this end you
set a block of hardwood which you fashion out of a square block (Fig. 223)
by first cutting off the corners as shown by the dotted lines, then
whittling the angles off until it becomes rounded like a compass face;
after which saw off an arc, that is, part of a circle, as shown in Figs.
224, 226, and 227. Next make a square hole through the centre of the
circle to fit the square end of the steel shaft of the door-knob. The
square hole is not the centre of the block as it is now cut, but it is the
centre of the block as it was when it was round; that is, the centre of
the circle. Insert the square end of the steel shaft into the square hole
in the block, and, through a hole carefully drilled for the purpose, put a
screw down through the hole in the end of the steel shaft (Fig. 224); this
will firmly fix the block on the end of the knob. Of course, the knob must
be inserted through the door before the block is permanently fastened
upon the end of the shaft. Fig. 225 shows the edge of the door with the
three knobs in place. If these knobs are so turned (Fig. 226) that their
flat edges are parallel with the crack of the door, there is nothing to
prevent you from opening the door; but if the knobs are so turned (Fig.
227) that the blocks overlap the crack of the door, the door cannot be
opened without breaking the lock.
It is evident that we must have some sort of a mark to tell us how to make
the proper combination so that the door may be opened. To do this, take
the metal washer of the door-knob (the upper figure in Fig. 228) or a
circular piece or disk of tin and divide it up like a compass (Fig. 228).
Fasten these disks securely on to the door with nails or screws; place all
of the disks with the north point pointing to the top of the door and in
line with each other. File in the circular base of each door-knob (Fig.
224) a little notch at the black mark where the finger is pointing, then
put the door-knobs in place and fasten them there (Fig. 225) by screwing
the block on their ends (Fig. 224) and securing the screws in the blocks
by running them through the shaft. Carefully turn the knobs so that the
block on the inside fits like those shown in Fig. 226. Jot down in your
notebook the position of the index on each knob (finger point, 224); one
may read northeast, another may read southwest, and another may read
south. When one wants to open the door one must turn the knobs so that
they will read according to the notes and the door may be opened; but
unless the indexes read as noted some of them will be turned as in Fig.
227, locking the door, and it may not be opened.
When the door is closed, twist the knobs around and it will lock them so
that no one else can open the door unless they know the combination. The
fact that there _is_ a combination will not be suggested to a stranger by
the compasses, although it might be suggested if there were figures in
place of compass points. But even supposing they did suspect a combination
it would take a long time for them to work it out, and no one would do it
but a thief. A burglar, however, would not take the time; he would pry
open the door with his "jimmy" and, as I have said before, these locks are
for the purpose of keeping out tramps, vagrants, and inquisitive boys.
We have no locks yet invented which will keep out a real, professional
burglar if he has reason to suppose there are valuables inside.
The safety of your log cabin depends principally upon the fact that
valuables are not kept in such shacks, and real burglars know it.
XXXVI
THE AMERICAN LOG CABIN
NOW that we know how to make doors and door-latches, locks, bolts, and
bars, we may busy ourselves with building an American log cabin. It is all
well enough to build our shacks and shanties and camps of logs with the
bark on them, but, when one wishes to build a log cabin, one wants a house
that will last. Abraham Lincoln's log cabin is still in existence, but it
was built of logs with no bark on them. There is a two-story log house
still standing in Dayton, O.; it is said to have been built before the
town was there; but there is no bark on the logs. Bark holds moisture and
moisture creates decay by inviting fibrous and threadlike cousins of the
toadstool to grow on the damp wood and work their way into its substance.
The bark also shelters all sorts of boring insects and the boring insects
make holes through the logs which admit the rain and in the end cause
decay, so that the first thing to remember is to peel the logs of which
you propose to build the cabin. There is now, or was lately, a log cabin
on Hempstead Plains, L. I., near the road leading from Mineola to
Manhassett; it is supposed to have been built when the first white
settlers began to arrive on Long Island, but this was what was known as a
"blockhouse," a small fort. In 1906 Mr. I. P. Sapington said: "I think
that I am the only man now living who helped build General Grant's log
cabin." Grant's house was what is popularly known in the South as a
"saddle-bag" log house, or, as the old Southwestern settlers called it, a
"two-pen," the pens being two enclosures with a wide passageway or gallery
between them, one roof extending over both pens and the gallery.
