Building an Octangular Log House Episode 2

This is Episode Two of the three-part series; "Building an Octagonal Log House by Hand in a National Wilderness",. In the 1970's my wife Nancy and I bought land located within the proposed boundaries of what would become the Hercules National Wilderness Area. And while no one is usually allowed to live in a Wilderness, a last-minute revision of the boundaries, excluding our property, allowed the US Congress to pass the bill and permit us to live within the Wilderness. It took two years to build our octagonal log cabin out of wood, stone and stained glass, constructed around a massive limestone fireplace with the chimney rising through the 22-foot cathedral ceiling. The finished project cost us $6000 to build; performing construction with hand tools: crosscut and bow saws, chisels and mallets, axes, hammers, hand planes and hand drills. Despite a lack of electricity, to all outward appearances our home functioned like any house connected to the electric grid. From the start, we practiced a self-sufficient lifestyle by producing 90% of our food. An assortment of fresh as well as canned vegetables harvested from our garden; supplemented with the rabbits, pigs and steers we raised and butchered, kept us sumptuously well-fed year-round. We also made bread, churned butter, made cheese and yogurt from cow and goat milk, bottled ketchup and mayonnaise, and brewed and bottled over 500 gallons of homemade ale, as well as several varieties of wine.