IMH 74:4 346

"Chronicles of Upper Burnet" (1)

Monday, November 15th.

It was cloudy all day, snowed a little about noon and blew very cold, andraw, and hard from the south all day.
Father and I went to Donald Bain's with the wagon and got some seasoned lumber to make barn doors of. We
came back and Alvin and Father went to making the doors while I hauled two loads of wood for the fire-place
from across the creek, I then unhitched the horses, stabled them, and chored around till night. After supper I
went up and heard Mr. Runyon reason to the sinners without visible effect. I was at home by 8.30 o'clock.
A hog of Bain's caused us some trouble again but finally disappeared.

Teaching notes: Ask the students what "seasoned" lumber is and why they wanted to use it on the doors.
Of course, the season lumber was dried and would not shrink allowing of a tight fitting door. The sides of
the building were made of green lumber with one nail through the board through the middle on each cross member
and then then a narrower board was nail over  the lap ( again with one nail/member). This allowed the
wood to shrink and remain airtight. If you used more than one nail per cross member, the board would
crack when it shrank. You might draw this on the board so that they understand the concept. They might
even know of an old building in their neighborhood that uses this overlapping board system of siding.
Additionally, the nails of that era were "cut nails" and were probably fairly costly.