General Grant was not afraid of work, and, like a good scout, was always
willing to help a neighbor. He had a team of big horses, a gray and a bay,
and the loads of cord-wood he hauled to St. Louis were so big that they
are still talked of by the old settlers. In the summer of 1854 Grant
started his log cabin, and all his neighbors turned in to help him build
his house.
American Log House
The American log house differs from the Canadian log house principally in
the shape of the roof. Our old settlers made steep gambrel roofs to shed
the rain.
"Gambrel! Gambrel? Let me beg
You'll look at a horse's hinder leg;
First great angle above the hoof,
That's the gambrel, hence the gambrel roof."
The Canadians put very flat roofs on their log cabins, usually composed of
logs laid over the rafters, making them strong enough to support the heavy
weight of snow. The American log cabins, as a rule, are built in a milder
climate, and the flat sod roof is peculiar to our Northern boundary and
the hot, arid parts of our country. We build the chimneys outside of our
log cabins because, as the old settlers would say, "thar's more room out
thar" (see Figs. 271, 273).
One-Pen Cabin
Fig. 229 is a one-pen cabin. To build it we first snake our logs to a skid
near the site of our proposed cabin (Fig. 167), from which we can roll our
logs to our house as we need them. Lay out the corners and square them
(Fig. 180); notch the logs with a rounded or U-shaped notch (Fig. 165).
Remember that all the logs should be two or three feet longer than the
walls of the proposed building, but the notches must be the same distance
apart in order to make even walls. The protruding ends of the logs may be
allowed to stick out as they happen to come, no matter how irregular they
may be, until the cabin is erected; then with a two-handed saw and a boy
at each end they can be trimmed off evenly, thus giving a neat finish to
the house.
Fig. 229. Fig. 230. Fig. 231. Fig. 232. Fig. 233. Fig. 234.
[Illustration: Hints and suggestions in cabin construction.]
Sills
The largest, straightest, and best logs should be saved for sills or
foundations. If you are building a "mudsill," that is, a building upon the
ground itself, the sill logs will be subject to dampness which will cause
them to rot unless they are protected by some wood preservative.
Wood Preservative
If the logs are painted with two or three coats of creosote before they
are laid upon the ground, it will protect them for an indefinite time and
prevent decay. Hugh P. Baker, dean of the New York State College of
Forestry, writes me that--
two or three applications of warm oil with a brush will be
very helpful and will probably be all that the ordinary man
can do. Creosote is the best preservative because of its
penetrating power and the way it acts upon the fibres of
wood, and in the end is cheaper than a good many other
things which have been used to preserve timber. In fact,
various forms of creosote are best-known preservers of
organic matter. There is no advantage in using charcoal at
all and I presume suggestions have been made for using it
because we know that charred wood is more durable.
Linseed-oil is good; ordinary white-lead paint will be
better, but neither of them is as effective as creosote, and
both are more expensive. You will find that carbolineum and
other patent preparations are recommended very highly; they
are good but expensive and the difference in price between
these patent preparations and ordinary creosote is much
larger than is justified by their increased value. Creosote
can be procured in large or small quantities from a number
of concerns. I think we have been getting it for about ten
dollars per barrel of fifty or fifty-three gallons.
Creosote
may be purchased in large or small quantities from various manufacturing
companies, such as the Barret Manufacturing Company, 17 Battery Place, New
York City, and the Chattfield Manufacturing Company, Carthage, O., handle
it in large quantities.
