AY Honors/Pioneering/Answer Key
1
1a
Housing
The first European settlers in the New World came from England, and brought English building practices with them. In England, timber was scarce, and the building techniques reflected that scarcity. This really made little sense, because the East Coast of the New World where they settled was literally covered with timber. When the Swedes arrived around 1640, they introduced the log cabin. Compared to other house-building techniques, log cabin construction saved a lot of labor. Logs needed to be debarked, cut to length, and notched where they made joints. They did not need to be sawn into planks.
The log cabin served the pioneers well until they pushed into the Great Plains where trees again were scarce. Settlers in the plains turned to the most abundant building material available to them - sod. They would cut from the ground rectangles of sod measuring about 600×300×150mm
, and pile them into walls. The resulting structure was a well-insulated but damp dwelling that was very inexpensive. Sod houses required frequent maintenance and were vulnerable to rain damage. Stucco or wood panels often protected the outer walls. Canvas or plaster often lined the interior walls.
Furnishings
In the early nineteenth century it became increasingly popular for rural Americans of modest means to take the decoration of their homes and furniture into their own hands. Rather than hauling a lot of furniture into newly settled areas, the pioneers frequently made their furnishing at the new homestead site from materials available there.
Rugs could be made from scraps of worn-out clothing or other fabric. Scraps would be braided together to form a long rope, then coiled round and sewn together to form a practical rug.
Barrels and wagon boards might suffice for tables and chairs until proper ones could be built or bought.
Bed supports were made from rope or wooden slats. Mattresses would be filled with straw, corn husks, moss, or other available firm material. Soft upper mattresses could be stuffed with cattail down, wool or feathers.
1b
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- Buckskins
- Buckskins are clothing, usually consisting of a jacket and leggings, made from buckskin, a soft sueded leather from the hide of deer or elk. Buckskins are often trimmed with fringe (originally a functional detail, to allow the garment to dry faster when it was soaking wet because the fringe acted as wicks to soak away the water, or quills. Buckskins derive from deerskin clothing worn by Native Americans. They were popular with mountain men and other frontiersmen for their warmth and durability.
- Breeches
- Breeches (pronounced britches) are an item of male clothing covering the body from the waist down, with separate coverings for each leg, usually stopping just below the knee, though in some cases reaching to the ankles. The breeching of a young boy, at an age somewhere between six and eight, was a landmark in his childhood.
- The spelling britches reflects a common pronunciation, and is often used in casual speech to mean trousers or "pants". Breeks is a Scots or northern English spelling and pronunciation.
- Trowsers/Trousers
- These are men's pants or trousers. Often they were made from canvas, wool or linen. The seat was baggy to allow a man to sit down with ease and rode higher than modern pants. Canvas trousers were favored by gold rush men for their sturdiness.
- Shirts
- Men's shirts were often constructed out of squares and rectangles of material so that every inch of fabric was used. Red and blue calico shirts were especially popular because they were not so apt to fade as other colors. White was another popular color because it was easier to clean. Other colors were difficult to keep from fading but a white shirt could easily go back to being white. They were sometimes called "boiled shirts", named for the practice of boiling white shirts to clean them.
- Bonnets
- Sunbonnets were an essential item for pioneers crossing the western trails as a form of 19th century sunscreen. The wide brim and long sides protected their skin from sunburn. Sunbonnet variations (including the slat bonnet and the corded sunbonnet) covered the face, neck and shoulders. In some cases men were even known to wear sunbonnets as protection.
- Hats
- Hats were commonly made from straw, wool felt, or beaver. Most pioneer hats were designed for practicality. A practical pioneer hat would have a wide brim to keep the rain and sun off a man's face.
- Aprons
- An apron is an outer protective garment that covers primarily the front of the body. The apron was traditionally viewed as an essential garment for anyone doing housework because they were so much easier to wash than dresses. Men also wore work aprons to protect their clothes. Cheaper clothes and washing machines made aprons less common beginning in the mid 1960s.
- Dresses
- Dresses were normally made at home from calico or some other inexpensive cloth imported from the east (either the Eastern U.S. or Europe). They could also be made from linsey-woolsey (a sturdy cloth made with a linen warp and a wool weft) which was also called wincey. These wincey dresses were almost indestructible, but not very fashionable. Women with the ability and inclination might also spin and weave their own cloth, called homespun, which they would dye with plants. Wool dresses were prized for their ability to breathe, shed water, stay warm or cool (depending on weave) and the ease of cleaning (most dirt could easily be brushed off), but they did have to be protected from moths and other animals.
