The biggest lie I tell myself lately : I'll just watch one episode of Townsend

I made a bark roof on a clubhouse when I was a kid. I put moss on top of the bark to hold it down and protect it. it lasted years

This log cabin building series is an American treasure. So many went before you, and built these, and the knowledge faded. But you’re bringing this process to life again, shown to so many through modern means. Thank you so much for this.

I built a shelter once and the roof cover was bracken and moss covered in sod or turf, but in the UK we have the rain to keep it alive. It was super water proof because the grass and moss "eat" all the rain. Nice video I love it.

The most awesome series ever.

I hope when it's done you plant crops and keep stock nearby, maybe even do another series about living in it and cooking in it.

The flagstones which formed the roof of my old farmhouse were secured with sheep bones in place of nails. I'm guessing they used a bow-drill to make holes in the stones which must have been hard work.

I love how it appears that you have two smaller guys and two big guys in this build and there is a clear and huge benefit to both. So often being small or being big is seen as a pure disadvantage, but this build definitely needed both types to succeed. Looks exhausting, but everyone must feel pretty accomplished to have made so much progress already.

It would be really cool to get a group of students, high school or college-age, to come help, work, and learn history in the process.

OMG it's really coming together, Jon's cabin AND Jon's dream of a historic homestead! And i know that now, when the first tengable object is about to be ready, that this is going to be a whole new level of incentive for everyone! I've been subbed for years and i remember this guy in his 18th century kitchen (read: remodeled garden shed) being so enthusiastic, and now this - all i can say, may your dream come true! All the best to you and lovely people supporting you! i'd help if i could, but i'm almost penniless and in Europe, so i can only wish you good luck!

Pa, in the Little House Series (not the TV show, the actual books) made wooden pegs for the roof of their cabin.

Your normal videos are good. This series is great! I'm sure it was daunting to plan but you are filming something here rarely equalled by high budget living history channels. Well done!

From my experience, I would suggest cutting the purlins back to an even overhang, then cover them to their ends (or maybe an inch or two beyond) with bark. If the tulip logs are left exposed to direct rain they will start deteriorating after five or six years.

Watching these videos is seriously one way to relax- while watching others break their backs working! 😂

I'm amazed at how effective as nails those thorns are! Wouldn't want to tread on one of them.

Fair. Having built many an Alaskan log cabin, there are quite a few things I’d have likely done differently. (Laying the bark laterally, laying Moss on top for insulation, etc.). But this is incredibly amazing! My only regret is not filming my own endeavors.

My Swedish ancestors used birch bark and then laid sod on top. Very effective and lasts for years.

Words can not describe how enjoyable this is. I can't wait for Part 3.

Thank you for sharing this with us. This is truly the purest form of living history.

This channel and Primative Technology are the most relaxing channels on KZfaq.

This is a great series! A few of my re-enactment friends have recently decided to build my son a log cabin playhouse. We are going to build it with all time period construction and tools. This has been a wealth of knowledge to watch and learn.

Jon I'm sure we are seeing the short version of the cabin building for the weekly channel updates but when you are finished a couple hour long directors cut of all the footage that was edited out would be great. Great job so far; jealous that I'm not there helping out as I'm sure are a lot of us.

To the Townsends crew: You should all be very proud of the accomplishments you have achieved, when you grow to be old men you will be able to look back on the things you have built and know that in a world that has been cheapened and tarnished with the scourge of technology, you did great things that no amount of machinery or computer aided drafting could ever duplicate. You have given us a glimpse of the greatness that once built our nation and shown us that great men can still create great things with their own hands. God bless and long live the Republic.

Great work. So interesting to see how the chimney was built. Thank you for keeping this history alive and accessible.

I will likely never build a log cabin, but I am loving this series so much. So exciting to watch the progress and to see how you guys figure things out as you go.

Wow. that quite a milestone in the construction of this cabin. I'm very impressed.

I can tell you one thing a wolf will not be able to blow this home down. May God continue to bless you and the crew to continue to do what you all do.

I just loved this video! I'm trying to think of something more specific to say, but all I can say is it was real pleasure to watch!

I’m so enjoying this series, can’t wait to see the next installment

One thing is for sure: no shortage of firewood when building a cabin like this! I love how everything can be used with these materials, even excess pieces of wood are useful!

I have learned more about log cabin construction in two episodes than I have in TWO YEARS of researching. I can't wait for the next episode!

A sure way to further waterproof that roof is by coating the bark with a mixture of tallow and pine resin sprinkled with nutmeg. The chemical reaction is very powerful and will also scare jackalopes, squatches, vegans and other forest beasties. Wonderful video and thanks for the upload. 🤣💖🌰

I adore this channel! This project is so amazing to watch! Also, the sheer human ingenuity that went into figuring out how to use the natural materials in the land and the engineering that went into putting it all together is truly astonishing.

