victoria, Author at Save Our Skills

25 Minutes to a Mosquito-free Summer

There are some tasks around a rural property that just never seem to get done, either because they seem unimportant compared to all the big-ticket tasks that need to be finished, or they’re perceived as just too fiddly. One of those tasks is repairing damaged bug screens on doors and windows. Recently, I replaced the screen on one of my doors and thought I’d share this simple, 5-step guide so you can have a mosquito and fly free this summer – at least inside…

Here’s the link to the 5 step guide, including photos.

Heritage Log Cabin Restoration in 5 Steps

original-cabin-3-300x195 — The Original Cabin

Back in the late 1990s I came across an old homesteader’s cabin about to fall into a state of ‘beyond saving’. As a heritage architecture buff, I instantly wanted to restore it. Only one problem – it was sitting on someone else’s property. So after some negotiation with the out-of-town owner, a hand-written bill of sale and $150 cash, I found myself in possession of an (at that time) 70 year old hand-hewn log cabin made from old growth western red cedar and trimmed with old growth Douglas fir. To say we didn’t know what we were in for in the restoration is an understatement, but with a remarkably sound building (even after 50 years of sitting abandoned) and much ingenuity, we were able to bring it back to it’s original glory, and then some. Now, 12 years or so later, it is my home.

Here’s the story: 5 Steps to restoring a log cabin