1c
The first priority of a pioneer family when arriving in a new area was to build a house and a barn. If possible, they would also set out a garden, however, that depended on their season of arrival. Before crops on a large scale could be planted, land had to be cleared. It was usually not completed during the first year of settling. First the settlers needed to clear the property of trees and stumps. In many areas (notably New England) clearing the trees and stumps would reveal a field full of large rocks which would also have to be cleared. They would build large bon fires over the largest rocks so that the heat would crack them. Then they could extend the fractures by hand to render the boulders into smaller rocks that could be dragged out by horses. The rocks cleared from fields were generally used to construct stone walls along the borders of fields and to mark property boundaries. Clearing fields was a highly laborious process, requiring hours of back-breaking work over an extended period of time.
During the first year of settling, pioneers mostly relied on wild game and their own dehydrated and preserved provisions for food. They also gathered wild plants to eat and used their gardens to the extent that they could. In spring they might tap maple trees for syrup. They also kept livestock and poultry to ensure a steady supply of milk, eggs and meat.
1d
The Pioneers cooked over open fires using Dutch Ovens and kettles. If they had one, they would use a Franklin stove (see below).
1e
- Oil lamps
- Oil, gas and kerosene lamps were used, but were not as common as candles. Lamps did give off more light than candles, but required more supplies and hardware to keep maintained.
- Candles
- With candles, a pioneer did not have to worry about spilling lamp fuel, breaking lamps, or replacing wicks and broken chimneys. Candles were cheaper and more portable than lamps. An average, middle-class household in the 1800s used approximately one hundred pounds of candles per year.
- Homemade candles
- Homemade candles were most often made from tallow (a byproduct of beef-fat rendering). Tallow burned quickly, stunk terribly and gave off a lot of smoke, however they were cheap (most rural people had fat from butchering) and offered an emergency source of sustenance. Tallow candles had to be protected from heat because they melted at a mere 100 degrees. Tallow candles could also be purchased. Purchased tallow candles were the least expensive and cost between sixteen and twenty-five cents per pound or two and two and half cents per candle.
- Beeswax candles
- were also made at home, but not nearly as often as tallow. Beeswax was more expensive, but gave off a nice smell, lasted longer (did not melt until 155 degrees) and did not smoke. A family would more often purchase beeswax candles, but they were by far the most expensive candle. They sold for between sixty and seventy-five cents per pound.
- Stearin
- (a hard, long lasting candle made with stearic acid, a component that hardens fats) and spermaceti (whale oil) candles were always purchased.
- Fireplaces
- A hearth fire was probably the first form of winter heat used by the Pioneers. It not only heated a cabin, it was also used for cooking. However, fireplaces are not very efficient as most of the heat they produce goes right out the chimney. A metal reflector placed in the back of the fireplace helped to alleviate this problem somewhat. Fireplaces also helped to light the home.
- Franklin Stove
- The Franklin stove (named after its inventor, Benjamin Franklin) is a metal-lined fireplace with baffles in the rear to improve the airflow, providing more heat and less smoke than an ordinary open fireplace. It is also known as the circulating stove. Although in current usage the term "stove" implies a closed firebox, the front of a Franklin stove is open to the room.
1f
Tools were an essential element to the pioneers moving into a new area, but they often only brought the most basic ones with them. Among these would be an ax and a drawknife. They first thing they would do with these tools was fashion handles for all their other tools (shovels, hoes, etc.). They usually only brought the metal portions of such tools because the handles were big and bulky, and they had limited cargo-carrying capacity.
1g
Once they arrived in an area, the pioneers would establish a permanent latrine, or an outhouse. This consisted of a hole dug into the ground (three-to-six feet deep). They would then erect a structure over the hole and furnish it with one or two seats positioned over the hole. When the hole was nearly filled with human waste, they would dig another latrine elsewhere and relocated the outhouse over it, burying the old hole with dirt removed from the new one. They did not have toilet paper, but rather used corn cobs, tree bark, leaves, or if they were lucky, the pages from catalogs. Toilet paper became available in 1857 and was sold by the sheet, rather than on a roll but still remained less common than other forms of sanitary wipes.
Wash basins were kept in the bedrooms, and normally, a person would wash their hands and face on a daily basis. Full body bathing was done indoors in a large wash tub. Common advice was to bathe once a week, though some bathed more often and some less. Water was drawn from a well to fill a large metal or wooden wash tub. They would then boil a smaller amount of water in a kettle and add that to the tub as well to warm it up.
