Introduce yourself

[Timber]

P.S. I saw this on craigslist and was curious if it is a good or decent deal, and if it is please pass it on to the LHBA community, as this is to far out for me. http://seattle.craigslist.org/tac/for/585184451.html

Thanks again and look forward to meeting and hearing from all of you.

Jason

Hey Jason-Bible says Love is patience -so get some love and you will have patience!-What can I say I am a preacher so I took my opportunity. Great your taking the class--when you say bear damage--you mean as in a bear damaged or bare wood?(big difference bare bear--as in Captin Ron guerrilla gorilla) As far as your ? goes on using different dried trees it wont matter but I would try and get them about all the same. Those big fir trees on craigslist--sounds like a great deal..........for the seller--but I could be wrong.


Captin Ron

[Lislenlee]

I have been telling my husband about this site for a year now and finally he let me sign up for the April 19th class. I am tickled PINK! I am so happy to report that we own a lot outright with timber and hope that after the class we will build our own log house and never make another payment! However, since we are in our senior years I am hoping to meet up with some "Youngins" who might like to help us in the process. We live in the San Juan Islands, anybody near by want to lend a hand?

[Stretch]

Howdy all. Wow!!! I have been following this site for a while and have been inspired by all of the folks here doing and following their dream. This is something I've wanted to do for a while and am glad I found this site. Although, it will be further down the road before I get ready to build and take the class, I'm eventually going to do it. Right now, I have other obligations and priorities, but, will be working to attain this goal as soon as I can.

Love all your stories, pictures, and the great information sharing. I have no construction experience, but, have managed to do some minor home repairs over the years. I know I have a lot to learn and want to do it right.

Where is Kola? He is the initial inspiration that I followed. Like to keep up with his progress as well as others. I'm hoping to take the class within the next couple of years and start building within 5 years. I hope to be able to retire in 8-10 years. I'm thinking of building on weekends which means a reasonable driving distance from dallas, probably east texas where there is plenty of pine forest. Eventually, once retired, I may do it again somewhere in the southwest, maybe southern Colorado, or northern New Mexico. I prefer drier climates with less humidity with milder winters and summers.

Also, I read recently about a lady from phoneix with 5 kids who lost her husband to cancer recently and is planning on building. May god bless you and give you the strength to accomplish your goals. I can relate since I too have lost my wife recently to cancer and have two boys. I'm 49 with 2 sons that are 20 and 13. The loss of a spouse and being a single parent has it's challenges. Going forward with the ideas of this community is one more challenge that should be worth the time and effort. I guess what I'm saying here is, go for it!

Thanks to all in this community for sharing and for Steve and the rest of the instructors. You are truely giving by helping many folks attain their dreams of financial freedom and quality of living. Thanks again.

[Klapton]

Still smilin,

I'm not sure exactly what the bears have done to those trees. If it's just a matter of them eating the bark, and the wood is not seriously damaged, they should be fine. If they have cut into the grain of the log, it's not so good. One of the main reasons for hand-peeling whole logs is because of the natural moisture resistance of the log itself when left intact. I wouldn't say you CAN'T use em though. As Skip has been known to say, "the best logs are the ones you already have."

You can skid logs after they are peeled, you just have to be careful. Some folks use two-wheeled "carts" for the dragging end of logs when they skid with four-weelser or cars. One of these would be a good thing to help prevent damage when skidding a peeled log.

Using logs that are at different levels of seasoning should not be a huge problem when doing BnP. The biggest problem encountered with green logs in BnP is that as the logs shrink toward their centers, they can pull away from the chinking leaving a small gap. With some green logs and some seasoned, this will just happen more randomly -- i.e. where the greener logs are.

Lislenlee,

I do hope someone is able to come help you in the San Juans. We have several members building on Camano Island, so there are some folks who aren't too far away. I'm in the planning stages right now, and will be moving back home to WA in the next year or so (dunno where yet, probably around Index / Skykomish). The unfortunate thing about the San Juans is having to take a ferry to get there. I do hope that this does not dissuade folks too much. Is your husband taking the class too? I know it's a bit pricy to both go, but I would definitly recommend that you both go.

Stretch,

Kola decided to take a break from online activity. A handful of folks are in contact with him, and he's doing ok. He spent less time in his Tipi than he had hoped during this cold winter.

[Stretch]

Clapton,

Thanks for the Kola update. Glad he is doing okay. I hope he keeps us posted with his progress.

Thanks.

Stretch

[GENE13]

Hi, my name is Gene Justice. I live and work in Barbourville, Ky. which is located in the Cumberland Plateau of the Appalachian Mountains. Cumberland falls is a short 20 minutes away, the Falls are famous for having the only MOONBOW that is visible anywhere else in the Western Hemisphere. My wife and I have been blessed with 30 acres 10-15 minutes outside of town. We purchased the land about 4 years ago with the intent of building a log home there "it would fit right in with the mountains, two creeks, and the pond" someday. Well after almost 4 years of land clearing etc. we are close to making the move. We have been reviewing kits for sometime now, and then I found this wonderful site, and I am hooked. We also have no building codes in the county "except plumming & electric" so everything is fine there. Trees however could be a small problem, we live in Oak country, in that almost every tree is a hardwood and most of them is oak. Logging is the second largest industry "coal being the first" in our area, plenty of saw mills too, but no inexpensive softwoods. I would hate to cut our beautiful oak trees down but it is an option. I'm hoping to take the April 19-20 class if I can clear my schedule for that weekend. I'm really excited about this whole idea of building your own log home, and I've been very impressed with this forum, and all the members as well. It's like people helping people, sincerely giving each other hope, knowledge, and inspiration.

