Page:Australian enquiry book of household and general information.djvu/200

 often, in fact nearly always, a log will be larger at the butt than the top. You must try to get all your posts as near alike as possible, but none must be less than the ten inches at the small end. Having them eleven feet long will give three feet in the ground, and eight feet out. Now you want eight more posts for your back or skillion rooms, verandah and chimney, they must be nine feet long, and eight inches in diameter at the small end, and must be two feet in the ground and seven feet out. Having cut your posts to the length required knock off the bark, this is easily done by giving the bark a few smart blows with the back of your axe to loosen it, and then peal it off with the sharp edge. I mentioned barking the logs a little while back when writing directions for splitting.

Now to dress your posts, or to use the proper term, square them. First measure the three feet at the end and chalk a circle round the post there. Now mark the end of your post so as to square the four sides. Make a distinct square on the end, and with your chalk line make four plain marks from the end to the circle where it is to go into the ground. Now with an axe first chip along roughly, and then finish off with an adze.

One who has had no previous knowledge of tools should, before attempting to build, go to some carpenter or builder and obtain a few lessons in the use of the different tools, or if he cannot do that he had better practice by himself with them for a little while every day, and on useless timber, for if he goes to work on good timber at once he is apt to spoil it, as a cut or two deep may give him the trouble of getting another post or so, or he may cripple himself by a want of knowledge in holding and using the instrument. Besides, all these things are the better for being seen. I tell you to square a post, and you wonder how it is done, it sounds an enigma to you, but once see a squared post and you understand.

Pegging out the ground for your house appears a very simple matter, yet you must have it perfectly and exactly square, and to find out whether it is so, after having put in the four pegs where the four corner posts are to go, take your line, make it fast at corner No. 1 and carry it across to corner No. 3, and so on from No. 2 to No. 4, if they measure the same your ground plan will be straight.