Log Cabin Hitty Day One

We live on a farm that has been in my husband’s family for generations.  In the back field stands what is left of my husbands great-great grandfather’s (Pappy) log cabin.

I’m currently gathering more history about the cabin, but what I have been able to find out so far is that it was built by Pappy (Reverend John Wilkes) in the mid 1800’s when he was in his 20’s.  It stood where our home stands now until my father-in-law moved it to the back field so that he could build the home we now live in.  Over the past few decades, the log cabin has slowly fallen to the ground where sadly, not much is left standing.

I mentioned the log cabin to a Hitty Girls member who lives in the same state as I do, Denise, and she suggested that I carve a Hitty from wood from the cabin.

I loved the idea, and today I began my journey to carve at least one log cabin Hitty, and hopefully many more as I salvage what wood can be saved from this wonderful piece of family history.

Here is the log cabin now, as one can see it’s in such bad shape that there’s no way to restore it.  Since it can’t be restored, I will save as much as I can and create Hittys, Hitty blanks  and hopefully doll furniture from those pieces that can be saved.

Here’s a photo of the old door knob, a simple chain hanging on the door frame.  Isn’t this primitive and charming?!?

Here’s the beam I plan to start with.  It’s fallen away from the cabin and was the easiest piece to pull to the shop to begin working on.

Here’s a few more photos showing other beams I intend to get, once I figure out how to get them safely away from the cabin without injury.  My father in law suggested just pulling the walls completely down, but I wasn’t brave enough to do that today so I simply grabbed my first beam instead.

Well, enough fun with the camera, it’s now time for work.  Here I have attached the trusty chain to the beam so that I can pull it to the workshop with my truck.

Here I am hauling the beam up the back drive, once I had navigated out of the field.

And finally, I now have the beam in front of the shop.  Since it’s too long to take right into the shop, I plan to cut a good piece off the end to work on.

And now the real fun begins, let’s start making our first Log Cabin Hitty!

First I try a regular saw.

Fifteen minutes later I am sweating in the southern summer heat, and seeing that my efforts have been pretty pathetic so far.  This wood is old, and it is HARD to saw through.

So I next grab my hatchet and chop a few chops, before realizing that the hatchet just won’t cut it either.  Sigh, now to try my handy dandy ax, the big boy!

An hour later I am about to croak, it’s hot, my Gatorade is gone and I’m still not done chopping off a piece of wood to take into the shop.

I’m now beginning to think of names for my Log Cabin Hitty, so far Hitty Pain, Hitty Misery and Hitty Headache has crossed my mind.

It looks like I am almost done, but right here is where I hit the rock hard wood that refuses to chop away no matter how hard I try.

I sit down to rest and begin pondering my options.  I figure I have 4 things I can do at this point.  Drag the beam back to the field and give up, which I am too tired and stubborn to do.   Grab the chain saw, which I am too scared to do.  Call my step dad to come help, which would take too long to do since he would not be able to get here till the weekend.  Grab the hacksaw and beg the kids for help….yep that works for me!

My 13 year old daughter quickly volunteers for the job, and starts sawing away with the hacksaw.

Another 15 minutes later, she is almost through the wood but since she is close to the ground the hacksaw isn’t working well any longer.  Not to mention the blade got pretty dull pretty darn fast!

So I let her try the hatchet, and she takes a few swing with it after we turn the beam over.

After a few more chops, we are both so tired that we just want to pass out under the water hose.  But we haven’t even gotten the wood chopped off yet!

I grab the ax and chop as hard as I can and YIPEEEE, it finally breaks free!

We are now done getting a smaller piece of wood to wok with in the shop.  Or so I thought.

Upon closer inspection, I decide it would be better to split the piece into 4 pieces so that I would have smaller pieces to work with.  There’s already a split in the wood so I figure this would be an easy task to do.

The wood on the inside is fragrant pine, and a beautiful color!  I want my Hitty to be made from the hard wood on the inside and not the fragile rotted wood on the edges, so I grab my handy dandy screwdriver and start hammering it into the wood to split it.

After a few whacks I realize that the screwdriver won’t split it like I thought it would, so I attempt to remove it only to find it stuck in the wood as if it’s been welded into the wood.

Hitty Dot hears I am about to give up, and since she wants a Log Cabin Sister she runs into the yard to help so that we will continue our work.

Hitty Dot can’t get the screwdriver loose either and after ten minutes of tugging and sweating we’ve about had enough “fun” for the day.

This is when my 8 year old daughter comes up bringing me my chair, she sits it under the Pecan Tree and then it hits me.  Why in sam hill did I pull this beam right in front of the shop, in the horrid heat, when I could have been working in the shade?!?

I move the piece of wood to the shade, and Hitty Dot promptly steals my chair.  “Hurry person, make my Log Cabin Hitty Sister” she says.  I just growl at her as I continue tugging on the screwdriver.

My 13 year old daughter comes to the rescue and pulls the screwdriver out of the log, as I fall to the ground begging for water.  She made it look SO easy!

I lay on the ground wanting to bawl like a baby when my daughter hands me an ice cold diet coke.  I make Hitty Dot get out of my chair and rest for a moment while talking to my daughters.  My 8 year old daughter is very excited by now, she can’t wait to get a Hitty made from her Pappy’s log cabin.

Her joy and excitement makes all the work worthwhile, so it’s now time to begin work again.

I search for something more suitable for splitting the wood, and find an old railroad nail beside the shop.  Aha, let’s see if this does better if I use the trusty sledge hammer.

And it works!

The log is now split, thanks to nail, sledge hammer and a bit more sweat.

Hitty Dot promptly sits on it and says “Oh boy, I am beginning to see my new sister being born, she is going to be beautiful”!

I then take the pieces and split them one more time, so that I now have 4 smaller pieces of wood to work with.

Hitty Dot sees that I am tired, so she rolls one of the pieces into the shop for me.

Once in the shop, the work progresses much faster.

Using my scroll saw, I cut off the rotten wood from one end.

I then measure and cut a piece for the body and leg blanks.

By this time Hitty Dot can’t contain her excitement, so she grabs the measured wood and prepares to cut it.

“Is this how I was born” she asks excitedly.  “Yes, pretty much, this is how you were born too Hitty Dot” I reply.

“Oh this is exciting, I never realized how much work is put into making a Hitty like me” exclaims Hitty Dot.

“Well actually since you are made of basswod Hitty Dot, you were easier to make because you started out as a block of wood already of the proper size.  A man named John then cut the wood into a blank and sold you to me so that I could carve your personality.  So it wasn’t as difficult making you as it is to make your sister”.  I replied.

And after todays work, we now have 2 blocks that can be cut into blanks for the log cabin Hitty.  We have a good block for the body, and a good block for the legs.   Here I show my Sara Cole Blank pattern on top of one block, so one can see how the Hitty will emerge into a proper sized Hitty blank.

This is all we will get done today, I hope to get the arm block done after I have laid in the bed in an air conditioned home for the next day, week, month or maybe even a year.

It’s been alot of work, but the smiles on my childrens faces, and the idea of preserving a part of history in such a unique way, makes it all worthwhile.