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Book: The Log Cabin: An Adventure in Self-Reliance, Individualism, and Cabin Building
Author: Len McDougall
Publisher: Globe Piquot Press [2003]
Available: O.O.P. - Copies available for sale online.
As the full title suggests, this is a book about the author, more than it is a book about cabin building. It is not a technical manual, although it contains a great deal of technical detail. It is not a text book on how to build a perfect cabin. It is a book about how one man built a cabin and lived in it, for the best part of 15 months. He used no power tools, but he did use or adapt some modern materials, usually scavenged.
If that concept interests you then read on.
Len McDougall is from Michigan, where the book is set. After spending some years eaking out a living writing gear reviews for the printed media, he threw caution to the winds and sold his possessions. With a small advance to write a book about attempting to live as a homesteader, he set out to do just that.
What this book is not is a re-enactment. It is not the story of ploughing into the wilderness with only a few basic tools, emerging fifteen months later having lived the life of a frontier trapper.
Neither is it a manual for how to build a log cabin. McDougall makes certain decisions that he acknowledges will make many people howl. That being said, his ingenuity is impressive, and the reader is left in no doubt as to his expertise. Where diagrams are deemed necessary, diagrams are supplied: the balance feels right.
This book is not for the wilderness purist, yet for all but a tiny minority, it describes an achievement only to be dreamed of. He uses, minimally, 20th century materials. He scavenges and adapts. Occasionally, he goes into town.
But never for long. McDougall is, if nothing else, a tough guy. There is a passage where he extracts a molar with pliers, lances the abscess, then cuts into the gum with a Spyderco Native, in order to perform a root extraction with aforementioned pliers.
And then there was the wood required, to be felled, stripped, sawed, hauled, winched, placed, adjusted, all on your own. It was a sizeable cabin.
There is much detail on gear, including firearms, but as well as the Spyderco mentioned above, McDougall made good use of a a chisel tipped OKC SP-8 survival machete. The axe was a Fiskars, and the handle didn’t hold up. He made another.
It is clear that McDougall appreciates the natural world, and the narrative is threaded with potent, descriptive passages. Also evident is a sensitive individual, who is not afraid to tell the story of his own life.
For full disclosure, having read some of McDougall’s books, I contacted him, and we have had a friendly correspondence. He does not suffer fools gladly, but so far I have got away with it. He has a book due out very soon on knives.
Author: Len McDougall
Publisher: Globe Piquot Press [2003]
Available: O.O.P. - Copies available for sale online.
As the full title suggests, this is a book about the author, more than it is a book about cabin building. It is not a technical manual, although it contains a great deal of technical detail. It is not a text book on how to build a perfect cabin. It is a book about how one man built a cabin and lived in it, for the best part of 15 months. He used no power tools, but he did use or adapt some modern materials, usually scavenged.
If that concept interests you then read on.
Len McDougall is from Michigan, where the book is set. After spending some years eaking out a living writing gear reviews for the printed media, he threw caution to the winds and sold his possessions. With a small advance to write a book about attempting to live as a homesteader, he set out to do just that.
What this book is not is a re-enactment. It is not the story of ploughing into the wilderness with only a few basic tools, emerging fifteen months later having lived the life of a frontier trapper.
Neither is it a manual for how to build a log cabin. McDougall makes certain decisions that he acknowledges will make many people howl. That being said, his ingenuity is impressive, and the reader is left in no doubt as to his expertise. Where diagrams are deemed necessary, diagrams are supplied: the balance feels right.
This book is not for the wilderness purist, yet for all but a tiny minority, it describes an achievement only to be dreamed of. He uses, minimally, 20th century materials. He scavenges and adapts. Occasionally, he goes into town.
But never for long. McDougall is, if nothing else, a tough guy. There is a passage where he extracts a molar with pliers, lances the abscess, then cuts into the gum with a Spyderco Native, in order to perform a root extraction with aforementioned pliers.
And then there was the wood required, to be felled, stripped, sawed, hauled, winched, placed, adjusted, all on your own. It was a sizeable cabin.
There is much detail on gear, including firearms, but as well as the Spyderco mentioned above, McDougall made good use of a a chisel tipped OKC SP-8 survival machete. The axe was a Fiskars, and the handle didn’t hold up. He made another.
It is clear that McDougall appreciates the natural world, and the narrative is threaded with potent, descriptive passages. Also evident is a sensitive individual, who is not afraid to tell the story of his own life.
For full disclosure, having read some of McDougall’s books, I contacted him, and we have had a friendly correspondence. He does not suffer fools gladly, but so far I have got away with it. He has a book due out very soon on knives.
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