Tree Seedlings

For some reason today, I cannot upload pictures into my blog posting. Right now I'm sitting in the parking lot of a Bigby's coffee - up north - 30 degree weather - very windy. But being the blog junkie that I am, I had to do at least 1 posting today! Greg bought over 100 tree seedlings (some of these he is planting at his parents place to sell in the future) from the Otsego Conservation district. At our log cabin, we are going to plant some red pine, norway spruce, cedar and various flowering bushes that will encourage a wildlife habitat. Tomorrow I will post pictures. Right now the back of our lot looks like a nuclear holocaust as they finished the septic drain field and back filled the lot. Looking forward to some greenery!

Vote and win a subscription to the Country's Best Log Homes

I am addicted to reading Log Home magazines. The photos of other log homes are just stunning and the things dreams are made of. I've clipped many an article that had a great idea back in the days when I was just dreaming about my log cabin. My thought was one day I would need it! So now I'm asking everyone to vote and help me name my log cabin. Sandy is right - there should be a prize. (And thanks to Violet Lady - I'm using her idea of giving away a magazine subscription.) And whether you own a log home or not, I think you will enjoy the "Country's Best Log Homes." Please leave a comment here and a link back to your blog. I will do a random drawing on Monday, May 5th. Good luck and thank you for voting! (*Sorry, U.S. Residents only.)

Vote to name our Log Cabin!

I need a name for the Log Cabin! I have done relentless searches on the Internet, looked over names of Log Cabin Resorts (I thought Colorado would have had better names) and asked family and friend's opinion. It's so hard to decide. I'm trying to make the name meaningful to our Log Cabin site and our family. I've listed the reasons why I've chosen each name below. Please vote in the right sidebar. Thank you! (And if there is any other name you think I should consider, please post them here!)

1. The Loon's Nest (I love Loons and there's a nesting pair on our lake)


2. Tall Timbers (that is the name of our log home design)


3. Lone Pine Lodge (I only have 1 pine tree of any significant size on our property - hoping to plant more this summer)


4. Moose Tracks Cabin (I love moose)


5. Bradford Lake Cabin (Our cabin is located on Bradford Lake)

Naming the Log Cabin

I found this great website - Border Country Sign Company - www.bordercountrysign.com/index.html . What drew me to their site was information on naming your log cabin and the wonderful sign examples that they have. I like their quote in regards to naming your place "Own it, claim it, name it!" This is exactly what I would like to do for our place - instead of just saying to people "come on up to the log cabin." I want it to be meaningful and representative of our family. Our log cabin represents a way of life and I would like to convey that. Kara of Border Country Signs wrote an article for Midwest Outdoors Magazine and says:

"As your new guests search that cabin road for your vacation home, how easy it is to find you? With a welcoming sign at the end of your drivueway, it would be simple. Stake claim to your property and come up with a name that shows your less serious side! Your cabin is where you let your hair down and be a tad whimsical. There are no rules for creating a name. Something as simple as just your last name, "The Anderson’s" or "The Jone’s Cabin" is enough to show ownership. But this is something you could have a lot of fun with and I hope these tips will help. No one else needs to understand the meaning behind it, they just need to see it! (Just make sure your sign isn’t too small!)

Naming your property can be deemed similar to the process of naming your boat. People put a lot of thought into coming up with just the right title. This tradition has been around for centuries but nowadays doesn’t serve too much of a purpose, it’s all in fun. Folks will say that a boat without a name is like a dog without a bone and refer to it as an "orphan." The name christening process for a boat is to break a bottle of champagne on the bow. That is a ritual that I am sure takes place in many forms when the papers have been signed for that new cabin. "

I think I'll post our cabin name ideas for a vote by my visitors - so please watch for it this week. (I'm still trying to come up with a variety to choose from.) Kara at Border Country Signs was kind enough to give me permission to use information and pictures from her website. Check em out! Let me know what you think!

Stairway to Log Heaven

Here's our log staircase, just inviting you to come up and survey the log kingdom. Our cat (Marvin) loves weaving in and out of the rails and perching himself on top to meow at us. The steps are half logs - rounded on the bottom, flat on top. I'm looking for a small corner table to put on the staircase landing so it can showcase a nice vase or wooden loon carving or maybe just some silk flowers. You can see the temporary handrails that are fastened to the log one so we would pass the city inspection. I think it detracts from the log handrails so the temporary one might accidentally get removed....

Cooking in Pioneer Times

If we were back in pioneer times, I would be making dinner in a kettle hanging from trammels over a fire. My cabin would have been one room and all the furniture handmade. Our meal would most likely be blackberries, fish, deer and other wild game. Fast forward to today, and I need to purchase a gas stove this week from Lowes. Somehow the stove seems to take away from my vision of having a cozy cabin in the woods that reconnects me to nature and simpler times. So on my list of projects to get close to recreating that feeling is canning my own fresh picked berries this summer and picking up some pioneer - log cabin type cookbooks. Here's one cookbook I found called Log Cabin Lewis & Clark Cookbook. Here's the link: http://www.campchef.com/catalog/item/8/65/0/BK-CSLC/23/Log+Cabin+Lewis+&+Clark+Cookbook.html

Also, if anyone has some cookbook suggestions that would be perfect for a "log cabin meal" - please send them my way. Thanks!!

Log Cabin Ceilings

I like the way the log beams look on the ceilings of our log cabin. I love laying in bed and looking up at the ceiling at the perfectly spaced beams. They have individual characteristics with their coloring and knot holes. The best part is they are very useful and can be used with your log cabin decor. The 2 main level bedrooms have rustic bronze lights hanging from the middle beams drawing attention to the architecture of the logs. We hung our kitchen track lighting on one log beam. The lights point in different directions highlighting different areas in the cabin. On the beam of our loft are 2 ceiling fans. However, one fan is over 20 feet from our 2-story living room floor. How are we going to change that light bulb??