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Being self-sufficient has not gone out of style. Debt-free living is just as important a matter to people now as it ever has! We cannot rely on our employers or government to see to it that we are taken care of with all the market trickery and administration policy changes - we must look to provide for ourselves in ways that free us from dependance on them. The Enron fiasco and Worldcom collapse have shown us we can not be trusting our futures to privately & publicly held corporations and their

chosen leaders hands. Like- wise for the government

provide for our last years when we can no longer fight

for ourselves and are left with what can be taken away from

others so we might barely exist. (Taxes and State

Welfare programs).

A part of Debt-free living is achieving financial independance. Do you have a plan to achieve this? I can recommend a book - recommended to me by a student entitled, "Your Money or Your Life" that is all about a plan to get you there. Excellant book!

Learning to build your own handcrafted log home is a practical choice for many people as part of their plan to create a path to financial freedom. We want to take the time with you to show you what it means and encourage you to take action in the right direction!

Please read the following comments offered on a Log Home Forum

very recently - it optimizes the idea of building your own .......

As offered by Mark Fritsch, a Professional Handcrafted Log Home builder and board member of the International Log Builders Association on the LHOTI Log Home Forum.

"Here's one to look at. If you are concerned about the prudence of a log home, try on this one. I build high-end, handcrafted log homes here in Oregon. I built a 3,100 ft² home for a couple in 1993. You can see a photo of it on my home page at www.loghomz.com . The entire cost of the home was ~$350,000 in 1993. They put the home on the market 9 years later only because all of their family move to California; parents, children, and in-laws (go figure!). The house sold within three weeks for the full asking price of $799,000. Run the numbers on that one. A well built, handcrafted house will not depreciate like other homes will over time and with minimal maintenance, the house should last 4-500 years if designed properly. In fifty years, your house will still be a well designed, beautiful home. By that time, many frame house will be being torn down because they have exceeded their 'economic lifespan.' Putting your money into a well built, handcrafted log home is a sound investment. I don't think that my clients had any idea of how much their house had appreciated. Not to be fatalistic, but at some point almost all of us will retire to some sort of care facility. When that time comes, your log home will return a very handsome price; a very good investment to support you.

One last thought; when you are designing, try to look into your crystal ball and think of what the house and property will be providing for the future families that will live there and design for the future in mind as much as for your current needs. Good luck and let me know how it turns out!"

I'am in agreement with Mark on this - and what a great example of the kind of value derived from building a handcrafted log home. Even though these folks had it built for them, they still managed to do better than any Wall Street or Savings and Loan could have done with their money! Within 10 years they "made" almost $450,000.00 on their investment, (less land and other original costs.)

By building your own handcrafted log home, you can build for far less! Using your own hand-peeled logs (raw materials) you can build a log shell for your handcrafted log home, with training - and escape the "voluntary slavery" that is more commonly called "debt". Attendance of a hands-on log building workshop can be the best first step anyone could take to building debt free - just in savings on materials alone, you will save time and money by knowing what to do! As told in the following testiment while offering advice to another Owner/Builder -

"Joe Murray

I'm in your boat already, I will be finishing the 6th round of logs on my 36x32 log home this weekend. Scandanavian full scribe using white pine logs that are green. I have been at it for 7 months, doing 100% myself 150 miles from home on the weekends. I,m 42 years old, have 4 herniated disks and a little carpal tunnel to make it interesting. 18 years of moving furniture has taken its toll. This is my 1st log structure, plan on building a log gazebo when finished with home and that will be my last log structure.

I love the work, am handy with tools, taught myself to build furniture out of solid oak, so this is just a really big piece of furniture to me. So far the walls have been easy, hard work but not difficult. I went to Great Lakes School of Log Building in Minnesota, the cost was $950.00 and I,m sure I saved that much in logs that I did not ruin because of the classes. I would have attended Lasko School, it was closer but at the time he had no on site lodging. The biggest problem I have at this point is getting a good mark on the logs when scribing, the pencil will not always write on the logs for the lateral groove. I think this is from mildew on the logs but I am getting it done.

I do everything with a chainsaw (stihl 026) and a chisel to mark the edge of the notches so I get a clean edge. I also use a 4 1/2 angle grinder to sand up to the line on the laterals and to sand the saddles. I have found sanding to the scribe line is much more accurate then using a gouge or chisel. I did start to wonder why I was doing this after peeling logs for 2 months in 85-100 degree weather but once I got back to building it has been good. You can email me directly with any questions you have that are basic, if I cant answer it you can always ask the pros on the site. So building my log home has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.

Joe Murray , in the process of becoming a Logsmith!!!"

I salute Joe for going well beyond the limits and making the decision to build his own log home and then reaching out to another Owner/Builder to help and encourage him as well! This is what comes out of attending a hands-on log building workshop - the support from each other and from the school AFTER attending and completion. You are not left alone! Infact, students can return tuition free as often and long as they feel a need to, and attend subsequent log building workshops, bring a friend along and share tools with the tuition for the second person at $250.00 -- wether a four week or a two week! Emailing questions and answers back and forth is encouraged as well as phone calls. Many of our students have gone on to build their own log homes and started building professionally or as employees of a log building company!

We will return here and add more to our dialog on the important matter of creating a path to your financial independance and make our case for remaining committed to being available to offer our services - as one means of getting there. The combination of using raw materials directly from the forest, to create a substantial - solid and well built handcrafted log home from scratch, (that will not only maintain its worth but appreciate faster than other types of properties) and the goal for debt-free living and how being financially freed will change your life in postitive ways is exciting!