A Place in the Woods

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3. LAYING OUT THE POSTS - Using the post with the smallest diameter, establish a finished width (opposite sides flattened), which you'll use for all the posts. Lay out a center line; on a curved log, plan the line so any curvature will be removed in cutting, thus straightening the post. Measure one-half the finished width out from each side of the center line on both ends, mark your verticals, and snap the chalk lines. Then draw a horizontal line through the center of each end with the help of a square or level. After the sides are hewed flat (crosscut to depth first, then finish with a hatchet), snap chalk lines between the ends of the horizontal lines to set the mortises' centers. Measure out from these lines, as above, to mark the borders of the mortises for cutting. If the posts are to be set in holes, it's not necessary to cut the sides or mortises any further than floor level. For corner posts, the flat sides should be adjacent to, rather than opposite, one another.

GLOSSARY OF TERMS
MORTISE: A groove cut into a framing member.

REBAR: Iron reinforcing bar used in concrete construction.

TENON: A tongue cut at the end of a wooden member to fit a mortise.

HEADER BEAM: A horizontal support above a door or window opening.

PLATE LOG: A horizontal log across the post tops which supports roof rafters.

RIDGEPOLE: A full-length rafter support at the peak of the roof.

KING POST: A vertical support between a plate log and the ridgepole.

PARBUCKLE: A simple hoist that uses a doubled rope to "pulley" a log up an incline.

PURLIN: A horizontal board placed across roof rafters to support roofing.

After setting the posts and bracing them from outside the structure, we laid up forms for the concrete slab. To discourage cracking, we divided the floor into sections to coincide with the supports by staking treated 2 X 4s between the posts and around the perimeter, placing two lengths of 3/8" rebar at the edge to hold the skirt together. This allowed a single pour which could be screed ed along the top of the boards, which were then simply left in place.

Since the floor doesn't support any real weight, the only threat it faces is from frost heaving, which hasn't yet proved to be a problem, even in—30°F temperatures. So far, so good. But then we took on what was supposed to be the raison d etre of shortlog construction: filling in the horizontal pieces. That part of the job was no longer a breeze-it was a tempest. In retrospect, I can blame our confusion on poor advice and less than-competent direction, but the fact of the matter was that we used a joinery technique twice as difficult as it needed to be to produce results that took four times as long. I still cringe to think that we actually wrestled with hopelessly wobbly (or terminally stuck) 2 X 6 splines to join notched horizontal logs to the mortised uprights.

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