The nation’s premier log home magazine, Log Home Living encourages the dream of log home ownership. Each issue celebrates the log home lifestyle, provides practical advice, and offers photo tours of the nation’s most beautiful log homes.
The world of magazine publishing is a highly competitive and fickle place. The average newsstand has hundreds of titles all shouting for your attention. But it’s not about who’s the loudest. To be successful, a magazine has to provide the information its audience wants to know. It also has to stay true to its core mission while simultaneously adapting with the times. It can feel like a tightrope walk — I’m not going to lie — but the challenge is every bit as thrilling. Since magazines come and go every day, the fact that we’ve been doing what we love for 40 years and counting is a feat to celebrate. And while many publications mark this kind of milestone with a look back at where they’ve been, we think it’s…
Q: How do I save money without compromising my vision for my dream home? A: Having and sticking to a realistic budget prevents your log or timber dream home from becoming a nightmare. The first step is to plan in advance what you want, need and can afford. Use these smart strategies to achieve building and budgeting success. ▪ Be honest about your budget. For your home to live up to your expectations, everyone needs to be on the same page before you start the design-build process. Your team of experts may surprise you with what’s possible within your price range.▪ Focus on rightsizing. Think about your lifestyle and your needs both now and in the future, like whether you’ll need lots of entertaining space or room for a home…
The prospect of building a custom house on a virgin piece of property is a large part of the appeal of building a log or timber home. And while most people realize and accept that they’ll need to figure out how to source electrical, water and septic services, there are other aspects to consider when you’re developing raw land. It all starts with location. Find the Best Site on the Site You may think that once you’ve purchased that perfect parcel, your concern with finding the ideal location is over, but it’s not. Next, you have to define the best location to place the house on that property. This where you’ll start the initial clearing, but underlying site conditions, such as the soil itself, bedrock, flood-plain issues, etc., may require…
If you’re interested in owning a log or timber home, chances are you are also planning to build that house on some acreage — often 5 to 10 acres or more. While you likely conducted a survey of the entire parcel before buying the land, you may want to order a second survey to break out a 1-acre parcel on which you will construct the actual home. There are several good reasons to do this: ▪ First — financing. It’s more difficult to find financing for a building on 15 acres than it is for 1 acre. Traditional mortgage options are more readily available for smaller lots (typically less than 3 acres), while specialty lenders, such as Farm Credit, handle developing large tracts of land. By having a surveyor cordon…
Adapted from Garden Gate magazine with permission Spotted cucumber beetles Spotted cucumber beetles’ favorite plants Most any type of flower; also beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, melons and other edibles. What type of damage do cucumber beetles cause? Adults chew irregular holes in flowers, leaves and fruit from summer to fall, and larvae (known as Southern corn root-worm) often transmit bacterial wilt disease. In addition to chewing holes, the adult cucumber beetle can carry bacterial wilt and cucumber mosaic virus, both of which quickly kill plants. How to control spotted cucumber beetles Mix up and water beneficial nematodes into the soil late in the day in midsummer to control the larvae. To get rid of beetles, grow plants that attract natural predators, such as braconid wasps. Japanese beetles Japanese beetles’ favorite plants…
Dr. Barth Conard, a retired orthopedic trauma surgeon and Indiana resident, recounts his family’s experience setting up camp at their Kentucky cabin getaway. My wife is from Louisville, Kentucky, and has a big family. Maybe it’s like this everywhere, but people from Louisville like to move back to Louisville. (As a matter of fact, she’s telling me we’re going to move back there!) So, it was necessary to have a presence near her family, and this home appealed to us because it was in the wilderness. It’s a 5-acre lot with its own septic field. It feels very isolated, like you’re in the absolute hills and hollers of Kentucky, yet it’s only 20 minutes from Louisville. We’ve had the chance to be all over the place, and I just really…
