A number of years ago, my grandfather (Happy) passed away. My grandmother followed not too long after that and as time does, it kept rolling along! When they moved to Alaska decades ago, my grandparents first built a log house that was snug and chinked with concrete! It was probably not as snug as my romantic memories of it, but my memories are based on hearing stories of the house from my Aunts, my mother and from Gramma. After the ranch style house was built, the log house became a garage, or maybe it always was a garage partly, I wasn't around for most of its life!
After the Grands were gone, the property sat empty for a while, as it goes when probate is waiting to be completed, and the log house/garage was already in a bit of a state of disrepair, it was after all more than 50 years old. When my Aunt and one of her kids and a few of her grand kids (yes - there are a lot of us), moved into the property it was determined that the log house had to come down. It was a fire and safety hazard, and of course all the kids wanted to explore that old building, maybe it was haunted, maybe there were Raccoon's in there (from the four year old, not realizing yet that we don't have Raccoons in Alaska), or maybe its an army fort, or a Cowboy and Indian hideout. In reality, as much as we hated to admit it, it was worn out and the floor had gaping holes, and you had to watch where you step or you would have your foot in a gaping hole that you made!
So it was with great sadness that the building was torn down and hauled away.
I had asked my Aunt to save me some of the logs from the house to use for a project that I wanted to make for my mother. She did and so a full year later I began a small bench from the round logs she saved for me!
None of them were quite the same size but two of them were very close, so I selected those to be the seat of the bench. I have never worked with round logs before so I didn't have any idea how to square up the bench - I just did my best to make all the cuts the same.
I had to cut the logs in half long wise so they would sit on the base in some semblance of a seat. I did use 2x4 lumber underneath the seat and around the top of the legs as support and to try to keep it somewhat square - one of the legs really wanted to kick out further then the rest!
It took me about two days to cut the logs in half - using the reciprocating saw - these old logs are just about petrified! The wood is beautiful though - weathered nicely and colored blonde where some of the bark was still on. It mostly fell off while I was working with the logs and the underneath made a nice contrast to the weathered wood that didnt have bark on it.
The kids advised me to use the round part of the logs as the seat also instead of the cut flat side. We all thought the wood was prettier and the seat didnt have any sharp edges that way either.
Here it is almost finished. The little thermometer you can see was also on the garage - it is broken but it says "Teelands" and is a memory point for our family as that was the only grocery store in Wasilla for years when I was growing up (Mr. Teeland always gave us penny candy if we were good in the store and his daughter was a teacher at one of our schools) so the thermometer stayed there.
Here is the back side of the little bench. When I took it over to her mom had the perfect spot for it - she had just finished creating a sitting area and needed a rustic little bench. A gift from the past.
I still have no idea how to appropriately work with round wood and make it square - especially different sized logs! But it didnt stop me from creating a project and it turned out wonderfully! My only regret is that it took me so long to start it! Don't wait - use what you have, do what you can, have fun and remember the great moments!