God bless one and all !!!! :-)

[Tom Featherstone]

Hello!!

I'm Tom Featherstone from Michigan's Upper Peninsula. My wife Linda & I will be attending the April 5/6th class. I've poured over this web site for almost 2yrs now and until now& would pretty much agree what Gene13 and most others has already had to say. I'm not much of a web chatter/text messager, the cell phone is so much easier. I'll try a little harder at it.

Everyone has a story, here's an abbreviated version of our's.

Linda & I will be married 29yrs this year and with our wedding money we purchased a 20 acre parcel of land south of Marquette with the dream that we would build a log home, raise a few chickens & pigs, & work at McDonald's to pay the taxes. Well, things didn't quite work out that way......
21 winters ago, we moved from metro Detroit, with our 3 young children, sold our 20 acres and put a down payment on an Old house in town. Kind of went for broke, so to say, and almost did, or is it almost are, seeing that we still have a hefty mortgage. The good side is, our kids are pretty much on their way......and we do own a beautiful old pig farm parcel [camp] 20 mins from where we live.

What happened to our dream of a log home, went to the wayside for all the reason's on why not to build a log home that we've all read here in this forum, I did not know this method/association existed until 2yrs ago. I wish I would have connected with this organization 20yrs ago, we'd be living in our log home now.

I'm a finisher by trade; paint, drywall, interiors mostly, been doing it for 31 yrs this year. If I can offer anyone any help there, I'm more than willing. I'm not looking for work.

Thanks to all of you that have contributed to this site and organization, you've revived a dream in someone who'll turn 50 this May.
We're getting excited, we purchased our plane tickets Friday.

Tom

[Timber]

I'm a finisher by trade; paint, drywall, interiors mostly, been doing it for 31 yrs this year. If I can offer anyone any help there, I'm more than willing. I'm not looking for work. < Tom said

yea Tom I have over 24 years in Drywall I just need to know one thing? How do I get out?
l Like the money but no longer enjoy any of it. Guess I need to just get workers and start contracting instead of doing it all.

[Tom Featherstone]

Had employee's, now been solo for about 10yrs, in the end I make more money with less headaches. Maybe part of the reason that both of us are looking into the LHBA. The only advice I can give is to follow your dreams with a passion.........it makes getting up in the am a lot easier. I can't honestly say I love what I do, but I don't hate it, if I did, I would quit that day. I do have a lot of end of job satisfaction. I do mostly remods and high end work, I'm hooked up with the right generals up here. I would be very bored with the new junk they are building out there today, so I pretty much stay away from "industry standards" work. I've learned that there is a lot more money in those sacks of mud in repair and tie in work, than beating your head against the "board" and competing for pennies a foot........besides painters/drywallers are a dime a dozen eh? anybody can do it, Bob Zilla showed me how on tv last night.

I like your quote at the bottom of your posts. Everyday I relearn how little I actually know.

Tom

[Klapton]

Interesting stories. I approaching 40 now, and have had an interesting ride in life. When I was younger, my "dream" career shifted several times. I did 4.5 years of active duty army (Army Band, stationed in Berlin, Germany,) so I could afford to go to college. I did some gen-ed coursework while I was in, then got out and pursued that oh-so-lucrative major of HISTORY, lol. I finished my degree at Penn State, was enrolled at Biblical Theological Seminary in Hatfield, PA to pursue a M.A. in "Christian Thought" (a blend of Church History and Systematic Theology). The next step was going to be a PHd in Historical Theology with concentration in Reformation Studies from Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, MI (home of the largest collection of original Swiss Reformation documents outside of Zurich!). Then after a post-doctoral fellowship in Switzerland, I would get a job teaching History at a univesity or seminary, and be the world's leading expert on Ulrich Zwingli.

But I found that I was working SO hard while I was in school (I worked full time while carrying a full load of classes, getting nearly straight As), but still DIRT POOR, and would have had to sink deeply into debt.

So I took a job cooking in a Rescue Mission (I did restaraunt and institutional cooking when I was a kid, and while an undergrad). While there, I got a job working in their Development office (fundraising) and met my first database. While there, I took a job at a business school teaching computer application courses at night (Word, Excel, Access, etc.). Before long, the school wanted me full time. While working there, I sat in on many of our IT / Programming courses, and then the recruited me to teach Programming. I did that for several years until declining enrollment in the program led to layoffs (including mine).

Now I make Vital Records database applications (electronic filing of birth certificates, death certificates, etc.) The real sweet thing about this job is that I telecommute. This will enable me to buy some property in the mountains of WA somewhere, and not worry about my commute. So now I will be able to have another one of the dreams I always had -- a log home in the middle of nowhere.

One of the small titbits of wisdom I used to tell my students is this: "They don't pay you because you like it. They pay you because it SUCKS. That's why they call it WORK. If you liked it, you'd do it for free." I remind myself of this from time to time. Because there was always SOMETHING about every job I ever had that I really disliked. If you truly HATE your job, yeah... you should find another one. But when you get right down to it, you do your job so you can have money and survive, and hopefully have a little left over to do what you actually like when you aren't working. But work has always sucked -- "Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return."