Openings
Build the pen as if it were to have no openings, either doors, windows, or
fireplaces. When you reach the point where the top of the door, window, or
fireplace is to be (Fig. 229) saw out a section of the log to mark the
place and admit a saw when it is desired to finish the opening as shown in
the diagram and continue building until you have enough logs in place to
tack on cleats like those shown in Figs. 229, 230, and 231, after which
the openings may be sawed out. The cleats will hold the ends of the logs
in place until the boards _U_ (Fig. 232) for the door-jambs,
window-frames, or the framework over the fireplace can be nailed to the
ends of the logs and thus hold them permanently in place. If your house is
a "mudsill," wet the floor until it becomes spongy, then with the butt
end of a log ram the dirt down hard until you have an even, hard
floor--such a floor as some of the greatest men of this nation first crept
over when they were babies. But if you want a board floor, you must
necessarily have floor-joists; these are easily made of milled lumber or
you may use the rustic material of which your house is built and select
some straight logs for your joists. Of course, these joists must have an
even top surface, which may be made by flattening the logs by scoring and
hewing them as illustrated by Figs. 123, 124, and 125 and previously
described. It will then be necessary to cut the ends of the joist square
and smaller than the rest of the log (Fig. _A_, 229); the square ends must
be made to fit easily into the notches made in the sill logs (_B_, Fig.
229) so that they will all be even and ready for the flooring (_C_, Fig.
229). For a house ten feet wide the joists should be half a foot in
diameter, that is, half a foot through from one side to the other; for
larger spans use larger logs for the joists.
Foundation
If your house is not a "mudsill" you may rest your sill logs upon posts or
stone piles; in either case, in the Northern States, they should extend
three feet below the ground, so as to be below frost-line and prevent the
upheaval of the spring thaw from throwing your house "out of plumb."
Roofing
All the old-time log cabins were roofed with shakes, splits, clapboards,
or hand-rived shingles as already described and illustrated by Figs. 126,
128, 129, and 130; but to-day they are usually shingled with the
machine-sawed shingle of commerce. You may, however, cover the roof with
planks as shown by Fig. 233 or with bark weighted down with poles as
shown by Fig. 234. In covering it with board or plank nail the latter on
as you would on a floor, then lay another course of boards over the cracks
which show between the boards on the first course.
Gables
The gable ends of the cabin should be built up of logs with the rafters of
the roof running between the logs as they are in Figs. 229 and 233, but
the roof may be built, as it frequently is nowadays, of mill lumber, in
which case it may be framed as shown by Figs. 49, 51, and the gable end
above the logs filled in with upright poles as shown in Figs. 173 and 247,
or planked up as shown in the Southern saddle-bag (Fig. 241), or the ends
may be boarded up and covered with tar paper as shown in Fig. 248, or the
gable end may be shingled with ordinary shingles (Fig. 79).
Steep Roof
Remember that the steeper the roof is the longer the shingles will last,
because the water will run off readily and quickly on a steep surface and
the shingles have an opportunity to dry quickly; besides which the snow
slides off a steep roof and the driving rains do not beat under the
shingles. If you are using milled lumber for the roof, erect the rafters
at the gable end first, with the ridge board as shown in Fig. 263 and in
greater detail in Fig. 49. Put the other rafters two or three feet apart.
Let your roof overhang the walls by at least seven or eight inches so as
to keep the drip from the rain free of the wall. It is much easier for the
architect to draw a log house than it is for a builder to erect one, for
the simple reason that the draughtsman can make his logs as straight as he
chooses, also that he can put the uneven places where they fit best; but
except in well-forested countries the tree trunks do not grow as straight
as the logs in my pictures and you must pick out the logs which will fit
together. Run them alternately butt and head; that is, if you put the
thick end of the log at the right-hand end of your house, with the small
end at the left, put the next log with the small end at the right and
thick end at the left; otherwise, if all the thick ends are put at one
side and the small ends at the other, your house will be taller at one end
than at the other as is the case with some of our previous shacks and
camps (Figs. 190, 191, and 192) which are purposely built that way.
If it is planned to have glass window lights, make your window openings of
the proper size to fit the window-frames which come with the sashes from
the factory. In any case, if the cabin is to be left unoccupied you should
have heavy shutters to fit in the window opening so as to keep out
trespassers.