This was beautiful and Mr James I believe it is if I’m correct is such a happy fellow never once seen a frown on his face

Besides being incredibly intersting, this series on the Homestead is also absolutely beautifully filmed.

Jon, I said it about the canoes, I'll say it again here - what a phenomenal series. I'd love to see these construction videos become the new 18th century cooking, and I'm so glad you've had the opportunity to pursue these projects and share them all with us.

If you guys ever feel like building a period root cellar, we're not far away..... ;)

I am seriously, seriously impressed that even your hammers are authentic to the time period. Your commitment to living history is inspiring

I don’t care at all about the pioneer years of America, I’m not even American, but like this whole house building thing is just so relaxing to watch, I love it

12:58 I know it is not historically accurate to the period - though a few examples far predate this era including Hypocausts in Rome and the Ondol in Korea to name a couple. A combination wood cooking stove with exhaust under the floor and out an external chimney would be a great use of resources and provide efficient cooking and heating capabilities. The entire thing could be constructed out of sand/clay/found stone and if protected from extensive rain erosion would be very durable.

Love it. As a teacher, the best "teachable moments" are reflecting on what didn't work. Do it again, do it right, and give us a video that looks at both, where we can see learning from the mistakes.

I find this video utterly fascinating. Living in in a country where we build a lot with logs, and groving up with a grandfather who made ready to build log constructions for sale, at home on the farm, I have never seen such a basic log building like this. I am so set in my head that logs should be prepared to fit perfectly, it take power tools or a winter of hand tools it be, I am amazed at the ease by which you put up that cabin. Here I think we have been preparing the logs since mediaval times, probably since Norse times. The presentation was excellent. You have good pedagogical skills. Also the "feel" of the video. Or pace. Excellent for the kind of history (building) you presented. A big thumbs up to you, and continue your good work.

Wow! I love this video! The drone shots of the cabin are amazing! It’s awesome to see how a cabin was built back then. Thank you for all of your hard work!

Loving this series! I've been blown away by all the little details, although I was bit of a sad panda when it came to the doors and windows. Really wanted to see how that problem was tackled. Looking forward to the finished product. I think it would be cool to do some cooking videos there.

Delighted to see you using compound pulleys! I was wondering when you'd finally put them to use!

Very nice! When I was a kid, I’d watch frontier tv shows on PBS. This brought that memory back!

I LOVE it! All that work has come together to make logs.... a home. Beautiful. Be well.

Epic!!! Love this Saga of the Cabin!! Great camera work, too. Thank you!!!!

I always enjoy checking in to a townsends video :)

Nothing like doing this kind of physical work to give you an appreciation for how tough they were back then. Could you imagine being on something like a pit-saw crew cutting lumber for much of the year; just the day-in, day-out repetitive sawing action on your arms...

videography, music, editing - superb

Hello! John from Ireland here. Have you done any videos about music in the Colonies in the 1700s? Loving the Log House series so far 👍👌👏👏👏

I never really had an appreciation for history and never did like my history classes, but this channel really has opened up my mind. Love your work!

In Australia, we have a song called "The old Bark Hut", One verse goes The table's just a sheet of bark Gawd knows when it was cut It was blown down orf the rafters Of the old bark hut It's probably ripped off from old English music, and into American, Australian and New Zealand colonial traditions. When you look at their building methods, and say things like " I could build faster, and better", you need to include...."what did you eat? how long does hunting and farming take?"

This series has been even more interesting than the cooking videos. Really amazed at the different types of tools and axes needed; can’t imagine how hardy the folks were who moved across our lands, living off it for sustenance at the same time.

That looks so comfortable. I can't wait to see it finished. I love this series, I love this channel.

I can't wait to see the finished cabin. I hope they fill in those gaps with something!

I'm really impressed, you guys have worked so hard on this!

I got to this pretty late. but I have to exclaim that the journey is SO exciting!!! to each of the gentlemen and (little munchkin that was filmed in the early stages), my hat is bowed to you all. What an adventure!!!!!

A big thank you to you & your “crew”. If you decide to build another I would sure like to volunteer, not with help, I’m to old for that, but could handle the cookin.

I feel like one of the requirements to be an employee at Townsend's gets to be big and strong they leave the little guys in the office

I love how enthusiastic you are about history and preserving it by living it.

Wouldn't a Ship building series be just pure gold? Most wholesome channel ever

Just flexing on us sasquatches I don't even have a roof out here in my woods

What was the splinter count per person. Quite enjoyable videos.

12 minutes and 34 seconds in... When you're inside the building looking around and the sun is shining through the logs... It is absolute Heaven!!

Really starting to come together. What a beautiful cabin!

I am so happy to see this come together. Thank you for making history live.

This project is fascinating. Looking forward too seeing the stone fireplace come together.

Stew-cooking, Cabin-building gentlemen. What wonderful husbands you must be!

