Logs, Wind and Sun (now completely revised and released under a new title, Crafting Log Homes Solar Style) is an inspiring, hands-on guide to self-sufficiency that takes you through every aspect of handcrafting a log home and then bringing it to life using power from the wind and sun. With a minimum of equipment and outside labor, the authors built their own log home from the ground up and installed a renewable energy system that supplies all the electricity they need to live and work comfortably, far from the nearest power line. Drawing on their own experiences, and those of others in the Colorado Rockies, they show you simply and enjoyably just how attainable off-the-grid, log home living can be. In the log-home building section, author Rex Ewing discusses site selection, plans and permits, excavation and foundation work, lifting and building with logs, roof framing, log settling issues, chinking and finishing logs. The renewable energy section includes 'A New Philosophy of Freedom', harvesting solar and wind energy, heating of house and water, and pumping water. And for the woman's point of view, you will find LaVonne's LogBooks, a chronological diary of their two-year log-home project. Filled with over 300 photos and illustrations, plus a comprehensive appendix with additional resources.
Rex Ewing was born and raised in the heart of northern Colorado's ranching country and true to form he grew up in the company of mixed-blood horses, Charolais cattle, and the large herd of Corriedale sheep his father John imported from Australia. In addition to his time on the ranch, he spent four years at Colorado State University, two seasons mining placer gold in California and Alaska, and a couple of stints on his brother's cattle ranch in Costa Rica. He also lived for seven years in a crude mountain cabin, casting gold jewelry, hand hewing log cabins, and roofing houses whenever money was tight.
When his father suffered a heart attack in 1984, Rex returned to the ranch which, in the intervening years, had been transformed into a Thoroughbred breeding and training facility. For six years he managed the ranch and hay farming operations, and when John Ewing died in 1990 he took over the family's horse nutrition business. It was a serendipitous career move for Rex, for it was while in the role of businessman that he met the love of his life, LaVonne, a freelance graphic designer hoping to do design work for his company. She got the job, for life. Four years later they married and moved onto a small acreage where they raised hay, pastured a few horses and dreamed up a future together.
Rex penned his first published book in 1997, a small treatise on horse nutrition. Beyond the Hay Days: Refreshingly Simple Horse Nutrition quickly became a bestseller. His premiere novel, Eyes of the Lioness, soon followed. A year later, after considerable planning and preparation, Rex and LaVonne divested themselves of their flatland holdings, packed up their cat and two dogs, and moved into a rustic off-grid cabin Rex had built on his mountain property several years before. Small and charming but lacking most modern conveniences, the cabin became their home for the next two years while, working entirely alone, they transformed a truckload of dead trees into a simple yet stylish log home.
Rex and LaVonne chronicled their log-building and off-grid experiences in Logs, Wind and Sun, a down-to-earth book which became very popular within the log-home and renewable-energy communities. Rex followed up with Power with Nature, a book for off grid neophytes, and Got Sun? Go Solar, a primer of grid-tied solar- and wind-electric systems which he wrote with friend and fellow writer, Doug Pratt.
Hydrogen: Hot Stuff Cool Science was Rex's first full-length foray into experimental writing. Employing an irascible wizard and a fanciful setting known as the Wasserstoff Farm, Rex embraced the difficult science of hydrogen energy in an imaginative tour de force that found quick acceptance with science teachers and Wall Street advisors alike.
The updated 2nd edition of Logs, Wind and Sun was released as Crafting Log Homes Solar Style; 2nd editions of the other renewable energy titles have also been released, thanks to the popularity of green energy.
Rex and LaVonne continue to work and create from their secluded mountain home. Though always in the midst of a book project, Rex still finds time to write regularly for Log Home Living and Countryside magazines.