Chinking
If your logs are uneven and leave large spaces between them, they may be
chinked up by filling the spaces with mud plaster or cement, and then
forcing in quartered pieces of small logs and nailing them or spiking them
in position. If your logs are straight spruce logs and fit snugly, the
cracks may be calked up with swamp moss (Sphagnum), or like a boat, with
oakum, or the larger spaces may be filled with flat stones and covered
with mud. This mud will last from one to seven or eight years; I have some
on my own log cabin that has been there even a longer time.
XXXVII
A HUNTER'S OR FISHERMAN'S CABIN
IN all the hilly and mountainous States there are tracts of forest lands
and waste lands of no use to the farmer and of no use to settlers, but
such places offer ideal spots for summer camps for boys and naturalists,
for fishermen and sportsmen, and here they may erect their cabins (_see
Frontispiece_) and enjoy themselves in a healthy, natural manner. These
cabins will vary according to the wants of the owners, according to the
material at hand and the land upon which they are built. By extending the
rafters of the roof, the latter may be extended (_see Frontispiece_) to
protect the front and make a sort of piazza which may be floored with
puncheons.
The logs forming the sides of the house may be allowed to extend so as to
make a wall or fence, as they do on the right-hand side of the
Frontispiece, thus preventing the danger of falling over the cliff upon
which this cabin is perched and receiving injury or an unlooked-for
ducking in the lake. They may also be extended as they are on the left, to
make a shield behind which a wood-yard is concealed, or to protect an
enclosure for the storage of the larger camp utensils.
In fact, this drawing is made as a suggestion and not to be copied
exactly, because every spot differs from every other spot, and one wants
to make one's house conform to the requirements of its location; for
instance, the logs upon the right-hand side might be allowed to extend
all the way up to the roof, as they do at the bottom, and thus make a
cosey corner protected from the wind and storm.
The windows in such a cabin may be made very small, for all work is
supposed to be done outdoors, and when more light is needed on the inside
the door may be left open. In a black-fly country or a mosquito country,
however, when you are out of reach of screen doors, mosquito-netting may
be tacked over the windows and a portière of mosquito-netting over the
doorway.
XXXVIII
HOW TO MAKE A WYOMING OLEBO, A HOKO RIVER OLEBO, A SHAKE CABIN, A CANADIAN
MOSSBACK, AND A TWO-PEN OR SOUTHERN SADDLE-BAG HOUSE
ONE of the charms of a log-cabin building is the many possibilities of
novelties suggested by the logs themselves. In the hunter's cabin (_see
Frontispiece_) we have seen how the ends of the logs were allowed to stick
out in front and form a rail for the front stoop; the builders of the
olebos have followed this idea still further.
The Wyoming Olebo
In Fig. 236 we see that the side walls of the pen are allowed to extend on
each side so as to enclose a roofed-over open-air room, or, if you choose
to so call it, a front porch, veranda, stoop, piazza, or gallery,
according to the section of the country in which you live.
So as to better understand this cabin the plan is drawn in perspective,
with the cabin above and made to appear as if some one had lifted the
cabin to show the ground-floor plan underneath. The olebo roof is built
upon the same plan as the Kanuck (Fig. 244), with this exception, that in
Fig. 244 the rooftree or ridge-log is supported by cross logs which are a
continuation of the side of the house (_A_, _A_, Figs. 242, 244, and 245),
but in the olebo the ridge pole or log is supported by uprights (Figs.
