Solar-Powered Log Homes Are the Ultimate in Green Living
New Book Sheds Light on Building Log Homes Solar Style (April 2008)

   People who embrace the log home lifestyle have been thinking and living green since back in the days green was a color, not a way of life. Today advances in renewable energy offer log home owners a smart, practical and earth-friendly path to self-sufficient living. In their new book, Crafting Log Homes Solar Style, authors Rex and LaVonne Ewing combine the how-to of log home building with the energy-independent options of solar and wind energy.
   "There aren't a lot of books that focus on the nuts and bolts of log home construction. Fewer still that focus on the energy efficiency possibilities. Rex and LaVonne's book tackles them both and does it well," says Jim Cooper, author of Log Homes Made Easy. "It's broad enough to give you an accurate perspective on the entire process and detailed enough to serve as a manual during construction. Besides being filled with up-to-date real world advice, it's well-written and filled with personal experiences. This book should be at the top of your list for any log construction project."
   In addition to log building techniques, a renewable energy primer, and chapters on home heating and water pumping, this book profiles a dozen very different log homes that each rely on solar energy. From a getaway cabin at 10,000 feet in the southern Colorado Rockies to an expansive year-round residence in North Carolina, readers get an inside look at how others have achieved self-sufficient log-home living.
   Author Rex Ewing says, "When we published the original edition, Logs, Wind and Sun, in 2002, we had no idea that we would meet so many others who had done what we set out to do--ive independently in the home of their dreams. And so we have updated this book to include some of these homeowners, each with their own approach to building a home and using sunshine to make it comfortable and energy efficient."
   Crafting Log Homes Solar Style: An Inspiring Guide to Self-Sufficiency by Rex A. Ewing and LaVonne Ewing ($25.00; ISBN 978-0-9773724-4-7; 256 pages) is published by PixyJack Press (www.PixyJackPress.com).