Food scraps were fed to animals (cattle, pigs, dogs, etc.).
1h
- Trails
- When the pioneers arrived in the New World, there were no roads at all. There were trails, but these were made for horses and for people on foot, so they were not suited for wagons. Pioneers often widened these footpaths to create trails wide enough for wheeled vehicles to pass.
- Roads
- Rough, quickly built roads, called corduroy roads, were built by felling logs and laying them side-by-side across the "road" and then covering them with earth. This was done in boggy or swampy areas that were otherwise impassable by wagon. After a heavy rain, the earth would be washed away leaving dangerous gaps between the logs. It was not uncommon for a horse to step into one of these gaps and break its leg.
- Wagon Trains
- A wagon train consists of a group of wagons moving together. Whereas wagon trains were common in the Old West, in other places of the world different forms of caravans and convoys were often used, such as camel trains in Australia. A wagon train allowed pioneers to travel together for safety. Each wagon train formed their own government and made their own set of rules for wagon train members to follow. Often these wagon trains would be lead by an experienced 'wagon master' who knew the route. The wagon master would set out his rules and a wagon train wishing to follow him would pay him a set sum of money to lead them safely across the plains.
- Often, at night time, wagon trains would form into a circle, to provide a corral for animals and offer some shelter from wind/weather. Today, covered wagon trains are used to give an authentic experience for those desiring to explore the West as it was in the days of the pioneers and other groups traveling before modern vehicles were invented.
- Rivers
- A quick glance at a modern map of the Eastern United States will show you that Interstate 95 runs up the Atlantic seaboard from one major city to the next. Why are these cities there? A closer inspection will reveal that most of these cities are situated on rivers, and usually at the fall line. The fall line is the place on the river where the first waterfalls are met when traveling upstream. Cities were built here because that's as far as the pioneers could travel by river before they had to get out of their boats. Usually they would haul their cargo overland above the falls and load it onto barges so they could continue the trip by river.
- The Sea
- It was often more economical to travel from one city to the next by getting on a ship and sailing down the coast than it was to ride a horse or walk. Travelers from the eastern coast of America wishing to go to the western coast of North America had the option of taking a ship. A traveler could sail to Panama, get off the ship, travel by land across Panama (The canal had not been built yet!) then take another ship to their final destination. Their other option was to take a ship and sail all the way around the southernmost tip of South America, then up to the Sandwich Islands (now called Hawaii) where they would spend the winter before sailing to their final destination.
- In general, emigrating by sea was more expensive than going overland, but offered slightly more comfort.
2
2a
2b
2c
2d
3
3a
See the Basketry honor for instruction.
3b
3c
This site has a pattern and instructions for making a slat bonnet. This style, along with its sister style the corded bonnet, was the most popular pioneer style. It was valued for its simplicity and effectiveness. Remember to sew it by hand!
3d
- Corn husk doll
- A corn husk doll could be made by turning a corn husk inside-out and then binding it at the neckline. It was then dressed in miniature clothing.
- Rolled Doll
- This doll is simply made with a square of material of any size, folded in half and rolled up, a few stitches tack the roll of fabric closed, and a few more sew the top closed. Smaller bits of material should be rolled up and tacked to the doll's side to create arms. An original 1831 set of instructions and illustration can be seen in the American Girl's Book.
- Whimmy diddle
- A gee-haw whimmy diddle is mechanical toy consisting of two wooden sticks. One has a series of notches cut transversely along its side and a smaller wooden stick or a propeller attached to the end with a nail or pin. This stick is held stationary in one hand with the notches up, and the other stick is rubbed rapidly back and forth across the notches. This causes the propeller to rotate. Sometimes also known as a "Hooey Stick" or a "VooDoo Stick". The word "Whammy" is sometimes "Whimmy" and the word "Diddle" sometimes "Doodle", giving it a possible 3 other names, and the "Gee-Haw" may also be dropped.
- "Gee-Haw" refers to the fact that, by rubbing your finger against the notched stick while rubbing, the direction of the spinning propeller may be reversed. The operator may do this surreptitiously and yell "Gee" or "Haw" to make it appear that the propeller is reacting the commands. If you call it a "Hooey Stick", you would yell "hooey" each time you want the direction to change.
- Hoop and stick
- A large wooden hoop is rolled along by means of a stick. Skilled players can keep the hoop upright for lengthy periods of time and can do various tricks.
- Whistle
- See the Whistles honor for instruction.
