The Oakes times., 1911-03-16
=. ''coneZE7ED, THE DIMENSIONS or M
ROUSE HRE rs /8 ExxT"

eAsht 10 ten miles distant from your nearest
neighbor. If you should SO choose to settle,
among group of steep upand-downs, quite re-
moved from wagon road, little nearer to a
trail, and yet greater and laborious overland
distance from a sawmill, it is obvious that you
VIII have to depend, to great degree, upon your
own resources and upon your ability to create
with your own hands from those things which
nature has provided in a well-wooded country.
imagine yourself placed in one of these val
leys or upon one of these foothills with no great
er amount of baggage, tools and provisions than
coulo De conveyed over country of this char
acter with yoke of oxen Then, to be COM
manded, Here is the forest and all 1t contains:
go, prepare for yourself your future abode"
This is story of home making under such
conditions The progress of the work is illus
trated and in it's completion no other than the
raw materials of the forest entered into the struc
lure or Its furnishings, save small amount Of
hardware and incidentals forming portion of the
initial supplies brought in as settlers outfit
Two young men, homesteaders, both city bred
completed the entire work, unassisted
OF the tools used the doublebitted ak per-
formed the greater portion of the heavy work It
followed In the wake of the cross-cut saw after
the telling of the trees, and, from then on was
the chief implement of construction. With It
every duty Of preparing the logs for raising them
into their positions in the building was most ade-
quately performed. First it scored the logs
lengthwise, on two opposite Sides ready for wede-
1t followed as the tool for hewing the fiat sur
faces of the half-logs, which, completed, formed
the smooth inside walls of the dwelling After
each log had been raised into position came the
task of "notching down." which required even
more skill in the use of an ak. Those few of the
native Inhabitants of the forest who are most pro-
hcient in making the dovetailed notches which
are necessary In completing a perfect set of
fnterlocking timbers are known as Corner men,"
At native house raising the ones chosen for the
work are usually skilled woodsmen residing in
widely separated settlements among the hills
How well this part of the work was done by two
young men totally unaccustomed to pioneer life
is better illustrated in the series of photographs
which showse each successiveoperation Of preparing
the logs and raising the framework Of the structure
In going on to the flooring, shingling, window
framing, partitioning, finishing and furnishing
you would know how 1t was all accomplished in
the absence Of the products Of a saw and plan
ing mill or any Of the manufactures so essential
to building construction and home making
Five very common tools constituted the board
making outfit. This primitive substitute for a
wedges and as many, hand made, of hickory; q
frow, with hickory handle, the blade made Of
section Of iron tire; a mallet and maui, each
cut from unseasoned hickory timber
The selection Of perfect BOARD trees" is
guess work to degree, as practiced by the ma
tives. Out of every four trees chosen by the
woodsmans system Of Identifying marks, usually
only one is perfectly adaptable to board making
by the method Of splitting with mallet and frow
The most reliable way to select the right kind
of timber Is to observe the general trend Of the
crevices in the bark. The course Of these lines
should be nearly perpendicular with the trunk
Another good method Of Judging straight
grained trunk Is to note the distribution and the
general design Of the scaly. turtleshel patches