Come across this channel a Week ago and i havent been able to STOP watching. Love the style and the history behind the way things were done. Thank you for this. God Bless

wow, living in those days was a real feat. Glad I live in 2019

I would have eaten like a wolf after a day like that... :-) Looking good so far!

I wanted you to know that I just found your channel less than a week ago and have been on what one might call a binge ever since. I've also shared your channel with several of my history and cooking nerd friends. While your 18th century cooking videos are my favorite, I absolutely love when you do "historical how-to" segments as well. It's the dedication and efforts of people such as yourself, your customers, and your viewers that keep history alive for successive generations, and I want to extend a very heartfelt THANK YOU!

Townsends would be the coolest place to work! Such a great blend of history and craftsmanship in everything you do.

This series is awesome! I'm looking forward to the part three and beyond.

I'm so impressed and proud of all of you!! What an amazing job!! It looks great!

Way back in the 1960s I was working on a farm for a lady who came to our county in a covered wagon. One of her "barns" was actually logs running from one side of a ravine to the other....and covered with dirt. She told me her father built it sometime in the 1920s. It had cypress logs, what looked like layers of bark and then dirt...Miss Pearl must have been in her mid 90s back then. The barn was dark and musty, but afforded good shelter for her farm animals.

I helped with the construction of a new roof for the smokehouse at the Vause stockade (1750's era reproduction) at Explore Park in the Blue Ridge Mts. of Virginia, years ago. One of the tricks was to get the right angle on the roof. If you used too shallow of an angle, then the roof would leak, which was exactly what happened originally. So the roof came off, was built up to a slightly higher angle and we put cedar shingles on it. That's where I helped - cutting the shingles from these huge cedar stumps (4-ft diameter that had been cut to length) from local trees. The tool we used was called a "shingle froe". Basically you'd pound it into the stump until the 6" or so thick blade was in the wood and then pull sideways on it to split that section off. You could continued to push it farther down and pull against it if the piece didn't just come off entirely. Most of them came straight off surprisingly easily. Roof no longer leaked when we were done.

Yay!!! I love your project experiments! I love watching how things come together. Great job guys! Thank you for sharing! :-)

This is a fascinating series and I absolutely love the background music in this episode!

Using minimum nails and modern aspects are just wonderful. The old ways are revived by you guys.

Watching the build is almost emotional; in a good way. To see the fellowship and teamwork is amazing. Even the tools of the time puts a perspective I did not realize. Great episode

Just make sure your chimney flue has the right pitch to it, that's very important

These videos are amazing! I just showed my students the log cabin building video as we are studying colonial America and the settlement of North Carolina.. I thought my students would be bored, but they were awed by it. Our students really need to see the hard work, perseverance and sacrifice our forefathers and fore mothers made! My students, surprisingly, want to now start a project where we build a log cabin!!! Thanks for creating these quality resources!

Really enjoying the cabin build series. It must be a phenomenal amount of work, but it is appreciated and enjoyed.

Love seeing your channel grow. Watching you go from 400k subscribers to over a million. Congratulations!

Love watching the progress on this project John. BTW are you a kitterfist? My late father's terminology for a left handed person🤣. Best wishes from Northern Ireland.

You are making a mistake with the door and window openings. You are adding vertical pieces that you can affix the door and window to. The mistake is nailing it to each log. There should be a slip joint that will allow the wall logs to shrink and settle. You are working with green wood. Also there should be a few inches of settling space at the top of the door and window frames. If you don't do that the windows will break as the logs settle and the door will not open.

To finally get a show and tell explanation of house the wall ends and roof were built is great. Thank You.

This is amazing! I love seeing this happen. Congratulations to all of you who did this work!

Now I’m curious how you keep termites from just having a field day with this.

I wonder why wattle and daub wasn't used? That's an old technology I'm sure settlers might have known about? Or is it a case of log cabin is easier because you are in a forest?

I'm so glad to learn more about these old cabins they are really awesome.

This may be one of the best you tube series i have ever watched. I am so excited to see whats left as the cabin is completed. Thanks to all involved for keeping this so real into the time period. It shows just what it was like for my Ancestors who came to this country in 1662 from England. They settled near what was near old Leedstown VA.

Y’all need to do a video or a live Q&A where we can ask questions about learns, take aways, problem solving, thoughts on technique and tool use...I’m interested in how the application of theory worked in this project and how you problem solved in the moment...

I love the mad lad that's eating off of a knife

Kinda reminds me of a cabin in the playground of my elementary school. It was a flat wood kinda cabin that had openings between each beam and then had a metal cage ‘fire place’. We use to climb up on the roof all the time, good memories

The effort you put into your videos is amazing, it makes me remember trips to my local historical villages when I was a kid. I loved it and still do!

Are they going to seal up the walls so there aren't gaps or are the gaps supposed to be there?