The Log Home Industry Expert

A forest fire roared past our log cabin within a few feet of the front porch. The fire rolled up the canyons from the Salmon River where it started burning three neighboring cabins to their foundations. An older cabin on our property was also totally engulfed by flames and destroyed. Our main cabin was directly in the path of the fire as forest service hot shot crews pumped water from a creek in an attempt to save it. As a wall of fire approached our cabin, the firefighters were forced to flee fearing they would be surrounded without an escape route. By some miracle, the wind shifted at the last possible seconds moving the fire past without igniting our log cabin or an adjacent group of pine trees.

This is our family cabin. We built it in 1994 on an old mining claim that was passed down through my wife’s family. It’s located in the rugged mountains above the Salmon River next to the Gospel Wilderness in Central Idaho. This is some of the most primitive and undeveloped country remaining in the lower 48 states. The Salmon River, also known as “the river of no return,” is the longest un-damned and naturally flowing river remaining in the United States outside of Alaska. The Salmon traverses the entire midsection of Idaho joining the Snake River at the mouth of Hell’s Canyon to form the Columbia River. Over eons, the awesome hydraulic power of the Salmon and the Snake rivers cut deep canyons and gorges through the earth - deeper than even the Grand Canyon. During drought years, these tree lined canyons provide perfect tinder for forest fires. The steep grade and inaccessibility makes fighting fires almost impossible once they start. This summer, over 2 million acres have burned in Idaho – more burned acreage than all other States combined. It’s been a terrible year for fire and a terrible loss.

Our cabin is located more than 5,000 feet above the floor of the Salmon River. There is no cell or phone service, no electricity and the only running water is pumped from a creek that runs in front of the cabin. It’s barely accessible over a rough and rocky road that hasn’t been improved much since miners cut the road through forests and boulder fields for their horse drawn supply wagons. You really have to be motivated to get there but once you make the trip, the country is spectacular. The high mountain lakes are chocked full of cutthroat, brook and rainbow trout. There are deer, elk, moose, bear, mountain goat and bighorn sheep. In the sky, you will see bald and golden eagles, hawks and osprey to name a few. Wolves and cougars stalk the bigger animals while fox and coyotes hunt smaller prey. Every imaginable color of mountain flowers covers the glades and meadows surrounding our cabin.

My children have grown up looking forward to the annual journey to the cabin. They always liked being at the cabin more than any other activity. They are now young adults attending colleges out of State. When they talk about growing up in Idaho and childhood memories, inevitably it brings them back to the summers spent at the cabin exploring the mountains, hiking, fishing and horseback riding. As parents, it is the single best thing we’ve done for our kids - giving them the opportunity and time to be connected to the outdoors and each other.

Coming so close to losing our mountain home invoked the memories and emotions of all the precious time spent there with my family. At PrecisionCraft, we are lucky to be in the business of building “dream homes.” The prospect of losing my own dream home was a stark reminder of the importance of our work. It reminds me of the trust and faith our customers put in us when they make the decision to build their dream home. Our customers build their dream homes for many reasons – vacation, retirement - but most often, our log and timber homes are special places where the family gathers. Charles Dickens, who wrote several novels about orphaned children in search of a home said “Home is a name, a word, it is a strong one; stronger than magician ever spoke, or spirit ever answered to, in the strongest conjuration.” Dickens was right - dream homes are special and magical. They are the setting where magical memories are formed and families and friendships connect.

It becomes our responsibility to do the best job possible for our customers in understanding their vision of their dream home. Making sure the design is right and the building process runs smooth is just the start of creating the magic of a dream home.

Find out how to contact PrecisionCraft for your own log home.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 25th, 2007 at 10:08 pm and is filed under Log Home Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.