Not exactly a review by Ed Quillen
Energy – December 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine
Logs, Wind and Sun
by Rex A. Ewing and LaVonne Ewing
Published in 2002 by PixyJack Press
ISBN 0-9658098-3-8
This book needs to be reviewed by someone else, for two reasons. One is that I don’t know a purlin from a soffit, and so I can’t judge its accuracy about construction. The other is that Rex Ewing was my best friend in high school (where we shared a goal of living in the mountains someday), and we’ve kept in touch over the years, so I couldn’t do a fair job. Thus a real review by someone else is in the works.
But I have read it, and it was a lot more engaging than the usual “how-to” book. There’s plenty of technical information and instruction, of course, but it’s also a journal of a couple who had a dream, and encountered many obstacles before they got there.
The dream was a log home in the mountains, off-the-grid with its electric power coming from solar panels and a wind generator. The obstacles started with a log delivery that came up a mile short, and continued through contractors who didn’t show up, forcing them to learn a lot of techniques that they would have preferred to leave to the pros.
It’s good reading, and along the way, there’s a host of technical information and guidance which should be of use if you’ve got any interest in going off the grid yourself. Logs, Wind and Sun offers anecdotes and advice from someone who’s been there and done that.