- Buzz Saw/Whirligig/Buzzer
- This is easily made from a large 2 or 4 hole button and a single strand of strong thread or very fine cord. The thread is passed through two button holes (If it is a 4 hole button, use two diagonal holes rather than two holes side by side). Tie a knot in the string.
- An example of a finished buzz saw
- To play with the buzz saw, hold and end of the string firmly in each hand so the button falls in the middle, then whip the string around like a jump rope till it is wound tightly. Pull the string so that the button spins, then quickly relax, pull the string again when the button is ready to spin the opposite way. With a little practice you can get a rhythm going and keep the button spinning. A properly held buzz saw
4
Flour can be made from clover blossoms. Gather about 8 liters of them and let them dry for two weeks. You can also put them in a low temperature oven for an hour or two. Once they are dry, grind them to powder with a mortar and pestle. This will make about 250 ml of flour. Mix half-and-half with wheat flour. It makes good pancakes.
You can also make flour with the roots or pollen of cattail and with acorns. Though acorns may be found in abundance, it is a lot of work to process it into flour. Other nuts (walnuts, hickories, hazelnuts, etc.), though often less abundant, are a little easier to process into flour as they do not require leaching to remove tannin. See the answers to the Edible Wild Plants honor for details.
5
5a
5b
5c
 Note: This technique, though listed as an option in the official requirements, was not available to the pioneers. We therefore recommend that it not be used for teaching this honor. |
Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/Camping/Fire/Electric spark
5d
5e
5f
Note: As with the "Electric spark" technique, this method of fire-building was unknown to the pioneers. Again, we recommend against using this option for meeting the requirement. |
Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/Camping/Fire/Compressed air
6
6a
The "best" type of axe depends on what you're trying to do with it.
- Felling axe — Cuts across the grain of wood, as in the felling of trees. In single or double bit (the bit is the cutting edge of the head) forms and many different weights, shapes, handle types and cutting geometries to match the characteristics of the material being cut.
- Splitting Axe — Used to split with the grain of the wood. Splitting axe bits are more wedge shaped. This shape causes the axe to rend the fibres of the wood apart, without having to cut through them, especially if the blow is delivered with a twisting action at impact.
- Broad axe — Used with the grain of the wood in precision splitting. Broad axe bits are chisel-shaped (one flat and one bevelled edge) facilitating more controlled work.
6b
It is best to sharpen an axe by hand rather than using an electric grinder. A grinder will heat the blade and ruin the axe's temper. This will cause the bit to soften making it impossible for the axe to hold a sharp edge during typical use. If the axe is very dull or has visible notches in the blade, start sharpening with a file. The file should be held at an angle and run over the length of the blade. Sharpen both sides until the notches are gone. If the axes just needs a touch-up, you can use a sharpening stone. Wet the stone with water (or if you have an oilstone, with oil). This will cause the filings to "float" away an prevent them from clogging the pores in the stone (making it smoother and thus, less effective at sharpening).
6c
Be sure you have firm footing before swinging an axe or a hatchet, and be sure no one is within six feet of you to the sides or to the rear, and within twelve feet of you towards your front.
Be sure that the arc through which you swing the axe is clear, especially of overhead obstructions such as branches.
Axe heads do occasionally come off at times (2 Kings 6:5), and they are very dangerous when they do. Check that the axe head is tight to the handle before using it, and if you find that it is loose, take steps to correct this.
When handing an axe to another person, offer them the handle. Carry the axe so that if you were to trip, the blade would point away from you. Put the axe in a sheath (if it has one) when it is not in use.
6d
Do not hammer an axe into a piece of wood. An axe is for cutting, and should not be used as a wedge. It should also not be used as a sledge hammer. Practice aiming the axe until you get good at it. When you can hit what you aim at, your use of the axe will be far more efficient. Do not chop into the ground - this practice will quickly dull an axe. Apply a bit of oil to the axehead to prevent rust.
6e
Do not lay the log directly on the ground. Otherwise the axe blows will push the log into the ground. Instead, lay it on another small log (three inches in diameter is good). Strike the log to be cut at the point where it is in contact with the supporting log. Otherwise, the log may flip up and strike you or a bystander. This can cause a serious injury, so be watchful.
Proceed by chopping a "vee" into the log, alternating cuts on the left and on the right. The width of the vee should be equal to the diameter of the log. Once the vee penetrates halfway through the log, turn it over and cut another on the opposite side until the two vees meet.