236 and 237). To build the olebo lay the two side sill logs first (_A_,
_B_, and _C_, _D_, Fig. 236), then the two end logs _E_, _F_, and _D_, _B_
and proceed to build the cabin as already described, allowing the
irregular ends of the logs to extend beyond the cabin until the pen is
completed and all is ready for the roof, after which the protruding ends
of the logs _excepting the two top ones_ may be sawed off to suit the
taste and convenience of the builder. The olebo may be made of any size
that the logs will permit and one's taste dictate. After the walls are
built, erect the log columns at _A_ and _C_ (Fig. 236), cut their tops
wedge shape to fit in notches in the ends of the projecting side-plates
(Fig. 144, _A_ and _B_); next lay the end plate (_G_, Fig. 236) over the
two top logs on the sides of your house which correspond to the
side-plates of an ordinary house. The end plate _G_ is notched to fit on
top of the side-plates, and the tops of the side-plates have been scored
and hewn and flattened, thus making a General Putnam joint like the one
shown above (_G_, Fig. 236); but when the ends of the side logs of the
cabin were trimmed off the side-plates or top side logs were allowed to
protrude a foot or more beyond the others; this was to give room for the
supporting upright log columns at _A_ and _C_ (see view of cabin, Fig. 236
and the front view, Fig. 237). _H_ and _J_ (Fig. 237) are two more upright
columns supporting the end plate which, in turn, supports the short
uprights upon which the two purlins _L_ and _M_ rest; the other purlins
_K_ and _N_ rest directly upon the end plate (Fig. 237). The rear end of
the cabin can have the gable logged up as the front of the house is in
Fig. 240, or filled in with uprights as in Fig. 247. The roof of the olebo
is composed of logs, but if one is building an olebo where it will not be
subjected during the winter to a great weight of snow, one may make the
roof of any material handy.
Fig. 236. Fig. 237. Fig. 238. Fig. 239. Fig. 240. Fig. 241.
[Illustration: Some native American log houses.]
Hoko River Olebo
The Hoko River olebo has logs only up to the ceiling of the first story
(Fig. 238), or the half story as the case may be; this part, as you see,
is covered with shakes previously illustrated and described (Figs. 127,
128, 129, and 130). The logs supporting the front of the second story
serve their purpose as pillars or supports only during the winter-time,
when the heavy load of snow might break off the unsupported front of the
olebo. In the summer-time they are taken away and set to one side, leaving
the overhang unsupported in front. The shakes on the side are put on the
same as shingles, overlapping each other and breaking joints as shown in
the illustration. They are nailed to the side poles, the ends of which you
may see protruding in the sketch (Fig. 238).
The Mossback Cabin
In the north country, where the lumbermen are at work, the farmers or
settlers are looked down upon by the lumberjacks much in the same manner
as the civilians in a military government are looked down upon by the
soldiers, and hence the lumberjacks have, in derision, dubbed the settlers
mossbacks.
Mossback
Fig. 239 shows a mossback's house or cabin in the lake lands of Canada.
The same type of house I have seen in northern Michigan. This one is a
two-pen house, but the second pen is made like the front to the olebo, by
allowing the logs of the walls of the house itself to extend sufficient
distance beyond to make another room, pen, or division. In this particular
case the settler has put a shed roof of boards upon the division, but the
main roof is made of logs in the form of tiles. In Canada these are called
_les auges_ (pronounced [=o]ge), a name given to them by the French
settlers. The back of this house has a steeper roof than the front, which
roof, as you see, extends above the ends of _les auges_ to keep the rain
from beating in at the ends of the wooden troughs. Above the logs on the
front side of the small room, pen, or addition the front is covered with
shakes. Fig. 240 shows a cabin in the Olympic mountains, but it is only
the ordinary American log cabin with a shake roof and no windows. A
cooking-stove inside answers for heating apparatus and the stovepipe
protrudes above the roof.
The Southern Saddle-Bag or Two-Pen Cabin
Now we come to the most delightful of all forms of a log house. The one
shown in Fig. 241 is a very simple one, such as might be built by any
group of boys, but I have lived in such houses down South that were very
much more elaborate. Frequently they have a second story which extends
like the roof over the open gallery between the pens; the chimneys are at
the gable ends, that is, on the outside of the house, and since we will
have quite a space devoted to fireplaces and chimneys, it is only
necessary to say here that in many portions of the South the fireplaces,
while broad, are often quite shallow and not nearly so deep as some found
in the old houses on Long Island, in New York, and the Eastern States. The
open gallery makes a delightful, cool lounging place, also a place for the
ladies to sit and sew, and serves as an open-air dining-room during the
warm weather; this sort of house is inappropriate and ill fitted for the
climate which produced the olebo, the mossback, and the Kanuck, but
exactly suited for our Southern States and very pleasant even as far
north as Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. I have lived in one part of every
summer for the last twenty-two years in the mountains of northern
Pennsylvania. The saddle-bag may be built
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