The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1911-04-20

eight to ten miles distant from your nearest
neighbor. If you should so choose to settle,
among group of steep Tp-and-downs, quite re-
moved from wagon road, little nearer to q
trail, and yet a greater and laborious overland
distance from sawmill, it is obvious that you
will have to depend, to a great degree, upon your
own resources and upon your ability to create
with your own hands from those things which
nature has provided in wellwooded country.
Imagine yourself placed in one of these val
ieys or upon of these foothills with no great
er amount of baggage, tools and provisions than
could be conveyed over a 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 q story of home making under such
conditions. The progress of the work Is illus
trated and in its completion other than the
raw materials of the forest entered into the sruc
ture or its furnishings, 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 double-bitted ak per-
formed the greater portion of the heavy work 1t
followed in the wake of the crosscut 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 most ade-
quately performed First 1t scored the logs
lengthwise, on two opposite sides, ready for wedg.
ing and splitting into semicrcuar halves. Then
It followed as the tool for hewing the fiat sur
faces of the halflogs 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 of an ak. Those few of the
native Inhabitants of the forest who are most pro-
fcient in making the dovetailed notches which
are necessary in completing a perfect set of
interocking timbers known as corner men,"
AT a 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 shows each successiveoperation Of preparing
the logs and raising the framework of the structure
In going on to the flooring, shingng, 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
tng 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
sawmill included ak; two three steel
wedges and as many hand made, OF hickory;
frow. with hickory handle, the blade made OF
section OF iron tire; a mallet and maui each
out 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
woodsman's 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 a straight
grained trunk is to note the distribution and the
general design Of the scaly. turtle-shell patches