Logs, Wind and Sun: Handcraft Your Own Log Home . Then Power It with Nature

Logs, Wind and Sun (now completely revised and released under a new title, Crafting Log Homes Solar Style) is an inspiring, hands-on guide to self-sufficiency that takes you through every aspect of handcrafting a log home and then bringing it to life using power from the wind and sun. With a minimum of equipment and outside labor, the authors built their own log home from the ground up and installed a renewable energy system that supplies all the electricity they need to live and work comfortably, far from the nearest power line. Drawing on their own experiences, and those of others in the Colorado Rockies, they show you simply and enjoyably just how attainable off-the-grid, log home living can be. In the log-home building section, author Rex Ewing discusses site selection, plans and permits, excavation and foundation work, lifting and building with logs, roof framing, log settling issues, chinking and finishing logs. The renewable energy section includes 'A New Philosophy of Freedom', harvesting solar and wind energy, heating of house and water, and pumping water. And for the woman's point of view, you will find LaVonne's LogBooks, a chronological diary of their two-year log-home project. Filled with over 300 photos and illustrations, plus a comprehensive appendix with additional resources.

Rex and LaVonne Ewing currently live and work from their solar- and wind-powered log home in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. After handcrafting two log homes in the 1980s, Rex spent several years raising Thoroughbred horses and operating an equine nutrition firm, where he formulated and marketed numerous nutrition products worldwide. In 1997, he wrote a best-selling book on horse nutrition, Beyond the Hay Days: Refreshingly Simple Horse Nutrition, and has been published by several equine publications. Since leaving the corporate world, Rex has been hard at work building their dream home, and writing novels and nonfiction books, including Power With Nature; Got Sun? Go Solar; and HYDROGEN Hot Stuff Cool Science. An award-winning graphic designer, LaVonne is the owner of Image Resource, a graphic design firm that specializes in book design, art catalogs, and corporate identities. Combining their writing and design talents, Rex and LaVonne established PixyJack Press in the mid-1990s.