6f
7
7a
7b
Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/Knot/Bowline
Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/Knot/Bowline on a bight
Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/Knot/Clove hitch
Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/Knot/Double fishermans
Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/Knot/Figure 8
Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/Knot/Prusik
Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/Knot/Sheepshank
Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/Knot/Square
Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/Knot/Taut-line hitch
Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/Knot/Two half hitches
7c
You can make a make-shift block and tackle with nothing more than two sturdy ropes and a tree (or other stationary object). First, take a short length of rope and tie one end around the object you wish to move. Then tie a loop at the other end.
Tie one end of the longer rope around a tree using a bowline. Then tie a slip knot in this rope near the tree. Take the running end of the rope and thread it through the loop you made in the first rope. Then thread it through the slip knot you tied near the tree.
All that remains is to pull on the running end of the longer rope. This setup provides a two-to-one mechanical advantage. For every two meters you pull on the long rope, the object will move one meter closer to the tree.
7d
8
If human waste is not dealt with properly, it can cause disease. It is a small matter for uncontrolled human waste to enter the water supply where it will cause harmful bacteria to multiply. When this happens, anyone using the water internally (i.e., drinking, washing dishes, brushing teeth, etc.) will ingest the bacteria and get sick. Dysentery is a medical condition caused by improper sanitation, and it involves uncontrolled, bloody diarrhea. This causes the body to dehydrate leading to death.
Keeping your body clean is also very important. If you are filthy and you injure yourself, breaking the skin, the filth will readily enter your bloodstream where it can make you sick and cause a painful infection. Infections can kill you if they left untreated.
Dirty clothing can lead to parasitic infestations, such as lice.
Dirty dishes breed bacteria which feast on any food left stuck to the dish. It is then easily transferred to the body when the dish is used for cooking or for eating.
9
Log Bridge
The simplest way to make this bridge is with poles. Cut two long poles at least 15 cm in diameter and long enough to span the item to be bridged. Then cut several smaller poles at least 5cm in diameter and approximately 60 cm long. Place the long poles over the gap to be spanned such that the short poles can lay across them, overhanging by 3-5cm on both sides. Then use continuous lashing to attach the short poles to the long ones. A rope hand rail can be added for additional balance.
Rope Bridge
10
- Pick up litter.
- Stay on the trail.
- Use "Leave no Trace" camping techniques.
- Write letters to your elected government representatives about environmental issues.
- Prefer pollution-free recreation activities (biking and hiking over ATV's, canoes and kayaks over motor boats and jet skis, cross country skis over snow mobiles).
- Take only pictures, leave only footprints. That means you don't pick wildflowers or destroy plants. It's generally OK to harvest the fruiting body of a plant (i.e., berries).
- Use a camp stove instead of a campfire when camping. This will eliminate the need to gather firewood and will not leave a fire ring.
11
11a
See the Candlemaking honor for instruction. Why not earn it while you're at it?
11b
Note that this is also a major requirement for the Soap Craft - Advanced honor.
See also the on making soap.
11c
11d
This can be done when sitting around the campfire. Get a half pint of heavy cream (45% milk fat) and place it in a sealable container with a wide mouth, such as a Tupperware vessel or glass jar with a tight fitting lid. Place a marble (or similar object) in the container with the cream and seal it up tight. (Optional) Then pass it around the campfire having everyone shake it for a minute or two. After ten to fifteen minutes, the container should have two things in it: butter, and buttermilk. You can pour off the buttermilk (save it for biscuits or pancakes in the morning) and you are left with solid butter. The butter solids can then be "washed" by kneading out the pockets of buttermilk with the back of a large spoon. When most of the remaining buttermilk has been worked out, you may salt it to taste and spread it on fresh baked bread. Delicious!
11e
If you don't happen to have a flock of geese from which to pluck feathers, you can always buy them at a craft supply store. Select a feather that is about 30 cm long. The first step in making a quill pen is to temper the shaft. This can be done by heating a tin can filled with sand in an oven at 175°C for 15 minutes. If camping, you can do this in a campfire as well. Carefully remove the can from the heat and jam the end of the feather into the sand as far as it will go. Let it sit there until the sand cools. This will cause the transparent shaft of the feather to become opaque.
Strip some of the "hair" off the feather so that it will not get in the way of the writer's hand. 5 to 7.5 cm will do fine. Hold the feather in your hand to see how it wants to orient itself. Unlike a modern pen, one portion of the feather's shaft will be the "top". Usually, the feather will curve over the hand as you hold it.
This page has a good description, but we'd need to put it in our own words. http://www.flick.com/~liralen/quills/quills.html
11f
For this you will need an ear of corn, still in the husk, a bit twine, and some cloth. Choose one with as much stem attached as you can, up to the intended height of the doll.
