Building a Log Cabin
By Rodney Syler
After graduating from college and teaching for a while, I went to
work in the lab at Jack Daniels Distillery.
I bought nine acres and began building a log cabin in my spare time. Part of
the job, a few days a week, at Jack Daniel, required me to process some filters
and there was dead time between turning valves on and off. I needed to learn
how to build a cabin so I checked out books from local libraries and read up on
everything from finishing concrete (with the help of my brother), to properly
installing shingles. There was a lot to learn. Fortunately, I was adept with
tools so that helped.
Over the course of the three years, I spent building the cabin,
I read about twenty books. (Concrete, wiring, laying blocks, design and
building a chimney, plumbing, notching logs, these, and many more.) In school, I
read only whatever was required for a course. Building the cabin, each time a
task came up, I read a book that explained how and why.
I lived nearby and once the foundation was dug and the concrete poured for the
basement, I began sleeping on site.
I would get off work at four p.m., work on the house till one a.m. Roll out the
sleeping bag, eat some peanut butter, set the alarm clock for 6:30, and sleep
like the dead on the cool concrete. The next day, rinse and repeat.
Occasionally friends would come over and help with a big log etc. but for the
most part, it was a one man operation. I loved it! Though many of you don’t
even know what an eight track tape player is, that was my companion. I would
slap Credence Clearwater Revival or Olivia Newton John in the car player with
the windows down and it might play through all eight or ten songs five times before
I took time to climb down and swap the tape.
Any of you have favorites from the early seventies? Anyone besides me still
have an eight-track player and tapes?
It was not all work and no play. Usually, one day a week, Don and Alice or Gore
and others would come by or meet me in town. Great times with great friends.
The cabin came together. Gradually, I got it furnished and was all set. I had a
good job, a car, a truck, a dirt bike, a home and land. All paid for with hard
work. I even had a Mountain Curr dog, Jed sleeping on the porch.
Perfect time for the love of my life to come into the
picture. Enter Lisa, stage left.
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