THE RETURN OF THE CORDWOOD HOUSE

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Dear MOTHER:

Please don't say, "I told you so!" You did. And please don't say, "Live and learn." Learn, I have . . . but do you call this livin'?

I've had more hassles trying to get this book printed than enough. As a matter of fact, I think I'll do a book on it! More than

once I've been tempted to pack everything up and trot back to Hendersonville and eat my humble pie. As the enclosed mimeographed letter will explain, I became a Charter Victim of Murphy's Law on this one. The real "cruncher" was when the paper got lost on its way from the manufacturer!

But everything finally worked out OK. Even if I did have to sit down and personally address a letter of explanation to the first 600 people who ordered my book and who had to wait four weeks or more to get it. (Would you believe that just getting those letters out took me a full day and a half, with no breaks, and gave me a stiff neck and sore arm?)

In spite of all the hassles, though, I've enjoyed it. It's been a very educational trip and I know a lot more now than I did when I started.

Some of the letters we've received have really made all the effort worthwhile too. Like the one from the woman who wrote that she and her husband were building a "conventional" log cabin when he was involved in an auto accident that injured his back and left him unable to lift anything heavy. They were ready to give up when they read the article and now they think they can build their own house after all. That makes us feel real good and we've gotten a lot of mail like that.

What a fantastic cross section of people read your magazine! We've received orders from doctors, lawyers (I'm not sure about Indian chiefs), soldiers and sailors (of all ranks), and many other nice folks. Lots of aviation people too. One fellow up in Alaska recognized the Baby Great Lakes hanging in our living room and wrote to say that he's building one too. As an airplane nut, of course, I found that really fascinating.

And here's another interesting point: About 40% or more of the books we've sold to MOTHER's readers have been bought by single women. Their letters often say something like, "This looks like the sort of thing I can handle physically." One woman even said that she and her daughters were going to build a chickenhouse first for practice!

We've gotten some funny letters too. One guy asked us to suggest a fast-growing tree that he could plant and requested that we answer as soon as possible so he could get started right away. 1 coulda sold him a bag of acorns I guess, but I told him to scout around for old telephone poles or railroad ties that'd been discarded instead. Then there was the fellow who wrote that he and "my old lady.

ROBERT L. ROY: PART II: A SOMEWHAT DIFFERENT APPROACH TO CORDWOOD CONSTRUCTION

It was with considerable interest that I read Jack Henstridge's article about stackwood construction ("We Built a $75,000 House for Only $10,000" in MOTHER NO. 45), as I am well ac quainted with this building technique. My wife, Jaki, and I have been living in our homebuilt cottage, "Log End", for a year and a half and a book based on our experience (How to Build LogEnd Houses, Drake, $12.95 cloth, $6.95 paper) will appear in August.

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