Part X - Replacement Logs

October, 2009 - March, 2010

In late 2009, I finally found a source for new replacement logs. After determining that I needed approximately 10 new logs, I first set out looking for logs close to home.

The obvious source would be the Medina River, which lay about a mile from the site of the original cabin and was obviously the source for the original cypress logs, since cypress only grows around rivers.

In 2006, I had kayaked down the Medina River and seen plenty of cypress trees:

The problem is that Texas now prohibits harvesting of new cypress from rivers. The only ones you can get are those which have died or been pushed over in floods. I had seen some such trees in my kayak trip, but they were hardly predictable, and while the river is open to the public, the trees are property of landowners.

Any trees I would have find would have required me to 1. identify the landowner (which would require GPS mapping and research at the courthouse), 2. seek permission 3. get to the location with a vehicle suitable to get the log 4. harvest the rather large and heavy logs, which may mean pulling them from the river, moving them across the river (using some kind of block and tackle) and then transport them home.

In 2009, I went back to the river on land owned by a friend of my mom’s and the best I could find there was one potential log – and it was on an island in the middle of the river.

This, therefore, was not going to happen.

So, I began searching on the Internet and discovered that the only possible sources for cypress wood would have to come from the East, with the closest being Louisiana. Fortunately, I stumbled upon a company right down the road from my house in Austin, Jimmy's Cypress, which I thought might fit the bill. Having a place not too far away was a big deal, because my replacement logs would be the biggest cost of the project - more than the original house itself cost. The best I could do would be a couple hundred dollars per log - plus shipping. If I was going to put down a couple thousand dollars on logs that I could not possibly see firsthand before they shipped, I wanted to have real human beings with whom to talk the project over.

Working with Emili Krantz, the wife of business owner Jimmy Krantz, I was able to feel comfortable that the product I was going to get would fit my needs. The logs would be slightly smaller in diameter than my original ones, but larger logs like mine are frankly really hard to come by. But the difference was not too great, and if I adjusted the notches on my new logs, they would easily work.

So I put in an order and had to wait. I needed 10 logs, 16' long. It would take them a while to separate out some that worked to my specifications. No problem, I thought. I won't be able to build until the summer anyway.

Finally, in March, my logs arrived, delivered on a flatbed truck.

My logs after arriving. Although I ordered 10, I got one extra. I'm not complaining. I figured I'd probably need everything I could get.

So we got out the John Deere tractor and prepared to unload them. (Note the bumper sticker)

After carefully snapping the bands holding the logs together (careful in case they decided to roll on their own), I got out of the way and took pictures as brother Ray prepares to unload them with the aid of the tractor.


Ray unloading the logs:

Finally, the logs are here. Now it's time to put up and shut up. Either I build the cabin or resign myself to having wasted a whole heck of a lot of time and energy: