The Pawpaw Patch

A little look at nature on the farm .....

Pawpaw

The Pawpaw is a Missouri native fruit. It was recently featured in the Missouri Conservation magazine.  Down In The Pawpaw Patch

Bees pollinate most fruit trees, but the pawpaws rely on flies or beetles attracted by the color and fetid smell of the tree’s unusual flower.

The fruit you see here will be ripe in mid to late September. This grove of trees is located on a Southeast facing slope near the little Savannah.  (Click here for more than you will ever want to know about pawpaws!)

Look verrrry closely at the background and you will notice a well worn game trail.

 The morning fog coming in ....

Morning view – 6:15 am looking to the South

Summer Happenings

Log cabin gets a visitor!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LblJG7jpG8

More updates in cabin country.

Log view from valley– the brown rock has weed block material underneath

Prescribed burn

The prescribed burn mimics a natural process. The effect is to reduce non native grass species and control forest spread in grass areas. April is the prime burning time to promote warm season grasses.  

Steps in the making ....

Great news! The cabin has water!

What was thought to be just a cistern holding a reservoir of water, turns out to be a shallow well! Cool! The well was dug by hand. The diameter is large enough to accommodate men with shovels digging down to below the water table.  This was most likely a community project. The walls were lined with wet laid stone to prevent cave in and reduce surface water run in.



The depth of this well is 25 foot. The first water table reached is at a depth of 8 feet.  The extra depth below the water table allows for additional storage.  It is actually even possible that there is more than just one source of entry of water!

Hey Hey Hey, Yogi, we got windows!

Yes we do, Boo Boo. White oak, true individual lites and as a bonus the glass is single pane wavy glass.

And there is more, Boo Boo. The porch gables are now covered and a trim board has been added to the roof edge.

When is the party, Yogi? Later, Boo Boo, later.

Some definitions:

A TDL is a True Divided Lite window, referring to the individual glass panes that are separated by real wood mullions. A classic window design.

Old window panes look wavy, distorted, and handmade - even after 1900. Understand their manufacture, and you'll know why.

Ever peer through an old window and see ... the glass? The distortions in antique glass are part of the charm of old windows and a historic feature well worth retaining. Though some may tell you that ripples and dimples are a sign of age - as if glass sags like flesh after a century - the truth is less fantastic, though almost as amazing.

It's all a result of how glass was made. Once you grasp the two basic methods used to make window glass until the 1910s, you can tell a lot about the age of your windows and how to care for them.

Crown Glass

For centuries, the best quality window glass was crown glass. To make panes with this method, a glass blower gathered a clump of molten glass on the end of a hollow pipe and blew it into a bubble much like a bottle. As a helper attached a pontil rod to the other side of the bubble, the glassworker broke off the blowpipe creating a hole. Then, by heating the glass and coaxing it with a wood paddle, he quickly enlarged this hole into a rough plate.

Working in front of a furnace to keep the glass hot and fluid, the worker then spun the rod with his hands, often on a supporting bench, so that centrifugal force stretched the glass out into a thin disc - a process nearly identical to a baker spinning fresh pizza dough for a pie. When the blower severed the rod, he had a disc of thin glass, up to 4 feet in diameter.

After annealing this table in another oven to equalize stresses, the glass was carefully cut into panes according to grade and size. The central "bull's-eye" - the thickest and most malformed part where the rods touched - was usually unusable and returned to the furnace.

In colonial America , however, whole or half tables of crown glass were regularly used uncut, often in gable windows. (Thomas Jefferson ordered several for the oculus and porthole windows at Monticello .) When thrifty Yankees divided up the tables, they put even the bull's-eyes to use in door or barn transoms where light meant more than a view

Inside chinking done - ready for windows!

The log cabin project is coming to a close. Now for the little details to complete the project.   These photos are of the second floor. Originally we were going to close off the upstairs into two areas. I decided to leave it as you see it now. This design will allow for better lighting and ventilation.

Take a look at the floor in each of these photos. Notice that none of the boards are of the same width. Most likely this floor was cut from one tree, the widest board being from the center of the tree.  

Construction of window seen in photo:

• white oak
• true single light, single pane
• wavy glass
• mortise and tenon ( see Wikipedia entry "mortise and tenon" )
• boiled linseed will be applied for protection

This video gives more information about the historical details of the chinking and the custom windows:

Winter has come to Log Cabin Country!!!

The window openings have plastic to keep some cold out while work is done on the inside. The windows are on order.  Look closely and you can see the smoke coming out of the chimney.

The east side is now fully enclosed. The clapboard siding was removed from a 60 year old school house, cleaned and used on this project. It really adds to the look. I had referred to the east side as the Trot end of Cabin. Actually it is no longer the Dog Trot section. It is now called the timber frame section.

See the guy in camo leaning against the boards in the bed of my truck?

The story: We ran out of boards to finish the gable end of the porch. I made a trip a little town NW of Edwardsville (so small I can’t remember the name) to pick up 150 foot of 1 x 12 pine. It came from a 80 year old barn that was torn down to make way for Highway 66.

The fella in the picture had it in storage.

This river ice picture was taken from underneath the Page Extension Bridge where it crosses the Missouri river .

The next big step: We are waiting for a break in the weather to chink the interior of the cabin.

The walnut staircase - a work of art!

This past week, the wood stove has been put to the test.

1) The pine interior siding that was removed from the west pen was cleaned by John B and Charlie Hakenwerth (a close personal friend) and installed this past week by John Ming. It really looks great.

2) The next step was to install the staircase. This is a walnut staircase. Look closely at the length and width of those boards. Solid walnut!!! It is truly a piece of art. John Ming and Doug Kappelman did the install while John B watched.
Imagine the pride the original owners had with this finely trimmed out staircase!

Here we see the staircase finish from below, as well as an interesting view looking down from the 2nd floor.

PS. I need about 180 foot of 1 x 12 old barn boards. Must be fir, not oak.

Second Floor Gables

The second floor gables can be checked off the list. It was decided to use clapboard siding to cover this area. The material was recycled from a school house South of Herman Missouri. Really looks nice. John has insulated behind the interior gable finish.

Grading Complete

Bret Martin installed the curtain drain, graded the site and rocked the access road and parking area.

Bret is quite the operator on his T250 purchased at Bobcat of St. Louis. He was working dirt/rock regardless if he was moving backwards or forwards.


For the parking area, he removed the top soil so that that the rock would be even with grade. Then he used this top soil around the log house.

The curtain will prevent any water from moving beneath the cabin. He used a brown rock in this area. It blends in nicely don't you think?

On the porch is the walnut staircase stringer.

Main cabin floor reinstalled and stove in place

Great things have been happening at the Log house. 

In the photo with the stove is Roger Beck, a close personal friend, and John Ming, the log cabin specialist. The stove is sitting in place but not yet installed. Black pipe will be used in the final install. Notice the nail apron Roger is wearing. I am sure Laura B noticed. That nail apron predates the launch of BHL. Roger, what will you take for the piece of history?

In the second photo notice that the original floor was reinstalled in the main cabin. What a project!! Each board had to be fitted. They varied in length, width and thickness. You may notice all the small pieces of scrap off in the corner.