Peel the husk back, trying to tear as little of it apart as you can. Fold the husk over the stem. Once all the husk has been folded back, you can chop the corn cob off with a sharp knife. Discard the silks. Tie a piece of twine around the husk an inch or so below the point from which the cob was cut. Tighten it up as much as you can. This will form the neck line. Tie another piece of twine about the middle to form a waist. Then use the cloth to make a dress for the doll. (A bonnet conceals the unfortunate fact that your doll is bald.) Draw some eyes, a nose, and a mouth on the doll's face using a marker, or for a more authentic look, use a piece of charcoal.
11g
For instruction, see the Quilting honor.
12
Warning: We recommend that extreme caution be exercised with regard to these remedies. Some of them are harmless enough (jewelweed, balsam fir, coltsfoot, and garlic), while others are potentially fatal (boneset, feverfew). All medicines are poisonous if the dosage is exceeded, and the amount of the active ingredient found in wild plants is obviously not labeled. |
- Jewelweed
- The juice from this plant was used as a treatment for poison ivy. However, modern medicine has shown that jewelweed is no more effective than a placebo for treating poison ivy.
- Willow
- The bark from the willow tree contains salicylic acid, an ingredient in aspirin. Chewing on willow shoots, twigs, branches, or bark was used as a pain reliever.
- Balsam fir
- The resin of the balsam fir is used to produce Canada balsam, and was traditionally used as a cold remedy.
- Coltsfoot
- The leaves of the coltsfoot plant were used for making tea or hard candy. Both were used as a cough medicine. Again, modern medicine has shown that this treatment is not efficacious.
- Boneset
- Boneset, although poisonous to humans and grazing livestock, has been used in folk medicine, for instance to excrete excess uric acid which causes gout. It has many more presumed beneficial uses, including treatment of dengue fever, arthritis, certain infectious diseases, migraine, intestinal worms, malaria, and diarrhea. Boneset infusions are also considered an excellent remedy for influenza. Scientific research of these applications is rudimentary at present, however. Caution is advised when using boneset, since it contains toxic compounds that can cause liver damage. Side effects include muscular tremors, weakness, and constipation; overdoses may be deadly.
- Feverfew
- Feverfew has been used for reducing fever, for treating headaches, arthritis and digestive problems.
- Garlic
- Garlic has been used as both food and medicine in many cultures for thousands of years, dating at least as far back as the time that the Egyptian pyramids were built. Garlic is claimed to help prevent heart disease including atherosclerosis, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and cancer.
13
13a
The greatest problem you will need to overcome when building a raft from logs is that logs are very close to having neutral buoyancy, meaning that they do float, but only barely. To deal with this, you will need a great many number of logs.
Gather about 20 logs that are about 3-4 inches (8-10 cm) in diameter, and 16-20 feet (5-6 meters) long. Dry logs are better because they are lighter, and thus have greater buoyancy. You will build the raft upside-down, and then flip it over into the water. It will be very heavy (weighing literally as much as 20 or so logs), so you will want to build it right at the edge of the river.
Lay two of these logs parallel to one another and spaced such that the rest of the logs can lay on top of them perpendicularly. These are the "base" logs. Then lay all but two of the remaining logs on the base logs (and perpendicular to them) in a pile only three feet (3 meters) wide near one end of the base logs. Lash them together as a bundle onto the base logs. Lash the one of the remaining logs to the other end of the base logs, and lash the last one diagonally to prevent racking.
This video should make all the steps fairly clear:
The important point is that the raft gets its flotation from a bundle of logs rather than from a single layer. A single-layer raft will float until someone gets on it. It will still float even with someone on it, but its top surface will be below the water line, making it very difficult to maneuver.
We recommend that the raft be accompanied by other watercraft, such as canoes or john boats. You should also carefully scout the river before committing the raft to it, ensuring there are no rapids.
Because this trip is not an over-nighter, you will be able to use the canoes to carry people instead of gear. Plan on enough canoe capacity to carry everyone in the party just in case the raft is not able to complete the journey (it happens). Assume that each canoe can carry three or four people.
Make sure everyone wears something they can get wet (such as a swimsuit), as well as sandals, river shoes, or old tennis shoes. Personal Floatation Devices (PFDs, also known as life-jackets) are an absolute must, and should be worn at all times while on the water. Under no circumstances should you allow anyone to board the watercraft (especially the raft) without a PFD.
13b
13c
13d
References
