WE BUILT A SAUNA FROM A SILO

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At this point, the only thing our minisilo lacked was a roof. So we simply ran a single 4" X 6" crossbeam across the top of the structure and nailed silo staves to it. The roofing staves stuck out every which way at first, but it was easy to [1] use our string compass to draw an 11' diameter circle on the roof (so that we'd have a 6" overhang), then [2] trim the boards with our trusty saber saw to make the roof perfectly round. An application of monkey dung (our name for roofing tar) and tar paper completed the job.

For heat, we outfitted our silo-sauna with a wood-burning stove that we made ourselves from a 30-gallon drum. (The stovepipe goes out through a tin-lined hole in the wall near the door and extends to well above roof level. The pipe is capped-at the top-with a tin hat to keep rain out.) On top of the stove is -a wire basket to hold the all-important smooth, round stones (which we took from a near by riverbed). Naturally, we allowed the rocks to dry thoroughly before heating them, so that they wouldn't shatter.

Since we've never found hard benches very comfortable for sauna bathing, we chose to build a large, 3'-high platform against the wall opposite the door and stove. That platform now holds two wooden deck chairs and two wooden canvas slingbacks (which are utterly delicious to relax in).

Except for some caulking around the base of the building, no added insulation was needed for our tightly constructed silo-sauna to reach temperatures of 220°F or more. Even when outside temperatures hover near zero and the wind howls below the window (we couldn't resist putting a piece of plate glass in the door, even if it did mean trading off a little heat), the air inside the sauna is blissfully hot.

Now that our sweatbath is up and standing, we're glad we decided to put it where it is ... because we find that we swim in the pond after bathing from early fall right up until ice begins to form (our record-so far-is November 26), and as early as April in the spring. It can be a long, chilly walk from the house to the silo-sauna on a snowy winter night ... but the stroll back is always a lovely, lazy one through the snowflakes, with our bodies throwing off steam in the sub-freezing air.

In the summer months (when we rarely sauna), our mini-silo serves as a combination bathhouse and storage area for garden tools. Someday, we intend to sod the roof with daisies and black-eyed Susans, to improve the little silo's appearance even further ... but, for now, we're more than content with the way our silo-sauna looks (and performs). In fact, we wouldn't trade it for all the saunas in Finland!

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