My Log Cabin Home

I LIVE IN a log cabin in Fairbanks, Alaska. In the winter it is cold and dark outside. My dad brings in wood for the stove and he lets my sister Rose help him snap the kindling to get her wiggles out. My mom is melting snow on the stove, for water to wash the dishes.

- Hannah Lindoff

Rose calls to my father, “Josie is too little to help split logs!” But I have wiggles, too!

I go to the wall of our cabin. The big round logs are smooth where my mom and dad scraped off the bark. I put my fingers in the groove between the logs. My dad filled the cracks with mortar and it’s rough and gray. I can climb the logs. I’m not too little. I climb and I slip but I keep trying. I can climb to the third log, if Rose stands behind me for a boost.

The spring comes! The melting snow makes puddles in our yard. The ground was frozen, too, and now it’s beginning to thaw. The thawing makes it soft, and Rose and I find a spot in the dirt road that is extra bouncy. It’s like a trampoline! The more we jump the softer it gets! We can jump all around and make the trampoline bigger, wider. Mom comes out to get water from the rain barrel. She sees us up on the road.

“What a mess you’ve made of our road!” She is mad. Now we can’t drive the car over the road because it’s too loose and muddy.