When the last of the workers departed from the barnhouse raising, the pioneer family had a basic structure composed of a log crib with a roof and an overhang on one side to help keep their wagon and other materials out of the weather. It wasn’t a shelter that could in any way be construed as being complete — but it was definitely a start. There was much more work to be done and done quickly. It would soon be time to harvest the crops that had been planted and to prepare for the coming winter.
If there was time and everything went smoothly during the raising social, workers may have been able to nail into place some or all the hand-split shingles that had been crafted for the project in advance. If not, it was a task that needed to be attended to immediately to help make the dwelling weatherproof.
Once the roof was completed, it was time to focus on chinking at least the areas of the structure where the family would be living. The livestock would generally not get the same luxury.
Chinking
Like every other aspect of life on the frontier, chinking was a hard and dirty job. First, it was time for the slices of log that had been cut away during the hewing process and placed into storage to take center stage.
These chips, which by now had dried enough to shed their bark, had to be individually shaped to fill the spaces between the logs as completely as possible. Using a hatchet or a schnitzelbank and drawknife, the chinkers shaped the pieces of wood to the needed length, fitting them into place between the logs one at a time. The pieces of chinking were set at about a 45-degree angle so that each piece leaned on the one adjacent to it. Thousands of pieces of chinking were needed to fill the log spaces.
Once all of the pieces of chinking were in place, set in long, slanted rows, they needed to be mudded in. To accomplish this, the family made a large pit in which they mixed dirt and water to the consistency of a very thick mud that resembled mortar. Into this mix was stirred the stems or foliage of plants. These acted as a binder to hold the mud together and help keep it from falling apart. Even so, the mud that coated the chinking both inside and outside was still fragile and vulnerable both to the elements, as well as to the seasonal expansion and contraction of the abutting logs which also worked to loosen it. Consequently, a log structure with this type of chinking would have to be patched constantly and totally re-mudded about every five years.
Once the family started to grow straw and flax, those materials could be mixed into the mud as binder instead of weeds, providing a stronger, more stable and longer-lasting mixture.
Flooring
Even as the chinking process was under way, additional construction details had to be addressed. Flooring was needed both for the family’s downstairs living area, as well as for the second-floor sleeping quarters, part of which would be directly above the animal stalls in order to take advantage of their body heat.
Heavy boards called “puncheons” would be needed for both areas, as well as for a sturdy wall between the family’s living quarters and the portion of the structure that housed the animals. If there was no sawmill within a reasonable distance, the family would have had to employ a pit saw to produce the needed lumber.
A pit saw was a heavy iron saw about 6 feet in length, with large teeth and a set of handles at both ends. It was meant to be used vertically by two men, one working above the other.
For this process, a pit about six feet deep was dug into the ground next to a young and flexible sapling and the tree trunk to be sawn into boards was laid across it. The upper handle of the saw was tied to the sapling in such a way that the trunk’s tension could help pull the saw back up on the upstroke. The sawyer standing at the bottom of the pit grasped the handles at his end of the saw and pulled it on the downstroke. The sawyer standing atop the log pulled the upstroke with the help of the sapling. Obviously, this process resulted in an unending cascade of sawdust down onto the sawyer in the pit, who wore an exceptionally wide-brimmed hat to help shed the sawdust to whatever extent was possible. This process gave rise to the traditional response, “I’m as happy as a top sawyer!” when greetings of the day were exchanged among passersby.
As might be expected, the pit sawing process produced boards that were anything but regular in terms of their thickness, but the early pioneers had to work with what they had at their disposal. The development of water-powered sawmills, which were quick to arrive in the areas of rural settlement, provided lumber of regular dimensions.
Collecting stones
Because the log barnhouse sat only on columns made from loosely set stones, the areas between its hewn lower plate and the ground had to be enclosed with more stones to prevent the entrance of varmints of all kinds. To help gather the quantity of rocks needed for the job, the pioneer built or borrowed a stone boat. This sledlike contrivance, usually around 12 feet in length, was constructed of heavy planks set parallel to one another and cleated together on top so that the bottom was smooth. Mounted on the front end was a heavy iron ring to which could be hitched horses, mules or oxen.
The stone boat would be skidded across the land with workers employing levers and heavy iron hooks to help roll large stones onto its deck, which was almost at ground level. The boat would then be towed back to the building site or other places where rocks were needed and the stones would be rolled off.
If all of this sounds like a lot of hard work, it certainly was. But wait, there’s still lots more to be done.
