This week was marked by a big event on the home front. We hired people to put chinking on parts of our log house. For those not in the know about log building, chinking is the stuff that goes in between the logs to keep the wind from whipping through your house. In pioneer days, chinking was made out of mud or other local earthy stuff. Now it’s basically really expensive caulking.
Technically, we live in a house that is supposed to be chink-less. Our logs are milled logs that are cupped on one side so that they set into each other. Unlike a hand-hewn log house, which is a) way more expensive b) considered more chic, our house logs are all the same size. So the theory is that the house doesn’t really need to be chinked.
But the theory is wrong. The reality is that you have to cut holes in the logs to put in windows and doors. Because logs shrink, expand, and settle, you can end up with gigantic gaps in between the windows and the logs. So after 8 years of arctic winter cold wooshing through the living room, we spent the big bucks.
The chinking guys didn’t do the whole house (i.e. between every log) but they did the corners and around the windows. In fact, when they left, the guys said they found many gross dead bugs and (live) bats behind the window trim. Eww. Apparently, contrary to resident theory, not ALL the stink bugs in North Idaho made it inside our house. How very foul.
The process was not without excitement. I was having e-mail problems and there was a lot of thumping outside (chinking guys) and barking (hounds) and yelling (me) inside. It was a long day.
As winter approaches, we’ll find out if we’ve met the goal of the house not being sub-arctic this winter. We can only hope. The two-inch gaps around the windows couldn’t have been a good thing after all.
And maybe, just maybe, I won’t have to worry about stink bugs falling on my head while I’m lying in bed. That would be a *really* good thing.