The windows in such a cabin may be made very small, for all work is supposed to be done outdoors, and when more light is needed on the inside the door may be left open. In a black-fly country or a mosquito country, however, when you are out of reach of screen doors, mosquito-netting may be tacked over the windows and a portière of mosquito-netting over the doorway.
XXXVIII
HOW TO MAKE A WYOMING OLEBO, A HOKO RIVER OLEBO, A SHAKE CABIN, A CANADIAN MOSSBACK, AND A TWO-PEN OR SOUTHERN SADDLE-BAG HOUSE
One of the charms of a log-cabin building is the many possibilities of novelties suggested by the logs themselves. In the hunter's cabin (see [Frontispiece]) we have seen how the ends of the logs were allowed to stick out in front and form a rail for the front stoop; the builders of the olebos have followed this idea still further.
The Wyoming Olebo
In [Fig. 236] we see that the side walls of the pen are allowed to extend on each side so as to enclose a roofed-over open-air room, or, if you choose to so call it, a front porch, veranda, stoop, piazza, or gallery, according to the section of the country in which you live.
So as to better understand this cabin the plan is drawn in perspective, with the cabin above and made to appear as if some one had lifted the cabin to show the ground-floor plan underneath. The olebo roof is built upon the same plan as the Kanuck ([Fig. 244]), with this exception, that in [Fig. 244] the rooftree or ridge-log is supported by cross logs which are a continuation of the side of the house (A, A, Figs. [242], [244], and [245]), but in the olebo the ridge pole or log is supported by uprights (Figs. 236 and [237]). To build the olebo lay the two side sill logs first (A, B, and C, D, [Fig. 236]), then the two end logs E, F, and D, B and proceed to build the cabin as already described, allowing the irregular ends of the logs to extend beyond the cabin until the pen is completed and all is ready for the roof, after which the protruding ends of the logs excepting the two top ones may be sawed off to suit the taste and convenience of the builder. The olebo may be made of any size that the logs will permit and one's taste dictate. After the walls are built, erect the log columns at A and C ([Fig. 236]), cut their tops wedge shape to fit in notches in the ends of the projecting side-plates ([Fig. 144], A and B); next lay the end plate (G, [Fig. 236]) over the two top logs on the sides of your house which correspond to the side-plates of an ordinary house. The end plate G is notched to fit on top of the side-plates, and the tops of the side-plates have been scored and hewn and flattened, thus making a General Putnam joint like the one shown above (G, [Fig. 236]); but when the ends of the side logs of the cabin were trimmed off the side-plates or top side logs were allowed to protrude a foot or more beyond the others; this was to give room for the supporting upright log columns at A and C (see view of cabin, [Fig. 236] and the front view, [Fig. 237]). H and J ([Fig. 237]) are two more upright columns supporting the end plate which, in turn, supports the short uprights upon which the two purlins L and M rest; the other purlins K and N rest directly upon the end plate ([Fig. 237]). The rear end of the cabin can have the gable logged up as the front of the house is in Fig. [240], or filled in with uprights as in [Fig. 247.] The roof of the olebo is composed of logs, but if one is building an olebo where it will not be subjected during the winter to a great weight of snow, one may make the roof of any material handy.
[Fig. 236.] [Fig. 237.] [Fig. 238.] [Fig. 239.] [Fig. 240.] [Fig. 241.]